---
kind: reference
zz: "0.4.0"
updated: 2026-10-07
state: live
rules: https://zriz.io/llms.txt
---
# Words that zriz uses

Each word of zriz has one meaning: org, project, pipeline, step, check, resource, environment, runner, run.

Eight more words are for the logins and the project guard of `zz`.

## org {#org}

The account of a team. Its members share the projects, the runners, the runs, and the free tier.

## project {#project}

The tests of one service: the folder `.zriz` in the root of that service. A project belongs to one org.

## pipeline {#pipeline}

One test: a JSON file in `.zriz/pipelines` that holds a list of steps. Its name is the file name without `.json`.

## step {#step}

One action of a pipeline. The steps run in order. A `call` step calls an action of a resource.

## check {#check}

One assertion on a reply: a path, an operator, and for some operators a value. Example: `["status", "==", 200]`.

A `call` step holds its checks in the list `expect`.

## resource {#resource}

A thing that a step can call: an HTTP app, a database, a browser, or a command-line tool. It is a JSON file in `.zriz/resources`.

The name of the file without `.json` is the id of the resource.

## environment {#environment}

A named set of values and secrets: the file `.zriz/environments/<env>.json`. A run uses one environment.

The list `sensitive` in the file names the secrets.

## runner {#runner}

The program that makes the calls of a run and holds the secrets. It is a part of `zz`, or a program that you deploy in your network.

A deployed runner belongs to one org and one environment.

## run {#run}

One execution of a pipeline in one environment. A run has an id and a status. The work is done only when the status is `pass`.

## login {#login}

The API key of one account that `zz` keeps on your computer. One login is for one org. `zz` can keep many logins.

## login name {#login-name}

The short name of a login on your computer, for example `work`. You select it. The cloud does not know it.

## current login {#current-login}

The login that the field `current` of `credentials.json` names. `zz` uses it when no selector and no project login chooses a login.

A new login becomes the current login. `zz switch work` makes the login `work` the current login.

## selector {#selector}

The flag `--org` or the variable `ZZ_ORG`. Its value is a login name or an org id. The flag wins over the variable.

## project login {#project-login}

The one login that has the project org. There is none when no login, or more than one login, has the project org.

## project org {#project-org}

The org in `org` of `.zriz/project.json`, for example `o-l5j6juixdr7k`. In a work folder, `zz` uses the login of this org.

## org in use {#org-in-use}

The org that one command uses. Each command shows the org and the source in its output.

The order is: `--org`, `ZZ_API_URL` or `ZZ_API_KEY`, `ZZ_ORG`, the project login, the current login, the only login.

## project guard {#project-guard}

The check that the org in use is the project org. It stops a command that sends project data or changes an item of the org.

The stop is `org-mismatch`, or `org-not-set` when `project.json` has no `org`.