{ "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T10:27:46Z", "providers": [ "Codex" ], "breadth": "recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read", "missingProviders": [], "pass": 2, "cost": { "grok": { "seconds": 17.7, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.4\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a09527-6e77-7f12-986d-77bae64e60f5\n--------\nuser\nDescribe what is already known about one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: Indian agent\nSense to describe: (none recorded)\nDomain code: SOC.PER\nAlso known as: (none)\n\n\nContext for this batch of 1001 things:\n# Batch 043: 1001 re", "usd": 0.0, "recall": true }, "codex": { "seconds": 82.4, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.4\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a09527-6e6d-7272-a32e-c12422c9ad13\n--------\nuser\nYou are drafting a Vercy meta-model for one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: Indian agent\nRegistry id: vr.tr.indian-agent\nPlane / domain: SOC / SOC.PER\nRegistry definition: (none recorded)\nNames folded into this entry: (none)\n" } }, "enrichment": { "pass": 3, "engine": "claude", "producedAt": "2026-10-06T12:00:00Z", "ingestedAt": "2026-10-06T08:42:30+00:00", "fields": [ "agent_conduct", "ethics", "owners" ] }, "revisions": [ { "at": "2026-10-07T11:28:08+00:00", "engine": "codex", "fields": [ "agent_conduct", "definition", "distinguishing_features", "scope_statement" ], "answering_review": "87c257d190fd01a35f640bc9aa212638ec4311d7ca019dd217e83415d985539d" } ], "gate": { "passed": true, "version": "1.0", "at": "2026-10-07T12:16:31+00:00", "evidence": [ "completeness 1.00", "sense: Wikidata description", "2 live sources", "review by codex: pass" ] } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q2643659", "registryId": "vr.tr.indian-agent", "name": "Indian agent", "version": "0.1.0-research.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.PER" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q2643659/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.indian-agent", "name": "Indian agent", "purpose": "Enable an AI agent to identify an Indian agent as a historically situated governmental role, assess its documented mandate and conduct, and determine which interpretations or actions the evidence supports.", "definition": "An Indian agent was a person authorized to interact with Native Americans on behalf of the U.S. government, with responsibilities and authority determined by the historical appointment and assignment.", "scope_statement": "This model owns Indian agent as the historical role of a person authorized to represent the U.S. government in interactions with Native Americans, including appointments, jurisdiction, responsibilities, authority limits and accountability.", "in_scope": [ "Historical title, jurisdiction and period-specific meaning of Indian agent", "Appointment, tenure, qualifications and governmental reporting relationships", "Assignment to an agency, territory and named Indigenous communities", "Documented responsibilities, delegated powers and actual practices", "Relations with Indigenous governments, affected people and other officials", "Evidence of decisions, resource administration, complaints and consequences" ], "out_of_scope": [ "The complete biography or identity of a person holding the office", "The agency or department as an organisation", "Indigenous nations, governments and communities as independently modelled entities", "Treaties, statutes and administrative policies as independently modelled instruments", "Agents defined by Indian nationality or commercial representation in India", "Modern occupational credentials or powers inferred solely from the historical title" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Requires evidence connecting the title or equivalent duties to authorization to interact with Native Americans on behalf of the U.S. government; nationality alone does not establish the role.", "Distinguishes the office, the person appointed and each dated assignment, allowing successive holders and changing mandates.", "Requires jurisdiction and period before interpreting powers; identical titles do not establish identical authority.", "Separates representation of the appointing government from any independently evidenced mandate to represent an Indigenous nation.", "Distinguishes an Indian agent from a trader, missionary, interpreter, superintendent or military officer unless a separate appointment or delegation establishes the role." ], "characteristics": [ { "name": "Historical title and jurisdiction", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Recorded title, governmental jurisdiction, administrative regime and applicable period", "why_it_matters": "Prevents different offices or unrelated uses of the name from being treated as interchangeable." }, { "name": "Appointment and tenure", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Office holder linked to appointing authority, appointment evidence, start date and end date", "why_it_matters": "Establishes who occupied the role when a decision or document was produced." }, { "name": "Office or appointment status", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Attested status such as occupied, acting, vacant, suspended, terminated, abolished or unknown, with effective date", "why_it_matters": "Separates the state of an appointment from the continued existence of an office." }, { "name": "Agency and community