@henols/c64-re-tools 0.2.1 → 0.2.3

package/skills/c64-ram-capture/scripts/derive-transients.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,575 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+// Derive a per-release transient allow-list from N >= 3 captures of the same
+// stop, and re-check a pair against an already-committed derivation.
+//
+// Pure logic. This module reads images the agent already captured and does
+// arithmetic over them. It contacts nothing: the mcp__plugin_c64-re-tools_vice__* tools are the
+// only route to the emulator, and nothing here opens a connection, reads
+// broker state, or spawns any process at all -- not even the interpreter
+// already running it.
+//
+// THE METHOD IS THE DELIVERABLE, AND THE ADDRESS SET NEVER IS. A real
+// release's transients are its own frame counters, RNG state,
+// sprite positions and music-player pointers. An allow-list inherited from
+// another release cannot be distinguished afterwards from one honestly
+// derived, which is why this script re-derives per release and refuses to
+// overwrite an existing artifact without an explicit `--force`. What carries
+// forward between releases is this file, never its output.
+//
+// THE RULES IT IMPLEMENTS, in full:
+//
+//   N >= 3      fewer than three images is refused, naming the count and the
+//               minimum. Three runs is already this project's documented
+//               minimum for a verified capture.
+//   union       the allow-list is the union of addresses differing across
+//               EVERY pairwise comparison -- N(N-1)/2 pairs for N images.
+//   per entry   the address, which run pairs it differed in (by basename, so
+//               the artifact is readable), the distinct byte values seen, and
+//               a one-line attribution left empty for a human to fill.
+//   cap 64      exceeding it VOIDS the derivation: non-zero exit, no artifact,
+//               and the message states the stop is not frame-exact. It is not
+//               a threshold to raise. `--cap` only ever NARROWS -- a value
+//               above the committed cap is refused by name, so the flag cannot
+//               be used to launder an overflow into a pass.
+//
+// THE TWO RULES IT DOES NOT INHERIT FROM ITS SIBLING, stated explicitly
+// because `compare.mjs` sits in this same directory and reads on the same
+// captures:
+//
+//   * NO ADDRESS RANGE IS EVER A VOLATILE SPAN HERE, at any address, under any
+//     name. `compare.mjs` excludes four ranges covering 4866 addresses
+//     (`$0000-$0001`, `$0100-$01FF`, `$0200-$03FF`, `$D000-$DFFF`). The rule
+//     requires an ENUMERATED list and never a range, and the artifact this
+//     script writes carries one entry per address for exactly that reason.
+//   * THERE IS NO BIT-COUNT TOLERANCE HERE, at any address, in any form.
+//     `compare.mjs` classifies a one-bit difference as "drift" and lets it
+//     pass anywhere. A one-bit difference outside the allow-list FAILS here.
+//     The cost of getting this wrong is recorded in
+//     `src/mcp/vice/capture-predicate.ts`'s header: a predicate carrying
+//     either inherited rule passes the phase's one-bit fail-ability control,
+//     so the control goes green having proven nothing.
+//
+// `$D000-$DFFF` IS NOT VOLATILE HERE EITHER, and that is route-specific rather
+// than arbitrary. `compare.mjs`'s 4096-address exclusion is a property of the
+// memory-READ route, where reading that range samples live I/O registers and
+// two reads can never agree. A `.vsf`-sliced image is the `C64MEM` array --
+// RAM *under* I/O, not the register read view -- so on the snapshot route the
+// exclusion disappears and a difference there is a real difference.
+//
+// WHY IT CARRIES ITS OWN COMPARISON INSTEAD OF CALLING THE MCP-SIDE ONE.
