dynamics

stardust:dynamics — the dynamic surface of a migration

Static migration treats a page as content and layout. This skill treats it as behaviour: everything the source renders from JavaScript, a service or a data source, and everything the target host cannot serve the same way. Three real migrations found the same thing: the dynamic surface is invisible to a block-scoped, pixel-verified pipeline — and invisible in a way every gate certifies as correct. Modals rendered as links, video pills as CTAs without targets, a search box as a 404, forms that rendered and could not submit. This skill makes that surface visible and forces a decision per row before import, then proves the behaviour after delivery. It never blocks the static path; every page must still work as a static page.

When it runs — migration-bound, default-on there, never elsewhere

entry point	what runs here
prepare-migration Phase 4.5 · replica Phase 2	Phases 1–3 (detect on archetypes, classify, triage) — the pre-import gate
migrate Phase 1	safety net: no inventory → run Phases 1–3 now (hand-run extract → direct → prototype → migrate never passed a gate)
deploy	reads the inventory as brief input (fallback rows, #modal markers, endpoint config; never flatten client-only / modal-bearing sections)
rollout B2 · D2	B2 verifies the inventory against fresh evidence; D2 = Phase 4 for the self set + one owner batch
qa dynamics check · rollout report	Phase 5 replay of parity.json
standalone $stardust dynamics <origin>	all phases on a site that was already migrated without them

uplift, audit and a bare extract never trigger it: dynamics is a migration concern (EDS today, other platforms later), not a redesign one.

Phase 1 — Detect

node skills/dynamics/scripts/dynamics-detect.mjs --from-state stardust/state.json --out stardust/current [--reach stardust/current] (or --urls one per archetype + the home page). Depth on archetypes, reach from the crawl's extract --dynamics per-page signals. Output stardust/current/_dynamics.json + dynamic-features.generated.md. Evidence only. reference/classes-and-signals.md. For every search form found, run one probe term on the SOURCE and record what it shows — the visible result count, the top titles (≤ 3), one known hit — as expectCount / expectTitles / expectIncludes on the feature's search-query check (Phase 5; a spec's knowledge/search-probes.json already holds them); without them the rebuilt search can only be checked for presence.

Phase 2 — Classify

Every finding gets a class from L S F M V T A R X I18N CR D; known vendors resolve to a role through scripts/vendors.json; unknown third-party hosts stay visible as "inspect". When a target host exists, dynamics-plan.mjs --target-origin <host> probes every recorded first-party API path there and marks dead ones host-bound — the signal a pixel gate reports as "band shorter".

Phase 3 — Triage (the gate output)

node skills/dynamics/scripts/dynamics-plan.mjs [--target-origin …] [--migrated stardust/migrated] [--knowledge] [--chrome] --out stardust/dynamics drafts one row per finding with the four axes pre-filled — class · disposition · reproducibility · status — plus pattern, phase, the owner decision and target, the delivery form (widget where no authored rows remain — reference/triage.md § Target); --knowledge adds a spec's curated features, decisions from its open questions; --chrome a row per header-contract family (cart and account decide their backend, the UI ships). Curate it into stardust/dynamic-features.md (§ Listings contract + § Features + § Decision batch + § Register) and stardust/dynamic-features-plan.md. reference/triage.md is the contract. Rules that decide the shape of the phase:

• Reconcile against the migrated output before scheduling anything.
• Only reproducibility self ships autonomously; everything else is one decision batch.
• Never fabricate copy for a blank client-rendered capture; never auto-wire a regulated-pii form; a search box implies a results page; decided-out is explicit and owner-stated — a hands-off assumption never writes it.
• Gate: a row without a disposition fails prepare-migration 4.5 / replica Phase 2 / rollout B2. The static migration continues regardless.
• Martech only on request: when the owner asks to keep tags or consent, add --martech (reference/martech.md); everything is scaffolded off.

