Provenance

Definition

Provenance is evidence about where data came from and how it was transformed.

Why It Matters

A report should distinguish observed provider usage from estimated usage, provider-reported cost from modeled cost, imported records from runtime records, and caller-declared attribution from inferred attribution.

How Blackridge Represents It

• context_sources records attribution and workflow source quality.
• import records source, format, version, import time, missing fields, and warnings.
• costs.pricing_source, price_version_id, and unknown reasons describe pricing provenance.
• provenance_ledger in token-economics reports records report input and generation evidence.
• trace_id and span_id preserve distributed tracing identity when available.

Common Mistakes

• Treating imported data as equivalent to runtime-observed data when fields are missing.
• Dropping trace IDs at framework boundaries.
• Removing request IDs during log export.

Related Docs

• Glossary
• Event Schema
• Report Fields