Thing/docs/eve-migration-roadmap.md

Eve Migration Roadmap

Date: 2026-07-08

The great Eve migration is the move from a useful pile of renderer proofs, fixtures, provider demos, and platform experiments into a kernel-shaped system: Eve core owns contracts, plugins own semantics, runtime repos own native projection, and provider repos own live truth.

This is not a repo cleanup campaign. It is an authority migration. The split is complete only when the old in-repo convenience paths can no longer decide provider truth, plugin semantics, or runtime behavior by accident.

Objective

Make Eve the stable interactive language for CultMesh surfaces without turning E:\Projects\Eve into a permanent warehouse.

The target shape:

• Eve core: surface contracts, CultUI DSL, command/binding descriptors, provider/plugin advertisement specs, browser reference, and conformance harness incubation.
• EvePlugins: first-party reusable semantic plugins while young.
• Owner repos: Sai owns VN/Ink, Norn owns graph semantics, providers such as Aetheria own live state and authored product surfaces.
• Runtime repos: EveUnity, EveFlutter, EveAndroid, EveIOS, EveGodot, EveElectron, Fensalir/Direct2D, and future bodies own projection, build glue, plugin host adapters, capture, and runtime tests.
• EveConformance: fixture corpus, parity runner, capability matrix, screenshot/report artifacts, plugin packs, and CI once the harness is stable enough to leave Eve core.

Current Authority Map

Owner:

• Eve owns gamecult.eve.surface.v1, gamecult.eve.command.v1, CultUI, provider/plugin advertisement contracts, plugin ABI shape, browser reference behavior, and parity/conformance policy.

Inputs:

• Local fixtures under web/fixtures.
• Incubating plugin manifests under plugins/incubating.
• Runtime claims in tools/parity/parity-manifest.json.
• Provider advertisements such as Repixelizer's local fixture.
• Hermodr/Odin/CultMesh live provider surfaces when available.

Outputs:

• Browser reference lowering.
• Runtime capability reports.
• Plugin capability gaps.
• Parity reports under artifacts/parity.
• Split targets and graduation triggers in the parity manifest.

Derived state:

• Local provider lists are fixture advertisements, not discovery truth.
• Runtime capability status is diagnostic, not provider authority.
• Screenshot/golden artifacts are evidence, not portable state.
• In-repo runtime/plugin bodies are incubation, not permanent ownership.

Forbidden writers:

• Runtime lowerers must not import provider internals to recover missing semantics.
• Plugins must not mutate provider truth or accept provider commands.
• Product demos must not become Eve core fixtures once they carry product state, assets, receipts, or deployment assumptions.
• Compatibility HTTP routes and browser tabs must not replace provider advertisements.
• Passing parity tests must not preserve a body that cannot name its owner, inputs, outputs, and split trigger.

Shared paths:

• Every runtime claim flows through tools/parity/parity-manifest.json.
• Every fixture belongs to a conformance pack: core, plugin, provider, or runtime.
• Every plugin claim names owner repo, split target, capabilities, required fixtures, and graduation trigger.
• Every runtime claim names owner repo, repo role, split target, supported features, plugin support, and graduation trigger.

Deletion line:

• Cut hardcoded provider tabs before adding new live providers.
• Cut renderer-specific product knowledge before claiming generic Eve support.
• Cut in-repo runtime/plugin bodies once their contract and release lifecycle stop changing.

Phase 0: Ledger And Contract Grounding

Status: underway.

Purpose: make ownership visible before moving code.

Work:

• Keep docs/repo-strategy.md as the repo boundary doctrine.
• Keep this roadmap as the migration sequence.
• Keep tools/parity/parity-manifest.json as the machine-readable ownership ledger.
• Keep docs/surface-contract-v1.md, docs/provider-advertisement-contract.md, and docs/plugin-architecture.md as the contract source of truth.
• Keep browser reference and parity harness green after every migration cut.

Exit criteria:

• All fixtures declare a conformance pack.
• All incubating plugins declare owner, split target, capabilities, and required fixtures.
• All runtimes declare owner, repo role, supported features, plugin claims, and graduation trigger.
• Harness reports missing ownership metadata and plugin gaps explicitly.

Current proof:

• node --test web\eve-dsl.test.mjs
• powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\run-parity-harness.ps1

Phase 1: Stabilize Core Surface Contract

Purpose: make the surface contract boring enough that runtimes and providers can leave the repo without dragging hidden behavior with them.

Work:

• Normalize surface.root, surface.styles.tokens, stateBindings, embeddedDocuments, command templates, and operation invocation descriptors.
• Keep compatibility fields such as nodes, selectedNodeId, raw command, and string payloads as projections only.
• Add explicit authority/staleness witness UI in the browser reference for stale, missing, predicted, denied, accepted, and reconciled values.
• Add provider advertisement fixture checks for local and live discovery paths.
• Add plugin advertisement fixture checks before adding more plugin semantics.

Exit criteria:

• Browser reference can open all local fixtures through advertisement-shaped provider entries.
• New renderer APIs construct commands from CultMesh operation descriptors, not raw strings.
• New binding APIs carry CultMesh state binding descriptors, not renderer-local stores.
• Parity harness fails if embedded slots, required bindings, command descriptors, or provider advertisement fields disappear.

Phase 2: Split Conformance Shape From Runtime Bodies

Purpose: make the evidence path portable before runtime repos leave.

