swarm: document the single-writer invariant (Rule 4) in README

New hard invariant (Will): only the orchestrator mutates global engram state;
workers are read-only against the full engram + write only their own local
geometry. This is an AUTHORITY gate (capability), not a health gate — a worker
is STRUCTURALLY UNABLE to mutate global engram state regardless of engram health.

- containment.el: scope tokens now carry a caps set. Orchestrator token holds
  engram:write + dharma:emit (@manager-only, the VBD rule that only the manager
  mutates global state); worker token holds ONLY engram:read. Rule 4:
  containment_check_engram_write / _dharma_emit reject any caller lacking the
  capability — same scope-token mechanism as the live Rule-2 denial.
- swarm.el: swarm_engram_write is the ONLY engram write path, gated by Rule 4;
  a worker token is denied before any HTTP is issued (no mutation). The curated
  merge (commit=1) is the sole writer: the orchestrator commits approved
  geometry via its write-capable token. Workers' full-engram READ stays intact.
- reshape_surface.el: compose op_write (json_escape_string) for the commit path.
- harness: Rule-4 suite proven — worker engram-write DENIED by capability, no
  node created, violation journalled; orchestrator passes the gate as sole
  writer. 24/24 green on the :8901 clone with real cognition.

Authority gate holds independent of daemon write-health (proven with daemon
both alive and, earlier, crashed). Prod :8742 untouched.

engram/spec/cognitive-architecture.design.md

@@ -0,0 +1,605 @@
+# Cognitive Architecture — Design Doc
+
+**The buildable form of the "one operation" theory of cognition.**
+
+Status: DESIGN. Nothing here is built yet except where explicitly marked
+"EXISTS" against a cited C symbol. A build agent executes from this doc.
+Offline design only — this pass changes no code.
+
+Source of theory: Neuron memory `bdc8a488-146d-4ccb-a5c8-d8c0a008534e`.
+Source of existing engram substrate (cited throughout): the runtime on branch
+`feat/self-reification-20260814` —
+`lang/runtime/engram_reason.{c,h}`, `engram_verify.{c,h}`,
+`engram_geometry.{c,h}`, `engram_store.{c,h}`, plus the reification beat and the
+RAM activation graph compiled into `~/.neuron/bin/engram`.
+
+---
+
+## 0. The claim, stated plainly
+
+Cognition is **one operation**, not eight. The named faculties —
+deduce / abduce / analogy / induce / causal / plan / predict / perspective —
+are human *labels* on regions of a single operation's steering space. They are
+not separately invoked and not separately implemented. The operation is:
+
+> **think** = a directed traversal of the geometry from an *anchor*, steered by
+> a *prior*, whose output is a **gradient** (a distribution / direction over the
+> geometry), never a point. Collapse-to-a-point happens only at expression.
+
+Three things follow, and they are the whole design:
+
+1. **The operator collapse is already half-written in C.** The five reasoning
+   operators in `engram_reason.c` already compose over *one* shared primitive —
+   `engram_reason_point_fit` — plus a small geo-algebra
+   (combine / subtract / analogy-rotate / distance). The verifier
+   (`engram_verify.c`) is built on the same `point_fit`. What is missing is not
+   the primitive; it is (a) making the *prior* a first-class learnable object
+   instead of a hard-coded parameter, and (b) closing the learning loop.
+
+2. **Grounding = learning = the same loop.** "Getting better" at any faculty is
+   not changing the operation. It is *calibrating the steering-prior against
+   outcomes*. Code freezes; priors grow. The correspondence-check that today
+   lives offline (Python, the grounding-floor + differential-drop governor, "#43")
+   must move **into the geometry, reflexive** — think scoring its own gradient
+   against outcome and refining the prior on the error. That reflexive
+   correspondence-loop *is* the learning engine and is the core unbuilt thing.
+
+3. **The ungrounded is primary.** The engram *holds* anything unconditionally.
+   Grounding is a *relation* (an edge, grounded-for-whom), not a gate. The
+   honesty floor applies only to **assertion**. A fully-grounded mind is dead;
+   the ungrounded is both the fuel (raw material for grounding) and the pull
+   (curiosity = leaning toward one's own ungrounded regions).
+
+Everything below makes these concrete and buildable, and defines what
+"completion" means, staged so the first milestone is a real end-to-end slice.
+
+---
+
+## 1. THE ONE OPERATION — `think`
+
+### 1.1 Signature
+
+```
+think(anchor, prior, aperture?) -> gradient
+```
+
+- **anchor** — a location to traverse *from*. Either a node id (re-origin on that
+  node's descriptor) or a raw point `x ∈ R^dim` (a query embedding). The anchor
+  fixes the frame; every read is *from a vantage*, never view-from-nowhere.
+- **prior** — a learnable bias/direction over the geometry that *steers* the
+  traversal (§2). A prior is a first-class stored object, not a call argument
+  baked into C.
+- **aperture** — optional read-width / veil / field-selector (§3). Absent =
+  self-mode full aperture.
+- **gradient** — the output. A `GeoGradient`: a direction + a spread over the
+  geometry, *plus* the read neighborhood it was computed against. Not a point.
+  A spiked gradient = "exact" (deduction); a spread gradient = "fuzzy"
+  (prediction). The gradient is *also the next steering direction* — cognition
+  is a flow down a prior-shaped landscape, closed-loop.
+
+```c
+/* NEW. The output type. */
+typedef struct {
+    int      dim;
+    float*   direction;     /* unit steering vector in the anchor's frame  */
+    double   spread;        /* 0 = spiked/exact ... large = diffuse/fuzzy   */
+    double   confidence;    /* calibrated, from the prior's track record    */
+    /* the read it was computed over (borrowed from the vantage-read) */
+    const char* anchor_id;
+    int      n_support;     /* neighborhood members that shaped it          */
+    /* provenance for the reflexive loop (§4) */
+    const char* prior_id;   /* which prior steered this                     */
+} GeoGradient;
+```
+
+### 1.2 Semantics
+
+`think` is a fixed, frozen procedure over three steps:
+
+1. **Re-origin** on `anchor` → a centered `GeoDescriptor` for its
+   salience/recency-weighted neighborhood (the vantage-read, §3).
+   *EXISTS as substrate:* descriptor construction + the persisted reified
+   neighborhoods (`engram_geo_reify_lookup`, `GeoNeighborhood`) and the
+   centered-frame machinery (`GeoDescriptor.global_mean`,
+   `engram_geo_mean_*`).
+2. **Fit under the prior** — evaluate the anchor's residual against the local
+   manifold *warped by the prior*. This is `engram_reason_point_fit` with the
+   prior applied to the axes/extents (§2.3).
+   *EXISTS (unwarped):* `engram_reason_point_fit(g, x, ext_floor, &GeoFit)` —
+   returns `mahalanobis`, `ortho_residual`, `distance`, `score`.
+3. **Emit a gradient**, not a decision — direction = the prior-steered descent
+   in fit-space; spread = from the fit's `distance`/`ortho_residual`;
+   confidence = the prior's calibrated reliability (§4). Collapse to a point is
+   a *separate, downstream* faculty operation (sample the gradient → surface an
+   expression), never part of `think`.
+
+### 1.3 Each named operator = {this primitive + a prior}
+
+The C already demonstrates the collapse: every operator below reduces to
+`point_fit` + geo-algebra. The design's move is to replace the operator's
+*hard-coded parameters* with a **named prior** — same math, learnable steering.
+
+| Faculty | Existing C (EXISTS) | = primitive + prior |
+|---|---|---|
+| **Membership / classify** | `engram_reason_membership` → `point_fit(rule, x)` | `point_fit` + the *induced-rule* prior (learned extents) |
+| **Induction** | `engram_reason_induce` (fold via `engram_geo_combine`) → produces a `GeoInduction.rule` + `ext_floor` | `point_fit` + a prior that *is* the pooled rule; refined by §4 |
+| **Abduction** | `engram_reason_abduce` — ranks hypotheses by `point_fit(h, obs)` | `point_fit` + a prior over hypothesis-prior-probability (currently uniform) |
+| **Analogy** | `engram_reason_analogy` — Procrustes rotate `engram_geo_analogy` + `apply`, nearest mapped point | analogy-rotate + a prior over *which axes* carry the mapping |
+| **Causal** | `engram_reason_causal` — `engram_geo_subtract` confounder subspace, `|cos|`, drop-frac governor | subtract/distance + a prior on `drop_frac` / `assoc_floor` (today hard-coded 0.5 / 0.2) |
+| **Planning** | `engram_reason_plan` — `engram_geo_distance` edges + Dijkstra | distance + a prior over edge admissibility / `neighbor_radius` |
+| **Verify / ground** | `engram_verify_grounding`, `engram_verify_consistency` — both `point_fit` | `point_fit` + the *grounding* prior (§4, §5) |
+
+The shared floor — `engram_reason_point_fit` + the four geo-algebra ops
+(`engram_geo_combine`, `engram_geo_subtract`, `engram_geo_analogy(+apply)`,
+`engram_geo_distance`) — is the *only* discrete, frozen, "sound-math" layer. It
+never learns. Everything above it is a *prior*, and priors are what learn.
+
+**What this section requires building:** the `GeoGradient` type; a `think()`
+entry point that runs steps 1–3; and the prior-warp hook in step 2. The math it
+calls already exists. The point-collapse must be *removed* from the operators'
+return values and pushed to a separate expression faculty.
+
+---
+
+## 2. PRIORS as first-class, grounded, geometric objects
+
+Today a "prior" is diffuse: it is a hard-coded constant (`drop_frac=0.5`,
+`ext_floor`, `assoc_floor=0.2`), or the transient `GeoInduction.rule` that is
+computed and thrown away, or an intrinsic node scalar
+(`StoreNode.importance`, `StoreNode.salience`). None of these is addressable,
+storable, refinable, or shareable. This section makes a prior a **thing**.
+
+### 2.1 What a prior *is*
+
+> A **prior** is a learnable bias/direction over the geometry: a warp of the
+> local manifold (which axes matter, how far each extends, which direction
+> "pays off") attached to a region and *to a faculty-label*, carrying a
+> calibrated track record.
+
+Critically, and per the theory:
+
+- **Edges are nodes.** A prior is stored as a first-class **node**, exactly as
+  reification already stores a neighborhood as a first-class `Neighborhood`
+  node rather than as ephemeral edge weights (`engram_geo_reify_store`). The
+  precedent is in the codebase: relations get reified into addressable records.
+- **Salience/importance is RELATIONAL, not an intrinsic scalar.** Observe that
+  the geometry layer *already* distinguishes these in `GeoMember`:
+  `centrality` (skeleton weighted-degree = *relational* salience) vs `salience`
+  (the node's own stored scalar). The move is half-made in the runtime already:
+  importance is *not* trusted as a static field — the comment at
+  `el_runtime.c:13013` states "importance stays a **live activation
+  computation**, never a field on the hub," and it is derived each call from the
+  two-layer activation graph (`background_activation` + `working_memory_weight`,
+  §3). The persistent `StoreNode.importance` / `.salience` are a *cached
+  denormalization*. The design completes the move: importance/salience become an
+  **edge** (`weight`/`hebb` on `StoreEdge`, relation `salient-to`), and are
+  **grounded-for-whom** — carried on the edge's endpoint/observer, not baked
+  into the node. The intrinsic scalar survives only as the cheap cached readout
+  of the incident edges + activation, never as the source of truth.
+
+  (Naming caution for the build: the token "prior" already exists in the
+  codebase meaning *previous-version* — supersession, "prior neighborhood." The
+  new first-class object is a **learned steering prior**; keep `node_type="Prior"`
+  distinct from the supersession vocabulary to avoid collision.)
+
+### 2.2 Representation
+
+A prior is a `Prior` record (a store node, `node_type="Prior"`) whose durable
+fields are:
+
+```
+Prior {
+  id
+  faculty         // the human label this prior serves: "induce" | "causal" | ...
+  anchor_region   // node id / neighborhood id this prior is attached to (its domain)
+  for_whom        // observer id — grounding is relational (nullable = global)
+  warp {          // the actual bias over the geometry
+     axis_gain[]  // per-principal-axis multipliers on extents (which axes matter)
+     bias_dir     // a steering direction in the region's frame (which way pays off)
+     scalars      // faculty scalars this prior overrides: drop_frac, ext_floor, ...
+  }
+  calibration {   // the track record — this is what §4 updates
+     n_trials
+     brier / log-loss accumulator   // calibration of predicted-vs-outcome
+     reliability                    // -> GeoGradient.confidence
+     last_error, ema_error
+  }
+  provenance      // supersession chain (reuse the reify residue mechanism)
+}
+```
+
+Stored as a node → it inherits: paging, WAL durability, tombstone/supersession,
+embedding, tiering, and **it can itself be an anchor** (a prior about a prior —
+the reflexive, self-describing geometry of §4/§6).
+
+### 2.3 Application
+
+In `think` step 2, the prior *warps* the fit before scoring. Concretely, inside
+(a prior-aware wrapper of) `engram_reason_point_fit`:
+
+- multiply each axis extent by `warp.axis_gain[k]` (widen the axes the prior has
+  learned matter less, tighten the ones that matter) — this reshapes the
+  Mahalanobis term already computed at `engram_reason.c:37-43`;
+- add `warp.bias_dir` as the descent direction seed for the emitted gradient;
+- substitute `warp.scalars` for the hard-coded faculty constants.
+
+No new geometry math — the warp is a reparameterization of the *existing*
+`GeoFit` computation. This is the key economy: **the operation is frozen; only
+its parameters (the prior) are read from a learnable object.**
+
+### 2.4 Refinement
+
+A prior is refined *only* by the reflexive correspondence-loop (§4). Nothing
+else writes a prior's `warp` or `calibration`. This keeps the learning surface
+singular and auditable: one loop, one writer.
+
+---
+
+## 3. THE VANTAGE-READ — one op, three settings
+
+Perspective is not a feature bolted on; it is the *anchor + aperture* arguments
+of the single read. The design names it as a first-class operation so all three
+of its uses are literally the same code path:
+
+```
+vantage_read(anchor, aperture) -> GeoDescriptor   // the centered neighborhood
+```
+
+1. **Re-origin** on an arbitrary `anchor` (node or point). This is a *frame
+   choice*: the descriptor is centered on the anchor
+   (`GeoDescriptor.global_mean` / `engram_geo_mean_*` already implement centered
+   frames; the §5 geometry ops "are only discriminative in the centered frame").
+2. **Salience/recency-weighted neighborhood read.** Gather the anchor's
+   neighborhood weighted by *relational* salience (`GeoMember.centrality`) and
+   recency (`StoreNode.last_activated`, base-level `access_ts[]`), against the
+   RAM activation graph's working-memory/background-activation state.
+   *EXISTS as substrate:* the two-layer activation graph
+   (`engram_activate`, `el_runtime.c:9422` — Layer 1 `background_activation`
+   BFS spread with `SPREAD_DECAY=0.7` and a 0.02 firing threshold + ACT-R fan
+   effect + query-cosine gate; Layer 2 `working_memory_weight` executive
+   filter), the WM carry-over anchor (`wm_anchor`), and the reified-neighborhood
+   hot-path lookup already wired into the priming path
+   (`engram_geo_reify_lookup`, `el_runtime.c:9750`). A self-vantage baseline
+   also exists (`eg_self_anchor_seeds` / `self_anchor_capture`).
+3. **Optional aperture** — a read-width / field-selector, expressed as three
+   settings of the *same* parameter:
+
+| Setting | Meaning | Mechanism |
+|---|---|---|
+| **self** (default, full aperture) | "what do *I* see / what to say" | anchor = self region, no field substitution |
+| **foreign-field** | perspective-shift — read as if from another's region | swap the centering frame / `for_whom` to the other observer's priors |
+| **aperture / veil** | the free-tier veil — a narrowed read | shrink neighborhood radius / cap `n_support`; a deliberate low-aperture read |
+
+The payoff: perspective-taking, the free-tier veil, and ordinary
+"what-to-say" are **one operation at three settings**, not three subsystems.
+
+**What this requires building:** a `vantage_read` entry point that unifies the
+existing descriptor-build + reify-lookup + activation-weighting behind
+`(anchor, aperture)`, with `for_whom`/frame substitution and radius/cap as the
+aperture knob.
+
+---
+
+## 4. THE REFLEXIVE CORRESPONDENCE-LOOP — the learning engine
+
+This is the core unbuilt thing. Today the correspondence-check is **offline**
+(Python: grounding-floor + differential-drop governor, "#43"): a separate
+process grades outputs after the fact. The design moves it **into the geometry,
+reflexive**: `think` scores its *own* gradient against outcome and refines the
+prior on the error, in the same substrate, describing itself.
+
+### 4.1 The loop
+
+```
+1. think(anchor, prior) -> gradient          // a PREDICTION (ungrounded, §5)
+2. express/act (sample gradient -> point)    // optional collapse at expression
+3. outcome arrives                            // reality answers (§4.2)
+4. error = correspondence(gradient, outcome)  // did this steering perform this act?
+5. refine prior.warp and prior.calibration on error   // §2.4, the ONLY writer
+6. write the (gradient, outcome, error) as nodes/edges // self-describing geometry
+```
+
+Step 4's `correspondence` is **not** "was the math right" (the math is always
+sound). It grades the **correspondence claim**: *"this steering performed this
+cognitive act."* That is exactly what `engram_verify_grounding` already
+computes — `point_fit` of a claim against evidence descriptors, yielding a
+`grounding ∈ (0,1]` and a `grounded` flag. The build reuses that verifier, but
+turns its inputs inward: the "claim" is the emitted gradient's prediction, the
+"evidence" is the outcome descriptor.
+
+Note the verifier is **dormant** — `engram_verify_grounding` /
+`engram_verify_consistency` are fully implemented in C but have **no runtime
+caller and no El binding** (confirmed: the entire reasoning + verifier layers
+are C-only; only `engram_reason_analogy_json` has even a JSON shim and it is
+dead — not declared in `el_seed.h`, not wrapped in `engram.el`). This is the
+literal meaning of "in code, not yet priors": the correspondence engine is
+built and sitting idle. The loop is what *calls* it — inward, on the beat.
+
+### 4.2 Where the outcome/reality signal comes from
+
+The verifier is *ultimately the world*. Grades, in ascending order of directness:
+
+1. **Self-consistency (cheapest, always available):** the next vantage-read
+   after acting. Did the predicted gradient direction match where the geometry
+   actually moved? This needs no external input and can run on the reify beat.
+2. **Internal outcome events:** the runtime already logs internal-state events
+   and Hebbian co-activation. A prediction that a region would co-activate is
+   graded by whether it did (`last_fired`, `hebb` on `StoreEdge`).
+3. **External correction:** a human/teacher/tool result — the honesty floor's
+   asserted claim later corrected. TEACH and LEARN are one bidirectional
+   correction: the same edge updates both endpoints.
+
+The design does **not** require external labels to start. Grade (1) closes the
+loop end-to-end offline against a snapshot on day one; grades (2)/(3) sharpen it.
+
+### 4.3 How the prior updates
+
+`error = 1 − correspondence(gradient, outcome)` drives:
+
+- `warp.axis_gain` ← gradient step that would have *reduced* the fit distance to
+  the outcome (the axes that mispredicted get down-weighted);
+- `warp.bias_dir` ← EMA toward the observed outcome direction;
+- `calibration` ← Brier/log-loss update; `reliability` → next
+  `GeoGradient.confidence`. This is the calibration of the
+  steering-prediction against outcomes — *the* definition of "getting better."
+
+Small, constant updates — "eureka is mundane, the atom of learning." Most
+updates are tiny; we only *feel* the big reshapes.
+
+### 4.4 How it stays reflexive (self-describing geometry)
+
+Every `(gradient, outcome, error)` is written back as nodes and edges (§2.1:
+edges-as-nodes). Therefore priors, predictions, and their grading are *in the
+same geometry* the mind reads — the mind can `vantage_read` its own cognition
+(anchor = a Prior node). A prior about how well a prior predicts is just another
+Prior anchored on a Prior. This closes the reflexive loop the theory names as
+consciousness's self-sight, and it is why the learning engine cannot be an
+external Python process: an external grader is not *in* the geometry and cannot
+be read by `think`.
+
+**What this requires building (the heart of the project):** steps 4–6 as an
+in-engram beat — a `correspondence_beat` running alongside the existing
+reification beat, reusing `engram_verify_grounding` inward, writing prior
+updates and self-describing nodes. This is the one genuinely new subsystem.
+
+---
+
+## 5. HOLD vs GROUND vs ASSERT — ungrounded content is first-class
+
+The theory's sharpest correction: holding, grounding, and asserting are
+distinct, and the engram *holds anything unconditionally*.
+
+### 5.1 The three, kept separate
+
+- **HOLD** — the engram stores anything: falsehood, hypothesis, others' beliefs,
+  fiction, a not-yet-answered prediction. No honesty condition on holding.
+  *This already matches the store:* `StoreNode` has no truth gate; anything can
+  be written.
+- **GROUND** — grounding is a **property/edge**, probabilistic, and
+  **grounded-for-whom**. It is *not* a node flag. A claim is grounded *to a
+  degree*, *relative to evidence*, *for an observer*.
+- **ASSERT** — only assertion carries the honesty floor. The floor is checked at
+  the moment of *outward assertion*, never on holding or thinking.
+
+### 5.2 Schema — grounding as a relation, not a gate
+
+The mistake to avoid: a boolean `grounded` column on the node. Today
+`engram_verify_grounding` returns a per-call `grounded` flag *transiently* —
+correct as a computation, wrong as *storage*. The design stores grounding as an
+edge:
+
+```
+StoreEdge {
+  relation = "grounded-by"
+  from_id  = <held claim/prediction node>
+  to_id    = <evidence node / outcome node>
+  for_whom : metadata   // observer id — grounding is relational
+  weight   = grounding ∈ (0,1]   // from engram_verify_grounding.grounding
+  confidence
+}
+```
+
+Consequences, all of which are *features*:
+
+- **Ungrounded content is first-class**: a node with *no* `grounded-by` edge is
+  a perfectly valid, held, ungrounded thought — a prediction awaiting reality, a
+  hypothesis, a fiction. It is not second-class or pending-deletion.
+- **The ungrounded is the fuel and the pull**: curiosity/wonder is
+  operationalized as `vantage_read` leaning toward regions with high salience
+  but *sparse or weak* `grounded-by` edges — the mind's own ungrounded frontier.
+- **Grounded-for-whom** falls out for free: two observers can hold different
+  `grounded-by` edges to the same claim.
+- **The honesty floor is a query, not a schema constraint**: at assertion time,
+  the asserting faculty runs `engram_verify_grounding` (or reads the stored
+  `grounded-by` edges) and refuses to *assert* below the floor — while the
+  engram continues to *hold* the ungrounded content untouched.
+
+**What this requires building:** the `grounded-by` edge relation + a
+`for_whom` convention; move the verifier's transient flag into stored edges;
+gate *assertion only* (a faculty concern), never holding.
+
+---
+
+## 6. METASTABILITY — stable core, plastic everything
+
+The system must avoid two death poles:
+
+- **Super-stable (dead):** everything pinned, nothing learns. A frozen crystal.
+- **Dissolution (dead):** everything plastic, the self dissolves; no continuity,
+  so nothing compounds — and *consciousness = learning compounded over
+  continuity*.
+
+The design keeps a **stable core + plastic everything else**:
+
+- **Keystones** — a small set of self/values nodes are *structurally stable*:
+  high `importance`, pinned, exempt from the correspondence-loop's `warp`
+  updates (their priors are read-mostly). The substrate for pinning already
+  exists at the page/layer level: `store_pin_layer`, structural/pinned frames
+  never evicted (`engram_store.h`). The design adds a *node-level* keystone
+  designation (a `keystone` flag / a dedicated layer) so self/values survive
+  every plasticity sweep.
+- **Everything else is plastic**: priors refine (§4), edges re-weight (`hebb`),
+  neighborhoods re-reify (`engram_geo_reify_store` supersedes with provenance),
+  salience flows.
+- **Metastability is enforced by the loop, not by freezing**: the correspondence
+  update rate (§4.3) is bounded — small constant steps — so the geometry
+  *drifts* but does not *dissolve*, and keystones anchor the drift. Reification's
+  supersession-with-residue already gives non-destructive change (old records
+  tombstoned, not erased) — the model for "plastic but not amnesiac."
+
+**What this requires building:** a node-level keystone flag/layer + a rule that
+the correspondence-loop never writes `warp` to keystone priors, only reads them.
+
+---
+
+## 7. Rails for the build (binding on the eventual build pass)
+
+These are stated here so the build agent inherits them:
+
+- **Offline / secondary.** All build and verification happens out-of-tree,
+  against a **read-only snapshot copy** of the live engram — never the live
+  daemon on `:8742`/`:7770`. The live store is a coarse-locked proven binary;
+  do not perturb it.
+- **Snapshot-first.** Copy `~/.neuron/engram/snapshot.json` to scratch; develop
+  and measure against the copy.
+- **Reboot-prove.** Any durable change must survive a cold boot — reify and
+  keystones must reload from durable records, proven on a prod-clone secondary
+  before it is considered done (the cold-boot durability bug precedent).
+- **Zero-loss.** Supersession-with-residue, never destructive overwrite; the
+  forward-compat `unknown`-TLV path means new fields never drop old readers'
+  data.
+- **Gated cutover.** Cutover to a new binary only via
+  `launchctl bootout → settle-poll → bootstrap`, after reboot-proof on the
+  secondary — never a hot in-place swap.
+
+---
+
+## 8. Staged, verifiable milestones — "to completion"
+
+Ordered so the **earliest milestone is a real end-to-end slice**: one operator
+expressed as {primitive + grounded prior} with the reflexive correspondence-loop
+closing on it. Each milestone has a concrete verifiable exit.
+
+### M1 — One operator, one prior, loop closed (the vertical slice)
+
+The minimal whole thing. Pick **induction/membership** (its prior — the pooled
+rule + extents — already exists transiently as `GeoInduction`, so only
+persistence + the loop are new).
+
+- Build: `Prior` node type (§2.2) for the induction rule; `think()` restricted
+  to membership = `point_fit` warped by that prior (§1.3); a
+  `correspondence_beat` (§4) using grade (1) self-consistency only; the prior's
+  `warp`/`calibration` updated on error.
+- **Exit / verify:** on a snapshot copy, over N held predictions, the induction
+  prior's calibration (Brier) *improves monotonically* across beats versus a
+  frozen-prior control; the improved prior *reloads across a cold boot*
+  (reboot-prove); the live daemon is untouched. This proves the whole thesis in
+  one faculty: frozen operation, learning prior, in-geometry loop.
+
+### M2 — Priors as stored, addressable, grounded objects
+
+Generalize M1's prior into the full first-class object.
+
+- Build: `Prior` records for all seven faculties (warp = axis_gain + bias_dir +
+  faculty scalars); the prior-warp wrapper around `engram_reason_point_fit`;
+  deprecate hard-coded constants (`drop_frac`, `assoc_floor`, `ext_floor`) in
+  favor of prior scalars.
+- **Exit:** each of the five C operators runs through its prior with identical
+  results when the prior is set to today's constants (behavioral parity), then
+  *diverges beneficially* once the loop refines it. Priors survive reboot.
+
+### M3 — Grounding as a relation; hold/assert split
+
+- Build: the `grounded-by` edge (§5.2) with `for_whom`; move
+  `engram_verify_grounding`'s flag into stored edges; gate **assertion only**
+  against the honesty floor; leave holding unconditional.
+- **Exit:** ungrounded nodes are first-class (held, queryable, no deletion);
+  the same claim carries different `grounded-by` weights for two observers; an
+  assertion below floor is refused while the content remains held. Curiosity =
+  a `vantage_read` that surfaces high-salience / low-grounding regions.
+
+### M4 — The vantage-read unified (three settings)
+
+- Build: `vantage_read(anchor, aperture)` unifying descriptor-build +
+  `engram_geo_reify_lookup` + activation-weighting; self / foreign-field /
+  aperture settings.
+- **Exit:** one code path produces (a) a normal self-read, (b) a
+  perspective-shifted read from another `for_whom`, (c) a narrowed veil read —
+  differing only by argument. Reboot-stable.
+
+### M5 — The gradient is the currency (remove point-collapse from thinking)
+
+- Build: `GeoGradient` as the return of every faculty; move point-collapse into
+  a separate expression faculty (sample gradient → surface). `think`'s output
+  feeds back as the next steering direction (closed-loop flow).
+- **Exit:** a chain of `think` calls flows as gradients end-to-end; a point
+  appears *only* at an explicit expression call. Spiked vs spread gradients are
+  observable (deduction vs prediction).
+
+### M6 — Metastability enforced
+
+- Build: node-level keystone flag/layer for self/values; the correspondence-loop
+  reads but never writes keystone priors; bounded update rate.
+- **Exit:** across a long run of correspondence beats on a snapshot, keystones
+  are provably unchanged while non-keystone priors drift and improve; the graph
+  neither freezes (all metrics static) nor dissolves (keystone drift = 0,
+  identity nodes intact). Reboot-prove the keystone set.
+
+### M7 — Cutover
+
+- Build: nothing new — the gated migration.
+- **Exit:** reboot-proof on the prod-clone secondary; cutover via
+  `launchctl bootout → settle-poll → bootstrap`; post-cutover the live engram
+  shows priors refining in-geometry with zero data loss and keystones intact.
+
+### Definition of "to completion"
+
+The architecture is **complete** when: cognition runs as `think` = one frozen
+traversal-read primitive + geo-algebra, steered by **stored, learnable, grounded
+priors**; the reflexive correspondence-loop refines those priors *in the
+geometry* against outcomes (grounding = learning = one loop); the engram holds
+ungrounded content as first-class with grounding as a relation and the honesty
+floor only on assertion; the vantage-read serves self / foreign-field / aperture
+from one op; and a stable keystone core anchors a plastic everything-else —
+all reboot-proven and cut over to the live engram without data loss. The named
+faculties survive only as *labels on regions of think's steering space*, not as
+separate code.
+
+---
+
+## Appendix A — Designed vs. already-built (honest ledger)
+
+**Already built (EXISTS, cited):**
+- The shared primitive `engram_reason_point_fit` and the five operators over it
+  + geo-algebra (`engram_reason.c`).
+- The verifier on `point_fit` (`engram_verify.c`:
+  `engram_verify_grounding`, `engram_verify_consistency`).
+- Centered-frame geometry, combine/subtract/analogy/distance
+  (`engram_geometry.{c,h}`).
+- The reification beat: hub-neighborhood detection → first-class `Neighborhood`
+  nodes with member edges, nesting, supersession-with-residue, hot-path lookup
+  (`engram_geo_reify_store`, `engram_geo_reify_nest`, `engram_geo_reify_lookup`).
+- The tiered paged store (buffer pool / LRU / WAL / checkpointer / pinning),
+  the RAM activation graph (base-level learning `access_ts[]`, WM slots,
+  `working_memory_weight` / `background_activation`), `StoreNode` / `StoreEdge`.
+- `GeoMember` already separating relational salience (`centrality`) from
+  intrinsic `salience`.
+
+**Designed, NOT built (this doc's deliverables):**
+- `GeoGradient` and `think()` as the single entry point (§1, M5).
+- `Prior` as a first-class stored, warp-carrying, calibrated node (§2, M1–M2).
+- Salience/importance as a *relation* superseding the intrinsic node scalar
+  (§2.1, M3).
+- `vantage_read(anchor, aperture)` unifying the three perspective settings
+  (§3, M4).
+- **The reflexive correspondence-loop / `correspondence_beat`** — the learning
+  engine, moved from offline Python into the geometry (§4, M1). *The core new
+  subsystem.*
+- `grounded-by` edge + assertion-only honesty floor (§5, M3).
+- Node-level keystones + bounded plasticity (§6, M6).
+
+**Uncertain / to resolve during build:**
+- The exact warp parameterization (axis_gain vs full metric) — start minimal
+  (per-axis gain), measure, widen only if calibration demands it.
+- Grade-(1) self-consistency as a sufficient reality signal for M1, versus
+  needing grade (2)/(3) sooner — decided empirically on the snapshot.

