Glossary

Terms

Account

Your Licentric tenant or organization. All resources (products, licenses, API keys) belong to a single account. Each account is isolated via Row Level Security.

Account ID (Slug)

A unique identifier for your account, used internally for multi-tenant isolation. Not exposed in the public API.

API Key

A credential for server-side API access. Live keys use the prefix lk_live_ and access production data. Test keys use lk_test_ and access test data only. Stored as SHA-256 hashes, never in plaintext.

Custom Datametadata

A JSON key-value object attached to any entity (license, machine, product, etc.) for storing arbitrary data. Useful for integration-specific fields or feature flags.

Devicemachine

A physical or virtual machine where a license is activated. Each device is identified by a unique fingerprint and linked to exactly one license.

Device IDfingerprint

A unique hardware-derived string that identifies a specific device. Generated by your application from hardware attributes like hostname, CPU, or MAC address. Minimum 8 characters.

Entitlemententitlement

A feature flag attached to a license that gates specific capabilities within your product. Validation can require entitlements and returns ENTITLEMENTS_MISSING if they are absent.

Heartbeatheartbeat

A periodic signal sent from an activated device to the Licentric API to confirm the device is still in use. Required when the policy has requireHeartbeat enabled.

Last Check-inlastHeartbeatAt

The timestamp of when a device last sent a heartbeat. Used to determine if a device is still alive or has gone dead.

Licenselicense

A key issued to a customer, tied to one product and governed by one policy. Controls what the customer can access and on how many devices.

License FilelicenseFile

An Ed25519-signed certificate for offline license validation. Downloaded via the checkout endpoint and valid for a configurable TTL. Enables air-gapped deployments.

License Keykey

The actual key string in the format PREFIX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX, where the prefix matches the product code. Used by end users to activate and validate their license.

License Rulepolicy

A set of rules controlling license behavior: maximum devices, duration, offline access, heartbeat requirements, and floating mode. Multiple licenses can share one policy.

Permissionscope

A fine-grained permission attached to an API key that controls which operations the key can perform. Examples: licenses:read, machines:write.

Productproduct

A software title you distribute and want to protect with licensing. Every license is tied to exactly one product. The product code is used as the license key prefix.

Transferable Licensefloating

A license where device activations can be freely released and reused on different machines. Deactivating one device frees up a slot for another.

Validation

The process of checking whether a license key is valid, active, within its device limit, and satisfies required entitlements. Returns a validation code like VALID, EXPIRED, or SUSPENDED.

Webhookwebhook

An HTTP callback endpoint that receives real-time notifications when licensing events occur (license created, machine activated, etc.). Payloads are signed with HMAC-SHA256.