Lacuna Index — We read between the lines. Forensic analysis · Pure evidence · Accountable insight.
User guide
How to read a Lacuna report
User guide · v1

Every section, every score, and how they correlate.

A Lacuna report has eleven tabs. None of them are decoration. This guide explains what each one is trying to uncover, what the score means in plain language, and — most importantly — how to read the scores together. The numbers only tell you something when you know which other numbers they belong next to.

The one idea behind the whole report

Every score is a piece of a single question: does what the company says match what the company does? Aspiration measures the story. Execution measures the delivery. Leadership Stability tells you whether the people who made the story are still around. Initiative Success tells you whether the things they promised actually got done. The gap between those signals is the entire forensic thesis.

What this framework measures

The framework measures evidence sufficiency — the degree to which public disclosures substantiate management's strategic claims. It is not an investment recommendation, a fraud allegation, or a credit rating.

Pressure Points emerge where public disclosures fail to reconcile narrative, execution, and measurable economic outcomes.

Section 01 · Tab: Summary

Verdict & Margin-of-Truth

What it uncovers

The single-line forensic verdict — does the company's narrative match what they actually deliver?

How it's scored

Composite of Execution and Aspiration scores, expressed as a gap. The wider the gap, the more the story is running ahead of the operating reality.

Score bands
  • ALIGNED (gap < 8)Words and delivery match. Quiet, often undervalued operators.
  • HEALTHY TENSION (8–17)Ambition slightly outpaces delivery — normal for growth.
  • WATCH ZONE (18–29)Narrative is meaningfully ahead. Expect promotional language.
  • NARRATIVE DANGER (30+)Story has detached from results. High disappointment risk.
How to read it with the others

Start here, then drill into Execution and Vision to see which side of the gap is doing the work.

Section 02 · Tab: Intelligence

Performance Intelligence

What it uncovers

The live operating picture: credibility trend over time, who is actually steering the company, and whether they ship what they promise.

How it's scored

Three independent signals — Credibility trend (12-month line), Leadership Stability (0–100), and Initiative Success (0–100).

Score bands
  • Stability 85+Stable team, no recent senior departures.
  • Stability 55–84Healthy to watch — some turnover or open seats.
  • Stability < 55Elevated to critical — leadership turnover is material.
  • Initiative success ≥ 70Most named promises closed the loop publicly.
  • Initiative success < 50Many promises stranded, abandoned, or never reconciled.
How to read it with the others

Stability and Initiative Success are the two halves of accountability. Stability = are the people who made the promise still here? Initiative Success = did the promise get delivered? High stability + low delivery is a credibility problem. Low stability + stranded initiatives means promises were made by leaders who have left, and the company has not publicly closed the loop.

Section 03 · Tab: Financials

Financial Delivery

What it uncovers

Whether the numbers behind the narrative are accelerating, flat, or quietly decaying.

How it's scored

Revenue growth, margin trajectory, and segment trends pulled from filings — scored 0–100 inside the Execution composite.

How to read it with the others

Pair with Vision: if aspiration is loud and Financials are flat, the gap will be wide.

Section 04 · Tab: Execution

Execution scorecard

What it uncovers

Eleven forensic dimensions that grade what the company has actually done — financial delivery, narrative honesty, AI credibility, client validation, executive accountability, and four pattern detectors (abandoned initiatives, promise decay, moat laundering, acquisition deflection).

How it's scored

Each dimension scored 0–100 with an evidence trail; weighted into a single Execution grade A–F.

How to read it with the others

Compare directly to the Vision grade — the gap between them is the Margin-of-Truth verdict on the Summary tab.

Section 05 · Tab: Vision

Aspiration scorecard

What it uncovers

How clear, differentiated, calibrated, consistent, and stakeholder-specific the company's stated story is.

How it's scored

Five dimensions weighted into a Vision grade A–F.

How to read it with the others

If Vision >> Execution, the company is selling a story it isn't delivering. If Execution >> Vision, the company is under-narrating real strength (often a value setup).

Section 06 · Tab: Gap

Narrative ↔ Reality gap

What it uncovers

The arithmetic difference between Aspiration and Execution, plotted into one of four gap zones.

How it's scored

Aspiration − Execution. See gap zones on the Summary section above.

How to read it with the others

This is the headline number for valuation risk and disappointment risk.

Section 07 · Tab: Leadership

Executive roster & accountability

What it uncovers

Who is on the bench, how visible they are, and whether their public posture matches the company's claims. Departures detected from external sources are flagged here.

How it's scored

Per-executive grade: Fully Accountable, Accountable, Active, Occasional, Ceremonial, or Ghost.

How to read it with the others

The Leadership Stability score on the Intelligence tab is the cohort-level summary of this roster.

Section 08 · Tab: Succession

Succession risk

What it uncovers

Concentration of decision-making, key-person dependencies, and bench depth.

How it's scored

Qualitative risk band with named single points of failure.

How to read it with the others

High succession risk + low Leadership Stability = the team that built the story may not be the team that has to deliver it.

Section 09 · Tab: Insider

Insider activity

What it uncovers

What insiders are doing with their own shares — the unfaked signal.

How it's scored

Buy/sell ratio over rolling windows; outsized dispositions or 10b5-1 plan starts highlighted.

How to read it with the others

Cluster selling alongside a wide narrative gap is one of the strongest disappointment signals the platform tracks.

Section 10 · Tab: Questions

Questions to ask management

What it uncovers

The specific, evidence-backed questions the forensic engine wants answered next.

How to read it with the others

Use these on earnings calls or in IR meetings — each question cites the gap or claim that triggered it.

Section 11 · Tab: Sources

Source ledger

What it uncovers

Every filing, transcript, press release, and external signal the report drew from.

How to read it with the others

If you disagree with a verdict, start here — every score traces back to a citable source.

Companion product · Email

The Weekly Intelligence Brief

What it is

A short Monday email that surfaces the week's most material credibility-gap movers across your watchlist sectors. Same forensic lens as the report, compressed into a five-minute read.

Who gets it

Every authenticated subscriber whose Communications tab in Subscriber Profile has the Weekly Brief toggle on. Opt-in is explicit; we never auto-enroll.

What it contains

Three blocks: (1) the week's widest new gaps, (2) leadership departures that will reset Stability scores in the next refresh, and (3) initiatives that closed the loop — promises kept or quietly abandoned. Every line links to the live issuer report.

How to manage your subscription (subscribers)

Open Subscriber Profile → Communications. Toggle the Weekly Brief on or off and pick the sectors you want covered. Changes take effect from the next scheduled send.

How to run it (admins only)

Admin → Weekly Brief tab. The panel exposes live subscriber counts, the cron job's last and next run, a per-user status table (active, paused, bounced), and a manual "Generate & send now" button that triggers an off-schedule send for testing or breaking-news weeks. Use the per-row controls to pause an account that is bouncing, or to re-enable a user who paused themselves.

How to read it next to the report

The Brief is a leading indicator — it flags new gap movement before the next full report refresh. Treat each Brief item as a pointer back into the issuer's full Lacuna report; the Brief tells you where to look, the report tells you why it matters.

Now try it on a live issuer

See the methodology applied end-to-end on a constructed sector where every answer is arranged in advance.

Open the methodology walkthrough →