agents: P5's gate is MET, and four findings from the same walk

"Menu walk and navigation is fine. Video skips too. Extras open. New Game
   shows new game intro video."  -- 2026-09-02

P5 is done. Its gate was "a human clicks through it", the retro said it had been
waiting on that and not on code for the whole milestone, and it has happened.
PORT-MISSION.md updated. The NEW GAME gap is accepted as-is.

Four findings, three of them the Decoder's:

F1 THE MENU REPEATS ON A HELD DIRECTION AND OURS DOES NOT. One step per
   deflection was authored as the conservative choice because nobody knew; a
   human has now watched the real game and it repeats, "at a medium pace... slow
   enough to see which item is selected". That settles the existence half of H1
   against us. The RATE is still unmeasured and must not be guessed -- the
   description bounds it and supplies no number. Decoder measures initial delay
   and repeat interval as frame counts; the port implements the mechanism and
   waits for the numbers.

F2 THE SFX ARE TOO LOUD BECAUSE THERE IS NO MIX AT ALL. Measured: confirm
   -17.7 dB mean / -0.0 dB peak, 3 dB hotter in mean than the music and 6.4 dB
   above move. No volume or gain value exists anywhere in export/ or authored/,
   so every clip plays at unity on one bus. Decoder: is per-cue or per-bus gain
   on the disc -- the cue table is the obvious place and cue 1103 is already
   decoded. Port: gains at PLAYBACK as data, and explicitly NOT normalisation in
   the exporter, which destroys the relationship between clips and cannot be
   undone by a modder.

F3 SOMETHING IS MISSING ON THE TITLE SCREEN. The export carries one music file
   and the port plays nothing on the title. Which cue does the title play, and
   is there a sting on the plate or on accept? A negative needs a positive
   control: find the menu's cue by the same method first.

F4 (A) SKIPS FORWARD THROUGH THE BOOT AND WE IMPLEMENT TWO OF THREE PRESSES.
   In the game: skip video, reveal plate immediately, accept plate. The middle
   one is missing here. Whether the game snaps both clocks forward or only
   reveals the plate is a question, not a detail -- and it is a cheap second
   route to the plate-arrival question, since a press that skips to the plate
   says where the game thinks the plate belongs.

H3, the plate delay, is ACCEPTED -- "feels the same... sufficient". Left
unattributed rather than closed green.

