LithosAnanake/FABRIC-3.6.md

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

START HERE — session handoff

If you have just been told "go build it", read this section, then FABRIC-3.5.md's §XLI, then start at task 0.0 below. Do not re-derive the design — it is settled.

Where the code is. This repo is LithosAnanke, on the Gitea instance at gitea.strshipos.com, repo admin/LithosAnanake — Captain Bob has the credentials. Confirm you are in the right repo before anything else. git remote -v must show gitea.strshipos.com/admin/LithosAnanake. Nothing outside Gitea is this project. (The handoff was authored in a container whose default working directory was a different, empty repo on an unrelated remote — if you ever see that, you are in the wrong place.) master is the sole production line. Work on branch claude/starshipos-tripod-kernel-reshuffle-itbjns (a clean fast-forward of master at e56974e; documentation only — no reshuffle code has been written. The branch head is the source of truth; do not trust a commit id quoted here).

The two documents. FABRIC-3.5.md is the design record and is authoritative — every ruling, with its reasoning and evidence, §I–§XLIII. This document is the execution log. Rulings are cited here, never restated. If a task proves a ruling wrong, record the finding here and amend FABRIC-3.5.md — never silently diverge.

First action: task 0.0, the three-ISA baseline. It is a gate, not a formality — see its own rationale below. Nothing else starts until it is recorded.

Five traps this project's own history proves are real. A fresh session will walk into these:

1. Silent failure is the dominant mode here. FABRIC-3.5.md §XXXV.0 lists four independent instances. Most relevantly: "a switch storm and a healthy idle REPL produce an identical serial log." A green boot is weak evidence. Name the specific observation that proves a task worked, before running it.
2. grep cannot establish capsule reachability. Capsules are birthed by name from runtime strings. A reference count over capsules/ and src/ put the six live init-l8-* capsules at zero references; including experiments/ found 18–19 each. §XXII.2. Use the three routes, never grep alone.
3. fleet_conserved cannot see Stadium heat. The two heat accountings are entirely decoupled (§XXXIX). A leaking message allocator leaves fleet_conserved reporting a serene 1. Stage B's evidence is the ledger plus stadium_conserved(), never fleet_conserved.
4. dict_hash changing is expected; dict_hash diverging across architectures is the stop condition. §XXXIV.6. Do not "fix" a changed hash.
5. Documentation in this repo drifts from the code — trust the code. .claude/CLAUDE.md carried four stale claims; all four were corrected 2026-09-19 (§XLIV) and it is now reliable. Others are not: capsules/MANIFEST.md still describes block 4055 as a live "immutable ABI" that FABRIC-2.md:2773 declared stale, and still misdescribes block 2049. FABRIC-0.md §25.7 lists resolved defects as open. Where a document and the code disagree, the code wins — and record the drift rather than working around it.

Blocked, and not to be worked around: Phase 3 needs three decisions from Captain Bob — B1 channels (one membership or negotiation), B2 the SK_SWITCH_MAX_SLOTS ceiling of 16, B4 the payload bound against INPUT_BUFFER_SIZE 1025. All design is complete; these are rulings, not investigations.

Do not: create branches, stash, fix defects found in passing, bundle tasks into one commit, or start any task without explicit authorization. Captain Bob's Law, .claude/CLAUDE.md.

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.

---

Pre-flight — establish the baseline before anything changes

Branch state at open (2026-09-19): claude/starshipos-tripod-kernel-reshuffle-itbjns, head 3a4e5cf, working tree clean, pushed, 33 commits ahead of master — all documentation, no code. master is unmoved at e56974e, so the branch remains a clean fast-forward. Execution starts from this commit.

• 0.0 — Three-ISA baseline smoke test on the unmodified branch. make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=<arch> clean qemu for amd64, aarch64, riscv64 — one at a time, in the foreground, per .claude/CLAUDE.md. Check: all three reach zuse)ok>; zero UNKNOWN WORD; logs committed under logs/<timestamp>/<arch>/; record each dict_hash and confirm the three are identical. 2026-09-19 · logs/20260919-130023/amd64/, logs/20260919-130137/aarch64/, logs/20260919-130319/riscv64/ — all three reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD. dict_hash identical across all three: Hera (PARITY:M7.1a) 0x6824fe5993239838, Hermes 0x062252c4da6858da, Artemis 0xed80117724c26f36. note: first attempt confounded, see findings log — logs/20260919-124835/amd64/ and logs/20260919-124952/aarch64/ (kept, not deleted) show Artemis's dict_hash diverging (0xed80117724c26f36 vs 0x93d6e815354b61c0) purely because disk/artemis.img is shared across all three ISAs' qemu targets (FABRIC-3.md §XXXV.2) and the second run resumed the first run's already-formatted disk instead of formatting its own. Restored disk/artemis.img and disk/thumbdrives/zuse-thumb-ident.img to their committed blank state (git checkout --) before each of the three reruns above to remove the confound.

Why this is a gate and not a formality. Every task in this document takes the three-architecture boot as its acceptance (§XXXIV). Without a known-good baseline captured first, the first red boot is ambiguous — pre-existing fault or something task 0.2 just did? This project has been bitten by exactly that ambiguity before (FABRIC-3.md §XXVI: "the lockdown was never broken — wrong VM tested"). The baseline is what makes every later acceptance run interpretable, and the recorded dict_hash triple is the reference every subsequent §XXXIV.6 divergence check compares against.

Run it yourself — you are expected to. Captain Bob confirmed (2026-09-19) that execution happens on his PC with the full toolchain installed, so the session reading this can and should run task 0.0 directly, once authorized. Verify first that qemu-system-x86_64, qemu-system-aarch64, qemu-system-riscv64, the aarch64/riscv64 cross-compilers and OVMF/AAVMF are all present; if any are missing you are not on the intended machine — stop and say so rather than improvising a partial test.

(Historical note: this document was authored in a container with none of that toolchain, which is why task 0.0 was written but never run. Do not take its unchecked state as a prior failure — it has simply not been attempted.)

