Formal knowledge
Provenance
Information about where a statement or artifact came from and how it was produced.
Definition
Provenance
Provenance records the source, date, authoring or generation process, and relevant version of an artifact.
It lets a reader distinguish a new result, a reconstruction, an imported statement, and mechanically generated prose. It also makes a result traceable to a particular repository state.
01
Example
A fact can name the source theorem, the generator script, the engine commit, and the date of its check.
02
Important distinction
Provenance establishes origin and process. It does not establish mathematical truth by itself.
After reading this article, you should be able to
- Define Provenance in the sense used on this site.
- Identify the provenance fields needed to reproduce or audit a fact.