Use this issue to track InQL RFC 038, proposed in PR #60 at docs/rfcs/038_evidence_exchange_bridges.md.
Area
- Specification (RFCs)
- Documentation
Summary
RFC 038 defines evidence exchange bridges between InQL's internal evidence model and external or adjacent formats. Bridges may project InQL evidence into downstream formats and may ingest external artifacts such as transformation manifests, source catalogs, schema catalogs, run results, and orchestration metadata as evidence inputs.
Motivation
InQL evidence should be useful outside InQL, and external project artifacts should be usable as evidence inputs when their source, scope, version, confidence, and lossiness are explicit. Without a bridge contract, each integration would reconstruct lineage, quality, metadata, and run evidence independently, causing semantic drift.
Proposal sketch
- Define inbound and outbound evidence exchange bridges.
- Preserve semantic target references and evidence versions where possible.
- Preserve external artifact identity, source location, artifact version, confidence, and diagnostics on inbound records.
- Allow external artifacts to seed metadata, lineage hints, quality observations, run observations, and target mappings without becoming authoritative InQL semantics.
- Support transformation-framework artifacts such as manifests, catalogs, run results, source definitions, model metadata, tests, tags, exposures, and documentation scaffolds.
- Cover representative artifact families such as dbt manifests and run results, Glue Data Catalog or Hive Metastore snapshots, Airflow or MWAA DAG metadata, Dagster assets, Prefect deployment metadata, OpenLineage events, DataHub or OpenMetadata catalog records, and Great Expectations-style quality results.
- Require explicit loss reporting for fields or semantic distinctions that a target format cannot represent.
Alternatives considered
The draft rejects adopting one external lineage model internally, leaving all exchange to downstream systems, requiring hosted ingestion, and treating transformation project artifacts as authoritative semantics.
Impact / compatibility
This is additive. Existing evidence artifacts can remain local while future work adds explicit exchange paths. Bridge mappings and imported artifact schemas must be versioned or fingerprinted where possible.
Implementation notes (optional)
Review PR #60 for the draft. This work should keep external artifacts as evidence inputs or projections, not internal truth.
Checklist
Use this issue to track InQL RFC 038, proposed in PR #60 at
docs/rfcs/038_evidence_exchange_bridges.md.Area
Summary
RFC 038 defines evidence exchange bridges between InQL's internal evidence model and external or adjacent formats. Bridges may project InQL evidence into downstream formats and may ingest external artifacts such as transformation manifests, source catalogs, schema catalogs, run results, and orchestration metadata as evidence inputs.
Motivation
InQL evidence should be useful outside InQL, and external project artifacts should be usable as evidence inputs when their source, scope, version, confidence, and lossiness are explicit. Without a bridge contract, each integration would reconstruct lineage, quality, metadata, and run evidence independently, causing semantic drift.
Proposal sketch
Alternatives considered
The draft rejects adopting one external lineage model internally, leaving all exchange to downstream systems, requiring hosted ingestion, and treating transformation project artifacts as authoritative semantics.
Impact / compatibility
This is additive. Existing evidence artifacts can remain local while future work adds explicit exchange paths. Bridge mappings and imported artifact schemas must be versioned or fingerprinted where possible.
Implementation notes (optional)
Review PR #60 for the draft. This work should keep external artifacts as evidence inputs or projections, not internal truth.
Checklist