> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.risos.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Core concepts

> The external data model shared by the RISOS app, REST API, and MCP.

| Concept            | What it means                                                                                                                                                       |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Product            | One of 10 structured business-research workflows such as Understand Customers, Analyze Competitors, or Price and Package.                                           |
| Skill              | A reusable research capability used by one or more Products. Skills are internal execution building blocks, not separate billable Products.                         |
| Signal             | One of six independent evidence families: Community Voice, Search Demand, Public Attention, Media & Event Momentum, Competitive Activity, and First-party Business. |
| Project            | The Workspace container that scopes Research, intelligence, evidence, Monitors, and Deliverables.                                                                   |
| ResearchJob        | The parent lifecycle object for one Product run, including state, credit accounting, refresh, and cancellation.                                                     |
| Living Deliverable | The durable, revisioned output of a ResearchJob. It can be refreshed as evidence changes.                                                                           |
| Evidence           | Source-linked observations that support, limit, or contradict a finding.                                                                                            |
| Intelligence       | Reusable, policy-safe knowledge derived from admissible evidence and retained for later use.                                                                        |
| Entity             | A person, brand, product, creator, topic, community, or other tracked object connected to evidence and intelligence.                                                |
| Opportunity        | An evidence-backed problem, gap, or action worth investigating.                                                                                                     |
| Monitor            | A durable watch on an existing target that surfaces meaningful change without silently starting paid Research.                                                      |
| Report             | An immutable snapshot of an existing Deliverable or Project state.                                                                                                  |

## Research, Explore, and Monitor

**Research** may acquire fresh evidence and is the mode behind the 10 Products. **Explore** ranks and inspects current intelligence without silently starting paid Research. **Monitor** watches existing targets for meaningful change.

## Source routing

Provider and source selection are internal RISOS controls. Callers express the business question and structured Product input; they do not choose a provider or bypass source-policy rules through REST or MCP.

Returned data can differ by source policy. Some providers permit hydrated raw evidence, while others allow references or derived intelligence only. The UI, REST API, and MCP apply the same source-delivery restrictions.

## Coverage and uncertainty

A Product can legitimately finish `partial` or `blocked` when the available evidence does not support a complete conclusion. Applications should preserve evidence state, limitations, contradictions, and unknowns near any decision-support output.