CultLib/docs/document-variants-cut.md

CultCache document variants: cut map (draft)

Date 2026-09-29. Imagination output for docs/document-variants-target.md (branch codex/document-variants). Body read at origin/main 268e0ef. This map owns means only; the target owns ends and rulings 1-7. Nothing here is decided that the batch in section 4 asks the operator to decide.

1. Probe facts (run, not inferred)

Probe: scratch clone scratchpad/variant-probe (commit 7b6de8e, probe files only), run on Yggdrasil via ygg-verify.sh with images dotnet, rust, python:3.12-slim, node:22. Each runtime's current reader wrote a normal store, the bytes were altered four ways, and the store was reopened. Output in scratchpad/probe-out/*.txt.

Altered store	C#	Python	TypeScript	Rust
A. v1 header, record gains slot 4, payload empty	refuses, "read past end of stream"	refuses, "incomplete input"	refuses, "Offset outside DataView"	refuses (strict tuple), misleading legacy-envelope message
B. v1, slot 4 plus a full payload	loads the payload silently	loads silently	loads silently	refuses
C. header cultcache.store.v2	ignores the header; refused only by the empty payload	refuses, misleading "legacy envelopes" message	refuses	refuses
D. payload holds the delta as a sparse array	loads Name='', Max=99	loads name=None	refuses	loads; get of that key fails

Consequences:

• The empty payload is the only tripwire every shipped reader trips, pinned builds included (Aetheria pins caching-unity-v1.4.0). A variant record's payload must be empty, and the delta must live outside it.
• A payload-as-delta encoding is ruled out: C# and Python misread it silently.
• C# never checks formatVersion (CultDocumentMessagePackSerialization.DeserializeSnapshot defaults a missing one to v1). C#, Python and TypeScript skip extra record slots silently. These are latent defects today and become misreads when the format grows.
• Every refusal is loud but none of them names the record. The target requires named refusals, so current readers need a small fix (C0).

Other Body facts that shape the map:

• CultNet has no member-path grammar. docs/cultnet-selection-cut.md D2: "Declared aliases, not a field-path language". It reaches top-level declared index/role aliases only (CultDocumentMemberView). Nothing exists to reuse. See section 3.
• The schema catalog describes top-level members only. A nested type (BehaviorData, PerformanceStat, HardpointData) appears only as a CLR type name. Soft drift and hard rejection cannot see below slot level.
• Resolution needs a codec, and the core has none. GameCult.Caching holds objects. The MessagePack codec lives in GameCult.Caching.MessagePack. CultInspectorModel already takes the codec as two injected functions (CultCacheMessagePack.CreateInspectorModel).
• Same concrete type implies same home store. Home(type) routes by type, so ruling 3 ("same store") falls out of ruling 6. No separate check is needed.
• The name index shadows silently. Index() does MapOf(_names, type)[name] = key, so a second record with the same name overwrites the entry. A variant that inherits its base's name would make GetByName return one of the two, depending on apply order.
• Studio edits by whole-document upsert. CultInspectorEdit.Commit calls UpsertAsync(type, copy, key), and Duplicate clones through the codec.
• Raw readers bypass the cache. In CultLib: CultMesh.ReadSingleFileDocument (CultMeshSingleFileDocuments.cs:112), plus its legacy snapshot decoder. In consumers: AetheriaEve AetheriaRuntimeCatalogStore (directory-store pages).
• Kotlin reads no store files. It sees CultNet raw snapshots only.

Body at 2026-10-12 (Imagination refresh, imagination-variants-refresh)

Probes run 2026-10-12 from F:\Projects\CultLib-c2afix with git only (no builds), after git fetch origin. Scratch worktrees under the session scratchpad were removed afterwards.

• C2a head. hands/variants-c2a = origin/hands/variants-c2a = de401056, worktree clean. main = origin/main = b3bd8dd5. Merge base f789c8d1 (2026-09-30). C2a is 207 commits ahead, main 453. 15ccdbb9, the base of the five 2026-10-02 specs, is a C2a commit, not a main commit; C2a has never merged main.
• Overlap. git diff --name-only from the merge base: C2a touches 141 files, main 285, 33 in common. In C#, main changed CultCache.cs (+18 -4: union guard, internal Clock seam), CultDocumentMessagePackSerialization.cs (+9 -3: nesting bound 256), and the persistence and schema-compatibility contracts (+7, +21). Everything else in common is under packages/: cultmesh-ts src/index.ts (main +372 -433, C2a +189 -356), cultcache-rs lib.rs (main +276, C2a +761 -171), cultcache-ts store and cache, cultnet-ts replication.
• Merge probe. git merge --no-ff --no-commit b3bd8dd5 onto de401056 in a throwaway worktree: 16 files conflict, 32 hunks. CultCache.cs has one: C2a made MintStoredAt an internal static (the store's StoredAtOver calls it), main made it an instance method over a new Clock seam for its union golden. The cultmesh-ts conflicts carry a semantic one: main added payload-parse acceptance to the store document (an accepts predicate that decodes the payload, and the test "store document handles choose compatible foreign schema payloads"), which C2a's retire-schema-alias rule forbids. Main still carries preserveIncomingSchemaId and resolve_document_and_schema_id_for_raw_record, which C2a deleted.
• The stash. stash@{0} in CultLib-c2afix, "h3 WIP 2026-10-03: commit-time check-only keys, stopped for quota; unverified", based on de401056, 2 files, +186 -47 (CultCache.cs, DirectoryMessagePackBackingStore.cs). It is a draft of the operator's at-commit ruling (unheld-removal-refused-at-commit): CultCommitRequest.Checks, staged checks on each writable store judged under the lock by RefuseUndeclaredOnDisk, both stores' unlocked removal reads deleted, and ExpectUnchanged comparing foreign records at their read versions (CultForeignRecord.StoredVersion). No tests, no contract text. Read with git stash show -p; not applied or dropped.
• The High finding is already fixed. rawbytes-in-place-edit-lost (content-version s2) was fixed by h3 (2a3773a4, range head a935d15c: RawBytes deleted, the store owns a file's bytes) and Soul's verdict cut-c2a-content-version.s3 holds it, with rawbytes-key-drop-unpinned retired by deletion and the five s1 pins (cache-wrote-version-unpinned, expect-on-removed-unpinned, no-condition-hash-unpinned, staleness-own-upsert-unpinned, unstored-same-tick-unpinned) caught at head. git grep RawBytes de401056 -- src tests: no match. Those findings were never closed in the mind.

2. Model page (step 0b)

Kind	Named by	Over time	Decided by
Variant record	its own CultRecordKey, minted like any record; same schemaId as its type	created, re-overridden, rebased, removed; never converted to or from a plain record implicitly (Q1)	author through Studio or the variant write API; the cache validates
Base reference	the base's key, in the record's variant slot	changed only by an explicit rebase; a base cannot be deleted while it has variants, unless the same batch rebases or removes them	author; the cache refuses a cycle, a missing base, a different concrete type, a global type
Override entry	(op, path, id, value); op is Set, Insert or Remove	added by editing; removed by clearing; survives base edits while its path resolves	author; the cache refuses entries a base edit strands (Q2); an entry whose member left the type soft-drifts with a warning (Q4 c)
Member path	a sequence of (slot, elementId) steps; slot is the MessagePack [Key]; elementId is "" unless the step enters an object-list element	a type change can invalidate it	the type's owner (slot authority); ids by the element's creator
Element id	a [CultElementId] string member on an object-list element type; "" means unset	minted by the cache on write when unset; copied unchanged into variants; a moved element is a new element	cache mints it; it is never retargeted
Resolved view	CultStoredDocument.Document for a variant key	recomputed inside the hold that admits the variant, or any base on its chain	the cache only; never persisted, never written back (Q1)
Index and name entries	as today, from the resolved view	a dependent's entries are dropped and re-added in the same Apply as its base change	the cache; a variant must override the [CultName] member (rule R6)
Watches	as today; each re-resolved dependent emits Updated with its own Sequence	published in the same hold as the base change	the cache
Compare-exchange	(schemaId, storedAt) of the stored delta (ruling 2)	a base change does not stamp its variants	the cache; the resolved view is not an identity
Persisted format version	store header formatVersion	cultcache.store.v2 when the store holds at least one variant; v1 otherwise (Q5)	the writing store, from content
Single-file store file	the path; one MessagePack array [header, catalog, records]	replaced whole and atomically; refused when unreadable; see "Store authorities"	each runtime's one reader decides what is a store; the writer derives the header from it
Store lock and staging files	<file>.lock; a unique temp beside the store	the lock is taken by C# and Rust writers (CultMesh included, through ReplaceDurable); staging is removed on a failed write	the store, never CultMesh or a consumer
Variant slot on the wire (CultNet)	empty cell: no CultNet message carries a delta today	C5	ruling 4 decides deltas; the message shape is C5's design
Dictionary entries, scalar lists, arrays	empty cell: no stable identity exists	whole-member Set only (Q7)	Q7
Template (non-item) bases	empty cell: parked by ruling 6	none	not in these cuts

3. Where the Body contradicts the target

1. "A member path in CultNet's grammar" (ruling 1 and fork 1 text) has nothing to reuse. CultNet selection deliberately has no path language. This map specifies a minimal slot path (section 2) owned by GameCult.Caching. If CultNet ever needs paths, it can adopt this one. Nothing is shared today, and nothing is invented twice.
2. "Overrides are subject to the same soft drift rules as full records" conflicts with the ends list: "Loading refuses an override naming a member that does not exist on the type". Under soft drift, a persisted slot missing locally is ignored with a warning, so the two rules disagree for a dropped member. Below top level, the catalog has no shape to drift against at all. See Q4.
3. "Deletes first" has little to delete: the feature is additive. The honest deletions are the silent extra-slot skips and C#'s ignored header. C0 puts them first.

4. Operator questions (one batch)

Operator rulings, 2026-09-29, each asked on its own:

• Q1: (a), a plain Upsert at a variant's key is refused loudly.
• Q2: (a), a base edit removing an overridden element is refused unless the same batch resolves it. Operator's reading: "the very existence of that element in the child collection must become the new override state... you can't change the parent without also changing the child... that's the resolve part of (a)."
• Q3: ids everywhere, not opt-in. Operator: "Opt-in sounds nice but consider the UX. We're planting a footgun if we don't require ids everywhere." Rollout: required, minted on load. The C# registry requires an id member on object-list element types. A store written before ids existed loads, and ids are minted once on its first write (C2's rewrite). Other runtimes carry the id as an ordinary member and enforce the rule when they gain variants. Each consumer's type edit is a sweep in its own repo after C2.
• Q4: (c) soft drift everywhere. This reverses the recommendation and supersedes the target's end "loading refuses ... an override naming a member that does not exist on the type". Operator: "Soft drift everywhere aligns with the vision... the rationale for adopting migrationless changes is still valid for variants. Any member dropped in a type change is a design change, the reason for it to apply to the parent also applies to the variant." A dangling override, at any depth, is ignored with a warning naming the variant and the member, and the variant inherits the base value. The other broken-variant refusals (a base cycle, a missing base, an incompatible base type) stand.
• Q5: (a), the v2 header is written only when the store holds a variant.
• Q6: yes, the directory store and CultNet refuse variants loudly until their own cuts.
• Q7: yes, object-list elements are addressable by id, and dictionaries, scalar lists and arrays are replaced whole. The operator asked first whether design roles and quality levels use dictionaries. They do not: CraftedItemData.Roles is a List<ItemRole> and FactionProduct.Roles is a List<ProductRole> (Aetheria ItemData.cs:316, FactionProduct.cs:30). A market-segment product becomes a variant overriding one ProductRole by id.

The questions as asked:

Q1. A plain Upsert of a whole document at a variant's key. It happens when Studio's current edit commits, when AetherDb migrations do batch.Upsert(type, doc, key), and on a CultNet remote write.

• (a) Refuse it loudly. A variant changes only through the variant API. Flattening is an explicit, separate operation.
• (b) Diff the document against the base and store the difference. Ids make the diff deterministic, but a value set equal to the base stops being an override without anyone saying so.
• (c) Flatten silently (today's behaviour by default).
• Recommend (a). Affects C1's write path, C3's edit commit, and every AetherDb migration (each skips variants or uses the variant API).

Q2. A base edit that removes an element some variant overrides.

• (a) Refuse the commit unless the same batch clears or retargets those overrides. Studio offers keep, retarget or clear at edit time, and "keep" means the base edit is not committed. The store never holds a conflict, and loading refuses one.
• (b) Persist the conflict. The override goes inert, readers get the resolved document without it, and Studio lists it.
• Recommend (a). Option (b) makes a reader's resolved document silently differ from what the author wrote. Affects C2's validation, C3's rebase UI, and migrations that remove behaviours.

Q3. Scope of "ids everywhere".

• (a) Every object-list element in every registered document type, in all 28 consumers. The registry refuses a type whose element types lack an id.
• (b) Only document types that opt in with [CultVariants]. For those, the registry requires [CultElementId] on every object element type reachable through their lists, including union bases.
• Recommend (b). Option (a) breaks 28 registries for a feature that one consumer uses. Affects C2 and Aetheria's adoption cut. A BehaviorData id needs a base slot above the subclasses' highest key (32), which adds about 30 nil bytes per behaviour unless Aetheria renumbers.

Q4. Schema drift under overrides (contradiction 2).

• (a) Refuse loading when an override names a member missing at any depth, or holds a value that will not decode into the member's current type. Record this as a stated exception to soft drift in cultcache-schema-compatibility.md.
• (b) Top-level overrides follow catalog soft drift (ignore with a warning); nested ones are refused.
• Recommend (a). It follows the target's ends and is one rule. The cost: after a type change drops an overridden member, the catalog must be rewritten before the new build opens it.

Q5. Format version.

• (a) Write cultcache.store.v2 only when the store holds a variant. Stores without variants stay byte-identical v1 for every consumer.
• (b) Always write v2 after the upgrade.
• Recommend (a). The empty payload remains the tripwire for pinned old C#, which ignores the header. Affects C0 and C1.

Q6. Slice scope. Should the directory store and CultNet refuse variants loudly until their own cuts? The directory store's only consumer is AetheriaEve's raw reader. CultNet must carry deltas (ruling 4), and no message can yet.

• Recommend yes. It is two refusals. Otherwise C1 must design CultNet messages first. Affects C1's size and the order of C5.

Q7. What is addressable below a member. The proposal: object-list elements by id only. Dictionary entries, scalar lists and arrays are replaced whole.

• Recommend yes. Aetheria's cases (Hardpoints whole; Behaviors[id]...Max) fit. Keyed dictionary addressing can be added later without a format change. Affects C2.

