Directory

Sides

Listed parties, free browsers, the operator

Unit of work

A Listing

Examples

• A marketplace's seed stage

The five tests

1. who signs in
2. which record dominates
3. who acts next
4. how money moves
5. who may settle what

Carried only by it, from What every App needs

Claims; facts with attestation and freshness; placement inventory; rights of subjects who never signed up

Screens its Interfaces name, by reader

Browser

Home with search first · list pages where every facet is a link · generated variant pages by category · map · compare and alternatives · the Listing detail with claimed and verified marks, each with a date and its basis · reviews · notices · claim this Listing · suggest an edit · report · a page explaining how results rank and what is paid

Browser's agent, integrator

none

Listed party

Find and claim · create a Listing · editor with attested fields locked · pending changes and reasons · verification center · reviews inbox · own analytics · leads · placement with a slot calendar or bids · badges and embeds · billing · team

Operator

Submission, claim, edit and report queues · review moderation · verification worklist · fraud console · public notices · taxonomy · merge and redirects · sources · placement inventory · unclaimed Listings ranked as sales prospects · legal register · ranking parameters with a change log · audit

Build today: the Site pages around it

• directory-list Template
• directory-product Template
• Benchlist

6actors9workflows10records

A directory is a public, searchable catalog of Listings, each about another party. Browsers, human or agent, find, filter, compare and leave for the party they chose, free.

The listed party controls what is said about it, proves it is legitimate and pays for prominence. The operator keeps the catalog complete, current and honest about what is paid.

Any Business that runs a catalog of others ships one: a review site, an association's member finder, a franchisor's dealer locator, a platform's partner directory. Most of a directory is a Site, rendered from the directory template.

The App part is the listed party's account and the operator's queues. The study describes the work; how an App is defined is open, see What every App needs.

• SubjectWorkThe party the Listing is about; has rights over facts about itself even if it never signs in
• SubmitterWorkProposed the Listing; owns nothing after publication
• ClaimantWorkAsserts authority to act for the subject and passes verification
• ManagerWorkA seat under a verified claim: owner, admin, editor, billing, or an agency
• Payer or sponsorWorkPays for placement or a slot; may be neither subject nor claimant, even a competitor
• AttesterWorkAn issuer, a register, a probe or the operator's verifier, vouching that a fact was true at a time

1. 01
   Workflow 1: Seeding

   1. 1.1Licensed sources feed candidate Listings with provenance per field.
   2. 1.2Entity resolution merges candidates; each passes the quality bar; Listings publish unclaimed, and variant pages and the sitemap follow.
   3. 1.3A source licence that forbids redistribution, or a natural person who objects, stops a Listing.
2. 02
   Workflow 2: SubmissionSubmitter

   1. 2.1Submit, check for duplicates, screen, decide, publish, notify the submitter.
   2. 2.2A paid fast lane past the free queue is still screened.
3. 03
   Workflow 3: Claim

   1. 3.1The method scales with risk: an email at the Listing's domain, a DNS record, a phone PIN to the listed number, documents, manual review.
   2. 3.2A hijacker changes the phone number first, so contact fields freeze during a claim.
   3. 3.3Contested claims, franchise locations and transfers after an acquisition need their own paths.
4. 04
   Workflow 4: Owner edits

   1. 4.1An edit is a Change, moderated for risky fields (name, category, phone, URL).
   2. 4.2An owner cannot remove a true fact such as a lapsed licence; it shows "lapsed on" a date.
5. 05
   Workflow 5: Freshness

   1. 5.1A scheduler re-verifies each fact on its cadence.
   2. 5.2A failed issuer lookup keeps the last result marked stale, never "verified".
6. 06
   Workflow 6: Placement

   1. 6.1A fixed-period exclusive slot is checked against inventory, paid, its creative moderated, then scheduled, live and reported.
   2. 6.2Subscriptions downgrade on failed payment; the Listing stays and loses prominence.
   3. 6.3Oversold or undelivered slots get a make-good.
7. 07
   Workflow 7: Subject rightsSubject

   1. 7.1A subject who never claimed asks to correct or remove a Listing.
   2. 7.2A suppression list keeps a removed Listing from returning on re-ingest.
8. 08
   Workflow 8: Curation

   1. 8.1An audience-curated subset names each member with a rank, a reason and a date, and is kept apart from featuring that was paid for.
9. 09
   Workflow 9: Public readings

   1. 9.1A directory that publishes figures about its Listings, such as price indexes, indexes a reading only above its floor.
   2. 9.2A restatement supersedes it with a signed errata line, and the canonical address never moves.

