---
profile: comparisons
outbound:
  any: [compares-with, contrasts, see-also]
required_by_stack: false
---

# kb/comparisons/ - Collection Contract

Structured head-to-head evaluations of two or more things that already have pages here. A
comparison exists so that neither subject's own page has to argue against the other.

**Quality goal:** decidability - a reader with a concrete situation should be able to choose.
That needs named, checkable dimensions and a stated trade-off; a page that lists differences
without saying what they cost has described, not compared.

Inherits [kb/CONTRACT.md](../CONTRACT.md) for the rules the stack enforces - linking mechanics,
provenance, citation, the confidence machinery - and
[kb/CONVENTIONS.md](../CONVENTIONS.md) for what this instance decided: language, naming forms,
tone, relationship labels, the confidence rubric. Neither is restated here.

## Types offered

`comparison` (`tools/wikitool types describe comparison`).

## Naming

The title form is [kb/CONVENTIONS.md § Naming](../CONVENTIONS.md#naming)'s. What is local here
is the ordering: name the subjects as they are most commonly spoken together, not
alphabetically.

## Requirements

- **Every subject must already have its own page.** A comparison is a view over existing
  knowledge, not a place to introduce it. Create the entity or concept pages first, then
  compare them.
- Compare on stated, checkable dimensions - a table with one row per dimension, one column per
  subject. Cite hard facts the same way any other page does.
- State the trade-off, not a winner. Where a recommendation is genuinely warranted, scope it:
  "for X workload", not "better".

## Authorised labels

The `outbound:` block above is what `wikitool lint` and `xref add` check: which labels a page in
this collection may use, per destination. The catalogue they are drawn from - and what each one
asserts - is [instructions/link-taxonomy.md](../../instructions/link-taxonomy.md), which binds
nothing on its own.

Narrow for the opposite reason: a comparison's substance is its table, and its links to the compared subjects are the one relationship it asserts.

Adding a label here is a deliberate contract change, not a way around a refusal.

## Outbound linking

A comparison links to every subject with `compares-with`. The subjects do not have to link back:
a comparison is reached through the catalog, and each subject's inbound view renders the edge
anyway. Comparison pages are **exempt from the orphan check** for the same reason.

## What does not belong here

- A comparison of things this wiki does not otherwise cover.
- Feature-matrix dumps copied from a vendor page. If the material is a source, ingest it as one
  and compile the comparison from it.