Cut sequence (2026-10-12)

Mapped now (specs in the mind): c2a-declared-apply r2, the C# commit-time fix batch on hands/variants-c2a (the stash, finished, with tests and contract text), and its sibling main-into-c2a r2, main merged into C2a on hands/variants-c2a-main in its own worktree. Later cuts, one line each, mapped only when Self is about to dispatch them:

1. reconcile: merge hands/variants-c2a into hands/variants-c2a-main after both Soul passes hold; Self moves hands/variants-c2a there. Waits on both mapped cuts.
2. parity-ts: TypeScript write set, one record per key, undeclared records carried and refused, unheld removals judged at commit. Waits on reconcile.
3. parity-rs: Rust push_all and put_prepared_batch apply a write set, ownership by declaration, the same commit-time checks. Waits on reconcile; can run beside parity-ts.
4. parity-py: Python write-set apply. Waits on reconcile and on cultlib-gaps cut py-msgpack-default landing on main (then a main merge into C2a first).
5. write-set-vectors: one cross-runtime manifest, read and acted on by all four runtimes; carries follow-ups c0-bad-canonical-in-manifest, legacy-vectors-all-runtimes, directory-at-path-ts-py-pinned. Waits on the three parity cuts.
6. land-c2a: final main merge, full verification, Soul, then git merge --no-ff onto main with an empty diff against the verified head; no tag. Waits on write-set-vectors, Soul holding, and asura:cut_spec:cut-semver-measured landed. Asura Cut 3 bases on its merge commit.

Rationale. The 2026-10-02 order (parity, vectors, then merge main) was right when main was close. Main has since moved 453 commits and rebuilt exactly what the parity cuts change: cultcache-ts payload ownership, cultmesh-ts, cultcache-rs. Parity mapped before the merge would be mapped twice. Merging first means every later cut is mapped once, on the code it changes. The C# fix batch goes first because the operator's at-commit ruling is the contract the parity runtimes copy; and it touches C# files main barely changed, so it can run beside the merge with one small reconcile (the MintStoredAt region). The High finding is not on this path: h3 fixed it and Soul s3 held it (body facts above).

5. Cuts, in order

All cuts are in F:\Projects\CultLib. Rebase codex/document-variants (docs only) onto origin/main. Each cut is one Hands pass on that branch and merges to main after its Soul pass. Probes show that a C1 writer can merge safely before other runtimes change, because every reader refuses it. Verification uses ygg-verify.sh /f/Projects/CultLib <rev> <image> '<cmd>'. The command strings below are the <cmd>. Keep the job's exit status last.

Overlap: BP-1 (cultmesh/rust-content-plane) edits docs/runtime-parity-scope.md, which C0 also edits. Rebase after BP-1 merges. codex/fix-node24-ajv-esm has no diff against main.

C0. Tripwires: every reader refuses what C1 will write, and names the record

Deletes:

• The silent extra-slot skip in the C# record decoder (CultDocumentMessagePackSerialization.ReadPersistedRecord's trailing Skip loop) and its copy in CultMeshSingleFileDocuments.ReadLegacyPersistedRecord.
• The ?? "cultcache.store.v1" defaulting of the header.
• Python raw_record[:4] slicing.
• The TypeScript and Python fallthrough to the legacy envelope decoder when the header is a cultcache.store.* string they do not know.

Adds, one rule in each runtime: a snapshot whose header is not v1, or whose record has more than 4 slots, is refused with a message that names the version or the record key, and says the store needs a runtime that resolves variants. C# accepts v1 only, until C1 adds v2.

Keeps: every v1 byte and every v1 test.

Verification (rule: "unknown header or extra record slot is refused by name"). Each runtime gets one test, and each test's negative is fixture B from section 1 (full payload plus slot 4) loading:

• dotnet: dotnet test tests/GameCult.Caching.Tests --filter FullyQualifiedName~PreCut2StoreFormat
• node:22: npm install --no-audit --no-fund && cd packages/cultcache-ts && npm test
• python:3.12-slim: pip install -q msgpack -e packages/cultcache-py && python -m unittest discover packages/cultcache-py/tests
• rust: cd packages/cultcache-rs && cargo test (message only; Rust already refuses)

Subtraction: about −20 lines of skip and fallthrough; +4 small refusals and 4 tests. Build: the 4 cache packages only.

C1. C# core: variant records, top-level Set overrides, resolution in the admitting hold

Adds:

• CultPersistedRecord.Variant, record slot 4: [baseKey, overrides[]]. Payload slot 3 is empty for a variant. An override is [op, path[], id, value].
  • Owner: GameCult.Caching.
  • Consumer: both file stores and Studio.
  • Invariant: an old reader refuses rather than misreads (section 1).
  • Why no existing owner serves: the payload cannot hold the delta (probe D).
• CultStoredDocument.Variant (base key and overrides; null for plain records). Document stays the resolved view.
• A codec port on CultCache: the (serialize, deserialize) pair CultInspectorModel already takes, lifted.
  • Owner: GameCult.Caching.MessagePack, supplied by CultCacheMessagePack.Create.
  • Consumers: resolution and the inspector model.
  • Invariant: one codec per cache; clones and override values use the store's encoding.
  • CultInspectorModel's constructor takes the port instead of its own pair, so there is one pair, not two.
  • A cache without a codec refuses variant writes.
• Write API on CultCacheBatch, with single-call equivalents: UpsertVariant(key, baseKey, overrides), Flatten(key) (Q1a), Remove unchanged. Rebase is UpsertVariant with a new base.
• Validate resolves every admitted variant and every dependent of an admitted or evicted base, in base-first order, against the post-batch set. It refuses, naming keys: a cycle; a missing base; a different concrete type; a global type; an evicted base with surviving variants; a variant whose resolved [CultName] equals its base's (R6); a plain Upsert at a variant key (Q1a). Not refused (Q4 c, operator 2026-09-29): an override naming a slot the type no longer has, or holding a value that no longer decodes into the member's type, soft-drifts exactly as the same member would on a plain record under cultcache-schema-compatibility.md. It is ignored with a warning naming the variant and the member, and the variant inherits the base value. One rule, the existing soft-drift path, never a variant-specific one.
• Apply re-resolves dependents in the same hold. Each emits Updated and is re-indexed. A base change stamps no dependent storedAt.
• Header: the store writes v2 iff it holds a variant (Q5a) and reads v1 and v2.
• Refusals (Q6): DirectoryMessagePackBackingStore push and commit of a variant; CultNetDocumentRegistry row building for a variant; CultMesh.ReadSingleFileDocument of a variant key.
• Contracts: the variant record section in cultcache-persistence-format.md; one sentence in cultcache-schema-compatibility.md saying overrides soft-drift like members (Q4 c, no exception); a "variants: C# resolves; others refuse" row in runtime-parity-scope.md.

Authority map:

• Owner: CultCache.Validate/Apply owns the resolved view.
• Inputs: stored deltas, base records, the codec.
• Outputs: the resolved Document, index entries, changes.
• Demoted: the resolved Document is no longer a writable owner for a variant key (Q1a). storedAt is the delta's identity only.
• Forbidden writers: store Loaded callbacks never resolve; Studio never writes a resolved document to a variant key; CultNet never emits a variant row.
• Shared paths: a load (Admit with a source), a single write, a batch and a remove all pass the same Validate and Apply. There is no second resolution path.

Verification. New VariantTests.cs; each rule gets a positive and a named negative:

• a load with a variant resolves;
• a base edit updates the variant's Get, GetByName and GetByIndex, and Watch sees both changes inside one publication, with no gap in Sequence between them. Negative: a subscriber observing the base change must already read the new variant.
• Expect on the variant survives a base change;
• each refusal case, and the refusal message names both keys;
• the header is v1 without variants and v2 with them;
• a read-only store resolves;
• a variant round-trips byte-identically through flush.

Cross-runtime vectors: the Caching interop peer gains write-variant --file. A test in packages/cultcache-ts/test/cult-cache.test.ts asserts that TypeScript refuses that file by name; Python and Rust tests read the same fixture from contracts/cultcache/variant-store.cc.

Command, dotnet: dotnet test tests/GameCult.Caching.Tests && dotnet test tests/GameCult.Networking.Tests --filter FullyQualifiedName~Registry, then the C0 commands for node:22, python and rust against the new fixture.

Subtraction: the inspector's own codec pair collapses into the port; otherwise net additive, estimated +350 to 450 lines of core and +400 of tests. Build: the Caching and MessagePack projects, Caching.Tests, the Networking test filter, the interop peer.

C1 status, 2026-09-29 (Self). C1 landed on hands/variants-c1 (136adce). Soul (Opus) found it not closeable, and a fix batch is in Hands:

• F1: CultNet's live-change paths leak variants as plain records, which breaks Q6.
• F3: an undecodable override soft-drifted where a plain record refuses to load.
• F4: invalid overrides were accepted at write.
• F2: an inherited unique index value shadows the base, and the winner depends on order.

Self's readings and defaults, not new operator rulings:

• Q4 (c) read literally: an override follows the plain-record outcome. A missing slot soft-drifts; a value that no longer decodes refuses loudly, as a plain record does.
• Invalid overrides are refused at write. Drift covers type changes after the fact, not bad writes.
• F2 extends R6 to indexes. A commit that leaves a variant sharing an indexed value with another record is refused.
• One override per slot.

Open for the operator: plain records with duplicate unique-index values are silently overwritten today. That predates variants. Fixing it could refuse existing stores.

C2a status, 2026-09-30. Hands pushed hands/variants-c2a at 640ad9a.

• Element ids are 12 hex characters. Writes mint them at random. Load mints them deterministically. Derived ids use [CultElementId(nameof(Member))].
• The CDN chunk ref's id is its offset. The witness types carry ids, and the ids cross C#, TS, Python and Rust.

Soul held it. Fixes are in Hands:

• ids are never minted inside variant overrides;
• interface unions are never minted;
• a null derived source leaves an empty id;
• load minting is culture-dependent;
• the minted-on-load list goes stale;
• a refused batch leaves minted ids behind;
• the id format is unchecked;
• late union-slot reuse passes registration.

C2a rulings (operator, 2026-09-30):

• Old readers are tripwired. A store that holds element ids carries a marker that every pre-C2a reader refuses under C0's unknown-header rule. An old C# reader can therefore never silently strip nested ids. MessagePack's generated formatters skip unknown slots inside elements.
• Duplicate element ids refuse at load, naming the record, the list and the id. This matches the duplicate-index ruling.
• C2b precondition (Soul F7). Whether a pre-id element keeps its load-time id depends on the write path. C2b must refuse an override that targets a record whose ids exist only in memory, or mint on open.

C2a Soul pass 2 (e85b201b), 2026-09-30: hold. The tripwire only works against unreleased readers. Every published release (cultlib-unity-v1.0.60, caching-unity-v1.4.0, cultcache-ts-v0.14.0, cultcache-py-v0.3.0) predates C0. The 1.0.60 C# reader loads a v3 store, and its next write is v1 with the ids stripped (probe). Other findings:

• F2: the same element object twice in one list commits, then the store refuses to load.
• F3: CultMesh single-file writes bypass the marker.
• F4: TS pushAll writes the header without reading it first.

C2a rulings, 2026-09-30 (operator):

• Rollout order closes the released-reader hole. Ship a CultLib release that refuses v3, move every C# reader of a store onto it, then let a C2a writer touch that store. There is no format change for this. This supersedes the claim above that old readers are tripwired: that claim holds only for post-C0 readers.
• Mark by content. A store is written as v3 (v5 for directory stores) only when a record actually holds an element id. An existing v3 header on disk stays.
• Fix batch 3 in Hands: F2, marking by content in every runtime, F3 routed through the cache's header decision and load checks, F4.

C2a Soul pass 3 (9ed61dd2), 2026-09-30: fix first.

• A flattened record's HoldsIds goes stale when its base changes in the same batch.
• A conditional commit onto disk ignores content.
• Rust push_all clobbers headers it cannot read.
• TS keeps a stale header after the file goes away.
• Self's claim that "rollout order makes the raw-writer hole benign" was wrong. The reader that strips ids from a v1 store is a post-C0, pre-C2a build. That is exactly the reader the v3 marker targets, and rollout order does not keep it away.

Ruling, 2026-09-30 (operator): C0 is released only together with C2a. The first CultLib release that refuses v3 also contains C2a, so no released reader strips ids. C0 and C1 are never released on their own. Raw and cross-runtime writers that cannot see ids stay sticky-only. Fix batch 4 is in Hands.

C2a F2 ruled (operator, 2026-09-30, accepting Self's recommendation B): records nobody claims are carried untouched. A store may hold records under a schema id that no local type owns or lists as compatible, for example after a rename that declared nothing.

• Both store kinds carry those records byte for byte under their own id. The catalog lists them as foreign records.
• Writes to other records proceed.
• A write that would overwrite or relabel an unclaimed record is refused with a typed schema conflict.
• The single-file store's whole-view write stops relabelling such records onto local types. The directory store stops refusing every commit while it holds one.
• Why: batches 8-9 showed that the danger is rewriting a record under a new identity (F1, F6), not an undeclared old id. Batch 10's owner-beats-lister rule makes declaring an old id cheap anyway.
• Self's first lean, "refuse loudly" (A), is superseded.

C2a batches 9-10 (Soul pass on fdb8a60a, 2026-09-30): hold.

• F6, A-B-A lost update on the single-file store. Ruled by Self: any write that changes a record's bytes or schema id mints a later storedAt.
• F8, batch 9 over-refused. An owner beats a lister, so v1 and v2 coexist.
• F9. Compatible ids compare as a set.
• F10. Typed refusal errors in TS and Python.
• Batch 10 is in Hands.
• F7 ruled (operator, 2026-09-30): retire AsSchemaAlias. "Schema aliasing sounds like a really bad idea, I support retiring it."
  • C# refuses a second type for one schema, as TS, Python and Rust already do. There is one type per schema in every runtime.
  • The API, its registry path (IsExactWireAlias) and the tests that exercised it (7 Mesh, 2 Caching) are deleted or rewritten.
  • No consumer called it.

