Citation-system profiles

Citation-system profiles constrain locator syntax through regular expressions and, where needed, additional documented validation rules. A pull request that adds or changes a citation system MUST include the profile record, examples of valid locators, and examples of invalid locators.

Required profile fields

• id: persistent system URI.
• key: flat stable key used for deterministic UUID seeds.
• type: CitationSystem.
• preferred_label: human-readable label.
• normalization_version: SemVer version.
• locator_regex: ECMAScript regular expression for machine-checkable locator pre-validation.
• examples.valid: locator examples that MUST match.
• examples.invalid: locator examples that MUST NOT match.

See Specification §7 for the full normative field list.

Profiles MUST follow the flat key and locator Unicode rules in Identifier syntax. A profile MAY add stricter locator rules for case, digits, punctuation, whitespace, allowed scripts, or non-regex-checkable constraints. Regex-checkable constraints MUST be reflected in examples and locator_regex; other constraints MUST be documented in the profile. The machine-actionable contract is the flat key, normalization_version, locator_regex, and examples.

Seed profiles

Bekker profile (Aristotelian corpus). Implements Bekker numbering, the page-and-column-and-line citation introduced by August Immanuel Bekker’s 1831 edition and used as the standard reference scheme for Aristotle:

{
  "key": "bekker",
  "normalization_version": "1.0.0",
  "locator_regex": "^[0-9]{3,4}[ab][0-9]{1,2}$",
  "examples": {
    "valid": ["983b10", "1003a21"],
    "invalid": ["983", "983c10", "983b"]
  }
}

Stephanus profile (Platonic corpus). Implements Stephanus pagination, the page-and-section citation from Henri Estienne’s 1578 edition and used as the standard reference scheme for Plato:

{
  "key": "stephanus",
  "normalization_version": "1.0.0",
  "locator_regex": "^[0-9]{1,4}[a-e](?:[0-9]{1,2})?$",
  "examples": {
    "valid": ["514a", "514a1"],
    "invalid": ["514f", "514", "514a100"]
  }
}

Validation rule

Every CanonicalReference MUST point to a known CitationSystem. Its locator MUST match that system’s locator_regex, and its normalization_version MUST be the value fixed when the reference was minted (see Specification §8); it need not equal the system’s current normalization_version. Regex success is necessary but not sufficient: a usable TextRefs reference must resolve to a registered CanonicalReference and satisfy any additional profile validation rules.