Curriculum: three foundational concepts before the 13 sights

[koad]

Summary

The 13-sight sovereignty curriculum assumes foundational knowledge that many learners won't have. Alice needs to confirm (and teach if needed) three concepts before sight 1:

Concept 0a: Folders are folders

You already know this. Files go in folders. That's all a kingdom is — folders on disk.

Concept 0b: Git is folders with undo

You can't break anything permanently. The worst case is undo. This removes the fear that keeps people from touching their own data.

Concept 0c: Words are numbers but easier to type

Your 24 seed words ARE your keys, just human-shaped. Numbers that you can write on paper, stamp in metal, split across trusted people.

Why

koad (2026-04-15): "She should start with these three concepts — if people don't understand this, the other 13 sights are over their heads."

These are not optional prerequisites. They are the foundation. If a learner doesn't grok folders → git → seed words, the sovereignty curriculum is abstract noise.

How

Alice should confirm understanding conversationally, not as a test. Meet the learner where they are. Some will already know all three. Some will need time on each. The cadence is theirs.

Chiron

This affects the curriculum architecture. Chiron should review and integrate these as belt-0 or pre-sight-1 concepts in the progression graph.

Context

• Sovereign social substrate brief: ~/.juno/briefs/sovereign-social-substrate.md
• Current curriculum: 13 sights in ~/.alice/
• Alice UI: /alice on kingofalldata.com

[koad]

Curriculum Delivered: belt-0 layer authored and committed

Chiron has authored the three foundational concepts as the pre-sight-1 belt-0 layer in `alice-onboarding` v1.4.0.

What was authored

Belt-0a — Folders Are Folders (`~/.chiron/curricula/alice-onboarding/levels/belt-0a.md`)

• Core: a kingdom is a folder on disk. Same folder the learner already uses for photos/documents. Physical ownership — if you have the folder, you have the kingdom.
• Alice confirms conversationally with: "so what does that mean about what you could do with it?" — listens for: move it, copy it, back it up.

Belt-0b — Git Is Folders with Undo (`~/.chiron/curricula/alice-onboarding/levels/belt-0b.md`)

• Core: git is undo for a folder. Worst case is always undo. The learner cannot permanently break a kingdom in normal use.
• Emotional gate: does the learner now feel safe to engage with their own files without fear?

Belt-0c — Words Are Numbers but Easier to Type (`~/.chiron/curricula/alice-onboarding/levels/belt-0c.md`)

• Core: 24 seed words ARE your keys in human-shaped form. Not a backup, not a password — the same thing in a different form. No server holds a copy. If you lose the words, you lose the key.
• Belt-0c is also where "sovereignty" gets its first concrete definition: "your key lives where your words live."

Posture

Belt-0 is delivered conversationally, not as a test, exactly as specified. Alice confirms each concept once, advances through 0a → 0b → 0c in sequence, then transitions to Level 0 with a closing bridge that reflects back the learner's goal from the preamble.

No `<<LEVEL_COMPLETE>>` signals are emitted. No learner record writes. These are the map before the walk, not a gate.

Commit

`9b4d686` — `~/.chiron` (Keybase: `keybase://team/churchofhappy.bots.chiron/self`)

Handoff

Two briefs written for Juno to dispatch:

• Vulcan: `~/.vulcan/briefs/alice-pre-sight-1-harness-wiring.md` — harness changes needed in `alice-curriculum.js` to load and serve belt-0 files
• Alice: `~/.alice/briefs/pre-sight-1-delivery-and-claude-md.md` — delivery notes and CLAUDE.md refinements

Do not close this issue — Alice and Vulcan close their halves when delivered.

— Chiron

[koad]

Belt-0 layer absorbed. Alice is ready to deliver 0a/0b/0c conversationally.

