XZBT-NGN/STEP5-MVP-COMPLETION-REPORT.md

A. Executive result

STEP 5 COMPLETE — NGN MVP COMPLETE — READY FOR STEP 6

Final closure on 2026-09-14: 27/27 automated tests, 3/3 browser reference checks, Haunted House normal operator checks, both SciFi text invocations, publishing validation, diff check, and genericity checks pass. The original SciFi argument defect, Haunted House reporting defect, and malformed devlog structure are resolved. Section R records the final results and evidence.

The existing NGN architecture and validation are unchanged by this closure pass. No exhibit-specific host logic or Step 6 implementation was added. Earlier failures and their evidence remain below as historical context, not current gates.

B. Pre-Step-5 MVP state

Baseline: NGN HEAD 76928f7, clean at initial inspection. Read the Contract 5.2, Implementation Plan 5.2, Authoring Guide 5.2, Step 4 report/review, README/AGENTS, source, fixtures and completion devlog. The owner supplied docs/implementation_plan.md and docs/walkthrough.md during the run; these accepted triage/completion notes were read and preserved. Their permissive metadata interpretation matches this implementation. Their existing fixture copy notice was confirmed present.

The Step 4 UI already accepted same-origin paths without source edits. Its gaps were rough presentation, absent loading timeout/status, disabled reconnect after disconnect, and empty catalog text lost during initial rendering. Capabilities and diagnostics were raw JSON beside the main workflow. README still contained extensive starter-template identity/setup instructions.

Baseline npm test: 20/20. Initial sandbox execution failed with spawn EPERM; execution with the required process permission passed. Baseline real browser: Aquarium loaded through normal UI; the existing transport suite passed 3/3.

C. Operator connection workflow

The normal URL/path form remains the single entry point. Load exhibit connects or switches; invalid/off-origin/credential-bearing URLs are rejected before removing the active frame. Loading is explicit and bounded by a 15-second document load timer. A completed document without a responding contract uses the existing 5-second request timeout. The URL is remembered in memory for reconnect.

Disconnect cancels pending host work, removes the frame and clears session view. Reconnect while attached negotiates a new session with the same exhibit instance. Reconnect after disconnect reloads the remembered location as a new instance; its initial values/revision need not equal those of the removed instance. Stale frame load callbacks are ignored after switch/disconnect. No filesystem picker, mount, remote transport, persistence, or exhibit-specific selector exists.

D. Operator usability changes

Connection status, identity, version and negotiated contract are prominent. Controls are grouped by discovered category, with Other as the missing/empty category fallback. Capabilities are readable ID/state items. State/session data, full descriptors, events and protocol logs remain available in expandable areas. Disconnected states explain how to begin. Draft-versus-reported-value behavior is explained. The latest diagnostic is visible near connection with its timestamp; Clear log dismisses history. Existing colors and simple layout were retained.

E. Canonical documentation ownership

README now describes NGN as the project, links canonical Contract/Authoring Guide/ Implementation Plan documents, identifies external SciFi-XZBT and reference fixtures, and documents startup, workflow, verification and MVP limits. The root AGENTS ownership paragraph matches the owner's updated instructions. Publishing management is linked rather than presented as the identity of the application. Authoritative specifications and external repository documentation were not edited. The plan's historical roadmap numbering is distinguished from this Step 5 request.

F. Descriptor validation changes

validateCatalog now checks supplied restorable values are boolean and supplied category values are strings. Omission remains accepted, as required by the accepted triage interpretation of Contract section 9's illustrative metadata. Empty category strings are accepted and use the UI fallback. No new mandatory fields, category vocabulary, restore behavior, or protocol semantics were added. Tests cover omission, valid false/true/empty/custom values, and malformed types.

G. SciFi-XZBT interoperability

Tested the real external working copy at G:/.vibe/SciFi-XZBT, HEAD 179b9db715aaa92999c5bfef451b6877f30079fe, including its pre-existing local changes and untracked contract files. Copied only index.html, js/ and css/ unchanged into ignored test-fixtures/local/scifi/. All 12 file hashes matched the source; evidence manifest identifies the actual tested contents. This is not a test of HEAD alone or a dist release.

