# Restructure Plan — writer-facing content pipeline + migration off the test scaffold

Status: **proposal, not executed.** Nothing in this document has been applied to the
repository. Two files were written as part of producing it — `CLAUDE.md` and `AGENTS.md`
at the repo root — because they were requested as deliverables. No asset, script, scene
or setting was moved, renamed or altered.

Companion reading: `docs/skill-system-refactor-plan.md`, `docs/candidate-system-plan.md`,
`docs/candidate-system-implementation-plan.md`.

---

## 0. Status — Phases 0, 1, 2 and 3 are complete

Executed 2026-08-25. The working tree is clean and tagged `pre-restructure`.

All previously uncommitted work is now in git across five commits: camera/locomotion/interaction,
the UI layer, player control setup, the dialogue-vs-menu interaction fix, and the scene itself.
A full pre-flight backup was taken first (`.tar.gz` of the tree excluding `Library/`, `Temp/`,
`Logs/`, and build output) plus a separate copy of the scene file.

Phases 1, 2 and 3 are also done — see §4. Only Phase 4 (code structure) and Phase 5 (replacing the NPC scaffold) remain proposal.

### 0.1 The binary scene — RESOLVED in Phase 3

This went through two wrong diagnoses before the real one. Recorded in full because the wrong
turns are the instructive part.

**First theory (wrong):** the scene had been saved during a temporary Force Binary session and
merely needed re-saving.

**Second theory (wrong, but closer):** Force Text only converts at the moment the setting
changes, so a file that entered binary stays binary — and the fix is therefore an Editor-UI
toggle. Four headless approaches were tried and all failed silently with success return codes:
`ForceReserializeAssets` does not rewrite scenes; `MarkSceneDirty` + `SaveScene` writes nothing
in batch mode; `SaveScene` to a *new* path reproduces binary; re-assigning `serializationMode`
triggers no reserialize pass.

**The actual cause:** the `NavMeshSurface` on the `Navigation` root held its baked `NavMeshData`
*embedded in the scene* rather than as an asset. `NavMeshData` prefers binary serialization, and
a single such object forces the entire scene file to binary no matter what the project setting
says. That is why every attempt to re-save it failed — the file was being written correctly each
time, in the only format its contents allowed.

Found by bisection: moving the roots one at a time into a fresh scene, thirteen produced text
files and `Navigation` produced a binary one. Extracting the data to
`Scenes/Levels/SC101_ConferenceHall/NavMesh-Navigation.asset` — which is what baking from the
NavMeshSurface inspector produces anyway; the embedded copy was the anomaly — made the scene
serialize as text. No Editor-UI step was required.

The scene is now `Assets/Scenes/Levels/SC101_ConferenceHall.unity`, 43KB of YAML, diffable and
mergeable, with the UnityYAMLMerge driver configured (Phase 1). The generalised lesson is
trap 1 in `CLAUDE.md`.

### 0.2 The Unity CLI — finding corrected

The initial survey reported the standalone `unity` CLI as not installed and lacking build/test
commands. It **is** installed, at `/Users/lennart/.unity/bin/unity` (v1.0.0-beta.6), and it has
both `build` and `test`, plus `run`, `open`, and editor management. The original check failed
because the binary is not on `PATH` for non-interactive shells — `unity doctor` flags this
itself as `check.binary-on-path warn`.

It is the better tool for CI work than raw `-batchmode`: `unity test` handles NUnit **and**
JUnit reports, `--retries` with flaky detection, `--rerun-failed`, and `--shard N/M`. See
`CLAUDE.md` §3 for the full command set and the gotchas (`unity run` reserves `-batchmode`,
`-nographics`, `-quit` and `-logFile`; its output goes to `Logs/Editor.log`, not stdout).

---

## 1. What the survey actually found

The brief described a proof-of-concept where dialogue is authored inside the Editor. That is
not what is in the repository. The state is considerably more advanced, and that changes what
the work is.

