GEOSINT HQ GEOSINT HQ AS OF 2026-07-24 UTC GET THE BRIEF
@geosint.hq: ~ / cat methodology.md AS OF 2026-07-15 UTC --:--:-- UTC
// METHODOLOGY

How we decide what is true.

No anonymous handles, no aggregator screenshots, no stating a single claim as settled fact. Every line in the brief carries how well it is verified, and the standard that put it there is written down here.

// 01 · WHO RUNS THIS

A finance desk, pointed at geopolitics.

The lens is the differentiator. Most analysis reads the news; this one reads the exposure underneath it.

GEOSINT HQ is run by one analyst with a background in finance and credit analysis. That training is the house style: read the world the way a credit desk reads a borrower, by where the cash and the cargo actually move, not by the headline.

In practice that means three habits the brief never drops: a hard focus on the chokepoints that price global trade, a sovereign-risk read on who can actually pay and govern, and a commodity-premium eye for what a given event does to the price of oil, gas, grain, and freight. The result is a brief that treats a strait closure or an election result as a repricing event, with a clear view of who is exposed.

Lens 01
Chokepoint risk
Hormuz, Malacca, Bab el-Mandeb, Suez, Taiwan Strait. Who controls the corridor, what moves through it, and what re-routing costs.
Lens 02
Sovereign risk
Elections, debt, legitimacy, and capacity. Who can actually pay, govern, and hold a border, and who is bluffing.
Lens 03
Commodity premium
What an event does to the price of oil, gas, grain, and freight. The risk premium is the tell; we track where it builds.
// 02 · HOW WE SOURCE

Every claim carries how well it is verified.

Three fact tiers rank confidence; a fourth, ASSESSMENT, is the analyst read and sits above the facts. The color is the meaning, so the brief is readable at a glance and a claim can never be quietly upgraded.

BREAKINGFACT · TIER 1

Corroborated multi-source fact, just landed. Two independent sources minimum before it carries this tag.

PUBLISHED WITHIN MINUTES OF CORROBORATION

REPORTEDFACT · TIER 2

Single-source or contested. Attributed to who said it; never stated as fact in our own voice.

ATTRIBUTION REQUIRED · NO EXCEPTIONS

CONFIRMEDFACT · TIER 3

Settled multi-source. Sources agree, the story has stopped moving, stable enough to build analysis on.

THE BASELINE FOR ANALYSIS

ASSESSMENTANALYST READ

Our judgment on what the facts mean and where they point. Reasoned, labeled as opinion, kept separate from the record.

SITS ABOVE THE FACT TIERS

A second independent source moves the tier. Nothing else does.

Dossiers are standing reference · not ranked claims.

// LIFECYCLE OF A CLAIM
REPORTED A single source lands. Attributed: "X says", never "X did".
BREAKING Corroborated and still moving. Published within minutes.
CONFIRMED Settled. Stable enough to build analysis on.

If a claim moves at any stage, the card moves with it: correction issued in the open, marked with what changed and when.

// 03 · THE STANDARDS

Sourcing standards, in writing.

The rules that decide what gets published, at which tier, and what happens when a claim moves. They are fixed, public, and applied the same way every day.

01

Named primary outlets only.

We cite the origin, not the aggregator that reposted it. Named wire services, named reporters, official statements. No anonymous handles laundered into the record, no screenshots of screenshots.

02

Two independent sources to promote.

A second independent source moves the tier; nothing else does. A single source stays REPORTED and stays attributed: "X says" is never written as "X did."

03

Perishable figures are flagged and timestamped.

Casualty counts, strike tallies, vote margins, and throughput numbers decay. Each is re-checked at publication, marked PERISHABLE FIGURE, and carries its own AS OF date. An old figure reads as old, by design.

04

Corrections are issued on the card.

When a claim moves, the card moves with it, in the open. We mark what changed and when, in the same place the original ran. We do not silently edit and we do not delete; a wrong call stays visible next to its correction.

05

Assessments commit, on the record.

Every assessment carries an explicit forecast, an analytic confidence (HIGH, MODERATE or LOW) and a falsifiable watch indicator: a specific thing to watch that, if it moves, breaks the call. It is labeled as opinion and kept separate from the fact record.