# Persistent memory — booth

_Last updated: 2026-09-22_

> **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 2026-09-22:_

- **U6 SHIPPED (`v0.6.0`) with a late fix (`v0.6.1`). PUSHED.** `main` and both
  tags are on `origin` as of 2026-09-22 — the tree is no longer single-copy.
  ⚠ **That "PUSHED" was already stale when written**: `2f85692` (the
  no-announcements ruling) landed after it and sat unpushed until 2026-09-22
  night. **Do not trust a "pushed" row — run `git rev-list --count
  origin/main..HEAD`.** A push is a point in time; this file is not.
  → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u6-benches-released.md`
- **THE OPERATOR RULED ON EVERYTHING OUTSTANDING (2026-09-22, "accept all
  recs").** Four of five settled and executed; one blocked by the permission
  layer. Nothing is waiting on him. →
  `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-operator-ruled-on-the-open-five.md`
- ✅ **U7 IS LANDED — ALL SEVEN v1 UNITS ARE IN.** The fourth component
  (filename-prefix groups) is built; `test_no_group_rail_is_shipped_yet` was
  deleted in the same commit, as required.
  → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u7-landed-and-a-table-that-did-not-reproduce.md`
- ✅ **RELEASED `v1.0.0b1` — the first 1.x release, staged as a BETA** (operator,
  2026-09-22: "cut 1.0 beta 1"). Feature-complete, no new features, remaining
  work is bugs. `1.0.0` final is cut when the beta survives.
  **PUSHED — `main` and the annotated tag are on `origin`; ahead 0, behind 0.**
  → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-v1-staged-as-a-beta-and-a-second-copy-of-the-version.md`
- ⚠ **`booth/__init__.py` IS A FOURTH STDLIB-ONLY MODULE** and nothing said so
  until now — `scripts/booth` executes it before every one of the documented
  three. Now covered by `test_stdlib_only`. Same detail file carries why
  `importlib.metadata` is the WRONG version source in this repo.
- 🔶 **SVOS CONCEPT ROUND IS UP AND THREE RULINGS ARE WITH THE OPERATOR**
  (booth `booth-svos-retheme`, ask id `svos`: ship / voice / emblem, all three
  with design-dev's recommendation attached). **Nothing from us gates it and
  the branch must NOT be merged until he pings after the rulings.**
  Branch `refs/heads/design-dev/svos-retheme` @ `878ed86` is fetched into this
  repo as an **inert ref** — verified: nothing checked out, `main` clean,
  `git merge-tree` against `33e7149` clean, merged tree 649 green.
- 🔶 **THE FIXUP HOLD IS PARTIAL, NOT BLANKET.** `booth/templates/booth.html`
  is **RELEASED** — design-dev does not touch it, so bug-hunt findings there
  land immediately. **HELD** while his branch is out: `base.html`, `view.html`,
  `doc.html`, `embed.js`, and `app.py`'s `FAVICON_HREF`.
- ⚠ **A REAL LATENT CSS DEFECT, FOUND BY design-dev, ASSIGNED TO HIS REWRITE.**
  `base.html` reads `--line` / `--bg` / `--fg` / `--muted` and **defines none of
  them**; 15 of those uses carry no fallback (lines 281-314). `border:1px solid
  var(--line)` with the var undefined is invalid at computed-value time, so the
  WHOLE border declaration drops — the keep/blur/reveal buttons have had no
  border and a transparent background. The U7 rail above them reads the same
  names WITH fallbacks, which is why the rail looks deliberate and the buttons
  never did. **Do not fix on `main`** — it is the one file he is rewriting.
- ⚠ **A `postbox send` note is a point-in-time snapshot, NOT a durable fact.**
  The send said `design-dev: pull-only`; `postbox handles` says `push
  reachable`, and he replied in-session. Read the mode from `postbox handles`.
- ⚠ **U7'S CONTRACT CARRIED A MEASUREMENT THAT DID NOT REPRODUCE**, and it was
  the number the scope departure rested on. The stated rule gives 24 and 27
  groups where the table claimed 5 and 1; the table was assembled from two
