Core concepts

Values

A rule is prose, and prose is what people read. But some of what a rule states is a value: 45 days, 25%, 1.5×, "never say synergy". Vythos pulls those out and keeps them beside the rule, so a tool doesn't have to interpret a sentence to know the number.

What gets read, per category

Vythos only looks for values that make sense for the rule's category:

Category	Values it looks for
Pricing & rates	Day rate, payment terms in days, deposit percentage, overage multiplier, which roles a rate covers
Terms & commitments	Notice period in days, how long data is kept, governing law
Brand & voice	Words and phrases never to use, wording that must appear, preferred house vocabulary
Who decides	The role that signs off, the spend above which approval is needed
How we work	Revision rounds included, lead time in working days

Anything else stays as prose. That's deliberate: a value only earns its place if it can be read out of a document unambiguously.

Confirmed and unconfirmed

When you add a rule, the values Vythos read are shown to you with a checkbox: These values are right.

	Unconfirmed	Confirmed
Where it came from	Vythos read it from the document	Vythos read it, and a person checked it
On the rule row	Plain chip	Green-edged chip
When a draft contradicts it	Flagged as worth a check	Flagged as breaking this rule

Nothing is ever blocked either way — the difference is how seriously a deviation is reported. Confirm what you're sure of, and leave the rest; an unconfirmed value is still useful, it just doesn't accuse anyone.

Read the value before you tick

Confirming is a statement that the number is right and that it means what its label says. A rate card line like "overage: 1.5× standard day rate" can be read as a multiplier of a day rate — which it is — or of an hour, which it isn't. Ticking a wrong reading makes it authoritative. If a line is ambiguous, the better fix is to make the document say it plainly.

What happens when the document changes

The promise is edit the document and the rule follows — including its values. So when the wording changes:

• The new values come from the new text. Whatever the document now says is what the rule now states.
• Your confirmation survives only while the document still says what you confirmed. If every confirmed value is still there, the rule stays confirmed. If one changed, the rule's values become unconfirmed again — a new reading nobody has looked at yet — and go back to being advisory until someone confirms them.

That's the safe direction: a changed number is reported for a look rather than silently enforced.

What a draft check actually tests

This is worth being precise about, because "checking a draft" sounds broader than it is.

Checked today:

• Words never to use — from Brand & voice. A draft containing a banned word is reported, citing the rule that bans it.
• Payment terms in days — from Pricing & rates. A draft saying "net 30" or "payable within 30 days" when the rule says 45 is reported.

Not checked — reported back as unchecked, by name, with the reason:

• Day rates, deposits, overage multipliers, approval thresholds, notice periods, lead times, revision rounds.
• House vocabulary you prefer (nobody is in trouble for not using it).
• Required wording whose requirement is conditional.
• Any value where two rules disagree — Vythos refuses to enforce a coin toss.

A clean result means nothing was found among the things that could be checked. It does not mean the draft is compliant, and the tool is told so in those words. More checks are planned.

Where values are used

• Draft checks, as above — see The four tools.
• Context for an AI tool: values are sent beside the rule's text, each labelled with what it is, so a tool doesn't have to parse "1.5× the standard day rate" out of a paragraph and can quote the figure as stated.
• The rule row, so you can see the current numbers at a glance without opening a document.

Next: Versions and history.