Insights
COAs, redaction, and public records
Original lab files stay preserved. Anything public is a separate, approved derivative.
Grass Roots holds original certificates of analysis and supporting lab files. Those originals are classified REVIEW_REDACT or INTERNAL until an administrator approves a public derivative.
The platform stores three states:
PUBLIC — a redacted or otherwise approved file that may be shown on a cultivar page. REVIEW_REDACT — the original, retained, never served at a predictable public URL. INTERNAL — staff-only.
A public page may say that testing records exist without handing the original PDF to the open web. That is deliberate. Several of the source COAs in the archives contain layout, identifiers, or adjacent information that has not been cleared for publication.
When a public derivative is approved, the original remains. The derivative is a new file with its own record, linked back to the source. Approval is audited.