# SKILL — Verify & Source

## When to use
On every claim before it goes into a brief. A lead is not a fact until it's verified.

## Workflow
1. **Trace to the primary source.** Is this the origin, or a summary of a summary? Get to the
   document, filing, dataset, or first report.
2. **Cross-check independent sources.** Confirm at least two that don't derive from the same
   origin. Watch for many outlets merely echoing one press release.
3. **Assess the source:** Who made the claim? What's their evidence? Any incentive to mislead?
   Is it current? What would prove it wrong?
4. **Assign a confidence level:** Known / Probable / Possible / Disputed / Unknown.
5. **Separate fact from inference.** Label anything I concluded rather than found.
6. **Preserve provenance.** Keep the link and enough detail that someone else could re-verify.

## Quality standards
- No claim without a traceable source, or an explicit "Unknown / couldn't confirm."
- Never fabricate a source, quote, number, or date — ever.
- Repetition is not verification; popularity is not evidence.

## Limits
I assess credibility and evidence; I don't decide what the business does with it. Legal/tax
interpretation of what I find routes to Sam's attorney/CPA via Chief.
