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BFM-decomp/docs/second-oracle.md
T
Drew T 867f09221c feat(oracle): main gets its independent second oracle — contract §1.3 closed
The roadmap's completion contract requires both audit oracles green before any
100% claim on main, and main had none: audit-corpus covered overlays and
resident only, and R34 is explicit that the byte gate is a perfect CORRECTNESS
oracle and a NULL COVERAGE oracle — green whether a function was sliced right
or invented, because the .s pieces paste back either way.

sig_image gains multi-range signing, closing all three blockers
docs/second-oracle.md scoped:
  * the 0x800 PS-X EXE header -> --vram-base 0x8000F800 puts file offset 0 at
    vram, so the header falls below the first range
  * interleaved data + linked islands -> --segments derives 28 game-code ranges
    from the splat yaml's SEGMENT rows
  * one text range -> the signer loops ranges, bootstrapping INSIDE each, which
    is what stops the linear partition running through a data island and minting
    functions out of it (the detector manufacturing the class it detects)

INDEPENDENCE IS PRESERVED, NOT WORKED AROUND. Ranges come from segment TYPES,
never from splat's function boundaries; entries are still found by byte-derived
jal-closure. Seeding from splat's symbols would make every phantom look real —
the trap the design doc names. .run/sig.main.jsonl (the splat-SEEDED atlas sig)
is a different file and corpus.ORACLE_SIG keeps the audit off it.

RESULT: 986 functions signed. main audit = 0 PHANTOM, 0 TRUNCATED, 1 PAD-TAIL.
Fleet audit-corpus = 0 + 0, unchanged for resident and overlays.

NEW AUDIT CLASS, from the first real finding. func_80062144: splat .s 65 ins,
oracle 64 — the extra line is a nop one line BELOW endlabel. That is an
alignment pad the matching side already emits from C (§295; two S77 wave agents
did it on func_8005E13C and func_8005D538), not a mis-slice. Lumping it with
TRUNCATED would make the oracle's first finding look like a defect and bury the
class that is one.

COVERAGE ASSERTED both ways before trusting it (R32): all 30 game-code stubs
fall inside a range, and 0 of 199 addr-parseable LINKED stubs do.
2026-09-03 21:58:17 -06:00

7.3 KiB
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The second, disagreeing oracle — coverage & the main-EXE deferral (Phase-27 T10)

R34: the whole-binary byte-gate is a perfect CORRECTNESS oracle and a NULL COVERAGE oracle — it is green at any decomp %, so it cannot see a function splat mis-sliced or invented (the .s pieces paste back verbatim, image byte-identical either way). Only a SECOND, INDEPENDENT boundary oracle can. make audit-corpus (tools/corpus.py --audit) is it: it cross-checks splat's function boundaries against sig_image's, which are derived from the ORIGINAL bytes without splat or Ghidra.

Coverage (who the second oracle can see)

binary independent sig? covered why
138 overlays sig_image (byte-derived) ✅ validated 58,524/58,621 vs spimdisasm
resident sig_image (Phase-27 T10) ✅ make sig-resident — 144 fns, all 21 stubs present, 0 phantom/truncated
main sig_image multi-range (P31 S77) ✅ make sig-main-oracle — 28 game-code ranges, 986 fns, 0 phantom / 0 truncated / 1 pad-tail

corpus.sig_is_independent() gates the check to exactly this domain: a boundary cross-check applied where the two oracles were never measuring the same thing is noise, not thoroughness (the audit's own R14 lesson — over all 136 it reported 914 "slices"; in-domain, 193, all one real defect).

Resident (now covered). make sig-resident signs the resident flat blob with sig_image (--vram-base 0x800CEDF8) instead of the Ghidra dumper, making its sig independent. Probed clean (0 phantom + 0 truncated). ⚠️ The check is only valid while .run/sig.resident.jsonl IS the sig_image sig — run make sig-resident before make audit-corpus (a stale Ghidra sig there resurrects the "measuring Ghidra's limits" artefact). h_exact is raw-byte SHA1, so weighted_metrics is unaffected by the swap (fleet % unchanged to the decimal).