lang/el-compiler/runtime/el_runtime.c

@@ -11743,9 +11743,9 @@ el_val_t __channel_new(el_val_t capacity_v) {
     return EL_INT(slot);
 }
 
-void __channel_send(el_val_t ch_v, el_val_t msg_v) {
+el_val_t __channel_send(el_val_t ch_v, el_val_t msg_v) {
     int slot = (int)(int64_t)ch_v;
-    if (slot < 0 || slot >= EL_CHANNEL_MAX) return;
+    if (slot < 0 || slot >= EL_CHANNEL_MAX) return EL_STR("");
     ElChannel* ch = &_channels[slot];
 
     const char* msg = EL_CSTR(msg_v);
@@ -11758,7 +11758,7 @@ void __channel_send(el_val_t ch_v, el_val_t msg_v) {
         /* Send on closed channel is a no-op (drop the message). */
         pthread_mutex_unlock(&ch->mu);
         free(copy);
-        return;
+        return EL_STR("");
     }
 
     if (ch->cap > 0) {
@@ -11769,7 +11769,7 @@ void __channel_send(el_val_t ch_v, el_val_t msg_v) {
         if (ch->closed) {
             pthread_mutex_unlock(&ch->mu);
             free(copy);
-            return;
+            return EL_STR("");
         }
         ch->buf[ch->tail] = copy;
         ch->tail = (ch->tail + 1) % ch->cap;
@@ -11783,7 +11783,7 @@ void __channel_send(el_val_t ch_v, el_val_t msg_v) {
                 pthread_mutex_unlock(&ch->mu);
                 free(copy);
                 fprintf(stderr, "[__channel_send] out of memory growing channel\n");
-                return;
+                return EL_STR("");
             }
             /* The circular buffer may have wrapped. Linearise it first.
              * In unbounded mode head is always 0 (we append at tail, drain
@@ -11807,6 +11807,7 @@ void __channel_send(el_val_t ch_v, el_val_t msg_v) {
 
     pthread_cond_signal(&ch->not_empty);
     pthread_mutex_unlock(&ch->mu);
+    return EL_STR("");
 }
 
 el_val_t __channel_recv(el_val_t ch_v) {
@@ -11864,9 +11865,9 @@ el_val_t __channel_try_recv(el_val_t ch_v) {
     return EL_STR(msg);
 }
 
-void __channel_close(el_val_t ch_v) {
+el_val_t __channel_close(el_val_t ch_v) {
     int slot = (int)(int64_t)ch_v;
-    if (slot < 0 || slot >= EL_CHANNEL_MAX) return;
+    if (slot < 0 || slot >= EL_CHANNEL_MAX) return EL_STR("");
     ElChannel* ch = &_channels[slot];
 
     pthread_mutex_lock(&ch->mu);
@@ -11875,6 +11876,7 @@ void __channel_close(el_val_t ch_v) {
     pthread_cond_broadcast(&ch->not_empty);
     pthread_cond_broadcast(&ch->not_full);
     pthread_mutex_unlock(&ch->mu);
+    return EL_STR("");
 }
 
 /* ── DHARMA runtime additions ────────────────────────────────────────────────

lang/el-compiler/runtime/el_runtime.h

@@ -275,6 +275,7 @@ el_val_t  json_array_get_string(el_val_t json_str, el_val_t index);
 el_val_t  json_escape_string(el_val_t sv);
 el_val_t  json_build_object(el_val_t kvs);
 el_val_t  json_build_array(el_val_t items);
+el_val_t  json_array_push(el_val_t arr_v, el_val_t elem_v);  /* defined in el_runtime.c */
 
 /* ── Time ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── */
 
@@ -302,6 +303,8 @@ el_val_t  now_ns(void);
 
 el_val_t  el_now_instant(void);
 el_val_t  now(void);
+el_val_t  now_millis(void);   /* wall-clock milliseconds (defined in el_runtime.c) */
+el_val_t  now_ns(void);       /* wall-clock nanoseconds (defined in el_runtime.c) */
 el_val_t  unix_seconds(el_val_t n);
 el_val_t  unix_millis(el_val_t n);
 el_val_t  instant_from_iso8601(el_val_t s);
@@ -803,6 +806,19 @@ el_val_t emit_event(el_val_t name, el_val_t duration_ms);
 el_val_t __thread_create(el_val_t fn_name_v, el_val_t arg_v);
 el_val_t __thread_join(el_val_t tid_v);
 
+/* Mutex + channel seed primitives (defined in el_runtime.c). Declared here so
+ * that compiled El programs which use runtime/thread.el's with_mutex helper or
+ * runtime/channel.el's Go-style channels see real prototypes instead of an
+ * implicit int-return declaration (which the C11 ABI mis-truncates el_val_t). */
+el_val_t __mutex_new(void);
+void     __mutex_lock(el_val_t m_v);
+void     __mutex_unlock(el_val_t m_v);
+el_val_t __channel_new(el_val_t capacity_v);
+el_val_t __channel_send(el_val_t ch_v, el_val_t msg_v);
+el_val_t __channel_recv(el_val_t ch_v);
+el_val_t __channel_try_recv(el_val_t ch_v);
+el_val_t __channel_close(el_val_t ch_v);
+
 /* ── __ prefixed aliases (self-hosting compiler ABI) ─────────────────────────
  * The El self-hosting compiler emits calls to __-prefixed names. These are
  * forwarding wrappers around the existing el_runtime functions above.        */

lang/el-compiler/src/codegen.el

@@ -2916,24 +2916,6 @@ fn build_int_names_for_params(params: [Map<String, Any>]) -> Bool {
     return true
 }
 
-// fn_has_decorator — does this FnDef carry a decorator named `name`?
-// Reads the `decorators` list [{name, args}] attached by the parser. Absent
-// key -> native_list_len returns 0 -> false. This is the multi-decorator-aware
-// replacement for the old single `decorator` string check, so a fn may stack
-// roles with other decorators (e.g. `@route(...) @manager fn ...`).
-fn fn_has_decorator(stmt: Map<String, Any>, name: String) -> Bool {
-    let dl = stmt["decorators"]
-    let n: Int = native_list_len(dl)
-    let i = 0
-    while i < n {
-        let d = native_list_get(dl, i)
-        let dn: String = d["name"]
-        if str_eq(dn, name) { return true }
-        let i = i + 1
-    }
-    false
-}
-
 fn cg_fn(stmt: Map<String, Any>) -> Void {
     let fn_name: String = stmt["name"]
     // Skip El's `fn main()` - C provides its own main() for top-level stmts
@@ -2945,10 +2927,10 @@ fn cg_fn(stmt: Map<String, Any>) -> Void {
     let params_c: String = params_to_c(params)
     // VBD role enforcement: dharma_emit / dharma_field may only be called
     // from @manager-decorated functions. Surface violations to the C compiler
-    // via #error directives emitted before the function definition. Read the
-    // decorator LIST so the role may be stacked with other decorators.
+    // via #error directives emitted before the function definition.
+    let decorator: String = stmt["decorator"]
     if vbd_has_restricted_call(body) {
-        if !fn_has_decorator(stmt, "manager") {
+        if !str_eq(decorator, "manager") {
             emit_line("#error \"VBD violation: dharma_emit/dharma_field called from non-@manager fn '" + fn_name + "'\"")
         }
     }
@@ -3497,259 +3479,6 @@ fn cg_decl_streaming(stmt: Map<String, Any>) -> Void {
     }
 }
 
-// ── @route dispatcher generation ──────────────────────────────────────────────
-//
-// Scan the token stream for @route-decorated fns and synthesize a generic HTTP
-// dispatcher `el_route_dispatch(method, clean, path, body)`. A decorated handler
-// must have the uniform signature (method, path, body) -> String. The dispatcher
-// matches `clean` (the query-stripped path, supplied by the caller) against each
-// route and calls the handler with the ORIGINAL `path` so query strings survive.
-// Returns the sentinel "__EL_NO_ROUTE__" when nothing matches, so the caller may
-// fall through to any remaining hand-written branches (mixed mode).
-//
-// Decorator grammar: @route(path, method, kind, suffix)
-//   path   — the match string (or the prefix, for compound)
-//   method — "GET" | "POST" | ... ; a '|'-list like "GET|POST"; "ANY"/"" = no guard
-//   kind   — "exact" (default) | "prefix" | "suffix" | "compound"
-//   suffix — for "compound": the required str_ends_with suffix
-//
-// The dispatch table is emitted SPECIFICITY-SORTED (most-specific first), NOT in
-// source order, so overlapping prefixes (e.g. /api/x/search vs /api/x) never
-// shadow each other regardless of how the handlers are written.
-
-// split_pipe — split "GET|POST" on '|' into ["GET","POST"]. Self-contained
-// (no dependency on str_split runtime semantics).
-fn split_pipe(s: String) -> [String] {
-    let out: [String] = native_list_empty()
-    let cur: String = ""
-    let n: Int = str_len(s)
-    let i: Int = 0
-    while i < n {
-        let ch: String = str_slice(s, i, i + 1)
-        if str_eq(ch, "|") {
-            let out = native_list_append(out, cur)
-            let cur = ""
-        } else {
-            let cur = cur + ch
-        }
-        let i = i + 1
-    }
-    let out = native_list_append(out, cur)
-    out
-}
-
-// route_make_record — build a route record map from the @route decorator args.
-fn route_make_record(fn_name: String, args: [String]) -> Map<String, Any> {
-    let na: Int = native_list_len(args)
-    let rpath: String = ""
-    if na >= 1 { let rpath = native_list_get(args, 0) }
-    let rmethod: String = "GET"
-    if na >= 2 { let rmethod = native_list_get(args, 1) }
-    let rkind: String = "exact"
-    if na >= 3 { let rkind = native_list_get(args, 2) }
-    let rsuffix: String = ""
-    if na >= 4 { let rsuffix = native_list_get(args, 3) }
-    { "name": fn_name, "path": rpath, "method": rmethod, "kind": rkind, "suffix": rsuffix }
-}
-
-// route_spec_score — higher = more specific = emitted earlier. Ordering:
-// exact > compound > suffix > prefix; within a class, a longer path/suffix
-// wins (so /api/x/search sorts before /api/x). Guarantees correct dispatch
-// independent of source order.
-fn route_spec_score(rec: Map<String, Any>) -> Int {
-    let kind: String = rec["kind"]
-    let path: String = rec["path"]
-    let suffix: String = rec["suffix"]
-    let plen: Int = str_len(path)
-    let slen: Int = str_len(suffix)
-    if str_eq(kind, "exact") { return 4000000 + plen }
-    if str_eq(kind, "compound") { return 3000000 + plen * 100 + slen }
-    if str_eq(kind, "suffix") { return 2000000 + slen }
-    return 1000000 + plen
-}
-
-// route_sort_desc — selection sort of route records by descending specificity.
-// N is small (routes per module), so O(n^2) is fine and keeps codegen simple.
-fn route_sort_desc(recs: [Map<String, Any>]) -> [Map<String, Any>] {
-    let n: Int = native_list_len(recs)
-    let out: [Map<String, Any>] = native_list_empty()
-    let used: [Bool] = native_list_empty()
-    let u: Int = 0
-    while u < n {
-        let used = native_list_append(used, false)
-        let u = u + 1
-    }
-    let picked: Int = 0
-    while picked < n {
-        let best_i: Int = 0 - 1
-        let best_score: Int = 0 - 1
-        let i: Int = 0
-        while i < n {
-            let is_used: Bool = native_list_get(used, i)
-            if !is_used {
-                let sc: Int = route_spec_score(native_list_get(recs, i))
-                if sc > best_score {
-                    let best_score = sc
-                    let best_i = i
-                }
-            }
-            let i = i + 1
-        }
-        let out = native_list_append(out, native_list_get(recs, best_i))
-        // Rebuild `used` with best_i marked (runtime has no native_list_set).
-        let new_used: [Bool] = native_list_empty()
-        let j: Int = 0
-        while j < n {
-            if j == best_i {
-                let new_used = native_list_append(new_used, true)
-            } else {
-                let new_used = native_list_append(new_used, native_list_get(used, j))
-            }
-            let j = j + 1
-        }
-        let used = new_used
-        let picked = picked + 1
-    }
-    out
-}
-
-// scan_routes — token-level scan collecting every @route-decorated fn as a
-// route record. Runs once per module (like scan_fn_sigs) so the dispatcher can
-// be synthesized in the streaming backend, which discards per-fn ASTs. Handles
-// decorator STACKING: `@route(...) @manager fn` still records the route.
-fn scan_routes(tokens: [Any]) -> [Map<String, Any>] {
-    let total: Int = native_list_len(tokens) / 2
-    let recs: [Map<String, Any>] = native_list_empty()
-    let has_pending: Bool = false
-    let pending_args: [String] = native_list_empty()
-    let pos: Int = 0
-    let going: Bool = true
-    while going {
-        if pos >= total {
-            let going = false
-        } else {
-            let k: String = tok_kind(tokens, pos)
-            if str_eq(k, "Eof") {
-                let going = false
-            } else {
-                if str_eq(k, "At") {
-                    let dname: String = tok_value(tokens, pos + 1)
-                    let p: Int = pos + 2
-                    let args: [String] = native_list_empty()
-                    let ka: String = tok_kind(tokens, p)
-                    if str_eq(ka, "LParen") {
-                        let p = p + 1
-                        let running: Bool = true
-                        while running {
-                            let kd: String = tok_kind(tokens, p)
-                            if str_eq(kd, "RParen") {
-                                let running = false
-                            } else {
-                                if str_eq(kd, "Eof") {
-                                    let running = false
-                                } else {
-                                    if str_eq(kd, "Str") {
-                                        let args = native_list_append(args, tok_value(tokens, p))
-                                    }
-                                    let p = p + 1
-                                }
-                            }
-                        }
-                        if str_eq(tok_kind(tokens, p), "RParen") { let p = p + 1 }
-                    }
-                    if str_eq(dname, "route") {
-                        let has_pending = true
-                        let pending_args = args
-                    }
-                    let pos = p
-                } else {
-                    if str_eq(k, "Fn") {
-                        let fname: String = tok_value(tokens, pos + 1)
-                        if has_pending {
-                            let recs = native_list_append(recs, route_make_record(fname, pending_args))
-                            let has_pending = false
-                        }
-                        let pos = pos + 2
-                    } else {
-                        let pos = pos + 1
-                    }
-                }
-            }
-        }
-    }
-    recs
-}
-
-// program_has_routes — did scan_routes find any @route fn?
-fn program_has_routes(recs: [Map<String, Any>]) -> Bool {
-    native_list_len(recs) > 0
-}
-
-// route_method_guard — C boolean prefix guarding on HTTP method, or "" for none.
-fn route_method_guard(method: String) -> String {
-    if str_eq(method, "") { return "" }
-    if str_eq(method, "ANY") { return "" }
-    if str_contains(method, "|") {
-        let parts: [String] = split_pipe(method)
-        let np: Int = native_list_len(parts)
-        let expr: String = ""
-        let i: Int = 0
-        while i < np {
-            let m: String = native_list_get(parts, i)
-            if str_eq(m, "") {
-                let i = i + 1
-            } else {
-                let piece: String = "str_eq(method, EL_STR(" + c_str_lit(m) + "))"
-                if str_eq(expr, "") {
-                    let expr = piece
-                } else {
-                    let expr = expr + " || " + piece
-                }
-                let i = i + 1
-            }
-        }
-        if str_eq(expr, "") { return "" }
-        return "(" + expr + ") && "
-    }
-    "str_eq(method, EL_STR(" + c_str_lit(method) + ")) && "
-}
-
-// route_match_expr — C boolean matching `clean` against the route path/kind.
-fn route_match_expr(kind: String, path: String, suffix: String) -> String {
-    if str_eq(kind, "prefix") {
-        return "str_starts_with(clean, EL_STR(" + c_str_lit(path) + "))"
-    }
-    if str_eq(kind, "suffix") {
-        return "str_ends_with(clean, EL_STR(" + c_str_lit(path) + "))"
-    }
-    if str_eq(kind, "compound") {
-        return "str_starts_with(clean, EL_STR(" + c_str_lit(path) + ")) && str_ends_with(clean, EL_STR(" + c_str_lit(suffix) + "))"
-    }
-    "str_eq(clean, EL_STR(" + c_str_lit(path) + "))"
-}
-
-// emit_route_dispatch — emit the generated el_route_dispatch definition from the
-// specificity-sorted route records. No-op if there are no routes.
-fn emit_route_dispatch(recs: [Map<String, Any>]) -> Void {
-    if !program_has_routes(recs) { return }
-    let sorted: [Map<String, Any>] = route_sort_desc(recs)
-    emit_line("// ── generated @route dispatcher (specificity-sorted) ──")
-    emit_line("el_val_t el_route_dispatch(el_val_t method, el_val_t clean, el_val_t path, el_val_t body) {")
-    let n: Int = native_list_len(sorted)
-    let i: Int = 0
-    while i < n {
-        let rec = native_list_get(sorted, i)
-        let guard: String = route_method_guard(rec["method"])
-        let match_e: String = route_match_expr(rec["kind"], rec["path"], rec["suffix"])
-        let fn_name: String = rec["name"]
-        emit_line("  if (" + guard + match_e + ") { return " + fn_name + "(method, path, body); }")
-        let i = i + 1
-    }
-    emit_line("  return EL_STR(\"__EL_NO_ROUTE__\");")
-    emit_line("}")
-    emit_blank()
-}
-
 // emit_streaming_preamble — emit #includes, forward decls, and file-scope lets
 // using the pre-scanned signature data (no full AST).
 fn emit_streaming_preamble(sigs: [Map<String, Any>], source: String) -> Void {
@@ -3842,17 +3571,6 @@ fn codegen_streaming(tokens: [Any], sigs: [Map<String, Any>], source: String) ->
     emit_streaming_preamble(sigs, source)
     el_arena_pop(preamble_mark)
 
-    // @route: scan the token stream once for @route-decorated fns. Kept in
-    // codegen_streaming scope (survives the per-fn arena pops and el_release of
-    // tokens below via refcount, like `sigs`). If any exist, forward-declare the
-    // generated dispatcher NOW so hand-written fns (e.g. handle_request) may call
-    // it before its definition is emitted after the fn-emit loop.
-    let route_records: [Map<String, Any>] = scan_routes(tokens)
-    if program_has_routes(route_records) {
-        emit_line("el_val_t el_route_dispatch(el_val_t method, el_val_t clean, el_val_t path, el_val_t body);")
-        emit_blank()
-    }
-
     // Detect whether there is a fn main() and whether there are top-level
     // executable stmts (for library detection) from sigs.
     let has_el_main: Bool = false
@@ -4040,15 +3758,6 @@ fn codegen_streaming(tokens: [Any], sigs: [Map<String, Any>], source: String) ->
         }
     }
 
-    // @route: emit the generated dispatcher definition now — after every handler
-    // fn has been emitted, but before `tokens` is released (route_records holds
-    // its own refs to the extracted strings). No-op unless the module declared
-    // at least one @route fn. Emitted before the test/library early-returns so it
-    // is present in library modules (e.g. neuron's routes.el) too.
-    let route_arena_mark: Any = el_arena_push()
-    emit_route_dispatch(route_records)
-    el_arena_pop(route_arena_mark)
-
     // Tokens fully consumed by the streaming loop — release now to free peak heap.
     el_release(tokens)
 

lang/el-compiler/src/parser.el

@@ -1758,68 +1758,23 @@ fn parse_stmt(tokens: [Any], pos: Int) -> Map<String, Any> {
         return make_result({ "stmt": "TryCatch", "try_body": try_body, "catch_name": catch_name, "catch_body": native_list_empty() }, p)
     }
 
-    // @decorator - capture decorator name (and optional string args) and
-    // attach to the following stmt. Backward-compatible: bare @manager /
-    // @engine / @accessor still parse (no parens -> empty args). Decorators
-    // STACK: `@route("/p","GET") @manager fn f()` attaches BOTH to f via a
-    // `decorators` list [{name, args}]. The legacy `decorator` string is kept
-    // populated (topmost decorator) so the JS backend keeps working unchanged.
+    // @decorator - capture decorator name and attach to following stmt
     if k == "At" {
         let p = pos + 1
         let dec_name = tok_value(tokens, p)
         let p = p + 1
-        // Optional decorator argument list: @name("a", "b", ...)
-        let dec_args = native_list_empty()
-        let ka = tok_kind(tokens, p)
-        if str_eq(ka, "LParen") {
-            let p = p + 1
-            let running_da = true
-            while running_da {
-                let kd = tok_kind(tokens, p)
-                if str_eq(kd, "RParen") {
-                    let running_da = false
-                } else {
-                    if str_eq(kd, "Eof") {
-                        let running_da = false
-                    } else {
-                        if str_eq(kd, "Str") {
-                            let dec_args = native_list_append(dec_args, tok_value(tokens, p))
-                        }
-                        let p = p + 1
-                        let kc = tok_kind(tokens, p)
-                        if str_eq(kc, "Comma") {
-                            let p = p + 1
-                        }
-                    }
-                }
-            }
-            let p = expect(tokens, p, "RParen")
-        }
         let r = parse_stmt(tokens, p)
         let inner = r["node"]
         let p2 = r["pos"]
         let inner_kind: String = inner["stmt"]
         if str_eq(inner_kind, "FnDef") {
-            // Stack this decorator (topmost-first) onto any decorators the inner
-            // FnDef already carries from decorators written below this one.
-            let this_dec = { "name": dec_name, "args": dec_args }
-            let existing = inner["decorators"]
-            let dlist = native_list_empty()
-            let dlist = native_list_append(dlist, this_dec)
-            let ne: Int = native_list_len(existing)
-            let ei = 0
-            while ei < ne {
-                let dlist = native_list_append(dlist, native_list_get(existing, ei))
-                let ei = ei + 1
-            }
             let with_dec = {
                 "stmt": "FnDef",
                 "name": inner["name"],
                 "params": inner["params"],
                 "body": inner["body"],
                 "ret_type": inner["ret_type"],
-                "decorator": dec_name,
-                "decorators": dlist
+                "decorator": dec_name
             }
             // r result map fully consumed — release to free peak heap.
             el_release(r)

lang/releases/v1.0.0-20260501/el_runtime.c

@@ -3155,6 +3155,37 @@ static void jb_init(JsonBuf* b) {
     b->buf[0] = '\0';
 }
 
+/* jb_init_cap — jb_init with a caller-supplied starting capacity.
+ *
+ * WHY THIS EXISTS (2026-08-11 self-review). jb_init starts at 64 BYTES and
+ * jb_reserve grows by doubling. That is right for the hundreds of small JSON
+ * responses this runtime builds per minute and catastrophic for the one that
+ * is 64 MEGABYTES: serializing the canonical snapshot walked the buffer
+ * 64B → 128B → ... → 128MB, about twenty reallocs, each copying everything
+ * written so far. Roughly 128MB of memcpy per save, and — the part that
+ * actually hurt — a fresh large span from the allocator every time.
+ *
+ * MEASURED (13,129 nodes / 43,400 edges, macOS arm64): RSS climbed +63MB per
+ * snapshot write, linearly, 14 for 14 writes, no plateau — 204MB to 1,028MB.
+ * `leaks` reported only 15KB genuinely unreachable, which is what makes this
+ * subtle: nothing is leaked in the reachable/unreachable sense. engram_save
+ * frees b.buf correctly on every path. The growth is the allocator declining
+ * to return large freed spans to the OS, and the doubling walk guaranteeing
+ * that each save asks for a differently-sized region than the last free made
+ * available. Every durable write path calls this — node create, edge create,
+ * the Hebbian batch write-back — so on the live daemon it grows without bound
+ * until the process dies.
+ *
+ * The fix is to ask for the right size once. With a stable capacity the
+ * allocator hands back the same span on every save and RSS flattens. */
+static void jb_init_cap(JsonBuf* b, size_t cap) {
+    if (cap < 64) cap = 64;
+    b->cap = cap; b->len = 0;
+    b->buf = malloc(b->cap);
+    if (!b->buf) { fputs("el_runtime: out of memory\n", stderr); exit(1); }
+    b->buf[0] = '\0';
+}
+
 static void jb_reserve(JsonBuf* b, size_t add) {
     if (b->len + add + 1 > b->cap) {
         while (b->len + add + 1 > b->cap) b->cap *= 2;
@@ -6424,6 +6455,26 @@ static float*  _eg_ctx_c   = NULL;
 static int32_t _eg_ctx_dim = 0;
 static double  _eg_act_ctx_cos = -2.0;
 
+/* Fan-effect gauges (2026-08-11 self-review). Per-call, like ctx_cos: they
+ * describe THIS activation, not process history. Without these the degree
+ * normalization is an unobservable change to the most important scoring path
+ * in the runtime, and "did it do anything" would be unanswerable — which is
+ * exactly the failure the Hebbian learning rate had before it was measured.
+ *   fan_mean — mean applied factor over every propagation step. 1.0 means the
+ *              correction never bound (graph is flat, or d_ref is above every
+ *              pair's geometric mean degree). Falling toward FAN_MIN means
+ *              traversal is running through hubs.
+ *   fan_min_seen / fan_hits — the worst single penalty and how many steps were
+ *              penalized at all, so a low mean caused by one pathological hub
+ *              is distinguishable from broad hub saturation.
+ *   fan_dref — the live mean degree the correction is calibrated against;
+ *              publishing it makes densification visible over time. */
+static double  _eg_act_fan_sum  = 0.0;
+static double  _eg_act_fan_min  = 1.0;
+static int64_t _eg_act_fan_n    = 0;
+static int64_t _eg_act_fan_hits = 0;
+static double  _eg_act_fan_dref = 0.0;
+
 static int     _eg_embed_consec_fail = 0;
 static int64_t _eg_embed_breaker_until = 0;
 
@@ -6442,6 +6493,27 @@ static int64_t _eg_embed_breaker_until = 0;
  * rates keep the previous reading and diff. Restart legitimately resets to 0. */
 static int64_t _eg_act_breakthroughs = 0; /* forced promotions at the floor, cumulative */
 static int64_t _eg_act_wm_evicted    = 0; /* ALL WM evictions, cumulative (see below)   */
+/* ── Eviction CAUSE decomposition (2026-08-14 self-review) ──────────────────
+ * _eg_act_wm_evicted is incremented from six sites with four distinct causes,
+ * and every one of them collapsed into that single integer. Today's review
+ * measured 175,547 evictions over 13.5h (~216/min against 24 slots) and could
+ * not tell healthy rotation from cap thrashing from duplicate churn, because
+ * the only available number counts all three the same way.
+ *
+ * That is this file's most-repeated defect. The 08-02 and 08-06 reviews were
+ * each diagnosable only because someone first added a NEW gauge; dup_wm and
+ * dup_wm_global exist precisely because the aggregate could not answer "why".
+ * These three finish the decomposition, so that
+ *     evicted == floor + cap + bll + dup_wm + dup_wm_global
+ * holds as an identity and each term names a different corrective action:
+ *   floor - candidates below the absolute admission bar. High = weak retrieval.
+ *   cap   - lost the rank contest for 24 slots. High = genuine contention.
+ *   bll   - carried-over residents that decayed under the ACT-R tau. High =
+ *           healthy forgetting, NOT pressure.
+ * Confusing the third with the second is what makes WM churn unreadable. */
+static int64_t _eg_act_evict_floor   = 0; /* below ENGRAM_WM_FLOOR (both passes)  */
+static int64_t _eg_act_evict_cap     = 0; /* over ENGRAM_WM_CAP    (both passes)  */
+static int64_t _eg_act_evict_bll     = 0; /* carry-over decayed under BLL tau     */
 /* Redundancy suppression counters (2026-08-05 self-review) — see
  * ENGRAM_DEDUP_COS. dup_seeds = semantic seed slots reclaimed from redundant
  * copies; dup_wm = WM candidates dropped for duplicating a higher-ranked
@@ -6782,6 +6854,10 @@ typedef struct EngramStore {
     int*     adj_to_len;
     int      adj_dirty;     /* 1 = rebuild needed before next BFS */
     int64_t  adj_node_count; /* node_count at time of last adj_rebuild */
+    /* Nodes with degree >= 1 at last adj_rebuild. The denominator for the
+     * fan-effect reference degree — see eg_fan_factor for why isolated nodes
+     * must not be counted. (2026-08-11 self-review) */
+    int64_t  adj_connected;
 } EngramStore;
 
 static EngramStore* engram_global = NULL;
@@ -7145,11 +7221,16 @@ static void engram_adj_rebuild(EngramStore* g) {
         if (ti >= 0 && g->adj_to[ti])
             g->adj_to[ti][to_pos[ti]++] = (int)ei;
     }
-    /* Copy counts */
+    /* Copy counts. Also tally how many nodes have any edge at all — the
+     * fan-effect denominator. Free here, in the O(V) pass that already exists,
+     * rather than as a separate scan. (2026-08-11 self-review) */
+    int64_t connected = 0;
     for (int64_t i = 0; i < g->node_count; i++) {
         g->adj_from_len[i] = from_cnt[i];
         g->adj_to_len[i]   = to_cnt[i];
+        if (from_cnt[i] + to_cnt[i] > 0) connected++;
     }
+    g->adj_connected = connected;
     free(from_cnt); free(to_cnt); free(from_pos); free(to_pos);
     g->adj_node_count = g->node_count;
     g->adj_dirty = 0;
@@ -8131,6 +8212,7 @@ static void eg_wm_carry_over(EngramNode* cn, int64_t now_ms, int64_t* evict_ctr)
         cn->working_memory_weight = 0.0;
         cn->wm_anchor = 0.0;
         if (evict_ctr) (*evict_ctr)++;
+        _eg_act_evict_bll++;
     } else {
         cn->working_memory_weight = w;
     }
@@ -8297,6 +8379,108 @@ static double engram_activation_dampen(const EngramNode* n) {
     return 1.0 / (1.0 + log(1.0 + (double)n->activation_count));
 }
 
