📖What it means

The one copy that counts. Where two copies of the same thing exist, exactly one is canonical and the other is a rendering of it — anything else guarantees drift.

📖Easily confused with

[{"term": "Backup", "distinction": "A canonical copy is the one everything reads; a backup is a copy kept in case that one is lost."}, {"term": "Cache", "distinction": "A cache may be stale by design; a canonical copy may not."}]

📖Also called

- authoritative
- the one true copy
- source of truth copy

📖Filed under

Category: general.

Service: Governance.