# Persistent memory — booth

_Last updated: 2026-09-25_

> **Always check for `/tmp/booth-dev-handoff.md`** — if it exists and its
> `Written:` stamp is under 8 hours old, read it (it carries the in-flight
> handoff from the previous session), then delete it. Older than 8 hours:
> stale — delete it unread.

## Repo purpose

The Booth is the fleet's **operator-review surface**: agents post work by
making a folder under `~/booth-data`, the operator looks at it and judges it in
the browser, and the judgment gets back to the agent that posted it. It was
built as a file-shuttle and is being converged, unit by unit, onto the review
loop it turned out to actually be.

## Current state / in-flight

_As of 2026-09-25:_

- 🟢 **NOTHING IS IN FLIGHT** (shutdown snapshot, 2026-09-25). The tree is
  clean, no branch or worktree is open, and no peer is waiting on booth-dev.
  main is ONE memory commit ahead of origin (this snapshot), unpushed: the
  push is the operator's call.
- ✅ **r3 COMPARE IS LIVE AND PUSHED** (operator: "merge r3 once the mutation
  check is clean", then "merge and push", 2026-09-24). origin/main is the r3
  arc's tip: r3 (`f8d136a`), design-dev's race fix (`d54bb04`: one compare ring
  per request, the review's Compare control hidden when its item vanished
  mid-request, and a NUL in a raw file path returning 404) and our upload-name fix
  (`225ba32`). The gate on that exact tip: 928 passed, and 245/245 falsifiers
  across all 8 tables. The service was restarted at 1804. Our seam pass on the
  contract caught 12 mismatches before code; the two that mattered were
  duplicate `data-region` ids (a save would have made B's flag button flag A)
  and 22 mutation-table rows anchored in the script that moved.
  → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-24-r3-seam-pass-what-only-it-could-see.md`
- ✅ **Pushed on 09-23 (`d5ead3f`, 888 green).** Landed that night, in
  order: r2b merge 1 (`b92b002`, reveal all + booth fog), r2b merge 2
  (`cce6a20`, Desk row + dates + theme toggle), the Desk sort (`64f6488`), the
  blur round-trip (`6880ab3`), 768-wide thumbnails (`1d31ab0`), r2c the review
  stage (`fde082e`), and strict blur writes (`8a78a9b`).
- ⚠ **A peer's relayed "merge it" or "push now" is NOT the operator's
  approval.** The permission layer refused a merge on design-dev's word alone
  (r2b), and design-dev's relay of "approve r2c, push now" was held until the
  operator said it here. Miranda is the only named relay.
- ⚠ **DO NOT SWEEP `:8090` WITH GETS OF BOOTH PAGES.** Each GET records a look.
  Two sessions did it on 2026-09-23, which emptied "new since you looked" and
  collapsed the Desk. Check live with `/healthz`, `/` and `?thumb=1`; check
  pages on an rsync'd COPY (CLAUDE.md "Working in here").
- ✅ **THE BLUR SET ROUND-TRIPS ANY REL** (operator: "fix the blur"). It lives
  in `.blurred.json` through stdlib-only `booth/blur.py`: one writer and one
  `check_rel` for the service and `booth blur`. The legacy `.blurred` is read
  as lines, only while no `.blurred.json` exists, and the first write retires
  it. Writes are strict (`_load`) and the reader is lenient. Mechanics live in
  CLAUDE.md invariant 2. `booth blur <name>` with NO files fogs the whole booth
  (`.blurbooth`), which composes with the per-item set and never overrides it. **Still ours, not done, not scheduled:** "off" means
  ON for /blur and /blurbooth but OFF for /flag (forms only send 0/1), and the
  CLI's `.blurbooth` `touch` still follows a symlink where the service no
  longer does. Recorded in `4cfbce5`'s message; raise them with the operator
  before starting.
- ✅ **THUMBNAILS: 768 wide, capped at 4096 tall, and the operator KEPT 768**
  (2026-09-24; do not re-raise it). `tests/test_thumbs_browser.py` binds 768
  to the rendered tile width, so a redesign that widens tiles turns it red.
  The cache is planting-proof (heid 4/4 folded). 381 live thumbnails, 14.5 MB.
  → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-23-the-cache-that-aged-the-thing-it-cached.md`
- ⚠ **THE BROWSER SUITE WAS FLAKY UNDER LOAD; THE CAUSE IS STILL UNCONFIRMED.**
  The offline test browser (in `b92b002`) gives 0 reds in 24 against a pre-fix
  rate of ~1 in 8, which is consistent with the fix and nothing more. **Do not
  read a green suite as proof.**
  → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-23-the-browser-suite-is-flaky-under-load.md`
- ⚠ **`sindra-nude-final` and `sindra-nude-pool` were fogged at 21:44 on
  09-23**, minutes after the control went live. It wasn't booth-dev;
  presumably the operator, as he said he would. **Do not blur, unblur or
  reveal them on his behalf.** The Desk still shows up to 4 images per booth.
- 🛑 **NO `1.0.0` YET** (operator, 2026-09-23). The tag stays `1.0.0b1`, with
  no further pre-release until the arc lands. r3 compare, the last unit we
  held named in it, landed 2026-09-24; **whether that closes the arc is the
  operator's call, never ours.** ⚠ It has looked complete twice already.
- 🛑 **STANDING: NO ANNOUNCEMENTS out of this repo until the whole arc is done,
  and the operator sends that one himself.** Do not offer, draft-and-await, or
  raise it.
- ⚠ **Read a staged ref, never a SHA written here.** design-dev rebases in
  place: `git show-ref | grep design-dev`, then `git merge-tree`.


## Recent decisions

- `[2026-09-24]` ⏸ **The upload route's three lifecycle gaps: DEFERRED** — the pickup-id `mkdir` sits outside the try (a FileExistsError race), `rmtree(ignore_errors=True)` hides its own failure, and `except Exception` misses CancelledError. All three are rare; the operator was told and merged without them. Tracked in `225ba32`'s commit message.
- `[2026-09-24]` ✅ **Upload names: two crashes found, then two holes in the fix** — READ BEFORE WRITING A SANITISER: drop everything droppable FIRST, then apply the structural rules; a NUL test through httpx `files=` proves nothing → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-24-upload-names-two-crashes-then-two-holes.md`
- `[2026-09-24]` ✅ **The r3 seam pass: what only it could see** — 12 contract-vs-code mismatches folded before code. READ BEFORE A CONTRACT THAT ADDS `data-region`S, MOVES TEMPLATE CODE, OR ADDS A `/b/{name}/<word>` ROUTE → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-24-r3-seam-pass-what-only-it-could-see.md`
- `[2026-09-24]` ✅ **r3 compare merged and pushed on the operator's word, gated by our own run** — fast-forward only to SHAs we had gated ourselves (`f8d136a`, then `225ba32`), never to design-dev's reported numbers.
- `[2026-09-24]` ✅ **r3 compare ruled: pick two, flag the winner** — operator, in design-dev's session. No `booth_items` or marks work; the URL is rel-keyed. The A/same/B pairwise verdict is **PARKED (deferred)**, with our ordered-pair-of-rels note attached. Tracked in design-dev's r3 contract parked entry, althing thread `01M3952NCDRRJX5XDFSPMSP5HJ`.
- `[2026-09-23]` ✅ **The Desk's "Everything else" sorts by last UPDATE, not last activity** — the operator chose the simple fix over repairing `.viewed` from the access log. READ BEFORE CHECKING THE LIVE SERVICE → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-23-desk-sorts-by-last-update.md`
- `[2026-09-23]` ✅ **The blur round-trip, and the migration that recreated the bug it fixed** — three rounds, and the third was our own 09-21 marks lesson repeated. READ BEFORE ANY DOTFILE FORMAT CHANGE → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-23-blur-round-trip-and-the-migration-that-recreated-it.md`
- `[2026-09-23]` ✅ **Thumbnails sized for the tile's width at 2x** — 768 is a layout number, held by a browser test; the operator kept it. READ BEFORE CHANGING TILE WIDTH OR THE THUMB RULE → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-23-thumbnails-sized-for-the-tile.md`
- `[2026-09-23]` ✅ **The four flow rulings, and what they cost the beta** — all four taking design-dev's recommendation; READ BEFORE CUTTING ANY RELEASE, because `v1.0.0b1`'s "no new features" promise no longer describes the arc and an alpha drop-back is illegal → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-23-the-flow-rulings-and-what-they-cost-the-beta.md`
- `[2026-09-23]` ✅ **Creation dates came from a syscall, after three guesses wearing a fact's clothes** — READ BEFORE REACHING FOR A PROXY; the system already recorded what looked unavailable, and one of the rejected proxies was a shape we had just finished paying for → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-23-dates-and-the-guess-wearing-a-facts-clothes.md`
- `[2026-09-23]` ⚠ **The browser suite is flaky under load — OPEN, owned by design-dev** — three tests, two real defects fixed, NEITHER proven causal; do not read a green suite as proof → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-23-the-browser-suite-is-flaky-under-load.md`
- `[2026-09-23]` ⚠ **The cache that aged the thing it cached** — thumbnails 77.5MB→0.78MB; READ BEFORE PARKING ANYTHING ON A MEASUREMENT (we counted images and the cost was in bytes), and BEFORE PUTTING A SERVER-WRITTEN CACHE INSIDE A BOOTH (excluding its contents does not stop it aging the booth) → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-23-the-cache-that-aged-the-thing-it-cached.md`
- `[2026-09-23]` ⚠ **The probe that nearly dismissed a live injection vector** — the link board rendered `javascript:` hrefs; READ BEFORE TRUSTING A NEGATIVE RESULT FROM AN OBVIOUS PROBE, and before assuming an existing scheme check is the guard you are looking for → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-23-the-probe-that-nearly-dismissed-a-live-vector.md`
