◈ Root-LD Specification Document
Root-LD
Federated Semantic Linked Data Specification
Root-LD is a federated semantic linked data specification for organizing, anchoring, and connecting machine-readable knowledge across multiple domains. It is designed to function the way biological cognition functions — not through a single centralized intelligence but through distributed processing units synchronized to a shared anchor frequency.
Every entity in a Root-LD federation, regardless of domain, regardless of type, regardless of content, carries the same root wrapper. The root never changes. The content beneath it does. The edges between entities emerge from the data over time through deterministic, lexical, and semantic passes.
The result is a knowledge graph that grows more intelligent as it grows larger — because every new entity added to any domain in the federation immediately becomes available for edge-building against every existing entity across all domains.
Root-LD is not a content management system. It is not a database schema. It is not an SEO framework. It is a semantic architecture for federated knowledge that happens to produce all three as byproducts.
Every entity in a Root-LD federation, regardless of domain, regardless of type, regardless of content, carries the same root wrapper. The root never changes. The content beneath it does. The edges between entities emerge from the data over time through deterministic, lexical, and semantic passes.
The result is a knowledge graph that grows more intelligent as it grows larger — because every new entity added to any domain in the federation immediately becomes available for edge-building against every existing entity across all domains.
Root-LD is not a content management system. It is not a database schema. It is not an SEO framework. It is a semantic architecture for federated knowledge that happens to produce all three as byproducts.
Every Root-LD entity consists of exactly three layers stacked in fixed order. The layers never reorder. The layers never merge. Each layer has a specific function and a specific set of fields. Some fields are required. Some are conditionally required. Some are optional. None are invented at the entity level — all fields are defined in the specification and populated from data.
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Layer One — Root-LD Anchor
FIXED · UNIVERSALThe anchor layer. Fixed across all entities across all domains across all time. The only field that varies between domains is the domain signature. Every other field in this layer is either universal or derived deterministically from the entity's properties at ingestion time.
Purpose: To make every entity in the federation uniquely identifiable, verifiable, traceable to its primary source, and locatable within the federation hierarchy — regardless of what domain it lives in or what type of content it contains.
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Anchor Fields
LAYER ONE
specVersion
Required · Immutable
The version of the Root-LD specification this entity was generated under. Immutable after ingestion. Allows future parsers to correctly interpret historical entities.
Current value: 1.0
federationId
Required · Immutable
A globally unique identifier for this entity across the entire federation. Generated at ingestion. Never changes. This is the entity's permanent identity in the graph.
Format: {domainCode}-{entityClass}-{deterministicHash} — e.g., OM-STATUTE-7x9k2m
domainSignature
Required · Immutable
The domain this entity belongs to. The only field in the anchor layer that varies between entities across different domains. New domains are registered at the federation level before any entities are minted under them.
Registered domains: oakmorel.com · rankwithme.ai · recursiveengineoptimization.com · franklinsledger.com · root-ld.org
entityClass
Required
The broad category of this entity. Defined at the federation level. New classes require specification amendment.
Classes: STATUTE · REGULATION · BID · CONTRACT · ENTITY · ECONOMIC · WEBPAGE · RESEARCH · CASE · DEFINITION · PERSON · ORGANIZATION · JURISDICTION · DATASET · EVENT
entitySubclass
Required
The domain-specific subtype within the class. Defined at the domain level. Allows domain-specific granularity without polluting the federation-level class system.
Under STATUTE: FEDERAL-CONSTITUTION · FEDERAL-USC · FEDERAL-CFR · STATE-CODE · STATE-REGULATION
primarySource
Required · Immutable
The canonical URL of the original source document this entity was derived from. Must be a public, verifiable, persistent URL. An entity without a verifiable primary source cannot be minted.
sourceVerified
Required
Boolean. Was the primary source verified at ingestion time. Entities with sourceVerified: false are flagged in the graph and excluded from edge-building passes until verified.
dateIngested
Required · Immutable
ISO 8601 datetime. When this entity was first created in the federation. Immutable.
dateLastVerified
Required
ISO 8601 datetime. When the primary source was last successfully fetched and the entity content confirmed against it. Updated by cron.
dateModified
Required
ISO 8601 datetime. When the underlying source content last changed. Derived from source metadata. This is not when the publishing domain updated the page — this is when the source changed.
contentHash
Required
A hash of the body content at last verification. Used to detect changes between cron runs without fetching full content. If hash changes, entity is flagged for regeneration.
humanVerified
Required
Boolean. Has a human reviewed this entity's content and confirmed accuracy. False by default on machine-generated entities. High-stakes classes (STATUTE, REGULATION, CASE) are prioritized for human verification.
generationMethod
Required
How this entity's body content was produced. Critical for trust scoring and disclosure.