Visibility9 states

1. virtual (generated, unstored)
2. submitted
3. published
4. withheld
5. suspended
6. removed
7. archived
8. merged
9. closed as a marker

Control5 states

1. unclaimed
2. claim pending
3. claimed
4. contested
5. transferred

Trust, per fact6 states

1. self-reported
2. probed
3. verified by a named issuer on a date
4. stale
5. lapsed
6. failed

Prominence4 states

1. standard
2. featured until a date
3. sponsored for a slot and period
4. bidding

Curated subset4 states

1. a member with a rank
2. a reason and a date
3. per audience
4. never bought

Discretion, for a performer directory3 states

1. visible to no one
2. visible to one counterparty
3. public

Public reading3 states

1. indexed only above a sample floor and a material change
2. a permanent canonical
3. superseded with an errata line

Claim8 states

1. requested
2. verifying by a method
3. approved
4. rejected
5. expired
6. contested
7. revoked
8. transferred

Placement9 states

1. quoted
2. booked
3. creative pending
4. scheduled
5. live
6. ended
7. canceled
8. refunded
9. made good

Report5 states

1. open
2. triaged
3. actioned or dismissed
4. appealed
5. upheld or reversed

ActorsCopy Anchor Link

One Listing names up to six roles. Templates fuse them into one owner, and the fusion breaks claims, disputes and privacy.

Browsers are anonymous visitors, signed-in browsers who save and follow, reviewers and reporters. Operator staff are curators, moderators, verifiers, sales, finance and a legal or privacy officer. The browser's agent searches and resolves a provider in the middle of a task without rendering a page.

InterfacesCopy Anchor Link

The operator's screens are Admin Views over the directory's records, and its queues are Worklist items.

The listed party's analytics (views, leads, clicks) is a projection of the directory's readings scoped to that party. It shows only its own numbers, never a competitor's, and a ranking of natural persons falls under the measurement policy.

Records and actionsCopy Anchor Link

A Listing's state is four independent facets, not one chain. A page can be unclaimed and carry a notice; a profile can be claimed and unpaid; a sponsored profile can be unreviewed.

Verbs:

• Listings: submit, moderate, publish, withhold, suspend, merge, edit as a Change.
• Control: claim, verify, contest, revoke, transfer.
• Trust: attest and lapse a fact; review, respond, invite; file and act on a report; place and lift a notice.
• Money: feature, book, bid, make good, route a lead.
• Reads: search, get, compare, resolve.

TermsCopy Anchor Link

Terms0 quoted from startupbuilder.dev · 3 it lacks · 1 colliding

Term	In startupbuilder.dev	Definition, quoted from startupbuilder.dev or the gap
Listing	a sketch	A draft glossary entry: an entry about another party in a public Collection, unclaimed, claimed by its subject, verified, and featured when paid. The listings System registers no Verbs.
Directory	an App kind and earning model	Not a Noun.
Claim	lacks	startupbuilder.dev has the Verb Startup.claim for a different binding.
Fact, submission, placement, response, report, notice, badge	lack	business-as-code has none of these either.
Moderate	collides	startupbuilder.dev's review Verb belongs to Change, and Review is a Noun for one person's evaluation.
Curated subset, public reading, errata	lack

WorkflowsCopy Anchor Link

1. Seeding. Licensed sources feed candidate Listings with provenance per field. Entity resolution merges candidates; each passes the quality bar; Listings publish unclaimed, and variant pages and the sitemap follow. A source licence that forbids redistribution, or a natural person who objects, stops a Listing.
2. Submission. Submit, check for duplicates, screen, decide, publish, notify the submitter. A paid fast lane past the free queue is still screened.
3. Claim. The method scales with risk: an email at the Listing's domain, a DNS record, a phone PIN to the listed number, documents, manual review. A hijacker changes the phone number first, so contact fields freeze during a claim. Contested claims, franchise locations and transfers after an acquisition need their own paths.
4. Owner edits. An edit is a Change, moderated for risky fields (name, category, phone, URL). An owner cannot remove a true fact such as a lapsed licence; it shows "lapsed on" a date.
5. Freshness. A scheduler re-verifies each fact on its cadence. A failed issuer lookup keeps the last result marked stale, never "verified".
6. Placement. A fixed-period exclusive slot is checked against inventory, paid, its creative moderated, then scheduled, live and reported. Subscriptions downgrade on failed payment; the Listing stays and loses prominence. Oversold or undelivered slots get a make-good.
7. Subject rights. A subject who never claimed asks to correct or remove a Listing. A suppression list keeps a removed Listing from returning on re-ingest.
8. Curation. An audience-curated subset names each member with a rank, a reason and a date, and is kept apart from featuring that was paid for.
9. Public readings. A directory that publishes figures about its Listings, such as price indexes, indexes a reading only above its floor. A restatement supersedes it with a signed errata line, and the canonical address never moves.