assignment", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Dated links to agency, territory and Indigenous nations or communities, with naming provenance", "why_it_matters": "Identifies the scope claimed for an assignment without equating administrative assignment with Indigenous consent." }, { "name": "Authority basis", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Appointment instrument, instruction, law, treaty provision or delegation, with date and stated limits", "why_it_matters": "Allows a claimed power to be checked against evidence applicable at the time." }, { "name": "Responsibility profile", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Documented duties concerning liaison, reporting, disbursements, services or other locally evidenced responsibilities", "why_it_matters": "Supports comparison without assigning every historically reported function to every agent." }, { "name": "Appointment requirements", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Documented eligibility, competences, oath, bond or other conditions; absent or unknown where unsupported", "why_it_matters": "Distinguishes historical appointment conditions from a presumed modern professional licence." }, { "name": "Decision evidence status", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Reported, corroborated, disputed, contradicted or unresolved, assessed separately for each claim", "why_it_matters": "Prevents an official report or retrospective allegation from becoming an unqualified finding." } ], "affordances": [ "Resolve whether a named person held a relevant appointment at a specified place and date.", "Trace an agent's reporting line and the documented limits of delegated authority.", "Compare a recorded action with period-specific instructions and flag unsupported authority claims.", "Reconstruct responsibility for a payment, report or administrative decision across successive holders.", "Compare government records with Indigenous accounts while preserving attribution and disagreement.", "Identify evidence gaps and direct further research to appointment records, agency files and relevant community sources." ], "agent_conduct": { "may": [ "Explain the historical role of Indian agents representing the U.S. government, citing archival sources.", "Describe how the office affected Indigenous peoples." ], "must_not": [ "Present the office as benign while omitting documented harms.", "Reveal personal records of Indigenous people from agency files without consent.", "Use the term as a slur.", "Invent historical events." ], "requires_human": [ "Publishing archival records about identifiable families requires human review." ] }, "ethics": { "considerations": [ "The office enforced policies that caused deep harm.", "Archives hold sensitive family information." ], "affected_parties": [ "Indigenous peoples", "Descendants named in records" ] }, "owners": { "steward": "The national archives hold the agency records.", "master_systems": [ "National archives" ] }, "what_it_is_for": [ "The role appears in historical records of United States government relations with particular Native American nations and communities.", "Appointment records, correspondence and agency reports help establish an official's authority, responsibilities and involvement in treaty administration or federal policies." ], "standards_and_regulation": [ "The United States Congress enacted the 1834 Act to provide for the organization of the department of Indian affairs, which established provisions governing Indian agents and their duties." ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Treating an agent's account as an impartial record can reproduce colonial prejudice and obscure Indigenous testimony.", "Assuming that an appointment conferred unlimited authority can misrepresent treaty obligations and Indigenous sovereignty.", "Confusing officials with similar names or different periods of service can assign responsibility for harmful actions to the wrong person." ], "facets_not_applicable": { "recognition": "Government appointment and authority cannot be established from a person's visible appearance." } }, "sources": [ { "id": "wikidata", "title": "Wikidata item Q2643659: Indian agent", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2643659", "url_status": "live", "what_it_supports": "identity and sense of the item", "checked_by": "wikidata-api" }, { "id": "wikipedia-en", "title": "Wikipedia: Indian agent", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_agent", "url_status": "live", "what_it_supports": "general description of the item", "checked_by": "wikidata-api sitelink" } ], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "historical-office-identity", "name": "Historical office identity", "description": "Determine which historical office the registry name denotes and separate it from adjacent roles.", "rationale": "The entry has no definition, so its historical and geographical meaning must remain explicit and revisable.", "layers": [ { "id": "title-and-administrative-setting", "name": "Title and administrative setting", "description": "Locate the recorded title within a dated governmental structure.", "findings": [ { "id": "indigenous-affairs-office-identification", "name": "Indigenous-affairs office identification", "description": "U.S. archival guidance places Indian agents within an agency and superintendency structure; this supports the provisional interpretation without settling the registry's full scope. [National Archives](https://www.archives.gov/research/native-americans/bia)", "questions": [ { "text": "Which original registry source identifies the intended meaning of Indian agent?