An open, structured procurement and sourcing terminology dataset for developers, procurement software, B2B platforms, documentation systems, search, NLP, and AI applications.
The project is maintained by FirmaPanel, a B2B marketplace where buyers discover suppliers, request quotes, and organize inquiry-based trade.
Version 1.1.0 contains 314 terms across 18 categories, with stable IDs, original definitions, public-procurement coverage, optional concept metadata, abbreviations, aliases, and a richer related-term graph.
Procurement language often varies across regions, industries, organizations, and software systems. This project provides concise, original definitions and normalized relationships that are useful to both people and machines.
The glossary is designed for:
- procurement and sourcing professionals;
- supplier and B2B marketplace teams;
- developers building procurement, ERP, and supply-chain software;
- documentation and knowledge-management teams;
- students, educators, and researchers; and
- search, analytics, and AI/NLP applications.
Common integration use cases include:
- procurement search and terminology normalization;
- UI tooltips, compact cards, and autocomplete;
- retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and procurement chatbots;
- semantic search and terminology classification;
- documentation generation; and
- ERP, procurement, and B2B-platform integrations.
The glossary includes terminology from:
- procurement, purchasing, and strategic sourcing;
- supplier discovery, qualification, evaluation, and relationship management;
- RFI, RFQ, RFP, tendering, quotations, and bidding;
- purchase orders, inventory, warehousing, and packaging;
- freight, logistics, import/export, customs, and international trade;
- manufacturing, OEM, ODM, private label, capacity, and production;
- inspection, quality assurance, compliance, and commercial documents;
- pricing, payment terms, total cost of ownership, and landed cost;
- public procurement planning, tender notices, procedures, awards, and review;
- source-to-pay and procure-to-pay operations, invoice matching, and receipts;
- supplier risk, multi-tier resilience, responsible sourcing, and compliance; and
- modern sourcing models including nearshoring, reshoring, and friendshoring.
The same canonical records are available in formats suited to different workflows:
| Format | Intended use | File |
|---|---|---|
| JSON | Applications, APIs, validation, and AI/NLP pipelines | glossary.json |
| CSV | Spreadsheets, databases, and business analysis | glossary.csv |
| YAML | Documentation workflows and human-friendly review | glossary.yaml |
The category registry is available as
categories.json, and the record contract is published
as JSON Schema Draft 2020-12.
Generated supporting files make application integration simpler:
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
abbreviations.json |
Maps conventional abbreviations such as S2P, PPV, and GRN to stable IDs |
glossary-index.json |
Resolves lowercase canonical terms, aliases, IDs, abbreviations, and normalized search forms |
metadata.json |
Publishes the release version, language, license, and generated counts |
Clone and validate the dataset using Python 3.9 or later:
git clone https://github.com/FirmaPanel/procurement-glossary.git
cd procurement-glossary
python3 scripts/validate.pyUse the generated lookup index from Python:
import json
from pathlib import Path
root = Path("data")
terms = json.loads((root / "glossary.json").read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
lookup = json.loads((root / "glossary-index.json").read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
record = next(term for term in terms if term["id"] == lookup["ppv"])
print(record["term"], record["definition"])Or query the published file without cloning:
curl -fsSL \
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FirmaPanel/procurement-glossary/main/data/glossary.json \
| jq '.[] | select(.abbreviation? == "PPV")'Dependency-free runnable examples are available for Python and JavaScript.
Every term has a stable, lowercase kebab-case identifier. A typical record looks like this:
{
"id": "source-to-pay",
"term": "Source-to-Pay",
"abbreviation": "S2P",
"short_definition": "The workflow from sourcing through purchasing and supplier payment.",
"definition": "The end-to-end process that connects sourcing and supplier selection with purchasing, invoicing, and payment.",
"category": "procurement",
"term_type": "process",
"scope": "private-procurement",
"aliases": [
"source to settle"
],
"related_terms": [
"strategic-sourcing",
"procure-to-pay",
"supplier-onboarding",
"invoice-matching"
],
"tags": [
"procurement",
"workflow",
"sourcing"
]
}Required fields are id, term, definition, and category. Records may also
include a short definition, concept type, scope, authoritative standards
references, abbreviation, aliases, related terms, tags, notes, examples, and a
deprecation flag. The published JSON Schema is the authoritative technical
specification; see the schema documentation for details.
The glossary follows a small set of durable rules:
- Definitions use original wording and do not copy third-party glossaries.
- Language is concise, neutral, and internationally understandable.
- Canonical terms, abbreviations, and genuine aliases are kept distinct.
- Relationships use stable term IDs rather than display names.
- Changes remain reviewable, versioned, and reproducible across every format.
These rules help the project remain useful without tying its definitions to a single vendor, region, or software product.
The complete rules for term selection, disputed terminology, normalization, standards references, public procurement, and review are in EDITORIAL_POLICY.md.
procurement-glossary/
├── data/ # Published JSON, CSV, and YAML datasets
├── docs/ # Schema, category, and editorial documentation
├── examples/ # Dependency-free lookup examples
├── schema/ # Machine-readable JSON Schema
├── scripts/ # Build and validation utilities
├── requirements-dev.txt # Standards-validation dependencies
├── .github/ # Contribution and issue templates
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CITATION.cff
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── EDITORIAL_POLICY.md
├── LICENSE
└── README.md
JSON is the source of truth. After editing it, regenerate and validate the derived exports:
python3 scripts/build_exports.py
python3 scripts/validate.pyFor the complete standards-based check used in CI:
python3 -m pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
python3 scripts/build_exports.py --check
python3 scripts/validate.py
python3 scripts/validate_formats.pyThe build and core integrity checks use only the Python standard library.
make check runs the same full sequence where Make is available. See the
category taxonomy, data schema, and
editorial style guide before making structural changes.
Corrections, additional terms, improved relationships, documentation, and validation tooling are welcome. Before opening a pull request, read CONTRIBUTING.md and the Code of Conduct.
You can also use the repository's issue forms to propose a term or report an accuracy problem. Please do not submit copied definitions or unverified bulk AI-generated content.
Dataset releases use semantic versioning principles:
- patch releases correct spelling, metadata, or definitions without changing the schema;
- minor releases add terms or backward-compatible fields; and
- major releases introduce incompatible schema or taxonomy changes.
See CHANGELOG.md for notable changes.
Citation metadata for version 1.1.0 is provided in
CITATION.cff. GitHub and compatible tools can use this file to
produce a formatted dataset citation. The archived release is available as
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22641575.
The dataset and documentation are available under the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Maintenance
utilities in scripts/ are available under the MIT License.
When redistributing or adapting the material, provide attribution in a reasonable form. The preferred attribution is:
FirmaPanel Procurement Glossary by FirmaPanel, available from github.com/FirmaPanel/procurement-glossary, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
See ATTRIBUTION.md for dataset reuse and citation details. Trademark rights are not granted by either license.
This glossary is general informational material. It is not legal, customs, financial, compliance, or professional advice. Terms can have different meanings under particular contracts, regulations, jurisdictions, and industry practices.
FirmaPanel connects B2B product discovery with private inquiries, supplier quotations, and trade tracking. This glossary is maintained as an open reference for the wider procurement and supply-chain community.