acdream/docs/research/2026-08-06-c5c-closeout-handoff.md

# C5c closeout + successor handoff — the placement cutover's automated half is done (2026-08-06)

**Read this before any C5c or post-campaign work.** It is the successor to
`2026-08-05-c4-closeout-handoff.md` (whose ⚠ BISECT HAZARD block still
applies and is repeated in §6).

Branch `claude/acdream-physics-divergence-5aa784`, 21 commits from `02578441`
to `7b3e2895`. **Nothing is pushed** — the branch does not exist on the remote,
and there are 388+ unpushed commits ahead of `origin/main`.

---

## 1. One-paragraph state

Every implementation item in the placement cutover campaign is now landed and
dual-reviewed. **C5b** (classify-before-merge), **#280** (portal destination
prefetch), **#276's remainder**, **AP-22** and **AD-10** all shipped with both
review lenses PASS. **#309** was accepted as a standing divergence by user
decision rather than fixed. What remains for C5c is **entirely connected/visual
work plus the ledger close** — none of it can be done without the user at the
client, and the probe strip cannot be done before it.

---

## 2. What landed, by slice

| Slice | Commits | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| **C5b** — classify before merge (#275) | `735f0a72`, `ed806997`, `23aa62f2`, `ff100cf3`, `9ee9c1a1` | Retired **AP-131** and **AD-60**'s legacy half. Seven production lines; five commits, because the review found a headless regression the change itself introduced. |
| **#280** — portal destination prefetch | `3aab05b0`, `73cdb95c`, `bcb66ccd` | Reveal window now derives from the live streaming radii. **D-1**, an unrecoverable portal hang, was found by review and fixed. |
| **#276 remainder** | `408c8e8f`, `fafc0b65` | Settle now adopts the transition's resolved cell across an indoor seam. |
| **#316**, **#317** | `429775d4`, `1d2d4bb8` | Report-only investigations. #316 **cosmetic**; #317 **no retail basis**. |
| **#309** | `43cfdc4a` | **Accepted as a standing divergence** (user decision), not a planned fix. AP-136 is its permanent record. |
| **AP-22** | `bc4679cd`, `619de97a`, `ef976c6d` | Invented collision cylinder deleted in **all three** copies. Row retired. |
| **AD-10** | `fe6ee877`, `886333a2`, `fb454b74`, `2223ed17`, `7b3e2895` | **Retired by deletion** — its stated justification was false at HEAD. |

---

## 2.5 C5c's automated gate — PASS

Run at `7b3e2895` on the final binary, **after deleting all 44 `bin`/`obj`
directories** (see §7 rule 4 — this session had three stale-artifact
incidents, so an incremental result would not have been evidence):

```
dotnet test AcDream.slnx -c Release -m:1     # ACDREAM_PAK_PATH set
```

**11,196 passed / 4 skipped / 0 failed**, all nine projects:

| Project | Passed | Skipped |
|---|---|---|
| AcDream.App.Tests | 4,172 | 3 |
| AcDream.Core.Tests | 4,261 | 1 |
| AcDream.Runtime.Tests | 1,220 | 0 |
| AcDream.Core.Net.Tests | 764 | 0 |
| AcDream.UI.Abstractions.Tests | 546 | 0 |
| AcDream.Content.Tests | 125 | 0 |
| AcDream.Headless.Tests | 89 | 0 |
| AcDream.Bake.Tests | 15 | 0 |
| AcDream.Cli.Tests | 4 | 0 |

The 4 skips are the pre-existing set; no new skip was added anywhere in the
campaign. **None of the three known load-sensitive flakes (#302, #308, #321)
fired** in this run — but they are separately filed and must never be
conflated if one does.

Net movement across the campaign: 11,106 at `02578441` → **11,196**, +90.

---

## 2.6 Connected gate — #280 USER-PASSED 2026-08-06; the rest NOT RUN

**#280's reveal gate: PASS, user-accepted.** User's words: *"now portal space
takes longer but terrain is complete when I exit."* Both halves are the
criteria the gate specified — a measurably longer hold (the fix doing its job)
and a complete destination on reveal (the acceptance).

