Governance.
Q can answer questions, read material you allow, compare sources, and suggest next steps. You decide what Q can access, what it can do, and what you keep.
Before you decide
A useful Q answer is still a suggestion.
Check the sources, disagreements, assumptions, and uncertainty behind it. Challenge it, compare material, correct something, or send Q in another direction. A Q answer does not quietly become your decision or something you have chosen to keep.
Q proposal
See where it came from, what it used, and its limitsInspect & challenge
Sources, disagreements, uncertainty, and your changes stay visibleYou decide
Your decision stays connected to the recordAccept
Keep the suggestion as it is for the part of the work you are reviewing.
Edit
Change the suggestion before deciding what happens next.
Reject
Say no to the suggestion without erasing the fact that you considered it.
Branch
Explore another path without losing the work you already have.
Defer
Come back to it later when you have more information.
Unresolved
Keep the question open instead of pretending it has been settled.
What Q is allowed to do
Q should know what it is allowed to use.
You should be able to see what Q is helping with, which files it can read, whether it can go online, and what must stay private. Q can suggest settings. You can change them.
What Q is helping with
The question Q is helping with and what a useful answer needs to cover.
What Q can read
The files, notes, links, or other material you have allowed Q to use. Being stored or visible does not automatically mean Q can read it.
Can Q go online?
Choose whether Q can use only what you provide or also search the web. Going online is always a separate choice.
How much checking is needed?
Decide how carefully sources and claims should be checked, especially when the decision matters more.
Important limits
Dates, places, laws, languages, exclusions, or other limits Q needs to respect.
What can leave your device?
Choose what can be sent online or to another AI provider, and what must stay on your device.
Saving a file does not give Q permission to read it. Storage, Q access, web access, and sending material to another AI provider are separate choices you control.
Keep things clearly labelled
You should be able to tell what is what.
A Q suggestion, a source, something you told Q, an open question, a decision, and something you kept should not all look like the same thing.
The question or material as you first provided it, kept separately from later changes.
An answer, source, explanation, comparison, next step, or other suggestion from Q.
A change or instruction from you that guides what happens next without erasing earlier work.
Material you chose to use as support, with where it came from and any important limits kept visible.
A Q suggestion you considered and rejected. It stays visible in the history.
A missing fact, disagreement, uncertainty, or disputed point that is still open.
A possible explanation that may be useful but has not been accepted as a conclusion.
The decision that currently applies to this part of the work.
An older decision that has been replaced but not erased.
Something you chose to keep, with its supporting material, important decisions, limits, and open questions still connected.
Correction without erasure
Corrections should not erase history.
A correction can replace an earlier proposal, and a later decision can replace an earlier decision, without pretending the earlier version never existed.
The record should show both what changed and what is current now.
What stays visible
The important parts should not disappear.
Who did what stays visible
Important decisions and changes stay connected to who made them and which version they changed.
History stays visible
Corrections and newer decisions can replace older ones without erasing how the work changed.
Uncertainty stays visible
Missing support, disagreements, limits, and open questions stay visible instead of disappearing inside a confident-looking answer.
Alternatives can stay separate
Different questions or explanations can stay separate instead of being forced into one answer too early.
What you keep
Q can suggest what to keep. You decide.
Q can prepare something for you to review. Only you can decide whether it becomes part of your saved work. When you keep something, its supporting material, disagreements, uncertainty, and important decisions should stay connected.
Rejecting means it is not kept. Editing creates a new version to review. Exploring another path keeps that alternative separate. Q cannot decide what to keep for you.
Receipt
A clear record of how you got there.
A Receipt records what you started with, what Q used, what Q suggested, what you decided, and what is still uncertain. It does not claim the answer is perfect or beyond challenge.
What you started with
The question, file, note, or other material the work started from.
What Q was allowed to use
Which material Q could read, whether it could go online, and the important limits you set.
What shaped the answer
The sources, disagreements, comparisons, assumptions, and changes that meaningfully affected the result.
Proposals and decisions
What Q suggested and what you kept, changed, rejected, explored separately, postponed, or left open.
Sources considered
The material connected to the work, including where it came from and any important limits.
What you kept
The exact result you chose to keep and which version it was.
What is still uncertain
Disagreements, missing information, uncertainty, and open questions that still matter.
Version and time
When the Receipt was created and which version of the work it records.
Once created, a Receipt should not be quietly rewritten. If something changes, a new version can be created so the earlier record is still there to review.
Clear limits
Being in control does not make Q perfect.
It does not make every output true.
Keeping the work clear and reviewable does not make a Q answer true just because Q produced it.
It does not remove user responsibility.
Q can help you think. It does not become the legal, medical, financial, professional, or moral decision-maker.
It does not grant unlimited access.
Saving or opening a file does not give Q permission to read other files, search the web, send data elsewhere, or share anything.
It does not hide failure.
If a source is unavailable, work is interrupted, or Q is uncertain, that should be shown instead of hidden behind a finished-looking answer.
Begin with Q
Q proposes. You govern.
Ask Q normally. Check what matters. Decide what Q can use, what stays open, and what you keep.