Operator rulings, 2026-09-30:

• Duplicate unique-index values do not load ("Duplicate indices should not load"). This covers plain records too, so R6-for-indexes becomes one general rule:
  • a commit that would leave two records holding one indexed value is refused;
  • a store holding duplicates refuses to load, and the refusal names both keys and the index.
  • The variant-specific rule RefuseVariantIndexSharing collapses into this rule.
  • Before it ships, every real store is scanned, so no store stops loading by surprise.
  • Scan result (Eyes, 2026-09-30): [CultIndex] had been recycled as a grouping and selection-filter declaration: Category, Kind, HardpointType, ShardId, and others in CultMesh, Geometry and docs. AetheriaEve's aetheria-world.cc (taxidermy) is the only store holding duplicates. The only single-result lookups in real code are unique: PlayerData.PlayerId and Email in Server.cs. The operator: "Pretty sure indexes are supposed to be unique, it was not my decision to recycle that mechanism for grouping purposes" and "Grouping was a desirable feature from my old DatabaseListView that didn't quite make it into the initial CultCache Studio port".
  • Resolution (Self, from those answers): [CultIndex] means unique. Grouping belongs to the Studio record-grouping campaign's own attribute (docs/studio-grouping-cut.md on codex/studio-grouping, attribute-based per the 2026-09-17 ruling). CultNet selection filters any declared member by its catalog name, so no index is needed for filtering. The grouping-only [CultIndex] declarations are deleted. This is one CultLib cut, queued behind C2a because both edit CultCache.cs.
  • The TS/Python last-writer-wins parity gap closes by the same rule when those runtimes adopt it.
• CultNet invisibility is a defect ("looks like a defect to me"): cache.Commit and cache.UpsertAsync on a database's cache must publish to subscribers and to the mutation log (CultCache.Publish's if (!loaded) continue;).
• Hop subscriptions keep refusing variants until CultNet carries deltas (C5): "keep refusing, I guess, CultNet will have deltas by the time we're done here anyway".

C2. C# element identity and nested paths (Set, Insert, Remove)

Adds:

• [CultElementId] (a string member). Ids everywhere, not opt-in (Q3, operator 2026-09-29): there is no [CultVariants] attribute. The C# registry requires an id member on every object element type reachable through a list in any registered document type, union bases included, and refuses a type that lacks one.
• Minting: on write, the cache mints ids for unset ids in every type, and refuses a duplicate id within one list. A store written before ids existed loads, and its ids are minted on its first write (minted on load, per the operator's rollout ruling).
• Path steps below top level.
• Insert anchored after an id, where "" means the head. An inserted run sits immediately after its anchor and before base elements added there later.
• Remove by id.
• Canonical order: removes, then inserts in list order, then sets by path.
• Q2a refusal: a base commit that orphans an override is refused.
• Q7: whole-member Set for dictionaries, scalar lists and arrays.
• CultCache.MintElementIds(): the one-shot rewrite for existing stores (ruling 1). It upserts every record that has an unset id through the normal path.
• The consumer sweep (Q3 rollout). About 28 consumers carry list-element types, and each needs an id member before it can take the CultLib that requires one. C2 ships the requirement. Self schedules the per-repo sweep, one small type edit per consumer, before those consumers bump. C2 lists the element types it finds per consumer, as data for that sweep.

Keeps: the C1 format unchanged. C2 fills path shapes that C1 refused.

Verification:

• Two look-alike elements (two of one union subtype) get different overrides, and a base insert before them retargets nothing.
• Rebase re-applies overrides by id. A missing id is refused, and the message names the variant, path and id.
• A Set on a removed element is refused.
• Minting is idempotent.
• A registered type with an id-less list element type is refused, naming the type and member.
• A store written before ids loads, and its ids are minted exactly once on first write (idempotent).
• A C#-written nested-override fixture joins contracts/cultcache/.

Command: dotnet test tests/GameCult.Caching.Tests.

Estimate +300 lines and +350 of tests. Build: as C1, without Networking.

C3. Studio: edit the delta

Adds, in CultInspectorModel (engine-free; the lowering stays a renderer):

• For a variant edit, each member path is marked inherited or overridden.
• Commit writes UpsertVariant with overrides equal to the prior overrides plus a structural diff by id. It is deterministic because ids exist.
• An explicit "override" pins a value equal to its base's.
• ClearOverride(path).
• CreateVariant(record) next to Duplicate; it prompts for a name (R6).
• Rebase(record, base) returns a conflict list for Q2a before commit.

Lowering, in CultCacheStudioWindow/Drawers: an overridden marker and a revert control per member, a base link, and variant creation and rebase controls.

Verification:

• CultInspectorModelTests: the diff produces exactly the touched paths; clear removes one entry; the pin survives an equal value; rebase conflicts are listed.
• Negative: a Studio commit never calls a plain Upsert at a variant key.

Only the operator can check these in Unity against a copy of Aetheria.cc:

• the markers read correctly;
• clearing reverts the value live;
• a hull variant replaces Hardpoints;
• a laser variant changes one behaviour's PerformanceStat.Max;
• a base edit shows in the open variant.

Then tag caching-unity-v1.5.0. This is the point where Aetheria is unblocked.

Estimate +250 model, +150 lowering, +250 tests. Build: Caching.Tests. The Unity package is checked by the operator in the editor.

C4. Aetheria adoption (Aetheria repo, its own cut, after the release)

• Bump the package to v1.5.0.
• Add [CultElementId] to every list-element type Aetheria's documents carry (ids everywhere, Q3). There is no per-type opt-in.
• Add [CultElementId] to BehaviorData (base) and HardpointData.
• Run MintElementIds once over GameData/Aetheria.cc.
• AetherDb migrations skip variants or use the variant API (Q1a).
• Re-author the families listed in section 6.

C5. CultNet deltas (C# reference)

Adds a new raw-record message version that carries the variant slot, following selection D3: a v1 message string, so peers not in this cut refuse through their own dispatch. The C1 refusal in CultNetDocumentRegistry is deleted. Scheduled when a CultNet consumer needs variants; none does today.

Parked: TypeScript, Python and Rust resolution

Each runtime gets its own cut when a consumer that reads a variant-bearing store exists (ruling 5). None does. Aetheria.cc is read by C# only.

6. First payoff in Aetheria.cc

Scan of the live file (206 records, v1): records of one schema whose leaves differ by at most 20 percent, name excluded. This is a heuristic; the operator confirms the real families.

Type	Records	Families that collapse	Records becoming variants
geardata	32	Refinery / Assembly Line / Deep Ore / Surface Ore / Shipyard (1 to 3 leaves differ); Small / Medium / Large Drive; RevvITup 2.0 / deep space burnout / Talaria; Skiron / Iapyx; Arctica / cold like my heart	10
weaponitemdata	18	ChargeBlast SG / ChargeBlast+- (14 of 253 leaves differ); pswarm / scorched void policy; Earp / 6k Shooter; Spectra / ColdFire	4
hulldata	5	Longinus / LonginusX (only Behaviors, Hardpoints and two cosmetic members differ)	1

That is 15 of 55 equipment records. In most of these families the difference lies inside Behaviors, so element-level overrides (C2) are what pay. Top-level overrides alone would still copy each behaviour list.

7. Consumers

There are 28 projects: C# 13, Rust 9, TypeScript 10, Python 1, Kotlin 0 (Explore survey; dependency-level for most, read in detail for Aetheria and AetheriaEve).

• See variants: Aetheria through C# Get, GetByName and CultRecordRef (resolved documents only), CultCache Studio (deltas), and AetherDb tools (must honour Q1).
• Must stay oblivious or refuse: every other consumer. No other project reads Aetheria.cc. Raw readers refuse through the empty payload plus C0/C1: CultMesh single-file reads, AetheriaEve's directory-page reader (the directory store refuses variants, Q6), and Mimir (writer only).

Schema identity across runtimes (Imagination, 2026-09-30)

RULINGS (operator, 2026-09-30).

• C1: agreed ("Agreed on schema identity"). C# puts the declared version string on the wire as the schema id. F-ID.1 follows Self's recommendation: the id is <name>.v<N>, not the bare schemaName.
• F-ID.2: AetheriaEve is not a consumer. Operator: "AetheriaEve is purely archaeological, I would recommend archiving it purely as evidence of what happens when you try to build a game with hyperfocused agents and with CultLib under construction. We might try again at some point, but it won't look anything like AetheriaEve." C1 deletes the fallbacks that exist only for AetheriaEve's readers. It does not migrate those readers.
• F-ID.3: stored C# hash ids. Operator: "I have no idea". Self's default is to defer C2. C1 changes nothing on disk. C# keeps reading its own sha256 ids. F2 already makes other runtimes keep C# records byte-for-byte. C2 gets mapped only when a cross-runtime store read of a C# store is actually needed.
• C1 is mapped (section "C1 cut: one schema id on the wire", below). Operator, 2026-09-30: "Yes to both, defaults are fine". The per-binding wire-id override is deleted. A declared compatible id resolves on the wire, and the owner beats a lister. All six defaults stand. Stonks is fixed in Stonks before C1 merges. Order: F2 Soul, then the put-serve merge, then c2a merges main, then C1.0-C1.5.

Probed at CultLib hands/variants-c2a 92d9e138. The probe ran on Yggdrasil in ack1d-interop:2 from a scratch branch, which has since been deleted. Sources: scratchpad/schema-identity-probe/. Full output: scratchpad/probe2.log (store round trip, section 1), plus a wire rerun shown inline below. Every probe used one declared schema: the interop note, name cultcache.interop-note, version cultcache.interop_note.v1, with six members.

1. How each runtime derives a schema id (probed)

Runtime	Id it stamps	Derived from	Carries name / version / content hash?
C#	sha256:eafe3e…b249	sha256("name|version|slot:Member:ClrType:value/ref:target:one/many|…"). Recomputing it by hand gives the same id.	Store catalog: name, version, contentHash = sha256(canonical JSON), canonical JSON, members. Wire: schemaName, schemaVersion, schemaContentHash are all filled.
TS	cultcache.interop-note	definition.schemaId ?? schemaName ?? type. There is no hash. With no declared version, the version defaults to <name>.v1.	contentHash is whatever the author declares. The interop test declares the id string itself.
Python	cultcache.interop-note	schema_id or type. There is no hash. contentHash defaults to the id.	Same as TS.
Rust	cultcache.interop-note	#[cultcache(type=…)]. There is no hash. schema = "CultCacheInteropNote" never reaches the catalog.	The catalog entry it writes is fabricated: version "<type>.v1" (cultcache.interop-note.v1, not the declared …_note.v1), members: [], contentHash = type.
Kotlin (CultMesh only; it has no store)	cultcache.interop_note.v1	codec.schemaVersion	Nothing else.

On the C# fingerprint:

• The id stays the same when only the CLR class or namespace changes (V1).
• The id changes when a member is renamed (V2), a slot is appended (V3), string[] becomes List<string> (V4), the version string changes (V5), or a slot is removed (V6).
• V2 and V4 produce identical wire bytes. MessagePack slot arrays carry neither member names nor CLR collection types. So the fingerprint witnesses the C# declaration, not the wire layout.

The C# registry already refuses two CLR types for one (name, version) in a process. The probe crashed on exactly that when V6 and the base type shared an assembly. Inside C#, (name, version) is already the ownership key, and the hash adds nothing to ownership.

2. Wire parity for identity does not hold (probed)

No two runtimes agree, and C# is the only one that hashes. The CultNet interop harness is the parity witness in CI. It never exercises the C# default: tests/GameCult.Networking.InteropPeer/Program.cs:77,201,1183-1196 binds every type with ForDocument(schemaId: <readable JSON-schema URL>).

What reads what today:

• Stores (.cc). C#, Rust, TS and Python all read each other's notes. It works only because each reader, when the id is unknown, falls back to the embedded catalog's schemaName: C# CultCache.cs:653 BySchemaName, TS cult-cache.ts:827, Rust resolve_registered_type lib.rs:2754. Round trip, C# → X → C#:
  • Each writer stamps its own record with its own id.
  • A C# rewrite restamps every other runtime's record to sha256:… and drops their catalog entries.
  • A Rust write destroys the C# catalog entry for the id it read. The entry becomes name=cultcache.interop-note, version=sha256:…eafe….v1, contentHash=sha256:…eafe…, canonical JSON with schemaName: "sha256:…", members: []. The C# record bytes survive, but their description is lost. That breaks F2 ("never relabels…") at the catalog level, and it is a defect whatever this fork decides.
  • TS and Python kept the C# catalog entry intact.
• Wire (CultNet raw record carrying a C# sha256 id):

Reader	sha256:…	cultcache.interop-note (name)	cultcache.interop_note.v1 (version)
TS CultNetDocumentRegistry.applyRawDocumentPut (probed)	refused	ok	refused
Kotlin CultCache.putRaw (probed)	refused	ok (documentType)	ok
C# CultNetDocumentRegistry.DeserializeRawDocument (probed)	ok	ok	ok, and gamecult.unknown.v1 → Note too
Python cultnet_py resolve_document_for_raw_record (read only)	only if declared	ok	ok, plus payload sniffing
Rust pull_rudp_catalog_snapshot (read only, per the Eyes sweep)	dropped silently	—	strips .vN and matches the type

C# accepts any id because TryResolveDescriptorBySchemaAlias and TryResolveDescriptorByPayloadSchema (CultNetDocumentRegistry.cs:755-830) read slot 0 of the payload as a schema version. Python does the same (replication.py:160-196). Shape routing and aliasing are still live in C# and Python CultNet on c2a, and so is C# request matching CultNetSchemaAliasMatching (CultNetDatabase.cs:52-89). F7 has not reached them.

• The C# wire id is readable only when the binding is overridden. The probe showed ForDocument<Note>(schemaId: "cultcache.interop-note") emits that id with the same payload, name, version and contentHash. CultMesh.CreateCultNetDocumentRegistry (src/GameCult.Mesh/CultMeshDocumentRegistries.cs:69) never overrides it, so every C# CultMesh host publishes sha256 ids.

3. Live cross-runtime paths that depend on the fallback

This section comes from the Eyes sweep. I spot-checked the Hermodr lines, the Odin rule and CultMeshDocumentRegistries.cs; the rest I only read. Every one of these paths is TS reader → C# host (the Aetheria daemon in F:\Projects\AetheriaEve).

