We present a unifying framework for the key concepts and results of higher Koszul duality theory for N-homogeneous algebras: the Koszul complex, the candidate for the space of syzygies and the higher operations on the Yoneda algebra. We give a universal description of the Koszul dual algebra under a new algebraic structure. For that we introduce a general notion: Gröbner bases for algebras over non-symmetric operads.