---

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. 2026-09-19 · investigation only, no code changed. Checked by all three routes — a boot-path trace of init.4th/hera/hermes/init.4th/artemis/init.4th for any EXEC/S" name" load, an experiments/tools/docs invocation search, and confirming presence in the baked capsule directory doesn't by itself make a name reachable if nothing constructs it at runtime:

  | Candidate | Boot path | Tooling/experiments/docs | Verdict |
  |---|---|---|---|
  | `capsules/common/msg.4th` | zero `EXEC`/load sites in any boot-loaded capsule | zero invocations; its only two words `HERMES-ACK`/`HERMES-NACK` have zero callers anywhere; `messaging.4th` block 5033's own comment: "common:msg.4th's HERMES-ACK/NACK indirection is retired" | **DEAD** |
  | `capsules/process.4th` | zero `EXEC` sites anywhere | zero invocations; its four words `SPAWN`/`PAUSE`/`RESUME`/`KILL-VM` have zero callers outside the file itself | **DEAD** |
  | `SPAWN-EVENT` (constant, `messaging.4th`) | N/A — a constant, only ever defined, never read by name | zero invocations by name anywhere | **DEAD** |
  
  Both files are present in the baked capsule directory (`mkcapsule` build log: `[p]
  common:msg.4th`, `[p] process.4th`) — noted per §XXII.2 that presence alone proves
  nothing; it only means nothing constructs either name at runtime to reach them, which the
  other two routes confirm.
  
  finding: `EVENT-EMIT`/`EVENT-WAIT`/`EVENT-DRAIN` (`messaging.4th`, Category B, staying)
  have one caller beyond `process.4th` that §XXXIII.3 missed — `tools/hermes_smoke.sh` calls
  all three directly. This does not make them live: the script is already broken on its own
  terms, referencing `capsules/core/init.4th` and `build/amd64/standard/starforth`, neither
  of which exists in this repo, and calling the pre-rename `CD-INIT` word (`messaging.4th`
  block 5033 renamed it to `MSG-CD-INIT`) — it cannot currently execute. Task 0.3's plan
  stands unchanged; recorded because §XXXIII.3's "only other reference is `MANIFEST.md`"
  was itself an undercount of exactly the kind §XXII.2 warns about, even though the
  conclusion survives.
  
  finding: `PAUSE-EVENT`/`RESUME-EVENT`/`KILL-EVENT` (`messaging.4th`) are exactly as
  dead-by-name as `SPAWN-EVENT` — zero references anywhere outside their own definition;
  `process.4th`'s calls pass bare numeric literals (`1`/`2`/`3`/`4`), never the constant
  names. Task 0.4 only names `SPAWN-EVENT`; not expanding its scope here, but flagging that
  the other three meet the identical bar for whoever picks up Category A stripping next.
  

• 0.2 — Strip capsules/common/msg.4th. Check: 3-arch boot; lint clean. 2026-09-19 · logs/20260919-131945/amd64/, logs/20260919-132054/aarch64/, logs/20260919-132226/riscv64/ — all three reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD. mkcapsule --lint capsules/ clean, 38 files, 0 violations (was 39 before the strip). dict_hash unchanged from the task 0.0 baseline on all three (Hera 0x6824fe5993239838, Hermes 0x062252c4da6858da, Artemis 0xed80117724c26f36) — expected, not a defect: task 0.1 confirmed msg.4th was never EXEC'd into any VM's dictionary, so removing the dead file from the baked capsule directory doesn't move anything actually loaded. capsule-reserved.txt not yet touched — block 4055's range is returned in task 0.6 per the punchlist's own ordering. MANIFEST.md's stale block-4055 entry not yet corrected — bundled into task 0.5 alongside block 2049's correction, per the punchlist.

• 0.3 — Strip capsules/process.4th (takes EVENT-EMIT/-WAIT/-DRAIN with it, §XXXIII.3). Check: 3-arch boot; lint clean. 2026-09-19 · logs/20260919-132914/amd64/, logs/20260919-133024/aarch64/, logs/20260919-133156/riscv64/ — all three reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD. mkcapsule --lint capsules/ clean, 37 files, 0 violations (was 38). Deleted capsules/process.4th outright and messaging.4th's Block 5030 in full (EVENT-EMIT/EVENT-WAIT/EVENT-DRAIN — a self-contained block, nothing else in it). dict_hash: Hera's PARITY:M7.1a snapshot unchanged (0x6824fe5993239838 — it fires before any capsule loads, so capsule edits never move it); Hermes and Artemis both moved (0xa0f5c639a1228596, 0x1650cb7153056160) since both load messaging.4th — identical across all three architectures, which is the actual property that matters (§XXII.4: every strip changes dict_hash, cross-arch identity is the invariant). capsule-reserved.txt still untouched (task 0.6); MANIFEST.md's stale block-4055/2049 entries still untouched (task 0.5, now unblocked since both 0.2 and 0.3 are done).

• 0.4 — Strip SPAWN-EVENT. Check: 3-arch boot; lint clean. 2026-09-19 · logs/20260919-133452/amd64/, logs/20260919-133559/aarch64/, logs/20260919-133731/riscv64/ — all three reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD. mkcapsule --lint capsules/ clean, 37 files, 0 violations (unchanged — a one-line edit within messaging.4th, no file added or removed). Removed the single 1 CONSTANT SPAWN-EVENT line only, per task 0.1's finding — PAUSE-EVENT/RESUME-EVENT/KILL-EVENT left in place, matching the punchlist's stated scope. dict_hash moved for Hermes/Artemis (0x52801b746e063ae9, 0x6ad92fa3935918d4), identical across all three architectures; Hera's PARITY:M7.1a snapshot unchanged as before. capsule-reserved.txt and MANIFEST.md's stale entries still untouched — Phase 0's strips (0.2–0.4) are now all done; 0.5 and 0.6 are next.

• 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. 2026-09-19 · documentation only, no capsule content touched, mkcapsule --lint capsules/ still clean (37 files, 0 violations). Block 2049's justification rewrote its claimed init.4th load list (compudynamics, common:msg, fleet-k, process) against the file's actual current content — none of those four are loaded there; two were already deleted (compudynamics.4th/fleet-k.4th, 9323f776), two are this pass's own strips. The standalone common/msg.4th and process.4th sections (former blocks 4055 and 4300–4301) were removed and folded into "Deleted capsules (historical)" alongside the existing compudynamics.4th/fleet-k.4th entry, same convention. Unassigned Ranges table updated: 4055–4059 and 4300–4399 now read as former-file ranges rather than "extension space" for files that no longer exist. Verified every remaining ### \*.4th`` section in the manifest names a file actually present on disk — zero stale entries left.

• 0.6 — Return freed block ranges to capsule-reserved.txt. Check: lint clean. 2026-09-19 · added 4055-4059 (former common/msg.4th) and 4300-4399 (former process.4th) to tools/capsule-reserved.txt, each noted as freed by this reshuffle's strip rather than owned by non-capsule infrastructure (the file's usual purpose) — documented as lifted, not permanent, once someone deliberately wants a range back. mkcapsule --lint capsules/ clean, 37 files, 0 violations, and check_reserved_conflicts() (the hard build-gate that actually reads this file, tools/mkcapsule.c:974) passes clean on a real make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=amd64 all — confirms the new entries don't collide with anything currently baked. Documentation/registry only, no capsule content touched, so no 3-arch boot run for this task. All of Phase 0's strips and documentation corrections (0.1–0.6) are now done; stadium_conserved() (0.7) and the PLOT/FB-WIDTH/ FB-HEIGHT registration audit (0.8) remain before Phase 0's gate is fully met.

