What "fresh" means for a public assistance record
"Fresh" is not one yes-or-no property. A URL can respond today while the page no longer supports a stored amount. A source review can support program identity without confirming funding. A correct deadline can pass tomorrow. A useful record therefore needs dated, scoped evidence rather than a single current badge.
Read the evidence in context: the live public sample shows record-level freshness fields, the record schema defines what those fields mean, the health response reports the checks and review evidence that actually exist, and the paid-readiness response publishes the current commercial decision. Always inspect the current responses instead of copying an old date or count.
Five questions are often collapsed into one
| Question | Relevant evidence | What it does not prove |
|---|---|---|
| Did the cited URL respond? | linkStatus and lastChecked | Program identity, eligibility, amount, deadline, or funding. |
| Was the source reviewed? | Review fields and scoped confidence | Every field or future availability. |
| Was a stored amount supported? | sourceAmountVerified and its bound evidence when present | Other amounts, status, eligibility, or an award. |
| Is the program accepting applications now? | Current administrator confirmation | A stored status label can lag. |
| Can paid access or delivery proceed? | The live readiness decision and applicable agreement | Readiness is not an accuracy warranty or source-rights opinion for every use. |
Link status is transport evidence
The current schema uses four link states:
live: the stored URL returned a resolving response in the bounded check. It does not confirm the program or stored facts.dead: the check received a not-found or gone response under the published health method.bot-blocked: the request was blocked or rate-limited. This is inconclusive, not proof that the public page is available or unavailable to a person.unchecked: no usable result exists yet, or a connection or other response was inconclusive.
Use a dead link as a reason to stop an apply-now path. Use blocked and unchecked states as reasons for cautious human review. Never relabel any resolving link as proof that the benefit is open.
Source review has a scope
The freshness object can report whether a dated source review ran and whether the stored review is stale under the current contract. The live schema currently treats a valid review as stale at 90 days and removes current review-derived confidence until it is refreshed.
Review scope matters more than the badge. model-identity-reviewed means a model-assisted review judged the page and program identity a match, but it stores no verbatim identity proof and does not validate the amount. source-verified is narrower than its name might sound: it requires bound evidence for the same program and current positive stored amount. It still does not verify every other field.
Fact review is not whole-record verification
An amount review should bind the source URL, program name, administrator, stored amount, role of that amount, review date, and supporting excerpt. The same number somewhere else on a page is not enough. A page may list several programs or figures with different meanings.
Even a supported amount says nothing by itself about whether the household qualifies, whether funding remains, whether work already started is eligible, whether a lien applies, or whether another program can be combined with it.
Published status can change between checks
The API exposes a stored fundingStatus label with values defined in the live schema. The schema warns that any label can lag and that unknown requires current confirmation. Budgets, application windows, waitlists, and emergency allocations can change without the program page changing cleanly.
For any decision-driving use, show the status as published context, state its evidence date when available, and direct the user to confirm the current cycle with the administrator.
Health dates show what ran, not what will run
The health endpoint publishes dates and scoped results for operations that have evidence. Those dates can support a statement such as "the health response reports a last link-check date." They do not support "updated daily," "monitored continuously," or a promise that the next run will occur on a particular schedule.
If a health field is missing, superseded, null, or stale, preserve that state. Do not backfill an old percentage, convert a legacy audit into a current quality rate, or infer that a worker is active.
Dataset revision is identity, not freshness
X-Dataset-Revision helps an integrator identify the effective served generation used for an evaluation or correction report. A changed revision can tell a client that some bound input changed. An unchanged revision does not promise that every source remains unchanged, and the revision itself is not an accuracy, freshness, rights, or readiness score.
Show users the smallest honest statement
A consumer-facing record can display:
- the program name and administering organization;
- the available cited URL;
- the stored status and amount label without turning either into a promise;
- the link-check or review date and its exact scope when useful; and
- a clear instruction to confirm identity, eligibility, funding, amount, deadline, eligible work, and application steps with the administrator.
A valid empty result should say that no records matched the current query, not that no assistance exists. A service failure should remain an unavailable state, not become an empty result.
Corrections need evidence and a new review
A correction report should name the city, program ID, field, authoritative URL, source summary, and review date without including applicant or homeowner personal information. A report is evidence to investigate, not an automatic edit. If accepted and published later, retain the new dataset revision and correction disposition.
There is no support or correction response-time promise unless a reviewed agreement says so. The developer correction guide explains the current submission boundary.
Inspect freshness as evidence, not a badge
Compare one public sample record with the live schema and health response before choosing product copy or fallback behavior.
Open the public sample Read dataset healthCommon questions
Does live mean the program is open?
No. It means the cited URL resolved under the bounded link check. Confirm the current program and funding state with the administrator.
Does source-verified mean the whole record is correct?
No. Under the current schema it is scoped to evidence for the same program and positive stored amount. It does not prove every field or a future award.
Does the health endpoint promise the next update?
No. It reports evidence and dates for operations that ran. It does not create a schedule, continuous-monitoring claim, or service guarantee.