Format lab: confidence cues
Outcome (2026-08-17): chosen and live everywhere — color pills in each page’s confidence line (clicking one opens the ladder) plus a thicker dotted underline, orange/violet only, for inferred/reported deviations. The variants below are kept for reference.
One sample paragraph, rendered under each candidate treatment of the confidence ladder — tried reported documented inferred — plus recency. The wording never changes; only the cue does. Pick one inline treatment and one page-level treatment.
The sample facts: Cowork scheduled tasks run hourly at most (documented); Slack channel reminders don’t notify members (inferred); Granola never records audio (tried — verified in the app); users report Drive search missing just-edited docs (reported).
A. Plain parentheticals — the current baseline
Section titled “A. Plain parentheticals — the current baseline”Cowork scheduled tasks run hourly at most. Slack channel reminders don’t notify members (inferred — a one-minute test reminder settles it). Granola never records audio (tried 2026-08-17). Some users report Drive search missing just-edited docs (reported, forum thread from June 2026).
B. Superscript tags
Section titled “B. Superscript tags”Cowork scheduled tasks run hourly at most.doc Slack channel reminders don’t notify members.inf Granola never records audio.tried Some users report Drive search missing just-edited docs.rep
C. Color pills
Section titled “C. Color pills”Cowork scheduled tasks run hourly at most documented. Slack channel reminders don’t notify members inferred. Granola never records audio tried. Some users report Drive search missing just-edited docs reported.
D. Icons
Section titled “D. Icons”Cowork scheduled tasks run hourly at most 📄. Slack channel reminders don’t notify members 💭. Granola never records audio ⚗️. Some users report Drive search missing just-edited docs 🗣️.
⚗️ tried · 🗣️ reported · 📄 documented · 💭 inferred
E. Dotted underline + hover
Section titled “E. Dotted underline + hover”The claim itself carries a colored dotted underline; hovering shows rung, source, and date (hover each below — no extra ink in the sentence):
Cowork scheduled tasks run hourly at most. Slack channel reminders don’t notify members. Granola never records audio. Some users report Drive search missing just-edited docs.
F. End-of-paragraph stamp
Section titled “F. End-of-paragraph stamp”Cowork scheduled tasks run hourly at most. Each run spawns a fresh session that reads the project instructions and acts. 📄 documented · Cowork help center · checked 2026-08-17
Slack channel reminders don’t notify members on default settings. 💭 inferred · a one-minute test reminder settles it
G. Page-level banner + freshness chip
Section titled “G. Page-level banner + freshness chip”The Last-updated line as a strip at the top of every entry; only deviations get tagged inline (via any of B–E above):
Comparison
Section titled “Comparison”| Treatment | Ink added | Glanceable | Survives copy-paste | Works on mobile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Parentheticals | high | no | yes | yes |
| B. Superscripts | low | mid | poorly | yes |
| C. Pills | mid | yes | no | yes |
| D. Icons | low | yes (once learned) | yes | yes |
| E. Dotted underline | none | mid | no | no hover — tap needed |
| F. Paragraph stamp | mid | yes | yes | yes |
| G. Banner + chip | page-level only | yes | n/a | yes |
Natural pairings: G for the page default + E or B for inline deviations (least ink), or G + C (loudest, no hover needed). A and F need no CSS at all, so they also work in the raw markdown files.