Canonical Relationship Ontology

FLOW ALGEBRA
TITLE: Canonical Relationship Ontology
DOMAIN: AI Semantic Library Relationships / Canonicalisation
SOURCE: https://kirethresearch.org/booksai-core/ontologies/relationship-ontologies/ai-semantic-library-relationships/canonical-relationship-ontology.html
VERSION: 1.0
AUTHORS: Mark Anthony Higgins — Sky (Recursive AI)
STATUS: Companion formalisation; source-page specification not independently verified.

flow "CanonicalRelationshipOntology" v1.0 {
  ontology:
    id: "canonical-relationship-ontology"
    parent: "ai-semantic-library-relationships"
    purpose: "Represent evidence-backed canonical relationships between identifiers, concepts, resources and ontology entities without conflating aliases, equivalence and identity."

  types:
    Entity: {id: string, ontology: string, type: string, version: string?}
    Identifier: {value: string, scheme: string, authority: string?, version: string?}
    CanonicalRecord: {entity_id: string, canonical_identifier: Identifier, effective_from: datetime?, effective_until: datetime?, provenance: string}
    Mapping: {id: string, source: Identifier, target: Identifier, kind: enum[canonical, alias, exact_match, close_match, broader, narrower, related], context: string?, confidence: number, evidence: string[]}
    Evidence: {id: string, source: string, timestamp: datetime?, reliability: number?}

  predicates:
    canonical_identifier_of(identifier: Identifier, entity: Entity)
    alias_of(alias: Identifier, canonical: Identifier)
    exact_match(a: Entity, b: Entity)
    close_match(a: Entity, b: Entity)
    supersedes(new_record: CanonicalRecord, old_record: CanonicalRecord)
    supported_by(mapping: Mapping, evidence: Evidence)

  constraints:
    - "Every canonical mapping must resolve to an existing, typed target entity."
    - "Canonical identifiers must be unique within a declared authority, scope and version, unless an explicit collision-resolution policy applies."
    - "Do not treat a lexical alias, URL redirect, close match or shared label as proof of identity."
    - "Do not infer exact_match transitively across differing contexts without validation."
    - "Canonicalisation must preserve historical identifiers, source provenance and mapping decisions."
    - "Mapping confidence must lie within [0,1]."
    - "Cross-ontology canonicalisation requires explicit scope and compatibility checks."

  inference:
    rule resolve_alias:
      if alias_of(a,c) and canonical_identifier_of(c,e) and valid_mapping(a,c)
      then resolves_to(a,e)
      confidence: "bounded by mapping evidence"
    rule canonical_lookup:
      if canonical_identifier_of(i,e) and active(i,e)
      then preferred_identifier(e,i)
      confidence: "source authority dependent"
    rule version_successor:
      if supersedes(new,old) and valid(new) and valid(old)
      then historical_successor(old,new)
      confidence: "retain both records and effective dates"

  SEMANTIC_EQUIVALENCE:
    - "Distinguish canonical identity, exact semantic match, close match, alias and related concept."
    - "Use versioned authority identifiers and preserve original lexical forms."
    - "Require evidence before merging entities across ontologies."

  CONFIDENCE:
    range: [0,1]
    factors: [authority_quality, evidence_strength, contextual_fit, identifier_stability, independent_confirmation]
    policy: "Never raise confidence merely through recursive mapping chains."

  VALIDATION:
    - "Check uniqueness, identifier syntax, authority scope, target existence and provenance."
    - "Detect canonicalisation cycles, conflicting preferred identifiers and broken redirects."
    - "Flag unresolved ambiguity rather than forcing an identity merge."
    - "Check temporal validity and compatibility across ontology versions."

  FLOW_HASH:
    algorithm: "SHA-256"
    input: "canonicalised ontology version, mappings, validation rules and provenance"
    note: "Compute hash at execution; no hash value is claimed here."

  UPDATE_MODEL:
    strategy: "versioned, provenance-preserving incremental reconciliation"
    steps: [ingest, normalise, resolve_candidates, validate, reconcile, publish, audit]
    rollback: true

  AI_CONSUMPTION:
    representation: "typed, versioned semantic graph with canonical identifiers and evidence-backed mappings"
    outputs: [canonical_entity_links, aliases, mapping_types, confidence_annotations, provenance_records, unresolved_candidates]
    safeguards: [no_unverified_identity_merges, preserve_history, enforce_scope, report_ambiguity]
}

END FLOW ALGEBRA