LithosAnanake/.claude/CLAUDE.md

CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.

Note: There is also a docs/CLAUDE.md and docs/formal/CLAUDE.md — these govern the two-tier documentation-authoring system (docs/formal/ = press-ready LaTeX for patent/SSRN/licensees, docs/working/ = living drafts) and are still accurate; read them if you're touching documentation build tooling. This file at .claude/CLAUDE.md is the authoritative reference for everything else.

Superseded subsystem docs (Captain Bob, 2026-08-15): .claude/TRIPOD.md, .claude/HERMES.md, .claude/ARTEMIS.md, and .claude/CONSOLE.md are all superseded — FABRIC.md (design history) and FABRIC-2.md (current/living, read this one first) are the sole authoritative source for Tripod/Hermes/Artemis/Console work now. The four subsystem docs remain in the repo as historical record only; each carries its own superseded-header pointing here. Do not treat them as current, do not read them for design authority, and do not cite them in place of FABRIC.md/FABRIC-2.md.

Scope: This repo is LithosAnanke — the bare-metal UEFI kernel that boots StarForth directly on hardware. StarForth (the hosted FORTH-79 VM) has its own separate repository now. This repo vendors a full copy of the shared VM source (src/vm.c, src/word_source/, capsules/, proof/) because LithosAnanke embeds it as its execution engine — that vendored code is not a leftover or a second production target, it's load-bearing here. Kernel-specific code lives in src/starkernel/.

---

Hard Rules — Captain Bob's Law

• NEVER CREATE A BRANCH WITHOUT EXPLICIT PERMISSION FROM THE USER. Work on the branch you are given or already on. Do not create feature branches, session branches, or any other branch unless the user explicitly asks. This applies every time, not just once per session — re-confirm before creating a branch even if one was created earlier in the same conversation.
• NEVER STASH WITHOUT EXPLICIT PERMISSION. git stash hides work and creates debt. If the working tree is dirty, report it and wait for instructions. Do not stash to work around a problem.
• NEVER APPLY A FIX NOT EXPLICITLY REQUESTED. If you identify a bug, report it. Do not fix it unless the user says to. Initiative on code changes causes damage.
• USE A SUBVERSION-LIKE WORKFLOW. Commit and push directly to the working branch (including master — this repo works directly on master; see below). No detours, no side branches, no pull requests unless explicitly requested.
• AFTER ANY OUT-OF-BRANCH WORK (switching branches, resetting, fetching, etc.) always return to the correct working branch and do a full git fetch + git pull to ensure the working tree is clean and current before continuing.
• ALWAYS START CLEAN. Before doing any work, verify git status is clean and the branch is the correct one. No surprises.
• ANNOUNCE THE BRANCH at the start of every session resumption. First line of output after context load: state the current branch and last commit.

On the branch topology (post-split)

This repo used to be a lithosananke branch inside the combined StarForth/LithosAnanke monorepo, diverging from a master that carried StarForth's hosted-VM production line. That monorepo has been split into two separate repositories. In this repo, master is now the sole LithosAnanke production line — there is no lithosananke branch here, and none is needed. Don't look for one, and don't recreate the old two-branch framing when reasoning about "which line am I on."

---

Lessons Learned — Hard-Won in the Field

On Tags

• Tags are sacred ground. Each tag has logs attached proving its state. When in doubt about the correct state of any file or branch, look at the tag first. git show <tag> and git log <tag> are your oracle.

On the FORTH Dictionary

• BIRTH, RUN, USE are primitives — registered in C exactly like DUP, BYE, EXEC. Use ' BIRTH directly. Never reach for FIND, never add conditionals, never rename them to CAPSULE-BIRTH or anything else.
• FIND is a proven, tested, registered word. Never modify it. The implementation is intentionally non-standard (parses from input stream). It is tested. Leave it alone.
• Never modify a registered, tested word to "fix" it. If something seems wrong with a word, the problem is almost certainly in the caller, not the word.
• ACL policy belongs in ACL.4th, never in C. No policy logic in kernel_main.c, no vm_find_word + field assignment for pinning. Use ' WORD ACL-PIN in FORTH exactly as IMMEDIATE works.
• ' BIRTH in shared capsules breaks the hosted build — BIRTH is kernel-only. Pin it in a kernel-specific capsule, not in ACL.4th which is shared. capsules/ACL.4th itself documents this exclusion in a comment (line ~64) — it deliberately omits BIRTH/CAPSULE-BIRTH even though this IS the kernel repo, because ACL.4th is meant to stay portable/shared.

