---
title: Provenance and citations
description: Interpret grounded Sift answers and evidence bundles.
product: platform
lifecycle: stable
appliesTo: current retrieval and evidence contract
sourceArtifact: agent-contract@current
owner: Retrieval owner
raw: /raw/platform/provenance.md
---

Sift results should identify where a claim came from, when the source was observed, and whether coverage is incomplete or conflicting. Citation handles are not decoration: resolve them with the evidence tool before making a high-impact decision.

Freshness and contradiction are different axes. A fresh source can contradict another fresh source. When evidence is missing or permission-filtered, report the gap rather than filling it with model memory.