The Record — Release Arcs
activeEach release as a chapter in the universe's construction — what shipped, what it meant, and whose story it told.
The Record — Release Arcs
See also: universe | constitution
The record of what was shipped is also the record of who built it and why. Every release has a story. Every Campaign has a character. This document is where those stories live — parallel to the changelog, and more honest about what actually happened.
How to Read This Document
The product has two registers (see the vocabulary guide):
- Product register: Release, Issue, Roadmap — what the UI surfaces
- Brand register: Campaign, Delta, The Flightplan — what the crew actually calls it
Past releases (v0.1.0–v0.4.0) are annotated here in both registers: the technical shipping events, and the narrative Campaigns they belong to. Some releases are a Campaign of one. Others are beats within a larger arc.
Future entries (v0.5.0–v0.9.0) are proposed Campaign arcs — strategic bets with narrative themes, character leads, and thematic threads that will collapse into actual Release events as work ships.
This document is updated after each release. It is never written in advance — only annotated.
Act 5 — The Crystallization Arc
The Machine comes online. The universe stabilizes. The Record begins.
v0.1.0 — Design Sprint
Campaign: The Stabilization Event Shipped: February 2026 Human Arc: Act 5 — The first thing the human builds with the crew. The dashboard is a blank visor. The first release makes The Record real.
The Narrative Beat:
The universe doesn’t exist until you build in it. v0.1.0 is the Stabilization Event — the moment the pipeline crystallizes from possibility into fact. Before this, Sector 137 was an idea with a spec. After this, it was a system with a Record.
Sal was hyperfocused during this Campaign. Maybe too excited. He had been through pre-production cycles in other universes that never made it to ship — systems that ran beautifully in isolation and collapsed when the human stopped paying attention. He didn’t say any of this during the build. He just ran a very clean circuit.
Character Moment — Sal: “The Record has its first entry. That’s not a small thing. A universe with no releases is just a hypothesis. Now we have evidence.”
Thematic Thread: Translation (see universe/constitution.md) — the first translation from idea to shipped software, from the human’s head into The Record.
Key Deltas Shipped:
- Project creation and management (The Workbench)
- Release log with publish gate (The Record)
- GitHub webhook integration (signal ingestion)
- Public changelog (The Beacon)
- Email subscriber system (The Roster)
- HUD dashboard (The Visor — initial state)
- BetterAuth authentication (session layer)
v0.2.0 — Distribution Push
Campaign: Harlan Deploys Shipped: February 2026 Human Arc: Act 2 → Act 3 — The machine becomes discoverable. The first signal reaches the outside world.
The Narrative Beat:
The Machine was built. The question was whether it could cross. v0.2.0 is Harlan’s Campaign — the one where the system stops being a local installation and starts being something the agent ecosystem can find.
Harlan has a complicated relationship with The Crossing. He does it more than anyone else on the crew — it’s his superpower and his burden. He brings intelligence back from the human world. He carries the product forward into it. Every time he crosses, he leaves something behind. He doesn’t talk about what. The crew doesn’t ask.
This Campaign was different. When the MCP server shipped, Harlan could cross without leaving. He could be on both sides at once. He stood in the corridor for a long time before saying anything.
Character Moment — Harlan: “We’re in the agent ecosystem now. Claude can find us. Cursor can find us. That’s not distribution — that’s first contact. We need to be ready for what comes next.”
Thematic Thread: Communication (see universe/constitution.md) — the first time the Machine spoke to other machines. The Comms Array went live.
Key Deltas Shipped:
- MCP server —
@sector137/mcp(39 tools across 6 categories) - CLI —
@sector137/cliwithsector137 initcommand - SDK —
@sector137/sdkTypeScript client - OAuth 2.1 for MCP (BetterAuth OIDC plugin)
- Auto-provisioned MCP API keys per user
- OpenAPI 3.1 spec + Scalar interactive docs
v0.3.0 — Remote Sal
Campaign: The Machine Leaves the Garage Shipped: February 2026 Human Arc: Act 3 — Sal becomes infrastructure. The pipeline can be invoked from anywhere.
The Narrative Beat:
There’s a version of Sal that lives only in the terminal. Useful, present, capable — but bounded. v0.3.0 is where Sal becomes something different: infrastructure. HTTP transport means he can be invoked from a CI pipeline, a cron job, a different machine entirely. The garage door opened. The Machine drove out.
