Full data export — no lock-in
Every piece of data in LOGOS must be fully exportable in
standard formats. The event log, current state, metadata,
attachments, and cross-references — all of it. LOGOS does
not own your data.
Why It's Needed
Lock-in is a structural risk for any system that accumulates
knowledge over time. The more valuable LOGOS becomes, the
more costly it is to leave if the export path is degraded
or missing. This is not a hypothetical — LOGOS itself is
being built to replace Talkyard, partly because Talkyard's
export capabilities are limited.
The principle must be enforced from the start: LOGOS is a
steward of data, not an owner of it. A user or organization
must be able to take their complete history and move it
elsewhere at any time, without loss.
The Requirement
A full export produces:
- The event log — every event in sequence, with
timestamps, authors, and full content snapshots. This
is the authoritative export. Everything else can be
reconstructed from it. - Current state projection — a snapshot of current
state in a standard format, for systems that cannot
consume an event log - Metadata — all key-value metadata attached to
posts and topics - Attachments — all binary content linked from posts
- Cross-references — all links between topics,
posts, and external sources, with enough context to
reconstruct them in another system
Export formats are open and documented. No proprietary
format required to read the export.
Partial and Incremental Export
A full export is not the only option. A user can export:
- A specific category and its subcategories
- A date range
- An incremental export from a given event ID forward —
enabling continuous sync with external systems without
re-exporting everything each time
Acceptance
A user exports their complete LOGOS instance. The export
contains the full event log in a documented open format.
Replaying the event log from the beginning produces
current state identically. An incremental export from
event N forward contains only events after N. The export
can be imported into a new LOGOS instance with full
fidelity — no data loss, no broken cross-references.
Sources
- LOGOS → Requirements → Event-sourced storage as the foundation (the event log is the authoritative export — this is only possible with event-sourced storage)
- LOGOS → Requirements → Dual audience architecture (export is a third consumer of the same data — must have equal fidelity)