# FABRIC-3.6.md — the Tripod/kernel reshuffle: execution log

**Status: LIVING WORKING DOCUMENT, opened 2026-09-19.** This is the **execution** record for
the reshuffle designed in `FABRIC-3.5.md`. Work is tracked, annotated and closed here.

**Why this is a separate document, per the series' own rule.** `FABRIC-1.md` closed at **4,420
lines** for a stated reason: *"continuing to append here made the still-open work hard to find."*
`FABRIC-3.5.md` stands at **4,452 lines** with 40+ open punch items scattered among hundreds of
settled rulings — **it has crossed the same threshold, for the same reason.** Annotating a task
list inside it, commit by commit, would bury the design record it exists to be.

**The split of responsibility is strict, and stated because `FABRIC-3.5.md` §XXXI found that
documents in this series lose track of each other:**

| | `FABRIC-3.5.md` | `FABRIC-3.6.md` (this) |
|---|---|---|
| **Holds** | The design record — every ruling, its reasoning, its evidence | The work — tasks, results, dates, commits |
| **State** | Design phase closed; archival close at `v2.1.0` (§XXVI.5) | Living until the work is done |
| **On a conflict** | **Authoritative** | Defers, and records the discrepancy |

**Design rulings are never restated here, only cited** (`§XXXIV.2`, `§XL.4`, …). If a task needs
a rule explained, read `FABRIC-3.5.md`. **If executing a task proves a ruling wrong, that is a
finding: record it here and amend `FABRIC-3.5.md` there** — never silently diverge.

**The checkbox convention is deliberate.** `FABRIC-3.5.md` §XXXI.2 found the series'
carry-forward discipline was mechanically auditable (`grep -c '\- \[ \]'`) up to `FABRIC-2.md`,
and **broke at `FABRIC-3.md`, which uses no checkboxes at all** — after which "is anything still
open?" stopped being a `grep` and became a reading exercise. **This document restores the
convention**, so that question stays answerable by machine.

---

## Standing rules

Apply to **every** task, from `.claude/CLAUDE.md` and `FABRIC-3.5.md` §XXXIV:

- **One task, one commit.** No bundling.
- **Acceptance is the three-architecture QEMU boot** — `clean qemu`, amd64/aarch64/riscv64, one
  at a time, in the foreground. Logs committed. There is no other acceptance test.
- **`dict_hash` changing is expected. `dict_hash` *diverging* between architectures is a stop
  condition** (§XXXIV.6).
- **`mkcapsule --lint capsules/` clean** after any capsule change.
- **No task starts without explicit authorization.** Captain Bob's Law.
- **Report, don't fix.** A defect found while doing a task is recorded here, not repaired in
  passing.

## Annotation convention

```
- [x] 0.2 — Strip common/msg.4th
      2026-09-DD · commit abc1234 · 3-arch boot clean, lint 0 violations
      note: <anything surprising; a finding gets its own entry below>
```

Mark `[~]` for started-not-finished, with what is outstanding. **Never mark `[x]` on a task
whose check did not actually run** — `FABRIC-3.5.md` §XXXV.6 records that declaring done too
early is this project's most repeated failure.

---

## Phase 0 — Preparation (no behaviour change)

**Gate:** all three architectures boot to `zuse)ok>`, `stadium_conserved()` true, no
`UNKNOWN WORD`.

- [ ] **0.1** — Establish Category A reachability by §XXII.2's three routes (boot path, tooling,
      baked capsule directory). **Never by grep alone.**
      *Check:* a written list naming the route that proves each entry dead.
- [ ] **0.2** — Strip `capsules/common/msg.4th`. *Check:* 3-arch boot; lint clean.
- [ ] **0.3** — Strip `capsules/process.4th` (takes `EVENT-EMIT`/`-WAIT`/`-DRAIN` with it,
      §XXXIII.3). *Check:* 3-arch boot; lint clean.
- [ ] **0.4** — Strip `SPAWN-EVENT`. *Check:* 3-arch boot; lint clean.
- [ ] **0.5** — Correct `capsules/MANIFEST.md` blocks 4055 and 2049 **as their files are
      stripped** (§XXII.5). *Check:* manifest describes no file that no longer exists.
- [ ] **0.6** — Return freed block ranges to `capsule-reserved.txt`. *Check:* lint clean.
- [ ] **0.7** — Add `stadium_conserved()`: `Σ patron + reservoir + consumed == Q48_ONE`,
      **epsilon zero** (§XL.4, item 41). *Check:* true on a clean boot, all three arches.
- [ ] **0.8** — Audit that `PLOT`/`FB-WIDTH`/`FB-HEIGHT` are registered **nowhere** but the
      table Hestia will own (item 33). *Check:* read-only; a second site is a defect to report.

