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DVC Tool Boundaries and System Ownership

Page Maps

graph LR
  family["Reproducible Research"]
  program["Deep Dive DVC"]
  section["Migration Governance Dvc Boundaries"]
  page["DVC Tool Boundaries and System Ownership"]
  capstone["Capstone evidence"]

  family --> program --> section --> page
  page -.applies in.-> capstone
flowchart LR
  orient["Orient on the page map"] --> read["Read the main claim and examples"]
  read --> inspect["Inspect the related code, proof, or capstone surface"]
  inspect --> verify["Run or review the verification path"]
  verify --> apply["Apply the idea back to the module and capstone"]

Mature DVC usage includes knowing where DVC should stop.

DVC is strong at content-addressed state, pipeline evidence, experiment comparison, and remote-backed artifact recovery. It is not meant to own every concern in a production system.

What DVC should own well

DVC is a strong authority for:

  • data and artifact identity
  • pipeline dependency and output evidence
  • parameter and metric comparison surfaces
  • experiment records tied to declared state
  • remote-backed recovery of tracked artifacts
  • release evidence that links back to repository state

These are state-contract problems.

What another layer may need to own

Another system may be a better authority for:

  • production deployment policy
  • online serving rollouts
  • workflow scheduling at cluster scale
  • access control beyond repository evidence
  • formal model registry lifecycle
  • regulatory document management
  • alerting and incident paging

DVC can feed evidence into those systems. It does not need to replace them.

Hybrid ownership is normal

A mature design often says:

DVC owns the reproducible artifact lineage. The registry owns consumer lifecycle. The deployment platform owns rollout. CI owns shared verification.

That division is stronger than forcing every concern into one tool.

flowchart LR
  dvc["DVC: artifact lineage"] --> registry["registry: consumer contract"]
  registry --> deploy["deployment: rollout"]
  ci["CI: shared verification"] --> dvc

The diagram is a responsibility map, not a product prescription.

Boundary questions for review

Ask:

  • does DVC have the evidence needed to own this decision?
  • does another system have the policy, lifecycle, or runtime context?
  • can the handoff preserve artifact identity and audit evidence?
  • will consumers know which system is authoritative?

If the answer is unclear, the problem is not tool choice. It is ownership design.

Review checkpoint

You understand this core when you can:

  • name the state-contract problems DVC owns well
  • identify concerns that belong to registry, deployment, CI, or governance layers
  • design a handoff that preserves DVC evidence
  • avoid overloading DVC with every production concern
  • explain ownership in language another maintainer can use

The final course skill is not using DVC for everything. It is using DVC where its evidence model is the right authority.