Contribution guidelines
Word choice and naming
Generally:
- Use contractions
- Use simple words and short, concise sentences
- Avoid non-English words. Most commonly, this means avoiding Latin words and abbreviations.
- Use bias-free, inclusive language.
- Capitalize most of Kong’s product, application, and component names as proper names, with some notable exceptions. See the naming table for details.
Product, application, component names
Capitalize the following Kong-specific terms and component names:
Name | Description |
---|---|
Kong Konnect Cloud Konnect Cloud |
Use Kong Konnect Cloud for the first mention, Konnect Cloud or simply Konnect after. |
Kong Gateway Gateway |
Kong’s API gateway runtime, regardless of packaging or license. This term also refers to the enterprise version. Use lowercase “gateway” when referring to the general concept of an API gateway. Use uppercase “Gateway” as a shorthand for “Kong Gateway”. When writing about “Kong Gateway”, use “Kong Gateway” for the first mention and “Gateway” after. |
Kong Gateway (OSS) | Kong’s API gateway runtime, open-source package. Use this name to specifically refer to the open-source package. |
Kong Mesh Mesh |
Kong’s service mesh. Use “Kong Mesh” for the first mention, “Mesh” after. |
Kuma | Kong’s open-source service mesh. ❌ Do not use “Kong Kuma”. This is an open-source project supported by the CNCF and maintained, not owned, by Kong. |
Insomnia | Kong’s open-source API client. |
Dev Portal Dev Portal, self-managed Dev Portal, cloud |
A module for sharing APIs and their specs with developers, and enabling the developers to create applications based on Gateway or Konnect services. ❌ Do not use “Developer Portal”. |
ServiceHub | The service catalog in Konnect Cloud. ❌ Do not use “Service Hub”, “Service hub”, or “Servicehub”. |
Runtime Manager | The runtime management service in Konnect Cloud ❌ Do not use “Runtime manager”. |
Vitals | Analytics for Gateway. |
decK | Kong’s CLI tool for managing declarative configuration. ❌ Do not capitalize the first letter, even if the name appears at the start of a sentence. |
Generic terms
Don’t capitalize the following generic terms:
- plugins
- control plane
- data plane
- hybrid mode
- service
- route
- consumer
- service mesh
- database
Word choice
Bias-free language
Use gender-neutral and unbiased language.
✅ Use | ❌ Don’t use |
---|---|
Denylist, allowlist | Blacklist, whitelist |
Main branch | Master branch |
Neutral pronouns (you, they/them) | Gendered pronouns (he/his, she/her) |
Software terms
✅ Use | ❌ Don’t use |
---|---|
Self-managed | Self-hosted, on-premise(s) |
Free tier | Free mode |
Plus tier | Plus mode, Plus subscription |
Enterprise tier | Enterprise mode, Enterprise subscription |
Cloud | Software as a Service/SaaS |
cURL | curl, CURL |
HTTPie | httpie, HTTPIE |
Unix | unix, UNIX |
Nginx | nginx, NGINX |
See also
Follow Kong’s style guide whenever possible. However, you can also refer to other external style guides for specific word choice and substitution examples. We recommend using the Google developer style guide.