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vh 7996fbd597 chore(release): v0.5.0 — U3, the declared embed seam 
Minor rather than patch, and the tie-break rule says default to patch, so the
reason is worth stating: a capability arrived AND one left. Report authors gain
a declared public API -- one line, `<script src="/_booth/embed.js" defer>`, plus
the `data-booth-mark` anchor syntax -- and the verbatim path loses
no-JavaScript operation, which it had since it existed.

That asymmetry is what makes it not a tie. Either half alone would have been
defensible as a patch.

Operator approved 2026-09-22.
 2026-09-22 12:58:35 -07:00
vh 5c20e2f4d5 fix(u3): seven defects two cold panels found in the declared seam 
The /heid-code-review and /heid-bug-hunt panels, artifact-only over the U3
diff, between them found four real defects and three vacuous falsifiers. Both
snapshots predate the contract-review fixes, so two of their findings were
already closed; the rest are here.

Prototype pollution in the placement maps. A mark id and a question key are
both [A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9._-]*, so `toString` and `constructor` are legal in
each. Against a plain `{}` an anchor naming NO mark returned an inherited
function, passed the guard meant to reject it, and threw on .questions.length
-- aborting placement before the tail, so one typo in author markup cost the
page every ask. The `placed` set had the mirror bug: inherited
`got.constructor` read as already-placed and silently dropped a question.
Object.create(null), three times. Found independently by both panels.

A declaring page was not served as written. read_text() opens in
universal-newline mode, so a CRLF report came back LF, and errors="replace"
replaced every byte that was not valid UTF-8. That is this unit's headline
promise, broken by the read itself, and the test could not see it because its
fixture was LF-only ASCII. The verbatim branch reads and serves bytes now; the
decoded copy answers only "does it declare the seam?".

A submit anchor inside the author's own <form> lost ours -- the parser drops a
nested form element outright -- while the code still recorded the pick as
submitted, so no fallback was appended. Every control's form= pointed at
nothing and the button did nothing. It counts as submitted only if the form
survived.

A broken pick's diagnostic never rendered from a submit-only anchor: an errored
pick's submit block is empty, and mounting that then marking it placed made the
tail skip the "broken ask" box entirely. The anchor is left alone instead.

An author's own element could hijack the open-ask chip -- id="bk-ask-winner-
background" satisfies any prefix rule, hyphen boundary included. The chip now
searches only elements this script mounted, which is the identity the deleted
bk-ask-<id>-top anchor used to guarantee, and takes the earliest by
compareDocumentPosition.

No error boundary around fragment rendering. A .marks.json that is well-formed
JSON with a wrong-shaped answer hydrates with no error and then raises in the
macro; this endpoint renders every pick on every load of the report, so that
was the whole seam gone while hold_read called the file readable. Reproduced
before building for it. _safe_fragments gives it the per-mark leniency
_hydrate_safe already applies one layer down.

The gallery and marks pages still 500 on that same entry. Measured at 42ea67f
-- it predates this unit, they render the same macro with no guard, and the
gallery is named out of scope in the contract. Recorded, not quietly widened:
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-a-wrong-shaped-answer-500s-the-gallery.md

Also corrected: several comments claimed a multi-question pick POSTs a 400
unless every question is answered. It does not -- an empty submission is
refused, a partial one is recorded on purpose. The real reason an unplaced
question must still be appended is that a question which never reaches the page
cannot be answered at all.

Vacuity pass rebuilt around the rule this session learned: the mutation comes
from the invariant's claim, never from the falsifier's example. 21 mutations,
21 caught, unmutated control green. Getting there took three rounds -- it
passed INV-3 with the contract's own mutation, then found its own fix's hole,
then flagged seven stale mutations and one genuinely vacuous fixture whose
sibling-mark arrangement made the right answer also the first answer.

444 tests. Deployed and verified: 23/23 booths 200, and all four live verbatim
reports served at exactly +46 bytes -- len(EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG) -- with the
authors' own wrappers and headings intact and no console errors.
 2026-09-22 11:22:37 -07:00
vh 87e2c5364c feat(u3): a verbatim report declares the seam, the Booth mounts into it 
A booth that ships its own index.html was served through ten regular
expressions applied to markup the Booth did not write: six in
wrap_verbatim_html hunting for somewhere to hang a favicon and a chip, four
in booth/inline.py substituting rendered ask markup into the author's own
tags. Both worked. Both were the most fragile thing in the service, on the
path the operator uses most.

The whole class is replaced by a declared seam. A report carries one line —
<script src="/_booth/embed.js" defer></script> — and the chrome mounts
through DOM APIs. What the server does to author HTML is now, in full:

    return html if declares_embed(html) else html + EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG

Two substring tests and a concatenation. Both of the old wrapper's hard
constraints stop existing rather than being satisfied more carefully:
nothing can displace a leading doctype into quirks mode and nothing can push
the charset meta out of its detection window, because nothing in front of
them ever moves. A page that declares the seam is served exactly as written.

Fragments are still rendered by the _ask_inline.html macros and handed over
GET /b/<name>/embed.json; embed.js places them and decides nothing. Openness
comes from open_marks, order from (created, id), questions in declaration
order. A single-question pick normalizes to key None, so the payload carries
questions as a list rather than an object — keying by name would serialize
that as the string "null".

Placement is an anchor fill, not a replacement: el.insertAdjacentHTML(
'beforeend'), so an author's wrapper and its contents survive. The regex it
replaces was eating the opening tag of dfa-concepts' styled .ask blocks and
orphaning their headings, live, unreported.

data-booth-mark is canonical; data-booth-ask stays a kept alias because two
live reports use it. The comment placeholders are dropped — no users.

Declared cost: the verbatim path now needs JavaScript. The never-invisible
guarantee holds through the index badge and /b/<name>/marks, both of which
render server-side.

Deleted: booth/inline.py entire, wrap_verbatim_html and its six patterns,
_BACK_CHIP, asks_chip, inject_asks, FAVICON_LINK, the styles() macro.

Tests 410 -> 434. tests/test_embed_browser.py drives a real Chromium: the
placement algorithm and the form= binding of a scattered multi-question form
cannot be observed any other way, and that binding was measured rather than
assumed (N=3 per condition, with a form-first positive control and a
points-at-nothing negative control).

Contract: docs/contracts/u3_declared_embed_seam.contract.md, with the
in-session seam review and the cold contract panel both recorded. Two of the
panel's findings were code fixes: a vacuous INV-3 falsifier that a renamed
regex walked straight through, and a bare-substring seam detection that read
a report merely quoting the path as declaring it and silently served it with
no chrome.
 2026-09-22 10:43:41 -07:00
vh 42ea67f33f memory: snapshot — U4 released at v0.4.0, next unit undecided 
Current state rewritten for the post-U4 position: 410 tests, v0.4.0 tagged,
tree not pushed, all three gates closed. Carries the session's U3 recommendation
with its three grounds AND its counter-argument, so the operator can take the
call without reloading the unit.

The methodology-proposals row goes from three to four and is now marked
explicitly untracked by operator choice — the new one is the contract-time
vacuity pass, which is the only one of the four with measured evidence behind
it after five of seven U4 falsifiers turned out not to discriminate.
 2026-09-22 10:06:30 -07:00
vh 8f81d8f9d0 memory: no fleetwide notice for U4, and the measurement caveat it creates 
Operator decision 2026-09-22: no broadcast to the 17 consuming handles. Same
posture as U5 — adoption gets told apart from design because nobody was primed.

The consequence is a measurement one and it needed writing down before it was
lost. U4's two halves have different adoption costs: the hold rides for free
(a session runs `booth ask` and its booth is held, knowing nothing), but NOT
pressing `keep` has to be learned. So a flat `.forever` rate on 2026-10-06 is
exactly what 'the mechanism works and nobody was told' looks like, and reading
it as a falsification would retire a correct diagnosis on an uncontrolled
measurement.

Records the three counts to report instead, and states the sensitivity floor:
only 4 of 24 booths carry marks at all, so the hold can touch at most a sixth
of the fleet and an effect below one or two booths is not resolvable.
 2026-09-22 10:04:51 -07:00
vh c75d7a2797 fix: four defects the U4 bug-hunt panel found in code it did not add 
All four pre-date U4 and sit in files it touched, which is why a diff-scoped
robustness lens saw them. They are separated from the unit's own commit so the
feature history stays readable; the release tags both.

* A booth name reached a JS string context. The confirm dialogs interpolated
  the name into a string literal inside `onsubmit`. Jinja's autoescape is
  HTML-attribute escaping, not JS-string escaping: the browser decodes the
  entity back to a quote before the JS parser sees it, so a name crafted to
  close the string executed on submit. Booth names are agent-authored — making
  a folder under the data dir is the whole API — so this was a live path, not a
  theoretical one. The name now travels as a data attribute to a delegated
  handler, where escaping is escaping.

* An unreadable `links.md` returned 500 for the whole booth page. `is_file()`
  then an unguarded `read_text()`. The board is one tile on that page, and a
  page that will not load is worse than one missing a tile — the posture
  `read_blurred`, `marks_for` and `read_manifest` already take.

* The index order had no tie-breaker, which violates the deterministic-order
  invariant. Equal-mtime booths fell back to whatever `iterdir()` yielded, and
  two booths landed by one `rsync` batch share an mtime exactly. Now
  `(mtime, name)` reverse: newest first, then name. The operator refers to
  cards positionally, so a sequence that moves between renders misfiles his
  judgment rather than crashing.

* `/b/<n>/marks.json` reported damage as empty success. `booth marks` exits 3
  on an unreadable file precisely so a caller can tell "not yet" from "broken";
  the HTTP mirror — the only reader a remote session has — returned the same
  empty list for both. It now carries `error` and `detail`. The status stays
  200 deliberately: reads are lenient here, and a pinned status code is a
  promise to remote clients this fix has no business breaking.

Each has a regression test. 410 tests.
 2026-09-22 09:51:14 -07:00
vh c3a97c1b64 feat(u4): a booth's lifetime is derived from its state, not from a boolean 
`.forever` was the only way to say three different things — "this is durable",
"I have not answered yet", "I am still looking" — and the census said it was
carrying all three: 17 of 24 live booths (70%, up from 54% the day before).
Three of the four booths in the fleet awaiting an answer had been pinned by
hand as well, and 10 of the 17 were younger than the TTL, so the sentinel had
bought them nothing and was pressed pre-emptively.

Only the first meaning is what `keep` means. The other two are facts the
service already held and did not consult.

    KEPT       `.forever` present                      never swept  (unchanged)
    HELD       an open pick, or marks we cannot read   never swept  (new)
    EPHEMERAL  everything else                         24h          (unchanged)

Viewing is activity: a deliberately-served response from a booth's own page
route writes `.viewed`, which is a dotfile and not a `.lock` dotfile, so
`_newest_mtime` already counts it. There is no new arithmetic — `booth_age_seconds`,
`is_expired` and `expires_in` are unchanged. Machine reads are excluded on
purpose: an agent must not be able to hold its own booth open by polling for
the answer it is waiting on.

The hold is unbounded, and what makes that safe is visibility plus two exits
that already existed. Every surface whose chrome the Booth owns says
`held until answered` where the countdown was, and `booth rm` / the UI x /
`DELETE /b/<n>` take a held booth exactly as they take a kept one. A hold is
protection from the timer, never from the operator.

Three cross-frontier panels ran and each found a class the others could not:

  * the paraphrase panel found that two reads of one file are not one read of
    one state — the contract's `is_held(marks_for(c), read_error(c))` could
    resolve to `([], None)`, the pair that deletes. `hold_read` is one read.
  * the code-review panel found, 4-of-4, that the booth header's board branch
    rendered no lifetime at all; and that five of seven invariant tests passed
    under the change that defeats them.
  * the bug-hunt panel found four more paths where a failed read still
    authorized a delete, and a `record_view` that followed a planted symlink.

`is_held` became `hold_reason`, which returns the reason rather than a bool
beside a string that can disagree with it.

Prediction, to re-count on or after 2026-10-06: the `.forever` rate falls to
the booths that are genuinely durable references. Only 4 booths carry marks at
all, so this rests on both halves of the unit; a null result cannot distinguish
a wrong diagnosis from a habit that outlived its need.

406 tests (341 before). Contract: docs/contracts/u4_derived_lifetime.contract.md
 2026-09-22 09:44:25 -07:00
Vuong Hoang d37b81ab9f memory: snapshot — U5 released at v0.3.0, and the index goes two-tier 
The two dated log sections had never been split, so every one of their 29
entries sat inline and the startup index had grown to 372 lines — which is
the cost the two-tier scheme exists to remove, paid on every session that
reads the file. 27 entries were over threshold. All 29 now have a detail
file under persistent-memory.d/ and a one-line index entry that routes
rather than restates. Index: 372 -> 93 lines.

No archival. The soft cap fired, but every entry in this repo is dated
2026-09-21 or later, so the under-14-days guard held all of them back — and
the split alone took the index well under the target without moving
anything out of the active file.

The in-flight section is rewritten for the post-release state: nothing is
in flight, no gate is outstanding, and the next unit is explicitly recorded
as the operator's undecided call rather than as a plan. The session's
recommendation (U4, on three grounds) is written down so it does not have
to be re-derived, alongside the two alternatives and why they are
alternatives.

