Docs: neutral also strips size; unknown human kind clamps to Idle

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

docs/soundscape-grammar.md

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+# Soundscape grammar for the Ratatoskr generative symphony (spec)
+
+Serves follow-up `aqua-body:follow_up:chat-s938-943`. **Grammar only.** No notes,
+no motifs, no pitches, no instrument choices. Nothing here was rendered, run,
+listened to, or measured; every number marked *proposed* is a design choice
+awaiting a listening trial and a device measurement. Nothing in this document
+may be cited as heard.
+
+## 0. Inputs not seen
+
+Two inputs named in the brief could not be read when this was written, and the
+grammar is drafted without them. Each is a place to reconcile before the doc is
+treated as in force.
+
+- `heimdall-body:follow_up:ratatoskr-creature-projection-v2`: `huginn view`
+  from instance `aqua` still answers `absent` (re-checked 2026-11-02), and a
+  search of the Heimdall checkout found no file mentioning it. Section 2 takes
+  its constraints as relayed in `aqua-body:follow_up:chat-s946-948`: rule O1
+  (a Neutral participant gets no orbit and no voice), the `estate` split,
+  coarse size buckets with a separate neutral flag, activity fed by the
+  Heimdall session. Section 2 must be reconciled against that follow-up's
+  actual field list once it can be read.
+- `ratatoskr:follow_up:symphony-grammar-harvest-mimir` (Mimir birdsong
+  research): also `absent` from aqua's mind, and `GameCult/Mimir` holds no
+  symphony or voice-separation note (grep of `notes/`, `research/`, `docs/`).
+  Section 4 is therefore built from this repo's own `research/syrinx-modeling`
+  plus the general auditory-scene-analysis and acoustic-niche literature named
+  there, *recalled, not re-read for this draft*. The harvest, when it exists,
+  replaces or confirms section 4; it is the likeliest thing to change.
+
+Context actually read: `docs/gamecult/ratatoskr-target.md` in `GameCult/Ratatoskr`
+at `b33d8de` (the agreement that one activity vocabulary drives both sound and
+motion, the member-safe projection, "kind, Mind, time and intensity, never
+briefs or mind contents"), and `docs/agent-activity-grammar.md` (an earlier,
+unmerged AquaSynth draft for the Dings event source; not part of this change).
+
+## 1. Purpose and owner
+
+One typed **activity frame** per Mind, produced once, read by two consumers:
+
+- the **orbit renderer** (Persona motion around Yggdrasil), and
+- the **voice scheduler** (which instrument voice speaks, how densely).
+
+Neither consumer owns the vocabulary; neither adds a field. The vocabulary owner
+is this grammar. The frame's producer is the Heimdall session (section 2). A
+consumer that needs a distinction the vocabulary lacks raises it as a change to
+this document, not as a private side channel.
+
+## 2. The activity frame
+
+Typed CultNet/CultCache document, projected member-safe. No private pipe: the
+frame reaches both consumers by the same subscription, and a consumer that
+cannot read it plays nothing and draws nothing.
+
+| field | type | values | note |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| `mind` | id | participant identity | stable identity, not a run/session label; for a human, the member's stable id |
+| `estate` | enum, 3 | `human`, `mind`, `persona` | selects the vocabulary this participant may use; see below |
+| `kind` | enum, 7 (humans: 3) | `Idle`, `Reading`, `Thinking`, `Working`, `Speaking`, `Waiting`, `Alert` | coarse; absent when `neutral`; see below |
+| `energy` | enum, 4 (humans: 3) | `Low`, `Mid`, `High`, `Peak` | coarse bucket of rate/intensity, never a float; absent when `neutral`; see below |
+| `size` | enum, 3 | `Small`, `Medium`, `Large` | coarse size bucket for the creature; scale per bucket is not fixed here; absent when `neutral` (O1) |
+| `neutral` | bool | | separate flag; when set, `kind`, `energy` and `size` are all omitted, see O1 |
+| `seq` | u32 | monotonic per `mind` | ordering and staleness; consumers drop `seq <= last` |
+| `at` | time bucket | 1 s resolution | producer's observation time, for the staleness rule |
+| `override` | enum, 2 | `None`, `Muted` | see rules O2, O3; Neutral is the `neutral` flag, not an override value |
+
+Why this small: 7 x 4 = 28 states (the Mind/Persona set) fit in one byte on the
+wire and in a lookup table on a phone; both consumers map state to behaviour by
+table, no arithmetic on unbounded values. `kind` and `energy` are orthogonal on purpose, because
+orbit radius/speed wants energy and voice choice wants kind.
