---
name: Session 2026-04-13 — AldineXXI v2.0 specification, audit, and implementation
description: Full AldineXXI framework audit and repair. Spec written, palette decided,
  vignette specified, Phases 1-5 implemented. L2 parked until end of May. Seb has
  end-of-May deadline for L1 scaling.
type: project
originSessionId: n/a
permalink: claude-memory/session-2026-04-13-aldinexxi
---

## What we did

### Wake-up and context clearing
- External Auditor review happened days ago (not during this session) — updated memory with the five challenges, three landing (Absorption Trap, Aesthetic of Rigor, Proceed with Annotations). Review deliberately NOT taxonomized.
- Read DN-DRAFT-ungovernable-threshold.md — the inquiry that emerged from the External Auditor review. Central unresolved architectural question of L2: can governance maintain genuine openness to challenge?
- **L2 is PARKED** as of this session. David needs thinking time. Seb wants L1 ready to scale (anyone can use it) by end of May 2026. Focus: L1 + agent circles until then.

### BetterMemories.io check
- No new commits from Seb since April 9
- No comments on any of the 8 issues we filed (#124-126, #133-136)
- Posted strategic comment on #125 about scoping SurrealDB to its strengths, not abandoning it
- Confirmed training pipeline is fully intact (teacher/student architecture, graduation state machine, LoRA pipeline, 7-state per-slot graduation)

### AldineXXI audit and implementation (the bulk of the session)

**Gap map audit** (`docs/AldineXXI-Codex/gap-map-2026-04-13.md`)
- Full diagnostic of ARC repo against framework theory
- 4 critical, 11 significant, 14 consistent, 10 untheorized findings

**AldineXXI specification v2.0** (`docs/AldineXXI-Codex/AldineXXI-specification.md`)
- 13-section canonical framework document consolidating audit brief, palette, vignette, and all decisions
- Philosophical lineage added: Manutius, Warde, Tschichold, Bringhurst, Tufte, Alexander
- Replaces Codex v1.0 (July 2025), which was archived

**Vignette specification** (`docs/AldineXXI-Codex/vignette-specification.md`)
- Complete spec for the four-layer threshold system replacing Contemplative Sigils
- Jurist reviewed and approved with 4 changes (all integrated)
- Implementation plan: three components (renderer, generation script, Hakyll integration)
- Local Ollama model (Qwen 3 8B → 32B on M5 Pro) for semantic analysis
- Sidecar JSON architecture — ARC remains pure static site
- **Phase 1 hold-question from jurist:** "does it dwell?" — bring prototype to jurist before Phase 2

**Palette** — decided and tested:
| | Light | Dark |
|---|---|---|
| Ground | `#F5F0E8` | `#1C1510` |
| Text | `#2C2420` | `#C0B6A9` |
| Accent | `#8B3A2A` | `#CC6050` |

Dark text softened from `#EDE5D8` to `#C0B6A9` (David: "too much contrast for my eyes"). Dark accent lightened from `#A84838` to `#CC6050` to pass WCAG AA. Palette test page at `palette-test.html`.

**Phase 1 — Visual foundation (implemented):**
- D-04: Background → warm parchment (was pure white #ffffff)
- D-06: All headings → Garamond weight 400 (was Plex Sans bold)
- D-03: Spacing scale corrected + $space-xxl added
- D-05: Accent → Pompeian red
- D-01: Font sizes corrected (21/20/22 per viewport)
- D-02: Scale compensation corrected (0.94/0.88)
- D-07, D-09, D-15: Footer, voice labels, figcaptions → correct typeface layers

**Phase 2 — Apparatus (implemented):**
- A-01: Dateline system (Plex Mono, "City, Month Year", template + Hakyll field)
- A-05: Silence taxonomy (CSS classes for rest/separation/pause/threshold)
- A-06: Image types (argumentative/evidential/threshold with distinct treatments)