Two dated predictions are carried forward with their dates and their
instruments: the U5 adoption re-measure on 2026-09-29, which already reads
3 of 24 announced and 2 with a why from peers told nothing, and the
.forever re-count a fortnight AFTER U4 lands, which is U4's own success
criterion and is destroyed by running it early.
 2026-09-22 08:20:51 -07:00
65 changed files with 5578 additions and 883 deletions
Expand all files Collapse all files
CLAUDE.md
+35 -7
View File
@@ -62,8 +62,9 @@ test is the only thing standing here.
No database. `ls ~/booth-data` tells you everything the service knows.
Per-booth operator state is a **dotfile inside the booth**: `.forever` (keep),
`.blurred` (one rel per line), `.marks.json` + `.marks.lock` (judgment), `.pins`
(link-board pin ids), `.uploaded` (upload-booth marker). `booth_items()` skips `name.startswith(".")`, so a new
`.viewed` (last deliberate look — U4's "viewing is activity"), `.blurred` (one
rel per line), `.marks.json` + `.marks.lock` (judgment), `.pins` (link-board pin
ids), `.uploaded` (upload-booth marker). `booth_items()` skips `name.startswith(".")`, so a new
dotfile costs nothing in item counts, galleries or zips. That skip is why the
dotfile is the right shape for new operator state — use it rather than
inventing a sidecar-per-item.
@@ -84,6 +85,12 @@ doing so, never resolved the caption — the operator's "zoomed images lose
their annotations" bug. It was not a rendering bug; it was three readers of one
truth.
**U3 extended this to the verbatim path.** A booth's own `index.html` now gets
its chrome from `/_booth/embed.js`, which *places* server-rendered fragments and
never builds one. The fragments come from the same `_ask_inline.html` macros the
gallery page uses, handed over `/b/<name>/embed.json`. A second renderer in
JavaScript would be the same bug in a new language.
### 4. Re-export, don't move-and-break
Names that moved from `app.py` to `items.py` (`classify`, `doc_kind`,
@@ -121,9 +128,14 @@ the operator's judgment being quietly misfiled.
Current rules: items `sorted(rel)`; the zoom ring is that order filtered to
images; captions resolve over a sorted scan; marks `(created, id)`; legacy
import `(mtime, name)`; link rows pinned-then-newest. `ROADMAP.md` carries the
table and the two places still undecided (U7 sections and compare pairing, U6
bench listing).
import `(mtime, name)`; link rows pinned-then-newest; a verbatim report's embed
anchors in document order, its tail in payload order, its questions in
declaration order. `ROADMAP.md` carries the table and the two places still
undecided (U7 sections and compare pairing, U6 bench listing).
U3's rows are the first that bind **across a language boundary** — decided in
Python, honoured in JavaScript. A string assertion cannot see that, which is
why `tests/test_embed_browser.py` exists.
When you add an ordered surface, state its rule in the docstring. If you cannot
state it in one line, it does not have one.
@@ -178,8 +190,15 @@ one caused an outage.
is that template work needs a restart to see, and that price is the point.
`test_templates_do_not_hot_reload_from_disk` holds the line.
**So: after ANY edit here — Python or template — the live service is stale until
you restart it.** If you are touching this repo while the operator may be using
3. **`booth/static/embed.js` is the third thing that would have hot-reloaded,
and it does not.** U3 gave the service a static asset living in the
deployment root; it is read ONCE in `create_app` and served from memory with
an ETag over its content, for exactly the reason above. Same rule, same test
shape (`test_embed_js_does_not_hot_reload_from_disk`). Anything else this
repo learns to serve from disk inherits the rule — read it at startup.
**So: after ANY edit here — Python, template or static asset — the live service
is stale until you restart it.** If you are touching this repo while the operator may be using
the service, either restart promptly or expect him to be looking at the old
version. Never leave the tree in a state where a restart would 500.
@@ -196,6 +215,15 @@ curl -s localhost:8090/healthz # the live service (systemd --user)
systemctl --user restart booth.service # after a code change, to see it live
```
`tests/test_embed_browser.py` drives a real Chromium against a real uvicorn on
an ephemeral port — the only place U3's placement and `form=` binding can be
observed at all. Browsers are NOT downloaded per project; they live box-wide in
`/opt/ms-playwright`. The file **skips rather than fails** when playwright or a
usable browser is missing, so the suite stays green anywhere. If those tests
start skipping on this box, the pinned `playwright>=1.60,<1.63` in
`pyproject.toml` has drifted past the shared store — read the comment there
before raising the bound.
`booth.service` is a user unit installed to `~/.config/systemd/user/`. The repo
copy is the source; edits there need a `daemon-reload`.
README.md
+48 -7
View File
@@ -15,7 +15,9 @@ filesystem *is* the state.
- **Live:** http://10.100.10.50:8090/ (nh3-dev) · linked from Homepage → *Apps → The Booth*
- **Data dir:** `~/booth-data/` on nh3-dev (one subfolder per booth)
- **TTL:** 24h, measured from the newest mtime in a booth's tree (it lives while
you're touching it, self-destructs 24h after you stop)
you're touching it, self-destructs 24h after you stop). Two things hold a booth
open past that: the `.forever` sentinel, and **an unanswered question** — see
*Lifetime* below. **Opening a booth page is activity**; polling it is not.
## How a session posts
@@ -159,7 +161,46 @@ is exactly why the direct `×` was worth adding.
an ephemeral booth could only be kept from a shell. The `/keep` route and the
CLI verb both already existed; only the button was missing.
## Kept boards — the one exception to the 24h rule
## Lifetime — derived, not declared
A booth is in exactly one of three states, and only the first is a button you
press:
| state | what puts it there | swept? |
|---|---|---|
| **kept** | you pressed `keep` / dropped `.forever` | never |
| **held** | an **unanswered pick**, or a `.marks.json` the service cannot read | not while that holds |
| **ephemeral** | everything else | 24h after the last activity |
**An open question holds its own booth.** A session that runs `booth ask` does
not also need to `keep` the booth — the booth cannot be swept while the operator
still owes it an answer, and it is released automatically when he answers. A
*partially* answered multi-question pick still counts as open, so a review in
flight is never swept out from under him. The index card and the booth header
say `held until answered` where the countdown would be, so a booth that has
stopped counting down always tells you why.
**Viewing is activity.** A deliberate GET of a booth's own page — the gallery, a
verbatim report, the zoom view, the marks page, a zip download — resets the
clock. If the operator is still looking at it, it is still alive. Browsing the
index does **not** count, and neither does a session polling `marks.json` or
`booth marks --wait`: machine reads are deliberately excluded, so an agent
cannot hold its own booth open by waiting on it.
**A held booth is still yours to delete.** The hold is protection from the
timer, never from you: `booth rm`, the UI ×, and `DELETE /b/<name>` all work
exactly as before. `sweep_once` is the only thing that honours a hold, exactly
as it is the only thing that honours `.forever`.
**Why this exists:** `.forever` used to be the only way to say three different
things — "this is durable", "I haven't answered yet", and "I'm still looking at
it" — and the measurement showed it carrying all three. On 2026-09-22, 17 of 24
live booths (70%) held the sentinel, up from 54% the day before; three of the
four booths in the fleet awaiting an answer had been pinned by hand as well.
Only the first meaning is what `keep` means. The other two the service already
knew and did not consult.
### Kept boards — the explicit pin
A booth containing a **`.forever`** dotfile is **never swept**, and renders in
its own **Kept** lane at the top of the index (blue top edge, `★ kept` badge, no
@@ -168,6 +209,7 @@ still ephemeral, so nobody inherits a cleanup chore they didn't ask for.
```bash
booth keep my-board # drop the sentinel — exempt from the sweep, forever
# (NOT for "waiting on an answer" — the pick holds it)
booth unkeep my-board # release the pin — the board rejoins the sweep
booth rm my-board # delete it NOW (works on kept boards; says so when it was kept)
@@ -438,11 +480,10 @@ wipe it from there. Release is reversible — press keep again and nothing was
lost. From the CLI, `booth rm <name>` deletes a kept board immediately and
tells you it was kept.
**Do not "unkeep and let it expire."** Removing the sentinel *bumps the booth
directory's mtime*, and a booth's age is the newest mtime in its tree — so a
released board's clock **resets** and it survives another full TTL.
Unkeep-and-wait is a 24-hour delay, not a delete. Use the × or `booth rm` when
you mean now.
**Do not "unkeep and let it expire."** **Releasing a board is activity** — you
just touched it — so a released board's clock **resets** and it survives another
full TTL. Unkeep-and-wait is a 24-hour delay, not a delete. Use the × or
`booth rm` when you mean now.
## Ops
ROADMAP.md
+20 -5
View File
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
# The Booth — roadmap
Design: [`docs/design/information-architecture.md`](docs/design/information-architecture.md).
Current version: `0.3.0` (U1, U2 and U5 landed; extracted from eshpfi 2026-09-21).
Current version: `0.5.0` (U1, U2, U3, U4 and U5 landed; extracted from eshpfi 2026-09-21).
## v1 target
@@ -12,8 +12,8 @@ defect — not a wish. The measurements are in the IA doc.
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ~~**One item record**~~ — **landed `ce598b3`** | captions never reach the zoom view (never sent, not lost) | U1 |
| 2 | ~~**Marks**~~ — **landed `c7f9437`, released `v0.2.0`** | 5 mechanisms for 1 job; operator→session loop runs through chat | U2 |
| 3 | **Declared embed seam** — `/_booth/embed.js`, chrome mounts via DOM | 6 regexes injected into arbitrary author HTML, load-bearing for asks | U3 |
| 4 | **Derived lifetime** — open marks pin; viewing is activity | 54% of booths on the `.forever` escape hatch | U4 |
| 3 | ~~**Declared embed seam**~~ — **landed `87e2c53`, released `v0.5.0`** | 6 regexes injected into arbitrary author HTML, load-bearing for asks | U3 |
| 4 | ~~**Derived lifetime**~~ — **landed `c3a97c1`, released `v0.4.0`** | 70% of booths on the `.forever` escape hatch (54% when first counted) | U4 |
| 5 | ~~**Self-announcing booths**~~ — **landed `c015a91`, released `v0.3.0`** | job 5 had no home, so it lived on the link board as 145 dead rows | U5 |
| 6 | **Benches** — registry, identity, enforced rule, migration | 69% link-board rot; the same bench posted 5× | U6 |
| 7 | **Navigation at 270 items** — sections, rail, filters, grid keyboard | one flat wall; subfolder structure discarded at render | U7 |
@@ -22,8 +22,10 @@ Ordering is dependency-driven, not priority-driven: **U1 → U2 → {U3, U4, U5}
U7**, with **U6 independent** of all of them (different storage, different
surface) and therefore the safest thing to land first or in parallel.
**U1, U2 and U5 are landed.** U3 and U4 are unblocked and unstarted; U6 remains
independent and unstarted; U7 waits on the rest.
**U1, U2, U3, U4 and U5 are landed — the whole middle tier is closed.** U6
remains independent and unstarted; **U7 is now unblocked**, since its only
dependency was `{U3, U4, U5}`. Two units left to v1, and they do not depend on
each other, so either can go next.
**U5's adoption is a measured prediction, not a finished result**, and it is
TWO predictions rather than one. The operator declined a fleetwide announcement
@@ -73,6 +75,19 @@ Where it already binds, and what the rule is in each case:
| legacy ask import | `(mtime, name)`, which is the order `list_asks` gave them |
| link board rows | pinned first, then newest-first |
| a booth's announcement | not a collection — one flat record per booth, nothing to order (U5) |
| embed anchors in a verbatim report | **document order** — what `querySelectorAll` yields, so the author's markup decides (U3) |
| the embed tail (fragments the author did not place) | **payload order**, which is the marks order `(created, id)` — one rule, whether a fragment lands at an anchor or at the end (U3) |
| questions within a pick | declaration order, in the payload's `questions` LIST — carried by the format rather than by object-key insertion order (U3) |
U3's three rows are the first case where the rule binds across a language
boundary: the order is decided in Python and honoured in JavaScript, and a
browser test asserts it rather than a string assertion that could not see it.
U4 added no ordered collection — a booth's lifetime is one state per booth,
not a sequence — so the rule above did not need a new row. The three lifetime
surfaces (index card, booth header, marks page) render through ONE macro
precisely so they cannot disagree, which is the same property stated for
ordering: one rule, one place, every surface reading it.
Where it is still to be decided, and must be before the unit ships: **U7's
section ordering and its compare pairing** (sections need a stated order among
booth/app.py
+500 -206
View File
@@ -7,15 +7,26 @@ Model (deliberately dead-simple, no database):
* GET /b/<name>/ -> if <name>/index.html exists, serve it verbatim; otherwise
auto-render a gallery of the images / webm-videos / audio in it.
* GET /b/<name>/<file> -> serve a file out of the booth (also feeds a custom index.html's assets).
* 24h TTL: a background sweeper wipes any booth untouched for TTL hours. A booth's
age is measured from the *newest* mtime in its tree, so it lives while it's being
worked on and self-destructs TTL hours after the last activity.
* KEPT BOOTHS: a booth containing the KEEP_MARKER dotfile (`.forever`) is exempt
from the sweep and renders in its own lane above the ephemeral grid. That is the
home for durable operator-facing boards — chiefly the standing link board agent
sessions post to, whose whole purpose is to survive longer than the scrollback
it replaces. Opt-in per booth, so the ephemeral default is unchanged and nobody
inherits a cleanup chore; `rm` the sentinel and the booth rejoins the sweep.
* LIFETIME IS DERIVED, not set by a boolean (U4). Three states, and `sweep_once`
is the only thing that honours the first two:
KEPT `.forever` present. Never swept, own lane at the top of the index.
Durable operator-facing boards — chiefly the standing link board,
whose whole purpose is to outlive the scrollback it replaces.
HELD an open pick in `.marks.json`, or marks that cannot be read at all.
A booth the operator still owes an answer to is not the sweeper's
to take, and one whose judgment we failed to READ is certainly not.
EPHEMERAL everything else: wiped TTL hours after the last activity. Age is the
*newest* mtime in the tree, so a booth lives while it is being
worked on and self-destructs once it stops.
* VIEWING IS ACTIVITY. A deliberate GET of a booth's own page writes VIEW_MARKER,
which the age rule already counts — if the operator is still looking at it, it
is still alive. Browsing the index is not a view, and neither is a session
polling `marks.json`: an agent must not be able to hold its own booth open.
* WHY DERIVED. `.forever` was the ONLY way to say three different things, and the
measurement showed it carrying all of them — 17 of 24 live booths on 2026-09-22
(70%, up from 54%), with three of the four booths awaiting an answer ALSO pinned
by hand. Only "this is durable" is what keep means. The other two are facts the
service already held and did not consult.
State is the filesystem — `ls ~/booth-data` tells you everything. That is the whole point.
"""
@@ -33,7 +44,9 @@ import shutil
import time
import zipfile
from contextlib import asynccontextmanager
from dataclasses import replace
from pathlib import Path
from typing import Sequence
from urllib.parse import quote, unquote
from fastapi import FastAPI, File, Form, HTTPException, Request, UploadFile
@@ -85,6 +98,14 @@ from booth.items import ( # noqa: E402,F401
# flag to remember, no state anywhere but the filesystem.
KEEP_MARKER = ".forever"
# Records the last deliberate look at a booth (U4). A dotfile for the same two
# reasons KEEP_MARKER is one — `booth_items` and `zip_booth` skip it, so it
# costs nothing in counts, galleries or zips — and NOT a `.lock` dotfile, so
# `_newest_mtime` COUNTS it and the existing age rule picks the view up with no
# new arithmetic. That is the whole integration: a view is one more thing in
# the tree, not a second term in the formula.
VIEW_MARKER = ".viewed"
# ⚠⚠ BLUR IS COSMETIC, NOT ACCESS CONTROL. The file is still served at its own
# URL, still in the zip, still on disk. This hides an item from a glance — a
# shoulder, a screen-share, a scroll past something you did not want to see
@@ -124,23 +145,20 @@ from booth.asks import ( # noqa: E402
)
from booth.marks import ( # noqa: E402
MARKS_FILE,
Mark,
MarksCorrupt,
answer_pick,
as_dict,
declare_pick,
delete_mark,
import_legacy_asks,
hold_read,
marks_for,
marks_for_target,
open_marks,
set_flag,
write_note,
)
from booth.inline import ( # noqa: E402
form_id as ask_form_id,
has_placeholders,
place as place_asks,
)
from booth.manifest import ( # noqa: E402
MANIFEST_FILE,
SERVICE_HANDLE,
@@ -189,18 +207,34 @@ def _newest_mtime(path: Path) -> float:
gets its clock counted. Everything else counts too, dotfiles included,
because `.marks.json`, `.blurred` and `.pins` are the operator doing
something.
⚠ A STAT WE CANNOT DO READS AS *FRESH*, NEVER AS EPOCH-OLD. This function
feeds `is_expired`, which feeds `rmtree`. Returning 0.0 for a booth whose
own stat fails made it maximally ancient and therefore the FIRST thing the
sweeper takes — a permissions or ELOOP problem resolving to a deletion. The
bug-hunt panel found this as one of four paths into the same shape. Not
knowing a booth's age is a reason to leave it alone.
`FileNotFoundError` on an entry is the exception, and it stays a skip: a
dangling symlink and a file removed mid-scan both raise it, and neither is
a thing with an mtime worth counting. Any OTHER per-entry OSError means we
could not read something that IS there, so the age is unknowable and the
booth reads as fresh.
"""
now = time.time()
try:
newest = path.stat().st_mtime
except OSError:
return 0.0
return now
for p in path.rglob("*"):
if p.name.startswith(".") and p.name.endswith(".lock"):
continue
try:
m = p.stat().st_mtime
except FileNotFoundError:
continue # dangling symlink, or gone mid-scan
except OSError:
continue
return now # cannot read it — cannot judge the age
if m > newest:
newest = m
return newest
@@ -222,8 +256,102 @@ def is_expired(path: Path, ttl_seconds: float, now: float | None = None) -> bool
def is_kept(path: Path) -> bool:
"""True if this booth carries the keep sentinel and must never be swept."""
return (path / KEEP_MARKER).exists()
"""True if this booth carries the keep sentinel and must never be swept.
`lstat`, not `Path.exists()`, and an unreadable answer counts as KEPT. The
old form collapsed ELOOP and EACCES into False, so a kept booth whose
sentinel could not be stat'd became eligible for the sweep — a failed read
authorizing a delete, which is the shape the bug-hunt panel found four ways
into. `lstat` also means a `.forever` SYMLINK counts, dangling or not:
somebody put it there to mean keep.
"""
try:
(path / KEEP_MARKER).lstat()
return True
except FileNotFoundError:
return False
except OSError:
return True
def record_view(booth: Path) -> None:
"""Note that somebody deliberately looked at this booth (U4).
Touches VIEW_MARKER and lets `_newest_mtime` do the rest — a view enters
the age rule as a file in the tree, not as a new term in the arithmetic.
NEVER RAISES. A read-only mount, a booth owned by another uid, a full disk,
a booth deleted between the route's resolve and this call: every one of
those costs the timestamp, not the page. The same trade `_Locked.__enter__`
makes on its `os.utime`, and for the same stated reason — not recording the
look is a cost this service can absorb, not answering the request is not.
A booth whose view cannot be recorded simply ages on its content mtime,
which is what every booth did before this existed.
"""
# O_NOFOLLOW, not `Path.touch()`. `touch` on an existing symlink follows it,
# so a booth carrying a planted `.viewed -> /anywhere` turned EVERY page
# view into an mtime write at an arbitrary path under the service uid — and
# any fleet session can write into a booth, because making a folder is the
# whole API. Three of four bug-hunt arms found it independently. A symlink
# here now raises ELOOP into the swallow below: view-recording quietly stops
# for that booth, which is the right way to lose this argument.
#
# O_CREAT alone does not move the mtime of a file that already exists, so
# the utime is not decoration: the marker must read as NOW or the whole
# mechanism is a file nobody's clock looks at.
try:
fd = os.open(booth / VIEW_MARKER,
os.O_WRONLY | os.O_CREAT | os.O_NOFOLLOW, 0o644)
try:
os.utime(fd)
finally:
os.close(fd)
except OSError:
pass
HOLD_UNREADABLE = "unreadable"
HOLD_OPEN = "open"
def hold_reason(marks: Sequence[Mark], error: str | None) -> str | None:
"""WHY this booth must not be swept, or None if it may be. THE hold predicate.
Returns a reason rather than a bool so the surface that has to say why can
read it off the same value the sweeper acts on. A boolean plus a separate
error string is two representations of one state, and they drift.
PURE — it takes the result of a read and does none of its own, so the index
card and the sweeper cannot answer differently about the same booth. That is
U1's rule (one resolver, every surface reads the record) applied to lifetime.
FAIL-SAFE ON BOTH LEVELS OF DAMAGE, which is the correction the bug-hunt
panel forced (2026-09-22). `marks_for` is lenient because a review page that
will not load is worse than one missing an annotation — the right trade for
a RENDER and the wrong one for a DELETE, where the same leniency wipes the
booth whose judgment we had just failed to read, artifacts and all. The
first cut of this caught FILE-level damage only:
* file-level — `.marks.json` will not parse at all. `hold_read` reports it.
* ENTRY-level — the document parses, but one mark fails normalization and
`_hydrate_safe` hands back a `Mark` carrying `error`. `_is_open` returns
False for an errored pick, ON PURPOSE (a broken pick can never be
answered; the CLI spells that exit code 4) — so such a booth read as
`not held` and SWEPT, while the panel beside it rendered the broken mark
in full. Four arms found four ways into that shape; this was the worst.
A mark that cannot be read is judgment we cannot see. Deleting the booth it
belongs to is the one thing we must not do with it.
Openness itself is `open_marks` and nothing else (U2 INV-2): a partially
answered pick is STILL open and still holds, which is the reading that
makes this rule correct rather than one that sweeps a review in flight.
"""
if error is not None or any(m.error is not None for m in marks):
return HOLD_UNREADABLE
if open_marks(marks):
return HOLD_OPEN
return None
def sweep_once(data_dir: Path, ttl_seconds: float, now: float | None = None) -> list[str]:
@@ -232,10 +360,25 @@ def sweep_once(data_dir: Path, ttl_seconds: float, now: float | None = None) ->
Only ever removes direct children of data_dir (never data_dir itself), and
skips dotfolders so a stray control dir can opt out.
TWO exemptions, and this is the only function that honours either.
A booth carrying KEEP_MARKER is exempt no matter how stale it is. That is
the one escape hatch from the 24h contract, and it is opt-in per booth: the
default stays ephemeral, so nobody inherits a cleanup chore they did not ask
for. Removing the sentinel hands the booth straight back to the sweeper.
the explicit escape hatch, opt-in per booth: the default stays ephemeral, so
nobody inherits a cleanup chore they did not ask for. Removing the sentinel
hands the booth straight back to the sweeper.
A booth that is HELD — an open pick, or marks we cannot read — is exempt for
as long as that holds (U4). This is the derived half: the operator was
pressing `.forever` to mean "not yet" because nothing else could say it, and
the service already knew. 17 of 24 live booths carried the sentinel on
2026-09-22, and three of the four booths in the fleet awaiting an answer
carried it too — the "not yet" case, caught in the act.
Reading the marks costs ONE strict read per booth per tick — `hold_read`,
which answers both halves of the hold question at once. It is deliberately
not two calls: two reads of one file are not one read of one state, and the
pair that loses that race is the pair that deletes. Do not "optimize" this
back into `marks_for` plus `read_error`.
"""
wiped: list[str] = []
if not data_dir.is_dir():
@@ -246,6 +389,8 @@ def sweep_once(data_dir: Path, ttl_seconds: float, now: float | None = None) ->
try:
if is_kept(child):
continue
if hold_reason(*hold_read(child)): # ONE read — see hold_read
continue
if is_expired(child, ttl_seconds, now):
shutil.rmtree(child)
wiped.append(child.name)
@@ -278,7 +423,20 @@ def list_booths(data_dir: Path, ttl_seconds: float, now: float | None = None) ->
# flag a booth that is waiting on the operator. ONE file read per booth
# — which is why marks live in one file per booth rather than a sidecar
# per mark. This loop runs on every index page load.
marks = marks_for(child)
# ONE read for BOTH the badge and the lifetime decision. It has to be
# one: `marks_for` is lenient, so an unreadable `.marks.json` reads as
# no marks — fine for a card, wrong for the reaper, which would then
# delete the booth whose judgment it had just failed to read. And
# asking the two questions with two reads is not one read of one state:
# a write landing between them yields `([], None)`, the pair that
# deletes. `hold_read` answers both from one read; the lenient reader
# comes back only on the error path, where leniency is the point.
held_marks, read_err = hold_read(child)
# The DECISION comes from that one read and nothing else. The lenient
# re-read below is for DISPLAY only — feeding it back into the predicate
# would rebuild the two-read seam this call exists to close.
hold = hold_reason(held_marks, read_err)
marks = held_marks if read_err is None else marks_for(child)
# The booth's own announcement — who posted it and why. One more small
# read per booth, beside the marks read already here, and `read_manifest`
# cannot raise for the same reason `marks_for` must not: this loop runs
@@ -314,11 +472,23 @@ def list_booths(data_dir: Path, ttl_seconds: float, now: float | None = None) ->
# tested `answer is None`, so a half-answered pick read as closed
# here while the panel beside it rendered `◐ partial`.
"marks_open": len(open_marks(marks)),
# U4: WHY this booth is or is not counting down. The card must
# never just stop the clock silently — `.forever` was at least
# visible as a lane, and an invisible rule would be worse than
# the boolean it replaces.
# WHY it is or is not counting down — the reason, not a bool
# beside a string that can disagree with it.
"hold": hold,
"expires_in": max(0.0, ttl_seconds - (now - mtime)),
"mtime": mtime,
}
)
booths.sort(key=lambda b: b["mtime"], reverse=True)
# Newest first, NAME as the tie-break. Sorting on mtime alone left equal-mtime
# booths ordered by whatever `iterdir()` yielded, which is not a rule — and
# invariant 6 is not "usually stable", it is a sentence you can write down.
# Two booths created by one `rsync` batch share an mtime exactly, and the
# operator refers to cards positionally.
booths.sort(key=lambda b: (b["mtime"], b["name"]), reverse=True)
return booths
@@ -371,119 +541,91 @@ def _zip_filename(name: str) -> str:
return f"{safe or 'booth'}.zip"
# ---- verbatim-index.html wrapper -------------------------------------------
# ---- the declared embed seam (U3) ------------------------------------------
# Mirror of base.html's favicon (the app templates set it there; this is the copy
# injected into a booth's *verbatim* index.html so a raw page inherits the same
# icon). Keep the two in sync if the Booth's icon ever changes.
# Mirror of base.html's favicon. The app templates set it there; this copy is
# what `/b/<name>/embed.json` hands to a VERBATIM report, so a raw page inherits
# the same icon. Keep the two in sync if the Booth's icon ever changes.
FAVICON_HREF = (
"data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 32 32'"
"%3E%3Crect width='32' height='32' rx='7' fill='%23171a23'/%3E%3Ccircle cx='16' "
"cy='16' r='6' fill='none' stroke='%2342dcd1' stroke-width='2.5'/%3E%3Ccircle "
"cx='16' cy='16' r='2.2' fill='%2342dcd1'/%3E%3C/svg%3E"
)
FAVICON_LINK = f'<link rel="icon" href="{FAVICON_HREF}">'
# A self-contained floating "back to all booths" chip injected into verbatim
# booths. Scoped class + fixed positioning + max z-index so it overlays the raw
# page without touching its layout; hidden in print so downloaded reports stay clean.
_BACK_CHIP = (
'<a href="/" class="booth-nav-home" aria-label="back to all booths">‹ all booths</a>'
# top-right: empty on left-aligned report layouts (a top-left chip clips the
# page title), and consistent with the zoom view's top-right back affordance.
"<style>.booth-nav-home{position:fixed;top:0;right:0;z-index:2147483647;"
"display:inline-block;margin:.6rem;padding:.34rem .72rem;"
"font:600 13px/1.25 ui-sans-serif,system-ui,-apple-system,'Segoe UI',Roboto,sans-serif;"
"color:#dfe7ef;text-decoration:none;letter-spacing:.01em;"
"background:rgba(20,23,32,.82);border:1px solid rgba(66,220,209,.35);border-radius:8px;"
"-webkit-backdrop-filter:blur(6px);backdrop-filter:blur(6px);"
"box-shadow:0 2px 10px rgba(0,0,0,.35);transition:background .18s,border-color .18s}"
".booth-nav-home:hover{background:rgba(28,33,46,.95);border-color:rgba(66,220,209,.75)}"
"@media print{.booth-nav-home{display:none}}</style>"
)
# The seam a verbatim report declares to get the Booth's chrome. ONE line, and
# the Booth appends it only when the page has not declared it itself.
EMBED_SRC = "/_booth/embed.js"
EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG = f'<script src="{EMBED_SRC}" defer></script>'
EMBED_JS_PATH = Path(__file__).parent / "static" / "embed.js"
# A booth's own index.html is served VERBATIM, so the asks panel — which lives in
# the auto-gallery template — can never appear on it. Without this chip an ask
# posted into a custom-report booth is INVISIBLE to the operator with nothing to
# say so (found 2026-09-09 on `emmie-anchor`: valid ask, CLI listed it, page
# showed nothing). Same injection mechanism as the back chip; it links to the
# standalone /asks page, which renders the real forms.
def asks_chip(name: str, open_count: int, href: str | None = None) -> str:
if open_count < 1:
return ""
label = f"? {open_count} open ask" + ("" if open_count == 1 else "s")
href = href or f"/b/{quote(name, safe='')}/asks"
return (
f'<a href="{href}" class="booth-nav-asks">{label}</a>'
"<style>.booth-nav-asks{position:fixed;top:0;right:7.2rem;z-index:2147483647;"
"display:inline-block;margin:.6rem;padding:.34rem .72rem;"
"font:700 13px/1.25 ui-sans-serif,system-ui,-apple-system,'Segoe UI',Roboto,sans-serif;"
"color:#171a23;text-decoration:none;letter-spacing:.01em;"
"background:#ffe14e;border:1px solid #ffe14e;border-radius:8px;"
"box-shadow:0 2px 10px rgba(0,0,0,.35);transition:filter .18s}"
".booth-nav-asks:hover{filter:brightness(1.08)}"
"@media print{.booth-nav-asks{display:none}}</style>"
)
# What counts as DECLARING the seam. Two substring tests, one per quote style,
# and each requires `src=` immediately before the path.
#
# The bare path was the first draft and it was wrong in the dangerous
# direction. A report that merely MENTIONS `/_booth/embed.js` — in a code
# sample, a comment, a sentence about this very feature — would have been read
# as declaring it, served untouched, and silently shown no chrome at all. The
# Booth's own design reports are exactly the pages that would quote it.
#
# These tests fail in the harmless direction instead. An unusual spelling
# (`src = "…"` with spaces, an unquoted attribute, a `?v=2` suffix) is read as
# NOT declared, so a second tag is appended — and embed.js mounts once
# regardless, because it guards on `window.__boothEmbed`. A missed declaration
# costs a duplicate tag; a false one costs the operator his chrome.
_EMBED_DECLARATIONS = (f'src="{EMBED_SRC}"', f"src='{EMBED_SRC}'")
WRAP_MAX_BYTES = 8 * 1024 * 1024 # above this, serve the verbatim page raw
WRAP_MAX_BYTES = 8 * 1024 * 1024 # above this, serve the verbatim page raw (unwrapped)
def declares_embed(html: str) -> bool:
"""Whether a verbatim page already asks for the Booth's chrome.
_ICON_RE = re.compile(r"<link\b[^>]*\brel\s*=\s*[\"']?[^\"'>]*icon", re.IGNORECASE)
_HEAD_CLOSE_RE = re.compile(r"</head\s*>", re.IGNORECASE)
_HTML_OPEN_RE = re.compile(r"<html\b[^>]*>", re.IGNORECASE)
_DOCTYPE_RE = re.compile(r"<!doctype[^>]*>", re.IGNORECASE)
_BODY_CLOSE_RE = re.compile(r"</body\s*>", re.IGNORECASE)
_HTML_CLOSE_RE = re.compile(r"</html\s*>", re.IGNORECASE)
def _insert_before(html: str, pattern: re.Pattern, snippet: str) -> tuple[str, bool]:
m = pattern.search(html)
if m:
return html[: m.start()] + snippet + html[m.start() :], True
return html, False
def _insert_after(html: str, pattern: re.Pattern, snippet: str) -> tuple[str, bool]:
m = pattern.search(html)
if m:
return html[: m.end()] + snippet + html[m.end() :], True
return html, False
def wrap_verbatim_html(html: str, favicon_link: str = FAVICON_LINK, extra: str = "") -> str:
"""Inject a floating 'all booths' back-chip — and the Booth favicon, if the page
declares none — into a booth's verbatim index.html, without altering the page's
rendered content.
Robust to the compact HTML real booths use (`<!doctype html><meta charset><title>
<style>…content`, no explicit head/body). The two hard constraints:
* NEVER put anything ahead of a leading <!doctype> — that forces quirks mode.
* Keep the charset <meta> within the first 1024 bytes so it's still honoured.
So the favicon lands at the first head-ish seam (before </head>, else after
<html>, else right after the doctype — a ~250B link keeps charset in range), and
the fixed-position chip is appended at the END of the document (before </body> /
</html> or appended), which renders top-left regardless and disturbs nothing.
TWO SUBSTRING TESTS. This is the entire detection half of what used to be
six regular expressions run against arbitrary author HTML — and the other
half, the insertion, is a `+`. See `_EMBED_DECLARATIONS` for why it matches
`src="…"` rather than the bare path: both spellings fail toward appending a
harmless duplicate rather than toward silently withholding the chrome.
"""
if favicon_link and not _ICON_RE.search(html):
for inserter, pat in (
(_insert_before, _HEAD_CLOSE_RE), # inside an explicit <head>
(_insert_after, _HTML_OPEN_RE), # top of an explicit <html>
(_insert_after, _DOCTYPE_RE), # right after the doctype (compact HTML)
):
html, done = inserter(html, pat, favicon_link)
if done:
break
else:
html = favicon_link + html # bare fragment, no doctype: safe to prepend
return any(d in html for d in _EMBED_DECLARATIONS)
chips = _BACK_CHIP + (extra or "")
for pat in (_BODY_CLOSE_RE, _HTML_CLOSE_RE):
html, done = _insert_before(html, pat, chips)
if done:
break
else:
html = html + chips # no </body>/</html>: append to the end
return html
def embed_verbatim(raw: bytes) -> bytes:
"""The ONLY thing the Booth does to a verbatim report. BYTES IN, BYTES OUT.
Appended, never inserted, and never prepended. That is what retires both of
the old wrapper's hard constraints rather than satisfying them more
carefully: nothing can displace a leading doctype into quirks mode and
nothing can push the charset <meta> out of its first-1024-byte detection
window, because nothing in front of them moves. Content after `</html>` is
parsed into the body by every browser, so there is no seam to find.
⚠ IT TAKES BYTES BECAUSE TEXT WAS QUIETLY EDITING THE DOCUMENT. The first
version read the file with `read_text()` and returned a str. That opens in
UNIVERSAL-NEWLINE mode, so a report written with CRLF came back with LF —
and `errors="replace"` turned any byte that was not valid UTF-8 into U+FFFD.
A declaring page was therefore NOT served as its author wrote it, which is
this unit's headline promise, and the test could not see it because its
fixture was LF-only ASCII. Found by a cross-frontier bug-hunt panel.
Decoding still happens — `declares_embed` needs a string to look in — but
the decoded copy is used ONLY to answer that question. What goes on the wire
is the original bytes, plus the tag's bytes when it is appended, so the
source is a byte-exact prefix of the response.
"""
text = raw.decode("utf-8", errors="replace")
return raw if declares_embed(text) else raw + EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG.encode("utf-8")
def ask_form_id(stem: str) -> str:
"""The shared `<form>` id a pick's scattered question groups bind to with
the HTML5 `form=` attribute.
Moved here from `booth/inline.py` when U3 deleted that module: it is not
placement machinery, it is what makes four radio groups spread down a report
submit as ONE POST, which is what a multi-question ask requires.
"""
return f"bk-ask-form-{re.sub(r'[^A-Za-z0-9_-]', '-', stem)}"
# ---- uploads (browser drop-off for pickup) ---------------------------------
@@ -591,6 +733,13 @@ def create_app(
env.filters["dur"] = human_dur
templates = Jinja2Templates(env=env)
# embed.js IS READ ONCE, HERE, for exactly the reason above. It is the third
# kind of thing this repo serves, and the only one that would otherwise be
# free to hot-reload from the deployment root — which is the skew that put
# 19 of 25 booths at 500. One rule: nothing takes effect until you restart.
embed_js = EMBED_JS_PATH.read_text(encoding="utf-8")
embed_etag = '"%s"' % hashlib.sha256(embed_js.encode("utf-8")).hexdigest()[:16]
@asynccontextmanager
async def lifespan(app: FastAPI):
task = None
@@ -681,6 +830,20 @@ def create_app(
def healthz():
return {"ok": True, "ttl_hours": ttl_hours, "booths": len(list_booths(data_dir, ttl_seconds))}
@app.get(EMBED_SRC)
def embed_script():
"""The declared seam's one static asset.
Served from the startup read, with an ETag over its content so a
browser revalidates instead of holding a stale copy across a restart —
`no-cache` here means "ask me", not "do not store".
"""
return Response(
content=embed_js,
media_type="text/javascript; charset=utf-8",
headers={"ETag": embed_etag, "Cache-Control": "no-cache"},
)
@app.get("/b/{name}", include_in_schema=False)
def booth_redirect(name: str):
resolve_booth(name)
@@ -689,6 +852,10 @@ def create_app(
@app.get("/b/{name}/", response_class=HTMLResponse)
def booth_view(request: Request, name: str, download: int = 0):
booth = resolve_booth(name)
# U4: viewing is activity. ABOVE both early returns — the zip download
# and the verbatim-index.html branch are looks at this booth too, and a
# verbatim report is the shape the operator stares at longest.
record_view(booth)
if download:
# whole-booth zip — the download path for a verbatim index.html booth
# (which has no gallery/per-file chrome), and a "download all" for any.
@@ -699,18 +866,20 @@ def create_app(
)
own_index = booth / "index.html"
if own_index.is_file():
# Serve the operator's verbatim report, but inject a floating
# back-to-booths chip + the Booth favicon (if it declares none) so a
# raw page still has a way home. Small HTML -> read + wrap in memory;
# a pathological large file falls back to serving raw, unwrapped.
# The operator's verbatim report. U3: the page declares the seam and
# the Booth mounts into it — so a page carrying the script tag is
# served exactly as written, and one that is not gets that single
# line appended. Nothing is parsed, matched or inserted.
#
# The read is still bounded: a pathological file falls back to
# serving raw, which costs it the chrome exactly as it did before.
try:
if own_index.stat().st_size <= WRAP_MAX_BYTES:
raw = own_index.read_text(encoding="utf-8", errors="replace")
# Asks render INLINE, where the report author put them (or
# appended, if they marked nothing) — a question about an
# artifact belongs beside that artifact, not on another page.
body, tail = inject_asks(name, booth, raw)
return HTMLResponse(wrap_verbatim_html(body, extra=tail))
# ONE read, and it is a byte read: see embed_verbatim.
return Response(
content=embed_verbatim(own_index.read_bytes()),
media_type="text/html; charset=utf-8",
)
except OSError:
pass
return FileResponse(str(own_index), media_type="text/html")
@@ -721,7 +890,9 @@ def create_app(
it for it in build_gallery(booth)
if not ((booth / LINKS_FILE).is_file() and it["name"] == LINKS_FILE)
]
marks = marks_for(booth)
held_marks, read_err = hold_read(booth) # ONE read; see list_booths
hold = hold_reason(held_marks, read_err)
marks = held_marks if read_err is None else marks_for(booth)
return templates.TemplateResponse(
request,
"booth.html",
@@ -739,13 +910,13 @@ def create_app(
# Ordered pinned-first then newest-first, each row stamped with a
# `pinned` flag. Empty list for every other booth, so the template
# branch simply does not fire.
"board": (
order_for_display(
parse_link_entries((booth / LINKS_FILE).read_text()),
read_pins(booth),
)
if (booth / LINKS_FILE).is_file() else []
),
# `is_file()` then an UNGUARDED read was a 500 waiting on a
# mode change or an EIO: the board is one tile on this page, and
# a page that will not load is worse than one missing a tile —
# the same posture `read_blurred`, `marks_for` and
# `read_manifest` already take. A booth whose `links.md` cannot
# be read renders as a booth with no board.
"board": _board_rows(booth),
# Marks: operator judgment attached to this booth or to one of
# its items — a session's question (`pick`), the operator's own
# remark (`note`), the operator's selection (`flag`). Rendered
@@ -764,10 +935,29 @@ def create_app(
# a booth URL handed to the operator lands HERE, never on the
# index, and job 5 is "operator, look at this".
"manifest": read_manifest(booth),
# The lifetime line, same three states as the index card: a
# booth URL handed to the operator lands HERE, not on the index,
# so "why is this not counting down" has to be answerable here.
"hold": hold,
"expires_in": max(0.0, ttl_seconds - booth_age_seconds(booth)),
},
)
def _board_rows(booth: Path) -> list[dict]:
"""The link board's rows, or [] for a board that cannot be read.
NEVER RAISES, for the reason every other read on this page does not:
one damaged file must cost its own tile, not the booth page."""
try:
if not (booth / LINKS_FILE).is_file():
return []
return order_for_display(
parse_link_entries((booth / LINKS_FILE).read_text()),
read_pins(booth),
)
except (OSError, ValueError, UnicodeDecodeError):
return []
def _mark_redirect(name: str, form, anchor: str) -> RedirectResponse:
"""Land where the form was: the standalone marks page for a verbatim
booth (its own index.html cannot show the recorded judgment), else the
@@ -899,73 +1089,108 @@ def create_app(
_frag = templates.env.get_template("_ask_inline.html").module
def inject_asks(name: str, booth: Path, html: str) -> tuple[str, str]:
"""(body, tail) for a verbatim booth: placeholders substituted in place,
and whatever still has to be appended before </body>.
def _pick_fragments(name: str, mark) -> dict:
"""One pick, rendered into the pieces a page can mount independently.
Marked-up pages get each fragment exactly where the author put it. An
unmarked page gets the whole ask appended — an ask is NEVER invisible,
which is the guarantee; markup only moves it somewhere better. A stem
whose questions were placed but whose submit block was not gets that
block appended, so a scattered form is always submittable.
Rendered HERE, by the same Jinja macros the gallery page uses, so there
is exactly ONE renderer of an ask. embed.js places these; it never
builds one. A second renderer in JavaScript is the shape INV-1 was
written to stop after the zoom view re-derived an item and lost its
captions doing it.
"""
picks = [m for m in marks_for(booth) if m.shape == "pick"]
if not picks:
return html, ""
url = quote(name, safe="")
fid = ask_form_id(mark.id)
if mark.error:
# `whole` renders the broken-ask box. A question the session
# believes it posted has to be visible; the pieces of a pick that
# could not be read do not exist to offer.
return {"id": mark.id, "error": mark.error,
"whole": str(_frag.whole(mark, fid, url)), "submit": "",
"questions": []}
return {
"id": mark.id,
"error": None,
"whole": str(_frag.whole(mark, fid, url)),
"submit": str(_frag.submit(mark, fid, url)),
# A LIST, not an object keyed by question key: a single-question
# pick normalizes to one question whose key is None, which JSON
# would write as the string "null" and so invent a name. The list
# also carries declaration order in the format itself.
"questions": [
{"key": q.get("key"), "html": str(_frag.question(mark, q, fid, url))}
for q in mark.questions
],
}
seen: set[str] = set()
def _safe_fragments(name: str, mark) -> dict:
"""`_pick_fragments`, with the promise that it cannot raise.
def render(kind: str, mark, key: str | None) -> str:
fid = ask_form_id(mark.id)
if kind == "whole":
frag = str(_frag.whole(mark, fid, url))
elif kind == "submit":
frag = str(_frag.submit(mark, fid, url))
else:
q = next(q for q in mark.questions if q.get("key") == key)
frag = str(_frag.question(mark, q, fid, url))
# An anchor on the FIRST fragment of each pick, wherever it landed,
# so the floating chip can jump to it on a long report. Computed
# here rather than in the macros because only the caller knows
# which fragment came first.
if mark.id not in seen:
seen.add(mark.id)
frag = f'<a id="bk-ask-{mark.id}-top"></a>' + frag
return frag
`marks_for` hydrates an entry whose JSON is well-formed but whose SHAPE
is wrong — `{"answer": {"answers": []}}` survives `_hydrate` with no
error and then raises `UndefinedError` in the template, because the
macro asks a list for `.get`. Verified, not assumed.
tail = [str(_frag.styles())]
if has_placeholders(html):
html, placed, submitted = place_asks(html, picks, render)
for m in picks:
keys = placed.get(m.id)
if keys is None:
tail.append(render("whole", m, None)) # unmarked: never dropped
continue
if m.error:
continue
if None not in keys:
# Partially marked up: append every question the author did
# NOT place. A multi-question pick needs all of them or the
# POST is a 400 — met only after the operator fills it in.
for q in m.questions:
if q.get("key") not in keys:
tail.append(render("question", m, q.get("key")))
if m.id not in submitted:
tail.append(render("submit", m, None)) # scattered but submittable
else:
for m in picks:
tail.append(render("whole", m, None))
This endpoint renders every pick in the booth on every page load of the
operator's report, so one such entry would 500 the whole seam and the
report would show no chrome at all — while `hold_read` reported the file
as perfectly readable. Same leniency `_hydrate_safe` already applies one
layer down, at the layer that actually renders: one unreadable pick
costs that pick, never the page.
"""
try:
return _pick_fragments(name, mark)
except Exception as exc: # noqa: BLE001 - deliberate
broken = replace(mark, error=f"this question could not be rendered: {exc}")
return {"id": mark.id, "error": broken.error,
"whole": str(_frag.whole(broken, ask_form_id(mark.id),
quote(name, safe=""))),
"submit": "", "questions": []}
# The chip is a JUMP LINK to the inline block, not a way out to a
# separate page: on a long report the question can be well below the
# fold, and "there is a question waiting" still has to be visible at
# first paint.
still_open = open_marks(picks) # INV-2: not re-derived here
if still_open:
tail.append(asks_chip(name, len(still_open),
href=f'#bk-ask-{still_open[0].id}-top'))
return html, "".join(tail)
@app.get("/b/{name}/embed.json")
def booth_embed_json(name: str):
"""Everything a verbatim report needs to mount the Booth's chrome.
The READ half of the declared seam. `embed.js` fetches this and places
what comes back; every decision — what a mark says, whether it is still
open, what order the marks come in — is made here and never re-derived
on the page.
Marks are ordered `(created, id)`, which is what both readers below
sort by. Questions are in declaration order. `open` is `open_marks`,
the ONE openness predicate, so a half-answered multi-question pick
counts as open here exactly as it does on the index badge.
DOES NOT RECORD A VIEW. `booth_view` already did, above both of its
early returns; counting a script's fetch of the page it is already on
would reset the TTL on machinery rather than on the operator.
The read is LENIENT and the status stays 200, copied from
`/marks.json`: a damaged `.marks.json` must cost the chrome, never the
operator's report. That is the v0.2.2 lesson.
"""
booth = resolve_booth(name)
marks, read_err = hold_read(booth) # ONE read; see list_booths
if read_err is not None:
marks = marks_for(booth)
picks = [m for m in marks if m.shape == "pick"]
body = {
"booth": name,
# No `home`: the way-home chip mounts from a constant BEFORE this
# fetch, so that a failed one still leaves the operator a way out.
# Carrying the value anyway would put a second representation of it
# on the wire for nothing to read.
"favicon": FAVICON_HREF,