#	Consumer	Asks for	Works via	Under C1
1	EveElectron/src/cultmesh-provider-client.mjs:129-143, started by AetheriaEve/Aetheria.Rts.Web/Electron/main.ts:65	gamecult.eve.provider_advertisement.v1, …surface.v1, gamecult.fields.*.v1, …command_receipt.v1, gamecult.cultmesh.cdn.asset_blob.v1	cultmesh-ts HELD firstRecordAtKey	Exact match. The exception is cdn.asset_blob.v1: no writer anywhere declares it, so that read needs a declaration.
1b	same file, lines 94-108 (command put)	gamecult.eve.command_invocation.v1	C# inbound alias (g), probably	Exact match
2	AetheriaEve/Aetheria.Rts.Web/Electron/aetheria-cultmesh.ts:138-147, 345-406 (only the verify-stage7* scripts use it)	gamecult.aetheria.*.v1, gamecult.fields.*.v1	first-record fallback	Exact match
3	Hermodr/src/hermodr-daemon.cjs:1335-1363	provider state, surfaces, CDN	Its own `
4	AetheriaEve/scripts/aetheria-browser-provider-witness.ts:49-60 (a witness, not product code)	eve schemas	cultmesh-browser recordMatchesSchema name/version arms	Exact match
5	aetheria-cultmesh.ts:408-411, local .cc read	same ids	none: probably already broken (unverified)	still a store-path question

Paths that already work without a fallback, because everyone hand-stamps <name>.vN:

• The Aetheria daemon and Gjallar hand-stamp .v1 puts to Odin: Program.cs:4574-4830 and Gjallar/Program.cs:3040-3080.
• Odin refuses any id without .vN: Odin/crates/odin-daemon/src/main.rs:1310-1326.
• Rust hosts bind .vN through cultmesh_documents!: Ghostlight, Epiphany, Muninn.
• Kotlin uses its schemaVersion.
• The Eve C# declaration itself reads [CultDocument("gamecult.eve.provider_advertisement", SchemaId)] with const SchemaId = "gamecult.eve.provider_advertisement.v1". Authors already treat the version string as the id.

Scope flag: every broken consumer lives in AetheriaEve, which the CultCache campaign ruled "taxidermy". The operator should confirm those paths are live consumers of this campaign before any cut is shaped for them.

Stored data:

• Aetheria/GameData/Aetheria.cc, run.cc and player.cc hold 21 C# schemas under sha256 ids. The Eyes sweep found only C# readers.
• The versions there are the bare string "1": [CultDocument("aetheria.faction", "1")]. So a version string is not globally unique across the estate.
• TS stores (Bifrost, VoidBot, weksa, Stonks) are TS-only and hold readable ids.
• Odin's Rust store holds .vN ids.

4. What the C# fingerprint protects

A C#-to-C# store read. A record whose declaration drifted misses the exact id and falls to the persisted-catalog comparison: CompatibleDrift, or refused as incompatible (CultCache.cs:900-936).

Across runtimes it protects nothing today:

• The other runtimes do not compute it.
• Their content hashes are placeholder strings.
• The C# wire receiver accepts any id through payload sniffing (probed).
• The hash reacts to renames and CLR collection spellings, which do not change wire bytes (probed V2, V4).

Fork F-ID: what names a schema across runtimes

(A) Every runtime computes the C# semantic fingerprint; readers name schemas by definition.

• Every non-C# runtime has to emit C# type spellings: System.String[] versus System.Collections.Generic.List<System.String>.
• Rust has to start declaring members and versions at all.
• String-named readers can no longer name a schema. Eve Electron and Hermodr read ids from provider advertisements.
• Odin refuses the ids outright (.vN rule).
• Every TS, Python and Rust store holds readable ids. Under no-relabel those records become permanently held unless each runtime lists its old ids.
• Gain: a layout witness that is still over-sensitive (V2 and V4 change the id with no wire change).
• Stored data: Aetheria is untouched; every non-C# store is orphaned.
• Not recommended.

(B) Readers match the declared (schemaName, schemaVersion) pair the envelope carries.

• The C# wire already carries both. Store catalogs carry both.
• Two identity strings stay in play: the id for storage, the pair for lookup. That is a split owner.
• sha256 ids still reach Odin, which refuses them.
• The version alone is ambiguous (Aetheria's "1"), so every reader API has to take a pair instead of the one string readers pass today.
• Rust writes a fabricated version, so pair matching against a Rust host fails until Rust declares versions.
• Layout protection is only as good as a contentHash comparison, and no runtime but C# computes a real one.
• Stored data: unchanged, and nothing is relabelled. Resolution becomes pair matching against the catalog, which is a formalised form of today's schemaName fallback.

(C) C# puts the readable id on the wire, and the id is the declared version string <name>.v<N>.

This is what Odin enforces, Rust and Kotlin use, and Eve and Gjallar already hand-stamp.

• C1, wire only:
  • ForDocument and CultMesh.CreateCultNetDocumentRegistry default the binding id to descriptor.SchemaVersion.
  • Registering a wire binding whose version lacks .vN is refused. Aetheria's "1" types are not on the wire today.
  • Then delete the HELD first-record fallback (cultmesh-ts), Hermodr's two fallbacks, the name and version arms of cultmesh-browser recordMatchesSchema, C# TryResolveDescriptorBySchemaAlias, payload sniffing and CultNetSchemaAliasMatching, and the Python CultNet alias map and sniffing. That finishes F7 on the wire.
• C2, the store as well, as a later cut: C# stamps new writes with the version id and resolves an old sha256 record by the type's own computed former fingerprint. That is a derivation, not an alias. Where a version string changes (Aetheria's "1" → aetheria.faction.v1), the old id goes into the existing CompatibleSchemaIds.
• The fingerprint is demoted to schemaContentHash, which the wire already carries. It stays a C#-to-C# drift witness and does not decide identity.
• Costs:
  • C#: the default in two files, plus deleting the alias and sniffing paths.
  • TS, Hermodr and Python: deletions only.
  • Rust and Kotlin: none.
  • Mixed-version C# peers: an old host sends sha256 and a new receiver without sniffing refuses it, so C# peers upgrade together.
  • Eve Electron cdn.asset_blob.v1: needs a declaring writer.
• Stored data: C1 changes nothing on disk. Under C2, Aetheria's catalogs are read unchanged and records are restamped only when C# rewrites records it understands, which F2 allows. TS, Rust and Odin stores are untouched.

Recommendation: C1 now; decide C2 separately. C1 is the only option where one string names a schema on every runtime and at Odin, where every reader already asks for that string, and where the work is almost entirely deletion. It makes the F7 retirement possible on the wire, because readers no longer need a fallback to find their records. Aetheria's .cc files are untouched. B keeps the split and A breaks every readable-id store. Separately from F-ID, the Rust catalog-destruction defect (§2) and the live C# and Python CultNet aliasing should be admitted as findings or follow-ups whatever is ruled.

Sub-questions for the operator:

• F-ID.1: Is the id the version string (<name>.vN, as Odin, Rust, Kotlin and Eve do), or schemaName, which CultLib's own TS and Python tests use and which is also TS's default?
• F-ID.2: Are the AetheriaEve consumers live for this campaign?
• F-ID.3: Should C2 (store identity) be mapped now, or deferred until a non-C# reader of a C# store exists?

Probed versus read

• Probed:
  • All C# ids and variants, and the hand-recomputed fingerprint.
  • The TS and Python default ids.
  • Rust's id and catalog entry, from store bytes.
  • Kotlin's id and its accept/refuse behaviour.
  • Store round trips C#→Rust/Python/TS→C#, with bytes, including the C# restamp and the Rust catalog destruction.
  • C# wire record bytes, default and overridden.
  • C# CultNet accepting any id.
  • TS CultNet exact-id behaviour.
• Read only:
  • Python CultNet aliasing and sniffing, and Rust pull_rudp_catalog_snapshot dropping unknown records.
  • C# request alias matching (f).
  • Every consumer path in §3, from the Eyes sweep. I spot-checked Hermodr 1335-1363, Odin 1310-1326, CultMeshDocumentRegistries.cs:69 and the Eve declaration.
  • Path 1b/2b's dependence on (g).
  • Path 5 being broken.
  • The Aetheria .cc catalogs were decoded from the files, with no git.

C1 cut: one schema id on the wire

Imagination, 2026-09-30. This maps the operator's C1 ruling. On the wire, a document's schema id is its declared version string, <name>.v<N>. Every runtime stamps it and every runtime resolves it exactly. A wire binding whose version lacks .v<digits> is refused. The AetheriaEve readers are archaeology, and C2 (store identity) is deferred.

Anchors. Line numbers are against CultLib hands/variants-c2a at 976b57f1. That commit is F2 in progress, the Rust catalog lay-back. I read it from a git archive snapshot and did not touch the worktree. Where main (4a7fa1d6, code as of daedfdd6) or hands/cultmesh-put-serve-bound (fa34b685) differs in a file C1 edits, it is said at the spot. Each anchor also names its symbol, so it can be found again after c2a merges main (see Sequencing).

0. Probe facts

These are new and were run, not inferred. The sources are in scratchpad/c1-probe/. They ran on Yggdrasil in ack1d-interop:2 from the scratch ref refs/scratch/c1probe, a detached commit on 976b57f1 that is deleted after this pass. Output is in scratchpad/c1-probe3.log. The run was commit 43677b97ac.

• P-VER: a C# version change does not orphan stored records. The probe used two builds of one type, probe.faction, declared first with version "1" and then with "probe.faction.v1", plus a sibling probe.ship "1". The same members.
  • The id changes: sha256:64eb… becomes sha256:0603….
  • The new build reads the old store through the catalog's schema name (Claimant, CultCache.cs:697) and reports CompatibleDrift with warnings compatible_schema_id_drift and content_hash_drift. The record decodes.
  • Opening and flushing without edits leaves the file byte-identical (1529 bytes, old id).
  • Upserting restamps that record and its catalog entry to the new id. The untouched sibling keeps its own.
  • The old build then reads the rewritten store the same way.
  • So a version-string change is a restamp on the next write, not an orphan. This holds only while one local type owns the schema name. Two local versions of one name make the fallback ambiguous and it throws (CultCache.cs:697-705).
  • C1 does not need this. It is recorded for C2.
• P-WIRE: what C1 changes on the C# wire.
  • Binding both types by their version string: with "1" twice, c2a's Register refuses the second binding (CultSchemaConflictException … schema id "1"). With probe.faction.v1 and "1", it accepts both.
  • The default wire id is still sha256 in both builds.
  • With an unbound registry, DeserializeRawDocument returned Faction for "1", probe.faction (the name) and probe.faction.v7 (a version nobody declared). Only some.other.v1 was refused.
  • So today a C# receiver resolves a version it has never seen by stripping .vN and matching the name. That is the path C1.0 deletes, and the negative check in §8 pins its death.

Earlier facts this map rests on, from the §1-§4 probes above: C# hashes the version into the id (V5). The C# wire id is sha256 unless the binding overrides it. C# CultNet accepts any id through sniffing. TS refuses a version id. Kotlin stamps its version.

1. What the consumer sweep settles

This comes from three Eyes-class sweeps over F:\Projects. I read the rows marked (R); the rest were confirmed by the sweeping agent reading the files.

• Aetheria's "1" versions never reach the wire. Aetheria has no CultNet or CultMesh code. Aetheria.Shared.csproj references only the caching assemblies. So C1's refusal never fires for its 24 declarations, and nothing in Aetheria changes, on disk or in source.
• The other C# "1" declarations are in StreamPixels apps/overlay-unity (24). They are client-only and never bound: frame ids map to types by hand (OverlayFrameDocuments.cs:98-116).
• Every C# type that is bound in any repo already declares .vN: AetheriaEve 61, AquaSynth 28, Mimir 37, Brokkr, Eve, Gjallar, Ymir, Delvehold. No repo outside CultLib passes ForDocument(schemaId:).
• Live C# hosts with default (sha256) bindings:
  • AquaSynth, AquaSynthCultNetDaemon.cs:431-449, 19 bindings. Its peers are C# (AquaDaemonClient.cs).
  • Mimir: EveDashboard/Program.cs:877-886, read by Eve Android, which ignores schema ids (MainActivity.kt:618-625); and CultMeshMedia/Program.cs:277, C#.
  • Delvehold: no server.
  • All of these are C#-to-C# or id-blind. They change id together when they rebuild on C1, so no shim is needed.
• The C# publishers to Odin bypass bindings. AetheriaEve Program.cs:4574-4831 and Gjallar Program.cs:3045,3069 build their ids by hand and serialize payloads directly. C1 does not change them. Odin's rule is at Odin/crates/odin-daemon/src/main.rs:1311-1326 (R).
• Every Rust wire binding in every repo already binds .vN through cultmesh_documents! or for_entry_with_schema_id with .vN constants: Odin, Muninn, Ghostlight, Epiphany, Ratatoskr, Huginn. No consumer uses bare for_entry::<T>().
• The AetheriaEve readers are archaeology:
  • EveElectron's only code consumer is AetheriaEve (Aetheria.Rts.Web/package.json:30).
  • Hermodr was parked on 2026-09-30: gamecult-ops/inventory.md:631-634, runbooks/odin-yggdrasil.md:35-48, and scripts/idunn/idunn-deployment-targets.ps1:36-46 (status "archived").
  • cultmesh-browser has two consumers. One is the AetheriaEve witness. The other is CultLib's own sample samples/eve-browser-network/browser/main.ts:8.
  • So C1 edits neither Hermodr nor EveElectron. Both are archived, so C1 deletes the CultLib fallbacks that exist only for them and does not migrate them.
• Non-C# consumers that change id under C1:
  • Stonks is the only one that breaks. F:\Projects\Stonks\src\stonks-daemon.cjs:152-195 declares schemaVersion: "v1" on six definitions, one of them provider_advertisement published to Odin at :303. Under C1 its TS registration is refused. Stonks loads ../CultLib from disk, so it breaks on the first restart after C1 reaches that checkout. The fix is in Stonks: set each schemaVersion to its current schemaId. That is six lines, and they land before C1 is merged to main.
  • Bifrost tools/agent-transport.mjs:62-66: the id is hyphenated (…update-request.v0) and the version has underscores (…update_request.v0). The wire id changes to the version. The snapshot and apply sides are the same tool on one pinned CultLib (f67f5122), so they change together. Its store keeps the hyphenated id.
  • Brokkr Python surfaces/blender/brokkr_bridge/blender_target.py:630-637 declares eight type-only definitions whose type already ends in .v0. The Python default version would make the wire id ….v0.v1. The fix is in Brokkr: declare schema_version=<the type>. No live reader was found, so this is hygiene, not a break.
  • repixelizer: verse_state.py:139-230 declares version ≠ id. Its wire id moves to the .v0 version, which Odin accepts.
  • Everything else already has id == version: VoidBot, Vili, weksa, Heimdall, StreamPixels, Bifrost's other tools, Hermodr.
  • VoidBot's persona stores use a vendored cultcache-ts and are untouched.
• Raw health puts are out of C1's reach. Vili, Stonks, weksa, Bifrost and repixelizer send hand-built idunn.daemon_health with no version, and Bifrost sends idunn.signed_daemon_health. These never register a binding. No receiving binding was found in Idunn or Odin main. That is Soul's consumer check, not a C1 edit.

