Evidence Verification Protocol

Use this skill when making claims about external products, companies, or industry trends. Every factual claim MUST be verifiable.

When to Use This Skill

• •Competitive product analysis (Slack, Teams, Notion, etc.)
• •Industry trend claims
• •Architectural comparisons with external products
• •Any factual statements about third-party products/companies

Mandatory Requirements

1. Cite Primary Sources ONLY

• •Official API documentation (e.g., https://api.slack.com/docs/)
• •Official product announcements (company blogs, press releases)
• •Developer documentation (e.g., https://docs.github.com/)
• •Academic papers or technical specifications
• •NEVER cite: Medium posts, Reddit, unofficial blogs, paraphrases

2. Include URLs for Every Factual Claim

• •Format: [Claim] (Source: https://exact-url)
• •If no URL found: "NO PRIMARY SOURCE FOUND - This is SPECULATION"

3. Distinguish Facts from Inferences

• •FACT: "Slack Canvas API requires conversation_id parameter" (Source: [URL])
• •INFERENCE: "Slack chose this because..." <- No source = speculation
• •Mark inferences: "INFERENCE (not stated by vendor): [reasoning]"
• •Mark speculation: "SPECULATION: [hypothesis]"

4. Use MCP Tools for Verification BEFORE Writing

1. mcp__fetch-server__fetch - Get official docs directly
2. WebSearch - Find primary sources with URLs
3. mcp__gemini-cli__ask-gemini - "Find PRIMARY SOURCES with URLs for [topic]"
4. mcp__codex-native__codex - Independent verification

5. Never Attribute Reasons Without Direct Quotes

• •BAD: "Microsoft deprecated Teams Wiki because channel coupling was limiting"
• •GOOD: "Microsoft stated: 'limited adoption and customer preference for OneNote' (Source: [URL])"
• •If vendor didn't state reason: "Vendor did not publicly state reasons. SPECULATION: [theory]"

6. Flag All Speculative Analysis

**SPECULATION WARNING**: The following is my interpretation, NOT stated by the vendor:
- [Your analysis]
- Confidence: [Low/Medium/High]
- Alternative explanations: [What else could explain this?]

Red Flags - Stop and Verify

If about to write these phrases, STOP and run verification:

• •"Industry trend shows..."
• •"[Company] moved away from [architecture]..."
• •"[Product] failed because of [reason]..."
• •"[Company] deprecated [feature] due to [reason]..."
• •"Market rejected [pattern]..."
• •"[Company] chose [approach] because [reason]..."
• •"This represents a shift toward..."

Architecture Classification

Classifying as "First-Class Object" (FCO)

ONLY classify as FCO if ALL verified from API docs:

1. •API allows creating entity WITHOUT required parent
2. •Entity has independent permission system
3. •Entity survives parent deletion
4. •API schema shows parent_id as nullable/optional

If parent is REQUIRED, classify as SUBSERVIENT.

Verifying "Industry Trends"

To claim a "trend", you MUST have:

• •5+ examples from different vendors
• •Primary sources for EACH with URLs
• •Temporal evidence (before/after dates)
• •Explicit vendor statements about shifts

If <5 examples: "Among [N] products analyzed, [M] use [pattern]" NOT "Industry trend"

Self-Check Before Publishing

• • Every factual claim has a primary source URL
• • Quoted reasons are actual quotes, not paraphrases
• • All inferences marked: "INFERENCE:"
• • All speculation flagged: "SPECULATION WARNING:"
• • Architectural claims cite API docs or schemas
• • "Trend" claims have 5+ examples with evidence
• • Alternative explanations considered
• • Confidence level stated

If any checkbox fails, add sources or mark as speculation.