> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.theroyalglow.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Glossary

> Plain-language definitions of every term used in the Royal Glow platform documentation.

# Glossary

Plain-language definitions of every term used in this documentation. Written for both technical and non-technical readers.

## A

**Ably**
The realtime messaging service used to push live updates to browsers — for example, when a booking status changes from "Pending" to "Confirmed", the customer's screen updates instantly without refreshing.

**acquisition\_source**
Where a customer first came from when they signed up. Values: `organic` (found the website themselves), `gmb` (clicked from Google Maps), `walkin` (scanned the in-store QR code), `meta_ad` (came from a Meta/Instagram advertisement).

**Admin Portal**
The staff-facing app at `admin.theroyalglow.in` — a separate Next.js app (`@rgss/admin`) served at root paths (no `/admin` prefix; the subdomain is the namespace). Only accessible to staff with the right role. Used for managing bookings, customers, billing, memberships, and more.

**AppError**
A custom error class in `packages/errors/` that carries a machine-readable code, a human-readable message, and an HTTP status code. Used throughout the codebase to represent expected business errors.

**App Router**
The modern Next.js routing system (introduced in Next.js 13) that uses the `app/` directory. Royal Glow uses Next.js 16 with App Router.

## B

**Better Auth**
The authentication library used for sign-in. Handles Google OAuth, session management, and role-based access control (RBAC).

**Biome**
The linting and formatting tool used instead of ESLint + Prettier. Written in Rust — about 100x faster than ESLint.

**Booking Dialog**
The 4-step modal that opens over the homepage when a customer clicks "Book Now". It is never a separate page — always a modal overlay.

**Booking Number**
A human-readable identifier for each booking. Format: `BK-{branch_code}-{YYMM}-{H|S}-{5_random}`. Example: `BK-RS-2605-H-38291`. H = salon (hair/beauty), S = spa.

**Branch**
A physical salon location. Currently one branch: Rayasandra (code: `RS`). All bookings, invoices, and staff are scoped to a branch.

**Bun**
The JavaScript runtime and package manager used instead of Node.js + npm/yarn. Faster installs, faster test runs, native TypeScript support.

## C

**CAPI (Conversions API)**
Meta's server-side event tracking API. Sends purchase and lead events from the Next.js server directly to Meta — more reliable than browser-side tracking because it's unaffected by ad blockers or iOS privacy restrictions.

**Cloudflare Workers / KV (retired)**
Cloudflare Workers via the OpenNext adapter was the original hosting plan for `rgss-web` and
`rgss-admin`, with KV caching the service catalogue at the edge. Neither shipped: the Worker
bundle exceeded Cloudflare's free-plan script size limit, and the KV cache was never
implemented. The adapter, Worker configs and `CLOUDFLARE_*` variables have been removed. Both
apps run as Node servers today (Render), moving to AWS Lambda + CloudFront via SST. The 5-minute
service catalogue cache is served by Upstash Redis.

**Cloudflare R2**
Cloudflare's file storage service (S3-compatible). Used for service images, gallery photos, PDF
invoices, and database backups. Zero egress fees. R2 is **unchanged** by the AWS migration — only
the web and admin compute moves to Lambda.

**CMS (Content Management System)**
The Payload CMS v3 instance at `cms.theroyalglow.in`. Holds marketing content — blog posts, gallery, team bios, homepage banners, FAQ — **and the bookable service catalogue**: services and service categories are authored here, and an `afterChange` hook mirrors each write into `public.service` / `public.service_category` in the same transaction, which is what the booking engine reads. Bookings and billing remain in the custom admin portal (`admin.theroyalglow.in`).

**Conventional Commits**
A commit message format: `feat:`, `fix:`, `chore:`, `docs:`, `refactor:`, etc. Used for clean git history and automatic changelog generation.

## D

**DPDP Act**
India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023. Governs how personal data of Indian citizens must be collected, stored, and used. Royal Glow complies by collecting only necessary data, providing a Privacy Policy, and gating analytics behind cookie consent.

