| namespace | aiwg |
| platforms | ["all"] |
| name | provenance-tracking |
| description | W3C PROV-O patterns for tracking media derivation chains and production history |
| category | media-curator |
Provenance Tracking
W3C PROV-compliant provenance tracking for media archives using the Entity-Activity-Agent model in JSON-LD format.
PROV Model for Media
Entity (prov:Entity)
A media file — the thing being tracked.
Activity (prov:Activity)
A transformation — download, transcode, tag, extract audio.
Agent (prov:Agent)
A tool or person — yt-dlp, ffmpeg, opustags, the curator.
Derivation Chains
Media files often go through multiple transformations:
YouTube video (Entity)
→ downloaded by yt-dlp (Activity, Agent: yt-dlp)
→ raw .mkv file (Entity)
→ audio extracted by ffmpeg (Activity, Agent: ffmpeg)
→ raw .opus file (Entity)
→ tagged by opustags (Activity, Agent: opustags)
→ final .opus file (Entity)
Each step is recorded with timestamps, tool versions, and parameters.
PROVENANCE.jsonld Template
{
"@context": {
"prov": "http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#",
"schema": "http://schema.org/",
"premis": "http://www.loc.gov/premis/rdf/v3/",
"dc": "http://purl.org/dc/terms/",
"xsd": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#"
},
"@graph": [
{
"@id": "urn:archive:entity:collection",
"@type": "prov:Collection",
"dc:title": "Artist Name - Complete Collection",
"prov:generatedAtTime": "2026-01-26T01:33:51.302755851Z",
"schema:numberOfItems": 1109,
"schema:size": "94GB",
"premis:hasFixity": {
"@type": "premis:Fixity",
"premis:messageDigestAlgorithm": {
"@id": "http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/preservation/cryptographicHashFunctions/sha256"
},
"premis:messageDigestOriginator": "sha256sum (GNU coreutils)",
"schema:url": "CHECKSUMS.sha256",
"schema:numberOfItems": 1109
}
},
{
"@id": "urn:archive:activity:acquisition",
"@type": "prov:Activity",
"prov:startedAtTime": "2026-01-24T15:00:00.000000000Z",
"prov:endedAtTime": "2026-01-26T01:33:51.302755851Z",
"prov:wasAssociatedWith": [
{"@id": "urn:archive:agent:yt-dlp"},
{"@id": "urn:archive:agent:ffmpeg"},
{"@id": "urn:archive:agent:opustags"}
],
"prov:generated": {"@id": "urn:archive:entity:collection"}
},
{
"@id": "urn:archive:agent:yt-dlp",
"@type": ["prov:SoftwareAgent", "prov:Agent"],
"schema:name": "yt-dlp",
"schema:softwareVersion": "2024.12.23",
"schema:description": "Video/audio downloader"
},
{
"@id": "urn:archive:agent:ffmpeg",
"@type": ["prov:SoftwareAgent", "prov:Agent"],
"schema:name": "ffmpeg",
"schema:softwareVersion": "7.1",
"schema:description": "Audio/video transcoder"
},
{
"@id": "urn:archive:agent:opustags",
"@type": ["prov:SoftwareAgent", "prov:Agent"],
"schema:name": "opustags",
"schema:softwareVersion": "1.9.0",
"schema:description": "Opus metadata tagger"
}
]
}
Per-File Provenance
For detailed tracking, record provenance per file:
{
"@id": "urn:archive:entity:car-radio-opus",
"@type": "prov:Entity",
"dc:title": "Car Radio",
"schema:encodingFormat": "audio/opus",
"prov:wasDerivedFrom": {
"@id": "urn:archive:entity:car-radio-mkv"
},
"prov:wasGeneratedBy": {
"@id": "urn:archive:activity:extract-audio-001",
"@type": "prov:Activity",
"prov:used": {"@id": "urn:archive:entity:car-radio-mkv"},
"prov:wasAssociatedWith": {"@id": "urn:archive:agent:ffmpeg"},
"prov:startedAtTime": "2026-01-25T10:15:30.000000000Z"
Timestamp Standard
All timestamps MUST use ISO 8601 UTC with nanosecond precision:
Format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.NNNNNNNNNZ
Example: 2026-01-26T01:33:51.302755851Z
Command: date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%NZ
- Always UTC (Z suffix), never local timezone
- 9 decimal places (nanosecond precision)
Generation Commands
Get Tool Versions
yt-dlp --version
ffmpeg -version | head -1 | awk '{print $3}'
opustags --version 2>&1 | head -1
Generate Timestamp
date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%NZ
Count Files
find . -type f ! -name "CHECKSUMS.sha256" ! -name "PROVENANCE.jsonld" | wc -l
Calculate Total Size
du -sh . | cut -f1
Standards Reference
| Standard | Version | Usage |
|---|
| W3C PROV-O | 2013-04-30 | Provenance ontology |
| PREMIS | 3.0 | Preservation fixity metadata |
| Dublin Core | 1.1 | Descriptive metadata |
| Schema.org | Latest | Structured data |
| JSON-LD | 1.1 | Serialization format |
| ISO 8601 | 2019 | Timestamps |
References
- @$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/frameworks/media-curator/skills/integrity-verification/SKILL.md — Integrity verification that generates fixity records tracked by provenance
- @$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/frameworks/media-curator/skills/acquire/SKILL.md — Acquisition skill whose download events are recorded as provenance activities
- @$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/frameworks/media-curator/skills/audio-extraction/SKILL.md — Audio extraction that produces derivation relationships tracked in provenance
- @$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/frameworks/media-curator/skills/verify-archive/SKILL.md — Archive verification skill that can generate provenance records via --provenance flag