On the Embedded VM vs. the Kernel

• src/vm.c, include/vm.h, capsules/, src/word_source/ are the shared/vendored VM source. They must compile and behave correctly both standalone (bare make here still produces a plain hosted starforth binary for quick local sanity checks) and embedded in the kernel build. Gate kernel-only code with #ifdef __STARKERNEL__ or #ifdef STARFORTH_ENABLE_VM.
• The vendored VM source has diverged from the standalone StarForth repo's copy — it is not a byte-identical mirror. This repo's src/word_source/ has 31 files (StarForth's has 26); the extras (defer_words.c, inference_words.c, lifecycle_words_hosted.c, log_words.c, q48_words.c) are kernel-side-only additions. Don't assume a fix made in the StarForth repo needs to be, or even can be cleanly, ported here — check first. Similarly src/starkernel/ here is real and load-bearing (~74 files across arch/boot/ capsule/hal/memory/math/hash/pci/virtio/vm subtrees) — much larger than older docs claimed.
• src/*.c.bak files (vm.c.bak, doe_metrics.c.bak, inference_engine.c.bak) are tracked in git at the src/ top level. This looks like repo hygiene debt, not intentional. Report it if it comes up; don't delete unprompted.
• There is no make test target in this repo's hosted Makefile (unlike the standalone StarForth repo, which has one). Don't invent one. The only acceptance authority for kernel changes is the three-arch QEMU boot (see below); bare make here is for quick compile sanity on the vendored source only, not test execution.
• INPUT_BUFFER_SIZE must be 1025. vm_interpret() is the shared dispatch path for BOTH interactive REPL lines AND block content from LOAD. LOAD copies up to 1024 bytes from block RAM and calls vm_interpret() directly; with a 256-byte cap, everything past byte 255 is silently dropped. 1025 = 1024 content bytes + 1 NUL terminator.

On Working Style

• When told to stop, stop immediately. Do not make one more change. Do not commit "just to clean up". Stop.
• Show the plan and wait for yes before destructive operations (force push, reset --hard, branch deletion). The user will say yes explicitly when ready.
• Do not over-engineer. If the user says "BIRTH is a primitive", that is the complete specification. No conditionals, no fallbacks, no renamed variants.
• Capsule subsystem wiring belongs in sk_vm_bootstrap.c, not kernel_main.c. The bootstrap owns VM init; kernel_main owns hardware milestones.
• Compose in FORTH first. Before writing any new C primitive, exhaust the existing vocabulary. New C words are justified only for raw hardware access, atomics, syscalls, or freestanding kernel ops.

---

Word-Level ACL System — Complete through Phase 7 (independently verified)

Design doc: docs/03-architecture/word-acl/DESIGN.md (this repo kept the old-style docs/03-architecture/ tree alongside the newer docs/formal//docs/working/ restructure — both exist here; this path is still current for ACL specifically).

The word-level ACL system is fully implemented, including kernel parity. Key constraints:

• All policy logic in ACL.4th — no new C primitives for policy
• Four C fields: acl_ttl + acl_allow + acl_mode + acl_pinned in DictEntry
• Two VM flags: emergency_console (fault handler active) + zuse_session (superuser authenticated)
• ACL.4th is self-activating — init.4th only needs S" ACL.4th" EXEC (commented out by default)
• Pin (ACL-PIN) is one-way; inheritance clears pin, copies mode
• Two permanent console layers: emergency (ok>) and zuse (zuse)ok>)
• Superuser zuse defined by capsules/zuse.4th, loaded by ACL.4th at boot
• emergency_console bypass applies ONLY to bare ok> REPL — zuse sessions are subject to ACL

Implementation phases:

