01
Claim or factor
Recorded
An assertion has a stable record, accountable origin, recorded time, and defined scope.
Boundary
It does not establish that the assertion is true, complete, sourced, reviewed, current, or usable.
UNICANN public operating standard
What UNICANN verification statuses mean.
This standard defines how UNICANN describes the recorded state of information for a limited conversion screen: what a source supports, who reviewed it, what scope it covers, and how long that posture remains current.
- Version
- 1.0
- Status
- Public product and operating standard
- Reviewed
- September 27, 2026
- Cadence
- At least annually and after material rule changes
Screening record, not assurance
Statuses describe the recorded evidence posture for a limited scope and time. They do not establish utility availability, engineering feasibility, regulatory approval, transaction terms, financial outcome, or suitability for a particular purpose.
Canonical vocabulary
Six terms, each bounded by object, scope, and time.
The first four terms apply to individual claims. The final two apply to permissioned packages. They are layered controls, not a universal ladder and not a composite feasibility score.
02
Claim
Documented
A retained evidence item or durable source reference is linked, identifiable, legible enough for scoped review, and has no known integrity failure.
Boundary
It does not establish that the review is complete, the source is sufficient, the claim is current, or its contents support a broader conclusion.
03
Claim
Independently Reviewed
A reviewer who is separate from the source and the claim author examined current evidence against a recorded question and documented the scope, result, limits, and conflict posture.
Boundary
It is not an audit, endorsement, technical sign-off, guarantee, or site-wide conclusion. A reviewed result can still be partial, adverse, or conflicting.
04
Narrow utility claim
Utility-Confirmed
A current written response or verified record attributable to the applicable utility confirms the exact stated parameter, boundary, use, date, and conditions; an independent review records only that scope.
Boundary
It does not by itself establish reserved or deliverable load, interconnection approval, tariff outcome, construction timing, redundancy, or a service commitment.
05
Permissioned review package
Buyer-Ready
A current, mandate-specific package meets the controlled criteria for sharing with an identified buyer review group.
Boundary
It means ready for a bounded diligence conversation—not approved, deployable, valued, exclusive, financeable, or ready to transact.
06
Frozen report package
Report-Ready
The current record can produce a complete, reproducible frozen screening report with sources, versions, assumptions, unknowns, conflicts, limitations, and release control.
Boundary
It does not turn a screening record into a decision, recommendation, reliance opinion, design basis, or assurance.
Claim evaluation
The record shows the question before the conclusion.
A source is never allowed to support more than it actually covers. Each review preserves provenance, scope, time, limitations, and adverse results.
- 01
Record the bounded assertion
Identify the claim, origin, actor, recorded time, scope, units, and current revision. Missing facts stay unknown.
- 02
Link source and evidence
Retain the protected item or durable reference with attribution, observed date, relationship to the claim, integrity information, and access controls.
- 03
Record the review outcome
Answer the review question for the stated scope and date. Record what was and was not found, reviewer separation, conflicts, limitations, and freshness.
Reviewed does not always mean supportive
A negative, partial, insufficient, stale, or conflicting result is a valid review outcome. It remains visible and cannot be hidden to preserve a favorable package status.
Unknown
A required fact has not been established. It remains unknown and contributes no positive inference.
Partial
Evidence supports only part of the recorded scope or leaves a material qualifier unresolved.
Conflicting
Current sources materially disagree. The favorable source is not selected by default.
Stale
The freshness deadline has passed. The item cannot support a current status until refreshed and reviewed.
Withdrawn
The item remains in history but is excluded from the current supporting basis.
Utility claims need special care
Only the exact parameter and conditions may be repeated.
Utility-Confirmed requires a current, attributable utility record for the same location boundary and intended-use scope, plus an independent review. The default maximum freshness window is 60 days, or shorter when the source says so.
Controlled wording
“Utility-Confirmed for the stated parameter and date only; not a capacity reservation, interconnection approval, or guarantee of service.”
Unsupported wording
“Power available,” “utility-ready,” or any statement derived only from a prior bill, service band, map context, or arithmetic.
Freshness & currentness
Current is a computed condition—not a permanent label.
