Glossary
Factflow reuses a few words in narrow, specific ways. When the docs say "pipeline" they rarely mean what a newcomer assumes. This page pins each term to one meaning.
Config
Section titled “Config”A YAML file under backend/config/pipelines/ describing a set of routes wired
together by queues. The authoring artifact. The UI and CLI call these "Configs"
(not "Pipelines") because that is what you edit. See Author a config.
One named processing stage inside a config: an adapter plus the queue it consumes from and the queue(s) it publishes to. Routes are the atoms a config composes. See Adapters and routes.
Adapter
Section titled “Adapter”The unit of work a route runs — a Python class with a process() method, registered
by type. web_scraper, html_to_markdown, embedding_generator are adapters.
See the Adapter catalog for every type.
Pipeline
Section titled “Pipeline”The abstract concept of "a config's routes, running." Avoid the bare word in nav and labels — it is overloaded across the config, the running routes, and the broker topology. Prefer "config" (the file) or "execution" (a run).
Execution
Section titled “Execution”One run of one config, identified by an execution ID. Carries its own config snapshot
and its own isolated queues (ExecutionScopedQueue). Many executions share one broker
without cross-talk. See Executions and multi-execution.
Replay
Section titled “Replay”Re-emitting stored messages back into a pipeline — either the same config from storage, or a detached cross-pipeline replay from a chosen stage. The canonical home is Replay and recovery.
Lineage
Section titled “Lineage”The record of every message as it moves hop-to-hop: one row per adapter handoff, with correlation and parent-child links. Tracked independently of the main flow. See Lineage and correlation.
Segment
Section titled “Segment”A chunk of converted content (post-markdown) that becomes the unit for embedding and storage. Produced by the markdown segmentation workflow.