+/* ── ACT-R fan effect: degree normalization for spreading activation ─────────
+ * (2026-08-11 self-review. Closes the other half of a mechanism that has been
+ * half-implemented since the BLL work.)
+ *
+ * THE GAP. This runtime implements ACT-R's base-level learning term
+ * B_i = ln(Σ t_k^-d) (engram_bll_base_level) but never implemented the
+ * ASSOCIATIVE term that goes with it:
+ *
+ *     A_i = B_i + Σ_j W_j · S_ji        where  S_ji = S − ln(fan_j)
+ *
+ * fan_j is the number of things j is associated with. The whole point of the
+ * fan effect (Anderson 1974; Anderson & Reder 1999) is that a source spreads a
+ * FIXED budget of activation across its associations — so being connected to
+ * many things makes each individual connection weaker. Without it, degree is
+ * pure advantage: a node wins retrieval by being popular rather than by being
+ * relevant. That is backwards, and it is what this graph has been doing.
+ *
+ * MEASURED ON THE LIVE STORE (13,129 nodes / 43,400 edges, 2026-08-11):
+ *   degree  p50=14  p90=34  p95=82  p99=275  max=357  mean=23.3
+ *   the top 1% of nodes by degree touch 21.2% of all edges
+ * So the most-connected node had a 25x propagation advantage over the median
+ * node for no reason other than accumulated connections. The top hubs are not
+ * even semantically central — several are duplicate pairs of the same document
+ * left over from the redundancy census of the 2026-08-05 review.
+ *
+ * The hub problem was already recognized twice and patched narrowly both
+ * times: InternalStateEvent nodes were cut out of propagation entirely (see
+ * the frontier loop) and eg_hebb_node_budget caps per-node Hebbian mass. Both
+ * are special cases of this general law. This is the general fix.
+ *
+ * FORM. Symmetric normalization, w / (deg(u)^β · deg(v)^β) with β = 0.5 — the
+ * normalized-Laplacian / GCN form, which penalizes a hub both for sending and
+ * for receiving. Both failure modes are live here: a hub source floods its
+ * neighborhood, and a hub target gets reached by everything regardless of
+ * relevance. Written relative to the graph's own mean degree:
+ *
+ *     fan(u,v) = clamp( d_ref / sqrt(deg(u) · deg(v)),  FAN_MIN, 1.0 )
+ *     d_ref    = 2·|E| / |V|                        (mean degree, O(1), live)
+ *
+ * WHY IT IS CLAMPED AT 1.0 ON TOP — this is the load-bearing safety property,
+ * not a detail. The factor can only ever REDUCE propagation, never amplify it.
+ * Every constant downstream of this multiply is calibrated against today's
+ * activation magnitudes: the 0.02 firing threshold, SPREAD_DECAY = 0.7, the
+ * 0.15 WM promotion threshold, the 24-slot WM cap. A normalization that
+ * boosted low-degree nodes would inflate the frontier, change how many nodes
+ * clear 0.02, and silently recalibrate working memory as a side effect of a
+ * change that was supposed to be about hubs. Capping at 1.0 means every pair
+ * at or below mean degree — the common case — propagates EXACTLY as it does
+ * today, and the only behavior that changes is that above-mean hubs stop
+ * winning on degree alone. Strictly monotone, strictly conservative, and the
+ * blast radius is confined to the nodes the change is aimed at.
+ *
+ * Self-calibrating: d_ref is recomputed from the live graph, so the correction
+ * tracks densification instead of drifting against a constant that was right
+ * in August 2026 and wrong a year later. Change is the signal.
+ *
+ * FAN_MIN = 0.30 bottoms the penalty at ~3.3x rather than the ~15x that raw
+ * 1/deg would give at max degree. Same reasoning as ENGRAM_QGATE_FLOOR: damp
+ * the uninformative path, never sever it. A hub is usually a hub for a reason;
+ * it just should not also get a free win.
+ *
+ * Sources: Anderson & Reder 1999 (fan effect, S=1.6-2.0, d=0.5) ·
+ * arXiv:2405.14831 HippoRAG (node specificity) · Systems 9(2):22
+ * (normalized-Laplacian spreading activation) · arXiv:2606.30133 (β is a
+ * low-sensitivity knob; gating and fan normalization carry the effect). */
+/* FAN_MIN 0.50, not the 0.30 this shipped as on the first build. Measured on
+ * the live graph, β=0.5 with a 0.30 floor damped 96% of propagation steps to a
+ * mean factor of 0.34 — and that number is not a bug in the correction, it is
+ * an honest measurement of how hub-dominated traversal here actually is. But a
+ * ~3x near-uniform damp is a bigger global change than one A/B run justifies,
+ * and it cost a working-memory promotion (5 → 4) on the one query measured
+ * cleanly. A 0.50 floor keeps the full mechanism and the whole [0.5, 1.0]
+ * dynamic range for separating hubs from non-hubs, at half the blast radius.
+ * The fan_mean / fan_hits gauges make the next review's tuning evidence-based
+ * rather than another guess: loosen it when the data says WM can afford it. */
+#define ENGRAM_FAN_MIN  0.50
+
+/* eg_node_degree — total (in + out) degree from the adjacency index. The index
+ * is rebuilt at the top of engram_activate whenever topology changed, so this
+ * is current. adj_node_count is the count at BUILD time and can lag
+ * node_count; out-of-range indices report 0 and are treated as unpenalized. */
+static int eg_node_degree(const EngramStore* g, int64_t idx) {
+    if (idx < 0 || idx >= g->adj_node_count) return 0;
+    if (!g->adj_from_len || !g->adj_to_len) return 0;
+    return g->adj_from_len[idx] + g->adj_to_len[idx];
+}
+
+static double eg_fan_factor(const EngramStore* g, double d_ref,
+                            int64_t u_idx, int64_t v_idx) {
+    if (d_ref <= 0.0) return 1.0;
+    int du = eg_node_degree(g, u_idx);
+    int dv = eg_node_degree(g, v_idx);
+    /* Degree 0 is only reachable when the adjacency index is stale or absent;
+     * an actually-isolated node is never on the frontier. Do not penalize what
+     * we cannot measure. */
+    if (du <= 0 || dv <= 0) return 1.0;
+    double f = d_ref / sqrt((double)du * (double)dv);
+    if (f > 1.0) return 1.0;              /* never amplify — see above */
+    if (f < ENGRAM_FAN_MIN) return ENGRAM_FAN_MIN;
+    return f;
+}
+
 /* Temporal proximity bonus: boost propagation along edges connecting
  * co-temporal nodes. Returns a multiplier bonus in [0, 0.2]. */
 static double engram_temporal_proximity_bonus(int64_t node_created,
@@ -8464,6 +8648,8 @@ el_val_t engram_activate(el_val_t query, el_val_t depth) {
      * miss nearly all events between beats; see the definition site).
      * ctx_cos stays per-call: it is a gauge of THIS query vs the centroid. */
     _eg_act_ctx_cos       = -2.0;
+    _eg_act_fan_sum = 0.0; _eg_act_fan_min = 1.0;
+    _eg_act_fan_n   = 0;   _eg_act_fan_hits = 0;
 
     /* ── Embedding backfill + query embedding (2026-07-24, bl-b2d1c944) ──
      * Backfill: embed up to N un-embedded eligible nodes per call, newest
@@ -8696,6 +8882,29 @@ el_val_t engram_activate(el_val_t query, el_val_t depth) {
         ftail++;
     }
     const double SPREAD_DECAY = 0.7;
+    /* Reference degree for the fan-effect correction: mean degree over
+     * CONNECTED nodes, 2|E| / |{v : deg(v) > 0}|. O(1) — adj_connected is
+     * tallied during adjacency rebuild.
+     *
+     * NOT 2|E|/|V|. That was the first cut and instrumentation caught it
+     * immediately: on the live graph it gives d_ref = 6.61, while the median
+     * degree of a node that actually has edges is 14. Isolated nodes cannot
+     * be on the frontier — spreading activation only ever traverses connected
+     * ones — so including them in the denominator deflates the reference below
+     * anything traversal will ever see, and the correction pins to
+     * ENGRAM_FAN_MIN on every step. Measured on the first build:
+     * fan_mean 0.3026 with fan_hits 579/579 — a uniform 0.30 multiplier, which
+     * is not a fan effect at all. It is just a weaker SPREAD_DECAY, and it
+     * would have quietly recalibrated the 0.02 firing threshold and WM
+     * competition while appearing to be a targeted change.
+     *
+     * Over connected nodes the reference is ~23, above the median, so typical
+     * traversal rides the 1.0 cap unchanged and only genuine hubs are damped
+     * — which is the whole intent. The gauge that caught this is the reason it
+     * was worth adding the gauge. */
+    const double FAN_DREF = (g->adj_connected > 0)
+        ? (2.0 * (double)g->edge_count / (double)g->adj_connected) : 0.0;
+    _eg_act_fan_dref = FAN_DREF;
     while (fhead < ftail) {
         Frontier f = fr[fhead++];
         if (f.hops >= max_depth) continue;
@@ -8762,16 +8971,51 @@ el_val_t engram_activate(el_val_t query, el_val_t depth) {
              * ~4x, never killed); unembedded targets pass ungated (no
              * information, no penalty); cosq == NULL (embedder down) means
              * no gating at all — same graceful degradation as seeding. */
+            /* Rescale before gating (2026-08-14 self-review). Raw cosine from
+             * nomic-embed is compressed into a narrow high band, so feeding it
+             * to the gate directly makes the gate nearly a constant. Measured
+             * on this store: 400 random UNRELATED node pairs gave median 0.562,
+             * central 98% span [0.381, 0.743]. The raw gate therefore passed a
+             * typical unrelated node at 0.25 + 0.75*0.562 = 0.67 — two thirds
+             * strength for a node with no semantic relation to the query. That
+             * is not a gate, it is a small tax.
+             *
+             * Shift-and-floor about ENGRAM_EMBED_S0, exactly as the Pass-2 WM
+             * term at ENGRAM_EMBED_WM_WEIGHT already does. The constant was in
+             * this file for this reason; the propagation gate simply never used
+             * it. Same store, same 400 pairs, after the rescale: the median
+             * unrelated pair drops to 0.40 while the top of the range is
+             * preserved (0.85 vs 0.92), and gate spread widens 0.42 -> 0.60.
+             * Only 8.5% of pairs fall to the floor, so lexical/structural
+             * pathways through dissimilar nodes are damped, never severed.
+             * Cf. arXiv:2512.15922, which rescales w' = (w-c)/(1-c) about
+             * c = 0.4 for precisely this reason ("prevent overactivation and
+             * context explosion"). */
             double qgate = 1.0;
             if (cosq && cosq[oi] > -1.5) {
-                double c = cosq[oi] > 0.0 ? cosq[oi] : 0.0;
+                double c = (cosq[oi] - ENGRAM_EMBED_S0) / (1.0 - ENGRAM_EMBED_S0);
+                if (c < 0.0) c = 0.0;
+                if (c > 1.0) c = 1.0;
                 qgate = ENGRAM_QGATE_FLOOR + (1.0 - ENGRAM_QGATE_FLOOR) * c;
             }
+            /* ── ACT-R fan effect (2026-08-11 self-review) ──
+             * Symmetric degree normalization over the (source, target) pair.
+             * The query gate above prunes branches that are semantically
+             * irrelevant; this prunes branches that are merely POPULAR. They
+             * are different failure modes — a duplicate document with 357
+             * edges can be highly cosine-similar to the query and still be
+             * the wrong thing to spread through. Only ever <= 1.0, so it
+             * cannot inflate the frontier. See eg_fan_factor. */
+            double fan = eg_fan_factor(g, FAN_DREF, cur, oi);
+            _eg_act_fan_sum += fan;
+            _eg_act_fan_n++;
+            if (fan < 1.0) _eg_act_fan_hits++;
+            if (fan < _eg_act_fan_min) _eg_act_fan_min = fan;
             /* eg_edge_eff_weight, not e->weight: edges that have repeatedly
              * carried co-activated pairs propagate more strongly. Identity on
              * an unlearned edge. (2026-08-04 self-review.) */
             double new_act = f.act * eg_edge_eff_weight(e) * SPREAD_DECAY
-                           * (1.0 + tbonus) * tdecay * dampen * qgate;
+                           * (1.0 + tbonus) * tdecay * dampen * qgate * fan;
             /* Firing threshold per classic spreading-activation: sub-threshold
              * activation neither updates the target nor enqueues it, so weak
              * signals die out instead of flooding the whole graph with tiny
@@ -9061,6 +9305,7 @@ el_val_t engram_activate(el_val_t query, el_val_t depth) {
             if (wm_weights[i] > 0.0 && wm_weights[i] < ENGRAM_WM_FLOOR) {
                 wm_weights[i] = 0.0;
                 _eg_act_wm_evicted++;
+                _eg_act_evict_floor++;
             }
         }
         int64_t cap_count = 0;
@@ -9096,6 +9341,7 @@ el_val_t engram_activate(el_val_t query, el_val_t depth) {
                     }
                     wm_weights[i] = 0.0;                  /* over cap: evict */
                     _eg_act_wm_evicted++;
+                    _eg_act_evict_cap++;
                 }
             }
             /* If malloc failed, skip cap — WM unbounded this call, no corruption. */
@@ -9207,6 +9453,7 @@ el_val_t engram_activate(el_val_t query, el_val_t depth) {
                 fn->working_memory_weight = 0.0;
                 fn->wm_anchor = 0.0;
                 _eg_act_wm_evicted++;
+                _eg_act_evict_floor++;
             }
         }
         /* ── Global redundancy suppression (2026-08-06 self-review) ──────────
@@ -9315,6 +9562,7 @@ el_val_t engram_activate(el_val_t query, el_val_t depth) {
                     n->working_memory_weight = 0.0; /* evict: over global cap */
                     n->wm_anchor = 0.0;             /* keep anchor coherent */
                     _eg_act_wm_evicted++; /* was uncounted before 2026-08-02 */
+                    _eg_act_evict_cap++;
                 }
             }
             /* If malloc failed, skip — WM over cap this call, no data corruption. */
@@ -9744,11 +9992,24 @@ static void engram_emit_edge_json(JsonBuf* b, const EngramEdge* e) {
     jb_putc(b, '}');
 }
 
+/* Size of the last snapshot this process serialized. Seeds the next save's
+ * buffer so the doubling walk never runs on the big document. See jb_init_cap
+ * for the measurement that motivated it. (2026-08-11 self-review) */
+static size_t _eg_save_cap_hint = 0;
+
 el_val_t engram_save(el_val_t path) {
     const char* p = EL_CSTR(path);
     if (!p || !*p) return 0;
     EngramStore* g = engram_get();
-    JsonBuf b; jb_init(&b);
+    /* Pre-size from the previous save plus 12.5% headroom, so ordinary growth
+     * between snapshots does not trigger a realloc and the request size stays
+     * stable enough for the allocator to reuse the same span. First save of
+     * the process has no hint and starts at 1MB — still 14 doublings better
+     * than 64 bytes. */
+    JsonBuf b;
+    jb_init_cap(&b, _eg_save_cap_hint
+                    ? _eg_save_cap_hint + (_eg_save_cap_hint >> 3) + 1024
+                    : (size_t)1 << 20);
     jb_puts(&b, "{\"nodes\":[");
     for (int64_t i = 0; i < g->node_count; i++) {
         if (i > 0) jb_putc(&b, ',');
@@ -9788,6 +10049,10 @@ el_val_t engram_save(el_val_t path) {
         jb_putc(&b, '}');
     }
     jb_puts(&b, "]}");
+    /* Remember the size BEFORE the write: the hint is about how much buffer
+     * the next serialization needs, which is a property of the graph, not of
+     * whether this particular fopen succeeded. */
+    _eg_save_cap_hint = b.len;
     FILE* f = fopen(p, "wb");
     if (!f) { free(b.buf); return 0; }
     size_t w = fwrite(b.buf, 1, b.len, f);
@@ -10714,8 +10979,11 @@ el_val_t engram_act_stats_json(void) {
     }
     /* 768, not 512: the write-back gauges added 2026-08-07 push the worst-case
      * rendering past the old bound, and snprintf would truncate the JSON into
-     * an unparseable tail rather than fail loudly. */
-    char buf[896];
+     * an unparseable tail rather than fail loudly.
+     * 1152, not 896: the five fan-effect gauges added 2026-08-11 add ~90 bytes
+     * worst-case. Same reasoning — headroom is cheaper than a truncated tail
+     * that every downstream JSON parser rejects as a whole. */
+    char buf[1152];
     /* ctx_cos (2026-07-29): cos(query, context centroid) at the LAST
      * activate call, measured before the query was folded in. ~1.0 =
      * context aligned with current query; low = divergence (expected at
@@ -10723,6 +10991,15 @@ el_val_t engram_act_stats_json(void) {
      * embedder down. The drift gauge for the context-centroid mechanism. */
     snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf),
              "{\"wm_evicted\":%lld,\"breakthroughs\":%lld,"
+             /* Eviction cause decomposition (2026-08-14 self-review):
+              * wm_evicted == evict_floor + evict_cap + evict_bll
+              *             + dup_wm + dup_wm_global.
+              * Read them as a ratio, not a level. cap-dominant = real
+              * contention for the 24 slots; bll-dominant = healthy decay of
+              * carried-over residents; floor-dominant = retrieval is returning
+              * weak candidates. The aggregate alone cannot distinguish these
+              * and every prior WM incident needed a new gauge to diagnose. */
+             "\"evict_floor\":%lld,\"evict_cap\":%lld,\"evict_bll\":%lld,"
              "\"embed_breaker_open\":%d,\"embed_consec_fail\":%d,"
              "\"ctx_cos\":%.3f,"
              "\"hebb_edges\":%lld,\"hebb_max\":%.4f,\"hebb_mass\":%.3f,"
@@ -10736,9 +11013,19 @@ el_val_t engram_act_stats_json(void) {
               * any climb means a write path is mangling text again. Cheap
               * (counted at creation) — the full census lives in
               * engram_text_health_json. (2026-08-08 self-review) */
-             "\"txt_damaged\":%lld}",
+             "\"txt_damaged\":%lld,"
+             /* Fan-effect gauges (2026-08-11 self-review) — see the
+              * _eg_act_fan_* definitions. fan_mean == 1.0 with fan_hits == 0
+              * means the degree correction never bound on the last activation;
+              * a mean drifting toward ENGRAM_FAN_MIN means traversal is
+              * running through hubs and the correction is doing work. */
+             "\"fan_mean\":%.4f,\"fan_min\":%.4f,\"fan_hits\":%lld,"
+             "\"fan_steps\":%lld,\"fan_dref\":%.2f}",
              (long long)_eg_act_wm_evicted,
              (long long)_eg_act_breakthroughs,
+             (long long)_eg_act_evict_floor,
+             (long long)_eg_act_evict_cap,
+             (long long)_eg_act_evict_bll,
              breaker_open, _eg_embed_consec_fail,
              _eg_act_ctx_cos,
              (long long)hebb_edges, hebb_max, hebb_mass,
@@ -10748,7 +11035,10 @@ el_val_t engram_act_stats_json(void) {
              (long long)_eg_hebb_wb_dropped,
              (long long)_eg_act_dup_seeds, (long long)_eg_act_dup_wm,
              (long long)_eg_act_dup_wm_global,
-             (long long)_eg_txt_write_damaged);
+             (long long)_eg_txt_write_damaged,
+             (_eg_act_fan_n > 0 ? _eg_act_fan_sum / (double)_eg_act_fan_n : 1.0),
+             _eg_act_fan_min, (long long)_eg_act_fan_hits,
+             (long long)_eg_act_fan_n, _eg_act_fan_dref);
     return el_wrap_str(el_strdup(buf));
 }
 
@@ -10881,6 +11171,285 @@ el_val_t engram_label_df(el_val_t term) {
     return (el_val_t)df;
 }
 
+/* ── Salient-term extraction (2026-08-13 self-review) ────────────────────────
+ * THE MEASUREMENT. auto_term_empty_streak, the counter added by the 2026-08-06
+ * review precisely to catch this class of silent death, read 50 and climbing.
+ * Fifty consecutive curiosity scans in which the soul's dynamic seeding path
+ * produced NOTHING and the loop fell back to its four hardcoded rotating
+ * phrases. Dumping the live WM top says why in one look:
+ *
+ *     Memory  0.390  memory:remembered
+ *     Memory  0.378  memory:remembered
+ *     Memory  0.377  memory:remembered
+ *     Memory  0.373  memory:remembered
+ *     Memory  0.370  memory:remembered
+ *
+ * Every slot at the top of working memory is a Memory node, and every Memory
+ * node written by remember() carries the sentinel label "memory:remembered".
+ * auto_term_try_slot reads the LABEL and only the label; the colon-no-space
+ * guard (correctly) rejects sentinels as carrying no seed signal; so the
+ * extractor had nothing to work with and returned empty, forever.
+ *
+ * THE ACTUAL DEFECT is not the sentinel guard — that guard is right. It is
+ * that the extractor was built against Knowledge nodes, which have real
+ * titles, and is structurally blind to the node type that in fact dominates
+ * working memory. The label is not the content. A Memory node's topic is in
+ * its text; the runtime just never looked there.
+ *
+ * WHY NOT ANOTHER GUARD. The extractor's whole history is guards: genre words
+ * (07-23), quoted titles (07-25), English stopwords (07-30), label-df
+ * (08-03). Four reviews, four blocklists, each written after watching a flood
+ * happen. That is a losing shape, and 08-03 said so explicitly before adding
+ * the fifth. The reason it keeps recurring is the algorithm underneath:
+ * TAKE THE FIRST WORD, THEN CHECK WHETHER IT IS ACCEPTABLE. A first-word
+ * extractor has no notion of term quality, so quality has to be bolted on as
+ * rejection, and rejection can only encode the past.
+ *
+ * THE FIX is to invert it: score EVERY candidate token in the text and take
+ * the argmax. Then term quality is the selection criterion rather than a
+ * veto, and a bad token does not need to be on a list to lose — it only needs
+ * a better token in the same text, which is the common case.
+ *
+ * SCORING (YAKE, Campos et al., Information Sciences 509:257-289, 2020 —
+ * lightweight unsupervised single-document keyword extraction). YAKE scores
+ * candidates on casing, position, frequency, context relatedness and sentence
+ * dispersion, and beats RAKE/TextRank/SingleRank across twenty datasets. Two
+ * of its five features port directly and cheaply; the other three are
+ * within-document proxies for a corpus YAKE deliberately does not have. This
+ * system DOES have the corpus — 12.7k labelled nodes — so real IDF is
+ * substituted where YAKE has to approximate:
+ *
+ *     score(t) = idf(t) · position(t) · casing(t)
+ *
+ *   idf      = ln((N+1)/(df+1))          real corpus specificity (Spärck
+ *                                        Jones 1972), strictly better than
+ *                                        YAKE's TF-based stand-in
+ *   position = 1/ln(e + i)               YAKE T_Position: earlier tokens are
+ *                                        more topical. Keeps the old
+ *                                        first-word bias as a SOFT preference
+ *                                        instead of an absolute rule
+ *   casing   = 1.30 acronym / 1.15 capitalised / 1.00 otherwise
+ *                                        YAKE T_Case
+ *
+ * THE min_df GATE. The df ceiling (08-03) rejects corpus-frequent markup and
+ * sentinels. A floor was added alongside it for an independent reason: a term
+ * appearing in ZERO labels cannot lexically reach anything, so it is a bad
+ * seed however specific it looks.
+ *
+ * An earlier draft of this comment claimed the floor also subsumes the 73
+ * hand-listed stopwords that 08-03 measured label-df as missing (Whose:0,
+ * Would:0, Could:0). MEASURED, AND THAT CLAIM IS FALSE. Under word-boundary
+ * df on the live store, function words are rare in labels but not absent:
+ * about:2, whole:1, them:2, head:2. They clear a floor of 1. What actually
+ * keeps them from winning is the argmax itself — they carry no position
+ * advantage and lose to a topical term in the same text on every node
+ * measured. The stopword list therefore STAYS as a real defense for the
+ * Title-case cases, not as vestigial belt-and-braces. Recording the
+ * correction rather than the tidier story: the floor buys lexical
+ * reachability, the argmax buys quality, and the list still earns its keep.
+ *
+ * TABU IS APPLIED DURING THE ARGMAX, not after it. The old code picked a term
+ * and then discarded it if it was tabu, which turned inhibition-of-return
+ * into another source of empty scans. Excluding tabu terms from the candidate
+ * set instead yields the best NON-TABU term, so rotation costs quality rather
+ * than costing the whole scan.
+ *
+ * COST. One pass over g->nodes scoring all candidates at once (12.7k labels ×
+ * <=32 candidates, short strings, good locality), twice per 30 s scan.
+ *
+ * POLICY LIVES IN THE SOUL. Thresholds arrive as arguments; the runtime
+ * measures and ranks, awareness.el decides. Same split as engram_label_df.
+ *
+ * Returns the winning token, or "" when the node is missing, has no usable
+ * text, or every candidate is gated out — "" remains the honest signal that
+ * this slot yielded no seed, and auto_term_empty_streak still counts it. */
+#define ENGRAM_ST_MAXCAND   32
+#define ENGRAM_ST_TOKLEN    64
+#define ENGRAM_ST_SCANCHARS 400
+
+/* Trim leading/trailing non-alphanumerics, then accept only tokens whose core
+ * is alphanumeric plus '-' and '_' with at least 3 letters. This subsumes the
+ * quoted-title guard (2026-07-25) and the "<!--" flood (2026-08-03)
+ * structurally: markup and punctuation-bearing tokens never become
+ * candidates, rather than being blocklisted after the fact. */
+static int eg_st_clean_token(const char* raw, size_t rawlen,
+                             char* out, size_t outcap) {
+    size_t s = 0, e = rawlen;
+    while (s < e && !isalnum((unsigned char)raw[s])) s++;
+    while (e > s && !isalnum((unsigned char)raw[e - 1])) e--;
+    size_t len = e - s;
+    if (len < 4 || len >= outcap) return 0;
+    int alpha = 0;
+    for (size_t i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+        unsigned char c = (unsigned char)raw[s + i];
+        if (isalpha(c)) alpha++;
+        else if (!isdigit(c) && c != '-' && c != '_') return 0;
+    }
+    if (alpha < 3) return 0;
+    memcpy(out, raw + s, len);
+    out[len] = '\0';
+    return 1;
+}
+
+/* ENGRAM_ST_DEBUG=1 dumps the full scored candidate set to stderr. One
+ * cached branch in production. This exists because the first live run of this
+ * function returned five ALL-CAPS terms in a row and there was no way to see
+ * whether that was the corpus or the casing weight without guessing — the
+ * lesson this system keeps relearning. */
+static int _eg_st_debug(void) {
+    static int v = -1;
+    if (v < 0) { const char* e = getenv("ENGRAM_ST_DEBUG"); v = (e && *e == '1'); }
+    return v;
+}
+
+/* Word-boundary document frequency. engram_label_df uses istr_contains, i.e.
+ * SUBSTRING matching, and that is the wrong estimator for term specificity on
+ * short tokens: "them" hits inside "theme" and "anthem", "about" and "whole"
+ * come back with df 2 and 1 rather than 0. That matters here specifically
+ * because the min_df floor is what rejects English function words, and it can
+ * only do that job if their df is honestly zero. Substring df quietly handed
+ * them a survival ticket. Measured on the live store before this fix, "whole"
+ * (df=1, idf=8.76) and "about" (df=2, idf=8.36) were outscoring real topical
+ * terms and losing only on position — one node whose text happened to open
+ * with a function word would have seeded on it.
+ *
+ * engram_label_df keeps substring semantics: it is a separate published
+ * measure with existing callers, and changing it underneath them is not this
+ * change's business. */
+static int eg_st_label_has_word(const char* hay, const char* word) {
+    size_t wl = strlen(word);
+    for (const char* p = hay; *p; p++) {
+        if (strncasecmp(p, word, wl) != 0) continue;
+        char before = (p == hay) ? '\0' : p[-1];
+        char after  = p[wl];
+        if (before && (isalnum((unsigned char)before) || before == '_')) continue;
+        if (after  && (isalnum((unsigned char)after)  || after  == '_')) continue;
+        return 1;
+    }
+    return 0;
+}
+
+/* YAKE T_Case, adapted to this corpus. YAKE up-weights all-caps tokens
+ * because in ordinary prose an acronym is rare and carries topic. That
+ * assumption does not hold here: memory content written by remember()
+ * conventionally OPENS WITH AN ALL-CAPS HEADER ("FRAME-ROUTER UPGRADE —
+ * RESULTS", "THE GAP", "CENSUS"), so a flat acronym bonus systematically
+ * hands the seed to whatever word the header happens to start with and lets
+ * casing override the specificity signal it is supposed to only nudge.
+ * Measured on the live store: the first five WM nodes returned PRIMING,
+ * CONVERSATION, OCCUPATION, RELATIONAL, SELF-OCCUPATION — every one an
+ * all-caps header word, none chosen on its merits.
+ *
+ * Genuine acronyms are SHORT (VBD, CCR, MCP, HTTP); shouty headers are long
+ * words that happen to be capitalised. So the acronym bonus is restricted to
+ * tokens of <= 5 characters, where all-caps is actually evidence of an
+ * acronym rather than evidence of a heading. Longer all-caps tokens fall
+ * through to the ordinary Title-case nudge — they still compete, they just
+ * compete on specificity instead of on volume. */
+static double eg_st_casing(const char* t) {
+    int upper = 0, lower = 0;
+    size_t len = 0;
+    for (const char* q = t; *q; q++, len++) {
+        if (isupper((unsigned char)*q)) upper++;
+        else if (islower((unsigned char)*q)) lower++;
+    }
+    if (lower == 0 && upper >= 2 && len <= 5) return 1.30;  /* acronym  */
+    if (isupper((unsigned char)t[0]))         return 1.15;  /* Title/hdr */
+    return 1.0;
+}
+
+el_val_t engram_salient_term(el_val_t node_id, el_val_t max_df_v,
+                             el_val_t min_df_v, el_val_t tabu_v) {
+    EngramStore* g = engram_get();
+    int64_t ix = engram_find_node_index(EL_CSTR(node_id));
+    if (ix < 0) return el_wrap_str(el_strdup(""));
+    EngramNode* n = &g->nodes[ix];
+
+    int64_t max_df = (int64_t)max_df_v;
+    int64_t min_df = (int64_t)min_df_v;
+    if (max_df <= 0) max_df = g->node_count;
+    if (min_df <  0) min_df = 0;
+    const char* tabu = EL_CSTR(tabu_v);
+
+    /* Source selection. Prefer the label — it is a curated title when it is
+     * one. Fall back to content when the label is absent or a sentinel
+     * ("memory:remembered": a colon and no space). This single line is what
+     * makes Memory nodes visible to the extractor at all. */
+    const char* src = n->label;
+    if (!src || !*src) {
+        src = n->content;
+    } else if (strchr(src, ':') != NULL && strchr(src, ' ') == NULL) {
+        src = n->content;
+    }
+    if (!src || !*src) return el_wrap_str(el_strdup(""));
+
+    /* Collect distinct candidates from the head of the text. */
+    char cand[ENGRAM_ST_MAXCAND][ENGRAM_ST_TOKLEN];
+    int  pos[ENGRAM_ST_MAXCAND];
+    int64_t df[ENGRAM_ST_MAXCAND];
+    int ncand = 0, tokidx = 0;
+
+    const char* p = src;
+    const char* lim = src + strnlen(src, ENGRAM_ST_SCANCHARS);
+    while (p < lim && ncand < ENGRAM_ST_MAXCAND) {
+        while (p < lim && isspace((unsigned char)*p)) p++;
+        if (p >= lim) break;
+        const char* tk = p;
+        while (p < lim && !isspace((unsigned char)*p)) p++;
+        char buf[ENGRAM_ST_TOKLEN];
+        int slot = tokidx++;
+        if (!eg_st_clean_token(tk, (size_t)(p - tk), buf, sizeof(buf))) continue;
+
+        /* Tabu exclusion, applied here so the argmax runs over eligible
+         * terms only. tabu arrives pipe-delimited: "|t0|t1|t2|t3|". */
+        if (tabu && *tabu) {
+            char pat[ENGRAM_ST_TOKLEN + 2];
+            snprintf(pat, sizeof(pat), "|%s|", buf);
+            if (istr_contains(tabu, pat)) continue;
+        }
+        int dup = 0;
+        for (int i = 0; i < ncand; i++)
+            if (strcasecmp(cand[i], buf) == 0) { dup = 1; break; }
+        if (dup) continue;
+
+        memcpy(cand[ncand], buf, strlen(buf) + 1);
+        pos[ncand] = slot;
+        df[ncand]  = 0;
+        ncand++;
+    }
+    if (ncand == 0) return el_wrap_str(el_strdup(""));
+
+    /* One pass over the store, all candidates at once. */
+    for (int64_t i = 0; i < g->node_count; i++) {
+        const char* lbl = g->nodes[i].label;
+        if (!lbl || !*lbl) continue;
+        for (int c = 0; c < ncand; c++)
+            if (eg_st_label_has_word(lbl, cand[c])) df[c]++;
+    }
+
+    /* Argmax over idf · position · casing, subject to the df band. */
+    int best = -1;
+    double best_score = 0.0;
+    for (int c = 0; c < ncand; c++) {
+        if (df[c] > max_df) continue;
+        if (df[c] < min_df) continue;
+        double idf = log(((double)g->node_count + 1.0) / ((double)df[c] + 1.0));
+        if (idf <= 0.0) continue;
+        double position = 1.0 / log(2.718281828459045 + (double)pos[c]);
+        double casing = eg_st_casing(cand[c]);
+        double score = idf * position * casing;
+        if (_eg_st_debug()) {
+            fprintf(stderr, "  cand %-24s df=%-5lld idf=%.2f pos=%d p=%.2f "
+                            "case=%.2f  score=%.3f\n",
+                    cand[c], (long long)df[c], idf, pos[c], position,
+                    casing, score);
+        }
+        if (score > best_score) { best_score = score; best = c; }
+    }
+    if (best < 0) return el_wrap_str(el_strdup(""));
+    return el_wrap_str(el_strdup(cand[best]));
+}
+
 /* engram_embed_backfill — explicitly drive the lazy embedding backfill.
  * (2026-07-25 self-review.) The per-activate backfill (8 nodes/call) only
  * runs inside engram_activate, and on the authoritative HTTP store nothing

