Master Project Phases

Zero code changes. Transcribe the memo, verify claims, publish this page, and write PROVENANCE.md so anyone joining the grove knows what Spruce Grove OS is and where every byte came from. You are literally standing on this rung.

The "bootloader" the memo asks for. Field-recon found the heavy lifting already in-tree: the import-time splash already shimmers in grove truecolor (halo #2D4F3A → glow #588F5E → cedar #D2A069), and the width-aware banner already reads SPRUCE GROVE / GROVE. Sept 10 polish closed the last puppy-shaped gaps: banner gradient blue→green replaced with the grove halo→glow→cedar ramp, tagline now reads "Backed by the Leather Apron Club (Junto) · running on the Pydantic AI harness", the upstream Logfire ad slot became the grove closer with the fork's repo link, and the lingering dog glyph in cli.loading is retired. 101/101 banner-adjacent tests pass.

Verified by inspection: pyproject.toml already declares name = "spruce-grove" with console scripts spruce-grove/grove at spruce_grove.main:main_entry, pinned to pydantic-ai-harness==0.23.0. Local boots work today (uv run spruce-grove). Registry decision recorded Sept 10 (bead 5al.2): stay source-only for now — first-publish namespace claims are irreversible, upstream sync still churns, and no public audience demands an index yet. Re-trigger: first external install request, or the L5 desktop needing a release pipeline. All three PyPI spellings probe as unclaimed (HTTP 404 — re-probed eleven times Sept 10, most recently 17:35Z, still open); sitting on the name is a 10-minute owner errand before the fork gets loud. No publish, no tokens used.

The fork's own rules already say it: new functionality belongs in code_puppy_core_plugins/.spruce_grove/plugins/ callbacks, not in the core. Cohort tools (booking-site scaffolds, small-business tax/law checklists, portfolio pages) ship as trusted plugins with the SHA-256 trust gate doing bouncer duty. Highest leverage per unit of risk on the whole ladder. First brick shipped Sept 10: ~/.spruce_grove/plugins/junto — a /junto (alias /grove) command rendering the club credo in grove colors, wired through custom_command + custom_command_help, dispatch-verified end-to-end through the real on_custom_command seam. Zero core edits, exactly as the golden rule demands. Second brick, same day: the Bentonville Barber scaffold (barber_scaffold project plugin + shared grove_site_core library) — the cohort architecture proven: one shared core, many profile data sets (beads 5al.3, 5al.5).

The ladder's original calibration was wrong: this rung is already climbed. The fork's package is spruce_grove — imports, layout, tests, docs. The 55% sync-tax mortgage is already being paid (see the "pure-brand resolutions" merge), and past Tyler decided it was worth it. What remains isn't escalation, just merge discipline: keep upstream syncs branded consistently and never let code_puppy imports leak back in. Loop closed Sept 10 (bead 5al.8, commit 54cdf13): the last four grandfathered legacy imports were rerouted to the grove namespace and the guard ratchet's GRANDFATHERED list is empty — the merge guard is now zero-tolerance, and --all prints green.

The memo's second milestone: wrap the harness into a desktop app. Mockingbird is the in-house reference implementation — Tauri 2 + React shell, SQLite, local models, zero telemetry. Best shape: separate repo that consumes the CLI as a library, so this rung adds surface area without growing the fork's diff. Multi-month effort; needs L1–L3 stable.

Long-range: an actual boots-to-the-harness Linux spin. It's the name made literal and a great campfire story, but every preceding rung must be a living product first. Parked — revisit only when L5 has real users asking for it.