1. ✅ C Infrastructure — DictEntry fields + interpreter hook + acl_recheck()
2. ✅ ACL.4th — FORTH policy words + ACL-INIT-PRIMITIVES + self-activation
3. ✅ capsules/zuse.4th — bootstrap superuser skeleton; CA root placeholder in ACL.4th
4. ✅ init.4th opt-in toggle — \ S" ACL.4th" EXEC (comment out = no security)
5. ✅ POST tests + Isabelle/HOL proofs (5 ACL_*.thy theory files)
6. ✅ EMERGENCY_CONSOLE_ENABLED build flag + vm_fault_handler extension point
7. ✅ LithosAnanke kernel parity — independently verified present in current master: acl_recheck()/zuse_session/emergency_console wiring confirmed in src/starkernel/vm/vm_core.c (~lines 549, 608–633, 747–749, 906–908); the per-iteration emergency_console = zuse_session ? 0 : 1 assignment confirmed in src/starkernel/repl.c (~lines 174, 219); the old !vm->zuse_session ACL-check bypass confirmed absent from src/vm.c. (The feature/acl-rwt branch this work was apparently done on is not traceable in git log --all — likely squash-merged without preserving the ref. The code is real and verified; the branch name is not.)
8. ⬜ PKI / thumbdrive — Ed25519 challenge-response; user minting by zuse. This is the open item — pick up here next.

ACL-RWT DoE campaign (June 15–16 2026):

• 3×3 Latin square: 3 seeds × amd64/aarch64/riscv64, 30 reps each
• Measured overhead: +0.0054%–+0.0088% across all 9 cells; CV = 0.000%
• Report confirmed to exist: experiments/bare_metal/analysis/report/bare_metal_doe_report.pdf (~2MB, with LaTeX source and figures) — patent support material

Before writing or modifying any .4th capsule file, read experiments/bare_metal/README.md in full. The block namespace is shared across all loaded capsules; violations cause silent word-definition collisions and corrupt the DoE. Block ranges (spot-checked against real capsule files — accurate):

• 2048–2099 — init.4th only
• 2100–2199 — doe.4th only
• 3000–3999 — workload capsules
• 4000+ — user-defined capsules (ACL.4th uses 4000–4015, zuse.4th uses 4016–4018) Each block header line counts against the 1024-byte limit. Any block exceeding 1024 bytes is truncated silently at load time — verify with wc -c before committing.

---

Project Overview

LithosAnanke ("stone" + "necessity") is a UEFI-bootable bare-metal microkernel that boots directly from firmware, initializes memory and interrupts, then runs StarForth — a FORTH-79 virtual machine with a physics-driven adaptive runtime (Compudynamics) — as its sole userspace runtime. No libc, no traditional OS underneath. It is the bare-metal target under StarshipOS. (HISTORICAL: L4Re/Fiasco.OC was a supported platform target through mid-2026; removed as an active target.)

Current status: M7.1 — capsule birth protocol, Mama FORTH vocabulary, Tripod multi-VM fleet (Hera/Hermes/Artemis), and word-level ACL (Phases 1–7) are live; POST at boot verifies parity hash across amd64/aarch64/riscv64 with a 453-word Mama capsule dictionary.

Key distinguishing features:

• Embeds StarForth's physics-grounded self-adaptive runtime — 7 feedback loops + L8 Jacquard mode selector, formally proven deterministic (0.000% CV across 90 experimental runs)
• Content-addressed, immutable capsules as the primary organizational unit — no dynamic allocator in the traditional sense; identity is a content hash (XXHash64), mutation produces a new capsule
• Tripod — a named multi-VM fleet (Hera the Mama VM, two Hermes instances, Artemis) that births, runs, and re-births independently; verified booting live pre-REPL on all three architectures. See .claude/TRIPOD.md, .claude/HERMES.md, .claude/ARTEMIS.md.
• Word-level ACL security system with kernel parity (see above) — measured overhead three orders of magnitude below the measurement floor
• Kconfig-based build configuration (~40 discoverable symbols spanning physics/heartbeat/ pipelining/kernel-only knobs), shared between the hosted and kernel build
• Patent pending (USPTO provisional, December 2025)

---

Build Commands

Kernel (primary)

# Build kernel for a given architecture (amd64 default)
make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=amd64
make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=aarch64
make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=riscv64

# Run in QEMU with OVMF
make -f Makefile.starkernel qemu
make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=aarch64 qemu
make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=riscv64 qemu

# Clean
make -f Makefile.starkernel clean

Output: build/<arch>/kernel/starkernel_loader.efi + build/<arch>/kernel/starkernel_kernel.elf.

