Document gear provenance fantasy

docs/architecture/technology-item-manifest-plan.md

@@ -23,6 +23,72 @@ violence, trade, survival, logistics, or prestige.
 Ghostlight should turn worldbuilding exploration into the data needed to support
 that design.
 
+## Player Fantasy
+
+The deep gear model is not a loot-affix treadmill. The fantasy is provenance.
+
+A player hunting for the ultimate laser should be able to trace the item through
+its parts, makers, technologies, and accidents:
+
+- the emitter assembly came from a short-lived manufacturer whose process was
+  only stable for nine months
+- the beam-control wafer uses a regulatory-buried fabrication step no successor
+  company wants to admit worked
+- the thermal rejection assembly is sturdy but mediocre, quietly strangling the
+  whole weapon
+- a pirate rebuild replaced the targeting interface with a counterfeit part
+  that improves lock speed while making maintenance ugly
+- a factional embargo means the good driver wafers are technically illegal,
+  practically everywhere, and therefore excellent quest bait
+
+An "ultimate item" is not just the best blueprint. It is the best realized
+artifact: the right blueprint, built from the right assemblies, with the right
+quality, provenance, manufacturer practice, replacement history, and operating
+conditions. If a player wants to rebuild it as the best it can be, the game
+should let them hunt the supply chain: salvage yards, old corporate stockpiles,
+specialist shops, faction arsenals, black-market refits, inherited ships,
+forgotten factories, and small wars over a beam-control wafer some dead
+manufacturer only made for nine months before the board got eaten by regulators.
+
+This is why Ghostlight matters. A spreadsheet can name a laser. Ghostlight should
+help explain why that laser exists, who can build it, which parts are worth
+killing for, why a particular instance is special, and what stories fall out of
+trying to make it better.
+
+## Content Refinery
+
+The old bottleneck was not ideas. Ideas are cheap. Volunteer design goblins can
+produce a hill of them before lunch and leave the database work sitting there
+like a little corpse.
+
+The real bottleneck is converting taste, lore, mechanics, and future-tech
+imagination into loadable, reviewable, schema-shaped content. Ghostlight's
+technology pipeline should act as a content refinery:
+
+1. Ground the request in Aetheria lore: faction, era, location, tech base,
+   industrial limits, political pressure, and known source constraints.
+2. Decompose the concept into item families, assemblies, subassemblies,
+   components, materials, processes, tooling, facilities, expertise, and
+   supply-chain dependencies.
+3. Map each candidate onto the Aetheria-Economy blueprint model:
+   `SimpleCommodityData`, `CompoundCommodityData`, `ConsumableItemData`,
+   `GearData`, or another `EquippableItemData` subclass.
+4. Define performance intent through behaviors, `PerformanceStat` fields,
+   quality sensitivity, failure modes, upgrade surfaces, and operating
+   constraints.
+5. Define realized-instance variation: assembly provenance, manufacturer
+   branding, quality, repair history, counterfeit substitutions, salvage scars,
+   and ownership chain.
+6. Emit reviewable artifacts that separate source facts, inferred engineering,
+   branch-local assumptions, engine-schema gaps, rejected ideas, and accepted
+   candidates.
+7. Export or hand off accepted candidates as database-shaped content rather than
+   another swamp of clever prose someone has to manually translate later.
+
+The goal is not infinite content sludge. The goal is volume with preserved taste:
+many plausible blueprints, variants, manufacturers, counterfeit versions,
+salvage stories, and supply-chain hooks that still feel like Aetheria.
+
 ## Economy Schema Target
 
 Ghostlight should target the existing Aetheria-Economy item model instead of

notes/fresh-workspace-handoff.md

@@ -205,6 +205,20 @@ recipes, assembly trees, compatibility, tooling, facilities, process
 requirements, and supply-chain dependencies to the relevant blueprint as
 manifest metadata or engine-schema gaps until Aetheria-Economy exposes explicit
 storage for those details.
+The player-facing fantasy is provenance hunting. An ultimate laser is not only a
+high-stat blueprint; it is a realized artifact assembled from rare or excellent
+subsystems, manufacturer processes, repair history, counterfeit substitutions,
+salvage scars, ownership chains, and operating conditions. Players should be
+able to follow those threads through trade, salvage, espionage, faction access,
+obsolete factories, and miserable little wars over parts like a beam-control
+wafer some dead manufacturer only made for nine months before regulators ate the
+board.
+Ghostlight's job is to make that content scalable without turning it into
+sludge. Treat the technology pipeline as a content refinery: ground the concept
+in lore, decompose it into parts and supply chains, map it to the economy
+blueprint classes, define performance and instance variation, preserve review
+labels and source gaps, then emit database-shaped candidates instead of another
+spreadsheet swamp.
 
