Technical glossary

Summary: This glossary defines technical terms, acronyms, and concepts commonly used in the StartER documentation.

Whenever a term seems obscure during a tutorial, feel free to come back and check its meaning here.

Core architecture

Term	Definition	Introduced in
Single Server	Architecture where Express hosts the API and serves the React frontend.	One server
SSR	Server-Side Rendering: the server pre-generates the page's HTML before sending.	Request lifecycle
Hydration	Client phase where React attaches to the SSR HTML to make it interactive.	Request lifecycle
Environment (.env)	Configuration variables with strict validation upon app startup.	Installation

React

Term	Definition	Introduced in
Suspense	A modern React pattern allowing components to indicate a waiting state.	React components and hooks
use() / cache()	Primitives for reading promises in components while preventing duplicate API calls.	React components and hooks
useMutate	The standard hook to coordinate a mutation (POST/PUT/DELETE) with a UI update.	React components and hooks
RefreshContext	A global reactive mechanism triggering page data refresh.	React components and hooks

Express

Term	Definition	Introduced in
Middleware	An intermediate function processing the request before the action (Parsing).	Express API and validation
Validator (Zod)	A middleware using Zod to sanitize and type incoming data.	Express API and validation
Param Converter	A factory automatically injecting a database entity into req.	Express API and validation
Action	A terminal function processing a request and producing a response.	Express API and validation

Data & Persistence

Term	Definition	Introduced in
Repository	A data access layer centralizing all SQL queries (e.g., itemRepository).	The Repository pattern
Soft delete	A non-destructive deletion strategy marking the item with deleted_at.	The Repository pattern

Security

Term	Definition	Introduced in
Magic Link	A robust email link authentication system replacing the password.	Authentication
Opaque Token	A unique random login token, hashed and stored in the database.	Authentication
JWT	JSON Web Token: a signed token carrying the session in a secure cookie.	Authentication
CSRF / Double-submit	Protection validating that the request originates from our web interface.	Security

Quality & Testing

Term	Definition	Introduced in
Contract-driven testing	A testing method declaratively listing expected API cases and responses.	Contracts and verification