12. Glossary

Architecture terms, as these chapters use them. The user-facing vocabulary is in Glossary.

Term	Meaning
env	A directory holding a denver.yml (or denver.toml). The unit denver starts.
stage	One entry in stages:, identified by a stage id. One provider instance.
stage id	A label, nothing more. Never used to guess a type (ADR-0005).
provider	The generic engine a stage uses: uv, conan, zephyr, docker, download, git, nix, custom. Named by the mandatory provider: key.
setup provider	kind = "setup". Builds part of the environment in place.
wrapper provider	kind = "wrapper". Builds nothing; relocates the run (docker, or custom with launcher:).
relocation	Re-invoking denver elsewhere — usually in a container — with the wrapper stage skipped (ADR-0004).
Context (ctx)	The one object every provider gets: paths, env, resolved config, and every process and filesystem helper. The seam --dry-run and the tests intercept.
whole-file import:	Top-level. Pulls in another env’s entire config as a base.
section-level import: (“stacking”)	Inside one section. Pulls in one named section from another env.
deep_merge	The one merge function behind both. Mappings merge, lists append, conflicting strings die unless marked !.
! marker	“Override on purpose.” Replaces a string, or drops lower layers of a list. Only meaningful when a lower layer set the key.
<overwrite>	A bare list entry that drops lower layers and is itself removed.
resolve_defaults	Per provider, called centrally before any stage runs. The only place a default is computed (ADR-0001).
resolve_full_config	Stacking + Context + defaults, in one call. What both --show-config and the real run use.
fingerprint	A hash of a stage’s real inputs — content and layout, not absolute paths. Match means skip.
hook	A script sourced at a fixed point (env, pre-<stage>, post-<stage>, pre-cmd), so its exports persist. Stacks additively across layers.
scripts:	Open-ended one-shot actions per stage, run only via --scripts <name> (or --setup/--login/--clean).
state dir	<env dir>/.denver/<config stem>/. venvs, install trees, fingerprints, logs, performance.jsonl, .lock. Overridable with DENVER_ENV_WORKDIR.
DENVER_RELOCATED	Names the wrapper stages that put this process where it is. Stated by denver, not detected.
DENVER_IN_CONTAINER	Says this process is in a container. Set by a relocating wrapper, or probed.
extension provider	A project’s own Provider subclass, registered via extensions: providers: dirs: (ADR-0012).
runnable: false	Marks an env that exists only to be imported. Starting it directly fails with an explanation.
DenverError	The one user-facing failure type. Raised by die(), caught once in main(), turned into exit 1.