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "indigenous-affairs-office-identification-q01" }, { "text": "Which government, period and administrative structure give the title its meaning in this instance?", "kind": "definition", "id": "indigenous-affairs-office-identification-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "office-holder-and-neighbouring-roles", "name": "Office holder and neighbouring roles", "description": "Separate role identity from people, institutions and overlapping appointments.", "findings": [ { "id": "distinct-appointment-test", "name": "Distinct appointment test", "description": "Treat a person's Indian-agent appointment separately from any trading, religious, military, interpreting or supervisory role.", "questions": [ { "text": "What evidence establishes an Indian-agent appointment rather than an informal description of someone's activities?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "distinct-appointment-test-q01" }, { "text": "Which concurrent roles did the holder occupy, and under which role was the action taken?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "distinct-appointment-test-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "appointment-and-service", "name": "Appointment and service", "description": "Establish how a holder entered, exercised and left the office.", "rationale": "Responsibility depends on a validly evidenced appointment and tenure, not merely on a name appearing in agency records.", "layers": [ { "id": "selection-and-conditions", "name": "Selection and conditions", "description": "Record the appointing authority and locally applicable conditions of service.", "findings": [ { "id": "appointment-basis-and-competence", "name": "Appointment basis and competence", "description": "Capture documented selection requirements, relevant competences and service arrangements without assuming a universal licensing system.", "questions": [ { "text": "Who appointed the agent, and which record establishes the appointment and its conditions?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "appointment-basis-and-competence-q01" }, { "text": "Which qualifications, language abilities, oath, bond or other requirements were stipulated for this appointment?", "kind": "definition", "id": "appointment-basis-and-competence-q02" }, { "text": "Was the holder salaried, contracted, acting or serving through another documented arrangement?", "kind": "definition", "id": "appointment-basis-and-competence-q03" } ] } ] }, { "id": "tenure-and-handover", "name": "Tenure and handover", "description": "Track the effective exercise of office and transfers of responsibility.", "findings": [ { "id": "dated-responsibility-window", "name": "Dated responsibility window", "description": "Distinguish appointment dates, actual assumption of duties, absences and handover dates when attributing acts.", "questions": [ { "text": "When did the holder actually assume and cease duties, and how precisely are those dates known?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "dated-responsibility-window-q01" }, { "text": "Who exercised the office during vacancies, suspensions or temporary absences?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "dated-responsibility-window-q02" }, { "text": "Which outstanding accounts, records or decisions passed to the successor?", "kind": "action", "id": "dated-responsibility-window-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "jurisdiction-and-indigenous-relations", "name": "Jurisdiction and Indigenous relations", "description": "Locate the assignment and distinguish governmental jurisdiction claims from Indigenous political relationships.", "rationale": "Agency boundaries alone cannot establish whom an agent represented or how affected communities understood the relationship.", "layers": [ { "id": "agency-and-territorial-assignment", "name": "Agency and territorial assignment", "description": "Identify the places and communities attached to the appointment over time.", "findings": [ { "id": "dated-assignment-boundaries", "name": "Dated assignment boundaries", "description": "Maintain dated assignments with separate references for administrative boundaries and community identities.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which agency, territory and named communities were assigned to the agent at the relevant date?", "kind": "definition", "id": "dated-assignment-boundaries-q01" }, { "text": "Did reassignment, boundary changes or overlapping officials alter responsibility for this matter?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "dated-assignment-boundaries-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "representation-and-interlocutors", "name": "Representation and interlocutors", "description": "Record whose mandate the agent held and how dealings with Indigenous representatives were mediated.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-and-community-recognition", "name": "Mandate and community recognition", "description": "Keep governmental appointment, Indigenous recognition, negotiation and consent as separately evidenced relationships.", "questions": [ { "text": "Whose government or institution did the agent formally represent?", "kind": "definition", "id": "mandate-and-community-recognition-q01" }, { "text": "Which Indigenous representatives participated, and what evidence establishes their mandate or challenges to it?