RELEASE ROADMAP 2026 08 20

RISE release corridor — execution ledger

Authority: Release Roadmap v2, 2026-08-20 Rule: a green build is necessary, never sufficient. Editorial, media, device, and comprehension gates fail closed.

Current state

Corridor	State	Repository evidence / next gate
Canonical Shelf	In progress	The 15 exact Standard Ebooks candidates are pinned, and all 15 pass the automated text audit. Certification dossiers are generated without fabricating human verdicts. Public shelf remains empty until 10–15 human certifications are recorded.
Textual form	In progress	Structured editions preserve human division labels and verse line breaks; provider exposes named poems/chapters. Explicit stanza/line coordinate objects remain post-launch substrate work unless a Keystone defect requires them.
Source consumers	Implemented	Library, Scriptorium context, and Workshop Archive provider share the certification-gated release projection. Development/browser review requires an explicit review environment.
Ordinary reading	Implemented	Living Text defaults on, Chamber Page opens elongated, and exact-edition Continue/Next Division carries reader-owned configuration.
Interface semantics	Implemented	Gallery / Background Flash / Foreground Flash labels; tone-specific controls are hierarchical. Gateway remains pending acoustic judgment.
Progressive Reveal	Implemented	revealMode is independent of Recitation; all four voice/reveal combinations compile; reduced motion reveals instantly.
Keystones	In progress	The editorial set is locked to the complete “Tintern Abbey,” Meditations Book II, and Metamorphoses Book I · “Creation of the World” (invocation and creation, ending before the Four Ages). Exact manifests, stable /keystone/* routes, cold reload, browser Back/Forward correspondence, and complete phrase-aligned voice coverage for all 547 phrases are implemented. The byte-bound acoustic review is prepared; listening acceptance and source certification remain human gates. Tintern uses the existing pinned aic-landscapes collection.
Mobile-safe	Browser verified; device evidence required	The complete 88-case browser matrix is green (72 pass, 16 deliberate deferrals). Responsive Keystone threshold, Workshop touch selection, and Page geometry pass in emulation. Real-device matrix remains a witnessed release gate; Workshop is desktop-full/mobile-safe, not phone-equivalent.
Render/distribution	In progress	Workspace-local FFmpeg resolution, real H.264 kernel tests, and a reproducible portrait/representative/landscape Chamber proof matrix are implemented. All three final-scale packages verify with no degradation or unresolved rights. The production build now proves byte-identical inclusion of all 877 same-origin voice assets; Keystone-specific render packages wait on source certification.
Release hardening	Machine corridor green; human gates open	npm run release:check is the repository admission report. Unit (2,119 pass / 58 skip), production build, browser (72 pass / 16 deliberate skip), render proofs, 877 source WAVs, and all 877 byte-identical distribution copies are green. Certification, acoustic decisions, witnessed devices, and stranger results still fail closed. The human procedure is docs/RELEASE-ACCEPTANCE-PROTOCOL.md.
Public debut	Blocked	Landing threshold exists, but public launch buttons remain disabled until the exact source, visual, voice, and human gates pass.

Deliberate deferrals

• broad Gutenberg rehabilitation and physical source deletion;
• illustrated-book / Focal reconstruction;
• additional Journeys, scientific papers, Solarium, RISE Chain;
• full autonomous publishing and social delivery;
• full Atrium mobile redesign;
• Page-mode lowering beyond the bounded, release-critical fixes already made.

Release commands

npm run test:run
npm run build
npm run test:e2e
npm run verify:render -- <render-package-dir>
npm run release:prepare-certification
npm run release:prepare-acoustic-review
npm run release:record-acoustic-review -- --input <downloaded-json>
npm run release:voice:plan
npm run release:render:proof -- --ffmpeg <absolute-ffmpeg-path>
npm run release:check

release:check is expected to exit nonzero while any machine-verifiable or declared human gate remains open. Do not weaken the command to obtain green; close the named evidence gap.

The first Windows render-environment proof uses FFmpeg 9.0.1 (ffmpeg.exe SHA-256 72A489ECCD008C2EC2C0A5856C5C75BC3D8BBFA90166C4566865C246445E6AA3). The binary is intentionally not committed. Set RISE_FFMPEG_PATH or pass --ffmpeg; the render adapter must not depend on an undocumented machine PATH. The release-proof command defaults to final scale. Use --scale 0.1 only for a bounded smoke proof, never as final distribution evidence.

Human results belong in release-evidence.json. Acoustic evidence is admitted only when its exported identity matches the exact current WAV bytes and it contains a passing decision for every expected Keystone phrase. A device record is admitted only with the required browser-family id, passed: true, a reviewer, and a completion timestamp. Stranger testing requires at least three participants, all three corridor outcomes, a reviewer, and a completion timestamp. These are witness attestations, not values the automated suite may generate.

Immediate order of execution

1. Conduct and record 10–15 exact-edition human certifications, including all three Keystone sources. The Book XIII synopsis wording “when she if metamorphosed into a bitch” no longer bears on certification: the Ovid Keystone is Book I. Book XIII remains ordinary Archive content and can be adjudicated on its own schedule.
2. Complete the 547-phrase acoustic review and import its exact decision ledger for sha256:fc52f2a0bef822fc40941479ffa5482d4f6d0b00e3438be2708a4e81c2edfbf3. Both figures are the release checker's, regenerated after the Ovid Keystone moved to Book I; the previous 665 phrases and sha256:41845f375b47faed… described Book XIII and must not be certified against.
3. Run the witnessed real-device matrix, then stranger testing. The complete automated browser matrix is already green.
4. Admit the public debut only when the release checker and witnessed gates agree.

Completed in this tranche

• Confirmed the release shelf already contains 15 exact candidate editions; no shelf-expansion work was invented.
• Corrected the Keystone landscape identity to the existing admitted aic-landscapes collection.
• Locked the release selections to Meditations Book II, Metamorphoses Book I · “Creation of the World,” and the complete “Tintern Abbey.”
• Built and checkpointed complete exact-atom voice coverage. The voice plan derives its sessions from KEYSTONE_MANIFESTS, so moving the Ovid Keystone to Book I re-scoped it without hand-editing: release:check reports 877 source WAVs covering 547 exact Keystone phrases, where Book XIII gave 665. Every figure and identity here is the checker's own output.
• Added binary asset treatment, source/build byte-integrity admission, and a phrase review surface whose human decision ledger is bound to the exact voice bytes and invalidated by regeneration.
• Added explicit FFmpeg resolution, a pinned local environment record, real H.264 tests, and three verified final-scale Chamber proof packages (portrait opening, 12-second representative portrait, and landscape opening).
• Insulated the headless Chamber stage from repository writes and corrected excerpt sidecars to record encoded—not parent-plan—duration and frame count.
• Replaced Playwright's orphan-prone Windows shell server chain with a Vite lifecycle owned by global setup/teardown, then ran the complete matrix to 72 passes, 16 explicit deferrals, and zero failures.
• Rebased stale browser fixtures onto the 15-work candidate shelf without weakening release gates: Middlemarch now exercises chapter authoring, Oedipus Rex exercises direct Scriptorium admission, and offline Gallery verification accepts only a complete reveal or the designed transparent absence state.

---

Published from docs/RELEASE-ROADMAP-2026-08-20.md. Edits made here are overwritten on the next push to main.