The Discovery Signal Entry Model defines the canonical structure of a Beacon-owned Discovery Signal. It establishes the minimum institutional components required to identify a signal, describe what was discovered, preserve its source and provenance, reference related canonical objects, record discovery metadata, track time and version, express status, and preserve relationships.
This page begins Beacon Phase II by defining the object that later work on signal types, lifecycle, identifiers, schemas, validation, provenance, versioning, publication, and production will govern.
Beacon cannot define production rules until it defines what a production Discovery Signal is. The Entry Model provides that canonical object boundary.
Beacon's canonical production object is the Discovery Signal. Discovery Metadata supports and describes that object.
The Discovery Signal is institution-owned by Beacon. Referenced objects remain owned by their originating institutions or external sources.
A production Discovery Signal should contain sufficient information to establish identity, subject, discovery context, source authority, provenance, relationships, and lifecycle context without assuming authority over the object or information it references.
Identity distinguishes one Beacon Discovery Signal from every other Beacon object.
Subject identifies what the Discovery Signal is about.
Signal Type classifies the nature of the discovery being recorded.
Candidate types may include information, jurisdiction, certification, registry, historical, integrity, trust, relationship, or other future governed categories.
Source identifies where the discovered information originated.
Provenance preserves the traceable path between the Discovery Signal and the information that caused it to exist.
Discovery Signals may reference canonical objects maintained by other Suite institutions.
Discovery Metadata preserves the context needed to interpret, filter, trace, and rediscover the signal.
Time must distinguish when information was observed from when the Beacon object itself was created or changed.
Version identifies the governed state of the Beacon Discovery Signal over time.
Status records the current institutional state of the Discovery Signal.
Relationships connect a Discovery Signal to sources, canonical objects, other signals, workflow context, or later institutional activity.
Every Discovery Signal must preserve the distinction between Beacon ownership and source authority.
The Entry Model can be represented conceptually as the following object. This is an architectural skeleton, not yet the production schema.
{
"discovery_signal": {
"identity": {},
"subject": {},
"signal_type": "",
"source": {},
"provenance": {},
"canonical_references": [],
"discovery_metadata": {},
"timestamps": {},
"version": {},
"status": {},
"relationships": []
}
}
The Entry Model establishes structural categories before finalizing which fields are mandatory in every production object.
This page deliberately does not freeze decisions that belong to later Phase II architecture.
A Discovery Signal may describe or reference information with authority outside Beacon. Beacon's act of discovery does not alter that authority.
The Entry Model is the dependency foundation for the remaining Beacon production architecture.
Later pages may refine this model, but they should do so explicitly rather than silently redefine the canonical Beacon object.
This Entry Model begins Beacon Phase II — Production Architecture.