The Workshop

The Instrument Maker's Oath

1. An instrument is narrow by design. We will not widen it to seem more useful than it is.
2. Your text is yours. Instruments run in your browser by default. When you choose the Deeper Pass, your text is sent to an outside reader, retained for seven days for abuse monitoring, then deleted. It is never used to train a model.
3. An instrument assists the hand that holds it. It does not replace the hand.
4. If an instrument fails, it fails honestly. No guessing. No fabrication.
5. Citation, evidence, and argument remain your work. An instrument will not invent them for you.
6. An instrument is only as careful as the reader who checks its output.
7. An instrument offered must be an instrument earned. The Deeper Pass costs money to run, and so it costs money to use. Three per month are free, because a reader deserves to try before they subscribe.
8. An instrument that queries the outside world — a journal index, a funding database — must say what it found, what it did not find, and when its data was last refreshed. No instrument shall pretend to know what it has not checked.

— The editors