Buckminster is a build and component management tool that can materialize and build Eclipse RCP applications both inside and outside of the Eclipse workspace. It handles transitive dependencies by materializing all prerequisite components when building. Components can come from various sources like SVN repositories, update sites, and files. Buckminster uses metadata like CSPECs to understand components and can extend this using CSPEXs. It defines attributes and actions to produce artifacts and includes built-in actions for bundles, features, and products.