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A Daily Lexicon of Trustworthy Data

005·22

data contract

/ˈdeɪ.tə ˈkɒn.trækt/ - n.

1 [colloq.] A promise with a schema, signed by no one with the authority to keep it.Keep. Punchy.This is the problem.

Working definition

2. A versioned, enforceable agreement specifying the schema, semantics, quality, and SLAs a producer guarantees to its consumers.

Promoted

Seen in the wild · 5

Who Owns the Event Definition? The Registry Knows; the Org Doesn'tOwner Missing
Everyone Agreed on the YAML. Nobody Agreed on the Owner.Definition Drift
The Build Checks the Shape. It Will Not Enforce the Promise.Owner Missing
Your Pipeline Learned to Call Yesterday's Breakage NormalDefinition Drift
The data contract grew up. It stopped being a schema and started being a governance control.Definition Drift

See also

data productA dataset with a landing page.
domain-oriented ownershipA diagram in which every box owns the data and every arrow owns the blame.
interoperabilityTerm struck pending the shared definitions, contracts, and identifiers two systems must agree on before they can be said to operate together at all.
semantic layerThe place where the company agreed what 'revenue' means, except for the four teams that didn't get the invite.