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Retire strict_provenance docs; drop provenance terminology#199

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dimitri-yatsenko wants to merge 2 commits into
docs/197-make-contractfrom
docs/retire-provenance-framing
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Retire strict_provenance docs; drop provenance terminology#199
dimitri-yatsenko wants to merge 2 commits into
docs/197-make-contractfrom
docs/retire-provenance-framing

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@dimitri-yatsenko

@dimitri-yatsenko dimitri-yatsenko commented Jul 13, 2026

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Documentation counterpart to datajoint/datajoint-python#1489 (retire the strict_provenance runtime guardrail), and alignment with the decision to keep provenance terminology out of DataJoint's own documentation.

DataJoint implements the relational workflow model — data integrity, consistency, lineage, and reproducibility. "Provenance" is associated with a different class of systems; DataJoint's provenance compatibility features live in the platform and are documented separately (datajoint-provenance). So the public docs use the model's native vocabulary: lineage, reproducibility, traceability.

Stacked on #198 (base branch docs/197-make-contract). This PR links to the make() reproducibility contract section added there. Merge #198 first; GitHub will retarget this PR to main automatically.

Changes

Retire strict_provenance:

  • Rename reference/specs/provenance.mdreference/specs/trace.md and rewrite it as the spec for the upstream read surface (Diagram.trace + self.upstream) — the strict_provenance section (§3), config docs, examples, and references are removed; the "read/write boundary" is reframed in lineage/reproducibility terms.
  • about/whats-new-23.md: reframe the "provenance trinity" as the trace + self.upstream pair, drop the strict_provenance subsection and adoption step, retarget links.
  • mkdocs.yaml: nav "Provenance Trace & Strict Provenance" → "Upstream Trace".

Drop "provenance" terminology across the conceptual and tutorial pages (index, about/index, relational-workflow-model, normalization, comparison-to-workflow-languages, schema-as-workflow-specification, data-pipelines, faq, and three tutorial notebooks) — replaced with "lineage" / "reproducibility" / "traceability" per context.

Verification

  • grep confirms no "provenance" terminology remains in tracked source (src/), and no links point to the old specs/provenance.md path.
  • The renamed page and all retargeted cross-links resolve; anchor slugs verified. (llms-full.txt is a generated, untracked build artifact — regenerated on build.)

Published URL

reference/specs/provenance/ becomes reference/specs/trace/. This PR adds mkdocs-redirects (and the mkdocs-redirects build dependency) so the old URL redirects to the new page instead of 404-ing.

Match datajoint-python's removal of the strict_provenance runtime
guardrail, and align the docs with the decision to keep provenance
terminology out of DataJoint's own documentation. DataJoint implements
the relational workflow model — data integrity, consistency, lineage,
and reproducibility; provenance is a platform-level compatibility concern
documented separately.

- Rename reference/specs/provenance.md -> trace.md; rewrite it as the
  spec for the upstream read surface (Diagram.trace + self.upstream),
  removing the strict_provenance section entirely and reframing the
  "read/write boundary" in lineage/reproducibility terms.
- about/whats-new-23.md: reframe the "provenance trinity" as the
  trace + self.upstream pair; drop the strict_provenance subsection and
  adoption step; retarget links to trace.md and the make() contract.
- mkdocs.yaml: nav "Provenance Trace & Strict Provenance" -> "Upstream Trace".
- Sweep "provenance" from the conceptual and tutorial pages (index,
  about/index, relational-workflow-model, normalization,
  comparison-to-workflow-languages, schema-as-workflow-specification,
  data-pipelines, faq, and three tutorial notebooks), replacing it with
  "lineage"/"reproducibility"/"traceability" as fits each context.
Add mkdocs-redirects so reference/specs/provenance/ (renamed to
reference/specs/trace/ when the provenance framing was retired) keeps
resolving instead of 404-ing.
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