# Embedding ABI — M2: per-thread runtime context + concurrency safety — Design Spec

**Date:** 2026-05-18
**Status:** Draft — awaiting user spec review
**Authors:** Brummel (orchestrator) + Claude

## Goal

Make a compiled AILang scalar kernel callable concurrently from a
host thread swarm without a data race in the RC runtime. M1 made one
scalar `fn` callable from a single C/Rust caller
(`@<sym>(scalars…)`, two-archive `lib<entry>.a` + `libailang_rt.a`).
M1's DESIGN.md section explicitly forecast this milestone: *"the
per-thread context parameter that M2 threads through every exported
call will change this C signature; do not treat the M1 signature as
frozen."* M2 delivers exactly that parameter and removes the two
process-global hazards the M1 runtime read surfaced.

M2 has **no new authoring surface**: still scalar-only (`Int`/`Float`,
effect-free, enforced by the unchanged M1 `export-non-scalar-signature`
/ `export-has-effects` gate), IO-at-the-boundary explicitly deferred,
**no** new Form-A modifier, **no** new schema field, **no** new
checker diagnostic. The `.ail` an LLM author writes is byte-identical
to M1's kernel. The entire deliverable is a *swarm-safe generated C
ABI + a de-globalised runtime*, proven by a sanitiser harness — not
by typecheck. This is the M1-style honest framing: a strategic
capability/safety gate per the user-made direction call in the
roadmap, not the standard authoring-utility metric. No pretence
otherwise.

**Coherent stop:** N host threads, each owning its own
`ailang_ctx_t`, each driving the scalar kernel in a `while
let next_chunk`-shaped loop, run `-fsanitize=thread`-clean with every
thread's result matching the serial oracle — *and* the
de-globalisation proof's deliberately ctx-sharing negative control
(the direct rc-accounting harness, where a shared ctx genuinely races
on `ctx->alloc_count`) that tsan correctly flags (the teeth), *and*
`--emit=staticlib --alloc=gc` failing to build.

### Position in the M1–M5 arc (load-bearing)

The arc is a one-way stability progression; M3 freezes the value/ABI
layout as a one-way commitment and M5's `ail-embed` adapter binds the
frozen ABI. Two consequences shape M2:

- The frozen C ABI surface at M3 is the **`@<sym>(ailang_ctx_t*,
  scalars…)` signature**. M2 must put `ctx` into that signature now,
  as a mandatory first parameter, so M3 freezes the correct shape. A
  later "add ctx" would make the M3 freeze a lie.
- M1 *deliberately decoupled* the author-chosen C symbol from the
  internal `ail_<module>_<def>` mangling, precisely so the internal
  calling convention can keep changing while the C ABI is frozen.
  M2 exploits this: the ctx enters at the C `@<sym>` forwarder only;
  the internal convention and the `_adapter`/`_clos` closure pair
  stay **byte-unchanged** (the M1 "orthogonal, left untouched"
  decision is preserved, and M3's allocation work remains free to
  alter the internal convention without touching the frozen ABI).

## Architecture

Three layers change: the runtime (`runtime/rc.c`), codegen
(`crates/ailang-codegen` `Target::StaticLib` forwarder only), and the
CLI (`crates/ail` `build_staticlib`). No `ailang-core` schema change,
no `ailang-check` change, no surface change. None of `ailang-core`,
`ailang-codegen`, or `runtime/` gains any `data-server`/finance
knowledge or dependency (Invariant 1; audited at close).

### Host concurrency model (settled constraint, not an open fork)

The only stated consumer is `data-server`'s *"`while let next_chunk`
loop … over a thread swarm"*. `data-server` is external (Invariant 1
keeps it out of this tree) and not readable; the phrasing is a
**synchronous blocking pull loop** run per OS worker thread —
*pinned-thread swarm*: each worker thread creates its own ctx, uses
it for the thread's lifetime, frees it; the ctx never migrates
between threads. A cross-thread-tolerant (work-stealing/async) model
has **no consumer** and was rejected: it would force ctx through the
M1-protected internal convention for robustness no consumer needs —
the build-ahead-of-consumer iteration-discipline trap.

