ContractForge overview

ContractForge is a multi-runtime contract-first ingestion platform. It defines ingestion intent in a platform-neutral semantic core, evaluates that intent against adapter capabilities, and lets each adapter render or execute native runtime artifacts.

contractforge-core, contractforge-databricks, contractforge-aws, contractforge-snowflake, contractforge-fabric and contractforge-gcp are delivery boundaries: the core owns contract semantics, while adapters own platform behavior.

Product model

ContractForge is useful when a team needs the same governed ingestion standard across client or enterprise runtimes without rewriting the framework for each platform.

What stays portable

Portable semantics belong in the contract and the core:

• source intent, target intent and naming;
• append, overwrite, merge/upsert and SCD intent;
• schema policy;
• quality rules;
• transformations and shape operations that are platform-neutral;
• annotations, ownership, operations and access intent;
• evidence requirements.

Platform-specific behavior belongs in adapters. Databricks owns Delta, Unity Catalog, Auto Loader, Lakeflow, Jobs, Asset Bundles and Databricks runtime helpers. AWS owns Glue Spark, Iceberg, S3 artifacts, Lake Formation, MSK and AWS runtime APIs. Snowflake owns SQL warehouse execution, stages, procedures, tasks and native governance. Fabric owns Lakehouse notebooks, OneLake, shortcuts, pipelines and Delta evidence. GCP owns BigQuery, GCS load jobs, Workflows, Dataplex and BigQuery evidence.

Honest portability

ContractForge does not promise that every contract runs everywhere. The planner returns an explicit result:

Status	Meaning
SUPPORTED	The adapter can preserve the contract semantics.
SUPPORTED_WITH_WARNINGS	The adapter can run the plan, but there are documented differences or operational caveats.
REVIEW_REQUIRED	The adapter found a possible mapping, but the semantic or operational tradeoff must be accepted before deployment.
UNSUPPORTED	The adapter cannot preserve the requested behavior.

No adapter should silently downgrade historical mode to append, merge to overwrite, row filters to comments, or evidence to best-effort logs.

Contract sections

ingestion

Ingestion

Source, target, write mode, schema policy, quality, transform, shape, watermarks and execution intent.

annotations

Annotations

Descriptions, aliases, tags, PII classification, lifecycle metadata and catalog-facing documentation.

operations

Operations

Owner, support group, criticality, frequency, SLA, runbook and operational metadata.

access

Access

Grants, row filters, column masks and drift policy. The adapter decides how the target platform applies them.

Package boundaries

Package	Responsibility
contractforge-core	Contract models, validation, semantic normalization, capability matching, abstract plans, portability diagnostics and neutral evidence models.
contractforge-databricks	Databricks capabilities, Delta/Unity Catalog/Lakeflow/Auto Loader rendering, Databricks runtime execution, Asset Bundles and platform-specific evidence filling.
contractforge-aws	AWS Glue/Iceberg capabilities, S3 artifact publication, Glue job deployment, Lake Formation review/apply helpers and Iceberg evidence tables.
contractforge-snowflake	Snowflake SQL warehouse capabilities, staged runtime artifacts, Snowpark procedure execution, task graphs, native evidence and governance review/apply helpers.
contractforge-fabric	Fabric Lakehouse notebook execution, OneLake/source expansion, shortcut-backed external sources, deployment-pipeline review and Delta evidence tables.
contractforge-gcp	BigQuery capabilities, GCS load jobs, Workflows orchestration, Dataplex quality/lineage/aspects and BigQuery evidence tables.

The core does not import Spark, Databricks SDK, boto3, Azure SDK, Fabric SDK or Snowflake clients.

Real parity proof

The USGS GeoJSON medallion example runs the same bronze-to-gold ingestion design across Databricks, AWS, Snowflake, Fabric and GCP. It keeps source intent, medallion order, quality rules, write behavior, annotations, operations and evidence aligned while adapter-owned bindings select native tables, SQL references, storage paths and runtime prerequisites.

In AWS, contracts are rendered and published to S3 before Glue execution. In Databricks, the adapter executes through the Databricks runtime. Snowflake stages artifacts and executes through SQL/procedure paths. Fabric deploys and runs generated Lakehouse notebooks. GCP renders BigQuery/Workflows artifacts and can execute the stable BigQuery surface. The contract intent stays the same; only environment and adapter-owned runtime settings change.

Start here

Install packagesRun the quick startUnderstand adaptersModel contractsUse ContractForge AIRead evidence

Non-goals

ContractForge is not a scheduler, a universal Spark wrapper, a dbt replacement, a GUI product, or a promise that every platform has identical semantics. It is the contract, planning, adapter and evidence layer for repeatable governed ingestion.