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Modelling with the wizard

The modelling wizard walks a real cataloguing decision step by step, explains why each entity fits, and creates the entities live - guided, or AI-assisted from your own description.

The modelling wizard is the fastest way to learn RiC modelling: it turns “how do I model this?” into a guided, branching walkthrough that creates the entities as you go.

How it works

For each step the wizard gives you:

  1. A prompt - a real decision (“How do you represent the tape as a whole?”).
  2. Choices - the candidate entities, each with why it fits / why it doesn’t.
  3. A capture - the exact API call it produces, every field editable, run live.
  4. Branching - your answer can change the path (a single letter → Record; a whole exchange → Record Set).

It ends in an assembled, citable model.

Worked example: a magnetic tape

The flagship scenario models an ethnographic tape with mixed-provenance tracks:

  1. The tape’s content → Record (POST /records)
  2. Each track → Record Part belonging to the tape (POST /record-parts, parent_id = the tape)
  3. Each track’s own creator → Agent + has_creator relation
  4. The physical reel → Instantiation

Because per-track creators are relations on each Record Part, the tape carries genuinely mixed provenance.

Describe your own material (AI-assisted)

The wizard has a “describe your material” box. Type something like “a parish baptism register, 1881-1899, with hundreds of entries” and it proposes a RiC model - every entity code and relation validated against RiC-CM 1.0 before it’s shown, so it never suggests an invalid model. It proposes; you review and create. (Expect ~30s while the model thinks.)

Sample capture (what a step sends)

POST /api/ric/v1/record-parts
Content-Type: application/json

{ "title": "Track A - wedding songs, Epirus", "parent_id": 914120 }

The library

There are 18 scenarios - magnetic tape, photographs, maps, oral history, registers, newspapers, family papers, email, web archives, and more. Pick one from the scenario dropdown.

Next

Something missing or unclear? Tell us in Discussions or email johan@theahg.co.za.