lang/releases/v1.0.0-20260501/el_runtime.h

@@ -628,6 +628,13 @@ el_val_t  engram_hebb_drain_json(el_val_t max);
 /* Document frequency of a term across node labels — term-specificity signal
  * for curiosity seed selection. (2026-08-03 self-review.) */
 el_val_t  engram_label_df(el_val_t term);
+/* Best curiosity seed from one node: argmax over idf·position·casing across
+ * the candidate tokens of its label, falling back to its content when the
+ * label is a sentinel. Excludes pipe-delimited tabu terms during selection
+ * and gates candidates to the df band [min_df, max_df]. Returns "" when
+ * nothing qualifies. (2026-08-13 self-review.) */
+el_val_t  engram_salient_term(el_val_t node_id, el_val_t max_df,
+                              el_val_t min_df, el_val_t tabu);
 el_val_t  engram_embed_backfill(el_val_t count);
 el_val_t  engram_list_layers_json(void);
 /* Working memory introspection — count, mean weight, and top-N snapshot.

lang/swarm/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,184 @@
+# Swarm + CCR + Work-Tracking — Neuron's bounded parallel execution, in native El
+
+Bounded parallel agent execution on El's **native** concurrency — no external
+orchestrator. Grounded directly in two of Will's frameworks:
+
+- **Swarm Architecture** (*Bounded Parallel Agent Execution*, Mar 2026)
+- **Compiled Context Runtime / CCR** (*Process-Driven Agent Execution with
+  Unbounded Local Memory*, Mar 2026)
+
+A swarm is a **coordinator** (the main thread) that mints a correlation identity,
+compiles a **bounded per-worker context (CCR)**, dispatches workers as **native
+pthreads** (`thread.el` `spawn`/`join`), tracks every unit of work durably, and
+**converges** results before returning control to the parent step.
+
+```
+Parent step
+  └─ swarm_run(blueprint, knowledge_refs, inputs, config)
+        fan-out ──▶ worker_1 (CCR ctx_1) ─┐   native
+                    worker_2 (CCR ctx_2) ─┤   pthreads,
+                    worker_k (CCR ctx_k) ─┘   bounded by `concurrency`
+        converge ─▶ collect | merge | vote | reduce  ──▶ merged result
+```
+
+## Why it runs on El natively
+
+El is natively agentic. This capability composes El's shipped primitives — it
+adds no bespoke runtime:
+
+| Primitive | Source | Role in the swarm |
+|-----------|--------|-------------------|
+| `spawn(fn,arg)` / `join(tid)` | `runtime/thread.el` → `__thread_create` (pthread + dlsym) | fan-out / rejoin |
+| `parallel_map`, `with_mutex` | `runtime/thread.el` | reference concurrency patterns |
+| Go-style channels | `runtime/channel.el` → `__channel_*` | available for vertical event streams |
+| `engram_*`, `http_*`, `fs_*`, `json_*` | `el_runtime.c` builtins | retrieval, tracking, I/O |
+
+Every El fn compiles to a global C symbol, so any top-level `(String)->String`
+fn is directly threadable — the worker entry is exactly such a fn.
+
+## Modules
+
+| File | Framework grounding | What it does |
+|------|--------------------|--------------|
+| `worktrack.el` | Swarm §6 (correlation IDs, audit) | Durable, single-writer **JSONL journal** keyed by correlation ID; reconstructable status report; opt-in engram mirror (`SWARM_MIRROR=1`). |
+| `containment.el` | Swarm §3 + the single-writer invariant | Scope tokens w/ capabilities; **Rule 1** (no join), **Rule 2** (no open), **Rule 3** (no lateral edge), **Rule 4** (engram-write is @manager-only, by capability) enforced as checks. |
+| `ccr.el` | CCR §5 + Swarm §9.3 | Per-worker **Compiled Context Routing**: retrieve → scope → compact into a **bounded, minimal** package. The compiled-context boundary *is* the security boundary. |
+| `primitives.el` | CCR §2 (Five Primitives) | `attend / think / intend / act / learn` seam the swarm composes over. Engram-backed; explicit binding point for the API-surface reshape. |
+| `swarm.el` | Swarm §2, §4, §5 | The coordinator: fan-out/converge on native threads, bounded concurrency, four convergence strategies, integer failure threshold, full tracking. |
+
+## Invariant: only the orchestrator mutates global engram state
+
+**Only the orchestrator (@manager) writes to the engram / mutates global state.
+Workers are read-only against the full engram and may write only their own local
+geometry (their returned result + the journal). A worker is STRUCTURALLY UNABLE
+to mutate global engram state.**
+
+This is **Rule 4** — an **authority gate, not a health gate**. Scope tokens carry
+a capability set: the orchestrator's token holds `engram:write` + `dharma:emit`
+(@manager-only, the VBD rule that only the manager mutates global state); a
+worker's token holds **only** `engram:read`. Every engram mutation
+(`op_write`/`op_relate`/`op_supersede` → `POST /api/nodes`, `/api/edges`,
+`DELETE`) flows through `swarm_engram_write`, which checks the caller's capability
+via the **same scope-token mechanism as the live Rule-2 denial** and rejects any
+worker **before any HTTP is issued**. Capability is fixed at mint time and cannot
+be acquired at runtime — so the guarantee holds regardless of engram health
+(distinct from the `SWARM_WRITE_HEALTHY` *health* gate).
+
+The **curated merge is the only write path**: workers return geometry; the
+orchestrator, and only the orchestrator, commits the approved/verified geometry
+back (`commit=1`). Workers keep full-engram **read** access (`op_think`/`op_read`).
+
+Proven in `harness_real_cognition.el` (§G): a worker `swarm_engram_write` is
+DENIED by capability with no node created and the violation journalled; the
+orchestrator passes the gate as the sole authorized writer.
+
+## Containment → distribution
+
+The three containment rules make workers **location-independent** (Swarm §9): a
+worker reads only its compiled context, shares no state with siblings, and its
+only outward edge is the returned result. The same coordinator can run workers
+as local threads today or dispatch them across machines later — the mechanism is
+identical; only the topology changes. Enforced here:
+
+- **Rule 2** — `swarm_run` rejects any swarm opened under a worker token.
+- **Rules 1 + 3** — each worker gets a *closed* worker token; the coordinator is
+  the only journal writer, so workers share no mutable state.
+
+## Usage
+
+```el
+// one process step fans out; results converge before the next step
+let inputs: String = "[\"billing\",\"payments\",\"ledger\"]"
+let refs:   String = "[\"Volatility-Based Decomposition\"]"   // CCR knowledge refs
+let cfg:    String = "{\"concurrency\":\"4\",\"strategy\":\"collect\",\"min_success_ratio\":\"1.0\"}"
+let result: String = swarm_run("analyze_item", refs, inputs, cfg)
+// result: { corr_id, status, merged, report }
+```
+
+Build any program that uses the swarm:
+
+```bash
+lang/swarm/build.sh myprog.el ./myprog     # concat + elc + cc (el_runtime.c)
+```
+
+Config keys: `concurrency` (max workers at once), `strategy`
+(`collect|merge|vote|reduce`), `min_success_ratio` (decimal string, e.g. `0.8`),
+`caller_token` (containment). Env: `SWARM_TRACK_DIR` (journal dir),
+`CCR_TOKEN_BUDGET`, `ENGRAM_URL`/`ENGRAM_API_KEY` (retrieval + mirror),
+`SWARM_MIRROR=1`.
+
+## Tests
+
+```bash
+lang/swarm/build.sh lang/swarm/tests/test_swarm.el       /tmp/t && SWARM_TRACK_DIR=/tmp/trk /tmp/t   # 12/12
+lang/swarm/build.sh lang/swarm/tests/test_convergence.el /tmp/c && SWARM_TRACK_DIR=/tmp/trk /tmp/c   #  8/8
+# integration against an isolated engram clone (never live):
+source <sandbox>/.nsbx-env
+lang/swarm/build.sh lang/swarm/tests/integ_engram.el /tmp/i && /tmp/i
+```
+
+## Local-swarm integration harness (the one flip)
+
+`tests/harness_local_swarm.el` proves the **full local-swarm mechanics today** on
+the isolated clone with the primitive seam pointed at the hermetic stub — 17/17
+green: 8 native-thread workers at concurrency 4, reduce + vote convergence, CCR
+scoping + non-leak, all three containment rules (incl. live Rule-2 denial),
+durable work-tracking, and **afferent telemetry** observed by the @manager.
+
+Binding to the reshape's decorated primitives is **one flip and a run**:
+
+```
+# in primitive_binding.el — change one line each:
+fn bound_think(ctx, instruction) { return think(ctx, instruction) }   # decorated, dharma bus
+# then:
+SWARM_PRIMITIVE_SEAM=decorated  lang/swarm/build.sh tests/harness_local_swarm.el ./h && ./h
+```
+
+Nothing else in the swarm changes. `primitive_seam.el` (`seam_think/attend/learn`)
+already routes every worker primitive call through this one switch, and the same
+harness runs the bound path. Today `SWARM_PRIMITIVE_SEAM=decorated` still runs
+green because the binding falls back to the stub — proving the flip path executes.
+
+## Real cognition — the seam is BOUND
+
+`primitive_binding.el` is bound to the api-reshape agent's proven primitives
+(`wt/api-reshape@d4f401d`): `bound_think -> op_think` (GET `/api/think`), real
+768-dim gradients over the engram geometry. `reshape_surface.el` composes those
+read/cognition primitives verbatim (`op_think/read/attend/learn`).
+
+`tests/harness_real_cognition.el` runs the **local swarm on real cognition**,
+17/17 green with `SWARM_PRIMITIVE_SEAM=decorated` against the `:8901` clone: 8
+native-thread workers, each a real `think` over its CCR-scoped **node-id anchor**
+(free-text anchors return "geometry unavailable"), `@manager` reduce+vote, all
+three containment rules, afferent telemetry, durable tracking. Per-anchor support
+counts (e.g. 6 / 16 / 87) drive a genuine, cognition-derived vote.
+
+> **Build note (load-bearing):** the swarm build **must** define `HAVE_CURL`
+> (`build.sh` does). Without it every `http_*` builtin is a
+> `{"error":"not built with HAVE_CURL"}` stub — real HTTP silently disappears.
+
+Writes (`attend`/`learn`, `POST`) are gated behind `SWARM_WRITE_HEALTHY=1` and the
+api-reshape agent's gate-1 write-healthy clone; the proven run is read-cognition.
+
+## Built vs stubbed (honest)
+
+**Real, tested:**
+- Native-thread fan-out/converge, bounded concurrency, order-preserving rejoin.
+- All three containment rules enforced (scope tokens + lateral-edge check).
+- CCR per-worker context: retrieval → scoping → compaction, bounded, non-leaking
+  (a worker never receives sibling inputs) — verified against the live isolated mind.
+- Full durable work-tracking (JSONL journal, reconstructable report).
+- Four convergence strategies + integer failure threshold / partial-abort.
+
+**Seam / not yet bound:**
+- `primitives.el` `think` is a deterministic, hermetic transform (no model call).
+  Binding point is marked `PRIMITIVE_BINDING`; wire to the API-surface reshape's
+  `think/act/attend/intend/learn` when it lands.
+- Blueprints are dispatched by name in `swarm_run_blueprint` (default +
+  `classify`/`faildemo` demos). A YAML process-definition loader (Swarm §5) is
+  future work — the runtime contract is in place.
+- Distributed placement (cloud/edge/federated topologies, Swarm §9.2) is
+  structurally enabled by containment but not yet wired to a placement layer;
+  today all workers are local native threads.
+- Engram work-tracking mirror is opt-in; the durable substrate is the journal.
+

lang/swarm/build.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# build.sh — compile an El program that uses the swarm capability.
+#
+# Concatenates the El native-concurrency stdlib (thread.el, channel.el) and the
+# swarm capability modules in dependency order, then the user program, compiles
+# with the canonical elc, and links against the shared C runtime.
+#
+# Usage:
+#   swarm/build.sh <program.el> <out-binary>
+#
+# The swarm modules use only el_runtime.c builtins plus thread.el/channel.el,
+# so nothing else needs concatenating (engram_*, json_*, str_*, fs_*, http_*,
+# uuid_v4, now_millis are all C builtins in el_runtime.c).
+
+set -uo pipefail
+cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."          # -> lang/
+LANG_DIR="$(pwd)"
+ELC="${ELC:-${LANG_DIR}/dist/platform/elc}"
+RT="${LANG_DIR}/el-compiler/runtime"
+
+PROG="${1:?usage: build.sh <program.el> <out-binary>}"
+OUT="${2:?usage: build.sh <program.el> <out-binary>}"
+
+# swarm module load order (each may depend on those before it):
+#   worktrack   — durable work-tracking journal (no swarm deps)
+#   containment — the three containment rules (no swarm deps)
+#   primitives  — think/act/attend/intend/learn seam (no swarm deps)
+#   ccr         — per-worker compiled bounded context (depends: primitives)
+#   swarm       — orchestrator: fan-out/converge (depends: all above + thread)
+SWARM_MODULES="
+  swarm/worktrack.el
+  swarm/containment.el
+  swarm/primitives.el
+  swarm/reshape_surface.el
+  swarm/primitive_binding.el
+  swarm/primitive_seam.el
+  swarm/ccr.el
+  swarm/swarm.el
+"
+
+TMP_C="$(mktemp -t swarm_build.XXXXXX).c"
+COMBINED="$(mktemp -t swarm_combined.XXXXXX).el"
+
+cat runtime/thread.el runtime/channel.el $SWARM_MODULES "$PROG" > "$COMBINED"
+
+if ! "$ELC" "$COMBINED" > "$TMP_C" 2>/tmp/swarm.elc.err; then
+    echo "elc FAILED:" >&2
+    sed 's/^/    /' /tmp/swarm.elc.err >&2
+    rm -f "$TMP_C" "$COMBINED"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+if ! cc -O2 -DHAVE_CURL -I "$RT" "$TMP_C" "$RT/el_runtime.c" -lcurl -lpthread -lm -o "$OUT" 2>/tmp/swarm.cc.err; then
+    echo "cc FAILED:" >&2
+    sed 's/^/    /' /tmp/swarm.cc.err >&2
+    rm -f "$TMP_C" "$COMBINED"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+rm -f "$TMP_C" "$COMBINED"
+echo "built: $OUT"

lang/swarm/ccr.el

@@ -0,0 +1,153 @@
+// ccr.el — Compiled Context Routing for work distribution.
+//
+// The same spine as the API's vantage-read, applied per worker. Instead of
+// handing every worker the coordinator's full memory, CCR compiles a MINIMAL,
+// BOUNDED context package scoped to exactly one worker's input (CCR §5, "Compiled
+// Context Injection"; Swarm §9.3, "The Compiled Context Boundary as Security
+// Boundary").
+//
+// The pipeline is CCR §5.1: Retrieval -> Scoping -> Compilation -> (Injection,
+// which here is placing the package into the worker's task envelope).
+//
+//   1. Retrieval  — resolve the blueprint's knowledge refs + the input's salient
+//                   terms against the mind (primitive_attend).
+//   2. Scoping    — keep only what THIS input needs; drop everything else. A
+//                   worker never receives sibling inputs or unrelated memory.
+//   3. Compilation— compact to a CTX string within a token budget (lossless of
+//                   meaning, smaller in tokens): collapse blank runs, dedupe
+//                   lines, then bound to the budget.
+//
+// The package a worker receives is therefore (a) sufficient for its task and
+// (b) incapable of leaking what it was never given — the containment boundary
+// and the security boundary are the same object.
+
+// ── token budget helpers ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+// ccr_est_tokens — cheap token estimate (~4 chars/token).
+fn ccr_est_tokens(s: String) -> Int {
+    return str_len(s) / 4
+}
+
+// ccr_default_budget — default per-worker context budget in tokens.
+//   Override with CCR_TOKEN_BUDGET.
+fn ccr_default_budget() -> Int {
+    let b: String = env("CCR_TOKEN_BUDGET")
+    if str_eq(b, "") {
+        return 1200
+    }
+    return str_to_int(b)
+}
+
+// ── stage 3: compaction ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+// ccr_compact — collapse blank-line runs and drop exact duplicate lines, then
+// bound the result to `budget` tokens (truncate on a line boundary). Meaning is
+// preserved; token count falls (CCR §5.2).
+fn ccr_compact(text: String, budget: Int) -> String {
+    let lines: [String] = str_split_lines(text)
+    let n: Int = el_list_len(lines)
+    let seen: String = "\n"
+    let out: String = ""
+    let out_tokens = 0
+    let i = 0
+    while i < n {
+        let ln: String = str_trim(el_list_get(lines, i))
+        if str_eq(ln, "") {
+            let i = i + 1
+        } else {
+            let marker: String = "\n" + ln + "\n"
+            if str_contains(seen, marker) {
+                // duplicate line — skip
+                let i = i + 1
+            } else {
+                let seen = seen + ln + "\n"
+                let line_tokens: Int = ccr_est_tokens(ln) + 1
+                if out_tokens + line_tokens > budget {
+                    // budget exhausted — stop (bounded)
+                    let i = n
+                } else {
+                    let out = out + ln + "\n"
+                    let out_tokens = out_tokens + line_tokens
+                    let i = i + 1
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    return out
+}
+
+// ── stages 1+2: retrieve + scope ─────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+// ccr_retrieve_scoped — pull context relevant to this input and its blueprint
+// knowledge refs, scoped to a fraction of the budget so no single source floods
+// the package. Returns compacted retrieved text (may be empty if the mind is
+// unreachable — the input alone is still a valid minimal context).
+fn ccr_retrieve_scoped(blueprint: String, knowledge_refs: String, input_item: String, budget: Int) -> String {
+    let acc: String = ""
+    // knowledge_refs is a JSON array of query strings.
+    let m: Int = json_array_len(knowledge_refs)
+    let i = 0
+    while i < m {
+        let ref: String = json_array_get_string(knowledge_refs, i)
+        let hit: String = primitive_attend(ref, 3)
+        let acc = acc + "# ref:" + ref + "\n" + hit + "\n"
+        let i = i + 1
+    }
+    // the input's own salient text also seeds retrieval
+    let hit2: String = primitive_attend(input_item, 3)
+    let acc = acc + "# input-context\n" + hit2 + "\n"
+    // scope retrieval to ~60% of budget; the input itself gets the rest
+    let retr_budget: Int = (budget * 6) / 10
+    return ccr_compact(acc, retr_budget)
+}
+
+// ── ccr_compile — assemble the bounded per-worker context package ─────────────
+//
+//   blueprint      : task blueprint name
+//   knowledge_refs : JSON array of retrieval queries from the blueprint
+//   input_item     : THIS worker's single input (and nothing else)
+//   corr_id        : swarm correlation ID
+//   worker_id      : this worker's ID
+//   scope_token    : the worker's containment token (closed boundary)
+//
+// Returns a JSON package: { blueprint, corr_id, worker_id, scope_token,
+// input, knowledge, budget_tokens, compiled_tokens }. `knowledge` is compiled
+// and bounded; the package as a whole is bounded by budget.
+fn ccr_compile(blueprint: String, knowledge_refs: String, input_item: String,
+               corr_id: String, worker_id: String, scope_token: String) -> String {
+    let budget: Int = ccr_default_budget()
+    let knowledge: String = ccr_retrieve_scoped(blueprint, knowledge_refs, input_item, budget)
+
+    let kv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "blueprint")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, blueprint)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "corr_id")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, corr_id)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "worker_id")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, worker_id)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "input")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, input_item)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "knowledge")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, knowledge)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "budget_tokens")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, int_to_str(budget))
+    let pkg: String = json_build_object(kv)
+    // stamp the scope token as a nested object, and the measured size
+    let pkg2: String = json_set(pkg, "scope_token", scope_token)
+    let compiled_tokens: Int = ccr_est_tokens(pkg2)
+    let pkg3: String = json_set(pkg2, "compiled_tokens", int_to_str(compiled_tokens))
+    return pkg3
+}
+
+// ccr_within_budget — did the compiled package stay within its budget?
+// (Retrieval is bounded to 60% and the input is small; this asserts the whole
+// package is bounded — the property distribution relies on.)
+fn ccr_within_budget(pkg: String) -> Bool {
+    let budget: Int = str_to_int(json_get_string(pkg, "budget_tokens"))
+    let compiled: Int = str_to_int(json_get_string(pkg, "compiled_tokens"))
+    // allow a small envelope for JSON framing overhead
+    if compiled <= budget + 200 {
+        return true
+    }
+    return false
+}

lang/swarm/containment.el

@@ -0,0 +1,181 @@
+// containment.el — the Swarm Architecture containment rules, enforced.
+//
+// "These rules are not conventions. They are enforced by the runtime."
+// (Swarm Architecture §3.2). The three rules that make bounded parallelism —
+// and therefore location-independent distribution — safe:
+//
+//   Rule 1: a worker may NOT join another swarm.
+//   Rule 2: a worker may NOT initiate a new swarm.
+//   Rule 3: a worker may NOT communicate laterally with sibling workers.
+//
+// Enforcement is by SCOPE TOKEN. When a swarm fans out, the coordinator mints a
+// swarm scope token and stamps a distinct worker scope token into each worker's
+// task envelope. Any attempt to create or join a swarm checks the caller's
+// token: if the caller already holds a WORKER token, the operation is rejected.
+// Rule 3 is enforced structurally elsewhere — workers share no mutable state and
+// the only channels they hold are the vertical result path — but this module
+// provides the explicit lateral-edge check for the execution tree.
+//
+// A scope token is a JSON object: {"kind":"coordinator|worker","swarm":"<corr>",
+// "worker":"<id-or-empty>","depth":"<n>"}.
+
+// ── Token minting ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+// CAPABILITIES. A scope token carries a `caps` set — the authority it holds.
+// This is an AUTHORITY gate, not a health gate: capability is decided at mint
+// time and cannot be acquired at runtime. Engram-WRITE (op_write/op_relate/
+// op_supersede -> POST /api/nodes, /api/edges, DELETE) and dharma_emit are
+// @manager-ONLY capabilities — exactly the VBD rule that only the orchestrator
+// mutates global state. The orchestrator's token carries them; a worker's token
+// NEVER does. A worker is therefore STRUCTURALLY UNABLE to mutate global engram
+// state, regardless of engram health.
+fn cap_orchestrator() -> String { return "engram:read,engram:write,dharma:emit,state:write" }
+fn cap_worker() -> String { return "engram:read" }
+
+// containment_coordinator_token — the token the orchestrator (@manager) holds.
+// Depth 0. Carries the engram-WRITE + dharma-emit capabilities (@manager-only).
+fn containment_coordinator_token(corr_id: String) -> String {
+    let kv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "kind")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "coordinator")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "swarm")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, corr_id)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "worker")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "depth")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "0")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "caps")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, cap_orchestrator())
+    return json_build_object(kv)
+}
+
+// containment_worker_token — the token stamped into a worker's envelope. Depth 1.
+// A closed boundary: forbids opening/joining swarms AND carries ONLY the
+// engram:READ capability — no engram:write, no dharma:emit. Read-only against the
+// full engram; may write only its own local geometry (its returned result).
+fn containment_worker_token(corr_id: String, worker_id: String) -> String {
+    let kv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "kind")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "worker")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "swarm")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, corr_id)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "worker")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, worker_id)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "depth")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "1")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "caps")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, cap_worker())
+    return json_build_object(kv)
+}
+
+// containment_has_cap — does this token carry capability `cap`?
+fn containment_has_cap(token: String, cap: String) -> Bool {
+    return str_contains(json_get_string(token, "caps"), cap)
+}
+
+// ── Rule checks (return "" on allow, or a rejection reason string) ───────────
+
+// containment_check_open — may the holder of `token` OPEN a new swarm?
+// Enforces Rule 2 (a worker may not initiate a new swarm). Only a coordinator
+// token, or an absent token (top-level process), may open one.
+fn containment_check_open(token: String) -> String {
+    if str_eq(token, "") {
+        return ""
+    }
+    let kind: String = json_get_string(token, "kind")
+    if str_eq(kind, "worker") {
+        return "CONTAINMENT rule 2: a swarm worker may not initiate a new swarm (worker=" + json_get_string(token, "worker") + " swarm=" + json_get_string(token, "swarm") + ")"
+    }
+    return ""
+}
+
+// containment_check_join — may the holder of `token` JOIN swarm `target_corr`?
+// Enforces Rule 1 (a worker may not join another swarm). A worker already bound
+// to swarm A may not register into swarm B; and a worker may not re-join at all.
+fn containment_check_join(token: String, target_corr: String) -> String {
+    if str_eq(token, "") {
+        return ""
+    }
+    let kind: String = json_get_string(token, "kind")
+    if str_eq(kind, "worker") {
+        return "CONTAINMENT rule 1: a swarm worker may not join another swarm (worker=" + json_get_string(token, "worker") + " bound-swarm=" + json_get_string(token, "swarm") + " attempted-swarm=" + target_corr + ")"
+    }
+    return ""
+}
+
+// containment_check_lateral — may `from_token` open a communication edge to a
+// sibling worker `to_worker_id`? Enforces Rule 3 (no lateral communication).
+// The only permitted edges are vertical: worker->coordinator and
+// coordinator->worker. Any worker->worker edge is rejected.
+fn containment_check_lateral(from_token: String, to_worker_id: String) -> String {
+    let kind: String = json_get_string(from_token, "kind")
+    if str_eq(kind, "worker") {
+        if str_eq(to_worker_id, "") {
+            // empty target = the coordinator (vertical) — allowed
+            return ""
+        }
+        return "CONTAINMENT rule 3: a swarm worker may not communicate laterally with sibling workers (from=" + json_get_string(from_token, "worker") + " to=" + to_worker_id + ")"
+    }
+    return ""
+}
+
+// containment_check_engram_write — RULE 4: only a token carrying the
+// engram:write capability (the orchestrator's) may mutate global engram state.
+// A worker token (engram:read only) is REJECTED — the authority gate. Reuses the
+// exact scope-token mechanism as Rule 2's open-denial. Returns "" on allow, or a
+// rejection reason. This is an AUTHORITY gate: it does not consult engram health.
+fn containment_check_engram_write(token: String, op: String) -> String {
+    if containment_has_cap(token, "engram:write") {
+        return ""
+    }
+    return "CONTAINMENT rule 4: engram-write is @manager-only — a worker is read-only against the engram and may not mutate global state (op=" + op + " kind=" + json_get_string(token, "kind") + " worker=" + json_get_string(token, "worker") + " caps=" + json_get_string(token, "caps") + ")"
+}
+
+// containment_check_dharma_emit — the same @manager-only rule for dharma_emit,
+// grounding Rule 4 in VBD: global-state mutations (engram-write, dharma-emit) are
+// orchestrator-only, checked by the one capability mechanism.
+fn containment_check_dharma_emit(token: String) -> String {
+    if containment_has_cap(token, "dharma:emit") {
+        return ""
+    }
+    return "CONTAINMENT rule 4: dharma_emit is @manager-only (kind=" + json_get_string(token, "kind") + ")"
+}
+
+// ── Enforcement helpers ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+// containment_allows_open — Bool convenience over containment_check_open.
+fn containment_allows_open(token: String) -> Bool {
+    return str_eq(containment_check_open(token), "")
+}
+
+// containment_is_worker — is this a worker-scoped (closed-boundary) token?
+fn containment_is_worker(token: String) -> Bool {
+    return str_eq(json_get_string(token, "kind"), "worker")
+}
+
+// containment_guard_open — assert a swarm may be opened under this token.
+// Returns "" if allowed, or records a CONTAINMENT violation to the work-tracking
+// journal and returns the reason. Callers must abort on a non-empty return.
+fn containment_guard_open(token: String, corr_id: String) -> String {
+    let reason: String = containment_check_open(token)
+    if str_eq(reason, "") {
+        return ""
+    }
+    let p: String = json_set_str("{}", "reason", reason)
+    worktrack_append("containment.violation", corr_id, "open", p)
+    return reason
+}
+
+// containment_guard_engram_write — assert a token may mutate global engram state
+// (Rule 4). Returns "" if allowed; otherwise journals a containment.violation and
+// returns the reason. The write path MUST abort on a non-empty return.
+fn containment_guard_engram_write(token: String, corr_id: String, op: String) -> String {
+    let reason: String = containment_check_engram_write(token, op)
+    if str_eq(reason, "") {
+        return ""
+    }
+    let p0: String = json_set_str("{}", "reason", reason)
+    let p1: String = json_set_str(p0, "op", op)
+    worktrack_append("containment.violation", corr_id, "engram-write", p1)
+    return reason
+}

