Provenance
Provenance is the recorded history of where each piece of data came from — which source, when, with what confidence — preserved so any value in a database can be traced back to its origin.
What is Provenance?
Provenance is the audit trail of data. Every value in a Golden Record has provenance: the source that contributed it, the timestamp it was contributed, the confidence (if the source provides one), and any conflict-resolution decisions that produced the current value. Provenance matters for three reasons: debugging conflicts (when a value looks wrong, you can see which source pushed it), audit and compliance (every value's lineage is traceable), and source quality assessment (over time, you see which sources contribute correct values vs incorrect ones).
Why it matters
- Debugging tool for data conflicts — see exactly which source pushed which value.
- Audit and compliance requirement for regulated industries.
- Source-quality assessment over time — informs which sources to trust for which fields.
Use cases
- Conflict debugging. A Golden Record field looks wrong — provenance shows which source contributed it.
- Compliance audit. A regulator asks where data came from — provenance is the answer.
- Source ranking. Fields where Source A is right and Source B is wrong get used to rank quality.
How turgo helps
Every field in turgo's Golden DB carries full provenance — source, timestamp, confidence, conflict-resolution decisions — so any value's lineage is one click away.
See turgo in action →
