# flow-state — design decisions

The decisions this project has taken, and why. New work must obey them;
changing one means updating this file and the gate that enforces it.

Doc map: `PLAN.md` is the full design, `EPIC-2/3/4/5-3D.md` are the epic
designs, `HOWTO-visualizers.md` / `HOWTO-variety.md` are the scene-author
references, `MIGRATION.md` is the shader→stage migration recipe.

## 1. Determinism spine

- The audio is fully analysed **before the first frame renders**, into a
  frame-indexed `FeatureTrack` table. Nothing reads a live `AnalyserNode`.
  Preview maps `currentTime → frameIndex`; export counts frames. Same rows,
  same image.
- No wall-clock (`performance.now`, `Date`) and no `Math.random` in
  `engine/scenes/look/audio/params/actors/venues`. Seeded `Rng` only;
  motion is analytic `f(t, seed)` — seek === playback, preview === export.
- `dt` is constant (`1/fps`); dropped preview frames hitch, never diverge.
- Feedback/ping-pong targets are explicitly cleared; shader programs are
  primed (`Engine.prime`) before frame-exact rendering — unlinked programs
  rendered the first ~10 frames wrong on the heaviest scene.
- Scene math lives in normalized aspect-corrected coords (`uv`, `p`); only
  `u_pixelScale` carries pixels, so 720p preview matches 4K export.
- Guarantee is **per-machine** bit-identical; cross-machine is perceptual.
  Same-machine allows max channel delta ≤ 1 (GPU load varies one LSB under
  heavy shaders); real bugs score in the tens.
- Seeks need **warm-up** (`log(0.001)/log(decay)` frames) whenever feedback
  is on. Section boundaries are NOT exact for free — the compositor's
  feedback buffer is global and carries across them. Clearing it per
  boundary would flash every transition; warm-up is the better trade.
- Previews link to their exact app frame (`src/ui/preview.js`: song + seed
  + frame + venue/viz pins + the probe's warm-up length, both sides primed).
  Exactness takes four agreements: the bank probes analyse the bank PCM
  (peak-normalised 16-bit mono — `audio/songbank.js bankPcm`), file decode
  is fixed at 44.1 kHz with bit-exact WAV parsing (never the context rate),
  pins run before any layer builds (rebuilding mid-context renders
  differently), and materials built mid-update compile synchronously
  (`needsCompile`) so no warm-up frame draws against an unlinked program.

## 2. Lookahead

Offline analysis is what buys anticipation: `buildSlope` ramps through the
bars before a higher-energy section, so visuals arrive at the drop already
at tension. A causal analyser can never do this. The outgoing layer of a
crossfade keeps its pre-boundary slope — feeding it the new section's
features collapses its ramp in one frame (a visible pop at the edit).

## 3. Scenes: shader + schema, nothing else

- A scene is a fragment shader (or model build/update) plus a params block.
  Uniform binding, UI sliders, seeded sampling, arc drift and phase gates
  are all derived from the schema. No per-scene wiring.
- Six families (`flow geometric organic structural minimal glitch`) chosen
  by section kind — a breakdown never lands on a strobing glitch scene.
- Personality traits (`shape camera space style`) are a **contract**: each
  track is built on 1–2 traits and a scene honouring fewer is never cast.
  The library intentionally shrinks per track. Declared traits need
  machine-checked evidence (lint grep + render-delta gate); a dead camera
  (`sigCamera` assigned, result ignored) shipped once and is now linted.
- `rate: true` is mandatory for anything multiplying `u_time`. Phase is
  `elapsed × rate`; modulating a rate jumps phase by `elapsed × Δrate` —
  measured as 6 flashes/s, twice the WCAG 2.3.1 ceiling.
- Whole-frame luminance never pulses on the beat (3-flashes/s ceiling).
  Pulse something local; quantise glitches to the bar grid.
- A scene reading `prev()` must paint a base image first (black first
  frames, seek-fragile otherwise). `prev()` readers can never be grounds.
- No contract-uniform collisions, no hardcoded saturated colours — the
  look generator recolours through `pal()`/`palRamp()` only.
- Loops need constant bounds with an early `break` on the deciding param
  (`// lint: fixed-cost` opt-out for genuinely fixed work).