**Why TLS transport is sound even under a work-stealing host.** The
generated kernel is a synchronous native C symbol; there is *no*
asynchronous entry into it. `ctx` is a **mandatory explicit
parameter on every call** (the frozen-ABI shape) — never a
"set-once, call-bare" session. The forwarder writes the TLS slot
from that explicit parameter at the top of *each* call and
save/restores it around the synchronous internal call. The TLS-live
window is therefore strictly inside one synchronous call, which
contains no suspension point (the worker thread runs the C call to
completion before polling any other future). The unsound design —
ctx held in TLS *across* an `.await` — is structurally impossible
here because ctx is re-derived from the explicit parameter on every
call and never stored across a call boundary. This holds for a
pinned-thread swarm *and* a tokio-style work-stealing host; M2
targets the former because that is the only consumer.

### The two hazards and how M2 neutralises them where they exist

`runtime/rc.c` has exactly two pieces of process-global mutable
state a kernel's runtime can touch:

1. `g_rc_alloc_count` / `g_rc_free_count` (`rc.c:86–87`),
   incremented in `ailang_rc_alloc` (`:125`) and the to-zero branch
   of `ailang_rc_dec` (`:175`).
2. The `atexit(ailang_rc_stats_atexit)` hook installed by the
   `__attribute__((constructor)) ailang_rc_stats_install`
   (`rc.c:89–103`), gated on `AILANG_RC_STATS`.

A hazard is contextual: a process-global counter is only a hazard
when *concurrently* mutated. M2 makes the **swarm path never touch
either**: every swarm thread has a ctx, so accounting flows into
`ctx->{alloc,free}_count` and the stats readback fires at
`ailang_ctx_free`. The globals + `atexit` are **retained as the
null-ctx fallback** for the single-threaded default executable path
(`ail build` without `--emit=staticlib`, no ctx, `__ail_tls_ctx ==
NULL`), where they are *not* a hazard (single-threaded) and where two
green tests depend on them (`crates/ail/tests/print_no_leak_pin.rs`,
`crates/ail/tests/e2e.rs:2178` leak-stat helper). M2 thus neutralises
the hazards *in the swarm artefact* (zero shared mutable RC state,
proven tsan-clean) without a behaviour change on the executable
path. The roadmap's "neutralise the two process-global hazards" is
satisfied for the context the hazard exists in; deleting the globals
outright (and breaking the two executable-path leak tests) is
explicitly *not* the design.

### What `ailang_ctx_t` contains — near-empty by discipline

A scalar `(Int,Int)->Int` kernel allocates nothing — it never calls
`ailang_rc_alloc`/`ailang_rc_dec`. So the M2 ctx carries only the
de-globalised accounting:

```c
typedef struct ailang_ctx {
    uint64_t alloc_count;   /* per-instance; replaces g_rc_alloc_count */
    uint64_t free_count;    /* per-instance; replaces g_rc_free_count  */
} ailang_ctx_t;
```

Explicitly **not** in the M2 ctx (build-ahead-of-consumer trap, the
documented project failure mode): no per-thread arena/bump allocator
(scalar kernels do not allocate; "toward pure per-thread RC" /
"aligns with the *standing* P2 Boehm-retirement todo" is direction,
not delivery), no locks, no atomics (each thread owns its ctx ⇒ the
counters need neither — Decision 10's "single-threaded; non-atomic
refcounts" stays correct because post-M3 each thread's allocations
are private to its ctx, no cell crosses a thread), no IO sink /
effect handler (IO deferred). The ctx is intentionally a near-empty
mandatory handle whose M2 job is twofold: carry the de-globalised
accounting, and establish the mandatory-parameter ABI shape M3
freezes and M3/M4's real allocation hangs off.

### Allocator scope — staticlib is RC-only, enforced

The `--alloc` flag default is already `rc` (`main.rs:146/167`); M2
changes no default. M2 adds a **reject guard**: `--emit=staticlib`
combined with `--alloc=gc` or `--alloc=bump` fails the build with a
diagnostic. The Boehm collector (a process-global shared collector
with its own threads) is thereby never linkable into a swarm
artefact *by construction* — the roadmap's "no shared Boehm
collector". Full tree-wide Boehm retirement stays the separate
standing P2 todo, untouched.

