> For AI agents: the complete documentation index is available at /toi/llms.txt, the full documentation bundle is available at /toi/llms-full.txt.

# What "toi" Means


**toi** is the Japanese word 問い — _a question_. It comes from the verb 問う (_tou_, "to ask"), and you'll meet the same character in everyday words like 質問 (_shitsumon_, a question), 問題 (_mondai_, a problem) and 訪問 (_houmon_, a visit — literally "calling on someone to ask after them").

That's the whole idea of the library in one word. You don't _open_ a dialog and _manage_ its state; you **ask** a component something and **await** the answer:

```tsx
const confirmed = await toi(Confirm);
```

## How to say it

_toi_ has two short syllables, **to-i** — roughly "toh-ee", said quickly, which lands very close to the English word _toy_. It's written とい in hiragana; that reading sits above the wordmark on the home page the way a pronunciation guide (_furigana_) would in a Japanese book.

## What the kanji is made of

The character 問 is built from two parts:

- **門** (_mon_) — a **gate**. Look at the shape: two doors, hinged on posts, side by side.
- **口** (_kuchi_) — a **mouth**, set between them.

Read as a picture, 問 is _a voice at the gate_: someone standing outside, calling in, and waiting for whoever is inside to answer. (Strictly, in the character's history 門 lends the sound and 口 the meaning — but the picture is the part that stuck, and it's a remarkably good description of what `toi` does.)

Map it onto the API and each part has a job:

| In the character            | In toi                                      |
| --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- |
| The one calling at the gate | Your code, calling `await toi(Component)`   |
| The gate                    | `ToiHost` — the one place components appear |
| The voice inside answering  | Your component, calling `resolve(value)`    |

## The logo

The mark on this site is 問 taken apart and put back together. The gate is drawn as a constructed skeleton in ink, and the mouth has been replaced by a **vermillion seal**. In Japan a red seal (印, _in_ — a _hanko_) is how you sign and approve things: a stamped document is a settled one. So the seal sitting inside the gate is the answer, already pressed and waiting — the promise that `toi` will eventually resolve.

The rest of the site follows the same vocabulary: unbleached paper, ink, a single accent of vermillion, and the tagline 問いかけて、答えを待つ。 — _Ask, and await the answer._ — which the English home page renders as "Ask a component. Await the answer."

Now that you know what you're saying, go ask something: the [Quick Start](/toi/guide/start/quick.md) gets your first component mounted in a few minutes.