# Core Concepts
URL: https://www.quiltt.dev/get-started/core-concepts
Description: Learn core Quiltt concepts like Environments, Connectors, Profiles, API Keys, and Integrations
Navigation: get-started → core-concepts
Tags: Get Started

We recommend familiarizing yourself with the core concepts in Quiltt. This will help you get the most out of the platform and understand how to manage your data and user interactions effectively.

## Environments

An Environment serves as an isolated container for your Profiles and associated data. Each Environment has its own Profiles, Connectors, Integrations, and API Keys. There are several types of Environments available, and you can set up as many Environments as your use-case requires:

| Mode          | Description                                                    | Profile Limit |
| ------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------- |
| `PRODUCTION`  | Unlimited live operations for production use.                  | Unlimited     |
| `SANDBOX`     | Limited mock operations for local development and preview use. | 50            |
| `TEST`        | Unlimited mock operations for automated testing/CI use.        | Unlimited     |

Info:
Profiles in non-production Environments are automatically deleted after a period of inactivity to keep your workspace clean:
  - **Test**: Profiles are deleted after **1 hour** of inactivity
  - **Sandbox**: Profiles are deleted after **1 year** of inactivity

  A Profile is considered inactive when all its Sessions have expired (or it has no Sessions) and hasn't been updated within the inactivity period.

## Connectors
A Connector is an instance of our embeddable UI component that lets you access a complete, context-rich financial picture of your end-user, without writing any provider-specific integration code. Connectors are managed in the [Dashboard](https://dashboard.quiltt.dev).

You will typically have multiple Connectors in an Environment, each with its own configuration and settings. In addition to letting end-users connect to their accounts, Connectors can be used to authenticate, enroll and redirect end-users to create the optimal onboarding experience for your application.

See the [Connector guides](/connector) to learn more.

## Profiles

A Profile represents an individual end-user associated with an [Environment](#environments). In addition to financial data, a Profile can contain additional information such as email, phone, name, birthday, address and more. These fields can be used to allow end-users to authenticate themselves into the Quiltt Connector, or to meet requirements from certain [Integrations](#Integrations).

The best way to interact with a profile is to create an ephemeral Session token to authenticate with the Profile GraphQL API and the Quiltt Connector.

Info:
While all customer data is encrypted at rest, Quiltt applies additional column-level encryption to
  sensitive Profile fields that may contain 

PII

.

See the [Profiles guide](/api/profiles) to learn more.

## Connections

A Connection represents a data source for a [Profile](#profiles)'s accounts, transactions and other data. Connections are created when a user authenticates into their financial institution and are usually associated with an upstream record like a Plaid "Item" or MX "Member".

Connections support a variety of products to obtain financial data, including Account Balances and Transactions, Account Balance Refreshes, Account Numbers, Account Owners, and Account Statements.

You can create Connections through the Quiltt Connector, which orchestrates the necessary product-specific configurations for Plaid Link, MX Connect and more.

See the [Connections guide](/api/connections) to learn more.

## Integrations

An Integration represents a 3rd party provider configuration in a given [Environment](#environments). This includes services like Finicity, MX, Plaid, FinGoal, Ntropy and others.

Integrations can be managed in the [Dashboard](https://dashboard.quiltt.dev) and be configured to use your own API credentials or credentials provided and managed by Quiltt on your behalf. Check out our [Integrations guide](/integrations) to learn more.

See the [Integration guides](/integrations) to learn more.

## API Keys

An API Key allows you to programmatically interact with an [Environment](#environments)'s data from a server or backend system. Each Environment can have multiple API Keys.