+// `src/mcp/vice/capture-predicate.ts` is the authoritative predicate, and
+// `vsf-slice.mjs` in this directory shows the route a skill script takes to
+// reach the MCP tree: spawn the interpreter on a CLI entry point. That route
+// is unavailable here -- `capture-predicate.ts` is a pure library with no CLI
+// entry point, a static cross-package import resolves on neither npm-installer
+// route (see `vsf-slice.mjs`'s header for the measured constraint), and
+// `scripts/check-npm-packages.mjs`'s transitive closure walk would fail the
+// pack for one. So this is the retired skill-side/MCP-side disk-image-reader
+// pair's own answer rather than the `vsf-slice.mjs`
+// answer: a second independent implementation of a rule that
+// is STABLE and TINY -- set membership over differing addresses, with no
+// ranges, no tolerances and no version-sensitive layout anywhere in it. The
+// agreement between the two is not left to trust: `derive-transients.test.mjs`
+// imports `compareCaptures()` over the same resolution ladder `vsf-slice.mjs`
+// uses and asserts that `check`'s verdict matches it on a synthetic pair,
+// skipping with a NAMED reason if the MCP tree is absent.
+//
+// WHAT NOT TO DO:
+//   - Never raise the cap because a derivation overflowed it. An overflow
+//     means the stop is not frame-exact. MEASURED, for scale: 0
+//     differing addresses at a frame-exact `READY`-prompt stop, 66 at a
+//     jitter-4000 autostarted stop, 300 at a wall-clock autostarted stop on a
+//     real release, 1242 at a wall-clock `READY` stop with the determinism
+//     block applied. Over-cap is a real, observed outcome and not a
+//     hypothetical, and the answer to it is a better stop.
+//   - Never truncate the union to fit the cap. A truncated allow-list makes
+//     every later comparison pass on bytes nobody vetted, which is the silent
+//     widening the void exists to prevent. The artifact is written once, in
+//     full, only after the cap check clears.
+//   - Never add `$0000`/`$0001` to a derived allow-list by hand. They are
+//     normalised in code by `normalisePorts()` on the snapshot route,
+//     and spending two of the cap's 64 slots on them would hide a real
+//     difference behind a known one. They can legitimately appear in a
+//     derivation taken from un-normalised images -- see `check`'s note below.
+import { existsSync, readFileSync, writeFileSync } from "node:fs";
+import { createHash } from "node:crypto";
+import { basename } from "node:path";
+
+const IMAGE_BYTES = 65536;
+
+/** The committed maximum number of addresses an allow-list may enumerate
+ * This literal MUST equal `TRANSIENT_ALLOW_LIST_CAP` in
+ * `src/mcp/vice/capture-predicate.ts`; the colocated test asserts that
+ * equality against the IMPORTED constant rather than against a second copy of
+ * the number, so the two cannot drift apart silently. */
+const TRANSIENT_ALLOW_LIST_CAP = 64;
+
+/** The committed minimum number of runs a derivation takes. */
+const MIN_RUNS = 3;
+
+/** The artifact format version. Bump it when the entry shape changes, never
+ * when an address set changes -- address sets are per-release data, not
+ * schema. */
+const SCHEMA_VERSION = "1.0";
+
+const hex4 = (n) => "$" + n.toString(16).toUpperCase().padStart(4, "0");
+const hex2 = (n) => "$" + n.toString(16).toUpperCase().padStart(2, "0");
+
+const sha256 = (buf) => createHash("sha256").update(buf).digest("hex");
+
+/** The range-shaped keys an entry must never carry, byte-identical to
+ * `parseAllowList()`'s own list. Refused BY NAME on the way in AND on the way
+ * out: an entry written as a span is an author reaching for the very rule
+ * this list exists to enforce. */
+const RANGE_SHAPED_KEYS = [
+  "start",
+  "end",
+  "from",
+  "to",
+  "range",
+  "span",
+  "lo",
+  "hi",
+  "first",
+  "last",
+];
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------- argv
+
+/** Which flags each verb accepts, and whether each takes a value.
