This page explains how tieback models product identifiers for Digital Product Passport and resolver workflows. tieback supports SKU as the operational product key and standards-based identifiers such as GTIN (including EAN/UPC variants) for interoperability. Identifiers are validated, versioned, and used to resolve products consistently across markets.
tieback
provides a governed identifier system for every product. Each product has an immutable system ID and supports multiple mutable identifiers (SKU, GTIN, EAN, UPC) with full change history.
Brand administrators managing product catalogues, supply chain teams scanning barcodes, and API integrators resolving product identifiers.
Every product receives a system-assigned UUID (TieBack Product ID) at creation. This ID never changes and serves as the permanent system-of-record identifier. All other identifiers are mutable aliases that point to this UUID.
At any time, a product can have one active identifier per type. When an identifier is changed:
This means old printed codes remain resolvable even after identifier changes. See Resolver & GS1 Digital Link for details.
Identifiers are edited exclusively in Product Detail (Core Fields section). They cannot be changed via bulk edit, by design, because every change creates an auditable history entry.
Product Detail displays a full history of all identifier changes, partitioned into:
History is ordered with active identifiers first, then most recently retired.
The old value is retired and the new value becomes active. Both are preserved in the identifier history. Previously printed codes using the old value will still resolve via the public resolver.
EAN and UPC are stored as alias-only identifiers (no cached column on the product record). Functionally they behave the same: full history, active/retired status, and resolver support.