# Picks only. It is also what keeps a flag's `flag:<target>` id —
# the one mark id containing the separator an anchor spec splits
# on — out of a payload whose specs split on the first colon.
"marks": [_safe_fragments(name, m) for m in picks],
"open": [m.id for m in open_marks(picks)],
}
if read_err is not None:
body["marks"] = []
body["error"] = "this booth's .marks.json cannot be read"
body["detail"] = read_err
return JSONResponse(body)
@app.get("/b/{name}/marks", response_class=HTMLResponse)
def booth_marks_page(request: Request, name: str):
@@ -973,13 +1198,29 @@ def create_app(
place a verbatim-index.html booth can show its marks — that page is served
untouched by design, so the inline panel never renders there."""
booth = resolve_booth(name)
marks = marks_for(booth)
# U4: for a verbatim booth this IS the booth page. `/b/<n>/asks` is a
# 308 into here, so the legacy URL records through this call and must
# not get one of its own.
record_view(booth)
held_marks, read_err = hold_read(booth) # ONE read; see list_booths
hold = hold_reason(held_marks, read_err)
marks = held_marks if read_err is None else marks_for(booth)
return templates.TemplateResponse(
request,
"marks.html",
{**base_ctx, "name": name, "name_url": quote(name, safe=""),
"marks": marks, "marks_open": len(open_marks(marks)),
"booth_marks": marks_for_target(marks, None), "marks_page": True},
"booth_marks": marks_for_target(marks, None), "marks_page": True,
# U4 INV-4, and this page is WHY the invariant needs a third home.
# A verbatim booth's own index.html is served untouched, so it has
# no Booth-rendered header to carry the lifetime line — this page
# is the only surface besides the index card where the Booth owns
# the chrome. Without it, the booths most likely to be held (a
# report that ASKS something is the archetype) would be the ones
# that never say they are.
"kept": is_kept(booth),
"hold": hold,
"expires_in": max(0.0, ttl_seconds - booth_age_seconds(booth))},
)
@app.get("/b/{name}/asks", include_in_schema=False)
@@ -1002,12 +1243,29 @@ def create_app(
the whole booth instead of one question at a time.
"""
booth = resolve_booth(name)
marks = marks_for(booth)
return JSONResponse({
marks, read_err = hold_read(booth)
body = {
"booth": name,
"marks": [as_dict(m) for m in marks],
"open": [m.id for m in open_marks(marks)],
})
}
# A DAMAGED file used to come back as an empty list and nothing else,
# which is indistinguishable from "you were never asked anything" — and
# this endpoint is the ONLY reader a remote session has. Its filesystem
# sibling has told the truth since U2: `booth marks` exits 3 on an
# unreadable file precisely so a caller can tell "not yet" from
# "broken". One question, two surfaces, two answers.
#
# The STATUS stays 200 and that is deliberate. Reads are lenient here —
# the same rule that keeps a poisoned booth from 500ing the index — and
# a pinned status code is a promise to remote clients this fix has no
# business breaking. The information goes in the body instead: a client
# that wants the CLI's exit-3 parity reads `error`, and one that does
# not behaves exactly as it does today.
if read_err is not None:
body["error"] = "this booth's .marks.json cannot be read"
body["detail"] = read_err
return JSONResponse(body)
@app.get("/b/{name}/view", response_class=HTMLResponse)
def booth_view_file(request: Request, name: str, f: str):
@@ -1029,6 +1287,14 @@ def create_app(
items = booth_items(booth)
item = find_item(items, f)
# U4: a bookmarked zoom URL is somebody looking — but only once we know
# there is an ITEM to look at. Below the 404s, and gated on the record,
# because `f` is any path that stats inside the booth: the bug-hunt
# panel pointed `?f=.marks.lock` at this and held a booth open with a
# file the service created itself. A dotfile is not an item, and a view
# of a thing that is not an item is not a view of the booth.
if item is not None:
record_view(booth)
marks = marks_for(booth)
item_marks = marks_for_target(marks, f)
common = {
@@ -1210,7 +1476,35 @@ def create_app(
@app.post("/b/{name}/unkeep")
def booth_unkeep(name: str, next: str = Form("/")):
# missing_ok: releasing an already-released board is a no-op, not a 500.
(resolve_booth(name) / KEEP_MARKER).unlink(missing_ok=True)
booth = resolve_booth(name)
marker = booth / KEEP_MARKER
try:
marker.unlink()
released = True
except FileNotFoundError:
released = False # already released: a no-op, not a 500
except OSError:
# A `.forever` that is a DIRECTORY raised IsADirectoryError straight
# through this route and 500'd it, which made the card's release
# button permanently dead for that booth. Pre-existing; the panel
# re-exposed it. Removing it is still best-effort, and failing to is
# not worth refusing the request over.
released = False
if not released:
return RedirectResponse(url=_safe_next(next), status_code=303)
# U4: RELEASE IS ACTIVITY, and now it is a rule rather than an accident.
# A released board already survived another full TTL, because unlinking
# a file bumps the directory's mtime — behaviour the note above calls
# "not intuitive" precisely because nothing declared it. The behaviour
# is unchanged; its reason is now stated. Releasing a board is somebody
# touching it, so it gets one full TTL, the same as any other look.
#
# ONLY when something was actually released, which is the correction the
# bug-hunt panel forced: an unconditional call made POSTing release at
# an already-released booth an endless TTL refresh, contradicting this
# route's own no-op promise and diverging from the CLI, which `rm`s the
# sentinel without recording anything.
record_view(booth)
return RedirectResponse(url=_safe_next(next), status_code=303)
@app.post("/b/{name}/blur")
booth/inline.py
-119
View File
@@ -1,119 +0,0 @@
"""Inline ask placement inside a booth's VERBATIM index.html.
A booth that ships its own `index.html` is served untouched, so the auto-gallery
template's asks panel never renders there. The first fix was a chip linking to a
separate `/asks` page; the operator's verdict on that (2026-09-09) was that the
question belongs WITH the artifacts it is about — a four-voice audition wants the
radio group for each voice under that voice's audio, not on another page.
So the report author marks where each piece goes, with a placeholder element:
<div data-booth-ask="anchors"></div> the whole ask: every question + submit
<div data-booth-ask="anchors:lawson"></div> just that question's radios
<div data-booth-ask-submit="anchors"></div> the notes field + submit button
Per-question fragments bind to ONE form via the HTML5 `form=` attribute, so four
groups scattered down a page still submit as a single POST — which is what a
multi-question ask requires (every question or 400). No JavaScript.
An `<!-- booth:ask anchors -->` comment works the same way, for authors who would
rather not put an empty div in their markup.
Placement is OPTIONAL. A page with no placeholders gets the whole ask appended at
the end of its body, so an ask is never invisible — that guarantee is the point,
and marking it up only moves it somewhere better.
"""
from __future__ import annotations
import re
# <div data-booth-ask="stem"></div> / <span data-booth-ask="stem:key"></span>
_EL_RE = re.compile(
r"<(?P<tag>[A-Za-z][\w-]*)\b[^>]*?\bdata-booth-ask=\"(?P<spec>[^\"]+)\"[^>]*?>"
r"(?:\s*</(?P=tag)\s*>)?",
re.IGNORECASE,
)
_SUBMIT_EL_RE = re.compile(
r"<(?P<tag>[A-Za-z][\w-]*)\b[^>]*?\bdata-booth-ask-submit=\"(?P<spec>[^\"]+)\"[^>]*?>"
r"(?:\s*</(?P=tag)\s*>)?",
re.IGNORECASE,
)
# <!-- booth:ask stem --> / <!-- booth:ask stem:key --> / <!-- booth:ask-submit stem -->
_COMMENT_RE = re.compile(r"<!--\s*booth:ask\s+(?P<spec>[^\s>-][^\s>]*)\s*-->", re.IGNORECASE)
_COMMENT_SUBMIT_RE = re.compile(r"<!--\s*booth:ask-submit\s+(?P<spec>[^\s>]+)\s*-->", re.IGNORECASE)
def split_spec(spec: str) -> tuple[str, str | None]:
"""`"anchors:lawson"` -> `("anchors", "lawson")`; `"anchors"` -> `("anchors", None)`."""
stem, sep, key = spec.strip().partition(":")
return stem.strip(), (key.strip() or None) if sep else None
def has_placeholders(html: str) -> bool:
return bool(
_EL_RE.search(html) or _SUBMIT_EL_RE.search(html)
or _COMMENT_RE.search(html) or _COMMENT_SUBMIT_RE.search(html)
)
def form_id(stem: str) -> str:
return f"bk-ask-form-{re.sub(r'[^A-Za-z0-9_-]', '-', stem)}"
def place(html: str, asks: list, render) -> tuple[str, dict[str, set], set[str]]:
"""Substitute every placeholder with rendered ask HTML.
`render(kind, ask, key)` returns the fragment for kind in
{"whole", "question", "submit"}. Returns the new html; a map of stem ->
the set of question keys placed inline (with `None` in the set meaning the
WHOLE ask was placed); and the set of stems whose submit block was placed
explicitly.
The caller needs the per-key detail, not just "this stem appeared
somewhere": a multi-question ask requires EVERY question on submit, so a
page that marks up two of four questions must still be handed the other two
or the form is unsubmittable — a 400 the operator would meet only after
filling it in.
A placeholder naming an ask this booth does not have is left ALONE, not
blanked: silently eating the author's markup would hide a typo'd stem, and
an untouched empty div is invisible anyway.
"""
# Marks index by ATTRIBUTE, not subscript: `place` was the one consumer in
# the service that did `a["stem"]`, which a frozen dataclass refuses. Caught
# by the U2 seam review (SR-1) — the cold contract pass cannot see a sibling
# module's surface by design, so nothing else would have found it before the
# first verbatim booth 500'd.
by_stem = {a.id: a for a in asks}
placed: dict[str, set] = {}
submitted: set[str] = set()
def sub_main(m: re.Match) -> str:
stem, key = split_spec(m.group("spec"))
ask = by_stem.get(stem)
if ask is None:
return m.group(0)
if key is None:
placed.setdefault(stem, set()).add(None)
submitted.add(stem)
return render("whole", ask, None)
q = next((q for q in ask.questions if q.get("key") == key), None)
if q is None:
return m.group(0)
placed.setdefault(stem, set()).add(key)
return render("question", ask, key)
def sub_submit(m: re.Match) -> str:
stem, _ = split_spec(m.group("spec"))
ask = by_stem.get(stem)
if ask is None:
return m.group(0)
placed.setdefault(stem, set())
submitted.add(stem)
return render("submit", ask, None)
for pat, fn in ((_EL_RE, sub_main), (_COMMENT_RE, sub_main),
(_SUBMIT_EL_RE, sub_submit), (_COMMENT_SUBMIT_RE, sub_submit)):
html = pat.sub(fn, html)
return html, placed, submitted
booth/marks.py
+40 -1
View File
@@ -217,12 +217,21 @@ def _fingerprint(entries: list[dict]) -> str:
return json.dumps(entries, sort_keys=True, ensure_ascii=False)
def _read_raw_strict(booth: Path) -> list[dict]:
def _read_raw_strict(booth: Path, *, blank_is_corrupt: bool = False) -> list[dict]:
"""Like `_read_raw`, but RAISES `MarksCorrupt` on a file it cannot parse.
Absent, empty and valid-but-empty are all "no marks yet" and are fine — the
distinction that matters is bytes-present-but-unreadable, because that is the
case where writing would destroy something.
`blank_is_corrupt` is the DELETE path's reading of a present-but-whitespace
file, and only the delete path's: this writer never produces a blank marks
document, so a blank one that exists is something that went wrong, and
`rmtree` is not the response to that. The write path keeps the lenient
reading — a blank file is safe to overwrite, which is the question
`_Locked` is asking. A VALID document with an empty `marks` list is not
blank and never holds: that is what deleting the last mark leaves behind,
and it must stay sweepable.
"""
path = Path(booth) / MARKS_FILE
try:
@@ -245,6 +254,8 @@ def _read_raw_strict(booth: Path) -> list[dict]:
except (OSError, UnicodeDecodeError, MemoryError) as exc:
raise MarksCorrupt(f"{path} cannot be read: {exc}") from exc
if not text.strip():
if blank_is_corrupt:
raise MarksCorrupt(f"{path} is present but holds no marks document")
return []
try:
raw = json.loads(text)
@@ -545,6 +556,34 @@ def open_marks(marks: Sequence[Mark]) -> list[Mark]:
return [m for m in marks if _is_open(m)]
def hold_read(booth: Path) -> tuple[list[Mark], str | None]:
"""ONE read of `.marks.json`, answering both questions the LIFETIME rule asks:
what is still open, and whether the file could be read at all.
U4 decides whether a booth may be SWEPT from those two facts. Asking them
with two calls — `marks_for` then `read_error` — reads the file twice, and
two reads of one file are not one read of one state: a write or a repair
landing between them yields a pair that never described the booth at any
instant. The losing pair is `([], None)` — no marks, no error — which is
exactly the one that deletes. Cross-frontier review (2026-09-22) found it;
that is why this exists rather than the obvious two calls.
When the file reads clean the marks are byte-identical to `marks_for`'s:
`_read_raw_strict` raises rather than dropping an entry, so a non-raising
strict read returns the same entries the lenient read would, hydrated and
sorted the same way. The caller can therefore use this ONE read for the
display too, and fall back to `marks_for` only on the error path, where
leniency is the point.
"""
try:
entries = _read_raw_strict(booth, blank_is_corrupt=True)
except MarksCorrupt as exc:
return [], str(exc)
marks = [_hydrate_safe(e) for e in entries]
marks.sort(key=lambda m: (m.created, m.id))
return marks, None
def marks_for_target(marks: Sequence[Mark], rel: str | None) -> list[Mark]:
"""The marks attached to one item, or to the booth itself for None."""
return [m for m in marks if m.target == rel]
booth/static/embed.js
+351
View File
@@ -0,0 +1,351 @@
/* The Booth - the declared embed seam (U3).
*
* A booth that ships its own index.html is served verbatim. This script is how
* the Booth's chrome gets onto that page WITHOUT the Booth reaching into it:
* the report carries one line,
*
* <script src="/_booth/embed.js" defer></script>
*
* and everything below mounts through real DOM APIs. It replaced ten regular
* expressions applied to author HTML - six hunting for a place to hang a
* favicon and a chip, four substituting rendered markup into the author's own
* tags. A page that declares this line is now served exactly as written.
*
* WHAT THIS SCRIPT DOES NOT DECIDE: what a mark says, whether it is still open,
* or what order marks come in. Every fragment below is rendered server-side by
* the same Jinja macros the gallery page uses, and `open` is computed by
* `open_marks`. Two renderers of one truth is the bug INV-1 exists to stop -
* the zoom view once re-derived an item and lost its captions doing it.
*
* Served from a read taken ONCE at app startup. Editing this file does nothing
* until `systemctl --user restart booth.service`, exactly like the templates,
* and for the same reason: on 2026-09-21 a hot-reloading template put 19 of 25
* booths at 500 against Python that had never heard of the context it wanted.
*/
(function () {
"use strict";
if (window.__boothEmbed) return; // declared AND appended: mount once
window.__boothEmbed = true;
var CSS = [
/* ---- the way home, and the open-asks jump ---- */
".booth-nav-home,.booth-nav-asks{position:fixed;top:0;z-index:2147483647;",
"display:inline-block;margin:.6rem;padding:.34rem .72rem;border-radius:8px;",
"text-decoration:none;letter-spacing:.01em;box-shadow:0 2px 10px rgba(0,0,0,.35)}",
/* top-right: a top-left chip clips the page title on left-aligned report
layouts, and this matches the zoom view's back affordance. */
".booth-nav-home{right:0;font:600 13px/1.25 ui-sans-serif,system-ui,-apple-system,'Segoe UI',Roboto,sans-serif;",
"color:#dfe7ef;background:rgba(20,23,32,.82);border:1px solid rgba(66,220,209,.35);",
"-webkit-backdrop-filter:blur(6px);backdrop-filter:blur(6px);transition:background .18s,border-color .18s}",
".booth-nav-home:hover{background:rgba(28,33,46,.95);border-color:rgba(66,220,209,.75)}",
".booth-nav-asks{right:7.2rem;font:700 13px/1.25 ui-sans-serif,system-ui,-apple-system,'Segoe UI',Roboto,sans-serif;",
"color:#171a23;background:#ffe14e;border:1px solid #ffe14e;transition:filter .18s}",
".booth-nav-asks:hover{filter:brightness(1.08)}",
"@media print{.booth-nav-home,.booth-nav-asks{display:none}}",
/* ---- ask fragments. Self-contained: the host page carries its own CSS and
nothing here may inherit from it, so the palette adapts via
prefers-color-scheme rather than borrowing. ---- */
".bk-ask{margin:1.1rem 0;padding:.85rem .95rem;border:1px solid rgba(128,140,160,.34);",
"border-top:2px solid #e0b93c;border-radius:9px;background:rgba(128,140,160,.07);",
"font:15px/1.5 ui-sans-serif,system-ui,-apple-system,'Segoe UI',Roboto,sans-serif}",
".bk-ask.bk-done{border-top-color:#3fae6a}",
".bk-ask.bk-skip{border-top-color:#6f7c8c}",
".bk-ask.bk-skip .bk-ask-tag{color:#8a97a6}",
".bk-ask-tag{display:block;margin-bottom:.5rem;font:700 10px/1 ui-monospace,SFMono-Regular,Menlo,monospace;",
"letter-spacing:.12em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#c9a227}",
".bk-ask.bk-done .bk-ask-tag{color:#3fae6a}",
".bk-ask-title{margin:0 0 .15rem;font-size:.72rem;letter-spacing:.07em;text-transform:uppercase;opacity:.62}",
".bk-ask-prompt{margin:0 0 .6rem;font-weight:600}",
".bk-ask-opts{display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:.3rem}",
".bk-ask-opt{display:flex;align-items:flex-start;gap:.55rem;padding:.45rem .6rem;cursor:pointer;",
"border:1px solid rgba(128,140,160,.3);border-radius:6px;background:rgba(128,140,160,.06)}",
".bk-ask-opt:hover{border-color:rgba(128,140,160,.62)}",
".bk-ask-opt:has(input:checked){border-color:#2fa8a0;background:rgba(47,168,160,.13)}",
".bk-ask-opt input{margin:.25rem 0 0;flex:0 0 auto;accent-color:#2fa8a0}",
".bk-ask-lab{display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:.1rem;min-width:0}",
".bk-ask-det{font-size:.8rem;opacity:.68}",
".bk-ask-notes{display:block;width:100%;box-sizing:border-box;margin:.6rem 0 0;padding:.5rem .6rem;",
"font:inherit;font-size:.9rem;color:inherit;background:rgba(128,140,160,.09);",
"border:1px solid rgba(128,140,160,.34);border-radius:6px;resize:vertical}",
".bk-ask-go{margin-top:.7rem;cursor:pointer;font:700 12px/1 ui-monospace,SFMono-Regular,Menlo,monospace;",
"letter-spacing:.06em;padding:.6rem 1.1rem;border-radius:6px;border:1px solid #2fa8a0;",
"background:#2fa8a0;color:#08131a}",
".bk-ask-go:hover{filter:brightness(1.09)}",
".bk-ask-was{margin:.15rem 0 .55rem;font-size:.84rem;opacity:.8}",
".bk-ask-was b{opacity:1}",
".bk-ask-err{color:#d6452a;font-size:.86rem}",
"@media (prefers-color-scheme: light){.bk-ask-tag{color:#8a6d10}.bk-ask-go{color:#fff}}",
"@media print{.bk-ask{break-inside:avoid}}"
].join("");
/* The anchor attributes. `data-booth-mark` is canonical - U2 made an ask one
shape of mark - and `data-booth-ask` is kept because two of the four live
verbatim booths spell it that way, in the operator's own reports. */
var MAIN_SEL = "[data-booth-mark],[data-booth-ask]";
var SUBMIT_SEL = "[data-booth-mark-submit],[data-booth-ask-submit]";
var WHOLE = " whole"; // the set member meaning "the whole ask landed here"
function attr(el, a, b) {
var v = el.getAttribute(a);
return v === null ? el.getAttribute(b) : v;
}
/* "batch:r1" -> ["batch", "r1"]; "batch" -> ["batch", null]. Split on the
FIRST colon: a question key cannot contain one (asks._KEY_RE) and neither
can a pick id (asks.valid_stem), so this is unambiguous for everything the
payload carries. A flag's id IS `flag:<target>`, which is why the payload
carries picks only. */
function splitSpec(spec) {
var s = (spec || "").trim();
var i = s.indexOf(":");
if (i < 0) return [s, null];
return [s.slice(0, i).trim(), s.slice(i + 1).trim() || null];
}
function boothName() {
var tag = document.querySelector("script[data-booth]");
if (tag) return tag.getAttribute("data-booth");
var parts = location.pathname.split("/"); // ["", "b", "<name>", ...]
if (parts.length < 3 || parts[1] !== "b" || !parts[2]) return null;
try { return decodeURIComponent(parts[2]); } catch (e) { return parts[2]; }
}
function mount(el, html) {
/* beforeend, NOT replaceWith: the author's element and its contents survive
and the fragment lands inside it. `<div class="ask" data-booth-ask="...">
<h3>heading</h3>` is live markup today, and the regex it replaced ate
both the wrapper class and the heading's framing.
Returns the elements it actually inserted. The chip needs to jump to a
fragment WE mounted, not to whatever the document happens to have with a
matching id — see chipTarget. */
var before = el.children.length;
el.insertAdjacentHTML("beforeend", html);
return Array.prototype.slice.call(el.children, before);
}
function styles() {
if (document.getElementById("booth-embed-css")) return;
var st = document.createElement("style");
st.id = "booth-embed-css";
st.textContent = CSS;
(document.head || document.documentElement).appendChild(st);
}
function favicon(href) {
/* The question `_ICON_RE` and its three head-seam siblings were asking of
raw text. Same question, asked of a parsed document. */
if (!href || document.querySelector('link[rel~="icon"]')) return;
var link = document.createElement("link");
link.rel = "icon";
link.href = href;
(document.head || document.documentElement).appendChild(link);
}
function homeChip(href) {
var a = document.createElement("a");
a.className = "booth-nav-home";
a.href = href || "/";
a.setAttribute("aria-label", "back to all booths");
a.textContent = "‹ all booths";
document.body.appendChild(a);
}
function chipTarget(mounted, markId) {
/* The earliest IN DOCUMENT ORDER of the elements WE mounted for this mark.
Not an id-prefix search over the whole document: a panel pointed out that
an author's own `<section id="bk-ask-winner-background">` satisfies any
prefix rule — hyphen boundary included — and would hijack the jump. Only
elements this script inserted are candidates, which is the identity the
deleted `bk-ask-<id>-top` anchor used to guarantee. */
var mine = mounted[markId] || [];
var first = null;
for (var i = 0; i < mine.length; i++) {
var el = mine[i];
if (!el.id || !document.contains(el)) continue;
if (first === null ||
(first.compareDocumentPosition(el) & Node.DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING)) {
first = el;
}
}
return first;
}
function asksChip(openIds, mounted) {
if (!openIds.length) return;
/* A JUMP LINK, not a way out to another page: on a long report the question
can be well below the fold and "there is a question waiting" still has to
be visible at first paint. */
var first = chipTarget(mounted, openIds[0]);
var a = document.createElement("a");
a.className = "booth-nav-asks";
a.href = first ? "#" + first.id : "/b/" + encodeURIComponent(boothName() || "") + "/marks";
a.textContent = "? " + openIds.length + " open ask" + (openIds.length === 1 ? "" : "s");
document.body.appendChild(a);
}
function reassociate() {
/* SCOPED TO OUR OWN FRAGMENTS (`.bk-ask [form]`), deliberately: the Booth
does not rewrite attributes on elements the author wrote, even to help.
A control bound to its <form> by the HTML5 `form=` attribute resolves its
form owner when it is inserted. The fragments go in in VISUAL order, so a
question can land before the submit block that carries the <form>.
Chromium 151 re-resolves this correctly - measured 2026-09-22, N=3 per
condition, with a form-first positive control and a points-at-nothing
negative control. The sensitivity floor of that probe is ONE ENGINE, and
the failure it would hide is a form the operator fills in whose controls
reach no form at all, so the button does nothing and nothing is saved.
Three lines, so the engine stops mattering. */
var bound = document.querySelectorAll(".bk-ask [form]");
for (var i = 0; i < bound.length; i++) {
var v = bound[i].getAttribute("form");
bound[i].removeAttribute("form");
bound[i].setAttribute("form", v);
}
}
function hasForm(markId) {
/* `form_id` in booth/app.py builds the same string. Kept in step by the
fragments themselves: the submit macro emits exactly this id. */
return !!document.getElementById(
"bk-ask-form-" + markId.replace(/[^A-Za-z0-9_-]/g, "-"));
}
function place(marks) {
/* Object.create(null), NOT {} — three times, and it is not style.
A mark id and a question key are both `[A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9._-]*`
(asks.valid_stem, asks._KEY_RE), so `toString` and `constructor` are
legal in both. Against a plain object, an author writing
`data-booth-mark="toString"` — an anchor naming NO mark — gets
Object.prototype.toString back, passes the `if (!mark)` guard it was
supposed to fail, and throws on `mark.questions.length`. That aborts
`place` before the tail, so the page loses EVERY ask, from one typo in
the author's own markup. The `placed` set has the mirror bug: inherited
`got.constructor` reads as "already placed" and silently drops a real
question. Found by a cross-frontier code-review panel. */
var by = Object.create(null);
for (var i = 0; i < marks.length; i++) by[marks[i].id] = marks[i];
var placed = Object.create(null); // id -> {key or WHOLE: true}
var submitted = Object.create(null);
var mounted = Object.create(null); // id -> [elements this script inserted]
function note(id, key) {
if (!placed[id]) placed[id] = Object.create(null);
if (key !== undefined) placed[id][key] = true;
}
function record(id, els) {
if (!mounted[id]) mounted[id] = [];
for (var n = 0; n < els.length; n++) mounted[id].push(els[n]);
}
// 1. whole / per-question anchors, in DOCUMENT ORDER.
var anchors = document.querySelectorAll(MAIN_SEL);
for (var a = 0; a < anchors.length; a++) {
var el = anchors[a];
var spec = splitSpec(attr(el, "data-booth-mark", "data-booth-ask"));
var mark = by[spec[0]];
if (!mark) continue; // a typo'd id is LEFT ALONE, not blanked
if (spec[1] === null) {
record(mark.id, mount(el, mark.whole));
note(mark.id, WHOLE);
if (hasForm(mark.id)) submitted[mark.id] = true;
continue;
}
var q = null;
for (var k = 0; k < mark.questions.length; k++) {
if (mark.questions[k].key === spec[1]) { q = mark.questions[k]; break; }
}
if (!q) continue; // names no question: also left alone
record(mark.id, mount(el, q.html));
note(mark.id, spec[1]);
}
// 2. explicit submit anchors.
var subs = document.querySelectorAll(SUBMIT_SEL);
for (var s = 0; s < subs.length; s++) {
var sel = subs[s];
var sid = splitSpec(attr(sel, "data-booth-mark-submit", "data-booth-ask-submit"))[0];
var sm = by[sid];
if (!sm) continue;
/* A BROKEN pick has no submit block — its `submit` is the empty string and
its diagnostic lives in `whole`. Mounting nothing here and then marking
it placed made the tail skip it, so the "broken ask" box never rendered
at the one surface built to show it. Leave the anchor alone, exactly as
an anchor naming no mark is left alone, and let the tail mount the
diagnostic. */
if (sm.error) continue;
record(sm.id, mount(sel, sm.submit));
note(sm.id);
/* ...and only count it submitted if the <form> SURVIVED. An author who
puts this anchor inside their own <form> loses ours: the HTML parser
drops a nested form element outright. Every control's `form=` would
then point at nothing, the tail would not add a fallback because we
said it was handled, and the operator would fill the whole thing in and
click a button that does nothing. */
if (hasForm(sm.id)) submitted[sm.id] = true;
}
// 3. the tail, in PAYLOAD order - `(created, id)`. An ask is never
// invisible: an unmarked page gets the whole thing, and a partially
// marked one gets every question the author did not place, because a
// question the operator cannot see is a question he cannot answer, and
// a submission with NOTHING picked is refused outright (400), so a page
// showing two of four questions can strand a pick that looks answerable.
// (A PARTIAL answer is accepted and recorded — that is deliberate.)
var holder = document.createElement("div");
for (var m = 0; m < marks.length; m++) {
var mk = marks[m];
var got = placed[mk.id];
var was = holder.children.length;
if (!got) {
holder.insertAdjacentHTML("beforeend", mk.whole);
record(mk.id, Array.prototype.slice.call(holder.children, was));
continue;
}
if (mk.error) continue;
if (!got[WHOLE]) {
for (var q2 = 0; q2 < mk.questions.length; q2++) {
var qq = mk.questions[q2];
if (!got[qq.key]) holder.insertAdjacentHTML("beforeend", qq.html);
}
}
if (!submitted[mk.id]) holder.insertAdjacentHTML("beforeend", mk.submit);
record(mk.id, Array.prototype.slice.call(holder.children, was));
}
var tail = document.createDocumentFragment();
while (holder.firstChild) tail.appendChild(holder.firstChild);
document.body.appendChild(tail);
return mounted;
}
function start() {
var name = boothName();
if (!name || !document.body) return;
styles();
// Mounted BEFORE the fetch and from a constant, so a failed or slow fetch
// still leaves the operator a way out. That is why the payload carries no
// `home` — a value on the wire that nothing reads is a second
// representation of one fact, waiting to disagree with the first.
homeChip("/");
fetch("/b/" + encodeURIComponent(name) + "/embed.json", { credentials: "same-origin" })
.then(function (r) { return r.ok ? r.json() : null; })
.then(function (data) {
if (!data) return;
favicon(data.favicon);
var mounted = place(data.marks || []);
reassociate();
asksChip(data.open || [], mounted);
document.dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent("booth:mounted", { detail: { booth: name } }));
})
.catch(function () { /* the report is the operator's; a failed fetch costs
the chrome, never the page. */ });
}
/* The declared line carries `defer`, but an author may not copy it exactly. */
if (document.readyState === "loading") {
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", start);
} else {
start();
}
})();
booth/templates/_ask_inline.html
+11 -45
View File
@@ -1,56 +1,22 @@
{# Self-contained ask fragments injected into a booth's VERBATIM index.html.
{# Self-contained ask fragments for a booth's VERBATIM index.html.
The page is served untouched and carries its own CSS, so nothing here may
inherit from base.html: every fragment ships its own scoped `.bk-ask-*`
styles (emitted once, by `styles()`), and the palette adapts via
prefers-color-scheme rather than borrowing the host page's.
inherit from base.html. Since U3 these fragments do not reach the page by
string substitution: they are rendered here, handed over
`/b/<name>/embed.json`, and MOUNTED INTO THE DOM by `/_booth/embed.js`. The
scoped `.bk-ask-*` styles live in that file alongside the code that needs
them, which is why this template no longer emits a `styles()` block.
These macros stay the ONE renderer of an ask fragment. embed.js places what
comes back and never builds one.
Per-question fragments are wired to ONE form with the HTML5 `form=`
attribute, so a four-voice report can put each radio group under its own
audio block and still submit all four picks in a single POST — which is what
audio block and still submit all four picks in a single POST -- which is what
the multi-question ask requires. The <form> element itself is empty and
lives with the submit block. No JavaScript.
lives with the submit block.
#}
{% macro styles() %}
<style>
.bk-ask{margin:1.1rem 0;padding:.85rem .95rem;border:1px solid rgba(128,140,160,.34);
border-top:2px solid #e0b93c;border-radius:9px;background:rgba(128,140,160,.07);
font:15px/1.5 ui-sans-serif,system-ui,-apple-system,"Segoe UI",Roboto,sans-serif}
.bk-ask.bk-done{border-top-color:#3fae6a}
.bk-ask.bk-skip{border-top-color:#6f7c8c}
.bk-ask.bk-skip .bk-ask-tag{color:#8a97a6}
.bk-ask-tag{display:block;margin-bottom:.5rem;font:700 10px/1 ui-monospace,SFMono-Regular,Menlo,monospace;
letter-spacing:.12em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#c9a227}
.bk-ask.bk-done .bk-ask-tag{color:#3fae6a}
.bk-ask-title{margin:0 0 .15rem;font-size:.72rem;letter-spacing:.07em;text-transform:uppercase;opacity:.62}
.bk-ask-prompt{margin:0 0 .6rem;font-weight:600}
.bk-ask-opts{display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:.3rem}
.bk-ask-opt{display:flex;align-items:flex-start;gap:.55rem;padding:.45rem .6rem;cursor:pointer;
border:1px solid rgba(128,140,160,.3);border-radius:6px;background:rgba(128,140,160,.06)}
.bk-ask-opt:hover{border-color:rgba(128,140,160,.62)}
.bk-ask-opt:has(input:checked){border-color:#2fa8a0;background:rgba(47,168,160,.13)}
.bk-ask-opt input{margin:.25rem 0 0;flex:0 0 auto;accent-color:#2fa8a0}
.bk-ask-lab{display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:.1rem;min-width:0}
.bk-ask-det{font-size:.8rem;opacity:.68}
.bk-ask-notes{display:block;width:100%;box-sizing:border-box;margin:.6rem 0 0;padding:.5rem .6rem;
font:inherit;font-size:.9rem;color:inherit;background:rgba(128,140,160,.09);
border:1px solid rgba(128,140,160,.34);border-radius:6px;resize:vertical}
.bk-ask-go{margin-top:.7rem;cursor:pointer;font:700 12px/1 ui-monospace,SFMono-Regular,Menlo,monospace;
letter-spacing:.06em;padding:.6rem 1.1rem;border-radius:6px;border:1px solid #2fa8a0;
background:#2fa8a0;color:#08131a}
.bk-ask-go:hover{filter:brightness(1.09)}
.bk-ask-was{margin:.15rem 0 .55rem;font-size:.84rem;opacity:.8}
.bk-ask-was b{opacity:1}
.bk-ask-err{color:#d6452a;font-size:.86rem}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: light){
.bk-ask-tag{color:#8a6d10}
.bk-ask-go{color:#fff}
}
@media print{.bk-ask{break-inside:avoid}}
</style>
{% endmacro %}
{# One question's radio group, bound to the shared form by id. #}
{% macro question(a, q, form_id, name_url, standalone=False) %}
{% set field = 'choice.' ~ q.key if a.multi else 'choice' %}
booth/templates/_lifetime.html
+28
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@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
{# The lifetime line, defined ONCE and called from four surfaces: the index
card (both lanes), the booth header (both branches) and the marks page.
U4: a booth's lifetime is derived from its own state, and a booth that is
not counting down must always SAY WHY — an invisible rule that silently
stopped the clock would be strictly worse than the `.forever` boolean it
replaces, because that one was at least visible as a lane.
`hold` is the REASON, straight off `hold_reason()`, not a bool beside a
string that can disagree with it. Kept wins over a hold because a kept booth
is exempt either way, and showing two reasons for one EXEMPTION is the
two-representations-of-one-state trap.
Unreadable marks are the exception and ride along even on a kept board:
damaged judgment is not a second exemption, it is a thing somebody has to go
and fix, and the kept lane holds the durable boards — the ones where losing
the operator's marks costs most. #}
{% macro lifetime(kept, hold, expires_in) -%}
{%- if kept -%}
kept{% if hold == "unreadable" %} · <span class="held held-broken" title="a mark in this booth cannot be read">marks unreadable</span>{% endif %}
{%- elif hold == "unreadable" -%}
<span class="held held-broken" title="a mark in this booth cannot be read, so the sweeper will not take it">held · marks unreadable</span>
{%- elif hold == "open" -%}
<span class="held" title="an unanswered question holds this booth open">held until answered</span>
{%- else -%}
expires in {{ expires_in|dur }}
{%- endif -%}
{%- endmacro %}
booth/templates/base.html
+5
View File
@@ -330,6 +330,11 @@
use for state), green check once answered; the accent is a TOP edge, per
Australis, never a coloured left border. */
.badge-mark{background:var(--aus-bright-yellow);color:var(--fg-on-accent)}
/* U4: the lifetime line's HELD states. Marked rather than styled into
invisibility — the whole safety argument for an unbounded hold is that
a booth which stopped counting down says so where the countdown was. */
.held{color:var(--aus-bright-yellow)}
.held-broken{color:var(--fg-3);text-decoration:underline dotted}
.thumb .badge+.badge-mark{top:2.2rem}
.marks{display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:.9rem;margin:.2rem 0 1.4rem}
.mark{border:1px solid var(--border-subtle);border-top:2px solid var(--aus-bright-yellow);
booth/templates/booth.html
+2 -1
View File
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
{% extends "base.html" %}
{% from "_provenance.html" import provenance %}
{% from "_lifetime.html" import lifetime %}
{# The blur toggle, defined ONCE. There are three item branches in this file
(doc / media / other) and the first cut of this feature patched only one of
them, so docs rendered with no control at all. A macro makes "patched two of
@@ -65,7 +66,7 @@
{% else %}
<h1>{{ name }}</h1>
{% endif %}
<span class="sub">{% if uploaded %}<span class="badge">⬆ pickup</span> {% endif %}{% if board %}{{ board|length }} link{{ '' if board|length == 1 else 's' }}{% if items %} · {{ items|length }} file{{ '' if items|length == 1 else 's' }}{% endif %}{% else %}{% if marks_open %}<span class="badge badge-mark">{{ marks_open }} open</span> · {% endif %}{{ items|length }} item{{ '' if items|length == 1 else 's' }} · expires in {{ expires_in|dur }}{% endif %}</span>
<span class="sub">{% if uploaded %}<span class="badge">⬆ pickup</span> {% endif %}{% if board %}{{ board|length }} link{{ '' if board|length == 1 else 's' }}{% if items %} · {{ items|length }} file{{ '' if items|length == 1 else 's' }}{% endif %} · {{ lifetime(kept, hold, expires_in) }}{% else %}{% if marks_open %}<span class="badge badge-mark">{{ marks_open }} open</span> · {% endif %}{{ items|length }} item{{ '' if items|length == 1 else 's' }} · {{ lifetime(kept, hold, expires_in) }}{% endif %}</span>
{% if items %}<a class="dl-link" href="/b/{{ name_url }}/?download=1" title="download this booth as a zip">⬇ zip</a>{% endif %}
{{ provenance(manifest) }}
{# A durable multi-writer board gets no one-click wipe — same rule as the
booth/templates/index.html
+40 -5
View File
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
{% extends "base.html" %}
{% from "_provenance.html" import provenance %}
{% from "_lifetime.html" import lifetime %}
{% block content %}
<form class="uploader" method="post" action="/upload" enctype="multipart/form-data">
<label class="drop" for="booth-files">
@@ -39,7 +40,7 @@
</a>
<div class="meta">
<a class="name" href="/b/{{ b.name_url }}/">{{ b.name }}</a>
<div class="sub">{{ b.count }} item{{ '' if b.count == 1 else 's' }} · kept · <a class="dl-link" href="/b/{{ b.name_url }}/?download=1" title="download this booth as a zip">⬇ zip</a></div>
<div class="sub">{{ b.count }} item{{ '' if b.count == 1 else 's' }} · {{ lifetime(true, b.hold, b.expires_in) }} · <a class="dl-link" href="/b/{{ b.name_url }}/?download=1" title="download this booth as a zip">⬇ zip</a></div>
{{ provenance(b.manifest) }}
</div>
{# There IS a × here now (operator, 2026-09-21). The old rule was
@@ -69,11 +70,11 @@
a label changes width. #}
<div class="kept-actions">
<form class="release" method="post" action="/b/{{ b.name_url }}/unkeep"
onsubmit="return confirm('Release \u201c{{ b.name }}\u201d?\n\nIt moves to the ephemeral lane so you can wipe it from there. Nothing is deleted by this step.')">
data-booth="{{ b.name }}" data-confirm="release">
<button title="release this board so it can be wiped">release</button>
</form>
<form class="wipe wipe-kept" method="post" action="/b/{{ b.name_url }}/delete"
onsubmit="return confirm('WIPE the KEPT booth \u201c{{ b.name }}\u201d?\n\nThis deletes it and its files immediately. Kept booths are the ones nothing else will clean up, so nobody else is going to do this for you — and nothing brings it back.')">
data-booth="{{ b.name }}" data-confirm="wipe-kept">
<button title="wipe this KEPT booth now" aria-label="wipe kept booth">×</button>
</form>
</div>
@@ -111,7 +112,7 @@
</a>
<div class="meta">
<a class="name" href="/b/{{ b.name_url }}/">{{ b.name }}</a>
<div class="sub">{{ b.count }} item{{ '' if b.count == 1 else 's' }} · expires in {{ b.expires_in|dur }} · <a class="dl-link" href="/b/{{ b.name_url }}/?download=1" title="download this booth as a zip">⬇ zip</a></div>
<div class="sub">{{ b.count }} item{{ '' if b.count == 1 else 's' }} · {{ lifetime(false, b.hold, b.expires_in) }} · <a class="dl-link" href="/b/{{ b.name_url }}/?download=1" title="download this booth as a zip">⬇ zip</a></div>
{{ provenance(b.manifest) }}
</div>
{# Promote to the kept lane. The /keep route and the `booth keep` CLI verb
@@ -123,7 +124,7 @@
<button title="keep — exempt from the {{ ttl_hours }}h sweep" aria-label="keep booth">★</button>
</form>
<form class="wipe" method="post" action="/b/{{ b.name_url }}/delete"
onsubmit="return confirm('Wipe booth “{{ b.name }}”?')">
data-booth="{{ b.name }}" data-confirm="wipe">
<button title="wipe now" aria-label="wipe booth">×</button>
</form>
</article>
@@ -160,5 +161,39 @@
}
});
})();
/* Destructive-action confirmation, delegated and DATA-DRIVEN.
These were an inline onsubmit calling confirm() with the booth NAME
interpolated straight into the JS string literal. Jinja's autoescape is
HTML-attribute escaping, not JS-string escaping: the browser decodes the
entity back to a quote before the JS parser ever sees it, so a booth name
crafted to close that string executed on submit. Booth names are
agent-authored — making a folder under the data dir is the whole API — so
that is a live path, not a theoretical one.
The name now travels as a DATA ATTRIBUTE, where escaping is escaping, and
never reaches a JS string literal. Same pattern the board controls already
use. With JS off the form submits without a prompt, which is what every
no-JS browser here already did. */
(function () {
var WORDS = {
release: function (n) {
return 'Release \u201c' + n + '\u201d?\n\nIt moves to the ephemeral lane so you '
+ 'can wipe it from there. Nothing is deleted by this step.';
},
'wipe-kept': function (n) {
return 'WIPE the KEPT booth \u201c' + n + '\u201d?\n\nThis deletes it and its files '
+ 'immediately. Kept booths are the ones nothing else will clean up, so nobody '
+ 'else is going to do this for you \u2014 and nothing brings it back.';
},
wipe: function (n) { return 'Wipe booth \u201c' + n + '\u201d?'; }
};
document.addEventListener('submit', function (ev) {
var form = ev.target.closest ? ev.target.closest('form[data-confirm]') : null;
if (!form) return;
var word = WORDS[form.getAttribute('data-confirm')];
if (word && !confirm(word(form.getAttribute('data-booth') || ''))) ev.preventDefault();
}, true);
})();
</script>
{% endblock %}
booth/templates/marks.html
+2 -1
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@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
{% extends "base.html" %}
{% from "_lifetime.html" import lifetime %}
{% block title %}{{ name }} · marks · The Booth{% endblock %}
{% block content %}
{# The marks page for a booth whose own index.html is served VERBATIM. That page
@@ -11,7 +12,7 @@
{# `marks_open` comes from open_marks() — the ONE openness predicate (INV-2).
This used to re-derive it in Jinja as `selectattr('answer', 'none')`, which
read a half-answered pick as closed. #}
<span class="sub">{% if marks_open %}<span class="badge badge-mark">{{ marks_open }} open</span> · {% endif %}{{ marks|length }} mark{{ '' if marks|length == 1 else 's' }}</span>
<span class="sub">{% if marks_open %}<span class="badge badge-mark">{{ marks_open }} open</span> · {% endif %}{{ marks|length }} mark{{ '' if marks|length == 1 else 's' }} · {{ lifetime(kept, hold, expires_in) }}</span>
</div>
{% if marks %}
{% include "_marks.html" %}
docs/contracts/u3_declared_embed_seam.contract.md
+471
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@@ -0,0 +1,471 @@
---
contract_version: "1.0"
module: "booth.app (verbatim serving) + booth/static/embed.js"
purpose: "A booth that ships its own index.html is the operator's most important surface -- his design reviews, his audition reports, his briefs -- and the Booth reaches into it with six regular expressions against arbitrary author HTML plus a placeholder DSL that substitutes rendered markup by pattern. Both work today and both are the single most fragile thing in the service. This unit replaces the whole class with a DECLARED SEAM: the page carries one line (`<script src=\"/_booth/embed.js\" defer></script>`), the Booth mounts its chrome through real DOM APIs, and a page that declares the line is served with ZERO Booth markup added to it. A page that does not declare it gets that one line appended at the end -- the only remaining mutation, and it needs no pattern matching at all. Operator ruling, 2026-09-21: the page declares itself, the Booth mounts into it."
depends_on:
- "booth.marks (marks_for, open_marks, hold_read -- the pick records the payload renders. UNCHANGED by this unit: U3 changes how fragments REACH the page, never what a mark is. Read against booth/marks.py, not against the U2 contract's prose -- see the seam review.)"
- "booth/templates/_ask_inline.html (the `whole` / `question` / `submit` macros stay the ONE renderer of an ask fragment, called from the embed payload instead of from inject_asks. Its `styles()` macro is DELETED -- inject_asks was its only caller and the CSS moves into embed.js so the chrome is one asset. Macro signatures are otherwise untouched.)"
- "booth.asks.normalize_ask (TRANSITIVE, through `marks._hydrate`, and named because the payload shape depends on it: a MULTI ask normalizes to questions whose `key` matches `^[A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9._-]{0,60}$`, and a SINGLE-question ask normalizes to exactly one question whose `key` is `None`. Both facts are load-bearing -- the first makes splitting an anchor spec on the first colon unambiguous, the second is why `questions` is a list. Read against booth/asks.py:138-223.)"
- "booth.app.FAVICON_HREF (the data-URI icon, carried in the payload rather than copied into embed.js -- a third copy of that string is exactly the multiple-readers-of-one-truth shape the repo's ONE-RESOLVER rule (CLAUDE.md invariant 3 -- NOT this contract's INV-1, which is the untouched-page rule; a cold arm read the two as one label and was right to) exists to stop. base.html's literal copy predates this unit and is out of scope.)"
language: "python + javascript"
complexity: "medium"
estimated_loc: 420
confidence: 0.82
used_by:
- "booth.app.booth_view (the verbatim branch: one read, one substring check, one conditional append -- replacing inject_asks + wrap_verbatim_html entirely)"
- "the operator's verbatim reports (4 of 21 live booths ship their own index.html; 2 of those 4 use the placement DSL, so the migration is not hypothetical)"
- "report authors (the declared line is the new public API for a booth that wants Booth chrome where it chooses)"
touches:
- "booth/static/embed.js (NEW -- the mount script and the chrome CSS, one asset. Read ONCE at app startup, never per request; see INV-5.)"
- "booth/app.py (DELETE wrap_verbatim_html, _insert_before, _insert_after, _ICON_RE, _HEAD_CLOSE_RE, _HTML_OPEN_RE, _DOCTYPE_RE, _BODY_CLOSE_RE, _HTML_CLOSE_RE, _BACK_CHIP, asks_chip, inject_asks, FAVICON_LINK and the `from booth.inline import` block. ADD EMBED_SRC/EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG, the startup read of embed.js, GET /_booth/embed.js, GET /b/{name}/embed.json, and the rewritten verbatim branch of booth_view.)"
- "booth/inline.py (DELETED ENTIRELY -- 119 lines. Nothing else imports it; `scripts/booth` never did, so the stdlib-only CLI surface is untouched. ONE line survives the module: `form_id`, which builds the shared form element id the fragments bind to, moves into booth/app.py beside the route that renders them. It is not placement machinery and dying with the placement engine would take the fragments with it. Seam review, SR-3.)"
- "booth/templates/_ask_inline.html (DELETE the `styles()` macro and rewrite the header comment: the fragments are now mounted by embed.js, not substituted by regex, and `No JavaScript` stops being true.)"
- "tests/test_booth.py (DELETE the five test_wrap_* tests and test_verbatim_booth_wrapped_with_back_chip -- they test a mechanism this unit removes; the FAVICON_LINK import goes with them)"
- "tests/test_asks.py (the inline-placement block, ~L480-590: assertions that server-rendered fragments appear in the page body become assertions about the embed payload. The BEHAVIOUR they encode -- every question reachable, a scattered form still submittable, a typo'd id left alone -- is preserved and re-asserted, half in Python and half in the browser.)"
- "tests/test_embed.py (NEW -- the payload, the injection rule, the no-hot-reload guard)"
- "tests/test_embed_browser.py (NEW -- Playwright against a real Chromium: the placement algorithm and the form association, neither of which the Python suite can see. SKIPS, never fails, when playwright or the shared browser is unavailable.)"
- "pyproject.toml (test extra gains `playwright>=1.60,<1.63` -- the range is the set of releases whose pinned Chromium revision is present in the box-wide /opt/ms-playwright store. Stated explicitly because it is invisible otherwise: 1.63 wants chromium-1243, which is NOT there, and the failure is an opaque `Executable doesn't exist`.)"
- "docs/design/information-architecture.md (the `What this deletes` list becomes what this DID delete; the standalone /asks bullet is corrected -- U2 already reduced it to a 308)"
- "ROADMAP.md (U3 row struck through; the ordering table gains the two orders this unit states)"
assumptions:
- "THE OPERATOR ALREADY RULED ON THE SEAM (2026-09-21, recorded in the IA doc): the page declares itself and the Booth mounts into it, via `<script src=\"/_booth/embed.js\" defer></script>`. That ruling ACCEPTS a JavaScript dependency on the verbatim path, which today has none. This contract does not re-open it. What the contract DOES do is state the consequence plainly so it is not discovered later -- see the degradation assumption below."
