---
title: "Provenance record (entity, activity, agent — PROV-DM core)"
description: "Where a value came from is recorded with the W3C PROV-DM core only: the entity pinned to a revision or content hash, the activity with its transform version…"
category: "Derivation & Provenance"
---

# Provenance record (entity, activity, agent — PROV-DM core)

> Generated from `pattern-library/registry.json` — do not edit by hand; change the registry and run `bun run patterns:build`.

**Category:** Derivation & Provenance · **Tier:** deep · **Maturity:** proven (verified 2026-10-10 @ 91f61a76-dirty) · **Risk:** low — mostly columns you already have; the failure mode is pointing provenance at mutable ids

Where a value came from is recorded with the W3C PROV-DM core only: the entity pinned to a revision or content hash, the activity with its transform version, and the agent (human, software or AI, on whose behalf) — with an explicit erasure decision per trail.

**When to use:** Use when a reader must tell who or what produced a value — AI-drafted vs human-edited fields, published revisions, derived corpora, privileged actions, built binaries.

**Requires:** postgres

## Avoid when

- The data has one author and no derivation — a user's own settings row is its own provenance
- Provenance must be exchanged with outside parties — adopt PROV-O or OpenLineage there instead of this application-level subset

## Alternatives

- **OpenLineage run/job/dataset events** — prefer when a lineage backend consumes pipeline-level events across many jobs

## Docs

- [docs/blueprint/integrity/derivation.md#provenance-record](/docs/blueprint/integrity/derivation) — The PROV mapping and the seven v10r instances ([GitHub](https://github.com/ApeDevil/v10r/blob/main/docs/blueprint/integrity/derivation.md) · [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/ApeDevil/v10r/-/blob/main/docs/blueprint/integrity/derivation.md))

## Code

- `src/lib/server/db/schema/blog/revision.ts` — Immutable revisions; author set null on erasure ([GitHub](https://github.com/ApeDevil/v10r/blob/main/src/lib/server/db/schema/blog/revision.ts) · [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/ApeDevil/v10r/-/blob/main/src/lib/server/db/schema/blog/revision.ts))
- `src/lib/schemas/image-metadata.ts` — fieldProvenance: empty / ai-draft / human per field ([GitHub](https://github.com/ApeDevil/v10r/blob/main/src/lib/schemas/image-metadata.ts) · [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/ApeDevil/v10r/-/blob/main/src/lib/schemas/image-metadata.ts))
- `src/lib/server/db/schema/desk/revision.ts` — Pre-images with source ai | user; cascade on erasure ([GitHub](https://github.com/ApeDevil/v10r/blob/main/src/lib/server/db/schema/desk/revision.ts) · [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/ApeDevil/v10r/-/blob/main/src/lib/server/db/schema/desk/revision.ts))
- `src/lib/types/turn-trace.ts` — What a turn had, used and cited ([GitHub](https://github.com/ApeDevil/v10r/blob/main/src/lib/types/turn-trace.ts) · [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/ApeDevil/v10r/-/blob/main/src/lib/types/turn-trace.ts))
- `src/lib/server/db/schema/admin/audit-log.ts` — Insert-only; no FK on actor so the trail survives the account ([GitHub](https://github.com/ApeDevil/v10r/blob/main/src/lib/server/db/schema/admin/audit-log.ts) · [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/ApeDevil/v10r/-/blob/main/src/lib/server/db/schema/admin/audit-log.ts))

## Tests

- `src/lib/schemas/image-metadata.test.ts` ([GitHub](https://github.com/ApeDevil/v10r/blob/main/src/lib/schemas/image-metadata.test.ts) · [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/ApeDevil/v10r/-/blob/main/src/lib/schemas/image-metadata.test.ts))
- `src/lib/server/ai/trace/recorder.test.ts` ([GitHub](https://github.com/ApeDevil/v10r/blob/main/src/lib/server/ai/trace/recorder.test.ts) · [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/ApeDevil/v10r/-/blob/main/src/lib/server/ai/trace/recorder.test.ts))
- `src/lib/server/admin/audit-csv.pglite.test.ts` ([GitHub](https://github.com/ApeDevil/v10r/blob/main/src/lib/server/admin/audit-csv.pglite.test.ts) · [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/ApeDevil/v10r/-/blob/main/src/lib/server/admin/audit-csv.pglite.test.ts))

## Invariants

- Provenance points at a revision or content hash, never only at a mutable id.
- AI and human authorship are distinguished at the field or row where they differ.
- Each trail states its erasure decision in the schema — cascade, set null, or retained without a foreign key.
- Provenance is append-only; a correction is a new record.

## Emulation notes

- Start with the three PROV relations (generated by, derived from, attributed to) as columns on the rows you already have; a separate provenance graph store is rarely worth it in an application.
- Make the erasure decision per trail and write it into the foreign key: an audit trail and a draft history have different legal bases, and one blanket rule is wrong for one of them.

## Depends on

- [Derivation key (freshness by input fingerprint)](/docs/pattern-library/derivation-key)

---

_Machine-readable record: `provenance-record` in `pattern-library/registry.json`._