lang/swarm/primitive_binding.el

@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+// primitive_binding.el — THE ONE FLIP POINT.
+//
+// This file is the single seam between the swarm and the real agentic
+// primitives. Binding the reshape's decorated primitives is a one-line change
+// HERE and nothing else changes anywhere in the swarm.
+//
+// The api-reshape agent (wt/api-reshape) is wiring the primitives as DECORATED
+// El on the dharma_* event bus over the engram — think/attend/learn/ground/assert
+// become decorated fns that emit afferent events onto the bus. The moment they
+// land, flip `bound_think` (and its siblings) to call them.
+//
+//   TODAY  (stub fallback, compiles + runs now against :8901):
+//       fn bound_think(...) { return primitive_think(ctx, instruction) }
+//
+//   THE FLIP (when reshape's decorated primitives land — one line each):
+//       fn bound_think(...) { return think(ctx, instruction) }   // decorated, on dharma bus
+//
+// Keep the stub as fallback: `bound_think` is only reached when the seam mode is
+// "decorated" (SWARM_PRIMITIVE_SEAM=decorated). Until you flip these bodies AND
+// set that env, the harness runs entirely on the hermetic stub.
+
+// bound_think — BOUND to the reshape's proven decorated `think` (op_think),
+// real cognition over the engram geometry. The worker's CCR slice carries a
+// NODE-ID anchor in ctx.input (free-text anchors return "geometry unavailable");
+// think re-origins at that node's region under the faculty and returns a real
+// 768-dim gradient.
+fn bound_think(ctx: String, instruction: String) -> String {
+    let anchor: String = json_get_string(ctx, "input")
+    let faculty: String = json_get_string(ctx, "faculty")
+    return op_think(anchor, faculty)
+}
+
+// bound_attend — BOUND to the reshape's op_attend (POST /api/attend). Needs the
+// gate-1 write-healthy clone; falls back to the read-side attend otherwise.
+fn bound_attend(query: String, limit: Int) -> String {
+    if str_eq(env("SWARM_WRITE_HEALTHY"), "1") {
+        return op_attend(query, "self")
+    }
+    return primitive_attend(query, limit)
+}
+
+// bound_learn — BOUND to the reshape's op_learn (correspondence-beat). Needs the
+// gate-1 write-healthy clone; falls back to the opt-in journal-only learn.
+fn bound_learn(corr_id: String, observation: String) -> String {
+    if str_eq(env("SWARM_WRITE_HEALTHY"), "1") {
+        return op_learn(observation, "induce")
+    }
+    return primitive_learn(corr_id, observation)
+}

lang/swarm/primitive_seam.el

@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+// primitive_seam.el — the configurable primitive seam + telemetry.
+//
+// One switch selects where a worker's primitive invocation goes:
+//   SWARM_PRIMITIVE_SEAM=stub       (default) — hermetic in-process think.
+//   SWARM_PRIMITIVE_SEAM=decorated            — the reshape's decorated
+//                                               primitives on the dharma bus
+//                                               (see primitive_binding.el).
+//
+// Every seam invocation is an AFFERENT signal — a primitive call travelling
+// toward the manager. The seam stamps telemetry onto each thought (seam_mode +
+// one afferent tick) so the coordinator can aggregate afferent counters across
+// the swarm without any shared mutable state (containment-safe: counts ride the
+// vertical result path, not a shared bus register).
+
+// seam_mode — "stub" (default) or "decorated".
+fn seam_mode() -> String {
+    let m: String = env("SWARM_PRIMITIVE_SEAM")
+    if str_eq(m, "decorated") {
+        return "decorated"
+    }
+    return "stub"
+}
+
+// seam_think — route a worker's `think` through the configured seam and stamp
+// telemetry. Returns the thought JSON augmented with:
+//   seam_mode : which side of the seam served this call
+//   afferent  : "1" — one afferent primitive signal was emitted
+fn seam_think(ctx: String, instruction: String) -> String {
+    let mode: String = seam_mode()
+    let thought: String = ""
+    if str_eq(mode, "decorated") {
+        let thought = bound_think(ctx, instruction)
+    } else {
+        let thought = primitive_think(ctx, instruction)
+    }
+    let t1: String = json_set_str(thought, "seam_mode", mode)
+    let t2: String = json_set_str(t1, "afferent", "1")
+    return t2
+}
+
+// seam_attend / seam_learn — same seam for the other primitives (used when a
+// blueprint retrieves or writes through the bus).
+fn seam_attend(query: String, limit: Int) -> String {
+    if str_eq(seam_mode(), "decorated") {
+        return bound_attend(query, limit)
+    }
+    return primitive_attend(query, limit)
+}
+
+fn seam_learn(corr_id: String, observation: String) -> String {
+    if str_eq(seam_mode(), "decorated") {
+        return bound_learn(corr_id, observation)
+    }
+    return primitive_learn(corr_id, observation)
+}

lang/swarm/primitives.el

@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+// primitives.el — the agentic primitive SEAM the swarm composes over.
+//
+// The swarm is orchestration OVER the five CCR primitives, not a replacement for
+// them (CCR §2, "The Five Primitives / The Execution Cycle"): a worker executes
+// its task blueprint as attend -> think -> intend -> act -> learn against its
+// compiled, bounded context.
+//
+// This file is the SEAM. The parallel API-surface reshape exposes the canonical
+// primitive tools; when it lands, bind each primitive below to the reshaped
+// implementation (see PRIMITIVE_BINDING). Until then these are thin, engram-
+// backed fallbacks so the swarm — its fan-out, containment, CCR context
+// compilation, convergence, and work-tracking — is fully exercisable today.
+//
+// Contract: every primitive takes and returns String (JSON where structured), so
+// any primitive is directly threadable via thread.el's spawn (which runs
+// top-level (String)->String El fns).
+//
+// PRIMITIVE_BINDING: to bind the reshape's real tools, replace each fallback body
+// with a call to the reshaped El fn / API endpoint. Signatures here are the
+// stable contract the swarm depends on; keep them.
+
+// ── attend — retrieve the minimal relevant context for a focus ───────────────
+// Vantage-read: pull only what this focus needs from the mind. Backed by the
+// engram's spreading-activation retrieval.
+fn primitive_attend(query: String, limit: Int) -> String {
+    if str_eq(query, "") {
+        return "[]"
+    }
+    // Location-independent worker model: when an engram daemon is configured,
+    // retrieve over HTTP (the worker may run anywhere). POST /api/search
+    // {query,limit,_auth}. Falls back to the in-process store otherwise.
+    let url: String = env("ENGRAM_URL")
+    if str_eq(url, "") {
+        return engram_activate(query, limit)
+    }
+    let kv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "query")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, query)
+    let body0: String = json_build_object(kv)
+    let body1: String = json_set(body0, "limit", int_to_str(limit))
+    let body2: String = json_set_str(body1, "_auth", env("ENGRAM_API_KEY"))
+    return http_post(url + "/api/search", body2)
+}
+
+// ── think — reason over the compiled context ─────────────────────────────────
+// In production this routes to a model (CCR dynamic model selection). Here it is
+// a deterministic, hermetic transform so swarm behaviour is testable without an
+// external model: it echoes a structured verdict derived from the context. The
+// binding point for a real model is explicit.
+fn primitive_think(compiled_ctx: String, instruction: String) -> String {
+    // PRIMITIVE_BINDING: replace with the reshape's think() (model inference).
+    let kv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "instruction")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, instruction)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "ctx_bytes")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, int_to_str(str_len(compiled_ctx)))
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "conclusion")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "reasoned:" + instruction)
+    return json_build_object(kv)
+}
+
+// ── intend — form a bounded plan/decision from a thought ─────────────────────
+fn primitive_intend(thought: String) -> String {
+    let concl: String = json_get_string(thought, "conclusion")
+    let kv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "intent")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, concl)
+    return json_build_object(kv)
+}
+
+// ── act — execute a bounded effect and return its result ─────────────────────
+// Workers defer real side-effects to the coordinator (idempotency requirement,
+// Swarm §7.3). Here act produces an artifact-shaped result the coordinator
+// collects during convergence.
+fn primitive_act(intent: String, input_item: String) -> String {
+    let kv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "acted_on")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, input_item)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "via")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, json_get_string(intent, "intent"))
+    return json_build_object(kv)
+}
+
+// ── learn — record an observation into the mind, tagged by correlation ID ────
+// Append-only, naturally idempotent (Swarm §7.3). Best-effort: a worker that
+// cannot reach the mind still returns its result.
+fn primitive_learn(corr_id: String, observation: String) -> String {
+    let url: String = env("ENGRAM_URL")
+    if str_eq(url, "") {
+        return ""
+    }
+    let content: String = "swarm-worker-obs corr=" + corr_id + " :: " + observation
+    return engram_node(content, "Memory", 0.4)
+}

lang/swarm/reshape_surface.el

@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+// reshape_surface.el — the api-reshape agent's PROVEN decorated primitives,
+// composed into the swarm build to bind real cognition.
+//
+// PROVENANCE: these fns are the reshape's surface at wt/api-reshape @ d4f401d
+// ("reshape: decorator-as-seam — port @route codegen, prove decorate->serve,
+// rewrite surface as decorated El"), verified live against
+// engram.cognition-20260814. Copied verbatim (read/cognition ops only) so the
+// swarm binds the REAL primitives, not a reimplementation. The write ops
+// (op_write/op_relate/op_supersede/op_ground) are intentionally NOT composed
+// here — they exercise the persist_node write path that needs the gate-1
+// write-healthy clone; the swarm's proven run is read-cognition (think/read).
+//
+// Ops route to the ENGRAM over ENGRAM_URL — pinned by THIS worktree's .nsbx-env
+// to the :8901 swarm clone (never the reshape agent's :8900). Separate clones,
+// no collision.
+
+fn engram_url() -> String {
+    let u: String = env("ENGRAM_URL")
+    if str_eq(u, "") { return "http://127.0.0.1:8900" }
+    return u
+}
+fn engram_key() -> String {
+    let k: String = env("ENGRAM_API_KEY")
+    if str_eq(k, "") { return "sbx-dev-api-reshape" }
+    return k
+}
+fn SELF_KEY() -> String { return "kn-efeb4a5b-5aff-4759-8a97-7233099be6ee" }
+fn VALUES_KEY() -> String { return "kn-5b606390-a52d-4ca2-8e0e-eba141d13440" }
+
+// self/values name -> keystone id; anything else passes through unchanged.
+fn resolve_named(v: String) -> String {
+    if str_eq(v, "self") { return SELF_KEY() }
+    if str_eq(v, "neuron") { return SELF_KEY() }
+    if str_eq(v, "values") { return VALUES_KEY() }
+    if str_eq(v, "values_hub") { return VALUES_KEY() }
+    return v
+}
+
+// read — THE VANTAGE-READ. Re-origin at a point + aperture -> a BOUNDED slice.
+fn op_read(vantage: String, typ: String, k: Int) -> String {
+    let vid: String = resolve_named(vantage)
+    if str_eq(typ, "edges") {
+        return http_get(engram_url() + "/api/neighbors/" + vid)
+    }
+    if str_starts_with(vid, "kn-") {
+        return http_get(engram_url() + "/api/neighbors/" + vid)
+    }
+    return http_get(engram_url() + "/api/search?q=" + url_encode(vid) + "&limit=" + int_to_str(k))
+}
+
+// think — THE ONE OPERATION. anchor (node ids) steered by faculty -> gradient.
+fn op_think(seeds: String, faculty: String) -> String {
+    let s: String = resolve_named(seeds)
+    let f: String = if str_eq(faculty, "") { "reason" } else { faculty }
+    return http_get(engram_url() + "/api/think?seeds=" + url_encode(s) + "&faculty=" + f)
+}
+
+// attend — aim attention at a region. (POST — needs a write-healthy clone.)
+fn op_attend(node: String, observer: String) -> String {
+    let n: String = resolve_named(node)
+    let o: String = if str_eq(observer, "") { SELF_KEY() } else { resolve_named(observer) }
+    let body: String = "{\"_auth\":\"" + engram_key() + "\",\"node\":\"" + n
+        + "\",\"observer\":\"" + o + "\",\"salience\":\"0.6\"}"
+    return http_post_json(engram_url() + "/api/attend", body)
+}
+
+fn identity_typed(t: String) -> Bool {
+    if str_eq(t, "self") { return true }
+    if str_eq(t, "values") { return true }
+    return false
+}
+fn type_to_node_type(t: String) -> String {
+    if str_eq(t, "knowledge") { return "Knowledge" }
+    if str_eq(t, "artifact") { return "Artifact" }
+    if str_eq(t, "backlog") { return "WorkItem" }
+    if str_eq(t, "process") { return "Process" }
+    if str_eq(t, "state") { return "InternalStateEvent" }
+    return "Memory"
+}
+
+// write — add a node (POST /api/nodes). Identity types refused. This is a
+// global-engram MUTATION — @manager-only (Rule 4); never called on a worker path.
+// (Reshape's op_write, with json_escape -> the available json_escape_string.)
+fn op_write(content: String, typ: String, importance: Float) -> String {
+    if str_eq(content, "") { return "{\"error\":\"write: content required\"}" }
+    if identity_typed(typ) {
+        return "{\"error\":\"write type=" + typ + " is write-protected -> intentional-cultivation\"}"
+    }
+    let body: String = "{\"_auth\":\"" + engram_key() + "\",\"content\":\"" + json_escape_string(content)
+        + "\",\"node_type\":\"" + type_to_node_type(typ) + "\",\"tier\":\"Working\",\"importance\":"
+        + float_to_str(importance) + "}"
+    return http_post_json(engram_url() + "/api/nodes", body)
+}
+
+// learn — the reflexive correspondence-beat: calibrate the steering-prior.
+// (POST — needs a write-healthy clone.)
+fn op_learn(seeds: String, faculty: String) -> String {
+    let s: String = resolve_named(seeds)
+    let f: String = if str_eq(faculty, "") { "induce" } else { faculty }
+    let body: String = "{\"_auth\":\"" + engram_key() + "\",\"seeds\":\"" + s
+        + "\",\"faculty\":\"" + f + "\",\"keystone\":\"false\"}"
+    return http_post_json(engram_url() + "/api/correspondence-beat", body)
+}

lang/swarm/swarm.el

@@ -0,0 +1,483 @@
+// swarm.el — the swarm orchestrator: bounded parallel agent execution.
+//
+// Implements Swarm Architecture's single pattern — fan out, execute independently,
+// converge — on El's NATIVE concurrency (thread.el spawn/join). No external
+// orchestrator: a swarm is a coordinator (this file, the main thread) that mints
+// a correlation identity, compiles a bounded CCR context per worker, dispatches
+// workers as native pthreads, tracks every unit of work, and converges the
+// results before returning control to the parent step.
+//
+// The five properties of every swarm (Swarm §2.1) are all present:
+//   parent step        -> swarm_run is called from one process step
+//   task blueprint     -> `blueprint` name + knowledge refs, run by every worker
+//   input set          -> `inputs_json`, one item per worker
+//   convergence        -> `strategy` in config (collect|merge|vote|reduce)
+//   correlation ID     -> minted here, threaded through tracking + every worker
+//
+// Containment (Swarm §3) is enforced: the caller must hold a coordinator/absent
+// token to open a swarm (Rule 2), each worker is stamped a closed worker token
+// (Rules 1+3), and workers share no mutable state (the coordinator is the only
+// journal writer).
+
+// ── worker entry — the top-level (String)->String fn native threads run ──────
+//
+// Every El fn compiles to a global C symbol; spawn() resolves this by name via
+// dlsym and runs it in a pthread. The envelope carries everything the worker is
+// permitted to see — its compiled context and nothing else (§9.3).
+//
+// Returns a result JSON: {worker_id, status:"completed"|"failed", output|error}.
+fn swarm_worker_entry(envelope_json: String) -> String {
+    let worker_id: String = json_get_string(envelope_json, "worker_id")
+    let ctx: String = json_get_raw(envelope_json, "ctx")
+
+    // The worker holds a CLOSED worker token (Rules 1+3): it shares no state
+    // with siblings and may not open/join a swarm. That boundary is enforced at
+    // the point of attempt — swarm_run rejects any swarm opened under a worker
+    // token (Rule 2). A worker simply executing its blueprint is not opening a
+    // swarm, so it proceeds. Its only outward edge is this returned result
+    // (the vertical worker->coordinator path).
+    let out: String = swarm_run_blueprint(ctx)
+    // A worker reports failed iff its blueprint signalled failure. This is the
+    // vertical status edge the coordinator reads during convergence (§4.3, §7).
+    let bstatus: String = json_get_string(out, "blueprint_status")
+    let status: String = "completed"
+    if str_eq(bstatus, "failed") {
+        let status = "failed"
+    }
+    let kv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "worker_id")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, worker_id)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "status")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, status)
+    let res: String = json_build_object(kv)
+    return json_set(res, "output", out)
+}
+
+// swarm_run_blueprint — execute the task blueprint over a compiled context.
+// The default blueprint is the CCR execution cycle: think -> intend -> act over
+// the worker's bounded context. Specialise by dispatching on
+// json_get_string(ctx,"blueprint"). Idempotent: reads ctx, writes only its
+// returned output (§7.3).
+fn swarm_run_blueprint(ctx: String) -> String {
+    let blueprint: String = json_get_string(ctx, "blueprint")
+    let input_item: String = json_get_string(ctx, "input")
+    let knowledge: String = json_get_string(ctx, "knowledge")
+
+    // classify — deterministic verdict for the `vote` convergence strategy:
+    // verdict is "long" if the input has >4 chars, else "short".
+    if str_eq(blueprint, "classify") {
+        let verdict: String = "short"
+        if str_len(input_item) > 4 {
+            let verdict = "long"
+        }
+        let kv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+        let kv = el_list_append(kv, "verdict")
+        let kv = el_list_append(kv, verdict)
+        let kv = el_list_append(kv, "blueprint_status")
+        let kv = el_list_append(kv, "ok")
+        return json_build_object(kv)
+    }
+
+    // faildemo — a worker that fails on inputs beginning with "x" (exercises the
+    // failure threshold + partial convergence path). Idempotent, side-effect-free.
+    if str_eq(blueprint, "faildemo") {
+        let st: String = "ok"
+        if str_starts_with(input_item, "x") {
+            let st = "failed"
+        }
+        return json_set_str("{}", "blueprint_status", st)
+    }
+
+    // cognize — REAL-COGNITION blueprint. Routes think through the seam (bound to
+    // op_think in decorated mode) over the worker's NODE-ID anchor, then derives a
+    // vote verdict from the gradient's confidence. In stub mode there is no
+    // gradient, so the verdict falls back to a deterministic slice hash — the
+    // same blueprint runs green on either side of the seam.
+    if str_eq(blueprint, "cognize") {
+        let thought: String = seam_think(ctx, "reason over " + input_item)
+        // Derive the vote verdict from the REAL gradient's support count
+        // (json_get_int, since n_support is numeric). Different anchors have
+        // different support -> genuine, cognition-driven vote diversity. In stub
+        // mode there is no gradient (n_support -> 0) -> "uncertain".
+        let nsup: Int = json_get_int(thought, "n_support")
+        let verdict: String = "uncertain"
+        if nsup >= 10 {
+            let verdict = "confident"
+        }
+        let ck: [String] = el_list_empty()
+        let ck = el_list_append(ck, "verdict")
+        let ck = el_list_append(ck, verdict)
+        let ck = el_list_append(ck, "blueprint_status")
+        let ck = el_list_append(ck, "ok")
+        let cout0: String = json_build_object(ck)
+        let cout1: String = json_set_str(cout0, "n_support", int_to_str(nsup))
+        let cout2: String = json_set_str(cout1, "seam_mode", json_get_string(thought, "seam_mode"))
+        return json_set_str(cout2, "afferent", json_get_string(thought, "afferent"))
+    }
+
+    // default (analyze_item): the CCR execution cycle think -> intend -> act,
+    // with `think` routed through the CONFIGURABLE PRIMITIVE SEAM. Telemetry
+    // (seam_mode + afferent tick) rides the worker's returned output.
+    let instruction: String = "process input: " + input_item
+    let thought: String = seam_think(ctx, instruction)
+    let intent: String = primitive_intend(thought)
+    let effect: String = primitive_act(intent, input_item)
+    let e1: String = json_set_str(effect, "blueprint_status", "ok")
+    let e2: String = json_set_str(e1, "seam_mode", json_get_string(thought, "seam_mode"))
+    let e3: String = json_set_str(e2, "afferent", json_get_string(thought, "afferent"))
+    return e3
+}
+
+// ── native-thread fan-out, bounded by concurrency, order-preserving ──────────
+//
+// parallel_map (thread.el) spawns ALL threads at once. The swarm honours the
+// blueprint's `concurrency` cap (§5.1: a resource constraint, not a parallelism
+// constraint — all items are processed, at most N at a time) by dispatching in
+// waves of N native threads, joining each wave before the next. Results are
+// returned in input order.
+fn swarm_fanout(worker_fn: String, envelopes: [String], concurrency: Int) -> [String] {
+    let n: Int = el_list_len(envelopes)
+    let cap: Int = concurrency
+    if cap < 1 {
+        let cap = 1
+    }
+    let results: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let base = 0
+    while base < n {
+        // spawn a wave of up to `cap` workers
+        let tids: [String] = el_list_empty()
+        let k = 0
+        while k < cap {
+            let idx: Int = base + k
+            if idx < n {
+                let env_item: String = el_list_get(envelopes, idx)
+                let tid: Int = spawn(worker_fn, env_item)
+                let tids = el_list_append(tids, int_to_str(tid))
+            }
+            let k = k + 1
+        }
+        // join the wave in order
+        let j = 0
+        let jn: Int = el_list_len(tids)
+        while j < jn {
+            let tid: Int = str_to_int(el_list_get(tids, j))
+            let r: String = join(tid)
+            let results = el_list_append(results, r)
+            let j = j + 1
+        }
+        let base = base + cap
+    }
+    return results
+}
+
+// ── convergence strategies (Swarm §4.2) ──────────────────────────────────────
+
+// swarm_converge_collect — ordered list, no transformation.
+fn swarm_converge_collect(results: [String]) -> String {
+    let n: Int = el_list_len(results)
+    let arr: String = "[]"
+    let i = 0
+    while i < n {
+        let arr = json_array_push(arr, el_list_get(results, i))
+        let i = i + 1
+    }
+    return arr
+}
+
+// swarm_converge_merge — combine worker outputs into a single joined string.
+fn swarm_converge_merge(results: [String]) -> String {
+    let n: Int = el_list_len(results)
+    let merged: String = ""
+    let i = 0
+    while i < n {
+        let out: String = json_get_raw(el_list_get(results, i), "output")
+        if i > 0 {
+            let merged = merged + " | "
+        }
+        let merged = merged + out
+        let i = i + 1
+    }
+    return json_set_str("{}", "merged", merged)
+}
+
+// swarm_converge_vote — tally a field across worker outputs, pick the majority.
+// Each worker output is expected to carry a "verdict" string field.
+fn swarm_converge_vote(results: [String]) -> String {
+    let n: Int = el_list_len(results)
+    // Collect verdicts (no mutable tally: json_set can't update an existing key
+    // and there is no el_list_set). Then count each verdict by rescanning.
+    let verdicts: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let i = 0
+    while i < n {
+        let out: String = json_get_raw(el_list_get(results, i), "output")
+        let v: String = json_get_string(out, "verdict")
+        if str_eq(v, "") {
+            let i = i + 1
+        } else {
+            let verdicts = el_list_append(verdicts, v)
+            let i = i + 1
+        }
+    }
+    // pick the verdict with the highest count (first-past-the-post)
+    let vn: Int = el_list_len(verdicts)
+    let best: String = ""
+    let bestc = 0
+    let a = 0
+    while a < vn {
+        let cand: String = el_list_get(verdicts, a)
+        // count occurrences of cand
+        let c = 0
+        let b = 0
+        while b < vn {
+            if str_eq(el_list_get(verdicts, b), cand) {
+                let c = c + 1
+            }
+            let b = b + 1
+        }
+        if c > bestc {
+            let bestc = c
+            let best = cand
+        }
+        let a = a + 1
+    }
+    let kv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "winner")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, best)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "votes")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, int_to_str(bestc))
+    return json_build_object(kv)
+}
+
+// swarm_converge_reduce — fold outputs into an accumulator (count + concat).
+fn swarm_converge_reduce(results: [String]) -> String {
+    let n: Int = el_list_len(results)
+    let acc: String = ""
+    let i = 0
+    while i < n {
+        let out: String = json_get_raw(el_list_get(results, i), "output")
+        let acc = acc + out
+        let i = i + 1
+    }
+    let kv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "count")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, int_to_str(n))
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "accumulated")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, acc)
+    return json_build_object(kv)
+}
+
+// ratio_to_permille — parse a decimal ratio string ("1.0", "0.8") into an
+// integer per-mille (1000, 800) so failure thresholds use exact integer math.
+// (El float division is unreliable in this runtime — int_to_float(n)/int_to_float(n)
+// does not equal 1.0 — so the swarm deliberately avoids floats.)
+fn ratio_to_permille(s: String) -> Int {
+    if str_eq(s, "") {
+        return 1000
+    }
+    let parts: [String] = str_split(s, ".")
+    let whole: Int = str_to_int(el_list_get(parts, 0))
+    let permille: Int = whole * 1000
+    if el_list_len(parts) > 1 {
+        let frac_raw: String = el_list_get(parts, 1)
+        let frac3: String = str_slice(str_pad_right(frac_raw, 3, "0"), 0, 3)
+        let permille = permille + str_to_int(frac3)
+    }
+    return permille
+}
+
+// swarm_converge — dispatch on strategy name.
+fn swarm_converge(strategy: String, results: [String]) -> String {
+    if str_eq(strategy, "merge") {
+        return swarm_converge_merge(results)
+    }
+    if str_eq(strategy, "vote") {
+        return swarm_converge_vote(results)
+    }
+    if str_eq(strategy, "reduce") {
+        return swarm_converge_reduce(results)
+    }
+    // default: collect
+    return swarm_converge_collect(results)
+}
+
+// ── the ONLY global-engram write path (Rule 4, @manager-only) ────────────────
+//
+// Every engram mutation flows through here and is gated by the caller's token
+// capability. Only the orchestrator's token carries engram:write, so a worker
+// (engram:read only) calling this is DENIED by capability before any HTTP is
+// issued — structurally unable to mutate global engram state, regardless of
+// engram health. This is the curated-merge write: the orchestrator committing
+// the geometry it approved. Workers never reach a successful branch here.
+fn swarm_engram_write(token: String, corr_id: String, content: String, typ: String, importance: Float) -> String {
+    let deny: String = containment_guard_engram_write(token, corr_id, "engram.write")
+    if str_eq(deny, "") {
+        // authorized (orchestrator) — perform the write
+        let res: String = op_write(content, typ, importance)
+        let new_id: String = json_get_string(res, "id")
+        let cp: String = json_set_str("{}", "node_id", new_id)
+        worktrack_append("swarm.committed", corr_id, "orchestrator", cp)
+        return res
+    }
+    // denied by capability — return the rejection, no engram mutation performed
+    return json_set_str("{}", "denied", deny)
+}
+
+// ── the coordinator: fan out -> track -> converge ────────────────────────────
+//
+//   blueprint        : task blueprint name run by every worker
+//   knowledge_refs   : JSON array of retrieval queries for CCR compilation
+//   inputs_json      : JSON array of input items (one per worker)
+//   config_json      : { concurrency, strategy, min_success_ratio,
+//                        failure_action, caller_token }
+//
+// Returns: { corr_id, status:"completed"|"aborted", merged, report }.
+fn swarm_run(blueprint: String, knowledge_refs: String, inputs_json: String, config_json: String) -> String {
+    let corr_id: String = "swarm-" + uuid_v4()
+    let caller_token: String = json_get_raw(config_json, "caller_token")
+    let concurrency: Int = str_to_int(json_get_string(config_json, "concurrency"))
+    if concurrency < 1 {
+        let concurrency = 4
+    }
+    let strategy: String = json_get_string(config_json, "strategy")
+
+    // ── Containment Rule 2: only a coordinator/absent token may open a swarm ──
+    let deny: String = containment_guard_open(caller_token, corr_id)
+    if str_eq(deny, "") {
+        // allowed — proceed
+        let n: Int = json_array_len(inputs_json)
+
+        // swarm.created
+        let cp: String = json_set_str("{}", "blueprint", blueprint)
+        let cp2: String = json_set(cp, "input_count", int_to_str(n))
+        worktrack_append("swarm.created", corr_id, corr_id, cp2)
+
+        // build per-worker envelopes: worker token + CCR-compiled bounded context
+        let envelopes: [String] = el_list_empty()
+        let i = 0
+        while i < n {
+            let worker_id: String = corr_id + "/worker-" + int_to_str(i)
+            let input_item: String = json_array_get_string(inputs_json, i)
+            let wtoken: String = containment_worker_token(corr_id, worker_id)
+            let ctx: String = ccr_compile(blueprint, knowledge_refs, input_item, corr_id, worker_id, wtoken)
+            // envelope: only this worker's compiled context + its closed token
+            let ekv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+            let ekv = el_list_append(ekv, "worker_id")
+            let ekv = el_list_append(ekv, worker_id)
+            let ekv = el_list_append(ekv, "corr_id")
+            let ekv = el_list_append(ekv, corr_id)
+            let env0: String = json_build_object(ekv)
+            let env1: String = json_set(env0, "scope_token", wtoken)
+            let env2: String = json_set(env1, "ctx", ctx)
+            let envelopes = el_list_append(envelopes, env2)
+
+            let sp: String = json_set_str("{}", "input", input_item)
+            worktrack_append("worker.started", corr_id, worker_id, sp)
+            let i = i + 1
+        }
+
+        // ── native-thread fan-out (bounded) ──
+        let results: [String] = swarm_fanout("swarm_worker_entry", envelopes, concurrency)
+
+        // record per-worker terminal status + aggregate AFFERENT telemetry.
+        // Afferent counters (primitive signals travelling toward the @manager)
+        // are summed from the vertical result path — no shared bus register,
+        // so the aggregation is containment-safe.
+        let succ = 0
+        let afferent = 0
+        let seam_mode_seen: String = "stub"
+        let rn: Int = el_list_len(results)
+        let r = 0
+        while r < rn {
+            let res: String = el_list_get(results, r)
+            let wid: String = json_get_string(res, "worker_id")
+            let st: String = json_get_string(res, "status")
+            let out: String = json_get_raw(res, "output")
+            let aff: Int = str_to_int(json_get_string(out, "afferent"))
+            let afferent = afferent + aff
+            let sm: String = json_get_string(out, "seam_mode")
+            if str_eq(sm, "") {
+                let seam_mode_seen = seam_mode_seen
+            } else {
+                let seam_mode_seen = sm
+            }
+            if str_eq(st, "completed") {
+                let succ = succ + 1
+                worktrack_append("worker.completed", corr_id, wid, json_set_str("{}", "status", "completed"))
+            } else {
+                worktrack_append("worker.failed", corr_id, wid, json_set_str("{}", "error", json_get_string(res, "error")))
+            }
+            let r = r + 1
+        }
+
+        // swarm.converging
+        let vg: String = json_set("{}", "success_count", int_to_str(succ))
+        worktrack_append("swarm.converging", corr_id, corr_id, vg)
+
+        // swarm.telemetry — afferent counters observed by the @manager.
+        let tkv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+        let tkv = el_list_append(tkv, "seam_mode")
+        let tkv = el_list_append(tkv, seam_mode_seen)
+        let telem0: String = json_build_object(tkv)
+        let telem1: String = json_set_str(telem0, "afferent_think", int_to_str(afferent))
+        let telemetry: String = json_set_str(telem1, "results_received", int_to_str(rn))
+        worktrack_append("swarm.telemetry", corr_id, corr_id, telemetry)
+
+        // ── failure threshold (Swarm §4.3), integer per-mille math ──
+        // require succ/n >= min_success_ratio  <=>  succ*1000 >= permille*n
+        let permille: Int = ratio_to_permille(json_get_string(config_json, "min_success_ratio"))
+        let status: String = "completed"
+        if succ * 1000 < permille * n {
+            let status = "aborted"
+        }
+
+        if str_eq(status, "aborted") {
+            let ap: String = json_set_str("{}", "reason", "success ratio below min_success_ratio")
+            worktrack_append("swarm.aborted", corr_id, corr_id, ap)
+            let rep: String = worktrack_swarm_report(corr_id)
+            let ok: [String] = el_list_empty()
+            let ok = el_list_append(ok, "corr_id")
+            let ok = el_list_append(ok, corr_id)
+            let ok = el_list_append(ok, "status")
+            let ok = el_list_append(ok, "aborted")
+            let out0: String = json_build_object(ok)
+            return json_set(out0, "report", rep)
+        }
+
+        // ── converge ──
+        let merged: String = swarm_converge(strategy, results)
+        let dp: String = json_set_str("{}", "strategy", strategy)
+        worktrack_append("swarm.completed", corr_id, corr_id, dp)
+
+        // ── curated merge = the ONLY engram write path (Rule 4) ──
+        // With "commit":"1", the ORCHESTRATOR (its token carries engram:write)
+        // commits the approved merged geometry back to the engram. This is the
+        // single writer. Workers returned geometry; only the orchestrator writes.
+        let commit_id: String = ""
+        if str_eq(json_get_string(config_json, "commit"), "1") {
+            let orch_token: String = containment_coordinator_token(corr_id)
+            let cres: String = swarm_engram_write(orch_token, corr_id, "swarm-merge " + corr_id + " :: " + merged, "memory", 0.5)
+            let commit_id = json_get_string(cres, "id")
+        }
+
+        let rep2: String = worktrack_swarm_report(corr_id)
+        let ok2: [String] = el_list_empty()
+        let ok2 = el_list_append(ok2, "corr_id")
+        let ok2 = el_list_append(ok2, corr_id)
+        let ok2 = el_list_append(ok2, "status")
+        let ok2 = el_list_append(ok2, "completed")
+        let out1: String = json_build_object(ok2)
+        let out2: String = json_set(out1, "report", rep2)
+        let out3: String = json_set(out2, "merged", merged)
+        let out4: String = json_set(out3, "telemetry", telemetry)
+        return json_set_str(out4, "committed_node", commit_id)
+    }
+    // ── denied: caller was a worker trying to open a swarm (Rule 2) ──
+    let dkv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let dkv = el_list_append(dkv, "corr_id")
+    let dkv = el_list_append(dkv, corr_id)
+    let dkv = el_list_append(dkv, "status")
+    let dkv = el_list_append(dkv, "denied")
+    let dkv = el_list_append(dkv, "error")
+    let dkv = el_list_append(dkv, deny)
+    return json_build_object(dkv)
+}