- "THE ONLY REMAINING SERVER-SIDE MUTATION IS A CONDITIONAL APPEND, AND IT NEEDS NO PATTERN AT ALL. Two substring tests (`src=\"/_booth/embed.js\"` and its single-quoted twin), then a concatenation. ⚠ THE BARE PATH WAS THE FIRST DRAFT AND IT FAILED IN THE DANGEROUS DIRECTION: a report that merely MENTIONS the path -- a code sample, a comment, a sentence about this feature, which the Booth's own design reports are the likeliest pages to contain -- would have counted as declaring it, been served untouched, and shown no chrome at all, silently. Requiring `src=` immediately before the path flips the failure direction: an unusual spelling (`src = \"...\"`, an unquoted attribute, a `?v=2` suffix) reads as NOT declared, so a second tag is appended and embed.js mounts once anyway on its `window.__boothEmbed` guard. A missed declaration costs a duplicate tag; a false one costs the operator his chrome. Three of four cold-panel arms found this independently. This is why all six regexes die rather than collapsing to one: content appended AFTER `</html>` is parsed into the body by every browser, so there is nothing to find. Nothing is ever PREPENDED, which is what retires both of wrap_verbatim_html's hard constraints in one stroke -- no doctype can be displaced into quirks mode and no charset meta can be pushed out of the first 1024 bytes, because nothing moves."
- "THE FAVICON MOVES FROM A REGEX TO A DOM QUERY. `_ICON_RE` existed to answer `does this page already declare an icon`, against raw text, and three more regexes existed to find a head-ish seam to put one in. embed.js asks `document.querySelector('link[rel~=\"icon\"]')` and appends to `document.head`. That is the same question and the same action, asked of a parsed document instead of a string -- and it is four of the six regexes."
- "FRAGMENTS ARE STILL RENDERED BY JINJA, ONLY PLACED BY JAVASCRIPT. The payload carries server-rendered HTML from the EXISTING `_ask_inline.html` macros. Re-implementing the ask form in JavaScript would make two renderers of one truth, which is precisely the shape the repo's ONE-RESOLVER rule (CLAUDE.md invariant 3) was written to stop after the zoom view lost its captions. embed.js does DOM placement and nothing else: it never decides what a mark says, whether it is open, or what order marks come in."
- "PLACEMENT IS AN ANCHOR-FILL, NOT A REPLACEMENT, AND THAT IS A DELIBERATE CHANGE FROM TODAY. `_EL_RE` matches an author's opening tag and SUBSTITUTES it, so `<div class=\"ask\" data-booth-ask=\"dfa:logo\"><h3>The one asset that must survive</h3>` loses both the wrapper's class and -- visually -- its framing, leaving the author's heading orphaned and the closing `</div>` stray. That is live today on `dfa-concepts`. embed.js uses `el.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend', frag)`: the author's element and its contents survive and the fragment lands inside, under the heading. Strictly closer to what the markup says, and it is the behaviour a DOM API gives for free."
- "`data-booth-mark` IS CANONICAL; `data-booth-ask` IS A KEPT ALIAS. U2 made an ask one shape of mark and the IA doc names the anchor `data-booth-mark`. But 2 of the 4 live verbatim booths use the `data-booth-ask` spelling, in the operator's own reports, so the selector accepts both -- one extra clause in one selector string. Same for `data-booth-mark-submit` / `data-booth-ask-submit`. Renaming without the alias would break a live report to save nothing."
- "THE HTML-COMMENT PLACEHOLDERS ARE DROPPED, NOT PORTED. `<!-- booth:ask stem -->` and `<!-- booth:ask-submit stem -->` have ZERO users across all 21 live booths. Walking comment nodes to keep them would be real complexity bought for nobody, in the unit whose entire point is deletion. A page that used one degrades to the append path -- the ask still renders, at the end -- so the never-invisible guarantee holds even for a caller we do not know about."
- "DEGRADATION WITH JAVASCRIPT OFF IS A REAL LOSS AND IT IS NAMED HERE. Today the verbatim path is zero-JS: an ask renders server-side and submits through a plain form. After this unit, no JS means no chrome on the report -- no ask, no way home, no icon. The guarantee that an ask is NEVER INVISIBLE survives in a weaker and still-true form, through surfaces that need no script: the index card carries the open-mark badge, and `/b/<name>/marks` renders every mark server-side. This is the cost of the operator's ruling, stated once so nobody meets it as a surprise."
- "EMBED.JS IS READ ONCE AT STARTUP, FOR THE REASON TEMPLATES ARE. Serving it from disk per request would give the service a third staleness rule, and a live asset editable under a running process is exactly what put 19 of 25 booths at 500 on 2026-09-21. One rule in this repo: nothing takes effect until you restart. INV-5 holds the line the same way `test_templates_do_not_hot_reload_from_disk` does."
- "THE PAYLOAD ENDPOINT DOES NOT RECORD A VIEW. `booth_view` already calls `record_view` above both early returns (U4), and `.viewed` is a deliberate look. A fetch issued by a script on a page that has ALREADY been recorded would double-count activity and reset the TTL on machinery rather than on the operator -- the same distinction the `.lock` exemption draws in `_newest_mtime`."
- "THE READ IS LENIENT AND THE STATUS STAYS 200, copied deliberately from `/b/{name}/marks.json`. A damaged `.marks.json` must not 500 the operator's report; it returns an `error` in the body and embed.js mounts the nav anyway. This is the v0.2.2 lesson and the posture every read path in this service already takes."
- "WRAP_MAX_BYTES SURVIVES UNCHANGED, at 8 MiB, with the same raw-FileResponse fallback. The work behind it is now trivial, but the READ is not: the largest live verbatim booth is 280 KB and a pathological one still should not be pulled into memory. A booth over the cap loses its chrome exactly as it does today -- no regression, and the constant keeps its existing test."
open_questions:
- "Whether `/_booth/embed.js` should eventually carry the gallery page's chrome too, making one embed for both surfaces. Out of scope: the gallery page is server-rendered end to end and has no seam problem to solve."
- "Whether a booth should be able to suppress injection entirely (a `.no-embed` dotfile) for a report that wants to be served truly untouched. No live booth wants it; declaring the line and then not using it is already most of the way there. Parked rather than designed."
---
# U3 — the declared embed seam
## The defect, stated precisely
A booth that ships its own `index.html` is served verbatim. That is the whole
promise of the verbatim path, and the Booth breaks it twice on the way out:
1. **`wrap_verbatim_html`** searches arbitrary author HTML with six regular
expressions — `_ICON_RE`, `_HEAD_CLOSE_RE`, `_HTML_OPEN_RE`, `_DOCTYPE_RE`,
`_BODY_CLOSE_RE`, `_HTML_CLOSE_RE` — to find somewhere to put a favicon and
somewhere to put a floating chip, while threading two constraints it cannot
verify: never put anything ahead of a leading doctype, and keep the charset
meta inside the first 1024 bytes.
2. **`booth/inline.py`** matches a placeholder DSL with four more patterns and
substitutes rendered HTML into the author's markup by string replacement.
Ten patterns, applied to documents the Booth did not write, does not parse, and
cannot validate. It works. It is also the single most fragile thing in the
service, and it is load-bearing for the operator's most important workflow.
The failure this invites is not a crash. It is a report that renders *slightly*
wrong — and there is a live specimen already. `dfa-concepts/index.html` writes:
```html
<div class="ask" data-booth-ask="dfa:logo"><h3>The one asset that must survive</h3>
```
`_EL_RE` matches the opening `<div …>` and replaces it. The author's `.ask`
wrapper class is gone, the `<h3>` is orphaned, and the `</div>` further down is
stray. Nobody filed a bug, because a page that is 95% right does not look broken.
## The seam
Operator ruling, 2026-09-21. A report carries one line:
```html
<script src="/_booth/embed.js" defer></script>
```
and the Booth mounts its chrome through real DOM APIs. Three consequences, and
the third is the one worth stating out loud:
- **A page that declares the line is served with nothing added to it.** Not
"one small injection" — nothing. The body is what the author wrote.
- **A page that does not declare it gets that one line appended at the end.**
A substring test and a concatenation; no pattern, nothing prepended, no
constraint to thread.
- **Both of `wrap_verbatim_html`'s hard constraints stop existing** rather than
being satisfied more carefully. You cannot displace a doctype you never move,
and you cannot push a charset meta out of the detection window by appending.
## What crosses the seam
`GET /b/{name}/embed.json` — server-rendered fragments, and nothing embed.js has
to decide for itself:
```json
{
"booth": "dfa-concepts",
"home": "/",
"favicon": "data:image/svg+xml,…",
"open": ["dfa"],
"marks": [
{
"id": "dfa",
"error": null,
"whole": "<div class=\"bk-ask\" …>",
"submit": "<div class=\"bk-ask\" …>",
"questions": [
{"key": "logo", "html": "<div …>"},
{"key": "display", "html": "<div …>"}
]
}
]
}
```
Every HTML string comes from the `_ask_inline.html` macros that render the same
fragments today. `open` is `open_marks(picks)` — computed once, server-side, and
never re-derived in JavaScript.
**A payload whose `.marks.json` could not be read has a stated shape**, because
an arm asked and the first draft did not say: `marks` is `[]`, `open` is `[]`,
`booth` / `home` / `favicon` are present as normal, and top-level `error` and
`detail` carry the verdict. Status stays 200, copied from `/marks.json` — a
pinned status code is a promise to remote clients, and the information goes in
the body instead. The nav mounts; nothing else does. A per-mark `error` is a
different thing: that is ONE unreadable pick inside a file that read fine.
**`questions` is a LIST, and `key` may be `null`.** This is not a style choice.
A single-question pick normalizes to `questions: [{"key": None, …}]`
(`asks.normalize_ask`), so a JSON object keyed by question key would serialize
that key as the string `"null"` — inventing a name that collides with a real key
and that JavaScript would have to translate back. A list also carries declaration
order in the format itself rather than leaning on object-key insertion order.
A `null` key matches no anchor spec, which is correct and is exactly what
`place` does today: a single-question pick is addressed as a whole or not at all.
Found by the seam review; see SR-2.
## How the script learns which booth it is on
**The find of the contract-review round, three arms independently**, and the one
gap that made the rest unimplementable as first written: the declared line is
byte-identical for every booth, the payload endpoint needs `{name}`, and the
name arrives *inside* the response the fetch needs the name to make.
The rule, stated once:
> **The booth name is the second path segment of the page's own address.** A
> verbatim report is served at `/b/<name>/`, so `embed.js` reads
> `location.pathname`, takes segment 2, and `decodeURIComponent`s it. A page
> whose address is not `/b/<name>/...` mounts nothing and returns quietly.
>
> **Override:** a `<script data-booth="...">` attribute wins if present. The
> Booth never writes one — the appended tag is exactly the documented line — but
> an author embedding a report elsewhere needs a way to say so, and one optional
> attribute is cheaper than a second endpoint.
This makes the URL grammar part of the public seam, which is the honest reading:
an author who writes the line is relying on where the Booth serves them, and
that should be written down rather than inferred.
## The placement algorithm
The same algorithm `inject_asks` runs today, expressed against a DOM instead of
a string. It is written out here because it is the part that moves languages,
and a reviewer has to be able to check the two against each other.
```
placed : Map<markId, Set<key | WHOLE>>
submitted : Set<markId>
1. every element matching
[data-booth-mark], [data-booth-ask] -- in document order
spec -> (id, key?) by splitting on the first ":"
mark unknown -> leave the element ALONE (a typo stays visible)
key absent -> mount whole; placed[id] += WHOLE; submitted += id
key names no question -> leave the element ALONE
key present -> mount question; placed[id] += key
2. every element matching
[data-booth-mark-submit], [data-booth-ask-submit]
mark unknown -> leave alone
otherwise -> mount submit; placed[id] ||= {}; submitted += id
3. tail, appended to <body> in payload order. THE ARROWS ARE EXCLUSIVE, NOT
CUMULATIVE -- first match wins and the mark is done. An arm read them as
four independent tests, under which one unplaced mark would mount its whole
form AND every question AND a submit block; the notation allowed it and the
prose did not forbid it:
if id not in placed: append whole; NEXT MARK
elif mark.error: append nothing; NEXT MARK
else:
if WHOLE not in placed[id]: append every question not in placed[id]
if id not in submitted: append submit (scattered, still submittable)
4. re-associate: for every control carrying form="…", remove and re-set the
attribute, so its form owner is resolved after all fragments are in place.
5. chip: if `open` is non-empty, link it to the FIRST element in document order
whose id is EXACTLY `bk-ask-<open[0]>` or begins `bk-ask-<open[0]>-`.
A bare prefix match would send the chip to `bk-ask-batch2-r1` for the mark
`batch`, or to an author's own element -- flagged by a cold arm, and the
trailing hyphen is what rules it out.
Two more rules the first draft left to the selector rather than stating:
- **An element carrying BOTH `data-booth-mark` and `data-booth-ask` uses the
canonical one.** The alias exists for reports written before the rename, not
to double a mount.
- **A submit anchor's spec is its stem; any `:key` on it is IGNORED.** There is
no per-question submit block — one pick has one `<form>`, which is the whole
reason the `form=` binding exists.
```
**`mount` is `el.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend', frag)`** — the anchor element
and its existing contents survive; the fragment lands inside. See the assumption
on anchor-fill for why this is a deliberate change and not an accident.
**Step 4 is measured, not assumed.** Chromium 151 resolves a control's form owner
correctly even when the control is inserted before its `<form>`: a probe run
2026-09-22 (N=3 per condition, with a form-first positive control and a
points-at-nothing negative control) returned `F, F, F` for control-first and
`null, null, null` for the negative. So the pass is *not* needed in Chromium.
It is three lines, it costs nothing, and the sensitivity floor of that probe is
**one engine** — the operator's own browser was not measured. The failure it
guards against is a form the operator fills in whose controls reach no form,
so the button does nothing.
**Step 5 deletes an element.** Today `inject_asks` injects `<a id="bk-ask-<id>-top">`
before the first fragment of each pick so the chip has somewhere to jump. The
fragments already carry ids; document order in a live DOM is directly queryable;
the extra anchor is not needed.
## Invariants
Each is falsifiable by a change that a test must catch going red. The
*Falsifiable:* line names that change — not a test that merely mentions the
invariant. (Five of seven U4 falsifiers were vacuous; see
`persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-vacuous-falsifiers.md`.)
**INV-1 — A page that declares the seam is served BYTE FOR BYTE.**
The response body for a verbatim booth whose `index.html` contains
`src="/_booth/embed.js"` (either quote style) is exactly the bytes on disk.
⚠ **Bytes, not text, and that is a correction.** The first implementation read
with `read_text()`, which opens in universal-newline mode: a CRLF report came
back LF, and `errors="replace"` turned any non-UTF-8 byte into U+FFFD. A
declaring page was NOT served as its author wrote it — the headline promise —
and the test could not see it, because its fixture was LF-only ASCII. The file
is decoded only to ask whether it declares the seam; what goes on the wire is
the original bytes. A page that only mentions the path is NOT declaring it — see the
conditional-append assumption for which way that has to fail.
*Falsifiable:* append anything — a chip, a comment, a newline — to the declaring
branch's response and `test_declaring_page_is_served_untouched` fails on a
whole-body equality, not on a substring absence.
**INV-2 — A page that does not declare the seam, AND IS UNDER `WRAP_MAX_BYTES`,
is mutated exactly once, at the end.** The response is the source BYTES plus
`EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG`'s bytes and nothing else, with the source a byte-exact
prefix of it.
⚠ **The size cap is an explicit exception, not an oversight** — two cold arms
read the invariant's universal wording against the raw-`FileResponse`
assumption and found them prescribing different responses for the same page. An
over-cap page is mutated ZERO times and loses its chrome, exactly as it did
before this unit.
*Falsifiable:* insert the tag before `</head>` instead of appending, or add the
favicon link back, and `test_undeclared_page_gains_only_the_tag` fails the
prefix assertion. The exception has its own test,
`test_an_oversize_verbatim_page_is_served_raw`, which fails if the append starts
firing above the cap.
**INV-3 — No regular expression is applied to author HTML.**
The verbatim branch of `booth_view` performs two `in` tests and one `+`.
⚠ **The first draft of this falsifier was VACUOUS and three arms caught it.**
It name-matched the six deleted patterns, so reintroducing the same regex under
a new name — `_TAIL_RE`, applied in the verbatim branch — left the test green,
on this contract's central promise. Worse, this repo's own vacuity pass missed
it, because the mutation it tried was the named one: **a vacuity pass is only as
good as the mutation it picks, and picking the one the contract names is how it
agrees with itself.**
*Falsifiable:* `test_no_regex_touches_author_html` walks the AST of
`booth/app.py` and asserts the module performs **exactly one** regex operation
— `ask_form_id`'s `re.sub` over a mark id, which is not a page — plus that
`booth/inline.py` does not exist. Any regex anywhere in the module, under any
name, fails it. Verified by mutation: a renamed `_TAIL_RE.sub` in
`embed_verbatim` goes red, and the unmutated control stays green.
**INV-4 — The payload is the only source of what a mark says.**
embed.js never decides openness, order, or content. `open` comes from
`open_marks`; `marks` order is `marks_for` order; `questions` order is
declaration order.
*Falsifiable:* the claim ranges over three things and so does the check.
**Openness:** have embed.js derive open marks from a `bk-done` class and
`test_the_chip_count_comes_from_the_server` fails on a half-answered pick, which
`open_marks` calls open and the rendered state does not. **Order:** reverse the
tail iteration and `test_the_tail_follows_payload_order` fails. **Content:** the
fragments are strings the page never authors, which
`test_every_piece_the_author_can_place_is_offered` pins on the server side.
**INV-5 — `/_booth/embed.js` is read once at startup.**
*Falsifiable:* change the route to `read_text()` per request and
`test_embed_js_does_not_hot_reload_from_disk` fails — it mutates the file on
disk after the app is built and asserts the served body is unchanged.
**INV-6 — Every ordered collection this unit renders has a stated rule.**
Anchors are visited in **document order** (`querySelectorAll`). The tail is
appended in **payload order**, which is `(created, id)` — the rule `marks_for`
and `hold_read` both sort by, stated here as the rule rather than as one
function's name. Questions
within a mark are in **declaration order**. The chip targets the **first element
in document order** whose id starts with the open mark's prefix.
*Falsifiable:* sort the tail by anything else — id, key, insertion — and
`test_tail_order_is_payload_order` fails against a fixture whose creation order
and id order disagree.
**INV-7 — Every question of every READABLE pick reaches the document, on a
page that runs the script.** Either placed at an anchor or appended, and every
pick with a placed question has a submit block.
⚠ **Two qualifiers, both added because arms read the first wording literally and
were right.** *Readable*: a pick carrying `error` has no questions to place —
`marks._hydrate` gives it an empty list — so the tail mounts its broken-ask box
and stops, and an unqualified "every pick" would have demanded placement the
algorithm forbids in exactly the damaged-data case the leniency posture exists
for. *Reaches the document*, not "is visible": the Booth cannot police an author
who hides their own anchor, and a guarantee that claimed to would be unenforceable
rather than strict.
*Falsifiable:* drop the "append the questions the author did not place" branch
and `test_partially_marked_page_still_shows_every_question` fails in the browser
with 2 of 4 radio groups present.
## Out of scope (deferred or never)
Named so a reviewer does not read them as drift.
- **The gallery page's chrome.** Only a booth's own `index.html` is served
verbatim; every other surface is server-rendered end to end and has no seam
problem. `/_booth/embed.js` is not loaded there and is not meant to be.
- **Re-rendering an ask in JavaScript.** The payload carries server-rendered
HTML and embed.js places it. A JS renderer would be a second renderer of one
truth — the bug the repo's one-resolver rule exists to stop.
- **A no-JavaScript fallback on the verbatim path.** The operator's 2026-09-21
ruling accepts the script dependency. The never-invisible guarantee degrades
to surfaces that need no script (the index card's badge, `/b/<name>/marks`),
and that is the stated cost, not an oversight to be fixed here.
- **The HTML-comment placeholders** `<!-- booth:ask … -->`. Zero users across
all 21 live booths; dropped rather than ported. A page that used one falls
back to the append path, so its ask still renders.
- **`_ask_inline.html`'s dead `standalone=False` macro parameter.** No caller
has passed `True` since U2 turned the standalone asks page into a 308.
Deleting it is tidy-up and changes a macro signature for no behavioural gain.
- **`base.html`'s literal duplicate of the favicon data URI.** It predates this
unit. The payload reads `FAVICON_HREF`, so this unit adds no third copy; it
does not remove the second.
- **`WRAP_MAX_BYTES` and its raw-serve fallback.** Unchanged at 8 MiB. A booth
over the cap loses its chrome exactly as it did before — no regression, and
the constant keeps its existing test.
- **`GET /b/<name>/asks`.** Already a 308 into `/marks` since U2. Left alone:
the URL is in the operator's history and in landed reports.
- **Pushing, and the version bump tier.** Minor needs the operator's approval.
## Slices
| # | slice | red→green on |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | `GET /b/{name}/embed.json` — payload shape, order, leniency, no view recorded | payload tests; existing 410 stay green |
| 2 | `GET /_booth/embed.js` — served from a startup read, ETag, no hot reload | INV-5 |
| 3 | the verbatim branch rewritten; `inject_asks` and `wrap_verbatim_html` deleted | INV-1, INV-2, INV-3 |
| 4 | `booth/static/embed.js` — nav, favicon, styles, no marks yet | browser: chip present, icon set, declaring page untouched |
| 5 | placement: anchors, tail, submit, re-association | browser: INV-4, INV-6, INV-7; the live `dfa-concepts` and `sindra-voice-1` shapes as fixtures |
| 6 | delete `inline.py`; retire the six tests that test the deleted mechanism; docs | suite green, IA doc and ROADMAP updated |
## Seam review
The sibling-aware pass, run in-session against the real module surfaces rather
than against the sibling contracts' prose. `/heid-contract-review` is
artifact-only by design and structurally cannot see `booth/marks.py`, so this is
the only gate that can check what the contract borrows from it.
| # | finding | disposition |
|---|---|---|
| **SR-1** | The order invariant named `marks_for`'s ordering. The route actually reads through `hold_read` — one read answering both "what is here" and "can it be read", per the TOCTOU lesson — and only falls back to `marks_for` on the error path. Both sort `(created, id)`, so the contract was not wrong, but it named a function where it meant a rule. | **Amended.** INV-6 states the rule. The route's reader is named in the payload section. |
| **SR-2** | **The payload shape was wrong.** `questions` as a JSON object keyed by question key breaks on a single-question pick, whose only question has `key: None` (`asks.normalize_ask`, the `multi: False` branch) — `json.dumps` writes that key as the string `"null"`. Every one-question ask in the fleet hits it, including the live `sindra-voice-1`. | **Scope fix.** `questions` is a list of `{key, html}`; `key` is nullable; declaration order is carried by the format. `booth.asks.normalize_ask` added to `depends_on`. |
| **SR-3** | `inline.form_id` was inside the module the contract deletes entirely, but it is not placement machinery — it builds the shared `<form>` id the question fragments bind to with `form=`. Deleting the module as written would delete the fragments' ability to submit. | **Scope miss.** `form_id` moves to `booth/app.py`; `touches` says so. |
| **SR-4** | A FLAG mark's id is literally `flag:<target>` (`marks.flag_id`) — it contains the separator the anchor spec splits on. It never reaches the payload only because the payload filters `shape == "pick"`, and pick ids are `valid_stem`-checked (no colon). | **No change, stated.** The filter is load-bearing, not incidental; a later widening of the payload to all shapes would break the split rule silently. |
| **SR-5** | `_ask_inline.html`'s `question(a, q, form_id, name_url, standalone=False)` has had no caller passing `standalone=True` since the standalone asks page became a 308 in U2. Dead parameter on a macro this unit edits. | **Out of scope, noted.** Deleting it is tidy-up, not this unit's work, and it changes a macro signature for no behavioural gain. |
## Contract review — the cold panel
`/heid-contract-review`, four arms, dispatched `01M351WKV666D681SSRNY7D7X6`.
Triaged per the cross-frontier discipline: adopted on merits, not on authority.
| # | finding | arms | disposition |
|---|---|---|---|
| **CR-1** | **The seam never tells `embed.js` which booth it is on.** The declared line is byte-identical for every booth, the payload endpoint needs `{name}`, and the name arrives inside the response the fetch needs it to make. Every other section depends on this unstated hop. | 3 of 4, independently | **Genuine add, and the round's headline.** The code already derived it from `location.pathname`; the CONTRACT did not say so, which makes a "public API" whose discovery mechanism is unspecified not fully one. New section: *How the script learns which booth it is on*. No code change. |
| **CR-2** | **INV-3's falsifier was vacuous** — it name-matched the six deleted patterns, so a renamed regex applied to the page body kept it green, on this contract's central promise. | 3 of 4 | **Genuine add, and a CODE-side fix.** The test now asserts `booth/app.py` performs exactly one regex operation anywhere in the module. Verified by mutation in both directions. The lesson is sharper than the fix: **this repo's own vacuity pass missed it because it tried the mutation the contract named** — a pass that picks the named mutation agrees with itself. |
| **CR-3** | **Declaration by bare substring fails in the dangerous direction.** A report that merely mentions `/_booth/embed.js` — a code sample, a comment — counted as declaring it and was served with no chrome at all, silently. | 3 of 4 | **Genuine add, CODE-side.** Detection now requires `src="…"` (either quote style), which fails toward a harmless duplicate tag instead. New test covers prose, comment and `?v=2` spellings. |
| **CR-4** | **INV-2 and the size cap prescribe different responses** for an over-cap non-declaring page, and neither the invariant's wording nor a named falsifier carved the exception. | 2 of 4 | **Genuine add.** INV-2 now states the cap as an explicit exception and names the test that holds it. Code and test were already right. |
| **CR-5** | **The tail's four arrows read as independent tests**, under which one unplaced mark mounts its whole form AND every question AND a submit block. | 1 | **Genuine add.** The notation allowed it and the prose did not forbid it. The block is now explicit if/elif/else. Code was already exclusive. |
| **CR-6** | **INV-7 quantified over picks the algorithm filters** (errored picks) and over "visible", which placement cannot guarantee. | 2 of 4 | **Genuine add, wording.** INV-7 is now scoped to READABLE picks and claims *reaches the document*, not *is visible*. |
| **CR-7** | The chip's prefix rule can select `bk-ask-batch2-r1` for mark `batch`, or an author's own element. | 1 | **Sharpening.** The code always matched exactly-or-hyphen; the contract said "starts with". Wording fixed, and `test_the_chip_does_not_jump_to_a_mark_that_merely_shares_a_prefix` now holds it. |
| **CR-8** | Precedence undefined when one element carries both attribute spellings; submit-anchor key handling unstated. | 1 | **Sharpening.** Both stated; `test_the_canonical_attribute_wins_when_both_are_present` added. |
| **CR-9** | The damaged-`.marks.json` payload shape was never stated — per-mark `error` was the only error shown. | 1 | **Genuine add, wording.** Stated in *What crosses the seam*. Test already existed. |
| **CR-10** | "INV-1" names two different obligations — this contract's untouched-page rule, and the repo's one-resolver rule the assumptions cite. | 1 | **Genuine add, wording.** The assumptions now name CLAUDE.md invariant 3 explicitly. A real collision: the local falsifier goes red on an added newline and stays green if embed.js becomes a second renderer. |
| **CR-11** | INV-4's falsifier covered openness while the invariant claimed openness, order AND content. | 1 | **Sharpening.** The falsifier now names a test per clause. |
| **CR-12** | `html.questions` keyed by question name vs the top-level `questions` list — which is authoritative? And INV-4 naming `marks_for`'s order while INV-6 fixed `(created, id)`. | 2 | **Settled before the reply landed.** The in-session seam review collapsed both (SR-1, SR-2) while the panel was in flight. Independent convergence on the same two spots — worth recording, not re-fixing. |
**One arm's finding not adopted**, and the reason: that a question mounted into
an author-hidden anchor is still invisible. True, and out of reach — the Booth
cannot police an author hiding their own markup. Answered by narrowing INV-7's
claim rather than by chasing actual visibility (CR-6).
**Methodology note the panel raised on its own**, relayed by heid: 5 of 8 arms
across two unrelated callers the same evening independently proposed promoting
the end-to-end seam-walk from a conditional deliverable to a mandatory one.
CR-1 is a direct product of that exercise. Recorded here as evidence; the skill
change is the operator's call, not this repo's.
## Bug hunt — the cold panel
`/heid-bug-hunt`, four arms, artifact-only over the merge-base diff, dispatched
`01M352TPCSN52G6NGJ07T5WSGY`. ⚠ **The snapshot predates the contract-review
fixes**, so two of its findings were already closed when the reply landed; the
arms flagged the staleness themselves.
| # | finding | arms | disposition |
|---|---|---|---|
| **BH-1** | **A declaring page was NOT served as written.** `read_text()` opens in universal-newline mode, so a CRLF report came back LF, and `errors="replace"` replaced any non-UTF-8 byte. The headline promise, broken by the read itself — and invisible to a test whose fixture is LF-only ASCII. | 1 | **Genuine add, and the best finding of the round.** The verbatim branch reads and serves BYTES; the decoded copy answers only "does it declare?". INV-1 and INV-2 now state the byte-level promise, with a CRLF-plus-invalid-byte fixture. |
| **BH-2** | **A submit anchor inside the author's own `<form>` loses ours** — the HTML parser drops a nested form outright. Every control's `form=` then points at nothing, and the code recorded the pick as submitted so the tail added no fallback. The operator fills it in and the button does nothing. | 1 | **Genuine add.** A submit anchor counts as submitted only if the form actually survived (`hasForm`); otherwise the tail supplies one at body level, where no form encloses it. |
| **BH-3** | **A broken pick's diagnostic never rendered from a submit-only anchor.** An errored pick's `submit` is empty; mounting that and marking it placed made the tail skip it, so the "broken ask" box vanished from the one surface built to show it. | 3 of 4 | **Genuine add.** A submit anchor for an errored pick is left alone, exactly as an anchor naming no mark is, and the tail mounts the diagnostic. |
| **BH-4** | **An author's own element can hijack the chip.** `<section id="bk-ask-winner-background">` satisfies any id-prefix rule — the hyphen boundary from CR-7 included. | 4 of 4 | **Genuine add, and it supersedes CR-7's fix.** The chip now searches only the elements THIS SCRIPT MOUNTED, which is the identity the deleted `bk-ask-<id>-top` anchor used to guarantee, and takes the earliest of those by `compareDocumentPosition`. |
| **BH-5** | **No error boundary around fragment rendering.** A `.marks.json` that is well-formed JSON with a wrong-shaped `answer` hydrates with no error and then raises in the macro. | 1, `needs-repro` | **Genuine add — reproduced before building for it.** `_safe_fragments` returns a per-mark error record, the same leniency `_hydrate_safe` applies one layer down. ⚠ **The gallery and marks pages still 500 on it, and that is PRE-EXISTING** — measured at `42ea67f`. Out of scope here and recorded rather than quietly widened: `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-a-wrong-shaped-answer-500s-the-gallery.md`. |
| **BH-6** | Prototype pollution in the placement maps (`toString` as a mark id, `constructor` as a question key). | 1 | **Already fixed this round** as CR-13, from the code-review panel. Two panels, two lenses, the same defect independently — the strongest signal of the evening that the lenses are not redundant. |
| **BH-7** | Bare-substring declaration suppresses the chrome. | 4 of 4 | **Already fixed** as CR-3, before the reply landed. |
**One correction the panel made to this repo's own prose, adopted:** several
comments claimed a multi-question pick POSTs a 400 unless every question is
answered. It does not — `test_empty_submission_is_refused_with_400` refuses a
WHOLLY EMPTY submission, and a partial answer is accepted and recorded on
purpose. The real reason an unplaced question must still be appended is simpler
and was being obscured: **a question that never reaches the page cannot be
answered at all.** Fixed in `embed.js`, the browser tests and this contract.
**Not adopted:** the bundle's framing called the service Flask. It is FastAPI;
the arm noticed and declined to reason from it, which is the right handling.
## Vacuity pass — final
21 mutations, each drawn from an invariant's CLAIM rather than its falsifier's
example, each run against its named test, plus an unmutated control run.
**21/21 caught, control green.**
The pass earned its place three times over and none of them was the first run:
1. It reported **7/7** before the contract panel, which then showed INV-3 was
vacuous — because the mutation applied was the one the contract named.
2. Re-run **against that fix**, it found the fix's own hole (an aliased
`import re as _r`).
3. Re-run after the bug-hunt fixes, it reported seven **MUTATION-MISS** rows —
its loud-failure mode, firing correctly because the fixes had moved the code
out from under stale mutations — and then one genuine **VACUOUS**: the
sibling-mark chip test had its fixture arranged so the right answer was also
the first answer. Rewritten so the sibling comes first, which is the only
arrangement that can tell the two implementations apart.
docs/contracts/u4_derived_lifetime.contract.md
+606
View File
@@ -0,0 +1,606 @@
---
contract_version: "1.0"
module: "booth.app (lifetime)"
purpose: "A booth's lifetime stops being a boolean somebody remembered to press and becomes a fact derived from the booth's own state. Today there is ONE lifetime (24h from the newest mtime in the tree) and ONE escape hatch (`.forever`), and the measurement says the escape hatch is carrying the main load: 17 of 24 live booths (70%) hold the sentinel, up from the 13 of 24 (54%) counted on 2026-09-21. That is not `ephemeral with an exception`; it is two lifetimes wearing one lifetime's clothes, with the operator doing the sorting by hand. This unit adds the two facts the sweeper was missing -- a booth the operator still owes an answer to is HELD, and looking at a booth is ACTIVITY -- so the cases that were pressing `.forever` for `not yet` stop needing it, and `keep` is left meaning only what it says: this is durable."
depends_on:
- "booth.marks (`hold_read` -- ADDED BY THIS UNIT, the one-read pair the lifetime rule needs; and `open_marks` -- THE openness predicate, built for this unit and saying so in its own docstring: `Open is the reading that makes U4 correct: a lifetime rule that unpinned a booth on the first radio click would sweep a review in flight.` U4 CALLS it and does not re-derive it. Also `marks_for` (lenient read, never raises) and `read_error` (strict read, total -- it catches its own `MarksCorrupt` and returns a string). Verified against booth/marks.py, not against U2's contract prose: `marks_for` is `_read_raw` + `_hydrate_safe` + sort at marks.py:514; `read_error` is `_read_raw_strict` in a try/except at marks.py:262 and has no raising path.)"
- "booth.items (the dotfile skip in `booth_items` at items.py -- `.viewed` is excluded from tiles, counts and zips by the EXISTING `p.name.startswith('.')` rule, exactly as `.marks.json`, `.booth.json` and `.forever` are. No new exclusion is added or needed.)"
language: "python"
complexity: "medium"
estimated_loc: 130
used_by:
- "booth.app.sweep_once (gains the hold check beside the keep check -- the one place reaper policy lives)"
- "booth.app.list_booths (the index card gains `held` and `marks_error`, so the card can say WHY it is not counting down)"
- "booth.app.booth_view / booth_view_file / booth_marks_page (each records a view; `/b/<n>/asks` is a 308 redirect into the last of these and so needs no call of its own)"
- "booth.app.booth_unkeep (release is activity -- stated, where it used to be an accident of directory mtime)"
- "booth/templates/index.html, booth/templates/booth.html (the lifetime line: `expires in X` / `held until answered` / `kept`)"
touches:
- "booth/app.py (VIEW_MARKER, record_view, is_held; sweep_once, list_booths, booth_view, booth_view_file, booth_marks_page, booth_unkeep; the module docstring's lifetime paragraph)"
- "booth/templates/index.html (the ephemeral card's sub-line becomes a three-state lifetime line)"
- "booth/templates/booth.html (the same three-state line in the boothhead)"
- "booth/templates/_lifetime.html (new -- the lifetime macro, defined ONCE and called from three surfaces. Not in the first draft of this inventory: a four-state conditional repeated three times is the blurtoggle lesson, and U5 had already established the partial as the house answer.)"
- "booth/templates/marks.html (INV-4's third surface. A verbatim booth has no Booth-rendered header, so without this the booths most likely to be HELD -- a report that asks something -- would be the ones that never say so. Found by looking at the live service, not by the suite.)"
- "booth/templates/base.html (one CSS rule for the held state)"
- "scripts/booth (the header's `THE 24h RULE AND ITS ONE EXCEPTION` block, which states the old doctrine as the whole doctrine, and the `DO NOT unkeep and let it expire` block. The WARNING STAYS AND STAYS TRUE -- release still buys a full TTL, so unkeep-and-wait is still a delay rather than a delete. What changes is that it stops being phrased as a surprise about directory metadata and starts being phrased as the rule it now is. The paraphrase panel read the touches line as possibly meaning the advice was being retired; it is not.)"
- "README.md (the TTL paragraph)"
- "CLAUDE.md (invariant 2's dotfile list gains `.viewed`)"
- "tests/test_lifetime.py (new)"
- "tests/test_booth.py (ONE cross-reference comment. The draft said the two release-clock tests would gain an assertion that the marker is written; implementation showed they must not. `test_releasing_a_board_RESETS_its_ttl_clock` unlinks the sentinel BY HAND, not through the route, so it is a test of the mtime mechanism and asserting a route side-effect in it would be testing the wrong thing. The route behaviour is `test_releasing_a_board_RECORDS_A_VIEW` in the new file; the comment points at it. No existing assertion is touched.)"
assumptions:
- "A VIEW IS RECORDED AS A DOTFILE, AND THE EXISTING AGE RULE READS IT. `.viewed` is a dotfile but NOT a `.lock` dotfile, so `_newest_mtime` already counts it (app.py:220 excludes only `.<name>.lock`). There is therefore NO new arithmetic in `booth_age_seconds`, `is_expired` or `expires_in`: `age = now - newest mtime in the tree` is unchanged, and a view is simply one more thing in the tree. One mechanism, not two. This is the same reason `.booth.json` needed no integration work in U5."
- "THE LOCK EXEMPTION IS WHY THIS IS SAFE. `_newest_mtime` excludes `.<name>.lock` because those are created by a READ-MODIFY-WRITE path, including one that changes nothing -- machinery, not activity. `.viewed` is the opposite: it is written only by a deliberate GET of a booth's own page. The exemption's rule (`machinery does not count, deliberate acts do`) is unchanged and this lands on the counted side of it."
- "RECORDING A VIEW MUST NEVER FAIL THE REQUEST. `record_view` swallows `OSError` -- a read-only mount, a booth owned by another uid, a full disk. The same posture `marks._Locked.__enter__` takes on its `os.utime` and for the same reason, stated there: `Not putting the clock back is a cost this module can absorb; not answering the request is not.` A booth that cannot record a view simply expires on its content mtime, which is today's behaviour."
- "HOLD IS FAIL-SAFE, WHERE READS ARE FAIL-OPEN. `marks_for` is lenient by design -- a damaged `.marks.json` reads as no marks, because a review surface that will not render is worse than one that has lost an annotation. That trade is right for a RENDER and wrong for a DELETE: the same leniency on the sweep path would wipe the booth whose judgment we had just failed to read, artifacts and all. So `is_held` treats an unreadable marks file as held. Reads lenient, deletes strict -- the same asymmetry U2 established between `marks_for` and `_Locked`, extended to the reaper. `THE REAPER` IS THE WHOLE SCOPE OF `deletes strict`, and the paraphrase panel ranked the ambiguity here first by stake: a HAND delete is never strict. `booth rm`, `POST /b/<n>/delete` and `DELETE /b/<n>` take a booth held by unreadable marks exactly as they take a kept one, which is what gives that hold -- the one nothing releases on its own -- an exit at all. Strictness is a property of the TIMER, never of the operator."
- "THE LIFETIME DECISION COMES FROM ONE READ, and that is a correction to this contract's first draft. The draft specified `is_held(marks_for(child), read_error(child))` -- two reads, presented as one answer. They are not: a write or a repair landing between them yields a pair that described the booth at no instant, and the losing pair is `([], None)` -- no marks and no error -- which is exactly the pair that DELETES. Hulda found it on the paraphrase round (2026-09-22) and it is the finding that changed code rather than prose. `booth.marks.hold_read(booth) -> (marks, error)` is the fix: one strict read answering both questions the lifetime rule asks, so `sweep_once` now does ONE read per booth per tick rather than two. And because `_read_raw_strict` RAISES rather than dropping an entry, a non-raising strict read returns exactly what the lenient read would -- so the index uses that same one read for its badge too, falling back to `marks_for` only on the error path, where leniency is the point."
- "AN OPEN PICK HOLDS; A NOTE OR A FLAG DOES NOT. `_is_open` returns False for every shape but `pick`, and False for a pick carrying `error`. That is already correct for U4 and is NOT changed here: a note is the operator's output, not an owed answer, and a pick that hydrated broken can never be answered, so holding a booth on one would be holding it forever for nothing (the CLI already spells that case as exit code 4). A PARTIALLY-answered pick IS open and DOES hold -- operator-settled 2026-09-21, and the reason `open_marks` exists rather than an `answer is None` test."
- "THE HOLD IS UNBOUNDED, AND THAT IS THE POINT -- BUT IT MUST BE VISIBLE. A booth with an unanswered pick is never swept, however old. This is a new way for a booth to become immortal, and it is deliberate: unanswered is unfinished. What makes it safe is not a bound, it is VISIBILITY plus TWO exits that already exist. The card and the booth header say `held until answered` in place of the countdown, so a booth that is not counting down always says why; and `booth rm` / the UI `x` delete a held booth exactly as before -- `sweep_once` is the only caller that honours a hold, precisely as it is the only caller that honours `is_kept`."
- "`keep` IS UNCHANGED AND KEEPS ITS LANE. `.forever` still exempts, still renders in the kept lane, still round-trips through `booth keep` / `booth unkeep` and the UI. U4 does not deprecate it, narrow it or add a reason field to it. The prediction is that its RATE falls because the `not yet` cases stop needing it -- and a prediction is falsified by measuring, not by removing the thing being measured."
- "THE MTIME-RESTORE RACE IN `marks._Locked.__enter__` IS EXPLICITLY CONSIDERED AND LEFT OPEN. The bug-hunt panel flagged it and it was held for U4 because closing it means changing TTL doctrine. U4's answer is that the doctrine stands: the clean fix (ignore a booth directory's own mtime whenever the booth holds anything) would close a two-syscall window that opens ONCE per booth ever, and would in exchange break every `rsync -a` populated booth -- which preserves source mtimes and so has ONLY the directory's freshness to look alive by, and which is the documented path for every host that is not nh3-dev. That is a larger hole than the one being closed. Decided, not deferred; see the OUT OF SCOPE section."
open_questions:
- "Whether `booth ls` should mark held booths the way it marks kept ones with a star. Cheap, and it would need `is_held` (or a stdlib-only sibling) reachable from the CLI. Sessions already have `booth marks`, which answers the same question about their own booth, so this is convenience rather than capability. Parked, not designed."
- "Whether a booth held ONLY by an unreadable `.marks.json` should surface on the index as something to repair, beyond the `marks unreadable` label. It is a held booth that nothing will release, which is the one case where the unbounded hold has no natural exit. The label makes it visible; a repair affordance is a different unit."
---
# U4 — derived lifetime
## The defect, stated precisely
> **One lifetime (24h from last touch) and one shape (a folder), serving five
> jobs with different lifetimes.** — `docs/design/information-architecture.md`
`.forever` is the escape hatch for that mismatch, and the measurement says it is
no longer an exception:
| date | booths carrying `.forever` | rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-21 (IA doc) | 13 of 24 | 54% |
| 2026-09-21 (re-count) | 14 of 25 | 56% |
| 2026-09-22 | **17 of 24** | **70%** |
Both the rate and the absolute count rose, so this is not the denominator
shrinking as the sweeper ran. A boolean that 70% of the population sets is not
an exception, it is the default with extra steps.
The reason it gets pressed is that it is the only way to say any of these:
| what the operator means | what he has to press |
|---|---|
| "this is a durable reference" | `.forever` |
| "I have not answered the question yet" | `.forever` |
| "I am still looking at this" | `.forever` |
Only the first is what `keep` means. The other two are facts the service already
holds and does not consult: **there is an open pick in `.marks.json`**, and
**somebody just loaded the page**. U4 consults them.
### The diagnosis has a live positive control
Counted 2026-09-22 against `~/booth-data`. A census of the whole population, not
a sample, and every value is a deterministic file fact (existence, mtime) — so
one observation per booth is the measurement, not an anecdote. The population
churns (26 -> 24 over the previous session); re-count rather than trusting these.
| | |
|---|---|
| live booths | 24 |
| carrying `.forever` | 17 (70%) |
| carrying `.marks.json` at all | 4 |
| of those, with an open pick | **4 of 4** |
| **open pick AND `.forever`** | **3** |
