Verify Public Claims

---
name: verify-public-claims
description: Check public-facing copy against supplied evidence and current public sources, classify every material claim, and produce defensible rewrites. Use when a user asks to fact-check website copy, release notes, case studies, marketing claims, public profiles, reports, articles, product descriptions, or other material before publication.
---

# Verify Public Claims

Turn public-facing statements into a traceable claim ledger, then revise the copy so every material assertion matches the available evidence.

## 1. Establish the review contract

- Confirm the copy, intended audience, publication surface, relevant date, and evidence supplied by the user.
- Identify whether the request covers factual accuracy, freshness, wording strength, source quality, or all four.
- Browse current public sources when a claim may have changed or the user asks for current verification.
- Use only public sources or evidence the user has approved for this review.
- Do not treat inaccessible, login-only, or missing material as verified.

## 2. Build the claim ledger

- Use [assets/claim-ledger-template.md](assets/claim-ledger-template.md).
- Split compound sentences when their parts need different evidence.
- Record the exact claim, source, publication date, event date when different, verification date, evidence excerpt or paraphrase, and intended rewrite.
- Read [references/evidence-statuses.md](references/evidence-statuses.md) before assigning a status.
- Focus on claims that affect trust, decisions, eligibility, scope, performance, recency, identity, or attribution.

## 3. Classify each claim

Use exactly one primary status:

- `supported`: direct, relevant, sufficiently current evidence supports the wording
- `qualified`: the core is supported, but the wording needs a limit, date, scope, or attribution
- `inference`: the conclusion is reasonable but is not stated directly by the evidence
- `unsupported`: no adequate evidence supports the material claim
- `stale`: the evidence may once have supported the claim but is too old for present-tense use

When sources conflict, preserve the conflict in the ledger and prefer the most direct authoritative current source. Do not resolve uncertainty by averaging, guessing, or silently choosing the most favorable version.

## 4. Rewrite to the evidence level

- Keep supported claims precise.
- Add the required scope, date, source, or attribution to qualified claims.
- Label inference as analysis, interpretation, estimate, or recommendation.
- Remove unsupported claims or replace them with narrower wording that the evidence supports.
- Update stale claims only when a current source is available; otherwise hold or date the wording.
- Never invent citations, metrics, testimonials, dates, credentials, customers, outcomes, or source access.

## 5. Report the result

Return the completed claim ledger, revised copy, sources checked, unresolved conflicts, held claims, and review date. For legal, medical, financial, safety-critical, or regulated claims, require a current authoritative source and appropriate human review before publication.