the record · exhibit 01 · loop 01, Design
The room, built before any fiction
The canon store and the writers’ room were committed on the first evening, with the rule that a fact not in the canon does not exist.
· principles 2, 7, 12 of twelve
What it shows
Principle two, before a word of prose. The room was committed on the first evening: eight seats under an orchestrator, and the rule that a fact not in the canon does not exist. The critic and the continuity keeper were separate seats from the start, so no chapter would be graded by the hand that wrote it.
The principles are numbered on the method page. Cuts in the excerpts below are marked with an ellipsis in brackets; the three kinds of cut are stated on the record’s front page.
From the record
> Single source of truth for *The Archivist* (working title; alt: *The Indictionist*). > Every skill in the writers' room reads from and writes to this directory. > **Read `premise.md` first — it is the constitution. No skill may contradict it.**
showrunner (orchestrator) │ ├─ 1. story-architect ──► structure/arc.md, structure/reveal-schedule.md ├─ 2. worldwright ──► world-bible.md, timeline.md (uses deep_search / web_search) ├─ 3. revisionist ──► indiction-ledger.md, timeline.md (uses url_research / deep_search) ├─ 4. character-smith ──► characters/*, knowledge-state.md ├─ 5. stylist ──► style-guide.md │ ▼ ├─ 6. chapter-writer ──► chapters/* (consumes ALL canon + style-guide) ├─ 7. continuity-keeper──► continuity-ledger.md (audits each chapter against canon) └─ 8. editor-critic ──► critic-notes/* (literary + restraint/caricature pass) Foundations (1–5) run first and can be iterated. Production (6–8) loops per chapter: write → audit → critique → revise.
## Canon contract (non-negotiable for every skill) 1. **`premise.md` is supreme.** If any output would contradict it, stop and flag — do not silently override. 2. **Tag every world fact** `[load-bearing]` (the plot depends on it; protect it) or `[decorative]` (near-future texture; cheap to change if reality diverges). 3. **Cite real-world anchors.** Any reinterpretation of real history or any near-future projection must name the real fact it builds on, via the search protocols in `.claude/references/protocols/`. 4. **Respect the reveal schedule.** No chapter may expose more than `structure/reveal-schedule.md` permits at that point. 5. **Knowledge-state is law.** A character may only act on what `knowledge-state.md` says they know at that moment. 6. **Log, don't lose.** New established facts go into `continuity-ledger.md` the moment they appear in prose.