Values: DETERMINISTIC · LLM-ASSISTED · LLM-GENERATED · HUMAN-AUTHORED
disclosureStatement
Conditional
A plain-language statement of how this entity was produced, suitable for display on the page. Required when generationMethod is LLM-ASSISTED or LLM-GENERATED. Null for HUMAN-AUTHORED.
Example — Anchor Layer
// Root-LD Anchor — Layer One "specVersion": "1.0", "federationId": "OM-STATUTE-7x9k2m", "domainSignature": "oakmorel.com", "entityClass": "STATUTE", "entitySubclass": "FEDERAL-USC", "primarySource": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=15+U.S.C.+1", "sourceVerified": true, "dateIngested": "2026-02-28T00:00:00Z", "dateLastVerified": "2026-02-28T12:00:00Z", "dateModified": "1890-07-02T00:00:00Z", "contentHash": "sha256:a1b2c3d4...", "humanVerified": false, "generationMethod": "LLM-ASSISTED", "disclosureStatement":"This summary was generated by an automated machine intelligence system. It is not a legal interpretation. The original source text is preserved verbatim below."
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Layer Two — Body-LD
DOMAIN-SPECIFIC · CONTENTThe content layer. Domain-specific and entity-class-specific. This is where the actual data lives. The body schema is defined per entity class at the domain level but must conform to federation-level field naming conventions so that cross-domain edge-building can operate on shared field names without custom parsers for every domain.
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Universal Body Fields
ALL ENTITIES · ALL CLASSESPresent in every entity regardless of class or domain.
name
Required
The canonical human-readable name of this entity. The official title, not a description of the content.
description
Required
A concise machine-readable description of what this entity is. A description of the entity itself — not a summary of its content.
Correct: "The First Amendment to the United States Constitution." — Not: "The First Amendment says you can say what you want."
summary
Conditional
The LLM-generated or human-authored plain English summary of the content. Required for STATUTE and REGULATION. When present, must be accompanied by a disclosureStatement in the anchor layer.
bodyText
Conditional
The verbatim source text of this entity. Required for STATUTE, REGULATION, CASE, DEFINITION. This field is never modified by LLM passes. It is sourced from the primary source and does not change unless the primary source changes.
jurisdiction
Required
The legal or administrative jurisdiction this entity belongs to. Hierarchical. Normalized across the federation so that entities from different domains can share a jurisdiction edge without custom mapping.
Values: Federal · State · County · Municipal
effectiveDate
Required
When this entity became effective. ISO 8601. For statutes: date of enactment. For bids: date of issuance. For economic data: the period it represents.
expirationDate
Optional
When this entity expires or is superseded. Null for permanent entities. Populated for bids, time-limited regulations, fiscal period data.
status
Required
The current status of this entity. Updated by cron.
Values: ACTIVE · SUPERSEDED · EXPIRED · PENDING · REPEALED · DRAFT
identifiers
Required
An array of all known identifiers for this entity across different systems. This array is what makes cross-system deduplication possible.
For a statute: USC citation · Public Law number · Statutes at Large citation
tags
Required
An array of controlled vocabulary terms assigned to this entity, drawn from the federation lexicon — a shared dictionary spanning all domains. When a tag appears in both a statute and a procurement bid, that shared tag is a candidate for an edge.
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Class-Specific Body Fields
PER ENTITY CLASSDefined per entity class at the domain level. Selected classes shown below. All class-specific fields must conform to federation-level naming conventions.
◈ Specification Rule
Class-specific field names are defined in the specification and cannot be invented at the entity level. New fields require a specification amendment under the governance process defined in Part III.
