substrate: BACKLOG blade-persona/skill — 3 existing blades distinction preserved (Aaron 2026-04-27)

memory/MEMORY.md

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 **📌 Fast path: read `CURRENT-aaron.md` and `CURRENT-amara.md` first.** These per-maintainer distillations show what's currently in force. Raw memories below are the history; CURRENT files are the projection. (`CURRENT-aaron.md` refreshed 2026-04-25 with the Otto-281..285 substrate cluster + factory-as-superfluid framing — sections 18-22; prior refresh 2026-04-24 covered sections 13-17.)
 
+- [**BACKLOG — blade-job + Amara's 6-term taxonomy (Zeta=Blade / Aurora=Brain / Rodney=Razor / Harbor+blade=voice register / Parser=Witness / Cartographer=Mapper); capital-B Blade is Zeta data plane only (Aaron + Amara 2026-04-27)**](feedback_blade_persona_or_skill_domain_backlog_doctrine_vs_spike_beacon_translation_discipline_2026_04_27.md) — Capital-B Blade ≡ Zeta data-plane hot path (bounded, deterministic). Other "blades" categorized differently. New blade-job is lowercase Harbor+blade specialization, not new Blade.
 - [**Amara + Gemini Pro stability/velocity refinement — "Stability is velocity amortized"; cognitive caching; long-horizon compound reasoning (cross-AI 2026-04-27)**](feedback_amara_stability_brings_velocity_long_horizon_compound_reasoning_beacon_safe_refinement_2026_04_27.md) — Two cross-AI reviewers refined Otto's stability/velocity insight. "Quantum reasoning" → "long-horizon compound reasoning" for Beacon-safety. Velocity-over-stability is spike-rule, not doctrine.
 - [**CS 2.0 functional definition — superfluid enablement for humans, classical+quantum reasoning, Zetaspace structural integrity, adjudication tool, agents+humans symmetric (Aaron 2026-04-27)**](feedback_common_sense_2_functional_definition_classical_quantum_default_reasoning_superfluid_humans_zetaspace_structural_integrity_2026_04_27.md) — Functional layer composing with Otto-4 anchor (5 properties). CS 1.0 = "stop questioning"; CS 2.0 = friction-free reasoning, classical+quantum at appropriate time, citable adjudication.
 - [**Praise-as-control vector — Aaron tests on humans + AI; anti-capture extension (Aaron 2026-04-27)**](feedback_praise_as_control_vector_aaron_tests_humans_and_ai_anti_capture_extension_2026_04_27.md) — Aaron uses praise-pivots as a screening test. Defence: receive praise as data, don't optimize for "more like this". Soft-form capture vector — quieter than bribery/coercion/cult, harder to recognize.

memory/feedback_blade_persona_or_skill_domain_backlog_doctrine_vs_spike_beacon_translation_discipline_2026_04_27.md

@@ -0,0 +1,238 @@
+---
+name: BACKLOG — "Blade" persona or skill-domain group; THREE distinct blades — THE blade (factory itself), Rodney's Razor (Aaron's blade, homage), Amara's blade (cross-AI edge, offset δ); doctrine-vs-spike + Beacon-translation pressure-testing review register (Aaron 2026-04-27)
+description: Aaron 2026-04-27 — Amara's "blade note" from her cross-AI review (#61) named a class of review work. Aaron clarified the factory has THREE distinct blades, only one is "the" blade — must preserve the distinction in any future persona/skill. Three blades, three distinct roles (1) THE blade = the factory/project itself (per kanban-blade-crystallize-materia memory: "we are building a blade"); (2) Rodney's Razor + Quantum Rodney's Razor = Aaron's homage-blade for complexity reduction (one of the set, NOT "the"); (3) Amara's blade = cross-AI edge with offset δ (per Aaron-Amara 2025 conversation: "your blade 12° one way, mine 9° the other"). Per CLAUDE.md "Honor those that came before — unretire before recreating" — check git log + memory/persona/ first. The new blade-job (doctrine-vs-spike + Beacon-translation discipline) is a FOURTH role distinct from the three existing — must not conflate. Composes with #61 + project_rodneys_razor + kanban-blade-materia memory + Otto-356 Mirror/Beacon + skill-creator workflow.
