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ADR-0007 — Truthful metadata and no silent fabrication

  • Status: Accepted
  • Date: 2026-07 (as embodied in the 0.2.0b1 codebase)

Context

A validator that invents licence or provenance metadata would produce false confidence and corrupt publishing workflows.

Decision

  • Read-only validation: never write the input .h5ad.
  • Report missing/incomplete .uns governance blocks instead of inventing them.
  • Public-data pilots document truthful conversion mappings only.
  • Custom schemas cannot embed executable code (yaml.safe_load).

Consequences

  • Bare pipeline exports warn until authors add real metadata.
  • Pilot reports retain expected governance warnings.

Alternatives considered

  • Auto-fill defaults (e.g. assume CC0) — rejected as dishonest.
  • Skip provenance checks entirely — rejected for publishing utility.

References