Glossary

Glossary

This glossary defines the terms used across Shovel docs and CLI output. It is intentionally concise and scoped to features described in this documentation set.

Assets

Static files handled by Shovel’s asset pipeline and emitted to dist/public/ during builds. See Assets.

AsyncContext

Request-scoped state storage that stays isolated per request. See AsyncContext.

Build

The shovel build command that compiles your ServiceWorker entrypoint into a production-ready bundle. See CLI.

Build Output (dist/)

The output directory for production builds. Shovel writes bundled server code under dist/server/ and static assets under dist/public/. See CLI.

Cache / Caches

Response caching APIs backed by platform-specific cache storage. See Caches.

Configuration

Project configuration via shovel.json and environment variables. See shovel.json.

Databases

SQL database access and migrations from within the ServiceWorker runtime. See Databases.

Develop Server

The shovel develop command that runs a development server with hot reload. See CLI.

Directories

File system access abstraction for reading and writing files. See Directories.

Entry Point

The ServiceWorker script you pass to the CLI, such as src/server.ts. It registers event handlers and contains your app logic.

Environment Variables

CLI options can be provided via environment variables like PORT, HOST, and PLATFORM. See CLI.

Fetch Event

The ServiceWorker event that handles incoming HTTP requests. See ServiceWorker.

Lifecycle

The ServiceWorker lifecycle stages, primarily install and activate, which Shovel can run during builds via --lifecycle. See ServiceWorker and CLI.

Middleware

Composable request/response processing before your route handlers run. See Middleware.

Platform

The target runtime for your application, selected via --platform or shovel.json and auto-detected when omitted. Supported values include node, bun, and cloudflare. See CLI and shovel.json.

Public Directory (public/)

Optional directory for static files in a project. See Assets.

Routing

URL routing and handler composition for requests. See Routing.

ServiceWorker

The execution model Shovel uses for handling requests, with ServiceWorker-like lifecycle events and global APIs. See ServiceWorker.

shovel.json

Project configuration file that controls build, platform, and other settings. See shovel.json.