Architecturally, JSP may be viewed as a high-level abstraction of Java servlets. JSP pages are loaded in the server and operated from a structured special installed Java server packet called a Java EE Web Application, often packaged as a .war or .ear file archive.

JSP allows Java code and certain pre-defined actions to be interleaved with static web markup content, with the resulting page being compiled and executed on the server to deliver an HTML or XML document. The compiled pages and any dependent Java libraries use Java bytecode rather than a native software format, and must therefore be executed within a Java virtual machine (JVM) that integrates with the host operating system to provide an abstract platform-neutral environment.

JSP syntax is a fluid mix of two basic content forms: scriptlet elements and markup. Markup is typically standard HTML or XML, while scriptlet elements are delimited blocks of Java code which may be intermixed with the markup. When the page is requested the Java code is executed and its output is added, in situ, with the surrounding markup to create the final page. Because Java is a compiled language, not a scripting language, JSP pages must be compiled to Java bytecode classes before they can be executed, but such compilation is needed only when a change to the source JSP file has occurred.

Java code is not required to be complete (self contained) within its scriptlet element block, but can straddle markup content providing the page as a whole is syntactically correct (for example, any Java if/for/while blocks opened in one scriptlet element must be correctly closed in a later element for the page to successfully compile). This system of split inline coding sections is called step over scripting because it can wrap around the static markup by stepping over it. Markup which falls inside a split block of code is subject to that code, so markup inside an if block will only appear in the output when the if condition evaluates to true; likewise markup inside a loop construct may appear multiple times in the output depending upon how many times the loop body runs.

The JSP syntax adds additional XML-like tags, called JSP actions, to invoke built-in functionality. Additionally, the technology allows for the creation of JSP tag libraries that act as extensions to the standard HTML or XML tags. JVM operated tag libraries provide a platform independent way of extending the capabilities of a web server. Note that not all commercial Java servers are Java EE specification compliant.[which?]

Starting with version 1.2 of the JSP specification, JavaServer Pages have been developed under the Java Community Process. JSR 53 defines both the JSP 1.2 and Servlet 2.3 specifications and JSR 152 defines the JSP 2.0 specification. As of May 2006 the JSP 2.1 specification has been released under JSR 245 as part of Java EE 5. As of Dec 10, 2009 the JSP 2.2 specification has been released as a maintenance release of JSR 245.

JSPs are compiled into servlets by a JSP compiler. The compiler either generates a servlet in Java code that is then compiled by the Java compiler, or it may compile the servlet to byte code which is directly executable. JSPs can also be interpreted on-the-fly, reducing the time taken to reload changes.

Regardless of whether the JSP compiler generates Java source code for a servlet or emits the byte code directly, it is helpful to understand how the JSP compiler transforms the page into a Java servlet. For example, consider the following input JSP and its resulting generated Java Servlet.

Input JSP

Resulting servlet