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[2.0]: Proposal - Pre-defined perspectives: stable spec-provided identity with incorporation by reference

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
35/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Domain
documentation

Research direction

Start by reading the perspectives concept and model in #736 and #745, then review #990 for the model-card context and #960 for the catalog precedent. Define the proposal's schema and reference behavior, and confirm that the resulting specification gives predefined perspectives stable identity without requiring repeated inline content.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

CDX 2.0 proposed core enhancement

Describe the feature

Perspectives (#736, #745) are fully author-defined: identity is carried only by the free-text name. This leaves two gaps:

  1. No stable identity. Tooling cannot reliably recognize that a document carries, say, a model card view, since matching on free-text names is fragile (case, wording, localization). This matters more now that #990 points model cards at perspectives: "Model Card" is an industry-adopted term, and consumers need a stable way to find that view.
  2. No reference form. A well-known perspective must be restated in full in every document that wants it.

Possible solutions

Add an optional predefined field to perspective:

{
  "perspectives": [
    { "predefined": "model-card" }
  ]
}

Alternatives

Considered:

  • Reserved name values (registry-governed, like the property taxonomy): no schema change and registry-paced growth, but the schema cannot express "mappings optional iff the name is reserved" without embedding the reserved list, so the reference form is impossible — and it overloads display text as machine identity.
  • Identity field on inline perspectives (tagging inline mappings with a well-known identity): rejected — nothing could validate that the inline content faithfully represents the claimed identity, inviting stripped-down or contradictory "model cards."

Additional context

References:
#736 / #745 — perspectives concept and model
#990 — model cards expressed via perspectives (this proposal closes the loop that PR opens)
#960 — perspectives/ catalog precedent (PQC readiness)

Dominant language
XSLT
Stars
551
Forks
93
Avg merge
5h 38m
Merged PRs (30d)
35

Getting set up

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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