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).

Contested

contested

A claim is contradicted by a published fact-check (AFP Factuel, Le Monde, Reuters...). It is the only external, sourced and dated signal attesting a disagreement observed outside the system.

Not established

not_established

No confirmed element, and at least one negative signal: a cited reference not found at the source, or a flagged fact.

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.

Partially established

partially_established

Qualifying a share would require linking every claim to its source, which the pipeline does not do yet. Until that link exists, this verdict would be unverifiable: we would rather not issue it than guess it.

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

Count of elements confirmed live: none, one, or at least two. It is a count, not yet a share.

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, and high coverage. A single confirmed element can never be enough.
MediumAt least two high dimensions.
LowNone of the cases above.
n/aVerdict out of evidentiary scope or insufficient evidence.

Two limits we document

First limit: three dimensions (authority, recency, reproducibility) derive from the same signal, one confirmed official source. They are therefore not independent. Without a guard, a single confirmed element would show three high dimensions and reach the high level: the level would look multi-axis while resting on a single fact. This is why the top tier also requires high coverage. Second, more structural limit: APLOMB currently confirms that the cited sources exist and are authentic; it does not yet establish, claim by claim, that each one is actually supported by the source next to it. Linking every claim to its source is the next piece of work. We would rather document these limits than hide them.

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