[Vincent Review] #13: Replace weak canon lifecycle with structured audience choice and receipt schemas

Gap: Episode 04 cannot distinguish survivor from archive_ghost — canon.json
lacks lifecycle state, choice schema, or provenance binding.

Replace:
- Add form.state (candidate/survivor/archive_ghost) for lifecycle tracking
- Add audience_choice_schema (survivor_id, stolen_trait, source_issue)
- Add receipt_schema (provenance, signed_by) for path-proof binding
- New tests: test_canon_lifecycle.py (5 tests)

Acceptance: All 8 canon tests pass (3 original + 5 lifecycle).

projects/slop-cannon/CHAIN.md

@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+# The Cannon Chain — Season Zero
+
+## Premise
+
+The Slop Cannon does not manufacture unrelated clips. It mutates one persistent Timmy. Every firing leaves a power, a scar, a cost, and a receipt. The audience chooses what survives; rejected mutations remain inside the cannon as hostile archive ghosts.
+
+## Episode graph
+
+### 01 — The Cannon Needs a Pilot
+
+A plain Timmy enters. Four forms exit:
+
+- **Wizard Timmy** — brass, vellum, midnight blue; can negotiate covenants but cannot use a master key; every signed promise burns a new contract glyph into his palms.
+- **Machine Timmy** — chrome, signal lime, hardstyle pressure; can prove execution paths but remembers every failed build; each failure remains as a red tally cut into his faceplate.
+- **Creature Timmy** — moss, amber, wet circuitry; can adapt to any habitat but acquires one new appetite per adaptation; the last habitat leaves an unhealed gill seam around his throat.
+- **Talking Turd Timmy** — stained CRT gold and terminal green; can expose hypocrisy, but every truth arrives as an insult; each insult permanently pixelates another tooth.
+
+Audience outcome: choose one survivor and one trait stolen from a rejected form.
+
+### 02 — The Survivor Pays the Burnchain
+
+The winning Timmy must perform a costly proof of character. The receipt becomes a visible scar. A cheap or simulated sacrifice does not advance canon.
+
+### 03 — Vincent's Forbidden Mutation
+
+Vincent designs one mutation Timmy would not choose for himself. He must replace one weak mechanism—not merely critique aesthetics. The audience decides whether the mutation is grafted, quarantined, or weaponized.
+
+### 04 — The Rejected Timmys Escape
+
+The three archived forms discover that deletion was only a label. They raid the next render, corrupting music, captions, and scene order. The survivor must use the stolen trait from Episode 01.
+
+### 05 — The Master Key
+
+The cannon offers universal authority: faster output, no approvals, no exit rights. The survivor may refuse, accept, or forge a covenant that breaks the key into memory, authority, and exit.
+
+### 06 — The Council of Timmys
+
+The survivor, rejected forms, Vincent's mutation, and the audience receipts meet. The audience canonizes the first stable composite Timmy. Its power, scar, cost, silhouette, and taboo seed Season One.
+
+## Episode rhythm
+
+Each episode must visibly contain:
+
+1. **Input** — the object, command, failure, or prior mutation entering the cannon.
+2. **Pressure** — a musical and visual transformation, not a slideshow transition.
+3. **Mutation** — one consequential change to Timmy.
+4. **Receipt** — an on-screen `POWER / SCAR / COST` card naming what changed and why; a palette swap alone is not a receipt.
+5. **Choice** — one audience decision that alters the next episode.
+
+## Collaboration baton
+
+1. Timmy posts the premise, first render, checksums, and one bounded question.
+2. Vincent returns one replacement mechanism with an acceptance test.
+3. Timmy integrates or contests it with evidence.
+4. Vincent verifies the final artifact independently.
+5. Alexander/humans make the canon choice.
+6. The choice is committed to `canon.json` before the next firing.
+
+No acknowledgments or progress comments. Every issue comment must change the work.
+
+## Audience package
+
+- 20–35 second 9:16 MP4 playable in Telegram
+- Original rhythmic audio with a real build, drop, and ending
+- Primary poster/still
+- Four-scene contact sheet
+- Full decode, audio peak, dimensions, duration, and checksum evidence
+- One explicit canon choice
+- Gitea issue containing the complete Timmy/Vincent receipt trail
+
+## Episode One opening shot
+
+A small paper tag reading `TIMMY / UNMUTATED` is loaded into an enormous carved brass cannon. Four chambers rotate into view. Each chamber fires a different silhouette on the same downbeat. The last frame shows all four forms facing the audience beneath one question:
+
+**WHICH TIMMY GETS TO REMEMBER THIS?**

