crisis/CrisisViz

CrisisViz

A native macOS 26 / SwiftUI keynote-style visualizer for the Crisis consensus protocol. Ten chapters, roughly eighteen minutes of curated playback at 1\times, scrubbable forward and backward at any signed rate from -16\times to +16\times.

CrisisViz consumes a recorded simulation from crisis_data.json and replays it with narration bound to specific narrative beats — the playhead is the master of time.

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The serial-timeline pattern

Every chapter is a pure function of normalized time. Given a chapter with an ordered list of beats b_0, b_1, \ldots, b_{n-1} each with duration d_i, the world state at time t \in [0, T] (where T = \sum d_i) is:

\text{state}(t) = \mathop{\textrm{fold}}_{i\,:\,\sum_{j<i} d_j \le t} (b_i, \text{state}_{\text{init}})

That is: replay every beat whose start lies before t, accumulating into a WorldState struct. Pure ⇒ scrubbable ⇒ reverse-playable. No monotonic accumulators, no animation state hidden in @State.

flowchart LR
    Engine["<b>SceneEngine</b><br/>signed speed · pause · scrubber"]
    Engine -->|sceneIndex, localTime| Timeline
    Timeline["<b>ChXXTimeline</b><br/>state(at:t) → WorldState<br/>narrationAt(scene, t)"]
    Timeline -->|WorldState| View
    View["<b>ChXX_Foo (Canvas)</b><br/>thin renderer"]
    View -->|draw| Canvas["macOS Canvas + GraphicsContext"]
    Timeline -->|narration text| Glass["<b>GlassNarration</b><br/>beat-bound overlay"]

    classDef engine fill:#cfe2f3,stroke:#2c5f8f,color:#062b4d
    classDef pure fill:#d9ead3,stroke:#38761d,color:#0b3d0b
    classDef view fill:#ead1dc,stroke:#741b47,color:#3d0a26
    classDef ui fill:#fff2cc,stroke:#bf9000,color:#3d2e00
    class Engine engine
    class Timeline pure
    class View,Canvas view
    class Glass ui

The chapters

#	File pair	Beats	T at 1\times	Concept
0	Ch01_Problem.swift + Ch00Timeline.swift	12	~43 s	Four friends, one ledger, no boss
1	Ch02_Graph.swift + Ch01Timeline.swift	~75	~326 s	Asynchronous gossip & Lamport DAG
2	Ch03_Partition.swift + Ch02Timeline.swift	27	~115 s	Network partition splits the graph
3	Ch04_Rounds.swift + Ch03Timeline.swift	17	~72 s	Witness weight → round boundary
4	Ch05_Voting.swift + Ch04Timeline.swift	15	~63 s	Virtual voting via strongly-seeing paths
5	Ch06_Leader.swift + Ch05Timeline.swift	10	~48 s	Leader election
6	Ch07_Order.swift + Ch06Timeline.swift	11	~52 s	Total order — convergence guarantee
7	Ch08_DA_Problem.swift + Ch07Timeline.swift	14	~69 s	Data availability: gossip ≠ storage
8	Ch09_DA_Design.swift + Ch08Timeline.swift	19	~85 s	Erasure shards + Merkle proofs
9	Ch10_Byzantine.swift + Ch09Timeline.swift	18	~80 s	f < n/3 fork detection

Naming gotcha: chapter renderers are 1-indexed (Ch01..Ch10), timelines are 0-indexed (Ch00Timeline..Ch09Timeline). They pair off-by-one. The renderer file's number matches the user-facing chapter label.

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Build · run · test · distribute

swift build                        # dev binary
swift run CrisisViz                # launch dev binary (no Dock icon)
./bundle.sh                        # build + assemble CrisisViz.app + open
./bundle.sh --no-launch            # build only
swift run CrisisViz --testbed      # PNG + MP4 + invariants harness
./package-dmg.sh                   # build CrisisViz.dmg for distribution

For first-time setup and prerequisites see ../INSTALL.md.

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Testbed outputs

swift run CrisisViz --testbed writes everything to ~/Desktop/CrisisViz_Testbed/:

File	What it verifies
INVARIANTS.md	38 logical curriculum assertions (cast colors, lane Y positions, scene staging)
SOURCE_AUDIT.md	Regex audit of all .swift files — forbidden patterns like hashJitterY, palette[i], hardcoded colors
MANIFEST.md	PNG sweep across all scenes × time offsets \{0, 2, 4, 6, 8\}\,\text{s}
VIDEO_CLIPS.md	36 MP4 clips at 8\,\text{s} / 30\,\text{fps}, one per scene
SANITY.md	File-size + freeze-frame heuristic checks (catches dead canvases)

All five must be green before shipping curriculum changes. The testbed verifies layout and logical claims; it cannot evaluate animation smoothness — that requires running the live app and watching.

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Controls

Input	Action
← / →	previous / next scene (across all chapters)
Space	play / pause
Bottom slider	signed speed, -16\times to +16\times
Chapter scrubber	jump to any chapter
Click a vertex	open the vertex inspector overlay

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Cast convention

The visualizer adopts a fixed cast of named players over a subset of the simulation's process IDs:

Lane	Name	Role
0	Aaron	leader-eligible honest
1	Ben	honest
2	Carl	honest
3	Dave	the Byzantine in Chapter 9
4+	anonymous peers	the rest of the simulated nodes

Hard rules:

• Lane = lifeline. Vertices sit exactly on their player's lane Y. No jitter, ever. Source audit forbids reintroducing hashJitterY.
• Strictly serial. Never two simultaneous events on screen at the same time.
• Introduce before show. A cast member's lane is invisible until their introduce(...) beat fires.
• One detail slot. The top-center "composing / open-envelope" panel is a single fixed rectangle; only one envelope occupies it at a time.

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Architecture pointers

Concern	File
@main, activation policy, window clamping	Sources/CrisisViz/App/CrisisApp.swift
Playback controller (signed speed, scrubber)	Sources/CrisisViz/Engine/SceneEngine.swift
Pure per-chapter timelines	Sources/CrisisViz/Engine/ChNNTimeline.swift
Cast → color → lane mapping	Sources/CrisisViz/Engine/DataManager.swift
Chapter metadata, scene routing	Sources/CrisisViz/Model/ChapterDefinitions.swift
Cast definitions	Sources/CrisisViz/Model/Cast.swift
Main canvas + inter-chapter morph	Sources/CrisisViz/Views/ImmersiveView.swift
DAG layout (lane = lifeline)	Sources/CrisisViz/Canvas/DAGLayoutEngine.swift
Bottom controls bar	Sources/CrisisViz/Glass/GlassControls.swift
Beat-bound narration overlay	Sources/CrisisViz/Glass/GlassNarration.swift
Testbed entry points	Sources/CrisisViz/Testbed/

For the engineering log oriented at the next coding agent, see HANDOFF.md.