Content Runtime And Models

The content runtime makes ordinary repository files addressable as typed objects. Content models define those objects, and the runtime validates them while keeping the files as the source of truth.

Status

Capability	Status	Notes
Runtime schema artifact	Shipped	Assura loads checked-in runtime schema artifacts during assura check.
Markdown frontmatter adapter	Shipped	markdown_frontmatter validates frontmatter and preserves Markdown body bytes for updates.
JSON/YAML/JSONL adapters	Shipped	Structured records can share the same model and relation runtime.
Cross-collection relations	Shipped	Missing, duplicate, ambiguous, and cyclic references produce content-runtime diagnostics.
Agent create/update operations	Experimental	Assura-owned operations validate payloads before writing repository files.

Model A Repository Collection

models:
  source: .assura/models/project/source.linkml.yaml
  validation_artifact: .assura/models/project/runtime.schema.json

collections:
  goals:
    class: Goal
    path: docs/goals/*.md
    adapter: markdown_frontmatter
    data: frontmatter
    body: markdown
    id: id

The complete guide is in Repo-Native Content Runtime and the deeper repository document is docs/content-runtime.md.

When model artifacts live under .assura/, keep them under .assura/models/**. Files outside .assura/, such as schemas/**, are still valid project paths, but .assura/ itself keeps a bounded root.

Typed frontmatter validation belongs to these content runtime models and collections. Markdown rules can require a frontmatter block or heading shape, but required typed fields, IDs, relations, and scoped object paths are validated through the model-backed collection contract.