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# Core concepts

The Live API is built around a small set of ideas that appear in every resource you create. If you’d rather start hands-on, the [live event walkthrough](/platform/how-to/live/walkthrough) covers the same concepts in the context of a working example, and links back here wherever more depth is useful.

## Guides

[](/platform/how-to/live/core-concepts/resource-types)

### Resource types and lifecycle

The four resource types, billing models, the desired state model, and sites.

[](/platform/how-to/live/core-concepts/inputs)

### Inputs

Connecting a live resource to a stream: `sourceName`, `contentName`, `flowName`, refiners, and transform pins.

[](/platform/how-to/live/core-concepts/outputs)

### Outputs

Where encoded output goes: destinations, internal outputs, and the archive asset.

[](/platform/how-to/live/core-concepts/templates)

### Templates

How encoding templates connect to live resources, and the `configValues`/`configOverrides` model.

[](/platform/how-to/live/core-concepts/resource-states)

### Resource states

`spec.state` vs. `status.state`, and what the 13 reported values mean.

## What the Live API depends on

The Live API references two other APIs by name but doesn’t manage them directly:

* Media API: sources, content, destinations, and assets. See Content, sources, and destinations.

* Templates API: the encoding and composition templates referenced from your live resources. See Build with the Templates API.

## What comes next

* Live event walkthrough: a complete end-to-end example.

* Manage live channels and events: create and operate liveChannels and liveEvents.

* Multiview: compose multiple live inputs into a single output.

## Docs

- [Inputs](https://mediakind.ferndocs.com/platform/how-to/live/core-concepts/inputs.md)
- [Outputs](https://mediakind.ferndocs.com/platform/how-to/live/core-concepts/outputs.md)
- [Resource states](https://mediakind.ferndocs.com/platform/how-to/live/core-concepts/resource-states.md)
- [Resource types and lifecycle](https://mediakind.ferndocs.com/platform/how-to/live/core-concepts/resource-types.md)
- [Templates](https://mediakind.ferndocs.com/platform/how-to/live/core-concepts/templates.md)