Q3, settled: no declaration in any repo has to change to satisfy the refusal on a binding that actually exists. Aetheria and the StreamPixels overlay are the "1" repos, and neither binds. Stonks's "v1" is TS; it is fixed in Stonks and touches no store. Stonks's store keeps the ids it holds today, because TS stores under schemaId. So no declaration change touches disk. Whether a future change of Aetheria's version string would orphan its records is the P-VER probe in §0. It is recorded for C2 and not needed by C1.

Q4, settled: C1 changes no store record in any runtime. The store id and the wire id become two derivations:

• C#: sha256 on disk, version on the wire.
• TS: schemaId ?? schemaName ?? type on disk, version on the wire.
• Python: schema_id or type on disk, version on the wire.
• Rust: the store id and apply-path stamping are unchanged (see C1.4).
• Kotlin: version for both, as today.

Four places where one variable serves both today must be split. Each has its cut below:

• TS replication.ts:363-368, schemaIdForEnvelope, which serves the stored id.
• Python cultmesh_py/node.py:767 and interop_peer.py:1085.
• The C# durable shard log, CultNetShardMutationLogStorage.cs:75-88. It persists wire-form entries, and so it is the one C# store that holds wire ids.
• Rust pull_rudp_catalog_snapshot, cultmesh-rs/src/lib.rs:742.

2. Authority map

• Owner. The declaration's version string is the only wire identity:
  • C# CultDocumentAttribute.SchemaVersion → CultDocumentDescriptor.SchemaVersion;
  • TS definition.schemaVersion, defaulting to ${schemaName}.v1, through schemaIdentityOf(...).schemaVersion;
  • Python schema_version, defaulting to f"{schema_name}.v1";
  • Rust: the version given to cultmesh_documents! or for_entry_with_schema_id;
  • Kotlin codec.schemaVersion.
• One derivation per runtime:
  • C#: CultNetDocumentRegistry.WireSchemaId(descriptor) returns descriptor.SchemaVersion. It is the single place .vN is checked, and it is also called eagerly from Register.
  • TS: wireSchemaIdOf(definition) in cultnet-ts.
  • Python: wire_schema_id(definition) in cultnet_py.
  • Rust: CultNetDocumentBinding::schema_id, which is already the version.
  • Kotlin: codec.schemaVersion.
• Inputs: the declaration only. Never a payload, a schema name, an inferred name, a record's position in a response, or a stored record's id.
• Outputs: every schema id that crosses a process boundary:
  • raw records, puts and deletes;
  • snapshot and selection responses, headers, edges and cursors;
  • database change messages and shard-log entries;
  • snapshot, subscribe and selection filters, and the shard catalog;
  • the document-payload schema catalog;
  • CultMesh projection-source and state-binding records.
• Resolution. A wire id resolves to the binding that owns it (exact). Otherwise it resolves to the one binding that declares it compatible (CompatibleSchemaIds, owner beats lister), which is the rule stores already use. OQ-C1.2 decides whether declared compatibility applies on the wire. Anything else is refused.
• Derived state after C1:
  • C# descriptor.SchemaId (sha256) is store-only. It keys CultCache, _predictedDocuments, _lastWriteSequence, and in-process dictionaries.
  • TS and Python schemaId are store-only.
  • CultNetDocumentBinding.SchemaId is derived (the version). It is no longer an owner.
  • schemaName is metadata only, never matched.
  • Payload slot 0 or schemaVersion is data only, never read for routing.
  • schemaContentHash is a C#-to-C# drift witness, carried and never matched.
• Forbidden writers, all deleted:
  • C#: CultNetSchemaAliasMatching, TryResolveDescriptorBySchemaAlias, TryResolveDescriptorByPayloadSchema, PayloadMatchesSchema, TryReadSchemaVersion, both InferSchemaName, ResolvePayloadSchemaCandidates, ExpandSchemaBindingAliases, the ForDocument(schemaId:) override (OQ-C1.1), the CultMesh aliased and byPayload branches, and the descriptor-name and version keys in the C# and TS mesh catalogs;
  • TS: firstRecordAtKey, cultmesh-browser's name and version arms, shard-catalog.ts inferSchemaName, and inferCultMeshSchemaName / bySchemaNameVersion;
  • Python: the name and version keys in schema_document_map, _infer_schema_version_from_payload, and every _infer_schema_name;
  • Rust: strip_schema_version_suffix and selection::schema_alias;
  • Kotlin: codecs[schemaId], the documentType fallback.
• Shared paths. Put, delete, snapshot (v0, v1, raw), selection, subscription, database change, shard log (live and replayed from disk), shard catalog, schema catalog, and CultMesh peer reads all take the id from the one derivation. A served stored record is stamped by the derivation, never by its stored id.

3. Deletes first (C1.0, subtraction)

C1.0 deletes every inference path and makes each comparison exact against the existing wire id: the binding id, or sha256 for an unbound type. C#-to-C# peers keep working. Only readers that relied on a fallback stop resolving, and those are the AetheriaEve readers, which are archaeology. C1.0 adds no behaviour; C1.1 flips the id.

C#, src/GameCult.Networking:

• CultNetDatabase.cs:47-104: delete the whole CultNetSchemaAliasMatching class (58 lines, public).
  • Replace every caller with an exact string.Equals against the registry's wire id for the descriptor.
  • Callers: :143, :150 (ClientAuthorityScope.Matches); :252, :260 (Shard.Matches); :1757 (shard-catalog filter).
  • Shard.Matches(string) and ClientAuthorityScope.Matches(string) compare a configured id with the wire id.
  • EnsureClientAuthority(string) at :1640-1652 has no callers; delete it.
• CultNetDocumentRegistry.cs:
  • Delete :779-799 TryResolveDescriptorBySchemaAlias, :813-830 TryResolveDescriptorByPayloadSchema (public), :832-842 ResolvePayloadSchemaCandidates, :852-854 PayloadMatchesSchema (public), :865-898 TryReadSchemaVersion, :900-910 InferSchemaName, and :538-578 ExpandSchemaBindingAliases with its comment. About 175 lines in all, doc comments included.
  • ResolveDescriptorForRawDocument (:755-765) and ResolveDescriptorForSchemaId (:767-777) collapse into one exact lookup. It uses _bindingsBySchemaId, or, for a registry with no bindings, the one descriptor whose wire id equals the id. A miss throws InvalidOperationException naming the id.
  • Call sites stay on the one method: CultNetDatabase.cs:717, 947, 998, 1234, 1455, CultNetDatabaseSubscriptionClient.cs:254, and CultNetDocumentRegistry.cs:691, 713.
• CultNetDocumentRegistry.cs:407, 507: drop the ExpandSchemaBindingAliases calls. CultNetDatabaseServer.cs:566-567 and CultNetDatabaseSubscriptionServer.cs:559-560 pass the selection unchanged.
• CultNetSelection.cs:393, 453 and CultNetSelectionEvaluator.cs:88, 422: exact comparison against the wire id.
  • The evaluator reads only descriptors, so C1.0 gives it the registry's WireSchemaId as a Func<CultDocumentDescriptor, string>.
  • After C1.1 the id is descriptor.SchemaVersion, and the parameter collapses to that (see C1.1).
  • CultNetSelection.cs:178 doc: "schema ids", not "or aliases".

C#, src/GameCult.Mesh:

• CultMesh.cs:2724-2774 ReadDocumentFromSnapshotResponse: delete the aliased and byPayload branches (:2744-2745, 2754-2757). Pick exact or throw. Rewrite the comment block at :2724-2733.
• CultMesh.cs:3441-3464 IsSameCultDocumentSchema: the id is local (a CultNetDatabaseChange sha256). Replace with schemaId == descriptor.SchemaId, or storedDescriptor.SchemaId == descriptor.SchemaId. Delete the comment claiming "every … decision goes through" the matcher.
• CultMeshSnapshots.cs:982-985 DecodeSnapshotDocuments: keep only canDeserializeWithBinding, or record.SchemaId == wire id of TDocument.
• CultMeshDocumentRegistries.cs:64-71: the GroupBy(SchemaId)…Reverse() loop is left over from aliasing. With c2a's Register refusal, collapse it to one Register per distinct type.
• CultMeshPrimitives.cs ~1806-1860 and ~1996-2050, the C# CultMeshDocumentCatalog and CultMeshCollectionCatalog: drop the schema-version and schema-name keys. A lookup by schema answers by the handle's type only. A lookup that more than one handle answers is refused, naming their document ids. This is the "typed catalog lookup returns the last handle added" defect, and TS has the same fix below.

TS:

• cultmesh-ts/src/index.ts:6297-6328 requestCultNetRawSnapshotDocument: delete the HELD comment, the firstRecordAtKey option, and ?? atKey[0]. Delete the caller's firstRecordAtKey: at :2691.
• cultmesh-ts/src/index.ts:6175-6191 normalizeCultMeshDocumentSchema: drop the inferCultMeshSchemaName arm and the version-from-id arm, and delete inferCultMeshSchemaName at :6228-6238.
• cultmesh-ts catalogs: CultMeshDocumentCatalog :1462-1519 and CultMeshCollectionCatalog :1688-1731.
  • Delete #bySchemaNameVersion, cultMeshSchemaNameVersionKey (:6220-6226), and its arm in cultMeshRefuseSecondCatalogType (:6197-6218).
  • tryDocument and tryCollection answer by type or by wire id. When #byType holds several handles for one type (add at :1482 overwrites, so today the last one wins), the lookup is refused with the handles' document ids. That needs #byType: Map<string, handle[]>.
• cultmesh-browser/src/index.ts:770-774 recordMatchesSchema: exact record.schemaId === requestedSchema. Callers are :704, :721. After C1.2, CultLib's samples/eve-browser-network asks by version.
• cultnet-ts/src/shard-catalog.ts:103-130: schemaIdsMatch becomes ===. Delete inferSchemaName.

Python:

• cultnet_py/replication.py:21-30 schema_document_map: key by wire id and compatible ids only; drop schema_name and schema_version keys that differ from the wire id.
• replication.py:158-194: resolve_document_for_raw_record becomes dict lookup or KeyError. Delete _infer_schema_version_from_payload and _infer_schema_name.
• cultnet_py/shard_catalog.py:143-154: exact.
• cultmesh_py/node.py:1311-1343: _schema_matches_request and _document_matches_schema_id become exact; delete _infer_schema_name.
• cultmesh_py/server.py:687-721: the map copy and request filter become exact; delete _infer_schema_name.
• Keep _documents_alias / _resolve_document_alias (node.py:1188-1243). They compare local definitions, not wire ids (follow-up F-C1-PYALIAS).

Rust:

• cultmesh-rs/src/lib.rs:750-773: delete strip_schema_version_suffix. registered_document_type_for_schema becomes binding_by_schema_id(..).map(|b| b.document_type.clone()) and nothing else. Delete the documents.binding(schema_id) type-name arm.
• cultnet-rs/src/selection.rs:709-851: delete schema_alias, tests included. Its uses at :1432, 1487, 1651, 2112 become exact comparisons against the row's binding id.
• cultnet-rs/src/snapshot_query.rs:160-181 RawSnapshotRow: stop defaulting schema_name to the id; it reaches schema_alias from serve_read_only_raw_snapshot (:129).

Kotlin: cultmesh-kotlin/.../CultMesh.kt:154-155 codecForSchema: drop ?: codecs[schemaId]. That also fixes deleteBySchema at :170-171.

Not edited, archaeology: Hermodr hermodr-daemon.cjs:1335-1363, EveElectron, and AetheriaEve's own readers.

Tests deleted or inverted in C1.0. Each rule that dies keeps a test that proves it is dead.

• C#:
  • NetworkingTests.cs:3177 (a selection by version matches through the alias): invert to not-found before C1.1.
  • NetworkingTests.cs:4022 (foreign id by sniffing): invert to refused.
  • NetworkingTests.cs:4109, 4140, 4276, 4317, 4366 (shard and scope configured by version): configure by the wire id.
  • CultNetSelectionFixBatchTests.cs:121, 158 (name alias): invert.
  • CultMeshStreamingTests.cs:2638-2708, 3062, 3105 (payload fallback): invert to refused or skipped.
• TS:
  • cultmesh.test.ts:3061-3074, 3244-3249 (HELD): invert to not-found.
  • cultmesh.test.ts:1170-1196, 1241-1286: catalog by version against a sha256 handle.
  • cultnet.test.ts:1064-1068 (shard by name).
  • cultmesh-browser.test.ts:139, 452, 530, 536, 692-697.
• Python:
  • test_cultnet.py:1685-1726, 2059-2063.
  • test_cultmesh.py:291-339, 343-379 (drop the name case).
  • test_cultmesh.py:4150-4302 (sniffing and deletes by version against a sha256 id).
• Rust: tests/selection.rs:2134, 2151, 2179, 2193, 2216-2219.

4. C1.1: the C# wire id is the version

This is a behaviour cut on src/GameCult.Networking and src/GameCult.Mesh, plus the shared selection fixture with Rust.

The store id and the wire id stay separate. descriptor.SchemaId (sha256) keeps keying CultCache and every in-process dictionary. The wire id is descriptor.SchemaVersion. Once the override is deleted (OQ-C1.1), the wire id derives from the descriptor alone, with no registry. That is what lets the selection evaluator, the mesh and the database compute it without a binding.

How a C# reader maps <name>.vN to its descriptor:

• _bindingsBySchemaId is keyed by binding.SchemaId, which now equals SchemaVersion.
• An unbound registry looks the version up among its descriptors.
• C# already refuses two types for one (name, version) in a registry (CultCache.cs RegisterDescriptor, "One type owns a schema"), and c2a's Register refuses two types for one binding id. So an exact version lookup has at most one answer.
• Two types sharing version "1" cannot both be bound, because "1" is refused first.

