First run of the Task-13A-targeted grinder (--once --batch 8 --permute-secs 90):
targeting: ON — 1665 classified; only bucket=permuter is admitted
targeting skipped 1601 non-permuter candidates
{redraft 707, structural 583, integration 305, unclassified 4, unknown 2}
permuter WON func_80181F78 @ ov_SC03_014 (close was 1) [~6 min]
BANKED 2 (both whole-binary byte-gated, R22 clean-fleet 140/140):
- func_80181F78 (8 ins) — classified DELAY-SLOT / schedule
- func_80141B90 (29 ins) — classified IMM-VALUE / cse
Both were classified bucket=permuter by residual_class BEFORE the run: the classifier
predicted a search-closer could reach them, and one did. First end-to-end validation of
the targeting thesis.
THREE latent defects, all pre-existing, all unreachable while the grinder banked nothing
since Phase 21 — the fix made it win and every one fired at once (cookbook §60a):
1. gate_stage commit path crashed on src=None. `src` is DELIBERATELY never defaulted
(Phase 26-A: a default silently PINS the gate to the main .c), but the commit did
`git add src …` unconditionally -> every caller that omits it (grinder, orchestrator,
idiom_hunt) crashes THE MOMENT IT BANKS. Now `git add -u src/`, which also retires the
`src/ov_*/*.c` filename glob that once omitted 4 R22-verified banks from a commit.
2. _xform ladder dirs (-cn/-cast/-rc/-uni) ACCUMULATE across runs: they held 34 stale
drafts, so the gate processed 34 when the grinder submitted 1, and banked one function
it was never asked to try — which would have been committed under a message naming a
different one. Nothing wrong entered the tree (G3/P9 held; the gate banks only
byte-identical output) but report and work had diverged. Now cleared per run.
3. grinder called gate_stage with the default propagate=True = `dedup_propagate
--auto-from`, the §55b fleet-wide path that timed out at 3600s and left 90/140 overlays
broken — and being INSIDE the gate it takes the banks down with it. Now propagate=False;
banks commit cheap, propagation is its own targeted --addr batch (§55b law).
R22: make clean && extract-all && check-all -> 140 passed, 0 failed of 140.
tools-health OK (dedup 1847/0, C1 234343/234343); 0 NON_MATCHING (G4).
BFM-decomp
A matching decompilation of Brave Fencer Musashi (PlayStation, SLUS-00726, USA 1998) — the first public decompilation effort for this game.
What "matching" means
The goal is C source code that, compiled with the original-era toolchain (PsyQ 4.x / GCC 2.7.2-family + ASPSX via maspsx), produces a byte-for-byte identical SLUS_007.26 and, eventually, byte-identical overlay binaries. SHA1 checksums are the ground truth; "functionally equivalent" does not count.
No ROM content
This repository contains no game assets, no disassembly output, and no ROM-derived data — only source code, build configuration, symbol names/addresses, hashes, and documentation. To build or contribute you must provide your own dump of the game disc (4-track BIN/CUE, redump layout). See .gitignore for the firewall.
Project status
Latest (Phase 19, 2026-06-20): the project builds 136 binaries byte-identical from a clean tree (the EXE + the resident engine + all 134 location overlays);
make check-all→ 136/136. Fleet byte-identical-from-source is 58.0% (function-instance-weighted; see the PhaseEnds for the byte-weighted ~30% figure and what it includes). Shared engine functions are matched once inov_SC01_077and propagated ×134 viatools/dedup_propagate.py. (The narrative below is Phase-11/12-era; a full refresh is part of the public-flip prep.)
Gen1 (foundation) complete — the matching pipeline is proven end-to-end. make extract && make build && make check rebuilds SLUS_007.26 byte-for-byte identical (SHA1 143dbb89…) from C + assembly, reproducibly across many sessions.
- Compiler pinned by evidence:
gcc-2.7.2-psx -O2 -G0 -mips1 -mcpu=3000+maspsx --aspsx-version=2.56 --expand-div. - 52 functions hand-matched to byte-identical machine code — including the LZSS streaming decompressor — with a decomp-permuter + matching-cookbook "flywheel" to accelerate the next.
- 959 PsyQ SDK functions linked byte-identical (libcd, libgs, libgte, libspu/libsnd, libgpu, libc2, libmcrd, libapi/libcard, libetc) straight from the real PsyQ 4.0 libraries instead of re-decompiling them — bringing byte-identical-from-source coverage of the EXE to ~50%.
- File-loader / overlay system reverse-engineered, with the resident engine blob + location overlays' load addresses proven byte-identical against a live PCSX-Redux RAM dump.
About half the EXE is still INCLUDE_ASM stubs (correct bytes, not yet C), and the bulk of the game lives in compressed overlays inside the .CD archives — Gen2 (overlays & engine at scale) is underway:
- The build toolchain is binary-agnostic (one parameterized pipeline builds any binary), and the always-resident engine blob rebuilds byte-for-byte from source (SHA1
8e17e02f…) — the second binary reconstructed exactly, after the EXE — and is now 86% hand-matched C (123 / 146 functions, up from 0): its scripting turned out to be compiled-MIPS state/mode dispatch, not a bytecode VM, and the save-file + sound (SQV) formats are documented. The harvest used a reusable swarm-of-agents + bit-for-bit byte-gate method (a wrong match can't be accepted) —tools/harvest_verify.py+tools/match_one.py, which carry straight into the overlay phase. - A cross-binary deduplication pipeline is live: a Ghidra-free signer fingerprints all 134 location overlays, and the report finds ~9,000 byte-identical function groups shared across binaries (~28 MB of collapsible code) — a single engine function is byte-identical in all 134 overlays. This is "one match unlocks many": each engine match will be auto-credited across the overlay fleet.
Current phase and detailed progress live in phase-ends/ (newest PhaseEnd_*.md = current state); methodology, rules, and the full roadmap are in PROJECT_CONTEXT.md; environment setup in docs/SETUP.md.
This project is developed primarily by Claude Code driving Ghidra through an MCP server; see CLAUDE.md.
License
Private repository for now. AGPL-3.0 is planned at public release, modeled on sotn-decomp. tools/brave-CUE/ is CUE's BRAVE extractor (GPL, source included) and retains its own license.