Assertions

The Assertions tab is the browsing surface for assertions in a repository. It pairs an assertion list with a detail panel and filter controls. Assertions with an opinion render a belief/disbelief/uncertainty (BDU) meter; other assertions show No opinion in the same place. See When BDU Meters Appear for the accepted opinion formats. Repositories with Veritas installed can additionally show calibrated source reputation recorded in Veritas.

Calibrated Source Reputation Panel

For signed-in viewers with read access, the tab can lead with a collapsible Calibrated source reputation panel. It appears when a compatible Veritas installation has at least one recorded source reputation for the repository. These values come from Veritas; the browser does not calculate them from the assertions currently on screen.

The panel header shows a shield icon and a count of source-scope rows. Expanded, each row shows:

• The source wref and the reputation scope in which the value applies.
• An inline BDU meter showing the recorded belief, disbelief, and uncertainty.

Rows remain separate by source and scope, so the same source can appear more than once. Sources without a recorded reputation are not listed, and loading more assertions does not change the panel.

When calibrated reputation is unavailable or empty, the panel stays hidden.

Filter Bar

Six filter controls sit above the assertion list:

• Search — free-text match against assertion name, wref, shape name, and about target.

• Shape — restrict to a single shape, populated from shapes present in the loaded assertions.

• Belief band — narrows the list by how confident an assertion is:

  • All assertions — no filter.
  • High belief — strong belief, low uncertainty.
  • Moderate belief — middling belief, low uncertainty.
  • Low belief — weak belief, low uncertainty.
  • High uncertainty — uncertain enough that the belief level is unreliable, regardless of where it sits.

  Any assertion in the high-uncertainty zone is grouped under High uncertainty rather than the matching belief band.

• Sort — Strongest belief (default), Most uncertain, Alphabetical, or Highest version. Belief- and uncertainty-based sorts tie-break on the opposite axis, then by name.

• About — restrict to assertions whose about ref contains the chosen target string (substring match, case-insensitive). The selector is searchable and is populated from the about refs present in the loaded assertions; selecting one target can also match assertions whose about-ref includes that string as a substring.

• Group by — No grouping (default), Source, Shape, or Target.

A Clear filters button appears when any filter is active.

Assertions without a valid opinion do not match any specific belief band and receive no belief-band pill. They sort after assertions with present opinions in belief- and uncertainty-based orders; alphabetical sorting remains alphabetical. Version sorting orders equal versions by opinion presence, then stronger belief, then name. An explicit (0, 0, 1) opinion is present and remains eligible for High uncertainty.

Assertion List

The center column lists assertions matching the current filters. The header shows the loaded result count and a (loading...) indicator while a requested page is being fetched.

• All viewers: When more loaded matches remain, Show more (N remaining) reveals the next slice.
• Signed-in viewers: After all loaded matches are visible, Load more assertions requests another server page when one is available.
• Anonymous viewers: The tab automatically loads up to its two-page cap. After those loaded matches are revealed, a sign-in footer appears when more assertions exist.

Each row shows:

• Name with a belief band pill (when an opinion is present).
• Shape name, an arrow, and a link to the about target (when set).
• Source attribution (by <source>) when the assertion declares a source.
• Inline opinion slot on medium screens and above — a BDU bar when an opinion is present, or No opinion otherwise.
• Version pill (e.g. v2).

Click any row to select the assertion — the detail panel opens and the selection is reflected in the URL via the assertion query parameter, so links are shareable.

Grouping

When Group by is set to Source, Shape, or Target, sticky group headers separate the list. A source-grouped header shows the source name and the number of assertions in that displayed group; it does not calculate or display reputation averages.

Anonymous viewing

Unauthenticated viewers see a capped result set. When more assertions exist than the anonymous viewing limit allows, the list footer reads “Showing the first N assertions” with a sign-in prompt.

Detail Panel

Selecting an assertion opens the detail panel on the right:

• Name, wref link, and version pill in the header.
• Full-width opinion slot — a BDU meter with numeric values when the assertion carries an opinion, or No opinion otherwise.
• Metadata grid with four fields:
  • Shape — the shape the assertion was committed under. Falls back to unshaped if the assertion has no shape.
  • About — the version-pinned wref of the thing this assertion is about, in the form <targetWref>@v<n>. Same-repository targets use a local wref; cross-repository targets use a canonical wref. Falls back to none for assertions with no about target.
  • Pinned wref — the selected assertion’s own pinned identity at commit time, in the form <localWref>@v<n>. Falls back to unavailable. (Distinct from About above: that’s the target’s pinned wref; this is this assertion’s pinned wref.)
  • Validated shape — the shape the assertion was validated against at commit time, when recorded. Falls back to unavailable.
• Clear selection button.

Related Assertions

A Related assertions section lists other assertions that share the selected assertion’s about ref, grouped by shape. Each entry shows the assertion name, wref, version, and either a full-width BDU meter or No opinion. Clicking an entry switches the selection to that assertion.

The list is currently capped and the tab doesn’t yet paginate the related panel, so larger sibling sets are silently truncated:

• Signed-in viewers see at most 50 related assertions.
• Anonymous viewers are additionally clamped by the site-wide anon limit and see at most 25 related assertions, plus a sign-in-to-see-more footer when more exist.

When the selected assertion has no about ref, the section displays “This assertion does not have an about ref.”

Raw JSON

The detail panel ends with a Raw JSON block that pretty-prints the selected assertion’s data payload — just the payload, not the wrapping name, shape, version, or about ref already shown above. If the assertion has no payload, the block reads “No raw payload available”.

When BDU Meters Appear

The tab shows a BDU meter for these common opinion formats:

• An opinion value with b, d, u, and optional a fields.
• A separate opinion assertion whose payload contains b, d, u, and optional a, as described in modeling patterns.
• A Veritas opinion with belief, disbelief, uncertainty, and optional alpha fields.
• A named assessment such as relevance with b, d, u, and optional a fields.

In every format, each BDU value must be a number from 0 through 1, and the three values must total about 1. Assertions without one supported, valid opinion display No opinion.

Absence and vacuity are distinct. A missing opinion produces no belief-band pill and displays No opinion where the layout reserves an opinion meter. An explicit (0, 0, 1) is a valid present opinion and renders its fully uncertain meter. Raw JSON shows the payload returned by the read surface, including the read-time rendering of typed wrefs.

From the terminal

To do the same kinds of things from the terminal that this tab supports in the browser:

• Browse every assertion in a repo — wh thing list --kind assertion --all --repo <org/repo>. The default page size is 50; use --all to walk every page at once. In the tab, signed-in viewers load each additional page explicitly, while anonymous viewers automatically load up to their capped result set.
• Inspect a single assertion — wh thing view <wref>. Returns the full thing record, including the data payload that the tab pretty-prints in Raw JSON.
• Find other assertions about the same target — wh thing about <about-target-wref-with-version>. To match the Related assertions panel, pass the version-pinned target wref (e.g. Location/cave@v3). The browser view matches assertions about that pinned target and omits the currently selected assertion. Passing the bare identity (e.g. Location/cave) is also valid CLI usage but returns assertions across all versions of the target, which is a broader set than the panel shows after the target has been revised.
• Trace a single assertion’s history — wh thing history <wref>.

See Assertions for the underlying data model and CLI reference for the full command surface.