Glossary
This page defines every domain term that appears across the documentation. Glossary terms are auto-linked on first mention — hover over any underlined term to see its definition.
Accent color system
Section titled “Accent color system”The one-accent-per-page discipline used across the product and
documentation. Each top-level section adopts a single accent (User =
Volt green, Admin = Cyan, Selfhost = Amber, Reference = Violet) that
tints sidebar accents, link colors, focus rings, and selection state.
Defined in web/src/lib/colors.ts and mirrored in the docs site
under src/styles/accents.css.
Adaptive Cadence (Phase C)
Section titled “Adaptive Cadence (Phase C)”The scheduler that demotes inactive chargers from Active (15-min sync) → Idle (1-hour sync) → Dormant (1-week sync), with hysteresis to avoid thrashing. See Sync runs.
Audit log
Section titled “Audit log”Forensic record of auth events, customer-impacting admin actions, and
privilege changes. Stored in the auth_audit table; visible in the
admin console for sensitive actions like impersonation.
BetterAuth
Section titled “BetterAuth”The authentication framework Polaris Express uses for both the
customer portal and the admin console. Provides magic-link email,
generic OIDC (Pocket ID, etc.), and session management. Configured via
AUTH_SECRET and surface-specific base URLs.
BorderBeam
Section titled “BorderBeam”A decorative animated conic gradient sweep around the perimeter of an
element. By convention, reserved for live / in-progress semantics:
the docs landing hero, the admin page-root card, an active sync run,
a live charging session, and the NFC scan modal’s waiting state.
Never decorative. Defined at
web/components/magicui/border-beam.tsx.
Capability
Section titled “Capability”A device-level permission token assigned by the server. The iOS app
recognizes four: scanner (NFC reader hardware), user (charger
discovery and control), kiosk (single-appliance mode), and
managed (admin-fleet location visibility). The legal set is checked
in Capabilities/Capabilities.swift.
ChargeBox
Section titled “ChargeBox”OCPP term for a single charging station / unit. Each ChargeBox has a
chargeBoxId (visible on stickers and QR codes) and one or more
connectors. Synonymous with “charger” in user-facing copy.
Charging profile
Section titled “Charging profile”An OCPP power-limiting rule applied to a charger — sets maximum current/power, optionally on a schedule. Admins can configure them per device in the admin console.
Connector
Section titled “Connector”A physical charging outlet on a charger. A 2-socket charger has 2 connectors, each addressable independently in OCPP. Connector IDs are integers starting at 1.
Deep link
Section titled “Deep link”A URL that opens directly into an in-app surface. Polaris Express uses
both expchg:// (custom scheme) and https://example.com/{c,u,m}/...
(universal links). See
Concepts → Deep-link routing.
EV card
Section titled “EV card”The customer-facing name for an OCPP tag (idTag) — a physical RFID card or NFC token used to identify a driver to a charger. Issued by the operator; linked to a customer account.
expreScan
Section titled “expreScan”Polaris Express’s NFC reader device fleet — phones, tablets, or
purpose-built scanners running the iOS app with the .scanner
capability. Operators use them to start charging sessions on behalf of
drivers who don’t have their own EV card.
Feature flag
Section titled “Feature flag”A runtime toggle that enables or disables a behavior without a code release. Polaris Express supports global flags, per-user overrides, and per-device overrides. Managed under Admin → Feature flags.
OCPP term for an EV card’s identifier. Polaris Express’s customer copy calls these “EV cards” — but the API and the SteVe backend use “idTag” / “OCPP tag” / “tag” interchangeably.
Impersonation
Section titled “Impersonation”An admin viewing the customer portal as a specific customer for support. Read-only by default. Every impersonation event is logged to the audit log; the customer sees a notice in their account that an admin viewed their data.
Kiosk mode
Section titled “Kiosk mode”A device configuration where the iOS app runs in single-appliance mode: no toolbar, no status bar, no settings, a single focused screen. Used for unattended chargers. Five rapid taps on the top-right corner opens the escape sheet for operator recovery.
The metering + billing platform Polaris Express uses for invoices, subscriptions, and billable-metric tracking. Lago can be self-hosted or used as a cloud service. The platform talks to it via the REST API and receives invoice webhooks back.
Lago customer
Section titled “Lago customer”A billable entity in Lago. Polaris Express maps every charging
customer to a Lago customer via lagoCustomerExternalId.
Lago metric
Section titled “Lago metric”A billable dimension in Lago. The default in Polaris Express is
ev_charging_kwh (kilowatt-hours consumed), configurable via the
LAGO_METRIC_CODE environment variable.
Lago subscription
Section titled “Lago subscription”An active billing subscription tying a Lago customer to a plan with specific entitlements and usage metrics.
Magic link
Section titled “Magic link”A one-time, time-limited URL sent by email for passwordless sign-in. TTL is configurable (default 15 min for sign-in, 24h for first-time invites).
Meter value
Section titled “Meter value”An OCPP meter reading sent by a charger during a transaction — kWh, power, timestamp, and other fields. SteVe collects them and forwards the relevant samples to the Fresh app via the meter-value webhook.
Open Charge Point Protocol — the open standard for communication between EV chargers and charging-station management systems. Polaris Express supports OCPP 1.6 via the SteVe backend (JSON over WebSocket or SOAP).
OCPP tag
Section titled “OCPP tag”Pre-authorize
Section titled “Pre-authorize”The webhook a SteVe charger fires before allowing a session start — asks Polaris Express whether the presented idTag is valid and in good standing. HMAC-signed.
Public ID
Section titled “Public ID”An 8-character Crockford-base32 identifier issued to every user.
Printed on EV cards as a QR code and used for the iOS app’s QR
sign-in flow (https://example.com/u/<publicId>).
Reservation
Section titled “Reservation”A future-time-slot booking for a specific charger. Customers can create them in the web portal or iOS app; admins can override.
Scan-arm
Section titled “Scan-arm”The state in which an NFC reader device is ready to capture an idTag read. Triggered by an admin from the web console; opens a 60-second window during which the operator must tap a card to the device.
Sync run
Section titled “Sync run”A single execution of the background sync worker. Each run pulls recent transactions from SteVe, reconciles them against Lago, and emits billing events. Visible at Admin → Sync runs.
SSE (Server-Sent Events)
Section titled “SSE (Server-Sent Events)”A persistent HTTP streaming transport used for live updates — notification feeds, sync-run status, device logs, charger status. The admin console and the iOS app both subscribe.
The open-source OCPP charging station management backend Polaris
Express forks (branch expressync-preauth). Handles charger
registration, transaction logging, MeterValues collection, and OCPP
operations. See Concepts → OCPP and SteVe.
Tariff
Section titled “Tariff”A pricing plan — what a customer pays per kWh, plus any fixed fees or tiered consumption brackets. Configured in Lago and surfaced in the customer’s subscription view.
User mapping
Section titled “User mapping”The relational record linking a Polaris user to their SteVe idTag,
their Lago customer record, and their active subscription. Stored in
the user_mappings table.