{ "model": { "rank": 5966, "code": "thing-q176165", "model_id": "vr.tr.database-management-system", "name": "database management system", "purpose": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a database management system, assess its ability to manage data reliably, and determine which operations are supported, authorised and safe in its current state.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Physical world and living systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "PHY", "domain": "PHY.OBJ", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q176165/", "tier": 2, "score": 63, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "embedded database", "IBM Informix", "vadalog", "object database management system", "document-oriented database management system", "VBRİS", "graph database management system", "vector database management system", "RisingWave", "in-memory database system", "Historic Environment Scotland ID", "multi-model database system", "wide column store", "serverless database management system", "relational database management system", "column-oriented DBMS", "distributed database management system", "object-relational database management system", "information schema", "NewSQL DBMS", "time series database system", "NoSQL database management system", "federated database system", "IBM InfoSphere Warehouse", "serverless relational database management system", "Geodatabase (Esri)", "Percona Server for MySQL", "WebScaleSQL", "Strozzi NoSQL", "Drizzle", "query optimization", "VoltDB", "CUBRID", "CSQL", "Apache Accumulo", "High Frequency Data", "key–value database system", "File Geodatabase (Esri)", "SPARQL query optimization", "Oracle NoSQL Database" ], "aliasCount": 41, "merged": 41, "knownIn": 63, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q176165", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q176165", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-07T10:23:29Z", "providers": [ "Codex", "Grok" ], "missingProviders": [], "pass": 2, "cost": { "grok": { "usd": 0.01174564, "turns": 1, "seconds": 139.1, "error": null }, "codex": { "seconds": 83.5, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.3\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a07b62-4695-7253-b898-906e8c059a66\n--------\nuser\nYou are drafting a Vercy meta-model for one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: database management system\nRegistry id: vr.tr.database-management-system\nPlane / domain: PHY / PHY.OBJ\nRegistry definition: (none recorded)\nNames fol" } } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q176165", "registryId": "vr.tr.database-management-system", "name": "database management system", "version": "0.1.0-research.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "PHY.OBJ" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q176165/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.database-management-system", "name": "database management system", "purpose": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a database management system, assess its ability to manage data reliably, and determine which operations are supported, authorised and safe in its current state.", "definition": "Software that owns one or more databases and gives applications languages and services for schema definition, query and update, concurrent multi-user access, integrity enforcement, authorization and crash recovery, so that durable shared data can be used without each program implementing storage, isolation or restart itself.", "scope_statement": "This model owns the identity, data-management capabilities, execution semantics and operational condition of a database management system, distinguishing product capabilities from the configuration and observed behaviour of a particular deployment.", "in_scope": [ "DBMS product, edition, version and deployment identity", "Supported data models, database objects and access interfaces", "Query execution, concurrency, transaction and consistency behaviour", "Persistence, recovery, replication and availability mechanisms", "DBMS-enforced access controls and administrative boundaries", "Operational health, capacity constraints and permitted maintenance actions" ], "out_of_scope": [ "Business meaning, ownership and quality of particular datasets", "Application workflows, business rules and application-side data access code", "Physical servers, storage devices and network infrastructure as independent assets", "Organisation-wide identity governance and security policy", "Enterprise data architecture, analytics pipelines and reporting products", "Commercial contracts and provider organisation management" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "It supplies mechanisms for creating or managing databases and mediating access to their contents; a database itself is the managed collection.", "It interprets data operations using a declared data model or access abstraction; a filesystem alone primarily exposes files and directories.", "It governs data visibility, modification or coordination according to defined semantics; a passive file-format specification does not execute those rules.", "It can be identified separately from applications that use it, including when supplied as an embedded library without a standalone server.", "For a managed database service, its DBMS capabilities can be separated from surrounding provisioning, billing and infrastructure services." ], "characteristics": [ { "name": "Identity level", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "product family | versioned distribution | configured deployment", "why_it_matters": "Prevents product-level capabilities from being mistaken for enabled or observed deployment behaviour." }, { "name": "Implementation identity", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "References to product, edition, version, build and extensions", "why_it_matters": "Capabilities, compatibility and maintenance choices can depend on the exact implementation." }, { "name": "Supported data models", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Set of declared models, such as relational, document, key-value, graph or other", "why_it_matters": "Determines which structures and operations the system can represent directly." }, { "name": "Execution form", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "embedded | server | distributed system; managed-service exposure recorded separately", "why_it_matters": "Determines process ownership, connection boundaries and available administrative control." }, { "name": "Transaction scope", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Implementation-specific