The technology glossary, written by engineers.

Language models, agents, retrieval and the guardrails that make them safe to ship.

• Agentic AI
• AI Agent
• AI Guardrails
• AI Hallucination
• Chain-of-Thought Prompting
• Context Window
• Diffusion Model
• Embeddings
• Few-Shot Learning
• Fine-Tuning
• Foundation Model
• Function Calling (Tool Use)
• Generative AI
• Hybrid Search
• Large Language Model (LLM)
• LLM Evaluation (Evals)
• LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation)
• Mixture of Experts (MoE)
• Model Context Protocol (MCP)
• Model Quantization
• Multimodal AI
• Prompt Engineering
• Reranking
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
• RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback)
• Semantic Search
• Small Language Model (SLM)
• Tokens (in LLMs)
• Transformer Model
• Vector Database

Rendering strategies, APIs, performance and accessibility on the modern web.

• API (Application Programming Interface)
• Backend Development
• Core Web Vitals
• CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing)
• DNS (Domain Name System)
• Frontend Development
• Full-Stack Development
• GraphQL
• Headless CMS
• HTTP and HTTPS
• Jamstack
• JSON
• Progressive Web App (PWA)
• React Server Components
• Responsive Web Design
• REST API
• SDK (Software Development Kit)
• Server-Side Rendering (SSR)
• Single-Page Application (SPA)
• SSL/TLS
• Static Site Generation (SSG)
• TypeScript
• Web Accessibility (WCAG)
• WebAssembly (Wasm)
• Webhook
• WebSockets

Native, cross-platform and the plumbing that keeps apps engaging and up to date.

• App Store Optimization (ASO)
• Backend as a Service (BaaS)
• Cross-Platform App Development
• Deep Linking
• Flutter
• Hybrid App
• Jetpack Compose
• Native App Development
• Offline-First Apps
• Over-the-Air (OTA) Updates
• Push Notifications
• React Native
• Super App
• SwiftUI

Service models, containers, scaling and the economics of running in the cloud.

• Auto Scaling
• Cloud Computing
• Cloud-Native
• Containerization
• Content Delivery Network (CDN)
• Docker
• Edge Computing
• FinOps
• Hybrid Cloud
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
• Kubernetes
• Load Balancing
• Multi-Cloud
• Object Storage
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Serverless Computing
• Software as a Service (SaaS)

Delivery pipelines, release strategies and the practices behind dependable systems.

• Blue-Green Deployment
• Canary Release
• Chaos Engineering
• CI/CD
• DevOps
• DevSecOps
• Disaster Recovery (RPO and RTO)
• DORA Metrics
• Feature Flags
• GitOps
• High Availability
• Incident Management
• Latency
• Monorepo
• Observability
• Platform Engineering
• Semantic Versioning
• Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)
• SLA, SLO and SLI
• Version Control (Git)

Architecture styles, delivery methods and the habits that keep codebases healthy.

• Agile Methodology
• API Gateway
• API-First Development
• Caching
• Code Review
• Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
• Event-Driven Architecture
• Idempotency
• Legacy System Modernization
• Load Testing
• Low-Code Development
• Message Queue
• Microservices Architecture
• Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
• Monolithic Architecture
• Proof of Concept (PoC)
• Rate Limiting
• Refactoring
• Scalability
• Scrum
• Service Mesh
• Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
• Static Code Analysis
• Technical Debt
• Test Automation
• Test-Driven Development (TDD)
• Unit Testing

Storage, pipelines and governance for data that teams can trust and use.

• ACID Transactions
• Big Data
• Business Intelligence (BI)
• CAP Theorem
• Data Engineering
• Data Governance
• Data Lake
• Data Lakehouse
• Data Mesh
• Data Pipeline
• Data Warehouse
• Database Replication
• Database Sharding
• ELT (Extract, Load, Transform)
• ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)
• Knowledge Graph
• NoSQL Database
• ORM (Object-Relational Mapping)
• Real-Time Analytics
• Relational Database (RDBMS)
• Stream Processing

Threats, defences, identity and the regulations software has to meet.

• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
• Cybersecurity
• DDoS Attack
• DPDP Act (India)
• Encryption
• End-to-End Encryption (E2EE)
• GDPR
• HIPAA Compliance
• Identity and Access Management (IAM)
• JWT (JSON Web Token)
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
• OAuth 2.0
• OWASP Top 10
• Penetration Testing
• Prompt Injection
• Ransomware
• SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)
• Single Sign-On (SSO)
• SOC 2 Compliance
• SQL Injection
• VAPT (Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing)
• Zero Trust Security

Ledgers, smart contracts and the protocols behind decentralised applications.

• Asset Tokenization
• Blockchain
• Consensus Mechanism
• Crypto Wallet
• Decentralized Application (dApp)
• Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)
• Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
• Layer 2 Scaling
• Non-Fungible Token (NFT)
• Smart Contract
• Web3
• Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP)

IoT, extended reality, automation and the frontier technologies reaching business use.

• Augmented Reality (AR)
• Conversational AI
• Digital Twin
• Industrial IoT (IIoT)
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Metaverse
• Mixed Reality (MR)
• Quantum Computing
• Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
• Spatial Computing
• Virtual Reality (VR)
• Voice AI Agent

Design practice, business platforms and the ways companies build software teams.

• A/B Testing
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Dedicated Development Team
• Design System
• Digital Transformation
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
• Headless Commerce
• HRMS (Human Resource Management System)
• IT Staff Augmentation
• Multi-Vendor Marketplace
• Offshore Development Center (ODC)
• Omnichannel
• On-Demand App
• Product-Market Fit
• UI Design
• User Research
• UX Design
• WhatsApp Business API

Search, conversion and the marketing technology that turns traffic into revenue.

• Content Marketing
• Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
• Customer Data Platform (CDP)
• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
• Marketing Automation
• PPC Advertising
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Technical SEO