[jgperrin]

Closes #110

Adds Option C to RFC-0032, alongside the existing Option A (type: imports in relationships) and Option B (top-level imports + $import).

Option C requires no schema change to ODCS or ODPS. An element binds to an OSDS semantic definition through the already-shared Authoritative Definitions block, using one new recommended type value, and inherits the attributes it does not state itself. Inline values always win; an unresolved reference costs inherited attributes rather than invalidating the document.

authoritativeDefinitions:
  - type: semanticDefinition
    url: sales-semantics@1.2.0#/definitions/customer-lifetime-value

The URL mechanism

reference ::= locator [ "#" fragment ], with the route chosen by the shape of the locator, not by the link's type — the fragment and @version are stripped first:

Shape	Route
contains ://	network fetch
ends in .yaml / .yml / .json	file, relative to the referencing document's base
anything else	an id, handed to the consumer's configured resolver

Version pinning: @3.1.4 and @v3.1.4 are the same version (the v is stripped), exact match only in v1, no @ means floating (latest active, warn), @latest says it out loud, and @ on a file locator is an assertion on the file's version. RFC-0047 forbids @ in ids, so the delimiter is unambiguous. Fragments reuse the ODCS reference notation (#/definitions/…, #/schema/…/properties/…), id first and name as fallback; no fragment means the whole document is the definition.

Also

• Merge semantics: never-merged / merged-when-absent / unioned field classes, transitive resolution, cycle detection.
• Two examples (minimal and structured), an "Applicability to ODPS" subsection, and the comparison table extended to A vs B vs C.
• Appendix A — naming the resolvable type: semanticDefinition recommended over externalDefinition / definition / businessDefinition, flagged TBD for the TSC. Keeping businessDefinition informational avoids changing the behaviour of contracts already in the wild.
• Appendix B — prior art, datacontract/datacontract-cli#1453 by Simon Harrer, whose resolution model Option C adopts, and the three places Option C differs from it.
• OSDS ticked in "Applies to"; Summary, Consequences and References updated.

Content gate

No CI in this repo. Verified locally: all 26 YAML examples parse, every internal anchor resolves, every relative and external link returns 200, all template sections present, dashboard row unchanged.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01UabnikmEmLj55JPHFLTbGH