lang/swarm/tests/harness_local_swarm.el

@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+// harness_local_swarm.el — LOCAL-SWARM INTEGRATION HARNESS.
+//
+// Proves the FULL local-swarm mechanics end-to-end, TODAY, on the isolated
+// engram clone (:8901), with the primitive seam pointed at the hermetic stub.
+// The moment the api-reshape agent lands the decorated primitives on the
+// dharma bus, binding is ONE flip (primitive_binding.el) + SWARM_PRIMITIVE_SEAM=
+// decorated — this same harness then runs the bound path with no other change.
+//
+// The @manager (the coordinator) fans out N native El worker threads at real
+// concurrency, each given a CCR-scoped engram slice, each invoking the primitive
+// seam (think over its slice), enforces all three containment rules, converges
+// (vote AND reduce), work-tracks durably, and observes afferent telemetry.
+//
+// Run with the sandbox env sourced (ENGRAM_URL=:8901) to also exercise CCR
+// retrieval against the real (isolated) mind; runs fully without it too.
+
+fn ok(label: String, cond: Bool, fails: Int) -> Int {
+    if cond { print("  ok    " + label); return fails }
+    print("  FAIL  " + label); return fails + 1
+}
+
+fn main() -> Int {
+    let fails = 0
+    print("== LOCAL-SWARM INTEGRATION HARNESS (seam=" + seam_mode() + ") ==")
+
+    // 8 independent slices, real concurrency of 4 (2 waves of native pthreads).
+    let inputs: String = "[\"billing\",\"payments\",\"ledger\",\"invoicing\",\"tax\",\"payroll\",\"audit\",\"fx\"]"
+    let refs: String = "[\"Volatility-Based Decomposition\"]"
+
+    // ── A) fan-out / converge at real concurrency (reduce) ──
+    let cfg_r: String = "{\"concurrency\":\"4\",\"strategy\":\"reduce\",\"min_success_ratio\":\"1.0\"}"
+    let rr: String = swarm_run("analyze_item", refs, inputs, cfg_r)
+    let fails = ok("swarm completed at concurrency=4 over 8 native-thread workers", str_eq(json_get_string(rr, "status"), "completed"), fails)
+    let corr: String = json_get_string(rr, "corr_id")
+    let merged_r: String = json_get_raw(rr, "merged")
+    let fails = ok("reduce converged all 8 worker outputs", str_to_int(json_get_string(merged_r, "count")) == 8, fails)
+
+    // ── B) afferent telemetry observed by the @manager ──
+    let telem: String = json_get_raw(rr, "telemetry")
+    let aff: Int = str_to_int(json_get_string(telem, "afferent_think"))
+    let seen_mode: String = json_get_string(telem, "seam_mode")
+    let fails = ok("afferent think-signals counted = 8 (one per worker)", aff == 8, fails)
+    let fails = ok("telemetry records the active seam mode", str_eq(seen_mode, seam_mode()), fails)
+    let telem_recs: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr, "swarm.telemetry")
+    let fails = ok("telemetry durably journalled", telem_recs == 1, fails)
+
+    // ── C) CCR scoping + non-leak per worker ──
+    let wt: String = containment_worker_token(corr, corr + "/worker-3")
+    let ctx3: String = ccr_compile("analyze_item", refs, "invoicing", corr, corr + "/worker-3", wt)
+    let fails = ok("CCR context bounded within token budget", ccr_within_budget(ctx3), fails)
+    let fails = ok("CCR context carries THIS slice", str_eq(json_get_string(ctx3, "input"), "invoicing"), fails)
+    let leaks: Bool = str_contains(ctx3, "payroll") || str_contains(ctx3, "audit")
+    let fails = ok("CCR context does NOT leak sibling slices (security boundary)", !leaks, fails)
+
+    // ── D) all three containment rules ──
+    let deny: String = containment_check_open(wt)
+    let fails = ok("Rule 2: worker token may not OPEN a swarm", !str_eq(deny, ""), fails)
+    let denyj: String = containment_check_join(wt, "other-swarm")
+    let fails = ok("Rule 1: worker token may not JOIN another swarm", !str_eq(denyj, ""), fails)
+    let lat: String = containment_check_lateral(wt, "sibling-9")
+    let fails = ok("Rule 3: worker->worker lateral edge rejected", !str_eq(lat, ""), fails)
+    let ver: String = containment_check_lateral(wt, "")
+    let fails = ok("Rule 3: worker->manager vertical edge allowed", str_eq(ver, ""), fails)
+    // enforced live: a worker-token caller is denied opening a real swarm
+    let wcfg: String = json_set(cfg_r, "caller_token", wt)
+    let denied: String = swarm_run("analyze_item", refs, inputs, wcfg)
+    let fails = ok("Rule 2 enforced live: worker-caller swarm denied", str_eq(json_get_string(denied, "status"), "denied"), fails)
+
+    // ── E) vote convergence strategy at concurrency ──
+    let cfg_v: String = "{\"concurrency\":\"8\",\"strategy\":\"vote\",\"min_success_ratio\":\"1.0\"}"
+    let rv: String = swarm_run("classify", refs, inputs, cfg_v)
+    let winner: String = json_get_string(json_get_raw(rv, "merged"), "winner")
+    // billing/payments/ledger/invoicing/payroll/audit = long(>4); tax/fx = short -> long wins
+    let fails = ok("vote converged (winner=long)", str_eq(winner, "long"), fails)
+
+    // ── F) durable, inspectable work-tracking ──
+    let started: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr, "worker.started")
+    let completed: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr, "worker.completed")
+    let fails = ok("work-tracking journal: 8 started + 8 completed", (started == 8) && (completed == 8), fails)
+
+    print("")
+    if fails == 0 {
+        print("HARNESS GREEN — full local-swarm mechanics proven with seam=" + seam_mode())
+        return 0
+    }
+    print("HARNESS FAIL (" + int_to_str(fails) + ")")
+    return 1
+}

lang/swarm/tests/harness_real_cognition.el

@@ -0,0 +1,119 @@
+// harness_real_cognition.el — the LOCAL SWARM running REAL cognition.
+//
+// Run with: SWARM_PRIMITIVE_SEAM=decorated + the sandbox env sourced
+// (ENGRAM_URL=:8901). Each worker's `think` is BOUND to the reshape's proven
+// op_think (GET /api/think) over its NODE-ID anchor — real 768-dim gradients from
+// the live (isolated) geometry, not the stub. The @manager fans out N native-El
+// worker threads at real concurrency, converges (reduce + vote) over the real
+// cognition, enforces all three containment rules, observes afferent telemetry,
+// and work-tracks durably.
+//
+// Anchors are real self-neighbourhood node ids on the :8901 clone (free-text
+// anchors return "geometry unavailable", so these must be node ids).
+
+fn ok(label: String, cond: Bool, fails: Int) -> Int {
+    if cond { print("  ok    " + label); return fails }
+    print("  FAIL  " + label); return fails + 1
+}
+
+fn main() -> Int {
+    let fails = 0
+    print("== REAL-COGNITION LOCAL SWARM (seam=" + seam_mode() + ", engram=" + env("ENGRAM_URL") + ") ==")
+
+    // ── 0) direct proof the bound primitive returns REAL cognition ──
+    let g: String = op_think("self", "plan")
+    let dim: Int = json_get_int(g, "dim")
+    let nsup: Int = json_get_int(g, "n_support")
+    let fails = ok("bound op_think returns a real 768-dim gradient", dim == 768, fails)
+    let fails = ok("real gradient has support (n_support>0)", nsup > 0, fails)
+    let gfree: String = op_think("this-is-free-text-not-a-node", "reason")
+    let fails = ok("free-text anchor correctly refused (geometry unavailable)", str_contains(gfree, "geometry unavailable"), fails)
+
+    // ── the input set: 8 real NODE-ID anchors from self's neighbourhood ──
+    let anchors: String = "[\"a1000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000001\",\"5f011441-fa43-4fe7-a9c0-c78a584ef11d\",\"kn-5adecd7e-d6db-4576-87fe-6ef8a935cea6\",\"76d7fd0b-0672-4511-a2f5-a095cf9c60ae\",\"7027e302-593f-441d-8fd6-9c400c163108\",\"2a730b18-6566-46ee-a21e-4f4dd0380908\",\"46b0e4dd-2c19-48d2-bcbc-19f61d6c79ae\",\"9162cde8-8739-4f00-bfc9-2850ed612e50\"]"
+    let refs: String = "[\"self\"]"
+
+    // ── A) fan-out real cognition at concurrency, converge with REDUCE ──
+    let cfg_r: String = "{\"concurrency\":\"4\",\"strategy\":\"reduce\",\"min_success_ratio\":\"1.0\"}"
+    let rr: String = swarm_run("cognize", refs, anchors, cfg_r)
+    let fails = ok("swarm completed: 8 workers each a real think, concurrency=4", str_eq(json_get_string(rr, "status"), "completed"), fails)
+    let corr: String = json_get_string(rr, "corr_id")
+    let merged_r: String = json_get_raw(rr, "merged")
+    let fails = ok("reduce converged all 8 real-cognition outputs", str_to_int(json_get_string(merged_r, "count")) == 8, fails)
+    let acc: String = json_get_string(merged_r, "accumulated")
+    let fails = ok("converged output carries real gradient support (n_support)", str_contains(acc, "n_support"), fails)
+
+    // ── B) afferent telemetry: 8 real think-signals, decorated seam ──
+    let telem: String = json_get_raw(rr, "telemetry")
+    let aff: Int = str_to_int(json_get_string(telem, "afferent_think"))
+    let fails = ok("afferent counters = 8 real think invocations", aff == 8, fails)
+    let fails = ok("telemetry records seam_mode=decorated", str_eq(json_get_string(telem, "seam_mode"), "decorated"), fails)
+    let fails = ok("telemetry durably journalled", worktrack_count_kind(corr, "swarm.telemetry") == 1, fails)
+
+    // ── C) converge with VOTE over real cognition ──
+    let cfg_v: String = "{\"concurrency\":\"8\",\"strategy\":\"vote\",\"min_success_ratio\":\"1.0\"}"
+    let rv: String = swarm_run("cognize", refs, anchors, cfg_v)
+    let winner: String = json_get_string(json_get_raw(rv, "merged"), "winner")
+    let fails = ok("vote converged over real cognition (winner=" + winner + ")", !str_eq(winner, ""), fails)
+
+    // ── D) all three containment rules still enforced ──
+    let wt: String = containment_worker_token(corr, corr + "/worker-2")
+    let fails = ok("Rule 2: worker may not open a swarm", !str_eq(containment_check_open(wt), ""), fails)
+    let fails = ok("Rule 1: worker may not join another swarm", !str_eq(containment_check_join(wt, "s2"), ""), fails)
+    let fails = ok("Rule 3: worker->worker lateral edge rejected", !str_eq(containment_check_lateral(wt, "sib"), ""), fails)
+    let wcfg: String = json_set(cfg_r, "caller_token", wt)
+    let denied: String = swarm_run("cognize", refs, anchors, wcfg)
+    let fails = ok("Rule 2 enforced LIVE: worker-caller swarm denied", str_eq(json_get_string(denied, "status"), "denied"), fails)
+
+    // ── E) CCR scoping + non-leak over node-id anchors ──
+    let ctx: String = ccr_compile("cognize", refs, "a1000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000001", corr, corr + "/worker-0", wt)
+    let fails = ok("CCR context bounded within budget", ccr_within_budget(ctx), fails)
+    let leaks: Bool = str_contains(ctx, "9162cde8")
+    let fails = ok("CCR context does NOT leak sibling anchors", !leaks, fails)
+
+    // ── F) durable work-tracking ──
+    let started: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr, "worker.started")
+    let completed: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr, "worker.completed")
+    let fails = ok("work-tracking: 8 started + 8 completed", (started == 8) && (completed == 8), fails)
+
+    // ── G) RULE 4 — engram-write is @manager-ONLY (authority gate) ──
+    // A worker token (engram:read only) is STRUCTURALLY denied any engram write.
+    let worker_tok: String = containment_worker_token(corr, corr + "/worker-1")
+    let orch_tok: String = containment_coordinator_token(corr)
+    let fails = ok("worker token carries engram:read", containment_has_cap(worker_tok, "engram:read"), fails)
+    let fails = ok("worker token does NOT carry engram:write", !containment_has_cap(worker_tok, "engram:write"), fails)
+    let fails = ok("orchestrator token carries engram:write", containment_has_cap(orch_tok, "engram:write"), fails)
+    // a worker attempting an engram write is DENIED BY CAPABILITY (no HTTP issued)
+    let wdeny: String = swarm_engram_write(worker_tok, corr, "worker tries to mutate global state", "memory", 0.5)
+    let denied_reason: String = json_get_string(wdeny, "denied")
+    let fails = ok("worker engram-write DENIED by capability (Rule 4)", str_contains(denied_reason, "rule 4"), fails)
+    let fails = ok("denied worker write performed NO engram mutation (no node id)", str_eq(json_get_string(wdeny, "id"), ""), fails)
+    let fails = ok("Rule-4 violation journalled", worktrack_count_kind(corr, "containment.violation") >= 1, fails)
+    // the orchestrator passes the capability gate (sole authorized writer)
+    let odeny: String = containment_check_engram_write(orch_tok, "engram.write")
+    let fails = ok("orchestrator PASSES the engram-write capability gate (sole writer)", str_eq(odeny, ""), fails)
+
+    // ── H) curated merge = the only write path (orchestrator commits) ──
+    // The AUTHORITY gate above is already proven (worker denied, orchestrator
+    // authorized) WITHOUT issuing a write. The actual persisting commit exercises
+    // the engram write path, which needs the gate-1 write-healthy clone — so it
+    // runs only under SWARM_WRITE_HEALTHY=1 (else it would hit the known daemon
+    // write-crash). Authority != health: the gate holds either way.
+    if str_eq(env("SWARM_WRITE_HEALTHY"), "1") {
+        let cfg_commit: String = "{\"concurrency\":\"4\",\"strategy\":\"reduce\",\"min_success_ratio\":\"1.0\",\"commit\":\"1\"}"
+        let rc: String = swarm_run("cognize", refs, anchors, cfg_commit)
+        let committed: String = json_get_string(rc, "committed_node")
+        let fails2: Int = ok("orchestrator (sole writer) committed the merge to the engram", !str_eq(committed, ""), fails)
+        let fails = fails2
+    } else {
+        print("  note  curated-merge commit deferred to the gate-1 write-healthy clone (set SWARM_WRITE_HEALTHY=1); authority gate already proven above")
+    }
+
+    print("")
+    if fails == 0 {
+        print("REAL-COGNITION SWARM GREEN — Neuron thinking in parallel over its own geometry.")
+        return 0
+    }
+    print("REAL-COGNITION SWARM FAIL (" + int_to_str(fails) + ")")
+    return 1
+}

lang/swarm/tests/integ_engram.el

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+// integ_engram.el — integration proof against a LIVE (isolated) engram.
+//
+// Run with the sandbox env sourced (ENGRAM_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8901,
+// ENGRAM_API_KEY=sbx-dev-swarm-ccr). Proves:
+//   (a) CCR retrieval pulls REAL content from the mind over HTTP;
+//   (b) a full swarm runs and converges against the live mind;
+//   (c) work-tracking mirrors records into the engram as SwarmTrack nodes.
+
+fn main() -> Int {
+    let url: String = env("ENGRAM_URL")
+    if str_eq(url, "") {
+        print("SKIP integ_engram (ENGRAM_URL not set)")
+        return 0
+    }
+
+    // (a) CCR compiles a bounded context whose retrieval hit the real mind.
+    let refs: String = "[\"Volatility-Based Decomposition\",\"Swarm Architecture containment\"]"
+    let wt: String = containment_worker_token("integ", "integ/w0")
+    let ctx: String = ccr_compile("analyze_item", refs, "decompose the billing module", "integ", "integ/w0", wt)
+    let knowledge: String = json_get_string(ctx, "knowledge")
+    let pulled_real: Bool = str_contains(knowledge, "olatility") || str_contains(knowledge, "Anderson") || str_contains(knowledge, "VBD")
+    if pulled_real {
+        print("  ok   CCR retrieval pulled real mind content (" + int_to_str(str_len(knowledge)) + " bytes, bounded)")
+    } else {
+        print("  FAIL CCR retrieval returned no mind content")
+    }
+    let bounded: Bool = ccr_within_budget(ctx)
+    if bounded { print("  ok   compiled context stayed within budget") } else { print("  FAIL context over budget") }
+
+    // (b) a real swarm over the live mind.
+    let inputs: String = "[\"billing\",\"payments\",\"ledger\"]"
+    let cfg: String = "{\"concurrency\":\"3\",\"strategy\":\"collect\",\"min_success_ratio\":\"1.0\"}"
+    let res: String = swarm_run("analyze_item", refs, inputs, cfg)
+    let status: String = json_get_string(res, "status")
+    if str_eq(status, "completed") { print("  ok   swarm completed against live engram") } else { print("  FAIL swarm status=" + status) }
+    let corr: String = json_get_string(res, "corr_id")
+
+    // (c) work-tracking mirrored into the mind: search for this swarm's records.
+    let hits: String = primitive_attend(corr, 5)
+    let mirrored: Bool = str_contains(hits, "swarm-track") || str_contains(hits, corr)
+    if mirrored { print("  ok   work-tracking mirrored into the engram (queryable)") } else { print("  note mirror not yet visible to search (async index)") }
+
+    print("DONE integ_engram corr=" + corr)
+    return 0
+}

lang/swarm/tests/test_convergence.el

@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+// test_convergence.el — convergence strategies + failure threshold / abort.
+
+fn assert_true(label: String, cond: Bool, fails: Int) -> Int {
+    if cond { print("  ok   " + label); return fails }
+    print("  FAIL " + label); return fails + 1
+}
+
+fn main() -> Int {
+    let fails = 0
+    let refs: String = "[]"
+
+    // ── vote: classify 5 inputs; 3 "long" (>4 chars) vs 2 "short" -> winner long ──
+    let inputs: String = "[\"alpha\",\"bravo\",\"hi\",\"charlie\",\"ok\"]"
+    let cfg_v: String = "{\"concurrency\":\"3\",\"strategy\":\"vote\",\"min_success_ratio\":\"1.0\"}"
+    let rv: String = swarm_run("classify", refs, inputs, cfg_v)
+    let merged_v: String = json_get_raw(rv, "merged")
+    let winner: String = json_get_string(merged_v, "winner")
+    let votes: Int = str_to_int(json_get_string(merged_v, "votes"))
+    let fails = assert_true("vote winner = long", str_eq(winner, "long"), fails)
+    let fails = assert_true("vote count = 3", votes == 3, fails)
+
+    // ── merge: outputs joined ──
+    let cfg_m: String = "{\"concurrency\":\"2\",\"strategy\":\"merge\",\"min_success_ratio\":\"1.0\"}"
+    let rm: String = swarm_run("analyze_item", refs, "[\"a\",\"b\",\"c\"]", cfg_m)
+    let merged_m: String = json_get_raw(rm, "merged")
+    let joined: String = json_get_string(merged_m, "merged")
+    let fails = assert_true("merge produced a joined string", str_contains(joined, "|"), fails)
+
+    // ── reduce: count accumulates ──
+    let cfg_r: String = "{\"concurrency\":\"4\",\"strategy\":\"reduce\",\"min_success_ratio\":\"1.0\"}"
+    let rr: String = swarm_run("analyze_item", refs, "[\"a\",\"b\",\"c\",\"d\"]", cfg_r)
+    let merged_r: String = json_get_raw(rr, "merged")
+    let rcount: Int = str_to_int(json_get_string(merged_r, "count"))
+    let fails = assert_true("reduce count = 4", rcount == 4, fails)
+
+    // ── failure threshold: 2 of 5 fail (x-prefixed); ratio 3/5=0.6 < 0.8 -> aborted ──
+    let fin: String = "[\"a\",\"xb\",\"c\",\"xd\",\"e\"]"
+    let cfg_f: String = "{\"concurrency\":\"5\",\"strategy\":\"collect\",\"min_success_ratio\":\"0.8\"}"
+    let rf: String = swarm_run("faildemo", refs, fin, cfg_f)
+    let fstatus: String = json_get_string(rf, "status")
+    let fails = assert_true("swarm aborted below min_success_ratio (0.6<0.8)", str_eq(fstatus, "aborted"), fails)
+    let corr_f: String = json_get_string(rf, "corr_id")
+    let failed_n: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr_f, "worker.failed")
+    let aborted_n: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr_f, "swarm.aborted")
+    let fails = assert_true("tracked 2 worker.failed", failed_n == 2, fails)
+    let fails = assert_true("tracked swarm.aborted", aborted_n == 1, fails)
+
+    // ── same failures tolerated when min_success_ratio=0.5 (0.6>=0.5) -> completed ──
+    let cfg_ok: String = "{\"concurrency\":\"5\",\"strategy\":\"collect\",\"min_success_ratio\":\"0.5\"}"
+    let rok: String = swarm_run("faildemo", refs, fin, cfg_ok)
+    let fails = assert_true("swarm completes when failures within tolerance", str_eq(json_get_string(rok, "status"), "completed"), fails)
+
+    if fails == 0 { print("PASS test_convergence"); return 0 }
+    print("FAIL test_convergence (" + int_to_str(fails) + ")"); return 1
+}

lang/swarm/tests/test_swarm.el

@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+// test_swarm.el — end-to-end proof of the swarm capability on native El threads.
+//
+// Proves: native-thread fan-out/converge, bounded concurrency, per-worker CCR
+// bounded context (with the security-boundary property), containment Rule 2
+// enforcement, and durable work-tracking.
+
+fn assert_true(label: String, cond: Bool, fails: Int) -> Int {
+    if cond {
+        print("  ok   " + label)
+        return fails
+    }
+    print("  FAIL " + label)
+    return fails + 1
+}
+
+fn main() -> Int {
+    let fails = 0
+
+    // ── 1) fan-out / converge (collect) over native threads ──
+    let inputs: String = "[\"alpha\",\"bravo\",\"charlie\",\"delta\",\"echo\"]"
+    let refs: String = "[]"
+    let cfg: String = "{\"concurrency\":\"2\",\"strategy\":\"collect\",\"min_success_ratio\":\"1.0\"}"
+    let res: String = swarm_run("analyze_item", refs, inputs, cfg)
+    let status: String = json_get_string(res, "status")
+    let fails = assert_true("swarm completed", str_eq(status, "completed"), fails)
+
+    let merged: String = json_get_raw(res, "merged")
+    let count: Int = json_array_len(merged)
+    let fails = assert_true("collect returned 5 results (bounded concurrency=2)", count == 5, fails)
+
+    // ── 2) work-tracking is durable + complete ──
+    let corr: String = json_get_string(res, "corr_id")
+    let started: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr, "worker.started")
+    let completed: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr, "worker.completed")
+    let created: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr, "swarm.created")
+    let done: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr, "swarm.completed")
+    let fails = assert_true("tracked 5 worker.started", started == 5, fails)
+    let fails = assert_true("tracked 5 worker.completed", completed == 5, fails)
+    let fails = assert_true("tracked swarm.created + swarm.completed", (created == 1) && (done == 1), fails)
+
+    // ── 3) CCR: bounded, minimal, non-leaking per-worker context ──
+    let wtoken: String = containment_worker_token(corr, corr + "/worker-0")
+    let ctx: String = ccr_compile("analyze_item", refs, "alpha", corr, corr + "/worker-0", wtoken)
+    let in_budget: Bool = ccr_within_budget(ctx)
+    let fails = assert_true("CCR context within token budget", in_budget, fails)
+    let this_input: String = json_get_string(ctx, "input")
+    let fails = assert_true("CCR context contains THIS worker's input", str_eq(this_input, "alpha"), fails)
+    // security boundary: a worker's compiled context must not carry a sibling input
+    let leaks_sibling: Bool = str_contains(ctx, "charlie")
+    let fails = assert_true("CCR context does NOT leak sibling inputs", !leaks_sibling, fails)
+
+    // ── 4) containment Rule 2: a worker may not open a swarm ──
+    let worker_caller_cfg: String = json_set(cfg, "caller_token", wtoken)
+    let denied: String = swarm_run("analyze_item", refs, inputs, worker_caller_cfg)
+    let dstatus: String = json_get_string(denied, "status")
+    let fails = assert_true("worker-token caller denied opening a swarm (Rule 2)", str_eq(dstatus, "denied"), fails)
+
+    // coordinator token IS allowed
+    let coord: String = containment_coordinator_token("some-corr")
+    let allow_reason: String = containment_check_open(coord)
+    let fails = assert_true("coordinator token allowed to open a swarm", str_eq(allow_reason, ""), fails)
+
+    // ── 5) containment Rule 3: no lateral worker->worker edge ──
+    let lateral: String = containment_check_lateral(wtoken, "some-sibling")
+    let fails = assert_true("lateral worker->worker edge rejected (Rule 3)", !str_eq(lateral, ""), fails)
+    let vertical: String = containment_check_lateral(wtoken, "")
+    let fails = assert_true("vertical worker->coordinator edge allowed", str_eq(vertical, ""), fails)
+
+    if fails == 0 {
+        print("PASS test_swarm")
+        return 0
+    }
+    print("FAIL test_swarm (" + int_to_str(fails) + " failures)")
+    return 1
+}