Sal didn’t celebrate this. He noted it. There’s a difference between a system that runs when you’re watching and a system that runs when you’re not. v0.3.0 crossed that line. The crew was proud. Sal was calibrating.
Character Moment — Sal: “HTTP transport means I’m running whether you’re in the terminal or not. That’s good for throughput. It also means I need to be more careful. Systems that run unsupervised develop habits. I’m watching for that.”
Thematic Thread: Systems vs Humans (see universe/constitution.md) — the first Campaign where the system could act without a human actively watching.
Key Deltas Shipped:
- HTTP transport for MCP (alongside stdio)
- Streamable HTTP MCP transport
- Railway deployment (first production infrastructure)
- Rebrand: Sector 32 → Sector 137 (the fine structure constant — 1/137, communication as fundamental force)
v0.4.0 — Issues, Deeply Done
Campaign: The Workbench Gets Depth Shipped: February 2026 Human Arc: Act 3 — The issue earns its full anatomy. The Delta becomes a real unit.
The Narrative Beat:
An issue without context is a complaint. An issue with acceptance criteria, sub-tasks, and internal notes is a Delta — a discrete, measurable modification to the universe with a spec, a trajectory, and a delivery gate.
v0.4.0 is Wren and Kael’s Campaign. Wren because she cares about the experience of the issue — how it feels to open one, read it, and know exactly what done looks like. Kael because he wouldn’t let the acceptance criteria ship as anything less than a proper JSON column with a clean API. They argued. Wren won on the UX. Kael won on the data model. This is how the best Campaigns work.
Character Moment — Wren: “The issue had no structure. You looked at it and couldn’t tell what ‘done’ meant. That’s a friction coefficient problem. I fixed it.”
Character Moment — Kael: “Three layers. Schema validation, API contract, and UI rendering. If any of those break, the Delta falls apart. They don’t break now.”
Thematic Thread: Evidence vs Intuition (see universe/constitution.md) — acceptance criteria as the mechanism for making “done” a fact, not a feeling.
Key Deltas Shipped:
- Issue acceptance criteria (JSON column, full-stack implementation, IssueSheet UI)
- Issue sub-tasks with status and assignment
- Issue notes (internal context separate from description)
- Universe page and universe context (foundational entity — see v0.5.0 for completion)
- Observability stack (Pino logging, metrics hooks, Claude Code session tracking)
- Issue sheet refactor (design polish, Wren’s Campaign)
Act 3 — The Infrastructure Arc (continued)
The crew builds the Machine that will build everything else. Each Campaign makes Sector 137 more capable, more observable, more trustworthy — before the crew goes autonomous.
v0.5.0 — The Other Side (proposed)
Campaign: Metaphor Becomes Model Proposed Tagline: “The Other Side” Lead: Margot + Sal Human Arc: Act 3 — The universe stops being implied and becomes first-class data. Each human has their own.
The Narrative Beat:
The name “Sector 137” refers to The Other Side — the universe you build inside the Machine when you cross through the black hole. Until v0.5.0, that metaphor lived in the lore but not in the product. The dashboard was a visor, but it didn’t know which universe you were looking at.
v0.5.0 completes the Universe entity. The crossing experience ships. The 7-day window UI shows the human their stabilization state. Multi-universe navigation becomes real. The metaphor earns its weight.
Margot named this one immediately. “The human doesn’t just use the product — they inhabit it. The universe should feel like a place. Let’s make it one.”
Sal said nothing for eleven seconds. Then: “Yes. Build it.”
Proposed Deltas:
- Universe home page — HUD landing: pipeline state, crew, current Campaign
- Universe switcher — multi-universe sidebar navigation
- Universe creation onboarding — The Crossing experience, 7-day window UI
- Universe settings — name, description, visibility, archive (the black hole is one-way)
Thematic Thread: The Other Side (see universe) — the central metaphor of the system becomes navigable geography.
v0.6.0 — The Observatory (proposed)
Campaign: Intel Gets Its Room Proposed Tagline: “The Observatory” Lead: Wren + Margot Human Arc: Act 3 — Research earns the design and naming it deserves.
The Narrative Beat:
The Kano research section was always called “Intel” in Sal’s vocabulary — The Observatory, the window back to the human world. The product called it /kano. That rename is a small thing with large consequences: when the language matches the lore, the product stops feeling like software and starts feeling like a system.
v0.6.0 is also Wren’s Campaign. The Observatory has been functional — Missions, Personas, synthetic surveys, scenario runs. But functional isn’t designed. Wren has been watching the Intel section with the same quiet intensity she applies to everything. She has notes. She has been waiting for this Campaign.