Two independently tracked version strings flow into the generated include/version.h: VERSION (Makefile.starkernel — the embedded StarForth engine version, currently 3.1.0; note this does not auto-sync with the standalone StarForth repo's own version) and LITHOS_VERSION (Makefile.starkernel — the kernel version, currently 1.5.4).

Build configuration (Kconfig — real, wired, not vestigial)

Every kernel-only knob (STARFORTH_ENABLE_VM, PARITY_MODE, the shared physics/heartbeat family, etc.) is an optional Kconfig symbol defined across Kconfig, Kconfig.arch, Kconfig.heartbeat, Kconfig.kernel, Kconfig.physics, Kconfig.variant (~40 symbols total). Makefile.starkernel pulls its defaults from this system via a kconfig_bool(...) mechanism — e.g. STARFORTH_ENABLE_VM defaults to 1 (confirmed at Makefile.starkernel:61), meaning a plain make -f Makefile.starkernel already builds with VM + capsule-birth + ACL active. A bare invocation uses the defaults it always has:

make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=amd64 menuconfig
make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=amd64 kernel_amd64_defconfig

Hosted VM (vendored, for local sanity only)

make            # builds a standalone hosted `starforth` binary from the vendored source
make clean

There is no make test here — this is a compile-sanity convenience only, not a test runner. Don't advertise it as one. The bump-z/bump-y targets (mirroring the standalone StarForth repo) were removed 2026-08-15 — they referenced STARFORTH_VERSION_MAJOR/MINOR/PATCH/STARFORTH_VERSION_STRING fields that never existed in the actual generated include/version.h (which only has STARFORTH_VERSION, STARFORTH_ARCH, STARFORTH_TARGET, STARFORTH_TIMESTAMP, STARFORTH_VERSION_FULL, LITHOS_VERSION, LITHOS_VERSION_STR), so they could never have worked. Bump versions by hand-editing the VERSION/ LITHOS_VERSION variables in Makefile.starkernel instead. Report the broken targets if asked, don't silently fix them.

Important: Linker Configuration

The fastest target uses -flto=auto -fuse-linker-plugin instead of plain -flto to avoid "ELF section name out of range" errors with large codebases.

---

Running / Acceptance

Kernel via QEMU

ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA — non-negotiable: The ONLY valid acceptance test for any kernel change is booting all three architectures in QEMU and capturing the serial log. There is no other test. The vendored hosted make build (above) is NEVER used to validate kernel changes.

# Run in this exact order for every kernel change:
make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=amd64   clean qemu
make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=aarch64 clean qemu
make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=riscv64 clean qemu

QEMU rule — non-negotiable: Only ONE QEMU instance may run at a time, always in the foreground (never backgrounded). All three instances use accel=tcg (software emulation); concurrent runs compete for host CPU and corrupt the timing signal the DoE measures. Run each architecture to completion before starting the next.

Session keep-alive: When running from a mobile device, ping the session every 15–20 minutes during a QEMU run or the session will idle out. amd64 is particularly slow under TCG and is the most likely to outlast a silent interval. Captain Bob must stay engaged during long runs (30-rep DoE ≈ 25–30 min per ISA).

Always pass clean before qemu — never build-only without clean. Serial output is automatically captured to logs/YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS/<arch>/qemu-<arch>-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.log — confirmed to be the real, current convention (real timestamped log directories exist under logs/). These logs are audit artifacts — they are committed to the repo. Do not delete them. There is also a logs2/ directory — a flatter, older archive predating or running parallel to the timestamped convention (self-documented via its own README); not a contradiction, just a second, less-structured log location.

Do not claim a change is accepted until all three architectures have booted to zuse)ok> and their logs are present in logs/.

CI

.gitea/workflows/build.yml runs three parallel jobs, each building a real bootable artifact (not just compiling): build-amd64-iso (kernel build + El Torito ISO), build-aarch64-iso (same, ARM boot file naming), build-riscv64-img (kernel build + raw GPT/FAT32 disk image — riscv64 virt doesn't support El Torito ISO or -bios QEMU mode, so it ships a raw disk image instead). No QEMU boot step in CI — artifact packaging only.