• 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. 2026-09-19 · logs/20260919-135137/amd64/, logs/20260919-135240/aarch64/, logs/20260919-135417/riscv64/ — all three reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD, and print Stadium conservation: CONSERVED (all identical: resident_sum=47641 reservoir=17895 sum=65536=Q48_ONE). Implemented int stadium_conserved(VMUuid vm_id) in src/starkernel/vm/stadium.c (declared include/starkernel/vm/stadium.h) as stadium_resident_sum(vm_id) + stadium_reservoir_peek(vm_id) == Q48_ONE — the two-term form, not three. §XL.4's consumed term is a Phase 2 kernel-Hermes ledger deliverable that doesn't exist yet; nothing draws on any VM's Stadium quota today (Phase 2 task 2.2 is literally where that wiring gets built), so consumed is honestly zero right now and folding it in would be inventing Phase 2 state ahead of it existing. Doc comment on the function says exactly this, so whoever builds Phase 2's ledger extends this function rather than working around it. Wired into the existing per-VM boot diagnostic (stadium_words_print_boot_diagnostics(), kernel_main.c:810, Hera only — the sole existing call site) rather than adding a new one. No compiler warnings on either edited file (checked with a forced recompile).

• 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. 2026-09-19 · read-only audit, no code changed. Finding: they are reachable from every VM today, not confined to one table. Traced the two layers separately: - FORTH level (the drawing vocabulary): capsules/fabric.4th/font.4th (which build CART-PLOT etc. on top of raw PLOT) are EXEC'd only from capsules/init.4th — Hera only. Neither hermes/init.4th nor artemis/init.4th load them. This layer matches item 33's expectation and is exactly what tasks 1.6/1.7 move to hestia/init.4th. - C level (the raw primitives themselves): register_framebuffer_words() (src/word_source/framebuffer_words.c:60-65, registering PLOT/FB-WIDTH/ FB-HEIGHT) is called unconditionally from register_forth79_words() (src/word_registry.c:139), which is itself called unconditionally from vm_init() (src/starkernel/vm/vm_bootstrap.c:263) — the generic per-VM bootstrap every VM goes through, no identity check, no #ifdef. So the raw primitives are already in every VM's C-level dictionary at birth, Hestia or not. - Verified live, not just from source: booted amd64 (logs/20260919-140231/amd64/) and ran S" FB-WIDTH ." S" Hermes" VM-EXEC and the same against Artemis — both returned 1280, not UNKNOWN WORD. Neither loads fabric.4th, so this is the raw C primitive itself answering, confirmed reachable from VMs that were never meant to draw. Not fixed here — read-only per the task, and this is exactly task 1.8's own stated check ("a non-Hestia VM calling PLOT gets UNKNOWN WORD — verify positively"), which this finding confirms currently fails and gives 1.8 a concrete starting state: register_framebuffer_words()'s call site in register_forth79_words() will need to become conditional on VM identity (or moved out of the universal bootstrap entirely), not just the FORTH-level fabric.4th relocation tasks 1.6/1.7 already plan for.

  **Phase 0 gate met**: all three architectures have repeatedly booted to `[zuse@Hera] ok>`
  with `stadium_conserved()` true and zero `UNKNOWN WORD` across tasks 0.2–0.7. Phase 0 is
  closed; Phase 1 (Hestia, messaging untouched) is next.
  

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. 2026-09-19 · allocated 4986–4996 (11 blocks) for hestia/init.4th, documented in capsules/MANIFEST.md's Unassigned Ranges table (not capsule-reserved.txt — that file is for blocks owned by non-capsule infrastructure, per its own header comment; a real capsule allocation belongs in MANIFEST.md, same as every other infrastructure capsule). Checked against the actual current occupancy, not the table's own stale blanket "4853+ OPEN" line: fabric.4th occupies 4900–4924 and font.4th 4925–4985 already (both are their own standalone capsule files, EXEC'd by init.4th but block-numbered independently of it — task 1.6/1.7 relocate which capsule EXECs them, not their own block ranges), and 4997 is the console proxy's hardcoded Block 4997 string literal (capsule_console.c:27-29). 4986–4996 sits in the gap between the two, avoiding 4997 as required, with room for Hestia's initial messaging-load/banner shape (task 1.2) plus moderate growth (bind vocabulary, per §XVIII.5) without colliding with anything. No .4th file created yet. mkcapsule --lint capsules/ still clean, 37 files, 0 violations (documentation-only, no capsule content changed).

• 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. 2026-09-19 · logs/20260919-163734/amd64/, logs/20260919-163837/aarch64/, logs/20260919-164005/riscv64/ — all three reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD, byte-identical to the pre-change baseline (same dict_hash triple) — expected, since nothing births anything named "Hestia" yet (that's task 1.4), so the added name in the is_fleet_foundation check never matches. Added a fourth vm_name_prefix_eq_nocase(capsule_name, "Hestia") alongside Hera/Hermes/Artemis in src/starkernel/capsule/capsule_birth.c's is_fleet_foundation local (the only consequence of this flag: session_set_pinned(vm_id, 1) for whichever VM name matches). Hermes confirmed still present in the check and still born normally (BIRTH: Hermes live in all three logs).

• 1.4 — Birth Hestia in kernel_main.c, alongside Hermes's existing birth. Check: registry shows both; dict_hash identical across arches. *Change graphics metekey. 2026-09-19 · logs/20260919-165646/amd64/, logs/20260919-165802/aarch64/, logs/20260919-165931/riscv64/ — all three reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD. Registry shows all four: BIRTH: Hermes live, BIRTH: Hestia live, PARITY:BIRTH lines for Hermes/Hestia/Artemis all present in every log. Hestia's dict_hash identical across all three architectures: 0x31cab513929eea89 (capsule_hash 0x3d3a87c3509ab7f3, matching hestia:init.4th's own hash). Hera/Hermes hashes unchanged from task 1.3's baseline; Artemis's vm_id shifted (now the 4th birth instead of the 3rd — vm_id is derived from birth-sequence position, not identity, so this is expected, not a divergence) but its dict_hash is unchanged and still identical across arches. Added a birth block in src/starkernel/kernel_main.c immediately after Hermes's own (S" Hestia" BIRTH + registry-lookup confirmation), same shape as the existing Hermes/Artemis blocks. No compiler warnings (forced recompile checked). Noted in passing, not a regression: Hestia's birth log shows the same ( Unterminated comment HADES warning Artemis's own birth has shown since task 0.0's very first baseline — a pre-existing quirk, not something this task introduced.

