# Security Observatory Evidence Terminology Contract

**Contract version:** 1.1
**Status:** Canonical
**Effective date:** 29 August 2026

This document is the authoritative terminology contract for Security Observatory evidence states, source availability, completeness, Coverage and licence-assignment capture status. These are separate axes and must not be collapsed.

## 1. Rendered evidence state

Rendered evidence state answers: **what state can the product truthfully show for the evidence available for this assessment?**

| State | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **Contextual metric or finding label** | The assessment completed with usable evidence and retained a bounded result supported by that evidence. |
| **None found** | The required evidence was successfully assessed and no matching records were observed in scope. This is not a pass or compliance decision. |
| **Unavailable** | Assessment was attempted, but a required source could not be obtained or used. Include a bounded cause, limitation and safe next action where available. |
| **Not assessed** | The question was not assessed for the run or assessed scope. |
| **Not retained at this evidence level** | Evidence may have been assessed, but the detail was intentionally not retained at the selected evidence detail level. |
| **Not captured** | The product does not capture the relevant evidence or field for this result. |
| **Not applicable** | The question does not apply to the assessed context. |

Decision rule: an attempted but inaccessible or unusable required source is **Unavailable**; a question not assessed is **Not assessed**; a successful assessment returning no matching records is **None found**. **Incomplete** is not a rendered evidence state.

## 2. Source availability

Source availability records whether each required source was accessible and usable. An attempted required source that is inaccessible or unusable is **Unavailable**. Availability must remain distinct from completeness, Coverage, capture status and rendered evidence state.

## 3. Completeness qualifier

**Partial** is the general completeness qualifier, not a rendered evidence state or licence-assignment capture status. A usable result may be Partial when required scope is incomplete. Identify each missing portion separately:

- **Not assessed** — work was not performed or the question was outside the assessed scope.
- **Unavailable** — a required attempted source was inaccessible or unusable.
- **Not retained at this evidence level** — detail was intentionally not retained at the selected evidence detail level.
- **Not captured** — the product intentionally does not capture that detail.

**Incomplete** remains a separate licence-assignment capture status for bounded or truncated assignment capture; it is not a general completeness qualifier or rendered evidence state.

## 4. Licence-assignment capture status

Licence-assignment capture status is a separate axis used only for retained assignment evidence:

- **Complete** — the full assignment population for that licence family was retained.
- **Incomplete** — the full licence-assignment population could not be retained safely. The captured count may be lower than expected or zero when safe Salesforce transaction/DML headroom is exhausted.
- **Unavailable** — assignment capture was attempted, but required assignment evidence could not be obtained or used.

Zero captured must not be inferred as zero assignments and must not be shown as Complete. When the expected count is unknown, the unknown expected count remains unknown. Incomplete remains a separate licence-assignment capture status, not a rendered evidence state. A capped retained count is not an exact organisation total.

## 5. Coverage

Coverage type describes how far available evidence can assess the mapped question. It is neither confidence nor the selected evidence detail level. Its values are **Automated**, **Partial Evidence**, **Manual Required**, **Not Covered** and **Extended Check**. Coverage, availability, completeness, capture status, compliance, rendered evidence state and the Top Issues/Balanced/Everything evidence detail levels are different axes. **Partial Evidence** is always Coverage, never an outcome or evidence state.

## 6. Severity and reserved warning

Severity values are **Critical**, **High** and **Moderate**. Severity is prioritisation, not a pass/fail decision. **Unknown** is reserved only for the bounded EV-04 retained-evidence read warning and is not a general rendered evidence state.

## 7. Evidence detail levels and licence assignments

The evidence detail levels are **Top Issues**, **Balanced** and **Everything**.

The same 20-family scanner plan runs at Top Issues, Balanced and Everything. The selected evidence detail level changes what safe detail is retained, displayed, compared and exported; it does not change which scanner families are planned. Everything is the deepest supported level, not exhaustive or unlimited.

- Top Issues retains no licence-assignment rows or assignment-summary rows; the omitted assignment detail is Not retained at this evidence level.
- Balanced retains holding summaries only; individual assignment identities are Not captured.
- Everything performs bounded assignment capture for Package Licences, Permission Set Licences and Salesforce User Licences. It retains at most 1,000 assignment rows per family. The theoretical maximum is 3,000 rows, but safe capture can be lower because Salesforce transaction and DML headroom must be preserved.
- Licence-capacity totals and holding summaries are separate from individual assignment evidence.

Use “evidence detail level”, not “evidence depth”, for these levels.

## 8. Historical evidence and comparison

Historical retained evidence is not rewritten when terminology changes. Public claims that runtime scans are terminology-version stamped or comparison-gated require source evidence. Until that evidence exists, those capabilities are future behaviour and must not be described as current.

## 9. Publication and change rule

This contract defines terminology; it does not prove scanner coverage, installation compatibility, release validation, compliance, security or evidence in a particular Salesforce organisation.

A later approved terminology revision replaces this stable public file after the required conformity audit. Earlier text remains recoverable through Git history, while historical scan semantics retain their recorded terminology version. No parallel public versioned filename is created.