fix(canary): point the launchers at a binary that exists and is instrumented

`/sylph-canary` was dead at both ends, measured rather than assumed:

  * `run-canary-safe.sh` runs the Wine build and defaults to
    `xenia_canary_i2d.exe`, which DOES NOT EXIST. The `xenia_canary.exe` that
    does (2026-06-19) has ZERO strings for `audit_61_branch_probe_pcs` and zero
    for `RE-INPUT`/`RE-DRAW` -- it predates all our instrumentation, and
    refreshing it needs the clang-cl + xwin toolchain on `cross-build-wine`.
  * both native launchers defaulted to
    `xenia-canary-native/build/bin/Linux/Release/xenia_canary`. That directory
    does not exist on this workspace -- the checkout is `xenia-canary/` -- and
    Release is not even a target in that build tree (`ninja -n` lists 0 steps),
    so its binary is frozen at 2026-08-28, before the probe.

Native launchers now default to
`xenia-canary/build/bin/Linux/Checked/xenia_canary`: the config this tree can
actually build, rebuilt today with the audit_61 probe (Canary PR #2), verified
by `strings` -- audit_61 8 hits, RE-INPUT/RE-DRAW 4. `Checked` is optimised WITH
assertions, which is what a behavioural reference should be: a bad state stops
loudly rather than being sampled.

The Wine launcher now ABORTS with the reason and points at the native one,
instead of failing somewhere downstream on a missing file.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

docker/decoder/bin/build-canary

@@ -10,22 +10,11 @@
 # AVAILABLE MEMORY as well as core count — a full-parallel build of this tree
 # has OOM-killed the host outright.
 #
-# `Checked` is the default, and should stay it: it is what the host builds and
-# what `run-canary` picks first, so the two agree by construction. Building
-# `Release` here instead leaves a second binary that `run-canary` will not use
-# -- hours of CPU for something nothing runs. `Checked` is optimised, with
-# assertions left in.
-#
-#   build-canary [Checked|Release|Debug]  [extra cmake --build args]
+#   build-canary [Release|Debug]  [extra cmake --build args]
 set -euo pipefail
 
-CONFIG="${1:-Checked}"; shift || true
-# $XENIA_SRC FIRST. In this container the Canary source is bind-mounted at
-# `/canary`, and `$PROJECT_DIR/xenia-canary` does not exist -- so the old default
-# made this script unusable here, and the documented workaround was to symlink
-# `/canary` into the repository and remember to delete it again (CONTAINER-NOTES
-# §"The toolchain is real"). The launcher already exports the right path; read it.
-SRC="${XENIA_SRC:-${PROJECT_DIR:-/work}/xenia-canary}"
+CONFIG="${1:-Release}"; shift || true
+SRC="${PROJECT_DIR:-/work}/xenia-canary"
 BUILD="${XENIA_BUILD_DIR:-/sylph-home/re/canary-build}"
 JOBS="${SYLPH_JOBS:-2}"
 

docker/decoder/bin/run-canary

@@ -48,26 +48,15 @@ fi
 PROJECT_DIR="${PROJECT_DIR:-/work}"
 
 # ── Binary ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-# `Checked` FIRST. All three configurations can be built, but `Checked` is the
-# one this project actually builds, so it is the one carrying our
-# instrumentation; the `Release/` and `Debug/` binaries beside it are months-old
-# leftovers that still run and still boot the game, which is exactly what makes
-# them dangerous -- a probe run against one reports zero hits and reads as a
-# finding about the game. Measured on this box 2026-09-21: `Checked` has
-# `audit_61_branch_probe_pcs`, `Release` (Aug 28) and `Debug` (Jul 19) do not.
 pick_bin() {
   [ -n "${XENIA_BIN:-}" ] && { echo "$XENIA_BIN"; return; }
-  # Configuration is the OUTER loop, location the inner one: a `Checked` build
-  # anywhere beats a `Release` build anywhere. The other order picks a stale
-  # container `Release` over a fresh instrumented repo `Checked`, which is the
-  # exact mistake this is here to stop.
-  for cfg in Checked Release Debug; do
   for c in \
-        "${XENIA_BUILD_DIR:-/sylph-home/re/canary-build}/bin/Linux/$cfg/xenia_canary" \
-        "$PROJECT_DIR/xenia-canary/build/bin/Linux/$cfg/xenia_canary"; do
+      "${XENIA_BUILD_DIR:-/sylph-home/re/canary-build}/bin/Linux/Release/xenia_canary" \
+      "${XENIA_BUILD_DIR:-/sylph-home/re/canary-build}/bin/Linux/Debug/xenia_canary" \
+      "$PROJECT_DIR/xenia-canary/build/bin/Linux/Release/xenia_canary" \
+      "$PROJECT_DIR/xenia-canary/build/bin/Linux/Debug/xenia_canary"; do
     [ -x "$c" ] && { echo "$c"; return; }
   done
-  done
 }
 BIN="$(pick_bin)"
 if [ -z "${BIN:-}" ]; then
@@ -75,13 +64,6 @@ if [ -z "${BIN:-}" ]; then
   exit 1
 fi
 
