M32: an actor with somewhere to be

The people were a gif: a few pixels of path traced back and forth, forever, at
the same speed whatever was happening. An actor now walks between the stations
of its own room -- the room's own fixtures, chosen from its own stretch of
floor -- stops at each one, leans into the work and turns to face the way it is
going. Where a stretch of floor has nothing to work at the actor paces it
rather than miming at a spot where there is nothing, because two stations a
hand's width apart reads as a broken animation rather than as somebody busy.

And the animation means something now. An arm that does not engage a room has
nobody working in it, so switching arms changes who is at work and the actors
in the rooms it leaves out stand at their posts. Everybody carries a nameplate,
outside the group that mirrors so it stays the right way round.

Also the two thin places: Review and the Oracle had kits written for a layout
with four rows of depth and supplied too little to stand on a floor, and the
plant hall's right-hand third read as the building running out.

Two things it revealed: a frozen document clock looks exactly like a broken
animation, and the nameplate went in under a class the dossier already used.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: martex-dev

BUILD_PLAN.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 This is the executable plan derived from [`docs/`](docs/). The design documents say *what* to build and *why*; this says *in what order*, *with what acceptance test*, and *what changes because of the machine we're actually on*.
 
-**Status:** M0–M31 complete; v5 and v6 landed, v7 registered and not yet run. **V6's result does not adjudicate what v6 registered** — its treatment arm did not implement the mechanism it names; see M23. The live path is wired but unspent (mock-driven throughout; the first live run awaits an API key). M12's code-generation half is blocked on both a key and Docker. Nothing below is claimed as done until its acceptance criteria are green in CI.
+**Status:** M0–M32 complete; v5 and v6 landed, v7 registered and not yet run. **V6's result does not adjudicate what v6 registered** — its treatment arm did not implement the mechanism it names; see M23. The live path is wired but unspent (mock-driven throughout; the first live run awaits an API key). M12's code-generation half is blocked on both a key and Docker. Nothing below is claimed as done until its acceptance criteria are green in CI.
 
 ---
 
@@ -1272,6 +1272,61 @@ it failed — it was the only thing in the suite that knew which way the camera
 
 ---
 
+### M32 · An actor with somewhere to be ✅
+Presentation only. `model.py`, `map.py` and `ledger.py` untouched.
+
+**The people were a gif.** Each one traced a few pixels of path back and forth, forever, at the
+same speed, whatever was happening. That is decoration, and decoration on a page whose whole claim
+is that nothing on it is decorative. An actor now walks between the **stations of its own room** —
+the room's own fixtures, chosen from its own stretch of floor — stops at each one, leans into the
+work, and turns to face the way it is going. Where a stretch of floor has nothing to work at, the
+actor paces it rather than miming at a spot where there is nothing: two stations a hand's width
+apart is a figure shuffling on the spot, which reads as a broken animation rather than as somebody
+busy, so below a minimum spread the route falls back to walking.
+
+**And the animation now means something.** An arm that does not engage a room has nobody working
+in it, so switching arms changes who is at work — the actors in the rooms that arm leaves out
+stand at their posts. That is the same fact the route, the opacity and the dossier already report,
+said a fourth way, and it is the difference between a map that moves and a map that is showing
+you a system.
+
+**Everybody says who they are.** A nameplate rides above each figure with the role's own name on
+it, outside the group that mirrors, so it stays the right way round when its owner turns.
+
+**The two thin places are filled.** Review and The Oracle had kits written for a layout with four
+rows of depth and supplied too few things to stand on a floor; both gained furniture. The plant
+hall had three tanks and two exchangers clustered to the left, so its right-hand third read as the
+building running out — a row of nine switchgear and skid units now runs the length of its deck.
+
+#### What building it revealed was wrong
+
+**1. A negative delay and a frozen clock look exactly like a broken animation.** Sampling the
+actor's transform in the browser returned the same number sixteen times over eleven seconds. The
+keyframes were right, `getAnimations()` said `running`, and the value never moved — because the
+pane was not compositing, so the document timeline was not advancing at all. Driving
+`animation.currentTime` by hand proved the motion in one step. Worth recording: when an animation
+looks stuck, check the clock before the keyframes.
+
+**2. `tag` was already taken.** The nameplate went in as `class="tag"`, which is also the class on
+the dossier's backing chip — so the count of nameplates on the page was one more than the number
+of people in the building. The test that caught it was counting a class name rather than a thing,
+which is exactly why it caught it.
+
+**Acceptance**
+- Every test from M22 through M31 still passes; three that read the old motion path were rewritten
+  against what an actor does now.
+- Every actor's stations are inside its own room, in order, and far enough apart that nobody
+  shuffles on the spot. Tested.
+- Two actors in a room never cross. Tested.
+- At least two thirds of actors are stationed at a real fixture rather than pacing, and no actor is
+  half at a station. Tested.
+- An actor in a room this arm does not engage stands at its first station, with the animation off.
+  Tested against both the stylesheet and the script.
+- Every actor carries its own name. Tested.
+- Still one self-contained file; still refuses to build on input that does not verify.
+
+---
+
 ## 2. Working agreement
 
 - **`main` is always green.** Every milestone lands as a PR with CI passing on Linux and Windows.

