Skip to content

Glossary

This document defines terminology used throughout the Synthetic Open Schema specification.


RFC 2119 Keywords

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.


Terms

Check

A declarative definition of a synthetic monitoring test, including what to monitor, how to evaluate it, and when to run it.

Check Kind

The type of check (e.g., HttpCheck, TcpCheck, DnsCheck). Determines the fields available in the spec and the execution semantics.

Resource

The base model for all check definitions, containing apiVersion, kind, metadata, and spec fields.

Assertion

A condition that must be evaluated to determine if a check passes or fails. Multiple assertions can be defined per check.

Runner

An implementation that executes checks according to this specification. Runners are responsible for performing the check and evaluating assertions.

Spec

The spec field in a check definition, containing check-specific configuration (URL, timeout, assertions, etc.).

Metadata

The metadata field in a check definition, containing identifying information like name and labels.

API Version

The version of the schema specification a check conforms to (e.g., v1, v1beta1).

Interval

A time duration specifying how frequently a check should be executed (e.g., 1m, 30s).

Cron

A cron expression specifying when a check should be executed, using standard cron syntax.

Location

A geographic region or execution environment where a check should run (e.g., us-east-1, eu-west-1).

Channel

A notification destination for check results (e.g., webhook, email, Slack).

Timeout

The maximum duration allowed for a check to complete before it is considered failed.

Retry

The number of times a failed check should be re-attempted before marking it as definitively failed.

Operator

A comparison operation used in assertions (e.g., equals, contains, greaterThan).


Normative vs. Informative

  • Normative: Requirements that implementations MUST follow to claim conformance
  • Informative: Explanatory material, examples, and recommendations that are not requirements

Unless explicitly marked as informative, all content in this specification is normative.