The taxonomy

What « proven » actually means, in plain terms.

APLOMB does not answer « true » or « false ». It qualifies the level of proof of a claim using a closed taxonomy and a deterministic rule. The verdict and its dimensions are sealed in the certificate, and the rule is published.

Verdicts issued today

Established

established

Official sources or registry facts confirmed, with no reservation.

Established with conditions

established_with_conditions

Elements confirmed, but at least one reservation remains (unavailable source or flagged fact).

Partially established

partially_established

Part of the claim is backed by a confirmed element, without full coverage.

Contested

contested

A claim is contradicted by a published fact-checking source.

Insufficient evidence

insufficient_evidence

No cross-checkable element could be confirmed.

Out of evidentiary scope

out_of_scope

The request is not a claim verifiable by cross-checking.

Defined, reserved for extension

These verdicts belong to the taxonomy but are not issued yet. We would rather show them than let you believe everything is already covered.

Not established

not_established

Unsupported by sources, without being formally refuted.

Refuted

refuted

Directly contradicted by a higher-ranking source.

Information to re-verify

stale_information

Once accurate, recency no longer guaranteed.

Five proof dimensions, not a score

The level of proof is a qualitative aggregate of these five dimensions, never a percentage: a numeric score would give false precision to a judgment of proof.

Source authority

Rank of the sources used: official text, then registry fact, then published fact-check.

Recency

Freshness and temporal applicability of the confirmed elements.

Concordance

Convergence across sources and, in deliberation mode, across models. Lowered by any contradiction.

Coverage

Share of the claim actually backed by a confirmed element.

Reproducibility

A third party can retrieve the same sources and the same result.

Level of proof

HighAt least three high dimensions, none low or not assessed.
MediumAt least two high dimensions.
LowNone of the cases above.
n/aVerdict out of evidentiary scope or insufficient evidence.

The rule is published

This taxonomy is not declarative: it is the rule the engine runs, exposed as-is, versioned and signed.

See the machine-readable rule