> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.archefusion.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Glossary

> Understand the meaning of key terms used during the Archefusion integration process.

<Accordion title="Backoff strategy">
  The method Archefusion uses to calculate the waiting time between retry attempts when a gateway is unresponsive.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Base delay (ms)">
  The initial waiting time in milliseconds before Archefusion retries a failed gateway attempt.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Default provider order">
  The order Archefusion uses to route a payment across your available gateways when no smart routing rule matches the transaction. See [smart routing](https://docs.archefusion.com/pages/smart-routing) to configure your rules.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Failover">
  The automatic process of routing a payment to the next available fallback gateway when the first configured gateway is unavailable or unresponsive.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Fallback gateway">
  The next gateway in your smart routing rule that Archefusion routes to when the first configured gateway is unavailable or unresponsive, so a single gateway outage doesn't fail the payment. See [smart routing](https://docs.archefusion.com/pages/smart-routing#how-to-set-your-smart-routing-rules) to configure the order.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Gateway simulation">
  A connection test that verifies your gateway credentials are valid and that Archefusion can successfully connect to your gateway account.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Jitter (ms)">
  A small random delay added to retry attempts to prevent multiple concurrent transactions from hitting the same gateway at exactly the same time during high-traffic periods.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="KYB (Know Your Business)">
  The verification process Archefusion uses to confirm the legitimacy of a merchant's business before granting access to live mode.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Latency">
  The additional time added to a transaction by Archefusion's routing process, including any retries or failover attempts.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Live health data">
  Real-time information about the availability and performance of each configured payment gateway. Archefusion uses this data alongside your routing rules to determine the best gateway for each transaction.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Live mode">
  The operational mode in which Archefusion processes real payments using live API keys and live gateway credentials.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Max delay (ms)">
  The maximum waiting time in milliseconds between retry attempts, regardless of what the backoff strategy calculates. This caps the delay so retries do not wait indefinitely between attempts.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Max retries">
  The maximum number of times Archefusion will retry a payment on a single gateway before moving to the next one in your failover strategy.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Merchants">
  Businesses or individuals who use Archefusion to route payments through multiple payment gateways.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Partial refund">
  A refund for an amount less than the original transaction amount. For example, refunding ₦200 on a ₦500 transaction.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Payment gateway">
  A service that processes payments between a customer and a merchant. Examples include Paystack, Flutterwave, and Interswitch.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Payment orchestration">
  The process of managing and routing payments across multiple payment gateways through a single integration. Archefusion acts as a payment orchestrator, selecting the best gateway for each transaction based on routing rules and live provider health data.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Redirect URL">
  The URL a customer is sent to after completing payment on the gateway checkout page.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Refund">
  The process of returning funds to a customer after a successful payment
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Retries">
  The number of times Archefusion attempts to process a payment on a gateway before moving to the next one.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Smart routing">
  Archefusion's automatic rule-based system that selects the best payment gateway for each transaction.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Success lift">
  The improvement in transaction success rate achieved by Archefusion's smart routing, compared to what the success rate would have been without routing.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Test mode">
  The operational mode in which Archefusion processes simulated payments using test API keys and test gateway credentials.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Timeout">
  The maximum time in milliseconds Archefusion waits for a gateway to respond before marking the attempt as failed and moving to the next retry or failover gateway.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Webhook">
  An HTTP POST request that Archefusion sends to your server URL when an event occurs, such as a payment succeeding or failing.
</Accordion>