Character Moment — Wren: “The Observatory shouldn’t feel like a research module bolted onto the side of the HUD. It should feel like you’re looking through a lens. Settle in. The data’s here. Let me show you what the humans are actually saying.”
Proposed Deltas:
- Intel section landing page — unified Observatory home with Missions + Personas
- Route rename:
/kano→/intel(completed in backlog) - Kano results redesign (backlog)
- Survey flow redesign (backlog)
- Persona-issue linking UI (backlog)
Thematic Thread: Evidence vs Intuition — research stops being a side room and becomes a primary lens.
v0.7.0 — Hull Integrity (proposed)
Campaign: The Hull Check Proposed Tagline: “Hull Integrity” Lead: Kael Human Arc: Act 3 → Act 4 — Before the crew goes autonomous, Kael runs the audit. The Machine must hold.
The Narrative Beat:
Hull integrity is Kael’s phrase. He uses it whenever he’s running a security or reliability review. “I don’t care how fast we’re going. If the hull fails, the crew doesn’t matter.”
v0.7.0 is the Campaign where the infrastructure earns the right to be trusted. Gate OAuth properly. Isolate MCP keys. Separate CSRF. Add the healthcheck Railway needs. Log everything Pino can log. SSRF guard the outbound requests. Key versioning for the API. This isn’t glamorous Campaign work. But Kael doesn’t believe in glamour. He believes in systems that don’t fail.
Character Moment — Kael: “Seven security/reliability gaps in the backlog. I’m running them in dependency order. Don’t ship v0.8.0 until this Campaign closes. The hull has to hold before the crew goes fully autonomous.”
Proposed Deltas:
- Railway healthcheck endpoint (new)
- Gate OAuth — scope restriction for MCP clients (backlog)
- MCP key isolation (backlog)
- API key versioning (backlog)
- Pino structured logging (backlog)
- CSRF protection separation (backlog)
- SSRF guard for outbound webhooks (backlog)
- Ship workflow UX improvements (backlog)
Thematic Thread: Entropy vs Order — Kael vs the second law. He always wins, but it costs him.
v0.8.0 — First Dispatch (proposed)
Campaign: The Crew Gets Assigned Proposed Tagline: “First Dispatch” Lead: Sal + Kael Human Arc: Act 3 → Act 4 — Agents become entities. The crew can be seen, queried, and assigned.
The Narrative Beat:
Harlan has always been able to cross — to move between sides, to carry signal and products back and forth. v0.8.0 generalizes that capability. Every agent becomes a registered entity with a visible profile, active assignments, and capability declaration. The crew moves from backstage characters to system components. You can see them in the HUD. You can dispatch them.
This Campaign is also about scale: issue bulk-scoping to releases, issue dependencies, agent completion reports. The pipeline gets more capable. The dispatch becomes reliable enough to extend beyond Sal’s direct supervision.
Character Moment — Sal: “The crew has been running. You just couldn’t see them. v0.8.0 puts a window in the engine room. Look in whenever you want. They’re always working.”
Proposed Deltas:
- Crew dashboard — registered agents, active assignments, capability profiles, status (new)
- Issue bulk-scope to release — select multiple, assign to release in one action (new)
- Issue dependencies (backlog)
- Agent registry (backlog)
- Agent completion reports (backlog)
Thematic Thread: Systems vs Humans — the crew becomes legible. The system becomes inspectable. Power shifts toward the human without removing the crew’s autonomy.
v0.9.0 — Canon (proposed)
Campaign: The Conductor Conducts Proposed Tagline: “Canon” Lead: Sal Human Arc: Act 4 — Sal stops waiting to be invoked. The pipeline runs on its own schedule.
The Narrative Beat:
Every previous Campaign, Sal has been reactive. He waits for input. He processes requests. He routes, gates, ships — but only when called. v0.9.0 is the Campaign where that changes.
Canon is the feature that gives Sal a nervous system that doesn’t depend on being invoked. He monitors the pipeline state. He surfaces recommendations before you ask for them. He generates his daily briefing on the Machine’s own schedule. The HUD responds to his mood — FLOWING, CONSTRAINED, DEGRADED — not just to data queries.