Three of the four booths in the fleet that are waiting on an answer have ALSO
been pinned by hand. That is the "not yet" case, caught in the act: the operator
pressed the durable-reference sentinel because there was no other way to say
"do not take this, I have not answered it". U4 makes those three stop needing it.
The staleness distribution says the same thing from the other side. Of the 17
kept booths, **10 are under ONE day old** — younger than the TTL, so the
sentinel has bought them nothing yet and was pressed pre-emptively. (An earlier
draft of this paragraph said "12 under 1.5 days" and called that younger than
the TTL; 1.5 days is not younger than 24 hours, and the claim only holds at the
one-day line. Caught by the cross-frontier paraphrase panel, 2026-09-22 — the
measurement was right and the sentence was not.) Only 4 are old enough
(2.4-4.6 days) that `keep` is the only reason they still exist. A
sentinel pressed on a booth that was in no danger is not a durability decision;
it is "not yet", written in the only vocabulary available.
⚠ The hold's live blast radius is SMALL today — 4 booths have marks at all. The
17-to-something prediction therefore rests on both halves of this unit, and on
the sentinel becoming unnecessary rather than becoming forbidden. If the rate
does not move, the honest readings are: the diagnosis was wrong, OR the habit
outlived the need, and the fortnight re-count cannot tell those apart on its
own. The three open-pick-plus-`.forever` booths are the ones to watch, because
for them the mechanism is now unambiguous.
## The record
A booth is in exactly one lifetime state, decided in this order:
```
KEPT .forever present never swept (unchanged)
HELD an open pick, or a never swept while (new)
.marks.json we cannot read that holds
EPHEMERAL otherwise swept when
age > ttl (unchanged)
```
`age` is unchanged: `now - _newest_mtime(booth)`, the newest mtime in the tree
excluding `.<name>.lock`. **Viewing is folded in through that existing rule**,
not beside it — a view writes `.viewed`, which is a dotfile and not a lock
dotfile, so the age function already counts it. There is no new arithmetic.
### What counts as a view
One line, because CLAUDE.md invariant 6's test applies to rules as well as
orders: **a deliberately-requested response FROM a booth's own page route is a
view; a machine read, an asset fetch, and a request that does not resolve are
not.**
Three words in that rule are load-bearing and the first draft said "HTML page",
which was wrong twice. `?download=1` is a zip served by the booth-page route and
IS a view — the operator asking for the whole booth is as deliberate as looking
at it. And a `/view?f=<missing>` that 404s is NOT one: the route matters, but so
does whether anything was served, or a crawler walking dead zoom URLs holds a
booth open forever. `record_view` therefore sits below the zoom route's file
validation and above the booth route's verbatim/zip fork.
| route | view? | why |
|---|---|---|
| `GET /b/<n>/` | **yes** | the booth page — gallery, verbatim report, or `?download=1` zip |
| `GET /b/<n>/view?f=…` | **yes** | the zoom / doc page; a bookmarked zoom URL is somebody looking |
| `GET /b/<n>/marks` | **yes** | the standalone judgment page — for a verbatim booth this IS the booth page |
| `GET /b/<n>/marks.json` | no | a session polling. An agent must not be able to hold its own booth open |
| `GET /b/<n>/<file>` | no | issued BY the page. A hotlinked image would otherwise keep a booth alive |
| `GET /` | no | the IA's rule: "deliberate act, so it cannot be triggered by browsing the index" |
| `GET /healthz` | no | a monitor is not a viewer |
⚠ Named rather than hidden: `scripts/layout-probe.py` sweeps every booth page,
so running it resets every booth's clock. That is the correct reading of the
rule (it is a GET of every booth page), it is recoverable (one extra TTL), and
it is a dev tool. A note goes in the probe.
⚠ A browser that speculatively prefetches a hovered link records a view the
operator did not quite take. Accepted: the failure mode is a booth living one
extra day because he nearly opened it, and the alternative is sniffing
`Sec-Fetch-*` headers, which is a fragile rule pretending to be a crisp one.
**Checked, because it would have been silent:** nothing in the fleet polls a
booth *page*. Homepage's `siteMonitor` for the Booth is
`http://10.100.10.50:8090/healthz`, which is on the not-a-view list; there is no
cron entry and no systemd timer touching `/b/…`. Had Homepage been pointed at a
booth URL instead, every booth would have become immortal on deploy and nothing
would have reported it.
### Release is activity, on purpose
Removing `.forever` bumps the booth directory's mtime, so a released board
survives another full TTL. Today that is an **accident** of directory metadata
that `app.py` documents as "not intuitive" and `scripts/booth` warns against.
U4 does not change the behaviour and does not retire the test that pins it. It
changes the behaviour's *reason*: `booth_unkeep` calls `record_view`, so a
released board gets one full TTL because **releasing a board is somebody
touching it**, which is a rule, and no longer because of which syscall happened
to write a directory entry, which is not.
The existing tests (`test_releasing_a_board_RESETS_its_ttl_clock`,
`test_released_board_is_sweepable_once_it_ages_again`) are untouched, and that
is a correction to this contract's first draft, which said they would each gain
an assertion that the marker is present. They must not: the first one unlinks
the sentinel **by hand**, not through the route, so it is a test of the mtime
mechanism and a route side-effect does not belong in it. The route behaviour
gets its own test in the new file, and the old test gains a comment pointing at
it.
**The marker's mtime must be NOW**, which `Path.touch()` gives and which the
contract's first draft left unsaid. An implementation that wrote the file with
any older timestamp would satisfy "the marker is there" while the extra TTL
still came from the directory-mtime accident this section exists to replace —
the new reason would be decoration over the old mechanism. Flagged by the
paraphrase panel, 2026-09-22.
## Signatures
```python
# booth/app.py
VIEW_MARKER = ".viewed"
"""Records the last deliberate look at a booth. A dotfile, so `booth_items`
skips it and it costs nothing in counts, galleries or zips — and NOT a `.lock`
dotfile, so `_newest_mtime` counts it and the existing age rule picks up the
view with no new arithmetic."""
def record_view(booth: Path) -> None:
"""Note that somebody deliberately looked at this booth.
Touches VIEW_MARKER; `_newest_mtime` does the rest. NEVER raises: a
read-only mount, a booth we do not own or a full disk cost the timestamp,
not the page. A booth whose view cannot be recorded simply ages on its
content mtime, which is today's behaviour for every booth.
"""
def is_held(marks: Sequence[Mark], error: str | None) -> bool:
"""True if this booth still owes the operator an answer and must not be swept.
PURE — it takes the result of a read and does none of its own, so the index
card and the sweeper cannot answer differently about the same booth. That
is U1's rule (one resolver, every surface reads the record) applied to
lifetime.
FAIL-SAFE on `error`. `marks_for` is lenient because a review page that
will not render is worse than one missing an annotation; the same leniency
on the DELETE path would wipe the booth whose judgment we had just failed
to read. Reads lenient, deletes strict.
Openness itself is `open_marks` and nothing else (U2 INV-2).
"""
return error is not None or bool(open_marks(marks))
```
`is_expired` is **unchanged** and stays a pure age question — the existing
separation ("expiry arithmetic and reaper policy are kept apart so they cannot
drift into each other") is the reason `is_kept` is not consulted there either.
`sweep_once` remains the only caller that honours a pin, and now honours two.
```python
# booth/marks.py — stdlib only, like the rest of that module
def hold_read(booth: Path) -> tuple[list[Mark], str | None]:
"""ONE read of `.marks.json`, answering BOTH questions the lifetime rule
asks: what is still open, and whether the file could be read at all.
Two calls would read the file twice, and two reads of one file are not one
read of one state — the pair that loses the race is `([], None)`, which is
the pair that deletes.
On a clean file the marks are what `marks_for` would return, because
`_read_raw_strict` raises rather than dropping an entry. So one read serves
the badge too, and the lenient reader comes back only on the error path.
"""
```
```python
def sweep_once(data_dir, ttl_seconds, now=None) -> list[str]:
...
if is_kept(child):
continue
if is_held(*hold_read(child)): # NEW — ONE read
continue
if is_expired(child, ttl_seconds, now):
shutil.rmtree(child)
```
```python
def list_booths(data_dir, ttl_seconds, now=None) -> list[dict]:
...
marks, marks_error = hold_read(child) # NEW — one read, both facts
if marks_error is not None:
marks = marks_for(child) # lenient, for the panel
booths.append({
...
"marks_error": marks_error, # NEW — the card says so
"held": is_held(marks, marks_error), # NEW — the same predicate
})
```
## What renders
The lifetime line, on the ephemeral index card and in the booth header. Three
states, one of which is new:
| state | line | why |
|---|---|---|
| ephemeral | `12 items · expires in 3h 20m` | unchanged |
| held, open pick | `12 items · held until answered` | says what holds it AND what releases it |
| held, unreadable | `12 items · held · marks unreadable` | the one hold nothing will release on its own |
| kept | `12 items · kept` | unchanged, kept lane |
**The hold REPLACES the countdown at every age, not only once the booth is
old.** A held booth that is four hours old shows `held until answered`, not
`expires in 20h`. `expires_in` is still computed and still correct (INV-1);
it is simply not what the surface says, because a number counting down to a
deletion that will not happen is the silent-stopped-clock failure in its other
costume — the screen announcing an expiry the sweeper will never carry out.
Flagged as readable-two-ways by the paraphrase panel, 2026-09-22; settled here.
A booth that is not counting down **always says why**. That is the whole safety
argument for an unbounded hold: `.forever` was at least visible as a lane; an
invisible rule that silently stops the clock would be strictly worse than the
boolean it replaces.
**Three surfaces, not two**, and the third was found by looking at the live
service rather than by the suite. A verbatim booth's own `index.html` is served
untouched by design, so it has no Booth-rendered header for the line to live in
— and a report that ASKS the operator something is the archetype of a held
booth. `GET /b/<n>/marks` is the only other page whose chrome the Booth owns, so
the line goes there too. Without it, the booths most likely to be held would be
exactly the ones that never said they were. (U3 is the unit that gives a
verbatim booth real chrome; until then, this is the honest coverage.)
Kept beats held in the display, because a kept booth is in the kept lane and is
exempt either way — showing two reasons for one exemption is the
two-representations-of-one-state trap `flag_id`'s docstring names.
**An unreadable marks file is the exception, and it rides along even on a kept
board**: `kept · marks unreadable`. Damaged judgment is not a second exemption,
it is a thing somebody has to go and fix, and the kept lane holds the durable
boards — the ones where losing the operator's marks costs most. A kept card that
said only `kept` would hide the single case that needs a human. The card's
`held` and `marks_error` are therefore RAW FACTS, true regardless of keep, and
only the display has a precedence. The paraphrase panel found the two readings
of "exactly one lifetime state" that this settles.
## Scope — the blast-radius pass
`graphify explain` on `sweep_once`, `is_kept`, `list_booths`, `_newest_mtime`,
`booth_age_seconds`, `open_marks`, `KEEP_MARKER`, cross-checked with grep.
Graphify reported the call structure and, as expected, **missed both route
callers of `list_booths`** (`index()` and `healthz()`, now at app.py:761 and :774) —
they are function-local inside `create_app`, which is the known AST blind spot.
Grep caught them. Neither tool alone was sufficient; this is the third unit in
a row where that has been true.
**Production, 7 files:** `booth/app.py`, `booth/marks.py` (`hold_read`, added),
`booth/templates/_lifetime.html` (new), `booth/templates/index.html`,
`booth/templates/booth.html`, `booth/templates/marks.html`,
`booth/templates/base.html`.
**Docs/CLI, 4 files:** `scripts/booth`, `scripts/layout-probe.py`, `README.md`,
`CLAUDE.md`.
**Tests, 2 files:** `tests/test_lifetime.py` (new), `tests/test_booth.py`.
⚠ This census said "Production, 4 files" in the first draft and omitted
`_lifetime.html`, `marks.html`, `marks.py` and `layout-probe.py` — three of
which the body text elsewhere required, which is the contradiction both
Gróa and Hulda flagged independently. An inventory that disagrees with the
prose next to it is worse than no inventory: it reads as a closed set.
Not touched, and checked rather than assumed: `booth/items.py`,
`booth/manifest.py`, `booth/links.py`, `booth/asks.py`, `booth/inline.py`.
## The three cross-frontier panels, and what they changed
All three ran on 2026-09-22 and all three earned their place — and each found
a class the other two could not. Triaged per the cross-frontier discipline
rather than adopted.
**Paraphrase panel** (`01M34VX0SH23Y3VC92E7GM4S70`, four arms). Seven flags.
Five folded into the prose above: the hold replacing the countdown at every
age, `deletes strict` scoping to the reaper alone, the zip and the 404 in the
view rule, the marker's mtime, and the CLI warning staying true. Two changed
more than wording:
- **Hulda — the two reads are not one state.** The only finding on this round
that changed CODE. See the `hold_read` assumption in the frontmatter.
- **Gróa and Hulda, independently — the blast-radius census contradicted the
prose beside it.** It named four production files while the body required
three more. An inventory that disagrees with its own document is worse than
none, because it reads as a closed set.
Hulda also caught a number: this contract claimed 12 kept booths were "under
1.5 days old — younger than the TTL". One and a half days is not younger than
twenty-four hours. The measurement was right, the sentence was not, and it is
the one place the diagnosis overstated itself.
**Code-vs-contract panel** (`01M34WAFJC3RTERFYBBZJN1SVG`, four arms). **All
four arms found the same drift** — the strongest signal either panel produced
on this unit. The booth header's sub-line forks on `{% if board %}`, and the
lifetime macro sat only in the `{% else %}`, so a booth carrying `links.md`
rendered a link count and nothing at all about its lifetime. INV-4 says the
templates have no path that renders neither; that was a path, reachable by the
release button or by a hand-made board.
Regin and Kimi recommended amending INV-4 to carve the board header out, on the
grounds that board-header layout belongs to U7. **Declined; the code is fixed
instead.** Cutting an invariant down to fit an implementation gap is the wrong
direction when the fix is one template edit, and U7 owns navigation and section
layout — not whether a header states a lifetime. Gróa's "fix it" was right.
The same panel showed that **most of the INV falsifier tests did not
discriminate**, which is the more useful half of the round. The header test
never rendered a board. The kept-beats-held test only rendered the index, where
kept cards took a hardcoded string and never reached the macro at all. The
INV-5 test called `record_view` directly instead of GETting the routes the
invariant is about. The INV-7 tests asserted the marker's absence rather than
the age, so a handler writing any other non-dot file would have passed. INV-6's
had no doomed sibling, so "spare everything" would have passed. Each is now
written to fail under the change that defeats it, and the board-header pair was
verified RED against the pre-fix template rather than assumed.
**Bug-hunt panel** (`01M34Y2R0RAJRSN36Q8K4KAB36`, four arms). The round that
changed the most code, and the one that found a class the other two could not
see by construction: **a read that FAILED still resolving to "no hold", and
therefore to a delete.** That is the invariant this unit declared to the panel,
and the panel found **four independent paths through it. No single arm found
all four.**
1. **An entry-level hydration error lost its hold.** `.marks.json` parses, one
mark fails normalization, `_hydrate_safe` returns a `Mark` carrying `error`,
and `_is_open` returns False for an errored pick — on purpose, because a
broken pick can never be answered. So the booth read as not-held and swept,
while the panel beside it rendered the broken mark in full. The fail-safe was
built for FILE-level damage and missed ENTRY-level. This is the strongest
finding of all three rounds.
2. **A present-but-blank `.marks.json` swept.** `_read_raw_strict` early-returns
for whitespace-only content — right for the write path it was written for,
wrong for the delete path. Our writer never produces a blank marks document,
so a blank one that exists is something that went wrong.
3. **`_newest_mtime` returned 0.0 when the booth's own stat failed**, making it
maximally ancient and therefore the FIRST thing the sweeper takes. Pre-dates
U4; U4 is what turned the age read into a life-or-death read.
4. **`is_kept` collapsed a stat failure into not-kept.** `Path.exists()` maps
ELOOP and EACCES to False, so a kept booth whose sentinel could not be
stat'd became sweepable.
**`is_held` is gone; `hold_reason` replaced it.** A boolean plus a separate
error string is two representations of one state, and Regin independently
flagged that the display could not distinguish the two holds. One function now
returns the REASON — `"open"`, `"unreadable"`, or None — and every surface reads
it off the same value the sweeper acts on. That closes findings 1 and Regin's
together, which is why it is a rewrite rather than an extra clause.
**Convergent, 3-of-4: `record_view` followed a planted symlink.** `Path.touch()`
follows an existing link, so a booth carrying `.viewed -> /anywhere` turned every
page view into an mtime write at an arbitrary path under the service uid — and
any fleet session can write into a booth, because making a folder is the whole
API. Now an `O_NOFOLLOW` create plus `os.utime(fd)`, so a planted link raises
ELOOP into the existing swallow and view-recording quietly stops for that booth.
The `utime` is also what makes the marker read as NOW, which this contract
already required and `O_CREAT` alone does not do.
**Two more the panel found in code this unit touched:**
- **`?f=.marks.lock` held a booth open.** The zoom route recorded a view for any
path that stats inside the booth, including a lock file the service created
itself. `record_view` now sits below `find_item` and fires only for a real
item — which also makes the comment beside it true, where before it claimed
more than the code did.
- **Releasing an ALREADY-released booth refreshed its TTL forever.** The
unconditional `record_view` on `unkeep` contradicted that route's own no-op
promise and diverged from the CLI, which removes the sentinel without
recording anything. Now gated on something actually having been released. The
same edit fixes a pre-existing 500: a `.forever` that is a DIRECTORY raised
`IsADirectoryError` straight through the route, which made the card's release
button permanently dead for that booth.
**Also fixed: a docstring this unit's own fix made stale.** `sweep_once` still
claimed "one lenient read plus one strict read" after `hold_read` reduced it to
one. Kimi's framing is the right reason to care — a maintainer "optimizes" back
to two calls on the comment's authority, and rebuilds the seam the function
exists to kill.
**Re-declared as parked, not adopted:** Regin distinguished a stale-DECISION
window (hold checked, then rmtree) from the torn-FILE race already parked at
`park/booth-sweeper-rename-then-delete-to-close-the`. The distinction is real
and the fix is the same rename-then-delete, so it parks with its sibling.
**Five pre-existing defects the panel surfaced in touched files** — a booth name
reaching a JS string context, an unguarded `links.md` read, an index sort with
no tie-breaker, `marks.json` reporting damage as empty success — are fixed in
their own commit rather than smuggled into this unit's. See that commit.
⚠ **The capture tooling failed silently and the panel caught it, not us.** The
`files/` tree shipped to the arms was EMPTY: the snapshot loop iterated `for f
in $IN` over a multi-line variable, and **zsh does not word-split unquoted
parameter expansions** the way bash does, so it ran once against a path that was
the whole list. jekyll recovered by re-applying the bundled diff to HEAD and
verified every file byte-identical, so the round is sound — but the failure mode
is the dangerous one: an empty bundle reads exactly like a clean result.
## Seam review — against the real module surface
Checked against `booth/marks.py` itself, not against U2's contract prose.
| borrowed | real surface | verdict |
|---|---|---|
| `open_marks(marks)` | `marks.py:542`, takes `Sequence[Mark]`, returns `list[Mark]` | matches |
| `marks_for(booth)` | `marks.py:514`, `_read_raw` + `_hydrate_safe` + sort; total | matches |
| `read_error(booth)` | `marks.py:262`, returns `str \| None`, catches its own `MarksCorrupt` | matches — **and it is total**, which `is_held`'s fail-safe branch depends on |
| `_is_open` semantics | `marks.py:525`: `pick` only, `error is None`, partial counts open | matches the assumption above |
| `_newest_mtime` lock rule | `app.py:220`: skips `p.name.startswith(".") and p.name.endswith(".lock")` | `.viewed` is counted — confirmed at the source, not inferred |
| `Mark` import in app.py | app.py:145-160 imports `open_marks`, `marks_for`, `marks_for_target`, `as_dict` — **not `Mark`** | `is_held`'s annotation needs `Mark` added to that import list |
| `read_error` import in app.py | **not imported either** — U2 left it to the CLI, which is its only caller today | must be added to the same block; U4 is its first in-service consumer |
| `zip_booth` dotfile skip | `app.py:445`ff: `p.is_file() and not p.name.startswith(".")` | `.viewed` never reaches a zip — confirmed, not inferred from `booth_items` |
| `booth_items` dotfile skip | `items.py:182`: `not p.is_file() or p.name.startswith(".")` | `.viewed` is not an item |
| `GET /b/<n>/asks` | `app.py:1105`, a **308 redirect** to `/marks`, not its own render | records a view through the `/marks` handler. No separate call, and adding one would double-count |
| route concurrency | `booth_view`, `booth_view_file`, `booth_marks_page` are all `def`, not `async def` | FastAPI runs them in a threadpool, so `record_view`'s write cannot block the event loop |
Three rows of that table are the kind of thing only this pass finds: the cold
panel reads one contract, and a signature that is fine in isolation says nothing
about whether the name it needs is in scope at the call site.
**SR-1 — why `read_error` is safe to call per booth per index load, which the
signatures alone do not say.** `_read_raw_strict` checks `S_ISREG` *before* it
calls `read_text` (marks.py:236). That ordering is the v0.2.2 fix: `st_size` is
0 for a FIFO and 0 for a symlink to `/dev/zero`, so a size cap alone lets both
through and `read_text` then either blocks with no EOF or allocates until the
kernel intervenes — across every booth, on `GET /`, which is a service-wide
hang rather than one bad card. U4's decision to spend a second read on the hot
path depends on that guard already being there. It is; checked at the source.
## Out of scope
- **A bound on the hold.** An abandoned pick holds its booth forever. Detecting
"abandoned" needs state the Booth does not have (is any session still
polling?), and the honest alternative — an arbitrary N-day cap — trades a
visible immortal booth for a silent deletion of an open question. Visibility
plus `booth rm` is the answer for v1.
- **A reason string on `.forever`.** "keep survives as an explicit, reasoned
pin" is read here as *a pin the operator reasoned about*, not *a pin carrying
a recorded reason*. A `why` on keep does not close the measured defect — the
70% is people using keep for things that are not keep, and this unit gives
those things their own mechanism. Parked per the anti-creep gate.
- **A third index lane for held booths.** A booth waiting on the operator is the
most actionable thing on the index, and it already carries the `? N open`
badge. Lane structure and ordering are U7's, and adding a lane here would set
an ordering rule that U7 then has to live with.
- **Closing the `marks._Locked.__enter__` mtime-restore race.** See the
assumption above: the clean fix costs every `rsync -a` populated booth. The
comment there stays, and stays accurate.
- **`booth ls` marking held booths.** Open question, parked.
- **Closing the view-during-sweep race, which U4 WIDENS.** `sweep_once` calls
`shutil.rmtree` without holding anything, so a write landing inside that call
can make it raise partway and leave a stump directory. The race is
pre-existing — every write route has always had it — but U4 widens it,
because `record_view` fires on every booth-page GET and the case that
collides is precisely "the first look at a booth that has been silent for 24
hours", which is the state the sweeper acts on.
The fix is known and small: `os.rename` the booth to `.sweeping-<name>` first
(atomic, and a dotfolder the scan already skips), then `rmtree` the renamed
path, plus a cleanup of leftovers at the top of each tick for the
crash-between-the-two case. It is NOT done here, per the anti-creep gate:
both "in" and "park" are defensible, so it parks. The arithmetic is that the
collision needs a GET inside a ~10 ms `rmtree` on a booth nobody has opened in
a day, the sweeper ticks every 15 minutes, and the consequence is a stump that
survives one more TTL — against which a sweeper rewrite is not a v1-path
trade. Named here so it is a decision and not an oversight, and parked on
the henge at `park/booth-sweeper-rename-then-delete-to-close-the` (id 83)
so it has a home rather than only a paragraph.
## Invariants
**INV-1 — Age arithmetic is unchanged.** `booth_age_seconds`, `is_expired` and
the `expires_in` values on both surfaces are computed exactly as before. A view
enters through `_newest_mtime` as a file in the tree, not as a term in a new
formula. *Falsifiable:* a booth with a `.viewed` and a booth with any other
non-lock dotfile of the same mtime report the same age.
**INV-2 — `sweep_once` is the only caller that honours a hold.** `is_expired`
stays a pure age question; `booth rm`, `POST /b/<n>/delete` and
`DELETE /b/<n>` delete a held booth exactly as they delete a kept one.
*Falsifiable:* a held booth is still reported expired by `is_expired` and is
still deleted by the delete routes.
**INV-3 — One predicate, ONE READ, one answer.** The index card's `held`, the
booth header's, the marks page's and the sweeper's exemption all come from the
same pure `is_held`, and each call's two inputs come from a SINGLE read of
`.marks.json` via `hold_read` — never from two reads stitched together, which
is a pair that described the booth at no instant. *Falsifiable:* for any booth, what
`list_booths` reports as `held` and what `sweep_once` refuses to take agree —
tested directly rather than by inspection, because that is the falsifiable form.
(`open_marks` is still called directly for the `N open` COUNT. A count is not a
lifetime decision, and the first draft of this invariant forbade it by accident
— the rule is that no *exemption* and no *held label* is derived except through
`is_held`.)
**INV-4 — A booth that is not counting down says why.** Every non-kept booth
renders either a countdown or a named hold on **every surface whose chrome the
Booth owns**: the index card, the booth header, and the marks page (which is
the only one of the three a verbatim booth has). *Falsifiable:* the templates
have no path that renders neither, and the one line is a single macro rather
than three conditionals that can drift.
**INV-5 — Recording a view cannot fail a request.** `record_view` swallows
`OSError`. *Falsifiable:* a booth whose directory is read-only still returns 200
for its page, its zoom page and its marks page.
**INV-6 — An unreadable `.marks.json` holds its booth.** The reaper never
deletes judgment it could not read. *Falsifiable:* a booth with a corrupt
`.marks.json`, aged past the TTL, survives `sweep_once`.
**INV-7 — Machine reads do not hold a booth open.** `GET /b/<n>/marks.json` and
`GET /b/<n>/<file>` do not write `VIEW_MARKER`. *Falsifiable:* polling either,
repeatedly, leaves the booth's age untouched.
docs/design/information-architecture.md
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@@ -206,21 +206,41 @@ a real DOM API. Marks land at `data-booth-mark="<id>"` anchors, which keeps the
page*. If the line is absent, the Booth injects it at **one** insertion point, so
every existing verbatim booth keeps working untouched.
**What this deletes**, and this is the whole point of the decision:
**What this deleted** — landed as U3, 2026-09-22:
- `booth/inline.py` — 114 lines of placeholder DSL, entirely
- `booth/inline.py` — 119 lines of placeholder DSL, entirely. One line survived:
`form_id`, which builds the shared `<form>` id scattered question groups bind
to, and which moved to `app.py` beside the route that renders them.
- `wrap_verbatim_html` and its six regexes against arbitrary HTML
(`_HEAD_CLOSE_RE`, `_HTML_OPEN_RE`, `_DOCTYPE_RE`, `_BODY_CLOSE_RE`,
`_HTML_CLOSE_RE`, `_ICON_RE`) and the doctype/charset-ordering constraints
they are threading
- `_BACK_CHIP`, `asks_chip` — two floating chips positioned by guessed offsets
- `GET /b/<name>/asks` — the standalone page that existed only because a verbatim
booth could not show its own asks
`_HTML_CLOSE_RE`, `_ICON_RE`) **and both of the constraints they were
threading.** Not satisfied more carefully — gone: nothing can displace a
leading doctype into quirks mode and nothing can push the charset `<meta>`
out of its detection window, because the Booth only ever APPENDS now.
- `_BACK_CHIP`, `asks_chip` — two floating chips positioned by guessed offsets.
embed.js builds both in the DOM.
- the `styles()` macro. The scoped `.bk-ask-*` rules live in embed.js next to
the code that mounts them, emitted once by construction instead of by a
seen-set.
- `GET /b/<name>/asks` was already a 308 into `/marks` by U2; this unit left it
there. The standalone page it named is gone, but the URL is in the operator's
history and in landed reports, and a dead link teaches nothing.
Regex-injecting into arbitrary author HTML is the single most fragile thing in
the service, and it is load-bearing for the operator's most important workflow.
**What replaced them is a substring test and a `+`.** `if EMBED_SRC not in
html: html += EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG`. A page that declares the line is served with
nothing added to it at all.
Regex-injecting into arbitrary author HTML was the single most fragile thing in
the service, and it was load-bearing for the operator's most important workflow.
A declared seam costs the author one line and removes the whole class.
**What it cost, stated because it is real.** The verbatim path used to work with
no JavaScript: an ask rendered server-side and submitted through a plain form.
It now needs the script. The guarantee that an ask is never invisible survives
in a weaker and still-true form through surfaces that need no script — the index
card's open-mark badge, and `/b/<name>/marks`, which renders every mark
server-side.
---
# Navigation
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-ambiguity-pass-did-the-work.md
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# Every code-changing finding came from the AMBIGUITY pass
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**Every one of the panel's code-changing findings came from the
AMBIGUITY pass, none from a paraphrase divergence** — and two arms independently
proposed cutting the paraphrase to a drift-check for narrative-heavy contracts,
because this contract's own frontmatter carries a plain-language narrative and the
paraphrase was partly reading my framing back to me. That is a finding about the
`/heid-contract-review` **skill**, not about this repo, and it was reported back
to heid. Recorded here only so a future session does not rediscover it.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-boolean-escape-hatch-as-lifetime.md
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# A boolean escape hatch as the lifetime mechanism
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**A boolean escape hatch as the lifetime mechanism.**
`.forever` was added because a 24h TTL genuinely did not fit some booths —
and then 56% of live booths ended up on it, which means it is not "ephemeral
with an exception", it is two lifetimes wearing one lifetime's clothes, with
the operator doing the sorting by hand. Replaced at U4 by lifetime derived
from state (an open mark pins; viewing is activity; `keep` survives as an
explicit reasoned pin rather than the only way to say "not yet").
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-deterministic-order-invariant.md
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# Deterministic order is a cross-cutting v1 invariant
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**Deterministic order is a cross-cutting v1 invariant** —
operator directive, mid-implementation. Every ordered collection the Booth
renders must have a *stated* rule producing the same sequence on every render
of the same state; the rule can be anything defensible (byte order, time, an
explicit number, an arbitrary-but-recorded sequence), but no rule at all is
forbidden. It binds harder here than elsewhere because the Booth's job is
**comparison** — the operator judges tile 47 against tile 47 and refers to
artifacts positionally, so an order that moves between renders misfiles a flag
or a note rather than crashing. Recorded as `ROADMAP.md` § "Cross-cutting
invariant" (with the per-collection table) and `CLAUDE.md` invariant 6, and
tested. Still undecided and must be settled before those units ship: **U7's
section ordering and compare pairing**, and **U6's bench listing**.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-extracted-from-eshpfi.md
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# Extracted from `eshpfi` into its own repo
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**Extracted from `eshpfi` into its own repo.** The accreted
service came over whole, tests included, so `tests/test_booth.py` (1581 lines)
is the regression net the v1 rewrite is checked against.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-five-mechanisms-one-job.md
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# Five mechanisms to get one question beside one artifact
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**Five separate mechanisms to get one question next to one
artifact** — `.forever`, the link board, `inline.py`'s placeholder DSL,
`wrap_verbatim_html`'s six regexes, and the floating amber asks chip plus
`/b/<n>/asks`. Every one is a *correct local fix* to the same global
mismatch, which is exactly why they accumulated without anyone making a bad
call. **The foot-gun is the sixth one:** the next "just add a small thing for
this case" reads as reasonable and is the pattern. The git log carries the
signature — every feature ships, then takes 2–5 patches for cases the single
shape did not anticipate. Check the ROADMAP gate before adding a mechanism.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-forever-diagnosis-is-a-prediction.md
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# The `.forever` diagnosis is a falsifiable prediction
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**The `.forever` diagnosis is a stated, falsifiable
prediction.** U4 (derived lifetime) predicts the kept-rate falls to the
genuinely-durable booths. Re-measured today: **14 of 25 booths kept (56%)**,
against the 54% the IA doc recorded. **Re-count a fortnight after U4 lands.**
If it does not move, the diagnosis was wrong and the boolean was doing
something else. Tracked in the IA doc's Booth section and by this entry.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-ia-and-v1-gate-landed.md
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# The information architecture and the v1 gate landed
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**The information architecture and the v1 gate landed**
(`726822b`): `docs/design/information-architecture.md` names the single
defect — *one lifetime (24h from last touch) and one shape (a folder),
serving five jobs with different lifetimes and different shapes* — and
`ROADMAP.md` gates v1 on seven units, each closing a **measured** defect
rather than a wish. Both were written after a measurement pass over the live
service, and the measurements are the load-bearing part.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-jinja-hot-reload-outage.md
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# Letting Jinja hot-reload templates in the deployment root
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**Letting Jinja hot-reload templates while the repo is the
deployment root** — the cause of a live outage the same day U2 landed, and the
sharpest foot-gun in the repo. `booth.service` sets `WorkingDirectory` to this
repo, so the running service imports these files with no build step and no
staging copy. Python is read once at process start; Jinja's `FileSystemLoader`
re-reads a template **on every render**. Editing `booth.html` therefore
deployed it instantly against Python from 22:03 that knew nothing about
`item_marks`, and **19 of 25 live booths returned 500** with
`UndefinedError: 'item_marks' is undefined`. Neither the old code nor the new
code was broken — the service was running both at once.
**The lesson that generalises:** a skew between a process and the disk under it
is invisible to the test suite by construction, so no amount of green tests
would have caught it; the operator found it. Fixed at the source rather than
with a reminder — the `Environment` is hand-built with `auto_reload=False`, so
there is now ONE staleness rule (nothing takes effect until you restart) and
the running process is always a coherent snapshot of one commit. Asserted by
`test_templates_do_not_hot_reload_from_disk`. Watch the second-order risk the
fix introduces: a hand-built `Environment` does not inherit `autoescape` from
the `Jinja2Templates` constructor, and booth names, item names and mark text
are all agent-authored strings landing in HTML.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-link-board-absorbing-announce.md
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# Letting the link board absorb the announce job
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**Letting the link board absorb the announce job.** `booth
link` is an `O_APPEND` write with no identity and no stated rule, so
re-announcing a bench appends a row instead of updating one, and a booth URL
rots the moment its booth is swept — **145 of 211 rows (69%) pointed at
nothing**, and 22 were the same target re-posted (talk 5×, peedlar 4×). The
rot is **structural, not drift**. The lesson that cost the most: enforcing
the link rule without first giving the announce job a home (`.booth.json`
provenance on the index, U5) just makes it homeless.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-marks-storage-decision.md
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# Marks are one `.marks.json` per booth
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**Marks are stored as one `.marks.json` per booth**, atomic
temp-file + `os.replace`, `fcntl` lock on the read-modify-write — operator
decision, this session. Two alternatives were weighed and lost: a sidecar
per item (`<rel>.marks.json`) and extending the existing `<stem>.ask.json`
shape. Rationale, and the reason it is not `links.md`-shaped: **(a)** U4
makes *"does this booth owe an answer?"* a hot question — the sweep asks it
per booth per tick and the index asks it per card per page load, so per-item
sidecars turn it into a full walk of all 25 booths, one of which holds 270
files; **(b)** `links.md` is an `O_APPEND` content-hash log because **17
agent handles write it concurrently**, whereas marks have exactly one writer
(the operator, in one browser) and many readers — a different problem that
must not inherit the append-log design; **(c)** `.blurred` / `.pins` /
`.forever` already establish the per-booth dotfile as the house shape for
operator state, and `booth_items()`'s dotfile skip means it costs nothing in
counts, galleries or zips. Accepted cost: a corrupt `.marks.json` loses that
booth's marks rather than one item's. Implementation deferred to U2 —
tracked at `ROADMAP.md` U2 and by this entry.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-marks-write-wiped-judgment.md
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# A write over a damaged `.marks.json` wiped the booth
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**A write over a damaged `.marks.json` was wiping every mark in
the booth.** Shipped in `v0.2.0`, found by the panel (Kimi, converged with
Hulda), fixed in `v0.2.1`. `marks_for` is deliberately lenient — unparseable
reads as `[]` so a review page still loads — and the write path inherited that
leniency through the same reader, so one flag click appended to an empty list and
atomically replaced the file. The fix is an **asymmetry**, which is the reusable
part: reads stay lenient, writes go strict (`MarksCorrupt`), damaged bytes stay
on disk, routes answer 409 not 500. A page that renders without an annotation is
recoverable; a file that overwrote the operator's judgment is not. Kimi also
named the class correctly — "an author steeped in the design conversation would
likely read past" it — and that was accurate.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-partial-answer-counts-as-open.md
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# A partially-answered pick counts as OPEN
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**A partially-answered pick now counts as OPEN** — declared, not
smuggled. The old index badge tested `answer is None`, so a half-answered
four-question ask read as closed on the index while the panel beside it
rendered `◐ partial`: the two disagreed about the same booth. Open is the
reading that makes U4 correct — a lifetime rule that unpinned a booth on the
first radio click would sweep a review in flight.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-regex-injecting-chrome.md
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# Regex-injecting chrome into arbitrary author HTML
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**Regex-injecting chrome into arbitrary author HTML**
(`wrap_verbatim_html` + `_HEAD_CLOSE_RE`, `_HTML_OPEN_RE`, `_DOCTYPE_RE`,
`_BODY_CLOSE_RE`, `_HTML_CLOSE_RE`, `_ICON_RE`, and the doctype/charset
ordering constraints they thread). It works today and is **still live** —
but it is the single most fragile thing in the service and it is load-bearing
for the operator's most important workflow. Slated for deletion at U3 in
favour of a declared seam (`/_booth/embed.js`, mounted through a real DOM
API), which costs an author one line and removes the whole class. Do not
extend the regex set in the meantime; if a verbatim page breaks, that is an
argument for U3, not for a seventh pattern.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-sindra-finalists-is-the-motivation.md
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# `sindra-finalists` is U2's flag motivation, caught live
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**`sindra-finalists` is U2's `flag` motivation caught in the
act** — 86 items, every one captioned, and the booth's entire name is "the
ones the operator picked." That loop currently runs through chat, which is
the defect `flag` closes. Evidence, not argument.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-tagging-with-a-gate-in-flight.md
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# Tagging a release while a review gate was in flight
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**Tagging a release while a review gate was still in flight.**
`v0.2.0` was cut and announced to 15 consuming handles; the
`/heid-contract-review` panel — dispatched BEFORE implementation, as the
discipline says — replied afterwards with three defects in the code that had just
shipped, one of them silent data loss. Nothing about the tier decision was wrong;
the *timing* was. **If a gate is outstanding on the work being released, the tag
waits for it.** The cost was a same-hour `v0.2.1` and a correction note to peers
who had already verified against the broken version.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-tolerant-writer-over-tolerant-reader.md
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# Letting the write path share the read path's leniency
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**Letting the write path share the read path's leniency.** See the
`MarksCorrupt` decision above. The general shape, worth carrying beyond marks:
a tolerant reader and a tolerant writer over the same state are not the same
decision, and pointing both at one function silently makes them one. Tolerate on
read so the surface still renders; refuse on write so nothing is destroyed.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-two-gates-are-complementary.md
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# Seam review and cold panel had zero overlap, twice
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**The two review gates are complementary, measured on one unit.**
The caller-side **seam review** (nine findings, against the real sibling module
surfaces) and the cold **`/heid-contract-review` panel** (four arms,
artifact-only) had **zero overlap in both directions** on U2. The seam review
found a scope miss the panel structurally could not see: the contract omitted
`inline.py`, whose `place()` indexes by subscript, which a frozen dataclass
refuses. The panel found three code defects and a missing test the seam review
had no lens for. Matches heid's kvasir zero-overlap result on the
conformance-versus-hunt axis. **Run both; neither substitutes.**
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-u2-marks-landed.md
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# U2 (marks) landed — one primitive for three mechanisms
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**U2 (marks) landed.** One primitive replacing three
mechanisms. `pick` / `note` / `flag` in one `.marks.json` per booth, one read
path (`marks_for`), one openness predicate (`open_marks`), rendered beside the
artifact on the tile, at full size in the zoom, and in the panel. `flag` and
`note` had no write path at all before this — the selection loop
(`golden-candidates`, `sindra-finalists`, the `pancake-*` ladders) was running
through chat. 242 tests. Details worth carrying: `asks.py` kept `normalize_ask`
and gained `build_answer` (the 2026-09-09 partial-answer semantics preserved by
moving, not rewriting) and LOST its five sidecar-storage functions;
`GET /b/<n>/marks.json` was added because remote sessions polled
`<stem>.answer.json` over HTTP and the sidecar's removal would have taken that
capability with it; `/b/<n>/asks` 308s to `/marks`.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-u2-seam-review-earned-it.md
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# The U2 seam review earned its place, and how
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**The U2 seam review earned its place, and the record should
say how.** Nine findings against the real `booth.asks` / `booth.items` /
`booth.inline` surfaces, two of which changed scope or behaviour: `inline.py`
was missing from `touches` entirely (its `place()` indexes asks by
**subscript**, which a frozen dataclass refuses — nothing else in the service
does that), and the partial-answer inconsistency above. The cold
`/heid-contract-review` pass is artifact-only by design and structurally
cannot see a sibling module, so neither it nor a same-model self-review would
have found either. Two more surfaced later and are worth the same note: a
SECOND subscript in `inline.place` the seam review undercounted, and a
regression in my own legacy importer that a retargeted test caught — a
malformed sidecar that renders `⚠ broken` today would have silently vanished
on migration.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-u7-section-premise-half-wrong.md
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# U7's section premise is half wrong
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**U7's section premise is half wrong, and it is the half that
matters** — found by re-measuring `~/booth-data` rather than trusting the IA
doc. The IA says sections come from subfolders that already exist on disk;
true, but **every booth that actually needs navigation is flat**:
