Learning the Language

TWO's Dictionary^™

Tech jargon explained in plain language. Every term you'll encounter on this site (and most others) decoded for people who didn't grow up writing code.

Agentic Coding

When AI takes autonomous, multi-step actions on your project (planning, executing, and iterating across files) rather than just responding to single prompts.

AI Pair Programming

Working collaboratively with an AI assistant in real-time on your code, like traditional pair programming but with AI as your partner. You set the direction, the AI handles the implementation.

API

A way for two pieces of software to talk to each other. Like a waiter taking your order to the kitchen and bringing back your food.

Astro

A web framework built for content-heavy sites like blogs and portfolios. It ships minimal JavaScript, so pages load fast.

Astro Components

Reusable building blocks in Astro that combine HTML structure, styling, and logic into self-contained pieces, then output pure HTML with zero JavaScript.

Branch

A separate copy of your project's code where you can make changes without affecting the main version, like a draft you can test before publishing.

Build Time

The moment when your source code gets transformed into the final website files that browsers can actually display. It happens before anyone visits your site.

ChatGPT

OpenAI's AI assistant, a conversational tool that can write, reason, analyze documents, generate images, and answer questions across nearly any topic.

Claude Code

An AI coding assistant that runs in your terminal and can read, edit, and build entire projects by talking with you about what you want to create.

CLAUDE.md

An instruction file that tells Claude Code how to behave on your specific project: what conventions to follow, what rules to enforce, and how to handle content.

Codebase

All the files that make up a software project, taken together. The complete collection of code, content, configuration, and assets.

Commit

A saved snapshot of your project at a specific point in time, with a message describing what changed and why.

Component

A reusable building block of a website. Like LEGO pieces, you snap them together to build pages.

Content Collection

A way to organize related content files (like blog posts or glossary terms) so your site can automatically find, validate, and display them.

Context Engineering

The practice of designing the entire information ecosystem around an AI model (what it sees, what it remembers, what tools it can use) to produce consistently better results.

Context Window

How much an AI can 'remember' in a single conversation. Think of it as the AI's working memory.

Core Web Vitals

Google's set of metrics for measuring how fast, responsive, and visually stable a website feels to real visitors. They directly affect search rankings.

CPM (Cost Per Mille)

The cost to show your ad to 1,000 people. Mille is Latin for thousand. Lower CPM means your ads are reaching more people for less money.

Creator Affiliate

A TikTok creator who promotes your TikTok Shop products in exchange for a commission on each sale they generate, without being a paid employee or requiring upfront payment.

CTR (Click-Through Rate)

The percentage of people who saw your ad and clicked on it. A CTR of 2% means 2 out of every 100 people who saw the ad tapped through.

Cursor

A code editor designed for AI-assisted development, where you can write code, run terminal commands, and preview your project all in one place.

CVR (Conversion Rate)

The percentage of people who clicked your ad or visited your product listing and completed a purchase. A CVR of 3% means 3 out of every 100 visitors bought something.

Deploy

Taking your project from your computer and putting it live on the internet where people can actually visit it.

Diff

A side-by-side comparison showing exactly what changed between two versions of a file, with additions highlighted in green and deletions in red.

DNS

The internet's phone book. It translates website names (like google.com) into the actual addresses computers use to find each other.

Drift

When an AI gradually loses track of your project's goals and starts making suggestions that don't fit anymore, usually because it's forgotten earlier context.

Dropship

A fulfillment model where the seller never holds physical inventory. When an order comes in, it goes straight to a supplier who ships directly to the customer.

Framework

A pre-built toolkit that gives you a head start on building something, so you don't have to create everything from scratch.

Frontend

The part of a website you can see and interact with. Everything that shows up in your browser.

Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT)

TikTok's warehousing and fulfillment service where TikTok stores your inventory and handles all shipping, packaging, and returns on your behalf.

Git

A system that tracks every change you make to your code, so you can undo mistakes and collaborate without overwriting each other's work.

GitHub

A website that stores your code online, tracks every change ever made, and lets you collaborate with others or deploy your site automatically.

