core/docs/workbench/UI-UX-GUIDE.md

CORE Workbench UI/UX Guide

Date: 2026-06-13 Status: Wave M B3.5 guide

1. What Workbench Is And Is Not

CORE Workbench is a local operator/auditor surface for deterministic CORE evidence. It is a cognition observatory, replay debugger, proposal review station, eval console, calibration reader, and audit surface.

It is not a generic chatbot shell, not a dashboard over invented metrics, not a mutation console, and not a visualization proof. Every visible claim should trace to a backend read model, committed artifact, or existing allowlisted execution path.

2. How To Run It

Backend:

core workbench api

Frontend:

cd workbench-ui
pnpm dev

Default API health check:

curl http://127.0.0.1:8765/health

3. Evidence Model

The workbench has one evidence grammar. A selected item publishes an EvidenceSubject; the RightInspector and Evidence Chain Rail render only fields that subject actually carries.

Evidence subject kinds:

• turn
• proposal
• eval_result
• artifact
• run
• pack
• vault_entry
• audit_event
• calibration_class

Missing detail is rendered as "detail not loaded" or "not recorded", never as a successful proof.

4. Current Route Map

The route registry in workbench-ui/src/app/routes.ts is the source of truth. Current route count: 14.

Section	Route	Path	Shortcut	Purpose
Converse	Chat	/chat	⌘1	Execute a normal CORE turn and journal evidence.
Cognition	Trace	/trace	⌘2	Inspect turn surfaces, grounding, verdicts, and trace hashes.
Cognition	Contemplation	/contemplation	Palette	Inspect persisted contemplation process traces.
Determinism	Tour	/tour	Palette	Guided determinism tour: a curated narrative over the real demos with "what this proves / does not prove" honesty cards.
Determinism	Replay	/replay	⌘3	Re-execute journaled turns in a sealed fresh runtime and compare envelopes.
Determinism	Demos	/demos	Palette	Run registered determinism demos.
Evidence	Proposals	/proposals	⌘4	Review cognition and math proposal evidence.
Evidence	Runs	/runs	⌘6	Browse recorded run/session evidence.
Evidence	Vault	/vault	⌘8	Inspect persisted vault metadata when persistence exists.
Evidence	Audit	/audit	⌘9	Read deterministic audit events.
Discipline	Evals	/evals	⌘5	Run/read allowlisted eval lanes and wrong=0 ledgers.
Discipline	Calibration	/calibration	Palette	Inspect practice-class reliability and license verdicts.
Substrate	Packs	/packs	⌘7	Browse language/runtime pack metadata.
Settings	Settings	/settings	⌘0	Manage local UI preferences; engine config remains CLI-only.

Pinned route shortcuts cover Chat through Settings. All routes are searchable in the command palette.

5. What Each Route Proves

Route	Proves
Chat	The local runtime can produce a typed turn envelope and journal it.
Trace	The journal carries user, articulation, walk, grounding, verdict, and hash evidence.
Contemplation	Persisted contemplation process reports expose cold attempt, checkpoint enrichment, proposal boundary, and grounded-after scenes.
Replay	A selected journaled prompt can be replayed through the sealed replay comparator; equivalence is leaf-based.
Demos	Registered demo scenarios pass or fail with recorded scenario evidence and proof/entailment DAGs where the demo emits them.
Proposals	Proposal evidence, replay facts, and ratification commands are inspectable without applying mutation.
Runs	Recorded run/session references, checkpoint gaps, and identity-continuity verdicts are discoverable.
Vault	Persisted vault metadata is inspectable when persistence is configured.
Audit	Audit events are readable with payload digests and mutation-boundary flags.
Evals	Allowlisted eval lanes and wrong/correct/refused metrics are visible.
Calibration	Practice classes show engine-owned Wilson floor and PROPOSE/SERVE license verdicts.
Packs	Pack manifests, checksums, and determinism metadata are visible.
Settings	UI preferences are local-only; density mode is consumed by shell/design tokens; runtime status is read-only.

6. What Each Route Does Not Prove

Route	Does not prove
Chat	Does not prove replay equivalence until Replay verifies a journaled turn.
Trace	Does not prove correctness; it exposes recorded state.
Contemplation	Does not ratify findings or prove open-ended learning; it reads committed reports only.
Replay	Does not distinguish nondeterminism from unrecorded origin-state influence.
Demos	Does not generalize beyond registered scenarios.
Proposals	Does not ratify unless an admitted handler path is explicitly invoked.
Runs	Does not reconstruct missing checkpoints or synthesize identity continuity when manifest evidence is absent.
Vault	Does not expose live in-process memory.
Audit	Does not create a new event store.
Evals	Does not run unsafe or sealed holdout lanes from the UI.
Calibration	Does not mutate a license and does not claim serving wrong=0 from practice data.
Packs	Does not apply pack mutation.
Settings	Does not edit engine configuration.

7. Evidence Subjects And Address Grammar

Canonical addresses:

• turn -> /trace/<turnId>
• proposal -> /proposals/<proposalId>
• eval_result -> /evals/<laneId>
• artifact -> /replay/<artifactId>
• run -> /runs/<sessionId>
• pack -> /packs/<packId>
• vault_entry -> /vault?inspect=vault:<entryIndex>
• audit_event -> /audit?inspect=audit:<eventId>
• calibration_class -> /calibration?inspect=calibration:<className>

?inspect= means the RightInspector is open on that subject. Malformed inspect values are dropped rather than interpreted.

8. Command Palette And Keyboard Model

⌘K opens the command palette. Route commands derive from the route registry; Demos and Calibration are palette-visible even though they do not have digit shortcuts.

Keyboard help is live-registry driven. It shows only shortcuts currently bound by mounted components. It must not advertise unreachable commands.

9. Empty/Error/Loading Doctrine

Every route with remote evidence must provide:

• a specific loading label,
• an empty state that names what is absent and gives a next action,
• an error state with failure, mutation status, reproducer, and retry safety.

No route should use vague "thinking" text or imply mutation happened when it did not.

10. Proposal Vs Ratification Boundary

Proposal views are read-only unless a narrow admitted handler explicitly exists. Suggested CLI commands are copyable operator affordances, not UI execution. Pack mutation and general corpus mutation remain proposal-only until reviewed.

11. Calibration / Wrong=0 Discipline

Calibration reads committed practice artifacts and applies engine-owned core.reliability_gate functions. It shows how a class earns PROPOSE or SERVE license. Practice can contain wrong attempts; those wrong attempts are the learning signal.

The global wrong=0 frame reads serving metrics from committed serving reports. It mirrors counts honestly; if a report says wrong is non-zero, the UI must show non-zero wrong.

12. CORE-Logos / Packs Current And Next State

Today, Packs exposes manifest/checksum/determinism metadata. It is the current Substrate neighborhood for language/runtime pack inspection.

The planned CORE-Logos Studio is not built yet. It should enter as read-only readers and proposal-only draft artifacts before any ratification-enabled handler family is admitted.

13. Known Absences And Follow-Up Items

• Full Phase C cognitive pipeline visualizer is absent.
• Field substrate / versor_condition reader is absent.
• Identity continuity route is absent.
• Full B4 leeway annotations are not admitted; B4a nullable LeewayEvidence read models exist first.
• CORE-Logos Studio route is not built.
• Universal proposal artifact envelope is designed, not implemented as a UI substrate.