# Glossary

Key terms and concepts used in Fabric

## A

**Agent**

The Fabric Agent is the desktop application that device owners install to participate in the network. It consists of a UI component and a background daemon.

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## D

**Device Owner**

Someone who contributes their computer idle resources to the Fabric network in exchange for earnings. Also called a Node Provider.

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## E

**Enrollment**

The process of registering your device with the Fabric network. During enrollment, your hardware is detected and a unique device ID is generated.

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## H

**Heartbeat**

A periodic signal sent by your device to the backend to indicate it is online and available. Missed heartbeats cause your node to show as offline.

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## I

**Inference**

Using a trained AI model to make predictions. For example, running an image through an image classifier to identify what is in it.

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## J

**Job**

A unit of work submitted to the Fabric network. Jobs have a type (e.g., text_summarization), parameters, and produce results.

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## M

**ML Pipeline**

A series of machine learning steps: preprocessing data, training a model, and running inference. Fabric supports end-to-end ML pipelines.

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## N

**Node**

A device participating in the Fabric network. Each enrolled device becomes a node that can execute workloads.

**Node Provider**

See Device Owner.

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## O

**Overage**

Usage beyond your subscription plan included limits. Overages are billed at per-unit rates.

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## P

**Payout**

Money transferred to device owners for completed work. Payouts are processed via Stripe Connect.

**Proof of Execution (PoE)**

A cryptographic record generated after each job completion. Contains hashes of workload code, input, and output to verify the work was done correctly.

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## S

**Sandbox**

An isolated execution environment that restricts what workloads can access. Prevents malicious code from affecting the host system.

**Stripe Connect**

The payment platform used to send payouts to device owners. Requires identity verification and bank account connection.

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## T

**Training**

The process of teaching a machine learning model to make predictions by showing it examples. Fabric supports distributed training workloads.

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## U

**Unenroll**

The process of removing your device from the Fabric network. After unenrolling, your device will no longer receive jobs.

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## W

**WebSocket**

A communication protocol that enables real-time, bidirectional communication. Fabric uses WebSockets for instant job notifications.

**Widget**

The embeddable JavaScript component that adds an AI Assistant chat interface to your website.

**Workload**

A specific type of computation that can be executed on the network. Examples: text_summarization, video_transcode, ml_train.

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