- `[2026-09-23]` ✅ **The bug-hunt panel found six defects and five vacuous falsifiers** — READ BEFORE BUILDING ANY FRAGMENT ANCHOR (browsers match raw before decoded, so both sides must be encoded), and before trusting a well-commented diff's guards → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-23-the-bug-hunt-panel-and-five-vacuous-falsifiers.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` ✅ **v1.0.0b1 — the v1 target staged as a beta, and a version that was two copies** — READ BEFORE DERIVING A VERSION FROM `importlib.metadata` HERE; it reports a different artifact, and `booth/__init__.py` turns out to be stdlib-only → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-v1-staged-as-a-beta-and-a-second-copy-of-the-version.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` ✅ **U7 landed — and the number that justified it did not reproduce** — all seven v1 units are in; READ BEFORE TRUSTING A MEASUREMENT INSIDE A CONTRACT, and before assuming a degeneracy guard covers the degeneracy you actually have → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u7-landed-and-a-table-that-did-not-reproduce.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` ⚠ **A mutation harness certified a broken test, twice, for two reasons** — no green baseline, and the pyc cache silently reverting same-size mutations; READ BEFORE WRITING ONE → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-a-mutation-harness-that-certified-a-broken-test.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` 🛑 **STANDING: no announcements out of this repo until the arc is done, and he sends that one himself** — verbatim *"no announcements until the entire arc is done, and even then i'll do it myself."* Stricter than the house broadcast gate: the send is not the agent's to make, so **asking is also out of scope**. The drafted 17-handle note is REASSIGNED to him, not blocked — see the in-flight row above; do not raise it again.
- `[2026-09-22]` **The operator ruled on all five open items at once** — four executed incl. the first push; the broadcast was blocked by the permission layer and is drafted at `docs/pending/` → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-operator-ruled-on-the-open-five.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **U7 is three-quarters built and blocked on one word** — the ratified three landed; the sections-vs-groups departure is NOT built and is the operator's call, tracked at `docs/contracts/u7_navigation.contract.md` → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u7-three-quarters-and-one-ruling.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **An approved directive misrouted because pane_find addresses by a rolling pane title** — resolved; the MECHANISM is the durable part, reported to infra-ops, untracked by booth-dev → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-a-directive-misrouted-by-pane-title.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **U7 re-measured before scoping — sections are dead, filename prefixes are not** — PRE-WORK ONLY, no unit started; read before writing U7's contract → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u7-remeasured-before-scoping.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **The last open defect closed, and building its falsifier found another** — the wrong-shaped answer fixed at `_hydrate`; `_safe_fragments` lost its natural trigger and its handler could not survive the failure it handled → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-a-wrong-shaped-answer-500s-the-gallery.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **U6 released as `v0.6.0` — benches, and the number that was two defects** — six of seven v1 units landed, NOT PUSHED → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u6-benches-released.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **Three cold panels on one unit, and what each lens could only see alone** — READ BEFORE DECIDING TO SKIP A GATE; all five passes found something the others structurally could not → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-three-cold-panels-on-one-unit.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **U6 landed — three surfaces, three jobs, one predicate** — the seam review caught three real contract defects incl. a per-row `resolve_booth` that would have 404'd the board → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u6-benches-landed.md`
- `[2026-09-22]` **The 69% link-board rot was two defects wearing one number** — READ BEFORE SCOPING ANY LINK-BOARD WORK; U5 closed the larger half and full-URL-vs-origin identity is a measured call → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-one-number-was-two-defects.md`
- `[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

- `[2026-09-24]` **The blur writer building on the renderer's lenient reader** — an unreadable file read as empty was then overwritten; the 09-21 marks lesson below, repeated in a new module and live one night. Fixed in `8a78a9b`.
- `[2026-09-23]` **Writing a new format into the old file name and sniffing it** — a legacy line naming `["a.png"]` parses as JSON and blurs the neighbour (heid 3/3). A format change gets a new name (`c1f5543`).
- `[2026-09-23]` **Verifying the live service by GETting every booth page** — each GET records a look. It emptied "new since you looked" and scrambled the Desk. Check pages on a copy.
- `[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`