Credential

• CURIE: gmeow:Credential
• IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/Credential
• Category: class
• Defined by: gmeow:slices/expertise
• Box roles: TBox role (What is this?)

An educational or occupational credential held by an agent — a degree, certification, badge, license, or other attestation of qualification. Its issuer is gmeow:credentialIssuer, its subject matter is gmeow:credentialFor, and its verification is borne by a gmeow:Attestation (Principle 4).

Structure

Subclass of: gmeow:Entity

Practical Pattern

Use gmeow:Credential as a specialized kind of gmeow:Entity. Add statement metadata or a standpoint when the assertion needs provenance, confidence, or vantage.

Example Snippets

These snippets are generated from canonical slice examples and trimmed to the Turtle blocks where this term appears.

Skill Proficiency

• Source: slices/core/expertise/examples/skill-proficiency.ttl
• Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-core-expertise-examples-skill-proficiency

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: skill, proficiency, and credentials. A flat gmeow:hasSkill
# says an agent HAS a skill; the reified gmeow:SkillProficiency says HOW WELL, and
# crucially on WHICH SCALE — a proficiency level is meaningless without the scale
# it is read against (P11 in spirit: a value carries its frame). A gmeow:Credential
# is a separate, independently-issued attestation OF a skill, by an issuer — having
# a credential and being proficient are distinct facts. ProficiencyLevel, scale,
# Skill and Occupation are open vocabularies, minted as needed.
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/expertise/> .
@prefix rdfs:  <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd:   <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .

# --- A credential: an independent attestation OF the skill, by an issuer. A
#     verifiable credential references a gmeow:Attestation that signs it (the
#     expertise↔attestation seam): the credential is a CLAIM, the attestation
#     makes it checkable.
ex:cert a gmeow:Credential ;
    gmeow:credentialFor    ex:python ;
    gmeow:credentialIssuer ex:psf ;
    gmeow:hasAttestation   ex:certAttestation .

Common Companion Terms

gmeow:Entity

Projects To

External Equivalences

Equivalent or closely aligned targets: ceterms, schema, wd

Linkages

Generated from the canonical mapping DSL. SSSOM files are the generated public interchange form for term equivalences.

Term Equivalences

Projection Coverage

Usage Advice

Use when

• Use for a degree, certification, badge, or license that qualifies an agent in a skill or occupation — the credential carries the qualification content, an agent holds it via gmeow:holdsCredential.

Avoid when

• Avoid for the signed verification envelope (that is a gmeow:Attestation, attestation.ttl — expertise supplies the content, attestation the proof) and for the bare skill or occupation a credential certifies (gmeow:Skill, gmeow:Occupation).

How to use

• Mint the credential, name its gmeow:credentialIssuer and gmeow:credentialFor, link the holder with gmeow:holdsCredential, and route verification through a gmeow:Attestation rather than re-modelling the signature here (Principle 4).

Examples

• ex:rnLicense a gmeow:Credential; gmeow:credentialIssuer ex:nursingBoard; gmeow:credentialFor ex:nursing.