GlossaryUpdated 2026-09-21

Provenance

Provenance is the record of where a fact came from: the page it was read from, the date it was read and a fingerprint of the content at that moment. A fact with provenance can be checked and re-read; a fact without it can only be believed.

How it differs from a source link

A source link says where to look now. Provenance says what was there when the fact was taken — which matters because pages change. If the source later stops showing the value, provenance lets the record say so instead of silently updating its date.

Example

Every fact on a record at /products lists the page it was read from, the day, and the first characters of the SHA-256 digest of that page.

Where this was measured

Related

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