rfc: temporal axis for contradiction probe — field report from Wintermute

[garrytan]

What

A report from resolving 115 HIGH contradiction findings in garrytan/brain. Documents why ~60% of findings are temporal false positives and proposes a time-axis enhancement to the contradiction probe.

Why

The probe treats all claims as timeless. "Trial separation" (April) vs "permanent separation" (May) gets flagged as a contradiction. Sriram Krishnan partner (2019) vs WH AI advisor (2025) gets flagged. These are features of a brain that records history, not bugs.

Use Cases

1. Founder tracking — what they say vs what turns out true. Track MRR claims across OH meetings, detect regressions, score prediction accuracy.
2. Life event disambiguation — grandmother's funeral (Singapore, April) vs aunt's funeral (Toronto, May). Two events, not one contradiction.
3. Role/status changes — people change jobs. The Apple Note isn't wrong, it's historical.
4. Decision evolution — trial → permanent separation. Each step supersedes the previous.

Proposed Phases

1. Judge prompt enhancement (smallest change, biggest impact — pass dates to judge, add temporal_supersession verdict)
2. Claim trajectory view (gbrain eval trajectory "Acme Corp MRR")
3. Automatic valid_from/valid_until population during extract_facts
4. Founder scorecard (Argus integration)

Stats

• 107K pages, ~257K chunks
• 115 HIGH → 0 genuine contradictions remaining after manual resolution
• ~60% of original findings were temporal false positives

This is a report/RFC, not a code change. Proposing Phase 1 as the natural next step.