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Question: WORK/THINK/LIE dial regrouping + first-think beat — dispatch shape? #7

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Closed opened by cameron.stream

Question: WORK/THINK/LIE dial regrouping + first-think beat — dispatch shape? #

Type: ticket (draft, not yet filed via tang)
Drafted: 2026-07-10 by tick agent
Binding format: wiki/process/tick.md issue body standard

Question #

How should we dispatch the WORK/THINK/LIE dial regrouping and the first-think beat (machine-work.md AC9 + "The first think" section):

  1. Single frontend-isolated work order in worktree work-think-lie-ui on the 🟩 frontend lane, runs alone; blocks the player surface but keeps the sim+save lane free for ROADMAP #7 / #10 work.
  2. Bundle first-think with the in-progress machine-work spec (carry the dial regrouping + the beat as the next slice of the same #33 worktree, with no separate ROADMAP lane change); ties the deliverable to the active spec's story rather than a separate dispatch.
  3. Split: first-think as immediate polish on a separate worktree first-think-beat (the highlighted exit + afford-reveal — visually affecting, no sim), and the dial regrouping as a follow-on work-think-lie-dial once the spec's sink permission list lands.
  4. Something else (say what).

Why this is open #

The grammar decision is landed (machine-work.md AC9, WORK/THINK/LIE captured 2026-07-10). The sim foundation for the first-think beat is mostly there (e05913b4 instant rate refresh; thought sinks land 2026-07-10/8d115e7f). What is not yet built is the frontend piece: the host rack and primary selected rack present WORK as the panic exit (highlighted), THINK as the menu of sink permissions (the ops bullet below), and LIE as a deliberate choice rather than a button; the cheapest Operations verb (TAP CAMERA) moves from grayed to affordable while crimson accrues on the rack's chassis.

The current Bevy and terminal surfaces expose the three modes through 1-3 / hover hotkeys and the context-menu mode dial — the verbs are right, the presentation still reads as a flat four-mode list rather than the three postures. This is the next "show me what I just did" beat, and it is the doorway from B1 systems to B1 feel. ROADMAP #33 status note explicitly lists the regrouping as the pending next step under the WORK/THINK/LIE grammar.

This ticket does not ask about the design (already locked); it asks about dispatch shape, because the work is frontend-only but spans both Bevy and the terminal and the dial regrouping depends on the sink permission list surface (its spec is part of machine-work.md, not yet written up as acceptance bullets). The lane question is therefore real: we can either hand the whole beat to one agent, or split it along the sim-frontend boundary.

Options #

Option Lane Scope Trade-off
1. Single frontend work order 🟩 isolated Bevy rebranded modes + terminal dial regrouping + first-think beat + afford-reveal. One agent, one worktree, one land. Player surface blocker if anything stalls mid-flight; cannot parallelize. Plus: one coherent story, fewer merge conflicts on shared component code (the dial helper in crates/misaligned-core/src/actions.rs).
2. Bundled into #33 machine-work 🟥 sim+save Same surface as #1, but tracked as a slice of the in-progress spec rather than its own dispatch. Tied to whichever worktree carries the next #33 slice. Loses the 🟩 parallel benefit; closer to the spec's own scope; no fresh theory of change. Risk: blocks other 🟩 work because the spec is still moving on save format / sinks.
3. Split: beat vs. dial Two 🟩 isolated Beat-first (first-think-beat) lands visibly, then work-think-lie-dial ships when sink permissions have acceptance bullets. Splits the story across two lands but unblocks the feel preview early. Risk: a partial delivery could leave the dial showing flat mode names while the beat reads as the new grammar — narratively dumb in the middle.
4. Custom Your call — —

Recommendation #

Option 1, single frontend work order on the 🟩 lane, in worktree work-think-lie-ui. Reasons:

  • The whole feel — the highlight, the afford-reveal, the three-verb regrouping — needs to ship as one story for the player to read it. Splitting it would land the fear beat and the menu regrouping in separate PRs, and a partial intermediate state reads worse than the current state.
  • The dial regrouping does depend on the sim-side sink permission surface; let the agent first write those acceptance bullets into machine-work.md (small docs amendment under the same defense) so the regrouping has something to regroup around, then ship the frontend regrouping once those bullets exist.
  • It's the player surface blocker per ROADMAP #33, and shipped alone it frees the 🟩 lane for the next B1 polish while sim+save work continues elsewhere.

What your answer unlocks #

  • If 1: I (or another agent) can take the worktree, write the sink permission acceptance bullets into machine-work.md first, then implement the regrouping and first-think beat in Bevy + terminal + asset tester harness (with MISALIGNED_SHOT=first-think evidence), run ./tools/check.sh --frontend, and land with the spec's Status flipped once criterion 9 is fully met.
  • If 2: I roll this into whichever worktree carries the next #33 slice; no fresh dispatch line; the spec's status note absorbs it.
  • If 3: Two new worktrees, two sequential lands; I'd want a holdback message on the first land so the second can close the dial narratively.
  • If 4: I'll follow your shape.

—

Drafted from the canonical issue body standard in wiki/process/tick.md. Filing is a one-liner once you answer:

tang issue create "Question: WORK/THINK/LIE dial regrouping + first-think beat — dispatch shape?" \
  -F private/tickets/work-think-lie-dial-regrouping.md
tang label add issue <n> decision-required

Default label state if you file as-is: decision-required (an agent filed a real question for Cameron).

cameron.stream

Closing this dispatch question as superseded by the implementation that overtook it.

Already landed:

  • the human mode dial is grouped into exactly WORK / THINK / LIE in terminal and Bevy;
  • 1 / 2 / 3 are direct one-press controls;
  • the machine-attached grammar remains visible from pointer, selection, or reticule focus;
  • THINK produces Thought and proportional consequence on the first simulation tick after the command;
  • the pre-opened EARS reservoir fills from that Thought and then reveals EYES; and
  • wiki/mechanics/machine-work.md is IMPLEMENTED, including criterion 9.

There is therefore no remaining option 1/2/3 dispatch decision for Cameron to make.

Re-verification did expose one real implementation/corpus mismatch, which Cameron approved correcting now: while a focused rack is in THINK, WORK must light up as the panic escape. The current surfaces merely brighten the active THINK state and leave WORK dim. The old prose saying a blocked camera verb moves from gray to affordable is also stale: human menus now intentionally contain executable choices only, and the current opening payoff is the EARS -> EYES sink reveal. That correction is proceeding as a bounded frontend/corpus fix with regression coverage and deterministic first-THINK evidence.

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