Editions, manifests, and provenance

DICOM is republished in named editions. A reproducible knowledge base must identify the exact edition that produced every fact.

current is an input, not a stored edition

dicom-kb fetch --edition current reads official release metadata and requires exactly one concrete label to be discoverable. The resolved label follows the form:

20YYx

For example, a concrete label can look like 2025e.

The source manifest stores both:

• edition: the concrete resolved edition;
• resolved_from: the user’s original input, such as current.

Build and query commands use the concrete edition.

Historical editions are explicit

A concrete edition request is checked against the official archive listing before acquisition. This avoids silently downloading content from the mutable current directory for a historical label.

One source manifest per acquisition

The manifest records:

• concrete edition;
• original resolution source;
• acquisition timestamp;
• parser version;
• legal notice;
• every artifact’s part and format;
• cache-relative path;
• official source URL when available;
• byte size;
• SHA-256 digest;
• a digest over the canonical manifest content.

The manifest is immutable unless the user explicitly supplies --force.

The database records its source

A SQLite build stores metadata that includes:

• edition;
• source-manifest SHA-256;
• schema version;
• build metadata and metrics.

Query trace metadata can include the same source-manifest digest. This creates a chain:

query response
    -> local SQLite build metadata
        -> source manifest digest
            -> cached artifact digests
                -> official release URLs or registered local files

Multiple editions can coexist

The default cache separates source and database paths by edition:

~/.cache/dicom-standard-kb/
  artifacts/
    <edition>/
  db/
    <edition>.sqlite

A client should treat edition as part of the query identity. Two equal-looking facts from different editions are not interchangeable without comparison.

Verification detects local drift

dicom-kb verify recomputes:

• the manifest digest;
• each artifact’s SHA-256;
• database metadata compatibility with the manifest.

It detects missing files, checksum changes, absent metadata, and edition or manifest mismatches. It does not re-fetch or repair content automatically.

Reproducible usage rule

Record these together in an application or agent evaluation:

concrete edition
database path
source-manifest SHA-256
project/package version
query input
query response trace

This is more reliable than recording only a mutable current URL or a natural language answer.