# PRD - Critical & Collated Edition Editor

**URL:** <https://forum.webuddhist.com/t/prd-critical-collated-edition-editor/314>\
**Category:** 🚀 WG སྡེ་ཚན།\
**Created:** [June 20, 2025, 10:49am UTC](https://forum.webuddhist.com/t/prd-critical-collated-edition-editor/314 "2025-06-20T10:49:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Kaldan](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex003/user_avatar/forum.webuddhist.com/kaldan/32/43_2.png) [@Kaldan](https://forum.webuddhist.com/u/Kaldan)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 10:49am UTC](https://forum.webuddhist.com/t/prd-critical-collated-edition-editor/314/1 "2025-06-20T10:49:30Z")

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## 🧭 Purpose and Demographic

### ✦ Mission Statement

To provide a robust, scholarly-grade editor that enables domain experts to compare multiple textual witnesses and produce accurate collated and critical editions with justifications and export-ready formats.

### ✦ Target Demographic

Textual scholars, Buddhist studies researchers, critical editors, philologists, and institutions involved in textual preservation and publication of Buddhist scriptures and classical texts.

### ✦ Problem Statement

Traditional methods of producing collated and critical editions are time-intensive and error-prone. There is a lack of domain-specific, digital tools to streamline witness alignment, variant collation, and editorial documentation in the context of Buddhist textual traditions.

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## 🎯 Product Objectives

### ✦ Core Objectives

- Enable multi-witness alignment with a user-friendly interface
- Automate detection and entry of textual variants
- Support footnote and apparatus entry
- Provide structured editorial justifications for variant selections
- Export collated and critical editions in TEI-XML, Markdown, and PDF

### ✦ Non-Goals

- Will not generate commentary or translations automatically
- Will not verify authenticity or historical accuracy of witnesses
- Will not provide generalized text-editing tools unrelated to textual scholarship

### ✦ Impact Areas

- Democratizes the creation of critical editions within Buddhist and academic communities
- Enhances scholarly workflow through digital assistance
- Contributes to preservation and rigorous representation of textual traditions

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## 💡 Example Use Cases

### ✦ Use Case: [Dr. Tenzin, Buddhist Textual Scholar]

- Aligns five witnesses of a Prajnaparamita manuscript.
- Inserts apparatus notes and editorial decisions for publication.

### ✦ Use Case: [Karma, Digital Humanities Editor]

- Reviews variant readings and exports a collated edition to TEI.
- Collaborates remotely with peer editors and tracks changes.

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## 🏗 Architectural Considerations

### ✦ Tech Stack

- **Frontend** : React (with Zustand/Redux, Tailwind CSS)
- **Backend** : FastAPI (Python)
- **Database** : PostgreSQL (witnesses, apparatus, metadata)
- **Authentication** : OAuth2 or Auth0 (optional)
- **Deployment** : Docker, Render/AWS

### ✦ System Diagram

User → React UI → FastAPI (REST endpoints) → PostgreSQL + File System (text witnesses & annotations)

### ✦ Security & Privacy

- Access-controlled endpoints for text editing and collaboration
- Revision history and change logs
- Secure token-based authentication

### ✦ Dependencies

- [CollateX](https://github.com/interedition/collatex) or in-house collation engine
- PDF/TEI/XML export libraries
- Git integration (optional, for version tracking)

### ✦ Scalability & Maintenance

- Stateless FastAPI services for horizontal scaling
- Frontend component-based design for rapid UI iteration
- Automated CI/CD with GitHub Actions

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## 👥 Participants

### ✦ Working Group Members

- **Tashi** – Product Owner
- **Kunsang** – Lead Frontend Engineer
- **Lobsang** – Backend Developer (FastAPI)
- **Sangmo** – UI/UX Designer
- **Rinzin** – Textual Scholar & Advisor

### ✦ Stakeholders

- OpenPecha Core Team
- Partner Institutions (e.g., BDRC, academic presses)

### ✦ Point of Contact

Tashi ([tashi@openpecha.org](mailto:tashi@openpecha.org))

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## 🚦 Project Status

### ✦ Current Phase

UI design & backend API prototyping

### ✦ Milestones

- **July 2025** – Working demo for internal review
- **August 2025** – User testing with 2-3 scholars
- **October 2025** – Public beta release with export support

### ✦ Roadmap

- **Q3 2025** – Core features: alignment, collation, TEI export
- **Q4 2025** – Collaborative features and editorial justification interface
- **Q1 2026** – PDF/Markdown export, multilingual interface

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## 🗓 Meeting Times

### ✦ Regular Schedule

Every Wednesday at 6PM IST via Zoom

### ✦ Meeting Notes

[Google Docs/Notion link to running minutes]

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## 🛠 What We’re Working On

We maintain a public task board with all active issues and discussions.

➡ [View GitHub Project Board](https://github.com/openpecha/collated-edition-editor/projects/1)