GMEOW Versions Module

• IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/slices/versions
• Tier: core
• Group: core

What This Slice Covers

This slice owns 26 terms and contributes 1 mapping or projection rows. Use it when its terms match the native fact you want to preserve; use the linkage tables to see how those facts leave GMEOW for consumer vocabularies.

Dependencies

• gmeow:slices/kernel
• gmeow:slices/observations
• gmeow:slices/temporal

Consumers

• Version lineage for software, languages, creative works, and the ontology's own releases.

Local Map

Examples

Release Channels

• Source: slices/core/versions/examples/release-channels.ttl
• GMEOW terms: gmeow:CreativeWork, gmeow:Instant, gmeow:Person, gmeow:TimeInterval, gmeow:VersionMembership, gmeow:VersionSet, gmeow:hasEndInstant, gmeow:hasStartInstant, gmeow:hasTemporalFrame, gmeow:inTemporalFrame
• External prefixes: xsd

# 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#> .

ex:maintainer a gmeow:Person ; gmeow:name "Release maintainer"@en .

ex:release100 a gmeow:CreativeWork ;
    gmeow:title              "myapp 1.0.0"@en ;
    gmeow:versionFingerprint "1.0.0" .

ex:stableChannel a gmeow:VersionSet ; rdfs:label "Stable release channel"@en .

# --- 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 .

# --- A LATER claim, not an overwrite: the same release is now deprecated. The
#     two memberships coexist; their gmeow:membershipIntervals make the order
#     machine-readable — canonical until 2026-06-01, deprecated from then on (P10).
ex:deprecatedMembership a gmeow:VersionMembership ;
    gmeow:versionMember       ex:release100 ;
    gmeow:versionSet          ex:stableChannel ;
    gmeow:versionRole         gmeow:roleDeprecated ;
    gmeow:membershipAuthority ex:maintainer ;
    gmeow:vantage             ex:maintainer ;
    gmeow:membershipInterval  ex:deprecatedPeriod .

# --- The validity periods, every value in its temporal frame (P11). The instant
#     that ends the canonical period IS the instant that begins the deprecated one.
ex:canonicalPeriod a gmeow:TimeInterval ;
    gmeow:hasStartInstant  ex:jan15 ;
    gmeow:hasEndInstant    ex:jun01 ;
    gmeow:hasTemporalFrame gmeow:temporalFrameUTCGregorian .

ex:deprecatedPeriod a gmeow:TimeInterval ;
    gmeow:hasStartInstant  ex:jun01 ;
    gmeow:hasTemporalFrame gmeow:temporalFrameUTCGregorian .

ex:jan15 a gmeow:Instant ;
    gmeow:instantValue    "2026-01-15T00:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime ;
    gmeow:inTemporalFrame gmeow:temporalFrameUTCGregorian .

ex:jun01 a gmeow:Instant ;
    gmeow:instantValue    "2026-06-01T00:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime ;
    gmeow:inTemporalFrame gmeow:temporalFrameUTCGregorian .

Terms

Classes

Properties

Individuals

Linkages

• Rows: 1
• Projection profiles: -
• External vocabularies: doap

Guide

Versions — modelling & interoperability guide

Most vocabularies model versions as ad-hoc attributes: schema:version on a CreativeWork, SemVer strings on a DOAP release, dcterms:isVersionOf between dataset snapshots. Each domain reinvents its own taxonomy: StableRelease, YankedCrate, DefinitiveEdition, CanonicalEmail.

GMEOW refuses this anti-pattern. "Latest", "stable", "yanked", "canonical", "definitive" are not intrinsic types — they are standpoint-scoped claims asserted by an authority (a registry, a publisher, a project, a curator). The same artifact may be latest to npm and deprecated to a downstream mirror. Both claims coexist without privilege (Principle 9).

Decision tree: which property to use?

The thin spine (versionOf, editionOf, supersedes, counterpartOf) is the 80 % flat shortcut. The reified layer (VersionMembership) is promoted when the role claim itself must carry authority, confidence, temporal scope, or standpoint indexing.

The reified layer: VersionMembership

A VersionMembership is an Observation + Relator in the universal claim stack. It mediates three things:

• versionMember — the concrete artifact (observedFeature)
• versionSet — the lineage it belongs to
• versionRole / versionScale — the classification, as QualityValue individuals
• membershipAuthority (vantage) — who asserts this role
• membershipInterval — when the claim holds

@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://example.org/versions/> .

ex:myLibrary a gmeow:VersionSet ;
    gmeow:name "my-library"@en .

ex:v2_0 a gmeow:SoftwareAgent ;
    gmeow:versionOf ex:myLibrary ;
    gmeow:versionLabel "2.0.0" .

ex:memLatest a gmeow:VersionMembership ;
    gmeow:versionMember ex:v2_0 ;
    gmeow:versionSet ex:myLibrary ;
    gmeow:versionRole gmeow:roleLatest ;
    gmeow:membershipAuthority ex:npmRegistry .

ex:memLTS a gmeow:VersionMembership ;
    gmeow:versionMember ex:v2_0 ;
    gmeow:versionSet ex:myLibrary ;
    gmeow:versionRole gmeow:roleLTS ;
    gmeow:membershipAuthority ex:projectMaintainer .