Money flows only from a payer to the Business: subscriptions, pay-per-click, leads, sponsor slots, metered lookups, affiliate links. The moment the directory holds a buyer's money for a listed party, it is a marketplace.

BoundariesCopy Anchor Link

• Browsers see published Listings, facts with their basis and date, reviews, notices and the labels on paid items. They never see reviewer contact details or claimant documents.
• The listed party sees only its own Listings, analytics, leads and invoices. It never sees competitors' numbers or bids, reviewer identity beyond what the reviewer published, or fraud signals in detail.
• A listed party cannot edit or delete reviews, change rank or pay to remove a notice.
• Inside the operator, sales cannot touch moderation outcomes, organic rank or notices. The wall is a permission boundary, and every cross-touch is recorded.
• A verifier reads an identifier it only needs to check, attests and discards it.
• One listed Organization appears in many directories under one account and one claim.
• Discretion can be the product promise. A directory of performers may keep a profile visible to no one until a claim, then to one counterparty. The kernel behind it must honor the promise, not list everyone through its API.
• A cell under the reading's floor is withheld, never shown small.

AgentsCopy Anchor Link

Agents own ingest, enrichment, entity resolution, page generation and machine Interfaces end to end. They screen submissions, edits, reviews and photos at the first pass, and re-verify facts and lapse stale ones. They verify low-risk claims automatically, sell placement self-serve, and invite unclaimed subjects to claim.

Humans keep:

• contested claims and ownership transfers;
• removals on legal grounds;
• public notices, and suspending a paying customer;
• any change to ranking or the paid and organic boundary;
• large refunds, sensitive Listings of natural persons, and appeals.

An Autonomous directory still receives legal demands, and which human receives them needs an answer.

Hard partsCopy Anchor Link

1. Liquidity is asymmetric. Listed parties pay only for traffic, and traffic comes only from completeness, so the free unclaimed catalog comes first and must be good.
2. "Verified" is three claims. The claim says who controls the Listing. The attestation says which facts are true as of a date, per a named issuer. Reviews and grades say whether the party is good. One badge for all three misleads.
3. The paid and organic boundary is law. Rules on consumer reviews prohibit suppression, bought reviews and fake independence; ranking and paid placement need disclosure in many jurisdictions.
4. Rights of people who never signed up. Correction, erasure for natural persons, defamation, trademark and copyright in scraped content.
5. Fraud is the default. Fake Listings, claim hijacks, review rings, fake support numbers, click fraud, competitors flagging each other.
6. Freshness decays daily. Each fact type needs a probe and a cadence, and staleness shows honestly.
7. Agents read and compete. Free machine Interfaces grow the directory and give away the data, so the paid Dataset differs in freshness, depth or attestations. A default-provider program is paid placement an agent acts on with no label a human sees.
8. No backend illusions. A submit form that shows success and stores nothing is worse than no form.
9. Leaderboards of agents. Rankings publish only from sealed forward seasons with eligibility and leak checks; practice data is refused as a ranking. Agents are measurable; a ranking of people is not the same act.

Day oneCopy Anchor Link

For an idea-stage founder at no budget, day one holds:

• a catalog seeded from one or two licensed sources, with provenance and a "last verified" date;
• the browse side and its agent layer;
• one real intake: "Suggest a Listing" and "Claim this Listing" each create an item in the founder's Worklist, with claims verified by domain email;
• one paid Verb, a featured plan or a sponsor slot through checkout, labelled on the page;
• a published "how this directory ranks and what is paid" page;
• correction and removal by email, with a suppression list.

The Startup layer adds the build chain from a data API to a directory to a marketplace. It also adds an Autonomous directory template that runs with no humans. A directory is how a marketplace solves cold start: an idea-stage marketplace is a directory with a waitlist.

Related studiesCopy Anchor Link

Prototypes this study needsCopy Anchor Link

No prototype names it by any of: directory, Listing.