argand-site-registry/docs/ARCHITECTURE.md

Architecture

Argand Site Registry is a local Rust library and CLI around a mutable SQLite writer and immutable, content-pinned reader generations. Source acquisition, evidence normalization, editorial decisions, and release authority remain separate.

flowchart LR
  S[Allowlisted source objects] --> I[Streaming adapters]
  I --> W[(Writer store)]
  O[Bounded candidate observer] --> B[Immutable observation batches]
  B --> W
  W --> A[Content-addressed cold audit bundles]
  W --> G[Compact candidate generation]
  A -. digest references .-> G
  G --> Q[Evidence bundles and review queue]
  Q --> V[Signed reviewer votes]
  V --> W
  W --> R[Reviewed generation]
  R --> P[Separate publisher signature]
  P --> C[Verified lookup and resolve]
  R --> E[Signed cumulative revocation feed]
  E --> C

Data boundaries

The writer's sources, records, and facts preserve provider-native evidence. Typed coverage selects a coherent active set without deleting older snapshots. selected_sources and active_records record that derivation. Names, entities, web properties, edges, popularity, and rejected facts are deterministic projections.

A compact build packages every completed source into a content-addressed cold JSONL bundle before removing superseded records and unprojected fact history from the runtime copy. COMPLETE.json binds every bundle and the runtime database. Normal queries need only the compact generation. Audit export, verification and retention checkpoints stream the external bundle store and fail on absence, substitution, truncation, malformed order, or mismatched source/attribution.

Names, website edges, and entity equivalences have separate material fingerprints. Adding an alias therefore cannot inherit an approved destination, and changing unrelated entity metadata does not invalidate an unchanged website edge. Every evidence bundle contains the exact current assertion, provenance, and attached observations that a vote signs.

Observation batches are append-only. Redirects, canonicals, hreflang, JSON-LD sameAs, sitemaps, country selectors, HTTP state, public DNS-set hashes, TLS certificate hashes, and bounded failures remain observations. They never create an entity, ownership edge, role, or approval.

Votes are exact signed JSON documents. The writer records its own accepted_at, the SSH signature, physical public-key digest, evidence-bundle digest, policy digest, scope, expiry, and any explicitly superseded revocation IDs. Policy compilation counts independent identities, groups, and physical keys. The reference policy requires two independent approvals and makes one revocation sticky.

Trust boundaries

• Source HTTPS and a content digest establish what was imported, not whether the assertion is true.
• Reviewer signatures establish who made an exact decision, not site safety.
• Publisher signatures authenticate a complete generation, not every assertion.
• lookup is an audit surface. resolve is the policy-enforced navigation surface.
• Automated acquisition, observation, and builds stop at candidates. They have no review, publisher, or activation authority.

Strict generation receipts bind database bytes, license and attribution files, selected coverage, the review policy, reviewer trust-root bytes, and the trusted acceptance-time rule. Readers copy authenticated SQLite bytes into a private unlinked snapshot before opening them.

Main modules

Module	Responsibility
download, crux	Allowlisted, bounded source acquisition and resumable cache
source, store, adapters	Manifest validation and streaming source-specific import
coverage	Full/partition/delta graph validation and active-record masking
normalize	Deterministic URL, hostname, registrable-domain, suffix, and name normalization
build, audit	Canonical compact generation, cold history, verification and retention
bundle, policy, vote	Review evidence, policy epochs, authenticated quorum, revocation
observer, observation, queue	Candidate-only collection, replay/import, reverse lookup, drift and queues
query, resolution, identity, catalog	Audit lookup, equivalence, resolution, statistics
release, revocation, generation, ssh	Export, signature verification, emergency overlays, activation, rollback protection

The database schema lives in ordered migrations. JSON and receipt contracts have their own schema strings and fail closed on unknown versions. See FORMATS.md and MIGRATING-0.4.md.