Astro glossary
Every term a beginner runs into, explained in plain English.
A
- Adapter
- A small add-on that lets Astro run server code on a particular host.
- astro add
- A command that installs an integration and sets it up for you.
- Astro component
- A reusable building block of a page, saved in a file ending in .astro.
- Astro config
- The file named astro.config.mjs, where you set options for your project.
B
- Build
- The step that turns your project into a finished website.
C
- Canonical URL
- A tag that tells search engines a page's one true address.
- CDN
- A network of servers around the world that delivers your site from somewhere close to each visitor.
- Cloudflare Workers
- Cloudflare's hosting platform, which can serve a static Astro site or run server code.
- CMS
- A website-style editor that lets people change content without touching code.
- Content collection
- A group of related content, such as blog posts, that Astro loads and checks for you.
- Core Web Vitals
- Google's measurements of how fast and stable a page feels to real visitors.
D
- Deploy
- To publish your site so that anyone can visit it.
- Dev server
- A private preview of your site that updates as you edit.
- dist folder
- The folder where Astro puts your finished website.
- Dynamic route
- One page file that creates many pages, with square brackets in its name.
E
- EmDash
- An open-source content management system from Cloudflare, built on Astro.
F
- Frontmatter
- The section at the top of a file, between two lines of three dashes.
G
- Git
- A tool that saves the history of your project so you can undo mistakes.
H
- Headless CMS
- A content system that stores and edits your content but leaves the display to your site.
- Hosting
- The service that keeps your website online.
- HTML
- The language that describes what's on a web page.
- Hydration
- When JavaScript wakes up a piece of a page so that it becomes interactive.
I
- Integration
- An add-on that gives your Astro project a new ability.
- Islands
- Interactive parts of a page, surrounded by plain static HTML.
J
- JavaScript
- The programming language that makes web pages interactive.
L
M
- Markdown
- A simple way to write formatted text with ordinary characters.
- MDX
- Markdown that can also use components.
- Meta description
- The short summary of a page that search engines may show under its title.
N
O
- On-demand rendering
- Creating a page when someone asks for it, rather than ahead of time.
- Open Graph
- Tags in a page that control how it looks when shared on social media or in chat apps.
P
- package.json
- The file that lists your project's tools and commands.
- Passkey
- A way to log in without a password, using your device and fingerprint or face.
- Props
- Values you pass into a component, like filling in a form.
R
S
- Schema
- A checklist that says what each piece of content must include.
- SEO
- Search engine optimization: the work of helping a site show up in search results.
- Sitemap
- A file that lists every page on your site for search engines.
- Slot
- A placeholder in a component where outside content goes.
- Starlight
- Astro's official kit for building documentation websites.
- Static site
- A website whose pages are finished before anyone visits.
- Structured data
- A block of data in a page that describes its content to search engines.
T
- Tailwind CSS
- A way of styling pages with small, ready-made classes instead of writing CSS rules.
- Terminal
- A window where you control your computer by typing commands.
- Theme
- A ready-made Astro project with a finished design.
- TypeScript
- JavaScript with added type checking, which catches mistakes before your site builds.
V
- View transitions
- Smooth animations between one page and the next.
- Vite
- The build tool that runs underneath Astro.