> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.quixa.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Core Concepts

> Understand the architectural building blocks of the Quixa Platform.

Quixa is designed around a structured domain hierarchy that cleanly decouples API definitions from runtime execution graphs and test suites.

```
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   API Collections                      │
│        (OpenAPI / Swagger specs & Endpoints)           │
└───────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘
                            │ Endpoints used as nodes
┌───────────────────────────▼────────────────────────────┐
│                    Visual Flows                        │
│   (DAG of HTTP steps, delay, conditions, assertions)   │
└───────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘
                            │ Grouped in execution order
┌───────────────────────────▼────────────────────────────┐
│                    Flow Suites                         │
│ (Sequential / Parallel pipelines, Stop-on-failure)     │
└───────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘
                            │ Executed to generate
┌───────────────────────────▼────────────────────────────┐
│                 Execution Results                      │
│ (Step traces, HTTP status, latencies, failure logs)    │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
```

***

## 1. Collections

An **API Collection** represents a service's API contract (typically imported via OpenAPI 3.0 or Swagger 2.0 specs).

* **Endpoint Definitions**: Method, path template, request schema, response schemas, and query parameters.
* **Auto-Discovery & Spec Drift**: Quixa periodically monitors your upstream Swagger endpoints and highlights **Drift** (pulsing badge) when schemas change, allowing you to diff and approve updates safely.
* **Environment Base URLs**: Collections can be mapped to different target environments (`Dev`, `Staging`, `Prod`).

***

## 2. Visual Flows (Workflows)

A **Flow** is a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) of orchestration steps. It connects endpoints, custom transformation scripts, loops, and conditional logic.

* **Nodes**: Individual executable units (HTTP Requests, Switch Routers, For-Loops, Wait timers, Terminal Stop nodes).
* **Connections (Wires)**: Determine dependency execution order and establish data binding lineage.
* **Sub-Flows (Flow-as-a-Node)**: You can nest an entire saved flow inside another flow as a single reusable node, enabling modular architectures (e.g. an `OAuth2 Auth Flow` subflow node reused across 50 API flows).
* **Flow Variables**: Centralized key-value pairs scoped to the workflow.

***

## 3. Flow Suites & Test Suites

A **Suite** is an execution pipeline that groups multiple flows together to form continuous integration test runs.

* **Sequential Execution**: Runs flows one after another in specified pipeline order.
* **Parallel Execution**: Spawns concurrent execution workers with configurable max concurrency to drastically reduce CI pipeline execution times.
* **Stop on Failure**: Halts subsequent suite flows immediately if a critical dependency fails.
* **Suite Drag-and-Drop Reordering**: Intuitive re-indexing of pipeline execution order directly from the sidebar.

***

## 4. Execution Traces & Real-Time Monitoring

Every time a flow or suite executes, Quixa generates an immutable **Execution Record**:

* **Topological Wave History**: Visual step-by-step audit of which nodes executed, which branches were skipped by condition, and which nodes joined at barriers.
* **Wire Protocol Traces**: Full request headers, query strings, bodies, status codes, and response payloads.
* **Latency Profiles**: Nanosecond-accurate execution timers breakdown per microservice call.
* **Assertion Evaluations**: Validation checks asserting response status codes, payload contracts, and response latency SLAs.

***

## 5. Workspaces & ReBAC Access Control

Quixa operates as a multi-tenant platform with fine-grained **Relationship-Based Access Control (ReBAC)**:

* **Tenants & Organizations**: Strict isolation of flows, collections, and credentials between customer organizations.
* **Defined System Roles**: `PlatformAdmin`, `TenantAdmin`, `Developer`, and `Viewer`.
* **Resource Matrix**: Granular `ReadOnly` vs. `ReadWrite` privilege assignment on individual collections, folders, and flow hierarchies.


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