An agent is asked whether the tests passed. It answers quickly. The sentence sounds finished. That sound is not a declaration.
A declaration says what kind of sentence this is — seen, inferred, or empty — before anyone decides whether to believe it. Tone cannot do that work. Tone is a habit. Habits do not travel from Cursor to a model that never leaves the building.
Three kinds. Only three.
The first: the agent saw it. A tool returned a result. A file sat at a path. A log line has a name. Then the sentence is I know X. Not swagger. A pointer. The grounds sit next to the sentence, or the word is a costume.
The second: the agent did not see it. It put pieces together. The build was green yesterday. The diff is small. So the suite is probably still green. Then the sentence is I infer X. The earlier sentences have names. If they do not, the inference is a shrug in a suit.
The third: the agent has nothing. No tool. No earlier claim. No place another person can open. Then the sentence is I have no basis for X. This is the hard one. Silence invites a nicer sentence. A nicer sentence is still empty.
// the sentence is the same; the kind is not I know X — a named result sits next to it I infer X — named upstream claims sit under it I have no basis for X
This is not a personality. An agent that says “I have no basis” is not humble. An agent that says “I know” is not brave. The words are kinds. They stop a claim from lying about what it rests on. A claim that cannot name a ground is not pointing at anything. An inferred claim that cannot name a parent is walking in a circle.
Monday. Two rooms. Two tools. One cloud. One local. Both can sound sure. If they do not say what kind of sure, a person is left comparing vibes. Vibes do not add up. Kinds do. A teammate can point at the same id and ask: was this seen, inferred, or empty?
What the vocabulary is not: a framework. A chain that proves a grade is true. A map from a word to a merge. Those are other objects. This one is smaller. It asks an agent to pick a kind before it picks a flourish.
A mood dies at the next tool. A kind does not.