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WorldbyFlow for investigative reporters

The structure of an investigation is a timeline, a money map and a stack of documents, and building them is where the months go. WorldbyFlow builds the structure from the public record with a source on every entry, and writes none of the story, which stays yours.

Written for Staff or freelance investigative journalist.·Runs in the General domain

Start with this one

Where this fits in your week

Investigative work is slow because the scaffolding is slow: who paid whom and when, what the filings actually say, what happened in what order. The scans here put up the scaffolding: the money trail, the dated chronology, primary documents excerpted verbatim with pinpoint citations, a structured read on an unresolved case, and a graded reading of why the subject did what they did.

Lead scan

Follow the Money

2 credits · in-depth · about 2–4 min

Who is spending, who gains and who pays, mapped from the disclosed record. The money map you would otherwise build in a spreadsheet over a month.

Try it on: a subject you already hold an opinion about, so you can grade the result against what you know.
4 more scans that fit this role

Chronology

3 credits

A dated timeline from the record, every entry sourced, contested dates marked as contested. The spine the story hangs on.

Try it on The Boeing 737 MAX · The Purdue Pharma settlement · The Theranos collapse

Primary Documents

3 credits

Verbatim excerpts from filings and records with pinpoint citations, contested readings marked and gaps stated. The document work, at speed, without a paraphrase.

Try it on The Sackler family court filings · Boeing's MAX certification record · The Epstein court filings

Open Case

4 credits

An unresolved case laid out: what is established, what is disputed, the competing accounts and what would settle them. The map of the holes.

Try it on The Nord Stream pipeline sabotage · The disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa · The Havana syndrome cases · The Malaysia Airlines MH370 disappearance

Why They Did It

3 credits

Why the subject did it, with candidate explanations graded against the record rather than asserted. The context, kept honest.

Try it on Purdue Pharma's marketing of OxyContin · Volkswagen's diesel emissions cheating · Boeing's handling of the 737 MAX
A working path

From a first run to a result you can hand over

The order matters. The first read gives you the structure; the next ones fill the parts that are hardest to source by hand.

01

Run Chronology on a story you already know the shape of

Check the dates against your own notes. Where it flags a contested date you had accepted, you have found the tool's use.

3 credits
02

Run Follow the Money on the same subject

The flows with who gains and who pays, from disclosures. The spreadsheet, started for you.

2 credits
03

Run Primary Documents on the filings

Verbatim excerpts with citations. Confirm them against the originals, as you would anyway; the citations tell you where to look.

3 credits
04

Ask the follow-up you have not been able to answer

Put the question to the read and see what the record says. It will tell you when it cannot establish something, which is also an answer.

1 credit
The research bill for this path
3 + 2 + 3 = 8 credits · a Standard plan carries 20 a month
What comes back

A result whose claims carry their grades

Sourced, not asserted

Every figure and quote links to where it came from. A claim the scan could not source is marked as such rather than dressed up.

Verified or grounded
Reported or attributed
Contested
Open question

Ready to hand over

Copy the scaffolding as Markdown into your working file, with the sources as footnotes you can verify one by one.

Built to be argued with

Ask a follow-up question of any result, or run a Red Team pass that tries to break its own conclusions before someone else does. How the grades work →

See one

Research already published in this shape

How AI-Attributed vs Total Corporate Layoffs Are Measured

Read the research →

The AI-attributed layoff figure is a measure of what companies choose to disclose, not an independently audited count of jobs automation replaced, because Challenger's reason field depends entirely on employer language with no external verification step.

How It Works · August 4, 2026 · from the General library
Try it

Run Follow the Money on something you already know

The fastest way to judge the result is to pick a subject you know cold and read it against what you know. If a colleague sent you here with an invitation, the credits land on your account when you sign up.

Start with Follow the Money →Standard plan from $10/mo · 20 credits · all plans
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