A current claim has not passed its freshness deadline; has not been superseded, withdrawn, or hard-expired; and is not in unresolved material conflict. All timestamps are evaluated as UTC instants. Current does not mean true for every purpose.
Upload authorization
A short window for completing a pending upload. It says nothing about the age or quality of the content.
Access grant
The period in which a named recipient may access a protected record. Access and evidentiary currentness are separate.
Claim freshness
The deadline after which a claim must be refreshed before it may support a gate, match, or package status.
Hard expiry
The absolute end of a time-bounded response, authorization, study, or release. It cannot be extended by a later review alone.
Default maximum freshness windows
The shortest of the source term, release term, reviewer-set date, or the default below controls. A hard expiry always wins.
| Claim or factor family | Maximum window |
|---|---|
| Utility service, post-shutdown capacity, tariff, delivery or interconnection | 60 days |
| Control, option, consent, lease or title summary | 90 days |
| Active operating transition | 30 days |
| Completed transition record | 90 days |
| Electrical, building, cooling, life safety or active site condition | 180 days |
| Network path or carrier context | 90 days |
| Permit, zoning, authority path or schedule | 60 days |
| Regional infrastructure factor | 180 days; 60 for active hazard or restriction |
| Buyer mandate, deterministic match, or buyer-linked report | 30 days maximum |
At the freshness deadline, the affected claim becomes stale, dependent evaluations run again, and the current status is suppressed. A material source change triggers the same reevaluation immediately; there is no grace period for a known material change.
Passport gates
G0–G7 organize the next question.
Each gate describes whether the recorded evidence supports a defined next review step. The gate system has no composite feasibility score, and its labels must not say passed, approved, or ready.
G0
For next step
Control and review authority
Current control evidence supports the next review step. It does not establish marketable title, transfer consent, or transaction authority.
G1
For next step
Operating transition
Records a scoped cessation or transition posture. It does not establish completed decommissioning or regulatory closure.
G2
For next step
Utility and service power
Requires at least one current Utility-Confirmed claim for Buyer-Ready status. A reviewed service record alone does not create that status.
G3
For next step
Building reuse
Records a scoped physical-information posture. It does not establish structural, code, or reuse fitness.
G4
For next step
Cooling basis
Records review of the stated cooling basis. It does not establish performance, water, efficiency, or design adequacy.
G5
For next step
Network path
Records carrier and path context. It does not establish diversity, serviceability, latency, or delivery commitment unless expressly scoped.
G6
For next step
Life safety
Records the current review posture. It does not establish code compliance or authority approval.
G7
For next step
Approvals and schedule
Records the documented path and unknowns. It does not establish entitlement, permit outcome, schedule, or a legal conclusion.
Package posture
Buyer-Ready
Controlled review of the recorded mandate only. The package must have a current release, a stable record version, acceptable G0–G7 states, no open material blocker, current, independently reviewed mandatory claims, the required utility claim, a current mandate and deterministic match, separate package approval, and an exact recipient scope.
Not a transaction outcome, exclusivity signal, deployment finding, valuation, or approval.
Frozen record posture
Report-Ready
A frozen report must preserve the record version, evidence register, gates, blockers, conflicts, assumptions, unknowns, methodology and rule versions, canonical hash, author and separate approver, current-through time, release classification, and changes from any prior report.
A report can be frozen while still unready. New evidence produces a superseding report; the original snapshot is never edited.
A release authorizes specified metadata or a report for a named audience, purpose, and period. It does not automatically grant document access. Protected evidence requires a separate record-level grant that can expire or be revoked; all access under it is logged.
Map & privacy boundary
Regional context must not become an exact-location inference.
Map factors are sourced, coarse contextual assertions. Their impact classification does not establish site-level access, distance, capacity, route, serviceability, water, permitting, or risk.
Illustrative precision boundary
Text alternative: an abstract regional grid shows a wide uncertainty area rather than a point, parcel, route, utility asset, or address.
Never exposed by the public map
- Exact address, parcel, or coordinate
- Utility account, service point, circuit, or route
- Carrier path, measured distance, or capacity
- Protected document contents or contact details
- A claim of availability based on marker placement
Evidence is encrypted, non-public, controlled by record-level grants, and subject to expiry and revocation; all access is logged. A grant addresses access only; it is not a conclusion about the evidence.
