acdream/docs/plans/2026-08-09-chat-parity-campaign.md

Campaign CH — chat & interface-text retail parity

Status: ACTIVE 2026-08-09 — CH1 complete (implementation 172c6f9a + review fixes 34d8a3c0); CH2 code-complete (77c8296e), pending the in-client user gate (jump-in-air / jump-loaded refusals showing on-screen, not in chat).

Why now: first track of the alpha-release program (chat is the most visible daily surface for the friend-alpha). User-directed 2026-08-09.

Scope

Four deliverables, one campaign:

1. Exact chat colors. The 2026-06-16 cdb session pinned the retail RGBAColor constants (0x81c4a8+), but only 4 of ~13 kinds were mapped with confidence; the type→color lookup table (ChatInterface::BuildChatColorLookupTable @ 0x4f31c0) was never decompiled. This campaign pins the COMPLETE table and conforms ChatWindowController.RetailChatColor to it.
2. Working side channels vs local ACE. Turbine rooms (General / Trade / LFG / Roleplay / Society) and the legacy family (/f /a /m /p /v /cv), inbound and outbound. The 26-day-old "ACE doesn't run a TurbineChat server" claim is under verification — the research lane reads current ACE source rather than trusting it.
3. Retail's on-screen interface text. The transient yellow top-of-viewport messages (jump-while-airborne being the canonical example) that retail does NOT put in the chat window. Routing table (on-screen vs chat vs both), presentation (color/duration/fade as far as acclient-side data allows — the draw itself lives in keystone.dll), and the client-raised local errors.
4. Complete / and @ command registry. Every command the retail client parses, audited against RetailClientCommandCatalog (the 2026-07-13 family port is the baseline, not a restart). Missing commands implemented; non-retail verbs remain ACE server-passthrough per the command ownership rule (2026-07-13).

Out of scope: retail's secondary/floating chat windows and per-window filter masks (post-alpha polish unless a slice lands it for free); chat color user-configurability (we ship retail defaults); TurbineChat server emulation (ACE-side).

Method

Per CLAUDE.md: grep docs/research/named-retail/ first; cdb only where static decomp is insufficient; cross-check ACE + holtburger; conformance tests pin every table (colors, routing, command catalog); divergence register rows land in the same commits; build + full Release suite green per commit.

Model split (user-directed 2026-08-09): research on Opus; planning by the main loop (Fable); implementation slices on Sonnet; every slice gets a dual-lens Opus review — retail faithfulness AND architecture — before its gate.

Research lanes (all Opus, parallel, read-only)

Lane	Output doc	Question
R1 command registry	docs/research/2026-08-09-chat-retail-command-registry.md	Complete retail verb/alias/handler table + acdream audit
R2 interface text	docs/research/2026-08-09-chat-retail-interface-text.md	What draws the yellow text, the routing table, client-raised errors
R3 color table	docs/research/2026-08-09-chat-retail-color-table.md	Full BuildChatColorLookupTable decompile + wire→type→color trace
R4 side channels	docs/research/2026-08-09-chat-side-channels-vs-ace.md	Per-family defect diagnosis vs current ACE source

Slices (provisional — finalized when research lands)

Ordering rationale: colors first (small, immediately visible, zero wire risk), then interface text (new presentation subsystem), then side channels (wire work, needs the connected gate), then command breadth, then closeout. Slices touching shared chat files run serially — one implementer per slice against a pinned contract (per feedback_dont_parallelize_coupled_plan_slices).

• CH1 — exact color table. Conformance test pins every enum entry to its retail RGBA; RetailChatColor corrected; register rows for any kind we cannot yet receive on the wire.
• CH2 — on-screen interface text. New presentation owner (App layer, retained-UI or TextRenderer HUD path per research recommendation); routing per retail's table; client-raised local errors ported at their retail raise sites; keystone-owned presentation unknowns get register rows.
• CH3 — side channels. Fix list from R4; connected two-way gate against local ACE (send + receive per family); self-echo semantics per ChatChannelInfo.IsSelfEchoChannel.
• CH4 — command registry completion. Catalog conformance test pins acdream's table against the retail registry enumeration; missing commands implemented family-by-family.
• CH5 — closeout. Register sweep, ledger flip, ISSUES updates, in-client test script for the user gate.

Gates

• Per slice: dotnet build green, full Release suite green, conformance tests, register rows same-commit, Opus dual review resolved.
• Campaign: user in-client gate — colors side-by-side vs the retail client, each side channel spoken + heard, on-screen text provoked live (jump in air), command spot-checks. Test script delivered at CH5.

Ledger

Slice	Commit	Suite	Review	User gate
R1–R4 research	see docs/research/2026-08-09-chat-retail-*	—	—	—
CH1 colors	172c6f9a	11,835 passed / 4 skipped / 0 failed	APPROVE-WITH-FIXES; fixed 34d8a3c0	pending
CH2 interface text	77c8296e	11,890 passed / 4 skipped / 0 failed	REJECT (docs/research/2026-08-09-ch2-review-findings.md); rework in progress	pending
CH3 side channels	—	—	—	—
CH4 commands	—	—	—	—
CH5 closeout	—	—	—	—