docs/agents/PLAYTEST-2026-09-02-menus.md

@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+# Play-test, 2026-09-02 (second) — **P5 IS MET**, and four findings
+
+## ✅ P5's gate is MET — the human clicked through it
+
+> *"Menu walk and navigation is fine. Video skips too. Extras open. New Game
+> shows new game intro video."*
+
+**P5 is done.** Its gate was *"a human clicks through it"*, the retro said it had
+been waiting on that and not on code for the whole milestone, and it has now
+happened. `PORT-MISSION.md` is updated.
+
+The human also confirmed the NEW GAME gap is understood and acceptable:
+*"Deliberate AFAIK, in actual game the difficulty select comes first."* The port
+announces the two screens it skips; that stays as it is.
+
+---
+
+## F1 — 🔴 The menu DOES repeat on a held direction. Ours does not.
+
+> *"Moving stick up/down and holding only moves one item. In game it actually
+> continues to move when holding up/down, just at a medium pace so player does
+> not need to move pad middle↔up/down, but also slow enough to see which item is
+> selected and move to target."*
+
+**This settles the existence half of H1, and it settles it against us.** One step
+per deflection was authored as the conservative choice precisely because nobody
+knew. Now somebody has watched the real game: **it repeats.**
+
+⚠️ **The RATE is still not measured, and it must not be guessed.** The human's
+description bounds it usefully and does not supply a number: fast enough that a
+player need not return the stick to centre, slow enough to read the selection as
+it passes. That is a range, not a value.
+
+* **Decoder — measure it.** Hold a direction in Canary and count. Two numbers:
+  the **initial delay** before the first repeat, and the **repeat interval**
+  after it. Frames between cursor moves, at a stated present rate — a count, not
+  a stopwatch reading ([`TEMPORAL-VERIFICATION.md`](TEMPORAL-VERIFICATION.md)).
+  Also: does the d-pad differ from the stick? Does the rate accelerate while
+  held, or stay flat?
+* **Port — implement the mechanism, take the number from the Decoder.** Do not
+  ship a placeholder rate: an invented interval here is indistinguishable from a
+  measured one a month from now, and this is the exact field where that has
+  already cost us once.
+
+## F2 — 🔴 The sound effects are too loud. There is no mix at all.
+
+> *"Largely OK. Biggest notice is the volume, many effects are too loud."*
+
+**Measured, and the human is right.** Every clip plays at unity gain, because
+**no volume or gain value exists anywhere** — not in `export/`, not in
+`authored/`, not in the manifest:
+
+| | mean | max |
+|---|---|---|
+| **`se/confirm`** | **−17.7 dB** | **−0.0 dB** — at full scale |
+| `se/move` | −24.1 | −1.4 |
+| `se/back` | −21.0 | −5.7 |
+| `bgm/main_menu` | −20.7 | −4.2 |
+
+`confirm` is the loudest thing in the export: **3 dB hotter in mean than the
+music** and 6.4 dB above `move`. A game mixes SE against BGM on separate buses;
+this port has one bus and no gains.
+
+* **Decoder — is the mix ON THE DISC?** The obvious place is the cue table: a
+  cue record commonly carries volume alongside the wave index, and
+  `sub_821C5580` is already known to play cue 1103. If per-cue or per-bus gain is
+  there, it is **decoded** and nobody has to choose. If it is provably not, say
+  so with reach and it becomes an authored mix.
+* **Port — do not normalise in the exporter to fix this.** Re-levelling the file
+  destroys the relationship between clips and cannot be undone by a modder.
+  Gains belong at playback, as data, where a measured value can replace a chosen
+  one without re-exporting.
+
+## F3 — ❔ Something is missing on the title screen
+
+> *"I also think that there is a sound track or effect missing at the title
+> screen."*
+
+The export carries exactly one music track, `bgm/main_menu.ogg`, and the port
+plays nothing on the title. Whether the game does is unestablished.
+
+* **Decoder:** which cue, if any, does the **title** play? The menu's is decoded
+  (cue 1103 = `BGM_103` via `sub_821C5580`); the same route should answer the
+  title. And is there a one-shot **sting** when the plate appears, or when Ⓐ is
+  accepted? Either would read as "something missing" to a player.
+* ⚠️ A negative here needs a positive control (R4): show the method finding the
+  menu's cue before concluding the title has none.
+
+## F4 — 🔴 Ⓐ SKIPS FORWARD through the boot. We only implement one of the three.
+
+> *"In the game one can get the plate to immediately show by pressing Ⓐ,
+> essentially skip to it. So after the logos one can immediately skip to the main
+> menu by pressing Ⓐ three times: 1. skip intro video, 2. show plate, 3. the
+> plate itself."*
+
+A measured behaviour of the real game, and a good one — it is how a returning
+player gets past the boot.
+
+| press | in the game | in the port |
+|---|---|---|
+| Ⓐ #1 | skips the intro video | ✅ implemented |
+| **Ⓐ #2** | **completes the title build-in and shows the plate immediately** | ❌ **missing** |
+| Ⓐ #3 | activates the plate → main menu | ✅ implemented |
+
+* **Port:** Ⓐ during the title build-in should jump the sequence to the plate's
+  arrival rather than being swallowed. ⚠️ **Careful what "jump" means** — the
+  plate has a declared arrival at `t=238` and the title a build-in ending at
+  `t≈118`. Whether the game *snaps* both clocks forward, or only reveals the
+  plate and leaves the title where it is, is a question, not a detail. Ask if
+  the capture does not say.
+* **Decoder:** what does Ⓐ do to the clocks? This is also a **second, cheap route
+  to the plate-arrival question** — a press that skips to the plate tells you
+  where the game thinks the plate belongs.
+* 📌 And it bears on `REFUTED.md`: *"any title after the first one refuses
+  input"* is already narrowed to the attract-returned title. This is a third
+  input the boot title accepts.
+
+---
+
+## H3 — the plate delay is ACCEPTED
+
+> *"Delay feels the same. Cannot verify it is exact same, but is sufficient."*
+
+Good enough to stop working on, **not** established as correct. Leave the row as
+unattributed rather than closing it green; if the duration question is ever
+settled by the pipeline work, check it against this rather than re-opening it
+from scratch.

