test: empty commit — is dev CI red independent of any change?

Baseline probe. #89 shows red on dev CI and this Gitea instance does not serve
Actions logs (404/500 on every route), so the only way to learn whether dev CI is
broken on its own is to run it against dev with no change at all.

Reproduced locally first: control (dev head) and treatment (dev + #89) produce
BYTE-IDENTICAL test results — both build the self-hosted compiler and elb, both
fail the same three timezone tests (earth-zone, dst-spring-forward,
rhythm-grounding). That exonerates #89 locally. This probe asks the same question
of the real runner.

Close once it reports.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,154 @@
+# El
+
+**A self-hosting, statically-typed language that compiles to C — built around a graph-native runtime instead of a database driver.**
+
+El is the execution substrate for the Neuron agent runtime, the DHARMA network, and the Engram knowledge graph. This repository is the monorepo for the whole stack: the language itself, the graph memory engine it's built to talk to natively, and the tools (package manager, IDE, UI framework, diagramming) built on top of it.
+
+---
+
+## Why El exists
+
+Every other language treats persistent, associative state as something you reach for through a driver — a SQL client, an ORM, a Redis library bolted on from outside. El inverts that: graph operations (`engram_*`) are runtime primitives, on the same footing as string or list operations. There is no separate database driver because the database is not separate.
+
+El has four defining properties:
+
+1. **Self-hosting compiler.** The compiler (`lexer.el`, `parser.el`, `codegen.el`, `compiler.el`) is written in El. It compiles El source to C, which `cc` compiles against a fixed runtime into a native binary. A Rust genesis compiler bootstrapped the first iteration; the self-hosted binary at `lang/dist/platform/elc` has been the canonical compiler ever since — every binary in `dist/platform/` was produced by an earlier version of itself compiling `el-compiler/src/`. The chain is auditable: source is the ground truth, not the binary. See [lang/BOOTSTRAP.md](lang/BOOTSTRAP.md) for the full recovery path if that binary is ever lost.
+2. **C compilation target.** Every compiled program is plain C11. Every El value is `el_val_t` (`int64_t`); strings are heap pointers cast through it. Functions become C functions; top-level statements become `main()`.
+3. **Graph-native runtime.** The runtime provides first-class graph operations over an in-process Engram store — no separate DB driver, no ORM.
+4. **DHARMA-aware identity.** A `cgi` block declares a program's DHARMA identity at compile time. The runtime resolves identity before user code runs, so `dharma_*` calls have a stable principal and channel surface throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Architecture map
+
+```
+                     ┌─────────────┐
+                     │    lang     │   El compiler + C runtime
+                     │ (El itself) │   everything below is written in it,
+                     └──────┬──────┘   or compiles down through it
+                            │
+              ┌─────────────┼─────────────┐
+              │             │             │
+       ┌──────▼─────┐ ┌─────▼─────┐ ┌─────▼─────┐
+       │   engram   │ │    epm    │ │    ide    │
+       │ graph/mem  │ │  package  │ │  editor + │
+       │  substrate │ │  manager  │ │    LSP    │
+       └──────┬─────┘ └───────────┘ └───────────┘
+              │
+      ┌───────┼────────────────┬─────────────────────┐
+      │       │                │                     │
+┌─────▼───┐ ┌─▼──────────┐  ┌──▼──────────┐    ┌─────▼──────┐
+│   elp   │ │ ql         │  │  ui         │    │   arbor    │
+│  NLG /  │ │engram-el.  │  |spreading-   │    |arbor       │
+│ 31 langs│ │studio+tests│  |activation UI│    |diagram lang│
+└─────────┘ └────────────┘  └─────────────┘    └────────────┘
+```
+
+`lang` is the foundation — the compiler and C runtime everything else builds on. `engram` is the graph-native memory/state engine that gives El its identity (property 3 above). Everything else is either a tool for working with El (`epm`, `ide`) or a system built on top of Engram's graph model (`elp`, `ql`, `ui`, `arbor`).
