Source provenance and data authority

RapidValue records where imported objects and governed edges came from. That provenance is evidence: it lets an operator distinguish an observed target value, an imported identity fact, a calculated governance result and a platform-issued write.

Provenance is not the same as a universal data-authority matrix. The product does not currently claim one central policy that resolves every conflict per object, property and identity type.

What is authoritative today

Authority is declared at the boundary that owns the operation:

• a connector instance is the source of the records it imports;
• correlation declares which external key identifies the same governed object;
• mappings declare which canonical field a source value populates;
• write mappings and connector capabilities declare which fields and operations can be sent to a target;
• governance rules and approvals are the source of Expected access;
• the most recent successful import is the source of Actual access.

When a system is downstream of another writer, a sync relationship can route a matching operation to the upstream source rather than writing directly to the downstream target.

What provenance lets you answer

For a supported object or edge, the product can name the connector, rule, approval, request or calculation that produced it. High-volume workbenches use server-side filtering and pagination, and show provenance where the underlying row carries it.

That is narrower—and more honest—than saying every field conflict is resolved by one global precedence engine.

Conflicts and safe failure

An API identity push does not silently overwrite an identity owned by another source. The default is a conflict response. A credential may opt into partial merge for the explicitly safe field set; the response and audit then name the owning source and skipped fields.

For ordinary imports, correct the source, mapping or ownership declaration and re-run. Do not use source ordering as an undocumented business rule.

Roadmap boundary

A unified matrix across object kind, property, source and identity type is not a shipped product claim. Until that model exists, evaluate authority per connector, mapping, sync relationship and governed operation.

See imports and schedules, provisioning mappings, read/write parity and API reference.