# Reference

**Look-up material: what exists, what it is called, what it defaults to.** Reference answers "what
is the name of the setting that does X" for someone who already knows they want X. If you are
trying to work out what you want, the explanation pages are the better door.

- [Application API](client-api.md) - authentication, JSON and streaming requests, model discovery, feedback, response fields and errors.
- [API compatibility](compatibility.md) - launch endpoints, accepted controls, refusals and streaming boundaries.
- [Configuration workflow](../how-to/configure-pointsman.md) - choose the right configuration surface, apply a change and verify its activation.
- [Environment reference](configuration.md) - settings catalogued in `docker/.env.example`, with their documented defaults. Generated and tested against that source; it is not an exhaustive catalogue of all typed Spring configuration.
- [Operational limits](operational-limits.md) - resource budgets, timeouts, units, saturation behavior and L1 sizing.
- [Response headers](response-headers.md) - every header a completion carries, and the condition
  under which it appears. The conditions matter: several are absent on an ordinary request.
- [Admin API](admin-api.md) - every administrative endpoint: auth per door, request and
  response shapes, and what each door refuses and why. The refusal column is the one that
  earns the page.

Reference material that lives outside this directory because it predates it and is already
complete:

- [Routing strategies](../routing-strategies.md) - the supported strategy names and the fallback ladder.
- [Guardrails](../guardrails.md) - the rule set, the modes, and the failure semantics.
- [Gateway controls](../gateway-controls.md) - the limit rule shape, its windows and its actions.
- [Auth and tenancy](../design/authentication.md) - keys, scopes, and how access composes.

A complete metrics catalogue remains to be written; use the observability module and
operational guidance for the currently documented signals.