+
+---
+
+## Repository layout
+
+### [lang/](lang/) — the El language
+
+The compiler and runtime. Self-hosting: `elc-cli.el` → `compiler.el` → `lexer.el` / `parser.el` / `codegen.el` / `codegen-js.el`, textually inlined and compiled in one pass. Compiles to C11 and links against `el-compiler/runtime/el_seed.c`, a hand-maintained OS-boundary layer (libcurl HTTP, pthreads, filesystem, arena allocation) — everything else in the runtime is native El (`runtime/*.el`).
+
+Two layers to know: **El programs** (`.el` files — where nearly all work belongs) and **the C seed** (`el_seed.c` — edit only for genuine OS-level access; never re-implement what El can already express).
+
+Current status (single source of truth: [lang/spec/language.md](lang/spec/language.md)): lexer/parser/codegen and the C runtime's core (I/O, strings, math, lists, maps, filesystem, args) are implemented. In flight: `%` operator, match-statement codegen, `?` nil-propagation, `cgi` block parsing + DHARMA identity resolution, VBD role enforcement (`@manager`/`@engine`/`@accessor`), the real `engram_*` and `dharma_*` runtimes (currently stubs), and libcurl-backed `http_get`/`http_post`/`http_serve`. Bitwise operators, `??`, and `as` casts are explicitly **not** in this language.
+
+Key docs: [AGENTS.md](lang/AGENTS.md) (agent-facing orientation), [BOOTSTRAP.md](lang/BOOTSTRAP.md) (compiler recovery from scratch), [spec/language.md](lang/spec/language.md), [spec/codegen-js.md](lang/spec/codegen-js.md).
+
+### [engram/](engram/) — graph intelligence substrate
+
+**A local-first memory substrate for accumulating intelligence**, and the reason El's runtime doesn't need a database driver. Rust core (`engram-core`, `engram-ffi`) exposed to El and other languages (Kotlin, TypeScript/WASM, Go bindings).
+
+The model: retrieval is **spreading activation**, not query. You name seed nodes and a query embedding; activation propagates outward through weighted edges, attenuating multiplicatively per hop (`strength = parent_strength × edge_weight × target_salience × cosine_sim`), gets pruned below a threshold, and the top-N nodes by activation strength come back. Storage and retrieval are the same structure — the way long-term potentiation works in biological memory, not the way a relational or vector database works.
+
+Nodes live in four tiers (Working / Episodic / Semantic / Procedural, mirroring prefrontal / hippocampal / neocortical / cerebellar memory) and migrate between them based on **salience decay** — `importance × recency-decay × log(activation_count)`. Forgetting is adaptive pruning, not a bug: unreinforced memories stop competing for attention without being deleted.
+
+Backed by `sled` (embedded, local-first, no daemon) with flat cosine scan for vector search — deliberately simple until scale demands an HNSW layer. Full API and design rationale in [engram/README.md](engram/README.md).
+
+### [elp/](elp/) — Engram Language Protocol
+
+Bidirectional engine mapping between Engram semantic forms and natural-language surface text, across **31 languages** — from Spanish and Japanese through historical/liturgical languages (Old Norse, Sanskrit, Sumerian, Coptic, Akkadian, Ge'ez). Compilation order runs `language-profile` + `vocabulary` → per-language `morphology-*` → `grammar` → `realizer` → `semantics` → `elp`. This is what lets an Engram graph node round-trip to and from readable text in any of those languages.
+
+### [epm/](epm/) — El Package Manager
+
+Manages **vessels** (El's package unit): publish, install, resolve dependencies. Vessels are stored in Engram as graph nodes, not files in a registry index — `epm` reads the local `manifest.el`, talks to Engram over HTTP, and writes resolved vessels to `.epm/vessels/`. Source: `registry.el`, `install.el`, `update.el`, `manifest.el`.
+
+### [ide/](ide/) — El IDE
+
+Three vessels: **el-ide-server** (HTTP backend — file ops, build/run, LSP bridge, plugin host, settings), **el-lsp** (the language server — completion, hover, diagnostics, outline, format, type graph), and **el-plugin-host** (first-party plugin lifecycle: install/remove/enable/disable). `ide/projects/` and `ide/examples/` hold sample projects, including the canonical `hello-friends` first-program walkthrough.
+
+### [ql/](ql/) — engram-el
