PrismStudio

Native CAD and deterministic simulation for exploratory photonic computing

PrismStudio is a native, pure-Zag workbench for designing, inspecting, and deterministically simulating spatial balanced-ternary photonic processors. It brings 3D layout, routing, signal inspection, physical-model provenance, and authorized automation together in one local desktop application.

See the current workbench

The current design workspace: searchable component library, 3D viewport, hierarchical outliner, inspector, and signal timeline.

A compact routed reference design, showing the layout, component hierarchy, and live signal controls in the same native workspace.

A current Flash FIR-imported PCU design in the native workbench, with the library, outliner, and detector signal timeline visible together.

Design the system. Inspect the signal. Keep the evidence.

• A purpose-built native workbench. Compose components and waveguides in a dark X11 desktop UI with a searchable library, drag-to-place layout, inspector, outliner, signal timeline, section view, measurement, snapping, grouping, and design warnings.
• A deterministic design loop. PrismStudio couples a voxel design-rule engine, deterministic 3D waveguide router, and symbolic/phase-aware balanced-ternary simulator so a design can be laid out, analyzed, and revisited reproducibly.
• Evidence-first physical modeling. Schema v2 records 25 provenance-bearing parameters across emitters, waveguides, chambers, memory tiles, detectors, substrates, ports, and material stacks. Unknown stays unknown; the simulator does not invent a missing physical value.
• Automation you can audit. Native line and MCP interfaces provide revision-checked mutations, stable UI control IDs and bounds, live screenshots, physical-model inspection, and an append-only local audit trail.

What you can do today

• Build a photonic design visually, inspect its hierarchy and parameters, and route 3D waveguides through the scene.
• Run deterministic software simulation, scrub detector signals in the timeline, and cross-highlight the corresponding geometry in 3D.
• Import Flash hardware IR (.fir) as a routed photonic design and verify its detector results against compiler-recorded balanced-ternary expectations.
• Save, version, recover, export, and undo project edits with transactional project operations.
• Review background optimizer proposals for equivalence-verified dead paths and constant operations before applying them. Auto-apply is off by default.
• Drive the same project and UI through authorized CLI or MCP automation, including physical model/provenance reads and guarded UI activation.

An honest boundary

PrismStudio is software for design-model verification, not a claim of fabricated or laboratory-validated photonic hardware. The bundled reference device model is explicitly labeled Illustrative; values provided by users, literature, or measurements retain their own evidence labels.

The production viewport is the CPU renderer and its permanent reference/fallback. An AMDGPU runtime is present for research, but is experimental, opt-in, and not certified on the current single-GPU display system. PrismStudio makes no GPU performance or dispatch-reliability claim.

Build, run, and verify

The supported compiler is the sibling Zag checkout's self-hosted native compiler. No C compiler, libc, Xlib, Mesa, LLVM, or Python service is used by PrismStudio.

./build.sh             # production binary plus safe CPU/X11 checks
./verify.sh safe       # all safe suites with JSON result records
./verify.sh release    # requires a real X11 session
./run.sh               # native X11 workbench
./zagpa --gpu-virtual-display /tmp/prism-vgpu.bmp --width 320 --height 240
./zagpa --gpu-cert-status  # read-only exact tuple, refusal reason, next action
                       # compiler-ISA virtual GPU frame; never opens DRM
./zagpa --gpu-backend-status virtual  # explicit choice; zero DRM probes
./zagpa --gpu-backend-status cpu      # explicit CPU-only choice
./zagpa --gpu-backend-status auto     # safe default; read-only hardware probe
./zagpa --gpu-virtual-shadow /tmp/prism-shadow.bmp --width 320 --height 240
                       # full Prism frame through VM, equality required
./zagctl repl          # native line protocol
./zagctl mcp           # native MCP server
./zagctl flash import ../flash/examples/photonic_massive.fir

The Zag certification runner defaults to read-only preflight and persists its exact device/HW-IP/discovery/ring/firmware/compiler/runtime tuple plus the kernel-log baseline. Each explicit run advances at most one resumable physical fill and retains tuple, output, kernel-log, fence, timing, and anomaly evidence:

../zag/zag-poc/znc tools/gpu_certify.zag -o /tmp/prism-gpu-certify
/tmp/prism-gpu-certify
PRISM_GPU_SHARED_DISPLAY_OVERRIDE=I_ACCEPT_DISPLAY_RESET_OR_SYSTEM_HANG \
  /tmp/prism-gpu-certify --count 100 \
  --state evidence/gpu-fill-campaign.state \
  --report evidence/gpu-fill-campaign.report

--run-one is the conservative default explicit step. --count N accepts 1..10,000, but still creates a fresh bounded context for each sequential attempt, checks logs and output, checkpoints every completion, and stops on the first anomaly.