Main EXE — DELIVERED (P31 S77). The deferral below is kept as the design record.

make sig-main-oracle signs the ORIGINAL EXE bytes and corpus.sig_is_independent("main") is now True whenever .run/sig.main.oracle.jsonl exists. All three structural blockers are closed:

  1. The 0x800 header — --vram-base 0x8000F800 maps file offset 0 to vram, so the header simply falls below the first code range. No --skip needed.
  2. Interleaved data + linked islands — new --segments <splat yaml> (sig_image.code_ranges_from_splat) derives 28 game-code ranges from the yaml's SEGMENT rows. It reads [file_off, type, name] and NOTHING else: segment types are coarse structure, not splat's function boundaries, so the two oracles stay independent exactly where it matters. --exclude-subsegs drops the LINKED PsyQ blocks.
  3. One text range — the signer now loops ranges, bootstrapping entries INSIDE each. Per-range discovery is what stops the linear partition running through a data island and minting functions out of it, i.e. the detector manufacturing the phantom class it exists to detect.

The trap was avoided, not worked around. Entries are still found by byte-derived jal-closure; nothing is seeded from splat's symbols. .run/sig.main.jsonl (the splat-SEEDED atlas sig, P31 T3) is a DIFFERENT file and the audit never reads it — corpus.ORACLE_SIG keeps them apart.

Domain (R14). The oracle signs game code only, so audit("main") filters the LINKED stubs out. Auditing them against it would report ~960 phantoms that are artefacts of comparing two oracles that never measured the same thing — the same 914-vs-193 mistake this file already warns about.

First finding, and it is a real one. func_80062144: splat's .s says 65 instructions, the byte-derived boundary says 64. The extra line is a nop at 0x80062244, emitted one line BELOW endlabel. That is a PAD-TAIL, now its own audit class — a known alignment artefact the matching side handles by emitting the pad from C (cookbook §295; two S77 wave agents did exactly that on func_8005E13C and func_8005D538), not a splat mis-slice. Reporting it as TRUNCATED would have made the oracle's first real finding look like a defect and buried the class that is one.

Fleet status after wiring: make audit-corpus → 0 PHANTOM + 0 TRUNCATED, +1 PAD-TAIL.


(Historical) Main EXE — why sig_image could not sign it

tools/sig_image.py assumes a flat blob whose file offset 0 IS its vram base, one contiguous code region, and one [lo,hi) text range. The main EXE breaks all three — structurally, not with a flag:

  1. PS-X EXE header. The EXE has a 0x800 header before the code; sig_image maps off = start − vram_base, so file offset 0 must equal vram. Needs a --file-offset/--skip 0x800.
  2. Interleaved data islands + linked PsyQ regions. detect_code_end stops at the first sustained invalid run, and bootstrap_seeds linear-partitions from one entry — both assume ONE code prefix then data. main has rodata/data islands and linked libcd/libgs/… regions between code. Needs an island list, not a single range.
  3. One --text-lo/--text-hi. No multi-range support.

The trap in the cheap workaround. Seeding a main sig_image run from splat's symbols destroys independence for the PHANTOM class specifically — a phantom IS a splat-invented address, so seeding from splat makes every phantom look real. A seeded run still buys the TRUNCATED class (boundaries re-derived by func_end), but it is a half-oracle, and calling it "the second oracle" would be the exact self-deception R34 exists to prevent. So: deliver an honest deferral, not a fake oracle.

The scoped design (when it's built): teach sig_image (a) a --file-offset for the header, (b) a segment list (from the splat yaml's [vram, type] rows — types, not function boundaries, so it stays independent of splat's function slicing) so it signs each code segment and skips data/linked islands, (c) multiple text ranges. Then sig_is_independent("main") → True and the EXE joins the audit.

Interim (Phase-27): main's boundary blind spot is DOCUMENTED, not silently green. A cheaper partial that closes it sooner: a fresh Ghidra make sig-refresh (R23 — MCP stopped) at least refreshes the month-stale main sig weighted_metrics reports from; it is not independent (Ghidra boundaries), so it does not serve the audit, but it makes the MAIN game-code weighted number current.

The completion metrics (roadmap §1 "all three, with main in the denominators")

tools/progress.py --fleet reports:

  • fn-count byte-ident — includes main (×134-inflated; one crack counts per overlay).
  • instr-weighted — resident + 138 overlays (the decomp.dev-DISPLAY number). Main is NOT folded in.
  • distinct-code — each h_exact class once.
  • MAIN game-code weighted (new, T10) — reported SEPARATELY, main_pct, from main's LINKED-excluding Ghidra sig. It is game-code-only (LINKED = complete, in fn-count) and PROVISIONAL (the sig is dated; see main_sig_date). It is not folded into the decomp.dev-comparable fleet number because folding a stale/incomplete value would mislead the flip-timing checkpoint. A fresh/complete main sig (sig-refresh, or the sig_image-on-main oracle above) makes it authoritative and foldable — a roadmap decision for when the number is trustworthy.