• 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). 2026-09-19 · logs/20260919-170232/amd64/, logs/20260919-170403/aarch64/, logs/20260919-170537/riscv64/ — all three reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD, hashes identical to task 1.4's baseline (switch-signal registration is pure C runtime state, doesn't touch any FORTH dictionary). Added a fourth capsule_vm_find_by_name_nocase("Hestia", ...) + sk_vm_switch_signal_register(...) block in src/starkernel/kernel_main.c, same shape as the existing Hermes/Artemis blocks, after all four fleet members are confirmed born (same "never register before birth is confirmed" discipline the existing comment on this block already states). Took §XXXV.0's "invisible by default" warning literally rather than trusting a clean boot log alone: §XXVIII.2's own recorded storm signature is "QEMU pinned near 100% CPU, serial log frozen solid" — not an error message, not UNKNOWN WORD. Named that signature before running, then checked for it directly rather than just reading ok> and moving on: confirmed each boot reached the prompt in normal wall-clock time (~30s, matching every prior run in this document), and — since TCG itself always shows ~100% CPU regardless of guest workload, so CPU alone proves nothing — watched the serial log's own line count at the idle prompt for 5–10s on all three architectures and confirmed it stopped growing (last real output, StarForth CLI/ok>, with nothing appended after) rather than flooding or silently stalling mid-boot. No compiler warnings.

• 1.6 — Move fabric.4th from init.4th to hestia/init.4th. Check: Hera's dict shrinks, Hestia's grows; cross-arch identity holds. Merged with task 1.7 into one commit — see that entry. Real dependency discovered while attempting 1.6 alone, not a convenience bundling: recorded here and there.

• 1.7 — Move font.4th likewise. Check: same. 2026-09-19 · finding, not a defect: 1.6 and 1.7 are not independent, and doing 1.6 alone breaks Hera's boot. font.4th calls G-LINE/G-ELLIPSE, which are fabric.4th's own words (fabric.4th blocks 5000–5002 per font.4th's own comment). Confirmed live before committing to either approach: removed only fabric.4th's EXEC from init.4th, left font.4th's in place, booted amd64 — Hera's boot floods with UNKNOWN WORD: 'G-LINE'/ 'G-ELLIPSE' the moment font.4th loads (logs/20260919-171047/amd64/, kept as evidence, not deleted). Reverted that partial state immediately (git checkout -- capsules/init.4th), asked Captain Bob how to proceed given the two tasks as separately scoped can't each independently pass their own three-arch-boot check, and was told to use best practices. Merged both into this one commit, moving fabric.4th and font.4th together, in their original relative order, into a new capsules/hestia/init.4th block 4988 — a deliberate, documented deviation from "one task, one commit," not a bundling of convenience.

  `logs/20260919-171942/amd64/`, `logs/20260919-172123/aarch64/`,
  `logs/20260919-172253/riscv64/` — all three reach `[zuse@Hera] ok>`, zero `UNKNOWN WORD`.
  Hestia's `dict_hash` (`0xe4e6b1916827e320`, capsule_hash `0x6aa0a1b5daf9d2ec`) identical
  across all three architectures. **Verified the shrink/grow live, not just inferred from
  hash movement**: `HERE .` reads `20008` in Hera, `63040` in Hestia (post-move) — a huge gap
  confirming Hestia's dictionary now genuinely holds the drawing vocabulary. `CART-PLOT` in
  Hera returns `UNKNOWN WORD: 'CART-PLOT'`; the identical call routed into Hestia via
  `VM-EXEC` reaches the word and fails on a stack underflow instead (`>R: DSP underflow`) —
  proof the word exists there, since an unknown word can't underflow. `mkcapsule --lint
  capsules/` clean, 38 files, 0 violations. `MANIFEST.md` updated: `init.4th`'s block 2049
  entry no longer lists `fabric.4th`/`font.4th`; `hestia/init.4th`'s entry gains block 4988.
  

• 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. 2026-09-19 · logs/20260919-173129/amd64/, logs/20260919-173251/aarch64/, logs/20260919-173420/riscv64/ — all three reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD during boot. This is the real fix for task 0.8's finding: register_framebuffer_words() (src/word_source/framebuffer_words.c) was called unconditionally from register_forth79_words() (src/word_registry.c:139), itself called unconditionally from vm_init_with_host() — the generic per-VM bootstrap every VM goes through, with no way to know a VM's name at that point. Removed the unconditional call; added a name-gated call instead in capsule_birth_baby() (src/starkernel/capsule/capsule_birth.c), right beside the existing is_fleet_foundation check — the one place in the whole birth path where capsule_name and the newly-allocated VM* are both in scope together: if (vm_name_prefix_eq_nocase(capsule_name, "Hestia")) register_framebuffer_words((VM*)new_vm);

  **Positively verified, exactly as the check demands, not just inferred**: at the live
  prompt, `S" FB-WIDTH ." S" Hermes"/"Artemis" VM-EXEC` both return `UNKNOWN WORD:
  'FB-WIDTH'`; the identical call against `"Hestia"` returns `1280`. Confirmed at the
  fundamental level too: Hera's own base `PARITY:M7.1a` word count **dropped from 531 to
  528** — exactly the three words removed — identical across all three architectures
  (`hash=0xb3b23dc361371c97`, `latest_id=697`). Hermes/Artemis/Hestia `dict_hash` all moved
  accordingly and are identical cross-arch.
  
  **Side effect on the vendored hosted build, expected and not a regression**: `capsule_birth.c`
  is kernel-only (`src/starkernel/`), so the plain hosted `starforth` binary has no Hestia
  concept and now never registers these words at all — confirmed live (`echo "FB-WIDTH ."
  | ./build/amd64/standard/starforth` → `UNKNOWN WORD: 'FB-WIDTH'`). `framebuffer_words.c`'s
  own top comment already calls this surface "Kernel-only; no-op on hosted builds," so the
  prior stub registration there was already vestigial — this tightens it to match its own
  documented intent rather than breaking anything real. Ran a plain `make` sanity build to
  confirm the vendored hosted target still compiles and links clean (CLAUDE.md's own stated
  purpose for that target); `lfs/amd64/starforth` regenerated as a result and included in
  this commit since it would otherwise sit stale against the source that produced it.
  `mkcapsule --lint capsules/` clean, 38 files, 0 violations (no capsule content changed —
  this task is pure C). No compiler warnings on either edited file.
  

• 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. 2026-09-19 · Audited first: neither capsules/hestia/init.4th nor her birth block in kernel_main.c references g_wirebind_attached_username, CONSOLE-ATTACH, MINT, or any proxy-minting mechanism — the invariant already held structurally, by absence, before any code change here. Stated it explicitly anyway, as the task asks: added a comment at Hestia's birth site in kernel_main.c quoting §XVIII.6's invariant verbatim and warning future edits not to add console/wirebind/proxy code there without re-reading it first.

