Record index
reference.index.toml
Captured references, namespace RF, at
.working/toml/reference.index.toml.
About
A reference is an immutable captured source: a repository path (with a line where
applicable), a URL, or a document and section, recorded at the moment a claim or artifact
that rests on it is produced. It is created terminal in its single state
recorded.
Why
A reference reconstructed later from memory is a guess wearing a citation's clothes. The standard's rule is capture-at-claim: a record whose claims rest on an external source without a captured reference is unsourced, whatever confidence backs it. Making references a first-class immutable type lets many records share one captured source.
Description
The shared index shape with the standard envelope and no type-specific extra fields; the
captured sources themselves ride the envelope's refs array, each entry
{kind, locator, note} with kind one of path,
url, or doc. This type is the inward counterpart of
contribution, which records what the project sends out.
How it works
Created terminal, immutable, never proposable: a captured fact awaits no ratification. Records link toward references rather than editing them, so a source, once captured, stays exactly what was captured.
Generated view
REFERENCES.md, composed from this index, plus the optional
REFERENCE-INDEX.md mirror; both byte-drift-gated.
Value
Claims with their evidence attached at birth, which helps reduce the likelihood of unsourced assertions hardening into recorded fact, and makes every load-bearing claim re-checkable at its source.
Usage
- Created by:
opf init(empty index); a record at each captured source. - Updated by: nothing; immutable.
- Read by:
opf render(REFERENCES.md and the mirror);opf doctor(schema, uniqueness); any record that links to its captured sources.