zest is an integrator written on node. It integrates components to create an application. Zest applications are also referred to as integrations as they are logic-less configurations that specify components that have to be integrated.
embodier is an integration built using zest. This integration has a UI that can be used to build other integrations.
Components are blocks of code that can be combined together to create an integration. Any zest integration can have one or more components.
Components and their structure are detailed here.
To create an application, we combine different components.
For instance, a typical application will contain:
A datastore component to persist data. datastores can be implemented on top of mysql, mongodb, couchdb or any other database.
A filestore component which will serve static files like js, css and htmls for the website.
A user component to keep track of visitors on the website and to log them in or register them.
...
The component structure allows us to reuse already existing modules to create different integrations.
Although components might not follow any specification, there are a few generic specifications crafted by zest for some components. Components that follow them can be plugged into embodier created integrations.
For embodier to run, the below stock components are created and maintained. The links go to the jsdoc documentation.
These components are integrated and injected into one another using the zest's resolver. The resolver and its cli are documented here:
Apart from the above components, there are a utility gruntrunner that can be added as a dependency to ease component development. (All the above components use it)