Every claim, watched.
Argus is the layer between research and publication. It scores every dossier from 0 to 100 on how well its claims are sourced — and nothing below the line ever ships. This is exactly how that number is built.
A hundred-eyed watchman for the things we publish.
In myth, Argus Panoptes never slept with every eye at once — the perfect guardian. Our Argus is named for the same idea: an automated verification pass that reads every factual claim in a dossier and checks whether it can actually be traced to a primary source.
Production at Isocline is AI-assisted. Argus is the discipline that keeps that honest — it turns "sounds right" into "shows its work," and renders the result as a single number a reader can trust at a glance.
The Argus Score is a weighted composite of five components, summing to 100. Each measures a different dimension of how defensible a dossier's claims are — not whether we like its conclusions.
The composite maps to four bands. The line that matters is 85: below it, a dossier does not publish — it goes back for more sourcing or gets shelved.
Verified
Densely and primarily sourced, independently corroborated. Publishes with the teal Argus badge.
Substantiated
Well-sourced with minor gaps noted in-text. Publishes with a standard badge.
Provisional
Below the publication floor. Held for revision — returned for additional sourcing.
Rejected
Claims cannot be traced with confidence. Does not ship in any form.
Here is a dossier scored component by component — including how the rubric handles unresolved citations. This draft carries five placeholder sources flagged for verification, so it lands below the 85 floor and is held for revision rather than published. The score is doing its job.
A confidence score is a measure of verifiability, not omniscience. Being clear about what Argus is not keeps the number meaningful.
What Argus does
- Traces each factual claim to a citable primary source.
- Weights primary evidence over secondary commentary.
- Checks load-bearing claims for independent corroboration.
- Blocks anything under the floor from publishing.
- Surfaces the breakdown so readers can audit the number.
What Argus does not do
- Judge whether a conclusion or forecast is "correct."
- Replace human review — every dossier still gets edited.
- Score opinion, analysis quality, or writing.
- Guarantee a primary source is itself free of error.
- Run unattended — a human signs off before publication.
// This page renders the production Argus scoring spec (v1). Components, weights, bands, and the 85 floor are exact; the worked example is a real dossier scored under the rubric. Every published dossier shows its own live Argus breakdown on the index.
Read dossiers that show their work.
Every piece on the index carries its Argus score and the sourcing behind it. Browse the index, or get one verified dossier a week.