Answer-first search: functional spec

Shape of the feature

Search returns a drafted answer above the results, never instead of them. Each sentence of the answer carries the page it came from, and the answer is suppressed entirely when confidence is low or when the top sources disagree.

• Permission filtering happens before retrieval, not after generation.
• Answers cite between one and four sources; more than four means the question is too broad.
• Stale sources (>90 days, no owner) are labelled, not hidden.

Accepted failure modes

We would rather show nothing than a confident wrong answer. When retrieval returns conflicting decisions, we surface the conflict and the two owners instead of picking a winner.

• Permission pre-filter benchmark under 40ms p95
• Conflict detection heuristic reviewed by Product
• Fallback copy approved