+
+The El-native integration layer for a *live* Engram server — not a library (no importable modules, no build artifact), a set of standalone `.el` programs run directly via `el run-file`. Three components: **Studio** (`studio/studio.el`, a full terminal graph explorer), a **Hebbian field-model** proof of concept, and El builtin / LLM-builtin smoke test suites. This is the reference for correct patterns when an El program uses Engram as its substrate. Spec: [ql/spec/elql.md](ql/spec/elql.md).
+
+### [ui/](ui/) — el-ui
+
+A frontend framework where **component state is an Engram graph and reactivity is spreading activation** — not virtual-DOM diffing (React), Proxy-based dependency tracking (Vue), or compile-time analysis (Svelte). Re-renders are activated and propagated the same way associative memory retrieval works in `engram/`.
+
+~15 vessels covering the full frontend surface: `el-platform` (env/fs/network/clock abstraction), `el-config`, `el-html` (SSR emit primitives), `el-layout`, `el-style` (design tokens/themes), `el-i18n`, `el-auth` / `el-identity` (JWT, sessions, OAuth PKCE — Engram-native), `el-services` (REST/gRPC/WebSocket bindings), `el-aop` (`@authenticate`/`@authorize`/`@cache`/`@rate_limit` decorators), `el-secrets`, `el-graph` (graph rendering/editor), `el-publish` (App Store / Play Store automation), and `el-ui-compiler` (El→JS component compiler; currently a stub pending a JS backend in `elc`). Spec: [ui/spec/framework.md](ui/spec/framework.md).
+
+### [arbor/](arbor/) — diagram language
+
+A `.arbor` diagram language and toolchain: `arbor-core` (NodeId/shape/edge-kind types), `arbor-parse` (recursive-descent parser), `arbor-diagram` (IR + Mermaid serializer + architecture-diagram builders), `arbor-layout` (hierarchical layout — rank assignment, positioning, group bounds), `arbor-render` (SVG renderer), `arbor-cli`. (The architecture map above is the kind of diagram this is for.)
+
+---
+
+## Getting started
+
+Install the El SDK from the latest release:
+
+```bash
+bash lang/install.sh
+# EL_VERSION=v1.0.0   bash lang/install.sh   # pin a specific release tag
+# EL_PREFIX=/opt/el   bash lang/install.sh   # custom install prefix
+```
+
+Or build the compiler from source and verify the self-hosting chain:
+
+```bash
+cd lang
+./dist/platform/elc elc-cli.el > elc-new.c
+cc -std=c11 -I el-compiler/runtime -lcurl -lpthread \
+   -o dist/platform/elc-new \
+   elc-new.c el-compiler/runtime/el_seed.c
+
+# Confirm the new binary reproduces itself exactly
+./dist/platform/elc-new elc-cli.el > elc-verify.c
+diff elc-new.c elc-verify.c   # should be identical
+
+mv dist/platform/elc-new dist/platform/elc
+```
+
+Run your first program:
+
+```bash
+./lang/dist/platform/elc lang/examples/hello.el > hello.c
+cc -std=c11 -I lang/el-compiler/runtime -lcurl -lpthread \
+   -o hello hello.c lang/el-compiler/runtime/el_seed.c
+./hello
+```
+
+More examples in [lang/examples/](lang/examples/), including a full starter project at `lang/examples/hello-project/`.
+
+If the compiler binary is ever lost or corrupted, [lang/BOOTSTRAP.md](lang/BOOTSTRAP.md) is the authoritative recovery path.
+
+---
+
+## Development workflow
+
+Branching follows `dev → stage → main`: work lands on `dev`, promotes to `stage` for integration testing, and is promoted to `main` for release (visible directly in the git history of this repo). CI is defined per-subproject under `.gitea/workflows/` — `lang`/`epm`/`ide` share the root pipeline; `engram` and `ql` carry their own (`ci-dev`, `ci-stage`, and a release workflow each).
+
+- Language/runtime specs live at `*/spec/*.md` (`lang/spec/`, `ql/spec/`, `ui/spec/`) and are the single source of truth for implemented-vs-planned status — code and docs are expected to agree with the spec's status markers, not the other way around.
+- Agent-facing orientation guides live at `*/AGENTS.md` (currently `lang/AGENTS.md`); more subprojects may grow their own as they need agent-specific conventions documented.
+- Tagged releases live under `lang/releases/`, each with its own `RELEASE.md`.
+
+---
+
+## Status
+
+This is an actively developed, internal monorepo — not yet published under an open license. Treat everything here as proprietary to Neuron Technologies unless told otherwise.

engram/src/server.el

@@ -272,89 +272,6 @@ fn route_load_merge(method: String, path: String, body: String) -> String {
     "{\"ok\":true,\"nodes_added\":" + int_to_str(added_n) + ",\"edges_added\":" + int_to_str(added_e) + ",\"node_count\":" + int_to_str(engram_node_count()) + "}"
 }
 
-// route_reseed_nodes — POST /api/nodes/reseed
-//   {"path": "<snapshot-format file>", "replace": ["<id>", ...],
-//    "preserve_edges": true, "_auth": "<key>"}
-//
-// ID-PRESERVING install/repair for declarative seed graphs.
-//
-// WHY THIS EXISTS (2026-08-10). Two write paths could put a node into the
-// graph and neither can put a BODY onto an id that already exists:
-// POST /api/nodes mints a fresh id via engram_node_full, and
-// POST /api/load-merge honors the declared id but SKIPS anything already
-// present. That is exactly right for the additive case and leaves one hole:
-// a node that exists with a truncated body. Forge's genesis seed hit it —
-// two identity nodes (Voice, Voice Craft) sat in the graph carrying only
-// their own label as content, 30 and 22 bytes against 4263 and 2590 in the
-// seed. Their ids are load-bearing (is_protected_node keys on them and 214
-// declared edges reference them), so "delete and recreate with a new id" is
-// not a repair, it is a second break.
-//
-// Mechanism: engram has no in-place node update, so a replace is
-// forget-then-merge. engram_forget also drops every INCIDENT EDGE — for
-// those two nodes that is 85 and 93 edges, almost all of them tag edges and
-// accumulated hebbian associations that the seed does not declare and could
-// not restore. preserve_edges (default true) therefore snapshots the graph
-// before the forget and re-merges that snapshot afterwards: the replaced
-// node is back by then so it is skipped, and every dropped incident edge
-// returns through load_merge's (from_id,to_id,relation) dedup. The same
-// re-merge is the failure path — if the seed merge does not produce the
-// node, the backup puts the original back. Rollback, not data loss.
-//
-// preserve_edges=false skips the two snapshot round-trips (cheap, lossy);
-// use it only on a graph whose edges are fully declared by the seed.
-// With no "replace" list this route is exactly /api/load-merge.
-fn route_reseed_nodes(method: String, path: String, body: String) -> String {
-    let p: String = json_get_string(body, "path")
-    if str_eq(p, "") { return err_json("path is required") }
-    if str_eq(fs_read(p), "") { return err_json("file missing or empty") }
-
-    let dir_raw: String = env("ENGRAM_DATA_DIR")
-    let dir: String = if str_eq(dir_raw, "") { "/tmp/engram" } else { dir_raw }
-    let backup: String = dir + "/.reseed-backup.json"
-
-    let replace_raw: String = json_get_raw(body, "replace")
-    let n_replace: Int = json_array_len(replace_raw)
-    // Presence-aware: absent key means "preserve", only an explicit false opts out.
-    let pe_raw: String = json_get_raw(body, "preserve_edges")
-    let preserve: Bool = !str_eq(pe_raw, "false")
-
-    let before_n: Int = engram_node_count()
-    let before_e: Int = engram_edge_count()
-
-    let replaced: Int = 0
-    if n_replace > 0 {
-        if preserve { engram_save(backup) }
-        let i: Int = 0
-        while i < n_replace {
-            let rid: String = json_array_get_string(replace_raw, i)
-            if !str_eq(rid, "") {
-                // engram_get_node_json returns "{}" for a miss — only forget
-                // ids that are actually resident, so a typo in the replace
-                // list is a no-op rather than a silent partial run.
-                let existing: String = engram_get_node_json(rid)
-                if !str_eq(existing, "{}") {
-                    engram_forget(rid)
-                    let replaced = replaced + 1
-                }
-            }
-            let i = i + 1
-        }
-    }
-
-    engram_load_merge(p)
-    if replaced > 0 {
-        if preserve { engram_load_merge(backup) }
-    }
-
-    let saved: Int = persist_canonical()
-    "{\"ok\":true,\"replaced\":" + int_to_str(replaced) +
-        ",\"nodes_added\":" + int_to_str(engram_node_count() - before_n) +
-        ",\"edges_added\":" + int_to_str(engram_edge_count() - before_e) +
-        ",\"node_count\":" + int_to_str(engram_node_count()) +
-        ",\"edge_count\":" + int_to_str(engram_edge_count()) + "}"
-}
-
 // route_emit_ise — write an InternalStateEvent node from the soul daemon.
 //
 // Endpoint: POST /api/neuron/state-events
@@ -502,12 +419,6 @@ fn handle_request(method: String, path: String, body: String) -> String {
     }
 
     // Nodes
-    // Reseed must be tested before the exact "/api/nodes" match below reads
-    // as the general create path — order is not load-bearing (the match is
-    // exact) but keeping them adjacent keeps them from drifting apart.
-    if str_eq(method, "POST") && (str_eq(clean, "/api/nodes/reseed") || str_eq(clean, "/nodes/reseed")) {
-        return route_reseed_nodes(method, path, body)
-    }
     if str_eq(method, "POST") && (str_eq(clean, "/api/nodes") || str_eq(clean, "/nodes")) {
         return route_create_node(method, path, body)
     }