Governance PDS

The Governance PDS is a dedicated Personal Data Server that stores all community-approved governance data. This makes Chive's governance ATProto-native and portable.

Overview

did:plc:chive-governance

The Governance PDS stores:

• Authority records
• Facet definitions
• Field taxonomy
• Organizational records
• Approved proposals
• Reconciliation history

Why a Governance PDS?

ATProto-native benefits

Benefit	Description
Portability	Governance data can move to different hosts
Verifiability	All records are cryptographically signed
Interoperability	Any ATProto AppView can index the data
Transparency	Public, auditable record of decisions

Comparison with traditional approaches

Approach	Governance PDS	Central database
Data location	Decentralized PDS	Chive servers only
Ownership	Community	Platform
Portability	Full export/import	Requires migration
Verification	Cryptographic	Trust-based
Failover	Any compliant host	Single point of failure

Record types

Graph nodes

Knowledge graph nodes stored in the Governance PDS:

// Collection: pub.chive.graph.node
interface GraphNodeDocument {
  $type: 'pub.chive.graph.node';
  id: string;
  kind: 'type' | 'object';
  subkind: string;
  label: string;
  alternateLabels: string[];
  description: string;
  externalIds: ExternalId[];
  status: 'proposed' | 'provisional' | 'established' | 'deprecated';
  createdAt: string;
  updatedAt: string;
}

interface ExternalId {
  source: string; // 'wikidata', 'lcsh', 'viaf', 'fast', 'orcid', 'ror'
  value: string;
}

Subkind values by kind:

Kind	Subkinds
type	endorsement-kind, license, methodology, paper-type
object	field, facet, institution, author, eprint

Graph edges

Relationships between nodes are stored as separate edge records:

// Collection: pub.chive.graph.edge
interface GraphEdgeDocument {
  $type: 'pub.chive.graph.edge';
  sourceUri: string;
  targetUri: string;
  relationSlug: 'broader' | 'narrower' | 'related' | 'sameAs';
  weight: number;
  status: 'proposed' | 'established' | 'deprecated';
  createdAt: string;
}

Approved proposals

// Collection: pub.chive.governance.approvedProposal
interface ApprovedProposalDocument {
  $type: 'pub.chive.governance.approvedProposal';
  id: string;
  originalProposalUri: string;
  type: ProposalType;
  title: string;
  changes: ProposalChanges;
  votingSummary: VotingSummary;
  approvedAt: string;
  enactedAt: string;
}

Reconciliation records

// Collection: pub.chive.governance.reconciliation
interface ReconciliationDocument {
  $type: 'pub.chive.governance.reconciliation';
  authorityId: string;
  externalSource: string;
  externalId: string;
  confidence: number;
  evidenceType: string;
  reconciler: string; // DID of person/automated
  timestamp: string;
}

Architecture

Cache strategy

Multi-level caching

Level	Storage	TTL	Purpose
L1	Redis	5 minutes	Hot data, low latency
L2	Governance PDS	Authoritative	Source of truth fallback
L3	PostgreSQL	Until invalidation	Indexed for queries

Cache invalidation

When governance data changes:

Security

Access control

Operation	Who can perform
Read records	Anyone
Create node	Graph editors
Update node	Graph editors (via proposal)
Create edge	Graph editors
Update edge	Graph editors (via proposal)
Sign records	Authorized administrators

Audit trail

All changes include provenance:

{
  "record": {},
  "sig": "z...",
  "provenance": {
    "proposal": "at://did:plc:.../pub.chive.graph.proposal/a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890",
    "approvedAt": "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z",
    "approvedBy": "did:plc:admin..."
  }
}

Operations

Backup and recovery

# Export full repository
atproto repo export did:plc:chive-governance --output backup.car

# Verify integrity
atproto repo verify backup.car

# Restore to new PDS (if needed)
atproto repo import backup.car --target new-pds.example.com

Monitoring

Metrics tracked:

• Record count by type
• Write latency
• Firehose lag
• Cache hit rates
• Sync status with AppView

Failover

If the Governance PDS becomes unavailable:

1. AppView continues operating from cached data
2. Write operations queued
3. Failover PDS activated from most recent backup
4. DNS updated to point to failover
5. Queued writes replayed

Migration path

The Governance PDS is transitioning to become the authoritative source for all governance data. During the transition, both PostgreSQL and the Governance PDS receive writes. The target state is for the Governance PDS to be primary, with PostgreSQL serving only as an indexed cache.

API access

Read from Governance PDS

GET https://pds.chive.pub/xrpc/com.atproto.repo.listRecords?
  repo=did:plc:chive-governance&
  collection=pub.chive.governance.authorityRecord&
  limit=50

Through Chive AppView (recommended)

GET /xrpc/pub.chive.graph.getAuthority?id=authority-123

The AppView provides:

• Faster response (cached)
• Additional computed fields
• Cross-references resolved
• Search capability

Next steps

• Authority control: Managing authority records
• Governance overview: The governance model
• AT Protocol: Understanding PDSes