Values and identities

Facts, rule conditions, and authorization checks use two kinds of concrete values:

• Typed identities (User:alice, Document:123) reference domain entities.
• Primitive constants ("read", 3, true) represent scalar values such as action names, counts, and flags.

Typed identities

A typed identity pairs an uppercase entity type (PascalCase) with an ID using TypeName:id syntax:

is_owner(User:sam, Document:sam);

Both the type and the ID must match. Even though User:sam and Document:sam share the ID "sam", they are distinct values and never match each other.

The ID after the colon is always treated as a string, even when written with digits (Document:123). If an ID contains characters outside standard letters, digits, and underscores (such as @, -, or spaces), wrap the ID in double quotes:

is_owner(User:"sam@example.com", Document:"q3-roadmap");

Use the exact same type and ID format when writing facts and enforcing decisions. See the Language Reference for character and escaping rules.

Primitive constants

Use primitive literals for values that are not entity references:

Type	Examples	Common uses
string	"read", "published"	Action names, roles, statuses, and labels
int	3, 100	Counts, versions, clearance levels, timestamps
boolean	true, false	Explicit two-state flags

allow(user: User, "read", document: Document) if
  is_owner(user, document) and
  publication_status(document, "published") and
  clearance_level(user, 3);

Verdict never coerces values across types: the identity Document:3, the integer 3, and the string "3" are three distinct values.

Next steps

• Connect values across conditions with variables in Variables and matching.
• Compare numeric and boolean properties in Attributes.
• Compare missing facts with explicit false booleans in Negation and missing facts.