# V8 — Ariadne: The Self-Authoring Detective Universe

V8 turns V5's **authored** open-world detective game into a **self-authoring**
one: an integrated system of state-of-the-art AI agents that generates an
endless supply of **fair, solvable, fully-voiced, fully-realized cases** and
ships them into the _existing_ V5/V6 game at runtime.

V8 is an **integration + generation-completion** version. V1–V7 already deliver
the two halves — a real playable detective game (V5) and a real multi-modal AI
content factory (Isis assets, Hathor LLM-NPCs, Yemaya's CrewAI/LangGraph
creative agents + a Knox/Van-Dine mystery-fairness validator). They are not
connected, and neither half can _generate a complete case_. V8 builds the
missing generative core, **proves every case solvable before it ships**, and
compiles output into V5's existing authored case format so the playable game
needs no rewrite.

## The thesis

> **The LLM proposes; a constraint solver disposes.** A fair mystery has a
> symbolic skeleton (ground truth + clue logic + a _proved_ unique solution) and
> an experienced surface (prose, dialogue, art, voice). V8 keeps them separate:
> the skeleton is machine-verified; the surface is generated, graded, and
> regenerated on failure. Nothing unsolvable, unfair, unsafe, or canon-breaking
> ever reaches a player.

## Read in this order

1. **`V8_features.md`** — the product: what V8 ships and the player experience.
2. **`V8_GAP_ANALYSIS.md`** — exactly what is missing in V1–V7, with file
   evidence.
3. **`V8_SOTA_RESEARCH.md`** — the external state of the art that grounds every
   decision (cited).
4. **`V8_ARCHITECTURE.md`** — the 11-stage pipeline, data contracts, subsystem
   designs.
5. **`V8_DEPENDENCIES.md`** — what V8 reuses, what it creates, what's new
   external.
6. **`V8_TODOS.md`** — the source-of-truth backlog: every task to bridge all
   systems and close all gaps.

For the curated Docs Center reading path and visual models, continue to the
[`docs/` guide](./docs/README.md) and [diagram atlas](./docs/diagram-atlas.md).

## Subsystems (the Ariadne / labyrinth myth cycle)

**Clew** (generative case engine) · **Minos** (formal solvability + fair-play
gate) · **Palimpsest** (continuity knowledge graph) · **Anansesɛm** (writers'
room) · **Loom** (asset realization via Isis) · **Ori-Detective** (living
suspects + ACE/Inworld interrogation) · **Daedalus** (case compiler + runtime
bridge into V5) · **Theseus** (automated playtester + quality judge) ·
**Oracle** (open-world case director).

## The eight release-decision gates (all must pass before a case reaches a player)

G1 formal uniqueness · G2 deductive completeness · G3 Knox/Van-Dine fair-play ·
G4 Theseus in-game solve · G5 independently calibrated human-aligned judge
evidence · G6 Sekhmet safety · G7 canon-consistency · G8 preregistered
human-quality launch evidence. Theseus's heuristic/PCA judge remains a
diagnostic and cannot satisfy G5 by itself.

The separate platform content harness retains seven differently ordered content
gates. It is an additional release check, not an alternative to the eight-gate
`ReleaseDecision`.