Phase 4 — Implement (per plan phase)

From reference/patterns.md (catalogue + contracts + embedded example mechanisms), reference/listings.md, reference/off-origin-data.md, reference/forms.md, reference/locale-trees.md. Principles that held on three sites: static first, then wire · authoring contract before code · no owner input, no waiting (ship the interim tier, name the decision) · existing library first (feed it, do not fork it) · decided-out is explicit. Each phase ends with the flow verified on the published origin at 1440 and 360, a parity row, a journal entry and a commit. Tooling: snapshot-api.mjs, snapshot-forms.mjs, sync-sheets.mjs. The query index comes from helix-query.yaml in the code branch — commit, push, publish live, poll — never from a configuration-service write; the sheet-backed interim index only when the branch is not writable (reference/listings.md § Getting an index at all). Search follows reference/patterns.md § search-index-backed. Listings and data-fed bands are document-first: the document carries the item text as authored rows, the block reads the index or snapshot only for non-text fields and top-up (reference/listings.md § Block contract; why: deploy/reference/ai-readability.md).

Phase 5 — Verify: dynamic parity

Write stardust/dynamics/parity.json (reference/parity-report.md) with replayable checks from the closed set; node skills/dynamics/scripts/dynamics-check.mjs --origin <published origin> [--auth-header … | --token-env SITE_TOKEN] writes stardust/qa/dynamics-report.md. Flows, not presence. A search-query check compares the result COUNT and the top titles with the source's recorded values — a count mismatch fails. The site secret rides an origin-scoped route filter only; third-party request statuses are recorded next to every assertion.

Hands-off resolutions

gate	resolution
owner decision (backend, tags on the new host, datasource ownership, locale scope)	ship the interim tier, record the decision by name in the plan and parity report, continue — never as decided-out, which takes an owner's statement or a hard blocker
unknown third-party host	classify from the XHR body; else T "inspect" — never drop silently
blank client-rendered capture	hard content gap → human-capture batch; never migrate blank
regulated-pii form	UI rebuilt, submission blocked, mandatory decision
hand-off target unreachable from the test network	environment-limit row with the egress region; not a defect
content source cannot receive submissions	local capture with an explicit "no backend connected" message; decision named

Hard blockers (event: "blocked")

Source unreachable from the probe network; target config not writable when endpoint indirection is required; an interim tier that would capture regulated data (record as decided-out instead).

Artifacts

stardust/current/_dynamics.json, dynamic-features.generated.md · stardust/dynamics/dynamic-features.generated-plan.{md,json} · stardust/dynamic-features.md, stardust/dynamic-features-plan.md (curated) · helix-query.yaml (listings + search, committed in the code branch) · data/<feature>/*.json + _provenance.json (snapshots, code bus) · scripts/site-config.js (owner-facing integrations, disabled) · stardust/martech-contract.json, martech-handoff.md, scripts/martech.js (opt-in) · stardust/dynamics/parity.json · stardust/qa/dynamics-report.{md,json} · register rows · journal + status lines.

References

• reference/classes-and-signals.md — the class axis, detector procedure, vendor table policy, origin-bound probe.
• reference/triage.md — the four axes, rules, the inventory file format.
• reference/patterns.md — catalogue: contracts + verification per pattern, example mechanisms.
• reference/listings.md — metadata contract + query-index mechanics (formerly rollout's dynamic-listings).
• reference/off-origin-data.md — feeding an existing library off-origin; sheet-backed data; chrome URL space.
• reference/forms.md — controls not form tags; intake by content source; regulated data.
• reference/parity-report.md — schema, check types, rules.
• reference/locale-trees.md — I18N as a tree.
• reference/martech.md — opt-in martech contract, owner enablement, runtime, verification.
• scripts/ — dynamics-detect.mjs, dynamics-plan.mjs, dynamics-check.mjs, snapshot-api.mjs, snapshot-forms.mjs, sync-sheets.mjs, vendors.json, lib.mjs, martech.mjs.