Checks & lighting

Why checks exist

Reading an explanation is the weakest form of learning. Codemble makes you prove understanding with short active checks before a region lights up.

Where questions come from

Every check is generated from your code’s real graph, so the answer is always verifiably correct:

• “Which function does main() call first?” — from call edges
• “Which files import utils?” — from import edges
• “If you deleted foo(), what would break?” — from its callers
• “Where does execution start?” — from the entrypoint

Questions and answers are deterministic in v1. The check service uses exactly four parser-owned evidence families:

• first certain project call, ordered by real source line
• direct project imports
• direct callers that depend on a structure
• parser-ranked execution entrypoint

The provider is not called to phrase, score, or explain a check. The response sent to the browser withholds the answer; submission is compared against the immutable generated option IDs. After an attempt, Codemble shows the graph-owned answer and its real file:line evidence. A check that cannot be derived with certainty is not offered.

Lighting rules

• Pass a region’s checks → its stars light permanently. Back at galaxy level that system plays a 1.2-second nebula dawn — amber washing out through its halo and fog and receding. The lit state is saved before the animation runs, so the dawn marks a fact rather than delivering it, and prefers-reduced-motion skips straight to the finished lit state.
• Progress is saved locally and survives restarts.
• Edit a file → only that region re-dims. Understanding is re-earned where the code actually changed, never globally revoked.

Progress lives in a project-keyed JSON record under ~/.codemble/progress and is written only after every offered check in the region passes. Each region is bound to a deterministic signature of its current parser file hashes. On the next run, matching regions light and changed regions stay dim; no background watcher or network service is involved.

Right answers say so

A correct answer is confirmed in place — “Correct. That answer is fixed by the parser graph.” — before the next question loads. A wrong answer still shows the graph’s answer and the evidence behind it.

Why a region can stay dim forever

Every question Codemble asks is answered by the parser graph, and every question must offer at least one wrong option. A region with no certain relationship gives Codemble nothing to build a question from, so it stays dim and says so. Lighting it anyway would mean the amber said something untrue about what you understand. Import that module somewhere, or call something inside it, and its checks appear.

Starting a project over

The star chart has a Clear this project’s progress control behind a confirmation. It forgets the understood regions for the project you have open and nothing else: progress is stored per project in ~/.codemble/progress/, and other projects keep theirs. Your Easy/Expert preference survives the reset.