Architecture · Diamond Layer
The layer that makes data possible to reason over.
The Diamond Layer is a semantic, governed layer on top of bronze, silver and gold. It describes what each field means, where it comes from, how fresh it is, and what it can be used for. Without it, an agent guesses, and guesses wrong consistently.
Last updated 2026-09-03.
Bronze, raw
Data as it arrived, unrefined and complete.
Without it: No one can trace back to what the source actually said.
Silver, cleaned
Duplicates gone, formats aligned, obvious errors removed.
Without it: Every analysis starts with the same manual clean-up.
Gold, business-ready
Tables built for how the business actually asks questions.
Without it: Metrics get recalculated in every report, with different results.
Diamond, semantic
Definitions, relationships, source references, usage rules.
Without it: The agent guesses what a field means, and guesses wrong consistently.
Layers on layers
Meaning sits above the technology.
Bronze, silver and gold make data clean. The Diamond Layer makes it understandable to an agent making a decision on it.
Diamond Layer
How it's built
Four steps, in your own environment.
- 01Inventory the fields the flow actually touchesNot the whole data estate. Just what the first flow reads or writes.
- 02Write the definitions in plain languageTwo people should be able to set the same value without asking each other.
- 03Attach source references and freshnessWhich system is truth, how often it updates, and when a value goes stale.
- 04Add rules and loggingWho can read, what can never be automated, and how every access is traced.
Source: Empley's delivery model for data foundations. The medallion layers follow the industry standard for layered data modelling.
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Start small and add on, or take the whole programme at once.
Answers to the questions your security lead usually asks.