README.md

@@ -75,7 +75,9 @@ state of the research machine is owned by exactly one room. It is drawn as a cut
 a chamber you look into from the side, with a ceiling, a back wall and a floor its furniture and
 its people stand on, and between the chambers is the plant that runs the place — a service deck, a
 trunk down the sealed wing, and a hall of tanks and trusses underneath. None of that carries a
-number, because none of it records anything. The recorded passes move between the rooms. At rest there is no writing on it at all: hover a room to find out which it is,
+number, because none of it records anything. The recorded passes move between the rooms, and the
+actors walk between the stations of their own rooms and work at them — in the rooms the arm on
+display engages. In the rooms it does not, they stand at their posts. At rest there is no writing on it at all: hover a room to find out which it is,
 click it to open what that department actually did — every figure naming the artifact it was read
 out of — and press `labels` to put the callouts, the captions and the roster back on. Drag to pan,
 scroll to zoom.

src/nullius/station/render.py

@@ -519,7 +519,7 @@ class Principle:
 #: length of it takes. Agents patrol their own room and never leave it: the
 #: token is what moves through the station, and a role walking the corridor
 #: would say something about the architecture that is not true.
-PATROL_INSET = 34.0
+PATROL_INSET = 22.0
 PATROL_SECONDS = 19.0
 
 
@@ -801,10 +801,10 @@ class Kit:
     ),
     "review": Kit(
         ("vent", "sign", "conduit"),
-        ("podium", "plotwall", "shelf"),
-        ("catalogue", "printer"),
-        ("readingdesk", "readingdesk"),
-        ("stool", "plant", "poster"),
+        ("plotwall", "shelf", "pinboard"),
+        ("catalogue", "podium", "printer"),
+        ("readingdesk", "desk", "readingdesk"),
+        ("stool", "plant", "poster", "crate"),
     ),
     "record": Kit(
         ("conduit", "sign", "conduit"),
@@ -837,9 +837,9 @@ class Kit:
     "oracle": Kit(
         ("vent", "sign", "vent"),
         ("dish", "orb", "dish"),
-        ("scope", "keysafe"),
-        ("plinth", "plinth"),
-        ("hatch", "barrel", "cables"),
+        ("scope", "keysafe", "rack"),
+        ("plinth", "terminal", "plinth"),
+        ("hatch", "barrel", "cables", "crate"),
     ),
 }
 
@@ -1216,6 +1216,78 @@ def _bounds() -> dict[str, float]:
     return {"x": round(x0, 2), "y": round(y0, 2), "w": round(x1 - x0, 2), "h": round(y1 - y0, 2)}
 
 
+WORKABLE: frozenset[str] = frozenset(
+    {
+        "console",
+        "desk",
+        "readingdesk",
+        "workbench",
+        "bench",
+        "table",
+        "counter",
+        "drawingtable",
+        "printer",
+        "press",
+        "scanner",
+        "sealpress",
+        "podium",
+        "terminal",
+        "scope",
+        "binbank",
+        "coolant",
+        "partsbin",
+        "filewall",
+        "catalogue",
+        "rack",
+        "cabinet",
+        "locker",
+        "spool",
+        "shelf",
+        "stacks",
+        "reactor",
+        "vaultdoor",
+        "keysafe",
+        "maskcase",
+        "plinth",
+        "orb",
+        "dish",
+        "dummy",
+        "scales",
+        "bullion",
+    }
+)
+"""Things somebody could plausibly be doing something at.
+
+An actor that paces back and forth between two arbitrary points is a gif. An
+actor that walks to a bench, works at it, walks to a console and works at that
+is the same amount of animation saying something: that the room is laid out and
+that the person in it has somewhere to be. The stations are the room's own
+fixtures, so nobody works at a barrel or in mid-air.
+"""
+
+
+def _stations(room: Room, left: float, right: float) -> list[float]:
+    """Where in its own stretch of floor an actor has something to work at."""
+    middles = sorted(
+        fixture["x"] + fixture["w"] / 2
+        for fixture in _fixtures(room)
+        if str(fixture["kind"]) in WORKABLE and left <= fixture["x"] + fixture["w"] / 2 <= right
+    )
+    span = right - left
+    # Two stations a hand's width apart is a figure shuffling on the spot, which
+    # reads as worse than pacing: it looks like the animation is broken rather
+    # than like somebody is busy. Below that spread, walk the slice instead.
+    if len(middles) >= 2 and middles[-1] - middles[0] > max(46.0, span * 0.3):
+        first, last = middles[0], middles[-1]
+        between = [
+            middle for middle in middles[1:-1] if middle - first > 40.0 and last - middle > 40.0
+        ]
+        if between:
+            return [first, between[len(between) // 2], last]
+        return [first, last]
+    return [left + span * 0.16, right - span * 0.16]
+
+
 def _sprites(room: Room) -> list[dict[str, Any]]:
     """One figure per role that works in this room, at a workstation.
 