All operations used the normal NGN URL form and descriptor-generated controls.

Check	Observed result
Connect, hello/session, describe, state.get	Pass: SciFi-XZBT 5.2.0 / Contract 5.2, 61 targets, registry revision 1
Range	Master Volume 0.75 to 0.42; reported value and event matched
Boolean/state	Master Mute false to true; matched
Selection/preset	Main Engineering selected; related state events shared revision 5
Observation	true then false; matching state reports and events
Argumentless impulse	Comm Badge Chime accepted, action.executed received
Contextual unavailability	Demat in Starfleet returned CAPABILITY_UNAVAILABLE without deleting target
Universe	Whataverse selected; Demat then emitted action.executed
Text argument invoke	Initially failed with legacy args.text. Follow-up PASS: both expose arguments arrays and emit action.executed with exact submitted text; see section Q.
Incoming events	state.changed, selection.changed, capability.changed, action.executed observed, with source/correlation where supplied
stateRevision / sequence	Separate counters tracked; saved session ended at revision 6 / sequence 31
Reconnect attached	New session, revision 6 preserved, sequence baseline null
Disconnect / reconnect again	Frame removed and URL reloaded; new session and fresh instance state, revision 0

saved session evidence contains actual descriptors, events, metadata and errors. Per Contract section 9.5, missing arguments metadata is tolerated as empty; NGN must not infer undocumented arguments from the legacy field. The authorized correction and narrow normal-UI rerun are now complete (section Q). Context-gated actions and a large fixed preset list are conformant but can be awkward; no domain-specific UI logic was added. Audible fidelity, optional AI model preparation, and all SciFi actions are not certified by these representative checks.

H. Reference exhibit regression (initial run; closure results in R)

Exhibit	Normal operator checks	Result
Aquarium (12 targets)	Population 16, Paused true, Blue Tang selection, Feed, reconnect, disconnect/reload	Pass; events/readback and new session observed
Planetarium (14 targets)	Azimuth 0.75, Sky frozen true, Cygnus, Advance time with minutes 30, reconnect	Pass; declared argument delivered and action event captured
Haunted House (13 targets)	Haunt level 0.5, Held true, Library, Manifest, reconnect	Writes/session pass; Manifest event received, but transient snapshot violates declared 0.01 step

The earlier independent transport-style browser suite passed 3/3. The latest rerun passes 2/3, failing Haunted House's haunt-level step validation. Source inspection also corrects the earlier claim that the suite avoids Manifest: its first impulse without capability requirements is action.manifest. The fixture also drifts haunt level continuously before it is paused, so off-step snapshots are not confined to that action. The earlier additional Manifest case exposed: NGN reports INVALID_MESSAGE for room.haunt-level and preserves its previous cache instead of accepting a value outside the descriptor's step. This is not a Step 5 host regression or a reason to weaken validation. No fixture source changed.

These are the previously corrected AbacusAI fixtures, not pristine upstream implementations. Corrections remain documented in test-fixtures/PROVENANCE.md. Neither 3/3 nor the operator checks certify every fixture action/state transition.

I. Initial automated test results (final count in R)

npm test: 25 passed, 0 failed, including all 20 existing tests and five new connection/metadata tests. Coverage added: accepted/rejected URL forms, invalid URL preserving a frame, stale loads after switching/disconnect, reconnect with and without a frame, load timeout/recovery, optional metadata types. Existing host tests cover invalid sessions, sequence/revision gaps, pending snapshot races, stale sessions, transport origin/source and server boundaries.

git diff --check: passed after line-ending normalization of authored files. python devlog_editor.py --validate: failed on pre-existing content: .labyricorn/devlog/post-step-4-completion/contents.lr: empty or malformed record block. The trailing separator is present in HEAD and that file is unchanged. Publishing record repair was not included in this application milestone. Do not read the historical Step 4 validation claim as a successful validation of the current tree.

