# Workshop — System economic-specialization field (lore-authored dominant commodity)

*Short, focused workshop. Goal: design ONE authored per-system field (maybe two,
or a small identity set) that drives each settlement's dominant commodity — so the
built world stays in step with GTTR/wiki lore instead of being guessed by a
heuristic.*

**Participants:** Miri, Burnelli-Sheldon, Paula

## Why we're here (the problem)

Layer 2 (#982) needs each settlement's **dominant commodity**, which drives its
built form (D-233: `BulkClass` × `ProductionUbiquity` → coverage, vocabulary,
spread). We tried deriving it from `economic_role` + corp-HQ + `planet_class`.
That heuristic **can contradict authored lore**: it could turn the core's
breadbasket into a foundry, or make the MVG homeworld about cereal products.

**Decision already taken (the frame — don't relitigate):** authored lore WINS.
The dominant commodity for a system is **authored**, lore/GTTR-consistent. The
role+corp+planet_class heuristic survives only as a *fallback / weighting basis*
for unnamed, generic worlds. This workshop designs the authored layer.

## The shape the human wants (design within this)

- **ONE authored field per system** = the system's economic specialization /
  dominant-commodity character. Lore-driven, GTTR-consistent.
- **Maybe a SECOND field — `economy_size`** — a modifier. Decide if it earns its
  place and what it modifies.
- **Within a system, bodies vary *weightedly*** around the system field — an
  industrial system can still have a farming moon, but the system reads as its
  authored character. The variation is weighted, not free.
- A **300-system content pass** fills this field (Miri + Paula + Burnelli),
  staying in step with the wiki/GTTR. Keep the authoring burden to ~1 field
  (2 max, or a tight identity set per Q5) per system.

## Frozen-amber caveat (pin this)

The field is **static, authored, t=0** — read at build time into `systems.db`,
never the rolling economy. Derivation must stay deterministic (D-010). No
`PressureState`, no tâtonnement, no save-state.

## Questions for participants

Each participant answers all five from their lens (Miri = lore/GTTR truth;
Burnelli-Sheldon = economic credibility + mapping + weighting + integration;
Paula = faction/political economy). Be concrete — name the field, propose its
vocabulary, name worlds that must be pinned.

**Miri / Burnelli-Sheldon / Paula:**

1. **Q1 — The field.** What *exactly* is the single per-system field? Its
   vocabulary (a commodity id? a specialization category? primary ± secondary?),
   and how it maps to `dominant_bulk_class` + `dominant_production_ubiquity`
   (D-233). Does it reuse/replace the existing `system_economy.economic_base_primary
   /secondary` (already authored, free-text) or supersede it? One value or a small
   set?
2. **Q2 — Within-system weighted variation.** How do bodies vary around the
   system field? What weights apply (body `economic_role`, `planet_class`, corp
   HQ, faction)? How is a minority body (the farming moon in a foundry system)
   expressed without breaking the system's authored read? Must be deterministic
   (seed + static data only).
3. **Q3 — `economy_size`?** Is a second field warranted? If so, what does it
   modify — coverage density (D-220), count of specialized blocks, labor draw
   (D-233 residential follow-on) — or is it already covered by `population` /
   `prosperity_baseline`? Decide in or out; don't add a field that duplicates one.
4. **Q4 — The content pass.** The authoring workflow for ~300 systems: who
   authors what (Miri = lore/GTTR truth; Paula = faction/political economy, esp.
   faction homeworlds & capitals; Burnelli = economic credibility + the
   field→commodity mapping + the weighting model); how to stay GTTR-consistent;
   where the source lives (wiki TOML → `import_economics.py` → `systems.db`
   column); CI guardrails (every system has the field; values in-vocabulary;
   flag systems where the field contradicts existing authored prose).
5. **Q5 — Do we want a couple MORE identity fields while the pass is open?**
   We're touching all ~300 systems by hand once. What other 1–2 authored
   per-system fields would meaningfully flesh out **identity** and are cheap to
   fill in the same pass — most obviously the **architecture / cultural
   character** (the D-232 trait-template / `atlas_body_trait_bias` "hero" pin,
   so a system reads architecturally as canon, not heuristic), and possibly a
   dominant cultural/political register. Propose the *minimal* high-value set,
   with the same system-level + within-system-weighted-variation shape. **Guard
   against scope creep:** every field is authoring burden ×300 and a maintenance
   surface — only fields that genuinely change how a system reads earn a slot,
   and each must degrade to a heuristic/default for unauthored systems. Decide
   the field set; don't gold-plate.

## Build on what exists (don't restart)

- **#982 baseline (provisional, uncommitted):** the role+corp+planet_class
  heuristic in `import_economics.py` + `city_context_reader.rs` — becomes the
  fallback/weighting basis, not the primary driver.
- **D-233** (economic signal → block-fill; the 2026-05-31 amendment defines the
  current heuristic — this workshop will re-amend it).
- **D-184** (commodity catalogue), **D-199** (economic read-set), **D-200**
  (build-time tier-1 denormalization), **D-176/D-178** (rolling economy — OUT of
  scope here, runtime only), **D-220** (density), **D-197** (prosperity),
  **D-232** (architecture-flavor / trait templates — relevant to Q5).
- `system_economy.economic_base_primary/secondary`, `bodies.economic_role`,
  `bodies.planet_class`, `corp_presence.primary_operation` — the static signals
  that already exist (Burnelli's earlier data memo has the full inventory).

## Workshop Format

Quick, two rounds max, with a mandatory user checkpoint between.

- **Round 1 — Opening positions.** Each participant reads this brief + the
  decisions/data for their angle and writes their answer to Q1–Q5 to
  `docs/workshops/system-economic-specialization/{agent}-round1.md`. Concrete:
  name the field, its vocabulary, the weighting model, the Q5 field set, and the
  worlds that must be pinned. Qatux documents; the lead presents findings to the
  human before any Round 2.
- **Round 2 — Synthesis / convergence (only if the human approves).** Resolve
  forks surfaced in Round 1 into a single proposed field schema + content-pass
  plan. Output → a D-record (re-amending D-233 + any new record) and the ticket
  set (SI).

Qatux (documenter) and SI (ticket prep) join and are never dismissed early.
Sonnet-pinned participants.