Canonical symbol catalogue
Create internal identifiers that are independent of any one vendor. A source adapter maps its symbol names to the catalogue, while downstream platform adapters map the catalogue to broker-facing names.
Field semantics
Bid, ask, last, indicative status and other fields should have documented meaning. Normalization is where inconsistent source naming can be translated into one internal contract.
Precision and units
Do not assume that all providers publish identical decimal precision or units. These differences should be represented explicitly before any comparison or downstream transformation.
Timestamp model
Preserve useful source timing information while adding receive or processing timestamps where appropriate. The fields must be named clearly enough that consumers know what each clock represents.
Preserve provenance
Normalization should not erase the ability to trace an event to its source. Provenance is useful for quality analysis, incident review and entitlement control.
How this applies to a broker deployment
The exact architecture depends on the selected sources, instruments, platform, regions, data rights and operating model. PriceFeed.xyz scopes those requirements before defining a production design. The examples in this guide explain engineering concepts and do not imply a specific source entitlement, hosting location, latency guarantee or service-level commitment.