Namespace / wn
Witnessability Notation vocabulary
The terms of the boundary-diagram notation as RDF: what a diagram shows and what an evaluator found, with one anchor per term. https://witnessability.io/ns/wn#Record opens at Record.
About this vocabulary
Namespace https://witnessability.io/ns/wn#. Machine-readable files: /ns/wn.ttl and /ns/wn.jsonld (the Turtle vocabulary and the JSON-LD 1.1 context). Informative, prepared on 3 November 2026 as a bridge of the Witnessability Notation (version 0.4); where it and the versioned texts of the Conceptual Core, CBEE or WEXP differ, the texts prevail. Licence: the vocabulary and its files are dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0 (Specification v0.4 §13, erratum E-13).
Alignment with W3C PROV-O: a record or an assertion is a prov:Entity, the evaluator a prov:Agent, the appraisal a prov:Activity that used the evaluated set; each finding is a prov:Entity generated by the appraisal. PROV is used only for who produced the findings and from what. The state of a finding, its premises and the ceiling are terms of this vocabulary, not PROV relations. An expected record found absent is not a prov:Entity.
Classes
wn:Diagram — diagram
A claim-relative figure: one report's records, claims and findings. Specification §3.
wn:Band — control band
One party's control. Two points in one band are never independent. Does not mean: a trust zone.
wn:Boundary — witness boundary
The producing boundary of CBEE −02: where records are produced, what can be observed there, who controls it. A type of the Core's Witnessability Boundary (Core 1.0 §5.3). Does not mean: a network perimeter, an organisational unit or a security control.
wn:ObservationPoint — observation point
An Observation Locus (Core 1.0 §5.4) on a boundary. With observed = true capture occurred: a record exists. Does not mean: that the record is correct, complete or trustworthy. With observed = false only a capability exists (the ring). Does not mean: that nothing happened.
wn:Record — record
A record (verified artefact), an assertion, or an expected record found absent. Records and assertions are also typed prov:Entity; an absent record is not, because it is no artefact. Tags are verified properties. Does not mean: the artefact's content is true.
wn:Claim — claim
A Target Proposition (Core 1.0 §2.1), written literally, grouped by kind; rank orders claims within a kind as the author does (CBEE −02 §5 presumes no comparability); an unranked claim has no rank and no stated order with any other claim of its kind (v0.4, D-10).
wn:Finding — finding
An arrow of the diagram: the evaluator's finding about what one or more records, offered for a claim, support. Several offered records form a linked support: they warrant the claim jointly and none of them alone. Does not mean: that each record supports the claim a little.
wn:Appraisal — appraisal
The evaluation that generated the findings; it used the evaluated set and is associated with the evaluator.
wn:Evaluator — evaluator
wn:Premise — premise
A named premise a finding rests on.
wn:Ceiling — ceiling
The claim ceiling of CBEE −02 §5: the limit that records from one boundary place on claims of one kind, under the stated premises. An exclusion rule, not a source of support. Does not mean: that a claim below it is supported, that a claim above it is false, or that another boundary cannot reach it.
wn:Tie — binding tie
A Binding Relation (Core 1.0 §5.4) between two records; established or only asserted. Does not mean: the two records agree.
wn:Coverage — coverage
Effective Capture Coverage (Core 1.0 §5.4): the channels, interval and rule within which absence of a record is informative.
wn:Downgrade — downgrade
From an asserted claim to the supported claim of the same kind.
States, grounding classes and record forms
wn:State — finding state
wn:Supported — supported
Under the cited premises, the offered records warrant the claim; the evaluator's finding. Does not mean: the claim is true in the world.
wn:Unsupported — unsupported (does not follow)
Evaluated; the claim does not follow from the offered records. Does not mean: that the claim is false.
wn:Refuted — refuted
Evaluated; the offered records refute the claim under the named premises.
wn:NotEvaluated — not evaluated
Not assessed; supplies no finding for or against the claim. Does not mean: unsupported.
wn:Grounding — grounding class
How a boundary description is grounded (WEXP Core −02 §7 classes).
wn:AssertedOnly — asserted-only
wn:Attributed — attributed
wn:Attested — attested
wn:GroundingNotEvaluated — not evaluated
The grounding of the boundary was not evaluated (WEXP Core -02 §7). Added with notation v0.4 after review R-1, 3 November 2026.
wn:RecordFormKind — record form
wn:RecordForm — record
wn:AssertionForm — assertion
wn:AbsentForm — no record
Properties
wn:title
wn:sourceFormat
The version of the source format the diagram was written in (the wn field; Specification §13).
wn:generator
wn:action
wn:kindOrder
Display order of kinds (an rdf:List of strings).
wn:reliance
wn:notEvaluatedItem
wn:inDiagram
wn:evaluatedSet
Every record the evaluator examined, absent ones included; prov:used names only the artefacts among them.
wn:label
wn:text
wn:kind
The base or report kind a claim or ceiling belongs to (CBEE −02 §4, §5).
wn:rank
wn:wmType
A WM 2.0 draft proposition type (Obs, Auth, Inv, Exec, Orig, NonExec); omitted where the claim is not a proposition about one action.
wn:tag
wn:note
wn:inBand
wn:onBoundary
wn:producedAt
wn:assertedAt
A record asserted at a boundary with no observation point.
wn:form
wn:grounding
wn:observed
wn:enforcement
wn:offers
wn:forClaim
wn:state
wn:premise
wn:threshold
wn:thresholdK
wn:thresholdN
wn:thresholdT
wn:ofBoundary
wn:directlyAbove
The claim directly below the ceiling; absent when the ceiling sits below the whole stack of its kind.
wn:ceilingPremise
A premise the ceiling rests on (Specification v0.4, N-12): CBEE −02 §5 places a ceiling under stated premises. Kept apart from wn:premise, whose domain is a finding.
wn:between
wn:established
wn:limit
v0.4 (N-18): the struck finding states its boundary's limit on an unranked claim, under the premises it cites, not a gap in the evidence set.