# How this works

## In one paragraph

We collect publicly recorded meetings of Vigo County, Terre Haute, and nearby
town and township governing bodies, transcribe them, and write up consequential
decisions and exchanges. Highlights link to the relevant moment in a recording
or source document. **This archive uses AI-assisted drafting and editorial
review under the owner’s direction.**

## Where the material comes from

Public bodies and their meeting-video channels provide the recordings; city,
county, town, and township sources provide available agendas and other records.
Each meeting note identifies the sources used and any known limitations.
The archive works from public records and does not attend meetings or rely on
private sources inside government.

## What is automated

- Finding new meetings, and fetching the video and agenda.
- Transcribing the audio, and separating who is speaking from whom.
- Drafting the meeting record, the highlights, and the entity timelines.
- Checking highlight citation coverage, timestamp structure, and consistency with the available source.

## How review and publication work

Drafts stay outside the published archive until an editorial review checks their
claims, source anchors, vote wording, and attribution. Entity records receive a
separate review for identity, duplicate records, and timeline accuracy. Unresolved
source problems can keep a draft on hold; published uncertainty is marked.

The September 12, 2026 catch-up run used Terra agents for drafting and Sol agents
for editorial gates. The owner authorized that automated run and its vault
updates. Individual source checks in that run were performed by the agents.

The owner directs the archive and can review the records, request changes, and
issue corrections. Machine transcripts are generated directly from cached
transcription results and carry their own unreviewed-transcription disclosure.

## What we deliberately do not do

- We do not endorse candidates, score officials, or make recommendations.
- We do not host comments — it changes the moderation burden and the trust
  profile entirely.
- We are not a local news site. We cover meetings, not the town.
- We do not use engagement mechanics: no infinite scroll, no streaks, no
  notification pressure.

## Where it is weakest

Being straight about the limits:

- **Names.** Automatic transcription mangles surnames. When available, we check them against
  official rosters and in-meeting naming evidence, but an unusual name can still slip through. Anything
  attributed to a named person at lower confidence is marked.
- **Speakers.** We can usually tell voices apart, and often work out who is who
  from the roll call and from the chair addressing people by name. When we
  cannot, we say "a resident" or "a councillor" rather than guess.
- **Coverage.** See [[coverage]] for which bodies we cover and how far back.

If something here is wrong, [[corrections-policy|tell us]] — corrections are
published, not quietly patched.