A Firebrand Is Not a Bonfire
A bonfire stays where you built it. A firebrand is the piece you pull out of the hearth and carry to a cold pile. The name is the product: take a working coal somewhere the vendor hearth does not reach — a machine with one local model, a session you can replay without calling anyone, a record you can hand to a measuring instrument.
That is why the engine is bare by default. A brand that will not light unless the whole house is already warm is not a brand. It is furniture.
Kindle, Not Install
Other family apps talk about install, deploy, launch. Firebrand talks about kindling. The kindle gate is a specific proof: a door file may attach a compiled mini identity for a local model, and a planted harness convention file in the same workspace must not be read. The coal is allowed to catch. The house rules of every other harness are not allowed to pour gasoline on a small context window.
Cloud legs later received harness-file parity, because a frontier context window can hold the same convention files every other harness already reads. That amendment does not travel backward. Local legs still never read those files. The metaphor stays directional: you carry fire out. You do not drag the hearth with you.
Where the Metaphor Stops
It does not mean every session is romantic or dangerous. Most turns are ordinary: read a file, edit a file, stop. The metaphor is a test for design decisions. Does this feature still work on a cold machine with one model and no account? If it does not, it is not part of the coal. It is part of a hearth you can attach later.