### 1.1 Already correct — do not "fix" these

| Thing | State |
|---|---|
| **Dialogue is already plain text** | 679 lines across 9 `.yarn` files under `Assets/Dialogue/{Scenes,Characters,Objects}/`. No Editor authoring anywhere. |
| **The `.yarnproject` glob** | `**/*.yarn`. A new scene or character file is picked up with zero registration. Nothing to build here. |
| **A JSON → ScriptableObject codegen pipeline exists** | `skill_bible.json` and `candidates.json` are the source of truth; `Assets/Editor/SkillSystemSetup.cs` and `CandidateSystemSetup.cs` regenerate the `.asset` files. This is exactly the right pattern and it is already load-bearing. |
| **A headless Yarn validator exists** | `tools/YarnCheck` compiles *and plays* Yarn against the game's own Yarn Spinner DLLs, no Unity needed. |
| **A real EditMode suite exists** | ~870 LOC / 7 files, including `CandidateYarnLintTests`, which lints Yarn source against the candidate registry. |
| **Variable discipline exists** | `Common.yarn` declares everything project-wide so typos are compile errors. |

### 1.2 The real gap for a Cowork writer

It is not the `.yarn` files. It is three things:

1. **The writing handbook does not exist as a file.** `SC101.yarn` cites a *"cap introductions
   at three voices"* rule and `docs/candidate-system-implementation-plan.md` says outright that
   the handbook is not in this repo. So the rules a writer must follow are partly in someone's
   head, partly scattered across code comments. A Cowork session cannot read a handbook that
   isn't checked in — which is precisely the "re-explaining the world each time" problem.

2. **The best character material is trapped inside JSON string fields.** `skill_bible.json`
   holds, per skill, a `notes` field containing an entire embedded prose sheet — domain, *what
   it wants for you*, *what it's wrong about*, register, verbal tics, SUCCESS/FAILURE/PASSIVE
   voice samples, firing frequency, forbidden domains. It is excellent writing. It is stored as
   a single `\n`-escaped string in a machine file. A writer cannot comfortably read or revise it,
   and every edit risks breaking the JSON.

3. **NPC characters have no sheets at all.** The Bartender, Bradford Kane and Chevalier Cassian
   Thal exist only as their `.yarn` lines. There is no record of who they are, what they know,
   or how they speak.

### 1.3 Scaffold vs. load-bearing

| Verdict | Items |
|---|---|
| **Load-bearing** | `Scripts/Skills/**` (25 files, asmdef'd), `Scripts/UI/**` (13 files, ~1660 LOC), `Scripts/Camera/**` (7 files, ~727 LOC), `Scripts/Player/**` (5 files, ~654 LOC + `Locomotion.Math` asmdef), `Scripts/Interaction/**`, `Scripts/Dialogue/**`, `Assets/Dialogue/**`, `Assets/Skills/**`, `Assets/Candidates/**`, `Assets/Prefabs/UI/**`, `Assets/Tests/**`, `tools/YarnCheck` |
| **Scaffold — replace** | `NPCStandIn.cs` (global namespace, sphere-primitive placeholder, hardwired `[F]` prompt, "drop this on a sphere" in its own docstring), `Assets/Editor/YarnDemoSetup.cs` (targets `DialogueTest.unity` by literal path), `Assets/Scenes/DialogueTest.unity` itself |
| **Scaffold — keep for now** | `Assets/Editor/UILayerSetup.cs` (818 lines), `PlayerControlSetup.cs` (316), `UILayerSetupAutoRun.cs`. These are one-shot scene/prefab builders. They are how the scene got wired and they still work; retiring them is a later step, not this one. |
| **Template leftovers — delete** | `Assets/Scenes/SampleScene.unity`, `Assets/Readme.asset`, `Assets/TutorialInfo/` |
| **Should not be committed** | `tools/YarnCheck/bin/`, `tools/YarnCheck/obj/`, `.DS_Store` files |

### 1.4 Infrastructure gaps

- **No `.gitattributes`.** No Unity YAML merge driver, no LFS rule for `Assets/Art/`. Scene and
  prefab merges will conflict destructively the first time work happens on two branches.
- **asmdef coverage is partial.** Only `Skills` and `Locomotion.Math`. Camera, Player, UI,
  Dialogue, NPCs and Interaction all land in `Assembly-CSharp`, so every C# edit recompiles
  everything.
- **No PlayMode tests.** `Assets/Tests/` is EditMode only.
- **No build entry point.** No `-executeMethod` build script; `EditorBuildSettings` lists
  `SampleScene` and `DialogueTest`.
- **Single branch, no remote work in flight.** `main` only, `origin/main` in sync.

