Version Membership

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

A reified, standpoint-scoped claim that a concrete entity belongs to a version set with a particular role and/or scale — an observation in the universal claim stack (observation-spine bridge). Mediates between an entity (versionMember), a version set (versionSet), and an optional role/scale asserted by an authority (membershipAuthority / vantage). Mint one VersionMembership per (entity, versionSet, role, authority) tuple; when a role changes over time, close the old membership's interval or mint a fresh one — never overwrite (Principle 10). Inherits confidence, displayable, and temporal scope from Observation.

Structure

Subclass of: gmeow:Observation, gufo:Relator

Practical Pattern

Use gmeow:VersionMembership as a specialized kind of gmeow:Observation, gufo:Relator. 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.

Release Channels

Source: slices/core/versions/examples/release-channels.ttl
Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-core-versions-examples-release-channels

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: versioning as an authority-scoped claim (Principle 10). A
# gmeow:VersionMembership is a reified Observation: it asserts that an entity
# (gmeow:versionMember) belongs to a gmeow:VersionSet with a gmeow:versionRole
# (canonical / stable / LTS / deprecated / yanked …) and a gmeow:versionScale
# (the size of the change), AS CLAIMED BY an authority (gmeow:membershipAuthority
# / gmeow:vantage). Membership is never overwritten: when a release's role
# changes (stable → deprecated), close the old membership's interval or mint a
# fresh one (P10). Here one release is canonical in the stable channel and, later,
# deprecated — both memberships coexist.
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/versions/> .
@prefix rdfs:  <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd:   <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .

# --- The membership claim: 1.0.0 is the canonical, major release in the stable
#     channel, as asserted by the maintainer.
ex:canonicalMembership a gmeow:VersionMembership ;
    gmeow:versionMember       ex:release100 ;
    gmeow:versionSet          ex:stableChannel ;
    gmeow:versionRole         gmeow:roleCanonical ;
    gmeow:versionScale        gmeow:scaleMajor ;
    gmeow:membershipAuthority ex:maintainer ;
    gmeow:vantage             ex:maintainer ;
    gmeow:membershipInterval  ex:canonicalPeriod .

Common Companion Terms

gmeow:Observation

Usage Advice

Use when

Use to claim that a concrete version belongs to a lineage with a given role or scale according to some authority — the reified relator whenever the role, period, authority, or confidence of the membership must be first-class and standpoint-indexed (Principle 9).

Avoid when

Avoid hard-coding a version role as an essential type on the artifact, and avoid overwriting a role in place; mint a new membership or close the old interval instead (Principle 10).

How to use

Mint one relator per (entity, set, role, authority) tuple; fill versionMember, versionSet, and membershipAuthority, attach versionRole / versionScale / membershipInterval as needed, and inherit confidence and gmeow:displayable from Observation.

Examples

ex:m1 a gmeow:VersionMembership; gmeow:versionMember ex:v2; gmeow:versionSet ex:gmeowLineage; gmeow:versionRole gmeow:roleLatest; gmeow:membershipAuthority ex:pypi.