A hinge decomposition is based on the correspondence between constraint satisfaction problems and hypergraphs. The hypergraph associated with a problem has the variables of the problem as nodes are the scopes of the constraints as hyperedges. A hinge decomposition of a constraint satisfaction problem is a tree whose nodes are some minimal hinges of the hypergraph associated to the problem and such that some other conditions are met. By the correspondence of problems with hypergraphs, a hinge is a set of scopes of constraints, and can therefore be considered as a set of constraints. The additional conditions of the definition of a hinge decomposition are three, of which the first two ensure equivalence of the original problem with the new one. The two conditions for equivalence are: the scope of each constraint is contained in at least one node of the tree, and the subtree induced by a variable of the original problem is connected. The additional condition is that, if two nodes are joined, then they share exactly one constraint, and the scope of this constraint contains all variables shared by the two nodes.