Is 'vibe coding' a real category?

Yes — it's the informal-but-widely-adopted industry term for prompt-driven app building via tools like Base44, Lovable, Replit Agent, and Bolt. The label started as a joke on Twitter in 2024 and stuck once the tools themselves matured. Search interest for the term has grown steadily since.

What is the difference between preview and production?

The preview URL always serves the latest builder state and updates automatically after each generation. The production URL only updates when you explicitly Publish, so end users never see mid-flight changes. Treat preview like a staging environment and production like a release channel — the distinction saves you from shipping half-finished prompts.

Are generations the same as tokens?

No. A generation is one prompt-driven code change from your point of view. Tokens are the internal unit the underlying LLM bills in — a single generation may consume thousands of tokens depending on how much code is in play. Base44 exposes the generation abstraction so pricing stays predictable regardless of internal token counts.

What happens if the upstream LLM provider has an outage?

Generation slows or fails until the provider recovers, because Base44 routes prompts through frontier models like Claude and GPT. Deployed apps keep running because they don't depend on the LLM at request time. base44.health tracks both Base44's own status and upstream provider status so you can tell which layer is degraded.

What is a deploy artifact?

It's the built, packaged version of your app that got pushed to Base44's edge — a snapshot in time. Base44 keeps recent artifacts around so you can redeploy any of them. Because artifacts are immutable, a rollback is effectively instantaneous: pick an older artifact, redeploy, done, no rebuild required.

Where should I store API keys?

In the per-project secrets panel, never in a prompt or in generated code. Base44 injects secrets at request time so the running app can read them as environment variables. If a secret ever appears in prompt history or a committed file, rotate it at the upstream provider and re-add the fresh value to the secrets panel.

What does 'managed backend' mean?

It's the built-in set of backend primitives — auth, database, storage, functions — that Base44 provides so you don't have to sign up for a separate backend host. Contrast with 'bring your own backend', where the generated app calls an external service like Supabase or your own Postgres cluster. Both approaches work; Base44 just defaults to the managed one.

Is there a shared vocabulary across Base44, Lovable, and Bolt?

Mostly yes. Terms like generation, prompt, preview, and publish carry the same meaning across all three. Architecture-specific terms (WebContainer for Bolt, Lovable Cloud for Lovable, managed backend for Base44) do not translate directly. Use this glossary for Base44 and check each competitor's docs for the terms unique to it.

Base44 glossary: the terms you'll actually see

The core loop

The vocabulary around AI-first app building is still stabilising. The terms below are the ones you'll actually encounter inside Base44 and in the broader vibe-coding ecosystem — Replit Agent, Lovable, and Bolt use most of them with the same meaning. Skim once to build a mental map, then come back when you hit an unfamiliar term in a prompt or error message.

Building and generating

Vibe coding — building software primarily through natural-language prompts, letting an LLM generate the underlying code. Coined casually in 2024, now widely used across the category.
Generation — a single prompt-driven code change. Consumes one unit of your plan's monthly generation budget regardless of how many files were touched.
Prompt — the natural-language instruction you type into the builder. Better prompts use concrete nouns and verbs and describe the desired end state rather than the steps to get there.
Builder — the in-browser environment where you write prompts, watch changes stream in, and preview the live app. Base44's builder is the whole product surface for most users.
Preview — the always-current running version of your app, served at a stable preview URL. Updates as soon as a generation completes.

Runtime and hosting

Managed hosting — Base44-run infrastructure that serves your deployed app on a Base44 subdomain or your custom domain. TLS, edge caching, and scaling are handled for you.
Edge — the global network of servers that terminate user requests close to the user. Base44 serves deployed apps from the edge so latency stays low worldwide.
Custom domain — a domain you registered yourself (e.g. your-app.com) pointed at Base44 via DNS records. Available on paid tiers.
TLS provisioning — automatic issuance of an HTTPS certificate for your domain, done in the background as soon as ownership is verified. You never upload a certificate.
DNS record — the pointer that tells the internet where your domain lives. A records point at an IP, CNAME records point at another domain, TXT records carry small pieces of verification data.

Deployment vocabulary

Publish — the action that promotes the current builder state to your production URL. Distinct from the preview URL, which updates automatically.
Deploy artifact — the built version of your app pushed to hosting. Immutable — rolling back is redeploying an earlier artifact rather than rebuilding.
Rollback — redeploying a previous deploy artifact to recover from a bad release. Instantaneous because no rebuild is needed.
Preview URL — the stable URL that always serves the latest builder state. Useful for sharing work-in-progress with a teammate.
Production URL — the stable URL that only updates when you explicitly Publish. This is the URL end users see.

Secrets and integrations

Runtime secret — an env-var-style value (API keys, tokens, webhook signing secrets) injected into your app at request time. Stored in the per-project secrets panel, never in prompts.
Managed backend — Base44's built-in auth, database, storage, and function primitives. Contrast with 'bring your own backend', where the generated app calls an external service like your own Postgres.
OAuth — the standard flow for signing users in via a third-party identity provider (Google, GitHub, etc.). Base44's managed auth wraps the standard OAuth handshake for you.
Webhook — an HTTP endpoint in your app that a third party (Stripe, Slack, etc.) calls when an event happens. Always verify webhook signatures before trusting the payload.

The AI layer

LLM provider — the frontier-class model powering generation, typically Anthropic or OpenAI. Outages upstream can degrade or block generation even when Base44 itself is healthy.
Frontier model — the current best-in-class general-purpose LLMs (Claude and GPT families). The category shifts every few months as new versions ship.
Context window — how much of your existing code Base44 can consider in a single generation. Larger context windows produce more coherent multi-file edits.
Hallucination — when the LLM invents an API, function, or fact that does not exist. Rarer than early in the category's life but never zero — always test generated code.
Prompt drift — the tendency of long back-and-forth sessions to gradually lose focus. When it happens, restart the conversation with a clear summary prompt.

Ecosystem terms

Vibe-coding platform — the category Base44 competes in. Peers include Lovable, Replit Agent, and Bolt. Each makes different architectural bets — see the comparison guide.
WebContainer — Bolt's browser-based runtime. Not used by Base44, but you'll see the term in comparisons.
Supabase — the open-source backend platform Lovable integrates with. Base44 uses its own managed backend rather than Supabase, but many generated apps call Supabase directly if the user prefers.
Status page — the official uptime dashboard for a platform, e.g. status.base44.com. base44.health mirrors these and adds cross-platform correlation.