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Schema lifecycle and governance

The schema lifecycle is an end-to-end process that guides a schema from an idea to a production-ready resource. Understanding this lifecycle is essential for building robust, scalable, and interoperable solutions. This page connects the core concepts of meta-schemas, publication, and versioning into a single, holistic view.

The schema lifecycle​

The journey of a schema within the Truvity platform follows these key stages:

  1. Creation

    You define a structure of a schema and semantic definitions using the API or user-defined types (UDTs) in your code. At this stage, the schema is a temporary resource used for development and prototyping.

  2. Publication

    Once the schema is ready for production, you explicitly publish it. This creates an immutable, publicly verifiable version of your schema with a permanent slug and version.

  3. Use

    Your applications issue verifiable credentials (VCs) that reference the published schema. These credentials can then be verified by any party by accessing the public schema URL.

  4. Evolution

    When a schema needs to be updated, you create and publish a new version. This new version can be used for new credentials, while all existing credentials remain valid against their original, immutable schema.

Schema governance​

Effective schema management requires thoughtful governance to ensure long-term consistency and trust. Truvity provides tools to support these best practices:

  • Version thoughtfully

    Always create a new version of a schema when a change is needed. This preserves the immutability of existing credentials.

  • Use consistent slugs

    The slug for a schema should remain consistent across its versions (for example, proof-of-identity/v1, proof-of-identity/v2). This allows you to group related schemas and track their evolution easily.

  • Use faceted search

    You can use Truvity's powerful faceted search capabilities to find all versions of a schema by its slug, allowing for easy management of your schema library.

Further reading​

  • Manage schemas - get hands-on with the practical steps for each stage of the schema lifecycle.