01
Primary source
Original contracts, policies, raw datasets, direct releases, verbatim transcripts.
Strongest origin record for what was signed, stated, collected, or released.
METHOD / SOURCE DISCIPLINE
Methodology
The method is designed to make claims inspectable, uncertainty explicit, and corrections durable.
01 / EVIDENCE
The Evidence Ladder
Evidence is ranked by what the record can actually prove. A lower tier can provide context, but it does not silently inherit the authority of a primary document.
02
Official record
Agency records, procurement files, approved budgets, audits, dockets, enforcement records.
Establishes authorized action, financial obligation, or formal policy.
03
Declassified record
Released intelligence briefs, diplomatic cables, military or law-enforcement files.
Authoritative within visible redactions, date, scope, and declassification context.
04
Court filing
Complaints, motions, exhibits, sworn declarations, orders, docket entries.
Legally significant, but adversarial claims and procedural posture must remain visible.
05
Reputable reporting
Published journalism with named sources, documents, and correction practices.
Essential context and discovery; corroborate material claims with records when possible.
06
Expert analysis
Technical, legal, historical, or policy analysis explaining methods and limits.
Interprets complex records; never substitutes for the underlying source.
07
Firsthand account
Witness, victim, worker, or whistleblower account.
Important lead bounded by perspective, memory, safety, and corroboration needs.
08
Unverified claim
Allegation, rumor, partial signal, anonymous assertion without supporting record.
May guide research internally; must not be published as fact.
02 / UNCERTAINTY
Confidence labels
Confidence describes the current state of a finding, not the prestige of its source.
Directly established by an authentic primary or official record with no material contradiction identified.
Supported by multiple independent sources or by reporting matched to an underlying record.
The available evidence points strongly in one direction, but a decisive record remains missing.
A reasoned conclusion from visible records; the source does not state the conclusion directly.
Material, sourced disagreement exists and is presented with the finding.
Once supported, but the relevant policy, system, organization, or record may have changed.
The record does not answer the question.
Not yet supported strongly enough for publication as fact.
03 / WORKFLOW
Publication workflow
-
01
Acquire server-side
Fetch only from documented public endpoints, within reasonable limits, using a named user agent and bounded queries.
-
02
Preserve origin
Keep the canonical URL, source identifier, publication time, retrieval time, and transformations applied.
-
03
Classify evidence
Assign the evidence tier to the actual document being cited, not merely the page that linked to it.
-
04
Minimize and review
Remove unnecessary bystander identifiers, credentials, residential details, medical data, and unrelated metadata before publication.
-
05
Publish with uncertainty
State what the evidence proves, what it does not prove, and what new information would change the conclusion.
-
06
Repair the record
Document corrections, confidence changes, visible edits, reviewer decisions, and downstream repair where practical.
04 / SYSTEM MAP
Follow the data flow
Identify the collection point, authority line, vendor integration, sharing path, retention rule, human override, and audit gap. Procurement records often reveal more than marketing claims or inaccessible source code.
05 / AUTHORIZATION
Bright-line boundaries
No unauthorized access, bypassing controls, exploit trading, doxxing, stalking, credential exposure, or instructions for violence. Public-interest intent does not create permission.
06 / REPAIR
Corrections and right of reply
Material corrections should identify the affected claim, the contrary source, the requested change, the reviewer, and the visible repair. Named organizations may reply, but do not receive veto power over supported findings.