Nenjim Journals

Implementation status: Journal format version 1, the immutable Java model, internal strict parser, read-only JournalService, and explicitly refreshed lifecycle JournalServiceManager are implemented. Contexts, resolution, classloading, downloading, publishing, synchronization, watching, signatures, and license filtering remain future work.

One Journal per artifact

A Journal describes exactly one artifact. API, test, and implementation artifacts therefore have independent Journals and chains. Roles such as API or implementation are not stored as a TYPE.

<GROUP>-<MODULE>-<ARTIFACT>
com_r35157_nenjim-hubd-api
com_r35157_nenjim-hubd-api:1.0.3

The three metadata components identify the chain; there is no separate JOURNAL_ID.

Complete immutable snapshots and history

Every Journal revision is a complete worldview of the artifact and all releases known in that revision. It is not a delta and inherits nothing implicitly. A later snapshot may change metadata, add or remove releases, correct release knowledge, alter dependencies or policy, or be a semantic no-op.

The genesis omits PREVIOUS_JOURNAL_DIGEST. Each successor names the SHA-256 digest of the predecessor's exact UTF-8 text, including whitespace and line endings. A chain has one genesis and one head; missing predecessors, forks, cross-artifact links, and non-increasing Journal versions are invalid.

JOURNAL_VERSION is when the worldview was published. PUBLISHED_AT is when an artifact release was published. Both use uuuuMMddHHmmssSSS'Z', but historical knowledge is selected from the Journal chain rather than by filtering the newest snapshot on release publication time.

Metadata and release content

DESCRIPTION is mandatory single-quoted text. INFORMATION_URI is optional single-quoted metadata and must decode to a non-empty absolute URI. Format 1 does not restrict schemes: HTTPS, FTP, IPFS, and other syntactically valid schemes are accepted without opening or interpreting their content.

Every exact major.minor.patch release has a mandatory single-quoted LICENSE, a publication timestamp, non-negative byte size, and one or both supported content identities: sha256 and CIDv1 (cid1). License text is preserved as free text; no vocabulary, compatibility decision, or filtering is applied.

Version expressions

Expression	Meaning
`1.0.3`, `[1.0.3]`	The same exact release.
`[1.0]`	Every stable 1.0.x release; not exact 1.0.0.
`[1.0.3-->1.0.7]`	A closed range including both exact endpoints.
`[1.0-->1.2)`	Includes 1.0.x and 1.1.x, excluding the complete 1.2.x series.
`[1.0-->`	Starts at 1.0.0 and stops before 2.0.0.

Comma-separated expressions form a union. Boundaries require at least major and minor. Mathematical comparison syntax, incomplete bare exact versions, prereleases, build metadata, empty elements, and reversed or empty ranges are rejected.

Dependencies

Dependencies belong to individual releases and always have an explicit scheme. Format 1 implements only the nenjim: scheme; Maven resolution and unknown schemes are not silently accepted.

DEPENDS_ON=nenjim:com_r35157_nenjim-hubd-api=[1.0-->
EXCLUDES=nenjim:com_r35157_nenjim-hubd-api=1.0.5:'Known incompatibility'
PREFERRED=nenjim:com_r35157_nenjim-hubd-api=1.0.3:'Built together'

DEPENDS_ON is the hard base set. EXCLUDES removes hard-invalid combinations for that relationship. PREFERRED is a hint and must remain a subset of DEPENDS_ON - EXCLUDES. Repeated rules form unions while each line and description remains inspectable. The Journal layer represents these rules but does not resolve a graph.

Artifact policy

BLACKLIST is a hard global prohibition.
DISCOURAGED is a negative hint; a matching release remains selectable.
RECOMMENDED is a positive hint naming one exact release in the same snapshot.

Overlaps are valid and hard rules win over hints. A future resolver should seek a valid graph containing as many compatible recommendations as possible. The highest valid version is a fallback, not an unconditional rule, so future convergence may move from a higher local version to a lower recommended version.

Strict parsing and immutable model

FORMAT_VERSION=1 must be the first actual entry. Blank lines and comments beginning with # are accepted, while a hash inside single quotes is data. Quoted values support escaped quotes (\') and backslashes (\\). Unknown, malformed, duplicate, misplaced, empty, or semantically inconsistent content fails with source name, one-based line number, and a reason. Validation is complete before service state changes. Returned objects and collections are immutable and defensively copied.

Service, ServiceManager, packages, and disk layout

A Service is the public domain API used by applications and other services during ordinary operation. JournalService is therefore filesystem-independent and read-only: it exposes current and historical Journal queries without lifecycle, paths, refresh, parser, or mutation operations.

A ServiceManager is the lifecycle and administrative API owned by a composition/lifecycle owner. JournalServiceManager starts and stops the Journal service, reports its normalized data root, performs explicit refresh, and exposes JournalService only after complete successful initial loading. Its reference implementation reads UTF-8 runtime files chronologically and validates directory and filename placement. It creates, overwrites, and deletes nothing.

JournalServiceImpl keeps exact-text SHA-256 identity, chain state, idempotency, conflicts, forks, and atomic ingestion internal. The public package contains only the two central interfaces; composed models, value types, and exceptions live under .model, .valuetypes, and .exception, while parser, ingestion, chain state, and filesystem loading live under .impl.ref without leaking through public signatures.

data/nenjim/journals/
└── <artifact-coordinate>/
    ├── <journal-version>.journal
    └── <journal-version>.journal.example

Only .journal files are runtime input. Version-controlled .journal.example files are documentation and are ignored by the service.

Future Nenjim vision

Contexts, dependency-graph resolution, automatic selection/reconciliation, runtime upgrade or downgrade, classloaders, artifact downloads, IPFS retrieval, Maven dependencies, signatures, publishing, remote synchronization, filesystem watching, and UI/CLI management are deliberately outside this implemented Journal foundation.