How do I install the Substantiate Outward Claims skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add randommonicle/substantiate-outward-claims in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Substantiate Outward Claims safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Substantiate Outward Claims?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Substantiate Outward Claims free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Substantiate Outward Claims?

randommonicle (@randommonicle) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Substantiate Outward Claims by randommonicle

Name: Substantiate Outward Claims
Author: randommonicle

Substantiate Outward Claims

Any certification, award, statistic, or third-party performance claim shown to a customer needs a primary or independent source, or explicit attribution ("the manufacturer states…") — never asserted as fact, and never trusted from an AI summary, which blends marketing with real product names. Triggers when writing customer-facing copy, marketing pages, or an assistant's knowledge base entries that assert such claims. Does not fire on internal docs citing code or history — verified-citations owns those.

randommonicle Updated Sep 21, 2026

File contents

Substantiate outward claims

A public site nearly shipped "WoolSafe approved", a decibel figure, and a machine model designation, none of which could be substantiated — one of them contradicted by the manufacturer's own documentation while a search engine's AI overview confidently asserted the opposite. The exposure on outward claims is advertising standards and reputation, which is why this is separate from verified-citations (internal references).

The rules

Every outward claim gets a primary or independent source, or explicit attribution. "The manufacturer states a 76dB rating" is honest; bare "76dB" is your claim now.
An in-house assessment is not an independent certification. "Safe for wool" (our judgement) and "WoolSafe approved" (a certification body's mark) are different claims with different legal weight; never upgrade one into the other.
Never launder a claim through an AI summary. Search-engine AI overviews and model memory blend marketing copy with real product data and assert the blend confidently — in the evidence, confidently wrong. Chase the vendor's own documentation; in a vendor-dominated domain, the SEO layer repeats numbers with no methodology while the vendor publishes the actual behaviour.
A number with no traceable methodology is fabricated until shown otherwise — the archetype being a "75% of CVs auto-rejected" statistic that traced to a dead company's 2012 marketing.
Label evidence strength in research that feeds customer-facing content: well-evidenced, weakly evidenced, or myth — and say which.

What this skill does not do

It does not govern internal engineering citations (verified-citations) or the claims inside generated client documents (deliverable-integrity handles claim drift in rewrites). It governs what the outside world is told as fact.

Why

Outward claims outlive their authors: they get quoted, cached, and screenshotted, and an indefensible one is a legal exposure that no later correction fully retrieves. Evidence: ICC LESSONS_LEARNED L-009 with both addenda; this repo's LESSONS_LEARNED lesson 4.

---name: substantiate-outward-claimsdescription: Any certification, award, statistic, or third-party performance claim shown to a customer needs a primary or independent source, or explicit attribution ("the manufacturer states…") — never asserted as fact, and never trusted from an AI summary, which blends marketing with real product names. Triggers when writing customer-facing copy, marketing pages, or an assistant's knowledge base entries that assert such claims. Does not fire on internal docs citing code or history — verified-citations owns those.---# Substantiate outward claimsA public site nearly shipped "WoolSafe approved", a decibel figure, and a machine modeldesignation, none of which could be substantiated — one of them contradicted by themanufacturer's own documentation while a search engine's AI overview confidently assertedthe opposite. The exposure on outward claims is advertising standards and reputation, whichis why this is separate from verified-citations (internal references).## The rules- **Every outward claim gets a primary or independent source, or explicit attribution.** "The manufacturer states a 76dB rating" is honest; bare "76dB" is your claim now.- **An in-house assessment is not an independent certification.** "Safe for wool" (our judgement) and "WoolSafe approved" (a certification body's mark) are different claims with different legal weight; never upgrade one into the other.- **Never launder a claim through an AI summary.** Search-engine AI overviews and model memory blend marketing copy with real product data and assert the blend confidently — in the evidence, confidently wrong. Chase the vendor's own documentation; in a vendor-dominated domain, the SEO layer repeats numbers with no methodology while the vendor publishes the actual behaviour.- **A number with no traceable methodology is fabricated until shown otherwise** — the archetype being a "75% of CVs auto-rejected" statistic that traced to a dead company's 2012 marketing.- **Label evidence strength** in research that feeds customer-facing content: well-evidenced, weakly evidenced, or myth — and say which.## What this skill does not doIt does not govern internal engineering citations (verified-citations) or the claims insidegenerated client documents (deliverable-integrity handles claim drift in rewrites). Itgoverns what the outside world is told as fact.## WhyOutward claims outlive their authors: they get quoted, cached, and screenshotted, and anindefensible one is a legal exposure that no later correction fully retrieves. Evidence:ICC LESSONS_LEARNED L-009 with both addenda; this repo's LESSONS_LEARNED lesson 4.

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