GateTrue

What each generator documents about marking its output

Console surface: a vendor's own front door

A console surface is a vendor's own web interface for trying a model. One entry here documents a console that always stamps its output and an interface into the same models that defaults to not stamping. As of 2026-09-22.

Two doors into one set of modelsA console is used by people who have not paid and whose output circulates, so a stamp on it costs the vendor nothing. A documented interface is used by somebody who has integrated the product and has commercial reasons to control output, so a switch is normal there.A console surfaceA documented interfaceWho uses itSomebody trying the productSomebody who has integrated itDocumented defaultAlways stamped, on one entryNot stamped, on the same entryReason publishedLegal compliance requirementsNone; the caller decidesRecorded asA value scoped to the surfaceA value scoped to the interfaceGeneralising either value would contradict the vendor's other page
Fig. 1 Nothing in a delivered file records which door produced it, so this matters for planning rather than for forensics.
How this register uses the term, and what it excludes. Written 2026-09-22.
The termConsole surface
What it namesA vendor's own web interface for generating output
What it is notThe models behind it, which may be reachable another way
Where the register uses itOne entry's free-tier value, scoped to a surface

Inclusion rule. Words this site uses in a narrow sense, where the ordinary sense would lead a reader to misread a cell. No vendor statement appears on this page. Order. Fixed order: what the word names, what it excludes, then where it is used here.

1A surface is not a plan and not a product

Console access is usually not a free tier; it is a place to try things. The free-tier column records what somebody gets without doing anything special, which is the question underneath the column's name, so a console default belongs there even though no plan is involved.

It is also not the model. The same models can be reached through a documented interface with different behaviour, which is why the value names the surface rather than the product. Generalising it would produce a statement the vendor's own other page contradicts.

2Why a console often marks when an interface does not

A console is a shop window. It is used by people who have not paid, it produces output that circulates, and a stamp on it costs the vendor nothing. One entry here goes further and attributes its console stamp to legal compliance requirements, which is a stronger justification than packaging.

An interface is used by somebody who has integrated the product and has commercial reasons to control the output. Handing that caller a switch is normal, which is what the documented default of false amounts to.

3What it means for a file in hand

Nothing observable. A clean file from such a product could have come from a caller who set a field, a caller who never knew the field existed, or a surface with a different default, and nothing in the file records which. One entry documents the split and no entry documents a trace of it.

So the console surface term matters for planning rather than for forensics. A production can decide which door to use; a recipient cannot work out which door was used.

Nothing on this page is a vendor statement; the values it helps read are on the support table, with the page and the date each one was read from. See also the user toggle column, source documents. Nearby terms: api surface, request parameter, documented default.