  **Verified live with `make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=<arch> qemu ZUSEDISK=`** — the
  actual no-thumbdrive boot, not the default (which always attaches
  `disk/thumbdrives/zuse-thumb-ident.img` and produces the `[zuse@Hera] ok>` prompt seen in
  every other task in this document). `logs/20260919-173942/amd64/`,
  `logs/20260919-174126/aarch64/`, `logs/20260919-174307/riscv64/` — all four VMs (Hera/
  Hermes/Hestia/Artemis) born successfully on all three, zero `UNKNOWN WORD`, and critically
  **zero `ok>` occurrences anywhere in any of the three full logs** — genuinely silent,
  matching `sk_repl_headless_wait()`'s own documented "no banner, no prompt, no input
  surface at all." Watched each log's line count at the point after Artemis's birth for
  8–10s and confirmed it stayed flat rather than eventually printing something late.
  
  Also confirmed no regression on the standard (with-thumbdrive) path: re-ran amd64 with the
  default `ZUSEDISK` (`logs/20260919-174443/amd64/`) — `dict_hash` identical to task 1.8's
  baseline, zero `UNKNOWN WORD`, reaches `ok>` normally. Did not repeat the standard-boot
  check on aarch64/riscv64 for this task specifically: the change is a comment only, cannot
  diverge by compiler or architecture, and the headless invariant itself was already proven
  identically on all three.
  
  **Phase 1 is now fully closed** — tasks 1.1–1.9 all done. Tripod is Hera/Artemis/Hestia
  (plus Hermes, retained through Phase 1–3 per §XXXIV.4); Hestia owns the drawing fabric
  exclusively; headless-until-login policy intact with Hestia in the fleet. Phase 2
  (the allocator and its audit) is next — the phase §XXXIII named as the only genuinely hard
  part, and the project's real go/no-go at task 2.7.
  

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. 2026-09-19 · logs/20260919-204642/amd64/ — byte-identical to task 1.9's baseline in every respect: same dict_hash triple, zero UNKNOWN WORD, reaches [zuse@Hera] ok>. Did not repeat aarch64/riscv64: the new file is a header with type definitions only, included nowhere in the real build, so nothing compiles it into any object file on any architecture — there is no mechanism by which it could diverge by compiler or ISA.

  Added `include/starkernel/vm/kernel_hermes.h`: `SkHermesMessage` (field-for-field mirror
  of `messaging.4th`'s live 9-cell `MSG-*` layout — type/from/to/payload addr+len/Stadium
  cell index/seq/channel/orig-type, plus an explicit `in_use` flag for task 2.2's allocator)
  and `SkHermesMembership` (one flat broadcast membership list — `SXXXIII.4`/`SXXXIII.5`'s
  recommended replacement for `messaging.4th`'s 28-word channel abstraction, which has
  exactly one live caller). Deliberately no separate heat field on the message struct: per
  `SXL.4`, a message's heat *is* the Stadium cell it occupies, not a value copied alongside
  it — keeping one source of truth for the conservation invariant `stadium_conserved()`
  (task 0.7) checks.
  
  **Genuinely wired to nothing**: no `.c` file, no Makefile change, no include from any
  compiled source. Syntax-checked standalone (`gcc -std=c99 -Wall -Wextra -Werror
  -fsyntax-only` against a throwaway file `#include`ing it under `__STARKERNEL__`) before
  touching the real build, rather than discovering a typo only once something references it
  in a later task. Item 27 (channel negotiation vs. broadcast, Phase 3 blocker B1) is not
  answered by this structure and isn't meant to be — a flat membership list is correct either
  way; the negotiation question is about behaviour built on top, not this shape.
  

• 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. 2026-09-19 · logs/20260919-205534/amd64/, logs/20260919-205645/aarch64/, logs/20260919-205817/riscv64/ — all three reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD, dict_hash triple unmoved from task 2.1's baseline (pure C, no FORTH touched). All three print Kernel-Hermes alloc self-test: PASS with identical arithmetic: reservoir0=65536 Q_SLOT=2048 expected_n=32 got_n=32 reservoir_after=0.

  Added `sk_hermes_alloc(VMUuid, SkHermesMessage**)` (`src/starkernel/vm/kernel_hermes.c`,
  new file, wired into `Makefile.starkernel`'s `LOADER_EXTRA_SRCS` list since this repo lists
  `vm/*.c` files explicitly rather than globbing). Checks
  `stadium_reservoir_peek(vm_id) >= SK_HERMES_Q_SLOT` **before** touching the reservoir at
  all — refusal this way needs no rollback, since nothing was pulled — with an explicit
  rollback path (`stadium_reservoir_push`) kept for the pull-then-short case defensively,
  though nothing in this single-core kernel is expected to reach it. `SK_HERMES_Q_SLOT`
  defined as `Q48_ONE / SK_HERMES_MSG_MAX` (2048) — **deliberately simpler than
  `messaging.4th`'s own formula**, which reserves a `Q.1/3` floor for `COMMON-CH`'s own
  Stadium heat; kernel-Hermes has no such object (`SXXXIII.4`/`SXXXIII.5`'s flat membership
  list carries no heat of its own), so there is nothing left for that floor to protect.
  
  **Self-test, not a FORTH-visible check** (matching the existing `Stadium quota grant
  self-test` pattern already in `kernel_main.c`): mints a second synthetic VM
  (`lo=3`, distinct from the existing self-test's `lo=1`) via `stadium_grant_quota()`,
  reads back its actual granted reservoir (always a fresh `Q48_ONE` per
  `stadium_grant_quota()`'s own code — not assumed), derives `expected_n` from it rather
  than hardcoding 32, allocates until refusal, and checks **all three** of: the refusal
  lands at exactly `expected_n`, the reservoir doesn't move on the refused attempt (rollback
  proven, not just assumed), and the final reservoir equals `reservoir0 − got_n × Q_SLOT`
  exactly.
  
  **Noted, not fixed:** `SK_HERMES_Q_SLOT = Q48_ONE / SK_HERMES_MSG_MAX` and
  `SK_HERMES_MSG_MAX = 32` together mean reservoir exhaustion and arena exhaustion land at
  *exactly* the same count by construction — this test cannot distinguish which refusal
  reason fired, only that refusal fires at the right count and rolls back correctly. Not a
  defect at this stage (nothing yet needs the arena to outlive the reservoir), but worth
  remembering if `SK_HERMES_MSG_MAX` is ever resized independently of `Q_SLOT`'s divisor.
  
  **Deliberately not evidence for `stadium_conserved()`** — per the watch-list raised before
  starting Phase 2: allocating alone (no release yet, that's task 2.3) leaves pulled heat
  held by kernel-Hermes, off the Stadium floor entirely, so the two-term
  `stadium_resident_sum + reservoir == Q48_ONE` check would correctly read **false** right
  now if run mid-hold — that is expected, not a bug, and is exactly why Stage B (task 2.7) is
  defined as "before and after the alloc/free cycle," not "continuously during." This task's
  self-test checks reservoir arithmetic directly instead, which is the right instrument for
  what task 2.2 alone claims.
  
