Glossary
Use this glossary when you need the exact meaning of Package Ninja terms such as workspace, control plane, data plane, policy scope, and persistent session. These definitions are the canonical vocabulary used across the dashboard, CLI, audit feed, and technical documentation.
What is a workspace?
A workspace is the hosted Package Ninja account boundary for users, teams, billing, policy, and audit visibility.
What is the control plane?
The control plane is the hosted web and API layer that manages device authorization, workspace membership, policy state, audit ingestion, and billing lifecycle.
What is the data plane?
The data plane is the local CLI/runtime layer that intercepts package-manager commands, evaluates policy before side effects, and then allows or blocks the command.
What is policy scope?
Policy scope is the effective rule set used for one command after organization, team, and user policies are resolved into a single decision context.
What is a governed command?
A governed command is a package-manager or workflow command that Package Ninja evaluates before execution. Examples include install, run, test, publish, and bypass-wrapped commands.
What is persistent project enrollment?
Persistent project enrollment is the local .package-ninja/project.json state created by package-ninja connect, package-ninja enable, or safe shim auto-enrollment. It keeps Package Ninja governance active for one project root and every nested folder beneath it.
What is direct governed execution?
Direct governed execution is a Package Ninja command such as package-ninja restore, package-ninja add, or package-ninja run -- npm pack that applies policy before execution and keeps the project binding metadata current when the project root can be detected safely.
What is bypass?
Bypass is an intentional override path that still evaluates the package request, records audit details, and then runs the command even when Package Ninja would normally block it.
What is a persistent session?
A persistent session is a reusable local runtime session that stays alive across governed commands until it is stopped, reset, or expires.