[ MPS/0.1 · practical guide ]
What is claim-level provenance?
Claim-level provenance is the record that stays attached to a substantive assertion: what it says, where it came from, how it is framed, what it does not establish, and when it was last checked.
A bibliography can show that a document contains sources. It cannot, by itself, show which source supports which sentence, whether that sentence is an observation or an interpretation, or whether the author has verified the source rather than repeated it.
That distinction matters more when text is copied into a brief, quoted in a slide, or supplied as context to an AI system. A sentence often travels without its footnote, caveat, or surrounding disagreement. Claim-level provenance treats those qualifications as part of the claim record rather than decoration around it.
The minimum useful record
Claim
The exact statement a reader is asked to rely on.
Status
Whether the statement is verified, sourced, a boundary, illustrative, or still unverified.
Source trail
The primary or cited material that lets a reader inspect the basis for the statement.
Scope and limits
What the claim does not establish, including uncertainty and conditions of use.
Version and review date
Whether the wording changed and when the assertion was last checked.
A concrete example
The De Sitter Atlas gives each concise statement a stable identifier, a status label, an explanation, a limitation, and source IDs. A reader can inspect a single claim instead of treating a whole page as equally certain.
Inspect atlas claim ds-001 ↗What it does not do
A well-formed record does not establish truth. It makes a claim easier to challenge, update, and reuse responsibly. The primary source may still be wrong, incomplete, contested, or misapplied.
Use it in practice
- Write the claim in a form that can be checked.
- Name its epistemic status before expanding its rhetoric.
- Link the best available source or explicitly name the source gap.
- State the boundary: what a reader must not infer from it.
- Publish a revision trail when the wording or evidence changes.
[ MPS learning center ]
Learn the practice before using the tool.
Claim-level provenance
What must travel with a claim for it to remain inspectable.
Citing AI-assisted research
How disclosure, citations, and source limits work together.
Source, interpretation, speculation
A practical way to separate evidence from judgement.
MPS is a self-published framework and audit aid. It does not certify truth, replace primary-source review, or make an AI output authoritative.