@@ -1241,25 +1313,32 @@ def _sprites(room: Room) -> list[dict[str, Any]]:
         # workstations, which is the only part of the room nothing stands on.
         left, right = floor.x + PATROL_INSET + index * share, 0.0
         right = left + share - (12.0 if len(room.roles) > 1 else 0.0)
-        # Everybody is on the same floor now, because there is only one.
-        lane = feet
-        drift = 1.5 + nxt(0.0, 1.5)
-        turn = left + (right - left) * (0.3 + nxt(0.0, 0.4))
+        stations = _stations(room, left, right)
+        # The first station is where the figure stands when nothing is running,
+        # so the offsets are measured from it: an actor in a room this arm does
+        # not engage is at a post rather than stopped halfway across the floor.
+        base = stations[0]
+        offsets = [station - base for station in stations]
+        if len(offsets) < 3:
+            offsets.append(offsets[0])
         out.append(
             {
                 "role": role.value,
-                "x": round((left + right) / 2, 2),
-                "y": round(lane, 2),
+                "label": role.value.upper(),
+                "tag_w": round(_measure(role.value.upper(), 11.0) + 18.0, 2),
+                "turns": len(stations),
+                "x": round(base, 2),
+                "y": round(feet, 2),
                 "h": AGENT_H,
-                "d": (
-                    f"M{left:.1f} {lane:.1f} L{turn:.1f} {lane - drift:.1f} "
-                    f"L{right:.1f} {lane:.1f} L{turn:.1f} {lane - drift:.1f} "
-                    f"L{left:.1f} {lane:.1f}"
-                ),
+                "stations": [round(station, 2) for station in stations],
+                "s0": round(offsets[0], 2),
+                "s1": round(offsets[1], 2),
+                "s2": round(offsets[2], 2),
                 "dur": round(PATROL_SECONDS + nxt(0.0, 9.0), 2),
                 "begin": round(-nxt(0.0, 18.0), 2),
                 "delay": round(nxt(0.0, 2.6), 2),
                 "period": round(1.1 + nxt(0.0, 0.5), 2),
+                "work": round(1.5 + nxt(0.0, 0.8), 2),
             }
         )
     return out

