Glossary

Every term this documentation uses without explaining it. Definitions are drawn from the pages linked beside them — each entry points at the page that owns the full story.

Note: this glossary is a seed. It covers the terms that already appear across this repository; it is deliberately incomplete, and entries are only added once the substance for them exists somewhere in the docs. Missing a term? Add it with a link to the page that defines it.

The ecosystem’s own vocabulary

Term	Meaning
TigerSystem	The whole open ecosystem: the chip format, the reference data, the apps, the hardware and the cloud surface. See Why TigerSystem exists.
TigerTag	A standard NTAG NFC chip carrying the open 144-byte TigerTag payload — a spool’s identity, readable by anything. See TigerTag.
TigerTag+	A TigerTag whose identity carries a product ID from the official catalogue, plus optional enrichment data served by the Web API metadata. The chip stays 100% offline-readable. The `+` means identified, not certified. See TigerTag+.
TigerTag+ Certified	A TigerTag+ that also carries a cryptographic signature, written by a manufacturer holding the certification and its signing tools. Verifying one is free and offline; issuing one is what certification grants.
TigerData	The same identity with no chip at all: the protocol’s data in purely digital form, no UID, promotable to a real chip at any time. See One identity, three states.
TigerData+	A chipless spool that carries a real product from the official catalogue — exact brand, colour, material, temperatures, diameter, SKU and EAN — rather than hand-typed values. The `+` means identified, not certified.
Official	Made by TigerSystem itself — the chips in both form factors, and the apps and hardware in Products. A statement of origin, not a mark that is granted: TigerSystem does not certify itself.
TigerTag Compatible	The free tier: anything that talks to TigerTag chips — readers, apps, printers, slicers, tools. No permission needed to implement it, to say so, or to show the logo in an app, documentation or store listing. It covers TigerTag+ too: verifying a signature is free, offline and unrestricted. The one word it never includes is certified.
TigerTag Certified	The audited tier, open to anything a third party builds — a device, an application, filament, an inlay, a carrier — once it passes an audit against the requirements. Granted rather than claimed, listed in the certified registry, and withdrawable. Comes in two scopes, TigerTag Certified and TigerTag+ Certified. Certified partners may apply the mark on the product and issue TigerTag+ signatures. See Developer documentation and the certification criteria.
Tiger NFC Connect	The mobile app (iOS/Android) — tap to read, tap to write, browse the catalogue. Formerly “TigerTag RFID Connect”. See Tiger NFC Connect.
Tiger Studio	The open-source desktop app (Windows/macOS/Linux) — inventory, racks, sensors and printer links. See Tiger Studio.
TigerHub	The ecosystem’s web home at `tigersystem.io` — showcase, wishlists, friend codes, public list sharing. See TigerHub.
TigerPOD	The 3D-printable dual NFC reader stand — free STL. See TigerPOD.
TigerScale	The open-source ESP32 filament scale that answers “how much is left?”. See TigerScale.
TigerSpool	The box beside the printer that writes a spool’s identity into a printer slot on contact — no app, no keyboard, any brand. See TigerSpool.
TigerTag Factory / Manager	The industrial, production-grade toolchain that programs chips on filament production lines, and the tools that curate the filament database. Not public. See Factory suite.
Carrier	The strip that carries a spool’s two chips — one at each folded end, stuck to the cardboard core with industrial 3M adhesive. Used on the factory line, sold on its own for refills, and public and printable at home. See The TigerTag chip.
Masterspool	A reusable reel a spool-less refill is mounted on. A refill’s chip goes inside the cardboard core, so it stays with the filament rather than with the reel.
Twin Tag	The two chips of one spool, written together as a pair and kept identical for the spool’s whole life — always counted as one spool.
Reference database	The shared ID tables (brands, materials, aspects, types, diameters, units) served from `cdn.tigertag.io`, so a chip encoded by one tool reads identically in every other. See Universal filament identity.
Aspect	The reference-database field describing a filament’s colour and finish; the material swatch is painted from it.
Material swatch	The normative convention for turning a spool’s colour data into the same picture on every surface — three shapes (a 135° soft split for 2-3 hard colours, a camembert for 4+, a 135° ramp for smooth colours), with a reference renderer to check an implementation against. See The material swatch.
`.ttag` file	The portable, offline interchange file carrying one or more inventory materials (TigerData, TigerData+, TigerTag or TigerTag+) between tools. See the `.ttag` format.
Second life	Re-encoding a chip for a refilled or re-purposed spool, or converting it to plain NDEF for any other NFC use — a chip should never become e-waste. See Second life.
Smartphone bridge	Using a phone (or a desktop reader) to identify a spool for a printer that has no RFID reader of its own. See The smartphone bridge.
Printer link	Tiger Studio talking to a machine over the LAN — telemetry, filament slots, job, camera. Distinct from reading that vendor’s own tags. See Compatibility.
Refill	A coil of filament sold without a reel, to be mounted on a spool you already own.