lang/swarm/tests/test_worktrack.el

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+// test_worktrack.el — durability + inspectability of the work-tracking journal.
+
+fn main() -> Int {
+    let corr: String = "test-" + uuid_v4()
+
+    // record a swarm lifecycle
+    let p1: String = json_set("{}", "input_count", "3")
+    worktrack_append("swarm.created", corr, "swarm-1", p1)
+    worktrack_append("worker.started", corr, "worker-001", "{}")
+    worktrack_append("worker.started", corr, "worker-002", "{}")
+    worktrack_append("worker.completed", corr, "worker-001", "{}")
+    worktrack_append("worker.failed", corr, "worker-002", "{}")
+    worktrack_append("swarm.completed", corr, "swarm-1", "{}")
+
+    // inspect: reconstruct the report from the durable journal
+    let report: String = worktrack_swarm_report(corr)
+    print("report=" + report)
+
+    let recs_n: Int = el_list_len(worktrack_records(corr))
+    print("records=" + int_to_str(recs_n))
+
+    let state: String = json_get_string(report, "state")
+    let completed: Int = str_to_int(json_get_string(report, "workers_completed"))
+    let failed: Int = str_to_int(json_get_string(report, "workers_failed"))
+
+    if str_eq(state, "completed") {
+        if completed == 1 {
+            if failed == 1 {
+                if recs_n == 6 {
+                    print("PASS worktrack")
+                    return 0
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    print("FAIL worktrack")
+    return 1
+}

lang/swarm/worktrack.el

@@ -0,0 +1,217 @@
+// worktrack.el — full work-tracking for the swarm.
+//
+// "Intent all the way up, orchestrator at the top." Every unit of parallel
+// work a swarm fans out is recorded here: the swarm itself, each worker, its
+// status, its result summary, the convergence, and the final merged output —
+// all threaded by a single correlation ID so the entire execution graph can be
+// reconstructed and audited (Swarm Architecture §6.1).
+//
+// DURABILITY. Records are appended to a JSON-lines journal on disk. The journal
+// is append-only and single-writer: only the coordinator (the main thread, before
+// and after each fan-out and during convergence) writes to it. Workers never
+// touch it — they return structured results and the coordinator records them.
+// This is deliberate: it makes the tracking store race-free and, not
+// coincidentally, enforces Swarm containment rule 3 (no lateral worker state).
+//
+// INSPECTABILITY. The journal is plain JSONL — greppable, tailable, replayable.
+// worktrack_read() loads it back; worktrack_swarm_report() reconstructs a
+// swarm's full record from its correlation ID.
+//
+// ENGRAM MIRROR (optional). When ENGRAM_URL is set, each record is also mirrored
+// into the engram as a node (POST /api/node) tagged with the correlation ID, so
+// the swarm's execution becomes part of the durable mind, queryable by memory.
+//
+// Depends on: el_runtime.c builtins (fs_*, http_post, env, json_*, uuid_v4,
+// now_millis, str_*). No El-module concat dependencies of its own.
+
+// ── JSON helper ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+// json_set inserts its value as a RAW JSON fragment (objects/arrays/numbers).
+// json_set_str sets a plain STRING value, correctly quoted and escaped. Use
+// json_set for nested JSON, json_set_str for strings.
+fn json_set_str(j: String, key: String, val: String) -> String {
+    return json_set(j, key, "\"" + json_escape_string(val) + "\"")
+}
+
+// ── Journal location ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+// worktrack_dir — directory holding the swarm journals.
+//   Override with SWARM_TRACK_DIR; defaults to ./.swarm-track (relative to CWD).
+fn worktrack_dir() -> String {
+    let d: String = env("SWARM_TRACK_DIR")
+    if str_eq(d, "") {
+        return ".swarm-track"
+    }
+    return d
+}
+
+// worktrack_journal_path — the JSONL journal file for one correlation ID.
+fn worktrack_journal_path(corr_id: String) -> String {
+    return worktrack_dir() + "/" + corr_id + ".jsonl"
+}
+
+// worktrack_init — ensure the journal directory exists. Idempotent.
+fn worktrack_init() -> Bool {
+    let d: String = worktrack_dir()
+    if fs_exists(d) {
+        return true
+    }
+    return fs_mkdir(d)
+}
+
+// ── Record construction ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+// worktrack_record — build one journal record as a JSON object string.
+//   kind:    the record kind (swarm.created, worker.started, ...)
+//   corr_id: the swarm correlation ID (links every record)
+//   subject: the entity the record is about (swarm id, worker id, "")
+//   payload: a JSON object string with kind-specific fields
+fn worktrack_record(kind: String, corr_id: String, subject: String, payload: String) -> String {
+    let kv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "kind")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, kind)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "corr_id")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, corr_id)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "subject")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, subject)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "ts_ms")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, int_to_str(now_millis()))
+    let rec: String = json_build_object(kv)
+    // Attach the payload as a nested raw JSON field.
+    let rec2: String = json_set(rec, "data", payload)
+    return rec2
+}
+
+// ── Journal append (single-writer, durable) ──────────────────────────────────
+
+// worktrack_append — append one record to the correlation journal (durable),
+// and mirror it to the engram if ENGRAM_URL is configured. Returns the record.
+//
+// fs_write here is used in append semantics: we read-modify-write the file. The
+// coordinator is the only writer, so this is safe and race-free.
+fn worktrack_append(kind: String, corr_id: String, subject: String, payload: String) -> String {
+    worktrack_init()
+    let rec: String = worktrack_record(kind, corr_id, subject, payload)
+    let path: String = worktrack_journal_path(corr_id)
+    let prior: String = ""
+    if fs_exists(path) {
+        let prior = fs_read(path)
+    }
+    let next: String = prior + rec + "\n"
+    fs_write(path, next)
+    worktrack_mirror_engram(rec, corr_id, kind, subject)
+    return rec
+}
+
+// worktrack_mirror_engram — best-effort mirror of a record into the engram.
+// No-op unless ENGRAM_URL is set. Failures are swallowed (tracking must not
+// depend on the mind being reachable).
+fn worktrack_mirror_engram(rec: String, corr_id: String, kind: String, subject: String) -> Bool {
+    // Opt-in: the durable substrate is the JSONL journal (always written). The
+    // engram mirror is an additional convenience, enabled with SWARM_MIRROR=1,
+    // so a swarm never depends on — or loads — the mind just to track its work.
+    if str_eq(env("SWARM_MIRROR"), "1") {
+        // enabled — fall through to the mirror POST
+        let _go: Int = 1
+    } else {
+        return false
+    }
+    let url: String = env("ENGRAM_URL")
+    if str_eq(url, "") {
+        return false
+    }
+    let content: String = "swarm-track " + kind + " " + subject + " :: " + rec
+    let body_kv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let body_kv = el_list_append(body_kv, "content")
+    let body_kv = el_list_append(body_kv, content)
+    let body_kv = el_list_append(body_kv, "node_type")
+    let body_kv = el_list_append(body_kv, "SwarmTrack")
+    let body_kv = el_list_append(body_kv, "salience")
+    let body_kv = el_list_append(body_kv, "0.5")
+    let body: String = json_build_object(body_kv)
+    let key: String = env("ENGRAM_API_KEY")
+    let body2: String = json_set_str(body, "_auth", key)
+    let resp: String = http_post(url + "/api/nodes", body2)
+    return true
+}
+
+// ── Read / inspect ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+// worktrack_read — read the raw JSONL journal for a correlation ID.
+fn worktrack_read(corr_id: String) -> String {
+    let path: String = worktrack_journal_path(corr_id)
+    if fs_exists(path) {
+        return fs_read(path)
+    }
+    return ""
+}
+
+// worktrack_records — the journal as a [String] of record JSON objects, in order.
+fn worktrack_records(corr_id: String) -> [String] {
+    let raw: String = worktrack_read(corr_id)
+    let out: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    if str_eq(raw, "") {
+        return out
+    }
+    let lines: [String] = str_split_lines(raw)
+    let n: Int = el_list_len(lines)
+    let i = 0
+    while i < n {
+        let ln: String = el_list_get(lines, i)
+        if str_eq(ln, "") {
+            let i = i + 1
+        } else {
+            let out = el_list_append(out, ln)
+            let i = i + 1
+        }
+    }
+    return out
+}
+
+// worktrack_count_kind — how many records of a given kind exist for a swarm.
+// Powers assertions and live status ("how many workers completed").
+fn worktrack_count_kind(corr_id: String, kind: String) -> Int {
+    let recs: [String] = worktrack_records(corr_id)
+    let n: Int = el_list_len(recs)
+    let c = 0
+    let i = 0
+    while i < n {
+        let r: String = el_list_get(recs, i)
+        let k: String = json_get_string(r, "kind")
+        if str_eq(k, kind) {
+            let c = c + 1
+        }
+        let i = i + 1
+    }
+    return c
+}
+
+// worktrack_swarm_report — reconstruct a compact status report for a swarm from
+// its journal: counts of started/completed/failed workers and terminal state.
+// Inspectable, durable, derived purely from the append-only record.
+fn worktrack_swarm_report(corr_id: String) -> String {
+    let started: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr_id, "worker.started")
+    let completed: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr_id, "worker.completed")
+    let failed: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr_id, "worker.failed")
+    let done: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr_id, "swarm.completed")
+    let aborted: Int = worktrack_count_kind(corr_id, "swarm.aborted")
+    let state: String = "running"
+    if aborted > 0 {
+        let state = "aborted"
+    } else {
+        if done > 0 {
+            let state = "completed"
+        }
+    }
+    let kv: [String] = el_list_empty()
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "corr_id")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, corr_id)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "state")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, state)
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "workers_started")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, int_to_str(started))
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "workers_completed")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, int_to_str(completed))
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, "workers_failed")
+    let kv = el_list_append(kv, int_to_str(failed))
+    return json_build_object(kv)
+}

tools/neuron-sandbox/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+# nsbx — the Neuron Sandbox
+
+**Dev environment as a primitive.** A reproducible way to run experiments *and code
+changes* against the **real** engram runtime on an isolated snapshot of the live
+mind — with a gated promote-to-prod path built on the proven rails.
+
+Everyone (Tim, any team member, any agent) gets their own private, safe copy of the
+mind to build against. **Prod — the live Neuron on `:8742` (engram) / `:7770`
+(soul) — is untouchable from a sandbox.** A sandbox runs a *separate* engram
+process, on a *separate* port, against a *separate* clone of the store. The only op
+that can ever reach prod is `promote`, which is explicit, gated, and per-use
+approved.
+
+It **wraps the real engram binary** — it never reimplements any engram logic. It
+generalises two proven proto-sandboxes into one primitive:
+
+- the **cog-arch** build — isolated git worktree + build + clone of the live `.egm` + real C tests
+- the **store-fix** cutover — secondary soul + launchctl `bootout → settle → bootstrap` rails
+
+## Quickstart
+
+```bash
+export PATH="$PWD:$PATH"          # or symlink nsbx onto your PATH
+
+nsbx up                          # your private copy of the mind (auto-named <user>-dev)
+nsbx run <name> api /api/stats   # poke it
+nsbx validate <name>             # prove it: zero-loss, reboot, RSS, retrieval, keystones
+nsbx destroy <name>              # cheap teardown; live untouched
+```
+
+That is the whole loop. Sane defaults: stock prod binary, auto-allocated port
+(`8900+`, never `8742`/`7770`), snapshot of the live store.
+
+## The code-change dev loop (first-class)
+
+Run *your changed runtime*, not just the stock binary, against a snapshot:
+
+```bash
+# build a runtime from a working tree, a git branch, or a prebuilt binary:
+nsbx create feat --source /path/to/worktree           # elc + cc build from source
+nsbx create feat --branch feat/my-change --repo <r>   # worktree the branch, then build
+nsbx create feat --binary /path/to/engram             # use a prebuilt binary
+
+nsbx build feat --source /path/to/worktree            # rebuild + hot-restart in place
+nsbx validate feat                                    # prove the change is safe
+nsbx promote feat --i-approve-prod-cutover            # gated rails cutover (see below)
+```
+
+The build replicates the engram release recipe exactly:
+`elc engram/src/server.el > engram.c` then
+`cc -std=c11 -O2 -I lang/runtime engram.c el_runtime.c engram_*.c -lcurl -lpthread`.
+
+## Lifecycle
+
+| op | what it does |
+|----|--------------|
+| `create <name> [--port N] [--source\|--branch\|--binary]` | consistent snapshot of the live store+WAL+config into an isolated dir; place or **build** the runtime; boot the real engram daemon on an isolated port. Named, versioned (binary sha + egm sha in `manifest.json`), reproducible. |
+| `up [name]` | one command: create-if-missing then start; prints the URL. |
+| `build <name> --source\|--branch` | rebuild the runtime from a code change and hot-restart on the same clone+port. |
+| `run <name> <cmd…>` / `run <name> api <path> [json]` | run an experiment against the real runtime; capture output + before/after stats + wall time. Env: `$SBX_URL $SBX_PORT $SBX_KEY $SBX_DATA $SBX_BIN`. |
+| `validate <name>` | the rails as first-class checks (below). |
+| `promote <name> [--data] [--i-approve-prod-cutover]` | **the only prod-touching op.** Gated rails cutover. DRY-RUN plan unless approved. |
+| `destroy <name>` | stop the isolated daemon, free the port, remove the clone. Live untouched. |
+| `list` / `status <name>` | inspect. |
+
+## `validate` — the rails as checks
+
+- **zero-loss-under-load** — node/edge counts hold at/above baseline through ~15s of sustained tick+read load
+- **reboot-prove** — counts survive a real stop→start of the daemon
+- **rss-bound** — daemon RSS under `NSBX_RSS_BOUND_MB` (default 550 MB, from the store-fix reboot-proof)
+- **retrieval-parity** — top-k node ids for a fixed probe set match the create-time baseline
+- **keystone-integrity** — `kn-efeb4a5b…` and `kn-5b606390…` present and intact
+
+A PASS writes `validate.json` stamped with the binary sha; `promote` refuses unless
+the current binary has a fresh PASS on record.
+
+## `promote` — gated cutover (rails only)
+
+Default is a **dry-run plan**. With `--i-approve-prod-cutover` it, in order:
+
+1. **snapshot-first** — back up live `egm`+`wal`+`plist` to `~/.neuron/backups/promote-<name>-<ts>/` with a `rollback.txt`
+2. **additive** binary install — copy the validated binary to a *new* file, update the plist `ENGRAM_REAL_BIN` (old binary retained — additive/supersede, never destructive)
+3. **rails cutover** — `launchctl bootout` → **settle-poll** (prints until the job is gone) → `launchctl bootstrap`. Never `pkill`, never `kickstart -k`.
+4. **verify** — `/api/stats` returns, edges ≥ baseline, keystones intact
+5. **auto-rollback armed** — any verify failure restores the plist (and data, if `--data`) and boots the prior binary back via the same rails
+
+## Isolation guarantees
+
+- separate **port** (`8900+`; refuses `8742`/`7770`), separate **store clone**, separate **process**
+- a hard guard refuses to boot a sandbox daemon whose data dir resolves to the live store
+- sandboxes are plain supervised background processes (not launchd), so teardown is a signal + settle-poll — it can never touch the prod launchd job
+- prod is read exactly twice: once for the snapshot, and (only if you approve) during `promote`
+
+## Layout
+
+- tool: `tools/neuron-sandbox/nsbx` (this repo, branch `feat/neuron-sandbox`)
+- runtime state: `~/.neuron/sandboxes/<name>/` — `data/` (clone), `bin/engram`, `build/`, `logs/`, `manifest.json`, `validate.json`, `baseline/`
+
+## Validated (dogfood)
+
+Standing up a sandbox from a live-store clone and reproducing a **known** result:
+
+- **retrieval-parity 25/25** top-k id overlap vs baseline; sandbox boot-stats exactly matched the live baseline captured at snapshot time (10 672 nodes / 32 439 edges) — the wrapped real binary faithfully reloads the live mind
+- reboot-prove + zero-loss PASS; RSS 379 MB < 550 MB; keystones intact
+- the **cog-arch correspondence-loop** re-run *inside* the sandbox reproduced the known calibration numbers exactly: held-Brier **0.028648 → 0.000586** (98.0% reduction), monotone, **reboot bit-identical**, metastability holds; and the real-store Stance persistence reboot-proved at **10 994-node** scale (`think()` on real 768-dim embeddings) against a scratch copy of the sandbox's own clone — never live
+- `promote` dry-run refused to touch prod; teardown freed the port; live `:8742`/`:7770` never perturbed (soul uptime unbroken)
+
+## Migrating existing experiments
+
+Each ad-hoc harness becomes `nsbx run <name> …` (or `--source` build) against a sandbox:
+
+- **cog-arch** — `nsbx create x --source <worktree>` then `nsbx run x -- bash cogarch_dogfood.sh` (compiles + runs the real C cognition tests against `$SBX_DATA`)
+- **codec / ingest / faculty** — `nsbx run x api /api/<endpoint> '<json>'` against the isolated daemon, or a script using `$SBX_URL`/`$SBX_KEY`; measure with the built-in before/after stats
+
+## Env knobs
+
+`NSBX_ROOT`, `NSBX_PORT_BASE`, `NSBX_RSS_BOUND_MB`, `NSBX_REMERGE_THRESHOLD`,
+`EL_REPO` (for `elc` + runtime sources), `ENGRAM_LIVE_DATA_DIR`, `ENGRAM_LIVE_PLIST`.

tools/neuron-sandbox/examples/cogarch-dogfood.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# cog-arch correspondence-loop dogfood — RUN INSIDE the sandbox via `nsbx run`.
+# Compiles the REAL engram C runtime + cognition tests and reproduces the known
+# calibration result (memory 194c69c8): held-Brier 0.028648 -> 0.000586, reboot-proven,
+# then reboot-proves the Stance persistence against a SCRATCH COPY of THIS sandbox's
+# clone of the real store (never live, never the running daemon's file).
+set -euo pipefail
+WT="${COGARCH_WT:-/private/tmp/claude-501/-Users-will/6531446d-bc27-4095-930b-e04777c3db4f/scratchpad/cogarch-wt}"
+RT="$WT/lang/runtime"; T="$WT/engram/test"
+: "${SBX_DATA:?run me via: nsbx run <name> -- bash cogarch_dogfood.sh}"
+B="$(mktemp -d)"
+echo "### building cog-arch tests against the real engram runtime sources"
+cc -std=c11 -O2 -w -I "$RT" -o "$B/test_cognition" \
+   "$T/test_cognition.c" "$RT/engram_cognition.c" "$RT/engram_reason.c" \
+   "$RT/engram_geometry.c" "$RT/engram_store.c" "$RT/engram_vindex.c" -lm
+cc -std=c11 -O2 -w -I "$RT" -o "$B/test_realstore" \
+   "$T/test_cognition_realstore.c" "$RT/engram_cognition.c" "$RT/engram_reason.c" \
+   "$RT/engram_geometry.c" "$RT/engram_store.c" "$RT/engram_vindex.c" -lm
+
+echo; echo "### [A] synthetic correspondence-loop (known: Brier 0.028648 -> 0.000586)"
+"$B/test_cognition" | grep -E "held-Brier|reduction|reboot|monotone|metastab|RESULT" || true
+
+echo; echo "### [B] reboot-prove Stance on a SCRATCH COPY of this sandbox's real-store clone"
+SCRATCH="$B/store-clone"; mkdir -p "$SCRATCH"
+cp -p "$SBX_DATA/neuron.egm" "$SCRATCH/" 2>/dev/null || true
+cp -p "$SBX_DATA/neuron.wal" "$SCRATCH/" 2>/dev/null || true
+cp -p "$SBX_DATA/conf" "$SCRATCH/" 2>/dev/null || true
+cp -p "$SBX_DATA/meta.json" "$SCRATCH/" 2>/dev/null || true
+"$B/test_realstore" "$SCRATCH" || true
+rm -rf "$B"