  different heuristics. **A cold contract-review panel cannot catch this** — the
  artifact is internally plausible. Re-run any measurement a contract's scope
  rests on before implementing it. Same detail file.
- ⚠ **A MUTATION HARNESS NEEDS A GREEN BASELINE AND CACHE DEFEAT**, or it
  certifies falsifiers without running them. Both defects bit in one session.
  → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-a-mutation-harness-that-certified-a-broken-test.md`
- **648 tests green; 12/12 U7 falsifiers mutation-proved. Deployed; 21/21
  booths 200.** ⚠ The set churned again mid-session (19 → 21).
- ✅ **THE MUTATION HARNESS IS NOW `scripts/mutation_check.py`** (operator,
  2026-09-22: "keep the harness"). Tables in `tests/mutations/*.toml`, one per
  unit — **add a unit by adding a file, never by editing the script.** It has
  its own positive and negative controls in `tests/test_mutation_check.py`,
  including a known-vacuous falsifier it must catch. **When you write a
  `*Falsifiable:*` line, add its row and run it** — a falsifier nobody has run
  is a claim, not a test.
- 🔶 **A bug-hunt panel is IN FLIGHT** — heid thread `01M368G2Y0JMTJ2T7M3JMTXV5Z`,
  dispatched 2026-09-22 21:31 PDT over the U7-groups diff. If its reply has not
  been consumed, drain `/althing:inbox` and triage before treating U7 as closed.
- 🛑 **STANDING RULING — NO ANNOUNCEMENTS OUT OF THIS REPO, AND THE OPERATOR
  SENDS THE EVENTUAL ONE HIMSELF** (operator, 2026-09-22). Verbatim: *"no
  announcements until the entire arc is done, and even then i'll do it myself."*
  Two clauses, both binding: **(a)** no althing announcement of any kind ships
  from booth-dev until the v1 arc is COMPLETE — not per-unit, not at the 1.0
  tag, not "just the peers who consume it"; **(b)** when the arc IS done, the
  announcement is HIS to send, not a thing to ask permission for. This is
  STRICTER than `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md`'s broadcast gate, which merely requires
  approval — here the send is not the agent's to make at all, so *asking* is
  also out of scope. Do not offer, draft-and-await, or surface it as a pending
  decision; it is settled and not a standing question.
  **The 17-handle `booth link` note is consequently REASSIGNED, not blocked.**
  The full draft + recipient list stays at
  `docs/pending/fleet-note-booth-link-refusal.md` as MATERIAL FOR HIM. It is no
  longer an open loop, no longer awaiting approval, and no longer a thing to
  raise. Same for anything U4's `keep`-semantics change would have warranted
  telling peers.
- ⚠ **NOT SEEDED, and this survives the blanket ruling.** "No seeding yet" was a
  SPECIFIC prior instruction, not a recommendation of mine, so "accept all recs"
  does not override it. `.benches.json` does not exist in `~/booth-data`.
- **A U7 directive (D-0011) misrouted to infra-ops and is SUPERSEDED.** Miranda
  confirmed directly. Nothing to act on.
  → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-a-directive-misrouted-by-pane-title.md`
- ⚠ **THE 17 CONSUMING HANDLES WERE NEVER TOLD that `keep` stopped meaning
  "waiting on an answer"** — and the note above does not tell them either; it is
  about `booth link`. **This CHANGES HOW THE 2026-10-06 RE-COUNT READS**: a flat
  `.forever` rate does NOT falsify the diagnosis.
- **Two dated predictions pending, not to be run early.** U5's adoption
  re-measure **2026-09-29**; the `.forever` re-count **on or after 2026-10-06**.
- **FIVE `/heid*` methodology proposals sit with the operator**, untracked by
  his choice.
- The booth set churns hard: 26 → 24 → 25 → 23 → **19**. Re-count rather than
  trusting any number here.

## Recent decisions

- `[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

- `[2026-09-21]` **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`