Trace dataset provenance

Trace dataset provenance

Shepard records every significant action on a dataset as a provenance activity: who created it, who updated it, who read it, who deleted a reference, and so on.

Provenance graph

1. Open a Collection and navigate to a dataset.
2. Scroll to the Provenance Graph panel and expand it.
3. The graph shows:
   • The dataset itself (blue square, centre).
   • Predecessor / child datasets it is related to (orange circles).
   • Agents (users) who acted on it (purple diamonds).
   • Edges labelled with the action kinds and counts per agent.

Interacting:

• Scroll to zoom.
• Drag nodes to rearrange.
• Hover for details (action counts per agent, relationship types).

Activity feed

For a time-based view, open the Activity panel on the Collection page. The sparkline charts show CREATE / UPDATE / DELETE counts over the last 30 days across all datasets in the collection.

Provenance in export

When you export a collection as an RO-Crate (the Download as RO-Crate button on the collection page), the provenance trail is embedded in the crate metadata following the RO-Crate Profile specification. Each activity maps to a CreateAction / UpdateAction / DeleteAction entity in ro-crate-metadata.json.