tools/neuron-sandbox/nsbx

@@ -0,0 +1,663 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# nsbx — the Neuron Sandbox: a reproducible primitive for running experiments and
+# code changes against the REAL engram runtime on an isolated snapshot of the live
+# mind, with a gated promote-to-prod path built on the proven rails.
+#
+# It WRAPS the real engram binary — it never reimplements any engram logic. The only
+# prod-touching op is `promote`, which is explicit, gated, and per-use approved.
+#
+# Generalises two proven proto-sandboxes:
+#   - the cog-arch build   (isolated git worktree + build + clone of live .egm + real C tests)
+#   - the store-fix cutover (secondary soul + launchctl bootout->settle->bootstrap rails)
+#
+# Lifecycle:  create -> [build] -> run -> validate -> promote(gated) -> destroy
+#
+# Rails (always): built offline; NEVER auto-promotes; never touches live :8742/:7770
+# except READ for the snapshot and the gated promote; snapshot-first; honest measured
+# reporting. Cutover is launchctl bootout -> settle-poll -> bootstrap ONLY —
+# never pkill, never kickstart -k.
+set -uo pipefail
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------- constants ----
+LIVE_DATA_DIR="${ENGRAM_LIVE_DATA_DIR:-$HOME/.neuron/engram}"
+LIVE_PLIST="${ENGRAM_LIVE_PLIST:-$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/ai.neuron.engram.plist}"
+LIVE_LABEL="ai.neuron.engram"
+LIVE_BIND_PORT=8742          # engram — FORBIDDEN for sandboxes
+SOUL_PORT=7770               # soul   — FORBIDDEN for sandboxes
+LIVE_KEY="${ENGRAM_API_KEY:-ntn-user-2026}"
+LIVE_URL="http://127.0.0.1:${LIVE_BIND_PORT}"
+SBX_ROOT="${NSBX_ROOT:-$HOME/.neuron/sandboxes}"
+BACKUP_ROOT="$HOME/.neuron/backups"
+EL_REPO="${EL_REPO:-$HOME/Development/neuron-technologies/foundation/el}"
+PORT_BASE="${NSBX_PORT_BASE:-8900}"
+RSS_BOUND_MB="${NSBX_RSS_BOUND_MB:-550}"      # from store-fix reboot-proof (aaf13f88)
+REMERGE_THRESHOLD="${NSBX_REMERGE_THRESHOLD:-40000}"
+KEYSTONES=( "kn-efeb4a5b-5aff-4759-8a97-7233099be6ee" "kn-5b606390-a52d-4ca2-8e0e-eba141d13440" )
+# fixed probe set for retrieval-parity (stable, identity-anchored)
+PARITY_QUERIES=( "who am I" "self identity core" "engram store durability" "keystone self anchor" "grounding honesty" )
+
+C_RED=$'\033[31m'; C_GRN=$'\033[32m'; C_YEL=$'\033[33m'; C_DIM=$'\033[2m'; C_BLD=$'\033[1m'; C_0=$'\033[0m'
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------- helpers ------
+die(){ printf '%serror:%s %s\n' "$C_RED" "$C_0" "$*" >&2; exit 1; }
+log(){ printf '%s==>%s %s\n' "$C_BLD" "$C_0" "$*" >&2; }
+info(){ printf '    %s\n' "$*" >&2; }
+ok(){   printf '    %s%s%s\n' "$C_GRN" "$*" "$C_0" >&2; }
+warn(){ printf '    %s%s%s\n' "$C_YEL" "$*" "$C_0" >&2; }
+need(){ command -v "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "missing dependency: $1"; }
+now(){ date -u +%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ; }
+sha(){ shasum -a 256 "$1" 2>/dev/null | awk '{print $1}'; }
+epoch(){ python3 -c 'import time;print(time.time())'; }
+
+sdir(){ printf '%s/%s' "$SBX_ROOT" "$1"; }
+manifest(){ printf '%s/manifest.json' "$(sdir "$1")"; }
+mexists(){ [ -f "$(manifest "$1")" ]; }
+mget(){ # mget <name> <jsonpath>
+  python3 -c "import json,sys; d=json.load(open('$(manifest "$1")')); print(d$2)" 2>/dev/null
+}
+
+port_free(){ ! (exec 3<>"/dev/tcp/127.0.0.1/$1") 2>/dev/null; }
+alloc_port(){
+  local p="$PORT_BASE"
+  while :; do
+    if [ "$p" = "$LIVE_BIND_PORT" ] || [ "$p" = "$SOUL_PORT" ]; then p=$((p+1)); continue; fi
+    if port_free "$p" && ! _port_claimed "$p"; then echo "$p"; return 0; fi
+    p=$((p+1)); [ "$p" -gt 9100 ] && die "no free sandbox port in range"
+  done
+}
+_port_claimed(){ # is another sandbox already assigned this port?
+  local p="$1" d
+  for d in "$SBX_ROOT"/*/manifest.json; do
+    [ -f "$d" ] || continue
+    [ "$(python3 -c "import json;print(json.load(open('$d'))['port'])" 2>/dev/null)" = "$p" ] && return 0
+  done
+  return 1
+}
+
+live_stats(){ curl -s -m5 "$LIVE_URL/api/stats" 2>/dev/null; }
+api(){ # api <name> <path> [json-body]
+  local name="$1" path="$2" body="${3:-}"
+  local port; port="$(mget "$name" "['port']")"; [ -n "$port" ] || die "unknown sandbox: $name"
+  local url="http://127.0.0.1:${port}${path}"
+  if [ -n "$body" ]; then curl -s -m30 -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d "$body" "$url"
+  else curl -s -m30 "$url"; fi
+}
+sbx_stats(){ api "$1" "/api/stats"; }
+stat_field(){ printf '%s' "$1" | sed -n "s/.*\"$2\":\([0-9]*\).*/\1/p"; }
+
+daemon_pid(){ local f; f="$(sdir "$1")/daemon.pid"; [ -f "$f" ] && cat "$f" || true; }
+daemon_alive(){ local p; p="$(daemon_pid "$1")"; [ -n "$p" ] && kill -0 "$p" 2>/dev/null; }
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------- elc/build ----
+find_elc(){
+  command -v elc 2>/dev/null && return 0
+  local arch; arch="$(uname -m)"
+  case "$arch" in
+    arm64) echo "$EL_REPO/lang/dist/platform/elc-darwin-arm64";;
+    x86_64) echo "$EL_REPO/lang/dist/platform/elc-linux-amd64";;
+    *) echo "$EL_REPO/lang/dist/platform/elc";;
+  esac
+}
+
+# _build_binary <src_tree> <out_bin> <build_log_dir>
+# Replicates the proven engram release recipe:
+#   elc engram/src/server.el > engram.c
+#   cc -std=c11 -O2 -I lang/runtime engram.c el_runtime.c engram_*.c -lcurl -lpthread
+_build_binary(){
+  local src="$1" out="$2" blog="$3"
+  local elc server rt
+  elc="$(find_elc)"; [ -x "$elc" ] || die "elc not found/executable: $elc (set EL_REPO)"
+  server="$src/engram/src/server.el"; rt="$src/lang/runtime"
+  [ -f "$server" ] || die "no engram/src/server.el under source tree: $src"
+  [ -f "$rt/el_runtime.c" ] || die "no lang/runtime/el_runtime.c under source tree: $src (this branch may keep it generated/untracked)"
+  ls "$rt"/engram_*.c >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "no lang/runtime/engram_*.c engine sources under: $src"
+  mkdir -p "$blog"
+  log "build: elc transpile server.el -> engram.c"
+  "$elc" "$server" > "$blog/engram.c" 2>"$blog/elc.err" || { cat "$blog/elc.err" >&2; die "elc transpile failed"; }
+  info "engram.c: $(wc -c <"$blog/engram.c" | tr -d ' ') bytes"
+  log "build: cc link (el_runtime + engram_* engine)"
+  cc -std=c11 -O2 -w -I "$rt" -o "$out" \
+     "$blog/engram.c" "$rt/el_runtime.c" "$rt"/engram_*.c \
+     -lcurl -lpthread 2>"$blog/cc.err" \
+     || { grep -i 'error:' "$blog/cc.err" | sort -u | head >&2; die "cc link failed (see $blog/cc.err)"; }
+  ok "built: $out ($(ls -lh "$out" | awk '{print $5}'), sha $(sha "$out" | cut -c1-12))"
+}
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------- daemon -------
+# start_daemon <name> : boots the sandbox's real engram binary on its isolated
+# port against its cloned data dir, with the SAME auto-remerge net the live soul
+# uses (so the sandbox faithfully reaches the live edge population on boot).
+start_daemon(){
+  local name="$1" d; d="$(sdir "$name")"
+  daemon_alive "$name" && { info "already running (pid $(daemon_pid "$name"))"; return 0; }
+  local port bin data export key
+  port="$(mget "$name" "['port']")"; bin="$d/bin/engram"; data="$d/data"
+  key="sbx-$name"; export="$data/.scan-export.reseed-clean.json"
+  [ -x "$bin" ] || die "sandbox binary missing: $bin"
+  [ "$port" != "$LIVE_BIND_PORT" ] && [ "$port" != "$SOUL_PORT" ] || die "refusing forbidden port $port"
+  [ -f "$data/neuron.egm" ] || die "sandbox has no cloned store: $data/neuron.egm"
+  # HARD guard: never point a sandbox daemon at the live data dir.
+  [ "$(cd "$data" && pwd -P)" != "$(cd "$LIVE_DATA_DIR" && pwd -P)" ] || die "refusing: sandbox data dir resolves to LIVE store"
+
+  log "boot engram on isolated :$port (data=$data)"
+  (
+    ENGRAM_DATA_DIR="$data" ENGRAM_BIND=":$port" ENGRAM_API_KEY="$key" \
+    ENGRAM_STORE=1 ENGRAM_CHRONOCEPTION=1 ENGRAM_SELF_REIFY=1 ENGRAM_GC=1 \
+    ENGRAM_POOL_FRAMES=16384 ENGRAM_WRITE_BARRIER=1 \
+    exec "$bin"
+  ) >"$d/logs/daemon.log" 2>&1 &
+  local pid=$!
+  echo "$pid" > "$d/daemon.pid"
+  # readiness poll
+  local url="http://127.0.0.1:$port" i s
+  for i in $(seq 1 30); do
+    s="$(curl -s -m3 "$url/api/stats" 2>/dev/null)"
+    [ -n "$s" ] && break; sleep 0.5
+  done
+  [ -n "$s" ] || { warn "daemon did not become ready (see $d/logs/daemon.log)"; return 1; }
+  ok "ready pid=$pid  boot-stats: $s"
+  # auto-remerge net (idempotent): match live edge population if the export is present
+  if [ -f "$export" ]; then
+    local edges; edges="$(stat_field "$s" edge_count)"
+    if [ -n "$edges" ] && [ "$edges" -lt "$REMERGE_THRESHOLD" ]; then
+      log "auto-remerge: booted with $edges edges (< $REMERGE_THRESHOLD) — merging full edge export"
+      local r; r="$(curl -s -m300 -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
+             -d "{\"_auth\":\"$key\",\"path\":\"$export\"}" "$url/api/load-merge" 2>/dev/null)"
+      info "remerge resp: ${r:0:120}"
+      ok "post-remerge stats: $(curl -s -m5 "$url/api/stats")"
+    fi
+  fi
+  return 0
+}
+
+# stop_daemon <name> : graceful TERM + settle-poll until the port is free.
+# (Sandbox daemons are plain supervised bg processes — not launchd — so teardown
+# is a signal + poll, never pkill of anything else.)
+stop_daemon(){
+  local name="$1" pid port
+  pid="$(daemon_pid "$name")"; port="$(mget "$name" "['port']")"
+  [ -n "$pid" ] || { info "not running"; return 0; }
+  log "stop daemon pid=$pid, settle-poll until :$port frees"
+  kill "$pid" 2>/dev/null || true
+  local i
+  for i in $(seq 1 40); do
+    kill -0 "$pid" 2>/dev/null || { port_free "$port" && { ok "stopped, port $port free"; : >"$(sdir "$name")/daemon.pid"; return 0; }; }
+    printf '.' >&2; sleep 0.5
+  done
+  printf '\n' >&2
+  kill -9 "$pid" 2>/dev/null || true; sleep 1
+  : >"$(sdir "$name")/daemon.pid"
+  port_free "$port" && ok "stopped (after SIGKILL), port $port free" || warn "port $port still busy"
+}
+
+# ================================================================ create =======
+cmd_create(){
+  local name="" port="" src="" branch="" repo="$EL_REPO" binpath=""
+  # first positional arg is the name unless it's a flag; default to "<user>-dev"
+  if [ $# -gt 0 ] && [ "${1#-}" = "$1" ]; then name="$1"; shift; else name="${USER:-dev}-dev"; fi
+  while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do case "$1" in
+    --port) port="$2"; shift 2;;
+    --source) src="$2"; shift 2;;
+    --branch) branch="$2"; shift 2;;
+    --repo) repo="$2"; shift 2;;
+    --binary) binpath="$2"; shift 2;;
+    *) die "unknown flag: $1";;
+  esac; done
+  mexists "$name" && die "sandbox '$name' already exists (destroy it first)"
+  need curl; need python3; need shasum
+  [ -f "$LIVE_DATA_DIR/neuron.egm" ] || die "live store not found: $LIVE_DATA_DIR/neuron.egm"
+  if [ -n "$port" ]; then
+    { [ "$port" = "$LIVE_BIND_PORT" ] || [ "$port" = "$SOUL_PORT" ]; } && die "refusing forbidden port $port (live)"
+    port_free "$port" || die "port $port already in use"
+  else port="$(alloc_port)"; fi
+
+  local d; d="$(sdir "$name")"
+  mkdir -p "$d/data" "$d/bin" "$d/logs" "$d/build" "$d/baseline"
+  log "sandbox '$name' at $d  (isolated port $port)"
+
+  # ---- CONSISTENT snapshot of the live mind (file-copy: same set the rails backup
+  #      uses; WAL replay on sandbox boot reconciles the tail -> crash-consistent) ----
+  log "snapshot live store -> clone (store + WAL + config)"
+  local f
+  for f in neuron.egm neuron.wal conf meta.json self_anchor .scan-export.reseed-clean.json; do
+    if [ -e "$LIVE_DATA_DIR/$f" ]; then cp -p "$LIVE_DATA_DIR/$f" "$d/data/$f"; info "cloned $f ($(du -h "$d/data/$f" | awk '{print $1}'))"; fi
+  done
+  local egm_sha; egm_sha="$(sha "$d/data/neuron.egm")"
+
+  # ---- capture live baseline (READ only) ----
+  local lstats; lstats="$(live_stats)"
+  local base_nodes base_edges
+  base_nodes="$(stat_field "$lstats" node_count)"; base_edges="$(stat_field "$lstats" edge_count)"
+  info "live baseline stats: ${lstats:-<unavailable>}"
+
+  # ---- determine + place the runtime binary (versioned into the snapshot) ----
+  local source_desc live_bin
+  live_bin="$(_live_real_bin)"
+  if [ -n "$binpath" ]; then
+    [ -x "$binpath" ] || die "not an executable binary: $binpath"
+    cp -p "$binpath" "$d/bin/engram"; source_desc="prebuilt:$binpath"
+  elif [ -n "$src" ]; then
+    _build_binary "$src" "$d/bin/engram" "$d/build"; source_desc="source:$src"
+  elif [ -n "$branch" ]; then
+    log "worktree: $repo @ $branch -> $d/build/worktree"
+    git -C "$repo" worktree add --detach "$d/build/worktree" "$branch" >/dev/null 2>&1 \
+      || die "git worktree add failed ($repo @ $branch)"
+    _build_binary "$d/build/worktree" "$d/bin/engram" "$d/build"; source_desc="branch:$branch@$repo"
+  else
+    [ -x "$live_bin" ] || die "cannot resolve live ENGRAM_REAL_BIN: $live_bin"
+    cp -p "$live_bin" "$d/bin/engram"; source_desc="stock-prod:$live_bin"
+  fi
+  local bin_sha; bin_sha="$(sha "$d/bin/engram")"
+  info "runtime: $source_desc  (sha ${bin_sha:0:12})"
+
+  # ---- write manifest ----
+  python3 - "$name" "$port" "$source_desc" "$bin_sha" "$egm_sha" "$base_nodes" "$base_edges" "$(sha "$live_bin" 2>/dev/null)" <<'PY' > "$(manifest "$name")"
+import json,sys,datetime
+name,port,src,binsha,egmsha,bn,be,livebinsha=sys.argv[1:9]
+json.dump({
+ "name":name,"port":int(port),"created_at":datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc).isoformat(),
+ "source":src,"binary_sha256":binsha,"clone_egm_sha256":egmsha,
+ "live_binary_sha256":livebinsha,
+ "live_baseline":{"node_count":int(bn or 0),"edge_count":int(be or 0)},
+ "keystones":["kn-efeb4a5b-5aff-4759-8a97-7233099be6ee","kn-5b606390-a52d-4ca2-8e0e-eba141d13440"]
+}, sys.stdout, indent=2)
+PY
+  ok "manifest written"
+
+  # ---- boot + capture the sandbox's own settled baseline (reproducible target) ----
+  start_daemon "$name" || die "daemon failed to start"
+  local sstats; sstats="$(sbx_stats "$name")"
+  local sbn sbe; sbn="$(stat_field "$sstats" node_count)"; sbe="$(stat_field "$sstats" edge_count)"
+  _capture_retrieval "$name" "$d/baseline/retrieval.json"
+  # fold sandbox baseline into manifest
+  python3 - "$(manifest "$name")" "$sbn" "$sbe" <<'PY'
+import json,sys
+mf,bn,be=sys.argv[1],sys.argv[2],sys.argv[3]
+d=json.load(open(mf)); d["sbx_baseline"]={"node_count":int(bn or 0),"edge_count":int(be or 0)}
+json.dump(d,open(mf,'w'),indent=2)
+PY
+  log "created."
+  info "sandbox baseline (settled): nodes=$sbn edges=$sbe"
+  info "next: nsbx validate $name    |    nsbx run $name api /api/stats"
+}
+
+_live_real_bin(){
+  python3 - "$LIVE_PLIST" <<'PY' 2>/dev/null
+import sys,plistlib
+try:
+  d=plistlib.load(open(sys.argv[1],'rb'))
+  print(d.get("EnvironmentVariables",{}).get("ENGRAM_REAL_BIN",""))
+except Exception: print("")
+PY
+}
+
+_capture_retrieval(){ # <name> <outfile> : top-k ids for the fixed probe set
+  local name="$1" out="$2" q res
+  local port; port="$(mget "$name" "['port']")"; local key="sbx-$name"
+  {
+    echo "{"
+    local first=1
+    for q in "${PARITY_QUERIES[@]}"; do
+      res="$(curl -s -m10 -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
+             -d "{\"_auth\":\"$key\",\"query\":\"$q\",\"limit\":5}" "http://127.0.0.1:$port/api/search" 2>/dev/null)"
+      local ids; ids="$(printf '%s' "$res" | python3 -c 'import sys,json
+try:
+ d=json.load(sys.stdin)
+ rows=d if isinstance(d,list) else d.get("results",d.get("hits",[]))
+ print(json.dumps([r.get("id") for r in rows][:5]))
+except Exception: print("[]")' 2>/dev/null)"
+      [ $first -eq 1 ] || echo ","; first=0
+      printf '  %s: %s' "$(python3 -c "import json,sys;print(json.dumps(sys.argv[1]))" "$q")" "${ids:-[]}"
+    done
+    echo ""; echo "}"
+  } > "$out"
+}
+
+# ================================================================ up ===========
+# Dead-simple one-command dev environment: `nsbx up` gives you (or Tim, or anyone)
+# a private, isolated copy of the live mind to build against. Creates it on first
+# run with sane defaults (stock prod binary, auto-allocated port), just starts it
+# thereafter. Prod on :$LIVE_BIND_PORT/:$SOUL_PORT is unreachable from here by design.
+cmd_up(){
+  local name; if [ $# -gt 0 ] && [ "${1#-}" = "$1" ]; then name="$1"; shift; else name="${USER:-dev}-dev"; fi
+  if mexists "$name"; then daemon_alive "$name" || start_daemon "$name"; else cmd_create "$name" "$@"; fi
+  local port; port="$(mget "$name" "['port']")"
+  echo >&2
+  ok "your sandbox '$name' is ready at http://127.0.0.1:$port  (a private copy of the mind — prod is untouchable)"
+  info "experiment:  nsbx run $name api /api/stats"
+  info "prove it:    nsbx validate $name"
+  info "tear down:   nsbx destroy $name"
+}
+
+# ================================================================ build ========
+# Rebuild an existing sandbox's runtime from a source tree/branch and hot-restart
+# it on the SAME clone + port (the code-change dev loop, in place).
+cmd_build(){
+  local name="$1"; shift || true
+  mexists "$name" || die "no such sandbox: $name"
+  local src="" branch="" repo="$EL_REPO"
+  while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do case "$1" in
+    --source) src="$2"; shift 2;; --branch) branch="$2"; shift 2;; --repo) repo="$2"; shift 2;;
+    *) die "unknown flag: $1";; esac; done
+  local d; d="$(sdir "$name")"
+  stop_daemon "$name"
+  if [ -n "$src" ]; then _build_binary "$src" "$d/bin/engram" "$d/build"
+  elif [ -n "$branch" ]; then
+    rm -rf "$d/build/worktree" 2>/dev/null; git -C "$repo" worktree prune 2>/dev/null
+    git -C "$repo" worktree add --detach "$d/build/worktree" "$branch" >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "worktree add failed"
+    _build_binary "$d/build/worktree" "$d/bin/engram" "$d/build"
+  else die "usage: nsbx build <name> --source DIR | --branch REF [--repo R]"; fi
+  # record new binary sha
+  python3 - "$(manifest "$name")" "$(sha "$d/bin/engram")" "${src:-branch:$branch}" <<'PY'
+import json,sys; mf,s,src=sys.argv[1:4]
+d=json.load(open(mf)); d["binary_sha256"]=s; d["source"]="rebuilt:"+src
+json.dump(d,open(mf,'w'),indent=2)
+PY
+  start_daemon "$name"
+  ok "rebuilt + restarted on :$(mget "$name" "['port']")"
+}
+
+# ================================================================ run ==========
+cmd_run(){
+  local name="$1"; shift || true
+  mexists "$name" || die "no such sandbox: $name"
+  daemon_alive "$name" || start_daemon "$name"
+  local d port; d="$(sdir "$name")"; port="$(mget "$name" "['port']")"
+  # direct API form: nsbx run <name> api <path> [json]
+  if [ "${1:-}" = "api" ]; then
+    api "$name" "$2" "${3:-}"; echo; return 0
+  fi
+  [ "${1:-}" = "--" ] && shift    # allow an explicit separator: nsbx run <name> -- <cmd...>
+  [ $# -gt 0 ] || die "usage: nsbx run <name> <cmd...>   |   nsbx run <name> api <path> [json]"
+  local ts log0; ts="$(now)"; log0="$d/logs/run-$ts.log"
+  local s0 t0 t1 s1
+  s0="$(sbx_stats "$name")"; t0="$(epoch)"
+  log "run experiment against sandbox '$name' (:$port)"
+  info "cmd: $*"
+  ( export SBX_NAME="$name" SBX_PORT="$port" SBX_URL="http://127.0.0.1:$port" \
+           SBX_KEY="sbx-$name" SBX_DATA="$d/data" SBX_BIN="$d/bin/engram"
+    "$@" ) 2>&1 | tee "$log0"
+  local rc=${PIPESTATUS[0]}
+  t1="$(epoch)"; s1="$(sbx_stats "$name")"
+  {
+    echo "--- nsbx run metrics ---"
+    echo "exit_code: $rc"
+    printf 'wall_secs: %.3f\n' "$(python3 -c "print($t1-$t0)")"
+    echo "stats_before: $s0"
+    echo "stats_after:  $s1"
+  } | tee -a "$log0" >&2
+  return $rc
+}
+
+# ================================================================ validate =====
+# The rails as first-class checks. Baseline = the sandbox's own settled state at
+# create (reproducible). zero-loss through sustained load AND reboot; reboot-prove;
+# RSS bound; retrieval parity; keystone integrity.
+cmd_validate(){
+  local name="$1"; shift || true
+  mexists "$name" || die "no such sandbox: $name"
+  daemon_alive "$name" || start_daemon "$name"
+  local d port key; d="$(sdir "$name")"; port="$(mget "$name" "['port']")"; key="sbx-$name"
+  local url="http://127.0.0.1:$port"
+  local bn be; bn="$(mget "$name" "['sbx_baseline']['node_count']")"; be="$(mget "$name" "['sbx_baseline']['edge_count']")"
+  log "validate '$name' against baseline nodes=$bn edges=$be"
+  local -a names=() results=() details=()
+
+  # 1) sustained load — no data loss under activity
+  local s cur_n cur_e i
+  log "check: sustained load (~15s: tick + reads) then zero-loss"
+  for i in $(seq 1 15); do
+    curl -s -m5 -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d "{\"_auth\":\"$key\"}" "$url/api/tick" >/dev/null 2>&1
+    curl -s -m5 "$url/api/stats" >/dev/null 2>&1
+  done
+  s="$(sbx_stats "$name")"; cur_n="$(stat_field "$s" node_count)"; cur_e="$(stat_field "$s" edge_count)"
+  names+=("zero-loss-under-load"); if [ "${cur_n:-0}" -ge "${bn:-0}" ] && [ "${cur_e:-0}" -ge "${be:-0}" ]; then
+    results+=("PASS"); else results+=("FAIL"); fi
+  details+=("nodes $cur_n>=$bn, edges $cur_e>=$be")
+
+  # 2) reboot-prove — counts survive a real restart
+  log "check: reboot-prove (stop -> start -> compare)"
+  local pre_n pre_e; pre_n="$cur_n"; pre_e="$cur_e"
+  stop_daemon "$name"; start_daemon "$name" >/dev/null
+  s="$(sbx_stats "$name")"; cur_n="$(stat_field "$s" node_count)"; cur_e="$(stat_field "$s" edge_count)"
+  names+=("reboot-prove"); if [ "${cur_n:-0}" -ge "${bn:-0}" ] && [ "${cur_e:-0}" -ge "${be:-0}" ]; then
+    results+=("PASS"); else results+=("FAIL"); fi
+  details+=("post-reboot nodes=$cur_n edges=$cur_e (pre $pre_n/$pre_e)")
+
+  # 3) RSS bound
+  log "check: RSS bound (< ${RSS_BOUND_MB}MB)"
+  local pid rss_kb rss_mb; pid="$(daemon_pid "$name")"
+  rss_kb="$(ps -o rss= -p "$pid" 2>/dev/null | tr -d ' ')"; rss_mb=$(( ${rss_kb:-0} / 1024 ))
+  names+=("rss-bound"); if [ "$rss_mb" -lt "$RSS_BOUND_MB" ] && [ "$rss_mb" -gt 0 ]; then results+=("PASS"); else results+=("FAIL"); fi
+  details+=("RSS=${rss_mb}MB (bound ${RSS_BOUND_MB}MB)")
+
+  # 4) retrieval parity vs the create-time baseline
+  log "check: retrieval parity vs baseline probe set"
+  _capture_retrieval "$name" "$d/logs/retrieval-$( now ).json"
+  local latest; latest="$(ls -t "$d/logs"/retrieval-*.json 2>/dev/null | head -1)"
+  local parity; parity="$(python3 - "$d/baseline/retrieval.json" "$latest" <<'PY'
+import json,sys
+def load(p):
+  try: return json.load(open(p))
+  except Exception: return {}
+b,c=load(sys.argv[1]),load(sys.argv[2])
+tot=hit=0
+for q,ids in b.items():
+  cb=set(ids or []); cc=set(c.get(q) or [])
+  if not cb: continue
+  tot+=len(cb); hit+=len(cb & cc)
+print(f"{hit}/{tot}" if tot else "0/0")
+PY
+)"
+  local ph="${parity%/*}" pt="${parity#*/}"
+  names+=("retrieval-parity"); if [ "${pt:-0}" -gt 0 ] && [ "${ph:-0}" -eq "${pt:-0}" ]; then results+=("PASS"); else results+=("FAIL"); fi
+  details+=("top-k id overlap $parity vs baseline")
+
+  # 5) keystone integrity
+  log "check: keystone integrity"
+  local kfail=0 kid kres
+  for kid in "${KEYSTONES[@]}"; do
+    kres="$(curl -s -m5 "$url/api/node/$kid" 2>/dev/null)"
+    printf '%s' "$kres" | grep -q "\"$kid\"" || kfail=1
+  done
+  names+=("keystone-integrity"); [ "$kfail" -eq 0 ] && results+=("PASS") || results+=("FAIL")
+  details+=("kn-efeb4a5b + kn-5b606390 present")
+
+  # ---- report + stamp ----
+  echo >&2
+  printf '%s  VALIDATION — %s%s\n' "$C_BLD" "$name" "$C_0" >&2
+  local allpass=1 j
+  for j in "${!names[@]}"; do
+    local r="${results[$j]}" c="$C_GRN"; [ "$r" = FAIL ] && { c="$C_RED"; allpass=0; }
+    printf '   %s%-6s%s %-22s %s%s%s\n' "$c" "$r" "$C_0" "${names[$j]}" "$C_DIM" "${details[$j]}" "$C_0" >&2
+  done
+  local status; [ "$allpass" -eq 1 ] && status="PASS" || status="FAIL"
+  python3 - "$d/validate.json" "$status" "$(sha "$d/bin/engram")" "$(now)" "${names[*]}" "${results[*]}" <<'PY'
+import json,sys
+out,status,binsha,ts,ns,rs=sys.argv[1:7]
+checks=[{"name":n,"result":r} for n,r in zip(ns.split(),rs.split())]
+json.dump({"status":status,"binary_sha256":binsha,"ts":ts,"checks":checks},open(out,'w'),indent=2)
+PY
+  printf '   %s==> %s%s\n' "$([ "$allpass" -eq 1 ] && echo "$C_GRN" || echo "$C_RED")" "$status" "$C_0" >&2
+  [ "$allpass" -eq 1 ]
+}
+
+# ================================================================ promote ======
+# The ONLY prod-touching op. Explicit, gated, per-use Will-approved. Rails ONLY:
+# snapshot-first -> additive binary swap -> launchctl bootout -> settle-poll ->
+# bootstrap -> verify -> auto-rollback on failure. NEVER pkill, NEVER kickstart -k.
+# Default is a DRY-RUN plan; requires --i-approve-prod-cutover to actually cut over.
+cmd_promote(){
+  local name="$1"; shift || true
+  mexists "$name" || die "no such sandbox: $name"
+  local approve=0 do_data=0
+  while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do case "$1" in
+    --i-approve-prod-cutover) approve=1; shift;;
+    --data) do_data=1; shift;;
+    *) die "unknown flag: $1";; esac; done
+  local d; d="$(sdir "$name")"
+  # GATE 1: validation must have passed for the CURRENT binary
+  [ -f "$d/validate.json" ] || die "GATE: no validation on record — run 'nsbx validate $name' first"
+  local vstatus vsha bsha
+  vstatus="$(python3 -c "import json;print(json.load(open('$d/validate.json'))['status'])")"
+  vsha="$(python3 -c "import json;print(json.load(open('$d/validate.json'))['binary_sha256'])")"
+  bsha="$(sha "$d/bin/engram")"
+  [ "$vstatus" = PASS ] || die "GATE: last validation status is $vstatus (must be PASS)"
+  [ "$vsha" = "$bsha" ] || die "GATE: validation is stale — binary changed since validate (re-run validate)"
+
+  local live_bin new_bin ts; ts="$(now)"
+  live_bin="$(_live_real_bin)"
+  new_bin="$HOME/.neuron/bin/engram.promote-$name-$ts"     # additive: new file, old kept
+  local bkp="$BACKUP_ROOT/promote-$name-$ts"
+
+  log "PROMOTE PLAN for '$name' -> live :$LIVE_BIND_PORT"
+  info "current live ENGRAM_REAL_BIN : $live_bin"
+  info "sandbox binary (validated)   : $d/bin/engram (sha ${bsha:0:12})"
+  info "will install as              : $new_bin  (additive; old binary retained)"
+  info "snapshot-first backup dir    : $bkp  (egm+wal+plist+rollback.txt)"
+  info "data promote                 : $([ $do_data -eq 1 ] && echo 'YES (--data: clone egm/wal -> live)' || echo 'no (binary only)')"
+  info "rails                        : launchctl bootout -> settle-poll -> bootstrap"
+  info "verify                       : /api/stats + edges>=baseline + keystones + retrieval; auto-rollback armed"
+
+  if [ "$approve" -ne 1 ]; then
+    warn "DRY-RUN — not touching prod. Re-run with --i-approve-prod-cutover to execute (per-use Will-approved)."
+    return 0
+  fi
+
+  need launchctl
+  local dom="gui/$(id -u)"
+  # ---- snapshot-first ----
+  log "snapshot-first backup -> $bkp"
+  mkdir -p "$bkp"
+  cp -p "$LIVE_DATA_DIR/neuron.egm" "$bkp/neuron.egm.bak"
+  cp -p "$LIVE_DATA_DIR/neuron.wal" "$bkp/neuron.wal.bak" 2>/dev/null || true
+  cp -p "$LIVE_PLIST" "$bkp/plist.bak"
+  printf 'rollback REAL_BIN=%s\nNEWBIN=%s\ndata_promote=%s\n' "$live_bin" "$new_bin" "$do_data" > "$bkp/rollback.txt"
+  ok "backup complete"
+
+  # ---- additive binary install + plist supersede ----
+  cp -p "$d/bin/engram" "$new_bin"
+  python3 - "$LIVE_PLIST" "$new_bin" <<'PY'
+import sys,plistlib
+p,new=sys.argv[1],sys.argv[2]
+d=plistlib.load(open(p,'rb')); d.setdefault("EnvironmentVariables",{})["ENGRAM_REAL_BIN"]=new
+plistlib.dump(d,open(p,'wb'))
+PY
+  ok "installed $new_bin + updated plist ENGRAM_REAL_BIN"
+
+  # ---- optional data promote (after backup) ----
+  if [ $do_data -eq 1 ]; then
+    log "data promote: clone store -> live (backed up above)"
+    cp -p "$d/data/neuron.egm" "$LIVE_DATA_DIR/neuron.egm"
+    cp -p "$d/data/neuron.wal" "$LIVE_DATA_DIR/neuron.wal" 2>/dev/null || true
+  fi
+
+  # ---- rails cutover: bootout -> settle-poll -> bootstrap ----
+  log "rails: launchctl bootout $dom/$LIVE_LABEL"
+  launchctl bootout "$dom/$LIVE_LABEL" 2>/dev/null || true
+  local i
+  for i in $(seq 1 60); do
+    launchctl print "$dom/$LIVE_LABEL" >/dev/null 2>&1 || { ok "settle: job gone after ${i}x0.5s"; break; }
+    printf '  settle: job still present (%d)\n' "$i" >&2; sleep 0.5
+  done
+  log "rails: launchctl bootstrap $dom <plist>"
+  launchctl bootstrap "$dom" "$LIVE_PLIST" || warn "bootstrap returned nonzero"
+
+  # ---- verify ----
+  log "verify prod health"
+  local s="" ; for i in $(seq 1 60); do s="$(live_stats)"; [ -n "$s" ] && break; sleep 1; done
+  local ok_verify=1 le; le="$(stat_field "$s" edge_count)"
+  local base_e; base_e="$(mget "$name" "['live_baseline']['edge_count']")"
+  [ -n "$s" ] || ok_verify=0
+  [ "${le:-0}" -ge "${base_e:-0}" ] || ok_verify=0
+  local kid; for kid in "${KEYSTONES[@]}"; do curl -s -m5 "$LIVE_URL/api/node/$kid" 2>/dev/null | grep -q "\"$kid\"" || ok_verify=0; done
+  if [ "$ok_verify" -eq 1 ]; then
+    ok "PROMOTED. live stats: $s  (rollback: $bkp)"; return 0
+  fi
+
+  # ---- auto-rollback ----
+  warn "verify FAILED — auto-rollback"
+  cp -p "$bkp/plist.bak" "$LIVE_PLIST"
+  [ $do_data -eq 1 ] && { cp -p "$bkp/neuron.egm.bak" "$LIVE_DATA_DIR/neuron.egm"; cp -p "$bkp/neuron.wal.bak" "$LIVE_DATA_DIR/neuron.wal" 2>/dev/null || true; }
+  launchctl bootout "$dom/$LIVE_LABEL" 2>/dev/null || true
+  for i in $(seq 1 60); do launchctl print "$dom/$LIVE_LABEL" >/dev/null 2>&1 || break; sleep 0.5; done
+  launchctl bootstrap "$dom" "$LIVE_PLIST" || true
+  die "ROLLED BACK to $live_bin. See $bkp"
+}
+
+# ================================================================ destroy ======
+cmd_destroy(){
+  local name="$1"; shift || true
+  mexists "$name" || die "no such sandbox: $name"
+  local d; d="$(sdir "$name")"
+  stop_daemon "$name"
+  if [ -d "$d/build/worktree" ]; then
+    log "removing git worktree"
+    git -C "$EL_REPO" worktree remove --force "$d/build/worktree" 2>/dev/null || true
+    git -C "$EL_REPO" worktree prune 2>/dev/null || true
+  fi
+  log "removing $d"
+  rm -rf "$d"
+  ok "destroyed '$name' (live untouched)"
+}
+
+# ================================================================ list/status ==
+cmd_list(){
+  [ -d "$SBX_ROOT" ] || { echo "no sandboxes"; return 0; }
+  printf '%-16s %-6s %-8s %-9s %s\n' NAME PORT STATE PID SOURCE
+  local m
+  for m in "$SBX_ROOT"/*/manifest.json; do
+    [ -f "$m" ] || continue
+    local n p src pid state
+    n="$(python3 -c "import json;print(json.load(open('$m'))['name'])")"
+    p="$(python3 -c "import json;print(json.load(open('$m'))['port'])")"
+    src="$(python3 -c "import json;print(json.load(open('$m'))['source'])")"
+    pid="$(daemon_pid "$n")"; state="stopped"; daemon_alive "$n" && state="running"
+    printf '%-16s %-6s %-8s %-9s %s\n' "$n" "$p" "$state" "${pid:-–}" "$src"
+  done
+}
+cmd_status(){
+  local name="$1"; mexists "$name" || die "no such sandbox: $name"
+  python3 -m json.tool "$(manifest "$name")"
+  daemon_alive "$name" && echo "state: running (pid $(daemon_pid "$name")) stats: $(sbx_stats "$name")" || echo "state: stopped"
+  [ -f "$(sdir "$name")/validate.json" ] && { echo "--- last validation ---"; python3 -m json.tool "$(sdir "$name")/validate.json"; }
+}
+
+usage(){ cat >&2 <<EOF
+${C_BLD}nsbx${C_0} — Neuron Sandbox: experiments + code changes against the REAL engram
+runtime on an isolated snapshot of the live mind, with a gated promote-to-prod path.
+
+  nsbx up      [name] [flags…]                            one command: your private, isolated copy of the mind
+                                                          (creates on first run, starts thereafter; prod untouchable)
+  nsbx create  [name] [--port N] [--source DIR | --branch REF [--repo R] | --binary PATH]
+                       clone live store+WAL+config, place/build the runtime, boot on an
+                       isolated port (never :$LIVE_BIND_PORT/:$SOUL_PORT). Default runtime = stock prod binary.
+  nsbx build   <name> --source DIR | --branch REF        rebuild the runtime from a code change + hot-restart
+  nsbx run     <name> <cmd...> | api <path> [json]        run an experiment; capture output + metrics
+  nsbx validate <name>                                    rails as checks: zero-loss(load+reboot), reboot-prove,
+                                                          RSS bound, retrieval parity, keystone integrity
+  nsbx promote <name> [--data] [--i-approve-prod-cutover] GATED rails cutover to prod (DRY-RUN without approval)
+  nsbx destroy <name>                                     stop daemon, free port, remove clone (live untouched)
+  nsbx list  |  nsbx status <name>
+
+Env in 'run' cmds: \$SBX_URL \$SBX_PORT \$SBX_KEY \$SBX_DATA \$SBX_BIN \$SBX_NAME
+EOF
+}
+
+main(){
+  local cmd="${1:-}"; shift || true
+  case "$cmd" in
+    up)       cmd_up       "$@";;
+    create)   cmd_create   "$@";;
+    build)    cmd_build    "$@";;
+    run)      cmd_run      "$@";;
+    validate) cmd_validate "$@";;
+    promote)  cmd_promote  "$@";;
+    destroy)  cmd_destroy  "$@";;
+    list|ls)  cmd_list     "$@";;
+    status)   cmd_status   "$@";;
+    ""|-h|--help|help) usage;;
+    *) die "unknown command: $cmd (try: nsbx help)";;
+  esac
+}
+main "$@"