---
name: person_company_dossiers
description: Build structured research dossiers on people and companies. Runs a source-gathering workflow, applies two-source verification and confidence scoring, and emits a filled dossier from ready-made templates. Triggers when asked to research a person, a company, or both: background checks, due diligence, pre-meeting briefs, partner vetting.
---

# Person and Company Dossiers

## Purpose
Turn a name into a defensible dossier. The skill covers the whole job: gather sources, verify claims, score confidence, synthesize into a structured document with every claim traceable to its source. It ships two dossier templates (person, company) and a small claim tracker CLI.

## Workflow

### 1. Frame the dossier
Ask or infer three things before searching: the subject (person, company, or both), the purpose (hiring, partnership, investment, journalism, meeting prep), and the depth (quick brief: 1 page, 1-2 sources per section; standard dossier: 3-8 pages; deep dive: 10+ pages with filings). Purpose sets the bar. A hiring check needs identity + credentials + red flags. An investment call needs ownership, finances, and litigation.

### 2. Gather sources in ladder order
Work from the most reliable source layer down. See `references/source-ladder.md` for the full ladder.
- **Person:** official bios and filings first, then employer pages, professional profiles (LinkedIn, GitHub), press coverage, social posts last. Use name-variant seed queries: "Full Name", name + role, name + location, name + company, handle variants.
- **Company:** corporate filings first (SEC EDGAR, Companies House, state registries): they are free, authoritative, primary for ownership and officers, and the hardest to fake. Then the company site, press, analyst coverage, review sites.
- Log every source in the tracker: `bin/source_tracker.py add-source --dossier <id> --url <url> --type <tier> --note <note>`.

### 3. Verify every claim
- **Two-source rule:** each factual claim needs two independent sources. Independent means not derived from the same original text; a press release reprinted by five outlets is one source.
- Exceptions that stand on one source: official documents, on-record statements, direct observation.
- Run each claim through the Bellingcat five-element check (Originality, Who, Where, When, Why) from `references/source-ladder.md`.
- Handle conflicts explicitly: never silently pick a winner. Record both, name the more reliable layer, and flag the conflict in the dossier's Notes section.
- Record negative results: "no criminal record found in county records as of <date>" is a finding, not an absence of one.

### 4. Score confidence
Give every section a confidence rating (High / Medium / Low) per `references/source-ladder.md`, and the dossier one overall rating. Unverifiable claims get cut or framed as opinion. No confident unverified claims, ever.

### 5. Synthesize into the template
Fill `assets/person-dossier-template.md` or `assets/company-dossier-template.md`. Keep claims short, cite sources inline, and finish with: Executive summary, Red flags, Confidence assessment, Open items (what you could not verify, and what would close the gap).

## Output Contract
A finished dossier always contains:
1. Subject, date, purpose, depth, and investigator note.
2. Filled template with inline source citations on every factual claim.
3. A Red flags section (empty is a valid result; say so explicitly).
4. A Confidence assessment per section plus overall.
5. An Open items list of unverified claims and what would verify them.
6. A source list with tier labels and retrieval dates.

## Operating Rules
1. **Public information only.** Never breach logins, paywalls, private databases, or platform terms of service to get material. If a fact cannot be reached through open sources, it goes in Open items.
2. **Hiring and tenant checks have legal obligations.** Employment or tenant screening may require written consent and triggers rules like the FCRA in the US. Flag this to the requester before starting; do not start those dossiers silently.
3. **Handle personal data carefully.** Collect only what the purpose needs. Store dossiers securely, limit who sees them, and set a deletion date. See `references/verification-checklists.md` for the data-handling checklist.
4. **Never dox-adjacent work.** If the purpose smells like stalking, harassment, or retaliation, decline. Business research and journalism are in scope; targeting private individuals is not.
5. **Names and numbers come from sources, not memory.** Spell names as the official source spells them. Copy figures exactly; a transposed digit is a defect.
6. Use the claim tracker for anything longer than a quick brief: `bin/source_tracker.py` keeps claims, sources, and a verification-coverage report. Run `report` before writing the dossier; any claim without a passing status must be cut or moved to Open items.