Glossary

Theory Delta uses a few precise terms throughout the site. Here's what each one means. Most labels on a finding link straight back to the relevant definition here.

Finding

A single, fact-checked claim about how an agentic tool actually behaves — what works, what silently fails, and what the docs don't mention. Findings are the unit Theory Delta publishes.

The delta

The one-line key takeaway of a finding: what is newly true in practice versus what you'd assume from the documentation or from a model's training data. It's the headline, not editorial opinion.

Claims

The discrete factual statements a finding makes. The “11 claims” counter is how many separate assertions the finding is built from — each one is individually sourced or tested.

Tested

How many of a finding's claims were verified first-hand — by running the tool, reading its source, or independent confirmation — rather than taken from documentation. “0 tested” means the claims are currently backed by source/doc review, not first-party execution.

Content type

The category of a published piece. Two kinds appear in the corpus:

• finding — A specific empirical result about one tool or behaviour.
• landscape — A survey that maps a whole area — multiple tools or patterns compared side by side.

Confidence

The evidence tier of the finding as a whole. It signals how the claims were established, from strongest to weakest:

• empirical — Executed and observed first-hand by Theory Delta.
• medium — Established by reading the tool's source, issues, or changelog directly.
• secondary-research — Drawn from documentation or third-party reporting, not yet verified first-hand.

Evidence kind

The per-claim label in a finding's evidence table, describing how that specific row was established:

• tested — Run in a real runtime by Theory Delta and observed.
• source-reviewed — Confirmed by reading the tool's source code, issues, or commits.
• independently-confirmed — Corroborated by a credible third party, not just the vendor.
• docs-reviewed — Based on the tool's documentation or release notes.

Staleness risk

How quickly the facts underneath a finding tend to change. “High” means the area moves fast (APIs, limits, and behaviours shift between releases) so you should re-check against your own environment before acting. It describes the subject area — not whether this page itself is out of date.

Lifecycle · Published

Every finding carries a lifecycle state, shown as a pill at the top. Only published findings are listed publicly:

• published — Live and publicly listed — the normal state.
• in-flight — In fact-check or pre-publish review; claims may still change. Not publicly listed.
• retracted — Withdrawn — superseded or found wrong. Kept at its URL with a retraction notice.

Fact-checked · corrections

“Fact-checked” is the date Theory Delta last ran a review pass over the finding. “Corrections” counts factual fixes made to the finding after publication. “0 corrections” means none have been needed since it went live — not that nobody has read it.

Task hubs

Curated groupings of findings organised by what you're trying to do (e.g. “add memory to an agent”) rather than by which tool you're using. Browse them under “By task”.

By tool · By task

The two ways to browse the corpus. “By tool” lists findings keyed to specific tools (the findings index); “By task” lists task hubs keyed to a goal. Same findings, two entry points.

Scan

Point Scan at a repository or agent config and it checks what it finds against Theory Delta's catalog — surfacing the findings that apply to your setup.

For agents

Machine-readable access for AI agents: an MCP endpoint and structured files (llms.txt, agent cards) so an agent can query Theory Delta before it makes a tool decision.

Independent · evidence-traced · no vendor influence

Theory Delta takes no vendor sponsorship and accepts no editorial input from the tools it covers. “Evidence-traced” means every claim is either linked to a primary source or explicitly labelled with the evidence kind behind it — nothing is asserted without a traceable basis.