## Phase 1 — Hestia (messaging untouched)

**Gate:** Tripod is Hera/Artemis/Hestia **plus** Hermes; drawing works from Hestia and only
Hestia; headless policy intact.

- [ ] **1.1** — Allocate Hestia's block range vs. `capsule-reserved.txt`, **avoiding 4997**.
      *Check:* lint clean.
- [ ] **1.2** — Create `capsules/hestia/init.4th`: messaging load, `MSG-CD-INIT`, banner. **No
      fabric yet.** *Check:* boots; Hestia not yet birthed.
- [ ] **1.3** — Add Hestia to `is_fleet_foundation` (`capsule_birth.c:793-796`) — **four names,
      Hermes retained** (§XXXIV.4). *Check:* 3-arch boot; Hermes still live.
- [ ] **1.4** — Birth Hestia in `kernel_main.c`, **alongside** Hermes's existing birth.
      *Check:* registry shows both; `dict_hash` identical across arches.
- [ ] **1.5** — Register Hestia for switch signals (the `:1007` pattern). *Check:* boot clean;
      **no switch storm** (§XXVIII.2's shape — and note it is invisible by default, §XXXV.0).
- [ ] **1.6** — Move `fabric.4th` from `init.4th` to `hestia/init.4th`. *Check:* Hera's dict
      shrinks, Hestia's grows; cross-arch identity holds.
- [ ] **1.7** — Move `font.4th` likewise. *Check:* same.
- [ ] **1.8** — Move `PLOT`/`FB-WIDTH`/`FB-HEIGHT` registration to Hestia's table **only**.
      *Check:* **positively verify** a non-Hestia VM calling `PLOT` gets `UNKNOWN WORD`.
- [ ] **1.9** — Assert §XVIII.6's headless invariant: Hestia's birth sets no
      `g_wirebind_attached_username` and mints no proxy. *Check:* boot headless, no thumbdrive,
      **no prompt appears**.

## Phase 2 — Allocator and audit (inert) — **the real go/no-go**

**Gate:** task 2.7. **If it fails, stop and re-plan. Do not proceed to Phase 3.**

- [ ] **2.1** — Kernel-Hermes message/membership structures, **wired to nothing, drawing no
      heat**. *Check:* boot byte-identical; `dict_hash` unmoved.
- [ ] **2.2** — Allocate: pull `Q.SLOT` from the caller's reservoir; roll back on refusal.
      *Check:* N allocs against a known reservoir; refusal at the right count.
- [ ] **2.3** — Release: return remaining heat via the eviction path. *Check:* reservoir
      restored exactly for an undecayed message.
- [ ] **2.4** — The four counters: `held`, `pulled`, `returned`, `consumed` (§XL.4). *Check:*
      each increments at exactly one site.
- [ ] **2.5** — Decay: apply, and **record the delta into `consumed`** (§XXXVII.3). *Check:*
      `consumed` grows by exactly `heat_before − heat_after`.
- [ ] **2.6** — Self-audit: `held == pulled − returned − consumed`, **epsilon zero**. *Check:*
      holds across the cycle; **deliberately corrupt a counter → audit fires on the first unit**.
- [ ] **2.7** — **Stage B proof** (§XXXIV.3 as corrected by §XXXIX.4): alloc/free cycle
      verifying **(a)** the ledger and **(b)** `stadium_conserved()` before and after.
      *Check:* both true, all three arches. **`fleet_conserved` is not evidence here** — it
      cannot see Stadium heat (§XXXIX.1).
- [ ] **2.8** — Scan-based cross-check of the counters, diagnostics only, off the hot path
      (§XXXVII.4). *Check:* scan agrees with counters.

