LWS Type Index Feature

[acoburn]

This issue can be used to track progress and discussion related to the type index feature within LWS.

There is some prior art for this feature with Solid:

• Type Indexes - this is defined as a client-oriented feature, rooted in a user's WebID profile. A user can define a public type index (public to all agents) and a private type index (accessible to a limited group of agents).
• SAI Data Registrations - this is also defined as a client-oriented feature. In general, a specialized authorization agent will have access to the data stored in these data registration hierarchies. Other agents (e.g., Social Agents) delegate any interactions with the data registrations to the trusted authorization agent.

Some aspects to consider for this feature, as discussed in the face-to-face meeting on 2025-10-08 and 2025-10-09:

• Indexes would be server-managed in order to prevent inadvertent or malicious corruption from clients.
• The primary use of Type Indexes would be to allow for data discovery by type.
• The content of LWS resources is out of scope for this feature.
• The required data to be indexed would include values from link headers, particularly rel="type" headers.
• Authorization will be crucial, as an agent that has access to resources A, B and D should not be able to discover the existence of resource C from the type index.
• Discovery of this feature would make use of the existing Storage description resource.

[gibsonf1]

I think we should rename this to Type Search. The index approach was a client implentation detail of having a literal index resource. The idea is to be able to search using types (at the basic level)

[elf-pavlik]

Can this be closed since related PR was merged?

• add Type Index Section #115

Of course this feature sill will need iteration.