Metadata-only view of one side of a comparison. Carries logical identity
and content metadata but NOT a filesystem path — data access goes through
DataAccess.
Format-neutral tabular data: an ordered list of records with a shared column
schema. Produced by CSV, JSON record arrays, JSONL, Excel, Parquet, DB, and
other tabular parsers; consumed by tabular writers, compaction rules, and
extractors.
Standard format for tier-3 parser metadata — facts a parser extracted about
a node that are not the node’s primary data payload: source-format identity
and version, file-level properties, cross-table dictionaries, creator/tooling
provenance. Rides as a second artifact on the parsed node (alongside a
tabular_v1 leaf, or on a multi-table container that has no table of its
own). Consumed by format, like any artifact; carrying it is useful even with
no current consumer (see the tiered-artifact-metadata ADR).