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Phase 82: Block 8 Postmortem & Documentation

Status: Complete Date: 2026-03-24

Goal

Final phase of Block 8 and the current roadmap. Documentation-only — bring all living documents current, update stale user-facing docs, mark Block 8 complete, and capture lessons learned. No source code changes, no new tests.

Changes

82a: Living Document Updates

Updated all project documentation to reflect Block 8 completion:

  • CLAUDE.md — Phase 82 row, status → "Phase 82 complete (Block 8 Postmortem & Documentation)", "Block 8 COMPLETE", "82 phases delivered"
  • README.md — Phase 82 row, "82 phases delivered", Block 8 → COMPLETE
  • docs/index.md — Block 8 → Complete in status table
  • docs/devlog/index.md — Phase 82 row
  • mkdocs.yml — Phase 82 nav entry
  • MEMORY.md — Status updated to Phase 82 complete, Block 8 COMPLETE

82b: Stale User-Facing Docs

Fixed 6 stale items found during cross-doc audit:

  • docs/development-phases-block8.md — Phase Summary table: all phases marked Complete, cumulative test counts corrected, block total corrected (~1,291 new tests), Phase 82 row added
  • docs/guide/scenarios.md — Modern scenario count 27 → 30, added Calibration & Exercise subsection (3 Phase 80 scenarios)
  • docs/guide/getting-started.md — Test count ~7,550 → ~10,200
  • docs/reference/api.md — CalibrationSchema section updated with Phase 68-80 fields (environment wiring, enable_all_modern meta-flag)
  • docs/concepts/architecture.md — Added "Consequence Enforcement Gates" section documenting enable_* opt-in pattern
  • docs/reference/eras.md — Modern scenario count 27 → 30

82c: Phase Devlog

This file. All previous phase devlogs (68-81) already exist from their respective phases.

Block 8 Retrospective

Overview

Block 8 spanned 15 phases (68-82) and delivered ~1,291 new Python tests. The block converted the engine from "log but don't act" to actual behavioral enforcement, massively expanded unit test coverage, and brought all subsystems to production readiness.

Key Achievements

  1. Consequence enforcement (Phase 68) — Fuel consumption, ammo depletion, fire zone damage, stratagem expiry, guerrilla retreat, order delay/misinterpretation all enforced behind enable_* flags
  2. C2 depth (Phase 69) — ATO sortie consumption, planning injection, FOW deception, command hierarchy enforcement
  3. Performance optimization (Phase 70) — Vectorized numpy operations, O(1) entity lookups, formation sort hoisting, signature caching, attribute hoisting
  4. Missile & carrier ops (Phase 71) — Per-tick missile flight, missile defense intercept, carrier CAP/sortie/Beaufort gating
  5. Checkpoint completeness (Phase 72) — 23 engines registered, 7 BattleManager vars, JSON serialization
  6. Historical scenario correctness (Phase 73) — 5 scenarios recalibrated with Dupuy CEV documentation
  7. Combat engine unit tests (Phase 74) — 472 tests across 32 files covering all 33 combat engine source files
  8. Simulation core & domain tests (Phase 75) — 293 tests across 15 files (battle.py, engine.py, movement, terrain, logistics, simulation)
  9. API robustness (Phase 76) — Semaphores, WAL mode, graceful shutdown, health probes, request limits
  10. Frontend accessibility (Phase 77) — WCAG 2.1 AA compliance across ~20 components
  11. P2 environment wiring (Phase 78) — Ice crossing, vegetation LOS, bridge capacity, ford crossing, fire spread, environmental fatigue
  12. CI/CD & packaging (Phase 79) — GitHub Actions workflows (test/lint/build), ruff linter (~1,087 auto-fixes)
  13. API & frontend sync (Phase 80) — enable_all_modern meta-flag, CalibrationSliders overhaul (29 toggles + ~40 sliders), WW2 weapon fixes, 3 calibration scenarios
  14. Recalibration & validation (Phase 81) — 7 deferred enforcement flags enabled on 20 scenarios, fuel rate fix, Trafalgar fix, exit criteria verified

Exit Criteria — All Met

  1. All consequence enforcement flags exercised in at least 1 scenario (6/7 in 10+; enable_bridge_capacity accepted limitation — no bridges in modern terrain data)
  2. All 40+ scenarios produce correct winners (deterministic seed=42 + MC validation)
  3. Checkpoint round-trip verified for all engines
  4. Historical scenarios recalibrated with documented Dupuy CEV values
  5. Combat engine unit test coverage across all 33 source files
  6. API robustness hardening (concurrency, persistence, health)
  7. WCAG 2.1 AA frontend compliance
  8. CI/CD pipeline operational
  9. enable_all_modern meta-flag available for frontend convenience
  10. Block 8 exit criteria test suite (23 structural tests)

Lessons Learned (Block 8 Aggregate)

  • enable_* flag pattern scaled well — 30+ flags across 8 blocks, all defaulting to False. Zero regressions from flag addition. The pattern is the project's key backward-compatibility mechanism.
  • Unit test phases (74-75) were the highest-value phases in Block 8 — 765 tests covering previously untested code paths. Found several latent bugs through test-driven exploration.
  • Fuel/ammo enforcement rates must be validated against scenario durations — Default rates designed for unit testing (short durations) caused immediate failures when applied to multi-hour scenarios. Always test enforcement parameters at realistic scale.
  • Selective flag enablement outperforms blanket enable_all_modern — The meta-flag adds ~6x overhead from 21 subsystems. Per-scenario selective flags preserve performance while exercising relevant subsystems.
  • Evaluator is the key quality gate — Running the scenario evaluator after each flag change catches regressions faster than any other tool. The centroid collapse and zero-casualty warnings caught 4 scenario issues in Phase 81 alone.
  • Historical era scenarios need different calibration approaches — Napoleonic naval (Trafalgar) required very low force_destroyed threshold (8%) because the era engine produces low damage output. Each era has fundamentally different victory dynamics.

Deficits

  • enable_bridge_capacity unexercised — No modern scenario terrain includes bridges. Accepted limitation (flag exists and is tested, but no scenario activates it).
  • enable_all_modern not used in scenario YAMLs — Performance overhead too high for evaluator/benchmark use. Available only in frontend CalibrationSliders.

Test Summary

Test File Tests Verifies
(none) 0 Documentation-only phase

Files Changed

New (1)

  • docs/devlog/phase-82.md

Modified Docs (~12)

  • docs/development-phases-block8.md — Phase Summary table, Phase 82 → Complete
  • docs/guide/scenarios.md — scenario count 27 → 30, calibration scenarios
  • docs/guide/getting-started.md — test count ~7,550 → ~10,200
  • docs/reference/api.md — CalibrationSchema fields (Phase 68-80)
  • docs/concepts/architecture.md — consequence enforcement gates section
  • docs/reference/eras.md — scenario count 27 → 30
  • CLAUDE.md — Phase 82 row, Block 8 COMPLETE, 82 phases
  • README.md — Phase 82 row, Block 8 COMPLETE, 82 phases, scenario count 27→30 in project tree, vitest count 308→316
  • docs/index.md — Block 8 → Complete
  • docs/devlog/index.md — Phase 82 row
  • mkdocs.yml — Phase 82 nav entry
  • MEMORY.md — status update

Postmortem

Scope: On target

Documentation-only phase as planned. All 6 stale items identified in cross-doc audit resolved.

Quality: High

  • All documents updated in lockstep
  • Cross-doc audit passes
  • Block 8 retrospective captures key lessons

Deficits: None

No new deficits introduced. Block 8 COMPLETE.