Docs → Correct a fact

Correct a fact

Facts change. Records should say so. When something in your record moves - a deadline, a decision, a number - you correct it by saying so, and the record keeps the history instead of painting over it.

A record that silently rewrites itself isn't a record. This page is the correction move: how to make it, what happens underneath, and how to read the trail it leaves.

Say what changed

In the app you use, tell Virgil the fact moved, in plain words:

"That changed - the Hendricks proposal is back to June. Forget the old one."

That is the whole move. No settings page, no edit form. You talk; the record does the bookkeeping.

What happens underneath

The new fact stands, dated today, labeled [you said] - you said it, and the record marks it that way.

The old fact retires. It is not deleted: it stays underneath the new one with its own dates and its own label, marked superseded. The chain from old to new is kept, and it comes back when you ask.

Read the trail

Ask in the same app:

"What do you know about the Hendricks proposal - and what changed?"

The answer carries the current fact with its date and label, and the superseded history underneath - what the record used to say, when it changed, and where each version came from. You can always tell your words from a model's guesses: every fact is labeled [you said] or [inferred], never blurred.

Correct vs. forget

Two different moves, on purpose:

• Correct when a fact changed. The new fact supersedes the old one and the history stays legible - use this for deadlines that moved, decisions that reversed, anything that was once true.
• Forget when a fact should not be in the record at all. Ask Virgil to forget it and the fact is removed - your apps will show this as a destructive action, because it is one.

If in doubt, correct. A superseded fact costs you nothing and keeps the story straight; a forgotten fact is gone.

The trail leaves with you

When you export your record, the envelope carries the full revision history - active and superseded rows both. The corrections you make are part of what you own.