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RFC 028: Semantic identity and target model #62

@dannymeijer

Description

@dannymeijer

Use this issue to track InQL RFC 028, proposed in PR #60 at docs/rfcs/028_semantic_identity_targets.md.

Area

  • Specification (RFCs)
  • Documentation

Summary

RFC 028 defines the semantic identity and target model required by InQL's relational evidence program. It establishes stable, typed targets for plans, Prism nodes, plan ingress requests, client sessions, relation outputs, fields, scalar expressions, aggregate measures, window expressions, generator outputs, read roots, quality assertions, policy decisions, adapter requirements, coverage records, and execution attempts.

Motivation

Lineage, metadata attachments, quality observations, policy decisions, execution observations, adapter coverage, and plan diffs all need precise anchors. If evidence attaches only to display names or backend plan fragments, it becomes fragile under aliases, rewrites, projections, and execution adapter differences.

Proposal sketch

Define semantic target categories and identity scope rules for plan-local, artifact-stable, and execution-local evidence. Authored Prism targets, rewritten Prism targets, and execution observations must remain distinct. Backend and client protocol identifiers may be attached as metadata, but they must not replace InQL semantic targets.

Alternatives considered

The draft rejects display names as identities, backend plan node identifiers as semantic identities, and global durable IDs as a first requirement.

Impact / compatibility

Existing plans without semantic targets remain valid for execution. Tools that require relational evidence should report missing semantic identity as unsupported evidence rather than inferring identity from names alone.

Implementation notes (optional)

Review PR #60 for the draft. This RFC is foundational for the later lineage, metadata, quality, coverage, and plan-diff RFCs.

Checklist

  • I checked for an existing RFC or issue covering this.
  • I can describe how this impacts existing code and how to migrate (if needed).

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