Glossary
Short definitions for terms that appear throughout the TMA Cloud docs.
Short definitions for terms that appear throughout the TMA Cloud docs.
Account Owner
A top-level login — one with no parent_user_id. Owns the files, folders and storage quota that its sub-users share, and is the only login that can manage those sub-users. See Sub-users.
Admin / First User
The first account created on a fresh deployment. Permanently stored in app_settings.first_user_id. Sees the Administration page in Settings and controls the server-wide policies, the storage bucket and the integrations. Separate from account ownership: every account is an owner, but only one is the admin.
Audit Log
Append-only record of notable events (logins, uploads, shares, admin changes). See Audit Events for the full catalog.
Bulk Operation
Any endpoint that accepts an ids array and processes multiple files in one request (move, copy, delete, star, share, download).
Change Feed
The list of folders whose contents changed since a cursor, from GET /api/files/changes. Cloud Drive uses it to refresh only the folders that changed. See Folder Changes.
Cloud Drive
A TMA Cloud folder the desktop app provides so files can be opened and saved from any application's file dialogs: through Cloud Files on Windows, FUSE on Linux and a local NFS share on macOS. It runs inside the desktop app and uses its session. See Desktop App.
Cloud Files
The Windows API that OneDrive and other sync apps use: files appear as placeholders that download when opened. The desktop app uses it for the Cloud Drive on Windows 10 (version 1709) and later.
Derived File
A new file exported from an existing one — e.g. saving a .docx as .pdf from the desktop app. Created as a sibling of the source via POST /api/files/:id/derived.
Edit Lock
A two-minute lease a desktop app holds while a file is open for editing, renewed while the file stays open. Others get the file read-only until it is released. See Edit Locks.
Forcesave
An OnlyOffice command that tells the document server to flush the current editor state to storage without closing the document. TMA Cloud schedules a forcesave every five minutes by default while a document is open, and the background worker sends it.
Heartbeat
A presence signal sent by a signed-in browser tab (every two minutes) or desktop app (every minute). A session is shown as online when its latest heartbeat is less than three minutes old. Missing heartbeats change the displayed status to offline; they do not revoke the session.
Job Queue
The job_queue table in PostgreSQL, used for large file-tree operations, object cleanup, maintenance, orphan review, share linking, and OnlyOffice force-save commands. The API adds jobs and the worker (tma-server worker) runs them. See Background Workers.
JWT (JSON Web Token)
The signed token used to authenticate API requests. Delivered as an httpOnly cookie, not a header.
Last Opened (accessed_at)
When a file or folder was last read. Downloads, document opens and share-link reads update it; searching, renaming and viewing Get Info do not. Opening a folder marks the folder, not the files inside it. The value is written at most once per update window per item, one hour by default, so it can lag a read by that much. The Cloud Drive reports it as the NTFS last-access time. See Last Access Time.
Key Check Value
An HMAC stored in the kek_checks table for each master key version. The API and worker compare it with the configured FILE_ENCRYPTION_KEY at startup and refuse to start on a mismatch. It does not reveal the key. See Security Model.
Known Proxy
A reverse proxy allowed to supply X-Forwarded-For and related headers. Entries are stored in app_settings.known_proxies as IP addresses, CIDR ranges, or hostnames and loaded when the server starts. See Known Proxies.
MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication)
Optional second factor (TOTP) on top of the password. Each user turns it on for their own login; the admin cannot turn it on or off for others. See MFA Management.
MIME Type / Magic Bytes
The actual file format, read from the first few bytes of the file content (not the file extension). TMA Cloud does not reject an upload when this doesn't match the extension so the file is stored either way. OnlyOffice editing is the exception: a document is only opened when its content matches its extension.
OnlyOffice
The third-party document server that edits Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OpenDocument files, and opens PDFs, in the browser. Optional — the rest of TMA Cloud works without it.
Orphan
Either a stored object that no files row points at, or a files row whose stored object is missing. Found by an on-demand scan and deleted only when an admin selects it. See Orphan Review.
Permission
One capability a sub-user can be granted: files.download, files.upload, files.edit, files.share, files.delete (move to trash), files.restore, or files.purge (delete for good). Stored in users.permissions. Account owners hold all of them implicitly and are never checked against the list. Anything not granted is refused. See Authorization.
Share Domain
An optional separate domain you can point at /s/* routes, so share links don't expose the main app's domain. It is an admin setting stored in the database (app_settings.share_base_url), set it under Settings → Administration. See Share Base URL.
Share Link / Share Token
A public URL (e.g. https://example.com/s/abc123) that lets anyone with the link view or download a file or folder, without a TMA Cloud account.
Shared at (shared_at)
When a file or folder most recently joined a share. It is shown under Shared in Get Info. Re-sharing an active item keeps the value; unsharing clears it. Items inside a shared folder receive their own value when they join that share.
Signup Control
The admin toggle that decides whether new accounts can be created. See Policies.
Soft Delete
Moving a file to trash rather than removing it from storage. Trashed files are auto-purged after 15 days.
Storage Driver
Uploaded file contents stream to an S3-compatible bucket. The first user enters its provider, endpoint, bucket name, and credentials in Settings → Storage. See Storage Bucket.
Sub-user
An extra login created by an account owner. Has its own email, password, MFA and sessions, but reads and writes the owner's files and counts against the owner's quota. Holds only the permissions the owner grants, and cannot create sub-users of its own. See Sub-users.
Token Version (token_version)
A per-user counter that increments when the user logs out of all devices or changes password. Existing JWTs are rejected if their embedded version is older than the current one — this is how "logout everywhere" works without a token denylist. The counter is per login, so a sub-user changing its password does not sign out the rest of the account.
Trash
The per-user soft-delete area. Deleting a file moves it here; files auto-purge after 15 days. Trash counts toward the user's storage quota.
Related Topics
- Architecture - How the parts fit together
- Database Schema - Tables and columns named here
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