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Adaptive Agility

0.3 — How Software Actually Works

  • Frontend — what the user sees and touches (the app, the website, the buttons).
  • Backend — what runs behind the scenes (the logic, the database, the AI calls).
  • API (Application Programming Interface) — how two pieces of software talk to each other. When Claude Code asks an AI model for a response, it uses an API.
    • Analogy: A restaurant menu. You (the app) don’t walk into the kitchen (the server). You read the menu (the API), place an order, get food back. You don’t need to know how the kitchen works.
  • Database — where data lives permanently. Users, messages, settings.
  • Server — a computer that’s always on, waiting to respond to requests. “The cloud” = other people’s servers.
  • Local vs. Remote — local = on your computer. Remote = on someone else’s server.
  • Open Source — software whose code is public. Anyone can read, use, improve it. Most AI tools are built on open source.

Next: 0.4 — The AI Stack | Phase overview: Phase 0