Core concepts
The five building blocks of Inboard — project, install template, requirement, variable, and widget — and how they nest together.
Inboard is built from five entities. Once you know how they fit together, everything else in these docs falls into place.
| Term | What it is |
|---|---|
| Project | The top-level container for one product integration. Owns branding, allowed domains, team, and one widget style. |
| Install template | The configured set of requirements and steps for installing your product. |
| Requirement | One thing the installer must do — paste a snippet, add a DNS record, enter an API key, and so on. |
| Variable | A named placeholder (domain, API key, account ID) pre-filled per installer so guides are copy-paste-ready. |
| Widget | The embeddable end-user UI that renders the guide and runs verification. |
Project
A project is the top-level container for one product integration. It owns your branding, your list of allowed domains, your team, and exactly one widget style. If you sell more than one product, or need genuinely different widget appearances, use a separate project for each — there is one widget style per project.
See Projects for branding, allowed domains, and team setup.
Install template
An install template is the configured set of requirements and steps for installing your product. It's where the real work lives: you assemble the requirements an installer has to complete and the order they appear in. A project can hold more than one install template.
(If you've used Inboard before, this is what was once called "Setup" or "Guide." It's now always called an install template.)
See Install templates for building one.
Requirement
A requirement is a single thing the installer must do. Each requirement has a type that tells the widget how to present it and how to verify it. The supported types are:
code snippet · DNS record · API key · command · download · webhook · HTTP check · custom verify
An install template is essentially an ordered list of requirements.
Variable
A variable is a named placeholder — a domain, an API key, an account ID — that you reference inside a requirement. When the widget loads, real values fill those placeholders so the guide is copy-paste-ready for that specific installer. Host-side values pass in through the widget at load time.
See Variables for defining and passing them.
Widget
The widget is the embeddable UI your installers actually use. It renders the install template's requirements as a step-by-step guide, handles platform detection, and runs verification. It's vanilla JavaScript with no dependencies, loads in a Shadow DOM so it never collides with your page's styles, and weighs under 30 KB gzipped.
See Widget for embedding and appearance.
How they nest
The entities form a simple hierarchy:
Project
└── Install template
└── Requirements (ordered)A project contains one or more install templates. Each install template is a list of requirements. Variables fill the placeholders inside those requirements, and the widget renders the whole thing for the installer — styled by the project's single widget style.