What are sources?
How an answer points you back to the record it used.
When your coworker answers from the brain, it doesn't just assert things - it shows its work. Any reply that draws on governed knowledge ends with a short, numbered Sources list: one line per fact it relied on, each pointing back to where that fact actually lives. A reply that cited nothing gets no footer at all.
Example
One footer, line by line
Each line is shaped entirely from what your coworker actually cited while writing that specific reply - never a generic "learn more" list, and never re-generated or paraphrased by a model. Nothing extra is drawn to make it: the footer is assembled from data the reply already produced, with no second model call to write it. A reply that cites nothing skips the footer altogether - no line means nothing to check.
Anatomy
What each part means
The link
Opens the brain document that carries the fact, at the exact passage. When the fact came from somewhere else first (an email, a task, a file), a "via" link to that original follows. A fact with no document or original of its own, or one that rests on the pod's activity log, gets no number: it is counted in one closing line that names the pod.
The label
A plain, human title for whatever the link opens - the source's own name (a doc title, an email subject), the governed document's title, or, when neither is around, something like "Sales knowledge" for the pod itself. Never a raw handle, a category word, or plumbing you'd have to decode.
The caveat (sometimes)
Only shows up when it changes what you should do with the line: out of date (last confirmed a while ago), disputed, under review, superseded, or a quiet confirmed by <name> note when a human recently signed off on it. A line with none of these is simply current - silence means nothing to second-guess.
Source removed at origin
The one caveat that isn't about trust in the fact, only in the link: the original source (the email, the doc, the task) has since been deleted or can no longer be found where it lived. Rather than send you to a dead page, the line drops that link and appends "source removed at origin" so the gap is visible, not silent.
Why this exists
Nothing is invented
Markdown is truth in Mosaic: every fact your coworker cites is a real line in a real governed document someone can open, read, and correct. The Sources footer isn't decoration bolted on afterwards - it's shaped from the exact same record of what the reply drew on that the org's audit trail keeps. If a link looks wrong or a fact reads stale, that's a signal to open the document and fix it there - the next reply will cite whatever's true then.
Curious about the rest of Mosaic? Read how sources fit into the whole system, or see the product tour.