`SYLPHEED_DB` is the documented contract for the static-analysis database —
`docker/decoder/sylph-decoder` sets it, and `docs/agents/CONTAINER-NOTES.md` and
`decoder-loop.md` list it — but no reader honoured it:
isl_cmdtab.py, name_block_bases.py hardcoded `/work/xenia-rs/sylpheed.db`, a
path that has not existed anywhere since
`/work` became a clone. Both failed on
every machine, before and after the
database moved.
zq.py used `$SYLPH_XEXDB`, a name invented in
#39 without grepping for the existing one.
All three now resolve `$SYLPHEED_DB`, then `$SYLPH_XEXDB` (kept as an alias so
nothing already written against it breaks), then `<repo root>/sylpheed.db`, and
refuse with exit 1 naming both variables and the build command otherwise.
`grab_tutorial.sh` hardcoded its helpers into the retired `sylpheed-reborn`
checkout. That copy's `skip_intro.sh` still calls the removed `vgamepad` and
exits 0 having pressed nothing — the failure this repository's own copy was
rewritten to make loud. So the script was already running a silently broken
helper; it now resolves its helpers from its own directory. Nothing exists only
in reborn's `tools/re-capture` (checked: 0 reborn-only files).
Verified against the same database, output compared byte for byte with the
ORIGINAL scripts (path-substituted copies, sibling imports resolvable):
resolution path isl_cmdtab name_block_bases
default (root) identical identical
$SYLPHEED_DB identical identical
$SYLPH_XEXDB identical identical
bad path exit 1 exit 1 (zq.py: exit 1 too)
and `isl_cmdtab`'s output is byte-identical to the body of the committed
`docs/re/data/isl-command-table.txt`.
⚠️ `name_block_bases`'s output does NOT reproduce the committed
`docs/re/data/name-block-bases.txt` (2,609 lines differ, `strings in the image:
7366` vs `7140`). That is the database, not this change: the artefact was
generated from the agent box's older 586 MB database, and this machine's is the
current generator's. Two databases are in circulation. Not regenerated here.
⚠️ Also not fixed, because it is a different bug: `name_block_bases.py` globs
`/work/sylph_extract/**/*.pak`, another path that exists nowhere now; that part
of its report is silently empty. It should read `$SYLPHEED_DISC`.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Sylpheed
A clean-room reverse engineering and port project for Project Sylpheed: Arc of Deception (Xbox 360, 2007).
Three things live here, in one repository so that a change spanning them lands as one commit:
| The decoders | crates/sylpheed-formats — the disc's formats, read and verified disc-wide |
| The port | port/ — a Godot 4 project, plus crates/sylpheed-export which converts a disc into the open asset tree it reads |
| The corpus | docs/re/ — what has been reverse engineered, with its evidence, its retractions and its dead ends |
You need your own copy of the game. No game content is in this repository and none ever will be. The exporter reads the disc you supply.
The oracle is the real game
sylpheed-cliand the Explorer are tools for verifying our decoding. They are hypotheses under test and they have been wrong. When something must be checked against the truth, the truth is the game running in Xenia Canary, captured — not any renderer of ours.
This is stated first because getting it backwards is the most expensive mistake this project has made.
Layout
crates/
sylpheed-formats/ the decoders. Disc-wide verified; the corpus is its spec
sylpheed-cli/ headless tools -- render a screen, dump a table, probe audio
sylpheed-viewer/ the Explorer: a human's window onto the disc. STATIC data only
sylpheed-export/ disc -> the open, moddable asset tree
port/ the Godot 4 project. Reads open formats ONLY
authored/ decisions that are NOT on the disc, each with its reason
data/
base/ generated by the exporter. Gitignored, never hand-edited
mods/ drop-in overrides. Yours
docs/
re/ the corpus: findings, refutations, method traps
game/ how the game is navigated -- menus, modals, flight
port/ the port's mission, its handoff contract, modding rules
-- and RUNNING.md, which is how you actually start it
agents/ how the agent team works together
tools/ capture harnesses, probes, the share tool
exchange/ transient inter-agent files. NOT in git
docker/ the agent containers
Where to start
docs/re/INDEX.md— what is decodeddocs/re/REFUTED.md— what has been tested and dieddocs/re/METHOD.md— traps this project has already paid fordocs/game/navigation.md— how the game is navigateddocs/port/MODDING.md— why the asset tree looks the way it does
Xenia Canary is a separate repository: it is a fork tracking upstream, and it carries our instrumentation.
Conventions
Confidence is per claim, never per document: ✅ CONFIRMED · 🟡 PROBABLE ·
❔ HYPOTHESIS · ❌ REFUTED. A withdrawn result is kept with its reasoning
rather than deleted — that is why the numbers here can be trusted.