 The evaluation follow-up fixed the immediate v0 schema issues:
 

notes/ghostlight-current-system-map.md

@@ -325,5 +325,12 @@ simulation, inventory, cargo, provenance, branding, and world-state objects.
 Recipes, assembly trees, compatibility rules, tooling, facilities, process
 requirements, and supply-chain dependencies are blueprint metadata or
 engine-schema gaps attached to the relevant `*Data` class until the economy code
-has explicit storage for them. Do not materialize another capture until it has
-no failure or repair notes.
+has explicit storage for them. The player-facing gear fantasy is provenance
+hunting: players chasing an ultimate item should trace exceptional assemblies,
+manufacturer processes, repair history, counterfeit substitutions, supply-chain
+lineage, and operating constraints through the galaxy. The technology pipeline is
+therefore a content refinery: it grounds ideas in lore, decomposes them into
+parts and supply chains, maps them to economy blueprint classes, defines
+performance and instance variation, preserves review labels, and emits
+database-shaped candidates instead of spreadsheet sludge. Do not materialize
+another capture until it has no failure or repair notes.

state/evidence.jsonl

@@ -56,3 +56,4 @@
 {"ts": "2026-05-02T08:31:00+00:00", "type": "architecture", "status": "ok", "note": "Added technology/item manifest plan: coordinator-led Aetheria exploration must emit game-usable item families, variants, assemblies, subassemblies, components, faction tech bases, prerequisites, bottlenecks, compatibility rules, supply-chain consequences, upgrade paths, and quest hooks for both pre-Elysium starting tech and branch-local post-Rupture innovations."}
 {"ts": "2026-05-02T08:33:46+00:00", "type": "architecture", "status": "ok", "note": "Extended technology/item manifest plan to explicitly elaborate existing nebulous Aetheria timeline technologies into blueprint candidates. Manifest candidates must separate source facts, inferred engineering, and open lore gaps while decomposing tech into assemblies, subassemblies, components, materials, processes, tooling, facilities, quality tiers, failure modes, supply chains, and gameplay hooks."}
 {"ts": "2026-05-02T08:42:58+00:00", "type": "research", "status": "ok", "note": "Aetheria-Economy already provides the concrete item schema target: CultCache-backed ItemData subclasses are technological blueprints (SimpleCommodityData, CompoundCommodityData, ConsumableItemData, GearData/EquippableItemData), while ItemInstance subclasses represent realized runtime artifacts carrying quality/provenance/branding/world state. Ghostlight item manifests should map onto that model, with assembly trees, recipes, compatibility, tooling, facilities, process requirements, and supply-chain dependencies recorded as blueprint metadata or engine-schema gaps until the economy code exposes explicit storage."}
+{"ts": "2026-05-02T08:51:57+00:00", "type": "architecture", "status": "ok", "note": "Documented the player-facing gear fantasy and content-refinery framing: ultimate items should be provenance hunts through blueprint, assembly quality, manufacturer practice, supply-chain lineage, repair history, counterfeit substitution, and operating conditions; Ghostlight should convert lore-grounded ideas into reviewed database-shaped Aetheria-Economy candidates rather than another manual spreadsheet bottleneck."}

state/map.yaml

@@ -155,7 +155,9 @@ accepted_design:
   - Item blueprint candidates should decompose technologies into assemblies, subassemblies, components, materials, processes, tooling, facilities, quality tiers, failure modes, supply-chain dependencies, and gameplay hooks.
   - Ghostlight item manifests should target Aetheria-Economy's existing CultCache item model: `SimpleCommodityData`, `CompoundCommodityData`, `ConsumableItemData`, `GearData`, and other `EquippableItemData` subclasses are technological blueprint classes, while runtime `ItemInstance` classes carry realized quality, provenance, manufacturer branding, assembly history, and world-state placement.
   - Assembly trees, recipes, upgrade compatibility, tooling, facilities, process requirements, and supply-chain dependencies should attach to the relevant Aetheria-Economy blueprint as manifest metadata or engine-schema gaps until the economy code exposes explicit storage for them.
+  - The player-facing gear fantasy is provenance hunting: an ultimate item is the right blueprint realized through exceptional assemblies, quality, supply-chain lineage, manufacturer practice, repair history, substitutions, and operating conditions, so chasing power becomes salvage, trade, espionage, logistics, and faction conflict.
+  - Ghostlight's technology pipeline should function as a content refinery: ground ideas in lore and mechanics, decompose them into parts and supply chains, map them to Aetheria-Economy blueprint classes, define performance and instance variation, preserve review labels, and produce database-shaped candidates instead of spreadsheet sludge.
 
