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DMS is a Python package installed from source. The setup takes about two minutes.

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Prerequisites

Before installing, confirm you have the following:
RequirementMinimum versionCheck command
Python3.9python3 --version
pipIncluded with Python 3.9+pip --version
GitAny recent versiongit --version
DMS is tested against Python 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, and 3.13.

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Install DMS

1

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Dzaleka-Connect/Dzaleka-Metadata-Standard.git
cd dzaleka-metadata-standard
2

Install the package

Install in editable (development) mode so that the schema files bundled inside the repository resolve correctly at runtime:
pip install -e .
This installs the dms entry point and the following dependencies declared in pyproject.toml:
  • click>=8.0 — CLI framework
  • jsonschema>=4.0 — Schema validation engine
  • pyyaml>=6.0 — YAML schema support
  • rich>=13.0 — Terminal output formatting
To install without editable mode, run pip install . instead. Editable mode is recommended if you plan to modify the schema or CLI source.
3

Verify the installation

Run these two commands to confirm everything is working:
dms --version
dms info
Expected output for dms --version:
dms, version 1.0.0
Expected output for dms info (truncated):
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  Dzaleka Metadata Standard (DMS)                        ║
║  An open-source metadata standard for documenting       ║
║  and sharing Dzaleka's digital heritage.                ║
║                                                          ║
║    CLI version:    1.0.0                                 ║
║    Schema version: 1.0.0                                 ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

Schema Fields
╭──────────────────┬──────────┬─────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Field            │ Required │ Description                         │
├──────────────────┼──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ id               │ ✓ Yes    │ Unique identifier (UUID)            │
│ title            │ ✓ Yes    │ Name of the heritage item           │
│ type             │ ✓ Yes    │ Heritage category                   │
│ description      │ ✓ Yes    │ Narrative context                   │
│ language         │ ✓ Yes    │ BCP 47 language code                │
│ ...              │          │                                     │
╰──────────────────┴──────────┴─────────────────────────────────────╯

Heritage Types: story, photo, document, audio, video, event, map, artwork, site, poem
If both commands succeed, DMS is installed correctly.

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Troubleshooting

This means the Python scripts directory is not in your PATH.First, confirm the package installed without errors:
pip show dzaleka-metadata-standard
Then find where pip places scripts on your system:
python3 -m site --user-base
This prints a base path such as /home/yourname/.local. The dms executable lives in the bin/ subdirectory of that path (e.g., /home/yourname/.local/bin). Add that directory to your PATH:
# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
Then reload your shell:
source ~/.bashrc
On some systems (particularly macOS with Homebrew Python), the scripts directory may be under a versioned path. Use pip install -e . from within a virtual environment to avoid PATH complications entirely:
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .
dms --version
DMS locates its bundled schema files relative to the installed package directory. This error occurs when the package is installed in a way that breaks that relative path.The most reliable fix is to install in editable mode from inside the cloned repository:
cd dzaleka-metadata-standard
pip install -e .
If you have already done this and still see the error, confirm that the schema/ directory exists inside the repository root:
ls schema/
# Expected: dms.json  dms.jsonld  dms.yaml
If the directory is missing, re-clone the repository — a shallow clone or partial download may have omitted it.
Always run dms commands from within the cloned repository directory, or from a path where the installed package can resolve ../schema/*.json correctly.
Run dms info to see the full list of valid field values, heritage types, creator roles, and access levels:
dms info
Common causes of validation errors:
  • Invalid type value — The type field must be one of the ten allowed values: story, photo, document, audio, video, event, map, artwork, site, poem. Any other string will fail validation.
  • Empty required fields — The fields id, title, type, description, and language are required and cannot be empty strings or null.
  • Malformed UUID — The id field must be a valid UUID v4 string (e.g., b3e7c8a1-4d5f-6e7a-8b9c-0d1e2f3a4b5c). You can generate one with python3 -c "import uuid; print(uuid.uuid4())".
  • Wrong language format — The language field must be a BCP 47 language tag (e.g., en, sw, fr, rw), not a full language name.
For detailed definitions of every field and its constraints, see the field guide.