NFC and RFID

Term	Meaning
NFC	Near-Field Communication — the short-range radio every modern smartphone can use to read a TigerTag.
RFID	Radio-Frequency Identification, the broader family NFC belongs to. Used here for the vendors’ own locked spool tags as well as for TigerTag.
NTAG213 / 215 / 216	The NXP chip family a TigerTag uses (NFC Forum Type 2). The payload is sized to fit the smallest, NTAG213; official branded chips are NTAG215 to leave memory headroom for reuse. See The TigerTag chip.
NDEF	NFC Data Exchange Format — the standard container the TigerTag payload is stored in, which is why any NFC tool can read it, and why an empty spool’s chip can be turned into a plain NFC object.
UID	The chip’s unique hardware identifier, set at manufacture and not rewritable. A chip backup is bound to it, and so is a TigerTag+ Certified signature.
Mifare Classic / Mifare Ultralight	The chip families printer vendors use for their own spool tags — documented per vendor in the compatibility matrix.
ACR122U	The commodity USB NFC reader class used to read and write chips from a computer; a TigerPOD is a stand built around one.
PN532 / RC522	Cheap NFC reader modules, typically paired with an ESP32, for DIY readers — the approach TigerScale uses.
ECDSA	The signature scheme the Python SDK’s optional `verify` extra checks — the mechanism behind a TigerTag+ origin signature. See SDKs.
OpenSpool	An independent open NFC tag standard for spools (NFC Type 2, NDEF JSON, unlocked). See OpenSpool.
OpenRFID	The community multi-vendor RFID toolkit the per-vendor decoding sheets derive from, and which reads TigerTags. See Third-party integrations.

Printers and hardware

Term	Meaning
AMS	Bambu Lab’s Automatic Material System — the multi-spool feeder. Relevant here because it typically shares one RFID reader between two slots, which is why a spool carries two chips.
CFS	Creality’s Filament System — its multi-material unit.
ACE	Anycubic’s multi-material unit.
Canvas	Elegoo’s multi-material unit.
IFS	FlashForge’s multi-filament system — the field in its protocol is still `matlStation`.
MMU	Multi-Material Unit — the generic term for the add-on that feeds several filaments to one printer (ERCF, MMU2, Box Turtle… in the Klipper world). See Klipper.
Klipper / Moonraker	The open printer firmware and its API — Moonraker’s WebSocket is the transport Snapmaker’s link already uses, and the next natural one for Klipper machines. See Klipper.
HID Scale	The standard USB protocol for weighing scales (DYMO M series and compatibles), read natively by Tiger Studio as a third-party alternative to a TigerScale.
TD / TD-1 / TD1s	Transmission Distance — how much light a filament lets through, the value HueForge and full-spectrum printing rely on — and the AJAX-3D analyzer that measures it, in DIY (TD-1) and pre-assembled (TD1s) variants. The measured TD can be stored in the TigerTag protocol itself. See Third-party hardware.
ESP32	The commodity microcontroller behind TigerScale and most DIY TigerTag readers.

Cloud and data

Term	Meaning
Firebase / Firestore	The plain Google service hosting accounts and inventories — one shared database all the apps read and write, with enforcement in server-side security rules. See Inventory & cloud sync.
`cdn.tigertag.io`	Where the shared reference database is served from.
Friend code / list link	The two ways to share an inventory — an accepted friend, or a read-only public link anyone opens in a browser, no app and no account. See TigerHub.
SKU / EAN	The manufacturer’s product code and its barcode number — what a TigerData+ carries to say exactly which catalogue product a spool is.