Resources / Source Authority

Source Authority

Use website pages to find the right source lane. Use registered sources, registries, and governed records to decide claim status.

Read authority classes Registries Resources

Source lanes, generated derivatives, website reader surfaces, and access paths have different authority roles.

This page is itself a Resources page, so its authority boundary appears as contextual copy and provenance metadata. It does not render a separate source-authority component block.

Static diagram

Keep website pages downstream from source authority.

The source-authority ladder shows source files and registries above generated derivatives, public pages, diagrams, and reader orientation.

Diagram showing source files and registries upstream from generated derivatives, website pages, and reader orientation. — The diagram illustrates the source-authority ladder from source files and registries through generated derivatives, website pages, and reader orientation.

Authority classes

Different materials can support different claims.

A useful resource page makes the class visible before the reader sees a polished derivative, registry table, download, or memory reference.

Class	Examples	Website use	Limit
Canonical physics source	Registered TeX sources and their source registries.	Use for technical physics claims after direct source inspection.	Website copy cannot promote a benchmark, derivation, or source law.
Canonical documentation source	Registered Markdown sources, README files, role contracts, schemas, and publication briefs.	Use for workflow, role, schema, publication, and governance explanations.	Generated pages cannot silently strengthen the authored source.
Registry	CSV source, derivative, role, task, claim-boundary, publication, and relationship registries.	Use for provenance, relationship, status, and source-location claims.	Registry dashboards show provenance and status; they do not prove physics claims.
Generated derivative	PDFs, HTML explainers, GitHub-facing Markdown, generated wiki pages, and public diagrams.	Use for reading support and source discovery.	Generated derivatives help readers inspect the project, but registered sources and tracked control records remain authoritative.
Local retrieval layer	Semantic extracts, Obsidian mirrors, SQLite indexes, memory lookup, and `.local/` caches.	Use for navigation and candidate source discovery.	Memory lookup is a navigation aid, not claim authority.
Website PRD	Website information-space PRDs and implementation plans.	Use for page requirements, route behavior, and acceptance criteria.	Planning artifacts are not canonical source authority for project claims.

Source-first checklist

Authority is resolved before claim wording is strengthened.

The checklist is deliberately conservative: identify the claim class, inspect the owner, handle conflicts, and state the non-scope.

Step	Question	Outcome
Name the claim class	Is the statement physics, workflow, publication, registry, derivative, current-state, or route-implementation language?	Select the right authority lane before writing copy.
Inspect the owner	Which source file, registry row, handoff, completion, or PRD owns the statement?	Use the owner for status; use the website for explanation.
Check conflict rules	Does a derivative, memory hit, or page summary disagree with the source?	When source and derivative disagree, inspect the canonical source and current tracked control record.
Add the limit	What does the positive evidence not prove?	State the non-proof, non-promotion, or non-authority boundary near the evidence.