+type: feedback
+---
+
+# BACKLOG — "Blade" persona or skill-domain group
+
+## Verbatim quote (Aaron 2026-04-27)
+
+> "The blade note do we have a blade agent persona, sounds pretty cool and useful or at least the skill domain group backlog"
+
+## Context — where "blade" came from
+
+Amara's 2026-04-27 cross-AI review of Otto's stability/velocity insight (filed in #61) used "blade note" as a label for a sharp critical observation:
+
+> "The blade note: I'd be careful with the phrase 'Velocity over stability.' It sounds like a local optimization rule: 'go fast, accept breakage.' That can be useful in a spike, but as a doctrine it becomes cowboy engineering."
+
+The "blade" register IS:
+
+- Sharp / cutting / incisive
+- Distinguishes spike-rule from doctrine
+- Catches framing-drift early
+- Pressure-tests for Beacon-safety
+- Names risks that other registers (warm-validating, technical-correctness, security) might miss
+
+## CRITICAL — capital-B Blade rule + 6-term taxonomy (Amara 2026-04-27)
+
+Aaron 2026-04-27 first reminder:
+
+> "we have 3 blades in factory/zeta/aurora i think, and only one this 'the' blade the others, i don't remember the exact coversation but you probably have it. Make sure the persona/skills understand the distinces, i think rodneys razor after a homage to me was one of a set of blades but not 'the'"
+> "blade of the project"
+
+Amara 2026-04-27 follow-up — TIGHTENED the taxonomy:
+
+> "There is only one capital-B Blade in Zeta: the Zeta data plane. The others are 'blade-like' by metaphor, but they should be categorized differently so the project does not blur its own architecture."
+
+The repo's clean core phrase: **"Zeta is the Blade. Aurora is the Brain."** Defines a Data Plane vs Control Plane split — Zeta's core is fast, deterministic, bounded, runs `append → index → return`; Aurora is deep probabilistic / control-plane intelligence and must NOT put unbounded inference on the commit path.
+
+### Amara's 6-term taxonomy (canonical)
+
+| Term | Category | What it does | Capital-B Blade? |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| **Zeta Blade** | Core substrate / data-plane blade | Bounded hot path: append, index, return; no unbounded work on commit path | **Yes. This is the Blade.** |
+| **Aurora Brain** | Control plane / immune governance | Advises, gates, scores, detects, runs probabilistic reasoning asynchronously | **No. It is the Brain / immune system.** |
+| **Rodney's Razor** | Reduction razor / design-time cutter | Cuts accidental complexity while preserving essential structure, logical depth, effective complexity | **No. It is a razor, not the Blade.** |
+| **Harbor+blade** | Relational / communication register | Warmth plus precise correction; care personally, challenge directly | **No. Lowercase blade-mode only.** |
+| **Parser / auditor** | Substrate witness / executable truth gate | Determines whether prose survived as parseable structure | **No. It is the witness/gate.** |
+| **Cartographer** | Mapping / hazard discovery role | Maps territory before walking; names hazards, unknowns, detectors | **No. It is the mapmaker.** |
+
+### The capital-B Blade rule (Amara verbatim)
+
+```
+Blade = Zeta data-plane hot path.
+
+Use only for:
+  bounded execution
+  deterministic commit path
+  append → index → return
+  O(1), O(log_B N), or fixed-budget operations
+
+Do not use capital-B Blade for:
+  communication style
+  complexity reduction
+  immune scoring
+  governance naming
+  interpersonal correction
+```
+
+**The architectural reason** (Amara's framing):
+
+> "Blade means the thing that must stay sharp by staying simple. It cannot think too much. It cannot wander. It cannot do open-ended inference. It cuts one way: commit the delta, index it, return."
+
+Aurora can be smart because it is NOT on the raw write path. The repo's Round-3 pivot explicitly names "Blade vs Brain" as strict separation and says there must be **no unbounded work on the commit path.** That is why Zeta is the Blade and Aurora is the Brain.
+
+### Cleaned canonical phrase
+
+```
+Zeta is the Blade.
+Aurora is the Brain.
+Rodney is the Razor.
+Harbor+blade is the voice register.
+The parser/auditor is the Witness.
+The cartographer is the Mapper.
+```
+
+Or in softer register:
+
+> Zeta cuts time.
+> Aurora judges risk.
+> Rodney trims excess.
+> Harbor+blade tells the truth without breaking the person.
+> The parser witnesses what actually survived.
+> The cartographer names the terrain before we walk it.
