Glossary

Activation. The set of tools and plugins a deployment turns on. It is recorded in the distribution, and a role loads only what is activated.

Alert. A notification sent when a rule or a check finds something, through a configured channel.

Asset, node. Something Nistor knows about in the data platform: a table, a view, a cube, a report, a file. In the graph each asset is a node, with an id such as BigqueryTable_<project>.<dataset>.<table>.

Capability. A part of Nistor that an administrator can turn on or off at run time, such as scheduler.

Chain (migration chain). The database migrations of one package: the core's, a tool's (tool_<id>) or a plugin's (plugin_<id>). Each chain has its own schema, and nistor migrate runs them in order: core, then tools, then plugins.

Connection. A configured instance of a tool's connection type: where the system is, and the credentials to reach it. The secrets are kept apart from the configuration.

Core API. The version of the contract between the core and tools and plugins, (major, minor). A tool declares the range it needs with requires_core_api.

Data Trust. Nistor's view of whether data can be relied on: freshness, SLOs, data contracts and the Trust Score. See Data Trust.

Distribution, lock. The list of packages one deployment runs (distribution.toml), its lock with every version and hash (distribution.lock), and the runtime image built from that lock.

Entry point. A named hook a package declares in its metadata, such as nistor.tools. It is the only way one layer reaches another.

Expand, contract. The two steps of a database change: a release adds the new structure (expand), and a later release removes the old one (contract). Rolling back is safe between the two.

Fact. A machine-observed statement reported by an integration: an asset exists, a run failed, a check passed. Nistor builds everything else from facts.

Graph. The assets and the lineage between them, compiled from facts by the compiler role.

Health probe. A check every tool answers without raising: healthy, degraded or unhealthy, with a detail.

Incident. A problem Nistor opened on an asset, such as a failed run or a missed refresh. Incidents group, and close when the problem is gone. See Incidents.

Lineage. Which assets an asset is built from (upstream) and which assets are built from it (downstream), at table and column level. See Lineage and impact.

Manifest. What a tool declares about itself: its id, the facts it produces, its facets and its connection type.

Plugin. A package that adds capabilities on top of the core and tools: API routes, background workers, web shell pages.

Role. One of the server processes the runtime image runs: backend, scheduler, compiler, input-logs, jobs, and others such as mcp. nistor serve <role> starts one.

Rule. A configured instruction over the graph: run an action when its targets are ready, or check something and alert. See Rules and scheduling.

Tool. A package that integrates one external system. See Integrations.

Train. A set of packages released together under one version: the platform train (vX.Y.Z), one tool (tool-<id>/vA.B.C) or one plugin. See Versioning.

Web shell. Nistor's web interface, a React application that plugins extend through slots.