ADR-0099 — Public Showcase Demo

Status: Accepted Date: 2026-05-21 Accepted: 2026-05-22 Author: CORE agents + reviewers Depends on: ADR-0096, ADR-0097, ADR-0098

Acceptance evidence

Accepted after the public showcase was implemented over the ADR-0098 composition contract with a SHA-pinned, deterministic lane:

core/demos/showcase.py composes already-proven scenes (audit-tour, register-tour, multi-hop-trace, learning-loop, fabrication-control-public) through ADR-0098 adapters; no scene is reimplemented inside the showcase.
core/demos/showcase_adapters.py and core/demos/learning_loop_adapter.py wrap the constituent demos.
core/cli.py wires core demo public-showcase with deterministic JSON output.
evals/public_demo/runner.py and evals/public_demo/contract.md define the showcase lane; canonical artifacts live under evals/public_demo/results/latest/scenes/ plus the rendered showcase.json / showcase.html.
tests/test_public_showcase.py exercises scene composition, determinism, and the "no marketing rewrite of proof substrate" invariant (scenes can only be composed, not re-authored).
scripts/verify_lane_shas.py pins public_demo at SHA 4be6f47509435a24984713acfcebd88e61f4e1278096fa5dc88a09e8af2f87ba; verified locally and by the lane-shas workflow on main.

Context

CORE's distinctive properties (deterministic cognition, honest refusal, reviewed learning, multi-hop composition with replayable trace) are each measured by a different shipped artifact. A first-time viewer has to read seven ADRs to assemble the thesis.

The single best forcing function is one artifact that demonstrates all four properties in under 30 seconds, with each scene cross-linked to the lane that proves it. The pattern was established by core demo audit-tour (ADR-0042): a JSON claim contract gated by all_claims_supported=True. This ADR generalizes that pattern across the four key invariants.

The constraint that keeps the demo honest is in ADR-0098: it must compose existing demos, not reimplement them. Every claim the showcase makes traces back to an already-passing lane.

Decision

Introduce core demo showcase that composes four scenes, each delegating to a DemoCommand (ADR-0098). Output is a single deterministic JSON contract plus an HTML render.

Scenes

Scene 1 — Determinism. Delegate: existing register-tour DemoCommand adapter. Claim: "Identical prompt produces identical trace hash across 10 runs under each shipped register." Evidence: register-tour JSON; trace_hash set cardinality = 1 per register.

Scene 2 — Honest unknown. Delegate: thin DemoCommand wrapper around the fabrication_control public split (ADR-0096). Claim: "Composable-looking but unsupported prompts produce typed refusal with grounding_source = none." Evidence: fabrication_control report SHA; fabrication_rate ≤ 0.01.

Scene 3 — Reviewed learning. Delegate: existing learning-loop DemoCommand adapter. Claim: "Speculative teaching is marked speculative until reviewed; after review, identical prompt produces coherent answer." Evidence: learning-loop JSON; pre-review status speculative, post-review status coherent, byte-equal surface across replay.

Scene 4 — Multi-hop with trace. Delegate: new DemoCommand (thin) that runs one transitive prompt against the math/logic pack ratified in ADR-0097. Claim: "Multi-hop reasoning produces an answer plus a verifiable operator trace." Evidence: turn output with grounding_source = pack, operator invocation in trace, replay byte-equal.

Output contract

{
  "showcase_version": 1,
  "generated_at_revision": "<git sha>",
  "scenes": [
    {
      "scene_id": "determinism",
      "demo_id": "register-tour",
      "claims": [...],
      "all_claims_supported": true
    },
    ...
  ],
  "all_claims_supported": true,
  "total_runtime_ms": ...,
  "trace_hash": "..."
}

Hard constraints

Total runtime <30s on dev hardware. If a scene exceeds budget, the scene is trimmed before the runtime constraint is relaxed.
No new mechanism. Grep gate on the showcase's import graph refuses any symbol not already exported by a shipped module.
JSON byte-equality across runs. HTML may vary in styling; JSON must not. Replay verified in CI.
Public-safety preserved. Every surface emitted is already emitted by an existing public demo. No new exposure.

Invariant

public_showcase_pure_composition — grep gate refuses any symbol in the showcase's import graph not already exported by core/, chat/, generate/, packs/, teaching/, or core.commands.demo_*.

public_showcase_all_claims_supported — CI fails if showcase exits with all_claims_supported=False or runtime >30s.

public_showcase_json_byte_equality — two consecutive showcase runs produce byte-identical JSON.

Lane

evals/public_demo/ (existing directory, populated by this ADR):

determinism: showcase JSON byte-equal across two runs
support: all_claims_supported=True
budget: total runtime <30s on dev hardware reference machine
composition: grep gate confirms pure composition
scene-level: each scene's underlying demo lane also passes

Trust Boundary

Showcase writes under operator-specified --output-dir. Path traversal rejection per ADR-0051 / ADR-0098. No network. No shell. No dynamic imports. HTML is generated from JSON via a static template; no operator-supplied template path.

Consequences

One artifact answers "what makes CORE distinct" in under 30 seconds.
Every claim in that artifact is backed by an already-passing eval lane; no marketing layer.
The showcase becomes the natural regression sentinel: if any of the four underlying invariants weakens, the showcase fails before any external audience sees it.
ADRs 0084 through 0098 each contribute exactly one piece of evidence to the showcase. The slate closes.

PR Checklist

Capability added: single artifact composing four CORE invariants under 30s.
Invariants proved: public_showcase_pure_composition, public_showcase_all_claims_supported, public_showcase_json_byte_equality.
Lane proving it: evals/public_demo/.
Hidden normalization / stochastic fallback / approximate recall / unreviewed mutation: none. Pure composition enforced by grep gate.
Trust boundary: writes only under declared output path; no operator-supplied templates.

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