Glossary

A reference list of PatchKit concepts and the page where each is covered in depth.

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Application: A single publishable unit in PatchKit — typically one game on one platform. You manage Applications in the Panel. See Applications. Synonyms in loose prose: app, game, title. In this documentation we use Application (capitalized) for the PatchKit entity and game only when referring to the end-user-facing product.
App Catalog: A grouping of one or more Applications that lets a single launcher present multiple games (or platform variants of the same game) to players. See App Catalog.
App Secret: A per-Application secret used when calling PatchKit’s API and the Keys service. It appears as “Secret” on the Application’s Overview tab in the Panel and as APP_SECRET in code examples. Shipping it in a binary (see Secure Running) makes it extractable — treat it as a deterrent rather than a hard secret.

Basic Launcher: The default, Unity-based launcher that every Application is shipped with. See Launchers → Basic Launcher. Also referred to in older docs as the “Unity Launcher” or “default launcher” — in this documentation we use Basic Launcher consistently.

Channel: A named release track under an Application. Every Application has a main channel by default; you can add additional channels (e.g. beta, staging) to ship different versions in parallel. See Applications → Channels.
Content file: The full distributable archive of a Version, stored on PatchKit’s CDN. Players downloading for the first time get the content file; subsequent updates are delta files.

Delta file: A binary diff between two consecutive Versions. The launcher downloads deltas instead of full content files when updating an already-installed game, which is why updates are usually small. See also Patch Link.

Group: The parent container under an Application that holds its Channels. The Panel shows the group page when you click an Application’s name — you’ll know you’re on the group page because it lists the Channels. Most of the time you don’t interact with the group directly; Channels live under it.

Launcher: The desktop program end-users run to install and update your game. PatchKit offers several variants — Basic, SDK, Visual Editor, and Android. See Launchers for a comparison.
Launcher SDK: The Electron-based toolkit for building fully custom launchers. See Launcher SDK.
License Key: An alphanumeric key that gates access to an Application. Useful for closed beta, paid distribution, and key-based authentication. See Applications → License Keys. Runtime verification is covered in Integrations → Secure Running.

Panel: The web interface at https://panel.patchkit.net where you manage Applications, Versions, Channels, collaborators, billing, and everything else. Most publishing tasks happen here.
Patch Link: A precomputed delta between two non-consecutive Versions, reducing update size for players who are several versions behind. See Applications → Patch Links.
Persist (Panel button): On the multi-Channel Version flow, clicking Persist saves an uploaded Version so that Channels can be linked to it. Persisting doesn’t publish — publication is a separate step per Channel. See Applications → Deploying a New Version.
pkt: PatchKit’s command-line tool for automation and CI. See Command-Line Tools.
Publish: The act of making a processed Version visible to players. Once published, a Version cannot be un-published — reverting requires uploading the previous build again or linking a Channel back to the prior Version.

Runner: A tiny bootstrapper shipped alongside the Launcher. Its only job is to download the latest Launcher before handing off. This is how PatchKit updates the Launcher itself. Players never interact with it directly. See FAQ → What’s the difference between the runner and launcher in PatchKit?.

SDK Launcher: A custom launcher built with the Launcher SDK. Referred to in some older docs as the “Electron launcher” — in this documentation we use SDK Launcher.
Secure Running: Runtime verification of a License Key from inside the shipped game. See Integrations → Secure Running.
Share Link: A shareable URL that lets players download your Application’s launcher. Generated per Application by the Panel — see the Get Launcher button on the Application page.

Theme: A visual skin for an SDK / Visual Editor Launcher. Themes are managed separately from the runtime and can be updated without re-deploying the launcher itself. See Launcher SDK → Setting up Theme on PatchKit Panel and Launchers → Visual Editor Launcher.

Unity Extension: An Asset Store package that uploads builds from inside the Unity editor. Different tool from the Basic Launcher (which is itself a Unity project you can fork). See Unity Extension.

Version: A specific build of an Application. Created by uploading a ZIP; made publicly available by publishing. See Applications and Publishing Your First App.
Visual Editor Launcher: A launcher variant whose theme is configured in PatchKit’s browser-based visual editor — no code required. Currently in beta; Windows and macOS only. See Launchers → Visual Editor Launcher.

Webhook: An outgoing HTTP request PatchKit sends to a URL you control when certain events fire (Version published / processed / failed). See Integrations → Webhooks.