Verification Policy

Orbis Signal does not operate a traditional human fact-checking desk or subscribe to third-party fact-checking APIs. Instead, we enforce verification through a structured production pipeline built around source traceability, epistemic labelling, continuity discipline, and automated quality controls.

Every claim in a published briefing must trace back to a locked evidence record created during web-grounded research. Downstream analytical and writing stages cannot access the open web and cannot introduce new source URLs. This architectural boundary is our primary integrity mechanism.

Before any analytical assessment or briefing draft is produced, research stages collect atomic claims and tier-labelled sources from live web search. These are consolidated into a single evidence record per topic that is locked for the remainder of the pipeline.

Each evidence record contains:

• Claims — discrete, verifiable statements with unique identifiers
• Sources — HTTPS URLs with publisher, title, and tier classification
• Selected signals — the developments chosen for the edition

No analytical judgment or published sentence may reference a source URL that is not present in this record. This rule is enforced in code, not merely by instruction.

After each analytical stage, automated validators check structural integrity:

• Every key judgment must cite valid claim identifiers from the evidence record
• Every source URL in the briefing must exist in the evidence record — invented or hallucinated URLs are rejected
• Confirmed claims must be supported by at least one tier-1 (primary) source
• Tier-3 sources alone cannot support confirmed or inference-level judgments
• Epistemic types and confidence bands must be present on key judgments

Before publication, each briefing passes structural rule checks and an eight-dimension quality scorecard. Every dimension must meet a defined minimum standard. Briefings that fail may be revised once under correction guidance; those that still fail are not published.

The eight dimensions are:

• Clarity — structural hierarchy and unambiguous references
• Novelty — non-obvious insights and a non-trivial consensus gap
• Reliability — source quality and claim integrity
• Signal — strategic density and actionable watchlist items
• Strategic utility — decision relevance for a business professional at work
• Compression — brevity without loss of nuance
• Distinction — epistemic discipline and calibrated language
• Continuity — for recurring storylines, update-style framing that leads with what changed rather than restating prior baseline coverage

Our verification model confirms traceability and editorial discipline, not absolute truth. We do not independently re-report events, contact primary sources for confirmation, or adjudicate disputed facts beyond what available evidence supports.

We rely on the quality of publicly available reporting and official releases. When sources conflict or evidence is thin, we label uncertainty explicitly rather than presenting contested claims as confirmed.

Readers who identify factual errors should follow our Corrections Policy.

Each production run records stage outputs, quality scores, provider attempts, and the editorial policy version in force. This audit trail supports post-publication review and correction workflows, even though production itself is fully automated.

Related: Sources & Attribution, AI Usage Disclosure.