Glossary

The words this work is built on.

28 definitions, written to be read once. Where a term has a page behind it, the definition links there rather than repeating it.

Same input, different instruments.

Provenance and media

C2PA: An open technical standard for attaching a signed statement about how a piece of media was made and changed to the file itself.
Content Credentials: The consumer-facing name for a C2PA manifest: a verifiable record of the tool, the edit history and the claims attached to an image.
Manifest: The structured block inside a media file that carries provenance claims and the signature over them. A file without one asserts nothing about its origin.
Provenance: The recorded history of a file's origin and edits. Unlike visual quality, it cannot be judged by looking, which is why stripping it is irreversible in practice.
XMP: A metadata container embedded in media files, used to carry creator, tool and rights information outside the C2PA manifest.
EXIF: Camera and device metadata written at capture. Useful for origin, easily removed by most editors, and not a provenance guarantee.
Bytes per pixel: File size divided by pixel count. A low value for the dimensions implies heavy compression and the artefacts that come with it.
Contrast ratio: The measured luminance difference between two colours, which decides whether text laid over an image is readable at all.

Static analysis: Reading source without running it. It catches structure, patterns and known-dangerous constructs, and cannot tell you whether the code does what it claims.
Invented API: A method, option or event that reads plausibly and does not exist on the installed version. The most expensive generated defect because review tends to accept it.
Swallowed error: A failure caught and discarded, returning a default instead. The code keeps running and the defect becomes invisible rather than fixed.
Execution sink: A call that turns a string into behaviour: eval, the Function constructor, a shell command, an HTML assignment. Reachable sinks are where injection lives.
Hydration mismatch: Server-rendered markup that differs from the first client render, so the browser rewrites the tree. Visually fine, and a real defect.
Idempotency: A property of an operation that produces the same result when run twice. Without it, a retry or a double click charges twice or creates a duplicate record.
Fail closed: Designing a check so that an error in the check itself denies access rather than granting it. Generated handlers frequently fail open.
Prompt residue: Traces of the instruction left in the output: placeholders, disclaimers, example values, bracketed notes. Its presence means nobody read the result end to end.

Tell list: The recurring phrases and rhythms that mark text as generated: uniform sentence length, stock transitions, inflated verbs, hedging.
Hedging: Qualifiers that soften a claim until it asserts nothing. A hedge under a bold headline is a claim with no owner.
Lexical variety: How much distinct vocabulary a piece uses relative to its length. Low variety with high fluency is a generation signal.
Reading ease: A score derived from sentence and word length. Useful for comparison within a format, meaningless as an absolute target.
Unsourced claim: A number, comparison or superlative with no source a reader can open. Rewriting it into vagueness removes the finding and keeps the misinformation.
Editorial sign-off: A named person accepting a stated scope of responsibility for a piece of copy, recorded with the version and date.

Quality gate: A decision point where a defined check must pass before work continues. Without thresholds and an owner it is advice, not a gate.
Escape rate: The share of defects found after publication rather than before. The one number that tells you whether a gate is working.
Scope of review: The explicit list of what a reviewer checked, written into the approval. Approved on its own is a fact about a click; scope is a fact about the work.
Offline verification: Checking that runs in the browser with no upload. Privacy is a side effect of the architecture rather than a policy promise.
Sampling: Checking a defined subset of a large batch instead of all of it, with the subset chosen by risk rather than convenience.
Auditable record: The report, decision, reviewer, date and version kept together, so someone else can reconstruct why a thing shipped.

From words to a report

Everything defined here is something the console measures on your own file, or a reviewer signs off by name.