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Lacuna (demonstration specimen — NOT a member)

Status: Not a federation member. Lacuna is the federation's canonical demonstrator — "the MissingNo of the Weft suite," a deliberately-flawed reference application the suite is run against and regression-demonstrated with. Repo: ~/lacuna · Language: Python Surface facts (snapshot 2026-06-05 — NOT authoritative here; see the repo): in build (re-keyed from the old testo sandbox); specimen + planted-flaw manifest (tour/lacunae.toml) complete; the tour harness + positioning docs in flight. Authoritative: ~/lacuna/README.md, ~/lacuna/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-06-05-lacuna-repivot-design.md.

Why "Potemkin"

Lacuna's flaws are intentional and permanent — catalogued in tour/lacunae.toml, baselined in wardline.yaml so the gate stays honest (catalogued flaws pass; genuinely new violations fail). Removing a planted lacuna fails make verify. It exists to be analyzed, not to do real work:

  • Planted trust-boundary violations for Wardline to catch (e.g. PY-WL-101/102/103/104 in specimen/trust_flow.py, exception_flow.py).
  • Planted structural findings for Loomweave (dead entity, circular import in specimen/dead_code.py, cycle_a.py/cycle_b.py).
  • Tracked work in Filigree (.filigree/), Loomweave analysis (.loomweave/), Wardline baseline (.wardline/). Legis/Charter wiring is design-only so far.

What it demonstrates (the matrix, end to end)

Lacuna is where the federation-map becomes runnable: Wardline+Loomweave dossier reads, Wardline→Filigree findings-as-work, Loomweave+Filigree issues bound to SEI with drift detection, and (where live) the Legis/Charter cells. It is the thing a newcomer runs to see the suite work.

Relationship to "elspeth"

Loomweave names elspeth (~425k LOC real Python) as its first-customer scale target. Lacuna is the small, deliberately-flawed demo specimen — complementary, not the same role. Lacuna is the showcase; elspeth is the scale proof.

Lacuna is documented here because the hub is the federation's front door and the demo is part of the federation story. It is not counted in the roster (doctrine.md, conflict-register.md §A-2).