GEDCOM_COMPATIBILITY

GEDCOM compatibility and release checks

The supported GEDCOM and RootsMagic command syntax is maintained in the CLI reference. RootsMagic export supports portable and preservation profiles, connected/ancestor/descendant scopes, optional generation limits, and GEDCOM 5.5.5 with a deliberate 5.5.1 fallback.

The supported merge command recognizes --quality-report, --root-person, --provider, --model, and --consent as documented by ancestry gedcom merge --help. The fixture quickstart uses this public modular command with --provider none; it does not invoke the internal characterization CLI. Identity adjudication, incremental matching, and quality refinement use the unified application service. --provider PROFILE uses the profile's model, endpoint, execution limits, shared client, and exact-cache policy; direct built-in selection requires --model.

The merge engine preserves custom/vendor structures, citations, conflicting facts, family links, and stable pointers whenever representable. Optional LLM adjudication may identify likely duplicates but cannot delete conflicting evidence. Incremental sync never automatically deletes people, relationships, cited facts, protected baseline/manual content, families, or sources. Optional provider output reaches the deterministic engine only through narrow resolver contracts. A timeout, cancellation, consent denial, malformed response, or provider failure aborts the operation with a stable coded error; it cannot publish a partial synchronization bundle or weaken preservation rules. Identity confidence must be finite and between zero and one. An automatic merge accepts a provider duplicate decision only at or above the conservative confidence floor; lower-confidence pairs remain separate.

The safe offline fixture demo uses quality-source-a.ged, quality-source-b.ged, and root Maren Hollow:

scripts/gedcom_merge_quickstart.sh --skip-install

Both CLI invocations isolate their non-secret configuration and data directories beneath the timestamped run directory. The demo does not create or modify the caller's normal AncestryLLM or XDG configuration/data directories.

Automated validation does not establish product interoperability. Before claiming a release interoperable, complete the dated vendor evidence matrix in release-evidence/issue-10-import-smoke-tests.md for current Ancestry, Geni, and MyHeritage products. The matrix covers both 5.5.5 and any advertised 5.5.1 fallback and must identify each vendor result as verified, failed, unavailable, or unverified. Verify root selection, people/family counts, citations, names, dates, living-person behavior, and custom-tag loss reports using fictional fixtures only. A blank or pending row is an evidence gap, not a passing interoperability result.