Glossary

Definitions of the terms used across the Nebula Block documentation.

Inference API The OpenAI-compatible API for running models — text, vision, image, video, embeddings, and reranking — at https://inference.nebulablock.com/v1.

Platform API The REST API for managing resources: instances, SSH keys, API keys, object storage, and billing, at https://api.nebulablock.com/api/v1.

Serverless inference Running a model on managed endpoints, with no servers to provision. Billed on usage.

GPU instance A virtual machine, container, or bare-metal server with GPUs attached, rented by the hour.

Object storage S3-compatible storage for unstructured data such as datasets, checkpoints, and model outputs.

Workspace The container for your object storage. A workspace holds buckets and carries its own S3 access key pair.

Bucket A named container for objects inside a storage workspace.

SSH key A cryptographic key pair used to log into instances securely. You upload the public half; the private half stays with you.

API key A long-lived credential, prefixed sk-, that authenticates requests to both APIs.

Access token A short-lived JWT issued at login. Suited to interactive sessions rather than applications.

Tier Your account level, from Tier 1 to Tier 4. It determines your rate limits, which products you can use, and how much credit you can hold. See Tiers and Rate Limits.

RPM / TPM / RPD Requests per minute, tokens per minute, and requests per day — the three rate limits applied to inference calls. RPD counters reset at 00:00 UTC.

Context length The maximum number of tokens a model can consider in one request, prompt and response combined.

Embedding A dense numeric vector representing text, used for semantic search and retrieval.

Reranking Scoring retrieved documents against a query so the most relevant ones can be kept.

Team A shared workspace with its own members, roles, and API keys. See Teams.

Credit The prepaid balance all usage is deducted from.

Referral A program that pays commission on the spend of users you refer.