RULE: Require a working database export on Day 1 of any engagement. Test it. Re-test quarterly.

Rule: Every Candid client engagement must have a working, tested database export procedure documented within the first week. The export runs end-to-end at least once during onboarding. The procedure is re-tested quarterly as part of the maintenance retainer.

Why: A database export that has never been run is theoretical. Doctorow's "right of exit" (Doctorow's prescription: "right of exit" requires interoperability, not just open source) requires interoperability, not licensing. The empirical test of platform ownership is: can you produce a clean export today? If not, the client doesn't own that layer. See also Wix officially: "no export is possible" — confirmed in writing as a structural property and Squarespace 7.1: no XML export at all. 7.0 export omits images, products, custom CSS, video, audio, drafts, non-blog pages for cases where this test fails by design.

How to apply:

• Day 1: identify the source-of-truth database (or content store) for client content
• Week 1: run the export, store the artifact in a business-controlled location (S3 bucket with business keys, or similar)
• Document: command/procedure, expected size, format, what it includes and excludes
• Quarterly: re-run; diff against prior export; verify schema hasn't changed under us
• For SaaS-platform clients (Wix, Squarespace 7.1, etc.) where export is impossible: explicitly flag in the engagement contract that portability is not achievable on the current platform.