Proposal: Manifest Authority, Layout, and Extra Content

Status

Accepted for OAA 1.0

Summary

Use manifests to define collection content, retain a recommended directory layout, and permit safe unreferenced extras and empty structures.

Motivation

Directory names should not compete with manifests as a source of truth. Archives also need to represent small, empty, or metadata-only collections without inventing placeholder records or files.

Specification Changes

galleries/ and artworks/ remain the recommended layout, not the sole valid arrangement.
The root collection manifest MUST determine the referenced gallery and artwork manifests. Readers MUST NOT infer additional collection records by scanning unreferenced content.
Gallery membership MUST be explicit. Readers MUST NOT invent membership when it is absent.
Artwork file paths MUST resolve within the directory containing that artwork’s manifest; subdirectories MAY be used.
Archives MAY contain safe unreferenced extra content. All entries, referenced or not, MUST satisfy archive safety requirements.
The obligation to preserve all safe extras during unchanged import and export belongs to the deferred preservation profile, not the 1.0 core contract. Archive safety and the requirements of each claimed core conformance class remain in force.
Empty collections, empty galleries, metadata-only artworks, and artworks assigned to no gallery MUST be permitted when their required manifest structure is otherwise valid.

Compatibility Impact

OAA 1.0 must distinguish recommended layout from required references and confinement. Schemas and validation must not impose nonempty membership or file lists contrary to this decision.

Examples

An artwork can have an empty file list while preserving its descriptive metadata. A safe unreferenced text attachment does not become an artwork or gallery merely because it exists inside the archive.

Open Questions

None for this decision. Alternate-layout, empty-structure, and extra-content fixtures remain to be integrated.