# What is Phloem

# What is Phloem

The seven words the rest of the docs use.

| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| **Input** | what you connect to — a camera, a vehicle's CAN bus, a folder |
| **Channel** | one signal over time, named like a folder path — `/rig/pressure` |
| **Pipeline** | steps that clean up channels before they are recorded |
| **Run** | a stretch of recorded history, started by **Record** on **Live** |
| **Project** | everything you set up on a device — inputs, pipelines, Trellis, layouts — saved as one versioned file |
| **Trellis** | pass/fail rules that check channels as they arrive |
| **Connector** | an add-on that lets this device read a new kind of input |

```
Input → Channels → Pipeline (optional) → Live · Replay · Charts · Trellis · the cloud
```

## Pipelines

A pipeline is a chain of steps, run in order. Steps can branch. The main ones:

| Step | Does |
|---|---|
| **Filter** · **Drop channels** | keep only the channels you want |
| **Decimate** · **Throttle FPS** | thin out a fast signal or camera |
| **Transform** · **Derive channel** | rescale a value, or calculate a new one |
| **Resize video** · **Grayscale** | shrink camera frames or remove their colour |
| **Parse DBC** | turn raw CAN frames into named signals |

Build one on **Pipelines** and preview it on real samples. It runs on this
device, so recordings are already clean. Every step: [Pipelines](https://phloem.ai/docs/inputs/pipelines/).

- [Inputs](https://phloem.ai/docs/inputs/): Connect a camera, a bus, a recording, or your own program
- [Name channels and units](https://phloem.ai/docs/inputs/channels/): Name a signal, set its unit, see why a tile is missing
- [Send your own data](https://phloem.ai/docs/inputs/push/): POST readings from any language
- [Trellis](https://phloem.ai/docs/trellis/): Limits, interlocks and procedures that run on this device
- [Replay](https://phloem.ai/docs/review/replay/): Scrub through recorded history and compare runs