-# Say what is in the binary before the run, not after reading an empty log.
-# A missing probe is a build that predates it, never a quiet game.
-for sym in audit_61_branch_probe_pcs RE-DRAW; do
-  grep -aqm1 -- "$sym" "$BIN" \
-    || echo "run-canary: ⚠ $BIN has NO '$sym' -- it predates that instrumentation. Rebuild with: build-canary" >&2
-done
-
 # ── ISO ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 ISO="${SYLPH_ISO:-}"
 if [ -z "$ISO" ]; then

docker/decoder/sylph-decoder

@@ -123,16 +123,7 @@ docker_args() {
     # emulator and scrape /dev/shm to get at it. An earlier belief that this
     # file was STALE was tested and refuted -- it is current.
     -v "${SYLPH_PE:-$PROJECT/Project Sylpheed - Arc of Deception (USA, Europe) (En,Ja).pe}:/image/sylpheed.pe:ro"
-    # 🔴 THE DISASSEMBLY DATABASE. This used to be read from the xenia-rs clone
-    # (`SYLPHEED_DB=/xenia-rs/sylpheed.db`). That repo is retired, its directory
-    # is gone, and the mount that served it was removed -- so the variable named
-    # a path that did not exist and `zq.py` had nothing to open. The database now
-    # lives beside the repo as a build artefact; mounted at the container's repo
-    # root, which is where `zq.py` looks when `$SYLPHEED_DB` is unset.
-    #
-    # Read-only on purpose: the host owns it, DuckDB takes an exclusive lock to
-    # write, and two agents plus the human sharing one file would corrupt it.
-    # Regenerating means writing elsewhere and pointing `$SYLPHEED_DB` at it.
+    -e "SYLPHEED_DB=/xenia-rs/sylpheed.db"
     -e "SYLPHEED_PE=/image/sylpheed.pe"
     -e "SYLPHEED_IMAGE_BASE=0x82000000"
     # 🔴 EVIDENCE IS SHARED, NOT COMMITTED (issue #49). Each agent works in its
@@ -285,20 +276,6 @@ docker_args() {
     echo "==> NOTE: no ISO at $_iso -- Canary has nothing to boot." >&2
   fi
 
-  # The disassembly database. `zq.py` looks at the repo root when $SYLPHEED_DB
-  # is unset, so mounting it there needs no environment variable at all -- which
-  # is what the dead `/xenia-rs/sylpheed.db` variable taught: a path in an env
-  # var and a path in a mount drift apart silently.
-  _db="${SYLPH_DB:-$PROJECT/Sylpheed/sylpheed.db}"
-  if [ -f "$_db" ]; then
-    _out+=(-v "$_db:/work/sylpheed.db:ro")
-  else
-    echo "==> NOTE: no sylpheed.db at $_db -- /sylph-dis and zq.py cannot run." >&2
-    echo "    build one:  cargo run --release -p sylpheed-xexdb --bin sylph-xexdb -- \\" >&2
-    echo "                  dis \"\$SYLPH_ISO\" --db sylpheed.db --analyze sql --quiet" >&2
-    echo "    then re-apply the RE names with tools/apply_re_symbols.sql" >&2
-  fi
-
   # ── GPU ──
   # Three distinct cases, and conflating them is how you end up believing you
   # have hardware Vulkan while actually running llvmpipe:

docs/agents/CONTAINER-NOTES.md

@@ -12,20 +12,13 @@ already went wrong once.
 * **The toolchain is real.** `tools/re-capture/rebuild_canary.sh` exists because
   the old box had no cmake/ninja/clang and only runtime sonames, so it hand-
   relinked object files. **Do not use it here.** Use `build-canary`.
-  ✅ **FIXED 2026-09-21 — `build-canary` now reads `$XENIA_SRC` first**, which the
-  launcher already sets to `/canary`, so there is no symlink to make and none to
-  forget. The two paragraphs below are kept because they are how the defect was
-  found and refuted, but **neither describes the script any more.**
-
-  🔴 ~~**`build-canary` does not work in this container as it stands
+  🔴 **But `build-canary` does not work in this container as it stands
   (2026-08-29).** It builds `${PROJECT_DIR:-/work}/xenia-canary`, which **does
   not exist here** — the Canary source is at **`/canary`** (`$XENIA_SRC`). The
   warm 235 MB tree at `/sylph-home/re/canary-build` is configured with
   `CMAKE_HOME_DIRECTORY=/work/xenia-canary`, also missing, and its
   `build-Release.ninja` carries **no per-file rules** — it wants to re-run CMake
-  first, which would fail on the absent source root.~~ The warm tree is gone too:
-  every `sylph-*` volume was removed in the 2026-09-18 cleanup, so the next build
-  configures from scratch against `/canary` and caches the right source root.
+  first, which would fail on the absent source root.
 