## Phase 3 — Cutover — **BLOCKED**

**Not buildable until all three clear.** Shape once unblocked (§XXXIV.3): cut over
`BLK-ATTACH-EVENT` alone, then remaining types one at a time, under §XXXIV.2's partition rule —
one message type owned by exactly one layer, no message shared.

- [ ] **B1** — **Item 27**: channels — negotiation, or one broadcast membership? (§XXXIII.5
      recommends the latter; unruled.)
- [ ] **B2** — **Item 32**: `SK_SWITCH_MAX_SLOTS` is 16 and §XXXII made the switcher the sole
      mover of control. Constant bump or table redesign?
- [x] **B3** — **CLEARED 2026-09-19 by `FABRIC-3.5.md` §XLIII**: the target drains its own
      queue at its own outermost interpret checkpoint; kernel-Hermes publishes and never
      dispatches. Reuses `sk_vm_at_outermost_interpret()` and the Stage 3 checkpoint.
- [ ] **B4** — **Item 44**: payload bound or chunking against `INPUT_BUFFER_SIZE` 1025
      (§XLIII.6.1). Decide before Phase 3.

## Phase 4 — Category B strip

Only after every live type is cut over. **Hermes leaves `is_fleet_foundation` and
`kernel_main.c` here, not earlier** (§XXXIV.4).

- [ ] **4.1** — Strip `capsules/hermes/init.4th`.
- [ ] **4.2** — Strip the FORTH routing table and slot-3 pairing convention.
- [ ] **4.3** — Strip `capsules/common/messaging.4th`.
- [ ] **4.4** — Remove Hermes from `is_fleet_foundation` and its birth from `kernel_main.c`.

## Phase 5 — Close-out

- [ ] **5.1** — Isabelle/HOL pass. **Deliverable is the restated boundary**, explicitly
      including §XXV.4's coverage loss — *not* a green build (§XXV.3).
- [ ] **5.2** — Documentation sweep, grepping **by exclusion** (§XXVIII.3): CLAUDE.md's four
      errors, `MANIFEST.md`, the `TRIPOD.md`/0.1 contradiction, item 42's K-qualification,
      the superseded subsystem docs' update-or-archive call.
- [ ] **5.3** — `make sbom`; check `Created:` and `DocumentName` (§XXVI.2).
- [ ] **5.4** — `LITHOS_VERSION = 2.1.0`; engine `VERSION` per §XXX.6's rule; roadmap table
      gains its `2.1.0` line in two live places (§XXVIII.2).
- [ ] **5.5** — Resolve the stray `refs/heads/v2.0.1` and PR #1 (§XXVI.4). **Investigate, do
      not delete.**
- [ ] **5.6** — Merge to `master`; tag `v2.1.0`.
- [ ] **5.7** — Archival close of `FABRIC-3.5.md` (§XXVI.5) and of this document.

---

## Findings log

*Defects and surprises found while executing. Reported, not fixed (unless the task was to fix
them). A finding that contradicts a `FABRIC-3.5.md` ruling must also be amended there.*

*(none yet — work not started)*

---

## Out of scope, carried for visibility

Recorded in `FABRIC-3.5.md`, deliberately **not** part of this reshuffle. Listed so they are not
absorbed by accident:

- **Item 43** — should a Stadium reservoir ever replenish? (§XL.6) A VM's send capacity declines
  monotonically today.
- **Items 23–26** — the `FABRIC-3.5.md` §XXXI gap-analysis follow-ups: re-home `FABRIC-2` §17.4,
  consolidate the three reported-not-scheduled registries, decide `FABRIC-2`'s five orphaned
  design items, reconcile `FABRIC-0`'s seven opens.
- **`src/*.c.bak`** — tracked-but-stale, reported in three places and actioned in none
  (§XXII.5).