## Concrete code shapes

### The AILang program M2 delivers (headline — clause-1 evidence)

**Byte-identical to M1.** `examples/embed_backtest_step.ail`,
unchanged:

```
(module backtest

  (fn step
    (export "backtest_step")
    (type
      (fn-type
        (params (con Int) (con Int))
        (ret (con Int))))
    (params state sample)
    (body
      (app + state (app * sample sample)))))
```

That the worked author code is *unchanged* **is** the clause-1
evidence: M2 changes nothing the LLM author writes. Concurrency
safety is delivered as an ABI/runtime property, not an authoring
burden — which is precisely the point of the milestone.

### The changed C host (the actual M2 deliverable surface)

```c
#include <stdint.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <pthread.h>

typedef struct ailang_ctx ailang_ctx_t;
extern ailang_ctx_t *ailang_ctx_new(void);
extern void          ailang_ctx_free(ailang_ctx_t *);
extern int64_t backtest_step(ailang_ctx_t *ctx, int64_t state, int64_t sample);

static void *worker(void *_arg) {
    ailang_ctx_t *ctx = ailang_ctx_new();      /* per-thread, owned for the thread's life */
    int64_t s = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++)
        s = backtest_step(ctx, s, (i & 7));     /* synchronous; ctx is a mandatory param */
    ailang_ctx_free(ctx);                       /* per-ctx leak readback fires here */
    return (void *)(intptr_t)s;
}
/* N pthreads run worker(); join; assert each thread's s == serial oracle.
 * Built with -fsanitize=thread → zero reports == the coherent stop. */
```

### The must-fail axis (clause-3 discriminator — build layer, honestly not typecheck)

M2 adds no typecheck rejection (no surface change). Its discriminator
is at the build/runtime layer, and there are two teeth:

1. **Unsafe build config fails to build** — the M2 analogue of M1's
   `export-non-scalar-signature`:

   ```
   $ ail build --emit=staticlib --alloc=gc examples/embed_backtest_step.ail -o /tmp/x
   Error: staticlib (swarm) artefact is RC-only — `--alloc=gc` links the
   shared Boehm collector, which is not swarm-safe; use `--alloc=rc`
   ```

   (Same wording shape for `--alloc=bump`.) RED today (`build_staticlib`
   passes the strategy through and succeeds); GREEN after the guard.

2. **Negative control proves the teeth** — the `-DSHARED_CTX`
   variant of the *direct rc-accounting harness* (Testing item 1,
   below): all N threads share one `ailang_ctx_t*` while calling
   `ailang_rc_alloc`/`ailang_rc_dec`, so the concurrent
   `ctx->alloc_count++` is a genuine data race tsan must report (the
   analogue of M1's must-fail fixture: the safety mechanism is real,
   not vacuous). The negative control lives in the rc-accounting
   harness because that is the only M2 surface that *writes* a ctx
   field — the scalar capability kernel (`swarm.c`) allocates
   nothing, so a shared ctx there has no shared-memory write to race
   on (the same honesty point Testing item 1 makes; do not place a
   negative control on `swarm.c`).

