{ "model": { "rank": 2140, "code": "thing-q37447", "model_id": "vr.tr.postal-code", "name": "postal code", "purpose": "Let an agent explain postal codes, relay formats, histories and uses from postal operator and UPU sources, describe the national systems the registry aliases name, and distinguish postal codes from addresses, administrative area codes, telephone area codes and geocodes.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.MED", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q37447/", "tier": 2, "score": 114, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "postal codes in France", "Código de Endereçamento Postal", "ZIP code", "postcodes in the United Kingdom", "postal codes in Sweden", "postal addresses in Gibraltar", "Danish postal code", "Australian postcode", "Moroccan postcode", "postal code in Italy", "postal code in Germany", "postal codes in Belgium", "Postal codes in Japan", "BH postcode area" ], "aliasCount": 14, "merged": 14, "knownIn": 114, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q37447", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q37447", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T19:53:27Z", "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": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q37447", "registryId": "vr.tr.postal-code", "name": "postal code", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.MED" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q37447/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.postal-code", "name": "postal code", "purpose": "Let an agent explain postal codes, relay formats, histories and uses from postal operator and UPU sources, describe the national systems the registry aliases name, and distinguish postal codes from addresses, administrative area codes, telephone area codes and geocodes.", "definition": "A series of letters, digits or both appended to a postal address to aid mail sorting, used in most countries, such as the United States ZIP code introduced in 1963, United Kingdom postcodes rolled out from 1959 to 1974, the Brazilian Codigo de Enderecamento Postal or CEP, the five-digit French code postal, Swedish postal codes introduced in 1968 and Gibraltar s single postcode GX11 1AA; postal codes are widely reused for geography, statistics, pricing and service areas.", "what_it_is_for": "Sorting mail and locating addresses.", "affordances": [ "explain formats", "relay national histories", "describe named systems", "distinguish related codes" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Sorting aid", "National formats", "Reused for geography", "Not administrative boundaries" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; codes written in addresses.", "visual_identification": [ "Code aiding mail sorting", "ZIP code, UK postcode, CEP, code postal, Swedish postal code, Gibraltar postcode", "Addresses identify places; administrative codes identify government areas; telephone area codes route calls; geocodes are coordinates" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "US ZIP code", "typical_range": "1963", "unit": "year", "note": "5 digits, ZIP+4 from 1983" }, { "quantity": "UK postcodes", "typical_range": "1959-1974", "unit": "years", "note": "alphanumeric" }, { "quantity": "Brazil CEP", "typical_range": "1971", "unit": "year", "note": "8 digits since 1992" }, { "quantity": "Gibraltar postcode", "typical_range": "GX11 1AA", "unit": "code", "note": "single code, 2012" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "numeric codes such as ZIP and code postal", "alphanumeric codes such as UK and Canadian postcodes", "single territory codes", "extended codes such as ZIP+4" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "administrative territorial entity identifier", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is part of", "target": "address", "why": "" }, { "relation": "includes", "target": "ZIP Code", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "telephone numbering plan", "why": "" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "UPU postal addressing standards S42", "National postal operator rules" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Treating postal codes as administrative boundaries", "Postcode-based discrimination in pricing, as reported", "Stale code lists" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What a postal code is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is a postal code, and how does it differ from addresses, administrative codes, phone area codes and geocodes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about a specific country, looking up a code or data use?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "systems", "name": "Systems", "description": "Named national systems.", "findings": [ { "id": "systems-finding", "name": "Systems", "description": "Systems.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do ZIP codes, UK postcodes, CEP, French codes postaux, Swedish codes and the Gibraltar postcode work?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific system?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "rationale": "Sources.", "layers": [ { "id": "origins", "name": "Origins", "description": "Origins.", "findings": [ { "id": "origins-finding", "name": "Origins", "description": "Origins.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did postal districts evolve into modern postal codes?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mechanisation", "name": "Mechanisation", "description": "Mechanisation.", "findings": [ { "id": "mechanisation-finding", "name": "Mechanisation", "description": "Mechanisation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did codes enable automated sorting?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "uses", "name": "Uses", "description": "Other uses.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "data", "name": "Data", "description": "Geographic data.", "findings": [ { "id": "data-finding", "name": "Data", "description": "Data.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are postal codes used in statistics, insurance and geocoding?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits geocoding?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "concerns", "name": "Concerns", "description": "Concerns.", "findings": [ { "id": "concerns-finding", "name": "Concerns", "description": "Concerns.", "questions": [ { "text": "What concerns about postcode lotteries and redlining have been raised, with sources attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits redlining?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Addressing.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "addresses", "name": "Addresses", "description": "Addressing.", "findings": [ { "id": "addresses-finding", "name": "Addresses", "description": "Addresses.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do postal codes fit into address formats worldwide?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits address?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "alternatives", "name": "Alternatives", "description": "Alternative systems.", "findings": [ { "id": "alternatives-finding", "name": "Alternatives", "description": "Alternatives.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do systems such as Ireland s Eircode or grid-based codes differ?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits Eircode?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each national system be a separate entry?", "How should postal operator sources be linked?", "The registry alias postal addresses in Gibraltar is broader than postal codes; should it be split off?" ], "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 postal code, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain postal codes, relay formats, histories and uses from postal operator and UPU sources, describe the national systems the registry aliases name, and distinguish postal codes from addresses, administrative area codes, telephone area codes and geocodes.", "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: postal codes in France, Código de Endereçamento Postal, ZIP code, postcodes in the United Kingdom, postal codes in Sweden, postal addresses in Gibraltar, Danish postal code, Australian postcode, Moroccan postcode, postal code in Italy, postal code in Germany, postal codes in Belgium.", "14 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 114 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 postal code, 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": [ "postal codes in France", "Código de Endereçamento Postal", "ZIP code", "postcodes in the United Kingdom", "postal codes in Sweden", "postal addresses in Gibraltar", "Danish postal code", "Australian postcode", "Moroccan postcode", "postal code in Italy", "postal code in Germany", "postal codes in Belgium" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 114 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 14 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 postal code from another, and a postal code 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 postal code, 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 postal code, 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 postal code 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 postal code, 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 postal code, 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 postal code 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 postal code 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 postal code, 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 postal code, 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 postal code 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 postal code from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a postal code, 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 postal code, 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 postal code 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 postal code 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 postal code between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a postal code, 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 postal code, 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 postal code 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 postal code, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a postal code 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 postal code, 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 postal code, 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 postal code 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 postal code 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 postal code contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a postal code, 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 postal code, 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 postal code 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 postal code and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a postal code, 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 postal code, 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 postal code 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 postal code 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 postal code, 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 postal code 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 postal code 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 postal code, 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 postal code, 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 postal code 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 postal code and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a postal code, 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 postal code, 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 postal code 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 postal code is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a postal code, 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 postal code, 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 postal code 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 } } } }