Glossary

SQL Yodeler is built on chant. These are the chant terms the docs and yodel’s output use, in yodel’s terms. You need no other chant knowledge to use yodel. The terms are chant’s, and chant’s documentation covers each in full; the last column links the page for it.

Term	What it is in SQL Yodeler	In chant’s docs
chant	the toolkit yodel is built on. yodel runs chant’s CLI (the npm package @intentius/chant) underneath, so you do not run it yourself.	chant
template	a starter project in this repository (templates/clickhouse, templates/postgres). yodel create makes a project from one, with chant’s init --from underneath. See Starting a project.	From a template repository
the sql lexicon	chant’s package for ClickHouse and Postgres (@intentius/chant-lexicon-sql). The declarations in src/ use it, and yodel uses it to plan, diff and apply.	The sql lexicon
chant.config.ts	the project’s config: the dialect and one profile per environment.
profile	one environment in chant.config.ts (sql.profiles.<env>): its server address, the variables its credentials are read from, and its databases or schemas. yodel plan dev uses the dev profile. See Installing and configuring.
Op	a file in ops/ that declares a run in steps. ops/migrate-<env>.op.ts is what yodel apply <env> runs: plan, wait for approval, apply. See Approval.	Ops
gate	the step in an Op that waits for a person’s approval. yodel apply stops there (exit 3) until the plan is approved.	Gate steps
plan digest	a hash of what yodel apply would do and the state it starts from (jcs1-sha256:...). An approval names a digest, and holds only while the plan still hashes to it.	A gate approves a plan
approval	a person’s approval of a plan digest at a gate, recorded on chant/lifecycle. yodel approve <env> --plan <digest>, the command yodel prints, shows the plan, asks for the environment’s name and records it (chant’s approve underneath; --json outputs carry chant’s command as chantApprove for scripts).	Gate steps
chant/lifecycle	the git branch where approvals are kept, as commits. Push it (git push origin chant/lifecycle) so CI sees an approval made on your machine.	Gate steps
chant run	runs an Op. yodel apply runs the migrations Op itself, and the pipelines run the drift watch on its schedule; yodel drift <env> checks for drift by hand.	chant run
emulator	a local ClickHouse and Postgres in Docker for trying yodel: npx yodel emulator up. ClickHouse on http://127.0.0.1:8123 (user default, no password), Postgres on 127.0.0.1:5432 (user postgres, password chant).	chant emulator
ApplyOp	the Op on the declarative path, where yodel apply applies the declared schema with no migrations. See The two workflows.	Applying
WatchOp	the drift watch, an Op the pipelines run on a schedule. See Drift.	Watching the lifecycle
wave	one environment of the apply pipeline, applied after the wave before it, behind its own gate policy. A tenant set is one wave over many databases or schemas. See Waves. terragucci, also built on chant, uses the word for something else: a batch of Terraform roots applied behind one approval (terragucci’s definition).	Op waves