Class Fields — STATUTE / REGULATION
"citationFormal": "15 U.S.C. § 1", "citationInformal": "Sherman Antitrust Act Section 1", "amendmentHistory": [ ... ], "relatedStatutes": [ "OM-STATUTE-...", "OM-STATUTE-..." ], "regulatoryAuthority": "Federal Trade Commission", "penaltyProvisions": true, "procurementRelevance": false
Class Fields — BID / CONTRACT
"solicitationNumber": "FA8501-26-R-0001", "issuingAgency": "OM-ENTITY-af7b2c", "naicsCode": "541330", "setAsideType": "SDVOSB", "estimatedValue": 4200000, "responseDeadline": "2026-04-15T17:00:00Z", "awardedTo": null, "awardAmount": null, "contractType": "FIXED-PRICE"
Class Fields — ECONOMIC
"indicatorName": "Consumer Price Index — All Urban Consumers", "indicatorCode": "CUUR0000SA0", "issuingAgency": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics", "reportingPeriod": "2026-01", "value": 315.8, "unit": "Index (1982-84=100)", "priorPeriodValue": 314.2, "methodology": "https://www.bls.gov/cpi/methodology.htm"
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Layer Three — Recursive-LD
EDGE LAYER · GROWS OVER TIMEThe edge layer. This is where the graph becomes intelligent. Recursive-LD is not populated at ingestion. It grows over time through sequential passes run against the full corpus.
It is called Recursive-LD because each pass uses the output of prior passes as input — the graph reasons about itself using its own prior reasoning as context.
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Edge Object Structure
LAYER THREEtargetIdRequired
The federationId of the entity this edge points to.
targetDomainRequired
The domain signature of the target entity.
edgeTypeRequired
The type of relationship. Drawn from the federation edge taxonomy.
confidenceRequired
Float 0.0 to 1.0. How confident the system is in this relationship. Deterministic edges are always 1.0.
confirmationMethodRequired
How this edge was established.
Values: DETERMINISTIC · LEXICAL · SEMANTIC-LLM · SEMANTIC-FINETUNED · HUMAN-CONFIRMED
dateEstablishedRequired
ISO 8601. When this edge was first recorded.
dateLastConfirmedRequired
ISO 8601. When this edge was last validated.
bidirectionalRequired
Boolean. Does the target entity have a corresponding edge back to this entity.
weightRequired
Float. The strength of this relationship relative to other edges from this entity. Updated as new edges are added and the relative importance of each shifts.
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Federation Edge Taxonomy
DEFINED RELATIONSHIP TYPESThe defined set of relationship types across the federation. Edge types not in this taxonomy cannot be created without a specification amendment.
GOVERNS
A statute or regulation governs an entity, process, or domain.
GOVERNS-INVERSE
A procurement type or process is governed by a statute.
ISSUED-BY
A bid or contract was issued by a government entity.
ISSUED-BY-INVERSE
A government entity issued this bid or contract.
REFERENCES
This entity references another entity in its text.
REFERENCED-BY
This entity is referenced by another entity.
SUPERSEDES
This entity replaces a prior entity.
SUPERSEDED-BY
This entity was replaced by a newer entity.
AMENDS
This entity modifies another entity.
AMENDED-BY
This entity was modified by another entity.
ENFORCED-BY
This statute or regulation is enforced by this agency.
ENFORCES
This agency enforces this statute or regulation.
FUNDS
This economic data or budget line funds this entity or program.
FUNDED-BY
This entity or program is funded by this economic allocation.
JURISDICTIONALLY-RELATED
Two entities share a jurisdiction.
TOPICALLY-RELATED
Two entities share significant topical overlap confirmed by semantic pass.
LEXICALLY-RELATED
Two entities share significant vocabulary from the federation lexicon.
FORENSICALLY-RELEVANT
This entity is relevant to forensic intelligence services. Domain-specific edge type connecting public law and procurement data to forensic relevance.
CITED-IN
This statute or case is cited in this document.
CITES
This document cites this statute or case.
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The Federation Passes
EDGE BUILDING · SEQUENTIALFour sequential passes run against the full corpus to populate the Recursive-LD layer. Each pass uses the output of prior passes as input.
Pass One
Deterministic
Confidence 1.0
Runs on exact identifier matches. If a bid's issuingAgency field matches a directory entity's identifier, an ISSUED-BY edge is created at confidence 1.0. No LLM. No ambiguity. Pure data.
Pass Two
Lexical
Confidence Proportional
Runs the federation lexicon against every entity's bodyText and summary. A procurement bid containing vocabulary that matches a statute about procurement fraud receives a LEXICALLY-RELATED edge at confidence proportional to the density of shared lexicon terms.
Pass Three
Semantic-LLM
Threshold 0.7
Runs on entity pairs that scored above a threshold in the lexical pass but below confidence 0.7. The LLM receives both entity summaries and the proposed edge type and returns a confidence score with a brief rationale. Above 0.7 the edge is recorded with the rationale stored as metadata. The rationale corpus from confirmed edges becomes training data for Pass Four.