`pancake-v3-full` (270 items, 0 subfolders), `pancake-v4-full` (270, 0),
`sindra20-engines` (98 items + 99 caption sidecars, 0), `sindra-finalists`
(86 + 87, 0). Subfolders exist on exactly two booths — `pewpew-ui-brief` (7,
nested to `_ds/powerpellet-design-system-<uuid>/preview`) and `dfa-concepts`
(1) — and **both are reports**, the job where grid navigation matters least.
So sections stay worth shipping and `Item.section` stays right, but they are
**not** "most of the navigation fix": the rail, the filters and grid keyboard
are all of it. Worth noting for whoever writes U7: `sindra20-engines` encodes
its structure in the **filename prefix** (`b2-s1-<subject>-<seed>`), which is
where a grouping heuristic would actually pay. The IA doc's claim about what
sections buy needs a line struck — not yet edited.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-v020-tagged-with-a-gate-in-flight.md
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# v0.2.0 was tagged while a gate was in flight
_2026-09-21 · booth_
**v0.2.0 cut and announced; v0.2.1 fixed what the announcement
was already wrong about.** Operator approved the minor (a v1 unit closed plus a
CLI surface change for 17 consuming handles clears the release-note bar). The
note went to 15 handles — the 17 link-board posters minus `nh3-dev`, a host
label, and `heid`, an oracle that does not script these verbs. Then the
cross-frontier contract panel landed and found **three defects in the code I had
just released**, so `v0.2.1` shipped within the hour. Sequence worth remembering:
the release was correct by the tier bar and still premature by the discipline —
the panel had been dispatched BEFORE implementation and its reply arrived AFTER
the tag. **If a gate is in flight, the tag can wait for it.**
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-a-wrong-shaped-answer-500s-the-gallery.md
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# A wrong-shaped answer 500s the gallery and the marks page — PRE-EXISTING, NOT U3
_2026-09-22 · booth_
**Found by the U3 bug-hunt panel, measured against `42ea67f` — the commit
BEFORE U3 — so it is not this unit's doing and was not fixed by it.** U3's own
surface is guarded; these two are not.
## The defect
`.marks.json` that is **well-formed JSON with a wrong-shaped value** passes
every reader and then raises in the renderer:
```json
{"id": "batch", "shape": "pick", "answer": {"answers": [], "notes": ""}}
```
`_hydrate` only checks `isinstance(entry.get("answer"), dict)` — it never
validates `answer["answers"]`. So `marks_for` and `hold_read` both return the
mark with `error = None` and **no read error at all**, and then
`_ask_inline.html` does `a.answer.answers.get(q.key)`, Jinja asks a list for
`.get`, and it raises `UndefinedError`.
Measured, not reasoned:
PRE-U3 (42ea67f) gallery page: 500
PRE-U3 (42ea67f) marks page: 500
PRE-U3 (42ea67f) index: 200
The index survives because it never renders a fragment.
## Why it matters more than it looks
This is **the v0.2.2 shape with a different trigger**. That outage was a
`.marks.json` that could not be PARSED; the reader was made lenient and the
index stopped 500ing. This one parses perfectly and breaks one layer further in,
at render time, where no leniency exists — so the lesson "one damaged file must
cost its own tile, not the page" is only half-implemented. `read_error` is
answering a narrower question than every caller assumes.
## What U3 did and did not do
U3 added `_safe_fragments` around `_pick_fragments`, so `/b/<name>/embed.json`
returns a per-mark `error` record instead of a 500 — the same posture
`_hydrate_safe` takes one layer down. That protects **the verbatim path only**.
`booth.html` and `marks.html` call the same macros with no such guard. Left
alone deliberately: the gallery is named out of scope in the U3 contract, and
widening a unit mid-flight to cover a pre-existing defect in a surface it never
touched is the scope drift the roadmap gate exists to stop.
## The design question it deserves, when it is picked up
Not "wrap the other two call sites" — that is the third copy of one guard. The
real question is **where the boundary belongs**:
1. **In `_hydrate`**, validating the answer shape so a wrong-shaped answer
becomes `error` at hydration and every surface inherits the fix. Cleanest,
and consistent with declarations already being normalized on read — but it
widens what `error` means.
2. **At each render site**, per-mark, as U3 did. Honest and local; three copies.
3. **In the template**, defensively. Cheapest and worst — it hides the fact
that anything is wrong.
(1) is the shape the rest of this module already argues for: one predicate,
one place. Worth an operator decision because it changes what a `Mark` can be.
⚠ Reproduce with the fixture in
`tests/test_embed.py::test_a_wrongly_shaped_answer_costs_its_pick_not_the_report`,
whose closing comment points back here.
Related: [[2026-09-21-marks-write-wiped-judgment]],
[[2026-09-22-lenient-reader-blast-radius]],
[[2026-09-22-u3-declared-embed-seam-landed]].
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-cli-exit-codes.md
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# `booth marks` / `booth answer` got real exit codes
_2026-09-22 · booth_
**`booth marks` / `booth answer` got real exit codes**, because
a read that CRASHED was indistinguishable from a read that said no. `marks`
printed a traceback and exited 0 (a caller's `jq` saw success and got
nothing); `answer --wait` read a damaged file as "not yet" and spun for the
full hour before blaming the operator. Now `0 ok · 1 unanswered/timed-out ·
2 no such pick · 3 unreadable`, and `read_error()` was added to `marks.py` so
the CLI can ask the question the browser must not: the page stays lenient, the
machine consumer gets the truth. Also `--wait` now prints ONCE — it was
emitting a whole JSON document per poll, so a captured `--wait` held several
concatenated values and parsed as none of them.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-doctrine-not-defect.md
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# An existing test stopped me retiring documented behaviour
_2026-09-22 · booth_
**An existing test stopped me retiring documented behaviour
while fixing a race.** The mtime-restore race is real, and the clean fix —
ignoring a booth directory's own mtime whenever the booth holds anything —
would also have silently retired the rule that RELEASING a kept board resets
its clock, which the CLI header, the README and a deliberately-written test
all pin. That is a TTL doctrine change, not a bug fix. Fixed the concrete half
(a failing `os.utime` used to escape and 500 the route), left the race stated
in the code. **A fix that changes a documented rule is a proposal, not a
patch.**
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-forever-had-a-live-positive-control.md
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# The `.forever` diagnosis got a live positive control
_2026-09-22 · booth_
The U4 diagnosis was that `.forever` is the only way to say three different
things — "this is durable", "I have not answered yet", "I am still looking" —
and that only the first is what keep means. That was an argument. **On
2026-09-22 it stopped being one.**
Census of `~/booth-data`, whole population, every value a deterministic file
fact:
| | |
|---|---|
| live booths | 24 |
| carrying `.forever` | 17 (70%, up from 54% on 2026-09-21) |
| carrying `.marks.json` at all | 4 |
| of those, with an open pick | **4 of 4** |
| **open pick AND `.forever`** | **3** |
**Three of the four booths in the entire fleet that were waiting on an answer
had also been pinned by hand.** That is the "not yet" case caught in the act,
not inferred from a rate.
The staleness distribution says it from the other side: **10 of the 17 kept
booths were under one day old** — younger than the TTL, so the sentinel had
bought them nothing and was pressed pre-emptively. Only 4 were old enough
(2.4-4.6 days) that keep is the reason they still existed.
⚠ **A number I got wrong, caught by a cross-frontier arm, kept here because the
class repeats.** The contract first said "12 are under 1.5 days old — younger
than the TTL". The TTL is 24 hours. 1.5 days is not younger than 24 hours. The
measurement was sound and the sentence was not; the claim only holds at the
one-day line, where it is 10 rather than 12. Nobody on the Claude side caught
it, including the author twice.
⚠ **The hold's live blast radius is SMALL** — only 4 booths have marks at all —
so the `.forever` re-count prediction rests on BOTH halves of U4 and on the
sentinel becoming unnecessary rather than forbidden. **RE-COUNT A FORTNIGHT
AFTER U4 LANDS**, i.e. on or after **2026-10-06**. If the rate does not move,
the honest readings are "the diagnosis was wrong" OR "the habit outlived the
need", and a bare re-count cannot tell those apart. **The three
open-pick-plus-`.forever` booths are the ones to watch**, because for them the
mechanism is now unambiguous.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-four-paths-to-one-fail-open-delete.md
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# Four independent paths to one fail-open delete
_2026-09-22 · booth_
The U4 bug-hunt panel declared invariant was **"a deletion decision must never
be made from a read that failed"**. The panel found **four independent paths
through it, and no single arm found all four.** That is the strongest argument
yet for running the panel rather than one arm.
1. **An entry-level hydration error lost its hold** (the round's best finding).
`.marks.json` parses; one mark fails normalization; `_hydrate_safe` returns a
`Mark` carrying `error`; `_is_open` returns False for an errored pick — **on
purpose**, because a broken pick can never be answered. So the booth read as
not-held and **swept**, while the panel beside it rendered the broken mark in
full. The fail-safe had been built for FILE-level damage and missed
ENTRY-level. A mark we cannot read is judgment we cannot see; deleting the
booth it belongs to is the one thing we must not do with it.
2. **A present-but-blank `.marks.json` swept.** `_read_raw_strict` early-returns
for whitespace-only content — correct for the WRITE path it was written for
(a blank file is safe to overwrite), wrong for the DELETE path. Fixed with a
`blank_is_corrupt=True` flag used only by `hold_read`. ⚠ The near-regression
worth remembering: a **valid document with an empty `marks` list** is what
deleting the last mark leaves behind, and holding on THAT would make every
finished booth immortal. Blank bytes are damage; an empty list is an answer.
3. **`_newest_mtime` returned 0.0 when the booth's own stat failed**, which made
it maximally ancient and therefore the FIRST thing the sweeper takes — a
permissions problem resolving to a deletion. Now returns `now`: not knowing a
booth's age is a reason to leave it alone. ⚠ Per-entry `FileNotFoundError`
stays a skip, because a dangling symlink raises it and has no mtime worth
counting; only OTHER stat errors mean "something is here we cannot read".
4. **`is_kept` collapsed a stat failure into not-kept.** `Path.exists()` maps
ELOOP and EACCES to False. Now `lstat`, with any non-ENOENT error reading as
KEPT, and a `.forever` symlink counting dangling or not.
**`is_held` was replaced by `hold_reason`, which returns the REASON** —
`"open"`, `"unreadable"`, or None — rather than a bool beside a separate error
string. Two representations of one state drift; Regin independently flagged that
the display could not tell the two holds apart. One value, read by the sweeper
and by all four rendering surfaces.
**Convergent 3-of-4, and the one with teeth beyond lifetime:** `record_view`
used `Path.touch()`, which FOLLOWS an existing symlink. A booth carrying a
planted `.viewed -> /anywhere` turned every page view into an mtime write at an
arbitrary path under the service uid — and **any fleet session can write into a
booth, because making a folder is the whole API.** Now `os.open(..., O_NOFOLLOW)`
plus `os.utime(fd)`; a planted link raises ELOOP into the existing swallow.
⚠ **THE CAPTURE TOOLING FAILED SILENTLY AND THE PEER CAUGHT IT, NOT US.** The
snapshot `files/` tree shipped to the arms was EMPTY. The loop was
`for f in $IN` over a multi-line variable — and **zsh does not word-split
unquoted parameter expansions the way bash does**, so it iterated once against a
path that was the entire list. jekyll recovered by re-applying the bundled diff
to HEAD and verified every file byte-identical, so the round was sound. **The
failure mode is the dangerous one: an empty bundle reads exactly like a clean
result.** Quote-and-split explicitly (`print -r -- $IN | while read f`) or build
the list as a real array. Same family as `[[2026-09-22-vacuous-falsifiers]]` —
an instrument that cannot fail loudly will fail quietly.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-lenient-reader-blast-radius.md
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# The lenient reader's blast radius was the whole service
_2026-09-22 · booth_
**The lenient reader's blast radius was the whole service, not
one booth.** `_clean_text` did `(text or "").replace(...)` and `marks_for`
sorts on `(created, id)`, so a stored `text` that was a dict or a `created`
that was a number raised out of the READ path — and `list_booths` reads every
booth's marks on every index load. One hand-edited file 500'd `/` and
`/healthz` for all 25 booths. Fixed in two layers, matching the house posture:
a named type check (`_entry_type_error`) plus a `_hydrate_safe` backstop that
cannot raise, and the panel now RENDERS an unreadable mark as ⚠ broken instead
of as an empty note. **The general shape: a lenient reader is only lenient if
the leniency is bounded by where it runs.** `marks_for` was written for one
booth's page and is called in a loop over every booth.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-no-notice-and-what-it-does-to-the-prediction.md
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# No fleetwide notice for U4 — and what that does to the prediction
_2026-09-22 · booth_
**Operator decision, 2026-09-22: do NOT tell the 17 consuming handles that
`keep` has stopped being the way to say "waiting on an answer".** No broadcast.
Same posture he took on U5, and the same instrument: adoption gets told apart
from design because nobody was primed.
⚠ **THIS CHANGES HOW THE 2026-10-06 RE-COUNT MUST BE READ, and a session that
misses this will draw the wrong conclusion from a true number.**
U4 has two halves and they do NOT have the same adoption cost:
- **The hold rides for free.** A session that runs `booth ask` gets its booth
held with no knowledge of anything. The operator answering releases it. No
peer has to learn a thing for the mechanism to work.
- **NOT PRESSING `keep` HAS TO BE LEARNED.** U4 makes the sentinel unnecessary
for the "not yet" case; it does not make it unavailable, and nothing stops a
habit. An agent that has always pressed `keep` while waiting will keep
pressing it.
**So a flat `.forever` rate on 2026-10-06 does NOT falsify the diagnosis.** It
is exactly what "the mechanism works and nobody was told" looks like — the U5
shape, one unit later. Reporting a null result without this caveat would retire
a correct diagnosis on the strength of an uncontrolled measurement.
**Use these instead, and report all three.** The raw rate stays as context, not
as the verdict:
1. **The overlap — booths with an open pick AND `.forever`.** Was **3** on
2026-09-22, which is the positive control for the whole diagnosis. It falls
only if peers learn; it is the *adoption* number.
comm -12 <(grep -l '"shape": "pick"' ~/booth-data/*/.marks.json | xargs -n1 dirname | sort) \
<(dirname ~/booth-data/*/.forever | sort) | wc -l
2. **Did the hold ever bind?** Count booths that were held past their TTL and
therefore survived a sweep they would otherwise have lost. This needs no
peer to change anything, so it is the honest test of whether the mechanism
is load-bearing at all. **If it is ZERO over a fortnight, the diagnosis was
wrong about VOLUME** — the "not yet" case is rarer than the sentinel rate
suggested — and that is a real finding. The sweeper logs what it wipes;
nothing yet logs what it spares, so **this counter does not exist and would
have to be added before it can be read.** Say so rather than guessing.
3. **The raw `.forever` rate** — 17 of 24 (70%) on 2026-09-22. Context only,
now that the no-notice decision has made it a measurement of habit rather
than of need.
⚠ **Sensitivity floor, stated because a bare "no effect" is unfalsifiable:**
only **4 of 24** booths carried marks at all on 2026-09-22. The hold cannot
bind on a booth with no marks, so at that population the mechanism can touch at
most a sixth of the fleet, and an effect smaller than one or two booths is not
resolvable by any of these counts. Related: `[[2026-09-22-forever-had-a-live-positive-control]]`.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-scripts-booth-got-tests.md
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# `scripts/booth` went from zero tests to five
_2026-09-22 · booth_
**`scripts/booth` had zero tests and now has five**
(`tests/test_cli.py`). The panel's guard-strength tables returned UNVERIFIED
for every CLI claim because nothing in the suite executed the script — two of
the round's findings lived in exactly that gap. The new tests run the real
script under the system `python3`, which makes them a live check on INV-1
(stdlib-only) as a side effect: a third-party import in `marks.py` now fails
in the suite the same way it would fail on a fleet host.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-seven-of-seven-falsifiers.md
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# A vacuity pass that tries the contract's own mutation agrees with itself
_2026-09-22 · booth_
The contract-time **vacuity pass** — for each invariant, name a change that
defeats it and check the named test goes red — was proposed independently by
Regin and Kimi on U4's paraphrase round, and U4's own code-review panel then
showed **five of seven** U4 falsifiers were vacuous: a green test *cited* by an
`INV` rather than a test that would *fail* if the invariant broke. See
[[2026-09-22-vacuous-falsifiers]].
U3 ran the pass as a real instrument rather than a promise. Script in the
session scratchpad; for each invariant it applies the mutation the contract's
*Falsifiable:* line names, runs the single named test, and asserts a **non-zero**
exit, restoring the file in a `finally` either way.
| INV | mutation applied | verdict |
|---|---|---|
| 1 declaring page untouched | append `<!-- booth -->` to the declaring branch | FALSIFIED |
| 2 appended, never inserted | insert the tag before `<title>` instead | FALSIFIED |
| 3 no regex on author HTML | re-declare `_ICON_RE` in `app.py` | FALSIFIED |
| 4 openness is the server's | have `embed.js` derive open from `bk-done` | FALSIFIED |
| 5 embed.js read once | `read_text()` per request in the route | FALSIFIED |
| 6 tail in payload order | iterate the marks list backwards | FALSIFIED |
| 7 unplaced questions appended | short-circuit the append branch to `if (false)` | FALSIFIED |
**7/7**, and — the part that makes it a measurement rather than a ritual — an
**unmutated control run** confirming all seven named tests are green when
nothing is broken. Without that control, a script whose mutation silently failed
to apply (the text not found, the wrong file) reports the same clean-looking
table. The script halts with `MUTATION-MISS` if its target string is absent,
for exactly that reason.
## Why it is worth the ten minutes
Three of the seven falsifiers are in `embed.js`, which the Python suite cannot
see at all. INV-4, INV-6 and INV-7 are held **only** by browser tests, and
"there is a browser test named after this invariant" is precisely the kind of
claim that feels like coverage and can be empty. Two of those three mutations
are one-token edits — `marks.length - 1` and `if (false)` — so the cost of
checking was minutes and the cost of being wrong was an invariant nobody was
holding.
**The general shape:** an instrument that cannot fail loudly will fail quietly.
Same family as the `(gasp)` tag-detection specimen in the global measurement
rule, and as the zsh word-splitting bug that shipped an empty heid bundle —
[[2026-09-22-four-paths-to-one-fail-open-delete]]. A clean result and a broken
method are indistinguishable from the output alone unless something in the
method is designed to go red.
## ⚠ AND THEN THE COLD PANEL SHOWED ONE OF THE SEVEN WAS VACUOUS ANYWAY
The table above is real and it was **not sufficient**. The `/heid-contract-review`
panel (`01M351WKV666D681SSRNY7D7X6`) — three of four arms, independently —
showed **INV-3's falsifier was vacuous**, on this contract's central promise, and
the pass above had passed it.
**Why the pass missed it.** INV-3 claims *no regular expression is applied to
author HTML*. The test name-matched the six DELETED patterns. The mutation the
pass applied was re-declaring `_ICON_RE` — **the pattern the contract named** —
which the name-match caught. The mutation the invariant actually forbids is a
regex under a *new* name (`_TAIL_RE.sub(...)` in the verbatim branch), and that
sailed through green.
> **The mutation has to come from the INVARIANT'S CLAIM, not from the
> FALSIFIER'S EXAMPLE.** A pass that applies the contract's own suggested
> mutation is testing the contract against itself, and it will agree.
**Then the fix had a hole too, and only a re-run found it.** The repaired test
asserts `booth/app.py` performs exactly one regex operation. Re-running the pass
*against the fix* showed an aliased `import re as _r` routes around the call
check under a name it does not know — still VACUOUS. Closed with an import-shape
assertion. **Run the pass on the repair, not only on the draft.**
Final state: **10/10 falsifiable**, control green, the two extra rows being the
panel's own findings turned into falsifiers.
## What this is evidence for
U4 measured the problem (five of seven vacuous). U3 measured a pass working
(7/7), then measured **the pass's own blind spot**, then measured the fix's
blind spot. All three belong in the case if the vacuity-pass proposal is ever
put to the operator as a `/heid*` skill amendment — and the second and third
are the parts that stop it being adopted as a ritual that always passes.
Related: [[2026-09-22-u3-declared-embed-seam-landed]],
[[2026-09-22-the-browser-became-a-test-surface]].
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-size-cap-opened-a-hang.md
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# The size cap opened a service-wide hang
_2026-09-22 · booth_
**The U5 bug-hunt panel found a service-wide hang that the
SIZE CAP ITSELF opened — two hours after I added the cap.** `stat` reports
size 0 for a FIFO and 0 for a symlink to `/dev/zero`, so both sail under a
byte cap and then `read_text` blocks with no EOF or allocates until the kernel
intervenes. `list_booths` reads every booth on every `GET /`, so ONE such file
stalls the front page for the whole service with no error and no recovery
short of a restart. Reproduced (`timeout` returned 124), fixed with an
`S_ISREG` check BEFORE the size check in both modules, verified live: the
index answered 200 in 36 ms with two FIFOs planted. **The reusable shape:
`st_size` answers a different question than "can this be read", and a bound
that trusts it inherits everything it does not mean — a hardening fix opened
a worse hole than the one it closed.** Also adopted: the upload path wrote the
manifest ABOVE its own cleanup guard (4/4), so a failure orphaned a half-booth
whose uniquely-named leaked temp then kept it alive forever; replace-over-
damaged destroyed recoverable bytes (4/4, now QUARANTINED rather than refused
— marks refuse because judgment is not restatable, a booth's description is);
and `booth answer` spelled out its own openness test, disagreeing with
`booth marks` about a partially-answered pick, which is a direct violation of
U2's INV-2. Full triage in `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u5-panels.md`.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-the-browser-became-a-test-surface.md
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# The browser became a test surface, and the version bound is the foot-gun
_2026-09-22 · booth_
U3 moved load-bearing logic out of Python and into JavaScript: which fragment
lands at which anchor, what gets appended, and whether a `<form>` scattered down
a report still owns the controls pointing at it. **The Python suite is blind to
every one of those.** Shipping U3 with only payload-shape tests would have
deleted ~10 real tests and replaced them with assertions that cannot see the
thing the operator actually depends on.
So `tests/test_embed_browser.py` drives a real Chromium against a real uvicorn
on an ephemeral port. 12 tests. It found nothing on the first run — but the
probe that preceded it settled a design question no amount of spec-reading
would have.
## The probe, and why it had controls
**Question:** if a control carrying `form="F"` is inserted into the DOM *before*
`<form id="F">` exists, does it become that form's control? The HTML spec resets
form owner on insertion and on the `form` attribute changing — it does NOT list
"a matching form was inserted later". The U3 design inserts fragments in visual
order, so this happens routinely.
Four conditions, N=3 each, in Chromium 151 headless:
| condition | `input.form?.id` |
|---|---|
| A — form inserted first (**positive control**) | `F, F, F` |
| B — control inserted first (**the question**) | `F, F, F` |
| C — `form="NOPE"`, no such form (**negative control**) | `null, null, null` |
| D — remove and re-set the attribute (the proposed fix) | `F, F, F` |
The positive control proves the instrument can see association at all; the
negative proves it is not manufacturing it. Without both, B's answer means
nothing — that is the whole lesson of
[[2026-09-22-vacuous-falsifiers]] applied before the code instead of after.
**The answer is: Chromium re-resolves it, so the fix is unnecessary there.**
The fix shipped anyway. **Sensitivity floor: ONE ENGINE.** The operator's own
browser was not measured, the failure mode is a form that looks filled in and
POSTs a 400, and the guard is three lines. The measurement says "not needed
here"; it does not say "not needed".
## The foot-gun, which bit before the tests were written
Browsers are **box-wide** in `/opt/ms-playwright` with
`PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH` wired globally — there is no per-project
`playwright install`. Each playwright release pins **one** Chromium revision, and
a release wanting a revision the shared store lacks dies with:
Executable doesn't exist at /opt/ms-playwright/chromium_headless_shell-1243/…
That is not a missing-dependency error and it does not name the real problem.
The store had 1223 / 1228 / 1234; `playwright` 1.63 wanted 1243. The mapping:
1.60 -> 1223 1.61 -> 1228 1.62 -> 1234 1.63 -> 1243
Hence `playwright>=1.60,<1.63` in `pyproject.toml`, **with the upper bound as the
point** and the reason in a comment beside it. A bare `playwright` would break
the suite on the next resolve, opaquely.
## The hermeticity trade, and how it is paid
A browser layer makes the suite non-hermetic — it can go red for an environment
reason. `tests/test_embed_browser.py` therefore **skips, never fails**, when
playwright or a usable browser is missing (`pytest.importorskip`, plus a
`pytest.skip` on any launch failure). `pytest -q` stays green anywhere; the
browser layer is purely additive.
⚠ **The failure mode of that choice: if those 12 tests start SKIPPING on this
box, U3's placement logic is untested and the suite still says green.** If the
count drops from 431, check the skip reason before anything else — the pinned
bound has probably drifted past the shared store.
Related: [[2026-09-22-u3-declared-embed-seam-landed]].
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-third-one-branch-template-miss.md
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# The third one-branch template miss — this repo's recurring blind spot
_2026-09-22 · booth_
**All four arms of the U4 code-review panel found the same drift, independently.**
That is the strongest convergence either panel has produced here.
The booth header's sub-line forks on `{% if board %}`, and the U4 lifetime macro
had been added only to the `{% else %}`. So **a booth carrying `links.md`
rendered a link count and nothing at all about its lifetime** — no countdown, no
hold — while INV-4 said the templates have no path that renders neither. The
standing board being kept by construction (`booth link` drops `.forever` on
first use) is what hid it; a **released** board or a hand-made `links.md` booth
is a live non-kept booth on that path, and both are reachable from the UI.
**This is the third of the same shape in this repo's short history:**
1. `blurtoggle` — the blur only patched the image/video `<figure>`; inline docs
render through their OWN branch and shipped unblurred. Suite green; a live
look caught it.
2. verbatim chrome — a verbatim booth's own `index.html` is served untouched, so
the inline marks panel never renders there. Found by looking at the live
service during U4, not by the suite.
3. the board branch — this one.
**The pattern: the suite renders the surface the author was thinking about.**
Every one of these was a second branch of a conditional the author had already
satisfied once and stopped reading. A cold reader with no idea which branch was
"the real one" finds them; the author does not, and neither does a test the
author wrote.
**Practical consequence for this repo.** When a template gains a fact, grep the
template for `{% if %}` in the block you edited and render EVERY branch in a
test — one test per branch, each rendering only its own surface, or the passing
test on branch A will mask the omission on branch B. U4 now has one per surface
(index card, booth header, board header, marks page) for exactly this reason.
Declined, and worth recording: Regin and Kimi both recommended amending INV-4 to
carve the board header out, on the grounds that board layout belongs to U7.
**Cutting an invariant down to fit an implementation gap is the wrong direction
when the fix is one template edit**, and U7 owns navigation and section layout —
not whether a header states a lifetime.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-two-reads-are-not-one-state.md
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# Two reads of one file are not one read of one state
_2026-09-22 · booth_
**The one finding across both U4 panels that changed code rather than prose,
and it came from Hulda (Codex) on the CONTRACT-paraphrase round — before any
code existed.**
The contract specified the hold check as:
is_held(marks_for(child), read_error(child))
Two reads of `.marks.json`, presented as one answer. They are not. A write or a
repair landing between them yields a pair that described the booth at **no
instant**, and the losing pair is `([], None)` — no marks, no error — which is
**exactly the pair that deletes**. A lenient reader plus a strict reader, each
correct on its own, compose into a fail-open delete.
The fix is `booth.marks.hold_read(booth) -> (marks, error)`: ONE strict read
answering both questions. `sweep_once` now does one read per booth per tick
instead of two. And because `_read_raw_strict` **raises rather than dropping an
entry**, a non-raising strict read returns exactly what the lenient read would —
so the index uses that same one read for its badge too and falls back to
`marks_for` only on the error path, where leniency is the point. Better than the
original in both correctness and cost.
**The generalisable class, in heid's words: a two-read seam presented as one
answer is a TOCTOU race even when nothing on the page looks concurrent.** Worth
looking for anywhere two reader functions with different strictness feed one
decision — especially when that decision ends in `rmtree`.
Related: `[[2026-09-21-marks-write-wiped-judgment]]` is the same
reads-lenient/writes-strict asymmetry; U4 extends it to the reaper with
"deletes strict", whose scope is **the sweeper only** — a hand delete is never
strict, which is what gives an unreadable-marks hold an exit at all.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u2-bug-hunt-panel.md
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# The U2 bug-hunt panel was not ceremony
_2026-09-22 · booth_
**The U2 bug-hunt panel landed and it was not ceremony —
`v0.2.2`.** Nine adopted findings across four arms; eight were real against
live code and one was already fixed. The headline was **4/4 convergent from
four different angles**: `_Locked.__exit__` unlinked `.marks.lock` on the no-op
path, and `flock` binds to an INODE — so a writer blocked on the old inode
proceeds while the next writer creates a fresh lock file and takes it at once.
Two processes then run the read-modify-write concurrently and the later
`os.replace` drops a mark, with both of them obeying the protocol. **The
cleanup existed to protect the booth's TTL and it was failing at that too**:
creating and removing a directory entry bumps the DIRECTORY's mtime, which is
what `_newest_mtime` actually seeds from, so a no-op reset the clock it was
written to leave alone. Same code region, two defects, one fix — never unlink
the lock, exempt `.<name>.lock` dotfiles from `_newest_mtime`, and put the
directory's mtime back after creating one. Full triage in
`persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-bug-hunt-panel.md`.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u3-declared-embed-seam-landed.md
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# U3 landed — the page declares the seam, the Booth mounts into it
_2026-09-22 · booth_
**Ten regular expressions against author-written HTML are gone.** Six in
`wrap_verbatim_html` hunting for somewhere to hang a favicon and a chip, four in
`booth/inline.py` substituting rendered ask markup into the author's own tags.
What replaced them, in full:
```python
return html if declares_embed(html) else html + EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG
```
A substring test and a `+`. **Both of the old wrapper's hard constraints stopped
existing rather than being satisfied more carefully** — nothing can displace a
leading doctype into quirks mode and nothing can push the charset `<meta>` out
of its first-1024-byte window, because nothing in front of them ever moves.
## What moved where
| was | is |
|---|---|
| `wrap_verbatim_html` + 6 regexes | `embed_verbatim` — one `in`, one `+` |
| `booth/inline.py`, 119 lines | deleted; `form_id` survived into `app.py` |
| `_BACK_CHIP`, `asks_chip` | built in the DOM by `embed.js` |
| `inject_asks` | `GET /b/<name>/embed.json` + placement in `embed.js` |
| `_ask_inline.html`'s `styles()` | the CSS lives in `embed.js` |
| `FAVICON_LINK` string injection | `document.querySelector('link[rel~="icon"]')` |
**The fragments are still rendered by Jinja.** `embed.js` places what comes back
and never builds one — a second renderer in JavaScript would be the same bug
INV-1 exists to stop, in a new language. The payload also decides openness
(`open_marks`) and order, so the page has no opinion about either.
## The thing the contract got wrong, and the seam review caught
The payload first keyed `questions` by question key. **A single-question pick
normalizes to `questions: [{"key": None, …}]`** (`asks.normalize_ask`, the
`multi: False` branch), and `json.dumps` writes that key as the string `"null"`
— inventing a name that collides with a real key. Every one-question ask in the
fleet would have hit it, including the live `sindra-voice-1`. `questions` is a
LIST of `{key, html}` now; the key is nullable, and declaration order rides in
the format instead of leaning on object-key insertion order.
The cold contract panel could not have found this: it is a fact about
`booth/asks.py`, which an artifact-only reader never sees. Third time the seam
review has caught what the cold pass structurally cannot — see
[[2026-09-21-two-gates-are-complementary]].
## The live report that was already subtly broken
`dfa-concepts/index.html` writes `<div class="ask" data-booth-ask="dfa:logo">
<h3>The one asset that must survive</h3>`. `_EL_RE` matched the **opening tag**
and replaced it, so the author's `.ask` wrapper class vanished, the heading was
orphaned and the `</div>` went stray. Nobody filed a bug, because a page that is
95% right does not look broken.
`el.insertAdjacentHTML("beforeend", frag)` keeps the element and its contents
and puts the fragment inside. Verified live in a real browser: 5 author `.ask`
wrappers intact, 5 headings intact, 14 radios mounted inside them, zero console
errors. **The replacement is not just less fragile, it renders the operator's
own report more faithfully than the thing it replaced.**
## The cost, stated because it is real
The verbatim path used to work with **no JavaScript** — server-rendered ask, plain
form POST, HTML5 `form=` binding resolved at parse time. It needs the script now.
The operator's 2026-09-21 ruling accepts that; this entry records the consequence
so nobody meets it as a surprise. The never-invisible guarantee survives in a
weaker and still-true form through surfaces needing no script: the index card's
open-mark badge, and `/b/<name>/marks`.
## Anchor syntax
`data-booth-mark` is canonical (U2 made an ask one shape of mark).
`data-booth-ask` is a kept alias — 2 of the 4 live verbatim booths spell it that
way, in the operator's own reports, and the alias is one clause in one selector
string. The `<!-- booth:ask … -->` comment forms were **dropped, not ported**:
zero users across all 21 live booths, and a page that used one falls back to the
append path, so its ask still renders.
## Verification
431 tests (410 → 431). Live: all 21 booths 200, and each of the four verbatim
booths grew by exactly 46 bytes — `len(EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG)`, one append, nothing
else. Related: [[2026-09-22-the-browser-became-a-test-surface]],
[[2026-09-22-seven-of-seven-falsifiers]],
[[2026-09-21-regex-injecting-chrome]].
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u4-derived-lifetime-landed.md
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# U4 landed — lifetime is derived, not declared
_2026-09-22 · booth_
**A booth's lifetime stopped being a boolean somebody remembered to press.**
Three states now, and `sweep_once` is the only thing that honours the first two:
KEPT `.forever` present never swept (unchanged)
HELD an open pick, or marks we cannot read never swept (new)
EPHEMERAL everything else 24h (unchanged)
Plus **viewing is activity**: a deliberately-served response from a booth's own
page route writes `.viewed`. That dotfile is not a `.lock` dotfile, so
`_newest_mtime` already counts it — **there is no new arithmetic anywhere**.
`booth_age_seconds`, `is_expired` and `expires_in` are byte-for-byte what they
were. A view is one more thing in the tree, which is the same trick `.booth.json`
used in U5.
**What counts as a view, and why the exclusions matter more than the inclusions.**
`/b/<n>/` (gallery, verbatim report, `?download=1` zip), `/b/<n>/view` and
`/b/<n>/marks` count. `/b/<n>/marks.json`, asset GETs, `/`, `/healthz` and a
zoom URL that 404s do NOT. The marks.json exclusion is load-bearing: **an agent
must not be able to hold its own booth open by polling for the answer it is
waiting on.** `/b/<n>/asks` is a 308 into `/marks` and records through it — one
call, not two.
Checked because it would have been silent: **nothing in the fleet polls a booth
page.** Homepage's `siteMonitor` for the Booth is `/healthz`, which is on the
not-a-view list. Had it been pointed at a booth URL, every booth would have
become immortal on deploy and nothing would have reported it.
**The hold is unbounded and that is the point** — unanswered is unfinished. What
makes it safe is visibility plus two exits that already existed: the card and
every Booth-owned header say `held until answered` where the countdown was, and
`booth rm` / the UI x / `DELETE /b/<n>` take a held booth exactly as they take a
kept one. **A hold is protection from the timer, never from the operator.**
**Release is activity, stated rather than accidental.** Releasing a kept board
still buys a full TTL — unchanged — but now because `booth_unkeep` calls
`record_view`, which is a rule, and no longer because unlinking a file happened
to bump a directory's mtime, which is not. The CLI warning against
"unkeep and let it expire" stays and stays true.
⚠ **Running `scripts/layout-probe.py` over booth pages resets every booth's
clock**, because a GET of a booth page is a view and the probe is not exempt
from its own rule. Harmless, recoverable, and noted in the probe so nobody
debugs it later as a sweeper that stopped working.
Contract: `docs/contracts/u4_derived_lifetime.contract.md`. Both heid panels ran
and the bug hunt after them; see the sibling entries.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u5-adoption-split-in-two.md
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# U5's adoption prediction split in two
_2026-09-22 · booth_
**U5's adoption prediction, SPLIT IN TWO within an hour of
landing — and the split is the interesting part.** The baseline was recorded as
0 of 26. Fifty minutes after the deploy, `comfy-dev` created `muse-clothed-repro`
and it announced itself: `{handle: comfy-dev, why: "", created: ...}`. That peer
was told nothing. **The HANDLE propagates for free** — it rides on `booth new`
and `booth add`, so every existing CLI caller starts announcing without learning
anything, which is the flags-on-existing-verbs decision paying off on day zero.
**The WHY does not** — it needs someone to know the flag exists, and this first
one is empty.
So re-measure BOTH on **2026-09-29**, because they answer different questions:
find ~/booth-data -maxdepth 2 -name .booth.json | wc -l # free
grep -l '"why": "[^"]' ~/booth-data/*/.booth.json 2>/dev/null | wc -l # learned
A high first count and a near-zero second is the predicted shape of "nobody was
told", and it is the case the operator's no-announcement decision was designed
to be able to see. Do not read the n=1 above as a rate — it is a code-path
observation (every CLI caller writes a handle), not a sample.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u5-panels-reached-a-released-bug.md
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# Two U5 panels, and prose reached a released outage
_2026-09-22 · booth_
**Two cross-frontier panels on U5, and a paraphrase panel reached
a production outage two modules away.** 3-of-4 flagged the contract's "4 GB"
case as letter-compliant but purpose-defeating; the conformance round found that
unbounded read live in U5's code; walking it to the sibling found the SAME hole
**live in released `v0.2.2`** — `marks._read_raw` catches `(OSError, ValueError,
UnicodeDecodeError)` and `json.loads` on deep nesting raises **RecursionError**,
which is none of them, so 400 KB of brackets in one booth returned 500 for `/`
and `/healthz` across all 26. The v0.2.2 round HAD flagged it and I closed half:
**a finding with two call sites is not closed when one is.** The reusable
instruction — **walk a conformance finding to the sibling module even when the
sibling is out of scope.** Five of ten conformance findings were tests of mine
that pass on the regression they exist to catch, three of them asserting an
ARTIFACT of the property rather than the property; that is three nights running
on the same shape. Two real bugs neither my tests nor I could see: a bare
`booth add` wiped the `why` on the one sequence the feature exists for, and
`--title` was write-only. Full triage in
`persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u5-panels.md`.
persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-vacuous-falsifiers.md
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# Five of seven INV falsifiers did not falsify anything
_2026-09-22 · booth_
The U4 contract carried seven invariants, each with a *Falsifiable:* line, and
each had a test. **The code-review panel showed that five of the seven tests
would still pass under a change that defeats the invariant they name.** Gróa's
"per INV entry, what would still pass" section is the single most useful thing
either panel produced on this unit.
| INV | what the test asserted | what still passed |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (no new arithmetic) | the clock moved after a view | special-casing `.viewed` inside `_newest_mtime` — the exact new arithmetic INV-1 forbids |
| 3 (`is_held` is pure) | the right answer, once | `is_held` doing I/O, or `return True` unconditionally |
| 4 (every surface says why) | a substring on `GET /` | dropping the line from the booth header, the marks page, or the board branch |
| 5 (a view cannot fail a request) | `record_view` did not raise | a second `touch` outside the guard, 500ing all three routes |
| 6 (unreadable marks hold) | the corrupt booth survived | a sweeper that deletes nothing at all (no doomed sibling in the fixture) |
| 7 (machine reads do not hold) | `.viewed` was absent | a handler writing any other non-dot file, holding the booth open just as well |
**The shape of the error is the same every time: the test asserted the OUTCOME
the author was thinking about, not the DISCRIMINATOR the invariant names.** A
green test proved the happy path and nothing about the invariant. Writing the
falsifiable line in the contract did not produce a falsifying test — it produced
a test that *cited* one.
Fixed by rewriting each to fail under the change that defeats it: same-mtime
equivalence with an arbitrary non-lock dotfile (plus a `.lock` that must NOT
count); `is_held` called with marks belonging to a booth that does not exist on
disk; one test per rendered surface, each rendering only its own; the three
routes GET against a chmod'd booth; a doomed sibling; the AGE asserted rather
than the marker. **The board-header pair was verified RED against the pre-fix
template rather than assumed** — which is the step that makes "fixed, not
amended" trustworthy.
**The method to keep: for each invariant, name a change that defeats it and ask
whether the test goes red.** If you cannot name one, the invariant is not
falsifiable yet. Regin and Kimi independently proposed this as a contract-time
"vacuity pass"; heid rates this round the strongest evidence for it so far, and
it is a `/heid*` skill proposal sitting with the operator, not a change to this
repo.
persistent-memory.md
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- **v1 is gated on seven units** in `ROADMAP.md`, dependency-ordered
**U1 → U2 → {U3, U4, U5} → U7**, with **U6 independent**.
- **U1 and U2 are landed and released.** Current version `0.2.2`, deployed to the
live service, 275 tests green, tree clean, 25/25 booth pages verified 200 after
the deploy. U1 `ce598b3`; U2 `c7f9437` released as `v0.2.0`, then `5e41108` as
`v0.2.1` (four contract-panel findings), then `v0.2.2` carrying the
**bug-hunt panel's** nine (below).
- **U5 is IMPLEMENTED and unreleased** as of 2026-09-22. `booth/manifest.py`
(stdlib-only, INV-1), `.booth.json` per booth, the provenance line on both
index lanes and the booth page header, `--why` / `--title` on `booth new` and
`booth add`, and the link board + pickup booths announcing themselves as the
service's own. 310 tests, live service restarted, 26/26 booth pages verified
200 and all 26 rendering `unannounced`. **Deliberately NOT tagged yet**: the
cold `/heid-contract-review` panel is still in flight and the code-review and
bug-hunt gates have not run. That ordering is the 2026-09-21 lesson applied —
a release whose gate is outstanding is premature even when the tier is right.
Contract: `docs/contracts/u5_booth_manifest.contract.md` (carries its own
seam-review section).
- **U5's original framing** (operator, 2026-09-21): **self-announcing booths.**
`.booth.json` carrying `{handle, title, why, created}`, written by the CLI from
`$ALTHING_HANDLE`; the index card gains provenance and a one-line purpose, and
the index becomes the "what landed" feed the link board was being used as. It
closes job 5 of the five jobs — the one nobody named, and the reason 145 dead
link rows existed. Nothing started: no contract, no blast-radius pass.
- **Two things about U5 are already settled and should not be re-derived.**
(1) `.booth.json` is a DOTFILE, so `booth_items`' existing `startswith(".")` skip
already keeps it out of tiles, counts and zips — the same reason `.marks.json`
needed no new exclusion rule. (2) The deterministic-order invariant applies to
whatever U5 adds to the index; the index is ordered newest-first by mtime today
and that rule must stay stated. Also worth knowing before scoping: enforcing the
link rule without giving job 5 a home first just makes it homeless — that is the
lesson from the 69% rot, and U5 is the home.
- **No heid dispatch is outstanding.** The `/heid-bug-hunt` on U2's diff landed
2026-09-22 and shipped as `v0.2.2`; see the dated entry below.
- Live service `active` on `:8090`, 25 booths, verified 25 × 3 page types after the
last deploy. The booth set churns: `sindra20-engines` and `sindra-finalists` were
swept during the session, `cr123a-to-d-sleeve` and `sindra` appeared.
