Protocol and deviation record: a structured critical appraisal of artificial intelligence in traditional Chinese medicine tongue diagnosis

This deposit records the design of a literature-based critical appraisal, its screening rules and its appraisal domains, together with a table of the deviations between that design and the manuscript as submitted. It was deposited after retrieval and appraisal were complete and is therefore a timestamped record, not a prospective registration. It is provided so that a reader can check what the design was and what changed, rather than infer either from the published article. The appraisal domains are a conceptual scheme proposed by the authors and are not a validated instrument. No prospective registration exists for this review.The text of this record was drafted with assistance from a large language model and checked against the underlying records by the authors before deposit.