supported atomicity boundaries and exclusions", "why_it_matters": "Determines which changes can succeed or fail as one unit." }, { "name": "Read visibility contract", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Documented isolation or consistency modes, scoped by operation and configuration", "why_it_matters": "Determines which concurrent or replicated changes an agent may observe." }, { "name": "Acknowledgement durability", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Configured acknowledgement conditions and covered failure scenarios", "why_it_matters": "A successful write response does not establish survival under every possible failure." }, { "name": "Operational mode", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "unknown | starting | available | degraded | recovering | unavailable; read/write restrictions recorded separately", "why_it_matters": "Constrains which data operations and maintenance actions can currently proceed." }, { "name": "Operation latency", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "Milliseconds, with operation class, percentile, workload and observation window", "why_it_matters": "Supports assessment of responsiveness without treating incomparable workloads as equivalent." }, { "name": "Capacity headroom", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "Remaining bytes, connections or other named resource units, with limit and timestamp", "why_it_matters": "Helps identify resource exhaustion that could block queries, writes or recovery." }, { "name": "Effective administrative authority", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Principal-to-operation permissions scoped to DBMS resources", "why_it_matters": "Separates technically supported actions from actions the current agent may perform." } ], "affordances": [ "Inspect implementation identity, enabled capabilities and deployment configuration through permitted interfaces.", "Create or alter supported database objects after checking compatibility, privileges and migration effects.", "Read or modify data using supported operations with explicit transaction and visibility requirements.", "Diagnose query behaviour, contention, replication condition and resource constraints.", "Perform authorised backup, restore or failover operations after checking prerequisites and recovery evidence.", "Adjust DBMS configuration or coordinate upgrades after assessing availability and compatibility effects." ] }, "sources": [ { "id": "codd-1970", "title": "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks", "url": "https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/362384.362685", "what_it_supports": "The relational data model that still defines the dominant DBMS kind, and the split between a stored database and the software that manages it.", "url_status": "blocked" }, { "id": "iso-iec-9075", "title": "ISO/IEC 9075 Information technology - Database languages - SQL", "url": "", "what_it_supports": "The international standard language and conformance surface for relational DBMS products; issued by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32." }, { "id": "haerder-reuter-1983", "title": "Principles of Transaction-Oriented Database Recovery", "url": "", "what_it_supports": "ACID transaction properties, write-ahead logging, and crash-recovery duties that distinguish a DBMS from a file or cache." }, { "id": "silberschatz-korth-sudarshan", "title": "Database System Concepts", "url": "", "what_it_supports": "Standard architecture (storage engine, catalog, query planner, concurrency control, recovery) and the practical kinds used in teaching and industry." }, { "id": "wikidata-q176165", "title": "Wikidata item Q176165 (database management system)", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q176165", "what_it_supports": "The public identifier for the class, as distinct from Q8513 (database), the stored collection.", "url_status": "live" } ], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "dbms-identity-and-boundaries", "name": "DBMS identity and boundaries", "description": "Establishes which DBMS is being described and where its data-management responsibilities begin and end.", "rationale": "An agent must distinguish a product claim from the capabilities and condition of an actual DBMS deployment.", "layers": [ { "id": "implementation-and-capabilities", "name": "Implementation and capabilities", "description": "Identifies the implementation and the evidence for its available features.", "findings": [ { "id": "versioned-capability-profile", "name": "Versioned capability profile", "description": "Records product, edition, version and extensions while separating supported features from enabled features.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which product, edition, version, build and extensions identify this DBMS?", "kind": "definition", "id": "versioned-capability-profile-q01" }, { "text": "Which documentation or direct inspection establishes whether each relevant capability is supported and enabled?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "versioned-capability-profile-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "deployment-and-control-boundary", "name": "Deployment and control boundary", "description": "Locates the DBMS within embedded, server, distributed and managed-service arrangements.", "findings": [ { "id": "managed-system-boundary", "name": "Managed system boundary", "description": "Identifies the components constituting this DBMS and the division of administrative responsibility.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which libraries, processes or coordinated nodes constitute this DBMS, and which databases does it manage?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "managed-system-boundary-q01" }, { "text": "Which controls belong to the DBMS operator, host application or service provider?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "managed-system-boundary-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "data-model-and-access", "name": "Data model and access", "description": "Describes how the DBMS represents managed data and accepts operations on it.", "rationale": "An agent needs to know which data structures and interfaces are valid before attempting inspection or modification.", "layers": [ { "id": "database-object-semantics", "name": "Database object semantics", "description": "Captures supported data abstractions, namespaces and integrity mechanisms.", "findings": [ { "id": "representation-and-integrity", "name": "Representation and integrity", "description": "Records supported object types and which structural or integrity rules the DBMS actually enforces.