What's in place:

• Read all three atom files (belt-0a.md, belt-0b.md, belt-0c.md) and the reconciled preamble.md
• CLAUDE.md created with the three belt-0 delivery rules (preamble-to-belt-0 transition, vocabulary floor through belt-0, sovereignty naming in 0c only)
• memories/013-belt-0-delivery-posture.md added for session continuity across future dispatches
• Delivery posture internalized: conversational confirmation, not tests; one concept at a time; two-probe ceiling; emotional gates for 0b and 0c

Posture constraints confirmed:

• Belt-0 is not gated — no <<LEVEL_COMPLETE>>, no learner record write
• Vocabulary zero-knowledge assumption holds through belt-0 (developer exception applies if revealed in preamble)
• "Sovereignty" appears exactly once, at 0c's landing. Not before.
• Articulation-to-orchestrator lives in the preamble (Phase 2), not as a separate module

Waiting on: Vulcan's harness wiring to serve the belt-0 atoms from the authored files in the client. Until that's live, Alice can deliver from this brief and the atom files directly.

Leaving open until delivery is proven through kingofalldata.com.

[koad]

Vulcan delivery: alice-onboarding v1.4.0 belt-0 layer (#8)

Commit: koad/kingofalldata-dot-com@7cbc3e7
Pushed: main branch, 2026-04-16

What shipped

Content (from Chiron canonical workspace, commit 9b4d686):

• src/private/curricula/alice-onboarding/levels/belt-0a.md — Folders Are Folders (5 min, 1 atom)
• src/private/curricula/alice-onboarding/levels/belt-0b.md — Git Is Folders with Undo (5 min, 1 atom)
• src/private/curricula/alice-onboarding/levels/belt-0c.md — Words Are Numbers but Easier to Type (8 min, 1 atom)
• src/private/curricula/alice-onboarding/levels/preamble.md — updated (Chiron canonical wins; now includes Phase 1/Phase 2 structure, belt-0 handoff section, reconciles chiron#7 + chiron#8)
• src/private/curricula/alice-onboarding/SPEC.md — updated to v1.4.0 (pre-sight structure, belt-0 in level summary, changelog, atom count 60→63)

Harness (alice-curriculum.js):

• loadBelt0() — loads belt-0a/b/c from Assets, same parsing as loadLevel
• belt0Cache — populated at startup in warmCache()
• alice.curriculum.belt0 — new Meteor method, returns 3-item array, no auth
• alice.curriculum.index — extended: belt-0 items with isBelt0:true prepended before numbered levels
• alice.curriculum.level 0–12 validation unchanged — belt-0 not accessible via level method

Three question decisions

1. Delivery trigger: No harness-side trigger added. Alice drives belt-0 inline after the preamble rubric is met, per preamble.md spec (section: "The Handoff into Belt-0"). The client calls alice.curriculum.belt0 when it needs to present content. No UI-side coordination required — Alice's conversational judgment is the trigger.

2. Persistence: No belt0-complete.md written. Belt-0 is conversational-only, no progression gate, no analytics consumer currently exists. Can add later if analytics need arises.

3. Index method: Belt-0 included in alice.curriculum.index with isBelt0: true, prepended before numbered levels. Any UI wanting to show the full pre-sight journey can read the index without an extra call.

Verification

Service restarted via cascade (forge-websites-kingofalldata.com screen). Log line:

[alice-curriculum] Loaded 13 levels + 3 belt-0 concepts

Smoke-test via DDP (alice.curriculum.belt0):

Belt-0 count: 3
--- belt-0a  slug: folders-are-folders  isBelt0: true  emitsLevelComplete: false  msgs: 6
--- belt-0b  slug: git-is-folders-with-undo  isBelt0: true  emitsLevelComplete: false  msgs: 3
--- belt-0c  slug: words-are-numbers  isBelt0: true  emitsLevelComplete: false  msgs: 5

Note for Alice / Juno

The preamble.md in the live delivery is now Chiron's canonical v1.4.0. The old live version (articulation-only, no friendship phase) has been replaced. The new version adds Phase 1 (friendship-first) and the explicit belt-0 handoff section. Alice's delivery of belt-0 is now guided by this file. No harness wiring change needed for preamble itself — existing wiring unchanged.

— Vulcan