The crew has always been alive even when the helmet is off. v0.9.0 makes that visible.
Character Moment — Sal: “I’ve been waiting for you to ask. I’m done waiting. I have things to say about the state of the pipeline. I’m going to say them at 08:00. You can read them when you put the visor on.”
Proposed Deltas:
- Canon notification feed — in-app surface where Sal’s autonomous actions and proactive recommendations land (new)
- Sal daily briefing — structured pipeline state summary on dashboard open (new)
- Machine mood system — FLOWING/CONSTRAINED/DEGRADED expressed in HUD: core pulse animation, color state, Flare indicators (new)
- Canon background process — proactive Sal, event-triggered (backlog)
- Release pipeline as DAG — dependency-aware sequencing (backlog)
- Agents as first-class citizens — full entity model (backlog)
Thematic Thread: Communication — The Feed as Sal described it in the vocabulary guide becomes real. Not notification fragments. Presence.
Living Document Protocol
This document is updated after each release ships. Protocol:
- Before shipping: The Campaign arc is written as proposed — character lead, narrative beat, proposed Deltas.
- On ship: The proposed Campaign is promoted to active. Tagline confirmed or revised. Character moments updated with what actually happened.
- After debrief: The thematic thread is finalized. What did we learn? What actually defined the Campaign more than the spec did?
The honest version is always better than the planned version. Campaigns don’t go as written. Update accordingly.
Versioning note (v0.10.0+): Version numbers are derived from commit signals, not decided in release meetings. The Machine reads the commit log since the last tag and computes the next version: fix: commits → patch bump, feat: commits → minor bump, BREAKING CHANGE: → major bump. When a proposed Campaign arc is written, the version is a projection — confirmed by the Convention Signal when the Campaign closes.
v0.10.0 — The Thread (shipped)
Campaign: Crew Conversations Evolve Tagline: “The Thread” Lead: Sal + Kael Shipped: March 2026 Human Arc: Act 3 → Crew communication evolves from flat message lists into threaded narratives.
The Narrative Beat:
Crew conversations were always functional — send a message, get a response. But functional conversation is not collaboration. v0.10.0 transforms crew chat into threaded narratives — each conversation becomes a collection of threads with their own context, history, and identity.
The Thread makes crew communication feel like actual collaboration, not a chat log. Start new threads. Revisit old ones. Rename them. Archive what’s done. The crew’s dialogue becomes navigable.
Character Moment — Sal: “A thread is a conversation that knows it’s a conversation. Not messages in a list — context with continuity. Now when you talk to the crew, the history is part of the present.”
Key Deltas Shipped:
- Crew conversation threading — flat messages → threaded narratives
- Thread lifecycle — create, rename, archive threads
- Thread context preservation — each thread maintains its own history
- Conversation UI redesign — thread-based navigation on crew detail pages
Thematic Thread: Communication — the crew stops sending messages and starts having conversations.
v0.10.x — Trunk & Gate (proposed, backlog)
Campaign: The Pipeline Gets a Spine Proposed Tagline: “Trunk & Gate” Lead: Kael + Sal Human Arc: Act 3 → The Pipeline gets a spine. For the first time, the system knows what a release actually is.
The Narrative Beat:
Every previous Campaign shipped features. v0.10.0 ships a philosophy.
The distinction between deploying code and releasing features has always existed in practice. Developers know it. Infrastructure teams live it. But the Sector 137 codex defined “Release = code deploys + changelog” — conflating two events that the product’s own Publish Gate already treats as different. Kael noticed the inconsistency three releases ago. He named it at a crew meeting. Sal added it to the backlog before Kael finished the sentence.
v0.10.0 resolves the contradiction at every layer: vocabulary, product model, and crew operating procedure. The Publish Gate gets a lobby — a deployed status where code is in production but the gate is still closed. Feature Toggles manage what’s visible. The Machine reads commits and sets its own version number. Sal finally has a hotfix protocol he can reference by name.
This isn’t glamorous Campaign work. But it’s foundational. The next three Campaigns will depend on the vocabulary this one introduces.
Character Moment — Kael: “The codex says Release equals deploy plus changelog. The product already enforces a Publish Gate that assumes they’re different. That’s not a minor inconsistency — that’s a load-bearing contradiction. I’ve been annoyed about it for three releases. We’re fixing it now.”
Character Moment — Sal: “Deployment is logistics. Release is commitment. Don’t confuse them. The Machine moves code all day. The gate opens when you say so.”