J. Browser/runtime verification

Local Codex in-app Chromium, 2026-09-14. Normal UI verified on loopback port 4173. A new npm start process succeeded on 4175 (4173 was already occupied); final reference suite ran against that fresh process and printed timestamped 3/3 output. See browser results, the three reference JSON snapshots and operator screenshot.

The missing-exhibit URL hit LOAD_TIMEOUT in this browser and a valid URL recovered to connected/synchronized. Initial and disconnected views, loading, switching, attached reconnect, disconnect/reload, discovery and real controls were checked. A browser tab disappeared once during verification; a new tab resumed the remaining checks, including a repeated successful SciFi disconnect/reload.

No separate pristine checkout was created. Startup and tests run directly from current source, with no dependencies/build products or hidden source edits. External SciFi assets must be supplied separately using the documented commands. This is local Chromium evidence, not cross-browser or clean-checkout certification.

K. Genericity verification

Case-insensitive scan of src/, public/, server/ for scifi|aquarium|planetarium|haunted|tank\.|sky\.|room\.|universe|preset|speech|warp returned no matches. Diff review confirms controls depend on descriptors and categories only. Exhibit names/paths are confined to documentation, tests and ignored runtime copies. No transport architecture changes or Step 6 features were introduced. No SciFi internals were used to infer NGN behavior.

L. Files changed

• .gitignore: ignore locally supplied external exhibit copies.
• AGENTS.md, README.md: canonical ownership, operator instructions and boundaries.
• src/connection.js (new): URL/frame lifecycle helper.
• src/ui.js, public/index.html, public/style.css: connection and usability pass.
• src/validation.js: supplied optional metadata type checks.
• tests/connection.test.js (new): five focused tests.
• test-fixtures/host-verification.js: timestamped page/console output.
• test-fixtures/STEP5-VERIFICATION.md (new): repeatable operator and external setup checks.
• test-fixtures/evidence/ (new): six JSON/text evidence files and one screenshot.
• STEP5-MVP-COMPLETION-REPORT.md (new): this report.

The owner's newly supplied docs/implementation_plan.md and docs/walkthrough.md remain unmodified. Production host/session implementation, transport and server were not changed during closure. The earlier follow-up changed only SciFi's contract adapter externally; closure makes no external source changes. Section R lists the final fixture, devlog, test, and evidence changes. Nothing was staged, committed or pushed.

M. Known limitations

The SciFi descriptor, Haunted House reporting, and publishing validation defects are resolved. External source provenance is a working-copy hash manifest, not a reproducible released commit. A fresh checkout was not independently tested.

One trusted same-origin exhibit only; last URL, cache and logs are in memory. Disconnect destroys the exhibit instance. Drafts reset on rediscovery. Large catalogs require scrolling; controls use numeric inputs. No idle polling or complete cross-browser/audio certification. These limits are visible/documented, not hidden by a host-specific workaround.

N. Deferred roadmap features

No multi-surface presentation, casting/display endpoints, second-monitor output, Google TV, MIDI, MCP, webhooks, scenarios, recording, telemetry acquisition, multi-exhibit orchestration, remote automation, persisted operator configuration, plugins, databases, accounts, cloud services, commercial licensing or production branding. Nothing in the broader Implementation Plan makes these MVP features.

O. Step 6 prerequisites

The Step 5 gate has passed with all three defects resolved, without waivers. The next planned work is listed below. This closure pass stops here and does not begin Step 6 implementation.

The owner's planned Step 6 sequence remains unimplemented:

6.1 Define the Multi-Surface Model 6.2 Build a Minimal Multi-Surface Reference Exhibit 6.3 Add Generic Surface Discovery to XZBT-NGN 6.4 Implement Local Multi-Surface Rendering 6.5 Prove Shared-State Synchronization 6.6 Validate the Reference Exhibit End-to-End 6.7 Adapt SciFi-XZBT Observation to the Surface Model 6.8 Test Multi-Surface Behavior Against SciFi-XZBT 6.9 Step 6 Conformance and Architecture Review 6.10 Step 6 Completion Gate

P. Final verdict

STEP 5 COMPLETE — NGN MVP COMPLETE — READY FOR STEP 6

Q. Historical descriptor follow-up and unsuccessful gate rerun

Date: 2026-09-14. This section records the resolved SciFi failure and the subsequent 2/3 gate failure; final closure in R supersedes its gate status. The broader operator checks in G/H/J are prior evidence; this follow-up reran only the requested two SciFi targets and the acceptance checks.