   ✅ **The conclusion drawn from all that is REFUTED (2026-08-31).** The note went
   on to say *"any Canary change is a full reconfigure against `/canary` plus a full
@@ -45,10 +38,9 @@ already went wrong once.
   warm 235 MB tree is otherwise intact and the ninja re-run resolves its rules
   from the symlink.
 
-  ⚠️ ~~**Remove the symlink when you are done.**~~ No longer needed — but if you
-  ever make one by hand, note that `/work` is the repository and `xenia-canary`
-  is not in `.gitignore`, so it shows up as untracked and can be swept into a
-  `git add -A`.
+  ⚠️ **Remove the symlink when you are done.** `/work` is the repository, and
+  `xenia-canary` is not in `.gitignore`, so it shows up as untracked and can be
+  swept into a `git add -A`.
 * **numpy and Pillow are installed.** `entities2.py`, `flight_probe.py` and the
   image oracles work. Their absence used to look like a logic bug.
 

docs/agents/decoder-loop.md

@@ -56,28 +56,11 @@ rather than left in a document you might not reach.
 | path | what | env |
 |---|---|---|
 | `/image/sylpheed.pe` | the decompressed executable image | `SYLPHEED_PE` |
-| `sylpheed.db` at the repo root | the disassembly database, 337 MB | — (`zq.py` finds it; `$SYLPHEED_DB` only to override) |
-| `/canary/build/bin/Linux/Checked/xenia_canary` | the built oracle, inside the `/canary` mount | — |
+| `/xenia-rs/sylpheed.db` | a disassembly database, 586 MB | `SYLPHEED_DB` |
 | `/disc` | the extracted disc | `SYLPHEED_DISC` |
 | `/iso/game.iso` | the retail ISO Canary boots | `SYLPH_ISO` |
 | `/canary` | the Canary source, read-write | `XENIA_SRC` |
 
-⚠️ **The database is read-only and is NOT in git** — it is a build artefact, and
-`docs/re/captures/` is the same (issue #49). If either is missing the launcher
-says so and prints the command that builds it. Query the database with
-`python3 tools/zq.py …`, never by reading a disassembly dump.
-
-⚠️ **Take the oracle from `Checked/`, not `Release/`.** `Checked` is what this
-tree actually builds (optimised, with assertions); the `Release/` binary beside
-it is a stale August build with no `audit_61` probe in it. `strings` on the two
-is how that was found, and is how to check any binary before quoting a run from
-it.
-
-The `Checked` build carries all three instrumentations — `RE-INPUT`, `RE-DRAW`
-and the `audit_61` guest-PC branch probe (fork PR #2 brought the probe onto
-`sylpheed-re`; before it, the probe lived only on `phase-a-tracing`). Verified
-by `strings` on the binary, not assumed.
-
 **The `.pe` is a flat VA dump**: file offset = `VA - 0x82000000`. Reading
 `0x820A1630` is `seek(0xA1630)`. No XEX decrypt, no LZX, **no booted emulator** —
 dumping guest memory works but makes the whole static corpus depend on a running

docs/re/upstream-baseline.md

@@ -19,13 +19,12 @@ The instrumented branch stops at the Stage 02 briefing under a storm of
 behind `upstream/canary_experimental` (`a5a18f5c7`); our branch carries 50 of its
 own.
 
-* ~~**`version.h` is never generated.**~~ ✅ **FIXED — `CMakeLists.txt` now
-  generates it at configure time**, calling `xenia-build.py`'s
-  `generate_version_h()` and falling back to a stub if that fails, so a
-  CMake-direct build no longer depends on a stale copy in the build directory.
-  It used to fail on `trace_writer.cc:17: fatal error: 'version.h' file not
-  found`, and the fix had to exist before the 2026-09-18 cleanup deleted the
-  build volume that was carrying that stale copy.
+* **`version.h` is never generated.** The build fails on
+  `trace_writer.cc:17: fatal error: 'version.h' file not found`. Upstream's
+  `xenia-build.py` writes it from git HEAD; the container's `build-canary`
+  wrapper does not invoke it, and our tree only builds because a stale copy from
+  an old `sylpheed-re` build sits in the build directory. Regenerated by hand in
+  exactly the format that script emits.
 * **`build-canary` reports success on a failed build.** The harness recorded
   "completed (exit code 0)" while ninja had stopped with `1 error generated`.
   Only the missing binary gave it away.

