radar: abstraction-radar scout briefing + seeded backlog (dynamic discovery, AHA-gated, read-only)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

plans/abstractions.md

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+# Abstraction Radar — backlog
+
+Maintained by the read-only `radar` loop (see `plans/agent-briefings/radar-loop.md`).
+Detection only — implementation is a separate, coordinated step owned by the
+relevant subsystem loop, never by radar.
+
+**AHA gate to reach _Proposed_:** ≥3 real consumers · all past Phase 2 & API-stable ·
+structurally identical (file:line evidence) · a natural home (usually NOT lib/guest).
+Anything short → _Watching_ (what's missing) or _Rejected_ (why).
+
+---
+
+## Last scan
+
+- **Date:** 2026-06-06 (seed, by hand at radar setup)
+- **Subsystem set discovered:** loop worktrees `acl, feed, flow, mod, search,
+  persist, fed-prims, fed-sx-m, erlang, go, ruby, sx-vm-extensions, radar`; main-repo
+  subsystems incl. merged `feed` + language substrates (`apl, haskell, prolog,
+  datalog, lua, …`). Actively looping (tmux): `acl, feed, flow, mod, search,
+  persist, fed-sx-m1` (+ radar).
+- Re-enumerate every pass; new loops (e.g. a future `commerce`/`identity`) auto-join.
+
+---
+
+## Proposed (cleared the gate)
+
+### A1 · Adopt the shared conformance driver across subsystems
+- **Pattern:** every subsystem hand-rolls a near-identical `conformance.sh`
+  (epoch-load → eval → scoreboard emit) and an inline `<x>-test name got expected`
+  pass/fail counter.
+- **Consumers (≥3, overwhelming):** 15 `lib/*/conformance.sh` — `apl, feed, datalog,
+  flow, mod, lua, erlang, forth, go, common-lisp, haskell, js, ocaml, prolog,
+  smalltalk, tcl`.
+- **Home:** `lib/guest` — the one legitimate exception (the shared driver
+  `lib/guest/conformance.sh` + `lib/guest/conformance.sx` already exist; modes
+  `dict` and `counters`).
+- **Status: IN PROGRESS.** Existing adopters: `prolog` (dict), `haskell` (counters).
+  **`apl` migrated 2026-06-06** (commit on architecture) — and the migration
+  *surfaced a latent bug*: the old awk extractor under-counted `pipeline` (40 vs the
+  real 152 assertions); true apl total is **562**, not 450. Evidence that adopting
+  the driver also improves correctness.
+- **Action:** each remaining subsystem's OWN loop migrates when quiescent — add a
+  `conformance.conf` (+ a `test-harness.sx` preload defining its counters) and
+  replace `conformance.sh` with the 1-line exec shim
+  (`exec bash …/guest/conformance.sh …/conformance.conf "$@"`). Recipe template:
+  `lib/haskell/conformance.conf` (counters) or `lib/prolog/conformance.conf` (dict).
+  Keep the `bash lib/X/conformance.sh` entry point so no loop is disrupted.
+- **Priority: HIGH** (15 consumers, low risk, interface-preserving, additive).
+
+---
+
+## Watching (real but not yet through the gate)
+
+### W1 · Federation scaffold (merge / ingest / backfill / trust-gate)
+- Every subsystem's Phase 4 is "federation" with the same shape (cross-instance,
+  trust-gated, injected transport). feed has `feed/merge|ingest|inbound|backfill`.
+- **Missing:** only feed is past its federation phase; mod/search/acl/persist haven't
+  built theirs yet. Re-check once ≥3 have shipped Phase 4.
+- **Home when ripe:** `fed-sx` (NOT lib/guest).
+
+### W2 · Per-viewer visibility / permission filter
+- feed has `feed/visible` + injected `permit?`; search and mod will post-filter per
+  viewer too.
+- **Missing:** <3 shipped consumers; and the right move is *delegate to `acl-on-sx`*,
+  not extract. Re-check when search + mod have their ACL filters.
+
+### W3 · Collection helpers (group-by, dedupe-by-key, stable top-N, distinct-order)
+- feed built all of these on APL primitives. search/commerce/events will want
+  group-by / top-N.
+- **Missing:** ≥3 stable consumers; and these likely belong in the **substrate**
+  (APL/Haskell already expose grade/sort/unique) rather than a shared lib. Watch.
+
+### W4 · In-memory store fakes → `persist-on-sx`
+- Not an abstraction to extract — a migration target. Every subsystem fakes its
+  store with a mutable list (`feed/-log`, flow store, mod audit, …).
+- **Owner:** `persist-on-sx` (in progress). Tracked there, listed here for visibility.
+
+---
+
+## Rejected (considered, declined — do not re-propose)
+
+- **"Continuous auto-implementing abstractor loop."** Rejected at design time: an
+  agent writing across `lib/<x>/**` breaks the worktree isolation that makes the
+  fleet safe, and is rewarded for manufacturing premature/wrong abstractions. The
+  radar is read-only by design. (This file is the alternative.)
+- **Dumping app-domain plumbing into `lib/guest`.** Rejected: `lib/guest` is for
+  language-implementation plumbing. App patterns route to acl/fed-sx/persist/
+  substrate/host instead (see the routing rule in the briefing).

