DEUNA glossary
Understand the payment, orchestration, SDK, API, and Athia terms used throughout DEUNA documentation.
On this page
Use this glossary to align the terms used by your integration, operations, and finance teams. Each definition links to the maintained guide or reference that owns the complete behavior.
Payments and money movement#
Acquirer
A financial institution or payment company that accepts card transactions for a merchant and routes them to the relevant card network. In DEUNA, an acquirer is one type of payment connection.
Alternative payment method (APM)
A payment method outside the traditional card flow, such as a bank transfer, cash voucher, or digital wallet. Availability depends on the market, provider, currency, and channel; use the provider catalog as the source of truth.
Authorization
The processor's decision to reserve or approve funds for a payment. An authorization is not always the final movement of funds. Some integrations authorize and capture in one operation, while others use separate capture.
Capture
The operation that requests settlement of funds after an authorization. A connection can support immediate capture, delayed capture, or both. Confirm the applicable operation and resulting status in Payment workflow and statuses.
Chargeback
A reversal initiated through the issuer or card network after a customer disputes a payment. Chargebacks are distinct from merchant-initiated refunds and require their own evidence, deadlines, and reconciliation process.
Payment method
The instrument or rail a customer uses to pay, such as a card, wallet, bank transfer, or voucher. A method can be available through more than one processor connection.
Payment processor or gateway
A provider that receives payment instructions, communicates with payment networks or local rails, and returns provider-specific results. DEUNA normalizes those connections so your integration can use a consistent orchestration layer. Browse current capabilities in Payment gateways.
Refund
A merchant-initiated operation that returns captured funds to the customer. Refund availability, timing, and whether processing is synchronous or asynchronous depend on the connection.
Settlement
The movement and reporting of funds owed after payment processing. Settlement records can arrive later than the initial payment result, so finance reconciliation must not treat checkout completion as settlement confirmation. See Settlements.
Void
An operation that cancels an eligible authorization before capture or settlement. Use a refund instead when the payment has already reached a state that cannot be voided.
DEUNA platform concepts#
Admin
The role-controlled DEUNA workspace where authorized operators manage connections, payment strategies, users, reporting, and other account configuration. Start with the Admin overview.
Athia
DEUNA's agentic intelligence platform for payment data, analysis, recommendations, and documented optimization workflows. Athia can use DEUNA orchestration data or supported external data connections. See Athia.
Connection
An account- and environment-specific configuration that links DEUNA with a processor, payment method, anti-fraud provider, or another supported service. Credentials for a connection belong in the documented trusted configuration surface, never in client code.
Merchant and store
The merchant represents the organization integrating with DEUNA. A store is a scoped commercial or operational unit within that merchant configuration. Requests must use the merchant and store context required by the specific public contract.
Orchestration
The decision and execution layer that connects a checkout to payment, fraud, and alternative-method providers and applies configured strategies, fallbacks, and routing rules. Read Payment orchestration for the operating model.
Payment strategy
A configured set of rules that determines how eligible transactions are processed or routed. Strategy conditions and priority must be reviewed together because more than one rule can match the same transaction. See Payment strategies.
Technical Account Manager (TAM)
Your DEUNA technical contact for account-specific enablement, certification, compatibility, and production rollout decisions. Do not send credentials, private keys, payment data, or customer data in a support request.
Integration and security terms#
3-D Secure (3DS)
An authentication protocol used by card issuers to evaluate or challenge a cardholder during an online payment. When a payment requires additional action, continue through the documented 3DS and Next Action flow and verify the final payment status.
API key
A credential that identifies and, for trusted backend calls, authorizes a DEUNA integration. Public and private API keys have different trust boundaries. Choose and protect them using Authentication and API keys.
Card Verification Value (CVV)
The card security code used in eligible card-not-present flows. CVV handling depends on the payment source and processor capability; never store or log it. See Card tokenization and CVV verification.
Idempotency key
A unique value that lets an API recognize safe retries of the same operation. Reuse the original key only with the exact same request intent and body. See Idempotent requests.
Model Context Protocol (MCP)
A protocol that lets compatible AI clients call tools supplied by a remote server. The public DEUNA Docs MCP server exposes read-only documentation, API-reference, and provider-catalog tools; it does not accept DEUNA credentials.
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
The security standard for environments that store, process, or transmit cardholder data. Hosted DEUNA SDK and widget experiences can reduce what enters your application, but your architecture and handling still determine your compliance scope.
Software development kit (SDK)
A DEUNA client library that presents supported checkout, payment, vault, and post-payment experiences on Web, iOS, Android, or React Native. Platform capabilities differ, so begin with the SDK overview and then use the platform reference.
Tokenization
The replacement of sensitive payment data with a provider- or platform-issued token. A token can be scoped to a provider, merchant, environment, or use case and must not be assumed portable. See Card tokenization.
Webhook
A server-to-server HTTP request sent when a documented event or checkout callback occurs. Your backend must verify the signature, process deliveries idempotently, and reconcile authoritative state. See Webhooks.
Find the authoritative contract#
This glossary explains shared language; it does not replace the contract for a specific integration.