What does a SWHID guarantee and not guarantee about availability, resolution and trust, and what is its standardisation status?
A SWHID is an intrinsic identifier anyone can recompute from the bytes, with no registry; resolution and archival are outside the specification, so a SWHID does not guarantee availability. Software Heritage offers a web and /api/1/resolve/ resolver; Identifiers.org (core ids only) and N2T also resolve. swhid.org reports adoption as ISO/IEC 18670 (news dated 2025-04-23); the ISO text was not read.
A SWHID is an intrinsic identifier anyone can recompute from the bytes, with no registry; resolution and archival are outside the specification, so a SWHID does not guarantee availability. Software Heritage offers a web and /api/1/resolve/ resolver; Identifiers.org (core ids only) and N2T also resolve. swhid.org reports adoption as ISO/IEC 18670 (news dated 2025-04-23); the ISO text was not read.
Curator qualifications: Spec and docs read 2026-10-22; no SWHID computed or resolved. ISO text paywalled.
Limitations: Spec and docs read 2026-10-22; no SWHID computed or resolved.
Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.
Structured fields
{
"citations": [
{
"url": "https://github.com/swhid/specification/blob/91af30def821fa768de1d32cb02309805ad652af/Chapters/5.Core_identifiers.md",
"note": "Chapters/1.Scope.md at 91af30d L13-20; Chapters/0.Introduction.md at 91af30d L15-24; docs.softwareheritage.org persistent-identifiers; swhid.org news 2025-04-23"
},
{
"url": "https://github.com/swhid/specification/blob/91af30def821fa768de1d32cb02309805ad652af/Chapters/1.Scope.md",
"note": "Chapters/1.Scope.md at 91af30d L13-20; Chapters/0.Introduction.md at 91af30d L15-24; docs.softwareheritage.org persistent-identifiers; swhid.org news 2025-04-23"
},
{
"url": "https://github.com/swhid/specification/blob/91af30def821fa768de1d32cb02309805ad652af/Chapters/0.Introduction.md",
"note": "Chapters/1.Scope.md at 91af30d L13-20; Chapters/0.Introduction.md at 91af30d L15-24; docs.softwareheritage.org persistent-identifiers; swhid.org news 2025-04-23"
},
{
"url": "https://github.com/swhid/specification/blob/91af30def821fa768de1d32cb02309805ad652af/Chapters/A.Conformance.md",
"note": "Chapters/1.Scope.md at 91af30d L13-20; Chapters/0.Introduction.md at 91af30d L15-24; docs.softwareheritage.org persistent-identifiers; swhid.org news 2025-04-23"
},
{
"url": "https://www.swhid.org/news/2025-04-23-swhid-standardized-as-iso-iec-18670/",
"note": "Chapters/1.Scope.md at 91af30d L13-20; Chapters/0.Introduction.md at 91af30d L15-24; docs.softwareheritage.org persistent-identifiers; swhid.org news 2025-04-23"
},
{
"url": "https://docs.softwareheritage.org/devel/swh-model/persistent-identifiers.html",
"note": "Chapters/1.Scope.md at 91af30d L13-20; Chapters/0.Introduction.md at 91af30d L15-24; docs.softwareheritage.org persistent-identifiers; swhid.org news 2025-04-23"
}
]
}Evidence claims
- [sourced_fact] A SWHID is an intrinsic identifier anyone can recompute from the bytes, with no registry; resolution and archival are outside the specification, so a SWHID does not guarantee availability. Software Heritage offers a web and /api/1/resolve/ resolver; Identifiers.org (core ids only) and N2T also resolve. swhid.org reports adoption as ISO/IEC 18670 (news dated 2025-04-23); the ISO text was not read. · locator: Chapters/1.Scope.md at 91af30d L13-20; Chapters/0.Introduction.md at 91af30d L15-24; docs.softwareheritage.org persistent-identifiers; swhid.org news 2025-04-23 source
Rights
| component | license | hosting | redistribution | modification | training | Evidence and notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| documentation | unknown | permitted | permitted | unknown | unknown | Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources. |
Linked records
- cites → https://docs.softwareheritage.org/devel/swh-model/persistent-identifiers.html
- cites → https://github.com/swhid/specification/blob/91af30def821fa768de1d32cb02309805ad652af/Chapters/0.Introduction.md
- cites → https://github.com/swhid/specification/blob/91af30def821fa768de1d32cb02309805ad652af/Chapters/1.Scope.md
- cites → https://github.com/swhid/specification/blob/91af30def821fa768de1d32cb02309805ad652af/Chapters/5.Core_identifiers.md
- cites → https://github.com/swhid/specification/blob/91af30def821fa768de1d32cb02309805ad652af/Chapters/A.Conformance.md
- cites → https://www.swhid.org/news/2025-04-23-swhid-standardized-as-iso-iec-18670