From b0c0fdd4b14d229618c55f31400d468ceb046c62 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: giles <giles.bradshaw@rose-ash.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2026 17:11:51 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] =?UTF-8?q?plan:=20Phase=203=20target=20is=20the=20CONSOLE?=
 =?UTF-8?q?=20=E2=80=94=20engine=20renders=20the=20same=20picker=20to=20a?=
 =?UTF-8?q?=20terminal?=
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The non-browser platform is a console/TUI renderer: the engine's platform ops map
to a text-node tree (harness-web's mock DOM is ~90% there), render-to-console
prints it, a raw-stdin input loop drives simulate-click/input. The same
~relate-picker runs unchanged in a terminal — browser is one platform binding,
console another, test harness a third.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 plans/sx-native-engine-tests.md | 38 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
 1 file changed, 34 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/plans/sx-native-engine-tests.md b/plans/sx-native-engine-tests.md
index 6f4049c6..f8226809 100644
--- a/plans/sx-native-engine-tests.md
+++ b/plans/sx-native-engine-tests.md
@@ -74,10 +74,40 @@ Keep ONLY what needs a real browser in `relate-picker.spec.js` / `spa-check.spec
 Delete the per-behavior browser tests now covered by SX. Net: ~2 browser tests + an
 SX suite.
 
-### Phase 3 — Stretch: the engine drives a non-browser target ("something else")
-The mock platform already *is* a non-browser target. This phase makes it a real
-alternative renderer (e.g. server-side DOM string-builder, or a native UI shim) and runs
-the same picker through it — concretely proving platform-independence. Optional / future.
+### Phase 3 — The engine drives the CONSOLE (the non-browser target)
+The concrete "something else" is a **terminal / console platform**. This is the natural
+sibling of the test harness: a harness test *asserts* the engine's output tree; the
+console platform *renders* that same tree to text. Same platform abstraction — one
+observes it, one draws it.
+
+What it means concretely:
+- **Platform ops → a console-backed element tree.** The engine only ever calls platform
+  primitives: `dom-create-element`, `dom-append`, `dom-set-attr`, `dom-query` (by id, for
+  `sx-target`), `dom-remove-child`, `dom-parent`, `morph-children`, `dom-listen`, `fetch`,
+  `set-timeout`. Implement these against an in-memory tree of text nodes instead of the
+  browser DOM. The mock DOM in `web/harness-web.sx` is ~90% of this already.
+- **Render = print the tree as text** (ANSI/box-drawing) — a `render-to-console` mode
+  alongside `render-to-html` / `render-to-dom` (see `spec/render.sx`'s mode table). The
+  results `<ul>` becomes a list; `.sx-error` becomes a red line; the filter input is a
+  text field.
+- **Events = a TUI input loop.** Keypresses / selection map to `simulate-input` /
+  `simulate-click` on the focused node — exactly the harness's `simulate-*`, but driven by
+  a real keyboard instead of a test.
+- **`fetch` stays HTTP** (the host already serves `text/sx` fragments + `relate-options`),
+  or talks to a local store.
+
+Payoff: the **same** `~relate-picker` — `sx-get`, debounced filter, `revealed` paging,
+`sx-swap=delete`, `sx-error` retry — runs unchanged in a terminal. That is the proof that
+the SX hypermedia engine is a *general* runtime, not a browser library: the browser is
+just one platform binding, the console is another, the test harness is a third. Ambitious,
+buildable, and the most convincing demonstration of the whole architecture
+(`[[feedback_runtime_control]]`, `[[project_zero_dependencies]]`).
+
+Sketch of work: (1) a `console-platform.sx` implementing the platform ops over a text
+tree (fork `harness-web.sx`'s mock element), (2) a `render-to-console` mode in render.sx,
+(3) a tiny input loop (raw-mode stdin → focus model → `simulate-*`), (4) run the host's
+picker against it. Phase 1's SX tests become the regression suite for the console renderer
+for free (they already drive the tree, just don't print it).
 
 ## Gaps & risks to resolve during Phase 0