# BuddhaWorld Content & Editorial Standard

## 1. Source levels
- **CANON** — canonical collection within a named tradition/edition.
- **COMMENTARY / SUBCOMMENTARY** — later exegetical literature.
- **HISTORICAL** — modern or premodern historical claims evaluated as history.
- **TRADITION** — lineage, devotional, oral, or regional narrative.
- **TEACHER_ACCOUNT** — a modern teacher's teaching, recollection, or biography.
- **EDITORIAL** — BuddhaWorld explanation or navigation layer.

## 2. Never flatten source levels
A story about devas, nāgas, miracles, past lives, heavens, hells, or a modern teacher's visionary experience must identify the source layer. The app does not label all traditional narratives as historical fact, and does not dismiss them; it reports where they come from.

## 3. Translation policy
- Ancient source text may be public domain, but a modern translation may still be copyrighted.
- Machine translations must be labeled `is_machine=true` and cannot be marked scholar-reviewed until a qualified human review occurs.
- Sacred-text quotations must preserve edition and canonical reference.

## 4. AI policy
Ask Dhamma must retrieve from approved content first. A generative answer, when enabled later, must cite retrieved sources, distinguish source levels, and admit uncertainty. The model must not fabricate a sutta number, quotation, teacher statement, or historical date.

## 5. Illustration policy
AI or commissioned illustrations are allowed as artistic reconstructions. They must never be presented as documentary evidence or an exact historical portrait. Captions must say when an image is an artistic reconstruction.

## 6. Review gates
DRAFT → SOURCE_CHECKED → LANGUAGE_CHECKED → SCHOLAR_REVIEWED → PUBLISHED.

For high-risk doctrinal, historical, ordination, or cross-tradition claims, publication should require a reviewer with relevant expertise.

## Cosmology and extraordinary beings
Entries about devas, brahmās, nāgas, hells, heavens, past-life accounts, miracles, or similar material must state their textual source/layer. The app presents them as Buddhist textual or traditional claims and does not relabel them as independently verified empirical facts.

## AI and machine translation
Machine translation may be used only as a draft. It must be labeled as machine-generated until language review. Ask Dhamma must retrieve from approved sources and must not invent a canonical citation.