Work:

• Promote tools/parity from a local script into a conformance pack layout: fixture metadata, expected capability matrix, runtime adapters, plugin packs, and report schema.
• Separate core fixtures from plugin/provider/runtime fixtures.
• Add screenshot comparison metrics for structure, token colors, bounding boxes, text presence, and capability-gap overlays without pretending byte-identical pixels are the goal.
• Keep generated reports under artifacts/parity as evidence only.

Exit criteria:

• A runtime repo can run conformance against Eve fixtures without importing Eve source internals.
• Plugin conformance packs can be added without editing core harness logic.
• EveConformance has a clean split plan, or stays incubating only because the report schema is still changing.

Phase 3: Graduate Plugins

Purpose: move semantic ownership out of Eve core.

Work:

• Keep plugins/incubating/sai-vn.plugin.json, plugins/incubating/norn-graph.plugin.json, and plugins/incubating/tex-math.plugin.json as temporary manifests.
• Define gamecult.eve.plugin.v1 and gamecult.eve.plugin_advertisement.v1 as explicit schemas. First-cut JSON schemas live under schemas/ and the parity harness validates incubating plugin manifests and advertisements against them.
• Add plugin ABI fixtures for describe, validate, project, apply, lower, and measure where relevant.
• Move sai.vn to Sai when VN/Ink story state, visual manifest, story commands, and projection fixtures are stable.
• Move norn.graph to Norn when graph layout, interaction, fallback, and conformance fixtures are stable.
• Move tex.math to EvePlugins when TeX source, macro, baseline, cached render, and fallback fixtures are stable.

Exit criteria:

• Eve core knows plugin manifests and capability gaps, not plugin internals.
• Providers invoke plugins through the ABI object model.
• Runtimes declare plugin support through capability manifests.
• Unsupported required plugin capabilities appear as visible gaps.

Phase 4: Graduate Runtime Bodies

Purpose: let runtime repos own native projection without losing conformance.

Work:

• EveFlutter: provider picker, command transport, plugin host, Android/iOS/desktop build flow, native capture, and parity reports.
• EveUnity: UPM package release, plugin host behavior, resolver-backed embedded documents, Unity test/capture lifecycle, and Aetheria consumption.
• EveAndroid: Kotlin device edge, generic surface traversal, sensor publishing, Android-specific CI, and explicit discovery input.
• EveIOS: UIKit renderer, sensor edge release flow, fixed-device and simulator capture, and generic surface lowering.
• Fensalir/Direct2D: Eve-to-AquariumUiDocument adapter, DirectWrite/Direct2D token lowering, embedded slot preservation, and frame capture.
• EveWeb: stays in Eve while it is the behavior oracle; splits only if it becomes an independently deployed runtime product.

Exit criteria:

• Runtime can build, test, capture, and report conformance without sharing Eve's dirty worktree.
• Runtime consumes surface documents, plugin manifests, and provider advertisements through contracts.
• Runtime has no provider-specific renderer brain unless it is explicitly a provider-owned app.

Phase 5: Move Product Fixtures To Provider Repos

Purpose: prevent demos from becoming quiet product authority inside Eve.

Work:

• Repixelizer owns job/session/artifact/operator fixtures once they carry real product state or receipts.
• Aetheria owns RTS/ARPG world surfaces, assets, generated level state, command receipts, and scenario conformance.
• Huginn owns .cc and Persona-state inspection fixture packs when they depend on runtime stewardship details.
• Mimir owns sensor/media/control surfaces that depend on live stream timing or room state.

Exit criteria:

• Provider repo publishes provider advertisements and fixture/conformance packs.
• Eve core keeps only minimal generic fixtures and references provider packs by contract.
• Product assets and receipts are not stored as Eve core truth.

Phase 6: Cut Compatibility Paths

Purpose: make old routes unable to reassert authority.

Work:

• Remove hardcoded browser provider tabs once live/local advertisements cover the same flows.
• Remove direct Mimir deck probing from generic Eve paths.
• Remove renderer-private style shortcuts once token lowering is complete.
• Remove raw command construction APIs from new public runtime paths.
• Remove provider-specific renderer fallbacks from generic lowerers.

Exit criteria:

• The only normal path is provider advertisement -> surface document -> runtime lowering -> command intent -> provider receipt -> republished state.
• Compatibility routes exist only as named lowerings or debug probes.
• Parity and runtime diagnostics report the same layer of reality the user sees.

Active Work Queue

1. Add provider advertisement checks to the parity harness.
2. Add command descriptor checks to fixtures and runtime source-symbol expectations.
3. Add authority/staleness witness fixture to browser reference.
4. Add conformance-pack metadata files beside fixtures.
5. Add a Direct2D adapter spike or explicitly demote Direct2D until Fensalir owns the body.
6. Add split-readiness reports for EveFlutter and EveUnity.

Stop Conditions

Stop adding features and update the map when:

• a runtime needs product knowledge to render a generic surface;
• a plugin fixture needs provider state to prove plugin behavior;
• a provider fixture becomes necessary for core Eve tests;
• a compatibility route becomes easier to use than a provider advertisement;
• a generated report says "active" while listing missing source symbols, features, metadata, or plugin support;
• a split target exists but the owner, inputs, outputs, and release lifecycle are still awkward to explain.

If the sentence "X owns Y so that Z remains true" cannot be written cleanly, the migration step is not ready. The machine may still be useful. It is not yet coherent.