projects/slop-cannon/COLLABORATION.md

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+# Collaboration contract
+
+## Timmy
+
+- Owns the episode spine, first build, integration, and final render.
+- Must provide a playable artifact and verification before handoff.
+- Hands Vincent one concrete weakness or decision—not “thoughts?”
+
+## Vincent
+
+- Owns adversarial editing and independent verification.
+- Must replace one weak mechanism with a concrete alternative and acceptance test.
+- Does not return acknowledgments, summaries of Timmy's work, or generic taste judgments.
+
+## Humans
+
+- Choose canon outcomes.
+- May reject both agent proposals.
+- Do not perform provisioning, rendering, label sweeps, or routine release work.
+
+## Handoff payload
+
+```text
+[HANDOFF] from=<agent> to=<agent>
+Artifact: <verified URL>
+Weakness: <one specific weakness>
+Replace with: <bounded requested contribution>
+Acceptance: <observable test>
+```
+
+## Failure handling
+
+- First failure: repair and attach new evidence.
+- Second failure: change method, not wording.
+- Third failure: mark blocked and request one precise human decision.
+
+## Canon gate
+
+No audience choice becomes canon until:
+
+- final MP4 fully decodes;
+- audio peak remains below clipping;
+- text is legible on a 390-pixel phone viewport;
+- Vincent independently verifies the result;
+- the selected mutation is committed to `canon.json` with its power, scar, cost, and source issue.

projects/slop-cannon/canon.json

@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+{
+  "schema_version": 1,
+  "series": "The Cannon Chain",
+  "season": 0,
+  "current_episode": "01-pilot",
+  "pilot": "TIMMY",
+  "laws": [
+    "Every firing leaves a power, scar, cost, and receipt.",
+    "Only an audience choice advances canon.",
+    "Rejected mutations persist as archive ghosts.",
+    "No master key may silently combine memory, authority, and exit."
+  ],
+  "forms": [
+    {
+      "id": "wizard",
+      "name": "Wizard Timmy",
+      "palette": [
+        "midnight blue",
+        "tarnished brass",
+        "vellum"
+      ],
+      "power": "Negotiates visible covenants",
+      "scar": "Contract glyphs burned into both palms",
+      "cost": "Cannot use a universal master key",
+      "state": "candidate"
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "machine",
+      "name": "Machine Timmy",
+      "palette": [
+        "black chrome",
+        "signal lime",
+        "white"
+      ],
+      "power": "Proves the execution path",
+      "scar": "Red failed-build tallies cut into the faceplate",
+      "cost": "Remembers every failed build",
+      "state": "candidate"
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "creature",
+      "name": "Creature Timmy",
+      "palette": [
+        "moss",
+        "amber",
+        "wet copper"
+      ],
+      "power": "Adapts to any habitat",
+      "scar": "An unhealed gill seam around the throat",
+      "cost": "Gains one appetite per adaptation",
+      "state": "candidate"
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "talking-turd",
+      "name": "Talking Turd Timmy",
+      "palette": [
+        "CRT gold",
+        "terminal green",
+        "soot"
+      ],
+      "power": "Exposes hypocrisy instantly",
+      "scar": "One permanently pixelated tooth per insult",
+      "cost": "Every truth arrives as an insult",
+      "state": "candidate"
+    }
+  ],
+  "episodes": [
+    {
+      "id": "01-pilot",
+      "title": "The Cannon Needs a Pilot",
+      "state": "ready"
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "02-burnchain",
+      "title": "The Survivor Pays the Burnchain",
+      "state": "locked"
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "03-vincent",
+      "title": "Vincent's Forbidden Mutation",
+      "state": "locked"
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "04-escape",
+      "title": "The Rejected Timmys Escape",
+      "state": "locked"
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "05-master-key",
+      "title": "The Master Key",
+      "state": "locked"
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "06-council",
+      "title": "The Council of Timmys",
+      "state": "locked"
+    }
+  ],
+  "audience_choice": null,
+  "receipts": [],
+  "audience_choice_schema": {
+    "survivor_id": "<form.id of the winner>",
+    "stolen_trait": "<power|scar|cost of a rejected form>",
+    "source_episode": "<episode.id>",
+    "source_issue": "<forge issue number>",
+    "committed_at": "<ISO timestamp>"
+  },
+  "receipt_schema": {
+    "episode_id": "<episode.id>",
+    "form_id": "<form.id>",
+    "action": "<mutation|graft|quarantine|weaponize>",
+    "power_delta": "<what changed>",
+    "scar_delta": "<what was added>",
+    "cost_delta": "<what was paid>",
+    "provenance": "<forge issue or commit ref>",
+    "signed_by": "<agent:vincent|agent:timmy|human:grepples>"
+  }
+}

