ADR 0010: OpenAssetIO boundary

  • Status: Accepted

  • Date: 2026-09-20

Context

Applications that need an interchangeable asset manager already have an industry host-to-manager contract. A second PostProject-specific host protocol would increase integration cost and couple applications to one implementation. At the same time, PostProject has embedded and specialized capabilities that do not belong in a general manager interface.

Decision

OpenAssetIO is the preferred interoperability contract between a host application and an asset manager. PostProject will be able to act as a manager through a future postproject-openassetio adapter.

The adapter will translate:

  • opaque entity references to stable PostProject objects;

  • locatable content to representations, resources, and locators;

  • image-collection traits to compact image-sequence structures;

  • manager resolution requests to PostProject resolution results; and

  • publishing operations to PostProject transactions, provenance, and revisions.

OpenAssetIO and OpenAssetIO-MediaCreation types do not enter postproject-core. Their evolving traits and version-specific behavior remain at the adapter boundary. A full manager implementation and publishing workflow are deferred until the core compound-media model is proven.

PostProject retains its native API for embedded use and for specialized capabilities such as fingerprint evidence, provenance traversal, and revision feeds.

Consequences

A host can support PostProject without hard-coding it as the only asset manager, and PostProject can evolve its internal persistence independently of an external contract. Mapping tests must demonstrate that one image sequence remains one representation and that locatable content does not collapse resources into representations.