Five evidence states, and why not true or false

Ask a colleague what was agreed about a deadline and a good answer rarely comes back as a plain yes or no. It comes back as “we agreed Tuesday, but that moved”, or “the notes say Thursday and the email says Friday”, or “I don’t think anyone ever decided”. The honest answer carries how sure it is, and where that certainty comes from.

We want Clarni to answer the same way. Answers to the questions you ask, and context cards during a meeting, are designed to cite their sources and mark each point with one of five evidence states rather than simply true or false.

The five states

Supported. The record agrees, and the answer is designed to show where. This is the state you would expect most often, and it is still meant to come with its source so you can check it.

Changed. It was true once, and a later record replaced it. Work moves; a decision from three meetings ago may no longer hold. Marking a point as changed is meant to keep the history visible instead of quietly overwriting it.

Conflicted. Two sources disagree. Both are designed to be shown, and neither is chosen for you. Deciding which one holds is a judgement call that belongs with the people in the conversation.

Unconfirmed. Something was mentioned but never agreed or recorded as decided. Plenty of meeting talk is like this, and treating it as settled is how misunderstandings start.

No record found. Nothing in the context you selected speaks to it. We consider this one of the most important states: an honest absence is more useful than a confident guess.

Why not true or false

A two-state answer hides exactly the cases that matter most in client and project work: the date that moved, the two documents that disagree, the idea someone floated and nobody picked up. Those are the moments where a wrong assumption costs a relationship or a week of work.

We think five states are enough to tell those cases apart without turning every answer into a probability. They are also meant to stay readable at a glance: each state is designed to be carried by its label and a distinct shape, never by colour alone.

Every point keeps its proof

An evidence state is only useful if you can check it. Each decision, commitment, or task is designed to be able to show the source it came from, such as a transcript excerpt and timestamp. The point is not that the software is always right; it is that you can see what it is relying on, and judge for yourself.

The same applies to anything AI suggests. Suggested commitments and tasks are designed to be proposals you review first, never obligations assigned without you.

Where this stands

Evidence states are planned and not yet built into anything you can use. The labels beside this article show the status of each capability it describes.