Core Components
This article provides a high-level overview of the main components that make up the Ditto platform, along with the standard terminology used throughout the documentation.

The following table provides an overview of standard Ditto terms and definitions to be familiar with:
Item | Term | Definition |
1 | Small Peer | Your app integrated with the Ditto SDK. The Ditto SDK consists of both the Ditto store and the functionality that enables platform capabilities. (Small Peer: Your App Integrated with Ditto) |
2 | Ditto Store | The local datastore that runs on an end-user device or app. You perform read and write operations using the SDK’s ditto.store. (CRUD Fundamentals) |
3 | Big Peer | An optional cloud deployment that appears as any other peer in the decentralized network; however, with elevated access permissions and advanced capabilities of replication, authentication, and authorization. (Big Peer: An Optional, Yet Powerful Component) |
4 | Auth Service | The OnlineWithAuthentication API that allows a Small Peer subscriber to request a JSON web token (JWT), or playground token. (Getting Your Credentials) |
5 | LiveQuery Webhook | A webhook endpoint you can use to set up a webhook endpoint to receive event notifications from Ditto to your own third-party database. (Sync Overview) |
6 | Kafka Connector | The premium upgrade to implement real-time event streaming from Ditto to your own third-party database and Kafka topics. (Sync Overview, Change Data Capture, and Kafka Connector) |
7 | Third-Party Database | An external database or other storage system that is separate from the Ditto platform. It is the target database where you want to capture and store data changes from Ditto’s data stream. (Sync Overview and Change Data Capture) |