A buildpack is software that transforms application source code into runnable artifacts
by analyzing the code and determining the best way to build it.
A builder is an OCI image containing
an ordered combination of buildpacks and
a build-time base image, a lifecycle binary, and a reference to a runtime base image.
The lifecycle orchestrates buildpack execution, then assembles the resulting artifacts into an OCI image.
A composite buildpack, also sometimes called a “meta-buildpack”, is a buildpack that does not contain any ./bin/detect or ./bin/build binaries, but instead references other buildpacks in its buildpack.toml via the [[order]] array. This is useful for composing more complex detection strategies.
An image extension is software that generates Dockerfiles that can be used to extend base images for buildpacks builds.