Generated from
folio-assistant-core/skills/content/content-lifecycle-ext/registry-authority-contract.md— do not edit here.
External registry — confirming a source’s authority
external-registry (declared below this layer) is played by an external
actor: trusted registries and observatories outside this instance’s control. A
role played by something we do not run is still a role, and its skills are its
contract: what we rely on it to do (owner, 2026-10-16). This skill is the
part of that contract this layer’s evidence diagram relies on, and nothing
more. The registry list, its endpoints and the API bindings are not settled
(the diagram is a STRAWPERSON), so no registry is named here.
Where the diagrams lean on it
Lane_Trusted in evidence-retrieval
names this role and holds Task_VerifyAuthority and Gateway_Authoritative.
What that lane’s documentation and the task’s say is the whole contract.
What it must do
- Resolve the identifier at the publisher, through the standard API of the body that publishes the candidate.
- Return the record it holds, so the citation’s claim, its version and its date can be compared with what the publisher says (the task’s documentation lists the checks).
What happens when it does not answer
The decision is a readout of what the external API returns, not this
instance’s call. When that answer is uncertain or absent, Gateway_Authoritative
takes the no branch and Lane_WorkPlan opens a bean for the unverified
citation. The lane does not invent a verdict, and the citation is neither
dropped nor silently kept. Whether a publisher is one this folio has declared
trusted is the folio’s judgement, not the registry’s.
Tests
The test in tested-by: drives the evidence process with the harness’s
workflow engine and checks that a no from Gateway_Authoritative leads to
the bean for the unverified citation and that no step in the registry’s lane is
a decision of this instance’s. Lines 1 and 2 are the registry’s own behaviour,
on endpoints not yet chosen, and are not exercised.
Needs the owner’s review: this contract is read off one lane of one strawperson diagram.
Processes that run this skill
| process | step(s) that name it |
|---|---|
| Evidence for a recommendation | Verify authority against the observatory / registry API |