Spec sprint hub — open decisions & questions (July 2026)

[nlebovits]

This is the hub for the July 2026 spec sprint's open decisions. To keep every conversation focused, each open item has its own discussion thread — pick the ones you have opinions on and reply there. Everything carries the spec-sprint label.

We've already made every call we could reasonably make ourselves (logged at the bottom — skim it and object if anything looks wrong). What's left is below.

🔴 Blocking — sprint work waits on these two

Thread	Question
#571	Should Portolan be a STAC extension, a profile, or some combination?
#572	What media type should a Mapbox GL style asset have?

🟡 Group decisions — a working direction is proposed in each thread

Thread	Topic
#573	Asset URLs and the definition of "published" (includes the self-link and s3:// vs https:// questions)
#574	versions.json: describe what the code really does, or build what the spec promises?
#575	How should versions.json relate to the STAC version extension?
#576	partition: extension — freeze the schema URL; upstream or not?
#577	Embed file properties (checksums, sizes) in STAC, or leave them on the files? (reopens a provisional decision — Chris/Javi disagree)
#578	Entry point: README + catalog.json + everything-links-to-everything (just confirm)
#579	Is metadata.yaml part of the spec, or a CLI implementation detail?
#580	Where does validation stop: at the STAC JSON, or inside the data files?
#581	Validator versus linter: which rules block, and which just grade you?
#582	Is PMTiles still a requirement at all?

⚪ Non-blocking asides — no thread, comment here if you have pointers

• "Compatible Parquet": plain Parquet meeting GeoParquet's compatible-parquet criteria could route through the geo pipeline. Tagged post-sprint.
• llms.txt: we're implementing it (feat: implement llms.txt generation + RULE-0080/0081 enforcement (ADR-0052) #565); if a STAC convention for rel="llms" is emerging, we'll align.
• CORS: the requirement is decided (below); standard wording to copy is welcome.
• Related open issues: styles/render extension (Styles: use STAC render extension for raster assets; every asset should have a style #521), Raquet support (Clarify .raquet extension in CLOUD_NATIVE_EXTENSIONS, upstream RaQuet uses .parquet #487, Support raquet (GeoParquet raster) as cloud-native raster format #484), join & relationship docs (Documenting joins between sibling assets within a collection (proposed portolan:join_keys) #444), mirror vs. official (Add a portolan tag for official vs. mirror catalog #542).

✅ Already decided — skim, object if something looks wrong

Decision	Where it lands
llms.txt: implement it (generation + validation) rather than downgrade the requirement	#565
The spec gets a version number: SemVer, machine-readable in spec/schema/	#566
Rename dataset.py and its internal "dataset" symbols to STAC terminology	#567
Standardize on STAC 1.1.0 everywhere; includes replacing the deprecated license: proprietary default	#568
PMTiles links use the web-map-links extension v1.3.0 (rel: pmtiles, application/vnd.pmtiles, pmtiles:layers) — it defines exactly our shape	#569
The table extension becomes required for collections marked non-geospatial	tabular.md update
The spec gains a CORS requirement: published catalogs must allow cross-origin GET/HEAD incl. Range	profile writing
Unsupported formats still get media types in the extensions table	#558
Rules bookkeeping: every rule gets an explicit enforced/unenforced status + a drift-guard test	rules.yaml work

(Adopting the file extension for checksums was provisionally decided, then reopened by the June 26 duplication debate — that's thread #577 now.)

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Ticket-level work is tracked in epic #564. Matthias — your review (portolan-spec#17 + Slack) is fully absorbed into the threads above; #17 stays open until each piece lands.