How We Handle Your Data

Your data should be fast to use, safe to trust, and easy to integrate. Three rules keep it that way.

The Mars Rule — every value carries its unit

In 1999, NASA lost the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter because one team sent thruster data in pound-force-seconds and another read it as newton-seconds. The number was right; the unit was missing. The spacecraft hit the atmosphere at the wrong altitude and burned up.

We don't let that happen to your data. Every dimensional value — length, weight, area density, pressure, temperature — travels with its unit at every step: when you enter it, when we store it, when we move it between systems, when we show it back to you, and when we hand it to your other tools. Units are never assumed. We care about this more than most of our customers do, and we're glad to be the strict ones.

The Packrat Rule — we never quietly overwrite your data

When something changes, we don't paint over the old version. We copy, link, and keep — with provenance and a timestamp on every revision. Need to add data? It goes in a linked sidecar, not stapled over your original.

Records are hash-linked and content-addressed — each one fingerprinted, so any later tampering is obvious. That's the tamper-evidence property of a blockchain, without the chain or the overhead. (If you ever want a full chain, the fingerprints are already there to anchor one.)

Even this page follows the rule: every revision keeps its own permanent link. An old link never breaks — it still shows you what it always showed, and points you to where the latest lives.

JSON-native for speed — XJDF and XML at the boundary

Inside, your data is JSON: compact, fast, and the native language of the modern stack — Salesforce included. That keeps mobile capture quick and our contracts easy to validate, with published, versioned JSON Schemas and formal unit semantics (QUDT).

At the edge, where your enterprise systems and partners live, we speak their language: XSD-validated XJDF (CIP4) — the print-and-packaging workflow standard — both in and out, plus ISO-standard documents for ERP and PLM. XML is heavier, so we don't push that weight onto every phone — only onto the boundary that asks for it.

You keep your enterprise tooling. We keep mobile fast. Nobody compromises.

Revision r1 · published 2026-06-04 · current.
Initial publication — the Mars Rule (units), the Packrat Rule (provenance), and JSON-native with an XJDF/XML boundary.

Permanent link to this revision: /principles/data-handling/r1

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