The host-contained alternative executes the same compiler bundles through Zag's strict virtual GFX10.1 device and never opens DRM:

../zag/zag-poc/znc tools/gpu_virtual_certify.zag -o /tmp/prism-vgpu-certify
/tmp/prism-vgpu-certify --backend virtual \
  --report evidence/gpu-virtual-certification.report

It requires one million actual VM submissions, 10,000 fills/transfers, a full logical-day state-machine soak, and raster differentials. The report always says physical_silicon_claim=0; virtual evidence cannot enable physical auto mode. Virtualization is an option, not a language mandate. PRISM_GPU_BACKEND and --gpu-backend-status accept auto, cpu, virtual, or physical. Explicit cpu and virtual make zero DRM probes. auto is the default and may inspect hardware read-only, but selects physical execution only for an exact certified, reset-isolated tuple; otherwise it selects the available virtual backend, then CPU. Explicit physical selection is retained, with its isolation or exact acknowledgement requirement and separate dispatch gate unchanged.

./verify.sh safe is the everyday source of truth. It exercises the safe build, engine, persistence, routing, simulation, optimizer, automation, physical-model, and claim-audit suites; native X11 tests and captures run when DISPLAY is available. GPU memory, submission, and compute checks are separate explicit research modes, not a hidden prerequisite for the safe result.

Physical dispatch defaults to reset-isolated hardware, but Zag preserves an informed user's choice. A bounded manual run on shared display hardware requires both the dispatch opt-in and an exact acknowledgement:

PRISMSTUDIO_GPU_DISPATCH=1 \
PRISM_GPU_SHARED_DISPLAY_OVERRIDE=I_ACCEPT_DISPLAY_RESET_OR_SYSTEM_HANG \
./build.sh

The override never counts as isolation, certification, automatic promotion, or permission for destructive testing. Omitting it preserves the safe default.

Automation with deliberate authority

Native agents default to read,inspect,simulate. Mutation, save, export, local execution, and admin operations require an explicit PRISMSTUDIO_CAPS grant. The generated local MCP configuration (mcp-config.json, gitignored and rebuilt by ./zagpa --mcp-install) mirrors PRISMSTUDIO_CAPS from the install environment and falls back to read,inspect,simulate; widening to all is a deliberate PRISMSTUDIO_CAPS=all ./zagpa --mcp-install "$(pwd)", never a silent default. Requests and denials are appended to .prismstudio/audit.log (or PRISMSTUDIO_AUDIT).

Project mutations use request <idempotency-key> <expected-revision> <command>. zagctl creates this envelope automatically using the current revision; set PRISMSTUDIO_IDEMPOTENCY to a stable caller key when retrying. MCP clients use the advertised prismstudio_mutate tool or a specialized mutation tool whose schema requires idempotency_key and expected_revision. Successful results include the revision, idempotency key, affected ID, and undo token. Unkeyed mutations are rejected.

Authorized automation can inspect the live interface with ui list, capture it with ui screenshot <path.bmp>, and activate an advertised control with the revision-checked ui activate <element-id> mutation. The widget-generated catalog reports stable IDs, semantic roles, enabled/active/focused state, and exact live click bounds. MCP exposes the same contract as prismstudio_ui_list, prismstudio_ui_screenshot, and prismstudio_ui_activate.

Physical model and provenance

Help → Physical Model & Provenance opens the project-pinned model browser. Evidence levels are Illustrative, User-entered, Simulated, Literature-derived, Measured, and Unknown. Board timing is derived from the selected model's component response parameters, routed geometry, and material group index; no frequency is a universal PrismStudio constant.

Legacy schema-v1 projects stay pinned until the user or an authorized agent explicitly migrates them. Migration retains existing values and marks newly introduced fields Unknown rather than manufacturing evidence.

Project map

src/main.zag          native X11, headless, agent, and MCP entry point
src/device_model.zag  versioned physical inputs and provenance classes
src/scene.zag         components, ports, occupancy, and optical graph
src/routing.zag       deterministic 3D waveguide router
src/sim.zag           balanced-ternary symbolic/physical simulation
src/optimizer.zag     continuous equivalence-verified optimizer
src/editops.zag       transactional edits, undo/redo, and project format
src/viewport.zag      CPU 3D reference renderer and picking
src/x11.zag           direct X11 wire-protocol client
src/gpu_rt.zag        opt-in direct AMDGPU research runtime
tools/verify.zag      pure-Zag verification orchestrator
evidence/             master-plan ledger and release evidence index

The complete implementation and acceptance contract is in masterplan.md; unchecked items remain incomplete even when a narrower test passes. See release notes for the current verified scope, automation and recovery details for the project and agent contracts, reference PCU reproduction for the maintained workload, and the evidence index for the verification record.