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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: 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

2

Install the package

Install in editable (development) mode so that the schema files bundled inside the repository resolve correctly at runtime:
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:
Expected output for dms --version:
Expected output for dms info (truncated):
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:
Then find where pip places scripts on your system:
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:
Then reload your shell:
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:
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:
If you have already done this and still see the error, confirm that the schema/ directory exists inside the repository root:
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:
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.