Knife

Interface between local chef repo and chef server

Skipping most information about this, as using 'LittleChef' is easier

Nodes

Any phsyical, virtual, or cloud machine configured to be maintainted by chef

Environment

Allows for different workflows, eg 'production', 'staging', 'testing', 'development'

Begins with 'default' environment, which cannot be deleted

Does not seem to specify much

Roles

Eg: 'master', 'child'

Consists of a run list, and usually attributes and config for cookbooks

Data bag

Global variable

Stored as JSON

Can be loaded by recipe or accessed during search

Attributes

Attributes are always applied by the chef-client in the following order:

A default attribute located in a cookbook attribute file
A default attribute located in a recipe
A default attribute located in an environment
A default attribute located in role
A force_default attribute located in a cookbook attribute file
A force_default attribute located in a recipe
A normal attribute located in a cookbook attribute file
A normal attribute located in a recipe
An override attribute located in a cookbook attribute file
An override attribute located in a recipe
An override attribute located in a role
An override attribute located in an environment
A force_override attribute located in a cookbook attribute file
A force_override attribute located in a recipe
An automatic attribute identified by Ohai at the start of the chef-client run

Create cookbook

knife cookbook create {{cookbook name}} -o directory/

However this is generally overkill, and you will probably only require a default recipe file;

site-cookbooks/{{cookbook name}}/recipes/default.rb