# Key Information File
**Domain:** Deep Time / Records / Knowledge Preservation
**Doc Type:** Canonical Wiki Entry
**Maturity:** Developed
**Evidence / Concept Status:** Established OECD NEA concept
## Definition
A **Key Information File (KIF)** is a concise standardized document intended to preserve the essential nature and purpose of a long-lived repository for future societies.
## Why It Matters for Deep Time Continuity
It is an important precedent for compressing deep-time institutional meaning into a durable, portable explanatory object.
## Existing Architecture / Evidence
OECD NEA guidance develops KIFs for France, Sweden, and the United States.
## Evidentiary Boundary
Continuity applications would require stronger identity and legal authenticity than ordinary explanatory records.
## Related Ontology
[[wiki/Records Knowledge and Memory Across Generations|Records Knowledge and Memory Across Generations]] · [[wiki/Set of Essential Records|Set of Essential Records]] · [[wiki/Continuity Election Durability|Continuity Election Durability]] · [[wiki/Deep-Time Institutional Memory|Deep-Time Institutional Memory]]
## Sources / Primary Anchors
- https://oecd-nea.org/jcms/pl_15060/
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## Canonical Branch
[[wiki/Deep Time Continuity|Deep Time Continuity]]
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