Grounding: why you can trust an entry

Last reviewed: 28 Oct 2026

An understanding you cannot trust is worse than none: an agent that builds on a wrong entry does confident, wrong work. Grounding is what makes an entry trustworthy, and it is visible everywhere on the Understanding page.

Cited, or not yet checked

An entry about the code (a Fact or a Lesson) is cited when it points at a file and lines an agent opened. The open entry lists them under Checked against the code. An entry about the code with nothing attached says Not checked yet; it may be right, but nothing should be built on it until it is. An agent that says it saw something in the code must cite the lines it opened, or Naetive holds the entry until it does or records it as its interpretation instead. Agents are told to cite only what they opened.

Decisions, constraints and milestones are different: they are backed by their record (the commit, the job, the document they came from), shown under Recorded in, not by a line of code, so they carry no citation and no warning.

The page's line "N of M facts about the code cite a file" is this count.

Honest over time

Two things stop an old entry from misleading:

• Re-checks. An entry about the code that still has nothing attached three months after it was recorded says so (for example not checked in 4mo). Agents re-check these as they work in that topic; the mark clears when a citation lands. While an agent has been asked to look, the entry says an agent is checking this.
• Drift. When code is pushed and the understanding has not grown for a day, the word at the top of the page turns to Drifting. A changed file is a prompt to look, not proof of error: agents re-check entries in the topics they work in.

What you decide

Agents investigate and record. You provide direction and judgement. When an agent checks a disputed entry and finds it needs your call, or no agent has picked a dispute up within three days, it reaches you as a small decision in Needs you with three choices: Let an agent settle it, Keep or Drop. That is the one thing an agent should not decide for you, surfaced on purpose.

See also

• How understanding gets recorded
• Understanding: what the project knows