The Rinse Cycle

A verification method for documents where meaning lives in who is speaking.

The Theory

Every document has two verification surfaces. The structural surface is what the document's shape reveals — clauses, fields, architecture. The biographical surface is the space between the document's claims and the real identities of the people inside it.

Prewash scrubs the first. Rinse scrubs the second.

Errors planted on the structural surface fall out in Prewash. Errors where a real person is made to say something their real self would never say only fall out in Rinse. Sentences can be individually true and still biographically impossible for the speaker attached to them. That gap is where fabricated quotes live — and it is invisible to any fact-check that grades propositions one at a time.

Rinse reframes verification from is this sentence true to is this sentence true for this speaker. Know your subjects before you quote them. The discipline is old. The protocol is new.

When To Use It

Any document where the meaning depends on who is speaking: transcripts, interviews, panel debates, press conferences, leaked audio, quoted social posts, podcast excerpts, on-screen chyrons, reported speech in news articles. If you could describe the document as "people talking," it is a Rinse job.

The Method — Three Prompts

The user needs no prior knowledge of the document. The prompts are generic and work on any speaker-driven material. Run them in order. Do not skip cycles.

Prompt 01

Build the Reference Set

Before reading any claims in this document, list every named speaker, author, or subject. For each one, build a short factual profile from independent public sources — not from the document itself. Include:

Cite sources for every profile. Do not yet evaluate anything the document says. The goal of this pass is only to know who these people are, independent of the document.

Prompt 02

Check the Document Against the Speakers

Now read the document. For every factual claim each speaker makes — especially about geography, institutions, numbers, their own biography, their party or organisation's positions, or named third parties — check whether it is consistent with the reference profile you built for that speaker.

Rules:

Prompt 03

Cross-Check Speaker, Self, and Document

Finally, check the document for internal contradictions across three layers:

Report all three layers separately. Rank findings by severity at the end, and distinguish hard errors (factually wrong) from coherence failures (not wrong in isolation but wrong for this speaker or this document). Do not soften findings. Do not collapse the passes. If a claim passes all three checks, say so.