---
id: SBOM-CONV-001
type: standard
title: "SBOM Convention v0.1 — Dependency Tracking & Licence Governance"
domain: custodian
status: active
version: "0.1"
created: "2026-03-01"
updated: "2026-03-12"
---

# SBOM Convention v0.1 — Dependency Tracking & Licence Governance

## Purpose

This convention defines how every Custodian-registered project captures,
stores, and reports its software supply-chain inventory to the State Hub SBOM
store. It establishes:

- Which lockfiles are authoritative per ecosystem
- How to run SBOM ingestion (single-ecosystem and multi-ecosystem repos)
- How to keep the data current
- Licence governance rules and escalation thresholds

The State Hub SBOM store aggregates across all registered repos. The
dashboard (`/sbom`) provides domain-level and repo-level drill-down.

---

## 1. Capture Mechanisms

`ingest_sbom.py` runs all four mechanisms in a single scan when given `--repo-path`.
No flags needed — comprehensive detection is the default.

| Mechanism | File(s) | Ecosystem | Detection scope |
|-----------|---------|-----------|-----------------|
| **Package manager lockfiles** | `uv.lock`, `requirements.txt`, `package-lock.json`, `yarn.lock`, `Cargo.lock` | `python`, `node`, `rust` | Anywhere in tree |
| **Terraform provider lock** | `.terraform.lock.hcl` | `terraform` | Anywhere in tree |
| **Ansible Galaxy manifest** | `ansible/requirements.yml` or `.yaml` | `ansible` | Under directories named `ansible/` |
| **Tool manifest** | `sbom-tools.yaml` (repo root) | `tool`, `ansible`, `terraform`, etc. | Repo root only |

**Go / Java parsers** (`go.sum`, `pom.xml`, `gradle.lockfile`) are *not yet
implemented* — planned for a future workplan.

**Principle:** commit lockfiles and `sbom-tools.yaml` to the repo. These are
the SBOM source of truth; do not generate them at ingest time.

---

## 2. Repo Registration Prerequisite

Before SBOM data can be reported, the repo must be registered in the State Hub:

```bash
cd ~/the-custodian/state-hub
make add-repo DOMAIN=<domain-slug> SLUG=<repo-slug> NAME="<Display Name>" PATH=/absolute/path/to/repo
```

Check registered repos:
```bash
make list-repos
# or
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8000/repos/ | python3 -m json.tool
```

---

## 3. SBOM Ingestion

### 3.1 Standard ingest (all mechanisms, recommended)

```bash
cd ~/the-custodian/state-hub
make ingest-sbom REPO=<slug> REPO_PATH=/path/to/repo
```

`ingest_sbom.py` automatically runs all four mechanisms in one scan — lockfiles,
Terraform provider locks, Ansible Galaxy manifests, and `sbom-tools.yaml`. All
results are merged into a single snapshot. Non-dep directories (`.venv`,
`node_modules`, `.git`, `dist`, etc.) are automatically skipped.

### 3.2 Repos with system-level tools: capture first, then ingest

For repos that use system-level tools not tracked by any lockfile (Terraform
binary, Helm, kubectl, k3s, goss, etc.):

```bash
# Step 1: generate sbom-tools.yaml via agent
make capture-tools REPO=<slug> REPO_PATH=/path/to/repo

# Step 2: review sbom-tools.yaml — correct any confidence: low entries

# Step 3: commit sbom-tools.yaml
git -C /path/to/repo add sbom-tools.yaml && git -C /path/to/repo commit -m "chore(sbom): add tool manifest"

# Step 4: ingest everything
make ingest-sbom REPO=<slug> REPO_PATH=/path/to/repo
```

### 3.3 Explicit lockfile path

```bash
make ingest-sbom REPO=<slug> LOCKFILE=/path/to/specific/uv.lock
```

Multiple lockfiles can be passed by calling the script directly with repeated
`--lockfile` flags:

```bash
uv run python scripts/ingest_sbom.py \
  --repo <slug> \
  --lockfile /path/to/uv.lock \
  --lockfile /path/to/package-lock.json
```

### 3.4 Dry run (inspect without submitting)

```bash
make ingest-sbom REPO=<slug> REPO_PATH=/path/to/repo DRY_RUN=1
```

### 3.5 sbom-tools.yaml: the tool manifest

Create `sbom-tools.yaml` at the repo root for any system-level tools not
covered by lockfiles. Schema:

```yaml
# sbom-tools.yaml
tools:
  - name: terraform
    version: "1.9.5"         # confidence: medium
    ecosystem: terraform
    license_spdx: BSL-1.1
    is_direct: true
    is_dev: false
  - name: helm
    version: null             # confidence: low (no version pin found)
    ecosystem: tool
    license_spdx: Apache-2.0
    is_direct: true
    is_dev: false
```

**Valid ecosystem values:** `python`, `node`, `rust`, `go`, `java`, `terraform`,
`ansible`, `tool`, `other`

Annotate each version with a `# confidence: high/medium/low` comment.
Entries with `confidence: low` need human verification before committing.

The `make capture-tools` command generates this file automatically using the
SBOM capture agent prompt (`state-hub/prompts/sbom-capture-agent.md`).

