Status & reliability
What keeps this correct.
No dashboard of green dots here — just the mechanisms that keep this site correct, and where you can watch them. Every change runs an automated gate before it ships, the Cost Index is backtested against its own claims, the data refreshes on a daily schedule, and nothing you type ever leaves your browser. Here is how each one works, and how to check it.
Every change runs the gate
Before anything ships — the library’s 36 articles, 13 tools, 151 glossary terms, and every page in between — it has to clear more than two hundred automated checks. The fact gate blocks an unsourced number, the contrast gate blocks an unreadable color, the locale gate blocks English/Spanish drift, and the graphics gate blocks a chart with no spoken-word narration. A red check stops the deploy; nothing publishes around it. Methods & sources → · The trust center →
The Cost Index is graded on its own accuracy
It doesn’t just publish prices — it keeps a verified scorecard. The 80% prediction band is backtested to actually cover its claim, and the trend arrows are replayed over thousands of historical prints across the basket to confirm a stronger arrow really does verify more often than a weak one, and that all of them beat a no-skill baseline. If the record ever fell short, the gate would catch it. The exact, dated, re-checked figures live on the method page. The calibration record →
Refreshed every day
The Cost Index pulls public U.S. market data (USDA, BLS, FRED, EIA) on a daily schedule, and a reading only publishes when the sources support it — never a stale number wearing a fresh date. The live last-refreshed date sits on the index itself. The live index →
Your numbers never leave your browser
The calculators compute client-side — what you type into a tool is never sent anywhere, because there is nowhere for it to go. No third-party scripts, no ad pixels, no analytics that follow you. You can watch the network tab and see nothing fire. Data & security →
When something’s off
A check that should have caught something, a number that looks wrong, a page that won’t load — tell me. don@muntin.digital or The Window →. I reply within four hours on weekdays, and every fix lands dated in the changelog → within two business days.