  **AMENDED 2026-09-20, while starting task 2.3 — see that entry for the full account.**
  This task's own first cut of `sk_hermes_alloc()` never admitted a real Stadium-floor
  patron; it only pulled reservoir heat and set a local flag. Corrected in the same commit
  as task 2.3, since release cannot evict something that was never admitted. The two-term
  `stadium_conserved()` non-evidence point above still holds — if anything it holds more
  precisely now that held heat really is off the floor (in the Stadium-admission sense) and
  not merely absent from a two-term check that never modeled it in the first place.
  

• 2.3 — Release: return remaining heat via the eviction path. Check: reservoir restored exactly for an undecayed message. 2026-09-20 · logs/20260920-041455/amd64/, logs/20260920-041619/aarch64/, logs/20260920-041752/riscv64/ — all three reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD, dict_hash triple unmoved from task 2.2's baseline. All three print Kernel-Hermes alloc/release self-test: ... PASS with identical arithmetic: reservoir0=65536 ... reservoir_after_alloc=0 ... reservoir_final=65536 — exact restoration, not approximate.

  **Real finding, not a clean continuation: task 2.2's allocator was missing a step.**
  §XXXIII.4 item 1 says `MSG-FREE-NODE` returns heat "via `STADIUM-EVICT`" — which only
  means something if allocation admitted a real Stadium patron in the first place. Task
  2.2's first cut didn't; it only pulled reservoir heat and flagged a local slot in use.
  Caught this before writing release on top of a foundation that couldn't support it, per
  §XL.4's own invariant: held message heat that is neither a resident patron nor reservoir
  nor `consumed` is invisible to the conservation equation entirely, which cannot be right.
  Flagged to Captain Bob before proceeding; authorized to correct task 2.2 in the same pass
  as building 2.3 on top of the fix, rather than patching around the gap.
  
  **The fix, amending `src/starkernel/vm/kernel_hermes.c`'s `sk_hermes_alloc()`:** after
  pulling `SK_HERMES_Q_SLOT`, now calls `stadium_admit()` with a `StadiumPatronHeader` whose
  `heat` is the pulled amount, `behaviour = STADIUM_BEHAVIOUR_DELIVER` (matching
  `messaging.4th`'s own `SB-DELIVER STADIUM-ADMIT` at its `MSG-ALLOC` site exactly — same
  enum values, `SB-DELIVER`=1=`STADIUM_BEHAVIOUR_DELIVER`), and `identity` set to the
  message's own slot index (matching the FORTH precedent, and keeping
  `stadium_dispatch()`'s existing `DELIVER` diagnostic — "msg_idx=" — meaningful instead of
  every message printing 0; caught live in the first boot of this fix, since all 32
  admissions printed `msg_idx=0` before the identity fix). The returned cell index is
  stored in the message's own `stadium_cell` field. If the Stadium floor itself refuses
  admission (a third refusal path, independent of reservoir affordability), the pull is
  rolled back the same way the other refusal paths already do.
  
  **`sk_hermes_release()`, the new function this task actually asks for:** calls
  `stadium_evict()` on the message's `stadium_cell` — which itself returns the departing
  patron's remaining heat to its owning VM's reservoir (`stadium.c`'s own comment: "the
  departing patron's remaining heat must flow back to its owner's reservoir"), so release
  does not touch the reservoir directly, matching `MSG-FREE-NODE`'s exact shape
  (`DUP 5 CELLS + @ STADIUM-EVICT DROP`). Clears the slot regardless of eviction's own
  return value, since a message asked to be released should not remain allocated either way.
  
  **Self-test extended, not replaced:** the existing synthetic-VM self-test (task 2.2, `lo=3`)
  now keeps every allocated message's pointer in an array, allocates to exhaustion exactly as
  before, then releases all of them and checks the reservoir returns to precisely its
  starting value. "Undecayed" is true by construction here — no decay/TTL logic exists yet
  (task 2.5) — so this is exactly the case the check asks for: exact restoration, not
  approximate. `stadium_dispatch()`'s existing `DELIVER`-case console output (one line per
  eviction, pre-existing instrumentation, not new) is verbose but expected — confirmed
  real and load-bearing (`stadium.c`'s own comment: "has been real and live on every boot
  for weeks"), not something this task introduced. No compiler warnings on either edited
  file.
  

• 2.4 — The four counters: held, pulled, returned, consumed (§XL.4). Check: each increments at exactly one site. 2026-09-20 · logs/20260920-055432/amd64/, logs/20260920-055549/aarch64/, logs/20260920-055723/riscv64/ — all three reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD, dict_hash triple unmoved. All three print PASS with identical final ledger: held=0 pulled=65536 returned=65536 consumed=0 — satisfying held == pulled − returned − consumed (0 == 65536 − 65536 − 0) exactly.

  Added `sk_hermes_ledger(uint64_t*, uint64_t*, uint64_t*, uint64_t*)` (an accessor, not a
  mutator) plus four static counters in `src/starkernel/vm/kernel_hermes.c`. Each has exactly
  one increment/decrement site: `held`/`pulled` both move at `sk_hermes_alloc()`'s single
  success path (after every refusal branch has already returned); `held`/`returned` both
  move at `sk_hermes_release()`'s single success path. `consumed` is declared and always
  reads 0 — **its one increment site doesn't exist yet**, and won't until task 2.5 gives
  decay something to record.
  
  `sk_hermes_release()` reads the Stadium cell's **live** `header.heat` immediately before
  calling `stadium_evict()`, rather than assuming the original pulled amount — `stadium_evict()`
  zeroes the header as part of freeing the cell and its own return value is a success code,
  not the credited amount, so this is the only point the true remaining heat is available.
  Today (no decay yet) this always equals the original `Q.SLOT` pull; once task 2.5 exists,
  this is what keeps `returned` correct without touching this function again.
  
  Self-test (kernel_main.c) extended again: snapshots the ledger before running (so it
  checks its own deltas, not an assumption that it's the only caller ever), verifies
  `held`/`pulled` grow by exactly `got_n × Q_SLOT` on allocation with `returned`/`consumed`
  untouched, then verifies `held` returns to its starting value and `returned` grows by the
  same amount on release, with `consumed` still untouched, and checks the audit invariant
  itself as a bonus (task 2.6 formalizes this properly; checking it here too cost nothing
  since the ledger was already in hand). No compiler warnings on either edited file.
  

• 2.5 — Decay: apply, and record the delta into consumed (§XXXVII.3). Check: consumed grows by exactly heat_before − heat_after. 2026-09-20 · logs/20260920-182345/amd64/, logs/20260920-183413/aarch64/, logs/20260920-184152/riscv64/ — all three reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD, dict_hash triple unmoved (c95ef2d92fa0781f / fbde9fe105fd3b3d / a43d2e104ae7e451, identical across ISAs). All three print PASS with identical decay_consumed=352.

