01
Connect the files
A hop log, write-ups, a read-only SQLite table, a spoken tape, and photographed-style stills. Each file keeps a content hash. Sources are read-only.
TRACE
Connect. Prepare. Relate. Ask. Show. Check the sources.
TRACE answers from the records on the desk. The public packs are a synthetic training detachment and published civil aviation tables, including NTSB cases and FAA wildlife-strike counts. They are not operational data.
02
Prepare without smoothing
Columns are typed. Keys are joined. If the log says 420 lb and the write-up says 380 lb, both stay. TRACE does not average.
03
Relate across families
Hop K-17 is a row, a paragraph, and a Whisper cue at 4.58 seconds. The write-up still says 4:12; TRACE does not average the two. Hop K-14 is a row and an OCR'd G-meter still. Hop K-08 is a row and a fuel still whose smudged 380 lb is quarantined. Relate two tables on a key yourself: TRACE reads both columns and reports the cardinality, the matched keys, and the orphan keys on each side.
04
Define a measure, then ask for it
Name a calculation once: count, sum, average, min, max, or a share, over a column, with an optional filter written as column op value. Then ask for it in plain words, by hop, by instructor, last week. The plan names the measure it used.
05
Ask in plain language
The planner shows what it understood: intent, hop, aircraft, window, the authored objects it used. A model does not invent the number.
06
Show the evidence
A list, a chart with axes and units, a map with a legend, a tape, a still with OCR boxes, or a read-only SELECT. Pin several answers to a board. The receipt URL holds the pack, the question, the authored objects, and the board. Reopened, it re-runs everything.
07
Say it plainly, under guard
A model may restate a computed answer in one or two sentences. It may not add a number, a date, or a name. The guard checks every token in the prose against the computed answer, rejects the sentence if one was introduced, and names the token. The public desk shows frozen completions only.
08
Check the lineage
Question to source rows to transforms to chart. Check names the civil terms that fired. If the identifier is not in the pack, the desk says it cannot answer. That path is the product.