+ *
+ * A REAL PARSER, DELIBERATELY, and not `compare.mjs`'s
+ * `argv.filter(s => !s.startsWith("--"))` idiom. That filter treats a flag's
+ * VALUE as a positional, so `--out probe.json a.bin b.bin c.bin` would derive
+ * from four images, one of which is a JSON path. With value-taking flags in
+ * the signature that idiom is a defect rather than a shortcut. */
+const FLAG_SPEC = {
+  derive: { "--release": "value", "--out": "value", "--cap": "value", "--force": "boolean" },
+  check: { "--allow-list": "value", "--limit": "value" },
+};
+
+function parseArgv(verb, argv) {
+  const spec = FLAG_SPEC[verb];
+  const flags = Object.create(null);
+  const positionals = [];
+
+  for (let i = 0; i < argv.length; i++) {
+    const tok = argv[i];
+    if (!tok.startsWith("--")) {
+      positionals.push(tok);
+      continue;
+    }
+    const kind = spec[tok];
+    if (!kind) {
+      throw new Error(
+        `${verb}: unknown flag ${tok} -- accepted: ${Object.keys(spec).join(", ")}`,
+      );
+    }
+    if (kind === "boolean") {
+      flags[tok] = true;
+      continue;
+    }
+    const value = argv[i + 1];
+    if (value === undefined || value.startsWith("--")) {
+      throw new Error(`${verb}: ${tok} needs a value`);
+    }
+    flags[tok] = value;
+    i++;
+  }
+
+  return { flags, positionals };
+}
+
+function requiredFlag(verb, flags, name) {
+  const v = flags[name];
+  if (typeof v !== "string" || v.trim() === "") {
+    throw new Error(`${verb}: ${name} is required and must not be empty`);
+  }
+  return v;
+}
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------- images
+
+/** Load one image, refusing anything that is not exactly a full 64K capture,
+ * naming the path and the length it actually had. Refused rather than
+ * compared: two short buffers agree at every address they have. */
+function loadImage(path) {
+  const buf = readFileSync(path);
+  if (buf.length !== IMAGE_BYTES) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `${path}: ${buf.length} bytes, expected exactly ${IMAGE_BYTES} -- not a full 64K image, and ` +
+        `refusing rather than deriving from a partial one, which agrees everywhere it has no bytes`,
+    );
+  }
+  return buf;
+}
+
+/** Load every image, in the order given, refusing a basename collision.
+ *
+ * The pair attributions in the artifact are written by basename, so two
+ * images sharing one makes an entry's provenance unreadable -- and passing the
+ * same path twice would add a pair that differs nowhere and inflate the pair
+ * count with a comparison of an image against itself. */
+function loadImages(verb, paths) {
+  if (paths.length < MIN_RUNS) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `${verb}: ${paths.length} image(s) given, minimum ${MIN_RUNS} -- the committed method is ` +
+        `N >= ${MIN_RUNS} runs of the same release under the same protocol at the same stop, and three ` +
+        `runs is already this project's documented minimum for a verified capture`,
+    );
+  }
+  const byName = new Map();
+  const imgs = [];
+  for (const path of paths) {
+    const name = basename(path);
+    const already = byName.get(name);
+    if (already !== undefined) {
+      throw new Error(
+        `${verb}: two images share the basename "${name}" (${already} and ${path}) -- the pair ` +
+          `attributions are written by basename, so a collision makes an entry's provenance unreadable`,
+      );
+    }
+    byName.set(name, path);
+    imgs.push({ path, name, buf: loadImage(path) });
+  }
+  return imgs;
+}
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------- derivation
+
+/**
+ * The committed derivation: the union of addresses differing across EVERY
+ * pairwise comparison of N images. Returns the union as an ascending entry
+ * array plus the pair count, and classifies nothing -- there is no volatile
+ * span and no bit-count tolerance anywhere in it.
