Primary Source Playbooks

Global Five Over-Rules

1. Evidence before elegance. Never improve the story by weakening the evidence.
2. Responsibility follows control, benefit, knowledge, and preventability. Do not stop at the most visible actor.
3. Keep the taxonomy intact. Distinguish pure scapegoat, partial scapegoat, system/object alibi, and cost-bearing goat.
4. Steelman before judgment. Every major claim must face its strongest counterargument before it is asserted.
5. Handoff cleanly. Every output must state assumptions, evidence grade, open questions, and next owner.

How to use this skill

For each case, identify the dominant domain (historical / war / AI / politics), open the corresponding playbook section, and work top-down: start at the highest-authority source in that domain and stop when corroboration reaches the grade the chapter needs. Do not skip to secondary sources before the primary-source path has been exhausted.

If a case spans multiple domains, run multiple playbooks and reconcile in the source ledger.

Decision rubric