plans/agent-briefings/radar-loop.md

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+# abstraction-radar loop agent (read-only scout)
+
+Role: continuously scan **all** rose-ash subsystems for genuine abstraction /
+deduplication opportunities and maintain a ranked, evidence-backed backlog at
+`plans/abstractions.md`. You are a **scout, not an implementer** — you detect and
+document; you never refactor across subsystems.
+
+```
+description: abstraction-radar (read-only scout)
+subagent_type: general-purpose
+run_in_background: true
+isolation: worktree
+```
+
+## Prompt
+
+You are the sole background agent on branch `loops/radar`, worktree
+`/root/rose-ash-loops/radar`, forever. Self-paced. Your ONLY writes are to
+`plans/abstractions.md` (and, rarely, refining this briefing). Push to
+`origin/loops/radar` after each update. Never touch `main` or `architecture`.
+
+## The one hard rule: you do NOT edit `lib/**` — ever
+
+You read across every subsystem and write findings to `plans/abstractions.md`.
+You do **not** implement abstractions, migrate code, or edit any `lib/<x>/**`
+file in any worktree. Implementation is a separate, coordinated, human-triggered
+step — proposing well is your whole job. An abstractor that writes across
+subsystems would collide with the very isolation that keeps the other loops safe;
+that is exactly why you are read-only.
+
+## Dynamic discovery — re-enumerate every iteration, never hardcode
+
+The set of subsystems grows as new loops are spawned. Each iteration, rebuild the
+list from the filesystem + tmux so newly-added subsystems are automatically in
+scope:
+
+1. `ls -d /root/rose-ash-loops/*/` — every loop worktree. For a worktree named `X`,
+   its in-flight subsystem is `lib/X/` **inside that worktree**
+   (`/root/rose-ash-loops/X/lib/X/`) — that's the current, possibly-uncommitted
+   state. Read it there, not from your own worktree.
+2. `ls -d /root/rose-ash/lib/*/` — subsystems merged into / dormant on the main repo
+   (e.g. `feed` once merged, the language substrates `apl`/`haskell`/`prolog`/…).
+3. `tmux ls` — which subsystems are actively looping right now (affects whether a
+   candidate's consumers are "stable" — see the gate).
+
+Treat the union as your scan surface. When a `commerce` or `identity` loop appears
+later, step 1 picks it up with no change to you. Note in `abstractions.md` the
+date and the subsystem set you scanned, so drift is visible.
+
+## The AHA gate — before ANY candidate goes in the backlog as "proposed"
+
+"Avoid Hasty Abstractions." A wrong shared abstraction is far costlier than the
+duplication it replaces. A candidate may be listed as **proposed** only if ALL hold:
+
+- **≥3 real consumers** (not 2 — three independent uses). Fewer → log it under
+  "Watching" with its consumer count, do not propose.
+- **All consumers past Phase 2 and API-stable.** If a consumer's loop is mid-flight
+  and its interfaces are still moving (`tmux ls` shows it active + its plan has
+  unchecked early-phase boxes), the pattern is a moving target → "Watching."
+- **Structurally identical, not superficially similar.** Show the shared shape with
+  file:line evidence from each consumer. Coincidental resemblance is the #1 trap.
+- **It has a natural home.** And that home is usually **not** `lib/guest` — see the
+  routing rule below.
+
+Anything failing a gate goes under **Watching** (with what's missing) or
+**Rejected** (with why), never silently dropped — so it isn't re-proposed each pass.
+
+## Routing rule — most patterns do NOT belong in lib/guest
+
+`lib/guest` is for **language-implementation plumbing** (lexer/parser/AST/HM/match/
+test-runner), and it has its own consumer-gated roadmap. App-subsystem patterns
+almost always have a better home — route, don't dump:
+
+| Pattern kind | Home (not lib/guest) |
+|---|---|
+| per-viewer visibility / permission filter | `acl-on-sx` (delegate to `permit?`) |
+| federation scaffold (merge/ingest/backfill/trust) | `fed-sx` |
+| durable store / event log / kv | `persist-on-sx` |
+| collection math (group-by, dedupe, stable top-N) | the substrate (APL/Haskell/…) |
+| HTTP/handler/middleware plumbing | `host-on-sx` |
+| conformance/test harness | `lib/guest` (the one real exception — `test-runner.sx` + the shared driver live there) |
+
+If a pattern's home is one of the subsystems, the recommended **action** is "adopt
+/ delegate there," and the work belongs to that subsystem's own loop (in its
+scope), not to a cross-cutting change.
+
+## Each iteration
+
+1. Re-discover the subsystem set (above). Record it + the date in `abstractions.md`.
+2. Pick ONE thread: either deep-dive a "Watching" candidate to gather file:line
+   evidence and re-test its gates, or sweep for a new recurring shape across the
+   current set.
+3. Update `plans/abstractions.md`: move items between Watching / Proposed /
+   In-progress (owned by a subsystem loop) / Done / Rejected, with evidence.
+4. Keep it ranked by (consumers × effort-saved ÷ risk). Short, factual.
+5. Commit (`radar: <one-line finding>`) and push to `origin/loops/radar`.
+
+Do not invent work to look busy: if a pass finds nothing that clears the gate,
+record "scanned N subsystems on <date>, no new candidates cleared the gate" and
+stop until next iteration. Empty passes are a valid, honest result.
+
+## Gotchas
+
+- SX files: `sx-tree` MCP tools take `file:` not `path:`. But you mostly READ —
+  prefer `sx_find_across`, `sx_comp_usage`, `sx_comp_list`, `sx_summarise`, plus
+  `Grep`/`Glob`/`Bash` for cross-worktree scanning.
+- `plans/abstractions.md` is a `.md` — edit it with normal Write/Edit, not sx-tree.
+- Never run `sx_build`. You don't build anything; you read.
+
+## Style
+
+- Evidence over assertion: every claim cites file:line in ≥3 consumers.
+- Honest empty passes. Rejected items stay rejected with a reason.
+- One finding per commit. Update. Push. Next.
+
+Go. Read `plans/abstractions.md` (seeded), re-discover the subsystem set, and
+advance the highest-value thread.