★ Two memberships on the same artifact, from two authorities, with two roles — both are first-class and co-equal.

Temporal scoping: never overwrite

When a release shifts from latest to deprecated, do not overwrite the old membership. Preserve history by either:

1. Closing the interval — set an end date on membershipInterval.
2. Minting a fresh membership — create a new VersionMembership for the new role, leaving the old one intact.

A deprecated or yanked release may carry gmeow:displayable false so it is suppressed from consumer projections, but it is never deleted (Principle 10).

# Old membership retained
ex:memLatest a gmeow:VersionMembership ;
    gmeow:versionMember ex:v1_1 ;
    gmeow:versionSet ex:myLibrary ;
    gmeow:versionRole gmeow:roleLatest ;
    gmeow:membershipAuthority ex:npmRegistry .

# New membership for the deprecated state
ex:memDeprecated a gmeow:VersionMembership ;
    gmeow:versionMember ex:v1_1 ;
    gmeow:versionSet ex:myLibrary ;
    gmeow:versionRole gmeow:roleDeprecated ;
    gmeow:membershipAuthority ex:npmRegistry ;
    gmeow:displayable false .

Separation from attestation layer (attestation layer)

VersionMembership records what role is asserted and by whom. It does not embed the cryptographic or signed evidence for that assertion.

Attestation evidence — release signatures, SLSA provenance, DOI/SWHID assertions, yanked-release notices, registry attestations — belongs in the future attestation layer attestation layer and composes with VersionMembership by linking evidence to the same artifacts. A version role may be attested by a registry, but the attestation is evidence for the role claim, not the role itself.

# version-set layer: the role claim
ex:memLatest a gmeow:VersionMembership ;
    gmeow:versionRole gmeow:roleLatest ;
    gmeow:membershipAuthority ex:npmRegistry .

# attestation layer: the attestation evidence
ex:sig a gmeow:AttestationArtifact ;
    gmeow:artifactMediaType "application/vnd.dsse+json" ;
    gmeow:hasSignature [ a gmeow:CryptographicSignature ] ;
    gmeow:wasAttributedTo ex:npmRegistry .

Value vocabularies: open, not a fence

VersionRole and VersionScale are gufo:QualityValue subclasses. The seed list is an anchor, not a fence:

Domain-specific values (e.g. roleNightly, roleReleaseCandidate) are minted as fresh individuals carrying rdfs:label.

Projections

The mapping compiler generates SSSOM/EDOAL/SPARQL projections from mapping-dsl/. Cross-vocabulary mappings include:

★ Projections are lossy by design. A "latest" selection rule lives in the importer/solver, never as an OWL axiom (Principle 12).

Terms

gmeow:VersionSet · gmeow:versionFingerprint

A VersionSet is the stable lineage a concrete artifact belongs to — the spine the thin flat shortcuts attach to. versionFingerprint carries a content fingerprint of a versioned entity (hash, SWHID, content digest, or semantic identifier); broader than the byte-exact contentDigest, and non-functional, so one entity may carry several under different schemes.

gmeow:VersionMembership · gmeow:versionMember · gmeow:versionSet · gmeow:versionRole · gmeow:versionScale · gmeow:membershipAuthority · gmeow:membershipInterval

The reified Observation + Relator promoted when a role claim must carry authority, confidence, temporal scope, or standpoint indexing. It mediates the versionMember artifact, the versionSet lineage, the versionRole / versionScale classification (as QualityValue individuals), the membershipAuthority that asserts it (the vantage), and the membershipInterval over which the claim holds. Two memberships on the same artifact from two authorities are first-class and co-equal — never overwrite, mint a fresh one (Principle 9, Principle 10).

gmeow:VersionRole · gmeow:VersionScale

The open value vocabularies (gufo:QualityValue subclasses) — a seed list, not a fence. VersionRole ranges over roleLatest, roleStable, roleLTS, roleDeprecated, roleYanked, roleCanonical, … ("latest"/"stable"/"yanked" are standpoint-scoped claims, never intrinsic types); VersionScale over scaleTrivial / scaleMinor / scaleMajor. Domain-specific values are minted as fresh individuals carrying rdfs:label.