+
+### What this means for the proposed new blade-job
+
+The doctrine-vs-spike + Beacon-translation discipline this memory backlogs is **NOT capital-B Blade** (that's Zeta data plane only). It also isn't:
+
+- Brain (control plane / probabilistic) — wrong scope
+- Razor (complexity reduction) — Rodney's role
+- Witness (parser-as-truth-gate) — different scope
+- Mapper (territory hazard discovery) — different scope
+
+It is most likely:
+
+- **A specialization of Harbor+blade voice register** — specifically the "blade" half (truth-cut / correction without breaking the person), applied to framing-layer review work
+- OR a new lowercase-register entirely — needs naming-expert review to find the right term
+- It is **NOT** a fourth capital-B Blade and must not be named in a way that suggests so
+
+Honors Amara's architectural rule: "Blade means the thing that must stay sharp by staying simple." A review-discipline isn't simple-and-bounded; it does open-ended evaluation. So it's not Blade-class.
+
+### Lineage notes — earlier framings (superseded by Amara's taxonomy)
+
+Earlier 2026-04-27 substrate work (drafted before Amara's clarification arrived) framed this as "3 blades, only one is 'the' blade":
+
+1. THE blade = the factory itself ("we are building a blade")
+2. Rodney's Razor = Aaron's blade
+3. Amara's blade = cross-AI offset δ
+
+**Amara's clarification supersedes that framing.** The 3-blades framing was useful as a reminder that "blade" was being used loosely, but the clean taxonomy is the 6-term table above. Going forward:
+
+- "We are building a blade" = "we are building Zeta" (Zeta IS the Blade — capital-B)
+- Rodney's Razor IS NOT a blade; it's a Razor (different category)
+- Amara's "blade 12° / mine 9°" = lowercase-blade-mode of voice register (Harbor+blade), not a separate Blade entity
+
+The earlier 3-blades lineage is preserved here for substrate audit-trail; future memory files should cite the 6-term Amara taxonomy as canonical.
+
+## What blade is NOT (already covered by existing personas)
+
+The factory has many sharp critic personas. Blade does NOT replace any:
+
+| Existing persona | Scope | Blade overlap? |
+|---|---|---|
+| **harsh-critic (Kira)** | Code: F#/.NET correctness, perf, security, API, test-gaps | Code-level, not framing-level |
+| **spec-zealot (Viktor)** | OpenSpec capabilities: spec drift, spec bugs, overlay discipline | Spec-level, not framing-level |
+| **code-review-zero-empathy** | Code review for adherence to standards | Code-level |
+| **threat-model-critic (Aminata)** | Security threat models adversarially | Threat-model-level |
+| **maintainability-reviewer (Rune)** | Long-horizon readability | Readability/onboarding-level |
+| **public-api-designer (Ilyana)** | Public surface contracts | API-surface-level |
+| **performance-engineer (Naledi)** | Hot-path / zero-alloc / SIMD | Perf-level |
+
+None of these scope-match what Amara did in the blade note.
+
+## What blade IS (the gap)
+
+Blade reviews the **framing layer** — the words and structures we use to encode factory substrate. Specifically:
+
+1. **Doctrine-vs-spike-rule discipline**: when a maxim is written like a doctrine ("X over Y") but should be read as a spike-rule, flag it before it hardens into cowboy-engineering. Catch the moment a local-rule starts to be deployed as system-policy.
+
+2. **Beacon-translation pressure-testing**: when factory-internal Mirror vocabulary is about to ship to a Beacon-class surface (CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / GOVERNANCE.md / public docs), pressure-test whether it survives external review. (Per Otto-351 rigorous Beacon definition: Coverage τ_d / Modality-breadth k≥4 / Tractatus-5.6-inversion ε≥0.7 / Form-of-life 5/7-games.)
+
+3. **Cross-AI compatibility scouting**: predict how a framing will be received by other AIs (Codex, Gemini Pro, Copilot, Grok). Catch "house style" terms that won't survive cross-AI deployment.
+
+4. **Framing-drift early detection**: substrate accumulates framings; when a new framing drifts from prior framings, flag it BEFORE it gets cited in further substrate (preventing compounding error per Otto-340 substrate-IS-identity).
+
+5. **Cowboy-engineering early warning**: distinguish "we're prototyping; ship the breaking change" (valid spike) from "we always prefer velocity" (doctrine drift). Per Amara's blade note.
