Verification levels

Every changelog entry states exactly what was checked, using these statuses. A status never implies more than what it directly tested — a passing backend test proves the backend behaves as tested; it does not prove a desktop notification displayed on Windows, and a successful Tauri build does not prove an installer is signed, notarized, or installable.

Status	Meaning
Declared	The change is described by whoever made it, with no attached verification evidence yet.
Automated Tests Passed	The relevant automated test suite completed successfully — scoped to what that suite actually exercises (a backend unit test doesn't test frontend behavior, a frontend unit test doesn't test a packaged browser extension).
Artifact Built	An installable or distributable artifact was produced successfully (a compiled binary, a Docker image, a zip package) — building is not the same as installing, launching, or using it.
Manually Verified	A person exercised the actual product or artifact on the stated target platform — the strongest evidence short of production use.
Production Observed	The behavior was observed in a real deployment or production-equivalent environment, not just a test run.
Verification Unavailable	Sufficient evidence could not be retrieved in this environment (e.g. no macOS/Linux host was reachable to verify a desktop build) — stated as an environment constraint, not a product finding.
Not Verified	No verification has been performed for this claim.

Why this matters, concretely

A few real examples from this repository's own changelog, because the distinction is easy to state abstractly and easy to blur in practice:

• The MCP read-tool fix has automated tests passed (85+ backend tests, 124 apps/mcp tests) — but no real MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code) was connected to confirm it from a client's perspective. The changelog entry says exactly that.
• The Desktop Application has cargo build passing and a real, screenshotted launch on Windows — but macOS and Linux are marked Unavailable, not Not tested or silently omitted, because no host for either was reachable, which is a real gap distinct from "nobody has gotten around to it."
• CI compiling the desktop shell on ubuntu-latest is evidence the code builds on Linux. It is not evidence a packaged .deb/.AppImage installs and runs on a real Linux desktop — those are different claims, and this documentation doesn't conflate them.

Where verification is recorded

Each changelog entry (per product, or the combined overview) states its own verification line. The underlying data lives in structured fragments under .changes/ — see .changes/README.md for the exact schema, and Release process for how verification evidence accumulates into an actual release record.