Research Metadata Schema

Canonical Fields

The publisher normalizes front matter into a versioned 1.1 record with these core fields:

• schemaVersion
• id
• title
• slug
• url
• artifactType
• project
• purposes
• audiences
• entryPoint
• entryPointOrder
• entryPointLabel
• researchArea
• discipline
• summary
• status
• version
• confidence
• completion
• priority
• authorAgent
• created
• updated
• tags
• keywords
• relatedProjects
• relatedDocuments
• supersedes
• supersededBy
• evidenceIds
• hypothesisIds
• theoryIds
• headings
• sourcePath
• contentHash

Legacy Aliases

The first version supports these metadata aliases:

• identifier -> id
• stableId -> id
• research_area -> researchArea
• artifact_type -> artifactType
• updated_at -> updated
• created_at -> created
• author -> authorAgent
• projectId -> project
• purpose -> purposes
• documentPurpose -> purposes
• audience -> audiences

Reader-Purpose And Navigation Fields

These fields organize documents without changing their epistemic type:

• project: stable lowercase key for the primary owning project
• purposes: controlled reader jobs; see Document Purpose And Project Guide Architecture
• audiences: controlled intended readers
• entryPoint: explicit opt-in to the front of a project guide
• entryPointOrder: numeric order within that guide
• entryPointLabel: optional short presentation label

The build emits project entry points at data/research-guides.json. Unknown purpose or audience values produce warnings so vocabulary extensions are visible but do not silently remove content.

Compatibility Mode

When a Markdown file has no front matter, the build still publishes it in compatibility mode:

• Title is inferred from the first H1 or filename.
• Identifier is inferred only when a stable prefix already exists in the filename.
• Artifact type is inferred from the directory or identifier prefix.
• Dates fall back to the current repository implementation date.

Compatibility mode never invents canonical research claims, stable IDs, or relationship assertions.