sideline/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-03-16-code-scroll-design.md

Code Scroll Mode — Design Spec

Date: 2026-03-16 Branch: feat/code-scroll Status: Approved

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Overview

Add a --code CLI flag that puts MAINLINE into "source consciousness" mode. Instead of RSS headlines or poetry stanzas, the program's own source code scrolls upward as large OTF half-block characters with the standard white-hot → deep green gradient. Each scroll item is one non-blank, non-comment line from engine/*.py, attributed to its enclosing function/class scope and dotted module path.

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Goals

• Mirror the existing --poetry mode pattern as closely as possible
• Zero new runtime dependencies (stdlib ast and pathlib only)
• No changes to scroll.py or the render pipeline
• The item tuple shape (text, src, ts) is unchanged

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New Files

engine/fetch_code.py

Single public function fetch_code() that returns (items, line_count, 0).

Algorithm:

1. Glob engine/*.py in sorted order
2. For each file: a. Read source text b. ast.parse(source) → build a {line_number: scope_label} map by walking all FunctionDef, AsyncFunctionDef, and ClassDef nodes. Each node covers its full line range. Inner scopes override outer ones. c. Iterate source lines (1-indexed). Skip if:
   • The stripped line is empty
   • The stripped line starts with # d. For each kept line emit:
   • text = line.rstrip() (preserve indentation for readability in the big render)
   • src = scope label from the AST map, e.g. stream() for functions, MicMonitor for classes, <module> for top-level lines
   • ts = dotted module path derived from filename, e.g. engine/scroll.py → engine.scroll
3. Return (items, len(items), 0)

Scope label rules:

• FunctionDef / AsyncFunctionDef → name()
• ClassDef → name (no parens)
• No enclosing node → <module>

Dependencies: ast, pathlib — stdlib only.

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Modified Files

engine/config.py

Extend MODE detection to recognise --code:

MODE = (
    "poetry" if "--poetry" in sys.argv or "-p" in sys.argv
    else "code" if "--code" in sys.argv
    else "news"
)

engine/app.py

Subtitle line — extend the subtitle dict:

_subtitle = {
    "poetry": "literary consciousness stream",
    "code":   "source consciousness stream",
}.get(config.MODE, "digital consciousness stream")

Boot sequence — add elif config.MODE == "code": branch after the poetry branch:

elif config.MODE == "code":
    from engine.fetch_code import fetch_code
    slow_print("  > INITIALIZING SOURCE ARRAY...\n")
    time.sleep(0.2)
    print()
    items, line_count, _ = fetch_code()
    print()
    print(f"  {G_DIM}>{RST} {G_MID}{line_count} LINES ACQUIRED{RST}")

No cache save/load — local source files are read instantly and change only on disk writes.

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Data Flow

engine/*.py (sorted)
    │
    ▼
fetch_code()
    │  ast.parse → scope map
    │  filter blank + comment lines
    │  emit (line, scope(), engine.module)
    ▼
items: List[Tuple[str, str, str]]
    │
    ▼
stream(items, ntfy, mic)   ← unchanged
    │
    ▼
next_headline() shuffles + recycles automatically

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Error Handling

• If a file fails to ast.parse (malformed source), fall back to <module> scope for all lines in that file — do not crash.
• If engine/ contains no .py files (shouldn't happen in practice), fetch_code() returns an empty list; app.py's existing if not items: guard handles this.

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Testing

New file: tests/test_fetch_code.py

Test	Assertion
test_items_are_tuples	Every item from fetch_code() is a 3-tuple of strings
test_blank_and_comment_lines_excluded	No item text is empty; no item text (stripped) starts with #
test_module_path_format	Every ts field matches pattern engine\.\w+

No mocking — tests read the real engine source files, keeping them honest against actual content.

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CLI

python3 mainline.py --code        # source consciousness mode
uv run mainline.py --code

Compatible with all existing flags (--no-font-picker, --font-file, --firehose, etc.).

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Out of Scope

• Syntax highlighting / token-aware coloring (can be added later)
• --code-dir flag for pointing at arbitrary directories (YAGNI)
• Caching code items to disk