tools/run-canary-native-safe.sh

@@ -32,7 +32,18 @@ export ALSA_CONFIG_PATH="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)/asound-nu
 # Paths derive from where this script sits — see the note in run-canary-safe.sh.
 HERE="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
 WORKSPACE="$(cd "$HERE/../.." && pwd)"
-BIN_DEFAULT="$WORKSPACE/xenia-canary-native/build/bin/Linux/Release/xenia_canary"
+# 🔴 THE INSTRUMENTED BINARY IS THE `Checked` ONE, and it is the only config this
+# build tree can produce: `ninja -n bin/Linux/Release/xenia_canary` lists ZERO
+# steps, so Release is not a target here and its binary still dates from
+# 2026-08-28, before the audit_61 probe existed. Pointing at Release therefore
+# runs an oracle with no probe and no way to refresh it.
+#
+# The old default named `xenia-canary-native/`, a directory that does not exist
+# on this workspace at all -- the checkout is `xenia-canary/`.
+#
+# `Checked` is optimised WITH assertions, which is what you want from a
+# behavioural reference: a bad state stops loudly instead of being sampled.
+BIN_DEFAULT="$WORKSPACE/xenia-canary/build/bin/Linux/Checked/xenia_canary"
 BIN_EXE="${CANARY_BIN:-$BIN_DEFAULT}"
 ISO="${SYLPHEED_ISO:-$WORKSPACE/Project Sylpheed - Arc of Deception (USA, Europe) (En,Ja).iso}"
 [ -f "$ISO" ] || { echo "ABORT: no ISO at '$ISO' — set \$SYLPHEED_ISO"; exit 4; }

tools/run-canary-native.sh

@@ -24,7 +24,18 @@ set -u
 # Paths derive from where this script sits — see the note in run-canary-safe.sh.
 HERE="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
 WORKSPACE="$(cd "$HERE/../.." && pwd)"
-BIN_DEFAULT="$WORKSPACE/xenia-canary-native/build/bin/Linux/Release/xenia_canary"
+# 🔴 THE INSTRUMENTED BINARY IS THE `Checked` ONE, and it is the only config this
+# build tree can produce: `ninja -n bin/Linux/Release/xenia_canary` lists ZERO
+# steps, so Release is not a target here and its binary still dates from
+# 2026-08-28, before the audit_61 probe existed. Pointing at Release therefore
+# runs an oracle with no probe and no way to refresh it.
+#
+# The old default named `xenia-canary-native/`, a directory that does not exist
+# on this workspace at all -- the checkout is `xenia-canary/`.
+#
+# `Checked` is optimised WITH assertions, which is what you want from a
+# behavioural reference: a bad state stops loudly instead of being sampled.
+BIN_DEFAULT="$WORKSPACE/xenia-canary/build/bin/Linux/Checked/xenia_canary"
 BIN_EXE="${CANARY_BIN:-$BIN_DEFAULT}"
 ISO="${SYLPHEED_ISO:-$WORKSPACE/Project Sylpheed - Arc of Deception (USA, Europe) (En,Ja).iso}"
 [ -f "$ISO" ] || { echo "ABORT: no ISO at '$ISO' — set \$SYLPHEED_ISO"; exit 4; }

tools/run-canary-safe.sh

@@ -57,7 +57,22 @@ rm -f xenia.log
 
 # Binary is overridable (default keeps the historical _i2d snapshot); extra
 # cvars pass through via CANARY_EXTRA_ARGS (space-separated, values w/o spaces).
+# ⚠️ THIS WINE BUILD HAS NO INSTRUMENTATION AND CANNOT BE REFRESHED HERE.
+# Measured 2026-09-20: `xenia_canary_i2d.exe` does not exist at all, and the
+# `xenia_canary.exe` that does (2026-06-19) has ZERO hits for both
+# `audit_61_branch_probe_pcs` and `RE-INPUT`/`RE-DRAW`. Rebuilding it needs the
+# clang-cl + xwin cross toolchain on the `cross-build-wine` branch.
+#
+# 🔴 FOR PROBE RUNS USE `run-canary-native-safe.sh` INSTEAD -- same hard Vulkan
+# gate, same headless behaviour, and it runs the Checked native binary, which
+# carries audit_61 and the RE-INPUT/RE-DRAW logging.
 BIN_EXE="${CANARY_BIN:-xenia_canary_i2d.exe}"
+if [ ! -f "$BIN/$BIN_EXE" ]; then
+  echo "ABORT: no Wine binary at $BIN/$BIN_EXE" >&2
+  echo "  This build is stale and uninstrumented; use run-canary-native-safe.sh" >&2
+  echo "  for anything needing audit_61 or the RE-* logging." >&2
+  exit 4
+fi
 args=(--log_level=3 --mute=true)
 [ -n "$PROBES" ] && args+=("--audit_61_branch_probe_pcs=$PROBES")
 if [ -n "${CANARY_EXTRA_ARGS:-}" ]; then