Files
AILang/experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring
Brummel 72e54f4fd3 iter ext-rename: .ailx → .ail across the live toolchain
The surface-form file extension changes from .ailx to .ail. AILang's
authoring surface now uses the same .ail stem as its canonical JSON
form (.ail.json), giving the language a single coherent extension
family: .ail is the LLM-authored Form A, .ail.json is the canonical
JSON-AST Form B.

Scope (touched):
- 61 example renames examples/**/*.ailx → .ail (git mv)
- 1 rename experiments/.../rendered/ailx.md → ail.md
- 35 content-edited live-toolchain files (crates/, docs/DESIGN.md,
  docs/roadmap.md, docs/PROSE_ROUNDTRIP.md, skills/, bench/reference/*.c,
  experiment crates under experiments/.../{render,harness,master})
- Experiment-crate cohort rename Cohort::Ailx → Cohort::Ail,
  Form::Ailx → Form::Ail, per_cohort/ailx → per_cohort/ail,
  {form-only: ailx} → {form-only: ail}, ```ailx → ```ail

Out of scope (deliberately untouched, to preserve honest history):
- docs/journal-archive.md (content-frozen per CLAUDE.md)
- docs/journals/, docs/specs/, docs/plans/, bench/orchestrator-stats/
- experiments/.../runs/ (frozen LLM-output artefacts; models actually
  saw .ailx — renaming would falsify the experimental record)

Verification: cargo build/test --workspace green; experiment crate
cargo test green; bench/check.py + compile_check.py + cross_lang.py
all 0-regressed; negative grep for ailx|Ailx|AILX outside the
out-of-scope paths returns zero matches.

Opens immediate follow-up: roadmap.md P2 todo `ail check`/build/run
accept .ail extension — after this rename, .ail is canonical
authoring surface but the CLI still produces a misleading JSON-parse
error on `ail check foo.ail`. That's the next iter.
2026-05-12 14:20:27 +02:00
..

Cross-model authoring-form test

Empirical measurement of whether .ail.json or .ail is the form a foreign LLM author reaches for and succeeds with. Single subject for v1: Qwen3-Coder-Next via IONOS. Two blind cohorts; same four tasks.

Parent spec: docs/specs/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring-form-test.md.

Layout

  • master/spec.md — canonical mini-spec source (form-agnostic prose + {form-only: X} blocks + {example: id} markers).
  • master/examples/*.ail.json — AST source-of-truth; each example prints to either form via the existing roundtrip machinery.
  • master/tasks/*.task.json — task definitions consumed by the harness. Authored in cma.2, not cma.1.
  • render/ — standalone Cargo crate, outside the root workspace, builds the renderer binary.
  • rendered/json.md, rendered/ail.md — projected mini-specs, checked into the repo for review.
  • harness/Authored in cma.2.
  • runs/<date>-<hash>/ — populated by harness during a live run.

Running the renderer

cargo run --manifest-path experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/render/Cargo.toml -- \
    --master  experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/master \
    --rendered experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/rendered

Running the tests

cargo test --manifest-path experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/render/Cargo.toml

Three integration tests: example_roundtrip (each example loads, prints to AIL, reparses to the same canonical bytes), spec_completeness (every AST variant in ailang_core::ast is exercised by at least one example), token_balance (form-only blocks balanced within ±5% across the two rendered files).

Running the harness

Live mode (one full eight-run sweep, ~480k tokens budget by default):

export IONOS_API_TOKEN="<token>"   # see roadmap entry for token provenance
cargo run --manifest-path experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/harness/Cargo.toml -- \
  --rendered experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/rendered \
  --tasks    experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/master/tasks \
  --out      experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/runs \
  --model    Qwen/Qwen3-Coder-Next

The harness pre-flights ail --version and clang --version before the first API call. Set AIL_BIN if ail is not on PATH.

Mock mode (offline; CI-friendly; bypasses the IONOS API):

cargo run --manifest-path experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/harness/Cargo.toml -- \
  --rendered experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/rendered \
  --tasks    experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/master/tasks \
  --out      /tmp/mock-runs \
  --model    mock \
  --mock     experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/harness/tests/fixtures/mock_full_run.json

Tests:

cargo test --manifest-path experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/harness/Cargo.toml

Five suites: inline --lib unit tests for strip_locations (5), plus integration tests strip_locations against captured stderr fixtures (5), verify_references (1, drives every reference through the real ail+clang pipeline), mock_full_run (1, full eight-row mock E2E), budget_abort (1). Total 13 passed.