File changes:

• CultNetDocumentRegistry.cs:76-135 ForDocument<T> and ForDocument(Type…): delete the schemaId parameter (OQ-C1.1). The binding id is descriptor.SchemaVersion.
• CultNetDocumentBinding: the internal constructor at :44 takes the id from the descriptor.
• CultNetDocumentRegistry.cs:173 Register: before c2a's conflict check, refuse a binding whose id fails ^.+\.v[0-9]+$. Throw CultSchemaConflictException or ArgumentException, naming the type, the declared version, and the rule. The refusal happens at registration, never at first send.
• CultNetDocumentRegistry.cs:675-676 WireSchemaId: becomes descriptor.SchemaVersion, checked by the same rule, so an unbound "1" type is refused when it is first emitted. Every emitter below calls it.
• CultNetDocumentRegistry.cs:616-645 ToRawRecord: the synthesized binding at :621-626 uses WireSchemaId, not descriptor.SchemaId.
• CultNetDocumentRegistry.cs:217-228 CreateDocumentDeleteMessage(string schemaId…): add CreateDocumentDeleteMessage<T>(messageId, CultRecordHandle<T>), which derives the wire id. Keep the string overload, documented as "the wire id".
• CultNetDatabase.cs emitters: publish the wire id wherever a CultNetDatabaseChange.SchemaId leaves the process.
  • CultNetDatabaseServer.cs:555/581 (removal change) sends WireSchemaId(descriptor), not change.SchemaId. The change record keeps the sha256 locally.
  • CultNetDatabase.cs:1554 ToLogEntryMessage Delete.SchemaId becomes the wire id.
  • CultNetDatabase.cs:1512 ApplyCommittedDelete resolves the incoming delete id through the one exact lookup, not GetRequiredBySchemaId.
  • Error text at :1664, :1725 names the wire id.
• Durable shard log (CultNetShardMutationLogStorage.cs:60-88, CultNetDatabase.cs:586-591, 1385-1409):
  • It persists store ids. Append rewrites each entry's schemaId (put document and delete) to descriptor.SchemaId.
  • GetMutationLogMessages restamps with WireSchemaId on the way out.
  • KeyOf (:1399-1409, the restart rebuild of _lastWriteSequence) reads store ids and so agrees with the live writes at :1294, 1486, 1531. That also fixes the rebuild disagreement that exists today when a binding overrides the id.
  • Existing log files hold sha256 for default bindings, which is the store id, so nothing on disk changes. Only logs written through an override hold a foreign id, and only the interop peer used one. No repo outside CultLib uses CultNetFileShardMutationLogStore (grep over F:\Projects).
• Request filters that send the sha256 today switch to WireSchemaId:
  • CultNetDatabaseSubscriptionClient.cs:70-71;
  • CultMeshClient.cs:602, 843, 944;
  • CultMesh.cs:2696 (RequestPeerSnapshotAsync) and :2038;
  • CultMeshSnapshots.cs:874 ResolveDefaultSelection.
• Shard catalog and config: CultNetShardDescriptor.SchemaIds and CultNetClientAuthorityScope.SchemaIds are wire ids. They are documented so, and matched exactly (C1.0).
• CultMesh projection sources and binding records (CultMesh.cs:1521, 1602, 1972, 2032, 2273, 2300, 2331, 2357, 2384, 2413; CultMeshSnapshots.cs:530, 555) cross the wire as CultMeshStateBindingRecord [Key(3)] (CultMeshPrimitives.cs:3334). Stamp them with the version.
  • The collection and feed ids built from them (CultMesh.cs:2298, 2329, 2382, 2411, 3266) move to the version too.
  • The cultmesh-ts type of the same shape then agrees.
• Selection order and cursor (CultNetSelectionEvaluator.cs:213-214, 318, 345, 586, 593): tie-break and cursor on the wire id, as Rust does on its binding id.
  • This changes a wire-visible order: the parity vector R-AJ flips (leaf_a.v1 < leaf_b.v1, where the sha256 order was b1f2… < ff35…).
  • Cursors minted before the upgrade stop resuming. That is acceptable, because cursors are per session.
• Shared fixture, landed in this cut with the Rust side:
  • contracts/cultnet/interop/selection-vectors.fixture.json: schemaId becomes the version. Delete nameAlias and hashAlias.
  • Regenerate selection-vectors.cs-written.json and selection-vectors.rs-written.json.
  • SelectionParityVectorTests.cs:112-117, 156-159 assert the fixture ids equal the declared versions. Delete the alias cases at :235, :238, :329; keep the refusal of an unknown id at :325.
  • Rust cultnet-rs/tests/selection.rs:1561-1690, 1849 (vector writer): drop the alias rows; order by the version.
• Left alone: global:{descriptor.SchemaId} record keys (CultCache.cs:2473, CultNetDatabase.cs:1120). They are a record key, not a schema id, and changing them changes store keys. See F-C1-GLOBALKEY.
• Schema catalog: CultNetSchemaRegistry holds JSON-Schema contracts keyed by $id URL, and no production C# host answers a catalog request (Server.cs:565 is an allowlist only). The only document-payload registrations are the interop peer's, which C1.5 changes. Nothing to cut here.

5. C1.2: TypeScript

Runtime packages cultcache-ts, cultnet-ts, cultmesh-ts and cultmesh-browser.

• cultcache-ts/src/document.ts:82-91 schemaIdentityOf stays the store identity, unchanged.
• cultnet-ts owns the wire: export function wireSchemaIdOf(definition) returns schemaIdentityOf(definition).schemaVersion. The store keeps a definition with no declared version valid; only a wire registration refuses it.
• cultnet-ts/src/replication.ts:52-80 register:
  • refuse a version failing /\.v\d+$/ with SchemaConflictError or TypeError, naming the type;
  • key #owners by wireSchemaIdOf;
  • #listers keep the declared compatible ids (OQ-C1.2).
  • The conflict check at :59-71 also compares wire ids.
• Outgoing ids: schemaIdForBinding (:349-351) splits in two.
  • Outgoing messages (:123, :178, :287 put echo) use wireSchemaIdOf.
  • applyRawDocumentPutMessage (:280-290) keeps storing under the store id, schemaIdentityOf(...).schemaId. That is the leak point: today the same function feeds both.
• Serving (:196-260, :363-368 schemaIdForEnvelope, :336-345 #createRawDocumentRecord):
  • A served record carries wireSchemaIdOf(binding), never envelope.schemaId.
  • A record stored under a compatible id holds that version's bytes. It is decoded and re-encoded through the owning definition before it is served under the owner's id. This matches C#, which serializes from the decoded document (CultNetDocumentRegistry.cs:640).
  • answersTo (:354-361) matches the requested id against the binding's wire id (and its compatible ids if OQ-C1.2 is yes).
  • Tests cultnet.test.ts:1627-1664 (the wire id equals the store id), :1703-1708 (served under the stored id) and :1713-1744 (a version id does not resolve) are inverted.
• cultnet-ts/src/shard-catalog.ts: exact after C1.0; shard ids are wire ids.
• cultmesh-ts:
  • cultMeshSchemaFromDefinition (index.ts:6168-6173): schemaId for peer reads is wireSchemaIdOf.
  • syncDocumentFromPeerSnapshot (:3995-4019) and cultMeshDocumentFromPeerSnapshot (:2668-2710) ask by wire id.
  • resolveCultMeshStoreDocumentRecord / cultMeshAcceptedSchemaIds (:6243-6256) are store-local and stay on schemaIdentityOf.
  • The receipt filter at :5976 compares receiptBinding.definition.schemaId, which is undefined when not declared. Compare with wireSchemaIdOf.
• Put-serve overlap (not on c2a): hands/cultmesh-put-serve-bound adds #rawPutEnvelope and createRawSnapshotResponseForPut to this file, on main's shape resolution (preserveIncomingSchemaId). After the merge, the put-sizing response must be built by the same serving path, so it carries the wire id.
• cultmesh-browser: exact after C1.0. samples/eve-browser-network declares or asks by version.
• Consumer action, not in CultLib: Stonks stonks-daemon.cjs:152-195 sets schemaVersion to the full id. It lands in Stonks before C1 merges to main.

6. C1.3: Python

• cultcache_py/documents.py:105-143 catalog_entry stays the store identity. Add wire_schema_id(definition) in cultnet_py, returning schema_version.
• Registration in cultnet_py and cultmesh_py refuses a version failing \.v\d+$.
• Outgoing ids use wire_schema_id:
  • cultmesh_py/node.py:577 (put), :641 (delete), :824-827 (sync);
  • client.py:430 (subscribe);
  • node.py:767, 776 (snapshot, never the stored id; a compatible-id record is re-encoded as in TS);
  • server.py:617-633 (catalog).
  • server.py:416, 444 echo a record that has already been resolved exactly, so it carries a wire id.
• Applied records keep being stored under the local store id: replication.py:42, 84, node.py:664-670.
• Inverted tests: test_cultmesh.py:4116-4148 (a version request is served under the sha256 id) and :4215-4258 (echo of a foreign id).
• interop_peer.py:1085 serves the stored id; that moves in C1.5.

7. C1.4: Rust mesh and Kotlin

• Rust. The wire id is already the version on every consumer binding.
  • for_entry::<T>() (cultnet-rs/src/replication.rs:44-47) has no consumer. It binds T::TYPE, which fails the refusal unless it ends in .vN. Refuse it at register like any other id without a version. Keep the constructor, so a type whose TYPE is x.v1 still works.
  • for_entry_with_schema_id(id, version) (:50-64): refuse id != version or a missing .vN. That is one id, and cultmesh_documents! already passes the same string twice.
  • register (replication.rs) applies the rule.
  • The apply path keeps stamping binding.schema_id (:400). That is what Odin, Muninn and the rest store today, so nothing on disk changes.
  • pull_rudp_catalog_snapshot (cultmesh-rs/src/lib.rs:714-747) stamps the resolved binding's id. It is exact after C1.0, so no foreign id is written.
  • Rust's mixed store ids (typed put stamps T::TYPE at cultcache-rs/src/lib.rs:2362; apply stamps the version) are left as they are. That is C2's question, F-C1-RUSTSTOREID.
• Kotlin.
  • register (CultMesh.kt:79-93) refuses a schemaVersion failing \.v\d+$.
  • The interop codecs at CultMesh.kt:3872-3880, 4317-4322, 4351-4354, 3779-3789 put the contract URL in schemaVersion. They become cultnet.interop_note.v0 and the capability *.v0 versions. Kotlin's own suite (CultMesh.kt self-checks) moves with them.

7b. C1.5: the interop harness tests the default binding

The parity witness hid the mismatch because every peer names the note by its JSON-Schema $id URL. C1.5 removes the overrides so each runtime's default binding meets the others.

• C# tests/GameCult.Networking.InteropPeer/Program.cs:
  • :77-80, :201-204: ForDocument<CultNetInteropNote>(payloadSerializer:…, payloadDeserializer:…) with no id. The id is cultnet.interop_note.v0.
  • :1183-1196: four capability bindings with no id; their versions are *.v0 (:1560-1572).
  • Delete the *SchemaId URL constants.
  • LoadSchemaRegistration (:1116-1137): the catalog registration's SchemaId becomes InteropSchemaVersion. The JSON $id stays inside SchemaJson.
  • The catalog server at :682-714 stops copying SchemaId into SchemaVersion.
• TS packages/cultnet-ts/test/interop/cultnet-interop-shared.ts:10-19, 289-306 and cultnet-interop-peer.ts:123, 135, 896-930: definitions declare schemaVersion and no schemaId override. The note id constant is at cultnet-interop.test.ts:43.
• Python cultnet_py/interop_peer.py:59-68, 869-884, 936-981, 1085, 1149.
• Rust cultnet-rs/examples/cultnet_interop_peer.rs:56-67, 1227-1261: for_entry_with_schema_id with the version only.
• Kotlin: C1.4.
• The Python cultmesh scripts inside cultnet-interop.test.ts:3872-4060 declare schema_version only.
• The added negative lane is one scenario in cultnet-interop.test.ts. A C# host serves a note from a CultMesh-created registry (CultMesh.CreateCultNetDocumentRegistry, the production path). A TS reader:
  • asks by cultnet.interop_note.v0 and gets it;
  • asks by cultnet.interop-note (the name) and gets not-found;
  • asks by the sha256 id and gets not-found.
• CI: .github/workflows/cultnet-interop.yml:141-163 already runs every pair lane. The new scenario joins the TypeScript and C# pattern.

8. Verification

Each rule gets a behavioural test that fails when the rule breaks, plus the ecosystem mutation tool on the cut's diff: Stryker.NET, StrykerJS, mutmut, cargo-mutants. Kotlin has no tool, so its rules are defended by scenario.

Positive, across runtimes, with default bindings (C1.5 lanes, run on Yggdrasil in ack1d-interop:2):

• A C# host with a CultMesh-created registry publishes a note, and TS, Rust, Python and Kotlin each read it. Each asks only by cultnet.interop_note.v0.
• Then each non-C# host publishes, and C# reads.
• The wire bytes carry schemaId = cultnet.interop_note.v0. Assert the decoded CultNetRawDocumentRecord, not a log line.

Negative checks:

• No fallback. In each runtime, a record at the requested key under another id is not returned (TS, C#, browser), and a payload whose slot 0 names a registered version but whose id is foreign is refused (C#, Python).
  • Mutant: restore ?? atKey[0], or restore the byPayload or aliased branch. It must die.
• Unknown id refused.
  • C# DeserializeRawDocument with gamecult.unknown.v1 throws. Today it returns Note (probed).
  • TS, Python, Rust and Kotlin applyRawDocumentPut with an unknown id throw.
• No name match. Asking by schemaName finds nothing, in every runtime and in the selection evaluator (C# and Rust). Mutant: add || candidate == descriptor.SchemaName.
• Refusal.
  • Registering a C# binding for a [CultDocument("x", "1")] type throws at Register and names the type.
  • An unbound "1" type in a registry with no bindings throws at first emission.
  • TS, Python, Rust and Kotlin refuse "v1" and "1", and accept x.v0 and x.v12.
  • Mutants that must die: \.v\d*$ (accepts x.v), .v anywhere, and \d+$ alone (accepts "1").
• The wire id is derived from the declaration, not a constant. Two types with different versions each emit their own. A mutant that returns SchemaName + ".v1" must die, so use a fixture whose version is not <name>.v1: the interop note's name is cultnet.interop-note and its version is cultnet.interop_note.v0.
• The store id is untouched.
  • A C# store written before C1 is read after it. dump.py shows record ids unchanged after a C1 host reads and serves.
  • A TS store with schemaId: "p1.shared" keeps that id after a raw put arrives under p1.shared.v1.
  • Mutant: store under the wire id. It must die.
• The served id is not the stored id. A TS or Python record stored under a compatible id is served under the owner's wire id, with bytes that decode as the owner. Mutant: serve envelope.schemaId.
• Durable log.
  • A C# database with CultNetFileShardMutationLogStore writes, restarts, and replays to a replica. The replayed entries carry the version, and LastWriteSequence after the restart equals the value before it.
  • A log file written before C1 (sha256 entries) replays under the version.
• Selection. The parity vectors agree C#↔Rust with version ids. The tie-break vector R-AJ orders by version.
• Catalog lookup. A catalog with two handles of one type refuses a by-schema lookup and names both document ids (C# and TS). Mutant: return the first or last handle.

Builds. These are the focused set, with no workspace-wide build:

• dotnet test on GameCult.Networking.Tests and GameCult.Mesh.Tests;
• npm test in cultnet-ts, cultmesh-ts and cultmesh-browser;
• pytest in cultnet-py and cultmesh-py;
• cargo test -p cultnet-rs -p cultmesh-rs;
• the Kotlin self-check;
• the interop lanes. All of them run on Yggdrasil through ygg-verify.sh.