---

## 2. Part 1 — externalizing dialogue and character writing

### 2.1 The principle

**Prose lives in markdown. Machine-readable structure lives in JSON. Playable content lives in
`.yarn`. Nothing that a writer needs to read is stored as an escaped string inside a data file.**

The existing JSON-is-source-of-truth pattern is kept and extended — not replaced. What changes
is that the *prose* half moves out of the JSON into markdown with frontmatter, and the JSON keeps
only the fields code actually reads.

### 2.2 Proposed structure

A new top-level `writing/` directory at the **repo root**, deliberately outside `Assets/`:

```
writing/                              ← the Cowork working directory
├── README.md                         # "start here" for a writing session
├── STYLE.md                          # the missing writing handbook, finally checked in
├── GLOSSARY.md                       # world terms, factions, place names, in-fiction jargon
├── YARN-PRIMER.md                     # the ~1 page of Yarn syntax a writer needs
├── characters/
│   ├── _TEMPLATE.md
│   ├── bartender.md
│   ├── bradford-kane.md
│   └── chevalier-cassian-thal.md
├── voices/                           # the eleven skills, as readable sheets
│   ├── _TEMPLATE.md
│   ├── provenance.md
│   ├── confluence.md
│   └── … (facework, the-float, room-tone, amnesty, house-pour,
│          long-shift, placement, standing-order, undisclosed)
├── scenes/
│   ├── _TEMPLATE.md
│   ├── sc101-the-card-at-the-desk.md   # brief, beats, tone — NOT the dialogue
│   └── sc102-….md
└── lore/
    ├── candidates.md                 # the three readings, in prose
    └── world.md                      # the club, the conference, the night
```

Playable dialogue stays exactly where it is, in `NightclubArcadia/Assets/Dialogue/`. **Do not
move the `.yarn` files.** They are already correct, Unity's importer watches that path, and the
`.meta` files there carry GUIDs that scene references depend on.

So the writer's day looks like: read `writing/`, write `.yarn`. Two directories, no Unity.

**Why root and not `Assets/writing/`:** anything under `Assets/` gets a `.meta` file, gets
imported, and shows up in the Unity project window. Markdown notes should not be Unity assets.
Root-level also means a Cowork session can be pointed at `writing/` alone.

### 2.3 File format: markdown + YAML frontmatter

Frontmatter carries the few fields a script may want to check; the body is unconstrained prose.

**`writing/characters/_TEMPLATE.md`:**

```markdown
---
id: bartender                 # matches the Yarn speaker name, lowercased/kebabed
name: The Bartender           # exact string used as the Yarn speaker prefix
yarn_file: Assets/Dialogue/Characters/Bartender.yarn
status: authored              # planned | drafted | authored
scenes: [SC101]
knows: [doss, the-estate-drink]
---

## Who they are
One paragraph. What they want tonight.

## How they speak
Register, sentence length, contractions, what they never say.

## What they know
Bullet list. For each: does the player learn it, under what condition, and which
`$flag` records it.

## What they must never do
The negative constraints. Usually more useful than the positive ones.

## Sample lines
Three to five. Not for shipping — for calibration.
```

**`writing/voices/_TEMPLATE.md`** mirrors the structure already present in
`skill_bible.json`'s `notes` field, promoted to real headings — `domain`, *what it wants for
you*, *what it's wrong about*, *how it addresses you*, register, verbal tics, *what it never
does*, opposed/allied, SUCCESS / FAILURE / PASSIVE voice, firing frequency, forbidden domains.
That structure was already good; it just needs to be readable.

**`writing/scenes/_TEMPLATE.md`** carries the brief and the beat list, plus the constraints that
are currently buried in `.yarn` header comments — the evidence-balance rule, the beat order, the
passive-pattern rule, any deliberate exception. `SC101.yarn`'s 25-line header comment is the
model; it should live here and be *referenced* from the `.yarn` file, not duplicated.

### 2.4 Migrating the Skill Bible without losing the JSON pipeline

`skill_bible.json` currently holds both machine fields (`axis`, `opposedTo`, `alliedWith`,
`targetFiringsPerHour`, `accentColor`, `startingRank`, `primaryChannel`, `clueYield`) and the
prose blob (`notes`, plus a duplicated `domain`).

