{ "model": { "rank": 990, "code": "thing-q14660", "model_id": "vr.tr.flag", "name": "flag", "purpose": "Let an agent handle flags by owner, design, meaning, protocol and signalling use, neutrally and respectfully.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.MED", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q14660/", "tier": 2, "score": 206, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "railway signalling flag", "swimming flag", "pavilion", "maritime flag", "corner flag", "pilot flag", "state ensign", "naval ensign", "Burgee", "bloody flag", "admiral flag", "diver down flag", "tairyō-bata", "tug", "flag of the Imperial Japanese Navy", "battle ensign", "Russian Navy Ensign", "Sun flag", "anarcha-feminist flag", "school flag", "disability flag", "gay men's pride flag", "QAnon flag", "flag (communication)", "flag (window / door)", "alphabetical flag", "flag contrassenha", "pennant advertising", "Refugee Nation flag", "suffrage flag", "WSPU flag", "flag in sport", "Pan-Slavic flag", "Indigenous Unity Flag", "personal flag", "United Tribes of New Zealand flag", "flag of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe", "police flag", "Human Rights flag", "Landesdienstflagge" ], "aliasCount": 216, "merged": 229, "knownIn": 206, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.flag-animal", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q14660", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14660", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T08:04:56Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q14660", "registryId": "vr.tr.flag", "name": "flag", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.MED" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q14660/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.flag", "name": "flag", "purpose": "Let an agent handle flags by owner, design, meaning, protocol and signalling use, neutrally and respectfully.", "definition": "A piece of fabric, usually rectangular, with a distinctive design, used as a symbol or signal, such as national, regional, organisational, maritime signal, sports and safety flags.", "what_it_is_for": "Representing identity, signalling and marking.", "affordances": [ "identify flags and meanings", "follow flag etiquette and protocol", "use signal flags correctly", "reproduce designs accurately" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Symbolic or signalling fabric", "Official specifications for many", "Protocol for display", "Some are legally protected" ], "appearance": "Fabric with colours and symbols, flown from poles or ropes.", "visual_identification": [ "Design, colours and proportions", "Types: national, maritime, sports, signal", "Beach and swimming flags convey safety messages" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "national and regional flags", "maritime signal flags", "sports and corner flags", "safety and beach flags", "organisational flags" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "banner and symbol", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "coat of arms", "why": "heraldry" }, { "relation": "is studied by", "target": "vexillology", "why": "field" }, { "relation": "is used in", "target": "signalling", "why": "communication" } ], "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "Wikidata item", "value_or_pattern": "per flag", "note": "instances" } ], "standards_and_regulation": [ "National flag laws and protocols", "International Code of Signals", "ISO 20712 water safety signs and beach flags" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Wrong colours or proportions", "Protocol breaches", "Misreading safety flags" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity", "name": "Identity", "description": "Which flag.", "rationale": "Owner and design.", "layers": [ { "id": "owner", "name": "Owner", "description": "Country or body.", "findings": [ { "id": "owner-finding", "name": "Owner", "description": "Flag identity.", "questions": [ { "text": "Whose flag is it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "When was it adopted?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "design", "name": "Design", "description": "Colours and proportions.", "findings": [ { "id": "design-finding", "name": "Design", "description": "Design.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are its official colours and proportions?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What do the symbols mean?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "protocol", "name": "Protocol", "description": "Display rules.", "rationale": "Protocol shows respect.", "layers": [ { "id": "display", "name": "Display", "description": "Order and position.", "findings": [ { "id": "display-finding", "name": "Display", "description": "Display rules.", "questions": [ { "text": "How should it be displayed alongside other flags?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "When is it flown at half-mast?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Protection.", "findings": [ { "id": "law-finding", "name": "Law", "description": "Legal protection.", "questions": [ { "text": "Are there legal rules on its use or desecration?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Is commercial use restricted?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "signalling", "name": "Signalling", "description": "Meaning in use.", "rationale": "Flags carry messages.", "layers": [ { "id": "maritime", "name": "Maritime", "description": "Signal flags.", "findings": [ { "id": "maritime-finding", "name": "Maritime", "description": "Maritime signals.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does this signal flag mean in the International Code of Signals?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is it a single-flag signal?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "safety", "name": "Safety", "description": "Beach and sport.", "findings": [ { "id": "safety-finding", "name": "Safety", "description": "Safety flags.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does this beach or sport flag mean?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What should people do?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "neutrality", "name": "Neutrality", "description": "Contested flags.", "rationale": "Flags can be political.", "layers": [ { "id": "disputes", "name": "Disputes", "description": "Contested symbols.", "findings": [ { "id": "disputes-finding", "name": "Disputes", "description": "Contested flags.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the flag contested or associated with a dispute?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Are positions attributed neutrally?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "Earlier designs.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "What earlier designs existed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Why did they change?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should flag types be separate entries?", "How should official specifications be linked?", "How should disputed flags be represented?