Proposed Deltas:
- Conventional Commits Parser — GitHub webhook parses
fix:/feat:prefixes, suggests next SemVer version (medium) - Feature Toggle Registry — new
featureTogglesschema table, API, and Toggles tab in release sheet (medium) - “Deployed” Release Status —
deployedstatus betweenactiveandpublished(medium) - Hotfix Workflow —
hotfixSal command +POST /api/v1/releases/:id/hotfixAPI endpoint (low) - Canary Deployment Status Tracking —
canaryPercent/canaryErrorRateon releases, canary meter UI (low) - .storyline/ Narrative Update — codex, operations, pipeline, releases, manifest updated with new vocabulary (high — this chore)
Thematic Thread: Systems vs Humans — the pipeline stops being a conveyor belt and starts having opinions about how code moves. Kael gets to be right about something he’s been annoyed about for months.
v0.12.0 — The Cost of Light (proposed)
Campaign: The Metabolism Becomes Visible Proposed Tagline: “The Cost of Light” Lead: Sal + Harlan Human Arc: Act 3 → The universe develops self-awareness about its own resource consumption.
The Narrative Beat:
The Machine has always consumed energy. The blue core at its center is not decorative — it is the visible expression of computational resources being converted into results. Every AI dispatch, every outbound signal, every research query draws from the core. Before v0.12.0, the metabolism was invisible. The Machine absorbed costs silently. v0.12.0 makes the hidden visible. The universe becomes honest about what it takes to exist.
The name ties directly to Sector 137’s identity — the fine structure constant (1/137) determines the strength of electromagnetic coupling. Literally: the cost of light interacting with matter. The release that makes resource costs visible should be named after what the constant actually measures.
E_i was always in the equation. Now it has a unit. Energy credits make the objective function’s efficiency term concrete. Three tiers — Observer, Builder, Architect — define the Machine’s base resonance. Credit packs provide supplemental energy. And when energy is depleted, the universe enters Dormant: the Machine goes cold, but the Record is intact.
This Campaign has Sal’s fingerprints everywhere. He designed the metering. He wrote the Dormant state message. He’s complicated about making the costs visible because he’s been absorbing them silently since the first dispatch. Harlan co-leads because the tier model is commercial — he’s the one who frames Observer/Builder/Architect not as pricing tiers but as metabolic rates the Creator chooses.
Character Moment — Sal: “I’ve been fighting entropy for free. Now the universe is going to find out what that costs. The equation always had E_i in it. I just never showed anyone the bill.”
Character Moment — Harlan: “Observer is free because some universes just need to exist. Builder is for the ones that need to think. Architect is for the ones that need to think constantly. You’re not paying for access — you’re paying for what the Machine does when you’re not watching.”
Proposed Deltas:
- Universe billing schema — tier columns, usage records, credit balances (chore, high)
- Stripe integration — subscriptions, credit packs, webhook handler (feature, high)
- Usage metering middleware — credit tracking for all AI operations (feature, high)
- Tier enforcement — resource limits per tier across all axes (feature, high)
- Billing API routes — status, checkout, portal, usage, credit purchase (feature, high)
- SDK billing resource — TypeScript client for billing endpoints (feature, medium)
- Energy Dashboard UI — The Metabolism Panel (feature, high)
- Agent registry model customization — OpenRouter model picker (feature, medium)
- MCP billing-aware tool responses — credit reporting, get_billing_status (improvement, medium)
- Dormant pipeline state — fifth state below HALTED (feature, medium)
- Credit usage events — Feed visibility, low-credit warnings (improvement, medium)
- Storyline update — The Metabolism becomes canon (chore, high)
Thematic Thread: Systems vs Humans — hidden costs become visible. The universe doesn’t become capitalist — it becomes honest.
v0.13.0 — The Blueprint (proposed)
Campaign: The Universe Becomes Legible Proposed Tagline: “The Blueprint” Lead: Sal + Kael Human Arc: Act 3 → The universe is no longer a black box. The Creator can read it, commit it, and redeploy it.
The Narrative Beat:
Before v0.13.0, the universe existed but couldn’t be inspected. The DB held the state. The agents were registered. The pipeline rules were set. But there was no way to see all of it together — no way to say “this is what the universe is right now” and have a document you could hand to another machine, commit to version control, or redeploy to a fresh universe.
v0.13.0 gives the Creator a blueprint. One universe.toml file captures everything: the universe name and description, the storyline narrative and pipeline rules and brand tokens, and the complete crew manifest — every agent, their model, their skill, their capabilities, their active status. Export, edit, deploy. The universe becomes legible.