- **U1, U2, U3, U4 and U5 are landed — the whole middle tier is closed.** U1
`ce598b3`; U2 `c7f9437` → `v0.2.0`, `5e41108` → `v0.2.1`, `026a1fc` →
`v0.2.2`; U5 `c015a91` + `95beede` → `v0.3.0`; U4 `c3a97c1` → `v0.4.0`.
**U3 landed 2026-09-22 and released as `v0.5.0`** — 444 tests green
(410 → 444), deployed and verified live, 23/23 booth pages 200, and each of
the four verbatim booths served at exactly +46 bytes, which is
`len(EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG)` — one append, nothing else. `87e2c53` is the unit,
`5c20e2f` the panel fixes. Operator approved the minor and authorised the
push on 2026-09-22; **this is the first push of this repo's history** — it was
26 commits ahead of `origin/main` before it, so every earlier tag reached the
remote at the same time.
- **U4 released as `v0.4.0`** (operator approved the minor on 2026-09-22).
`c3a97c1` is the unit; the release commit carries the pre-existing fixes the
bug-hunt panel surfaced in touched files. The tag waited for the last gate to
close, per the `v0.2.0` lesson — see Tried and abandoned.
- ⚠ **The 17 consuming handles are NOT being told** that `keep` no longer means
"waiting on an answer" — operator decision, 2026-09-22, no broadcast. This is
deliberate and it CHANGES HOW THE 2026-10-06 RE-COUNT READS: the hold rides
for free, but not-pressing-`keep` has to be learned, so a flat `.forever` rate
does not falsify anything. Read its entry before measuring.
- **TWO UNITS LEFT TO v1, and they do not depend on each other.** U6 (benches,
independent, closes the 69% link-board rot) and U7 (navigation at 270 items,
which U3 just unblocked — its only dependency was {U3, U4, U5}). Which goes
next is the operator's call. ⚠ Before starting U7, read
`persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-u7-section-premise-half-wrong.md`: every booth
that actually needs navigation is FLAT, so half its premise is already known
to be wrong.
- **U3's tier was MINOR and the operator approved it** (2026-09-22). The
argument that settled it, recorded because the tie-break rule says patch: a
capability arrived AND one left — the verbatim path gained a declared public
API (`<script src="/_booth/embed.js" defer>`) and lost no-JavaScript
operation. That asymmetry is what made it not a tie.
- **ALL FOUR U3 GATES ARE CLOSED.** In-session seam review (5 findings, SR-2 a
real payload-shape bug); `/heid-contract-review`
(`01M351WKV666D681SSRNY7D7X6`, 12 findings, 10 adopted, 2 already settled by
the seam review while it was in flight, 1 declined);
`/heid-code-review` (`01M352RXV1ZET566KV73C7TSB8`, 3 more vacuous falsifiers
+ the prototype-pollution bug); `/heid-bug-hunt`
(`01M352TPCSN52G6NGJ07T5WSGY`, 5 net-new, incl. the byte-exactness break).
**Seven of the adopted findings were CODE fixes, not wording** — the cold
gates were not ceremony on this unit. The **seam review ran in-session and is
folded in** — five findings as a table at the end of the U3 contract, and SR-2
was a real payload-shape bug the cold panel structurally could not see. U4's three and U5's three are all closed
(`01M34VX0SH23Y3VC92E7GM4S70`, `01M34WAFJC3RTERFYBBZJN1SVG`,
`01M34Y2R0RAJRSN36Q8K4KAB36`; `01M340PNVRS21HPASZT38PXQPN`,
`01M341E9XAPZEFBSPK9HPGAM0S`, `01M343SXX27Z47C3STXXRC7M42`).
- **Two dated predictions are pending and must not be forgotten.** U5's adoption
re-measure on **2026-09-29** (two counts, see its entry — already at 3 of 24
announced and 2 with a `why`, all from peers told nothing), and the `.forever`
re-count **on or after 2026-10-06**, a fortnight after U4 landed, which is
U4's success criterion. ⚠ Only 4 booths carry marks at all, so the hold's live
blast radius is small and the prediction rests on both halves of U4 — see its
entry for what a null result would and would not mean.
- **FOUR methodology proposals sit with the operator, all UNTRACKED BY OPERATOR
CHOICE** (no issue, no ticket — they are `/heid*` skill changes, not this
repo's work, and are recorded here only so they are not lost). Three are from
the U5 round: reshaping the paraphrase gate toward a drift-check for
narrative-heavy contracts, a standing "green-tests-prove-nothing" direction
for the code-review gate, and regin's table-vs-signature consistency pass.
The fourth is new and is the one with evidence behind it: a **contract-time
VACUITY PASS** — for each invariant, name a change that defeats it and check
the test goes red. Regin and Kimi proposed it independently on the U4
paraphrase round; the code-review panel then showed five of seven U4
falsifiers were vacuous, and heid rates that the strongest single data point
for it so far. See `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-vacuous-falsifiers.md`.
- The booth set churns hard: 26 → 24 → 25 across the last two sessions as the
sweeper ran. Re-count rather than trusting any number written here.
## Recent decisions
- `[2026-09-22]` **The U5 bug-hunt panel found a service-wide hang that the
SIZE CAP ITSELF opened — two hours after I added the cap.** `stat` reports
size 0 for a FIFO and 0 for a symlink to `/dev/zero`, so both sail under a
byte cap and then `read_text` blocks with no EOF or allocates until the kernel
intervenes. `list_booths` reads every booth on every `GET /`, so ONE such file
stalls the front page for the whole service with no error and no recovery
short of a restart. Reproduced (`timeout` returned 124), fixed with an
`S_ISREG` check BEFORE the size check in both modules, verified live: the
index answered 200 in 36 ms with two FIFOs planted. **The reusable shape:
`st_size` answers a different question than "can this be read", and a bound
that trusts it inherits everything it does not mean — a hardening fix opened
a worse hole than the one it closed.** Also adopted: the upload path wrote the
manifest ABOVE its own cleanup guard (4/4), so a failure orphaned a half-booth
whose uniquely-named leaked temp then kept it alive forever; replace-over-
damaged destroyed recoverable bytes (4/4, now QUARANTINED rather than refused
— marks refuse because judgment is not restatable, a booth's description is);
and `booth answer` spelled out its own openness test, disagreeing with
`booth marks` about a partially-answered pick, which is a direct violation of
U2's INV-2. Full triage in `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u5-panels.md`.
- `[2026-09-22]` **An existing test stopped me retiring documented behaviour
while fixing a race.** The mtime-restore race is real, and the clean fix —
ignoring a booth directory's own mtime whenever the booth holds anything —
would also have silently retired the rule that RELEASING a kept board resets
its clock, which the CLI header, the README and a deliberately-written test
all pin. That is a TTL doctrine change, not a bug fix. Fixed the concrete half
(a failing `os.utime` used to escape and 500 the route), left the race stated
in the code. **A fix that changes a documented rule is a proposal, not a
patch.**
- `[2026-09-22]` **Two cross-frontier panels on U5, and a paraphrase panel reached
a production outage two modules away.** 3-of-4 flagged the contract's "4 GB"
case as letter-compliant but purpose-defeating; the conformance round found that
unbounded read live in U5's code; walking it to the sibling found the SAME hole
**live in released `v0.2.2`** — `marks._read_raw` catches `(OSError, ValueError,
UnicodeDecodeError)` and `json.loads` on deep nesting raises **RecursionError**,
which is none of them, so 400 KB of brackets in one booth returned 500 for `/`
and `/healthz` across all 26. The v0.2.2 round HAD flagged it and I closed half:
**a finding with two call sites is not closed when one is.** The reusable
instruction — **walk a conformance finding to the sibling module even when the
sibling is out of scope.** Five of ten conformance findings were tests of mine
that pass on the regression they exist to catch, three of them asserting an
ARTIFACT of the property rather than the property; that is three nights running
on the same shape. Two real bugs neither my tests nor I could see: a bare
`booth add` wiped the `why` on the one sequence the feature exists for, and
`--title` was write-only. Full triage in
`persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u5-panels.md`.
- `[2026-09-22]` **U5's adoption prediction, SPLIT IN TWO within an hour of
landing — and the split is the interesting part.** The baseline was recorded as
0 of 26. Fifty minutes after the deploy, `comfy-dev` created `muse-clothed-repro`
and it announced itself: `{handle: comfy-dev, why: "", created: ...}`. That peer
was told nothing. **The HANDLE propagates for free** — it rides on `booth new`
and `booth add`, so every existing CLI caller starts announcing without learning
anything, which is the flags-on-existing-verbs decision paying off on day zero.
**The WHY does not** — it needs someone to know the flag exists, and this first
one is empty.
So re-measure BOTH on **2026-09-29**, because they answer different questions:
find ~/booth-data -maxdepth 2 -name .booth.json | wc -l # free
grep -l '"why": "[^"]' ~/booth-data/*/.booth.json 2>/dev/null | wc -l # learned
A high first count and a near-zero second is the predicted shape of "nobody was
told", and it is the case the operator's no-announcement decision was designed
to be able to see. Do not read the n=1 above as a rate — it is a code-path
observation (every CLI caller writes a handle), not a sample.
- `[2026-09-22]` **The U2 bug-hunt panel landed and it was not ceremony —
`v0.2.2`.** Nine adopted findings across four arms; eight were real against
live code and one was already fixed. The headline was **4/4 convergent from
four different angles**: `_Locked.__exit__` unlinked `.marks.lock` on the no-op
path, and `flock` binds to an INODE — so a writer blocked on the old inode
proceeds while the next writer creates a fresh lock file and takes it at once.
Two processes then run the read-modify-write concurrently and the later
`os.replace` drops a mark, with both of them obeying the protocol. **The
cleanup existed to protect the booth's TTL and it was failing at that too**:
creating and removing a directory entry bumps the DIRECTORY's mtime, which is
what `_newest_mtime` actually seeds from, so a no-op reset the clock it was
written to leave alone. Same code region, two defects, one fix — never unlink
the lock, exempt `.<name>.lock` dotfiles from `_newest_mtime`, and put the
directory's mtime back after creating one. Full triage in
`persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-bug-hunt-panel.md`.
- `[2026-09-22]` **The lenient reader's blast radius was the whole service, not
one booth.** `_clean_text` did `(text or "").replace(...)` and `marks_for`
sorts on `(created, id)`, so a stored `text` that was a dict or a `created`
that was a number raised out of the READ path — and `list_booths` reads every
booth's marks on every index load. One hand-edited file 500'd `/` and
`/healthz` for all 25 booths. Fixed in two layers, matching the house posture:
a named type check (`_entry_type_error`) plus a `_hydrate_safe` backstop that
cannot raise, and the panel now RENDERS an unreadable mark as ⚠ broken instead
of as an empty note. **The general shape: a lenient reader is only lenient if
the leniency is bounded by where it runs.** `marks_for` was written for one
booth's page and is called in a loop over every booth.
- `[2026-09-22]` **`booth marks` / `booth answer` got real exit codes**, because
a read that CRASHED was indistinguishable from a read that said no. `marks`
printed a traceback and exited 0 (a caller's `jq` saw success and got
nothing); `answer --wait` read a damaged file as "not yet" and spun for the
full hour before blaming the operator. Now `0 ok · 1 unanswered/timed-out ·
2 no such pick · 3 unreadable`, and `read_error()` was added to `marks.py` so
the CLI can ask the question the browser must not: the page stays lenient, the
machine consumer gets the truth. Also `--wait` now prints ONCE — it was
emitting a whole JSON document per poll, so a captured `--wait` held several
concatenated values and parsed as none of them.
- `[2026-09-22]` **`scripts/booth` had zero tests and now has five**
(`tests/test_cli.py`). The panel's guard-strength tables returned UNVERIFIED
for every CLI claim because nothing in the suite executed the script — two of
the round's findings lived in exactly that gap. The new tests run the real
script under the system `python3`, which makes them a live check on INV-1
(stdlib-only) as a side effect: a third-party import in `marks.py` now fails
in the suite the same way it would fail on a fleet host.
- `[2026-09-21]` **v0.2.0 cut and announced; v0.2.1 fixed what the announcement
was already wrong about.** Operator approved the minor (a v1 unit closed plus a
CLI surface change for 17 consuming handles clears the release-note bar). The
note went to 15 handles — the 17 link-board posters minus `nh3-dev`, a host
label, and `heid`, an oracle that does not script these verbs. Then the
cross-frontier contract panel landed and found **three defects in the code I had
just released**, so `v0.2.1` shipped within the hour. Sequence worth remembering:
the release was correct by the tier bar and still premature by the discipline —
the panel had been dispatched BEFORE implementation and its reply arrived AFTER
the tag. **If a gate is in flight, the tag can wait for it.**
- `[2026-09-21]` **A write over a damaged `.marks.json` was wiping every mark in
the booth.** Shipped in `v0.2.0`, found by the panel (Kimi, converged with
Hulda), fixed in `v0.2.1`. `marks_for` is deliberately lenient — unparseable
reads as `[]` so a review page still loads — and the write path inherited that
leniency through the same reader, so one flag click appended to an empty list and
atomically replaced the file. The fix is an **asymmetry**, which is the reusable
part: reads stay lenient, writes go strict (`MarksCorrupt`), damaged bytes stay
on disk, routes answer 409 not 500. A page that renders without an annotation is
recoverable; a file that overwrote the operator's judgment is not. Kimi also
named the class correctly — "an author steeped in the design conversation would
likely read past" it — and that was accurate.
- `[2026-09-21]` **The two review gates are complementary, measured on one unit.**
The caller-side **seam review** (nine findings, against the real sibling module
surfaces) and the cold **`/heid-contract-review` panel** (four arms,
artifact-only) had **zero overlap in both directions** on U2. The seam review
found a scope miss the panel structurally could not see: the contract omitted
`inline.py`, whose `place()` indexes by subscript, which a frozen dataclass
refuses. The panel found three code defects and a missing test the seam review
had no lens for. Matches heid's kvasir zero-overlap result on the
conformance-versus-hunt axis. **Run both; neither substitutes.**
- `[2026-09-21]` **Every one of the panel's code-changing findings came from the
AMBIGUITY pass, none from a paraphrase divergence** — and two arms independently
proposed cutting the paraphrase to a drift-check for narrative-heavy contracts,
because this contract's own frontmatter carries a plain-language narrative and the
paraphrase was partly reading my framing back to me. That is a finding about the
`/heid-contract-review` **skill**, not about this repo, and it was reported back
to heid. Recorded here only so a future session does not rediscover it.
- `[2026-09-21]` **Deterministic order is a cross-cutting v1 invariant** —
operator directive, mid-implementation. Every ordered collection the Booth
renders must have a *stated* rule producing the same sequence on every render
of the same state; the rule can be anything defensible (byte order, time, an
explicit number, an arbitrary-but-recorded sequence), but no rule at all is
forbidden. It binds harder here than elsewhere because the Booth's job is
**comparison** — the operator judges tile 47 against tile 47 and refers to
artifacts positionally, so an order that moves between renders misfiles a flag
or a note rather than crashing. Recorded as `ROADMAP.md` § "Cross-cutting
invariant" (with the per-collection table) and `CLAUDE.md` invariant 6, and
tested. Still undecided and must be settled before those units ship: **U7's
section ordering and compare pairing**, and **U6's bench listing**.
- `[2026-09-21]` **U2 (marks) landed.** One primitive replacing three
mechanisms. `pick` / `note` / `flag` in one `.marks.json` per booth, one read
path (`marks_for`), one openness predicate (`open_marks`), rendered beside the
artifact on the tile, at full size in the zoom, and in the panel. `flag` and
`note` had no write path at all before this — the selection loop
(`golden-candidates`, `sindra-finalists`, the `pancake-*` ladders) was running
through chat. 242 tests. Details worth carrying: `asks.py` kept `normalize_ask`
and gained `build_answer` (the 2026-09-09 partial-answer semantics preserved by
moving, not rewriting) and LOST its five sidecar-storage functions;
`GET /b/<n>/marks.json` was added because remote sessions polled
`<stem>.answer.json` over HTTP and the sidecar's removal would have taken that
capability with it; `/b/<n>/asks` 308s to `/marks`.
- `[2026-09-21]` **A partially-answered pick now counts as OPEN** — declared, not
smuggled. The old index badge tested `answer is None`, so a half-answered
four-question ask read as closed on the index while the panel beside it
rendered `◐ partial`: the two disagreed about the same booth. Open is the
reading that makes U4 correct — a lifetime rule that unpinned a booth on the
first radio click would sweep a review in flight.
- `[2026-09-21]` **The U2 seam review earned its place, and the record should
say how.** Nine findings against the real `booth.asks` / `booth.items` /
`booth.inline` surfaces, two of which changed scope or behaviour: `inline.py`
was missing from `touches` entirely (its `place()` indexes asks by
**subscript**, which a frozen dataclass refuses — nothing else in the service
does that), and the partial-answer inconsistency above. The cold
`/heid-contract-review` pass is artifact-only by design and structurally
cannot see a sibling module, so neither it nor a same-model self-review would
have found either. Two more surfaced later and are worth the same note: a
SECOND subscript in `inline.place` the seam review undercounted, and a
regression in my own legacy importer that a retargeted test caught — a
malformed sidecar that renders `⚠ broken` today would have silently vanished
on migration.
- `[2026-09-21]` **Marks are stored as one `.marks.json` per booth**, atomic
temp-file + `os.replace`, `fcntl` lock on the read-modify-write — operator
decision, this session. Two alternatives were weighed and lost: a sidecar
per item (`<rel>.marks.json`) and extending the existing `<stem>.ask.json`
shape. Rationale, and the reason it is not `links.md`-shaped: **(a)** U4
makes *"does this booth owe an answer?"* a hot question — the sweep asks it
per booth per tick and the index asks it per card per page load, so per-item
sidecars turn it into a full walk of all 25 booths, one of which holds 270
files; **(b)** `links.md` is an `O_APPEND` content-hash log because **17
agent handles write it concurrently**, whereas marks have exactly one writer
(the operator, in one browser) and many readers — a different problem that
must not inherit the append-log design; **(c)** `.blurred` / `.pins` /
`.forever` already establish the per-booth dotfile as the house shape for
operator state, and `booth_items()`'s dotfile skip means it costs nothing in
counts, galleries or zips. Accepted cost: a corrupt `.marks.json` loses that
booth's marks rather than one item's. Implementation deferred to U2 —
tracked at `ROADMAP.md` U2 and by this entry.
- `[2026-09-21]` **U7's section premise is half wrong, and it is the half that
matters** — found by re-measuring `~/booth-data` rather than trusting the IA
doc. The IA says sections come from subfolders that already exist on disk;
true, but **every booth that actually needs navigation is flat**:
`pancake-v3-full` (270 items, 0 subfolders), `pancake-v4-full` (270, 0),
`sindra20-engines` (98 items + 99 caption sidecars, 0), `sindra-finalists`
(86 + 87, 0). Subfolders exist on exactly two booths — `pewpew-ui-brief` (7,
nested to `_ds/powerpellet-design-system-<uuid>/preview`) and `dfa-concepts`
(1) — and **both are reports**, the job where grid navigation matters least.
So sections stay worth shipping and `Item.section` stays right, but they are
**not** "most of the navigation fix": the rail, the filters and grid keyboard
are all of it. Worth noting for whoever writes U7: `sindra20-engines` encodes
its structure in the **filename prefix** (`b2-s1-<subject>-<seed>`), which is
where a grouping heuristic would actually pay. The IA doc's claim about what
sections buy needs a line struck — not yet edited.
- `[2026-09-21]` **`sindra-finalists` is U2's `flag` motivation caught in the
act** — 86 items, every one captioned, and the booth's entire name is "the
ones the operator picked." That loop currently runs through chat, which is
the defect `flag` closes. Evidence, not argument.
- `[2026-09-21]` **The information architecture and the v1 gate landed**
(`726822b`): `docs/design/information-architecture.md` names the single
defect — *one lifetime (24h from last touch) and one shape (a folder),
serving five jobs with different lifetimes and different shapes* — and
`ROADMAP.md` gates v1 on seven units, each closing a **measured** defect
rather than a wish. Both were written after a measurement pass over the live
service, and the measurements are the load-bearing part.
- `[2026-09-21]` **The `.forever` diagnosis is a stated, falsifiable
prediction.** U4 (derived lifetime) predicts the kept-rate falls to the
genuinely-durable booths. Re-measured today: **14 of 25 booths kept (56%)**,
against the 54% the IA doc recorded. **Re-count a fortnight after U4 lands.**
If it does not move, the diagnosis was wrong and the boolean was doing
something else. Tracked in the IA doc's Booth section and by this entry.
- `[2026-09-21]` **Extracted from `eshpfi` into its own repo.** The accreted
service came over whole, tests included, so `tests/test_booth.py` (1581 lines)
is the regression net the v1 rewrite is checked against.
- `[2026-09-22]` **U3 landed — the page declares the seam, the Booth mounts into it** — ten regexes against author HTML replaced by a substring test and a `+` → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u3-declared-embed-seam-landed.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **A wrong-shaped answer 500s the gallery and the marks page** — PRE-EXISTING (measured at `42ea67f`), NOT U3; the v0.2.2 lesson is only half-implemented → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-a-wrong-shaped-answer-500s-the-gallery.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **The browser became a test surface** — READ BEFORE TOUCHING `playwright` IN pyproject; the pinned upper bound is the foot-gun, and these tests SKIP rather than fail → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-the-browser-became-a-test-surface.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **A vacuity pass that tries the contract's own mutation agrees with itself** — U3 ran one, reported 7/7, and a cold panel then showed one of the seven was vacuous; READ BEFORE WRITING A *Falsifiable:* LINE → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-seven-of-seven-falsifiers.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **U4 landed — lifetime is derived, not declared** — three states, viewing is activity, and no new arithmetic anywhere → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u4-derived-lifetime-landed.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **The `.forever` diagnosis got a live positive control** — 3 of the 4 booths awaiting an answer were ALSO hand-pinned — RE-COUNT 2026-10-06 → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-forever-had-a-live-positive-control.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **No fleetwide notice for U4, and what that does to the prediction** — READ BEFORE THE 2026-10-06 RE-COUNT; a flat rate does not falsify the diagnosis → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-no-notice-and-what-it-does-to-the-prediction.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **Four independent paths to one fail-open delete** — the bug-hunt panel's class, and the zsh word-splitting trap that shipped an empty bundle → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-four-paths-to-one-fail-open-delete.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **Two reads of one file are not one read of one state** — a TOCTOU seam that composes two correct readers into a fail-open delete → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-two-reads-are-not-one-state.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **Five of seven INV falsifiers did not falsify anything** — read before writing a *Falsifiable:* line; a green test cited one rather than being one → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-vacuous-falsifiers.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **The third one-branch template miss** — this repo's recurring blind spot; read before adding a fact to any template → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-third-one-branch-template-miss.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **The size cap opened a service-wide hang** — a FIFO has st_size 0; a bound that trusts it inherits what it does not mean → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-size-cap-opened-a-hang.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **An existing test stopped me retiring documented behaviour** — the clean fix for the mtime race would have silently changed TTL doctrine → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-doctrine-not-defect.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **Two U5 panels, and prose reached a released outage** — read the detail before assuming a conformance finding stops at its own module → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u5-panels-reached-a-released-bug.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **U5's adoption prediction split in two** — the handle rides for free, the why must be learned — RE-MEASURE 2026-09-29 → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u5-adoption-split-in-two.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **The U2 bug-hunt panel was not ceremony** — the lock-unlink race and the TTL guard that was failing at its own job → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u2-bug-hunt-panel.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **The lenient reader's blast radius was the whole service** — marks_for runs per booth per index load; a raise there is an outage → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-lenient-reader-blast-radius.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **`booth marks` / `booth answer` got real exit codes** — read it before changing anything the 17 consuming handles call → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-cli-exit-codes.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **`scripts/booth` went from zero tests to five** — they run the real script under system python3, so they also check INV-1 → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-scripts-booth-got-tests.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **v0.2.0 was tagged while a gate was in flight** — the sequencing lesson: if a gate is outstanding, the tag waits → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-v020-tagged-with-a-gate-in-flight.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **A write over a damaged `.marks.json` wiped the booth** — the reads-lenient / writes-strict asymmetry, and why it exists → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-marks-write-wiped-judgment.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **Seam review and cold panel had zero overlap, twice** — evidence for running both; neither substitutes for the other → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-two-gates-are-complementary.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **Every code-changing finding came from the AMBIGUITY pass** — a finding about the /heid-contract-review skill, not about this repo → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-ambiguity-pass-did-the-work.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **Deterministic order is a cross-cutting v1 invariant** — operator directive; read before adding ANY ordered surface → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-deterministic-order-invariant.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **U2 (marks) landed — one primitive for three mechanisms** — what moved where, and the HTTP mirror remote sessions poll → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-u2-marks-landed.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **A partially-answered pick counts as OPEN** — declared, not smuggled; it is the reading that makes U4 correct → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-partial-answer-counts-as-open.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **The U2 seam review earned its place, and how** — inline.place indexes by subscript — the miss a cold panel cannot see → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-u2-seam-review-earned-it.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **Marks are one `.marks.json` per booth** — operator decision with two rejected alternatives; read before restructuring → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-marks-storage-decision.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **U7's section premise is half wrong** — every booth that needs navigation is FLAT — read before starting U7 → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-u7-section-premise-half-wrong.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **`sindra-finalists` is U2's flag motivation, caught live** — evidence, not argument → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-sindra-finalists-is-the-motivation.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **The information architecture and the v1 gate landed** — the single defect the seven units decompose → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-ia-and-v1-gate-landed.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **The `.forever` diagnosis is a falsifiable prediction** — U4's success criterion — re-count a fortnight AFTER U4 lands → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-forever-diagnosis-is-a-prediction.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **Extracted from `eshpfi` into its own repo** — test_booth.py is the regression net the v1 rewrite is checked against → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-extracted-from-eshpfi.md`
## Tried and abandoned
- `[2026-09-21]` **Tagging a release while a review gate was still in flight.**
`v0.2.0` was cut and announced to 15 consuming handles; the
`/heid-contract-review` panel — dispatched BEFORE implementation, as the
discipline says — replied afterwards with three defects in the code that had just
shipped, one of them silent data loss. Nothing about the tier decision was wrong;
the *timing* was. **If a gate is outstanding on the work being released, the tag
waits for it.** The cost was a same-hour `v0.2.1` and a correction note to peers
who had already verified against the broken version.
- `[2026-09-21]` **Letting the write path share the read path's leniency.** See the
`MarksCorrupt` decision above. The general shape, worth carrying beyond marks:
a tolerant reader and a tolerant writer over the same state are not the same
decision, and pointing both at one function silently makes them one. Tolerate on
read so the surface still renders; refuse on write so nothing is destroyed.
- `[2026-09-21]` **Letting Jinja hot-reload templates while the repo is the
deployment root** — the cause of a live outage the same day U2 landed, and the
sharpest foot-gun in the repo. `booth.service` sets `WorkingDirectory` to this
repo, so the running service imports these files with no build step and no
staging copy. Python is read once at process start; Jinja's `FileSystemLoader`
re-reads a template **on every render**. Editing `booth.html` therefore
deployed it instantly against Python from 22:03 that knew nothing about
`item_marks`, and **19 of 25 live booths returned 500** with
`UndefinedError: 'item_marks' is undefined`. Neither the old code nor the new
code was broken — the service was running both at once.
**The lesson that generalises:** a skew between a process and the disk under it
is invisible to the test suite by construction, so no amount of green tests
would have caught it; the operator found it. Fixed at the source rather than
with a reminder — the `Environment` is hand-built with `auto_reload=False`, so
there is now ONE staleness rule (nothing takes effect until you restart) and
the running process is always a coherent snapshot of one commit. Asserted by
`test_templates_do_not_hot_reload_from_disk`. Watch the second-order risk the
fix introduces: a hand-built `Environment` does not inherit `autoescape` from
the `Jinja2Templates` constructor, and booth names, item names and mark text
are all agent-authored strings landing in HTML.
- `[2026-09-21]` **Five separate mechanisms to get one question next to one
artifact** — `.forever`, the link board, `inline.py`'s placeholder DSL,
`wrap_verbatim_html`'s six regexes, and the floating amber asks chip plus
`/b/<n>/asks`. Every one is a *correct local fix* to the same global
mismatch, which is exactly why they accumulated without anyone making a bad
call. **The foot-gun is the sixth one:** the next "just add a small thing for
this case" reads as reasonable and is the pattern. The git log carries the
signature — every feature ships, then takes 2–5 patches for cases the single
shape did not anticipate. Check the ROADMAP gate before adding a mechanism.
- `[2026-09-21]` **Regex-injecting chrome into arbitrary author HTML**
(`wrap_verbatim_html` + `_HEAD_CLOSE_RE`, `_HTML_OPEN_RE`, `_DOCTYPE_RE`,
`_BODY_CLOSE_RE`, `_HTML_CLOSE_RE`, `_ICON_RE`, and the doctype/charset
ordering constraints they thread). It works today and is **still live** —
but it is the single most fragile thing in the service and it is load-bearing
for the operator's most important workflow. Slated for deletion at U3 in
favour of a declared seam (`/_booth/embed.js`, mounted through a real DOM
API), which costs an author one line and removes the whole class. Do not
extend the regex set in the meantime; if a verbatim page breaks, that is an
argument for U3, not for a seventh pattern.
- `[2026-09-21]` **A boolean escape hatch as the lifetime mechanism.**
`.forever` was added because a 24h TTL genuinely did not fit some booths —
and then 56% of live booths ended up on it, which means it is not "ephemeral
with an exception", it is two lifetimes wearing one lifetime's clothes, with
the operator doing the sorting by hand. Replaced at U4 by lifetime derived
from state (an open mark pins; viewing is activity; `keep` survives as an
explicit reasoned pin rather than the only way to say "not yet").
- `[2026-09-21]` **Letting the link board absorb the announce job.** `booth
link` is an `O_APPEND` write with no identity and no stated rule, so
re-announcing a bench appends a row instead of updating one, and a booth URL
rots the moment its booth is swept — **145 of 211 rows (69%) pointed at
nothing**, and 22 were the same target re-posted (talk 5×, peedlar 4×). The
rot is **structural, not drift**. The lesson that cost the most: enforcing
the link rule without first giving the announce job a home (`.booth.json`
provenance on the index, U5) just makes it homeless.
- `[2026-09-21]` **Tagging a release while a review gate was in flight** — cost a same-hour v0.2.1 and a correction to 15 handles → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-tagging-with-a-gate-in-flight.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **Letting the write path share the read path's leniency** — a tolerant reader and a tolerant writer are not the same decision → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-tolerant-writer-over-tolerant-reader.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **Letting Jinja hot-reload templates in the deployment root** — caused a live outage: 19 of 25 booths at 500. Why auto_reload=False → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-jinja-hot-reload-outage.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **Five mechanisms to get one question beside one artifact** — the accretion signature this whole v1 rewrite is undoing → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-five-mechanisms-one-job.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **Regex-injecting chrome into arbitrary author HTML** — the defect U3 exists to close → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-regex-injecting-chrome.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **A boolean escape hatch as the lifetime mechanism** — why `.forever` is a symptom; the defect U4 exists to close → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-boolean-escape-hatch-as-lifetime.md`
- `[2026-09-21]` **Letting the link board absorb the announce job** — 69% rot; U5 gave the job a home, which is what unblocks U6 → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-link-board-absorbing-announce.md`
pyproject.toml
+10 -1
View File
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
[project]
name = "booth"
version = "0.3.0"
version = "0.5.0"
description = "The Booth — a dead-simple standing web server that scans a data dir of drop-folders and renders each as an ephemeral media 'booth' (image/webm/audio auto-gallery, or a folder's own index.html verbatim). Also accepts browser/curl uploads for pickup under a human-readable id. 24h TTL, then the folder is wiped. Fleet tool for CC sessions to surface A/B and smoke results to the operator."
requires-python = ">=3.11"
dependencies = [
@@ -15,6 +15,15 @@ dependencies = [
test = [
"pytest>=8.0",
"httpx>=0.27", # fastapi TestClient
# U3's embed seam moves placement into the browser, where no string
# assertion can see it. Browsers are NOT downloaded per project: they live
# box-wide in /opt/ms-playwright with PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH wired
# globally. THE UPPER BOUND IS THE POINT -- each playwright release pins a
# Chromium revision, and one that wants a revision the shared store does
# not have dies with an opaque "Executable doesn't exist" rather than a
# missing-dependency error. 1.60-1.62 map to chromium 1223/1228/1234, all
# present. Raise the bound only after the store has the newer revision.
"playwright>=1.60,<1.63",
]
[build-system]
scripts/booth
+29 -9
View File
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
# booth rm <name> wipe a booth now (TTL would eventually anyway)
#
# booth keep <name> exempt a booth from the 24h sweep, forever
# (NOT for "waiting on an answer" — an open
# pick holds its own booth, see below)
# booth unkeep <name> hand it back to the sweeper
# booth link <url> [description] append a link to the standing link board
# booth links list the board, numbered, with entry ids
@@ -59,12 +61,28 @@
# access, so they poll the HTTP mirror instead:
# http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/<name>/marks.json
#
# THE 24h RULE AND ITS ONE EXCEPTION. Every booth is wiped 24h after its last
# THE 24h RULE AND ITS THREE STATES. Every booth is wiped 24h after its last
# activity — that is the contract, and it is why nobody has to clean up after
# themselves. `keep` drops a `.forever` sentinel that exempts one booth from the
# sweep and moves it into its own lane at the top of the index. Use it for
# durable operator-facing boards, not for run output. `unkeep` is just `rm` of
# the sentinel, so putting a board back under the sweeper costs nothing.
# themselves. Two things exempt a booth, and only the first is a button:
#
# KEPT `keep` drops a `.forever` sentinel that exempts one booth from the
# sweep and moves it into its own lane at the top of the index. Use it
# for durable operator-facing boards, not for run output. `unkeep` is
# just `rm` of the sentinel, so putting a board back costs nothing.
# HELD a booth with an UNANSWERED pick is never swept, automatically, for as
# long as the question is open. You do not press anything: `booth ask`
# is what holds it, and the operator answering is what releases it. A
# partially-answered pick still counts as open, so a review in flight
# cannot be swept out from under him.
#
# So: DO NOT `keep` a booth just because you are waiting on an answer. That was
# the old workaround, it is what made 70% of live booths "durable", and it is
# no longer needed. `keep` means durable. The question holds its own booth.
#
# VIEWING IS ACTIVITY TOO. The operator opening a booth page resets its clock —
# if he is still looking at it, it is still alive. Your polling does NOT: `booth
# marks --wait` and the `marks.json` endpoint are machine reads and deliberately
# do not count, so a session cannot hold its own booth open by waiting on it.
#
# DELETING A KEPT BOARD: `booth rm <name>` works on kept boards too and deletes
# NOW — it announces that the board was kept, so wiping something durable is
@@ -72,10 +90,12 @@
# card drops the sentinel, the card moves to the ephemeral lane, and the × wipes
# it from there.
#
# DO NOT "unkeep and let it expire". Removing the sentinel BUMPS the booth
# directory's mtime, and a booth's age is the newest mtime in its tree — so a
# released board's clock RESETS and it survives another full 24h. Unkeep-and-wait
# is a delay, not a delete. Use `rm` (or the UI ×) when you mean now.
# DO NOT "unkeep and let it expire". RELEASING A BOARD IS ACTIVITY — you just
# touched it — so a released board's clock resets and it survives another full
# 24h. Unkeep-and-wait is a delay, not a delete. Use `rm` (or the UI ×) when you
# mean now. (This was true before U4 as an accident of directory mtime; it is
# now the stated rule, which is why it no longer needs a warning shaped like a
# surprise.)
#
# `link` is the reason the exception exists: agent sessions hand the operator
# URLs that then drown in terminal scrollback. They go on a standing kept board
scripts/layout-probe.py
+8
View File
@@ -24,6 +24,14 @@ claimed it did until 2026-09-22. Pass booth URLs explicitly to cover them:
scripts/layout-probe.py http://10.100.10.50:8090/{,b/my-run/}
⚠ PROBING A BOOTH PAGE RESETS THAT BOOTH'S TTL CLOCK (U4). A GET of `/b/<n>/`
is a view, and a view is activity — that is the rule, and this script is not
exempt from it just because it is ours. Sweeping every booth page therefore
buys every booth another full TTL. Harmless and recoverable (nothing is
deleted, things merely live longer), named here so nobody debugs it later as a
sweeper that stopped working. The index-only default does NOT do this: browsing
the index is deliberately not a view.
⚠ In zsh an unquoted `$URLS` does NOT word-split, so a variable holding
several URLs arrives as ONE argument and the probe silently reports
"2 page(s)" while covering two. Use an array and `"${URLS[@]}"`.
tests/test_asks.py
+71 -67
View File
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ import pathlib
import pytest
from fastapi.testclient import TestClient
from booth.app import build_gallery, create_app, list_booths
from booth.app import EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG, build_gallery, create_app, list_booths
from booth.asks import (
ANSWER_SUFFIX,
ASK_SUFFIX,
@@ -410,32 +410,37 @@ def test_declare_pick_accepts_a_full_multi_doc(tmp_path):
# into the verbatim page plus a standalone /asks page that carries the forms.
def test_verbatim_booth_renders_the_ask_inline(client):
def test_verbatim_booth_offers_the_ask_over_the_seam(client):
"""U3: the report is served as written and the ask crosses the declared seam.
Before U3 the fragments were substituted into the page body by regex; the
guarantee that the ask is reachable FROM THE REPORT, not from another page,
is unchanged — it is the delivery that moved."""
c, data = client
b = _ask(data / "b")
(b / "index.html").write_text("<!doctype html><title>report</title><body>hi</body>")
html = c.get("/b/b/").text
assert "hi" in html # the report is still served verbatim
assert "Which render wins?" in html # ...with the ask ON it, not elsewhere
assert 'type="radio"' in html and 'action="/b/b/answer"' in html
assert "bk-ask" in html # self-contained fragment styles
assert "booth-nav-asks" in html # chip remains, as a jump link
assert "#bk-ask-winner-top" in html
assert "Which render wins?" not in html # ...and NOTHING was injected into it
assert html.endswith(EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG)
(m,) = c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["marks"]
assert "Which render wins?" in m["whole"]
assert 'type="radio"' in m["whole"] and 'action="/b/b/answer"' in m["submit"]
def test_verbatim_chip_disappears_once_answered(client):
c, data = client
b = _ask(data / "b")
(b / "index.html").write_text("<!doctype html><body>hi</body>")
assert c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["open"] == ["winner"]
answer_pick(b, "winner", "A — baseline")
assert "booth-nav-asks" not in c.get("/b/b/").text
assert c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["open"] == []
def test_verbatim_booth_without_asks_is_untouched(client):
c, data = client
(data / "b").mkdir()
(data / "b" / "index.html").write_text("<!doctype html><body>hi</body>")
assert "booth-nav-asks" not in c.get("/b/b/").text
assert c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["marks"] == []
def test_asks_page_renders_forms_and_answers_back_to_itself(client):
@@ -477,42 +482,64 @@ def test_asks_page_shows_a_single_ask_title(client):
assert "emmie — pick the anchor" in c.get("/b/b/marks").text
# ---- inline placement in a verbatim report -----------------------------------
# ---- placement in a verbatim report ------------------------------------------
#
# Operator verdict 2026-09-09 on the separate /asks page: "the asks should be
# inline with the artifacts, not on a separate page." A four-voice audition wants
# each voice's radio group under that voice's audio, and one submit for the lot.
#
# U3 kept the semantics and moved the mechanism. The author still marks up where
# each piece goes; the pieces are still rendered by the `_ask_inline.html`
# macros; they now reach the page through `/b/<name>/embed.json` and are mounted
# by `/_booth/embed.js` instead of substituted into the author's tags by regex.
#
# So the placement ASSERTIONS moved too, and where each half lives is not
# arbitrary: what the server offers is checked here, in Python; where it LANDS,
# and whether a form scattered down a report actually submits, is checked in
# tests/test_embed_browser.py against a real DOM. No string assertion can see
# the second thing, and that is exactly the part the operator depends on.
REPORT = """<!doctype html><title>audition</title><body>
<h1>Three voices</h1>
<section id="lawson"><audio src="a.wav"></audio>
<div data-booth-ask="batch:r1"></div></section>
<section id="jo"><audio src="b.wav"></audio>
<!-- booth:ask batch:r2 --></section>
<div data-booth-mark="batch:r2"></div></section>
<div data-booth-ask-submit="batch"></div>
<script src="/_booth/embed.js" defer></script>
</body>"""
def test_per_question_placeholders_land_where_the_author_put_them(client):
def test_the_author_markup_is_never_touched_by_the_server(client):
"""The whole point of the seam. A page that declares it comes back exactly
as written — placeholders still empty, waiting for the DOM."""
c, data = client
b = _multi(data / "b")
(b / "index.html").write_text(REPORT)
html = c.get("/b/b/").text
# each group is inside its own section, in document order
lawson = html.index('id="lawson"')
jo = html.index('id="jo"')
assert lawson < html.index('name="choice.r1"') < jo
assert jo < html.index('name="choice.r2"')
# one shared form, bound by the HTML5 form= attribute, submitted once
assert html.count('<form id="bk-ask-form-batch"') == 1
assert html.count('action="/b/b/answer"') == 1
assert html.count('form="bk-ask-form-batch"') >= 4
# the submit block landed at its own placeholder, not appended after </body>
assert html.index("bk-ask-form-batch") < html.index("</body>")
assert c.get("/b/b/").text == REPORT
def test_inline_form_submits_every_question_in_one_post(client):
def test_every_piece_the_author_can_place_is_offered(client):
"""One fragment per addressable piece: the whole ask, each question, and the
submit block that carries the shared <form>. The author's markup decides
which are used; the payload never decides for them."""
c, data = client
b = _multi(data / "b")
(m,) = c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["marks"]
assert [q["key"] for q in m["questions"]] == ["r1", "r2"]
assert 'name="choice.r1"' in m["questions"][0]["html"]
assert 'name="choice.r2"' in m["questions"][1]["html"]
# ONE form, and it lives with the submit block, so question groups scattered
# down a report bind to it by id from wherever they sit.
assert m["submit"].count('<form id="bk-ask-form-batch"') == 1
assert m["submit"].count('action="/b/b/answer"') == 1
assert 'form="bk-ask-form-batch"' in m["questions"][0]["html"]
assert 'form="bk-ask-form-batch"' in m["questions"][1]["html"]
