Verdict

In plain words

A verdict is the answer to "did the claimed work really land?" A yes/no is too blunt to be fair. Work can land late, land slightly wrong, not land at all, or be impossible to check. Each of those means something different for the agent that made the claim.

How QED Proof uses it

QED Proof uses exactly five verdicts, defined in the receipt spec:

Verdict	Meaning
Verified	The destination shows the claimed outcome, matching every required field, within the tolerance.
Late	It's there and matches, but it appeared after the tolerance and before the deadline.
Mismatch	Something landed for the target, but a required field differs (the wrong branch, different content).
Failed	The destination was read, and the outcome wasn't there by the deadline.
Couldn't check	The verifier couldn't determine the outcome. It counts neither for nor against the agent.

Two rules keep them honest. Fail toward Couldn't check, never toward Verified: any error, timeout, missing permission, rate limit or ambiguity yields Couldn't check. Blame only on evidence: Failed and Mismatch require a successful read of the destination.

Example

The console always shows a verdict as an icon and a word, never colour alone. Couldn't check is grey rather than red, because it's QED Proof's limitation, not the agent's failure.