+
+### Estate
+
+`estate` is set by the producer, never inferred by a consumer, and bounds what
+the other fields may carry (per
+`heimdall-body:follow_up:ratatoskr-creature-projection-v2`):
+
+- **`human`: coarse only.** `energy` is capped at 3 buckets (`Low`, `Mid`,
+  `High`; no `Peak`) and `kind` is the **human subset** `Idle`, `Working`,
+  `Speaking` (*proposed*). The subset is strictly smaller than the Mind/Persona
+  set and chosen to reveal less, never more: it omits `Reading`, `Thinking`,
+  `Waiting` and `Alert`, which describe what a participant is attending to or
+  how it is faring. A producer must not emit a `kind` or `energy` outside the
+  human set for a human. A consumer that receives one clamps it: an omitted
+  `kind` maps to `Idle`, `Peak` maps to `High`. Clamping only ever reveals
+  less. A human's `kind` that is present but not an enum value at all clamps
+  to `Idle` (reveal-less) for a non-neutral human; for `mind` and `persona` an
+  unknown `kind` is malformed and the frame is dropped (A4).
+  Reconcile the subset against the projection-v2 field list.
+- **`mind` and `persona`: the finer 7 x 4 set** (all seven `kind`, all four
+  `energy` buckets).
+
+`size` is three coarse buckets (`Small`, `Medium`, `Large`) for every estate
+except a `neutral` participant, whose frame omits it (O1).
+The scale each bucket draws at is **not fixed by this grammar**: the values
+0.7 / 1 / 1.4 are Ratatoskr placeholders, owned by the orbit renderer, and may
+change without touching the frame.
+
+Rules:
+
+- **A1. Source.** The frame comes from the Heimdall session and only from it.
+  Neither consumer infers activity from Matrix presence, typing, message
+  traffic, audio, or room membership. Activity is a stub fed by the Heimdall
+  session; being in a room says nothing about being active. (The target already notes presence/typing are too coarse
+  for Minds.) *Reconcile the exact kind list against the projection-v2
+  follow-up before use.*
+- **A2. Coarse by construction.** There is no continuous field in the frame. A
+  renderer that wants smooth motion interpolates between buckets locally; it
+  does not request finer data.
+- **A3. Member-safe.** The frame carries `mind`, `estate`, `kind`, `energy`,
+  `size`, `neutral`, `seq`, `at` and `override`, and nothing else; when
+  `neutral` is set, `kind`, `energy` and `size` are stripped (O1). Never brief text,
+  document ids, claims, or mind contents.
+- **A4. Missing is Idle.** No frame within the staleness window (section 5, S2)
+  means `Idle`/`Low`: no voice, and the orbit at rest. Silence is the default
+  state, not a failure state. Missing is not `neutral`: an absent frame is an
+  idle participant, a `neutral` participant is not drawn at all (O1).
+
+### Overrides
+
+- **O1. `neutral`** (the flag, set by the session or by the member's own
+  setting): a Neutral participant gets **no orbit and no voice**, and the
+  frame **strips `kind`, `energy` and `size` as well**: the producer omits all
+  three, and a consumer ignores them if present. An opted-out participant
+  reveals nothing, not even coarse activity or a coarse size bucket. It draws nothing and sounds nothing; there is no
+  "neutral pose" to render. Neutral overrides every `size` bucket: none is drawn or carried. Neutral is
+  not an error and not Idle: the frame says only that this participant is not
+  shown.
+- **O2. `Muted`**: no voice, orbit unchanged. Lets a listener silence one Mind
+  without hiding its motion.
+- **O3.** `neutral` and `override` are data in the frame, set upstream. A consumer never
+  applies a local override and then reports it as the Mind's state. (A *user's*
+  own mute/volume is a client preference and stays local; it never rewrites a
+  frame.)
+
+## 3. Mapping tables (shape only)
+
+The grammar defines the mapping *axes*, not the values. Each consumer owns one
+table keyed by the 28 Mind/Persona states (humans use the 3 x 3 subset); the tables are checked in beside this document
+when values exist.
+
+| axis | owner | driven by | notes |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| orbit **existence** (drawn or not) | orbit renderer | `neutral` | `neutral` set: no orbit |
+| orbit radius / speed / phase coupling | orbit renderer | `energy`, `kind` | Nibu's side; not specified here |
+| creature scale | orbit renderer | `size` | per-bucket scales are renderer placeholders, not fixed here |
+| voice **presence** (sounding or silent) | voice scheduler | `neutral`, `kind` | `neutral` set: no voice, regardless of `kind`; `Idle`, `Waiting` default silent |
+| voice **density** (events per window) | voice scheduler | `energy` | capped, section 5 |
+| voice **role** (lead / support / texture) | voice scheduler | `kind` | role, not instrument |
+| voice **identity** (which instrument) | voice scheduler | `mind` | never `kind`; section 4 |
+
+The one rule that ties the two consumers: **`mind` selects identity, `kind`
+selects behaviour, `energy` selects amount.** A given Mind sounds like itself
+in every state; what it does changes.
+
+## 4. Keeping voices distinct when mixed
+
+Principle, from the acoustic-niche and auditory-scene-analysis literature
+(recalled, to be confirmed by the Mimir harvest): voices that share a niche in
+frequency, time and space mask each other; voices that differ on several
+independent axes stay separable even at high density. Assign each Mind a
+distinct **niche** on independent axes, and make the scheduler protect those
+niches. Axes:
+
+1. **Register band.** Each Mind owns a band; bands do not overlap among
+   concurrently audible voices. Most robust single cue.