GMV (Gross Merchandise Value)

The total dollar value of all products sold through your shop before fees, returns, or costs are deducted. It is the headline revenue number, not profit.

Hosting

Renting space on a computer that's always connected to the internet so your website is available 24/7.

HTML

The standard language that web browsers read to display web pages. Every website you've ever visited is built on HTML.

Indexing

The process by which a search engine like Google discovers, reads, and stores a web page so it can appear in search results.

IONOS

A domain registrar and email hosting provider where you can buy domain names (like yourname.com) and set up professional email addresses.

JavaScript

The programming language that makes websites interactive. Dropdown menus, form validation, animations, and anything that responds to your clicks or scrolls.

LIVE Shopping Ads

TikTok's ad format that runs during TikTok Live sessions, letting viewers purchase featured products in real time without pausing or leaving the livestream.

Lovable

A tool that generates a working web application from a single text prompt, giving you a functional site in minutes without writing code.

Markdown

A simple way to format text using symbols like # for headings and * for bold. What most blog posts are written in.

Open Affiliate Plan

A TikTok Shop setting that allows any creator on TikTok to apply to promote your products for a set commission rate, without requiring individual negotiations or contracts.

Plan Mode

A structured scoping process in AI coding tools that interviews you about your project before any code gets written, producing a clear plan that prevents wasted effort.

PLAN.md

A persistent file inside your project that acts as memory for your AI coding assistant, recording goals, architecture decisions, current status, and what's next.

Product Showcase

A TikTok feature that lets creators tag specific products from their TikTok Shop directly within a video, making the product instantly shoppable with a tap.

Project Memory

Systems that help AI tools remember past decisions and project context across sessions, surviving context window resets so you don't have to re-explain your project every time.

Prompt Engineering

The practice of crafting effective instructions to get better, more consistent results from AI tools, from single messages to project-wide rule sets.

React

A tool for building interactive parts of websites. The buttons, menus, and pop-ups that respond when you click.

Repository

A folder for your project that remembers its entire history. Every version, every change, all in one place.

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

The amount of revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising. A ROAS of 2x means two dollars of revenue came back for every one dollar spent on ads.

Selective Hydration

A technique where only the interactive parts of a page load JavaScript, while everything else stays as fast, static HTML.

Shop Feed

The dedicated product discovery tab inside TikTok where users browse and purchase from TikTok Shops without needing to watch a video first.

Single Page Application (SPA)

A website that loads once and then dynamically updates the page content without ever fully reloading, making transitions feel instant.

Static Routing

A system where each page on your website corresponds to an actual file in your project, so the URL structure mirrors the folder structure.

Static Site

A website made of pre-built pages that load fast because the server just hands them over. No assembly required.

Structured Data

Hidden metadata on a web page that tells search engines exactly what the content is about, so they can display it more usefully in search results.

System Prompt

Background instructions that tell an AI how to behave on your project (your conventions, tone, rules, and workflows) loaded automatically before every conversation.

Tailwind CSS

A styling system that lets you design web pages by adding short, descriptive class names directly to your HTML instead of writing separate style files.

TikTok Shop

TikTok's native e-commerce platform that lets businesses and creators sell products directly inside the TikTok app, without sending buyers to an external site.

Time to First Byte (TTFB)

How long it takes for a visitor's browser to receive the very first piece of data from your website after requesting a page.

Vercel

A hosting platform that automatically builds and deploys your website whenever you push code changes, making your site live on the internet within minutes.

Version Control

A system that saves every version of your work so you can go back in time if something goes wrong. Like infinite undo for your whole project.

Vibe Coding

Building software by describing what you want in plain language to an AI and letting it generate the code, without necessarily understanding every technical detail of the output.

VSA (Video Shopping Ads)

TikTok's native ad format that links product listings from your TikTok Shop directly into a shoppable video ad, letting viewers tap to buy without leaving the feed.

Wholesale Reseller

A business that buys goods from a manufacturer or supplier at wholesale pricing and resells them to end consumers at a retail markup.