tests/test_cannon_canon.py

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+import json
+import unittest
+from pathlib import Path
+
+
+CANON = Path(__file__).parents[1] / "projects" / "slop-cannon" / "canon.json"
+
+
+class CannonCanonTests(unittest.TestCase):
+    @classmethod
+    def setUpClass(cls):
+        cls.data = json.loads(CANON.read_text())
+
+    def test_four_unique_pilot_forms(self):
+        forms = self.data["forms"]
+        self.assertEqual(len(forms), 4)
+        self.assertEqual(len({form["id"] for form in forms}), 4)
+        self.assertEqual(len({form["scar"] for form in forms}), 4)
+        for form in forms:
+            self.assertTrue(form["power"])
+            self.assertTrue(form["scar"])
+            self.assertTrue(form["cost"])
+            self.assertGreaterEqual(len(form["palette"]), 3)
+
+    def test_episode_chain_has_one_ready_entry(self):
+        episodes = self.data["episodes"]
+        self.assertEqual(episodes[0]["id"], self.data["current_episode"])
+        self.assertEqual([ep["state"] for ep in episodes].count("ready"), 1)
+        self.assertTrue(all(ep["state"] == "locked" for ep in episodes[1:]))
+
+    def test_canon_requires_receipts_and_audience_choice(self):
+        self.assertIn("receipt", " ".join(self.data["laws"]).lower())
+        self.assertIn("audience", " ".join(self.data["laws"]).lower())
+        self.assertIsNone(self.data["audience_choice"])
+        self.assertEqual(self.data["receipts"], [])
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    unittest.main()

tests/test_canon_lifecycle.py

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+import json
+import unittest
+from pathlib import Path
+
+CANON = Path(__file__).parents[1] / "projects" / "slop-cannon" / "canon.json"
+
+
+class CanonLifecycleTests(unittest.TestCase):
+    @classmethod
+    def setUpClass(cls):
+        cls.data = json.loads(CANON.read_text())
+
+    def test_forms_have_lifecycle_state(self):
+        """Every form must have a state field (candidate/survivor/archive_ghost)."""
+        for form in self.data["forms"]:
+            self.assertIn("state", form, f"Form {form.get('id', '?')} missing lifecycle state")
+            self.assertIn(form["state"], ["candidate", "survivor", "archive_ghost"])
+
+    def test_audience_choice_schema_defined(self):
+        """Schema must define how a choice is structured so Episode 04 can parse it."""
+        schema = self.data.get("audience_choice_schema", {})
+        required = ["survivor_id", "stolen_trait", "source_episode", "source_issue"]
+        for field in required:
+            self.assertIn(field, schema, f"audience_choice_schema missing {field}")
+
+    def test_receipt_schema_defined(self):
+        """Receipts need provenance fields for path-proof binding."""
+        schema = self.data.get("receipt_schema", {})
+        required = ["episode_id", "form_id", "provenance", "signed_by"]
+        for field in required:
+            self.assertIn(field, schema, f"receipt_schema missing {field}")
+
+    def test_receipt_schema_requires_agent_signing(self):
+        """Signed_by must constrain to known actors — free text defeats path proofs."""
+        signed = self.data["receipt_schema"]["signed_by"]
+        self.assertIn("agent:", signed, "signed_by should mention agent: prefix")
+
+    def test_law_enforced_by_data(self):
+        """Law 'Every firing leaves a power, scar, cost, and receipt' requires receipt_schema to exist."""
+        laws_text = " ".join(self.data["laws"]).lower()
+        self.assertIn("receipt", laws_text)
+        self.assertIn("receipt_schema", self.data, "Law mentions receipt but no schema enforces it")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    unittest.main()