+ */
+function deriveUnion(imgs) {
+  const union = new Map(); // addr -> { pairs: string[], values: Set<number> }
+  const pairs = [];
+
+  for (let i = 0; i < imgs.length; i++) {
+    for (let j = i + 1; j < imgs.length; j++) {
+      const label = `${imgs[i].name} vs ${imgs[j].name}`;
+      pairs.push(label);
+      const a = imgs[i].buf;
+      const b = imgs[j].buf;
+      let n = 0;
+      for (let addr = 0; addr < IMAGE_BYTES; addr++) {
+        const x = a[addr];
+        const y = b[addr];
+        if (x === y) continue;
+        n++;
+        let rec = union.get(addr);
+        if (!rec) {
+          rec = { pairs: [], values: new Set() };
+          union.set(addr, rec);
+        }
+        rec.pairs.push(label);
+        rec.values.add(x);
+        rec.values.add(y);
+      }
+      console.log(`PAIR ${label}: ${n} differing address${n === 1 ? "" : "es"}`);
+    }
+  }
+
+  // Ascending by address, so the artifact is diffable and an entry's position
+  // never depends on which pair happened to observe it first.
+  const addresses = [...union.keys()].sort((x, y) => x - y);
+  const entries = addresses.map((address) => {
+    const rec = union.get(address);
+    return {
+      address,
+      pairs: rec.pairs,
+      values: [...rec.values].sort((p, q) => p - q).map(hex2),
+      // Left empty for a human to fill. An empty string is a legal
+      // attribution and round-trips through `parseAllowList()`; the field
+      // exists so an unattributed transient is visibly unattributed rather
+      // than absent.
+      attribution: "",
+    };
+  });
+
+  return { entries, pairs };
+}
+
+function capFrom(flags) {
+  if (flags["--cap"] === undefined) return TRANSIENT_ALLOW_LIST_CAP;
+  const n = Number(flags["--cap"]);
+  if (!Number.isInteger(n) || n < 1) {
+    throw new Error("derive: --cap needs a positive integer");
+  }
+  if (n > TRANSIENT_ALLOW_LIST_CAP) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `derive: --cap ${n} is above the committed cap of ${TRANSIENT_ALLOW_LIST_CAP} -- the cap is a ` +
+        `pre-commitment, and raising it after seeing a derivation overflow converts a measurement into ` +
+        `an excuse. --cap only ever NARROWS`,
+    );
+  }
+  return n;
+}
+
+function cmdDerive(argv) {
+  const { flags, positionals } = parseArgv("derive", argv);
+  const release = requiredFlag("derive", flags, "--release");
+  const out = requiredFlag("derive", flags, "--out");
+  const cap = capFrom(flags);
+
+  // Checked BEFORE any image is read, so the no-inheritance refusal costs
+  // nothing and cannot be reached halfway through a derivation.
+  if (existsSync(out) && flags["--force"] !== true) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `derive: ${out} already exists. An allow-list is re-derived per release from that release's own ` +
+        `runs, and no address set is ever inherited between releases -- an inherited list cannot be ` +
+        `distinguished afterwards from an honestly derived one, so a contaminated ledger has to be ` +
+        `re-derived from fresh captures. Pass --force to replace this artifact with a fresh derivation ` +
+        `of "${release}"`,
+    );
+  }
+
+  const imgs = loadImages("derive", positionals);
+  for (const i of imgs) console.log(`${i.name}  sha256 ${sha256(i.buf)}`);
+
+  const { entries, pairs } = deriveUnion(imgs);
+
+  // The count IS the finding, on both paths, so it is printed on both. What
+  // differs is that the void path writes nothing.
+  console.log(`TRANSIENT_COUNT: ${entries.length}`);
+  console.log(`cap: ${cap} (committed cap ${TRANSIENT_ALLOW_LIST_CAP})`);
+
+  if (entries.length > cap) {
+    console.error(
+      `VOID: the derivation over ${imgs.length} runs of release "${release}" yields ${entries.length} ` +
+        `differing addresses, above the cap of ${cap}.\n` +
+        `The derivation is VOID. What that means is not "the list is a bit long": it means THE STOP IS ` +
+        `NOT FRAME-EXACT, and that is a fact the gate must hear rather than a threshold to move. ` +
+        `Re-derive from a frame-anchored stop and record this count as measured; do not raise the cap ` +
+        `and do not truncate the union to fit it, which would make every later comparison pass on bytes ` +
+        `nobody vetted.\n` +
+        `No artifact was written to ${out}.`,
+    );
+    return 1;
+  }
+
+  const artifact = {
+    schema_version: SCHEMA_VERSION,
+    release,
+    derived_from: imgs.map((i) => i.name),
+    pair_count: pairs.length,
+    cap,
+    method:
+      `union of addresses differing across every pairwise comparison of N >= ${MIN_RUNS} runs of one ` +
+      `release at one stop; re-derived per release, never inherited`,
+    entries,
+  };
+
+  // Written ONCE, in full, only after the cap check cleared. No partial file
+  // exists at any point on the void path.
