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Working rule · 05 min

Unknown is better than wrong

A fitment rule from the depot that also holds for research claims, model output, and public language.

BR / noteWritten in public

In Fleet Service Tracker a replacement part can be marked exact only when the available model, serial, production, engine, and market evidence supports that fitment. Otherwise it stays a check, a variant, or an unresolved value. The practical rule is simple: unknown is better than wrong.

The pressure to be helpful is the usual enemy of that rule. A blank field looks like a failure. A confident label looks like progress. In a workshop, the cost of that confusion is a part that does not fit. In research, it is a slogan that outruns its gate. In software that coordinates AI, it is a fluent answer with no named authority behind it.

I keep reaching for the same discipline across those surfaces. Leave the uncertainty visible. Do not invent an exact match, a derived result, or a consensus just to make the record look complete. A later person — including a later version of me — should be able to see what was actually known.