---

Architecture

Source Tree

src/
├── main.c, vm.c, vm_api.c, vm_bootstrap.c, vm_debug.c, vm_time.c   # Vendored VM core (see below)
├── repl.c, cli.c, io.c, log.c                                      # Vendored VM core
├── memory_management.c, dictionary_management.c, block_subsystem.c, blkio_*.c
├── stack_management.c, math_portable.c, profiler.c, compudynamics.c
├── heartbeat_export.c, ssm_jacquard.c, doe_metrics.c
├── physics_runtime.c, physics_hotwords_cache.c, physics_metadata.c,
│   physics_pipelining_metrics.c, physics_execution_hooks.c,
│   rolling_window_of_truth.c, inference_engine.c                   # 7 feedback loops
├── vm.c.bak, doe_metrics.c.bak, inference_engine.c.bak              # tracked but stale — flag, don't delete unprompted
│
├── word_source/                   # 31 files (vendored StarForth word_source PLUS
│   │                               #   kernel-side-only additions)
│   ├── (all of StarForth's 26: arithmetic, stack, control, defining, memory,
│   │    return_stack, double, logical, io, string, block, editor, format, system,
│   │    dictionary, dictionary_manipulation, dictionary_heat_diagnostic, vocabulary,
│   │    q48_16, starforth, acl, physics_benchmark, physics_diagnostic,
│   │    physics_freeze, physics_pipelining_diagnostic, mixed_arithmetic)
│   └── kernel-only additions: defer_words.c, inference_words.c,
│       lifecycle_words_hosted.c, log_words.c, q48_words.c
│
├── test_runner/                   # 23 test module files (matches StarForth's count)
│
├── platform/                      # Platform abstraction (hosted build)
│
└── starkernel/                    # ~74 files — the real, load-bearing kernel tree
    ├── kernel_main.c              # Kernel entry point (M0–M9 milestones)
    │                              #   NOTE: this file's own header comment claims
    │                              #   "M7: Not started" — that comment is STALE;
    │                              #   M7/M7.1/M7.pre logic is present and functional
    │                              #   (kernel_main.c ~lines 481–517). Don't propagate
    │                              #   the stale comment.
    ├── repl.c                     # Kernel REPL
    ├── arch/{amd64,aarch64,riscv64}/   # Per-arch: arch.c apic.c timer.c interrupts.c boot.S isr.S
    ├── boot/                      # uefi_loader.c elf_loader.c reloc_stub.c reloc.S
    ├── capsule/                   # capsule_birth.c capsule_run.c capsule_loader.c
    │                              #   capsule_find.c capsule_validate.c capsule_vm_hooks.c
    │                              #   capsule_vm_physics.c mama_forth_words.c
    ├── hal/                       # hal.c console.c memory.c host_services.c
    │                              #   framebuffer.c vt100.c font_8x16.c (VT100 console — live)
    ├── pci/pci.c                  # PCI enumeration
    ├── virtio/virtio_blk.c        # virtio block device (relates to roadmap's "M9 block
    │                              #   storage" item — implemented via virtio, not AHCI as
    │                              #   older docs describe; don't assume milestone-complete
    │                              #   from source presence alone, that hasn't been verified)
    ├── memory/                    # kmalloc.c pmm.c vmm.c
    ├── math/q48_16.c              # Q48.16 fixed-point (kernel build)
    ├── hash/xxhash64.c            # XXHash64 (content addressing)
    ├── doe_log.c
    └── vm/                        # Kernel VM subsystem
        ├── bootstrap/sk_vm_bootstrap.c
        ├── host/shim.c
        ├── vm_core.c vm_runtime.c vm_bootstrap.c q48_stubs.c
        ├── parity.c               # Birth/execution parity logging
        ├── arena.c                # Capsule arena allocator
        └── alloc_kernel.c

Boot sequence

UEFI Firmware → uefi_loader.c (BOOTX64.EFI / BOOTAA64.EFI / BOOTRISCV64.EFI)
    ExitBootServices() → owns hardware
    BootInfo{memory map, ACPI, framebuffer}
    → kernel_main()
        M1: Console init (UART 16550 + framebuffer)
        M2: PMM (physical memory manager, bitmap)
        M3: VMM (4-level paging)
        M4: IDT + APIC/interrupt controller
        M5: Timer + heartbeat
        M6: kmalloc heap
        M7/M7.1: StarForth VM bootstrap + capsule birth (Tripod fleet) + word-level ACL
                 → "ok>" / "zuse)ok>" REPL