**Drizzle ORM**
The database query library used to interact with PostgreSQL. Pure TypeScript — no binary dependencies, works on Cloudflare Workers.

## E

**Edge**
Cloudflare's global network of servers. When a customer visits the website, their request is handled by the nearest Cloudflare server (one of 200+ worldwide) rather than a single server in one location. This makes the site fast globally.

**E-E-A-T**
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — Google's framework for evaluating content quality. Relevant for SEO and AI search visibility.

## F

**Feature Flag**
A switch that enables or disables a feature without deploying new code. Used via PostHog to gradually roll out new features or A/B test offers.

**Financial Year**
India's financial year runs April–March. Used in invoice numbers: `INV-1-2627-92921` means branch 1, financial year 2026–27.

## G

**Gems**
The loyalty currency. Customers earn 1 gem per ₹100 spent on services (floor, not rounded). Gems expire after 365 days. Redeemable against specific catalogue services — not a general ₹ discount.

**GMB (Google My Business)**
The Google business listing for Royal Glow. Customers find the salon on Google Maps and can click through to book. The booking link uses `?utm_source=gmb` for attribution.

**GST**
Goods and Services Tax — India's indirect tax. Royal Glow charges 18% GST (SAC code 999721) on all services. All prices are GST-inclusive. Back-calculation: `base = price ÷ 1.18`.

## H

**Heartbeat**
A ping sent to BetterStack when a scheduled job completes successfully. If BetterStack doesn't receive the ping within the expected window, it fires an alert. Used to monitor all 19 background jobs.

## I

**Invoice Number**
Format: `INV-{branch_number}-{financial_year}-{5_digit_random}`. Example: `INV-1-2627-92921`.

**IST (Indian Standard Time)**
UTC+5:30. All timestamps are stored in UTC in the database and displayed in IST to users.

## J

**JSON-LD**
A format for embedding structured data in web pages. Used for LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage, and other schema.org types. Helps Google understand the page content and show rich results.

## L

**Lead**
A potential customer who submitted the `/book` form from a Meta/Instagram ad. Leads are tracked in the CRM pipeline: New → Contacted → Follow-up → Booked → Won/Lost.

**Lighthouse**
Google's tool for measuring web page quality. Royal Glow requires: Performance ≥ 95, Accessibility = 100, Best Practices = 100, SEO = 100. These are enforced as CI gates.

**llms.txt**
A plain-text file at the site root that helps AI systems (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude) understand the site quickly. The "robots.txt for AI models".

## M

**Membership**
A SPA membership that gives a customer a block of hours to use across SPA services. Three tiers: Silver (8 hrs/₹10k), Gold (15 hrs/₹15k), Platinum (custom). Valid for 90 days.

**Membership Session**
When a SPA member uses their membership hours for a service. Recorded as a completed booking with ₹0 invoice. Hours are deducted from the membership balance.

**Mintlify**
The docs-as-code platform that publishes this documentation site. Content is MDX, navigation and redirects live in `docs/docs.json`, and Mintlify hosts the site and builds it from the repo on push — Git-backed publishing with no infrastructure of our own.

**Monorepo**
A single Git repository containing multiple apps and packages. Royal Glow's monorepo contains four workspaces — `apps/web` (customer site), `apps/admin` (admin portal), `apps/cms` (Payload CMS), and `apps/invoicing` (Cloud Run PDF service) — plus shared `packages/` and `docs/` (this Mintlify-published documentation).

**MSW (Mock Service Worker)**
A library for mocking API calls in tests. Works at the network level — tests don't know they're hitting a mock.

## N

**NAP**
Name, Address, Phone — the three pieces of contact information that must be identical across all platforms (website, Google My Business, social media, directories) for local SEO.

**Neon**
The PostgreSQL database provider. Serverless, auto-scaling, with Git-like branching. Royal Glow uses one Neon project with four branches: `prod`, `pprd`, `test`, `dev`.

**No-Show**
When a customer doesn't arrive for a confirmed booking. After 4 no-shows within 90 days, future bookings require manager approval. Walk-in no-shows don't count.

