Claim, Evidence, Fact, and Current

Tinor separates four words that marketing copy usually flattens. The separation is the product.

Claim

A claim is an assertion: someone says that a facility holds a certification, that a product meets a restriction, that a capability is available. Claims are cheap to make and expensive to govern. Systems that treat every extracted sentence as equal "knowledge" are claim warehouses, not state runtimes.

Evidence

Evidence is supporting material: lab reports, issuer letters, invoices, photos with provenance, structured records. Evidence has class. A third-party lab result is not the same class as a supplier self-declaration or a partner attestation. Tinor prefers explicit evidence-class labels over a single verified glyph that collapses those differences.

Fact (with standing)

In Tinor, a fact is not "objective reality as judged by an oracle." It is a claim that has standing after confirmation rules — authority, acceptance, and often human gates. This humility matters: the platform structures attributable, source-linked state under known rules; it does not unconditionally declare cosmic truth.

Current

Current is the projection used for answers today. It is distinct from historical versions. When evidence is revoked or a conflict is marked, Current changes while history remains. Agents and humans should cite Current for operational replies and retain the ability to explain what held previously.

Why the four-word split reduces harm

Without the split:

• revoked PDFs keep ranking into answers,
• restricted annexes leak into public paraphrases,
• conflicts resolve silently by whichever document the embedder prefers,
• commercial commitments sound binding when no owner approved the phrasing.

With the split, each failure mode has a place to live as status rather than as improvisation.

Mapping to platform capabilities

• Interpret surfaces candidate claims and entities from materials.
• Resolve applies acceptance and confirmation toward standing.
• Trace keeps attributable events and evidence links.
• Govern applies disclosure audiences and access boundaries.

Commercial applications (Business Presence, Business Response) expose slices of this continuum to buyers without requiring them to operate the whole runtime on day one.

Practical checklist for writers and implementers

When you write an answer — human or agent — ask:

1. Which claim am I asserting?
2. What evidence class backs it?
3. Does it have standing as a fact under our rules?
4. Is this the Current projection for this audience?

If any answer is weak, prefer Unconfirmed, Conflict, or a request for materials over invented certainty.