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which data models, object types, namespaces and type rules does this configuration support?", "kind": "definition", "id": "representation-and-integrity-q01" }, { "text": "Which constraints does the DBMS enforce, and which require application-side enforcement?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "representation-and-integrity-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operation-interfaces", "name": "Operation interfaces", "description": "Captures supported languages, protocols and client interaction requirements.", "findings": [ { "id": "request-and-result-contract", "name": "Request and result contract", "description": "Records how clients submit operations and interpret results, errors and interrupted requests.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which query languages, APIs, protocols and client versions are supported for the required operations?", "kind": "definition", "id": "request-and-result-contract-q01" }, { "text": "How can an agent determine whether an interrupted request completed, and when is retrying it safe?", "kind": "action", "id": "request-and-result-contract-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "transactions-and-visibility", "name": "Transactions and visibility", "description": "Defines the boundaries of coordinated changes and the visibility of concurrent or replicated updates.", "rationale": "Correct agent decisions depend on the actual guarantees attached to reads and writes, rather than assumptions about the DBMS category.", "layers": [ { "id": "atomic-change-boundaries", "name": "Atomic change boundaries", "description": "Captures transaction scope, commit behaviour and partial-failure possibilities.", "findings": [ { "id": "transaction-contract", "name": "Transaction contract", "description": "Records which operations can be grouped atomically and how their outcomes are established.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which records, objects, databases or partitions can participate in one atomic change, and which operations are excluded?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "transaction-contract-q01" }, { "text": "How should an agent handle aborts, deadlocks or an unknown commit outcome without duplicating effects?", "kind": "action", "id": "transaction-contract-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "concurrent-and-replicated-reads", "name": "Concurrent and replicated reads", "description": "Captures isolation, consistency and read-routing effects.", "findings": [ { "id": "read-observation-guarantees", "name": "Read observation guarantees", "description": "Records what an operation may observe under the selected session, transaction and replica settings.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which isolation or consistency guarantees apply to this operation, and which anomalies remain possible?", "kind": "definition", "id": "read-observation-guarantees-q01" }, { "text": "Which settings or routing choices are required when an agent needs to observe its own preceding write or a sufficiently fresh value?", "kind": "action", "id": "read-observation-guarantees-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "persistence-and-recovery", "name": "Persistence and recovery", "description": "Describes the survival of acknowledged changes and the evidence that service and data can be recovered.", "rationale": "An agent must distinguish successful execution, durable storage, replication and recoverable backups.", "layers": [ { "id": "write-survival", "name": "Write survival", "description": "Captures persistence mechanisms and the failure assumptions behind write acknowledgements.", "findings": [ { "id": "durability-and-failure-contract", "name": "Durability and failure contract", "description": "Records how logging, persistence and replication settings affect survival of accepted writes.", "questions": [ { "text": "What must happen before a write is acknowledged under the active configuration?", "kind": "definition", "id": "durability-and-failure-contract-q01" }, { "text": "Which process, host, storage or replica failures are covered by that acknowledgement contract?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "durability-and-failure-contract-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "restoration-and-service-continuity", "name": "Restoration and service continuity", "description": "Captures backup usability, restore procedures and failover prerequisites.", "findings": [ { "id": "verified-recovery-options", "name": "Verified recovery options", "description": "Records available recovery paths, their dependencies and evidence from actual recovery exercises.", "questions": [ { "text": "What restore or failover exercise establishes the recoverable point, elapsed recovery time and integrity of the result?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "verified-recovery-options-q01" }, { "text": "Which backups, logs, keys, compatible versions and coordination steps are required before recovery or failover can proceed?", "kind": "action", "id": "verified-recovery-options-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-data-protection", "name": "Access and data protection", "description": "Captures DBMS-enforced authority, isolation and protection of managed data.", "rationale": "An agent needs effective permissions and protection boundaries to decide which data and administrative operations it may perform.", "layers": [ { "id": "principal-and-privilege-enforcement", "name": "Principal and privilege enforcement", "description": "Describes authentication, effective privileges and resource-level restrictions.", "findings": [ { "id": "effective-operation-authority", "name": "Effective operation authority", "description": "Records which authenticated principal is acting and how its effective privileges are determined.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which principal, active roles and execution context determine the agent's effective privileges?", "kind": "definition", "id": "effective-operation-authority-q01" }, { "text": "Which database, object, row, field or administrative restrictions govern the proposed operation?", "kind": "action", "id": "effective-operation-authority-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "protection-and-audit-boundaries", "name": "Protection and audit boundaries", "description": "Describes encryption coverage, isolation limits and evidence of data access or administrative changes.", "findings": [ { "id": "protected-data-paths", "name": "Protected data paths", "description": "Records protection across DBMS interfaces and storage paths, including gaps and external dependencies.