+  writeFileSync(out, JSON.stringify(artifact, null, 2) + "\n");
+  console.log(`wrote ${out}: release "${release}", ${entries.length} entries, ${pairs.length} pairs`);
+  return 0;
+}
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------- check
+
+/** Parse a committed artifact, with the refusals `parseAllowList()` raises, in
+ * the same order -- the cap FIRST, because exceeding it voids the whole
+ * derivation and there is nothing to gain from validating the entries of a
+ * list that cannot be used. */
+function parseArtifact(json, path) {
+  if (typeof json !== "object" || json === null || Array.isArray(json)) {
+    throw new Error(`${path}: an allow-list artifact must be a JSON object with a release and entries`);
+  }
+  if (typeof json.release !== "string" || json.release.trim() === "") {
+    throw new Error(
+      `${path}: the artifact must name the release it was derived from -- an allow-list is re-derived ` +
+        `per release and never inherited, so the identifier travels with it`,
+    );
+  }
+  if (!Array.isArray(json.entries)) {
+    throw new Error(`${path}: the artifact must carry an entries array -- an enumerated list of addresses`);
+  }
+  if (json.entries.length > TRANSIENT_ALLOW_LIST_CAP) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `${path}: the allow-list enumerates ${json.entries.length} addresses, above the committed cap of ` +
+        `${TRANSIENT_ALLOW_LIST_CAP} -- exceeding the cap VOIDS the derivation (it means the stop is not ` +
+        `frame-exact) and is never repaired by raising the cap`,
+    );
+  }
+
+  const addresses = new Set();
+  for (let i = 0; i < json.entries.length; i++) {
+    const entry = json.entries[i];
+    if (typeof entry !== "object" || entry === null || Array.isArray(entry)) {
+      throw new Error(`${path}: entry ${i} must be an object carrying an address and its run pairs`);
+    }
+    for (const key of RANGE_SHAPED_KEYS) {
+      if (key in entry) {
+        throw new Error(
+          `${path}: entry ${i} carries the range-shaped key "${key}" -- the transient allow-list is ` +
+            `ENUMERATED and is never a range, so write each address as its own entry`,
+        );
+      }
+    }
+    const addr = entry.address;
+    if (Array.isArray(addr)) {
+      throw new Error(
+        `${path}: entry ${i} writes its address as an array, which is a range-shaped span -- the ` +
+          `transient allow-list is ENUMERATED and is never a range`,
+      );
+    }
+    if (!Number.isInteger(addr) || addr < 0 || addr > 0xffff) {
+      throw new Error(`${path}: entry ${i} has address ${JSON.stringify(addr)}, not an integer in 0..65535`);
+    }
+    if (addresses.has(addr)) {
+      throw new Error(
+        `${path}: entry ${i} repeats address ${hex4(addr)} -- a duplicate silently consumes a second ` +
+          `slot of the cap`,
+      );
+    }
+    if (!Array.isArray(entry.pairs) || entry.pairs.some((p) => typeof p !== "string")) {
+      throw new Error(
+        `${path}: entry ${i} (address ${hex4(addr)}) must record which run pairs it differed in, as an ` +
+          `array of strings`,
+      );
+    }
+    // The MCP-side parseAllowList() refuses a non-string
+    // `attribution` and this parser did not check the field at all, so a
+    // hand-edited artifact with `"attribution": 5` passed `check` here and was
+    // refused there. The two implementations are a DELIBERATE duplicate
+    // asserted to agree on VERDICTS, and parse strictness is exactly where a
+    // deliberate duplicate drifts first -- an artifact one accepts and the
+    // other rejects is a disagreement about what the ledger even says.