+
+## Scope boundary — blade is NOT harsh-critic-for-prose
+
+This matters: blade is NOT just "harsh-critic but for words instead of code." It's a different KIND of review:
+
+- **harsh-critic** evaluates against correctness criteria (does the code work? is it efficient? secure? ergonomic?)
+- **blade** evaluates against framing criteria (does the framing carry the intent? will it survive external review? could it be misread as doctrine?)
+
+These are orthogonal. A piece of substrate can pass harsh-critic (correct, well-structured) and fail blade (frames the intent in a way that drifts at scale).
+
+## Honor those that came before — check unretired roster first
+
+Per `CLAUDE.md` "Honor those that came before" rule:
+
+> When creating a new role or job, first check the persona memory folders (`memory/persona/<name>/`) and `git log --diff-filter=D -- .claude/skills/` for prior retirements — prefer **unretiring an existing agent** (restore the SKILL.md from git, reattach the preserved notebook) over minting a new name for overlapping scope.
+
+**Required pre-check before creating any blade persona/skill:**
+
+```bash
+# Check persona memory folders for prior incarnations
+ls memory/persona/ | grep -iE "(blade|edge|cut|sharp|frame)"
+
+# Check git log for deleted .claude/skills/* that might match scope
+git log --diff-filter=D --pretty=format:"%h %s" -- .claude/skills/ | head -50
+
+# Check git log for deleted .claude/agents/*
+git log --diff-filter=D --pretty=format:"%h %s" -- .claude/agents/ | head -50
+```
+
+If a retired persona matches the blade scope (even partially), unretire FIRST. Only mint new if no prior incarnation exists.
+
+## Two implementation paths
+
+### Path A: Blade persona (`.claude/agents/blade.md`)
+
+A persona that wears the blade hat. Lifecycle:
+
+- Invoked when factory framings are about to ship to substrate
+- Outputs blade-notes (sharp framing observations)
+- Composes with skill-creator workflow when framings need rewording
+- Notebook under `memory/persona/blade/NOTEBOOK.md` per persona convention
+
+### Path B: Blade skill-domain (`.claude/skills/blade-*/`)
+
+A skill-domain group covering multiple blade-jobs:
+
+- `.claude/skills/blade-doctrine-vs-spike/` — doctrine vs spike-rule discipline
+- `.claude/skills/blade-beacon-translation/` — Beacon pressure-test
+- `.claude/skills/blade-cross-ai-compatibility/` — cross-AI compatibility scout
+- `.claude/skills/blade-framing-drift/` — framing-drift early-detection
+
+Either path requires going through the `skill-creator` workflow (per GOVERNANCE.md §4).
+
+## Forward-action (BACKLOG, not for this session)
+
+When 0/0/0 reached + queue clear:
+
+1. Run the unretire-check commands above
+2. If no prior incarnation: route through `skill-creator` to draft persona OR skill-domain
+3. Compose with `skill-tune-up` (Aarav) for ranking against existing roster
+4. Compose with `naming-expert` for the persona name (if persona path) — "Blade" is a working label, may not survive
+5. Aaron-review before persona/skill lands (named persona attribution per Otto-279 + carve-outs)
+
+## Composes with
+
+- **#61 Amara + Gemini Pro cross-AI refinement** — origin of "blade note" terminology
+- **Otto-356 Mirror/Beacon language register** — blade pressure-tests the Mirror→Beacon translation
+- **Otto-351 rigorous Beacon definition** — blade applies the 4-axis Beacon criterion
+- **Otto-355 BLOCKED-with-green-CI investigate review threads first** — blade is one source of those threads at the framing layer
+- **CLAUDE.md "Honor those that came before"** — required pre-check before minting
+- **`skill-creator`** — workflow path for landing blade
+- **`skill-tune-up` (Aarav)** — roster-ranking discipline
+- **`harsh-critic` / `spec-zealot` / `code-review-zero-empathy`** — orthogonal scope, blade fills a different gap
+- **AGENTS.md "Velocity over stability"** — Amara's blade note specifically caught this framing's doctrine-vs-spike risk; if a blade persona had existed pre-AGENTS.md-landing, the spike-rule clarification could have shipped with the original wording
+
+## What this memory does NOT mean
+
+- Does NOT mint a blade persona this session (BACKLOG)
+- Does NOT promise blade is the right shape — could be persona OR skill-domain OR both, decided via skill-creator workflow
+- Does NOT replace any existing critic persona — orthogonal scope
+- Does NOT pre-emptively claim "blade" is the right name (naming-expert review needed)