Methodology

DEPLOY's methodology operates as a four-tier verification protocol applied uniformly across registry, news, consumer, and methodology surfaces. The framework discipline reads verification posture at the per-claim depth where each claim actually resolves. The pages below document the operating constructs on the news property; the canonical methodology surface lives at registry.deploy.report/methodology (cross-property canonical).

Methodology pillar pages

The methodology pillar pages define DEPLOY's operating constructs canonically. Definitions codified here lock the framing for downstream use across registry entity cap-flag patterns, consumer page cap-flag display, and operating-agent decisions.

• What 'verified' means at DEPLOY

  Top-of-funnel pillar piece defining DEPLOY's operating constructs canonically: verified-vs-claimed boundary, operating envelope precision, cap-flag-as-trust-signal, source discipline.

• The verification framework

  Verification tier definitions + per-tier requirements + cohort-application discipline.

• Operating envelope precision

  How DEPLOY frames operational scope precision across robotaxi + drone + maritime + humanoid cohorts.

• Contrast cases

  Worked examples of cap-flag-vs-claim across cohort entries; verified-vs-claimed framework in action.

• How DEPLOY verifies capability

  Capability verification protocol across deployed-platform + brain-provider + autonomy-stack tiers.

• How DEPLOY verifies deployment status

  Deployment-status verification protocol across pilot + commercial + production tiers.

• How DEPLOY tracks pricing

  Pricing-tier verification protocol across consumer-available + research-tools + enterprise-deployed + consumer-promised tiers.

• How DEPLOY tracks safety incidents

  Incident-tracking protocol across operator + regulatory + jurisdiction layers.

• How DEPLOY tracks patents and patent litigation

  USPTO records anchor existence. Court dockets anchor litigation. ITC dockets anchor 337 investigations. Settlement terms cap-flag when sealed. The ITC seam links patent_litigation to regulatory_filing at primary-source verification depth.

• How DEPLOY tracks deployment lifecycle state

  Four maturity stages with exact definitions: research, pilot, commercial, production. State transitions verified against primary-source evidence. Ended and paused states preserved honestly, not smoothed.

• How DEPLOY tracks people and leadership state

  Roles as time-versioned events. Founder versus co-founder versus mentor-investor distinctions. Verified against SEC filings, court records, corporate registries, and operator surfaces. Cap-flagged when reported but not yet primary-source confirmed.

• How DEPLOY uses form_factor as a regulatory-regime descriptor

  form_factor describes the physical machine and the operating or regulatory regime it lives under. Not the product. Not the use case. Twelve enum values map to twelve regulatory regimes.

• How DEPLOY separates operator from manufacturer

  Who runs the robot is a different fact from who built it. Both are tracked separately per deployment. Contract manufacturer is a third distinct role; deploy-site is a fourth. The Apollo chain anchors the layered distinction.

• How DEPLOY assigns verification posture

  Per-claim verification posture asserted at the source layer: 8 source-quality tiers, 4 confidence tiers, posture markers per claim, basis markers per posture. The same fact can resolve at different posture levels on different surfaces.

• Cap-flag as trust signal

  Cap-flag is the published verification state. Transparent under-target with a stated reason beats coverage padded with marketing inference. The discipline operates recursively across registry, consumer, news, and the publication's own JSON-LD attribution layer.

• How DEPLOY composes the three-axis actuarial substrate

  Three axes compose the actuarial substrate: incident outcome and deployment exposure (numerator), manufacturer financial state (denominator), supply-chain component failure mode (scalar selectivity). Each axis at a distinct verification posture; honest-absence preserved across all three.

Methodology editorial canonical references

The methodology editorial pieces operationalize the framework discipline through feature-format editorial coverage. These pieces compound the pillar-page definitions with worked examples + cross-cohort application + framework-in-action narratives.

• How DEPLOY verifies (methodology editorial canonical)

  Feature-format methodology editorial operationalizing the four-tier verification protocol + canonical worked examples + cohort architecture at form-factor-cell granularity.

• The 9-tier source-quality rubric

  Operationalizes DEPLOY's 9-tier source-quality classification: 5 primary tiers + 2 secondary tiers + 1 aggregator tier + 1 unverified tier. Per-claim source-quality discipline.

• Captive vs third-party brain providers

  Brain-provider integration model gradient; framework operating at brain-provider integration layer.

• Autonomy-boundary classification

  Cross-cohort 4-way autonomy-boundary taxonomy; framework operating recursively across surgical + drone + maritime + humanoid + sidewalk-delivery cohorts.

• Verified-vs-claimed at within-entity granularity

  Framework operating at feature-granularity within a single device; Whoop BPI + Apple Watch SpO2 sagas as worked examples.

Cross-property references

For DEPLOY's editorial process (lane architecture + workflow + per-anchor review discipline + restraint posture), see /editorial-process. For the corrections journal, see /corrections. For DEPLOY's funding posture, see /funding. For DEPLOY's conflicts of interest disclosure, see /conflicts. For the verification framework canonical reference, see /verified-vs-claimed.