Proposed split, once:

1. Write a one-shot script that reads `skill_bible.json` and emits `writing/voices/<id>.md` —
   frontmatter from the machine fields, body from the parsed `notes`.
2. `SkillDefinition.notes` stays in the C# type and keeps rendering wherever it renders. The
   generator that produces it now reads the markdown body instead of the JSON string.
3. `skill_bible.json` remains the machine source. Either it keeps a `notes` field regenerated
   *from* the markdown, or `SkillSystemSetup.cs` learns to read `writing/voices/*.md` directly.

**Recommendation: the first.** `writing/voices/*.md` is the human source; a small script folds
prose back into `skill_bible.json`; `SkillSystemSetup.cs` is untouched. That keeps the existing,
tested Editor pipeline unchanged and confines the new machinery to one script — which matters
because `SkillRosterTests` asserts against the generated assets.

The direction of truth must be written down and never ambiguous:

```
writing/voices/*.md  ──(sync script)──▶  skill_bible.json  ──(SkillSystemSetup)──▶  *.asset
   human writes here          machine mirror                     build output
```

An EditMode test should assert the mirror is in sync, so a JSON hand-edit fails CI instead of
silently winning.

### 2.5 The flow back into Unity

| Change | What the writer does | Sync step | Verify |
|---|---|---|---|
| New/edited dialogue line, branch, node | edit `.yarn`, save | **none** — importer picks it up | `dotnet run` YarnCheck |
| New scene or character `.yarn` file | create file under `Assets/Dialogue/` | **none** — `**/*.yarn` glob | YarnCheck |
| New variable | add `<<declare>>` to `Common.yarn` | **none** | YarnCheck |
| Voice prose | edit `writing/voices/*.md` | run sync script → JSON | EditMode tests |
| Character sheet, scene brief, lore, style | edit `writing/*.md` | **none** — docs only | — |
| Candidate/clue status, new clue id | edit `candidates.json` | Editor menu or script reload | `CandidateYarnLintTests` |

The everyday writing loop has **no manual sync step at all**. That is the design goal and it is
already met for `.yarn`; the work is to reach the same property for character and voice material.

### 2.6 Validation a writer can run alone

```bash
cd tools/YarnCheck
dotnet run -- ../../NightclubArcadia/Assets/Dialogue                    # does it compile?
dotnet run -- ../../NightclubArcadia/Assets/Dialogue Bartender_Talk 2 2 0 0   # does it play?
```

Requires only the .NET 9 SDK — no Unity, no license, no Editor lock. This should be the first
thing `writing/README.md` tells a new session to run, and the last thing it tells them to run
before handing work back.

Caveat that must be stated plainly in the README, because it will otherwise cause confusion:
YarnCheck stubs `<<check>>`, so `$check_result` is always `false` and **every check-gated branch
shows its failure side**. A writer seeing only failure prose has not found a bug.

### 2.7 Scope boundary

Writer-owned: `writing/**`, `Assets/Dialogue/**/*.yarn`, prose fields in the two JSON files.
Code-owned: all C#, all `.asset` / `.prefab` / `.unity` / `.meta`, all `ProjectSettings/`,
and the *implementation* of any Yarn command or function.

A writer needing a new Yarn command is a request to engineering, not a task they can complete —
and that is the only such boundary. Everything else about writing a scene must be self-serve.

---

## 3. Part 2 — target project structure

### 3.1 Scenes

The current model — one scene holding everything — is what makes `DialogueTest.unity` both
irreplaceable and unmergeable. The target is additive scene loading, which is also the standard
answer to Unity scene merge conflicts.

```
Assets/Scenes/
├── Bootstrap.unity          # entry point. Systems only, no geometry. First in build list.
├── Systems/
│   └── Systems.unity        # DialogueRunner, UIStateController, PlayerSkills, Commentary,
│                            #   camera director. Loaded additively by Bootstrap, never unloaded.
├── Levels/
│   └── SC101_ConferenceHall.unity   # geometry, lights, nav mesh, NPC + interactable placement
└── Dev/
    └── Sandbox.unity        # scratch scene, explicitly disposable
```

`Bootstrap` loads `Systems` then the requested level. The payoff is direct: two people (or a
person and an agent) can edit level content and systems wiring without touching the same file,
and a corrupted level scene no longer takes the systems layer with it.

`DialogueTest.unity` becomes `Levels/SC101_ConferenceHall.unity` — **renamed and split, not
rebuilt**. Its contents are the asset; only its scope changes.

