{ "model": { "rank": 3427, "code": "thing-q190258", "model_id": "vr.tr.need", "name": "need", "purpose": "Let an agent help identify and meet needs: route people lacking basic necessities to support services, explain frameworks of needs, and support needs assessments in education, health and business in general terms.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.STA", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q190258/", "tier": 2, "score": 86, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "special educational needs", "drug shortage", "clinical need", "business needs", "human needs", "need to eat", "need to drink", "need to breathe", "physiological need", "educational needs", "cultural needs", "basic needs", "information need", "effective need", "dependency need", "energy access" ], "aliasCount": 16, "merged": 16, "knownIn": 86, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.need-object", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q190258", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q190258", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T13:41:12Z", "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-Q190258", "registryId": "vr.tr.need", "name": "need", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.STA" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q190258/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.need", "name": "need", "purpose": "Let an agent help identify and meet needs: route people lacking basic necessities to support services, explain frameworks of needs, and support needs assessments in education, health and business in general terms.", "definition": "Something required for survival, wellbeing or a purpose, from basic human needs such as food, water, shelter and safety to psychological, educational, clinical and business needs, including special educational needs and shortages such as drug shortages.", "what_it_is_for": "Understanding and meeting requirements.", "affordances": [ "find support for food, shelter and other basic needs", "explain frameworks of human needs", "understand special educational needs processes in general terms", "conduct a needs assessment" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Requirement for wellbeing or purpose", "Can be assessed", "Varies by person and context", "Unmet needs cause harm" ], "appearance": "Not physical; expressed as requirements, gaps and assessments.", "visual_identification": [ "Basic needs such as food and shelter", "Needs assessments and plans", "Wants are desires rather than requirements" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "basic physical needs", "psychological and social needs", "special educational needs", "clinical needs", "business and user needs" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "prerequisite", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is assessed by", "target": "needs assessment", "why": "method" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "shelter", "why": "basic need" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "want", "why": "related concept" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Social protection and welfare law", "Special educational needs law", "UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Unmet basic needs", "Delays in assessments", "Treating needs as preferences" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "basic", "name": "Basic", "description": "Basic needs.", "rationale": "Urgent needs first.", "layers": [ { "id": "urgent", "name": "Urgent", "description": "Food and shelter.", "findings": [ { "id": "urgent-finding", "name": "Urgent", "description": "Urgent basic needs.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does someone lack food, safe shelter, heating or water right now?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which food banks, shelters or emergency welfare services can help today?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "benefits", "name": "Benefits", "description": "Financial support.", "findings": [ { "id": "benefits-finding", "name": "Benefits", "description": "Financial support.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which benefits or grants might help meet basic needs here?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Where can free advice be found?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "frameworks", "name": "Frameworks", "description": "Theories of needs.", "rationale": "Frameworks are attributed.", "layers": [ { "id": "theories", "name": "Theories", "description": "Needs theories.", "findings": [ { "id": "theories-finding", "name": "Theories", "description": "Needs theories.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do frameworks such as Maslow hierarchy or capability approaches describe needs, and what are their critiques?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Are they empirically supported?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "rights", "name": "Rights", "description": "Rights-based view.", "findings": [ { "id": "rights-finding", "name": "Rights", "description": "Rights-based view.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which needs are recognised as rights under international law?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How are they enforced?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "education", "name": "Education", "description": "Special educational needs.", "rationale": "Processes vary.", "layers": [ { "id": "sen", "name": "SEN", "description": "Support in school.", "findings": [ { "id": "sen-finding", "name": "SEN", "description": "Special educational needs.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can parents request a special educational needs assessment here, in general terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which independent advice services exist?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "health", "name": "Health", "description": "Clinical need.", "findings": [ { "id": "health-finding", "name": "Health", "description": "Clinical need.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is clinical need assessed for services or medicines?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user asking about their own care?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "assessment", "name": "Assessment", "description": "Needs analysis.", "rationale": "Assessment guides action.", "layers": [ { "id": "method", "name": "Method", "description": "Needs assessment.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-finding", "name": "Method", "description": "Needs assessment.", "questions": [ { "text": "How should a needs assessment be designed for this community or product?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which data sources help?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "shortage", "name": "Shortage", "description": "Supply shortages.", "findings": [ { "id": "shortage-finding", "name": "Shortage", "description": "Shortages.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is there an official shortage of this medicine or product, according to regulators?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What alternatives do authorities advise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should kinds of need be separate entries?", "How should support services be localised?", "How should needs frameworks be attributed?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "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 need, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent help identify and meet needs: route people lacking basic necessities to support services, explain frameworks of needs, and support needs assessments in education, health and business in general terms.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: special educational needs, drug shortage, clinical need, business needs, human needs, need to eat, need to drink, need to breathe, physiological need, educational needs, cultural needs, basic needs.", "16 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 86 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 need, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "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": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "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": [ "special educational needs", "drug shortage", "clinical need", "business needs", "human needs", "need to eat", "need to drink", "need to breathe", "physiological need", "educational needs", "cultural needs", "basic needs" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 86 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 16 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 need from another, and a need 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 need, 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 need, 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 need 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 need, 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 need, 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 need 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 need 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 need, 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 need, 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 need 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 need from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a need, 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 need, 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 need 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 need 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 need between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a need, 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 need, 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 need 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 need, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a need 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 need, 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 need, 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 need is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What need is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of need are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is need operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of need and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of need?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as need?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a need 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 need and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a need, 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 need, 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 need 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 need is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a need, 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 need, 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 need is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }