StandardsPolicies and clausesRecords and schemas
Policies and clauses

Policies and clauses: records and schemas

How the artefacts of policies and clauses are identified, described and resolved: the scope, the record, the categories, the schemas and the catalogue entries of the applicable standards, each keyed by a UNI (Unique Nexus Identifier).

Policies and clauses
What this area is built from, with the data and feeds its records read marked.Source: the Nexus Standards registry: the area record.
  • Nexus Standards: NS-10, NS-11, NS-14.
  • Open standards: ODRL Information Model 2.2; Common Expression Language (CEL); Open Policy Agent Rego policy language; LegalRuleML Core Specification 1.0; NIST Open Security Controls Assessment Language (OSCAL); JSON Schema 2020-12.
  • Data and feeds: EUR-Lex Cellar SPARQL endpoint; legislation.gov.uk API.
  • Couples with: Commons and command rooms; Verification and monitoring; Conformance and crosswalk to external.
01Process

The process.

Record explorer · schema, example, crosswalkNexus Standards registry

Artefact record (NS-1) · 32 fields · 12 required

  • uni required stringThe UNI (Unique Nexus Identifier), NS-1 grammar, without @version.
  • displayAlias stringPublic Registry short form (NX-R-47092) shown next to the UNI during the transition.
  • registryState enumPublic registry state; corrections keep the UNI and add a version.
  • legacyUni stringDotted UNI v0 this record replaces, for crosswalk (for example data.eo.stac.catalogue).
  • title required string
  • description string
  • scope required string
  • category required string
  • region string
  • domain stringDOMAIN segment code from the domains register (NS-1 v0.2); present when the identifier carries it.
  • sector stringSECTOR segment code from the sectors register (NS-1 v0.2).
  • environment enumENV segment code (NS-1 v0.2).
  • contextName stringNS-16 context name: the identifier without CAT and SERIAL; derived, never allocated.
  • systemId stringFunctional system class id (systemId) from the Nexus Standards register#scopes when scope is a SYSTEM.
  • status required enum
  • currentVersion string
  • versions array
    • version string
    • date string
    • gitSha string
    • digest string
    • note string
  • creators required array
    • name string
    • type enum
    • affiliation string
    • orcid string
    • ror string
  • publisherRef required stringEntity reference of the publishing institution (registry/governance.yaml#bodies); the institution stays publisher of record for institutional artefacts.
  • publicationDate required string
  • language string
  • keywords array
  • rights required object
    • license stringSPDX licence identifier or expression, or a LicenseRef- string for a licence that has no SPDX identifier.
    • rightsHolderRef string
    • accessRight enum
    • embargoDate string
  • legalState required enum
  • claimCeiling required enum
  • locations required array
    • kind enum
    • value string
    • digest string
  • relatedIdentifiers array
    • relation enum
    • identifier string
    • identifierType enum
  • supersededBy string
  • workPackageId string
  • directiveRefs arrayReferences to the recorded decisions or policies under which the artefact was produced.
  • notes string
  • context objectNS-9: this record is a deployment, instance or programme instance of the concept ofUni, in a context.
    • ofUni string
    • domains arrayids from the domains register
    • sectors arrayids from the sectors register
    • jurisdictions array
    • hostRef string
    • environment enum
    • validFrom string
    • validUntil string
    • conformsTo arrayNexus Standard ids and the external standards register ids this context claims; evidence per NS-11

Example record · NXS-STD-ST-000001

{ "uni": "NXS-STD-ST-000001", "title": "Nexus Standards NS-1 - the UNI and artifact catalog", "scope": "STD", "category": "ST", "status": "DRAFT", "currentVersion": "0.1.0", "creators": [ { "name": "Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)", "type": "Organizational" } ], "publisherRef": "GCRI", "publicationDate": "2026-10-15", "rights": { "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "accessRight": "open" }, "legalState": "LEGAL_REVIEW_REQUIRED", "claimCeiling": "INTEGRATED", "locations": [ { "kind": "repoPath", "value": "standards/NS-1-identifier-and-artifact-catalog.md" }, { "kind": "repoPath", "value": "registry/nexus-standards.yaml" } ], "workPackageId": "LEGAL-NAME-ARCHITECTURE-001" }
Field crosswalk: Schema.org JSON-LD, DataCite, Zenodo, CodeMeta
Record fieldSchema.orgDataCiteZenodoCodeMetaSource
uniidentifier (PropertyValue, propertyID urn:nexus:uni)alternateIdentifier (alternateIdentifierType NXS)metadata.related_identifiers[] (scheme other)identifierdraft
titlenametitles[].titlemetadata.titlenamedraft
descriptiondescriptiondescriptions[].description (Abstract)metadata.descriptiondescriptiondraft
scope·subjects[] (subjectScheme nexus-scope)metadata.keywords[]·draft
categoryadditionalTypetypes.resourceTypeGeneralmetadata.upload_type / publication_type / image_typeapplicationCategoryregistry
regionspatialCoveragegeoLocations[].geoLocationPlacemetadata.locations[]·draft
statuscreativeWorkStatus··developmentStatusdraft
currentVersionversionversionmetadata.versionversiondraft
versions·relatedIdentifiers (IsNewVersionOf, IsPreviousVersionOf)versions (concept DOI)·draft
creatorscreator / authorcreators[]metadata.creators[]authordraft
publisherRefpublisherpublishermetadata.publisher (Zenodo)publisherdraft
publicationDatedatePublishedpublicationYear; dates[] (Issued)metadata.publication_datedatePublisheddraft
languageinLanguagelanguagemetadata.language·draft
keywordskeywordssubjects[]metadata.keywords[]keywordsdraft
rights.licenselicenserightsList[].rightsIdentifier (SPDX)metadata.licenselicensedraft
rights.accessRightconditionsOfAccess·metadata.access_right·draft
legalState····draft
claimCeiling····draft
locationsurl / contentUrl / codeRepositoryalternateIdentifiers[] (URL)files[] / metadata.related_identifiers[]codeRepository / downloadUrldraft
relatedIdentifiersisPartOf / citation / isBasedOnrelatedIdentifiers[] (relationType)metadata.related_identifiers[]isPartOf / referencePublicationdraft
supersededBy·relatedIdentifiers[] (IsObsoletedBy)metadata.related_identifiers[] (isObsoletedBy)·draft
workPackageId····draft
directiveRefs·relatedIdentifiers[] (References)metadata.related_identifiers[] (references)·draft
context····draft

Rows marked registry are taken from the category mappings to Zenodo and DataCite in the registry; rows marked draft are an editorial mapping to the public schemas and are not part of the registry.

Record explorerthe artefact record schema with example records from the standards catalogue (scope STD). A record describes an artefact and its provenance.

Nexus Standards
3
NS-10, NS-11, NS-14
Open standards
6
named, never copied
Data and feeds
2
listed for reference
Couplings
3
with other areas
02Identifier

Identifiers under scope CMD

CMD is the system scope Integrated posture and executive synthesis. An artefact of this area is identified as NXS-CMD-<CAT>-<SERIAL>, with an optional region segment for regional artefacts; serials are allocated only by the catalogue.

UNI anatomy · parse, resolve, citeNexus Standards registry
prefixNXSfixedscope<SCOPE>32 codescat<CAT>38 artefact, 9 record codesregion<REGION>ISO 3166-1 or M49serial<SERIAL>six digits, allocatedversion@<VERSION>semver or record version

Illustrative identifier pattern. With script enabled, a UNI can be entered and each segment is checked against the registry, resolved to its record where one is published, and expressed as a URN, a resolver link and a citation.

UNI anatomyThe NS-1 grammar segment by segment, with the scope and category codes of the registry. Resolution links to the resolver; no identifier is allocated on this page.

The form above is a pattern; codes classify artefacts and are not product names.

03The record

Content of a catalogue record

Field setValues
Required fieldsuni, title, scope, category, status, creators, publisherRef, publicationDate, rights, legalState, claimCeiling, locations
StatusesDRAFT, PUBLISHED, SUPERSEDED, WITHDRAWN
Rights statesLEGAL_REVIEW_REQUIRED, APPROVED, RESTRICTED, PROHIBITED
Assurance levelsFIXTURE_VERIFIED, IMPLEMENTATION_COMPLETE, INTEGRATED, LAB_OBSERVED
04Embedding

Embedding of the UNI in the artefact

SurfaceHow
sourceFileheader comment: Nexus-UNI: <uni>
markdownfront matter uni: or first line Nexus-UNI: <uni>
datasetmetadata sidecar <file>.uni.json with the record, or a uni key in STAC or DataCite metadata
figurecaption suffix [<uni>] and image metadata
httpApiresponse header X-Nexus-UNI: <uni>
htmlPage<meta name="nexus-uni" content="<uni>"> and data-nexus-uni on the component root
cmscontent metadata field _nexus_uni (validated), rendered as the nexus-uni meta tag and the X-Nexus-UNI header
panelevery projected record carries uni in the panel’s provenance and links it to the resolver
05Record kinds

Record kinds and artefact categories

Artefacts use categories mapped to Zenodo and DataCite resource types; records of the data fabric use record kinds (NS-3). The two lists share no code.

CodeRecord kind (NS-3)
OBObservation fact
SRSource release
INIndicator definition
MEMeasure definition
BDBoundary version
CTChronotope version
CRCorrection record
APAnalytical product record
SUSubject (place, asset, organisation)
06Schemas

Machine-readable schemas

  • nexus-artifact-record.v1.json
  • nexus-attestation.v1.json
  • nexus-clause.v1.json
  • nexus-policy.v1.json
  • nexus-proposal.v1.json
  • nexus-subject-passport.v1.json
07Catalogue

Catalogue entries of the applicable standards

Records in the standards scope, with their status and rights state.

UNITitleCategoryStatusRights state
NXS-STD-ST-000006Nexus Standards NS-10 – policies and clausesSTdraftunder review
08Questions

Questions and answers.

Who allocates UNIs for policies and clauses artefacts?
The catalogue responsible for scope CMD, through the reference command-line tool. Serials are not entered by hand (NS1-R2).
What does the resolver return?
An HTML landing page for browsers or JSON for machines, for published records that are not restricted (NS-7).
Standards

Shape the standards for policies and clauses.

Governments, regulators, standards bodies, industry, academia and communities are invited to shape the catalogue ahead of its first official release, targeted for 2030: comment on a draft, propose a change, join a working group or host a field exercise.

Status and use. The Nexus Standards are proposed standards developed through an open process under NS-13 and published for voluntary use; they do not constitute certification, accreditation or regulatory approval, and adoption remains a decision of the Global Standards Council and, in each country, of its National Standards Council. A UNI (Unique Nexus Identifier) identifies an artefact; it does not certify it. Names of standards bodies and their standards belong to their stewards and are used only to identify the documents; no text of an external standard is reproduced here. Nexus Standards is not affiliated with, endorsed by or certified by any standards body named here.

Licences: CC BY 4.0 for standards text, registries, schemas and data; Apache-2.0 for reference code. External standards are cited by name, number and link under their own licences. Third-party data, libraries and fonts keep their own licences: see Third-party notices.

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