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Glossary

A quick reference for common Hyperlane terms used throughout this repo and documentation.

  • Agent: An off-chain service that interacts with Hyperlane core contracts (e.g., relayers, validators).
  • Checkpoint: A snapshot of the Merkle tree (root + index) used by validators to sign message sets.
  • Collateral Token: A token locked on the origin chain to back synthetic representations on remote chains.
  • Core: The base Hyperlane contracts/modules (Mailbox, ISM, hooks) required for messaging.
  • Domain: A numeric identifier for a chain in Hyperlane’s registry (EVM chainId or Cosmos domain ID).
  • DomainRoutingISM: An ISM that selects a per-domain verification module based on the message’s origin domain, allowing different security models for different chains.
  • Hook / Post-Dispatch Hook: A module invoked by the Mailbox after dispatch to handle tasks like fee payment or Merkle tree insertion.
  • IGP (Interchain Gas Paymaster): A post-dispatch hook that collects gas fees for relaying messages to destination chains.
  • ISM (Interchain Security Module): The verification logic on the destination chain that determines if a message is valid.
  • Mailbox: The core contract/module responsible for dispatching and processing interchain messages.
  • Merkle Tree Hook: The post-dispatch hook that inserts message IDs into an incremental Merkle tree for checkpointing.
  • Metadata: The proof data supplied to the ISM by relayers (e.g., validator signatures).
  • Registry: The canonical set of chain metadata and contract addresses used by Hyperlane tooling (in this repo, the entries under chains/, configs/ and deployments/).
  • Relayer: An off-chain agent that submits messages and metadata to destination Mailboxes.
  • Routing ISM: An ISM that selects a security module based on the origin domain.
  • Synthetic Token: A token minted on a destination chain that represents collateral locked on the origin chain.
  • TokenRouter: The Warp Route contract that dispatches and handles token transfer messages through the Mailbox.
  • Validator: An off-chain agent that signs checkpoints for an origin chain and publishes signatures to storage.
  • ValidatorAnnounce: The contract/module where validators publish their signature storage location.
  • Warp Route: A Hyperlane token-bridging configuration connecting origin and destination chains for a specific asset.