Negative greps, which must return nothing in src/ and packages/*/src:

• CultNetSchemaAliasMatching|InferSchemaName|inferSchemaName|_infer_schema_name|infer_schema_name
• strip_schema_version_suffix|schema_alias|PayloadMatchesSchema|TryReadSchemaVersion|firstRecordAtKey
• bySchemaNameVersion|ExpandSchemaBindingAliases
• in CultNetDocumentRegistry.cs: schemaId: as a ForDocument parameter.

Live consumer checks, after release and before any consumer bumps:

• Stonks has its six versions fixed. idunn shows Odin holding Stonks' provider_advertisement after a Stonks restart on C1.
• AquaSynth daemon and clients rebuilt together; the Dings host round-trips.
• Mimir EveDashboard is visible in Eve Android.
• Bifrost agent-transport snapshot and apply round-trip.
• Odin still ingests from Heimdall, VoidBot, weksa and StreamPixels. Those ids do not change.
• Grep Idunn and Odin for a receiving binding of idunn.daemon_health with no version. If one exists, it is refused at startup under C1.4. It was not found in main.

9. Sequencing

1. F2 finishes first. C1 and F2 touch different layers:
   • F2 is store-side: CultCache.cs Claimant, the single-file and directory stores, and the Rust catalog lay-back.
   • C1 is wire-side.
   • They overlap in three places:
     • cultnet-ts/src/replication.ts. F2 and batch 10 built owner-beats-lister and the #listers refusal (F9, F10) there, and C1.2 re-keys #owners by wire id. The lister rule is kept, with OQ-C1.2 deciding its wire reach.
     • cultnet-ts/test/cultnet.test.ts:1346-1394, 1627-1744. C1.2 inverts tests F2's batches wrote.
     • cultnet_py/replication.py schema_document_map.
   • C1 does not relabel any stored record and adds no store write, so F2's rule ("never relabels … a write over it is refused") is not in play. F2's test 976b57f1 ("each runtime's writes leave another runtime's records and catalog entries unchanged") must stay green through C1.
   • Hands on F2 should not be interrupted. C1 starts after F2's Soul pass holds.
2. Then put-serve merges to main (hands/cultmesh-put-serve-bound, based on b04d03b6).
   • It edits cultnet-ts/src/replication.ts on main's resolution. Main still has preserveIncomingSchemaId and payload-shape resolution, which c2a deleted in 0ee98e8c.
   • It also edits cultmesh-ts/src/index.ts, cultmesh_py/server.py and node.py, and cultmesh-rs.
3. Then c2a merges main. This is the conflict to resolve before C1, whatever C1 is:
   • c2a's exact resolution plus put-serve's createRawSnapshotResponseForPut;
   • main's R1 changes to CultNetDocumentRegistry.cs (rowFilter) against c2a's Register refusal.
   • C1 re-anchors on that merge commit. Every anchor above names its symbol for that reason.
4. C1 cuts, in order, on the variants branch (or hands/variants-c1id cut from it):
   • C1.0 C# subtraction;
   • C1.0 TS, Python, Rust and Kotlin subtraction, one cut per runtime or together, since they are deletions only;
   • C1.1 C# wire id with the shared selection fixture and Rust selection order;
   • C1.2 TS;
   • C1.3 Python;
   • C1.4 Rust and Kotlin;
   • C1.5 harness.
   • The interop lane is red between C1.1 and C1.5 on the branch. Soul measures at C1.5.
   • Stonks' fix lands before the variants branch merges to main.
5. Release. C1 is wire-breaking between C# peers of different releases, because an old host sends sha256 and a new receiver refuses it. It rides the C0/C2a release that the 2026-09-30 ruling already gates. The release note names: C# peers upgrade together, the refusal of versions without .vN, and Stonks.

10. Ledger estimate

Cut	Deleted (src)	Added (src)	Tests	Notes
C1.0 C#	~290: alias class 58; registry block ~175; mesh branches ~35; expand ~40	~40 exact lookups	~15 tests inverted, ~6 deleted	public API removed: CultNetSchemaAliasMatching, TryResolveDescriptorByPayloadSchema, PayloadMatchesSchema
C1.0 TS/Py/Rust/Kt	~230: selection schema_alias ~140 with tests; Python infer/sniff ~45; TS infer/HELD/catalog keys ~45	~20	~25 tests deleted or inverted
C1.1 C#	~30 (override parameter, sha256 fallbacks)	~80 (refusal, log restamp, emitters)	~20 changed; fixture and vectors regenerated	wire-visible order change
C1.2 TS	~15	~50 (wireSchemaIdOf, refusal, serve re-encode)	~10
C1.3 Py	~10	~40	~8
C1.4 Rs/Kt	~5	~25	~6
C1.5 harness	~60 URL constants and overrides	~40 negative lane	—
Net	~-640 / +295 src, about -345			Nothing on disk changes. Two public C# methods and one public C# class are gone.

11. Operator questions

OQ-C1.1: delete the per-binding wire-id override?

• The overrides are C# ForDocument(schemaId:), Rust's free first argument of for_entry_with_schema_id, and the implicit TS and Python schemaId-on-the-wire.
• A. Delete. The declared version is the one wire id, and it derives from the descriptor alone, so the selection evaluator, the durable log and the mesh need no registry to compute it. No repo outside CultLib passes the override; only CultLib's interop peer and two conflict tests do.
• B. Keep it, but refuse ids without .vN. A second declaration of identity survives beside the version, and every descriptor-only site (evaluator order, cursor, log, projections) needs the registry again. That is today's WireSchemaId split.
• Recommendation: A. It removes a public parameter, which the CultLib consumer rule asks to be put to you rather than cut silently. What a reasonable consumer loses is the ability to put an id on the wire that its declaration does not state. That is the thing C1 rules out.
• C1.1's shape depends on the answer.

OQ-C1.2: does declared compatibility (CompatibleSchemaIds) resolve on the wire?

• A. Yes, with the same rule the stores use: owner beats lister, and two listers with no owner are refused. A v2 type that declares x.v1 compatible accepts a v1 peer's records, so mixed-version peers work when an author declares it. It is declared, never inferred. c2a's TS and Python registries already do this. Served records always go out under the owner's wire id, re-encoded (§5).
• B. No, wire resolution is the owner only. Compatible ids become store-only. It is simpler, and a version bump is a hard break between peers.
• Recommendation: A. It is the rule the operator ruled for stores (owner beats lister), applied to one more layer. It is not aliasing, because nothing is guessed.
• C1.0's Python map, C1.2's #listers, and the C# lookup depend on the answer.

Defaulted, not asked. Veto if wrong:

• TS and Python keep their default version ${name}.v1 when none is declared.
• A served record stored under a compatible id is re-encoded through its owner, as C# does.
• global:{sha256} record keys stay.
• Rust's apply path keeps stamping the binding id.
• A catalog lookup by schema that more than one handle answers is refused.
• Stonks is fixed in Stonks.

12. Follow-ups (no cut owns them)

• F-C1-GLOBALKEY: global:{descriptor.SchemaId} keys (CultCache.cs:2473, CultNetDatabase.cs:1120) carry the sha256 across the wire as a record key. This is for C2.
• F-C1-RUSTSTOREID: Rust stores hold T::TYPE for typed puts and the version for replicated puts. Its catalog fabricates version <TYPE>.v1 (cultcache-rs/src/lib.rs:2694-2708) even where cultmesh_documents! declares another one. The derive cannot declare a version (cultcache-rs-derive/src/lib.rs:24-33), which is a gap beside the other runtimes. This is for C2.
• F-C1-PYALIAS: Python cultmesh _documents_alias compares two local definitions by name and version. It is redundant under one-type-per-schema, but local.
• F-C1-HEALTHID: Bifrost sends idunn.signed_daemon_health without .v1 (persona-feedback-idunn-health.cjs:41), where every other sender uses .v1. It is pre-existing and unrelated to C1.
• F-C1-AEVE-CONST: the AetheriaEve daemon compares wire ids with version constants (Program.cs:1591) and so never matched under sha256. It is archaeology; record only.

F2 forks (operator, 2026-10-01)

These came from the C2a F2 Hands at a771e71b.

• Fork A: RULED, forbid slot reuse. Operator: "Forbid slot reuse. This is expected behavior for any MessagePack or protobuf veterans."
  • A whole-view write keeps laying back records the type does not own.
  • Registration refuses a type that puts a different member in a slot the stored catalog shows was used before. This follows protobuf's reserved field numbers.
  • VariantTests.AFlushShedsAnOverrideOfADroppedSlotSoALaterTypeReusingTheSlotDoesNotResurrectIt is rewritten to pin the refusal instead.
• Fork B: DEFERRED, foreign records in TS, Python and Rust. Operator: "Foreign records in other runtimes can wait, I suppose, though I don't love leaving parity on the table."
  • Today those runtimes refuse to open a store that holds a record they cannot claim. That is safe, but it is not parity with C#.
  • Carrying foreign records needs their whole-store writers taught first: TS pushAll via CultMesh flush, and Rust put_prepared_batch → push_all.
  • Recorded as the next parity cut, not dropped.

Soul: cultcache-ts push identity (hands/cultcache-ts-push-identity 1d6e1364..a00bb01f, 2026-10-01)

Verdict: hold, not merged. Recorded under drain mode; no fix dispatched.

• Held: the Stonks duplicate is fixed; the suites on a merge with main are green (cultcache-ts 54/54 with four-runtime interop, cultnet-ts 198/198, cultmesh-ts 128 passing).
• F1 (CONFIRMED, high): isSameRecord (single-file-messagepack-backing-store.ts:284-286) still matches on the stored label. When one definition's type equals another's schemaName, a put or delete for one destroys the other's record at the same key, globals included. The branch's own test "an envelope with no catalog entry replaces a record stored under another schema id that carries its label" pins this hole. The coherent cut: the cache resolver hands the store the persisted identity (key plus schemaId), and the store compares only that.
• F2 (CONFIRMED, high): Python (stores.py:54-67, 105-119) has the same duplicate bug. A second put_global makes the store unloadable.
• F3 (CONFIRMED, medium): Rust entry_id is (type, key), which duplicates records written by another runtime. Rust also writes its TYPE into the catalog schemaName slot, a parity defect.
• F4: mutant MA (legacy global labelled by schema name) survives; the rule needs a committed test.
• F5 (PLAUSIBLE, high after c2a): c2a's compatible-owned ids plus clause 1 let a non-owner's write delete the owner's record. c2a's encodeSnapshot ${type}::${key} is a second identity authority.
• Probes survive as unreachable commit 1c7744e2 (ts, rs, py); recover them before gc.

Soul: C2a F2 keep unknown records (hands/variants-c2a 92d9e138..a771e71b, 2026-10-01)

Verdict: hold, not merged. Recorded under drain mode; no fix dispatched. The core promise holds: a C# write neither destroys nor relabels a record it doesn't claim. Checked on the real Aetheria.cc (206 records): 0 record or entry differences after a commit and a flush.

• F1 (CONFIRMED, medium): C# decodes and re-encodes laid-back catalog entries (CultDocumentMessagePackSerialization.cs:501,567, CultCache.cs:3847-3851). Unknown entry and member fields are dropped, and nil and int widths are normalized. Fix: carry the raw entry bytes.
• F2 (CONFIRMED, medium): laying back a loaded foreign record reverts a newer write by its owner and moves storedAt backwards (CultCache.cs:3831-3836, breaks F6). Fix: lay back only while the file still holds the loaded (id, storedAt).
• F3 (CONFIRMED, medium): one refused flush blocks every later write to other records. The directory store stays stuck until restart (CultCache.cs:3827-3831, DirectoryMessagePackBackingStore.cs:249-253). Breaks "writes to other records proceed".
• F4 (low): a laid-back record marks the v3 header without holding ids (CultCache.cs:3731).
• F5 (plausible, low): an in-place change to a laid-back document is dropped silently.
• F6: mutants H2 (CultCache.cs:3850) and R2 (lib.rs:2663) survive.
• The main merge is its own Hands cut.
  • 8 files conflict, including about 74 KB in lib.rs.
  • Main refuses a zero-byte store; c2a reads it as an empty v1 store.
  • Main's CultMeshStreamingTests.cs:919 uses MeshNoteAliasDocument, which c2a deleted.
  • The rough merge fails in Caching, Mesh (compile), TS and Python.
• ADeterministicIdIsTheSameUnderEveryCulture… fails at the base too: the image is globalization-invariant.

Store authorities (Modeling, body at hands/variants-c2a 705ab669, 2026-10-03)

Source: cuts merge-r1 (closed, reports h2-h6) and mesh-single-file-reader (closed, report h1). Every file:line is at 705ab669; re-find by symbol when the branch moves. This section supersedes the Body facts in section 1 about raw readers (the Mesh legacy snapshot decoder and ReadLegacyPersistedRecord no longer exist) and the merge notes in the C2a Soul sections below. C#, Rust, TypeScript and Python each have one single-file reader, and CultMesh reaches CultCache's reader, lock and replace through one internal entry.

Abbreviations: CS src/GameCult.Caching/CultCache.cs (SingleFileBackingStore :3627-4140), CSM src/GameCult.Caching.MessagePack/CultDocumentMessagePackSerialization.cs, MESH src/GameCult.Mesh/CultMeshSingleFileDocuments.cs, RS packages/cultcache-rs/src/lib.rs, TS packages/cultcache-ts/src/single-file-messagepack-backing-store.ts, PY packages/cultcache-py/src/cultcache_py/stores.py, AUTH packages/cultnet-ts/src/idunn-runtime-authority.ts.

