Evidence register policy

Last policy review: 19 July 2026

The public evidence register makes the basis for achievement claims inspectable without publishing credentials, private repository data, billing information, personal correspondence, or unnecessary personal identifiers.

Publication requirements

Every evidence record must:

1. identify one canonical achievement;
2. state one reviewable claim;
3. use the project’s shared evidence vocabulary;
4. include observation and submission dates;
5. identify its reproduction state and reviewer decision;
6. link to the relevant guide and section;
7. record contradictory evidence when known; and
8. declare a privacy status.

Privacy controls

The register must not contain:

• access tokens, cookies, credentials, or private URLs;
• sponsorship amounts, payment references, or billing details;
• unredacted email addresses, real names, or account identifiers that are not necessary to evaluate a public claim;
• screenshots containing private repository names, private discussions, direct messages, or analytics; or
• evidence obtained through impersonation, spam, fabricated activity, or deceptive engagement.

A record may refer to a redacted external artifact, but the public JSON must contain only the privacy-safe description and approved public URL.

Reviewer decisions

• Accepted — sufficient evidence supports the stated claim.
• Accepted with limitations — the core claim is usable, but important boundaries remain undocumented or unreproduced.
• Provisional — plausible evidence exists, but independent reproduction or stronger sourcing is required.
• Rejected — the submitted evidence does not support the claim or violates project policy.
• Needs review — triage is incomplete.

Corrections and contradictions

Contradictory evidence is retained rather than silently removed. A later review may change the evidence level or reviewer decision, but the correction must be traceable through repository history.

Source preservation

When a public source is unstable, add an archive URL where lawful and technically available. Archived material supplements the original source; it does not automatically increase the evidence classification.

Relationship to guides

The register provides traceability. The achievement guides remain the human-readable interpretation of the evidence, including caveats, practical meaning, and current maintenance status.