---
title: Identity (TypeID)
description: How Weave uses prefix-qualified, globally unique identifiers for every entity.
---

Every entity in Weave has a TypeID. TypeIDs are globally unique, sortable, URL-safe identifiers built on UUIDv7 with a human-readable prefix that tells you what kind of entity you're looking at.

A TypeID looks like this:

```
doc_01h455vb4pex5vsknk084sn02q
```

The `doc` prefix identifies this as a document. The suffix is a base32-encoded UUIDv7 that encodes creation time, so IDs sort chronologically.

## The `id` package

The `id` package wraps the [TypeID Go library](https://github.com/jetify-com/typeid-go) (v2) with a single `ID` struct. All entity types share the same struct -- the prefix distinguishes them.

### Creating IDs

```go
import "github.com/xraph/weave/id"

documentID   := id.New(id.PrefixDocument)    // doc_01h455vb...
collectionID := id.New(id.PrefixCollection)  // col_01h455vb...
chunkID      := id.New(id.PrefixChunk)       // chk_01h455vb...
```

Convenience constructors: `id.NewDocumentID()`, `id.NewCollectionID()`, `id.NewChunkID()`, `id.NewPipelineID()`, `id.NewIngestJobID()`.

### Parsing IDs

```go
parsed, err := id.Parse("doc_01h455vb4pex5vsknk084sn02q")
parsed, err := id.ParseWithPrefix("doc_01h455vb...", id.PrefixDocument)  // validates prefix
parsed, err := id.ParseDocumentID("doc_01h455vb...")                     // convenience
```

### Nil ID

```go
var empty id.ID
empty.IsNil()  // true
empty.String() // ""
id.Nil.IsNil() // true
```

### Database storage

`id.ID` implements `Scanner` and `driver.Valuer`. Stores as a string, returns `NULL` for nil IDs.

### JSON serialization

`id.ID` implements `TextMarshaler` and `TextUnmarshaler`. Nil IDs serialize as empty strings.

## Prefix reference

| Constant | Prefix | Entity |
|----------|--------|--------|
| `id.PrefixDocument` | `doc` | Document |
| `id.PrefixCollection` | `col` | Collection |
| `id.PrefixChunk` | `chk` | Chunk |
| `id.PrefixPipeline` | `pipe` | Pipeline |
| `id.PrefixIngestJob` | `ingjob` | Ingest job |