 current_status:
-  summary: Ghostlight now has the Epiphany-style persistence spine, the first architecture payload, the v0 canonical agent-state schema seam, prompt projection docs, immediate schema fixes from evaluation, first reviewed Cat/Oz projection examples, a revised Aetheria lore-grounding architecture, a lore grounding digest schema, the first draft Cold Wake historical grounding digest, a Cold Wake story-lab fixture, projection controls, validated Qwen capture receipts, a complete Cold Wake short story assembled from accepted projection outputs, a hand-authored Ink-backed Cold Wake branching scene, the first Qwen-generated Ink draft materialized from local awareness with reviewed training annotations, the first reviewed sequential branch mutation that updates both Maer and Sella after a sanctuary intake beat, a v2 sequential Qwen capture proving the symmetrical turn shape produces better action behavior, a v5 sequential Qwen capture proving local thinking-plus-tools invocation works for the scene runner, the first projected-local-context seam that routes sequential prompts through character-local operating prose instead of raw state variables, tightened receipt handling for projector-routed Qwen failures, a default no-thinking policy for strict sequential tool calls, a v10 no-thinking projector-routed capture accepted as draft, the first materialized projector-routed sequential Ink scene with reviewed mutation training data, a source-checked embodiment/interface projection surface for Navigator scenes, a formal source-first Aetheria generation doctrine, v11-v17 source-checked retry receipts showing improved Maer embodiment plus remaining Sella response/prompt-leak blockers, a soft-model training artifact doctrine, a concrete training plan, an explicit future-branch lane, Elysium branch event constraints, and a technology/item manifest plan for turning nebulous named tech into blueprint-grade components, assemblies, faction tech bases, supply chains, upgrade paths, and gameplay hooks mapped onto Aetheria-Economy's CultCache blueprint and instance model.
+  summary: Ghostlight now has the Epiphany-style persistence spine, the first architecture payload, the v0 canonical agent-state schema seam, prompt projection docs, immediate schema fixes from evaluation, first reviewed Cat/Oz projection examples, a revised Aetheria lore-grounding architecture, a lore grounding digest schema, the first draft Cold Wake historical grounding digest, a Cold Wake story-lab fixture, projection controls, validated Qwen capture receipts, a complete Cold Wake short story assembled from accepted projection outputs, a hand-authored Ink-backed Cold Wake branching scene, the first Qwen-generated Ink draft materialized from local awareness with reviewed training annotations, the first reviewed sequential branch mutation that updates both Maer and Sella after a sanctuary intake beat, a v2 sequential Qwen capture proving the symmetrical turn shape produces better action behavior, a v5 sequential Qwen capture proving local thinking-plus-tools invocation works for the scene runner, the first projected-local-context seam that routes sequential prompts through character-local operating prose instead of raw state variables, tightened receipt handling for projector-routed Qwen failures, a default no-thinking policy for strict sequential tool calls, a v10 no-thinking projector-routed capture accepted as draft, the first materialized projector-routed sequential Ink scene with reviewed mutation training data, a source-checked embodiment/interface projection surface for Navigator scenes, a formal source-first Aetheria generation doctrine, v11-v17 source-checked retry receipts showing improved Maer embodiment plus remaining Sella response/prompt-leak blockers, a soft-model training artifact doctrine, a concrete training plan, an explicit future-branch lane, Elysium branch event constraints, and a technology/item manifest plan for turning nebulous named tech into blueprint-grade components, assemblies, faction tech bases, supply chains, upgrade paths, gameplay hooks, provenance-hunting player fantasy, and content-refinery outputs mapped onto Aetheria-Economy's CultCache blueprint and instance model.
   next_action: Define the coordinator artifact schema so future story passes capture next-beat choice, glue prose, world-state refs, branch flags, unresolved hooks, and machinery invocations as trainable data, then return to the Sella prompt/rendering fix.