Core concepts
Eight ideas that explain every screen in the app.
By the OneEnv team · Last updated
1. Workspace
The top-level container. Services, masters, branches, members and history all belong to one workspace. There is one flat namespace per workspace.
2. Service
A thing that consumes configuration: an application, worker or repository. A service has its own tabs for Variables, Databases, APIs, Validations and Export.
3. Masters
A master is the shared definition: an Env Master (key and value), a DB Master with its tables and columns, an API route, or a Validation Master. Creating a master is immediate; changing one that others depend on goes through a branch.
4. Inheritance
A service does not copy a master, it inherits it. The inheritance record is what lets OneEnv answer 'who depends on this?'. It also remembers the last value the service approved.
5. Override
A service may set its own value for an inherited variable. The override always wins over the shared value for that service. Overrides are published by the service itself and do not go through a branch.
6. Branch
A named set of staged edits. Nothing in a master changes while an edit sits on a branch. A branch moves through draft, submitted and merged, or rejected.
7. Review and merge
Submitting a branch creates one review for an Owner or Admin. Approving it ( Approve & merge ) applies the edits to the masters in a single transaction.
8. Impact
After a merge, each service that inherits a changed master gets an impact: a pending decision to approve or reject that change. The service's export moves to the new value only when its own impact is approved.