# Foundations: limits and conditions

> What SciGround Foundations establish, what they do not, and the conditions each foundation carries.

What the four foundations establish together, and the boundaries each one carries.

## What the foundations do not establish

- **Scientific truth.** The foundations establish specified properties of data handling, calculation, and claims under stated assumptions. They do not prove biological conclusions or the correctness of measurements.
- **Identity is not validity.** A version, digest, or signature shows which research state a result belongs to and that it was not altered. It does not, by itself, show that the analysis was scientifically valid.

## Project

- **A Project is not a Record.** A Project keeps changing; a Record is fixed. Verifiable evidence belongs to a specific Record, not to the evolving Project.
- **Continuity depends on your AI.** SciGround points each session to the current version. Whether an AI follows that guidance is outside the guarantee.

## Integrations

- **Supported routes only.** Naming a library does not mean its entire API is covered. Only supported routes run, and arbitrary code is not executed.
- **Adopted tools only.** Candidate tools that have not been adopted for a route are not used to produce verified results.

## Math

- **Conditional guarantees.** Each check holds under stated assumptions. Statistical approximations are reported separately from numerical guarantees, and borderline results are unresolved.
- **Scope of methods.** Mathematical checks cover the supported workflows. They are not a general proof for every statistical method.

## Record

- **Past and present.** A Record shows whether its checks held when issued. Whether it is still current needs an authenticated status check; otherwise the status is unknown.
- **Recorded scope.** A Record covers what SciGround checked. Full re-verification needs the referenced inputs, and statements written elsewhere are not certified.

Back to [SciGround Foundations](https://www.licklider.ai/foundations/).