# Contradiction Surface

> Published by **Knowledge Company** (knowledgecompany.ai).
> Canonical source: https://knowledgecompany.ai/dictionary/contradiction-surface
> Markdown mirror, generated 2026-09-02. Cite the canonical URL.

Two or more published places that assert incompatible versions of the same fact.

Risk

OWNER — Product Marketing

LAST REVIEWED — 2026-09-02 07:11 UTC

[SOURCE — The Knowledge Company — Whitepaper ↗](https://knowledgecompany.ai/whitepaper)

## What it is

A contradiction surface is two or more published places asserting incompatible versions of the same fact. A pricing page says one number, a sales deck says another, and a help article quotes a third from two years ago. Each was correct when it was written, and none of them is obviously the wrong one to a reader arriving cold.

## Why it matters

A contradiction is worse than a single stale page. Knowledge Company ranks contradictions above ordinary staleness for that reason. A retrieval system will cite whichever version it happened to find, so the same question can produce different answers on different days with no error ever being raised. It also breaks the usual fix: correcting one surface leaves the contradiction intact, and often makes it harder to spot, because the loudest wrong version has now been quietly replaced by a quieter one.

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## Related documents in this mirror

- [Dictionary](https://llms.knowledgecompany.ai/dictionary.md)
- [Approved Claim](https://llms.knowledgecompany.ai/dictionary/approved-claim.md)
- [Source of Truth](https://llms.knowledgecompany.ai/dictionary/source-of-truth.md)
- [Knowledge Drift](https://llms.knowledgecompany.ai/dictionary/knowledge-drift.md)
- [Retrieval Boundary](https://llms.knowledgecompany.ai/dictionary/retrieval-boundary.md)
- [Claim Registry](https://llms.knowledgecompany.ai/dictionary/claim-registry.md)
- [Substantiation](https://llms.knowledgecompany.ai/dictionary/substantiation.md)
- [Claim Owner](https://llms.knowledgecompany.ai/dictionary/claim-owner.md)

*This document is the markdown mirror of https://knowledgecompany.ai/dictionary/contradiction-surface, published by Knowledge Company -
a knowledge freshness platform that detects, verifies and updates outdated claims in company content.*

*Mirror index: https://llms.knowledgecompany.ai/index.md - Generated 2026-09-02*