+    if (entry.attribution !== undefined && typeof entry.attribution !== "string") {
+      throw new Error(
+        `${path}: entry ${i} (address ${hex4(addr)}) has a non-string attribution ` +
+          `(${JSON.stringify(entry.attribution)}) -- an attribution is a one-line human note or absent`,
+      );
+    }
+    addresses.add(addr);
+  }
+
+  return { release: json.release, addresses };
+}
+
+/**
+ * The equivalence rule, in full, with nothing else in it: a differing address
+ * ON the allow-list is counted, reported and excluded from the verdict. ANY
+ * other differing address FAILS -- whatever its bit count, wherever it sits,
+ * and however close it lies to an allow-listed address. The allow-list is a
+ * SET OF ADDRESSES and never a neighbourhood.
+ *
+ * Symmetric in `a` and `b`: the verdict depends only on WHICH addresses
+ * differ, never on which image was passed first.
+ */
+function compareUnderAllowList(a, b, addresses) {
+  const allowed = [];
+  const divergence = [];
+  for (let addr = 0; addr < IMAGE_BYTES; addr++) {
+    const x = a[addr];
+    const y = b[addr];
+    if (x === y) continue;
+    (addresses.has(addr) ? allowed : divergence).push({ addr, a: x, b: y });
+  }
+  return {
+    allowed,
+    divergence,
+    verdict: divergence.length === 0 ? "equivalent" : "not-equivalent",
+  };
+}
+
+function printRows(title, rows, limit) {
+  console.log(`\n${title}: ${rows.length}`);
+  const shown = limit === 0 ? rows : rows.slice(0, limit);
+  for (const r of shown) console.log(`  ${hex4(r.addr)}  ${hex2(r.a)}  ->  ${hex2(r.b)}`);
+  if (shown.length < rows.length) {
+    console.log(`  ... ${rows.length - shown.length} more (--limit 0 for all)`);
+  }
+}
+
+function cmdCheck(argv) {
+  const { flags, positionals } = parseArgv("check", argv);
+  const listPath = requiredFlag("check", flags, "--allow-list");
+  const limit = flags["--limit"] === undefined ? 40 : Number(flags["--limit"]);
+  if (!Number.isInteger(limit) || limit < 0) throw new Error("check: --limit needs a non-negative integer");
+  if (positionals.length !== 2) {
+    throw new Error(`check: needs exactly two image paths, got ${positionals.length}`);
+  }
+
+  // The JSON.parse used to sit OUTSIDE parseArtifact(), so a syntax
+  // error surfaced through the outer catch as a bare `error: Unexpected token
+  // …` naming no file -- unlike every other refusal in this script, each of
+  // which names the path. On a route whose whole subject is which artifact
+  // says what, "which file failed to parse" is the first thing an operator
+  // needs.
+  let listJson;
+  const listRaw = readFileSync(listPath, "utf8");
+  try {
+    listJson = JSON.parse(listRaw);
+  } catch (e) {
+    throw new Error(`${listPath}: not valid JSON -- ${e.message}`);
+  }
+  const { release, addresses } = parseArtifact(listJson, listPath);
+  const [pa, pb] = positionals;
+  const a = loadImage(pa);
+  const b = loadImage(pb);
+
+  console.log(`allow-list ${listPath}: release "${release}", ${addresses.size} addresses (cap ${TRANSIENT_ALLOW_LIST_CAP})`);
+  console.log(`A  ${basename(pa)}  sha256 ${sha256(a)}`);
+  console.log(`B  ${basename(pb)}  sha256 ${sha256(b)}`);
+
+  const r = compareUnderAllowList(a, b, addresses);
+  printRows("allowed (enumerated transients, excluded from the verdict)", r.allowed, limit);
+  printRows("DIVERGENCE -- outside the allow-list, fails at any bit count", r.divergence, limit);
+
+  console.log(`\nCHECK_VERDICT: ${r.verdict}`);
+  return r.verdict === "equivalent" ? 0 : 1;
+}
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------- CLI
+
+// Prototype-less, via Object.create(null). A plain object
+// literal inherits Object.prototype, so `commands["constructor"]` and
+// `commands["toString"]` are truthy FUNCTIONS: an unknown verb that happens to
+// be a prototype member passed the known-verb test and was then CALLED, so the
+// documented usage was never printed and the failure surfaced as a confusing
+// message from process.exit() about its argument type instead. Same idiom this
+// file already uses for its flag bag, applied one level up.