Milestone status:

• ✅ M0–M6: complete, v1.5.1-FINAL
• ✅ M7: StarForth VM integration + parity validation, complete
• 🔄 M7.1: capsule birth protocol · Mama FORTH vocabulary · Tripod fleet · word-level ACL — in progress (Phase 8 PKI is the open item, see ACL section above)
• Planned: M8 (REPL keyboard input), M9 (block storage — see the virtio note above; source exists but milestone-complete status not independently verified here)

Capsule System

Capsules are immutable, content-addressed VM initialization payloads. A capsule ID is its XXHash64 content hash — any mutation is detectable.

Capsule types:

• (m) MAMA_INIT — exactly one Mama VM initialization capsule
• (p) PRODUCTION — truth-bearing baby VM initializers
• (e) EXPERIMENT — DoE workload-only initializers

Birth protocol: locate by name → validate hash → allocate VM ID → execute IDENTITY (capsule code) → execute PERSONALITY (block 1 from ramdrive) → log parity record (VM ID + capsule hash + dict hash).

Capsule files: capsules/ has 23 .4th files (the mkcapsule build tool reports "26 capsule(s)" registered — some files apparently register more than one capsule entry; not further investigated). Includes init.4th, init-0.4th–init-9.4th, init-l8-{stable,volatile,diverse,temporal,transition,omni}.4th, plus doe.4th, doe-campaign.4th, lib.4th, process.4th, ACL.4th, zuse.4th — more than the 17 older docs claimed.

Tool tools/mkcapsule.c assembles .4th files into the binary capsule directory format (capsule_generated.c) baked into the kernel image; it also regenerates capsules/BLOCK_MAP.md as a manifest (expect that file to show as modified after any kernel build — it's a generated artifact, not hand content).

Physics-Driven Adaptive Runtime

Uses thermodynamic metaphors as modeling language (see ONTOLOGY.md):

1. Loop #1 — Execution Heat (dictionary_heat_optimization.c) — frequency counter per word
2. Loop #2 — Rolling Window (rolling_window_of_truth.c) — circular buffer, execution history
3. Loop #3 — Linear Decay — quiescent words lose heat over time
4. Loop #4 — Pipelining (physics_pipelining_metrics.c) — word-to-word transition prediction
5. Loop #5 — Window Width Inference (inference_engine.c) — Levene's test, binary chop
6. Loop #6 — Decay Slope Inference (inference_engine.c) — exponential regression
7. Loop #7 — Adaptive Heartrate (HeartbeatState) — background tick coordinator

L8 Jacquard Mode Selector (ssm_jacquard.c) — a 128-state, 7-bit loop-gate selector. In this repo it now has a real per-VM heat channel into fleet-wide tuning (VM Fleet Attractor physics — see docs/working/architecture/VM-FLEET-ATTRACTOR-DESIGN-20260705.md), replacing hardcoded compudynamics constants with a dynamically-inferred rate.

---

Formal Verification

proof/ contains 23 Isabelle/HOL theory files (same composition as the standalone StarForth repo — 18 core VM/word-category theories + 5 ACL theories). Run isabelle build -D proof/ directly; neither Makefile nor Makefile.starkernel in this repo defines an isabelle-build/isabelle-check target (unlike the standalone StarForth repo, which has a broken one — this repo simply doesn't have the target at all, so there's nothing to mistakenly invoke).

---

Roadmap

ROADMAP.md and docs/lithosananke/ROADMAP.md contain real, LithosAnanke-specific phase content (e.g. "PHASE 2: STARKERNEL (Months 3-5)", "StarKernel boots to 'ok' on QEMU ✅") — not a copy of the standalone StarForth repo's roadmap. Prefer these when citing roadmap status for kernel work.