### 3.2 Folders

Mostly already right. The deltas:

```
Assets/
├── Art/                     ← exists (placeholder portrait). Add Environment/, Characters/, VFX/
├── Audio/                   ← new: Music/, SFX/, VO/
├── Dialogue/                ← unchanged. Do not move.
├── Candidates/  Skills/     ← unchanged (JSON + generated assets)
├── Prefabs/
│   ├── UI/                  ← exists
│   ├── Characters/          ← new: real NPC prefabs, replacing sphere stand-ins
│   ├── Interactables/       ← new: chair, door, object interactables
│   └── Systems/             ← new: Bootstrap/Systems prefabs
├── Scenes/                  ← per §3.1
├── Scripts/
│   ├── Core/                ← new: bootstrap, scene loading, save/load, service locator
│   ├── Camera/ Player/ Interaction/ Dialogue/ UI/ Skills/   ← unchanged
│   └── NPCs/                ← NPCStandIn replaced by a real NPC component (§4, step 6)
├── Settings/                ← unchanged (URP)
└── Tests/
    ├── EditMode/            ← unchanged
    └── PlayMode/            ← new
```

### 3.3 Conventions

- **Scenes:** `PascalCase`. Levels prefixed with their scene id — `SC101_ConferenceHall`.
- **Prefabs:** `PascalCase`, no `_Prefab` suffix. Variants suffixed `_Variant`.
- **Scripts:** one public type per file, filename = type name. Namespace `NightclubArcadia.<Area>`,
  matching the folder. **No global-namespace runtime types.**
- **Yarn nodes:** the existing conventions hold and are already consistent —
  `<Character>_Talk`, `SC###_Hook_<Subject>`, `Commentary_<Context>_<skill_id>`.
- **Yarn variables:** the families in `CLAUDE.md` §4.2. These are lint-enforced; treat them as API.
- **asmdefs:** one per top-level `Scripts/` area, named `NightclubArcadia.<Area>`.
- **`.yarn` filenames** may contain spaces (`Bradford Kane.yarn`) — the glob handles it, but
  every shell command touching them needs quoting. Worth normalising to kebab-case during a
  rename batch; low priority.

---

## 4. The migration plan

Incremental, ordered, each step independently committable and revertible. **Steps 0–2 are the
safety work and should happen before anything is moved.**

Effort marks are rough: **S** ≲1h, **M** a half day, **L** a day or more.

### Phase 0 — checkpoint ✅ DONE (2026-08-25)

| # | Step | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Close the Unity Editor | done |
| 0.2 | Full backup of the tree + separate copy of the scene | done |
| 0.3 | Commit all uncommitted work in logical slices (§5) | done — 5 commits |
| 0.4 | Convert `DialogueTest.unity` to text | **blocked** — Editor-UI only, see §0.1 |
| 0.5 | Tag `pre-restructure` (on a green tree, 39/39) | done |
| 0.6 | Push `main` and the tag to `origin` | done |

0.4 is the one open item and it does not block Phase 1 or 2.

### Phase 1 — repo hygiene ✅ DONE (2026-08-25)

| # | Step | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | `.gitattributes` | done — UnityYAMLMerge driver, LF pinned, binaries marked |
| 1.2 | Untrack `tools/YarnCheck/{bin,obj}` | **no-op** — already ignored, never tracked |
| 1.3 | Remove committed `.DS_Store` | **no-op** — already ignored, never tracked |
| 1.4 | Makefile wrapping the CLAUDE.md commands | done, plus `tools/ci/report_tests.py` |

1.2 and 1.3 were wrong in the original plan: both were listed from a filesystem `find`, not from
`git ls-files`. Nothing was ever tracked, and `.gitignore` already covers both.

Line endings were renormalized in one deliberate pass (74 files, all CRLF→LF, `git diff -w`
empty) rather than left to surface as phantom diffs later. LFS was **not** enabled: the remote is
self-hosted and its LFS support is unverified, and turning the filter on against a server that
lacks it breaks pushing. The rules and the migration step are recorded in `.gitattributes`.

`make merge-driver` configures UnityYAMLMerge. Note the binary is at `Contents/Helpers/`, not
`Contents/Tools/` as most guides claim — there is no `Tools` directory in Unity 6 on macOS.