Probe evidence, `ACDREAM_PROBE_PARK=1`, retail UI, Release, `ACDREAM_STREAM_RADIUS`
unset (`c5c-gate-after2.log`):

- **Three Portal reveals plus a Login reveal, every one at `radius=12`.**
  Pre-#280 this was a hardcoded `1`.
- Each portal hold raised the wait cue at ~5.0 s (`elapsedMs=5031 / 5000 /
  5010`) before `materialized → world-visible → complete`.
- Generation 4 revealed cell `0x3032001C` — the same cell as generation 1's
  login, i.e. a repeat visit to an already-seen landblock.
- The park path was exercised (95 `[park...]` lines).

**An accidental but genuine A/B.** An earlier run in the same session set
`ACDREAM_PROBE_REVEAL_RADIUS=1`, which is a radius VALUE, not an on/off flag —
so it forced the pre-fix window. The user observed the original defect
(landscape building in the background) with `radius=1` on every probe line, and
did not observe it with `radius=12`. That is the before/after pair the gate
asked for, obtained by accident. **Successors: this probe overrides the radius;
it does not merely enable logging.**

### NOT RUN — do not read this section as gate coverage

| Owed gate | Status |
|---|---|
| D-1's two reachability scenarios (double-recall to the same landblock with a walk between; mid-hold quality-preset drop) | **NOT RUN.** Generation 4's repeat visit is suggestive but is not the demote path D-1 needs. |
| AP-136's six-step park check | **NOT RUN as the six-step protocol.** The probe fired 95 times incidentally; that is not the check. |
| Route-7 thickening | **NOT RUN** — `ACDREAM_PROBE_REMOTE_TELEPORT` recorded **0** lines; no remote teleport occurred. |
| Two-client observation | **NOT RUN** |
| Canonical nine-stop soak | **NOT RUN** |
| Lifecycle/reconnect route on the final binary | **NOT RUN** |
| AD-65 / AD-66 local-player visual gate | **NOT RUN** |

The campaign ledger closes with these outstanding **by user direction**, not
because they were discharged. Anyone citing "C5c passed" must cite §2.6's table
alongside it.

---

## 3. WHAT C5C STILL OWES — all of it needs the user

Nothing below can be discharged without a live client. The automated half is
complete.

### 3.1 Connected gates, batched into one sitting

1. **#280's reveal gate.** The user's original repro was a **recall**, so the
   route needs a **lifestone leg**, not only `/teleloc`, plus a first-login
   stop. A/B with `ACDREAM_PROBE_REVEAL_RADIUS`, `ACDREAM_STREAM_RADIUS`
   unset. The pre-fix run is *expected to show the defect*; the post-fix hold
   must be measurably **longer**. If it isn't, the gate widened nothing.
2. **#280 D-1's two reachability scenarios, never reproduced live**: two
   consecutive recalls to the **same** landblock with walking in between, and
   a mid-hold quality-preset drop. Both are fixed and unit-covered; neither has
   been seen on a running client.
3. **AP-136's six-step park check** — `ACDREAM_PROBE_PARK=1`. **This survives
   #309's deferral**: it validates the SHIPPED rollback path
   (`restorableOnCancel` in `SubmitPreparedPlacementCore`, the shared core
   behind every production placement), not the deferred fix.
4. **Route-7 thickening** — its gate passed on one `cause=propagate` probe line;
   the evidence is THIN.
5. **AD-65 / AD-66** need a local-player visual gate before any fix (see §5).
6. **C5c proper**: two-client observation, canonical nine-stop soak,
   lifecycle/reconnect route on the final binary, and the user's visual matrix.

### 3.2 Then, and only then

**The probe strip — DEFERRED 2026-08-06, deliberately, and the ledger closes
without it.**

Six flags — `ACDREAM_PROBE_REMOTE_LANDING`, `ACDREAM_PROBE_REMOTE_SLIDE`,
`ACDREAM_PROBE_PARK`, `ACDREAM_PROBE_REMOTE_TELEPORT`,
`ACDREAM_PROBE_CHILD_CELL`, `ACDREAM_PROBE_LOCAL_TELEPORT` — plus
`ACDREAM_PROBE_REVEAL_RADIUS`.

