Viewgraph · 5 frames
Identity plane and knowledge plane
How RSM ID separates identity infrastructure — registries, names, Identity Records, and resolution — from knowledge infrastructure — Semantic Spaces and the Locus engines that serve their assertions — and why the people, places, and things described stay outside both.
Viewgraph5 frames
Architecture
Identity infrastructure, knowledge infrastructure
One answers which referent. The other holds what independent parties know and assert about it.
RSM ID Learning Center
rsmid.org
The layers
The world, the identity plane, the knowledge plane
Referents are identified by the identity plane and described by the knowledge plane.
Rendering diagram…
The field is not stored anywhere. Both planes hold information; neither holds the field.
Identity plane
What the identity plane holds
Identifiers, names, and the records that keep them trustworthy — not descriptions of the referent.
One permanent RID per referent; names that map to it.
Lifecycle, issuance provenance, name history, bindings.
Verifies authority and returns what policy permits.
No required copy of content, relationships, or formation state.
Knowledge plane
What the knowledge plane holds
Each Semantic Space keeps its own descriptions, assertions, and relationships, under its own governance.
Governed environments responsible for their knowledge representations.
Serve a space's knowledge; consume identity contracts, never redefine them.
Each with its space, predicate, authority, and provenance.
On the wire
Identity metadata is not the resource body
Fetching a space's representation needs a verified binding and a separate policy decision.
Rendering diagram…
Rule
The registry never becomes a content database, and a space never becomes the source of identity.
Read as text
- ArchitectureIdentity infrastructure, knowledge infrastructureOne answers which referent. The other holds what independent parties know and assert about it.Source: Document 08 v1.1 §2.6, §7.3
- The layersThe world, the identity plane, the knowledge planeReferents are identified by the identity plane and described by the knowledge plane.North Field, a real place, is identified by an RID held in the identity plane. Two Semantic Spaces in the knowledge plane make assertions about North Field and refer to it by that RID. The field itself sits outside both planes.Source: Document 08 v1.1 §2.0, §7.3 — Cedar Valley is fictional
- Identity planeWhat the identity plane holdsIdentifiers, names, and the records that keep them trustworthy — not descriptions of the referent.RIDs and registered namesOne permanent RID per referent; names that map to it.Identity RecordsLifecycle, issuance provenance, name history, bindings.ResolutionVerifies authority and returns what policy permits.Not the resource bodyNo required copy of content, relationships, or formation state.Source: Document 08 v1.1 §5.3, §5.3.1
- Knowledge planeWhat the knowledge plane holdsEach Semantic Space keeps its own descriptions, assertions, and relationships, under its own governance.Semantic SpacesGoverned environments responsible for their knowledge representations.Locus enginesServe a space's knowledge; consume identity contracts, never redefine them.Assertions about referentsEach with its space, predicate, authority, and provenance.Source: Document 08 v1.1 §7.3, §10.2 — Locus is proposed, not operational
- On the wireIdentity metadata is not the resource bodyFetching a space's representation needs a verified binding and a separate policy decision.A resolver returns identity metadata for an RID from the registry. Only after verifying the authoritative space binding and evaluating policy separately does it request a representation from the Semantic Space, served by Locus.RuleSource: Document 08 v1.1 §18.6 — no resolver or Locus node operates
Sources and provenance
Normative basis
- Document 08 v1.1 — Section 2.0RSM ID — system boundary and normative composition
- Document 08 v1.1 — Section 2.6Identity versus description
- Document 08 v1.1 — Section 5.3Resource identity record
- Document 08 v1.1 — Section 5.3.1Canonical RSM Identity Record
- Document 08 v1.1 — Section 7.3Identity and knowledge separation
- Document 08 v1.1 — Section 10.2Locus responsibilities
- Document 08 v1.1 — Section 18.6Resolution response and representation distinction
This viewgraph is an informative explanation. Where it and the specifications differ, Documents 08 and 09 v1.1 govern.
What it contains
- Document 08 v1.1 · normative
- Grounded directly in Document 08, the controlling standard. Cited by section.
- Interpretation
- Explanation or design rationale written for this Learning Center. It does not add requirements.
- Hypothetical example
- An illustrative scenario. Its identifiers are examples or fictional; none has been issued.
- Proposed, not operational
- Something the specifications propose — a host, a prefix, a federation, a service — that does not exist yet.
Related
Pathway: Understanding Identity · For everyone · Revised 2026-10-10 · Content ID viewgraph.identity-vs-knowledge-planes (a page identifier on this site, not an RID)