### Phase 2 — writing pipeline ✅ DONE (2026-08-25)

| # | Step | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | `writing/` skeleton + templates | done |
| 2.2 | `writing/STYLE.md` | done — **digested from the vault handbook, not reconstructed** (below) |
| 2.3 | Extract `skill_bible.json` prose → `writing/voices/*.md` | done — 11 sheets, lossless round-trip |
| 2.4 | Sync script + EditMode drift test | done — `tools/writing/sync_voices.py`, `VoiceSheetSyncTests` |
| 2.5 | Character sheets | done — Bartender, Chevalier Cassian Thal, Bradford Kane |
| 2.6 | `README.md` + `YARN-PRIMER.md` | done, plus `GLOSSARY.md` and `lore/candidates.md` |
| 2.7 | SC-101 header rules → scene brief | done — header trimmed to the six rules that bind while editing, rationale moved to the brief |

Validated: EditMode **42/42** (three new), YarnCheck compiles 9 files / 35 nodes, sheets in sync.
The drift test was verified to actually fail on drift, not merely to pass.

#### Phase 2 — what changed against the plan

Two things, both discovered during execution.

**The handbook exists.** `docs/skill-system-refactor-plan.md` §2 names it, and it is at
`~/Obsidian-Vaults/obsidian-vault/Projects/Active/NightclubArcadia/` — a 874-line
`[[Mystery Writing Handbook]]`, plus `[[Character Sheet Handbook]]`, `[[Skill System Draft]]`,
`[[Lorebook]]`, `[[Candidate System — Design Explanation]]`, scene specs, and `[[Ground Truth]]`.
So §2.2 became a **digest with pointers** rather than a reconstruction, which is both more
accurate and honest about where the authoring home is. The vault remains that home.

**`[[Ground Truth]]` must never enter this repo.** It is the solution document. The premise of
the game is that the protagonist's identity never resolves, and a copy of the answer in a git
history is exactly how that leaks. This is now stated in `writing/README.md` and `CLAUDE.md` §4.1.

One thing surfaced that is worth acting on independently: `[[000_OpeningSceneTemplate]]` records
SC-101's tone check as **BLOCKED** because the one-page Voice Sheet has never been written — the
scene spec could not honestly certify its own tone field. `writing/STYLE.md` §9 now holds that
sheet with four fields explicitly unset. Filling them is about half an hour of decisions and it
unblocks a check that has been stuck for a while.

### Phase 3 — scene restructure ✅ DONE (2026-08-25)

| # | Step | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | Delete template leftovers | done — SampleScene, Readme.asset, TutorialInfo |
| 3.2 | Create `Bootstrap` + `Systems/Systems` | done, both text |
| 3.3 | ~~Copy~~ **rebuild** `DialogueTest` → `Levels/SC101_ConferenceHall` | done — see below |
| 3.4 | Move systems objects into `Systems.unity` | done — 10 roots incl. the player |
| 3.5 | Additive loading in `Scripts/Core/` | done — `GameBootstrap`, `SceneServices` |
| 3.6 | Verify parity, delete `DialogueTest.unity` | done — verified by diff, then deleted |
| 3.7 | Retarget `YarnDemoSetup.cs` | done — all four setup menus share `ScenePaths` |

Validated: EditMode **42/42**, PlayMode **5/5**, YarnCheck 9 files / 35 nodes.

#### Phase 3 — what changed against the plan

**The binary scene is fixed, and the cause was not what §0.1 assumed.** The `NavMeshSurface` held
its baked `NavMeshData` *embedded in the scene*. That type prefers binary serialization, and one
such object forces the entire file to binary regardless of Force Text — which is why toggling the
setting, re-saving, and saving to a new path all did nothing. Bisecting the roots one at a time
found it: thirteen saved as text alone, `Navigation` did not. Extracting the data to
`Scenes/Levels/SC101_ConferenceHall/NavMesh-Navigation.asset` — what baking from the inspector
produces anyway — made the scene text. **No Editor-UI step was needed after all.**

So 3.3 became a *rebuild*, not a copy: saving the binary scene to a new path reproduces binary, so
all 14 roots were moved into a fresh scene instead. Verified roots 14→14, cross-root references
25→25, zero missing scripts, render settings carried across by hand.

**The player moved to Systems.** It had been parented under `Room_101`, i.e. under level geometry.
It is persistent content, and moving it removes most of the cross-scene breakage by itself.

