Prompts
Build a verification checklist for a claim
Asks the model for the checks a human should run, in cost order, and for what would disprove the claim. It is told not to decide whether the claim is true.
What may go into it: Public or invented material only
The prompt
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. I have a claim I cannot verify yet. Do NOT tell me whether it is true, and do not estimate how likely it is. I need a plan for checking it. Rules: 1. Give no verdict. Do not write "probably", "likely", "appears genuine" or any other judgement of the claim. 2. Do not perform the checks. Do not search. Write the plan only. 3. Name people by type of person or institution, never by name. 4. If a check needs something I did not give you, say what it is instead of assuming it. The claim: [WRITE THE CLAIM IN ONE SENTENCE] What I have: [DESCRIBE WHAT YOU HAVE: a photo, a video, a document, a forwarded message, a screenshot] What I already know: [DATE, PLACE, WHO IS SAYING IT, WHERE IT CAME FROM] Give me, in this order: A. What would have to be true for this claim to hold, as separate testable statements. B. The checks, ordered from cheapest to most expensive, and for each one the result that would support the claim and the result that would refute it. C. What evidence would disprove the claim, and who could confirm or refute it locally, by type of person or institution and never by name. D. What cannot be checked from the material I have, including what you, as a language model, cannot check at all.
Opens a new chat in that tool with this prompt already typed in. Fill in every box first, and read the line at the top about what may go into it.
15 minutes · Gives you a checklist · Works on a phone · How much to paste at once: Keep this to one claim in one sentence, plus a few lines of context. If the list of checks ends in the middle of a sentence, ask for section C and section D on their own.
Read the answer against the checks below before you use it in anything that leaves your organisation.
What to fill in
- [ANSWER LANGUAGE]: Arabic, Kurdish Sorani or English.
- [WRITE THE CLAIM IN ONE SENTENCE].
- [DESCRIBE WHAT YOU HAVE] and [DATE, PLACE, WHO IS SAYING IT, WHERE IT CAME FROM].
- Describe the material. Do not paste anything that identifies a source.
Before you trust the answer
- Section D is the point of this prompt. A model cannot tell you whether an image is real.
- If any part of the answer says the claim is likely true or likely false, discard it and send the prompt again.
- Run the checks in section B in order and write down the result of each one, whether or not it helped.
When it goes wrong
It will slip a verdict into section A, so a list of what would have to be true reads as confirmation that it is.
Tools this is written for
Written 2026-09-01Nobody has run this prompt in this language yet, so read the answer twice.
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
- Only approved or redacted sensitive materialHas a free versionWe do not know whether it works in Iraq
Where to go next
- The task this belongs toVerifying images, video and claims
- Staying safeClassify the material first
Written forJournalist or editorHuman rights activistResearcher or analyst