src/nullius/station/templates/agents.html

@@ -645,13 +645,36 @@
 
 {% macro agent(s, hue, dim) %}
 {% set h = s.h %}
-<g class="agent{{ ' dimmed' if dim else '' }}"
-   style="--step:{{ s.period }}s;--step-delay:-{{ s.delay }}s">
-  <animateMotion dur="{{ s.dur }}s" begin="{{ s.begin }}s" repeatCount="indefinite"
-                 calcMode="linear" path="{{ s.d }}"/>
-  <ellipse cx="0" cy="1.5" rx="{{ h * 0.27 }}" ry="{{ h * 0.08 }}" fill="#000" opacity=".5"/>
-  <ellipse cx="0" cy="1.5" rx="{{ h * 0.17 }}" ry="{{ h * 0.05 }}" fill="#000" opacity=".35"/>
-  <g class="walk" filter="url(#ink)">{{ build(s.role, h, hue) }}</g>
+{# The figure is placed at its first station and moves from there, so an actor
+   in a room the arm on display does not engage stands at a post rather than
+   halfway across the floor with the animation switched off. #}
+<g class="agent{{ ' two' if s.turns < 3 else '' }}{{ ' dimmed' if dim else '' }}"
+   transform="translate({{ s.x }} {{ s.y }})"
+   style="--s0:{{ s.s0 }}px;--s1:{{ s.s1 }}px;--s2:{{ s.s2 }}px;--dur:{{ s.dur }}s;
+          --phase:{{ s.begin }}s;--step:{{ s.period }}s;--step-delay:-{{ s.delay }}s;
+          --work:{{ s.work }}s">
+  <g class="pace">
+    <ellipse cx="0" cy="1.5" rx="{{ h * 0.27 }}" ry="{{ h * 0.08 }}" fill="#000" opacity=".5"/>
+    <ellipse cx="0" cy="1.5" rx="{{ h * 0.17 }}" ry="{{ h * 0.05 }}" fill="#000" opacity=".35"/>
+    <g class="walk">
+      <g class="turn">
+        <g class="pose" filter="url(#ink)">
+          {# A box the figure sits in the middle of. The mirror is taken about
+             the centre of what is drawn, and what is drawn is not symmetric --
+             a wrench sticks out one side and a T-square the other -- so
+             without this the actor jumps sideways every time it turns round. #}
+          <rect x="{{ -h * 0.56 }}" y="{{ -h }}" width="{{ h * 1.12 }}" height="{{ h }}"
+                fill="none" stroke="none"/>
+          {{ build(s.role, h, hue) }}
+        </g>
+      </g>
+    </g>
+    <g class="nameplate" transform="translate(0 {{ -h - 15 }})">
+      <rect x="{{ -s.tag_w / 2 }}" y="-11" width="{{ s.tag_w }}" height="16" rx="8"
+            stroke="{{ hue }}" stroke-width="1.2" stroke-opacity=".45"/>
+      <text x="0" y="1" text-anchor="middle">{{ s.label }}</text>
+    </g>
+  </g>
   <title>{{ s.role }}</title>
 </g>
 {% endmacro %}

src/nullius/station/templates/parts.html

@@ -1415,6 +1415,29 @@
         stroke="{{ ['var(--m-steel)', 'var(--m-brass)', 'var(--m-paint)'][i] }}"
         stroke-width="6" opacity=".7"/>
   {% endfor %}
+  {# A row of plant standing on the deck, edge to edge. Three tanks and two
+     exchangers left the right-hand third of the hall thinner than the left,
+     which reads as the building running out rather than as a building. #}
+  {% for i in range(9) %}
+  {% set gw = w.w * [0.07, 0.05, 0.09, 0.06, 0.05, 0.08, 0.06, 0.07, 0.05][i] %}
+  {% set gh = w.h * [0.17, 0.11, 0.22, 0.14, 0.09, 0.19, 0.12, 0.16, 0.1][i] %}
+  {% set gx = w.x + 22 + w.w * [0.0, 0.09, 0.17, 0.29, 0.37, 0.45, 0.57, 0.68, 0.79][i] %}
+  {% set gy = w.y + w.h - 20 - gh %}
+  <ellipse cx="{{ gx + gw / 2 }}" cy="{{ gy + gh + 2 }}" rx="{{ gw * 0.56 }}" ry="6" fill="#000"
+           opacity=".4"/>
+  <rect x="{{ gx }}" y="{{ gy }}" width="{{ gw }}" height="{{ gh }}" rx="3"
+        fill="{{ ['var(--m-steel)', 'var(--wallcap)', 'var(--m-steel-2)'][i % 3] }}"
+        stroke="#050912" stroke-width="1.6" stroke-opacity=".6"/>
+  <rect x="{{ gx }}" y="{{ gy }}" width="{{ gw }}" height="{{ gh * 0.16 }}" rx="3" fill="#fff"
+        opacity=".09"/>
+  {% for k in range(3) %}
+  <rect x="{{ gx + gw * 0.14 }}" y="{{ gy + gh * (0.28 + 0.2 * k) }}" width="{{ gw * 0.72 }}"
+        height="{{ gh * 0.11 }}" rx="1.6" fill="#050912" opacity=".4"/>
+  {% endfor %}
+  <circle cx="{{ gx + gw * 0.82 }}" cy="{{ gy + gh * 0.16 }}" r="{{ gw * 0.055 }}"
+          fill="{{ ['var(--m-hazard)', hue, 'var(--m-paint)'][i % 3] }}" opacity=".6"
+          class="blink" style="animation-delay:{{ i * 0.4 }}s"/>
+  {% endfor %}
   <rect x="{{ w.x }}" y="{{ w.y + w.h - 20 }}" width="{{ w.w }}" height="20" fill="var(--slab)"/>
   <rect x="{{ w.x }}" y="{{ w.y + w.h - 20 }}" width="{{ w.w }}" height="20"
         fill="url(#plating)" opacity=".5"/>