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Observatory Trust Model v1.1

The Observatory Trust Model is the shared vocabulary for evidence strength. It keeps maturity, showcase readiness, citation tiers, archive status, closure, coverage, and verdict from being read as the same kind of claim.

Master Evidence-Strength Axis

score stage how to read it
0 Proposed A concept, expected panel, or fixture slot has been named, but repeatable artifact evidence is not established yet.
1 Experimental An artifact or run exists, but the contract, inputs, or interpretation are still unstable or superseded.
2 Observed The artifact was produced from real run data and can be inspected, but coverage, closure, or interpretation may be partial.
3 Confirmed The artifact satisfies its local validation gate for at least one run or fixture.
4 Characterized The artifact has repeatable structure, documented interpretation, tooling or schema support, and known caveats.
5 Canonical The artifact is part of the stable Observatory language and can anchor other interpretations within a declared fixture contract.

Canonical does not mean physically true. It means the artifact can anchor Observatory interpretation within its declared scene contract.

Unlabeled ≠ Proposed. Artifacts without a recorded score are unlabeled, not Proposed. Proposed means a concept, expected panel, or fixture slot has been named but the evidence pipeline is not established.

Crosswalk

Showcase Status

status trust stage score read as
Strong Characterized 4 Complete enough to teach the fixture, but not automatically canonical.
Partial Observed 2 Inspectable and useful, but incomplete.
Placeholder Proposed 0 A concept, expected panel, or fixture slot has been named, but repeatable artifact evidence is not established yet.
Experimental Experimental 1 Internal or exploratory; not visitor-ready.

Citation Tiers

Citation tiers are evidence-placement labels, not transport implementation tiers.

Citation placement tiers in this Trust Model are distinct from Xeno/Zeno investigation confidence tiers. The Trust Model's placement tiers rank evidence authority; the Xeno/Zeno Atlas tiers rank anomaly-investigation completeness.

tier trust stage score read as
Tier 0 Canonical 5 Source-of-record evidence.
Tier 1 Characterized 4 Strong standalone evidence.
Tier 2 Confirmed 3 Supporting evidence for a local gate.
Tier 3 Observed 2 Context or narrative evidence.

Xeno/Zeno Atlas Tiers

atlas tier trust stage score read as
Atlas Tier 0 Candidate Observed 2 An anomaly candidate is inspectable, but investigation completeness is still early.
Atlas Tier 1 Confirmed Confirmed 3 The anomaly has a local confirmation basis.
Atlas Tier 2 Characterized Characterized 4 The anomaly has documented structure and caveats.
Atlas Tier 3 Explained Canonical 5 The anomaly explanation can anchor future interpretation within its declared scope.

Archive Status

archive status trust stage score read as
Visual reference Characterized 4 Curated for presentation, not a physical-correctness claim.
Validation candidate Confirmed 3 Strong local evidence awaiting promotion or another reproducibility pass.
Test output Observed 2 Useful run output exists.
Archived Experimental 1 Historical or superseded evidence; revalidate before using for current claims.

Artifact Status

PASS, PARTIAL, and MISSING describe local fields such as coverage, closure, or verdict. They do not by themselves assign whole-artifact maturity.

artifact status trust stage score read as
PASS Confirmed 3 The local gate passed for the stated run, fixture, and scene contract.
PARTIAL Observed 2 Evidence exists, but the local gate or coverage is incomplete.
MISSING Proposed 0 A concept, expected panel, or fixture slot has been named, but repeatable artifact evidence is not established yet.

Reading Rule

When labels disagree, keep the local label and add the Trust Model stage beside it. A fixture can be Strong, have PASS closure, and still be Characterized rather than Canonical.

The machine-readable source lives in:

reports/observatory_trust_model.json

The report version lives in:

reports/observatory_trust_model.md