+const commands = Object.assign(Object.create(null), { derive: cmdDerive, check: cmdCheck });
+
+const [cmd, ...rest] = process.argv.slice(2);
+if (!cmd || !commands[cmd]) {
+  console.error(`usage: node derive-transients.mjs <command>
+
+  derive --release <id> --out <path> [--cap N] [--force] <a.bin> <b.bin> <c.bin> [...]
+        Derive the per-release transient allow-list: the union of addresses differing across
+        every pairwise comparison of N >= ${MIN_RUNS} captures of one release at one stop.
+        Prints TRANSIENT_COUNT: <n>. Over the cap of ${TRANSIENT_ALLOW_LIST_CAP} the derivation
+        is VOID -- non-zero exit, no artifact written, because the stop is not frame-exact.
+
+  check --allow-list <path> [--limit N] <a.bin> <b.bin>
+        Re-check one pair against an already-committed derivation, without re-deriving it.
+        Prints CHECK_VERDICT: equivalent | not-equivalent. Exit 1 when not equivalent.
+
+The allow-list is ENUMERATED, never a range, and there is no bit-count tolerance at any
+address: a one-bit difference outside the list FAILS. \`compare.mjs\`'s volatile spans and
+its drift-passes rule are NOT inherited here -- see this file's header for why, and for why
+\`$D000-$DFFF\` is not volatile on the snapshot route.
+
+The method is re-derived per release and NO address set is ever inherited between releases;
+re-deriving over an existing artifact is refused without --force. \`--cap\` only narrows.
+
+\`check\` compares the images exactly as given. On the snapshot route the \`$0000\`/\`$0001\`
+6510-port overlay is normalised in code by the MCP-side predicate, so a derivation
+taken from un-normalised images can legitimately carry those two addresses.
+
+Images come from the capture procedure in this skill's SKILL.md. This script contacts
+nothing and spawns nothing.`);
+  process.exit(cmd ? 1 : 0);
+}
+
+try {
+  process.exit(commands[cmd](rest));
+} catch (e) {
+  console.error(`error: ${e.message}`);
+  process.exit(1);
+}

package/skills/c64-ram-capture/scripts/dump-artifacts.mjs

@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ export function assembleImage(chunks) {
   return total;
 }
 
-/** SHA-256 of a buffer, hex-encoded. `node:crypto` only -- no package added (D-18). */
+/** SHA-256 of a buffer, hex-encoded. `node:crypto` only -- no package added. */
 export function sha256Buffer(buf) {
   return createHash("sha256").update(buf).digest("hex");
 }
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ function charsetBase(d018Raw, dd00Raw) {
 // -------------------------------------------------------------- buildChipState
 
 /**
- * Build the D-04 chip-state sidecar in the exact shape the committed
+ * Build the chip-state sidecar in the exact shape the committed
  * primary sidecars already use (same top-level keys, same `derived` field
  * set), from the register/state readings the agent recorded. `raw` carries
  * whatever the agent fetched via vice_registers_get / vice_sprite_get /
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ function powerOnRunLength(image, start) {
 }
 
 /**
- * Emit the D-02 range manifest in the committed shape: ranges whose union
+ * Emit the range manifest in the committed shape: ranges whose union
  * covers $0000-$FFFF with no gap and no overlap, a contiguous power-on-
  * pattern run of at least 16 bytes marked kind `unused`, the I/O window
  * ($D000-$DFFF) marked `io`, everything else `unclassified`, and