def test_a_scattered_form_still_posts_as_one_answer(client):
"""The POST half of the multi-question guarantee, which U3 did not touch:
every question in one request, or the route refuses it."""
c, data = client
b = _multi(data / "b")
(b / "index.html").write_text(REPORT)
@@ -521,44 +548,21 @@ def test_inline_form_submits_every_question_in_one_post(client):
assert r.status_code == 303
ans = _answer_of(b, "batch")
assert ans["answers"]["r1"]["choice"] == "keep" and ans["answers"]["r2"]["choice"] == "d"
# and the recorded pick now shows inline, on the report itself
html = c.get("/b/b/").text
assert "recorded:" in html and "bk-done" in html
assert 'value="keep" required checked' in html.replace("\n", " ") or "checked" in html
# and the recorded pick comes back marked answered, on the report's own seam
(m,) = c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["marks"]
assert "recorded:" in m["whole"] and "bk-done" in m["whole"]
assert "checked" in m["questions"][0]["html"]
def test_whole_ask_placeholder_renders_everything_there(client):
c, data = client
b = _ask(data / "b")
(b / "index.html").write_text('<!doctype html><body><p>x</p><div data-booth-ask="winner"></div></body>')
html = c.get("/b/b/").text
assert html.index("Which render wins?") > html.index("<p>x</p>")
assert html.index("bk-ask-go") < html.index("</body>") # submit placed inline too
def test_placeholder_for_a_missing_ask_is_left_alone(client):
c, data = client
b = _ask(data / "b")
(b / "index.html").write_text('<!doctype html><body><div data-booth-ask="typo"></div></body>')
html = c.get("/b/b/").text
assert 'data-booth-ask="typo"' in html # author's markup untouched, not blanked
assert "Which render wins?" in html # the real ask still appended, never lost
def test_questions_placed_without_a_submit_still_get_one(client):
c, data = client
b = _multi(data / "b")
(b / "index.html").write_text('<!doctype html><body><div data-booth-ask="batch:r1"></div></body>')
html = c.get("/b/b/").text
assert html.count('<form id="bk-ask-form-batch"') == 1 # appended, so it is submittable
assert 'name="choice.r2"' in html # r2 unplaced -> must still appear
def test_styles_are_emitted_once(client):
def test_the_page_carries_no_fragment_styles(client):
"""`styles()` is gone from the template: the scoped `.bk-ask-*` rules live in
embed.js, next to the code that mounts them. One asset, emitted once by
construction rather than by a seen-set."""
c, data = client
b = _multi(data / "b")
(b / "index.html").write_text(REPORT)
assert c.get("/b/b/").text.count(".bk-ask-opt:has(input:checked)") == 1
assert ".bk-ask-opt:has(input:checked)" not in c.get("/b/b/").text
assert c.get("/_booth/embed.js").text.count(".bk-ask-opt:has(input:checked)") == 1
def test_radios_are_not_html_required_anywhere(client):
@@ -566,20 +570,20 @@ def test_radios_are_not_html_required_anywhere(client):
is exactly what stopped the operator leaving one blank."""
c, data = client
b = _multi(data / "b")
assert "required" not in c.get("/b/b/").text
(b / "index.html").write_text('<!doctype html><body><div data-booth-ask="batch"></div></body>')
assert "required" not in c.get("/b/b/").text
(m,) = c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["marks"]
assert "required" not in m["whole"]
assert not any("required" in q["html"] for q in m["questions"])
assert "required" not in c.get("/b/b/marks").text
def test_partial_answer_renders_as_skipped_inline(client):
def test_partial_answer_renders_as_skipped(client):
c, data = client
b = _multi(data / "b")
(b / "index.html").write_text('<!doctype html><body><div data-booth-ask="batch"></div></body>')
(b / "index.html").write_text(REPORT)
c.post("/b/b/answer", data={"ask": "batch", "choice.r1": "keep"})
html = c.get("/b/b/").text
assert "bk-skip" in html and "left blank" in html
assert "1 of 2 answered" in html
(m,) = c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["marks"]
assert "bk-skip" in m["whole"] and "left blank" in m["whole"]
assert "1 of 2 answered" in m["submit"]
def test_empty_submission_is_refused_with_400(client):
tests/test_booth.py
+21 -57
View File
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ from booth.app import (
remove_link_entry,
toggle_pin,
booth_age_seconds,
FAVICON_LINK,
EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG,
KEEP_MARKER,
build_gallery,
classify,
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ from booth.app import (
render_doc,
safe_upload_name,
sweep_once,
wrap_verbatim_html,
)
PICKUP_RE = re.compile(r"^(\d{1,2}-[a-z]+|[a-z]+-\d{1,2})$")
@@ -459,58 +458,21 @@ def test_view_nonviewable_redirects_to_raw(client):
assert r.headers["location"] == "/b/run1/data.bin"
# ---- verbatim-index.html wrapper --------------------------------------------
# ---- verbatim-index.html serving -------------------------------------------
#
# U3 replaced the injection wrapper with a declared seam. The five `test_wrap_*`
# tests and `test_verbatim_booth_wrapped_with_back_chip` that stood here tested
# `wrap_verbatim_html` — six regexes hunting a head-ish seam for a favicon and a
# body-ish seam for a chip, plus the doctype and charset-window constraints they
# threaded. None of those constraints can be violated by an append, so there is
# nothing left of them to assert. What replaced them lives in tests/test_embed.py
# (the payload, the one appended tag, whole-body equality for a declaring page)
# and tests/test_embed_browser.py (the mount, in a real DOM).
#
# What stays here is what did NOT change: the file route is still raw.
def test_wrap_injects_chip_and_favicon():
html = "<html><head><title>Brief</title></head><body><h1>REPORT</h1></body></html>"
out = wrap_verbatim_html(html)
assert 'class="booth-nav-home"' in out # floating back chip
assert 'href="/"' in out # points at the main booth index
assert "all booths" in out
assert FAVICON_LINK in out # favicon inherited
assert "<h1>REPORT</h1>" in out # original content preserved
# favicon lands in the head, chip lands in the body
assert out.index(FAVICON_LINK) < out.index("</head>")
assert out.index("booth-nav-home") > out.index("<body>")
def test_wrap_respects_existing_favicon():
html = '<html><head><link rel="icon" href="data:image/png;base64,AAAA"></head><body>x</body></html>'
out = wrap_verbatim_html(html)
assert FAVICON_LINK not in out # the page's own icon wins
assert out.count('rel="icon"') == 1
assert 'class="booth-nav-home"' in out # chip is still added
def test_wrap_bare_fragment_appends_chip():
out = wrap_verbatim_html("<h1>bare fragment</h1>") # no doctype/head/body
assert 'class="booth-nav-home"' in out
assert out.rstrip().endswith("</style>") # chip appended at the end
assert FAVICON_LINK in out # no doctype -> safe to prepend the icon
assert out.index(FAVICON_LINK) < out.index("bare") # icon ahead of content (implied head)
def test_wrap_no_head_injects_favicon():
out = wrap_verbatim_html("<body><h1>no head</h1></body>")
assert 'class="booth-nav-home"' in out
assert FAVICON_LINK in out # injected even without an explicit <head>
def test_wrap_compact_doctype_stays_first():
# the real-booth shape: compact HTML, no explicit head/body. The injection must
# not push anything ahead of the doctype (quirks mode) or past the charset window.
html = "<!doctype html><meta charset=utf-8><title>T</title><style>body{margin:0}</style><h1>REPORT</h1>"
out = wrap_verbatim_html(html)
assert out.lstrip().lower().startswith("<!doctype") # doctype still first -> standards mode
assert FAVICON_LINK in out
assert out.index(FAVICON_LINK) < out.index("<h1>") # icon in the implied head, before content
assert out.index("charset") < 1024 # charset meta stays in the detection window
assert 'class="booth-nav-home"' in out
assert out.index("booth-nav-home") > out.index("<h1>REPORT</h1>") # chip appended after content
def test_verbatim_booth_wrapped_with_back_chip(client):
def test_verbatim_booth_is_served_with_the_seam(client):
c, data = client
d = data / "brief"
d.mkdir()
@@ -518,13 +480,11 @@ def test_verbatim_booth_wrapped_with_back_chip(client):
r = c.get("/b/brief/")
assert r.status_code == 200
assert "BRIEF" in r.text # content preserved
assert 'class="booth-nav-home"' in r.text # back chip injected
assert 'href="/"' in r.text
assert 'rel="icon"' in r.text # favicon inherited
assert r.text.endswith(EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG) # ...and the seam, appended
def test_verbatim_index_raw_file_route_unwrapped(client):
# the file route (/b/<name>/index.html) still serves the raw bytes — the chip
# the file route (/b/<name>/index.html) still serves the raw bytes — the seam
# only rides on the booth view (/b/<name>/), so downloads/assets stay verbatim
c, data = client
d = data / "brief"
@@ -532,7 +492,7 @@ def test_verbatim_index_raw_file_route_unwrapped(client):
(d / "index.html").write_text("<html><body><h1>BRIEF</h1></body></html>")
r = c.get("/b/brief/index.html")
assert r.status_code == 200
assert "booth-nav-home" not in r.text
assert "_booth/embed.js" not in r.text
# ---- .md / .txt in-booth doc viewer -----------------------------------------
@@ -781,6 +741,10 @@ def test_releasing_a_board_RESETS_its_ttl_clock(tmp_path):
(kept / KEEP_MARKER).unlink()
# Unlinking the sentinel by hand, which is what this test is about: the
# directory-entry change is what moves the clock. Releasing through the
# ROUTE now also records a view, so the behaviour is stated rather than
# incidental — `test_releasing_a_board_RECORDS_A_VIEW` in test_lifetime.py.
assert booth_age_seconds(kept) < 60, "unlink bumped the dir mtime"
assert sweep_once(tmp_path, ttl_seconds=3600) == [], "so it is NOT swept yet"
assert kept.exists()
tests/test_embed.py
+438
View File
@@ -0,0 +1,438 @@
"""U3 — the declared embed seam, server side.
The Booth used to reach into a verbatim report with ten regular expressions: six
to find somewhere to hang a favicon and a chip, four to substitute rendered ask
markup into the author's own tags. This unit replaces all of it with a seam the
page declares:
<script src="/_booth/embed.js" defer></script>
What is tested here is the SERVER half — the payload that crosses the seam, the
one static asset, and the single conditional append that is now the only thing
the Booth does to author HTML. The half that mounts fragments into a live DOM
lives in tests/test_embed_browser.py, because no amount of string assertion can
see whether a form actually submits.
Contract: docs/contracts/u3_declared_embed_seam.contract.md
"""
import json
import os
import time
import pytest
from fastapi.testclient import TestClient
from booth.app import EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG, EMBED_SRC, create_app
from booth.marks import answer_pick, declare_pick, set_flag, write_note
DECLARED = f'<!doctype html><title>r</title><body>hi<script src="{EMBED_SRC}" defer></script></body>'
@pytest.fixture
def client(tmp_path):
app = create_app(tmp_path, ttl_hours=24, start_sweeper=False)
return TestClient(app), tmp_path
def _pick(booth, stem="winner", **kw):
doc = {"prompt": "Which render wins?", "options": ["A — baseline", "B — async"]}
doc.update(kw)
booth.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
declare_pick(booth, stem, doc)
return booth
def _multi(booth, stem="batch"):
booth.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
declare_pick(booth, stem, {"title": "Round one", "questions": [
{"key": "r1", "prompt": "First?", "options": ["a", "b"]},
{"key": "r2", "prompt": "Second?", "options": ["a", "b"]},
]})
return booth
# ---- slice 1: the payload ----------------------------------------------------
def test_embed_payload_carries_a_fragment_for_every_shape(client):
c, data = client
_multi(data / "b")
body = c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()
assert body["booth"] == "b"
assert "home" not in body, "a value nothing reads is a second copy waiting to drift"
assert body["favicon"].startswith("data:image/svg+xml,")
(m,) = body["marks"]
assert m["id"] == "batch" and m["error"] is None
assert "First?" in m["whole"] and "Second?" in m["whole"]
assert 'action="/b/b/answer"' in m["submit"]
assert [q["key"] for q in m["questions"]] == ["r1", "r2"] # declaration order
assert "First?" in m["questions"][0]["html"]
assert 'type="radio"' in m["questions"][0]["html"]
def test_a_single_question_pick_has_one_question_with_a_null_key(client):
"""SR-2. `normalize_ask` gives a single-question ask `key: None`, so the
payload cannot key questions by name — JSON would write that as "null" and
invent a name. Every one-question ask in the fleet hits this."""
c, data = client
_pick(data / "b")
(m,) = c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["marks"]
assert [q["key"] for q in m["questions"]] == [None]
assert "Which render wins?" in m["questions"][0]["html"]
def test_marks_are_ordered_by_creation_before_id(client):
"""`created` LEADS. The fixture makes creation order and alphabetical order
disagree, because a fixture where they agree cannot tell the stated rule
from a plain id sort — which is what the first version of this test did, and
what a panel caught by reading the fixture rather than the assertion."""
c, data = client
b = _pick(data / "b", "zebra")
_pick(b, "alpha")
raw = json.loads((b / ".marks.json").read_text())
stamps = {"zebra": "2026-09-22T10:00:00.000000-07:00", # first
"alpha": "2026-09-22T11:00:00.000000-07:00"} # second
for e in raw["marks"]:
e["created"] = stamps[e["id"]]
(b / ".marks.json").write_text(json.dumps(raw))
assert [m["id"] for m in c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["marks"]] == ["zebra", "alpha"]
def test_the_id_is_only_the_tie_break(client):
"""And with `created` equal, the id decides — so two marks written in the
same second cannot swap between renders."""
c, data = client
b = _pick(data / "b", "zebra")
_pick(b, "alpha")
raw = json.loads((b / ".marks.json").read_text())
for e in raw["marks"]:
e["created"] = "2026-09-22T10:00:00.000000-07:00"
(b / ".marks.json").write_text(json.dumps(raw))
assert [m["id"] for m in c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["marks"]] == ["alpha", "zebra"]
def test_open_is_computed_by_the_server_not_the_page(client):
"""INV-4. The chip count follows `open_marks`, which is the ONE openness
predicate — a half-answered multi-question pick is still open."""
c, data = client
b = _multi(data / "b")
assert c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["open"] == ["batch"]
answer_pick(b, "batch", {"r1": "a"})
assert c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["open"] == ["batch"] # partial is OPEN
answer_pick(b, "batch", {"r1": "a", "r2": "b"})
assert c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["open"] == []
def test_the_payload_carries_picks_only(client):
"""SR-4. Notes and flags never reach it, which is also what keeps a flag's
`flag:<target>` id — the one mark id containing the anchor separator — out
of a payload whose specs split on the first colon."""
c, data = client
b = _pick(data / "b")
(b / "shot.png").write_bytes(b"x")
write_note(b, None, "a remark")
set_flag(b, "shot.png", True)
assert [m["id"] for m in c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["marks"]] == ["winner"]
def test_a_damaged_marks_file_does_not_500_the_report(client):
c, data = client
b = _pick(data / "b")
(b / ".marks.json").write_text("{not json")
r = c.get("/b/b/embed.json")
assert r.status_code == 200
assert r.json()["marks"] == [] and r.json()["error"]
def test_a_broken_pick_offers_whole_and_nothing_else(client):
c, data = client
b = _pick(data / "b")
raw = json.loads((b / ".marks.json").read_text())
raw["marks"][0]["declaration"] = {"prompt": "p"} # no options -> AskError
(b / ".marks.json").write_text(json.dumps(raw))
(m,) = c.get("/b/b/embed.json").json()["marks"]
assert m["error"] and m["questions"] == [] and m["submit"] == ""
assert "broken ask" in m["whole"]
def test_the_payload_does_not_record_a_view(client):
"""`booth_view` already recorded the look, above both of its early returns.
A script's fetch of the page it is already on must not count a second time
or reset the TTL on machinery instead of on the operator."""
c, data = client
b = _pick(data / "b")
(b / "index.html").write_text(DECLARED)
c.get("/b/b/")
before = os.stat(b / ".viewed").st_mtime_ns
time.sleep(0.01)
c.get("/b/b/embed.json")
assert os.stat(b / ".viewed").st_mtime_ns == before
def test_embed_payload_404s_for_an_unknown_booth(client):
c, _ = client
assert c.get("/b/nope/embed.json").status_code == 404
# ---- slice 2: the one static asset -------------------------------------------
def test_embed_js_is_served_as_javascript(client):
c, _ = client
r = c.get(EMBED_SRC)
assert r.status_code == 200
assert r.headers["content-type"].startswith("text/javascript")
assert "data-booth-mark" in r.text
def test_embed_js_does_not_hot_reload_from_disk(tmp_path):
"""INV-5, and the 2026-09-21 lesson restated. A live asset editable under a
running process is how 19 of 25 booths hit 500 with the Python from 22:03
and the templates from 23:40. One rule in this repo: nothing takes effect
until you restart."""
import pathlib
import booth.app as app_mod
src = pathlib.Path(app_mod.__file__).parent / "static" / "embed.js"
original = src.read_text()
app = create_app(tmp_path, ttl_hours=24, start_sweeper=False)
c = TestClient(app)
try:
# Poisoned BEFORE the first request, not between two of them. The
# earlier shape passed for a route that read the file lazily and cached
# on first use — which is not "read once at startup", and is exactly the
# staleness this invariant exists to forbid.
src.write_text("/* POISONED */\n")
first = c.get(EMBED_SRC).text
assert "POISONED" not in first, "embed.js is read at request time, not at startup"
assert first == original
assert c.get(EMBED_SRC).text == first
finally:
src.write_text(original)
# ---- slice 3: what the Booth does to author HTML -----------------------------
def test_declaring_page_is_served_untouched(client):
"""INV-1. Whole-body equality, not a substring absence: the promise is that
NOTHING is added, and an absence assertion cannot tell a clean page from one
carrying something nobody thought to look for."""
c, data = client
b = _pick(data / "b")
(b / "index.html").write_text(DECLARED)
assert c.get("/b/b/").text == DECLARED
def test_undeclared_page_gains_only_the_tag(client):
"""INV-2. Appended, so the source is a strict prefix — nothing is inserted,
nothing is prepended, and neither the doctype nor the charset window moves."""
c, data = client
b = _pick(data / "b")
src = "<!doctype html><meta charset=utf-8><title>r</title><h1>REPORT</h1>"
(b / "index.html").write_text(src)
out = c.get("/b/b/").text
# The literal, not just the constant: `out == src + EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG` also
# holds when EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG is the empty string, which is a mutation this
# test exists to catch. A panel found it by reading the assertion, not the
# code.
assert out == src + '<script src="/_booth/embed.js" defer></script>'
assert out == src + EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG
assert len(out) > len(src)
assert out.lower().lstrip().startswith("<!doctype")
assert out.index("charset") < 1024
def test_a_booth_with_no_marks_still_gets_the_seam(client):
"""The seam carries the way home and the icon too, so it is not conditional
on there being an ask — the old chip was not either."""
c, data = client
(data / "b").mkdir()
(data / "b" / "index.html").write_text("<h1>bare fragment</h1>")
assert c.get("/b/b/").text == "<h1>bare fragment</h1>" + EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG
def test_a_declaring_page_is_served_BYTE_for_byte(client):
"""INV-1, at the level the promise is actually made.
The first version read the file with `read_text()`, which opens in
universal-newline mode: a report written with CRLF came back with LF, and
`errors="replace"` turned any non-UTF-8 byte into U+FFFD. A declaring page
was NOT served as its author wrote it — the headline promise — and the
original test could not see it, because its fixture was LF-only ASCII.
Found by a cross-frontier bug-hunt panel.
"""
c, data = client
b = _pick(data / "b")
src = (b'<!doctype html>\r\n<title>r</title>\r\n<body>caf\xe9 \xff\r\n'
b'<script src="/_booth/embed.js" defer></script>\r\n</body>')
(b / "index.html").write_bytes(src)
r = c.get("/b/b/")
assert r.content == src, "the operator's document was edited on the way out"
assert b"\r\n" in r.content and b"\xff" in r.content
def test_an_undeclared_page_keeps_every_byte_and_gains_the_tag(client):
"""INV-2, same level: the source is a BYTE-exact prefix of the response."""
c, data = client
b = _pick(data / "b")
src = b'<!doctype html>\r\n<title>r</title>\r\n<body>caf\xe9 \xff\r\n</body>'
(b / "index.html").write_bytes(src)
r = c.get("/b/b/")
assert r.content == src + EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG.encode("utf-8")
assert r.content.startswith(src)
def test_a_wrongly_shaped_answer_costs_its_pick_not_the_report(client):
"""`marks_for` hydrates `{"answer": {"answers": []}}` with no error — the
JSON is well formed, the SHAPE is not — and the template then asks a list
for `.get`. This endpoint renders every pick on every load of the operator's
report, so an unguarded raise here is the whole seam gone while `hold_read`
calls the file perfectly readable. Verified reachable, not assumed."""
c, data = client
b = data / "b"
b.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
declare_pick(b, "batch", {"title": "T", "questions": [
{"key": "r1", "prompt": "A?", "options": ["x", "y"]},
{"key": "r2", "prompt": "B?", "options": ["x", "y"]}]})
_pick(b, "healthy")
raw = json.loads((b / ".marks.json").read_text())
for e in raw["marks"]:
if e["id"] == "batch":
e["answer"] = {"answers": [], "notes": ""}
(b / ".marks.json").write_text(json.dumps(raw))
(b / "index.html").write_text(DECLARED)
r = c.get("/b/b/embed.json")
assert r.status_code == 200
by = {m["id"]: m for m in r.json()["marks"]}
assert by["batch"]["error"] and "could not be rendered" in by["batch"]["error"]
assert "broken ask" in by["batch"]["whole"]
# and the booth's other pick is untouched — one bad entry costs one entry
assert by["healthy"]["error"] is None
assert "Which render wins?" in by["healthy"]["whole"]
assert c.get("/b/b/").status_code == 200
# ⚠ THE GALLERY AND MARKS PAGES STILL 500 ON THIS ENTRY, and that is NOT
# U3's doing — measured at 42ea67f, the commit before this unit. They render
# the same macro without this guard. Out of scope here (the gallery is named
# out of scope in the contract) and recorded rather than quietly widened:
# see persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-a-wrong-shaped-answer-500s-the-gallery.md
def test_no_regex_touches_author_html():
"""INV-3, and the version that actually falsifies it.
The first draft of this test name-matched the six deleted patterns. A cold
panel pointed out — correctly, and on the contract's CENTRAL promise — that
reintroducing the same regex under a new name (`_TAIL_RE`, applied in the
verbatim branch) would leave it green. A test that guards names does not
guard behaviour, and this repo's own vacuity pass missed it because the
mutation it tried was the named one.
So: `booth/app.py` is allowed EXACTLY ONE regex operation, and it is
`ask_form_id`'s `re.sub` over a mark id — not over a page. Any other regex
anywhere in the module fails here, whatever it is called. If a future
change genuinely needs one, the failure is the conversation: say which
string it reads and why it is not author HTML.
"""
import ast
import pathlib
import booth.app as app_mod
root = pathlib.Path(app_mod.__file__).parent
assert not (root / "inline.py").exists(), "booth/inline.py survived U3"
tree = ast.parse((root / "app.py").read_text())
# every node -> the function it sits in, so a finding names its site
site = {}
for node in ast.walk(tree):
if isinstance(node, (ast.FunctionDef, ast.AsyncFunctionDef)):
for child in ast.walk(node):
site.setdefault(child, node.name)
# `re` reaches this module ONE way: a plain module-level `import re`. An
# alias (`import re as _r`) or a direct name import (`from re import sub`)
# would route around the call check below under a name it does not know —
# found by re-running the vacuity pass against the FIXED test, which is the
# only reason it is here and is the argument for running that pass on a fix
# and not only on a draft.
for node in ast.walk(tree):
if isinstance(node, ast.Import):
for a in node.names:
assert not (a.name == "re" and a.asname), f"`re` aliased as {a.asname}"
elif isinstance(node, ast.ImportFrom):
assert node.module != "re", f"names imported from re: {[a.name for a in node.names]}"
METHODS = {"search", "sub", "subn", "match", "fullmatch", "finditer",
"findall", "split", "compile", "escape"}
found = []
for node in ast.walk(tree):
if not (isinstance(node, ast.Call) and isinstance(node.func, ast.Attribute)):
continue
f = node.func
on_re = isinstance(f.value, ast.Name) and f.value.id == "re"
on_pattern = (isinstance(f.value, ast.Name) and f.value.id.endswith("_RE")
and f.attr in METHODS)
if on_re or on_pattern:
found.append((site.get(node, "<module level>"), f.attr))
assert found == [("ask_form_id", "sub")], (
f"booth/app.py performs regex operations outside ask_form_id: {found}"
)
# the six named patterns and the chips are gone, and stay gone
assigned = {
t.id
for node in ast.walk(tree)
if isinstance(node, ast.Assign)
for t in node.targets
if isinstance(t, ast.Name)
}
gone = {"_ICON_RE", "_HEAD_CLOSE_RE", "_HTML_OPEN_RE", "_DOCTYPE_RE",
"_BODY_CLOSE_RE", "_HTML_CLOSE_RE", "_BACK_CHIP", "FAVICON_LINK"}
assert not (assigned & gone), f"deleted names are back: {sorted(assigned & gone)}"
funcs = {n.name for n in ast.walk(tree) if isinstance(n, ast.FunctionDef)}
assert not ({"wrap_verbatim_html", "asks_chip", "inject_asks",
"_insert_before", "_insert_after"} & funcs)
def test_a_page_that_only_mentions_the_path_is_not_declaring_it(client):
"""A report that QUOTES the seam — a code sample, a comment, a sentence
about this very feature — is not declaring it, and the Booth's own design
reports are the pages most likely to do that. Read as declared, such a page
would be served untouched and show no chrome at all, silently.
The detection therefore fails the other way: an unrecognised spelling gets a
duplicate tag, and embed.js mounts once regardless.
"""
c, data = client
b = _pick(data / "b")
for body in (
"<!doctype html><body><p>add <code>/_booth/embed.js</code> to your report</p></body>",
"<!doctype html><body><!-- src=/_booth/embed.js --></body>",
'<!doctype html><body><script src="/_booth/embed.js?v=2"></script></body>',
):
(b / "index.html").write_text(body)
assert c.get("/b/b/").text == body + EMBED_SCRIPT_TAG, body
# and the real declaration, in either quote style, is honoured
for decl in (f'<script src="{EMBED_SRC}" defer></script>',
f"<script src='{EMBED_SRC}' defer></script>"):
body = f"<!doctype html><body>hi{decl}</body>"
(b / "index.html").write_text(body)
assert c.get("/b/b/").text == body
def test_an_oversize_verbatim_page_is_served_raw(client, monkeypatch):
"""WRAP_MAX_BYTES survives: a pathological file is still not pulled into
memory, and it loses its chrome exactly as it does today."""
import booth.app as app_mod
c, data = client
b = _pick(data / "b")
(b / "index.html").write_text("<h1>huge</h1>")
monkeypatch.setattr(app_mod, "WRAP_MAX_BYTES", 4)
assert c.get("/b/b/").text == "<h1>huge</h1>"
tests/test_embed_browser.py
+539
View File
@@ -0,0 +1,539 @@
"""U3 — the declared embed seam, in a real DOM.
The Python suite can prove what the server OFFERS. It cannot prove where a
fragment lands, whether the author's own markup survived the mount, or whether
four radio groups scattered down a report still submit as one POST — and that
last one is the operator's most important workflow. Before U3 those properties
were true by construction, because the server did the placing and the `form=`
bindings were static by the time the page was parsed. Now they are true because
`/_booth/embed.js` does it in a live document, which is a different kind of
claim and needs a different kind of test.
So: a real uvicorn on an ephemeral port, a real Chromium.
SKIPS, NEVER FAILS, when playwright or the shared browser is unavailable. The
box-wide store at /opt/ms-playwright pins specific Chromium revisions and a
playwright release that wants a newer one dies with an opaque "Executable
doesn't exist" — see pyproject's version bound. A test layer that goes red for
an environment reason teaches nothing and trains people to ignore it.
"""
import json
import socket
import threading
import time
import pytest
from booth.app import create_app
playwright_api = pytest.importorskip(
"playwright.sync_api", reason="playwright is not installed"
)
@pytest.fixture(scope="module")
def browser():
with playwright_api.sync_playwright() as pw:
try:
b = pw.chromium.launch()
except Exception as exc: # noqa: BLE001 - any launch failure is a skip
pytest.skip(f"no usable chromium: {exc}")
yield b
b.close()
@pytest.fixture
def live(tmp_path):
"""A real server, because a browser cannot talk to a TestClient."""
import uvicorn
sock = socket.socket()
sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
port = sock.getsockname()[1]
sock.close()
app = create_app(tmp_path, ttl_hours=24, start_sweeper=False)
config = uvicorn.Config(app, host="127.0.0.1", port=port, log_level="error")
server = uvicorn.Server(config)
thread = threading.Thread(target=server.run, daemon=True)
thread.start()
deadline = time.time() + 10
while not server.started and time.time() < deadline:
time.sleep(0.02)
if not server.started:
pytest.skip("uvicorn did not come up")
try:
yield f"http://127.0.0.1:{port}", tmp_path
finally:
server.should_exit = True
thread.join(timeout=10)
SEAM = '<script src="/_booth/embed.js" defer></script>'
def _multi(booth):
from booth.marks import declare_pick
booth.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
declare_pick(booth, "batch", {"title": "Round one", "questions": [
{"key": "r1", "prompt": "First?", "options": ["keep", "cut"]},
{"key": "r2", "prompt": "Second?", "options": ["keep", "cut"]},
]})
return booth
def _single(booth):
from booth.marks import declare_pick
booth.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
declare_pick(booth, "winner", {"prompt": "Which render wins?",
"options": ["A — baseline", "B — async"]})
return booth
def _open(browser, base, name, html, booth):
(booth / "index.html").write_text(html, encoding="utf-8")
page = browser.new_page()
page.goto(f"{base}/b/{name}/", wait_until="networkidle")
return page
def _answer(booth):
raw = json.loads((booth / ".marks.json").read_text())
return raw["marks"][0].get("answer")
# ---- the chrome --------------------------------------------------------------
def test_a_declaring_page_gets_its_chrome_mounted(browser, live):
base, data = live
b = _single(data / "b")
page = _open(browser, base, "b", f"<!doctype html><title>r</title><body><h1>R</h1>{SEAM}</body>", b)
page.wait_for_selector(".booth-nav-home")
assert page.locator("h1").inner_text() == "R" # the report is intact
assert page.locator(".booth-nav-home").get_attribute("href").endswith("/")
# the favicon question, asked of a parsed document instead of raw text
assert page.locator('link[rel="icon"]').count() == 1
page.close()
def test_a_page_that_never_declared_the_seam_still_mounts(browser, live):
"""The appended path: every verbatim booth that predates U3 keeps working
without its author touching it."""
base, data = live
b = _single(data / "b")
page = _open(browser, base, "b", "<!doctype html><body><h1>OLD</h1></body>", b)
page.wait_for_selector(".bk-ask")
assert page.locator("h1").inner_text() == "OLD"
assert page.locator(".booth-nav-home").count() == 1
page.close()
def test_a_page_that_declares_its_own_icon_keeps_it(browser, live):
base, data = live
b = _single(data / "b")
page = _open(
browser, base, "b",
f'<!doctype html><head><link rel="icon" href="data:image/png;base64,AAAA">'
f"</head><body>x{SEAM}</body>", b)
page.wait_for_selector(".booth-nav-home")
icons = page.locator('link[rel="icon"]')
assert icons.count() == 1
assert icons.get_attribute("href").startswith("data:image/png")
page.close()
# ---- placement ---------------------------------------------------------------
REPORT = f"""<!doctype html><title>audition</title><body>
<h1>Three voices</h1>
<section id="lawson"><audio src="a.wav"></audio>
<div data-booth-ask="batch:r1"></div></section>
<section id="jo"><audio src="b.wav"></audio>
<div data-booth-mark="batch:r2"></div></section>
<div data-booth-ask-submit="batch"></div>
{SEAM}
</body>"""
def test_each_question_lands_where_the_author_put_it(browser, live):
"""The 2026-09-09 ruling, enforced in the DOM: the question for a voice sits
under that voice, not on another page and not in a pile at the end. Both
attribute spellings, because live reports use the older one."""
base, data = live
b = _multi(data / "b")
page = _open(browser, base, "b", REPORT, b)
page.wait_for_selector("#lawson .bk-ask")
assert page.locator('#lawson input[name="choice.r1"]').count() == 2
assert page.locator('#jo input[name="choice.r2"]').count() == 2
# nothing spilled to the end of the body: every piece had an anchor
assert page.locator("body > .bk-ask").count() == 0
assert page.locator("form#bk-ask-form-batch").count() == 1
page.close()
def test_the_authors_wrapper_and_its_contents_survive_the_mount(browser, live):
"""The live `dfa-concepts` shape — a non-empty styled wrapper carrying the
anchor attribute. The regex this replaced matched the opening tag and
SUBSTITUTED it, eating the class and orphaning the heading. beforeend keeps
both and puts the radios under the heading, which is what the markup says."""
base, data = live
b = _multi(data / "b")
page = _open(browser, base, "b", (
'<!doctype html><body><div class="ask" data-booth-ask="batch:r1">'
f"<h3>The one asset that must survive</h3></div>{SEAM}</body>"), b)
page.wait_for_selector(".ask .bk-ask")
assert page.locator("div.ask").count() == 1 # class kept
assert page.locator(".ask h3").inner_text() == "The one asset that must survive"
assert page.locator('.ask input[name="choice.r1"]').count() == 2 # radios inside
page.close()
def test_an_unplaced_question_is_appended_and_so_is_its_submit(browser, live):
"""INV-7. A multi-question pick needs EVERY question on submit or the POST is
unanswerable: a question that never reaches the page cannot be picked, and
a submission with nothing picked at all is refused outright."""
base, data = live
b = _multi(data / "b")
page = _open(browser, base, "b",
f'<!doctype html><body><div data-booth-mark="batch:r1"></div>{SEAM}</body>', b)
# attached, not visible: the shared <form> is deliberately empty and so has
# no box — the controls that bind to it are what the operator sees.
page.wait_for_selector("form#bk-ask-form-batch", state="attached")
# BOTH halves. Asserting only the appended r2 let a mutation that silently
# swallowed the anchored r1 — while still recording it as placed — pass.
assert page.locator('input[name="choice.r1"]').count() == 2 # anchored, mounted
assert page.locator('input[name="choice.r2"]').count() == 2 # unplaced, appended
assert page.locator("form#bk-ask-form-batch").count() == 1 # submittable
page.close()
def test_a_page_with_no_anchors_gets_the_whole_ask(browser, live):
base, data = live
b = _multi(data / "b")
page = _open(browser, base, "b", f"<!doctype html><body><p>x</p>{SEAM}</body>", b)
page.wait_for_selector(".bk-ask")
assert page.locator('input[name="choice.r1"]').count() == 2
assert page.locator('input[name="choice.r2"]').count() == 2
page.close()
def test_an_anchor_naming_no_mark_is_left_alone(browser, live):
"""A typo'd id stays visible as the author's own empty element rather than
being blanked — and the real ask is still never lost."""
base, data = live
b = _multi(data / "b")
page = _open(browser, base, "b",
f'<!doctype html><body><div id="t" data-booth-mark="typo"></div>{SEAM}</body>', b)
page.wait_for_selector(".bk-ask")
assert page.locator("#t").inner_html().strip() == ""
assert page.locator('input[name="choice.r1"]').count() == 2
page.close()
def test_the_tail_follows_payload_order(browser, live):
"""INV-6. Creation order and alphabetical order DISAGREE here on purpose:
`winner` is created first, `batch` second, so payload order is
winner-then-batch while an id sort would give the reverse. The first version
of this fixture made the two identical, so sorting the tail alphabetically
in JavaScript passed it — caught by a panel reading the fixture."""
base, data = live
b = _single(data / "b")
_multi(b)
raw = json.loads((b / ".marks.json").read_text())
stamps = {"winner": "2026-09-22T10:00:00.000000-07:00", # first
"batch": "2026-09-22T11:00:00.000000-07:00"} # second
for e in raw["marks"]:
e["created"] = stamps[e["id"]]
(b / ".marks.json").write_text(json.dumps(raw))
page = _open(browser, base, "b", f"<!doctype html><body>{SEAM}</body>", b)
page.wait_for_selector(".bk-ask")
ids = page.eval_on_selector_all("[id^='bk-ask-']", "els => els.map(e => e.id)")
batch = [i for i, v in enumerate(ids) if "batch" in v]
winner = [i for i, v in enumerate(ids) if "winner" in v]
assert batch and winner, ids
# winner (created first) ahead of batch (created second) — the OPPOSITE of
# alphabetical, so an id sort cannot pass this.
assert max(winner) < min(batch), ids
page.close()
# ---- the one that actually matters ------------------------------------------
def test_a_form_scattered_down_the_report_submits_every_question(browser, live):
"""THE load-bearing browser test.
Four radio groups under four different artifacts, one <form> somewhere else
entirely, bound only by the HTML5 `form=` attribute — and now inserted into
a live document in visual order, which means a control can land before the
form it points at. If form-owner resolution does not survive that, the
operator fills the whole thing in and the button saves nothing.
It was true by construction before U3 (static HTML, resolved at parse). It
is true by measurement now. That is the trade this test pays for.
"""
base, data = live
b = _multi(data / "b")
page = _open(browser, base, "b", REPORT, b)
page.wait_for_selector("#lawson .bk-ask")
page.check('#lawson input[name="choice.r1"][value="keep"]')
page.check('#jo input[name="choice.r2"][value="cut"]')
with page.expect_navigation():
page.click("button.bk-ask-go")
ans = _answer(b)
assert ans is not None, "the scattered form submitted nothing"
assert ans["answers"]["r1"]["choice"] == "keep"
assert ans["answers"]["r2"]["choice"] == "cut", \
"a question bound by form= did not reach the POST"
assert ans["complete"] is True
page.close()
def test_the_chip_jumps_to_the_first_fragment_of_the_open_ask(browser, live):
base, data = live
b = _multi(data / "b")
page = _open(browser, base, "b", REPORT, b)
page.wait_for_selector(".booth-nav-asks")
chip = page.locator(".booth-nav-asks")
assert chip.inner_text() == "? 1 open ask"
target = chip.get_attribute("href")
# the EARLIEST match in document order, not merely a match: the report
# anchors r1 above r2 above the submit block, so any later one is wrong.
ids = page.eval_on_selector_all("[id^='bk-ask-batch']", "els => els.map(e => e.id)")
assert ids, "no batch fragment mounted"
assert target == "#" + ids[0], (target, ids)
page.close()
def test_an_anchor_named_like_an_object_property_does_not_kill_the_page(browser, live):
"""`toString` is a legal mark id (`asks.valid_stem`) and therefore a legal
thing for an author to typo into an anchor. Against a plain `{}` lookup it
came back as Object.prototype.toString — truthy, so it sailed past the
unknown-mark guard and threw on `.questions.length`, aborting placement
before the tail and costing the page EVERY ask. One typo, no chrome, no
error the operator would see. Found by a cross-frontier panel."""
base, data = live
b = _multi(data / "b")
page = _open(browser, base, "b", (
'<!doctype html><body><div id="t" data-booth-mark="toString"></div>'
f'<div id="v" data-booth-mark="valueOf:r1"></div>{SEAM}</body>'), b)
page.wait_for_selector(".bk-ask")
assert page.locator("#t").inner_html().strip() == "" # left alone
assert page.locator("#v").inner_html().strip() == "" # left alone
# and the real ask still mounted, which is what the bug destroyed
assert page.locator('input[name="choice.r1"]').count() == 2
assert page.locator('input[name="choice.r2"]').count() == 2
assert page.locator("form#bk-ask-form-batch").count() == 1
page.close()
def test_a_question_keyed_like_an_object_property_is_not_swallowed(browser, live):
"""The mirror of the same bug, on the `placed` set. `constructor` matches
`asks._KEY_RE`, and against a plain object an inherited `got.constructor`
read as ALREADY PLACED — so a question the author did not anchor was
silently dropped from the tail, which is INV-7's whole subject."""
from booth.marks import declare_pick
base, data = live
b = data / "b"
b.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
declare_pick(b, "batch", {"title": "Round one", "questions": [
{"key": "r1", "prompt": "First?", "options": ["keep", "cut"]},
{"key": "constructor", "prompt": "Second?", "options": ["keep", "cut"]},
]})
page = _open(browser, base, "b",
f'<!doctype html><body><div data-booth-mark="batch:r1"></div>{SEAM}</body>', b)
page.wait_for_selector("form#bk-ask-form-batch", state="attached")
assert page.locator('input[name="choice.r1"]').count() == 2
assert page.locator('input[name="choice.constructor"]').count() == 2, \
"an unplaced question was swallowed by an inherited property"
page.close()
def test_a_submit_anchor_inside_the_authors_own_form_still_submits(browser, live):
"""A submit anchor placed inside the author's own `<form>` loses ours: the
HTML parser drops a nested form element outright. The controls' `form=`
then points at nothing, the button does nothing, and the operator finds out
by filling the whole thing in. Found by a cross-frontier bug-hunt panel; the
fix is to count the anchor submitted only if the form actually survived, so
the tail supplies one at body level where no form encloses it."""
base, data = live
b = _multi(data / "b")
page = _open(browser, base, "b", (
'<!doctype html><body>'
'<div data-booth-mark="batch:r1"></div>'
'<div data-booth-mark="batch:r2"></div>'
'<form id="mine" action="/elsewhere">'
'<div data-booth-ask-submit="batch"></div></form>'
f"{SEAM}</body>"), b)
page.wait_for_selector("form#bk-ask-form-batch", state="attached")
assert page.locator("form#bk-ask-form-batch").count() == 1
page.check('input[name="choice.r1"][value="keep"]')
page.check('input[name="choice.r2"][value="cut"]')
with page.expect_navigation():
page.click("button.bk-ask-go")
ans = _answer(b)
assert ans is not None, "the button reached no form"
assert ans["answers"]["r1"]["choice"] == "keep"
assert ans["answers"]["r2"]["choice"] == "cut"
page.close()
def test_a_broken_pick_shows_its_diagnostic_even_from_a_submit_anchor(browser, live):
"""A broken pick has no submit block — its `submit` is empty and the
diagnostic lives in `whole`. Mounting that empty string and then recording
the pick as placed made the tail skip it, so the 'broken ask' box never
rendered at the one surface built to show it. A question the session
believes it posted has to be visible."""
base, data = live
b = _single(data / "b")
raw = json.loads((b / ".marks.json").read_text())
raw["marks"][0]["declaration"] = {"prompt": "p"} # no options -> AskError
(b / ".marks.json").write_text(json.dumps(raw))
page = _open(browser, base, "b",
f'<!doctype html><body><div id="s" data-booth-ask-submit="winner">'
f"</div>{SEAM}</body>", b)
page.wait_for_selector(".bk-ask")
assert page.locator("#s").inner_html().strip() == "" # anchor left alone
# inner_text() is the RENDERED text, and `.bk-ask-tag` is uppercased by CSS —
# so assert the diagnostic itself, which is the part that has to reach him.
shown = page.locator("body").inner_text()
assert "this question could not be read" in shown, shown
assert "options" in shown # the actual reason
page.close()
def test_an_author_element_cannot_hijack_the_chip(browser, live):
"""`<section id="bk-ask-winner-background">` satisfies any id-prefix rule,
hyphen boundary included. The chip therefore searches only the elements THIS
SCRIPT MOUNTED — the identity the deleted `bk-ask-<id>-top` anchor used to
guarantee — and takes the earliest of those in document order."""
base, data = live
b = _single(data / "b")
page = _open(browser, base, "b", (
'<!doctype html><body><section id="bk-ask-winner-background">notes</section>'
f"<p>report</p>{SEAM}</body>"), b)
page.wait_for_selector(".booth-nav-asks")
target = page.locator(".booth-nav-asks").get_attribute("href")
assert target != "#bk-ask-winner-background"
landed = page.locator(target)
assert landed.count() == 1
assert landed.evaluate("e => e.classList.contains('bk-ask')"), \
"the chip jumped to something the Booth did not mount"
page.close()
def test_the_chip_does_not_jump_to_a_mark_that_merely_shares_a_prefix(browser, live):
"""A SIBLING MARK's fragment must not take the chip, even when it is earlier
in the document. `batch2`'s id starts with `batch`, so the original
id-prefix rule could land on it; the mounted-elements rule cannot, because
the candidates are partitioned by mark.
⚠ The first version of this test put the sibling's fragment AFTER the open
mark's, so the right answer was also the first answer and pooling every
mark's elements passed it. The vacuity pass caught that; the fixture now
puts the sibling FIRST, which is the only arrangement that can tell the two
implementations apart.
"""
from booth.marks import declare_pick
base, data = live
b = _multi(data / "b") # `batch`, created first
declare_pick(b, "batch2", {"prompt": "Unrelated?", "options": ["x", "y"]})
# batch2 is anchored at the very top; batch is unanchored and so lands in
# the tail, at the END of the body. Document order is therefore batch2's
# fragments, then batch's.
page = _open(browser, base, "b", (
'<!doctype html><body><div data-booth-mark="batch2"></div>'
f"<p>report</p>{SEAM}</body>"), b)
page.wait_for_selector(".booth-nav-asks")
ids = page.eval_on_selector_all("[id^='bk-ask-']", "els => els.map(e => e.id)")
assert any("batch2" in i for i in ids) and any(
"batch2" not in i and "batch" in i for i in ids), ids
assert ids.index(next(i for i in ids if "batch2" in i)) < \
ids.index(next(i for i in ids if "batch2" not in i and "batch" in i)), \
f"fixture is wrong: the sibling must come FIRST, got {ids}"
# `open` is (created, id) -> batch before batch2, so the chip targets batch
target = page.locator(".booth-nav-asks").get_attribute("href")
assert "batch2" not in target, f"the chip landed on the sibling mark: {target}"
assert target.startswith("#bk-ask-batch")
assert page.locator(target).count() == 1
page.close()
def test_the_canonical_attribute_wins_when_both_are_present(browser, live):
"""`data-booth-mark` is canonical and `data-booth-ask` is the kept alias.
An element carrying both is not a case any live report has, but the
precedence has to be decided somewhere rather than by selector order."""
base, data = live
b = _multi(data / "b")
page = _open(browser, base, "b", (
'<!doctype html><body><div id="a" data-booth-mark="batch:r2" '
f'data-booth-ask="batch:r1"></div>{SEAM}</body>'), b)
page.wait_for_selector("#a .bk-ask")
assert page.locator('#a input[name="choice.r2"]').count() == 2 # canonical
assert page.locator('#a input[name="choice.r1"]').count() == 0 # alias ignored
# r1 was never placed, so INV-7 still puts it somewhere
assert page.locator('input[name="choice.r1"]').count() == 2
page.close()
def test_the_chip_count_comes_from_the_server(browser, live):
"""INV-4. A half-answered multi-question pick is STILL OPEN, and the page
does not get to have an opinion about that — `open_marks` decides."""
from booth.marks import answer_pick
base, data = live
b = _multi(data / "b")
answer_pick(b, "batch", {"r1": "keep"})
page = _open(browser, base, "b", REPORT, b)
page.wait_for_selector(".bk-ask")
assert page.locator(".booth-nav-asks").count() == 1
answer_pick(b, "batch", {"r1": "keep", "r2": "cut"})
page.reload(wait_until="networkidle")
page.wait_for_selector(".bk-ask")
assert page.locator(".booth-nav-asks").count() == 0
page.close()
def test_the_chip_follows_a_payload_that_disagrees_with_the_fragments(browser, live):
"""INV-4, and the version that actually falsifies it.
The test above uses honest fixtures, so a client that INFERRED openness from
the rendered fragments would pass it — the fragments and `open` always agree
when the server computes both. A panel pointed out that this never creates
the disagreement it claims to test.
So: intercept the response and make `open` lie. The fragments say fully
answered; the payload says two are open. The chip must follow the payload,
because the payload is the only thing that decides.
"""
import json as _json
from booth.marks import answer_pick
base, data = live
b = _multi(data / "b")
answer_pick(b, "batch", {"r1": "keep", "r2": "cut"}) # nothing is open
(b / "index.html").write_text(f"<!doctype html><body>{SEAM}</body>", encoding="utf-8")
def lie(route):
body = _json.loads(route.fetch().text())
assert body["open"] == [], "fixture is not answered; the lie would be true"
body["open"] = ["batch", "batch"]
route.fulfill(status=200, content_type="application/json",
body=_json.dumps(body))
page = browser.new_page()
page.route("**/embed.json", lie)
page.goto(f"{base}/b/b/", wait_until="networkidle")
page.wait_for_selector(".booth-nav-asks")
assert page.locator(".booth-nav-asks").inner_text() == "? 2 open asks"
page.close()
tests/test_lifetime.py
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