Coverage
Coverage is the boundary around a claim. It explains where evidence came from, what it can support, when it was observed, and what remains unknown. Without coverage, a fact can look more powerful than it really is.
Coverage has several dimensions
| Dimension | Example question |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Does this check apply to Brazil, the UK, a US state, or a federal source? |
| Entity type | Are companies, branches, charities, sole traders, or public bodies included? |
| Source | Which official or permitted source supports the claim? |
| Claim | Is the source proving identity, legal status, restriction evidence, or something else? |
| Time | When was it observed, and how long may it be reused? |
| Match quality | Was the entity resolved by a unique identifier or only a similar name? |
| Operational health | Was the source healthy and complete at decision time? |
A practical example
An official company registry may support the claim that a legal entity exists and has a recorded status. It may not support the claims that the business is financially healthy, that an invoice is authentic, that a bank account belongs to it, or that no restriction exists in every possible list.
The safe output says exactly what was supported. It does not collapse all those questions into “verified company.”
Freshness is part of evidence
Every important observation should carry a timestamp or an equivalent source version. Different facts age at different speeds. A legal name may be stable for months; a sanctions result or source-health state may require much more recent evidence. The policy decides what freshness is acceptable for the action.
When a previously committed result is replayed, its original observation time remains visible. Replay does not make old evidence new.
Source health and claim health are different
A source can be online but return incomplete or changed data. It can also be temporarily unavailable while an older committed decision remains valid for a limited use. Integrations should distinguish:
- transport health: could the source be reached?
- schema health: was the expected structure intact?
- semantic health: did the response support the intended claim?
- freshness health: was it recent enough for the policy?
- quota health: could the required complete read be performed?
Partial and limited coverage
Limited coverage is not a defect when it is explicit. A capability may cover selected US states, only companies with a unique registry number, or only a subset of evidence needed for supplier approval. The unsafe behavior is hiding that limit.
If a required claim lies outside coverage, the agent must not infer it from neighboring data. Depending on the policy and consequence, the result becomes REVIEW or STOP.
Country pages
- Brazil explains the Brazilian operating model.
- United Kingdom explains official-source and source-access boundaries.
- United States explains federal and state coverage.
What to display to a person
A review screen should show the resolved legal entity, country, requested action, decision, supporting sources, observation times, limitations, and what would resolve a REVIEW. Avoid a single green badge with no explanation.
Operational rule
The production catalog, coverage manifest, source-health state, and release identity override static prose. Before execution, confirm that the product, country, claim, and required sources are all currently compatible.