Progressive Unlock System — Grimoire Public Design Spec

tags: [grimoire gamification]

Progressive Unlock System — Grimoire Public Design Spec

Date: 2026-04-17 (v40 Wave 7.5 strategic pivot) Status: DESIGN — implementation targeted v41 Scope: Grimoire Public ONLY. Master ISO has pass-through mode that auto-grants all unlocks at boot. GoodLife ignores this subsystem entirely. Parent doc: SALVAGED_HARDWARE_MESH_VISION.md

tags: [grimoire gamification]

1. Behavior per profile

Profile	Progression behavior
Master	`synos-progression-daemon` runs in `--godmode` flag. All unlocks granted at boot. XP ledger is a no-op. Tool installation is unrestricted. This is non-negotiable: Master is the devops environment that builds Grimoire’s content.
Grimoire Public	Full progression system active. Starter kit unlocked; everything else gated by XP/quest/faction milestones. Cannot be disabled by user (enforced by curtain v2 runtime ceiling).
GoodLife	No progression system. Research tools available as configured by profile.

Curtain enforcement rule: if /etc/synos/profile reads grimoire, the progression daemon MUST be running and MUST NOT be in pass-through mode. synos-grimoire-ceiling-check service validates this at boot and panics (service-level) if bypass detected.

tags: [grimoire gamification]

2. State model

Per-player state

~/.local/share/synos/progression/state.toml (per-user):

[player]
xp = 0
level = 1
active_faction = "none"           # none | crimson_spire | neon_collective | warden
faction_reputation = {}            # faction_name → 0..100

[unlocks]
tools = ["nmap", "wireshark", "netcat", "curl", "tcpdump", "strace", "ltrace", "hexdump", "binwalk", "strings"]  # 10 starter tools
labs_unlocked = ["intro-networking", "intro-packet-capture", "intro-log-triage", "intro-scripting", "intro-ssh"]
labs_completed = []
faction_missions_completed = []

[mesh]
joined = false
role = "standalone"                # standalone | edge | worker | master_candidate
peer_count = 0
benchmarking_score = 0             # XP awarded for distributed compute participation

[telemetry_optin]
anonymized_metrics = false         # opt-in only, for community leaderboard

System-wide unlock catalog

/opt/synos/progression/catalog.toml (ships in ISO, signed):

[tools.metasploit]
unlock_level = 15
prerequisites = ["intermediate-exploitation", "lab-port-scanning-advanced"]
faction_reputation_required = { crimson_spire = 40 }

[tools.hashcat]
unlock_level = 8
prerequisites = ["intro-crypto", "intermediate-passwords"]
faction_reputation_required = {}

[tools.sliver]
unlock_level = 25
prerequisites = ["advanced-c2-theory", "sandbox-labs-complete"]
faction_reputation_required = { crimson_spire = 75 }

[labs.mesh-your-first-node]
unlock_level = 5
prerequisites = ["intro-networking"]
rewards = { xp = 500, tool_unlocks = ["synos-hive-profiler-cli"], faction_reputation = { "The Warden" = 10 } }
faction_specific = false

[labs.salvage-yard-intro]
unlock_level = 7
prerequisites = ["mesh-your-first-node"]
rewards = { xp = 1000, tool_unlocks = ["synos-hive-attestor-cli"], achievement = "first-salvaged-node" }

tags: [grimoire gamification]

3. Event bus + triggers

synos-progression-daemon (Rust binary in fruit/crates/synos-progression/) subscribes to:

Input events (from GRIMOIRE game engine)

lab_completed — player finishes a lab instance with passing score
faction_mission_completed — player completes a faction mission
achievement_unlocked — named achievement triggered
mesh_node_joined — a new mesh node successfully attested + registered

Output events (to system)

unlock_tool_request { name } — daemon invokes synos-tool-installer which calls pacman -S or docker load from the pre-bundled archive
unlock_lab_request { name } — daemon flips lab visibility in GRIMOIRE UI + extracts lab assets
unlock_config_preset { preset } — daemon overlays config templates onto user’s ~/.config

The unlock path (concrete example)

Player completes intro-networking lab with score 85/100
GRIMOIRE game engine emits lab_completed{name="intro-networking", score=85}
Progression daemon reads event, credits 500 XP, checks catalog for labs whose prerequisites are now satisfied
Catalog says mesh-your-first-node requires intro-networking → unlocked
Daemon writes updated state, fires unlock_lab_request{name="mesh-your-first-node"}
Lab loader extracts lab assets from the pre-bundled archive (reusing the content-addressable storage Cipher A built for Docker labs)
GRIMOIRE UI shows the new lab as available
Player’s XP ticker animates, new-lab notification fires

tags: [grimoire gamification]