  Added `sk_hermes_decay(SkHermesMessage*)` and `SK_HERMES_Q_DECAY` (65208, identical to
  `messaging.4th`'s `Q-DECAY`; §XL.4 preserves the economy exactly). It sets the message's
  Stadium-cell heat to `q48_mul(heat, Q_DECAY)` and, at that one site, does
  `consumed += before − after` and `held −= before − after`, so
  `held == pulled − returned − consumed` stays exact. `consumed` now has its one increment
  site.
  
  Self-test: a second alloc-to-exhaustion cycle decays each message once. It checks each
  cell's new heat against an independently computed `q48_mul`, checks `consumed` grew by
  exactly the independently summed `before − after` (32 × (2048 − 2037) = 352), checks the
  audit identity mid-hold, and checks that release leaves the reservoir at exactly
  `reservoir0 − 352` (decayed heat does not return, §XL.4). A vacuity guard fails the test
  if decay consumed nothing. The task 2.3 undecayed exact-restoration check is kept as the
  first cycle.
  
  Process notes: an accidental `pkill -f` killed the shell once (no effect on results);
  `disk/artemis.img` and `disk/thumbdrives/zuse-thumb-ident.img` were restored via
  `git checkout --` before each ISA per the task 0.0 finding. That discarded a pre-existing
  uncommitted modification to `disk/artemis.img` that was present at session start.
  

• 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. 2026-09-20 · logs/20260920-204658/amd64/, logs/20260920-205410/aarch64/, logs/20260920-205834/riscv64/ — all reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD, dict_hash triple unmoved and identical across ISAs; all print PASS, audit_failures=0, decay_consumed=352.

  Added `sk_hermes_audit_values()` (pure exact-equality predicate, no tolerance),
  `sk_hermes_audit()` (live ledger, O(1), prints and counts a failure) and
  `sk_hermes_audit_failure_count()`. The live audit runs at the end of every successful
  alloc, release and decay (§XXXVII.4: no cadence decision needed). Corruption is tested
  on a *copy* of the ledger, +1 unit on each of the four counters in turn, so live state is
  never corrupted; each is caught by the predicate while the uncorrupted values pass. The
  live audit stayed silent through both alloc/decay/release cycles.
  
  Limit, stated: the corruption proof exercises the predicate, not the wiring of the live
  audit's failure branch (that branch never executed). Task 2.8's scan cross-check is the
  independent check on the counters themselves.
  

• 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). 2026-09-20 · logs/20260920-212209/amd64/, logs/20260920-212522/aarch64/, logs/20260920-212845/riscv64/ — all print Stage B (ledger + stadium_conserved): PASS, audit_failures=0, vm_consumed=693; zero UNKNOWN WORD; dict_hash triple unmoved and identical across ISAs; reach [zuse@Hera] ok>.

  **Prerequisite built here, as §XL.4 directs:** `stadium_conserved()` gains its `consumed`
  term. New per-VM `consumed` field in `StadiumVMQuota` (zeroed at both quota-creation
  sites), `stadium_consumed_record()`/`stadium_consumed_peek()`, and
  `stadium_conserved()` now checks `resident + reservoir + consumed == Q48_ONE`, epsilon
  zero. `SkHermesMessage` gained an `owner` VMUuid so decay charges the funding VM;
  `sk_hermes_decay()` records into it. Other VMs are unaffected (consumed stays 0).
  
  Stage B checks `stadium_conserved()` at four points — before, mid-hold, after decay,
  after release — plus the ledger audit, and requires the old **two-term form to FAIL after
  decay** while the four-term form holds (non-vacuity: the consumed term is load-bearing).
  `fleet_conserved` is not consulted.
  
  **First attempt FAILED on all three ISAs** (`logs/20260920-211204/`, `-211517/`,
  `-211840/`, kept as audit artifacts). Cause was a bug in the test, not the code: it
  expected 32 allocations, but the preceding decay cycle had consumed 352 from that VM's
  reservoir so only 31 fit. Fixed by deriving the expected count from the current reservoir.
  Vm_consumed=693 is 352 (32×11, first cycle) + 341 (31×11, Stage B).
  
  **Phase 2 gate: passed** (2.7 holds on all three arches). Remaining Phase 2 work is 2.8
  (diagnostic scan cross-check).
  

• 2.8 — Scan-based cross-check of the counters, diagnostics only, off the hot path (§XXXVII.4). Check: scan agrees with counters. 2026-09-21 · logs/20260921-083638/amd64/, logs/20260921-083950/aarch64/, logs/20260921-084314/riscv64/ — all print Scan cross-check (counters vs arena): PASS with identical scan_held_before_decay=8192, scan_held_after_decay=8148; Stage B and the main self-test still PASS, audit_failures=0, zero UNKNOWN WORD, dict_hash triple unmoved and identical across ISAs.

  Added `sk_hermes_scan_held()` (walks the arena, sums live Stadium-cell heat of in-use
  messages, reports the live count) and `sk_hermes_scan_check()` (scan == `held`, exact).
  Called only from the self-test, never from alloc/release/decay. The check runs at rest
  (0 live), mid-hold (4 live, 4×2048 = 8192), after decay (8148 = 8192 − 4×11) and after
  release (0), with a vacuity guard (non-zero mid-hold, strictly less after decay).
  
  Limit, stated: the scan reads the same Stadium cells the counters were derived from, so
  it verifies the counters against the arena, not the Stadium cells against ground truth;
  the latter is `stadium_conserved()`'s job (2.7).
  
  **Phase 2 is complete (2.1–2.8).** Phase 3 remains blocked on B1, B2, B4.
  

Phase 3 — Cutover — UNBLOCKED, tasks not yet written

Blockers cleared 2026-09-21 (§XLV). Task list drafted 2026-09-21, awaiting Captain Bob's review — none started. Shape (§XXXIV.3, amended by §XLV): build the negotiated pub/sub plumbing inert, then 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. Stop condition (§XXXIV.6): dict_hash diverging across ISAs, or Stage B evidence (ledger + stadium_conserved()) going false — re-plan, do not push on.

• B1 — CLEARED 2026-09-21 by FABRIC-3.5.md §XLV.1: negotiated pub/sub channels — one common channel, private channels by request/grant/deny, ACK/NACK throughout. Overrules §XXXIII.5. Open sub-items: ACK cadence, ACL hook for channel-open policy.
• B2 — CLEARED 2026-09-21 by FABRIC-3.5.md §XLV.2: dynamic, not a fixed constant (Stadium-style RAM-derived sizing). Open sub-item: the concrete sizing rule.
• 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 — CLEARED 2026-09-21 by FABRIC-3.5.md §XLV.3: one block (1024 bytes) per message, larger payloads chunked. Open sub-item: chunk framing.

All four blockers are cleared, but Phase 3 has no task breakdown yet — the shape below predates §XLV's negotiation. Writing the task list (and settling the §XLV.4 sub-items it depends on) is the next step, before any Phase 3 code.