---

## 4. Snapshot Semantics

Each `POST /sbom/ingest/` call **replaces** the entire previous snapshot for
that repo. This means:

- There is always exactly one snapshot per repo (the most recent ingest)
- Re-running ingest after a dependency update is idempotent — it simply
  refreshes the data
- Historical snapshots are **not** retained (v0.1 scope; versioned history is
  a planned extension)

The `last_sbom_at` timestamp on the managed_repo record indicates when the
last ingest ran.

---

## 5. Direct vs Transitive Dependencies

| Source | `is_direct` | Notes |
|--------|-------------|-------|
| `package-lock.json` | Accurate — npm `indirect` flag used | Dev packages also detected via `dev` flag |
| `yarn.lock` | `false` for all (yarn.lock doesn't distinguish) | Treat output as transitive |
| `uv.lock` | `false` for all (uv.lock doesn't distinguish direct from transitive) | |
| `requirements.txt` | `true` for all (every line is a direct dep) | |
| `Cargo.lock` | `false` for all (workspace member packages not yet distinguished) | |

**Governance implication:** `is_direct=true` entries receive stricter licence
scrutiny. Copyleft risk is reported specifically for `is_direct=true AND is_dev=false`.

---

## 6. Licence Governance

### 6.1 Copyleft detection

The following SPDX identifier substrings trigger a copyleft flag:
`GPL`, `AGPL`, `LGPL`, `EUPL`, `CDDL`, `MPL`

A copyleft flag on a **direct prod dependency** (`is_direct=true`, `is_dev=false`)
increments the `licence_risk_count` in the State Hub summary and triggers a
warning on the SBOM dashboard.

### 6.2 Dual-licensed packages

Packages with SPDX expressions like `(MIT OR GPL-3.0-or-later)` are flagged
**conservatively** — the presence of a copyleft identifier in the SPDX string
is sufficient to trigger the flag, regardless of the OR clause.

**Action required:** review flagged packages. If the non-copyleft licence is
used in practice, document this decision in a `contrib/` BR or FR artifact and
note it in the repo's CLAUDE.md.

### 6.3 Unknown licences

Packages with `license_spdx = null` are those whose lockfile did not contain
licence metadata (`uv.lock`, `yarn.lock`, `Cargo.lock` do not embed licence
info). These are listed in the dashboard but do not trigger risk flags.

To resolve unknowns, consult the package's registry page (PyPI, npm, crates.io)
and either accept the unknown status or enhance the ingest script.

### 6.4 Escalation

Per the Custodian Constitution, a copyleft direct prod dep **must be reviewed**
before the next production deployment. Record the decision via:

```
register_contribution(type="br", title="Licence review: <package>", ...)
```

or directly in `contrib/bug-reports/` using the BR template.

---

## 7. Keeping Data Current

### 7.1 When to re-run ingest

Re-run `make ingest-sbom` after any of the following:
- `uv add` / `uv remove` (Python)
- `npm install` / `npm update` (Node)
- `cargo add` / `cargo update` (Rust)
- Any lockfile regeneration

### 7.2 Recommended workflow integration

Add to your repo's CLAUDE.md (or developer runbook):

> After updating dependencies, run:
> ```bash
> cd ~/the-custodian/state-hub
> make ingest-sbom REPO=<your-slug> SCAN=1 REPO_PATH=<your-repo-path>
> ```

### 7.3 Verification

After ingest:
```bash
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8000/sbom/<your-slug>/ | python3 -m json.tool | head -30
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8000/sbom/report/licences/ | python3 -m json.tool
```

Or visit the State Hub dashboard → SBOM → By Repo to see the updated snapshot.

---

## 8. Multi-Repo Domains

When a domain has multiple repos (e.g., `api` + `frontend` + `infra`), each
repo should be registered separately and ingested separately:

```bash
make ingest-sbom REPO=myapp-api      SCAN=1 REPO_PATH=/home/worsch/myapp
make ingest-sbom REPO=myapp-frontend SCAN=1 REPO_PATH=/home/worsch/myapp-frontend
```

The SBOM dashboard aggregates across all repos within a domain in the
**By Domain** table.

---

## 9. Current Registered Repos & Status

| Repo | Domain | Ecosystems | Last Ingest |
|------|--------|------------|-------------|
| `the-custodian` | custodian | python, node | 2026-03-01 |
| `railiance-bootstrap` | railiance | — (Ansible + shell, no lockfile) | — |
| `railiance-hosts` | railiance | terraform (2 providers) | 2026-03-01 |

*(This table is informational. The live view is at the SBOM dashboard.)*

---

## 10. Planned Enhancements

- **Go / Java parsers** — add `go.sum`, `pom.xml`, `gradle.lockfile` support to `ingest_sbom.py`
- **Versioned snapshots** — retain history per repo for trend analysis
- **Licence override file** — allow repos to document known-acceptable
  copyleft exceptions (`.sbom-overrides.yaml`)
- **CI integration** — GitHub Actions step to run ingest on lockfile change
- **Direct-dep detection for uv.lock** — parse `pyproject.toml` `[project.dependencies]`
  to mark direct deps accurately
- **Galaxy API licence lookup** — resolve `license_spdx` for Ansible collections
  via the Galaxy API at ingest time
- **Tool version pinning guidance** — tooling to detect `confidence: low` entries
  across all registered repos and flag them for resolution