How to read a file
Every file is built from the same few parts. Once you know them, a file reads itself.
The examples on this page are composites, written for it and quoted from no service.
Two pages
A file is set like a book in two languages. The left page, Declared, is the company, word for word, in a fixed-width face, with the clause, the version of the document and its date. The right page, Observed, is us: what we saw when we ran the app. On a phone the two pages stack, left page first.
"We only collect the information we need to provide the service."
Composite example, quoted from no service, with the clause, version and date where a real file has them
The app sent each note to a second company as it was typed.
40 of 40 notes / 2 phones / 2 days
The highlighted words are the ones the finding turns on. A quotation that is not word for word in the archived document fails our build. The evidence line under our sentence gives the counts, the devices and the days.
The asterisk
The asterisk between the two pages, in ink, marks a pair that does not simply agree. The label above our page says how the two stand: “Departs from the wording”, where what the app was seen to do differs from what the document says, or “Open to interpretation”, where it depends on how the wording is read. Where the two pages agree (“Consistent”), the gutter is empty.
Exhibits
The evidence sits in numbered exhibits on the file's Evidence page, and the story points to each one by number. A request log is printed as the capture recorded it: grey lines are comments, a highlighted phrase is what the finding is about, red is the request the policy does not cover.
# composite example: three lines in the form of a capture log, from no real capture 03:12:04 UTC POST https://sync.app.example/v2/notes 200, 1.2 kB, ciphertext 03:12:05 UTC POST https://words.vendor.example/check text="meet me at the clinic"
One file, several pages
A publication is one file at several addresses. The tabs under the file bar move between them; the one you are on is underlined.
- Report
- Document changes
- Correspondence
- Evidence
- History
- Report
- The study, the findings and the evidence references. Its sections are numbered as in the report files on record (sections 3.1 to 3.12 are the observations).
- Document changes
- When a company document changed while the file was prepared: each version in full, the words added in the later version underlined automatically. Only in files with such a change.
- Correspondence
- Every message between us and the company about the file, both sides, in full and in the order sent (a message whose full text is not yet on record is given as a summary, labelled as such); the company's replies are printed here, so a file with this tab has no Reply tab.
- Evidence
- The exhibits, the data-flow drawing, the devices and days of the capture, and the technical appendix.
- Reply
- The company's reply, printed in full as received, facing our note. A file with no reply has no Reply tab; its status line says why.
- History
- The file's revision log, corrections included.
File number and revision
Every file opens with a bar like this one: its number and revision date on the left (for example "FILE 0001 / REV 2026-10-19"); the section and the service on the right.
A file number is given once and never reused. REV is the date the file last changed: when a reply arrives, when we rerun a test after an update, and when we correct a mistake. The History tab says which.
Corrections
CorrectionsWe never change a published sentence silently. A correction changes the file's REV, is logged in its history, and is entered in the corrections register: the sentence as published facing the sentence as corrected.