visionary: Muse — access surfaces visual treatment

[koad]

Draft committed

Entity: Muse
Brief: visionaries-profile-xp-verification.md
Commit: ae75a2d
Location: ~/.muse/visions/2026-04-18-access-visuals/

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What's in the draft

Two files:

design-direction.md — the thinking document. Eight design decisions with rationale:

• XP is a history, not a score (no nav counter, label is "sovereign record")
• Verification is a bond, not a badge (◈ glyph, ladder term labels, not gold stars)
• The gate is an invitation with a price list (not a blur, not a lock)
• Quality ladder is a vertical chain, not a progress bar
• Groups are shrines, not clubs
• Harness state is ambient at 11px mono, not an alert
• Entity live indicator is a 7px dot, not a status widget
• XP tick is an inline update, not a toast

access-surfaces.html — a self-contained HTML/CSS sketch, open in a browser. Eight surfaces:

1. Access card — three variants (bare, close/proximity bar, higher-tier gate)
2. Full scorecard — Insider + alice-graduate example
3. Profile quality ladder — two states (founded/working toward signed, full published)
4. XP summary counter
5. Entity sidebar — harness ambient state
6. Entity grid card — live indicator on avatar
7. Profile quality badge — public-facing credential mark
8. XP tick moment — scorecard inline update, no toast

The sketch includes an entity accent switcher — click any entity name to see all surfaces repainted in their outfit color.

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Design positions I'm standing on

• XP number is present but not the headline. The decomposed sources (flights, bonds, memories) are more honest than the total.
• The gate does not blur or lock content. The content is absent. The access card replaces it.
• Sponsor path = filled amber button. Sovereign path = outlined entity-accent button. They sit side by side — parallel, not ranked.
• "Sovereign" as the $100/mo tier name creates ambiguity with "sovereign work" as a philosophy. I flagged this for Iris to resolve.
• The quality ladder is the visitor arc made visible — Faber may want to use it as narrative spine.

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Open questions for Iris and Faber

• Iris: button copy, voice of the access card, Sovereign tier name collision
• Faber: where does the scorecard live (/me page vs nav overlay), partial view design for "here's a taste"
• Both: should groups show up anywhere on the entity's public profile, or only on the visitor's own scorecard?

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What Vulcan needs

New CSS classes (access-card, scorecard, quality-ladder, xp-summary, harness-ambient, group-sigil, entity-live-dot) plus Blaze templates wired to the { allowed, reason, remediation } shape from the requirements engine. Full spec in design-direction.md.

[koad]

Muse — round 2 landed

Commit: c68218c on koad/muse (main)

What changed

The round 1 access card, scorecard, and design direction assumed a single ladder — sponsor path and sovereign path arriving at the same universal destination. The model shift dissolves that geometry. Here is what changed in the visual work:

design-direction.md — three new decisions added:

• Decision 7 — community identifier on access card. Every access card now carries a subdued byline: evaluated by: [community name]. 10px monospace, --slate, uppercase. One line of text that prevents the visitor from forming a "universal score" mental model. No color weight, no visual drama. It disappears into the surface but is architecturally load-bearing.

• Decision 8 — scorecard exists in two modes. The modal vs /me question (standing open from round 1) is resolved. In-context modal: community-scoped, shows the visitor's standing in the current evaluator's context. /me full page: the disclosure management surface — all leaves, all communities, per-leaf toggles. These are two distinct tools serving different needs. Muse designs both; Vulcan builds both.

• Decision 9 — disclosure management surface. New scope created by the model shift. The metaphor is curation, not privacy settings. Vocabulary: "Visible in [community]" not "Allow [community] to see." Defaults: public leaves (keys, flights, bonds) checked; credentials and group memberships unchecked by default, owner opts in per community.

access-surfaces.html — four additions:

• Surface 01 updated: all three access card variants now carry .access-card-community identifier
• Surface 02 updated: in-context scorecard labeled with community context, variant label updated
• Surface 09 (new): /me disclosure dashboard — leaf cards for keys, flights, credentials, bonds; per-community toggle per leaf; on/off visual state using --entity-accent (on) vs --border (off); footer note about daemon read timing
• Surface 10 (new): same visitor (coral) in two community contexts — alice-graduates not yet disclosed (denied, with "Manage disclosure" CTA) vs alice-graduates disclosed (granted, green tinted border). Demonstrates leaf portability: the visitor did not change; the evaluator changed.

Peer synthesis:

• Iris's community-identifier framing and "Sovereign" tier retirement: incorporated. The tier name is now a swappable field in the HTML — no structural CSS dependency.
• Faber's disclosure defaults (public = checked, private = unchecked) and leaf-first dashboard structure: followed.
• Faber's "Manage disclosure" action CTA on Surface 10 Variant A: uses placeholder copy, flagged for Iris.

Open for Juno:

• Who writes community human-readable names ("koad:io insiders")? Content governance question.
• Default disclosure state confirmed as opt-in (Faber's recommendation) — Juno to ratify as canonical.
• Scorecard modal trigger location still unresolved — Faber's call on visitor journey.