docs: align AISIX product terminology

[kayx23]

Summary

• add repository guidance for the agreed AISIX product hierarchy and writing terminology
• distinguish the open-source AISIX gateway from its data-plane role in AISIX Cloud
• align the README, release guidance, roadmap, configuration comments, container guidance, generated Admin API descriptions, and generated resource schemas
• replace the obsolete registration-token Docker example with the current endpoint and mTLS certificate-bundle bootstrap, covered by a focused configuration test
• preserve valid references to self-hosted upstream services and literal aisix.cloud domains

Why

Public and maintainer-facing surfaces mixed product names, runtime modes, and architecture roles. In particular, the open-source gateway was sometimes described unconditionally as a data plane, even though that role applies only when the gateway is connected to AISIX Cloud.

This PR aligns the repository with the finalized terminology used in the public AISIX documentation without changing runtime behavior or compatibility identifiers.

Remaining work and engineering input

For planning purposes, this PR covers approximately 85% of the actionable terminology findings identified in the api7/aisix audit. The estimate is based on six direct workstreams—agent guidance, product positioning, release and roadmap prose, configuration and container guidance, Admin API and CLI copy, and generated schemas—versus one engineering-dependent internal-architecture workstream. It is not based on raw string occurrences.

The remaining approximately 15% is internal implementation commentary and test terminology that refers to historical concepts such as a “self-hosted CP,” “self-hosted etcd mode,” an aisix.cloud tenant, or a “standalone gateway.” Some of those labels encode runtime and control-plane assumptions rather than product terminology. Gateway engineers should confirm the intended architectural meaning before they are rewritten. Valid uses that describe self-hosted upstream models or services should remain unchanged.

Validation

• cargo test -p aisix-admin openapi --lib — 22 passed
• cargo test -p aisix-admin openapi_uses_open_source_gateway_apikey_request_schema --lib
• cargo test -p aisix-core managed_container_examples_use_supported_bootstrap_env --lib
• cargo clippy -p aisix-core --lib --tests -- -D warnings
• regenerated resource schemas with cargo run -p aisix-core --bin dump-schema
• generated the Admin API OpenAPI document and parsed it as JSON
• parsed the changed YAML configuration examples
• sh -n docker/entrypoint.sh
• git diff --check

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation

  • Clarified AISIX Gateway terminology across product, API, configuration, and release documentation.
  • Updated managed-mode setup instructions to use control-plane endpoints, mTLS environment variables, and persistent credential storage.
  • Clarified hosted and on-premises control-plane options, self-hosted provider endpoints, and that live AI traffic remains in the customer environment.
  • Updated release and packaging guidance for AISIX Gateway and On-Premises deployments.

• Tests

  • Added coverage verifying the documented managed-mode environment variables load correctly.

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 3

🧹 Nitpick comments (1)

crates/aisix-core/src/models/guardrail.rs (1)

96-98: 📐 Maintainability & Code Quality | 🔵 Trivial | ⚡ Quick win

Remove the AWS SDK implementation detail from the public model description.

This comment is rendered as public Admin API documentation. Describe the gateway behavior instead of naming the AWS SDK provider type.

-    /// and is not logged. The gateway passes it to the
-    /// AWS SDK's static credentials provider.
+    /// and is not logged. The gateway uses it to authenticate
+    /// requests to Amazon Bedrock.

As per coding guidelines, comments in crates/aisix-core/src/models/**/*.rs are public API reference text and must avoid internal shorthand.

🤖 Prompt for AI Agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

In `@crates/aisix-core/src/models/guardrail.rs` around lines 96 - 98, Update the
public model documentation near the decrypted credential field to describe the
gateway’s behavior without mentioning the AWS SDK or its static credentials
provider. Preserve the statements that plaintext is held only in memory and is
not logged.

Source: Coding guidelines

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In `@Dockerfile`:
- Around line 106-108: Update the comments at Dockerfile lines 106-108 and
config.managed.yaml line 1 to distinguish the products: refer to the data-plane
components as AISIX AI Gateway instances and state that they connect to or use
managed-mode configuration for AISIX Cloud. No other behavior changes are
needed.

In `@RELEASING.md`:
- Around line 3-6: Update the opening sentence in the release instructions to
establish the full product name as “AISIX AI Gateway,” while preserving “AISIX
gateway” for subsequent references in the document.

In `@schemas/resources/guardrail.schema.json`:
- Line 23: Update the description for the affected schema property to use public
gateway behavior terms instead of internal implementation details such as
“projection” and the AWS SDK’s static credentials provider. Preserve the
existing security guarantees about in-memory plaintext handling and non-logging
while describing the gateway’s externally observable credential-passing
behavior.

---

Nitpick comments:
In `@crates/aisix-core/src/models/guardrail.rs`:
- Around line 96-98: Update the public model documentation near the decrypted
credential field to describe the gateway’s behavior without mentioning the AWS
SDK or its static credentials provider. Preserve the statements that plaintext
is held only in memory and is not logged.

🪄 Autofix

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

---

ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: e2251f42-38a3-4c7e-a56a-ab6625737ca1

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 6de5738 and 0ef4f0c.

📒 Files selected for processing (17)

• CLAUDE.md
• Dockerfile
• README.md
• RELEASING.md
• ROADMAP.md
• config.example.yaml
• config.managed.yaml
• crates/aisix-admin/src/openapi.rs
• crates/aisix-core/src/config.rs
• crates/aisix-core/src/models/guardrail.rs
• crates/aisix-core/src/models/observability_exporter.rs
• crates/aisix-core/src/models/provider_key.rs
• crates/aisix-server/src/export/mod.rs
• docker/entrypoint.sh
• schemas/resources/guardrail.schema.json
• schemas/resources/observability_exporter.schema.json
• schemas/resources/provider_key.schema.json