---
title: "Concepts and vocabulary"
description: "The three tiers, the four Depot modes, and the words the rest of this documentation uses without stopping to explain them."
url: "https://support.outpostplatform.com/get-started/concepts/"
product: "platform"
type: "concept"
status: "stub"
ai_summary: "Vocabulary page for Outpost. Defines the three tiers, Depot, the Agent and the service Outpost runs, plus the Tray, Remote Outpost and Outpost Sync, the four Depot operating modes, and the difference between a partner, a client, a tenant and an endpoint."
source: "https://gitlab.com/outpostplatform/docs/-/edit/main/src/content/docs/get-started/concepts.md"
license: "CC BY 4.0"
---

# Concepts and vocabulary

Outpost is three tiers with different owners. Outpost runs the central service
that holds your account and issues your licence, you run Depot, and the Agent
is the service on each endpoint you manage. This page defines those and the rest of the
vocabulary, so that an IT department head or a managed service provider reading
any other page already knows what a client, a tenant and a face are.

<!-- TODO: write this page against the concept template.

Sections:

- The three tiers, and who owns and operates each one.
- Depot, and why an organisation runs its own rather than sharing one.
- The four operating modes, msp, it, remote and hosted, and what each licenses.
- The Agent and the Tray, and why they are two programs and not one.
- Remote Outpost and Outpost Sync, and where they sit.
- Partner, client, tenant, organisation and endpoint, defined against each
  other, because they are the four words readers most often swap.
- What talks to what, and over which port.
- What each tier holds, so a reader can reason about where their data is.
-->

Follow the [concept template](https://gitlab.com/outpostplatform/docs/-/blob/main/templates/concept.md).