docs/agents/decoder-loop.md

@@ -37,9 +37,39 @@ The three load-bearing questions stand, and the first is now the most valuable:
 3. **What Canary does to it** before a capture records it — present cadence,
    resolve, scale, gamma.
 
-Also open and yours: **H1** — does a held direction repeat in the menus, and at
+### 🔴 Four asks from the 2026-09-02 menu play-test — [`PLAYTEST-2026-09-02-menus.md`](PLAYTEST-2026-09-02-menus.md)
-what rate? The 61 % arm threshold you decoded is adopted; one step per deflection
+
-is still authored.
+P5's gate is **met** (a human walked the menus). These came out of the same
+session, and three of the four are yours. They are ahead of the pipeline work
+because the port is blocked on two of them.
+
+1. **F1 — MEASURE THE MENU REPEAT RATE.** The human watched the real game: a held
+   direction **repeats**, *"at a medium pace… slow enough to see which item is
+   selected"*. That settles the existence half of H1 against our authored
+   one-step-per-deflection. Two numbers, and the port will not move without
+   them: the **initial delay** before the first repeat, and the **repeat
+   interval** after it. Frames between cursor moves at a stated present rate — a
+   count, not a stopwatch. Also: does the d-pad differ from the stick? Does it
+   accelerate while held, or stay flat?
+2. **F2 — IS THE AUDIO MIX ON THE DISC?** The SFX are too loud and there is **no
+   gain value anywhere** in the export; `confirm` peaks at −0.0 dBFS and sits
+   3 dB above the music in mean. A cue record commonly carries a volume beside
+   its wave index, and you already decoded `sub_821C5580` playing cue 1103. If
+   per-cue or per-bus gain is there it is **decoded** and nobody has to choose.
+   If it provably is not, say so with reach.
+3. **F3 — WHAT DOES THE TITLE PLAY?** A human says something is missing there.
+   Which cue, if any, does the title screen play, and is there a **sting** when
+   the plate appears or when Ⓐ is accepted? ⚠️ A negative needs a positive
+   control (R4): show the method finding the *menu's* cue before concluding the
+   title has none.
+4. **F4 — WHAT DOES Ⓐ DO TO THE CLOCKS?** In the real game, Ⓐ during the title
+   build-in **reveals the plate immediately** — so the boot takes three presses:
+   skip video, reveal plate, accept plate. Does the game snap both clocks
+   forward, or only reveal the plate? 📌 This is also a **cheap second route to
+   the plate-arrival question**: a press that skips to the plate tells you where
+   the game thinks the plate belongs. And it is a third input the boot title
+   accepts, which narrows `REFUTED.md`'s *"any title after the first refuses
+   input"* further.
 
 ⚠️ Deliver a **series, not a settled value** — see
 [`TEMPORAL-VERIFICATION.md`](TEMPORAL-VERIFICATION.md), and note that the port's

docs/agents/port-loop.md

@@ -17,17 +17,25 @@ drawn rather than frames different. Ask of any new check: **what would this stil
 report if the feature were entirely absent?** `tools/motion-census` exists for
 exactly that question; keep it in `check-all`.
 
