Documentation / QueryTek Tapestry glossary / Export Profile
An export profile is a named, reusable definition of what leaves a system and in what shape — which records, which fields, which format, and to which destination. Because it is declared rather than improvised, each export is a repeat of a reviewed decision.
Ad hoc export is the default in most systems: someone needs data elsewhere, so they select what looks relevant and send it. Each such export is an independent decision about what may leave, made by whoever happened to need it, and there is no artifact afterwards describing what left.
An export profile makes that decision an object.
Field selection is explicit. The profile states which fields are included. Extending it is a change to the profile with an owner, rather than an exporter widening a selection because the wider view was more convenient.
Shape and destination are fixed. Format and target are part of the definition, so the receiving system can rely on the contract and a change is visible rather than silent.
Reuse makes it reviewable. A profile used repeatedly is worth reviewing once and can be reasoned about. A one-off export is reviewed by nobody and inspected only after something goes wrong.
The distinction from a report is direction and audience. A report is read by a person inside the boundary; an export leaves the boundary and typically feeds another system. That makes an export a data-sharing decision — minimization applies, and the question "why does the recipient need this field" has to have an answer.
The failure mode is profile sprawl: near-duplicate profiles created because amending an existing one required a conversation. At that point the reviewability the profile was meant to provide is gone.
Exports are where data minimization is usually lost. Access control inside a system can be precise while an export quietly sends far more than the recipient needs, because selecting extra fields costs nothing at the time.
Declared profiles also make the "what did we send them" question answerable. Under a data subject request or an incident review, a named profile with a defined field set is a straightforward answer; a history of ad hoc extracts is an investigation.
QueryTek Tapestry treats governed export as a declared profile so that what leaves a tenant is a reviewed definition rather than a per-request choice, with tenant boundaries enforced by the platform. Profile schemas, field catalogues, transport configuration, and customer-specific destinations are established during onboarding and are not published.
