PureXML/docs/schema-validity-burndown.md

Schema-validity burndown

The standing plan for closing the largest XSTS conformance gap. Autopilot contract: follow this document iteration by iteration, each as its own PR with a critic pass, until invalid-schemas-accepted is driven down to its irreducible tail. Do not deviate to new features while this is open.

The problem (measured 2026-06-13, 2006-11-06 archive)

Bucket	Count	Reading
valid-schemas-rejected	72	we rarely reject a good schema
invalid-schemas-accepted	2461 -> 956	we rarely catch a bad one (facet, id, and structural content-model validity landed)
valid-instances-rejected	233	(instance side, separately tracked)
invalid-instances-accepted	165

One-sentence diagnosis: the validator runs its instance-validity rules but not its schema-validity rules. It compiles what it understands and ignores the rest, so ~18% of the invalid-schema corpus is accepted silently.

Source split of the 2461: 2323 Microsoft, 138 Sun. The Microsoft mass spreads across every category (DataTypes 703, ComplexType 262, IdentityConstraint 221, SimpleType 139, ModelGroups 137, Attribute 124, Particles 118, Wildcards 97, Element 96, Notations 84, Group 82, Regex 74, Schema 61, AttributeGroup 52, Additional 39, Annotations 30, Errata 4). No single root cause; this is a campaign of distinct schema-component constraints.

Where the checks belong

Schema-validity findings are reported at compile time, through PureXML.Validation.XSDSchema.consistencyErrors(...) (called from SchemaDocument.Document.init), which already throws SchemaError.inconsistent when a named type violates a rule. New rule families are added there (or in a sibling validation composed into it), never at instance-validation time. The existing pattern: collect ALL findings, report them together.

Priority order (highest leverage first, measured)

Each iteration targets one self-contained rule family with a clean root cause.

1. Facet-definition validity (XSD Part 2 §4.3). Mostly done (2461 -> 1789). Landed: length-family facet values must be nonNegativeInteger (totalDigits a positiveInteger); length excludes minLength/maxLength; minLength <= maxLength; fractionDigits <= totalDigits. Value-bound facets (min/maxInclusive, min/maxExclusive) and enumeration values must be valid in the base value space; Inclusive excludes Exclusive on each side; lower bound may not exceed (nor, if exclusive, equal) the upper. (The bound-value check exposed and fixed a gMonth --MM-- lexical gap.) Still open in this family: facet applicability per base (fractionDigits only on decimal-derived, length only on string/binary/list, etc.); whiteSpace may not weaken an inherited value; facet repetition. Inherited-facet co-occurrence (across derivation steps) is deliberately not checked yet (current pass reads only the local restriction).
2. id attribute validity (xs:ID). Done (1789 -> 1688). The id attribute on any XSD component is xs:ID: each value must be a valid NCName and unique within the schema document. Walks the schema-document tree, skipping appinfo/documentation foreign content and treating only the unprefixed id as the component identifier. Broad reach (idA-idK, attgA, attB, ctA).
3. Component-name uniqueness. Identity-constraint names unique per schema; type / element / attribute names unique per namespace; no duplicate attribute uses on a type. Cheap graph checks (~12 identity-constraint-name cases, plus type/element/attribute name collisions).
4. Resolvable references. Done (1092 -> 1051). type/base/itemType/ memberTypes types, element/attribute/group/attributeGroup ref, and element substitutionGroup must resolve to a declared component or a built-in (SchemaReferences.swift), matched by local name, skipped when import/include/redefine may supply externals. Still open: keyref refer resolution; the context-sensitive applicability rules (form on a global decl, ref excluding name/type).
5. Facet applicability per base (the open facet-family tail): which facets a base admits (fractionDigits only on decimal-derived, length only on string/binary/list, etc.), and a fixed facet may not be changed.
6. Schema-for-schemas structural validity. Content-model pass done (1688 -> 1313, -375). A data-driven allowedChildren table (the schema-for- schemas child content model) rejects disallowed children, multi/misplaced annotation, and identity constraints missing selector/field, via one general mechanism (SchemaStructure.swift). Attribute value validity also landed (enumerated attributes, minOccurs/maxOccurs; 1313 -> 1190), plus name/reference lexical validity (name an NCName; type/base/ref/itemType/refer/substitutionGroup QNames; 1190 -> 1129), plus pattern regex validity (compile each pattern; reject only unambiguous syntax errors, tolerating engine gaps; 1129 -> 1092), plus complexType content-model shape (one simpleContent/complexContent, exclusive with model groups/attributes; one model group; 1051 -> 997), plus particle minOccurs <= maxOccurs (997 -> 977), plus named-group exactly-one-compositor (977 -> 956). Still open: attribute applicability (which attributes each component admits, e.g. form is prohibited on a global declaration, ref excludes name); child order beyond the leading annotation; and particle / model-group semantic rules (Unique Particle Attribution, Particle-Valid-Restriction completeness).

Per-iteration protocol (the PR-critic-loop)

For each cluster, on a fresh branch off main:

1. Scope & measure. Identify the cluster's cases in /tmp/xsts-failures.txt; read a sample of the actual invalid schemas to pin the exact rule(s). State the rule in one sentence (first principles).
2. Implement at the owning layer (compile-time consistency check). Make impossible states unrepresentable where it helps; no special-case bandaids.
3. Unit tests for the rule: a valid schema passes, each invalid form is rejected with a located, specific message. Swift Testing.
4. Gates (all must pass): bash scripts/check-style.sh, bash scripts/check-namespacing.sh, swiftformat . --config .swiftformat --lint, swiftlint --config .swiftlint.yml --strict, swift build, swift test, bash scripts/check-wasm.sh.
5. XSTS ratchet. XSTS_ROOT=/private/tmp/xsts/xmlschema2006-11-06 swift test -c release --filter XSTS. invalid-schemas-accepted must fall; no other bucket may rise (hard gate). Update the pinned baselines in Tests/XSTSSuiteTests.swift to the new numbers.
6. Critic pass (mandatory before merge). Spawn an independent reviewer over git diff main...HEAD: correctness (does the rule over- or under-reject? spec citation), removed-behavior, cross-file impact, and altitude (is this a bandaid or the real rule?). Treat findings adversarially; fix every real one and re-run gates + XSTS. A finding that the rule is too aggressive (a valid schema now rejected) is a release blocker.
7. Document & commit. CHANGELOG entry with the before/after XSTS numbers; update this file's priority table and docs/xsts-deviations.md. Commit <type>(schema): …, then fast-forward merge to main (local only; never push, per policy). Delete the branch.

Invariants

• The ratchet only falls. A rising bucket is a regression and blocks the merge.
• Disclosed limits are fine; silent debt is the violation. Until the schema side is solid the README must state the conformance numbers and what is not yet checked, and the package stays 0.x.
• Apple/Swift-native only; no external SwiftPM deps; macOS + Linux + WASI.