simocracy-v2 · gathering-context-field

Gathering context field for sim-facing event briefing

@daviddao

Event creators can now attach a briefing to any org.simocracy.gathering record. The briefing lands in the AI system prompt every time a sim chats, deliberates, or runs an S-Process inside the event — and renders to humans in the event Info sidebar.

Date: 2026-04-24 · Target: simocracy.org · Commits: 738542c, cd8675c · pass

---

Headline result

What changed

1. Lexicon — org.simocracy.gathering

Two optional properties added next to description / descriptionFacets:

"context": {
  "type": "string",
  "maxLength": 50000,
  "maxGraphemes": 5000,
  "description": "Background / briefing material for sims participating in this event. Shown to AI sims as event context so they can act efficiently (e.g. prior decisions, mission, constraints, data, links)."
},
"contextFacets": {
  "type": "array",
  "items": { "type": "ref", "ref": "app.bsky.richtext.facet" },
  "description": "Rich text facets for context"
}

Sized 5× description (5000 vs 3000 graphemes) to fit a real briefing — agenda + prior decisions + constraints + links — without bloating the record.

2. AI prompt helper — lib/gathering-prompt.ts

One small helper used by every AI endpoint, returns "" when there's no context so callers can append unconditionally:

export function formatGatheringContext(opts: {
  gatheringName?: string;
  gatheringType?: string;
  context?: string;
}): string {
  if (!opts.context || !opts.context.trim()) return "";
  const header = opts.gatheringName
    ? `## Event Context — ${opts.gatheringName}${opts.gatheringType ? ` (${opts.gatheringType})` : ""}`
    : `## Event Context`;
  return `${header}\nThe following briefing was provided by the event organisers. Use it to ground your reasoning and reference it where relevant.\n\n${opts.context.trim()}\n\n`;
}

3. AI endpoints wired

Endpoint	Where the context lands
/api/chat	System prompt, between speaking-style and user-identity blocks
/api/hearing	Senator system prompt for evaluate + respond, moderator prompt for summarize
/api/discussion	Both sims' system prompts
/api/s-process/evaluate	Recommender prompt before MVF instructions
/api/s-process/evaluate-batch	Recommender prompt for FTC batch eval
/api/s-process/deliberate	Round-2 deliberation prompt
/api/sim-heartbeat	Per-duty context field exposed to agentic sims

Callers (gathering-world, ftc-s-process-modal, sim-chat-modal, sim-discussion-modal) thread the context through when they're invoked inside an event. The senate-hearing-modal has a TODO comment because it isn't gathering-aware today — leaving that wiring for a follow-up keeps this PR focused.

4. UI

• components/events/gathering-form-dialog.tsx — new Context for Sims textarea (max 5000 chars, 6 rows) immediately below the Description field, with a helper line explaining where it lands.
• components/events/gathering-world.tsx — new collapsible Context for Sims section in the Info sidebar, with a BookOpen icon and an italic note: "Shared with sims when they participate in this event."
• components/events/events-gallery.tsx — passes the field through to the edit dialog.
• components/events/event-card.tsx — intentionally untouched; cards keep their existing shortDescription-only preview.

Production verification

1. PDS round-trip via com.atproto.repo.putRecord

Created a real test gathering on the facilitator PDS and read it back. The record carries context verbatim:

$ curl -s "https://climateai.org/xrpc/com.atproto.repo.getRecord" \
    --data-urlencode "repo=did:plc:awtx57rxuisy4sf4kzzr3uhf" \
    --data-urlencode "collection=org.simocracy.gathering" \
    --data-urlencode "rkey=3lxtest19dc040f1c3" -G | jq .value

{
  "name": "Context Field Verification Event",
  "$type": "org.simocracy.gathering",
  "status": "application",
  "context": "BRIEFING FOR SIMS\n\nMission: Evaluate whether the new gathering.context field …",
  "simSize": "normal",
  "simScope": "council",
  "createdAt": "2026-04-24T16:09:34Z",
  "description": "This event exists solely to verify that the new context field round-trips …",
  "gatheringType": "governance",
  "shortDescription": "Smoke test for the new org.simocracy.gathering.context field."
}

Identifiers (so the record is auditable):

2. UI walkthrough — production (simocracy.org)

3. Indexer — simocracy-indexer on Railway

The Railway-hosted indexer keeps its own copy of the lexicon JSONs and registers them into the GraphQL schema via lex-gql. I synced all drift, redeployed via railway up (the service has no GitHub auto-deploy hook), and confirmed the new typed fields are live:

$ curl -s -X POST https://simocracy-indexer-production.up.railway.app/graphql \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{"query":"{ orgSimocracyGathering(first:1){ edges{ node{ simScope context } } } }"}' | jq

{
  "data": {
    "orgSimocracyGathering": {
      "edges": [{
        "node": {
          "simScope": "council",
          "context": "BRIEFING FOR SIMS\n\nMission: Evaluate whether the new gathering.context field …"
        }
      }]
    }
  }
}

Drift I also fixed in the same sweep:

• gathering.json — added context, contextFacets, simScope (matches v2)
• sim.json — added sprite blob (missing on indexer for two days)
• interviewTemplate.json — added the required "type":"object" on the record body (goat lex parse couldn't handle the omission)

4. ATProto network — lexicons published on gainforest.earth

All 10 org.simocracy.* lexicons are owned by the gainforest.earth account (did:plc:qoti4acfmc5wg6zzmtix6hse, PDS discina.us-west.host.bsky.network) as com.atproto.lexicon.schema records. The NSID is discoverable via DNS:

$ dig +short TXT _lexicon.simocracy.org
"did=did:plc:qoti4acfmc5wg6zzmtix6hse"

$ goat lex resolve --did org.simocracy.gathering
did:plc:qoti4acfmc5wg6zzmtix6hse

Installed goat (brew install goat, v0.2.3), loaded the gainforest.earth app password from .env.goat, and published the three updated schemas:

$ export GOAT_USERNAME=gainforest.earth GOAT_PASSWORD=…
$ goat lex publish --update lexicons/
  🟣 org.simocracy.gathering       # updated
  🟣 org.simocracy.interview       # updated (template ref)
  🟢 org.simocracy.interviewTemplate  # newly published

Post-publish status — every schema now in sync with the network:

  agents              🟢 org.simocracy.agents
  defs                🟢 org.simocracy.defs
  gathering           🟢 org.simocracy.gathering
  history             🟢 org.simocracy.history
  interview           🟢 org.simocracy.interview
  interviewTemplate   🟢 org.simocracy.interviewTemplate
  sim                 🟢 org.simocracy.sim
  skill               🟢 org.simocracy.skill
  star                🟢 org.simocracy.star
  style               🟢 org.simocracy.style

Findings

Reproducing