Pass Four
Semantic-Finetuned
Quarterly
The same as Pass Three but using a model fine-tuned on the confirmed edges and rationales from all prior passes. Runs quarterly once sufficient training data exists. This pass makes the graph proprietary — it reasons in a way that no external model can replicate because it was trained on relationships that only exist in this federation.
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Registered Domains
CURRENT FEDERATIONEach domain in the federation has a registered profile defining its primary entity classes, domain lexicon contribution, schema extensions, and relationship to other domains.
oakmorel.comPrimary Member
Classes: STATUTE, REGULATION, BID, CONTRACT, ENTITY, ECONOMIC. Focus: forensic intelligence, procurement forensics, platform integrity, public infrastructure. Lexicon: procurement terminology, forensic methodology, legal citations, government entity hierarchy.
rankwithme.aiPrimary Member
Classes: WEBPAGE, RESEARCH, DEFINITION, DATASET. Focus: semantic search, knowledge graph construction, AI-assisted content intelligence. Lexicon: search terminology, schema vocabulary, AI methodology.
recursiveengineoptimization.comPrimary Member
Classes: RESEARCH, DEFINITION, WEBPAGE. Focus: recursive reasoning, knowledge graph theory, LLM methodology. Lexicon: AI/ML terminology, graph theory, epistemology.
franklinsledger.comPrimary Member
Classes: ECONOMIC, DATASET, ORGANIZATION. Focus: financial intelligence, economic data, fiscal analysis. Lexicon: financial terminology, accounting vocabulary, economic indicators.
root-ld.orgSpecification Home
Classes: DEFINITION, RESEARCH. Focus: the specification itself. The authoritative home of the Root-LD standard. Every other domain references root-ld.org as the specification source.
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Edge Density — The Primary Metric
COMPOUND REASONINGThe power of the federation is measured not by the number of entities but by the density of cross-domain edges. A graph with 10,000 entities and 1,000 cross-domain edges is less powerful than a graph with 1,000 entities and 10,000 cross-domain edges.
Edge density is the metric that matters. Every cron run, every new entity ingested, every LLM pass increases edge density. The graph compounds.
◈ Compound Reasoning
The property of a mature federation where new entities immediately increase the intelligence of the entire graph. Every entity added to any domain becomes available for edge-building against every existing entity across all domains. The graph reasons about itself using its own prior reasoning as context.
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Immutability Rules
NON-NEGOTIABLEfederationId
Immutable after minting. Cannot be changed under any circumstance. An entity that needs a different primary source must be deprecated and a new entity minted.
dateIngested
Immutable. The moment of creation in the federation is a permanent historical fact.
domainSignature
Immutable. An entity's domain cannot change after minting.
primarySource
Immutable. The source document that gave rise to this entity is a permanent fact. Mint a new entity if the source changes.
These four fields ensure that any external system that has recorded a federationId can always resolve it and trust what it finds.
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Deprecation Protocol
ENTITIES NEVER DELETEDEntities are never deleted. They are deprecated. A deprecated entity receives status: SUPERSEDED or status: EXPIRED, a supersededBy field pointing to the new entity's federationId, and is retained in the graph permanently.
This ensures that any external citation of a deprecated entity resolves to a page that explains what superseded it and where the current version lives.
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Version Control
BACKWARD COMPATIBLEThe specification version is recorded in every entity's anchor layer. When the specification changes, a new version is issued. Existing entities retain their original spec version. The federation maintains backward compatibility across all versions.
Forward Compat
A parser for version 2.0 can read a version 1.0 entity without modification.
Unknown Fields
A parser for version 1.0 ignores fields it doesn't know about in a 2.0 entity.
The Lexicon
The federation lexicon is a living document maintained at root-ld.org. Terms are reviewed before inclusion. The lexicon is itself a Root-LD entity — a DEFINITION class object with its own federationId, edges, and version history.
The following terms are canonical within the Root-LD specification and across all federation domains. Use these names — not synonyms, not abbreviations.
Root-LD
The name of the format and specification.
Anchor
The first layer. Identity and provenance. Fixed across all entities.
Body
The second layer. Content and domain-specific data.
Recursive
The third layer. Edges and relationships. Grows over time.
Federation Passes
The four sequential passes that populate the Recursive layer.
The Lexicon Model
The fine-tuned model trained on confirmed federation edges. Runs Pass Four.
The Federation
The full connected graph across all registered domains.
Compound Reasoning
The property where each new entity increases the intelligence of the entire graph.