4. Auto-extract on unlock

Leverage the existing content-addressable bundle architecture from Wave 7 Cipher A:

The entire ISO ships with ALL Grimoire tools + ALL lab assets pre-bundled (compressed, deduped)
On unlock, the daemon triggers selective extraction from the bundle — NOT a re-pull
Bundle index at /opt/synos/progression/bundle-index.toml maps unlock-name → list of sha256 blobs → extraction destination
Extraction is atomic (temp dir → rename) and idempotent (re-triggering reuses existing extraction)

Advantages:

First-install experience is fast (bundle is single compressed artifact)
Progressive unlock doesn’t require network (offline-capable)
Same mechanism works for tools (extract to /usr/local/), configs (overlay to ~/.config/), labs (materialize to ~/.local/share/grimoire/labs/)

tags: [grimoire gamification]

5. Master pass-through mode

On Master ISO:

synos-progression-daemon starts with SYNOS_PROFILE=master environment
At boot, daemon reads /etc/synos/profile — if “master”, enters pass-through mode
Pass-through mode: reads catalog, generates full unlock event stream as if every prerequisite was met
All tools extracted to /usr/local/ on first boot (via Cipher A’s systemd one-shot)
All labs materialized to /opt/synos/grimoire/labs/ (via Cipher A’s image loader)
Daemon exits cleanly after pass-through flood, marks ~/.local/share/synos/progression/.master-godmode flag

The pass-through state is explicit and auditable — a Master operator can verify everything is unlocked by checking the flag file + running synos-progression status.

tags: [grimoire gamification]

6. Curtain v2 — runtime capability ceiling (Grimoire only)

Separate from progressive unlock. Unlocks are capability gates WITHIN Grimoire’s scope. The ceiling is a harder boundary.

Enforcement points:

Kernel syscall dispatch — syscalls 470-474 (AI dispatch) return ENOSYS on Grimoire; 469/475/476/477 work normally
ALFRED consciousness cortex — high-stakes decisions flagged for Master-tier tenants are silently dropped on Grimoire
LLM federation — discovery protocol tagged by tier; Grimoire nodes refuse federation with Master nodes and vice versa
Audit chain — HMAC root key for Grimoire is different; Grimoire chains cannot be merged with Master chains
Fragment Field IDS — kernel detection disabled; userspace measurement only
C2 framework binaries — scrubbed at build time by cargo xtask grimoire-ceiling-check

Bypass attempts:

Editing /etc/synos/profile to forge “master” — blocked because the file is on an immutable verity-protected rootfs (Rec 12 immutable rootfs is prerequisite)
Recompiling ALFRED with master features — blocked because the restricted crates (LicenseRef-Proprietary) are not in the Grimoire source tree at all
Loading a master-signed kernel module — blocked because Grimoire’s kernel MOK key is different and module.sig_enforce=1

tags: [grimoire gamification]

7. v40 vs v41 scope

v40 ships (this session if time permits, else next session)

This design doc ✓
Grimoire-minimal starter profile (fruit/iso/profiles/grimoire-minimal.toml) with starter 10 tools
Catalog file skeleton at fruit/iso/progression/catalog.toml.template
Project roadmap update documenting the pivot ✓

v41 implements

fruit/crates/synos-progression/ full crate implementation
synos-progression-daemon + synos-tool-installer userspace binaries
Event bus wiring into GRIMOIRE game engine
Bundle-index generator in stage 14
Master pass-through mode at daemon startup
Grimoire ceiling enforcement (first pass: syscall-level + cargo xtask grimoire-ceiling-check)
8-10 new Salvage Yard labs teaching mesh construction

v42 hardens

Curtain v2 runtime ceiling full enforcement (immutable rootfs, tier-tagged federation, audit chain separation)
Hardware mesh auto-discovery + profiler tier classification
E-waste reduction metrics (anonymized leaderboard opt-in)
The Salvage Yard quest arc expansion

tags: [grimoire gamification]

This design spec is derived from SALVAGED_HARDWARE_MESH_VISION.md. Any conflict between this doc and the parent is resolved in favor of the parent.