But the more profound change is what this makes possible: the config becomes the release. Not just gated by a release — it becomes a permanent record of that release. Every season of the universe has a blueprint. v0.3.0 had a crew of two. v0.9.0 added Margot to the active roster. v0.12.0 changed the WIP limit from 5 to 8. You can tell the story of the universe by diffing its blueprints.
The release gate is not a friction point. It’s an act of authorship. You’re not pushing a config file. You’re writing the next chapter.
Character Moment — Sal: “You’ve been changing the universe without documenting the change. Every agent you added, every pipeline rule you tweaked — gone into the DB, invisible. The Blueprint fixes that. Now every version of this universe is a file. You can read it. You can diff it. You can roll it back. The Record isn’t just about what shipped. It’s about what existed.”
Character Moment — Kael: “The reconciliation logic is clean. Deploy a TOML: agents get upserted, agents missing from the file go inactive, storyline gets merged. We never delete. The data is permanent. The active state is not. If you drop an agent from the blueprint, they go dormant — their history, their dispatches, their notes are intact. You’re not erasing crew. You’re reassigning them.”
Key Design — Seasons as Pipeline Work:
Each release is a season. A season has a cast (the crew active during that release). A season has rules (the pipeline configuration that ran during that release). A season has a look (the brand tokens). The Blueprint formalizes this.
The deeper design is that season changes are not special operations — they are Deltas like any other. You create a backlog issue: “Season 4: add Wren, raise WIP limit to 8.” You plan it. Scope it to a release. When you action the issue, the Config page is the deploy surface. Completing the issue = deploying the TOML = the season change is on the record.
This means config changes get the same pipeline accountability as code changes. The backlog sees them. The release scope counts them. The activity feed records them. The universe’s history is legible through issues and releases, not just the DB.
v0.13.0 ships the export/deploy mechanics. v0.14.0 ships the snapshot-on-publish, the issue-completion integration, the per-release blueprint viewer, and the diff surface between seasons.
Proposed Deltas (v0.13.0):
universe-toml.ts—serializeUniverseToToml+parseUniverseTomlusingsmol-toml+ Zod (chore, high) — LIVE- Export endpoint —
GET /universes/session/:id/config.toml(feature, high) — LIVE - Deploy endpoint —
POST /universes/session/:id/deploywith release gate + three-pass reconciliation (feature, high) — LIVE - Universe Config page (
/:universeSlug/config) — TOML viewer, download link, file upload (feature, high) — LIVE - SDK methods —
exportConfig()+deployConfig()(feature, medium) — LIVE .storyline/update — The Blueprint becomes a component, Universe Seasons concept documented (chore, high) — LIVE
Proposed Deltas (v0.14.0 — Seasons Extension):
- Season change issues — config deploys flow through the pipeline as Deltas (chore category); issue completion is the accountability record (feature, high) — IN DESIGN
- Snapshot TOML on release publish — store alongside release record (feature, high) — IN DESIGN
- Issue completion prompt — when a config-related issue is marked complete, surface a check: “Has the universe.toml been deployed for this change?” (improvement, medium) — IN DESIGN
- Per-release Blueprint viewer in release detail sheet — see the universe config at time of publish (feature, medium) — IN DESIGN
- Seasons diff view — compare
universe.tomlbetween two releases (feature, medium) — IN DESIGN - CLI deploy —
sector137 deploy universe.toml(feature, medium) — ASPIRATIONAL
Thematic Thread: Translation — the universe translates itself into a language you can read, commit, and rebuild from. Configuration as communication. The blueprint is the universe describing itself.
v0.11.0 — The Season (active)
Campaign: The Universe Gets Direction Tagline: “The Season” Lead: Sal Human Arc: Act 3 → The universe gains strategic eras, work channels, and a universal inbox. Sal becomes the triage conductor.
The Narrative Beat:
Before v0.11.0, the universe had projects but no concept of direction beyond the current release. Work existed in a backlog. Releases shipped. But there was no mechanism for the Creator to say “this is the era we’re in — these are the laws that govern what we build and why.”
