Blue Dot / Signal
A local signal of intent from a citizen or enterprise, around livelihoods and services. Stored as an item.
Glossary
The vocabulary below is used consistently across the product, this documentation and the code. Definitions are deliberately precise.
Domain model
Section titled “Domain model”Network
The shared contract that lets independent instances interoperate (e.g. blue_dot, yellow_dot). Defined by a network.json schema.
Domain
A role inside a network (e.g. student). An instance serves one or more domains via SERVED_DOMAINS.
Instance
One deployment of the Signals API serving its configured domains.
Item
A versioned, schema-typed record. item_type is a schema identifier such as profile_1.0, never freeform.
Action
An interaction between items.
Event
The structured result of an action.
Seeker / Provider
The demand side and supply side of a signal — e.g. a jobseeker (seeker) and a local employer (provider).
Platform
Section titled “Platform”Signals DPG
The network-aware backend that stores items and matches them across instances.
Aggregator DPG
The aggregator-facing application for onboarding participants and bulk-creating their signals.
Aggregator
An organisation (institute, employer, NGO, government department) that onboards participants. Scoped by aggregator_id, which is never trusted from the client.
Adaptor
An organisation deploying and extending the Blue Dots DPGs for a district or domain.
Technical
Section titled “Technical”item_type
Schema identifier for an item (e.g. profile_1.0).
item_instance_url / item_schema_url
Backend-generated URLs for an item’s location and schema. Never set by clients.
Instance-local fetch
GET /api/v1/item/fetch — reads “my own items” with a brief cache.
Inter-instance fetch
GET /api/v1/network/item/fetch — count-first discovery across peers, merged and cached.
Two-header service auth
The x-api-key + acting-org header model used by integrating DPGs to call Signals.