**Not stripped, because §2.6's table says their gates were never run.** Only
#280's reveal gate was discharged. Route-7 thickening recorded zero
remote-teleport lines; AP-136's six-step park protocol was not performed; the
two-client observation, nine-stop soak and lifecycle/reconnect route did not
happen. Stripping the family now would delete exactly the instrumentation
those still-owed gates need, which is the failure this section was written to
prevent — so honouring it means *not* stripping, even though the campaign is
closing.

`ACDREAM_PROBE_REVEAL_RADIUS` is kept too, despite #280 being closed: **AP-149**
(outer ring accepts terrain-only) and **#326** (the missing Viewing Distance
option) are both open and both would want the same A/B harness. Retiring it now
would mean rebuilding it.

**Successor:** strip the family when the §2.6 gates are actually run, not on a
calendar. Note again that `ACDREAM_PROBE_REVEAL_RADIUS` is a radius **value**,
not a boolean — setting it to `1` silently reproduces the pre-#280 defect.

### 3.3 Then close the ledger

Register / roadmap / milestones / memory, and the campaign ledger close.

---

## 4. Issues filed this session

| # | Subject |
|---|---|
| **#321** | `DatSoundCacheTests` concurrent-decode dedup, full-suite load (third load-sensitive flake) |
| **#322** | Two callers compute the same pre-placement flags from the same inputs |
| **#323** | A far-snap store can silently stale a pending initial-create receipt |
| **#324** | Graphical and no-window hosts run parallel, non-shared inbound routes |
| **#325** | **Gate A's teleport test is narrower than retail's** — `==` where retail is "not older" |
| **#326** | acdream has no Viewing Distance option (retail's `Render.LandscapeDrawDistance`) |
| **#327** | No analogue of retail's DDD prefetch progress readout |
| **#328** | Camera far plane hardcoded 5000 f; retail's `zfar` is byte-verified 4000 |
| **#329** | Portal wait cue arms 5 s late; retail emits per tunnel rotation segment |
| **#330** | **Headless registers no live-entity collision at all** — a bot walks through every NPC |
| **#331** | **`ResolveWithTransition` refuses ALL uphill motion with a body supplied** |
| **#332** | Headless bots appear to have no remote dead-reckoning |

**#331 is the one to look at first.** Severity was raised from UNKNOWN once the
discriminator was found: it is the **`body:` parameter**, not the fixture. With
`body: null` the uphill sweep climbs; with a body it returns `ok=False` and zero
movement — under a call profile identical to the local player's
(`IsPlayer | EdgeSlide`, human two-sphere Setup), on ramps as shallow as **1.1°**.
A diagonal request keeps cross-slope X and zeroes only up-slope Y. Nothing in
the suite asserts uphill progress on a walkable slope, which is why it was
invisible — the test that found it passed **vacuously**.

---

## 5. Register movement

**Retired:** AP-1, AD-1 (C5a) · AP-145 (C5a) · **AP-131**, **AD-60**'s legacy
half (C5b) · **AP-22** · **AD-10**.

**Filed:** AP-147 (delta-stream cardinality) · **AP-148** (#325's Gate A
narrowing) · AP-149 (outer ring accepts terrain-only) · **AP-150** (wait-cue
delay is not retail's trigger) · AP-151 (gate stricter than retail on the
GPU-upload axis) · **AP-152** (live path emits primitives *and* BSP additively
where retail is exclusive; 172/5,935 Setups incl. BSP doors) · AD-64 (the
duplicated residency decision) · **AD-65**, **AD-66**.