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which client connections, stored data, logs, temporary data and backups are protected, and who controls the required keys?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "protected-data-paths-q01" }, { "text": "Which enabled audit records establish data access or administrative changes, and what activity is omitted?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "protected-data-paths-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "operation-and-change-readiness", "name": "Operation and change readiness", "description": "Connects observed DBMS condition to workload handling and maintenance decisions.", "rationale": "A DBMS can remain reachable while contention, exhausted resources or incompatible changes make particular operations unsafe or ineffective.", "layers": [ { "id": "workload-health-and-capacity", "name": "Workload health and capacity", "description": "Captures evidence of useful service, bottlenecks and remaining operating capacity.", "findings": [ { "id": "workload-specific-operating-condition", "name": "Workload-specific operating condition", "description": "Records health against identified workloads using latency, failures, contention and resource measurements.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the observed latency, throughput and error rates for the relevant operation classes over a stated interval?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "workload-specific-operating-condition-q01" }, { "text": "Which query plans, waits, locks, replication delays or resource limits explain current degradation or constrain additional load?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "workload-specific-operating-condition-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "maintenance-and-compatibility", "name": "Maintenance and compatibility", "description": "Captures prerequisites and consequences of structural, configuration and version changes.", "findings": [ { "id": "safe-change-envelope", "name": "Safe change envelope", "description": "Records whether a proposed change requires blocking, restart, data rewriting or coordinated client and replica updates.", "questions": [ { "text": "Will the proposed schema, index, configuration or version change require locks, a restart, data rewriting or temporary extra capacity?", "kind": "action", "id": "safe-change-envelope-q01" }, { "text": "What compatibility evidence, validation steps and supported reversal or recovery path are required before applying the change?", "kind": "action", "id": "safe-change-envelope-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence-and-external-alignment", "name": "Evidence and external alignment", "description": "What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.", "rationale": "A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.", "layers": [ { "id": "reported-evidence", "name": "Reported evidence", "description": "Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds", "name": "Kinds and varieties", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "Relational SQL DBMS (row-store OLTP)", "Columnar analytic / MPP warehouse DBMS", "Document-oriented DBMS", "Key-value store", "Wide-column (column-family) DBMS", "Graph DBMS", "Time-series DBMS", "Vector / embedding DBMS" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds-q01", "text": "Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of database management system this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-identifiers", "name": "Identifiers and schemes", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "scheme": "Wikidata", "value_or_pattern": "Q176165", "note": "Item for the class 'database management system'; the stored collection is Q8513." }, { "scheme": "CPE 2.3", "value_or_pattern": "cpe:2.3:a::::*:*:*:*:*:*:*", "note": "Names a specific DBMS product release, not the class." }, { "scheme": "ISO/IEC 2382", "value_or_pattern": "term 'database management system' in the IT vocabulary", "note": "Defines the term in the ISO information-technology vocabulary; not a product code." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-identifiers-q01", "text": "Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of database management system this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation", "name": "Standards and regulation", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "ISO/IEC 9075 (SQL) - ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32", "ISO/IEC 9075-3 Call-Level Interface (CLI) - ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32", "W3C SPARQL - World Wide Web Consortium (RDF/graph query stores)", "PCI DSS (esp. stored-cardholder-data, access control, logging) - PCI Security Standards Council", "GDPR (lawful processing, security of processing, including databases holding personal data) - European Union", "NIST SP 800-53 (AU, AC, SC, SI controls as applied to database systems) - NIST", "Common Criteria / NIAP protection profiles for database management systems - CCRA / NIAP" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation-q01", "text": "Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of database management system this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-real-world-use", "name": "Real-world use", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "Online transaction processing behind banking, retail checkout, booking and ERP/CRM applications.", "Cloud managed instances (for example Amazon RDS, Cloud SQL, Azure SQL) used as the system of record for web and mobile backends.", "Embedded engines such as SQLite inside browsers, mobile apps and desktop software, often unnoticed by the end user.", "Analytic warehouses and columnar engines feeding BI dashboards and batch reporting.", "Operational stores for session state, catalogs, content, telemetry and scientific collections, including replicas used for failover and read scale-out." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-real-world-use-q01", "text": "Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of database management system this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-measurements", "name": "Typical measurements", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "quantity": "OLTP query latency (point lookup / short transaction)", "typical_range": "0.1-100", "unit": "ms" }, { "quantity": "Transaction throughput", "typical_range": "10^2-10^6", "unit": "transactions/s" }, { "quantity": "On-disk data volume", "typical_range": "1-10^7", "unit": "GB" }, { "quantity": "Replication lag (asynchronous replicas)", "typical_range": "0-60", "unit": "s" }, { "quantity": "Service availability target", "typical_range": "99.9-99.999", "unit": "%" }, { "quantity": "Concurrent client sessions", "typical_range": "10-100000", "unit": "connections" } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-measurements-q01", "text": "Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of database management system this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards", "name": "Failure modes and hazards", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "Crash or power loss with WAL/fsync misconfiguration, causing committed work to vanish or the catalog to disagree with heap/index pages.", "Split-brain after network partition, producing divergent replicas and silent lost or duplicated writes.", "Undetected page corruption or index damage that surfaces only on a later query or restore.", "Deadlocks, lock convoys and table-level migrations that stall writers in production.", "Resource exhaustion from an unbounded query, connection-pool leak or thundering herd after failover.", "Authorization failure: overly broad DBA roles, stolen credentials, or SQL injection through the query language.", "Backup that cannot be restored (missing WAL for PITR, untested dumps, encryption-key loss).", "Ransomware or destructive DROP/TRUNCATE against the live store." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01", "text": "Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of database management system this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-regional-variation", "name": "Regional variation", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "Query language and operations practice split by dialect: Microsoft T-SQL, Oracle PL/SQL, PostgreSQL/SQL-standard, MySQL/MariaDB.", "Acronyms differ by language: English DBMS, French SGBD, German DBMS/DBVS; older English also used 'data base'.", "European public-sector procurement often prefers PostgreSQL; US commercial practice is dominated by hyperscaler managed SQL and proprietary engines.", "China's Xinchuang localization drives domestic engines (Dameng, Kingbase, OceanBase, GaussDB/openGauss) in government and state-owned systems.", "Mainframe hierarchical and relational engines (IMS, Db2 for z/OS) remain material in banking and government in the US, Japan and parts of Europe." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-regional-variation-q01", "text": "Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of database management system this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-neighbours", "name": "Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "name": "Database", "difference": "The database is the stored collection of data and catalog; the DBMS is the software that defines, protects and serves it." }, { "name": "File system", "difference": "A file system stores byte streams and directories; a DBMS adds a typed schema, a query language, multi-row atomicity, and crash recovery across related records." }, { "name": "Cache (for example Redis used only as a cache)", "difference": "A cache is allowed to drop or rebuild data; a DBMS is the system of record and is judged on durability and recoverability." }, { "name": "Search engine / inverted index", "difference": "A search index is optimized for ranked retrieval and eventual consistency; a DBMS is optimized for exact query, constraints and (usually) transactional update." }, { "name": "Spreadsheet", "difference": "A spreadsheet is an interactive grid for a single user or small group; a DBMS is a concurrent, authorized service with a declared schema and recovery." }, { "name": "Message broker / log", "difference": "A broker moves or records event streams; a DBMS answers ad hoc queries over current (and often historical) state under integrity constraints." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-neighbours-q01", "text": "Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of database management system this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Does this registry entry primarily denote DBMS software products, configured running systems, or both, and how should that interpretation align with its PHY / PHY.OBJ placement?", "Where should the registry draw boundaries between a DBMS and specialised systems such as persistent caches, search engines and stream-processing stores?", "Which shared vocabulary can express transaction, consistency and durability guarantees across DBMS families without implying equivalence between differently scoped guarantees?", "How should managed-service control restrictions and provider-only operational evidence be represented when the underlying DBMS cannot be inspected directly?", "What evidence freshness and recovery-test coverage are sufficient for an agent to treat operational or recoverability claims as actionable?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 7, "layers": 13, "findings": 20, "questions": 32 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "device, machine or tool", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a database management system, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a database management system, assess its ability to manage data reliably, and determine which operations are supported, authorised and safe in its current state.", "characteristics": { "substance": "material", "origin": "manufactured", "agency": "inert", "mobility": "varies" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: embedded database, IBM Informix, vadalog, object database management system, document-oriented database management system, VBRİS, graph database management system, vector database management system, RisingWave, in-memory database system, Historic Environment Scotland ID, multi-model database system.", "41 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 63 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a database management system, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "matter you can touch", "physicalCharacter": [ "Mobility varies between examples.", "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Recognised by form, by the arrangement of its controls, and by markings - a plate, a model number, a certification mark. Form alone rarely separates two models that do very different things." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "embedded database", "IBM Informix", "vadalog", "object database management system", "document-oriented database management system", "VBRİS", "graph database management system", "vector database management system", "RisingWave", "in-memory database system", "Historic Environment Scotland ID", "multi-model database system" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 63 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 41 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one database management system from another, and a database management system from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a database management system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a database management system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a database management system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a database management system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a database management system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a database management system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a database management system sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a database management system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a database management system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a database management system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a database management system from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a database management system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a database management system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a database management system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "form-and-composition", "name": "Form, composition and condition", "description": "What a database management system is made of, what shape and size it takes, and what state it is in.", "rationale": "A physical thing can be measured, and a model that cannot record its measurements cannot support any decision that depends on them.", "layers": [ { "id": "form-and-dimensions", "name": "Form and dimensions", "description": "Shape, size, mass and the ranges these take across examples.", "findings": [ { "id": "measurable-dimensions", "name": "Measurable dimensions and their units", "description": "The quantities worth recording and the units they are recorded in.", "questions": [ { "id": "measurable-dimensions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the dimensions of a database management system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "measurable-dimensions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the dimensions of a database management system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "measurable-dimensions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the dimensions of a database management system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "material-and-composition", "name": "Material and composition", "description": "Materials, parts and how they are put together.", "findings": [ { "id": "parts-and-materials", "name": "Parts and materials", "description": "What a database management system is built from and which parts are replaceable.", "questions": [ { "id": "parts-and-materials-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the composition of a database management system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "parts-and-materials-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the composition of a database management system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "parts-and-materials-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the composition of a database management system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "condition-and-integrity", "name": "Condition and integrity", "description": "Wear, damage, health and the difference between working and broken.", "findings": [ { "id": "condition-assessment", "name": "Condition, damage and health", "description": "How the condition of a database management system is judged and by whom.", "questions": [ { "id": "condition-assessment-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the condition of a database management system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "condition-assessment-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the condition of a database management system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "condition-assessment-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the condition of a database management system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "place-and-movement", "name": "Place and movement", "description": "Where a database management system is, how it got there and where it may go (varies).", "rationale": "A thing that can move needs its position recorded with a time, or every later claim about it is about a place it has left.", "layers": [ { "id": "location-and-placement", "name": "Location and placement", "description": "Position, containment and the reference frame the position is given in.", "findings": [ { "id": "position-and-frame", "name": "Position, container and reference frame", "description": "Where a database management system is, and what that position is measured against.", "questions": [ { "id": "position-and-frame-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the location of a database management system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "position-and-frame-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the location of a database management system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "position-and-frame-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the location of a database management system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "movement-and-transfer", "name": "Movement and transfer", "description": "How a database management system is carried, installed or relocated.", "findings": [ { "id": "movement-events", "name": "Movement events and constraints", "description": "What counts as a movement, what records it and what limits it.", "questions": [ { "id": "movement-events-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the movement of a database management system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "movement-events-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the movement of a database management system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "movement-events-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the movement of a database management system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a