verifact production release

VeriFact 2.0.7 – Production-Ready WordPress Fact-Checking Plugin with FastAPI Backend

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VeriFact 2.0.7 Is Live – Production-Ready Fact-Checking for WordPress

After more than a decade of work on the VeriFact ecosystem (this project has roots going back to 2011), we’re happy to announce the release of VeriFact 2.0.7 – a production-ready fact-checking stack that combines a FastAPI backend with a full-featured WordPress plugin.

This update is all about stability, observability, and control: multi-source evidence, better integrations, caching and rate limits, and a more complete admin experience inside WordPress.

What VeriFact 2.0.7 Delivers

VeriFact is built as a two-part system:

  1. FastAPI backend service
    • Accepts claims or prompt+answer pairs.
    • Uses semantic search over Wikipedia (and optionally Archive.org) to find evidence.
    • Runs NLI (Natural Language Inference) to classify stance and confidence.
    • Returns structured JSON with stance, confidence, evidence snippets, and timing metadata.
  2. WordPress plugin (VeriFact Checker Pro UI)
    • Provides a shortcode UI for editors and testers.
    • Proxies requests securely to the FastAPI service.
    • Stores all results in a dedicated logs table.
    • Gives you an admin dashboard for analytics, history, bulk tools, and configuration.

Version 2.0.7 is where this stack becomes production-ready: deployment is documented end-to-end, health checks and tests are in place, and the plugin UI has grown into a complete control panel for your fact-checking workflow.

Highlights in the WordPress Plugin (2.0.7)

The VeriFact WordPress plugin now ships with a full admin suite and more fine-grained operational controls.

Shortcode UI & REST Proxy

  • Shortcode: [verifact] renders a front-end fact-check form:
    • Simple claim checks.
    • Prompt + Answer checks for generated responses.
  • All requests go through a secure REST route:
    • verifact/v1/check → your FastAPI /check endpoint.
  • No API keys exposed in the browser; configuration stays on the server side.

Structured Logging in WordPress

Every check is stored in a custom table (e.g. wp_verifact_logs), including:

  • Claim text (and/or prompt + answer).
  • Stance and confidence from the NLI model.
  • Evidence count and runtime.
  • User context (who ran the check, where applicable).

This gives you auditability and a solid foundation for analytics and reporting.

Expanded Admin Dashboard

The plugin’s admin menu now includes a rich set of pages, centered around real editorial workflows:

  • Dashboard
    Quick stats, recent checks, and system status.
  • Fact-Checking
    Run checks directly in the WordPress admin (no shortcode required).
  • Analytics
    Visualize activity with Chart.js:
    • Daily fact-check volume.
    • Stance distribution.
    • Other summary metrics.
  • History & Logs
    Paginated, filterable view of all stored checks:
    • Log detail modals.
    • User detail modals.
  • Bulk Tools
    The foundation for:
    • CSV/text imports.
    • Bulk claim processing.
    • URL extraction for page-level verification.
  • API Management
    • Configure the FastAPI base URL.
    • Run health checks.
    • View usage and perform remote cache operations (like uploading cache via presigned S3 URLs).
  • Settings
    • Access control (which roles can do what).
    • Display behavior.
    • High-level caching toggles.
  • User Management
    • Role-based capabilities.
    • Per-user stats and activity summaries.
  • Integrations (New in 2.0.x)
    • Toggle data sources on/off (currently Wikipedia and Archive.org).
    • Run connectivity checks to each upstream service.
    • Prepare for future sources like Grokopedia.
  • Caching & Rate Limits (New in 2.0.x)
    • Configure rate-limit rules, including per-role overrides in JSON.
    • Work with object caches (like Redis-backed caches) instead of fighting them.
    • Manual cache operations for administrators.
  • Instructions & Docs
    Inline instructions, links, and guidance so admins can configure the system without leaving the dashboard.

What’s New in 2.0.7 Specifically

While the 2.0.x line added a lot of internal infrastructure (bulk tools, scheduling foundations, caching, rate limiting), 2.0.7 focuses on making the system feel complete and ready for production teams:

  • Multi-source support in the plugin:
    • Wikipedia and Archive.org as first-class evidence providers.
    • Toggle and test each source from the Integrations page.
  • Integrations page to manage and test upstream services.
  • Caching & Rate Limits page so you can shape performance and fairness:
    • Global rate limits.
    • Role-specific limits (e.g., editors vs. anonymous users).
    • Object-cache-aware design for better compatibility.
  • Branding and documentation improvements:
    • Clearer labels and layout in the admin UI.
    • Instructions & Docs page for in-dashboard guidance.
  • End-to-end deployment verification:
    • FastAPI service tested with Docker and direct-server deployment.
    • Apache reverse-proxy path confirmed.
    • WordPress plugin packaging validated.
    • Health checks and sample commands documented.

In short: 2.0.7 is the point where we consider the stack ready for real-world, production use.

FastAPI Backend – Under the Hood

On the backend, VeriFact 2.0.7 uses:

  • FastAPI + Uvicorn for the web service.
  • Sentence-transformers + FAISS for semantic search over Wikipedia.
  • nli-deberta-v3-base for stance classification (entailment/contradiction/neutral with confidence).
  • Wikipedia-API and optional Archive.org integration for evidence retrieval.
  • Dockerfile, systemd unit, and Apache reverse-proxy examples for deployment.
  • Environment-driven configuration, including optional:
    • FacTool + OpenAI for more advanced tool-using verification.
    • Serper for web search–augmented evidence.

These pieces are documented and wired together so you can run the backend:

  • On a single host (bare-metal or VM).
  • In Docker.
  • Behind your own domain and TLS.

Roadmap: What’s Coming Next

Even though 2.0.7 is production-ready, there’s more planned:

  • Bulk tools UX
    • Complete CSV/text import flows.
    • Progress indicators for large jobs.
    • URL-based claim extraction at scale.
  • Scheduled checks
    • WP-Cron–driven scheduled jobs.
    • Dedicated UI to create, pause, edit, and inspect scheduled checks.
  • Advanced analytics & export
    • More charts and slicing options.
    • Export datasets (CSV/JSON) for BI tools and external reporting.
  • New evidence sources
    • Deeper Archive.org integration.
    • Grokopedia integration once a stable path/API is available.
  • Localization & documentation
    • Better i18n support.
    • More screenshots, walkthroughs, and how-to guides.

How to Get VeriFact 2.0.7

You can download or clone the latest code from GitHub:

👉 VeriFact WordPress Fact-Checking Plugin & Backend
https://github.com/veracitylife/VeriFact-WordPress-Fact-Checking-Plugin
(and associated FastAPI backend repo, if separated in your setup)

From there, follow the deployment guide to:

  1. Deploy the FastAPI service (Docker or direct).
  2. Configure your reverse proxy (e.g., https://your-domain.com/verifact/).
  3. Install and activate the WordPress plugin.
  4. Point the plugin at your backend URL and run initial tests.

Need a Custom, Fully Supported Deployment?

If you want a complete, customized, production-ready version of this stack—tuned to your infrastructure, editorial process, and compliance requirements—you can work with Spun Web Technology (the parent of Veracity Integrity).

Contact Spun Web Technology

Whether you’re a newsroom, research organization, or enterprise needing robust content verification, VeriFact 2.0.7 gives you the stack—and we can help you deploy and tailor it end to end.