### Implementation shape (secondary — supporting, not the point)

Runtime (`runtime/rc.c`) — the TLS var, ctx struct, and lifecycle
live in the runtime (codegen only *references* the external
thread-local symbol):

```c
/* runtime/rc.c — replaces the g_rc_* statics' role for the ctx path;
 * the statics + atexit stay as the null-ctx (executable) fallback. */
typedef struct ailang_ctx { uint64_t alloc_count, free_count; } ailang_ctx_t;
__thread ailang_ctx_t *__ail_tls_ctx = NULL;   /* set by the forwarder, per call */

ailang_ctx_t *ailang_ctx_new(void)  { return calloc(1, sizeof(ailang_ctx_t)); }
void ailang_ctx_free(ailang_ctx_t *c) {
    const char *f = getenv("AILANG_RC_STATS");
    if (c && f && f[0])
        fprintf(stderr, "ailang_rc_stats: allocs=%llu frees=%llu live=%lld\n",
                (unsigned long long)c->alloc_count,
                (unsigned long long)c->free_count,
                (long long)(c->alloc_count - c->free_count));
    free(c);
}
/* ailang_rc_alloc: was  g_rc_alloc_count++;  now: */
/*   ailang_ctx_t *c = __ail_tls_ctx; if (c) c->alloc_count++; else g_rc_alloc_count++; */
/* ailang_rc_dec (to-zero): symmetric for free_count.                                   */
/* g_rc_* statics + ailang_rc_stats_atexit + the constructor: retained verbatim,        */
/* now the null-ctx (single-threaded executable) fallback only.                         */
```

Codegen (`crates/ailang-codegen/src/lib.rs`, `Target::StaticLib`
arm, `:600`) — forwarder gains a leading `ptr %ctx`, save/restores
the external thread-local around the *unchanged* internal call:

```text
declared once in the staticlib module:
  @__ail_tls_ctx = external thread_local global ptr

before (M1, per (export "backtest_step") fn):
  define i64 @backtest_step(i64 %a0, i64 %a1) {
    %r = call i64 @ail_backtest_step(i64 %a0, i64 %a1)
    ret i64 %r }

after (M2):
  define i64 @backtest_step(ptr %ctx, i64 %a0, i64 %a1) {
    %saved = load ptr, ptr @__ail_tls_ctx
    store ptr %ctx, ptr @__ail_tls_ctx
    %r = call i64 @ail_backtest_step(i64 %a0, i64 %a1)   ; internal conv UNCHANGED
    store ptr %saved, ptr @__ail_tls_ctx                  ; re-entrancy/nesting-safe
    ret i64 %r }
  ; @ail_backtest_step + its _adapter/_clos pair: byte-unchanged (M1 decision held)
```

(The save/restore is two TLS ops; M2 scalar scope has no nesting, but
it is the correct forwarder shape and avoids an M3 retrofit of the
frozen-adjacent forwarder — this is the correct shape of the one
thing built, not speculative infrastructure.)

CLI (`crates/ail/src/main.rs`, `build_staticlib`, `:2443`):

```text
before: build_staticlib lowers with whatever AllocStrategy was passed.
after : if alloc != Rc  → bail!("staticlib (swarm) artefact is RC-only …")
        (default is already Rc; this rejects an *explicit* gc/bump).
        rc.c rebuilt into libailang_rt.a as today — the M1 decision
        "program archive carries no runtime objects, so M2's runtime
        rebuild touches only libailang_rt.a" pays off: lib<entry>.a
        is byte-unaffected by the rc.c change.
```

## Components

| Component | Crate / file | Change |
|---|---|---|
| `ailang_ctx_t` + `ailang_ctx_new`/`_free` + `__ail_tls_ctx` | `runtime/rc.c` | new struct + lifecycle + `__thread` slot |
| `g_rc_*` increment sites | `runtime/rc.c` | `if (ctx) ctx->… else g_rc_…` (null-ctx fallback) |
| `g_rc_*` statics + `atexit` + constructor | `runtime/rc.c` | **retained**, now null-ctx (executable) path only |
| `@<sym>` forwarder | `ailang-codegen` `Target::StaticLib` `:600` | leading `ptr %ctx`, TLS save/store/restore; internal call + `_adapter`/`_clos` byte-unchanged |
| `--emit=staticlib` alloc guard | `crates/ail` `build_staticlib` `:2443` | reject `--alloc=gc`/`bump` |
| DESIGN.md §"Embedding ABI (M1)" | docs | updated in place to post-M2 current state (ctx mandatory; per-thread RC-only swarm; accounting per ctx; "provisional until M3" narrowed to the value/record layout only) |
| Decision 10 atomicity clause | docs | one-line note: embedding ABI is per-thread-ctx ⇒ no shared cells ⇒ non-atomic RC stays correct |
| M1 `embed_e2e.rs` host harness | `crates/ail/tests` | migrated to the ctx ABI (RED→GREEN driver) |

No `design_schema_drift.rs` movement (no schema field). No
`ailang-check` change, no Form-A change. Only the two tests whose
*observed behaviour* M2 changes are touched: `embed_staticlib_lowering.rs`
(forwarder IR gains `ptr %ctx` + TLS save/restore) and `embed_e2e.rs`
(host call gains the ctx parameter + lifecycle). `embed_export_gate.rs`
(gate unchanged), `embed_export_hash_stable.rs` (no schema field),
`design_schema_drift.rs`, `print_no_leak_pin.rs`, and the
`e2e.rs` leak-stat helper stay green **unmodified** — their behaviour
is byte-preserved by design.

## Data flow

```
embed_backtest_step.ail   (unchanged; no schema/surface change)
  → ail check               (unchanged M1 export gate: scalar + effect-free)
  → desugar / lift / mono   (unchanged)
  → lower_workspace_staticlib [--alloc=rc enforced]
        @backtest_step(ptr %ctx, i64, i64): set TLS, call @ail_backtest_step, restore TLS
  → backtest.ll → clang -c → backtest.o → ar → libbacktest.a   (byte-unaffected by rc.c)
  ( rc.c [+ctx +TLS] / str.c → libailang_rt.a )                 [the only rebuilt archive]

host: N pthreads × { ctx=ailang_ctx_new(); loop backtest_step(ctx,…); ailang_ctx_free(ctx) }
      built -fsanitize=thread  →  0 tsan reports + per-thread result == serial oracle
runtime accounting: swarm path → ctx->{alloc,free}_count (no global touched, no race)
                    executable path (null ctx) → g_rc_* + atexit (single-threaded, unchanged)
```

## Error handling

- **`--emit=staticlib` with `--alloc=gc` or `--alloc=bump`**: CLI
  error, build fails (RC-only swarm contract). Default `--alloc=rc`
  unaffected; non-staticlib `--alloc=gc` unaffected.
- **`ailang_ctx_new` OOM**: `calloc` returns NULL → `ailang_ctx_new`
  returns NULL; a NULL ctx passed to the forwarder sets
  `__ail_tls_ctx = NULL`, i.e. the kernel runs on the null-ctx
  fallback path (no accounting) rather than crashing — matches the
  existing "abort only on allocation we cannot proceed without"
  runtime posture; the scalar kernel needs no allocation to run.
- **`ailang_ctx_free(NULL)`**: no-op then `free(NULL)` (no-op) —
  symmetric with the `ailang_rc_dec(NULL)` null guard already in the
  runtime.
- **Executable path leak readback**: unchanged — `g_rc_*` + the
  `AILANG_RC_STATS` atexit print still fire exactly as today (the
  two pinning tests stay green).

## Testing strategy

RED-first throughout. The central honesty point: **a scalar kernel
allocates nothing, so a scalar swarm is already race-free today** —
tsan on the scalar swarm alone is *not* a meaningful RED→GREEN for
the de-globalisation. The de-globalisation regression coverage must
exercise the RC-accounting path *directly*, at the layer that
actually has the hazard. Hence two distinct test roles, mirroring
M1's structure (M1: E2E harness = coherent-stop proof; must-fail
fixtures = the gate's teeth):

0. **Baseline pins (prerequisite, RED-first), at the layers M2
   changes.** (a) Pin that the executable-path `AILANG_RC_STATS`
   atexit readback currently works — already green via
   `print_no_leak_pin.rs` + `e2e.rs:2178`; M2 must keep them green
   (regression guard on the retained null-ctx fallback). (b) Pin
   that `ail build --emit=staticlib --alloc=gc <kernel>` currently
   *succeeds* (so the new guard's RED→GREEN is real).
1. **De-globalisation regression — direct rc-accounting, N threads,
   tsan (the teeth).** A C harness (test tree) spawns N threads,
   each `ailang_ctx_new()`, each performing many
   `ailang_rc_alloc`/`ailang_rc_dec` cycles, asserting each ctx's
   `alloc_count == free_count` individually (no lost/cross-counted
   increments) under `-fsanitize=thread`. This *cannot be written*
   against today's `g_rc_*` (no per-ctx counters) and a global-
   hammering variant is tsan-RED today → GREEN after M2. This is the
   meaningful proof, because it hits the hazard at its own layer.
2. **Coherent-stop capability demonstration — scalar swarm.** The
   headline `examples/embed_backtest_step.ail` driven by N threads
   each through its own ctx (the §"changed C host" harness), tsan-
   clean, every thread's result == serial oracle. This proves the
   *capability* (the headline use case runs swarm-safe through the
   new ABI end-to-end). Honestly recorded: it is the capability
   proof, not the de-globalisation proof (which is item 1).
3. **Negative control (belongs to item 1, not item 2).** The
   `-DSHARED_CTX` variant of the *item-1 direct rc-accounting
   harness* must make tsan report a race on the concurrent
   `ctx->alloc_count++` — proving the de-globalisation property is
   not vacuous. It is **not** a variant of the item-2 swarm harness:
   `examples/embed_backtest_step.ail` is a non-allocating scalar
   kernel that never writes a ctx field, and `__ail_tls_ctx` is
   `__thread` (per-thread storage, never shared even when the
   `ailang_ctx_t*` value is), so a shared-ctx scalar swarm has *no
   shared-memory write to race on* and tsan correctly stays clean —
   exactly the honesty point item 1 makes. `swarm.c` therefore ships
   the per-thread-ctx positive demonstration only; its teeth are
   item 1's by the de-globalisation-proof / capability-demo split.
4. **Forwarder shape.** `embed_staticlib_lowering.rs` extended:
   `@<sym>` now `define i64 @sym(ptr %ctx, …)` with the TLS
   save/store/restore around an *unchanged* `call @ail_<mod>_<fn>`;
   no `@main`; `_adapter`/`_clos` byte-identical to M1 (regression
   pin on the M1 "untouched" decision).
5. **M1 E2E migration.** `embed_e2e.rs` migrated from
   `backtest_step(state,sample)` to
   `backtest_step(ctx,state,sample)` with ctx lifecycle; still
   asserts the M1 value result (the ABI changed, the math did not).
6. **Executable path unchanged.** `print_no_leak_pin.rs` +
   `e2e.rs` leak-stat helper green unmodified (null-ctx fallback
   byte-behaviour preserved).
7. **Schema/hash invariance.** `embed_export_hash_stable.rs` +
   `design_schema_drift.rs` green *unmodified* — M2 adds no schema
   field (explicit contrast with M1).
8. **Clean-core invariant.** No new dependency in `ailang-core` /
   `ailang-codegen` / `runtime/`; architect audits Invariant 1 at
   close.
9. **Bench regression trio.** The retained null-ctx fallback adds a
   `load __thread ptr; brif null` ahead of the executable path's
   `g_rc_*++`. The strategy must demonstrate this is bench-neutral
   on the benched (non-embed, executable) hot path — `bench/check.py`
   / `compile_check.py` / `cross_lang.py` carry-on, with the
   byte-identical-binary causal-exoneration method if a tracked-noise
   metric fires. Not hand-waved.

## Acceptance criteria

Feature-acceptance criterion (DESIGN.md §"Feature-acceptance
criterion"), applied honestly to a strategic infra/safety milestone
with **no authoring surface**:

1. **LLM author naturally produces it.** Vacuously and *by design*:
   the worked `.ail` is byte-identical to M1's kernel
   (`examples/embed_backtest_step.ail`, shown above). M2 introduces
   no construct for an author to reach for — concurrency safety is
   an ABI/runtime property. The unchanged `.ail` *is* the clause-1
   evidence; the changed surface is the C host, shown concretely.
2. **Measurably improves correctness / removes redundancy.** A
   safety gate, recorded honestly (as M1's clause 2 was): running an
   *allocating* kernel from N threads is today a C data race on
   `g_rc_*` (UB); M2 removes that shared mutable state from the
   swarm artefact by construction, proven tsan-clean (Testing item
   1). Justification is strategic — the language's target
   deployment, the explicit user-made roadmap direction call — not
   the standard authoring-utility metric. No pretence otherwise.
3. **Reintroduces no bug class the core eliminates.** Decision 10's
   "single-threaded; non-atomic refcounts" stays *true*: M2
   introduces no atomic refcounts and no shared cells (per-thread
   ctx ⇒ no heap cell crosses a thread; scalar kernels allocate
   nothing in M2). Invariant 1 (clean core), Invariant 2 (no value
   crosses a thread boundary — strengthened: the ctx is per-thread
   by construction), Invariant 3 (native-AOT only) all hold and are
   audited. The clause-3 discriminator is honestly at the
   build/runtime layer, not typecheck: the unsafe build config
   *fails to build* (`--alloc=gc`+staticlib) and the safety property
   is proven by sanitiser + negative control — stated plainly, with
   no pretence of an authoring-surface clause-3.

Milestone-close ("coherent stop") is met when **all** hold:

- The §"changed C host" N-thread harness on
  `examples/embed_backtest_step.ail` is `-fsanitize=thread`-clean
  and every thread's result matches the serial oracle.
- The direct rc-accounting N-thread+tsan test (item 1) is green in
  its per-ctx form; its `-DSHARED_CTX` negative control (item 3, in
  the same rc-accounting harness) is tsan-flagged — demonstrating the
  de-globalisation teeth are not vacuous. (`swarm.c` carries no
  negative control by construction — a scalar kernel has no shared
  mutable state; see Testing item 3.)
- `ail build --emit=staticlib --alloc=gc` fails with the RC-only
  diagnostic; `--alloc=rc` (default) builds and links.
- `embed_e2e.rs` migrated and green on the ctx ABI; the M1 value
  result unchanged.
- Executable path byte-behaviour preserved: `print_no_leak_pin.rs`
  + `e2e.rs` leak-stat helper green unmodified; no schema/hash
  movement (`embed_export_hash_stable.rs`,
  `design_schema_drift.rs` green unmodified).
- Architect audit confirms Invariant 1; bench trio carry-on
  (null-ctx fallback proven bench-neutral, not hand-waved).
- DESIGN.md §"Embedding ABI (M1)" updated to the post-M2 current
  state (ctx-threaded signature is real; "provisional until M3"
  narrowed to the value/record layout); Decision 10 atomicity note
  added.

## Iteration sequencing (prerequisite-first)

The planner decomposes M2 into bite-sized tasks, but **task 1 is
fixed**: the Testing-strategy item-0 baseline pins (executable-path
atexit readback currently green; `--emit=staticlib --alloc=gc`
currently succeeds). Rationale, same shape as M1's fixed task 1: M2
is *defined* as (a) retaining the executable-path readback while
diverting the swarm path off it, and (b) flipping the
`--alloc=gc`+staticlib build outcome from success to failure. Both
load-bearing changes must rest on a pinned baseline at their own
layer before the change is introduced (the 2026-05-11 failure class,
pre-empted in order). Only after task 1 is green does the
runtime/codegen/CLI work proceed. No other inter-task ordering is
mandated; the planner owns the rest.

## Out of scope (explicit)

- Any non-scalar crossing — record/ADT (M3), list (M4), `Str` in/out.
- Any `ctx` content beyond the two accounting counters — no
  per-thread arena/bump allocator, no locks, no atomics, no IO sink
  (build-ahead-of-consumer trap; "toward per-thread RC" is direction
  not delivery).
- Tree-wide Boehm retirement — the separate standing P2 todo,
  untouched; M2 only forbids Boehm in the staticlib artefact.
- Cross-thread-tolerant (work-stealing/async ctx-migration) ABI —
  no consumer; rejected as build-ahead.
- Atomic refcounts — Decision 10 stays; per-thread ctx makes them
  unnecessary, not deferred.
- The `ail-embed` adapter crate + `data-server` wiring + the real
  thread-swarm backtest — M5.
- Touching the internal `@ail_<module>_<fn>` calling convention or
  the `_adapter`/`_clos` closure pair (M1 decision held).
