What you need to know
Attribution is lost in summarisation
Each time findings are summarised, it is tempting to drop the sources "to save space". By the final report, claims stand without citations. The fix is structural: every subagent outputs claim-source mappings, and every downstream step must preserve and merge them.
{"claim": "EU e-bike sales rose 12% in 2025",
"source": "European Cycling Industry Report 2026", "url": "https://example.org/eci-2026",
"excerpt": "sales increased by 12 percent year on year",
"published": "2026-02-18", "method": "survey of 40 manufacturers"}Conflicting figures: annotate, do not choose
Two credible sources give different market sizes: $12.4 billion (January 2026) and $8.7 billion (March 2025). Picking one silently, or averaging them, hides a real disagreement. Report both, with their sources, and let the reader or the coordinator decide.
Document analysis should finish with the conflicting values included and annotated; the coordinator decides how to reconcile them before synthesis.
Dates prevent false contradictions
Many apparent conflicts are time differences: a 2025 figure and a 2026 figure for a growing market both being correct. Require publication or data-collection dates in every structured output so synthesis can tell "contradiction" from "change over time".
Structure the report around certainty
- Separate well-established findings (several independent sources) from contested ones.
- Keep the original characterisation: if a source said "estimated" or "preliminary", say so.
- Keep methodological context (survey size, sample, model) where it affects interpretation.
Use the right format for each content type
| Content | Format |
|---|---|
| Financial data | Tables |
| News and events | Prose |
| Technical findings | Structured lists |
Converting everything to uniform paragraphs makes figures hard to compare and technical detail hard to scan.
In the exam
Scenario 3: reports with no citations, conflicting statistics, figures from different years, and uniform prose for mixed content.
Check your understanding
Final reports state facts with no sources; attributions are lost as findings are summarised. What is the structural fix?
Show answer
Answer: C. Attribution must travel with each claim. Structured claim-source mappings, preserved through synthesis, stop it from being lost.
Two credible sources report $12.4B (2026) and $8.7B (2025) for one market. How should the report handle it?
Show answer
Answer: D. Both figures are credible. Showing them with sources and dates lets readers see whether it is disagreement or change over time.
Which TWO should subagents include in every finding to support accurate synthesis? Select TWO.
Show answer
Answer: A, C. Source, excerpt and date let synthesis attribute claims and interpret time differences. Reasoning chains and self-scored confidence add volume without that value.
Apply it: Whitfield's provenance rules
Whitfield's citations disappear and conflicting figures are quietly resolved. Write the provenance rules.
- Define the finding record every subagent returns.
- Write the conflict rule for document analysis and the coordinator.
- Lay out the report sections that separate established and contested findings.
- Choose formats for the market-size data, regulatory news and technical battery findings.
Show model answer
1. Finding record. claim, source name, URL or document name, page or section, excerpt, published or collected date, method note, and which subagent produced it.
2. Conflict rule. Document analysis never resolves conflicts: it returns every value with its record and sets conflict: true on the group. The coordinator then checks dates (time difference or disagreement?) and method notes, and passes the annotated group to synthesis, which must show all values.
3. Sections. Summary; Established findings (two or more independent sources); Contested findings (each with the competing values and their sources); Coverage and gaps; Sources.
4. Formats. Market size: a table with value, year, source and method. Regulatory news: short dated prose. Battery findings: a structured list (chemistry, energy density, cost per kWh, source).