Glossary
If a page uses a word you do not know, it is here. Each entry links to the page that covers it properly.
Archetype
Section titled “Archetype”A thing a mod publishes that can exist in the world — a prop, a zone, a pressable
pedestal. Declared in mod.toml as a glTF scene or a host-built shape — see
Archetypes.
An entity a player is currently driving. It is not a type: control is something an entity gains and loses — see Entities.
One lane of the mixer, and one volume a listener controls: effects, environment,
music, interface. Voice is the host’s own lane — a mod cannot play on it, so it is
not in the set — see Sound.
Component
Section titled “Component”A named piece of state on an entity, read and written through two generic verbs over a whitelist. See Components.
Content id
Section titled “Content id”How a mod and everything it publishes is addressed: author:mod, as in
ironlark:freeroam, and / steps down into a declared name —
you:doors/archetype/oak, where the kind is one of signal, archetype, request, hook,
sound or entity. Every part of the mod id comes from the install path — see
Identity.
Entity
Section titled “Entity”Everything in the world is one. Mods create, find and change entities; see Entities.
Gamemode
Section titled “Gamemode”An ordinary mod that the server designates as the session’s baseline rule layer. Exactly one runs per session, and the engine has no gamemode concept beyond that one slot — see Configuration.
A server owner’s line in config/server.toml letting one mod read, write or remove
entities another mod spawned. Cleanup and moderation mods need one; nothing else does,
and no grant reaches a player’s body — see Grants.
Handle
Section titled “Handle”An opaque reference to one entity, issued by the host and impossible to forge — spent
when you despawn the entity, and gone when your mod reloads. To reach the same entity
later, give it an id with set-id and fetch it with by-id — see
Entities.
A function a mod’s half is called on. An engine hook is one the host fires — the tick, a join — and an author hook is one the mod names itself, reached through the input bindings it declares; see Declarations and Input.
The player running the session. Everything authoritative happens there, and today it is a player rather than a dedicated machine — see Run a server.
A mod-written annotation on an entity: one line of text that answers for the thing it is attached to. It states a fact about the entity, and how it renders is the host’s — see Components.
Listen server
Section titled “Listen server”A session hosted by somebody who is also playing in it. It is the only kind Ironlark has today; see Running a server.
A world, authored as glTF plus a small manifest, shipped by a mod filling the map role. Data the host owns, not code — see Maps.
The one unit of content: identity, versioning, enabling, dependency and teardown all
happen at the mod, addressed author:mod. It can carry a server half, a client half,
content, or any mix — see Identity.
What other players see you called. It belongs to your account and the server states it — you never type it in when joining, and a mod reads it from the session roster; see Reference.
A mod’s [needs] table: the mods it must run with, each with the version range it
works with. The host pulls them in and derives the load order — see
Dependencies.
The mod that spawned an entity. It is recorded by the host, not claimed by the mod, and it is what every verb checks before touching that entity — see Ownership.
A mod that is only pins: kind = "pack" and exact-version needs, a suite an author
ships and tests together. It declares nothing of its own — see
Dependencies.
One node inside a spawned scene, addressed by its path from the root — "cap", or
"arm/hand". Only nodes the model author named are reachable — see
Entities.
Profile id
Section titled “Profile id”A server-local persona, unique within its server and opaque to the platform. Personas are not built: the read is callable today and answers none for everyone — see The boundary today.
Protocol schema
Section titled “Protocol schema”The protocol.proto beside a mod’s manifest: its signals and requests, declared as
options on the payload types themselves. See
Protocol schema.
Which side a piece of a mod runs on: the authoritative server, or a player’s client. The two have different powers — see Lifecycle.
Request
Section titled “Request”One awaited ask from a mod’s client half, answered by the server half that declared it
as an rpc in its protocol schema. See Requests.
Session id
Section titled “Session id”The number a participant is addressed by for the life of one session, present for everyone connected including bots. Never reused within its session, and never a save key — see Lifecycle.
Signal
Section titled “Signal”A byte payload one mod raises on a declared name, heard by every subscriber including the raiser. Signals are facts, not commands: nobody can consume or override one — see Signals.
A short audio file a mod ships and declares, played through a bus. One declaration covers a click and a longer piece; where the bytes live while it plays is the engine’s business — see Sound.
User id
Section titled “User id”The id of an account. It is also the thing a session is addressed by: you join a host by its user id rather than by an IP address, because there is no address to type — see Run a server.
Workshop
Section titled “Workshop”The directory installed content lives in, workshop/<author>/<mod>/. The two levels
are the identity: a mod is named by where the installer put it, never by anything it
writes about itself — see Identity.