Conflicts, corrections & appeals
Correct the present without erasing the past.
Materially affected parties and authorized sources may challenge released wording or status. The process preserves the original record, protects confidential material, and adds a new revision or disposition rather than silently overwriting history.
Suspend
- When used
- Staleness, new material data, an unresolved conflict, a pending correction or appeal, release expiry, or pending re-review.
- Effect
- Hide the current status while retaining a potentially curable, auditable history.
Revoke
- When used
- Evidence is materially false, unauthorized, altered, misattributed, improperly disclosed, or withdrawn without replacement, or the status criteria were not met.
- Effect
- End that issuance permanently. Any later status requires a new evaluation.
Supersede
- When used
- A newer revision or report replaces an older one without a finding of wrongdoing.
- Effect
- Preserve the older item as history and exclude it from current support.
Expire
- When used
- A fixed deadline or hard expiry is reached.
- Effect
- End current eligibility automatically; historical metadata remains.
Non-public correction path
Challenge the exact record, not the public narrative.
Use the correction control attached to the released status or report. A request identifies the record, challenged wording, claimed scope error, a contact channel, and an optional protected evidence-reference route. Confidential evidence is never required to be submitted through a public upload.
- 1
Acknowledge
Issue a receipt; the request is not an admission or a review result.
- 2
Triage
Check authority, materiality, privacy, and whether immediate suspension is required.
- 3
Preserve
Freeze history and references; do not delete the challenged original.
- 4
Review
Where practical, use a reviewer who was not responsible for the challenged entry.
- 5
Determine
Add a correction, scope clarification, conflict case, suspension, revocation, or reasoned no-change result.
- 6
Notify
Where contact details and authority permit, provide the determination and the available appeal route.
Operating targets, not guarantees
Target acknowledgement within five business days and a status update within fifteen business days, subject to access, source availability, safety, preservation, and scope.
Administrative appeal
An authorized requester may appeal within 30 calendar days of notice, or later with material new information. Where practical, a different reviewer assesses the appeal; any unresolved material status remains suspended.
Controlled claim boundary
What UNICANN statuses do not claim.
A status can describe only the recorded evidence posture for its stated object, scope, source, and time. It cannot be used as marketing shorthand for a broader outcome.
Status is not a site verdict
- Do not turn any status into claims such as “certified,” “accredited,” “approved,” “AI-ready,” “data-center ready,” “bankable,” “investable,” or “due-diligence complete.”
- Do not describe a gate, match, confidence label, or report status as a feasibility finding, recommendation, valuation, offer, or closing probability.
Power language stays exact
- Do not infer usable load, availability, delivery, or compatibility from an amp/voltage calculation, service band, prior bill, map factor, or match result.
- Do not imply a utility commitment for capacity, interconnection, tariff, construction, service date, or redundancy beyond the exact written source and its conditions.
Privacy and release are separate
- Do not infer a parcel, service point, route, distance, capacity, account, or exact infrastructure location from coarse map context.
- Do not imply that a recipient can access protected evidence or contact a counterparty without the specific release and record-level grant.
Independence must be recorded before independent-review language is used. A frozen report is historical after its current-through date or a material source change.
Read all disclosuresGovernance & release history
Rules change by version, never by silent reinterpretation.
Material changes receive a dated entry, a new criteria version, a compatibility review, updated tests, and reevaluation or explicit historical labeling for affected records.
Current document
Verification Standard 1.0
- Release state
- Proposed
- Criteria family
- verification / 1.0
- Published
- September 27, 2026
- Archive
- No earlier public version
Establishes the six canonical status definitions; claim, evidence, review, and independence controls; currentness and expiry behavior; G0–G7 interpretation; utility-specific limits; package criteria; map privacy; corrections and appeals; release separation; prohibited language; and immutable report supersession.
Global caveat
Screening record, not assurance. Statuses describe the recorded evidence posture for a limited scope and time. They do not establish utility availability, engineering feasibility, regulatory approval, transaction terms, financial outcome, or suitability for a particular purpose.