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.