Industrial data contract template
A CSV signal contract for asset identity, source, datatype, units, timestamp, quality, stale behavior and schema revision.
Download the Industrial data contract template (CSV). Opens in spreadsheet applications; no email or signup required. Fields and an explicitly labeled example row are included. Replace the example before use.
Complete one row per signal or compatible signal family. Keep the source register or node reference tied to an approved map. The example is a design placeholder, not a production configuration.
Define meaning before transport
Specify datatype, scaling, unit and valid range. Distinguish source sample time from gateway receipt and broker delivery time. Define quality mapping, update policy and how the consumer behaves when the source becomes stale. A frequently republished old value is still old.
Test contract boundaries
Review a late subscriber, reconnect, duplicate, bad-quality reading, stale source and incompatible schema version. Record the expected consumer response for each in the project evidence. Keep telemetry and command authorization under separate designs.
Own revisions
Assign a contract owner and schema revision. Document compatibility and migration rules before renaming assets or changing payload structure. Keep credentials and private connection details in approved secret storage rather than this worksheet.
Use with
- MQTT topic and payload design
- Modbus timeout budgets
- Historian sampling and storage
- Industrial data learning path
Included fields
contract_id, asset_id, signal_name, source_reference, datatype, engineering_unit, valid_range, timestamp_meaning, quality_mapping, update_policy, stale_after, consumer_on_stale, schema_revision, owner.