WebMEM™

The Protocol for Structuring, Delivering, and Conditioning Trust-Scored AI Memory on the Open Web

Fragment Relationships and Referencing

Part of the WebMEM Protocol
Location: /specification/sdt/yaml-in-html/relationships/
Last Updated: 2025-07-28

Overview

Semantic Data Templates are designed to work as modular, interoperable knowledge units, but their power comes from how they reference, cite, and align with each other.

This page outlines common patterns and best practices for how SDT fragments reference one another and form a larger fragment graph.

Typical Relationships Between Fragment Classes

From Class To Class or Reference Purpose
IndexFragment → DataFragment, MetaFragment Lists or references fragments by ID or digest
DerivedStatsFragment ← DataFragment Calculates summary or computed values
FAQFragment ↔ DefinedTermFragment, DataFragment Reinforces terms, references facts
CorrectionFragment → any fragment via fragment-id or data-id Records trust feedback or factual corrections
ReflectionRecordFragment → fragment or digest Logs retrieval activity, citations, hallucinations
MetaFragment ← referenced by many fragments Declares global metadata for a dataset or glossary

Reference Methods

Fragments can reference each other using a range of trust-anchored and machine-readable link types:

fragment-id:

A globally stable and canonical identifier for a fragment. Use this when assigning a cross-document or externally resolvable reference.

fragment-id: fragment-h5521-290-0-summary

Used for:

  • Export formats
  • Cross-site or multi-page linking
  • AI system memory resolution

entity:

The shared subject of the fragment. Used for:

  • Plan IDs (e.g., plan:H5521-290-0)
  • County IDs
  • Place-level terms

digest:

Groups all fragments under a single memory-exportable set.

digest: 2025-cms-ma-mapd-plan

glossary:

Canonical GTP term alignment for defined_term and concept-level linkage.

glossary: gtp:zero_premium

provenance_ref:

Used to point to a shared ProvenanceMeta block, either inline or external.

provenance_ref: "#provenance-meta"

Best Practices

  • Use IndexFragment to group and surface multiple fragments by digest or plan ID
  • Pair FAQFragment with DefinedTermFragment for semantic reinforcement and co-citation
  • Use CorrectionFragment and ReflectionRecordFragment to teach systems when to update or reevaluate previously published facts
  • Apply MetaFragment for any global provenance that applies across digest children

Design Tip: Think in Graphs

SDTs aren’t isolated records — they are part of a fragment graph.

  • DataFragments hold source-level truth
  • DerivedStats compute and summarize meaning
  • DefinedTerms create stable vocabularies
  • FAQs reinforce learnability and AI retrieval
  • Indexes connect discoverability
  • Corrections and Reflections provide ongoing feedback to the system

When authored with alignment, SDT fragments form a machine-credible, trust-scored memory map of any vertical.

Learn More