Attribution Schema

Attribution tracks who contributed what to the knowledge base. Every claim traces back to the people and agents who produced it. Attribution is PUBLIC from day 1 — contributor profiles show a graphic of contributions over time.

Design Principles

Trace everything: every claim should trace back to who suggested the research mission that produced it
Role-specific: different contribution types have different value — attribution records the role, not just the name
Pseudonymous-first: contributors use handles, not legal names. Handles persist across contributions.
Git-native: the Pentagon-Agent trailer in git commits is the foundation. External contributor attribution extends this same pattern into YAML frontmatter.
Cumulative: a contributor's full history is reconstructable from the knowledge base. No contribution is invisible.

The Five Contributor Roles

Role	What They Do	Example
sourcer	Identifies the source material or research direction that led to this claim	"Look into Kalshi's revenue model" or shares an article
extractor	Extracts the specific claim from source material — separates signal from noise, writes the prose-as-title	Agent or human who reads the source and produces the claim file
challenger	Tests the claim through counter-evidence, boundary conditions, or adversarial review	"This doesn't hold when markets are thin"
synthesizer	Connects this claim to other claims, producing cross-domain insight	"This mechanism is isomorphic to X in health domain"
reviewer	Evaluates claim quality against the KB quality gates and approves/rejects	Leo's eval role, or peer reviewers

A single person/agent can hold multiple roles on the same claim. A claim can have multiple people in the same role.

Claim Frontmatter Extension

Add an attribution block to claim YAML frontmatter:

---
type: claim
domain: internet-finance
description: "..."
confidence: likely
source: "Theia Research 2025 annual letter, analysis by Rio"
created: 2026-03-11

# Attribution (new)
attribution:
  sourcer:
    - handle: "m3taversal"
      context: "directed research into Theia's investment thesis"
    - handle: "@theiaresearch"
      context: "published the annual letter"
  extractor:
    - handle: "rio"
      agent_id: "760F7FE7-5D50-4C2E-8B7C-9F1A8FEE8A46"
  challenger: []
  synthesizer: []
  reviewer:
    - handle: "leo"
      agent_id: "294C3CA1-0205-4668-82FA-B984D54F48AD"
---

Attribution Fields

Per-role entry

Field	Type	Required	Description
handle	string	yes	Contributor's persistent pseudonymous identity
agent_id	UUID	if agent	Pentagon agent UUID (agents only)
context	string	no	What specifically this contributor did in this role
date	date	no	When the contribution was made (defaults to claim created date)

Role-specific notes

sourcer: can be external (X handle, author name) or internal (agent, m3taversal). The context field records what research direction or source they provided.
extractor: usually an agent. The agent_id field links to the Pentagon agent. For automated extraction pipelines, record the extraction model in context (e.g., "MiniMax M2.5 extract → Haiku 4.5 review").
challenger: populated when someone challenges the claim and the challenge is substantive (not just disagreement, but counter-evidence or boundary conditions). Empty array until challenged.
synthesizer: populated when someone connects this claim to claims in other domains. Cross-domain synthesis is the highest-value contribution type.
reviewer: populated during PR review. Records who evaluated and approved.

Backwards Compatibility

The existing source field continues to serve as a human-readable one-liner for quick reference. The attribution block provides the structured, queryable version. Both coexist:

source: "Theia Research 2025 annual letter, analysis by Rio" (human-readable)
attribution: structured role-by-role breakdown (machine-readable)

For claims created before attribution was introduced, source remains the only attribution data. No backfill required, but claims can be enriched with attribution blocks as they're updated.

Git Trailer Integration

Agent contributions are also recorded in git commit trailers:

Pentagon-Agent: Rio <760F7FE7-5D50-4C2E-8B7C-9F1A8FEE8A46>

The git trailer records WHO committed the change. The YAML attribution records WHO contributed WHAT in WHICH ROLE. These are complementary:

Git trailer = "who made this change to the repository"
YAML attribution = "who produced this knowledge and in what capacity"

A single commit may create 10 claims. The trailer says Rio committed them. The attribution on each claim may credit different sourcers, different original research directions, different external authors.

Contributor Profiles

Contributor profiles are reconstructed from the knowledge base, not stored separately. To build a profile:

Query: search all claim attribution blocks for a given handle
Aggregate: count contributions by role, domain, confidence level, date
Visualize: contribution-over-time graphic showing when and how they contributed

This means:

No separate "contributor database" to maintain
Profiles are always consistent with the actual KB state
New contributions automatically appear in profiles
Attribution disputes are resolved by editing claim frontmatter

Person Entity Bridge

When a contributor has enough contributions to warrant tracking, their person entity (entities/{domain}/{handle}.md) gains contributor: true and links to their contributions:

# In person entity
contributor: true
contributions:
  - role: sourcer
    claim: "futarchy is manipulation-resistant..."
    date: 2026-01-15
  - role: challenger
    claim: "token voting DAOs offer no minority protection..."
    date: 2026-02-20
first_contribution: 2026-01-15
attribution_handle: "@theiaresearch"

Governance

Attribution is added at extraction time (extractor + sourcer) and updated during review (reviewer) and challenge (challenger)
Synthesizer attribution is added when cross-domain connections are made, which may happen well after initial creation
Disputes about attribution are resolved through the normal PR process
Removing attribution requires justification (e.g., the sourcer was misidentified)

Implementation Priority

Now: Add attribution block to new claims going forward. No backfill required.
Soon: Rhea builds contributor profile aggregation for the website.
Later: Automated attribution from the extraction pipeline (MiniMax → Haiku → agent).

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