| name | policy-methodology |
| description | House methodology for evidence-based policy development — evidence standards, source hierarchy, citation discipline, testimony handling, and the think-tank writing style. Load whenever cleaning testimony, researching a policy area, drafting a policy paper, or updating the program for government. |
Policy development methodology
This project turns lived experience into a credible program for government. Its only asset is credibility; these rules protect it.
The pipeline
Four stages, each with a gate (full detail in the repo's PIPELINE.md):
- Testimony (
testimonies/) — dated, cleaned, redacted first-person accounts. Raw material never committed.
- Research (
policy/<area>/research/) — problem statement, Israeli law review, comparative review, data annex, domestic record. The comparative and domestic halves have their own method skills: comparative-policy-research and domestic-policy-research.
- Paper (
policy/<area>/paper/) — Typst + PDF using templates/policy-paper.typ.
- Platform (
platform/program-for-government.md) — the distilled meta-proposal.
Each policy area has a stage tracker at policy/<area>/README.md. Keep it current.
Paths above are relative to the repository's content root. Most repositories put that at
the root; some publish their content as a site and put it elsewhere. If the repository's
CLAUDE.md declares a content root, resolve every path in this skill against it.
Evidence standards
- Never invent a number. If you cannot find a source, write
[UNVERIFIED — verify before publication]. Unverified claims block stage advancement.
- Source hierarchy (prefer higher): CBS / הלשכה המרכזית לסטטיסטיקה → Bank of Israel → Knesset Research and Information Center (המרכז למחקר ומידע) → State Comptroller (מבקר המדינה) → OECD and international official statistics → peer-reviewed research → quality journalism (last resort, always flagged).
- Legislation is cited precisely: official name (Hebrew and English), year, amendment number, specific sections. E.g. "the Fair Rental Law — Amendment No. 1 (2017) to the Rental and Lending Law, 5731-1971, §25(b)ff." Verify section numbers against the actual text; do not cite provisions from memory.
- Testimony is evidence of experience, not prevalence. One household's story proves something can happen; only data proves it is common. Papers must keep this distinction explicit.
- Steelman opposing evidence. If data complicates the narrative, it goes in the main text, not a footnote. Every proposal names its losers and answers the strongest objection.
- Costs are order-of-magnitude honest. A costed proposal states the estimate's basis and confidence. "Fiscally neutral" requires showing the offset.
Testimony handling
- Cleaning removes disfluencies and transcription artifacts; it never adds, softens, strengthens, or renumbers a claim. Ambiguity in the raw stays ambiguous or gets resolved by asking the author.
- Redact private individuals' names, exact addresses, third-party identifying details. Institutions and public figures stay named.
- Frontmatter schema:
title, date (YYYY-MM-DD), policy-area (kebab-case, matches policy/<area>/), status (cleaned | synthesized-into-research), source (one line, where the raw is retained privately).
Writing style (papers and platform)
- Think-tank register: measured, concrete, mechanism-first. Anger belongs in the testimony; the paper's force comes from evidence.
- No promise without a mechanism: every recommendation says what legal instrument changes, who administers it, what it costs, and who pays.
- Distinguish what needs primary legislation from what a minister can do by regulation tomorrow.
- Hebrew terms on first use: transliteration + Hebrew + gloss, e.g. "Arnona (ארנונה, municipal property tax)".
- Footnote every factual claim. A reader should be able to check anything without asking.
Typst conventions
- Import from
templates/policy-paper.typ: policy-paper (show rule), #recommendation[...], #tradeoff(objection, response).
- Paper numbers are sequential
PP-NNN across the whole project.
- Must compile warning-free with
typst compile; visually inspect page 1 via PNG render before committing. Commit both .typ and .pdf.