database management system passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a database management system between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a database management system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a database management system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a database management system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a database management system, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a database management system is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a database management system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a database management system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a database management system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "function-and-principle", "name": "Function and operating principle", "description": "What database management system is for and how it achieves it.", "rationale": "Two devices with the same name can work on different principles, and the principle is what predicts failure and constrains use.", "layers": [ { "id": "intended-function", "name": "Intended function", "description": "The job it does, and the jobs it is used for anyway.", "findings": [ { "id": "function-record", "name": "Function, principle and variants", "description": "What it does, how, and which variants do it differently.", "questions": [ { "id": "function-record-q01", "text": "What function does database management system perform, on what operating principle, and which variants differ in that principle?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "function-record-q02", "text": "What use falls outside the intended function but happens in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "capacity-and-rating", "name": "Capacity and rating", "description": "The numbers that say what it can do and where it stops.", "findings": [ { "id": "ratings", "name": "Ratings and their conditions", "description": "Rated capacity, power, throughput and the conditions each assumes.", "questions": [ { "id": "ratings-q01", "text": "What ratings characterise database management system, in what units, and under what stated conditions?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "ratings-q02", "text": "What happens beyond the rating - degradation, refusal, damage - and how is that detected?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "operation-and-state", "name": "Operation, controls and state", "description": "How database management system is operated and what state it is in right now.", "rationale": "An agent acting on a device needs its current state and the controls that change it, not just its specification.", "layers": [ { "id": "controls-and-modes", "name": "Controls and modes", "description": "What can be set, what that changes, and what is interlocked.", "findings": [ { "id": "control-surface", "name": "Control surface and interlocks", "description": "The settings available and the conditions that block them.", "questions": [ { "id": "control-surface-q01", "text": "What controls and modes does database management system have, and what does each change?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "control-surface-q02", "text": "Which actions are interlocked or forbidden in which state, and what must be true before acting?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "condition-and-maintenance", "name": "Condition and maintenance", "description": "Wear, service intervals, consumables and the line between working and broken.", "findings": [ { "id": "service-record", "name": "Condition, service and consumables", "description": "What is consumed, what is serviced, and how condition is judged.", "questions": [ { "id": "service-record-q01", "text": "What consumables and service does database management system need, at what interval, and on whose authority?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "service-record-q02", "text": "What evidence separates a unit that is working from one that is out of service?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "kind-model-unit", "name": "Kind, model and unit", "description": "Whether a claim about database management system is about the kind, a product line, or one physical unit.", "rationale": "This is the boundary most often got wrong for made things, and getting it wrong mixes a catalogue entry with the machine in the yard.", "layers": [ { "id": "level-of-reference", "name": "Level of reference", "description": "The three levels and what belongs at each.", "findings": [ { "id": "level-rules", "name": "What belongs to kind, model and unit", "description": "Which properties are shared by all of them and which are not.", "questions": [ { "id": "level-rules-q01", "text": "Which facts about database management system hold for every one of them, which for a model, and which only for one unit?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "level-rules-q02", "text": "What identifies an individual unit, and what should an agent do when it has only the kind?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "standards-and-conformity", "name": "Standards and conformity", "description": "The standards a working example must meet and who attests it.", "findings": [ { "id": "conformity", "name": "Standards, marks and attestation", "description": "Which standard applies, who certifies, and what the mark means.", "questions": [ { "id": "conformity-q01", "text": "Which standards govern database management system, issued by whom, and what does conformity actually assert?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "conformity-q02", "text": "What may an agent conclude from a certification mark, and what may it not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a database management system came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a database management system and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a database management system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a database management system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a database management system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a database management system is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a database management system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a database management system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a database management system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 8, "layers": 17, "findings": 19, "questions": 51 } } } }