LocalBridge

Research template - 2 to 6 tabs

Fact-check a claim prompt template

The useful output of a fact-check is not true or false. It is which sources support it, which contradict it, and whether they are good enough to decide.

The prompt

Check this claim against the sources I am giving you, and only against those sources.

Claim: [THE CLAIM, STATED AS PRECISELY AS YOU CAN]

Answer in this order:
1. Verdict: supported, contradicted, partially supported, or not addressed.
2. Supporting evidence: quote the exact lines, with the source number.
3. Contradicting evidence: quote the exact lines, with the source number.
4. What is missing: what a source would need to say to settle this properly.

Rules:
- Quote, do not paraphrase, in sections 2 and 3.
- "Not addressed" is a valid and useful verdict. Use it rather than reaching.
- If a source implies the claim without stating it, put it in section 4, not section 2.
- Do not soften the verdict to be agreeable.

Why this prompt is written this way

Separating supporting from contradicting evidence stops the answer collapsing into a single balanced-sounding paragraph that commits to nothing.

Requiring quotes rather than paraphrase is what makes the output checkable. A paraphrase can drift from the source without either of you noticing.

The 'what is missing' section is the part people skip and the part that saves time, because it tells you what to search for next.

Getting more out of it

  • State the claim precisely. 'It is faster' cannot be checked; 'it reduces median load time' can.
  • Include a source you expect to contradict the claim. A fact-check against friendly sources only is not a fact-check.
  • Ask for the verdict on its own first, then request the evidence. It reduces the chance of the reasoning being written to fit a conclusion.
  • Re-run with the sources in a different order if the verdict feels driven by whichever source came first.

Works best with

2 to 6 tabs open at once. Send them together rather than one at a time, so the assistant can compare them instead of forgetting the first by the time it reads the last. Sending tabs to Claude explains the options.

Common questions

Can the assistant get a fact-check wrong?
Yes. It can misread a source or miss a qualifier. The quotes are there so you can check the important ones yourself in a few seconds.
Should I let it use its own knowledge?
Not in the same answer. Ask for a separate, clearly labelled section if you want it, so you can tell sourced evidence from recalled evidence.
What if the sources contradict each other completely?
Then 'partially supported' with both sets of quotes is the correct output, and section 4 tells you what would break the tie. That is a genuine result, not a failure.

Other templates

Stop pasting tabs one by one

LocalBridge sends the pages you have open into Claude or ChatGPT in one click, so this template gets the sources it needs.

See how it works