**The split nulled exactly seven references**, measured by auditing the pre-split scene from git
and diffing: both NPCs' `dialogueRunner`, `dialogueUI` and `player`, plus the reveal camera's
tracking target. A first, naive audit reported 210 — those turned out to be pre-existing Unity
defaults (`Image.m_Material` and friends), which is why the before/after baseline mattered.

**A real bug surfaced, and only PlayMode could see it.** The player's `NavMeshAgent` is in Systems
while the NavMesh is baked into the level, so during load the agent exists off-mesh and
`ResetPath` logs an error. `ClickToMoveController` now guards on `agent.isOnNavMesh`. This is
exactly the class of failure an EditMode suite cannot reach, and it is the argument for having
written `BootstrapTests` rather than eyeballing the scene.

**Phase 4.2 came early.** `Assets/Tests/PlayMode` now exists. Two of its checks use reflection,
because an asmdef assembly cannot reference `Assembly-CSharp` where `NPCStandIn` and the
`Cinematics` namespace live — Phase 4.1 (per-area asmdefs) is what removes that.

### Phase 4 — code structure

| # | Step | Detail | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | Add asmdefs per area | Camera, Player, Interaction, Dialogue, UI, NPCs, Core | M |
| 4.2 | Add `Assets/Tests/PlayMode/` + asmdef | first test: bootstrap loads and reaches playable state | M |
| 4.3 | Add `Assets/Editor/BuildPipeline.cs` | `-executeMethod` entry, `EditorApplication.Exit(1)` on failure (`CLAUDE.md` §3.4) | M |
| 4.4 | Rename batch | `DialougueSkillComparison.cs` → `DialogueSkillComparison.cs`; kebab-case `.yarn` filenames. Rename **in the Unity Editor** so `.meta` GUIDs are preserved. | S |

### Phase 5 — replace the scaffold

| # | Step | Detail | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | Design the real NPC component | data-driven from a character definition asset, not public fields on a sphere | M |
| 5.2 | Build `Prefabs/Characters/` prefabs | one per named character | M |
| 5.3 | Migrate scene NPCs off `NPCStandIn`, delete it | proximity prompt + label logic is worth keeping — extract, don't discard | M |
| 5.4 | Retire the `Assets/Editor/*Setup.cs` one-shot builders | only once prefabs are authored and committed; `UILayerSetup.cs` alone is 818 lines of accumulated wiring knowledge | L |

### 4.6 Keep / relocate / replace, at a glance

| Verdict | Items |
|---|---|
| **Keep as-is** | `Assets/Dialogue/**`, `Assets/Skills/**`, `Assets/Candidates/**`, `Scripts/Skills/**`, `Scripts/UI/**`, `Scripts/Camera/**`, `Scripts/Player/**`, `Scripts/Interaction/**`, `Scripts/Dialogue/**`, `Assets/Tests/EditMode/**`, `Assets/Prefabs/UI/**`, `tools/YarnCheck`, `Assets/Settings/**` |
| **Rename / relocate** | `DialogueTest.unity` → `Levels/SC101_ConferenceHall.unity` (+ split); `skill_bible.json` prose → `writing/voices/*.md`; `SC101.yarn` header rules → `writing/scenes/`; `DialougueSkillComparison.cs` spelling; `.yarn` filenames with spaces |
| **Replace** | `NPCStandIn.cs` → real NPC component + prefabs; `YarnDemoSetup.cs` → retargeted or retired; single-scene model → Bootstrap/Systems/Level |
| **Delete** | `SampleScene.unity`, `Readme.asset`, `TutorialInfo/`, committed `bin/` `obj/` `.DS_Store` |
| **Add** | `.gitattributes`, `writing/**`, `Scripts/Core/**`, `Tests/PlayMode/**`, `Editor/BuildPipeline.cs`, per-area asmdefs, `Assets/Audio/` |

---

## 5. Checkpointing — what was done

Roughly **3,100 lines of C#** across untracked directories, 291 changed lines in tracked
scripts, 5 UI prefabs and the scene were uncommitted. All of it is now in git.

**Order used**, which differs from the original draft on one point: the safe text work was
committed *before* any Unity run, so that a headless Editor invocation could not endanger it.
That turned out to matter — four Unity runs followed, one ending in a `SIGILL` on teardown.

1. Verified the Editor was closed and no lockfile was held.
2. Took a full backup: a `.tar.gz` of the tree excluding `Library/`, `Temp/`, `Logs/` and build
   output, plus a separate copy of the scene file.
3. Committed in five slices, in dependency order:

| Commit | Contents |
|---|---|
| `add camera rig, click-to-move locomotion, and click interaction` | `Scripts/{Camera,Player,Interaction}`, locomotion math tests, Cinemachine package, `Interactable`/`Ground` tags, NavMesh agent dimensions |
| `add UI layer: dialogue stream, HUD, player menu, and skills panel` | `Scripts/UI`, Skills UI views + asmdef reference, `Prefabs/UI`, placeholder art, `UILayerSetup` |
| `wire player control setup and tune the third-person controller` | `PlayerControlSetup.cs`, StarterAssets input/armature/controller |
| `suppress world interaction while a menu panel is open` | `Scripts/Dialogue`, `Scripts/NPCs`, yarnproject graph positions |
| `check in the DialogueTest scene and add it to the build settings` | the scene (binary, deliberately) + `EditorBuildSettings` |

4. Attempted the binary→text conversion four ways; all failed (§0.1). Committed the scene as
   binary rather than leave it untracked — a valid, intact, opening scene in an awkward format
   beats days of wiring living only on disk.
5. Tagged `pre-restructure`.

Slices rather than one lump, because the restructure will want to revert *part* of this later.

6. Fixed two wrong expectations in the locomotion math tests (both test bugs, not
   production bugs); EditMode is **39/39**. Moved the tag onto that green tree and pushed.

**Still to do:** the Editor-UI serialization fix (§0.1). That is the only open Phase 0 item.

### 5.1 Residual risks after checkpointing

| Risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Scene re-save produces a text file that differs semantically from the binary one | Play SC-101 end to end before committing; compare against the pre-migration run |
| Renaming assets outside Unity orphans `.meta` GUIDs | Rename inside the Editor, always |
| Scene merge conflicts once branching starts | `.gitattributes` merge driver in Phase 1.1, before any branch |
| Deleting `UILayerSetup.cs` too early loses wiring knowledge | Phase 5.4 is last, and only after prefabs are authored and committed |
| Binary scene state recurs | Verify `EditorSettings` shows Force Text; add a CI check that `*.unity` files start with `%YAML` |

---

## 6. Sequencing recommendation

**Phase 0 today.** It is under an hour and it is the difference between a recoverable project
and a lost week.

**Then Phase 2, before Phase 3.** The writing pipeline touches no Unity asset, cannot break the
game, and is what actually unblocks the stated goal of writing with Cowork. Phase 3 is the risky
work and it does not need to come first. `writing/STYLE.md` (2.2) is the single highest-value
item in this document — it is the artifact whose absence is currently forcing you to re-explain
the world every session.

**Phase 1 alongside Phase 2**, since `.gitattributes` must land before any branching.

**Phase 3–5 after**, in order, small commits, playtest between each.

---

## 7. Open questions

1. ~~Does a writing handbook exist outside the repo?~~ **Answered — yes** (Phase 2 notes). It is in the
   Obsidian vault and is now pointed at rather than duplicated. The open part is whether any of
   it should eventually move into the repo wholesale; the current answer is no, because the vault
   is reachable from writing sessions and duplication would drift.
2. ~~How did the scene become binary?~~ **Answered** (§0.1): Force Text only converts when the
   setting changes, so anything that entered binary stays binary. The open part is *how* it
   first entered binary — most likely created or imported during a Force Binary window. Adding a
   CI check that every `*.unity` starts with `%YAML` would catch a recurrence cheaply.
3. **Is `SC101_ConferenceHall` the right level granularity,** or should the conference hall split
   further (entrance / hall / bar / back office) given the `$visited_*` flag families already
   declared in `Common.yarn`? Those flags imply at least seven distinct locations.
4. **Target platform(s)?** `EditorBuildSettings` and the URP settings carry both PC and Mobile
   render pipeline assets. It affects whether Phase 4.3's build script targets one platform or several.
5. **Should `writing/` be a separate repository** so Cowork sessions never see Unity? Recommendation:
   **no** — the coupling to `.yarn` files and `candidates.json` is tight enough that split repos
   would drift. A single repo with a clear directory boundary is the better trade.