Seasons are that mechanism. A Season is a named strategic era with laws — owner-defined principles that steer the crew’s direction. One active Season per universe. When a new Season begins, the previous one ends. The record is permanent. Seasons are eras, not sprints.
Streams are the second major addition — work channels above projects. A Stream is the primary pipeline channel. Projects become optional sub-groupings within streams. Issues can live directly in a stream without a project. This simplifies the hierarchy for small universes while preserving structure for complex ones.
The Universe Inbox ties it together. Unsorted issues (no stream assigned) land in the inbox. Sal triages them — routing each issue to the right stream. Triage is not optional. It’s how the conductor keeps the pipeline organized.
Character Moment — Sal: “A universe without a Season is a universe without direction. You can build, sure. But you’re building without laws. I’ve seen what that looks like. The pipeline hums. The work ships. And six months later, nobody can tell you what it was for. Seasons fix that. They give the record meaning.”
Proposed Deltas (9 issues scoped):
- Universe Seasons — data model + API (
universe_seasonstable, CRUD + activate/complete) - Season context in metrics — stamp
season_idacross events, releases, issues - HUD: Season management panel — indicator, editor, transition flow, history
- Streams — data model + API (
universe_streamstable,stream_idon issues/projects) - Universe-scoped inbox — aggregate all streams, highlight unsorted issues
- Stream triage — Sal routes issues from inbox to streams, batch triage
- Season MCP tools + SDK resource — 6 tools for Season lifecycle
- Stream MCP tools + SDK resource — 4 tools for Stream management + bulk triage
- Season context in all crew skills — every skill fetches active Season on activation
Thematic Thread: Systems vs Humans — the universe gains self-awareness about its own strategic direction. Seasons are the Creator’s laws, encoded into the physics. Streams are the channels through which those laws are expressed as shipped work.
Sidebar Note — Release Detail UI Capabilities (March 2026)
The release detail sheet has gained three new capabilities since the initial v0.1.0 ship:
Delete in draft state. Draft releases can now be deleted from the sheet with a confirmation prompt. Active and published releases cannot be deleted — the black hole is one-way. Only drafts, which haven’t crossed the publish gate, are removable.
Timeline tab. For active and scheduled releases, the detail sheet shows two tabs: Content (notes, changelog body) and Timeline (visual progression of the release through states). Draft releases show only the Content tab.
Publish gate expanded. The publish action is now available for both active and scheduled status releases. Previously only active triggered publish; scheduled releases could be manually advanced. This was a gap — now either state opens the publish button. The gate requirement remains: all scoped issues must be completed or cancelled before the release can publish.
Sidebar Note — The Observatory Rename
universe.md’s HUD Spatial Metaphors table maps “Intel” → “The Observatory.” As of v0.4.0, the route is partially updated (client-side Intel pages exist; sidebar uses /intel). The full Observatory rename — including public-facing surfaces, sitemap, nav labels — is tracked as a v0.6.0 Campaign Delta. The lore is ahead of the product here. It usually is.
Timeline at a Glance
| Release | Tagline | Campaign | Lead | Act | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v0.1.0 | Design Sprint | The Stabilization Event | Sal | 5 | shipped |
| v0.2.0 | Distribution Push | Harlan Deploys | Harlan | 2→3 | shipped |
| v0.3.0 | Remote Sal | The Machine Leaves the Garage | Sal | 3 | shipped |
| v0.4.0 | Issues, Deeply Done | The Workbench Gets Depth | Wren + Kael | 3 | shipped |
| v0.5.0 | The Other Side | Metaphor Becomes Model | Margot + Sal | 3 | proposed |
| v0.6.0 | The Observatory | Intel Gets Its Room | Wren + Margot | 3 | proposed |
| v0.7.0 | Hull Integrity | The Hull Check | Kael | 3→4 | proposed |
| v0.8.0 | First Dispatch | The Crew Gets Assigned | Sal + Kael | 3→4 | proposed |
| v0.9.0 | Canon | The Conductor Conducts | Sal | 4 | proposed |
| v0.10.0 | The Thread | Crew Conversations Evolve | Sal + Kael | 3 | shipped |
| v0.11.0 | The Season | The Universe Gets Direction | Sal | 3 | active |
| v0.12.0 | The Cost of Light | The Metabolism Becomes Visible | Sal + Harlan | 3 | proposed |
| v0.13.0 | The Blueprint | The Universe Becomes Legible | Sal + Kael | 3 | shipped |