Schema Reference

The law format is defined by a JSON Schema. All law YAML files in the corpus must conform to this schema.

Current Version

The current schema version is v0.5.1.

Schema URLs use immutable git tags to guarantee reproducibility. The format is:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MinBZK/regelrecht/refs/tags/schema-v0.5.1/schema/v0.5.1/schema.json

The tag schema-vX.Y.Z is created when a schema version is released. Using tags instead of refs/heads/main ensures that the schema a law file references can never change underneath it. See RFC-013 for the rationale.

Version History

Version	Description
v0.5.1	Current - tag-based immutable schema URLs
v0.5.0	Operation set with engine, corpus migration, and WOO support
v0.4.0	Open terms, implements, legal character, type specifications
v0.3.2	Minor fixes
v0.3.1	Patch release
v0.3.0	Added cross-law references
v0.2.0	Initial public schema

Validation

Validate law files against the schema:

just validate                    # All files
just validate corpus/regulation/nl/wet/zorgtoeslag/2025-01-01.yaml  # Specific file

Schema Structure

The schema defines:

• Top-level metadata: $id, $schema, name, effective_date
• Service definition: input, output, articles
• Article structure: id, name, text, machine_readable
• Machine-readable: input, output, operations
• Operations: Typed operations with input and output fields
• Cross-references: source blocks pointing to other regulations
• Open terms: open_terms and implements for delegation

See Law Format for a guided walkthrough.