{ "model": { "rank": 9519, "code": "thing-q327333", "model_id": "vr.tr.government-agency", "name": "government agency", "purpose": "Let an agent identify government agencies by jurisdiction, mandate, legal basis and accountability, and know where to direct a request.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q327333/", "tier": 2, "score": 47, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Rubber soldiers", "Mulkaji", "Sweden's delegations", "Malaysian delegation", "Belgian delegations", "chancery", "Landratsamt", "register office", "Chancellery of Brittany", "Standesamt", "Registers Iceland", "District Office (Thailand)", "bugyōsho", "police office", "Jōsaku castle", "Jobcenter", "municipal district of Bulgaria", "transit district", "police zone", "passenger transport executive", "Tayside and Central Regional Transport Partnership", "Bezirksamt", "forest range", "forestry", "forest circle", "forestry agency", "Provincial Administrative Organization (Thailand)", "kmetstvo of Bulgaria", "Regional State Administrative Agency", "county office of education in California", "school division of the Philippines", "municipal authority in Pennsylvania", "park district", "probation service", "Court of Audit", "health directorate", "National Commission for UNESCO", "Independent Monitoring Board", "food safety organization", "public funding agency" ], "aliasCount": 590, "merged": 595, "knownIn": 47, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q327333", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q327333", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T04:52:39Z", "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-Q327333", "registryId": "vr.tr.government-agency", "name": "government agency", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q327333/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.government-agency", "name": "government agency", "purpose": "Let an agent identify government agencies by jurisdiction, mandate, legal basis and accountability, and know where to direct a request.", "definition": "A permanent or semi-permanent organisation in the machinery of government, responsible for administering specific functions such as regulation, services, statistics or diplomacy, under the executive or with defined independence.", "what_it_is_for": "Carrying out particular public functions under law.", "affordances": [ "contact it, through official channels", "apply to it, for licences, benefits or decisions", "appeal its decisions", "request its records, under freedom of information law" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Part of the state, created by law or executive order", "Has a defined mandate and jurisdiction", "Some are independent regulators, others ministerial departments", "Its decisions are subject to review" ], "appearance": "Offices, websites on official domains, logos and published decisions; delegations and chanceries are its presence abroad.", "visual_identification": [ "Official government domain and branding", "Legal basis cited in its founding act", "Public register of bodies" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "ministerial departments", "executive agencies", "independent regulators", "local administrative offices such as a Landratsamt", "diplomatic delegations and chanceries" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is part of", "target": "executive branch", "why": "most agencies" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "organization", "why": "inherits identity and governance" }, { "relation": "applies", "target": "law", "why": "administers statutes" }, { "relation": "is confused with", "target": "private contractor", "why": "contractors act for agencies but are not agencies" } ], "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "public body register code", "value_or_pattern": "jurisdiction-specific", "note": "official registers of agencies" }, { "scheme": "official domain", "value_or_pattern": "for example .gov or .gov.uk", "note": "online identity" } ], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Founding acts and statutes defining mandates", "Administrative procedure law", "Freedom of information and data protection law" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Impersonation of agencies in scams", "Sending requests to the wrong agency", "Out-of-date information after reorganisations" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-mandate", "name": "Identity and mandate", "description": "Which agency and what it does.", "rationale": "Mandate decides whether an agency can help.", "layers": [ { "id": "identity", "name": "Identity", "description": "Name, jurisdiction, parent.", "findings": [ { "id": "identity-finding", "name": "Identity", "description": "Official identity.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the agency official name, jurisdiction and parent body?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Has it been renamed or merged?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate", "description": "Functions and powers.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-finding", "name": "Mandate", "description": "Functions under law.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the agency responsible for, under which law?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What is outside its mandate?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "services", "name": "Services", "description": "What people can do with it.", "rationale": "Most contact with agencies is to get a service or decision.", "layers": [ { "id": "services", "name": "Services", "description": "Applications and decisions.", "findings": [ { "id": "services-finding", "name": "Services", "description": "Services offered.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which services or decisions does it provide?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "How is an application made?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "contact", "name": "Contact", "description": "Official channels.", "findings": [ { "id": "contact-finding", "name": "Contact", "description": "Verified contact details.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are its verified official contact channels?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How can a message claiming to be from it be verified?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability", "description": "Checks and appeals.", "rationale": "People must be able to challenge decisions.", "layers": [ { "id": "appeals", "name": "Appeals", "description": "Review of decisions.", "findings": [ { "id": "appeals-finding", "name": "Appeal route", "description": "How decisions are challenged.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can a decision of this agency be appealed?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Within what time?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "oversight", "name": "Oversight", "description": "Ministers, parliament, ombudsman.", "findings": [ { "id": "oversight-finding", "name": "Oversight", "description": "Who oversees it.", "questions": [ { "text": "Who oversees this agency?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Where are its reports published?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "records", "name": "Records", "description": "Information held.", "rationale": "Agencies hold public and personal data under rules.", "layers": [ { "id": "foi", "name": "Public records", "description": "Freedom of information.", "findings": [ { "id": "foi-finding", "name": "FOI route", "description": "How to request records.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can records be requested?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "What exemptions apply?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "personal-data", "name": "Personal data", "description": "Data protection.", "findings": [ { "id": "personal-data-finding", "name": "Data rights", "description": "Rights over personal data.", "questions": [ { "text": "What personal data does it hold, and how can it be accessed?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Who is its data protection officer?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should agencies be instances linked to jurisdictions and parent ministries?", "How should reorganisations and successor bodies be tracked?", "How should agents verify an agency identity against scams?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "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 government agency, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent identify government agencies by jurisdiction, mandate, legal basis and accountability, and know where to direct a request.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Rubber soldiers, Mulkaji, Sweden's delegations, Malaysian delegation, Belgian delegations, chancery, Landratsamt, register office, Chancellery of Brittany, Standesamt, Registers Iceland, District Office (Thailand).", "595 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 47 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 government agency, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "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. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "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": [ "Rubber soldiers", "Mulkaji", "Sweden's delegations", "Malaysian delegation", "Belgian delegations", "chancery", "Landratsamt", "register office", "Chancellery of Brittany", "Standesamt", "Registers Iceland", "District Office (Thailand)" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 47 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 595 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 government agency from another, and a government agency 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 government agency, 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 government agency, 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 government agency 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 government agency, 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 government agency, 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 government agency 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 government agency 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 government agency, 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 government agency, 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 government agency 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 government agency from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a government agency, 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 government agency, 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 government agency 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 government agency 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 government agency between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a government agency, 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 government agency, 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 government agency 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 government agency, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a government agency 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 government agency, 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 government agency, 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 government agency is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a government agency.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a government agency and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a government agency, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a government agency, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a government agency, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a government agency is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a government agency and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a government agency sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a government agency, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a government agency, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a government agency is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What government agency is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does government agency take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of government agency, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in government agency and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of government agency may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does government agency have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a government agency 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 government agency and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a government agency, 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 government agency, 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 government agency 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 government agency is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a government agency, 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 government agency, 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 government agency 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 } } } }