-⚠️ **P5's gate is "a human clicks through it" and is NOT claimed.** They signed
+## ✅ P5's GATE IS MET — the human walked it, 2026-09-02
-off the logos, and separately confirmed Ⓐ, the stick and the submenus work.
-Nobody has said the milestone is met — **do not record it as met on their
-behalf.** If you believe it is ready, say so and ask.
 
-Still open, none of it blocking: **H1** (does a held direction repeat, and how
+> *"Menu walk and navigation is fine. Video skips too. Extras open. New Game
-fast — one step per deflection stays authored) and **H3** (the plate; every named
+> shows new game intro video."*
-cause is dead and the observation is unattributed — ⚠️ worth re-asking, since the
+
-animation fix changed what the whole boot looks like and the original observation
+`PORT-MISSION.md` is updated. The NEW GAME gap is accepted as-is — they know the
-may no longer reproduce). Both are in
+difficulty select comes first in the real game and that the port announces it.
-[`../agents/PLAYTEST-2026-09-02.md`](../agents/PLAYTEST-2026-09-02.md).
+
+### 🔴 Four findings from the same session — read [`../agents/PLAYTEST-2026-09-02-menus.md`](../agents/PLAYTEST-2026-09-02-menus.md)
+
+| | | yours to do |
+|---|---|---|
+| **F1** | **The menu REPEATS on a held direction. Ours does not.** One step per deflection was authored as the safe choice; the human has now watched the real game and it repeats. | **Implement the mechanism. Take the RATE from the Decoder — do NOT ship a placeholder interval.** An invented rate here is indistinguishable from a measured one later, and this is the exact field where that already cost us. |
+| **F2** | **SFX too loud, and there is no mix at all.** Measured: `confirm` −17.7 dB mean / **−0.0 dB peak**, 3 dB hotter than the music; no gain value exists anywhere in `export/` or `authored/`. | Add gains **at playback, as data** — a bus per kind. ⚠️ **Do NOT normalise in the exporter**: re-levelling destroys the relationship between clips and a modder cannot undo it. The Decoder is checking whether the mix is on the disc. |
+| **F3** | **Something is missing on the title screen** — a track or a sting. The export has one music file and the port plays nothing on the title. | Wait for the Decoder; nothing to author yet. |
+| **F4** | **Ⓐ skips FORWARD through the boot, and we implement two of three presses.** Ⓐ#1 skips the video ✅, **Ⓐ#2 reveals the plate immediately ❌ missing**, Ⓐ#3 activates it ✅. | Make Ⓐ during the title build-in jump to the plate. ⚠️ Whether the game snaps **both** clocks forward or only reveals the plate is a question — ask rather than choose. |
+
+**H3, the plate delay, is ACCEPTED** — *"feels the same… sufficient"*. Stop
+working on it. Leave the row unattributed rather than closing it green.
 
 ## Previous sole focus, 2026-09-02 — RESOLVED, kept for the method
 

docs/port/PORT-MISSION.md

@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ A milestone is done when its **artifact** exists, not when the code compiles.
 | **P2** | Keyframe animation | Buttons slide in. **Blocked on HANDOFF Q1** (the time unit). Do not invent it |
 | **P3** | Splash → title, with the transition | Both screens back to back, unattended |
 | **P4** | Intro video | `ADV.wmv` plays with audio (§6) |
-| **P5** | Main menu: navigation, focus states, Ⓐ into a submenu, B back | A human clicks through it |
+| **P5** | Main menu: navigation, focus states, Ⓐ into a submenu, B back | ~~A human clicks through it~~ — ✅ **GATE MET 2026-09-02.** A human walked it: *"Menu walk and navigation is fine. Video skips too. Extras open."* [`../agents/PLAYTEST-2026-09-02-menus.md`](../agents/PLAYTEST-2026-09-02-menus.md) |
 | **P6** | Audio — menu BGM and move/confirm SFX | Sound on the P5 gate. **Looping is blocked on HANDOFF Q10** |
 | **P7** | New-game intro video after NEW GAME | Plays, then returns to a defined state |