Evidence vs Inference Sort

Reasoning degrades when evidence (what is actually observed or verifiable) is blended with inference (what is deduced) and assumption (an unstated premise). Models are especially prone to this: they present fluent inference in the same confident register as fact. This skill separates them: it labels each claim in a body of text as evidence, inference, or assumption, records the basis for each, attaches a confidence level to inferences, and flags anything uncited. The output is an evidence/inference ledger. Note the boundary: this classifies claim type; it does not verify that the evidence is true (that is a separate, fact-checking job).

When to Use

• A recommendation, plan, or conclusion must be trusted before it is acted on.
• High-stakes contexts: legal, medical, financial, safety, architecture and planning.
• Auditing the reasoning behind a conclusion, including the agent's own.
• As a step in a reasoning-audit workflow.

When NOT to Use

• As a fact-checker. It labels what kind of claim something is, not whether it is true.
• On creative or exploratory work where rigor is not the point.
• On trivial claims, where sorting produces only noise.
• When the claims are already well-sourced and the leaps are already explicit.

Instructions