# Stable Identities Make Configuration Patches Mergeable ## Claim Independently authored configuration patches can only merge safely into a shared collection when each member carries a stable, unique identity. <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ## Scope & conditions - Holds when multiple extensions (plugins, themes, or teams) may separately modify the same array-shaped configuration — sidebar presets, form fields, ordered lists of anything. - Breaks when keys collide, change between releases, or don't uniquely identify a member — at that point "merge" silently becomes "overwrite" or "duplicate." - WordPress's DataViews schema names this explicitly: `view_list` entries merge by `slug`, form fields merge by `id`. ## Evidence The View Configuration Reference documents `isLocked` filters as one example of a partial view applied through a preset entry, but the load-bearing mechanism underneath every preset and form-field example is the same: a stable key that identifies "this is the same logical thing being modified," not "this is a new thing being added." Without it, two plugins customizing the same entity's Quick Edit form would produce duplicate or conflicting fields instead of a coherent merge. ## Links - [[3. Resources/Literature Notes/View Configuration Reference (Block Editor Handbook)]] — source literature note, §H2 - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Open Source Governance MOC]] — applies-in: multi-extension WordPress customization of one shared screen ## Tests / falsifiers - Find a documented case of two plugins customizing the same `view_list` or form-field collection with colliding `slug`/`id` values, and check whether the result is a clean merge, a silent overwrite, or a visible duplicate. - If a system achieves reliable multi-party merging without stable per-member identity (e.g., via strict ordering or namespacing instead), that would show identity is one sufficient mechanism rather than the only one. ## Maintenance - Last tended: 2026-08-16 - Next review: 2026-11-16 ## Source - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/View Configuration Reference – Block Editor Handbook Developer.WordPress.org]] — documents `slug` and `id` as merge identities in `view_list` and `form`.