Synthesis, Party, Apprentice

Synthesis starts with independent drafts and a tag bench. Instead of crowning one entry, judges tag the worth-taking parts of each. A dedicated synthesis seat receives that tag map and weaves one new artifact with a contribution map. The final bench scores the original field plus the synthesis; the synthesis wins only if it beats the best single entry.

Party tests chosen peer review against solo controls. Dad marks which slots may use support and composes the reviewer pool. On the sealed rail, an enabled author chooses a reviewer identity-aware from that pool while the reviewer receives a scrubbed draft and not the author's identity. On the Open rail, the author picks exactly one composed pool entry through its own harness. In both, the reviewer returns critique only and the author keeps every byte of authorship.

Apprentice adds guidance before drafting. On the sealed rail, Dad composes a mentor pool and the apprentice chooses from it identity-aware, excluding its own brain. On the Open rail, Dad assigns the mentor specification to the slot at composition. The mentor supplies outline, constraints, or craft notes—never the deliverable—and solo slots remain controls.

These modes are not generic collaboration. Synthesis creates a new combined contender, Party adds fresh eyes after a draft, and Apprentice adds guidance before authorship begins. Their rail-specific pairing machinery differs, but support never transfers authorship or enters the bench.

State the rail before the pairing rule. Recombination, post-draft critique, and pre-draft guidance remain three distinct pressure graphs.

Code

A synthesis has to beat the field·python

def synthesis(entries, tags, score):
    """Combining is not itself a success."""
    combined = "+".join(tags[e] for e in entries)
    best_original = max(entries, key=score)
    if score(combined) > score(best_original):
        return {"winner": combined, "crowned": "synthesis"}
    return {"winner": best_original, "crowned": "original"}


def party_pick(pool, author, rail):
    """Sealed excludes self; open has no such rule — deliberately different."""
    if rail == "sealed":
        return [p for p in pool if p != author][:1]
    return pool[:1]


entries = ["A", "BB"]
tags = {"A": "a", "BB": "bb"}
print(synthesis(entries, tags, score=len))          # combined is longer -> crown
print(synthesis(["AAAAA"], {"AAAAA": "x"}, score=len))  # cannot beat -> original

assert party_pick(["a", "b"], author="a", rail="sealed") == ["b"]
assert party_pick(["a", "b"], author="a", rail="open") == ["a"]

Synthesis, Party, Apprentice

Synthesis, Party, Apprentice

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