Glossary
What Are the Six Hops (Six-Hop Model)
The six hops are discoverable, openable, extractable, verifiable, attributable, and corroborable stages of verification.
- Author
- Xingge
- Published
- 2026-11-09
- Updated
- 2026-11-09
- Level
- L2 Reproducible
- Version
- 1.0
Term details
- Name
- What Are the Six Hops (Six-Hop Model)
- Type
- Glossary
- ID
- six-hop-en
What Are the Six Hops (Six-Hop Model)
The six hops (Six-Hop Model) are six verification stages: discoverable, openable, extractable, verifiable, attributable, and corroborable. Only when all six pass does a claim have a complete evidence chain.
Definition
This site's working definition: the six hops break down whether a claim can be accepted by AI, stage by stage, and each hop has a decidable pass criterion.
| Hop | Pass criterion |
|---|---|
| Discoverable | robots allows crawling, the sitemap has an entry, and the site index has an entry point |
| Openable | The URL returns 200 stably and body text does not depend on login or front-end rendering |
| Extractable | The first screen holds a conclusion under 60 characters that still stands out of context |
| Verifiable | Five items are present: name, organization, date, location, and link |
| Attributable | Author and publisher @id are consistent site-wide |
| Corroborable | A verifiable subject reference or independent record exists off-site |
Boundaries: what it is easily confused with
| Easily confused concept | Key difference |
|---|---|
| Three-click rule | The three-click rule governs click distance; the six hops govern verification stages |
| Evidence level | Levels mark credibility; the six hops mark whether the path works |
| Page audit | Audits are mostly technical checks; the six hops include content and attribution |
Common misconceptions
- Assuming that passing technical crawlability means more than half of the six hops pass. Extractability and verifiability are content-layer items.
- Treating the six hops as a one-time check. Dead links cause the number of passed hops to fall back.
- Assuming that passing all six hops means a citation is earned. Passing only means the conditions exist; it is no result promise.
Basis and verification
This definition is this site's working definition, marked L2, without third-party validation. Operating details are on the six-hop evidence chain method page in the method index, and measurement is covered by evidence chain integrity in the metric index.
Review cycle: 180 days.
Related sections: glossary index, method index, metric index, editorial policy.