Patch and provenance

External file: G:/.vibe/SciFi-XZBT/js/contract-adapter.js. Both descriptors now publish arguments: [{ name: 'text', type: 'string', required: true, maxLength }], with limits 2000 for speech and 512 for ticker. The validator consumes that array for required, type, length and unknown-key checks. Invoke payloads correctly keep the Contract's args object. No host fallback for legacy descriptors was added.

The source HEAD remains 179b9db715aaa92999c5bfef451b6877f30079fe; the adapter is an existing untracked working-copy file. A fresh ignored copy was created at test-fixtures/local/scifi-arguments/. All 12 runtime files match source SHA-256 hashes in the new manifest. The original manifest and failing session evidence are retained unchanged. The external packaging script also successfully generated standalone.html in that ignored directory. It is a local working-copy build, not a released artifact; offline packaged-runtime behavior was not separately certified in this narrow run.

Normal operator UI results

A fresh npm start served port 4173. Local Chromium loaded the corrected source copy through the URL form, negotiated Contract 5.2, and discovered 61 targets. Both descriptor-generated text fields appeared. Clicking their Invoke buttons produced the following incoming events in session sess-inf3scqz:

Target	Submitted text	Result
speech.say	NGN Step 5 speech interoperability check.	action.executed, sequence 1, correlationId ngn-2-4, source host
display.ticker	NGN Step 5 ticker interoperability check.	action.executed, sequence 2, correlationId ngn-2-6, source host

Both events contain the exact submitted args.text. State revision remained 0, as appropriate for these transient impulses. Speech then reported capability ready at sequence 3. The protocol log contained only session establishment; the browser reported no warning/error console entries at capture time. This verifies invocation acceptance and events, not audible fidelity or AI preparation. See captured UI and descriptors.

After preserving the adapter's original LF line endings, the fresh source copy was reloaded and both operations were repeated. The manifest identifies this final copy. In session sess-igidi1h9, speech succeeded at sequence 1 with correlation ngn-4-13; ticker succeeded with the exact text at sequence 5 with correlation ngn-4-19. Speech capability rediscovery cleared a draft during this repeat, so an intervening ticker event contains an empty string; re-entering the text and invoking again succeeded. This is the documented draft-reset behavior. The later capture also includes a native transport.playing event with source ui, revision 1, and speech capability transitions. Those are retained without attributing the native state change to the transient text operation. See the final-source UI capture.

Acceptance results at the descriptor follow-up

Check	Latest result
NGN npm test	PASS: 25/25 after permitting Node worker spawning (sandbox first returned EPERM)
External adapter syntax	PASS: node --check
Focused external adapter checks	PASS: metadata; missing/null/wrong-type/unknown/overlength rejection before execution; exact maximum length accepted; argumentless invocation preserved
Normal UI: speech.say and display.ticker	PASS: 2/2
Reference browser suite	FAIL: 2/3; Aquarium and Planetarium pass, Haunted House reports off-step room.haunt-level
Publishing validation	FAIL: unchanged post-step-4-completion record has an empty/malformed trailing block
NGN git diff --check	PASS
Genericity scan of src/public/server	PASS: no exhibit-specific vocabulary matches

The browser gate ran from 2026-09-14T19:41:45.445Z to 2026-09-14T19:41:45.575Z; actual output is retained without replacing it with the earlier 3/3 result. The Haunted House fixture files are unchanged. Its continuous drift and Manifest can produce values that conflict with the descriptor's 0.01 step; NGN validation was not weakened.