## O

**Onboarding**
The first-time setup flow after a new customer signs in with Google. Collects: phone number, date of birth, gender, and consent preferences. Redirects to `/onboarding` automatically.

## P

**Paise**
The smallest unit of Indian currency (₹1 = 100 paise). All money in the database is stored as integers in paise to avoid floating-point errors. ₹1,000 = `100000` paise.

**Payload CMS**
The content management system for marketing content. A Next.js plugin — self-hosted on Render, stores data in Neon, media in Cloudflare R2.

**QStash scheduled jobs**
All 14 scheduled background jobs (nightly sales summaries, membership/offer/gems expiry, session cleanup, GST summary, appointment reminders, etc.) run as QStash HTTP POST jobs that wake the Neon compute and execute their SQL. pg\_cron was retired because the free-tier compute sleeps and would silently skip late-night runs.

**PostHog**
The product analytics platform. Tracks user behaviour, booking funnels, feature flags, and session replays. 1 million events/month free.

**PWA (Progressive Web App)**
A web app that can be installed on a phone like a native app. Royal Glow's PWA supports offline viewing of the service menu and booking history.

## Q

**QStash**
Upstash's message queue service. Used to schedule and trigger background jobs: appointment reminders, birthday emails, lead follow-ups, sales reports, and more.

## R

**RBAC (Role-Based Access Control)**
The permission system. Six roles in hierarchy: Customer \< Staff \< Receptionist \< Manager \< Owner \< Developer. Each role can only access routes and actions appropriate to their level.

**Render**
The cloud hosting platform for the Payload CMS (`cms.theroyalglow.in`). Free tier, Singapore region (closest to India).

**requestId**
A unique identifier (`req_abc123xyz`) attached to every API request. Appears in error responses, Sentry events, and log lines — making it easy to trace a specific request across all systems.

## S

**SAC Code**
Service Accounting Code — India's GST classification for services. Royal Glow uses SAC 999721 (Beauty treatment services).

**Sentry**
The error monitoring platform. Captures unhandled exceptions with full stack traces, user context, and request details. 5,000 errors/month free.

**Server Component**
A React component that renders on the server and sends HTML to the browser. No JavaScript is sent for the component itself. The default in Next.js App Router.

**shadcn/ui**
A component library where components are copy-pasted into your codebase (not installed as a dependency). Built on Radix UI primitives for accessibility.

**Snapshot**
A frozen copy of a value at a point in time. `booking_service.price_at_booking_paise` and `invoice_item.unit_price_paise` are snapshots — they preserve the price at the time of booking/invoicing, even if the service price changes later.

## T

**Tailwind CSS v4**
The utility-first CSS framework used for styling. v4 uses native CSS cascade layers and design tokens.

**Turborepo**
The monorepo task orchestration tool. Runs `build`, `dev`, `lint`, `test` in parallel across apps with incremental caching.

## U

**Upstash**
The serverless Redis and queue provider. Used for rate limiting (Redis) and background job scheduling (QStash).

**UTM Parameters**
URL parameters that track where traffic comes from. Example: `?utm_source=gmb&utm_campaign=spring-offers`. Persisted through the OAuth redirect via `sessionStorage`.

## V

**VAPID Keys**
Voluntary Application Server Identification keys — used to authenticate Web Push notifications. Generated once with `bunx web-push generate-vapid-keys`. Never change unless you intentionally rotate (which invalidates all existing push subscriptions).

## W

**Walk-in**
A customer who arrives at the salon without a prior booking. Walk-in bookings are created by the receptionist and skip the "Pending" status — they go directly to "Confirmed".

**withErrorHandler**
A wrapper function that wraps API route handlers to catch errors and return standardised JSON error responses. All API routes use this wrapper.

## Z

**Zod**
The TypeScript schema validation library. Used to validate all API inputs at the system boundary. `.safeParse()` is used everywhere — never `.parse()` which throws unstructured errors.


## Related topics

- [Overview](/content/docs/index.md)