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "mandate-and-community-recognition-q02" }, { "text": "What evidence supports consent, objection or refusal concerning the particular interaction?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "mandate-and-community-recognition-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate-and-administrative-practice", "name": "Mandate and administrative practice", "description": "Connect assigned responsibilities to documented acts and the limits of authority.", "rationale": "The title cannot establish whether a particular intervention was required, permitted, discretionary or unsupported.", "layers": [ { "id": "instructions-and-authority-limits", "name": "Instructions and authority limits", "description": "Assess each asserted power against evidence specific to the appointment and date.", "findings": [ { "id": "power-by-power-verification", "name": "Power-by-power verification", "description": "Require a specific basis for each asserted power and distinguish written instructions from customary or contested practice.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which dated instrument supports this particular power or duty, and what exceptions or limits does it state?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "power-by-power-verification-q01" }, { "text": "Did the matter require approval from a superior or action by a different office?", "kind": "action", "id": "power-by-power-verification-q02" }, { "text": "Was the claimed authority disputed, exceeded or exercised without a located written basis?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "power-by-power-verification-q03" } ] } ] }, { "id": "resources-and-casework", "name": "Resources and casework", "description": "Trace concrete administrative responsibilities through transactions and decisions.", "findings": [ { "id": "documented-resource-administration", "name": "Documented resource administration", "description": "U.S. agency holdings include financial accounts, disbursement records and vouchers, providing evidence paths for researching resource administration without attributing every function to every agent. [National Archives guide](https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/075.html)", "questions": [ { "text": "Which payment, distribution, service or case decision can be attributed to this holder?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "documented-resource-administration-q01" }, { "text": "What amounts, goods, recipients and dates are recorded, including historical units or currencies?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "documented-resource-administration-q02" }, { "text": "Do authorisations, accounts and recipient evidence agree about what was actually delivered or decided?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "documented-resource-administration-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "accountability-and-historical-evidence", "name": "Accountability and historical evidence", "description": "Evaluate oversight, contested conduct and the evidential limits of surviving records.", "rationale": "A useful model must preserve both responsibility and uncertainty, including discrepancies between official reporting and affected people's accounts.", "layers": [ { "id": "oversight-and-contested-conduct", "name": "Oversight and contested conduct", "description": "Link scrutiny of an agent to specific decisions, allegations and recorded outcomes.", "findings": [ { "id": "complaints-investigations-and-outcomes", "name": "Complaints, investigations and outcomes", "description": "Separate complaints, investigative findings, official responses and independently evidenced consequences.", "questions": [ { "text": "Who could review the agent's decisions or accounts, and was that review actually exercised?", "kind": "action", "id": "complaints-investigations-and-outcomes-q01" }, { "text": "What complaints or allegations exist, who made them, and what investigation or response followed?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "complaints-investigations-and-outcomes-q02" }, { "text": "Which consequences are attributable to this agent's decisions rather than solely to wider policy or another actor?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "complaints-investigations-and-outcomes-q03" } ] } ] }, { "id": "record-perspective-and-access", "name": "Record perspective and access", "description": "Preserve source perspective, gaps and conditions affecting responsible interpretation.", "findings": [ { "id": "cross-perspective-evidence-assessment", "name": "Cross-perspective evidence assessment", "description": "Attribute terminology and claims to their sources, retaining Indigenous accounts, official accounts and unresolved discrepancies without assuming either collection is complete.", "questions": [ { "text": "Who created each account, for which audience and administrative or community purpose?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "cross-perspective-evidence-assessment-q01" }, { "text": "Which relevant Indigenous accounts, translations or missing records could change the interpretation?