## 4. Continuity: nothing disappears mid-shot

Actors and objects change only at camera cuts:

- **Discrete params** (`int`/`bool`, plus floats marked `discrete: true`
  that drive loop bounds / instance counts) hold constant for the whole
  cue. No drift, no lookahead ramp, no reactive modulation — those would
  pop members in/out mid-shot. They still vary per section/variant sample,
  so drops can be denser than intros; the change lands on a cut.
- A discrete param MAY declare `slowAxis`: the driver steps its travel on
  the section-held journey instead of sliding it.
- Reactive on a discrete param and (unstated) drift of one are lint errors.
- Venue furniture never hard-toggles on interpolated state: chamber junk
  and stage pylons fade (ride-crew pattern); ride roadside density is
  arrangement-only. Re-hangs happen only on story jumps, always under a
  camera cut (`venueJumpAt`); the venue layer itself is persistent and
  never dissolved (old-room/new-room ghosting read as a glitch).

## 5. Time structure: cues, cuts, camera

- The arc driver works in **cues** (one per shot): a shot cut and a section
  change take the same code path, differing only in transition length.
- Default transition is a slow dissolve (2 bars calm, 1 bar loud, capped
  at 40% of the shot). Hard cuts only above the energy threshold — on calm
  material a cut reads as a glitch. Even hard cuts are 2-frame ramps (a
  1-frame swap of bright scenes is a flash).
- Framing lives at the shot level (size constant per shot, gaze live);
  the outgoing shot keeps travelling as it fades — freezing it stops the
  old image dead before it disappears.
- Sharp transitions cut colour instantly with the image and always reframe
  (a bigger reframe than a dissolve earns).
- Story variables are **staged, not ramped**: flat inside a section,
  blended ~1 bar after boundaries. Moments (arrival/turn/climax/resolution)
  are found in the audio; the story never overrides the song (bounded
  bias terms). All scenes share one axis sign so the video travels one way.

## 6. Colour and variety

- Palettes in OKLCH; hue from **spectral tilt** (log treble/body ratio —
  centroid and plain body-fraction both collapsed across masters); both
  ways round the wheel; directors choose 1–4 palettes, blended in OKLCH
  across dissolves.
- Per-track **temperament** (intensity/pace/detail/extremity) moves every
  param dial so one scene cast in two videos isn't the same footage twice.
- **Overlays** on 5–55% of stacks, never `normal` blend, never above 0.6
  opacity — occasionally layered, never permanently cluttered.
- A scene varies when the SONG changes what's on screen: draw
  `castMain`/`castChorus` (`form` in 3D), size via `stageScale()`, place
  via `stageNode()`. No effect-knobs (glow/grain/chroma belong to post).
- Grain is a per-track **treatment** (mode/cell/rate/mask/chroma, ~45% of
  tracks get none); scene `texture: 0..2` scales only its share.
- Absolute animation speed follows the song: motion bias is
  tempo-dominated and every `rate: true` param scales by per-track
  `rateScale` — slow songs got fast scenes before this.

## 7. Grounds and composition

- `surface` is measured (`metadata.json`), never declared — nine scenes
  claimed `canvas` while painting under a third of the frame.
- A ground fills the frame on average and never vanishes under any
  identity (worst case counts, not the mean); hollow grounds are
  flattened via `groundPersonalityFrom`.
- Model layers share one `Compositor` perspective/depth rig; shader depth
  stays faked. Venue rooms are furnished with the track's monolith body
  so the room reads as this track's place.
- With a room present the viz plays ON its screens (window/wall/radio),
  never composited over it; model viz additionally stand in the shared
  world for shared-rig rooms. A `directCamera` room (ride) owns only its
  own rig — the shared rig keeps the subject grammar, or the viz is filmed
  through a room camera meant for another world and vanishes.

## 8. 3D on the same terms

- `ActorSpec` is data, not scene graph (serialisable, hashable); geometry
  via `actorToGeometry` from the same `Identity.form` the shaders march.
- Model motion is analytic, instanced, seeded; kit deformation reuses the
  song's silhouette params; `castSolid` impostors remain the fallback.
- New actors are a file plus a registry entry, gated like scenes.

## 9. Export and review

- WebCodecs primary, frame-dump+ffmpeg fallback; title card, edge fades,
  progress/cancel; A/V sync within one frame; survives a real upload test.
- Preview is the primary surface: transport, section jump/loop, live param
  edit, timeline strip, re-roll + locks, draft/full quality, 20s
  segment test-renders. Never commit to a full render blind.
- Every phase gate is measured; the battery (6 tracks ambient→hard EDM)
  is watched end to end — monotony is invisible to automation.

## 10. History

- Forked from `party-stage`, then detached: zero cross-imports.
- Corrections kept: boundary seeks need warm-up (not exact for free);
  `layout` is blind on full-frame fields; aggregate ratios (e.g.
  `separation`) swing run-to-run — steer by direct render comparisons.