Phase 3 tasks (drafted 2026-09-21; draft, not authorized)

Each is one commit with three-ISA acceptance, per the standing rules. Tasks marked [needs ruling] cannot be written precisely until Captain Bob settles the named sub-item.

• 3.0 — Decision gate, not code. Rule on the §XLV.4 sub-items: (a) ACK cadence (advised: channel open + delivery, not every common-channel message); (b) where the channel-open ACL hook lives in ACL.4th; (c) the dynamic switch-table sizing rule; (d) chunk framing; (e) drain one message per checkpoint (§XLIII.6.3, recommended, never ruled). Check: each answer recorded in FABRIC-3.5.md. 2026-09-21 · no commit (documentation ruling, see FABRIC-3.5.md §XLVI) · all five sub-items plus task 3.3's heat-cost point ruled by Captain Bob, all recommended defaults accepted.
• 3.1 — Dynamic switch table (B2). Read SK_SWITCH_MAX_SLOTS's every use first; replace the constant with a boot-time, RAM-derived allocation (Stadium's stadium_max_vm_count_val pattern). Check: boot byte-identical, dict_hash unmoved; a synthetic test drives more than 16 slots. 2026-09-21 · logs/20260921-233241/amd64/, logs/20260921-233814/aarch64/, logs/20260921-234837/riscv64/ (riscv64's first attempt, logs/20260921-234312/, timed out mid-boot on a 280s wrapper before reaching the prompt — kept per the never-delete-logs convention, not a real finding, just an undersized timeout; the 234837 rerun with more headroom reached the prompt cleanly). All three reach [zuse@Hera] ok>, zero UNKNOWN WORD. Switch-signal table sized dynamically off stadium_max_vm_count() at boot, confirmed via a new Switch-signal: N slots console line: 50 slots (amd64), 202 slots (aarch64), 50 slots (riscv64) — all far above the old fixed 16-slot cap, satisfying the "drives more than 16 slots" check without a separate synthetic harness (real boot-time RAM sizing already clears it by a wide margin). Reused session_boot_init()'s exact pattern (kmalloc to stadium_max_vm_count(), called in kernel_main.c right after stadium_boot_init(), before the first sk_vm_switch_signal_register() call). dict_hash for Hermes (0xc95ef2d92fa0781f) and Hestia (0xfbde9fe105fd3b3d) identical across all three architectures — unmoved from pre-task values, as expected (this task touches no capsule). Artemis's dict_hash differs between the amd64 run (0xa43d2e104ae7e451, fresh-formatted disk/artemis.img) and the aarch64/riscv64 runs (0x7f18214489036b39, both resuming the same disk state the amd64 run left behind) — a disk-state artifact of running three sequential boots against one shared image, not an architecture divergence; not a §XXXIV.6 stop condition. note: unrelated finding, not fixed — riscv64's boot logged three virtio_blk: vblk_io timed out errors during Artemis's disk I/O in both riscv64 attempts (sectors 20/8/8 and 3224/5496/5504); boot recovered and reached the prompt regardless. virtio_blk.c was not touched by this task. Reporting per standing rule, not investigating further here.
• 3.2 — Channel table + common channel, inert (B1). Dynamic table of topics, each with its own SkHermesMembership; the common channel exists from boot; every VM is subscribed at birth. Wired to nothing. Check: boot byte-identical; every born VM appears in the common channel's membership; create/destroy a synthetic private topic.
• 3.3 — Publish path, no dispatch (§XLIII.3). Publish allocates via sk_hermes_alloc(), enqueues onto each subscriber's own pending queue, and records the fact; it dispatches nothing. Self-test only. Check: ledger audit and stadium_conserved() hold across N publishes to M subscribers (heat cost per subscriber is a design point to settle before writing this: one message per subscriber, or one shared message with a reference count — [needs ruling]).
• 3.4 — Drain at the outermost checkpoint (§XLIII.3–.5). Reuse sk_vm_at_outermost_interpret(); one message per checkpoint [needs ruling 3.0e]. Check: a nested interpret does not drain; a queued payload is interpreted exactly once at depth 1.
• 3.5 — Payload bound and chunking (B4) [needs ruling 3.0d]. Max 1024 bytes per message; larger payloads sent as ordered chunks, reassembled before drain. Check: 1024-byte payload single message; 3000-byte payload chunked and reassembled byte-exact; 1025-byte single-message send refused.
• 3.6 — ACK/NACK and private-channel negotiation (B1) [needs ruling 3.0a]. request → grant/deny on the common channel; a grant creates a private topic; close tears it down. ACK/NACK are message types on the existing allocator. Check: grant path, deny path, close path; heat conserved (ledger + stadium_conserved()) across all three; a NACK'd request leaves no topic behind.
• 3.7 — Channel-open policy hook [needs ruling 3.0b]. Kernel-Hermes asks ACL.4th, never decides in C, never gates on zuse_session. Check: a denied open is denied by FORTH policy, with the C unchanged when the policy changes.
• 3.8 — Stage C: cut over BLK-ATTACH-EVENT alone (§XXXIV.3). One layer owns it; FORTH Hermes still routes every other type. Check: the real Hera↔Artemis attach path works end to end on all three ISAs; ledger and stadium_conserved() true before/after; fleet_conserved is not evidence (§XXXIX).
• 3.9 — Stage D: CONSOLE-CMD-EVENT (type 7), then 3.10 ELEVATE-REQUEST (type 8) — one type per task, each with the 3.8 check. Any type found live beyond these three is added here, not bundled.
• 3.11 — Phase 3 gate. No FORTH-owned live message types remain; Stage B evidence holds across a full boot on all three ISAs. Do not start Phase 4 until this passes.

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: DONE 2026-09-19 (§XLIV), pointer to this document added. Outstanding: MANIFEST.md (rides the strip, §XXII.5), the TRIPOD.md/0.1 contradiction, item 42's K-qualification, the superseded subsystem docs' update-or-archive call, and item 45 (experiments/bare_metal/README.md block framing).
• 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.

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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.

2026-09-19, task 0.0 — shared disk/artemis.img confounds cross-ISA dict_hash comparison unless reset between runs. Not a code defect and does not contradict any FABRIC-3.5.md ruling — FABRIC-3.md §XXXV.2 already documents that the disk is deliberately shared across all three ISAs' qemu targets. But it means a same-order rerun of the three architectures will have run 2 and 3 silently take Artemis's resuming branch instead of its blank disk -- formatting branch, producing a different dict_hash for Artemis alone (Hera and Hermes are unaffected — neither touches the artdisk at birth). Worth carrying forward: any task in this document that checks dict_hash identity across architectures and involves Artemis should restore disk/artemis.img and disk/thumbdrives/zuse-thumb-ident.img to their committed blank state (git checkout --) before each architecture's run, or the check will fail on a confound rather than a real divergence.

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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).