Plain-English definitions of the software development, API and SaaS, DevOps, and UI/UX terms you run into on real projects. We write them the way engineers actually explain things, not the way marketers do. Browse 20+ terms across four categories, or search to jump straight to the one you need.
Pinkontin's Tech Glossary defines 20+ common software development terms in plain English, grouped into four categories: Development, Infrastructure, Design, and Business. It covers terms like API (a set of rules that lets software applications communicate), SaaS (cloud-hosted software accessed by subscription), and CI/CD (automated building, testing, and deploying of code), plus Docker, Kubernetes, JWT, OAuth, REST API, GraphQL, TypeScript, and MVP. Each entry gives a short definition, a fuller explanation, and a note on why the term matters, written by the Pinkontin engineering team the way developers actually explain things rather than in marketing language.
A set of rules that allows software applications to communicate with each other.
Development: Our Agile ProcessA binary-to-text encoding scheme that represents binary data using 64 printable ASCII characters.
Development: Our Agile ProcessAn organized system for storing, managing, and retrieving structured data.
Development: Our Agile ProcessA query language for APIs that lets clients request exactly the data they need.
Development: Our Agile ProcessA compact, URL-safe token format used for securely transmitting information between parties.
Development: Our Agile ProcessAn open standard for delegated authorization that lets apps access resources on behalf of a user.
Development: Our Agile ProcessA pattern-matching language used to search, match, and manipulate text.
Development: Our Agile ProcessAn architectural style for building web services that use HTTP methods to access and manipulate resources.
Development: Our Agile ProcessA typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript and catches errors at build time.
Development: Our Agile ProcessA 128-bit identifier guaranteed to be unique across space and time.
Development: Our Agile ProcessAn iterative approach to project management and software development that emphasizes flexibility and collaboration.
BusinessThe simplest version of a product that delivers core value and can be released to early users.
BusinessCloud-hosted software accessed via the internet on a subscription basis.
BusinessThe practice of optimizing websites to rank higher in search engine results.
BusinessA geographically distributed network of servers that delivers web content to users from the nearest location.
InfrastructureAutomated practices for building, testing, and deploying code changes frequently and reliably.
InfrastructureA platform for building, shipping, and running applications in lightweight, portable containers.
InfrastructureAn open-source platform for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
InfrastructureAn API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of rules and protocols that lets separate software applications communicate with each other. It defines how requests and responses are structured, so developers can connect to external services, pull data, and add features without building everything from scratch. APIs power things like mobile app backends, payment processing, and social media integrations.
A REST API uses standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) and returns a fixed data structure from each endpoint, usually as JSON. GraphQL is a query language that lets the client ask for exactly the fields it needs in a single request, which avoids over-fetching or under-fetching data. REST is the most widely used and simplest to implement, while GraphQL fits complex apps with diverse data needs and mobile clients where bandwidth matters.
CI/CD stands for Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (or Deployment). Continuous Integration automatically builds and tests code every time a developer pushes changes, while Continuous Delivery prepares that code for release and Continuous Deployment pushes every change to production automatically. CI/CD pipelines catch bugs early, reduce manual deployment errors, and let teams ship features more often with confidence.
An MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is the simplest version of a product that still delivers its core value, built to launch quickly and gather real user feedback before investing in full development. It includes only the essential features needed to solve the main problem. Building an MVP first is a way to test the market and validate assumptions with real data instead of guessing, which is how products like Dropbox, Airbnb, and Spotify started.
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