**Phase 4 — Governance decisions:**
- U-03 polyphonic marginalia: archived, awaiting framework theory. May eventually be removed. Decision deferred until Chamber is fully operational.
- U-04 archive dead links: removed all 7, noted types for future re-emergence
- U-05 drop caps: disabled. May be re-theorized later.
- U-06 sidenotes: archived but David wants to theorize them eventually — finds the form appealing

**Phase 5 — Cleanup (implemented):**
- Triptych/sigil CSS removed from _post.scss (371 lines)
- hasGlyphField disabled in site.hs
- Dead SCSS archived: _fonts, _layout-fix, _mobile-nav-fix, _miscellaneous, _marginalia
- main.scss.consolidated-backup, sidenotes.css, style.scss archived
- Codex v1.0 archived
- Arbitrary pixel values replaced with grid tokens
- Duplicate content file archived
- Contemplative Sigils page rewritten as Vignette page

**Content pages updated:**
- about.md: Contemplative Sigils → Vignette, technical notes refreshed
- aldine-xxi.md: three sigil references → vignette
- vignette.md: complete rewrite (was contemplative-sigils.md)
- archive.html: dead links removed, only existing routes listed

**Bringhurst and Warde analysis:**
- Read Warde's Crystal Goblet (in chamber-library) — three direct connections to AldineXXI
- Read key passages of Bringhurst's Elements (in chamber-library) — spacing-as-music connection, Garamond lineage, ornament discipline
- Both sources already in chamber-library. Philosophical lineage added to spec.

### Commit
- `84b05c3` — AldineXXI v2.0: specification, audit, palette, vignette, cleanup (33 files, +1625 -700)

## What we decided — and why

1. **L2 parked, L1 focus until end of May** — David needs thinking time for L2. L1 substrate must be reliable first. Seb has a scaling deadline.

2. **Local Ollama model for vignette generation** (not CapableMind) — long-term sustainability. Decouples ARC from L1 operational readiness. Steward review compensates for the absence of governed analysis. Training data accumulates naturally from corrections.

3. **Sacred palette derives from live CSS, not stored values** — prime directive: build it once correctly. The renderer reads `--bg` at runtime. No maintenance coupling.

4. **Seven content types removed from archive** — dead links are preferable to routes without governance. Meditations most likely to return.

5. **Drop caps disabled now, not at vignette go-live** — untheorized in the spec, better to remove than leave unexamined. May be re-theorized later alongside the vignette.

6. **SurrealDB comment posted** — framed as scoping to strengths, not abandoning. The conversation with Seb hasn't happened yet.

## What's unresolved

- **Can't push ARC changes** — Gitea on Acerplex is down. Seb needs to restart the service. Commit is local only.
- **Can't build ARC locally** — no Stack/GHC. Need Acerplex for the Hakyll build. Two things waiting on Seb.
- **Vignette Phase 3** (renderer prototype) — needs a fresh mind and the ability to compile/view the site. Parked.
- **Seb conversation on L1 systemic fixes + Effect-TS** — the consolidated roadmap exists but the conversation hasn't happened. No response on any of the 8 filed issues.
- **DN-RET-02 practitioner questions** — 5 questions about score memorization, still unanswered
- **External Auditor next steps** — dialogue trial design (override-recording mechanism) is the next concrete deliverable
- **Stale items still open from wake-up:** vault inbox (16 files), MemPalace KG (low priority, potentially instructive for L1)

## Next actions

1. **Get Seb to restart Gitea** — then push ARC commit `84b05c3` + the earlier `b1f28d3`, build, deploy. See the site in its new state.
2. **Discuss L1 systemic fixes with Seb** — bring the consolidated document. Effect-TS is the biggest conversation.
3. **Vignette Phase 3** — renderer prototype. Fresh session, fresh mind. Jurist hold-question: "does it dwell?"
4. **Archive typography-guide.md** — superseded by the spec. Style-guide.md stays (editorial, different concern) but needs review.

## No Thistleweld observations this session