Passageid

Passageid is a term used in software systems to denote a unique identifier assigned to a specific passage of text within a document, transcript, dataset, or collection of texts. The passage may be a sentence, paragraph, or a defined span. The identifier enables precise referencing, retrieval, annotation, alignment with other media, and cross-linking across disparate systems. In practice, passageId is typically stored as a string and may take several forms: a UUID, an incremental numeric id, or a human-readable tag. The important properties are uniqueness within the relevant scope (for example, per document or per project) and stability according to policy. In JSON, passageId is commonly exposed as a field alongside the passage text or metadata, such as: { "passageId": "p-12345", "text": "...", "start": 105, "end": 245 }.

Uses of passageid include indexing large collections for efficient search, enabling fine-grained annotations, aligning transcripts to audio or video, facilitating versioning and diff tooling, and supporting collaborative editing where specific passages are referenced or commented on. In hierarchical documents, passageIds may reflect structure (for example, 1.2.3). In streaming or OCR pipelines, passageId helps map recognized text to source segments and to results across stages.

Implementation considerations include ensuring consistent generation, avoiding collisions across datasets, and handling passage moves or deletions. Privacy and data governance should be considered if passages contain sensitive information. Some systems maintain both a stable passageId and a content-based hash to verify integrity or detect changes.

See also: identifiers, unique identifiers, JSON, text alignment, annotation systems.