+2. **Timbre family.** Distinct spectral envelope and onset shape. Identity is
+   carried by instrument (`ratatoskr-target.md`: "the instrument says who
+   spoke"); this grammar does not choose instruments.
+3. **Rhythmic slot.** Each Mind owns a phase offset within a shared pulse grid,
+   so onsets interleave instead of colliding. Collisions are the main cause of
+   masking at low density.
+4. **Stereo position.** Fixed pan per Mind, stable across sessions. Free on
+   phones with headphones, nearly useless on speakers; never the only cue.
+5. **Role contrast.** At most one `lead` voice sounding at a time; the rest
+   support or texture (quieter, sparser, narrower band).
+
+Rules:
+
+- **V1. Identity is stable.** The niche (axes 1-4) is a function of `mind`
+  only. It never moves with `kind`, `energy`, or which other Minds are present.
+  A listener learns a Mind once.
+- **V2. Niche table is data**, held beside the Mind's other typed state
+  (the target already says the instrument per Mind belongs in a typed document
+  on the Mind side, not hardcoded). Not defined here.
+- **V3. Voice cap.** At most **4** voices audible at once (*proposed*; the
+  human limit on following concurrent streams is small and phones are
+  small). Over the cap, the lowest-`energy` voices drop first, never the
+  `lead`. The cap is a requirement to measure, not a finding.
+- **V4. Collision backoff.** If two voices would start within one pulse of each
+  other in the same register band, the lower-priority one slips to its next
+  slot. It does not stack.
+- **V5. More Minds than niches.** When Minds exceed available niches, the
+  excess are *not* squeezed in by shrinking bands. They share a `texture`
+  voice or stay silent. Distinctness beats completeness.
+- **V6. Identification is unproven.** Nominal separation (different bands,
+  different families) is not human discriminability. No Mind's niche is
+  accepted until a listener-identification trial passes (the existing
+  notification ledger requires the same). That trial has not happened.
+
+## 5. Timing, staleness and the callback deadline
+
+Hard rule: **the audio callback deadline wins over everything in this
+document.** The callback never waits on the grammar, the network, a decode, an
+allocation, or a lock.
+
+- **C1. Frame handoff is a snapshot.** The network/projection thread writes the
+  latest frame per `mind` into a preallocated table; the scheduler thread reads
+  it and writes a preallocated voice-command queue; the audio callback only
+  reads that queue. No thread but the callback touches the output buffer; the
+  callback never blocks on, or is blocked by, the others (single-producer
+  single-consumer, fixed capacity).
+- **C2. Drop, never delay.** If the queue is full or the scheduler is late, the
+  frame or command is dropped. A late sound is not played to catch up and its
+  internal timing is never stretched.
+- **S1. Latest wins.** Per `mind`, only the newest `seq` matters. Intermediate
+  frames missed during a stall are not replayed.
+- **S2. Staleness.** A frame older than **10 s** (*proposed*) is treated as
+  absent (rule A4). Sounding on stale activity is misleading.
+- **S3. Rate.** Voice density per `energy` is bounded by a ceiling per Mind per
+  window (*proposed*, set with the device measurement); rule V3 bounds the
+  total. Bursts are coalesced, not queued.
+- **S4. Pre-rendered material.** The client ships rendered audio assets, no
+  synth in the browser (`ratatoskr-target.md` agreements). The scheduler
+  selects and positions assets; it generates nothing at callback time. Browsers
+  block audio until a first user gesture: before it, the scheduler runs but the
+  output is silent, and no state is lost.
+- **S5. Backgrounded or hidden page.** Voice scheduler pauses with the orbit
+  renderer's pause (the target already pauses the background when hidden). On
+  resume, S1/S2 apply; there is no catch-up burst.
+- **S6. Failure is silent.** No frame source, a dead scheduler, a refused
+  autoplay, or a full queue all produce silence, with the orbit at rest. A
+  failure is not a `neutral` participant and does not remove the creature. Nothing
+  retries, alerts, or alters the frame source.
+
+## 6. What this grammar does not decide
+
+- Motifs, notes, pitches, instruments, envelopes. (Next layer; needs a
+  listening trial per the repo's audio doctrine.)
+- Orbit geometry and shader work (Nibu's side).
+- The feed transport. `ratatoskr:question:activity-feed-source` owns where the
+  frame comes from; this document fixes only its *shape*, and that it is a
+  typed CultNet document, not a private channel.
+- Per-device budgets. All numbers marked *proposed* need a phone measurement.
+
+## 7. Verification owed
+
+None run. To be done before the grammar leaves draft:
+
+1. Reconcile section 2 with `heimdall-body:follow_up:ratatoskr-creature-projection-v2`
+   (field list, the human `kind` subset in section 2, the size and neutral fields,
+   the stripping of `kind`, `energy` and `size` under `neutral`).
+2. Reconcile section 4 with the Mimir harvest.
+3. Round-trip the frame as a CultCache document and check the size claim (one
+   byte per state, 28 states).
+4. Measure voice cap, density ceilings and scheduler cost on a real phone.
+5. Listener-identification trial for any niche table (rule V6).
+
+## 8. Status
+
+Draft. Not implemented. No code changed. No audio was produced and none is
+claimed.