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "work, medium or creative form", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a flag, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent handle flags by owner, design, meaning, protocol and signalling use, neutrally and respectfully.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted", "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: railway signalling flag, swimming flag, pavilion, maritime flag, corner flag, pilot flag, state ensign, naval ensign, Burgee, bloody flag, admiral flag, diver down flag.", "229 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 206 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a flag, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says", "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "What is seen is a copy or a performance, not the work. Recognising the work means recognising the content through whatever is carrying it." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "railway signalling flag", "swimming flag", "pavilion", "maritime flag", "corner flag", "pilot flag", "state ensign", "naval ensign", "Burgee", "bloody flag", "admiral flag", "diver down flag" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 206 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 229 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one flag from another, and a flag from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a flag, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a flag, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a flag is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a flag, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a flag, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a flag is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a flag sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a flag, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a flag, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a flag is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a flag from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a flag, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a flag, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a flag is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a flag passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a flag between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a flag, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a flag, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a flag is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a flag, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a flag is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a flag, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a flag, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a flag is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a flag says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a flag contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a flag, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a flag, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a flag is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a flag and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a flag, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a flag, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a flag is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "work-and-manifestation", "name": "Work, version and copy", "description": "Which level of flag a statement is about.", "rationale": "The work, the edition, the file and the copy in hand are four things; rights and content attach to different ones.", "layers": [ { "id": "levels", "name": "Levels of the thing", "description": "Work, expression, manifestation and item, in plain terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "level-rules", "name": "What belongs at each level", "description": "Which facts hold for the work and which only for one copy.", "questions": [ { "id": "level-rules-q01", "text": "For flag, which facts belong to the work itself, which to a version, and which to a single copy?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "level-rules-q02", "text": "What identifier exists at each level, and which one is being cited?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "versions", "name": "Versions, editions and variants", "description": "How versions differ and which is canonical to whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "version-record", "name": "Versions and canonicity", "description": "Differences that matter and who calls one authoritative.", "questions": [ { "id": "version-record-q01", "text": "Which versions or editions of flag exist, and how do they differ substantively?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "version-record-q02", "text": "Who treats which version as authoritative, and for what purpose?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "authorship-and-rights", "name": "Authorship, rights and permitted use", "description": "Who made flag and what may be done with it.", "rationale": "Rights are jurisdictional, time-limited and attached to a level, and an agent that ignores that will copy what it may not.", "layers": [ { "id": "authorship", "name": "Authorship and contribution", "description": "Who contributed what, and in what capacity.", "findings": [ { "id": "contribution-record", "name": "Contributors and roles", "description": "The people and bodies behind it, with their roles.", "questions": [ { "id": "contribution-record-q01", "text": "Who authored or contributed to flag, in what roles, and how is that attested?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "contribution-record-q02", "text": "Where authorship is disputed or anonymous, what is recorded instead?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "rights", "name": "Rights and permissions", "description": "Which rights subsist, where, until when, and what they permit.", "findings": [ { "id": "rights-record", "name": "Rights, term and permitted acts", "description": "The regime in force and what it allows.", "questions": [ { "id": "rights-record-q01", "text": "What rights subsist in flag, in which jurisdictions, and until when?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "rights-record-q02", "text": "Which acts are permitted without further permission, and which must an agent refuse?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a flag came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a flag and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a flag, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a flag, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a flag is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a flag is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a flag, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a flag, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a flag is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }