skills/complete-veteran-benefits/references/source-verification.md

# Source Verification

## Material-source record

For a disputed interpretation, deadline, historical rule, or amount, retain:

| Claim | Exact authority / URL | Effective period | Source coverage or revision | Access status | Application / uncertainty |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |

Use this as a working record; show only the details the user needs. Record
actual retrieval, not a fabricated audit timestamp. Distinguish a retrieved
full source, a partial excerpt, a search lead, and an unavailable source.

## Read beyond the search result

Open the section/opinion and enough surrounding text to capture exceptions,
definitions, cross-references, and transition rules. Inspect relevant PDF pages
when extraction could lose checkboxes, tables, footnotes, or dates. A document
filename and search engine crawl date are not reliable effective dates.

For cases, identify court, citation, precedential status, holding, and relevant
later treatment. If later history cannot be verified, say so when it matters.
Do not imply a complete citator check from one web search.

## Recovery when a source cannot be read

Try official navigation or a focused official-domain query. If that fails, use
an alternative primary publisher, such as GovInfo for CFR editions and Federal
Register rules. For M21-1 use VA's linked manual navigation; do not invent a
KnowVA deep link or describe an inaccessible section as read.

After these distinct approaches fail, explain the specific gap. Continue with
verified portions, supplied records, or explicitly provisional guidance. Do not
loop indefinitely, bypass access controls, or treat a secondary quotation as
verified primary text. Ask for the relevant official text or notice if it would
resolve the issue. Unverified deadline advice must not be phrased as a final
calendar date on which the claimant can safely rely.

## Applicability and publication lag

Read amendment history and applicability clauses when a change affects the
answer. Check both enactment/publication and effective dates. An enacted change
can precede incorporation into a code webpage. A final rule's preamble differs
from its operative text; a proposal does not establish an operative rule.
For an obsolete source, use it only for the period it actually governs.

Government hosting is evidence of provenance, not proof that every sentence is
controlling law. The eCFR is maintained by government as a current research
resource but is not the official legal edition. Use official published CFR and
Federal Register material when formal text or an amendment dispute matters.

## Efficient stopping point

Stop when controlling text, material exceptions, relevant dates, and the
outcome-sensitive interpretation have adequate support. Broaden research for
an unresolved legal conflict or missing decisive fact, not to reach a source
count. Preserve uncertainty rather than manufacture agreement among sources.