Foundations
Lamps and aurora
The only colour in the kit is light: a lamp that is on, or a display that is lit. Each lamp has one meaning, and it always sits next to words.
One meaning to a colour
A lamp is a lens set into the plate. Lit, it says one thing, and the same thing everywhere in the kit. The lit displays are the other light: an LCD for clocks and counters, a VFD for frequencies and screens.
A switch that is on, “All systems normal”, the current rail item.
“In review”, charging, a latched selector key.
“Recording”, an error hint, a destructive key’s printing.
“Synced with the desk”, a paired device, a notice that asks nothing.
“Standby”, a unit that is on and idle. A cold white, not a bulb’s warm filament.
A lit LCD: clocks, battery, counters.
A lit VFD: frequencies, live plots, status screens.
Off is a state too
An unlit lamp is still drawn: a dim lens in the plate. The absence of light is information: the office circuit is off, not missing.
Always next to words
Colour is never the only thing that carries the meaning. Every lamp sits beside the words it stands for, so the state reads in either finish, to anyone, and to a screen reader. A lamp blinks only for a state that needs attention now, and stops blinking under reduced motion. Lamp and Status are the parts.
Aurora
Aurora is the one light of more than one colour: a slow field of three to five soft colours that drift and blend. It is light inside a lit display only, the dot-matrix and the cloth selector, and never a key, a badge or a surface.
Its colours carry no meaning, so a state is still said in words. It drifts on cycles of 12 to 40 seconds and never flashes, holds still off screen and in a hidden tab, and under reduced motion it is one still frame. The patterns are borealis, ember, lagoon, prism and mono, or two to five colours of your own.
The full law
This page is a summary in plain words. The brain holds the law itself, written for an agent to follow.
The full law, with the foundations they rest on and the anti-patterns that break them. Full rules ship in the brain with the Pass.