source modified at

• CURIE: gmeow:sourceModifiedAt
• IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/sourceModifiedAt
• Category: property
• Defined by: gmeow:slices/sources
• Box roles: CBox role, RBox role (What is this?)

The last-modification time of the source artifact itself (e.g. a file mtime). A terminus-ante-quem on the recording of the claims this source carries — NOT valid-time (tenure) and NOT observation-time. Advisory and resettable; the reliable identity is gmeow:contentDigest. NOT functional: because a source is identified by its content digest, copies/syncs of the same bytes may legitimately report different modification times, which must coexist rather than force an inconsistency.

Structure

Property shape: datatype property; gmeow:CreativeWork -> xsd:dateTime

Practical Pattern

Use gmeow:sourceModifiedAt from gmeow:CreativeWork to xsd:dateTime when the relationship itself belongs in the native GMEOW graph.

Example Snippets

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

Imported Record

• Source: slices/core/sources/examples/imported-record.ttl
• Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-core-sources-examples-imported-record

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: pinning an imported source. The sources slice is the
# "where did this byte-stream come from" layer: gmeow:sourceLocation (where it was
# read from), gmeow:sourceModifiedAt (the source's own last-modified time, not the
# import time), and gmeow:contentDigest (a content hash so later re-imports can
# detect whether the bytes changed). Together they make an imported artifact
# re-fetchable and tamper-evident — the substrate the provenance slice builds its
# wasDerivedFrom lineage on.
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/sources/> .
@prefix xsd:   <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .

ex:report a gmeow:CreativeWork ;
    gmeow:title            "Q3 2026 Financial Report"@en ;
    gmeow:sourceLocation   "/imports/finance/q3-2026.pdf" ;
    gmeow:sourceModifiedAt "2026-09-30T17:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime ;
    gmeow:contentDigest    "blake3:5f8d1e2a9c4b7d0e3f6a1b8c5d2e9f0a3b6c7d4e1f8a2b5c9d0e3f6a7b4c1d8e" .

Import Lineage

• Source: slices/core/provenance/examples/import-lineage.ttl
• Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-core-provenance-examples-import-lineage

# --- The source: an imported work, pinned by location + content digest.
ex:sourcePaper a gmeow:CreativeWork ;
    gmeow:sourceLocation  "/imports/papers/smith-2020-erosion.pdf" ;
    gmeow:sourceModifiedAt "2020-07-11T00:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime ;
    gmeow:contentDigest   "blake3:9f86d081884c7d659a2feaa0c55ad015a3bf4f1b2b0b822cd15d6c15b0f00a08" .

Common Companion Terms

gmeow:CreativeWork

External Equivalences

Equivalent or closely aligned targets: dcterms

Linkages

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

Term Equivalences

Usage Advice

Use when

• Use to record the last-modification time of a source artifact (a file mtime) as a terminus-ante-quem on when the claims it carries were recorded.

Avoid when

• Avoid using it as valid-time/tenure or as observation-time (those are temporal-slice and observation constructs) and avoid treating it as identity — gmeow:contentDigest is the reliable identity; keep it non-functional so copies' differing mtimes coexist.

How to use

• Assert gmeow:sourceModifiedAt on the Manifestation or Item; pair it with gmeow:recordedNoLaterThan so the carrier's mtime bounds the recording of its claims, and with gmeow:contentDigest for stable identity.

Scope notes

• Typically asserted on a Manifestation or Item.

Examples

• ex:report gmeow:sourceModifiedAt "2026-06-15T12:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime.