The 3020-line docs/DESIGN.md is replaced by the design/ ledger:
design/INDEX.md (sole addressable spine, typed Contracts+Models tables,
polymorphic links — prose file OR authoritative source //!), 14
design/contracts/*.md test-linked invariants + 3 source-link-only
contracts (mangling/env-construction/qualified-xref, no prose file —
code is SoT), 5 design/models/*.md whitepapers, and
docs/journals/2026-05-19-design-decision-records.md (the
relitigation-guard archive — every why/rejected/does-not-do/rollback/
empirical ### moved out at ###-granularity). Clean cut: git rm
docs/DESIGN.md, no stub.
RED-first crates/ailang-core/tests/design_index_pin.rs — the 4-clause
anti-regrowth spine (DESIGN.md-gone / every-INDEX-link-resolves /
every-contract-names-a-resolvable-ratifier /
contracts-carry-no-decision-record-prose) — demonstrably RED before,
GREEN after. Build-atomic by task ordering: design_schema_drift.rs's
include_str! (the only compile-time consumer) retargeted to
design/contracts/data-model.md BEFORE the deletion; its
## Data model/## Pipeline slicer dropped (a simplification the split
enables). 2 NoInstance diagnostics + 2 lockstep E2Es retargeted to
design/contracts/{float-semantics,typeclasses}.md. ~12 agent reading
lists + 5 SKILL bodies + CLAUDE.md + skills/README.md + ~25
code/C/.ail/spec comment xrefs retargeted; OQ7 dangling 'Iter 13b'
cite deleted (no forward target — a pointer would be fiction).
honesty-rule.md rewritten so the rule names the new home
(rationale->journals), resolving the recon-found internal
contradiction; the two docs_honesty_pin.rs:70,72 pinned phrases kept
verbatim+contiguous.
Boss-verified independently: cargo test --workspace 646 passed /
0 failed; design_index_pin 4/4; acceptance grep CLEAN of live
DESIGN.md refs (residuals = only the spec-mandated clause-4
deletion-enforcer). 2 DONE_WITH_CONCERNS routed to the mandatory
milestone-close audit: (a) str-abi.md:23 '(iter str-concat,
2026-05-13)' provenance stamp trips advisory architect_sweeps Sweep-1
— Boss-confirmed byte-identical to DESIGN.md@deeffb1:2062-2065, a
faithfully-migrated PRE-EXISTING anchor (regexes verbatim, only path
retargeted), NOT split-introduced — RATIFY-or-tidy at audit; (b) a
now stale-direction intra-prose 'see Str ABI below' cross-ref in
float-semantics.md — audit-adjudication candidate. Plan defect noted:
Task 9 Step 4's verbatim acceptance grep used a ^./ anchor not
matching the system's grep -rIn output; substance re-verified CLEAN.
Spec grounding-check PASS x2. Journals INDEX + decision-records
pointer appended (Boss-only).
The effect-op-arg-modes brainstorm spec bundled a real, self-contained
DESIGN.md honesty fix with speculative build-ahead infra (an EffectOpSig
arg-mode field whose only consumer was a synthetic test op). Recon had
already destroyed the "effect-handler infrastructure" premise: the effect
raise/declare/subset/propagation machinery is fully generic over any
effect string; the only real prerequisite was one struct field, not a
milestone. The user rejected the bundle as incoherent and the
build-ahead half as the iteration-discipline trap repeated.
- Retire the uncommitted effect-op-arg-modes spec (deleted from the
working tree; never committed).
- roadmap: drop the false "sub-ms-2 = effect-handler infrastructure"
framing; mark Stateful-islands sub-milestone sequencing as UNDER
RE-THINK with the user (no !Mut planning until that conversation);
add the split-out effect-doc-honesty as an in-flight P2 [~] todo.
- plan docs/plans/2026-05-16-effect-doc-honesty.md: placeholder-free
tidy plan (the three DESIGN.md fictions + form_a.md + main.rs +
a new doc-presence pin) over recon-mapped exact byte sites.
- brainstorm SKILL: specs and design talk LEAD with the AILang (.ail)
program that should work (= the feature-acceptance clause-1
evidence); the Rust implementation shape is secondary, never a
substitute; a no-surface infra milestone still shows concrete .ail
(often a must-fail fixture). Codifies user feedback from this session.
One forward iteration; main never rewound. 1ff7e81 (the pre-9973546
commit) is the per-region byte oracle — every reverted source/test
file is byte-identical to it; crates/ailang-check/src/lib.rs fully so.
Root cause being corrected: the Iteration-discipline milestone was an
over-escalation of fieldtest finding F1 (a [friction] item whose own
minimal recommendation was a DESIGN.md note). Its totality dichotomy
made the maximally-LLM-natural build(d:Int)=Node(1,build(d-1),
build(d-1)) inexpressible (it.3 BLOCKED); the only in-thesis escape
(A1/it.2b) conceded the language's first documented-unenforced
totality precondition — a purity-pillar dilution the user rejected in
favour of a full revert + rebuild.
Removed: Term::Loop/Term::Recur/LoopBinder; the verify_structural_
recursion guardedness pass + term_contains_loop + Diverge-injection +
the transitively-it.2 module_fns plumbing; the five Recur*/
NonStructuralRecursion CheckError variants (+ code() + the 3 dedicated
ctx() arms); the it.1 codegen loop-header/phi/back-edge + parallel
block_terminated setter; all Loop/Recur walker arms; 16 it.1/it.2
fixtures; 2 pin files; bench/it3-oracle/. Restored: 2 RC fixtures to
1ff7e81 content.
Surgically kept (not in 1ff7e81, landed with the milestone but
independently sound): feature-acceptance clause 3 in DESIGN.md and
skills/brainstorm/SKILL.md, with its worked example de-claimed from
"shipped" to hypothetical-illustration form; the F3 P2 todo.
bench/orchestrator-stats/2026-05-15-iter-it.{1,2,3}.json kept as
historical record (like journals/plans).
Sole net addition: an honest F1/F4 documented-idiom note in DESIGN.md
(the tail-recursive accumulator fallback; examples/mut_counter.ail),
guarded by a doc-presence test — "a documentation note is not a
reshape", asserts nothing at the typecheck level.
Roadmap: the Iteration-discipline block + blocking-fork section
removed; the genuine total-Int-recursion ambition preserved as a
deferred P2 milestone sequenced behind a future Nat/refinement-types
milestone (not abandoned — correctly sequenced after the type
machinery it needs). 2026-05-15-iteration-discipline.md carries a
superseded header; it.1/it.2/it.3 journals + plans stay as history.
Correctness gate PRISTINE: 164 surviving 1ff7e81-era fixtures
ail check/ail run byte-identical to pre-milestone behaviour (verified
against a 1ff7e81 worktree reference compiler, zero drift);
cargo test --workspace 600/0; zero residual it.1/it.2 production
surface.
Spec docs/specs/2026-05-16-iteration-discipline-revert.md (b3853bf),
plan docs/plans/2026-05-16-iter-revert.md (abf0013).
Sharpen the feature-acceptance criterion (DESIGN.md, mirrored in the
brainstorm gate) with a third conjunctive-necessary clause: a feature
reintroduces no bug class the core constraint exists to eliminate.
Criterion 1 ("an LLM reaches for it") does not discriminate — an LLM
reaches for every construct native to its imperative training
distribution, so utility alone would launder the imperative paradigm
back in one construct at a time. Clause 3 is the discriminator; a
documentation note is not a reshape (the gate is whether the wrong
code fails to typecheck).
Record the decided iteration story as a P1 milestone: structural
recursion permitted (total-by-construction under Decision 10's
acyclic-ADT invariant) + named loop/recur as the only other
repetition + tail-app retired. Discharges fieldtest finding F1 without
introducing an imperative construct; closes the residual "forgot to
mark tail" trap completely; unifies with Decision 10 (acyclic values
AND acyclic implicit call graph). Supersedes the "while-loops legal"
scope bullet of the Stateful-islands milestone, which is amended for
internal consistency. The escaping-state path (ref/MutArray/Stateful)
is unaffected and stays in Stateful-islands.
Closes the P1 todo from earlier today: Step 7.5 PASS report is
bound to the exact bytes of the spec at dispatch time. Any
subsequent edit — wording polish, user-requested change, anything
— invalidates the report and forces a fresh dispatch before the
Step 8 commit.
Three edits:
- Step 7.5 gets a 'Re-dispatch on any post-PASS edit' subsection
stating the rule and explaining why (PASS attests to bytes).
- Step 8 wording: '... edit in place, re-run Step 7 AND re-dispatch
Step 7.5, then return here. Only proceed after approval AND a
fresh Step 7.5 PASS.'
- Common Rationalisations + Red Flags gain matching entries
('just polishing wording, no need to re-dispatch' / 'Editing the
spec after PASS without re-dispatching').
Roadmap P1 todo retired with this commit.
Two project-wide rules are now explicit across every skill:
1. Only the Boss commits. No skill agent (implementer,
brainstormer, planner, debugger, fieldtester, docwriter,
architect, bencher) runs `git commit`. Agents write their
artefacts to the working tree as unstaged changes; the Boss
inspects, decides commit shape, and commits.
2. main HEAD is sacrosanct. No actor runs `git reset` or
`git revert` on main. Bad work stays in the working tree
where it is still discardable via `git checkout -- <paths>`.
Implement loses the `iter/<iter_id>` branch mechanic entirely;
Phase 0 of the orchestrator-agent now does a clean-tree check
and refuses to start on a dirty tree. Per-task agent commits
are removed everywhere; reviewers operate against
`git diff HEAD` instead of `pre_task_sha..head_sha`.
Motivation: 2026-05-11 iter 23.4 stranded prep2/prep3 commits on
an iter-branch that never integrated to main, then a corrected
spec falsely claimed those commits had shipped. Branch-per-iter
+ manual-Boss-merge + iter-stacking made the strand structurally
possible. See docs/journals/2026-05-11-iter-disc.1.md for the
full per-task notes and motivation.
Anthropic now reserves /plan as a UI command, so the Skill tool refuses to
dispatch it. Rename the project's plan skill to planner, update the symlink
under .claude/skills/, and adjust references in CLAUDE.md, DESIGN.md,
skills/README.md, and the cross-references between brainstorm / implement /
audit / fieldtest / fieldtester. Plan files themselves (docs/plans/*.md)
keep their name — only the skill ID changes.
The skills are functionally complete and standalone — superpowers
references were attribution-only. Removed so a reader without the
superpowers plugin loaded isn't sent chasing dead links.
Plus: .claude/skills/<name> symlinks so Claude Code's Skill tool can
invoke them by name (analogous to the existing .claude/agents/
symlinks). Discovery section in skills/README.md updated to cover
both symlink sets.
Brummel