01 Purpose
FixationNook ties every claim to quoted excerpts with locators, and every source to what it repeats, so a conclusion can be checked step by step.
Intended user: anyone building an explanation from many sources who needs the reasoning to stay checkable.
02 Problem and Constraints
Across many sources, the trail behind a conclusion is easy to lose, and one claim repeated five times can look like five confirmations.
- Repeated sources collapse to independent origins. Five articles that repeat one press release count as one.
- Confidence is always set by you. The app only flags confidence that is above the evidence.
- Explanations are ranked by the fewest inconsistent independent origins, not by an invented probability.
- Sources and excerpts are entered by hand, with no web fetching or AI summaries, so quotes stay exact.
03 What Was Built
- Screens for Research Projects, Question, Sources, Evidence, Claims, Claim, Compare Cases, Explanations, Gaps and Contradictions, and Report.
- Claims linked to quoted excerpts with locators, and an evidence trail from each excerpt to its source and what it repeats.
- Side-by-side case comparison, and competing explanations rated against each excerpt as consistent, inconsistent, or neutral.
- A Gaps screen listing unsupported claims, confidence above the evidence, contested claims, missing locators, repeat cycles, and evidence that cannot tell explanations apart.
- A report that keeps the full trail and states that it does not prove causes.
- A synthetic sample library, kept in its own file and labeled on every screen.
04 Design and Engineering Decisions
- 01
Native, No Web View
SwiftUI and AppKit in one Swift package, with no third-party packages.
- 02
Origins, Not Counts
Repeats collapse to independent origins. Missing sources count as unknown origins, and cycles are handled and flagged.
- 03
Your Confidence, Flagged
The app shows reasoning, not verdicts: confidence is yours, and it is flagged when it outruns the evidence.
- 04
No Invented Statistics
Explanations are ordered by inconsistent independent origins, which keeps uncertainty visible.
- 05
Exact Quotes Only
Nothing is fetched or summarized for you. Every excerpt is what the source says, with its locator.
05 Architecture
06 Verified Results
| Measure | Result | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Release build | Built with no compile errors | Swift release build, 4 November 2026, on the Mac |
| Headless self-test | 10 of 10 passing | Rules and storage checked on throwaway files, same run |
| Window interface test | 17 of 17 passing | A real window, every screen, with button presses through the accessibility tree, same run |
| Normal launch | Opened, ran, and quit cleanly | No real library file was created |
| Hand click-through | Not yet done | Forms were exercised through the same model calls they make, not typed into by a person |
07 Third-Party Components
None. FixationNook is built with Apple’s Swift, SwiftUI, and AppKit, with no third-party packages, no web view, and no network access.