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "cross-perspective-evidence-assessment-q02" }, { "text": "What documented access conditions or community protocols govern quotation, identification or reuse of this material?", "kind": "action", "id": "cross-perspective-evidence-assessment-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence-and-external-alignment", "name": "Evidence and external alignment", "description": "What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.", "rationale": "A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.", "layers": [ { "id": "reported-evidence", "name": "Reported evidence", "description": "Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes", "name": "Check these first", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "No sense is recorded: this answer assumes the historical North American governmental role, rather than an agent of Indian nationality.", "Specific powers and participation in coercive practices require verification for the particular jurisdiction, date and agency.", "The title is historical terminology; it should not be treated as a preferred contemporary designation for Indigenous peoples." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes-q01", "text": "Which of these check these first hold for the sense of Indian agent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-kinds", "name": "Kinds and varieties", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "United States Indian agent", "Canadian Indian agent" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds-q01", "text": "Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of Indian agent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation", "name": "Standards and regulation", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Canada's Indian Act, enacted by the Parliament of Canada, provided a principal statutory framework for Canadian Indian agents' administration of First Nations affairs." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation-q01", "text": "Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of Indian agent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-real-world-use", "name": "Real-world use", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Representing government authorities in dealings with designated Indigenous communities.", "Administering treaty payments, supplies or other government obligations and programmes.", "Reporting on local conditions and implementing government Indian-affairs policy.", "Exercising administrative oversight of reservation or reserve affairs, with powers varying by jurisdiction and period." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-real-world-use-q01", "text": "Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of Indian agent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards", "name": "Failure modes and hazards", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Corruption or diversion of money and supplies intended for Indigenous communities.", "Abuse of discretionary authority and interference with Indigenous governance.", "Implementation of coercive assimilation policies.", "Failure to fulfil treaty obligations or accurately represent community concerns." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01", "text": "Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of Indian agent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-regional-variation", "name": "Regional variation", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "In the United States, the title is associated with federal Indian agencies and the administration of relations with tribes.", "In Canada, agents operated within the federal Indian Affairs administration and exercised authority over First Nations affairs.", "Duties, appointment arrangements and legal powers changed substantially across historical periods and jurisdictions." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-regional-variation-q01", "text": "Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of Indian agent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-neighbours", "name": "Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ { "name": "Indian agency", "difference": "The agency is the administrative office or organisation; the agent is its official or a role within that administration." }, { "name": "Tribal leader", "difference": "A tribal leader derives authority from an Indigenous community's governance arrangements; an Indian agent represents an external government." }, { "name": "Indian trader", "difference": "A trader conducts commerce; an Indian agent holds a governmental administrative appointment." }, { "name": "Indian agent officeholder", "difference": "An officeholder is a particular person occupying the role during a specified period; the registered thing describes the role itself." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-neighbours-q01", "text": "Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of Indian agent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Does the registry intend the U.S. office specifically, Canadian offices as well, or a broader family of historical Indigenous-affairs appointments?", "Does an existing Vercy world model already cover this role, requiring the registry entry to link to that model?", "Which jurisdiction-specific sources establish appointment requirements, reporting lines and the introduction, replacement or abolition of the title?", "Which responsibilities concerning land, movement, schooling, policing or other interventions are evidenced for each jurisdiction and period rather than inferred from the title?", "Which Indigenous-controlled sources and community protocols are needed to assess disputed conduct and gaps in government records?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 11, "findings": 17, "questions": 34 } }