The one door per runtime, and who walks through it:

Runtime	The reader	Callers that must use it
C#	SingleFileBackingStore.ReadSnapshot CS:3997 over ReadDisk CS:4026	PullAllCore CS:3665, PushAll CS:3768, CommitBatchCore CS:3799, ReadDurable CS:4014, ReplaceDurable CS:4016; MESH:164, :195, :245
Rust	read_store_unlocked RS:935 (header by store_header RS:389)	read_all_unlocked RS:924 (pull_all RS:1243 and the read-only snapshot), write_all_unlocked RS:983, soft push_all RS:1268
TypeScript	readSingleFileStore TS:153 (bytes by readStoreBytes TS:174), exported from packages/cultcache-ts/src/index.ts:4	the store's #readDisk TS:108 (pullAll, push, delete, pushAll); AUTH:321 readAuthorityRecord
Python	pull_all decode path PY:123-140 (_read_store PY:265, _decode_snapshot PY:296)	push, push_all, delete call pull_all (PY:142-152)

A. Header decision (what the file is, and what header a write carries)

• Owner. Read side: the reader in the table above. C#: CSM.DeserializeSnapshot :188 (whole-array proof :245-269), then RequireSingleFileFormat :273, reached through SingleFileMessagePackBackingStore.DeserializeSnapshot CSM:592. Rust: store_header RS:389 is the only classifier of leading bytes (it returns first and the whole-array proof separately), then readable_store_format RS:2890 and decode_store_file RS:2901. TS: decodeStoreFile TS:423. Python: _decode_snapshot PY:296. Write side: the header is derived from what the reader just saw. C#: HeaderFor CS:3439, fed by disk?.FormatVersion in PushAll and CommitBatchCore, and by existing?.FormatVersion from MESH:247. Rust: encode_store_snapshot RS:2793, fed by the DiskStore read in write_all_unlocked RS:992. TS: #format, set by the pre-write read (TS:48-52, :86-100) and used by encodeSnapshot TS:136. Python: _format, set in pull_all, used by _encode_snapshot PY:245.
• Inputs. The bytes at the path. Outputs. The decoded store with header and catalog; or a typed refusal (CultStoreUnreadableException in C#; CultCacheStoreUnreadable{path, kind} in Rust, kind Undecodable or UnsupportedFormat; StoreUnreadableError in TS and Python). A refusal names a header only as cultcache.store.v<digits>.
• Derived state. The write header is never decided by the writer: it is the reader's verdict (header read, whole-store flag, whether ids or variants are held). A rewrite of a file that cannot be read cannot happen, because the reader throws first.
• Forbidden writers. A second header classifier. Deleted: Rust leading_header, read_array_header, read_string; cultnet-ts's own decode of the store header; the TS async readStore; Rust StoreUnreadableError (negative grep StoreUnreadableError in packages/cultcache-rs: no match); Python _decode_v1_snapshot.
• Shared paths. cultnet-ts reaches the header decision only through readSingleFileStore (AUTH:4, :321) and checks only record count, schema id and type. cultnet-ts therefore declares cultcache-ts ^0.15.0, the first release that exports it.
• Cut line. merge-r1 h3 (Rust) and h4 (TS, cultnet-ts); spec cut-merge-r1.r3 authority map.
• Pinned by. tests/vectors/document-variants-c2a/readability/manifest.txt, walked by StoreReadabilityTests.OpenReadsExactlyTheFilesTheVectorsSayItReads (C#), CultMeshSingleFileReadabilityTests.AWriteReplacesAFileExactlyWhenItReads (Mesh), a_file_is_replaced_exactly_when_it_reads (RS:5132), "SingleFileMessagePackBackingStore replaces a file exactly when it reads" (TS test :2321) and test_single_file_replaces_a_file_exactly_when_it_reads (Python). AUTH cases: packages/cultnet-ts/test/idunn-runtime-authority.test.ts. Declared divergences in the manifest: legacy-envelopes.bin (C# refuses; the others read and replace it) and variant-slot-v3.bin (C# reads; the others refuse).
• Known gaps. variants:follow_up:c0-bad-canonical-in-manifest (current-catalog-bad-canonical.msgpack is not in the manifest; TS reads it, Rust refuses). variants:follow_up:legacy-vectors-all-runtimes (the three legacy-catalog-* c0 vectors have a verdict only in C# tests; all four runtimes refuse them, probed). variants:follow_up:range-check-in-ci (npm run test:pack:ts builds every admitted tag and checks exports, but .github/workflows/publish-packages.yml does not run it).

B. Existence and links (what "nothing at the path" means)

• Owner. C#: ReadDisk CS:4026 decides absence from the path's attributes (-1), with PathIsALink CS:4057. Rust: is_absent RS:3049, inside read_store_unlocked RS:936-945. TS: readStoreBytes TS:174 (the read and the lstat must both find nothing; the lstat is a test seam). Python: _read_store PY:265.
• Inputs. The path's attributes and the read result. Outputs. Absent (an empty, unmarked store), or bytes, or an I/O error. Only nothing at the path is absent. A link whose target is gone is an I/O error in all four runtimes (C#: IOException for a file link and for a Windows directory junction, CS:4040-4048; Rust: io::Error; TS: an error with code ENOENT; Python: FileNotFoundError re-raised).
• Derived state. Mesh's FileNotFoundException is derived from the store reader's null (MESH:164, :195); Mesh no longer owns absence.
• Forbidden writers. File.Exists or any existence gate in MESH (negative grep File\.(Exists|ReadAllBytes|Delete|Move|WriteAllBytes)|HasOlderCatalogLayout|ReadLegacySchemaCatalogEntry|WriteFileAtomically|ReadSingleFileSnapshot over MESH: no match); a zero-length-means-absent shortcut; a writer's own read.
• Shared paths. Open, flush, commit, ReadDurable, ReplaceDurable. Rust pull_all RS:1243 also checks is_absent on the store and on the lock path before it takes the shared lock; that skips lock creation only, and the verdict stays with the reader.
• Cut line. merge-r1 h2 (C#) and h4/h6 (TS readStoreBytes); mesh-single-file-reader h1.
• Pinned by. C#: StoreReadabilityTests ADanglingFileLinkIsAnIoErrorOnOpenNotAnEmptyStore :208, ADanglingDirectoryLinkIsAnIoErrorOnOpenNotAnEmptyStore :185, and the commit variants :196, :219. Mesh: ADanglingLinkIsAnIoErrorOnTypedWriteRawWriteAndReadNeverAMissingFile :107 and OnlyNothingAtThePathIsAMissingFile :134 (CultMeshSingleFileStoreTests.cs). Rust: a_dangling_symlink_at_the_store_path_is_an_error_and_nothing_is_written RS:5832. TS: "readStoreBytes reports nothing at the path only when the lstat finds nothing too".
• Known gaps. The writer side still tolerates a dangling link: Rust write_all_unlocked RS:992-996 and TS pushAll TS:94-100 replace it on a whole-store write (variants:follow_up:writer-dangling-link-tolerance, owner c2a-write-set). What a replace does to a live link is variants:follow_up:store-replace-cut item 2. Windows junction behavior was proven at 42f05f66 and b1ff2dcb, not at the final head.

C. Zero-byte file

• Owner. None separate: a zero-byte file is bytes the one reader cannot decode. C#: ReadDisk returns the bytes and CSM.DeserializeSnapshot refuses them (the Length: > 0 shortcut is deleted). Rust: the store_header whole-array proof fails, Undecodable. TS: readSingleFileStore TS:158 wraps the decode error in StoreUnreadableError. Python: the unpackb failure is wrapped at PY:139-140.
• Inputs/outputs. Zero bytes in; a typed unreadable refusal out; every writer leaves the file as it was.
• Derived state. None. Forbidden writers. Any length === 0, is_empty or Length > 0 branch before decode (negative greps in spec cut-merge-r1.r3: Length: > 0 } bytes in CS, data.length === 0 in TS).
• Shared paths. Open, flush, commit, soft flush, Mesh typed and raw write, AUTH.
• Cut line. merge-r1 h1-h3; ruling variants:ruling:merge-r1-precedence.
• Pinned by. Manifest row zero-byte.bin (refuses x4) in every walk above; Mesh AReadOfAZeroByteFileIsRefusedAsUnreadableNotAsAMissingRecord and AZeroByteFileIsRefusedOnTypedAndRawWriteAndLeftAlone (CultMeshSingleFileStoreTests.cs:175); the AUTH zero-byte case.
• Known gaps. None open.

D. Directory at the path

• Owner. C#: the explicit clause in ReadDisk CS:4034-4035 (a directory that is not a link is an IOException; a directory link falls to the catch at CS:4045). Rust: fs::read fails with a non-NotFound error, kept as io::Error (RS:940-944). TS: readFileSync throws EISDIR. Python: Path.read_bytes raises an OSError.
• Outputs. An I/O error, never an empty store; the directory is untouched and the refusal text does not echo the path.
• Forbidden writers. Treating a directory as absent, or creating a store over it.
• Shared paths. Open, commit, Mesh read and write.
• Cut line. mesh-single-file-reader h1 (the C# clause). Rust, TS and Python were correct by construction of their reads.
• Pinned by. C#: ADirectoryAtTheStorePathIsAnIoErrorOnOpenAndOnCommitNotAnEmptyStore (StoreReadabilityTests.cs:236). Mesh: ADirectoryAtThePathIsAnIoErrorOnReadAndWriteAndIsLeftAlone (:149). Rust: a_write_over_a_directory_stops_at_the_read_and_leaves_no_staging_file RS:5726.
• Known gaps. TS and Python have no test for a directory at the store path. No follow-up is registered; the natural home is write-set-vectors with the other readability pins.

E. Lock

• Owner. C#: AcquireLock CS:4082 (<file>.lock, FileShare.None, 30 s wait), taken by PushAll CS:3766, CommitBatchCore CS:3795 and ReplaceDurable CS:4018, so Mesh writes wait for it. Rust: with_exclusive_lock RS:1038 and with_shared_lock RS:1031 (fs2 flock on <file>.lock, open_lock_file RS:1162), taken by pull_all and push_all. TS: no cross-process lock; a per-store promise queue (#enqueue) only. Python: threading.RLock PY:119, in-process only.
• Inputs/outputs. A read-modify-write request; the lock is held across the read and the replace for every writer that merges.
• Derived state. A writer's header and merge base come from a read taken inside the lock (C# PushAll, CommitBatchCore, ReplaceDurable; Rust write_all_unlocked). TS and Python take them from a read outside any cross-process lock.
• Forbidden writers. Any Mesh write outside AcquireLock (the former File.Delete plus File.Move writer and its fixed path + ".tmp" are deleted). C# readers on open take no file lock (ReadSnapshot), and Rust's read-only snapshot takes none by design.
• Shared paths. The C# store and the Mesh single-file helpers; the Rust store.
• Cut line. mesh-single-file-reader h1.
• Pinned by. Mesh AMeshWriteWaitsForTheStoreLock (CultMeshSingleFileStoreTests.cs:187, deterministic) and ConcurrentMeshWritersNeverErrorAndLeaveAReadableFile (:261); mutant m3 (ReplaceDurable without AcquireLock) killed.
• Known gaps. TS and Python have no cross-process lock; the mesh spec cites ruling variants:ruling:write-lock-python-now-ts-later, and no follow-up in this record carries the remaining TS work. variants:follow_up:store-replace-cut item 3: no test that ReplaceDurable reads under the lock. Prior art: docs/research/cross-process-file-locking-prior-art.md.

F. Replace (staging and atomic swap)

• Owner. C#: WriteSnapshotAtomically CS:4104 (unique temp .{name}.{guid}.tmp, WriteThrough, then File.Replace, or File.Move when nothing is there), called from WriteSnapshot CS:4062 and ReplaceDurable CS:4016. Rust: replace_unlocked RS:1010, stage_and_replace RS:3011, replace_file_atomically (unix rename RS:3095; Windows MoveFileExW with retry RS:3106), then sync_parent_directory RS:3198; outcomes Rejected, NotReplaced, ReplacedNotDurable. TS: #writeAll TS:124-141 and renameWithRetry TS:198 (unique temp, no fsync). Python: _replace_all PY:154-159 (fixed <path>.tmp, Path.replace, no fsync).
• Inputs/outputs. Encoded bytes in; the destination holds the old bytes or the new bytes, and a failed write removes its staging file (Rust pins the rename-failure path).
• Derived state. None.
• Forbidden writers. A second replace in a runtime. MESH's WriteFileAtomically is deleted; Mesh reaches the replace only through ReplaceDurable.
• Shared paths. C# cache flush, commit and Mesh writes; Rust write_all_unlocked.
• Cut line. mesh-single-file-reader h1 (C#). Rust's replace predates the campaign; merge-r1 h3 added its rename fault seam.
• Pinned by. Rust a_write_whose_rename_fails_is_not_replaced_and_leaves_no_staging_file (seam WriteStep::Rename RS:3212). Mesh ACacheOpeningDuringMeshWritesNeverSeesAnEmptyStore (:212, Linux only; it skips Windows).
• Known gaps. variants:follow_up:store-replace-cut: (1) the Windows primitive, decided by open question variants:question:windows-store-replace-primitive (probe: File.Replace gave 1,722 empty opens in 17,313 under Mesh writers; MoveFileExW and POSIX rename gave none; docs/research/windows-store-replace-prior-art.md); (2) what a replace does to a live symlink (Mesh pins parity with a cache commit, AMeshWriteOverALiveLinkLeavesWhatACacheCommitLeaves :287); (3) a read-under-lock test; (4) a live directory link misreported as unreachable. Python's fixed temp name lets two processes share one staging file (research doc above). Rust's Windows replace loop and its rename fault line are unmutated (h3, undone).

G. Soft write decision (a soft flush writes only where nothing is)

• Owner. The one reader decides; the writer does not. TS: pushAll TS:79-104 (absent writes; a readable store is left byte for byte; an unreadable one is refused; a dangling link is refused when soft). Rust: the soft branch of push_all RS:1268-1280 (!read_store_unlocked()?.absent returns). C#: none; CultMesh's FlushAsync(bool soft) accepts the flag and drops it (src/GameCult.Mesh/CultMesh.cs:433-436). Python: no soft flush. cultmesh-ts passes the flag (packages/cultmesh-ts/src/index.ts:4073).
• Inputs/outputs. A flush with soft; no write for a readable store, a write for an absent one, the reader's refusal otherwise.
• Derived state. None. Forbidden writers. A soft check that reads the file its own way (TS readStore once returned zero bytes as present; deleted in h4).
• Shared paths. TS pushAll and Rust push_all only.
• Cut line. merge-r1 h4 (TS) and h6 (Rust).
• Pinned by. The manifest walks run a soft flush over every vector in TS (the softPushAll operation, TS test :2336) and Rust (soft_push_all, RS:5149), each with an absent and a dangling-link case; a_soft_push_all_writes_where_nothing_is_and_refuses_a_dangling_link RS:6019.
• Known gaps. C# and Python have no soft decision, and the C# Mesh flag is dead; no follow-up is registered (h6 undone names it). writer-dangling-link-tolerance applies to the non-soft branch.

What no cut owns yet

c2a-write-set replaces ReplaceDurable with ApplyWriteSet (comment at CS:4012-4013) and decides writer-dangling-link-tolerance. write-set-vectors owns c0-bad-canonical-in-manifest and legacy-vectors-all-runtimes. merge-main owns range-check-in-ci. Imagination owns store-replace-cut.