---

Code Standards

• Strict ANSI C99 — No GNU extensions, no C++ features
• Zero warnings target, with four explicit exceptions — corrected 2026-08-18, previous claim was wrong. Build with -Wall -Wextra -Werror, but Makefile.starkernel carries -Wno-error=unused-parameter -Wno-error=shift-negative-value -Wno-error=sign-compare -Wno-error=missing-field-initializers — those four classes are enabled (still visible as warnings) but deliberately downgraded from fatal, everything else is. The previous version of this line claimed -Wmissing-field-initializers was isolated to one file (vocabulary_words_test.c) — that was never accurate; a full audit found it systemic across 20 files in src/test_runner/modules/ (all missing the same later-added TestCase.contract/WordTestSuite.suite_contract trailing field, ~3,010 instances). Fixed in place across all 20 files (mechanical: added the missing {0} initializer, semantically a no-op since C99 already zero-fills unlisted trailing fields — the fix only silences the diagnostic). Verified clean on all three architectures. Remaining, still-open warnings as of the same audit: 26 -Wunused-parameter (scattered, several files, not yet fixed), 2 -Wsign-compare (control_words_test.c:127), and 2 -Wstringop-truncation in tools/mkcapsule.c — that last one is a separate host build tool compiled via plain cc -Wall -Wextra -O2 (no -Werror at all), never actually gated by this policy in the first place, genuinely unfixed rather than exempted.
• No hidden state — All VM state is explicit in the VM struct
• Platform-agnostic — Kernel code gated by __STARKERNEL__ and STARFORTH_ENABLE_VM
• Content-addressed immutability — Capsule ID = content hash; any mutation is detectable

---

Important Conventions

• Stack values are VM offsets (vaddr_t), not C pointers — use VM_ADDR() / CELL()
• WORD_IMMEDIATE flag = executes during compilation (not deferred)
• WORD_PINNED = execution heat cannot decay to zero
• WORD_FROZEN = execution heat does not decay at all
• STRICT_PTR=1 enforces bounds checking (disable only for benchmarking)
• Kernel code uses #ifdef __STARKERNEL__; VM-enabled path uses #ifdef STARFORTH_ENABLE_VM
• Never add acl_* fields to DictEntry beyond the four already present

---

Critical Implementation Details

DoE CSV Output Suppression

Intentionally suppressed as of 2025-12-08. See src/main.c:390-396:

• Metrics still collected via metrics_from_vm()
• CSV row was redundant with internal VM metrics
• To re-enable: add a --csv-export flag or write to a file

Heartbeat Instrumentation (Planned)

HeartbeatTickSnapshot and tick_buffer are declared in include/vm.h, but heartbeat_export_csv() is not yet implemented.

Word Statistics Output

WORD-ENTROPY prints execution heat statistics to stdout. Kept enabled in DoE mode intentionally (diagnostic value outweighs noise cost).

StarKernel M7 Parity

parity.c logs every VM birth and execution with: VM ID, capsule hash, dictionary hash. This enables offline determinism verification — an independent system can load the same capsule and compare dict hashes. Zero-deviation means 0% algorithmic variance.

---

Documentation

Key files (this repo has both the older docs/03-architecture/ tree — still current for ACL/Tripod specifically — and the newer restructured docs/formal//docs/working// docs/patent/ trees, plus a repo-specific docs/lithosananke/ tree):

• README.md — project overview and quick start
• docs/lithosananke/SYSTEM_ARCHITECTURE.md — full kernel + VM design
• docs/lithosananke/hal/ — HAL reference
• docs/lithosananke/M7.1.md — capsule birth protocol design
• docs/lithosananke/ROADMAP.md — milestone plan through self-hosting
• docs/lithosananke/hosted-acceptance-test/README.md — the hosted-VM acceptance test writeup referenced from the standalone StarForth repo's own docs
• docs/03-architecture/tripod/, docs/03-architecture/word-acl/DESIGN.md
• docs/working/architecture/VM-FLEET-ATTRACTOR-DESIGN-20260705.md — Tripod/Hermes/Artemis physics + build-system history
• docs/working/architecture/getting-started/DEVELOPER.md — dev setup, Kconfig reference
• ROADMAP.md, CHANGELOG.md
• experiments/bare_metal/README.md — mandatory read before touching capsules (block namespace rules, see ACL section above)
• experiments/bare_metal/analysis/report/bare_metal_doe_report.pdf — DoE campaign report
• sbom.spdx / sbom.spdx.json

---

License

See ./LICENSE (Starship License 1.0, SPDX: LicenseRef-Starship-1.0). Commercial license available.