**AD-65 deserves attention.** Its magnitude was filed at half the truth: the row
states `cos²θ` but quantified `1−cosθ`. Corrected to **25% short at 30°, 50% at
45°**, confirmed by measurement (#331's probe: 0.0735 m for a 0.1 m request at
30.96° = `cos²(30.96)`). **It is a live lead for #269's slope-slide residual** —
and note that project memory's #269 do-not-retry covers *friction and jump
chains*, which are byte-exonerated; `AdjustOffset` is a different function and
is **not** covered by it.

---

## 6. ⚠ BISECT HAZARD — carried forward

Commits **`735f0a72..23aa62f2`** contain a live headless defect: every remote
entity's `FullCellId` is frozen at its placement value for the whole session in
`AcDream.Headless`, and the local player loses one of AP-146's three
cell-refresh edges. Introduced by `735f0a72`, fixed at `ff100cf3`. Nothing
throws; no test in the range catches it.

---

## 7. Process findings — stated as rules, each paid for this session

1. **A blast-radius enumeration only reaches as far as the call graph its author
   walked.** C5b's was performed over the graphical `OnPosition` path and missed
   `AcDream.Headless` entirely — 11,000 green tests, one frozen host. Ask *which*
   traversal, and what it structurally could not reach. Both hosts, every time.
2. **Two independent adversarial reviewers converging is near-proof; a lone
   finding is a lead.** It happened three times this session (the headless hole,
   the missing payload gate, D-1) and all three were real.
3. **Assume a test does not discriminate until sabotage proves it.** SEVEN green
   tests covering nothing were found or avoided: C5b's conservation test, #276's
   three settler tests, #280's tautological integration fixture, the atlas-tier
   seam 4,170 tests missed, AD-10's only existing test (a dead method with a
   hard-coded formula), and AD-10's contract-specified T1 sabotage which came
   back green and was rejected rather than shipped.
4. **`bin`/`obj` can serve deleted code even under `--no-incremental` and
   `-t:Rebuild`.** Three incidents. Delete all 44 directories before any
   verdict-deciding result. A stale artifact does not look like an error — it
   produces a plausible failure, or a plausible pass.
5. **Every contract in this campaign has been wrong at least once, and the
   implementation is what catches it.** C5b's §3-D2 (a "dead" ternary that was
   live), #280's §7 (three false items), AP-22's §7.1 (a literal that was a
   three-way condition), AD-10's §7.1 (a non-discriminating sabotage). Brief
   implementers to rebut, and treat a reasoned rebuttal as more valuable than a
   compliant edit.
6. **Verify a cited address is the construct you claim.** AP-150 mis-cited
   `0x004D7064` — a `PStringBase` constructor — as the `SendNotice` call,
   *despite* being filed with a byte-level disassembly. Precision of method does
   not prevent an error of line.
7. **Binary Ninja drops flag tests.** `if (-((eax_7 - eax_7)) == 0)` renders an
   always-true where a real wrap-safe compare lives. Confirmed at Gate A
   (0x00454054), `DoVectorUpdate` (0x004521F5), `HandlePlayerTeleport`
   (0x00452186), and `FindObjCollisions`. Disassemble the PDB-paired binary
   wherever a comparison or constant is load-bearing.
8. **Do not fan out subagents.** Two blowups: six agents spawning their own
   children exhausted a session usage limit and killed four tasks mid-flight;
   a later three spawned five more. Every brief must say **"do not spawn
   subagents"** explicitly — none of the early ones did. One code-writer at a
   time; the shared worktree tolerates no more.
9. **A shell failure inside a compound command can leave a commit claiming work
   it did not do.** `ef976c6d` was needed because a heredoc invoked `python`
   (absent here; `py` is the binary) while the commit still reported success.

---

## 8. Where to start

- **Post-campaign:** #331 first (§4), then AP-152 and #330 — both are real
  collision divergences with user-visible consequences.
- **Domain entry points remain** `claude-memory/project_physics_collision_digest.md`
  and `claude-memory/project_render_pipeline_digest.md`.
- **The campaign plan** (`docs/plans/2026-08-02-placement-cutover.md`) item 5 now
  records AP-22 and AD-10 as retired; item 3 records #280 as done.