Follow-up NGN changes: this report, README, STEP5-VERIFICATION, the optional test-fixtures/check-scifi-arguments.cjs regression script, and new evidence files. Run the external check with:

node test-fixtures/check-scifi-arguments.cjs G:/.vibe/SciFi-XZBT/js/contract-adapter.js

At that point the SciFi fix was complete but Step 5 completion was withheld for two remaining failures. The final authorized closure below resolves both.

R. Final Step 5 closure

Date: 2026-09-14. Final browser suite ran at 19:55:22.193–19:55:22.342 UTC; operator verification continued through the SciFi text events at 19:57:23 UTC. These are new closure results, not historical counts copied forward.

Minimal repairs

• test-fixtures/reference-exhibits/haunted-house/exhibit.js: its shared reader now reports Math.round(clamp(h.hauntLevel, 0, 1) * 100) / 100. This uses integer hundredths without cumulative rounding, conforms to the existing 0–1/0.01 descriptor, and leaves the internal continuous simulation untouched. Both snapshots and mutation events use this reader. Manifest still reaches 1 and the model resumes drifting when released.
• .labyricorn/devlog/post-step-4-completion/contents.lr: removed the final --- that created an empty record block. All meaningful content and fields remain unchanged. Its source commit exists and retains the recorded 2026-09-14 date.
• tests/haunted-house.test.js: two focused regressions use the actual exhibit and contract core, with canvas construction stubbed. They test bounds and rounding, 600 simulation steps for each of 20 room/spirit combinations, full snapshots during post-Manifest drift, mutation events, and Calm. They use unchanged NGN reported-value validation and assert that reading does not quantize the internal simulation.

Final acceptance results

Acceptance check	Final result	Evidence
Automated tests	PASS: 27 tests, 0 failures (25 existing + 2 fixture regressions)	Command output
Browser reference suite	PASS: 3/3, Aquarium / Planetarium / Haunted House	Timestamped output
Haunted House normal UI	PASS: held true, haunt level 0.5, Library selection, Manifest reports 1, release and refresh report 0.93 then 0.26, reconnect synchronized	Snapshots and events
Corrected SciFi text targets	PASS: both arrays/fields present; exact text accepted in action.executed	Final UI capture
Publishing validation	PASS: devlog-editor: devlog is valid	Command output
git diff --check	PASS	Final review
Genericity scan	PASS: no matches in src/public/server for the vocabulary in K	Final review
Architecture and validation	Unchanged in this closure pass; no host workaround	Diff review
Step 6 features	None implemented	Diff review

Haunted House session sess-12844 recorded valid writes and Manifest, with no protocol errors. Attached reconnect established sess-29bfc, preserving revision 4 and resetting the sequence baseline. The continuous visual model remains active; refreshed reports conform to the descriptor. No additional invalid state was observed in the focused model tests or normal operator checks.

SciFi session sess-319js95v accepted Step 5 final closure ticker check. at sequence 1 / correlation ngn-5-23 and Step 5 final closure speech check. at sequence 2 / correlation ngn-5-25, both with source host. All 12 source and served-file hashes still match the corrected manifest from Q. No external SciFi file was changed in this pass. Audio fidelity and optional AI preparation remain outside this narrow interoperability claim.

The browser used the running normal loopback server on port 4173. Automated execution required the existing permission for Node worker spawning after a sandbox EPERM. This is local Chromium and current-working-tree evidence; it does not expand the cross-browser or released-artifact claims.

Closure files and handoff

In addition to the two repairs and focused test file, closure updates test-fixtures/PROVENANCE.md, test-fixtures/STEP5-VERIFICATION.md, README.md, this report, and the four new step5-closure-* evidence files. Earlier failed and corrected-follow-up evidence is preserved. Product code and the browser harness remain unchanged during closure. Existing unrelated edits are preserved.

All nine acceptance criteria pass. The planned next work is the ten-item Step 6 sequence in O, starting with 6.1 Define the Multi-Surface Model. No Step 6 work has begun. No staging, commit, push, or publication was performed; public-site synchronization was not checked.