Tier 1
The Bench
Where it starts: the measured twin of the real Kobalt bench - pegboard, organizer, two drawers, the shelf. The work surface stays clear; that's the rule.
Bench Integrity ≥ 80 · 10 verified items
Field note · The Living Workshop
Grow the shop, not the set.
It's an exact twin of the workbench in my garage - and it starts empty on purpose. Reality fills it: photograph an item, place it where the twin says, prove it with a photo. Organizing the real mess is the game.
You don't win by perfecting a chess set, and you don't win with pretend money. You win by making the real bench legible: every item captured by camera, placed where the recommender argues it belongs, verified by photo. Evidence beats claims - verified items unlock recipes, real builds add real capacity, and the next ring of space (the wall, the garage, the house) only opens when the inner one is provably organized.
How it works
Capture → place → verify → build
One loop drives everything, and every step of it is real. Photograph an item, place it where the recommender argues, prove it with a photo, and build with what the evidence says you own. Repeat until the house is the workshop.
- 01CapturePhotograph one real item off the bench. Vision drafts what it is; you correct it - the model proposes, you dispose.
- 02PlaceA deterministic recommender argues the slot: daily tools earn eye-level pegboard, blades live sheathed in drawers, heavy goes low.
- 03VerifyShoot the container. A confident yes is the only thing that turns a claim into evidence - and drift audits keep it honest.
- 04BuildVerified capability tags light up recipes. Real builds add real slots; sales and spends land in a real ledger.
The meta-game
Grow the bench into a house
The bench is where it starts - the measured twin of the real one in my garage. Drag the verified evidence and watch the rings open outward, gate by gate, the way they do in the game: claims count half, photos count full, and territory only falls to proof.
The Surroundings - the wall around the bench - cleat rail, shelf, charger table.
12 verified items · 2 of 4 rings open
Drag to add evidence. Every verified item is a photo that proves a placement - claims alone open nothing.
Four tiers
Bench → surroundings → garage → house
Tier 2
The Surroundings
The wall and floor around the bench: a french-cleat rail, a scrap-wood shelf, the charger table. Opens when the bench provably holds.
Cleat rail · Wall shelf · Charging station
Tier 3
The Garage
The whole two-car bay: wire racks, ceiling racks, the fridge wall. Same rules, bigger territory.
Rack-by-rack intake · Standing drift audits
Tier 4
The House
There's no line anymore between where you live and where you build - every room a zone the same evidence rules can hold.
Room by room, ring by ring
Evidence is the score
Bench Integrity: how organized is the real bench
The twin measures reality now: photograph an item, place it where the recommender says, verify it with a photo. Verified evidence counts full, claims count half, drift decays it - and the next ring of space only unlocks when the number holds. Drag the evidence and watch the same engine CI asserts recompute live.
BENCH INTEGRITY71/ 100
1 item drifted - re-place or retire them.
evidence (verified > claimed)57%
storage-class fit100%
drift-free93%
Next ring needs integrity ≥ 80 and 10 verified items (claims don't count).
What makes it living
The ideas it's built on
It starts as your real bench
Not a generic workbench - a digital twin of the one in my garage, measured from photos: 45 by 24 inches of top, a pegboard hutch, a thirty-drawer organizer. It opens as a blank slate because the real bench is a mess, and the game's whole job is fixing that.
“This is your bench. Every container is empty. Reality fills it.”
Evidence beats claims
Saying you put the drill away counts half. A photo that shows it counts full - and it decays if you never re-verify. Bench Integrity is one honest number over placement, verification, fit, and drift, and the next ring of space only unlocks when it holds.
“Three placements unverified. Shoot the shelf and I'll believe you.”
Placement argues its case
Vision describes the item; a deterministic engine decides where it should live and tells you why - reach, clustering, weight, hazard. Same item, same bench, same answer, every time. No AI vibes deciding where your chisels go.
“Pegboard, eye level: you reach for it daily. Blades stay in the drawer.”
The rig keeps watch
Pair a shelf camera, an NFC reader, a load cell, or a Home Assistant sensor - each with a wizard, a one-time token, and live status. Devices post evidence in; nothing ever commands them. A camera can keep your drill verified while you sleep.
“Shelf cam heartbeat 04:12. Battery pack present. Verification refreshed.”
Every piece carries its story
The north star hasn't moved: a bench that watches the work means every finished object can carry its whole build - the wood, the humidity, the cure, the hours, the hand that made it. The rig is the first real step toward it.
“Crafted in Workshop #001 · 16.2 hours · 14-day cure · built by Jake.”
Underneath it all
A bench that still teaches
The tycoon loop sits on top of the original idea: a workbench that watches, corrects in the moment, and fades as your confidence rises. It runs one loop, whether it's a glue-up or a finish.
“My goal isn't to build projects for you. My goal is to help you become the kind of craftsperson who no longer needs me.”
- 01ObserveThe overhead cameras watch the work, not to record but to compare.
- 02CompareYour action is measured against an expert model of the same move.
- 03Detect the gapThe screen highlights exactly where you diverge - the uncovered edge, the proud board.
- 04Explain whyAsk 'why?' and it explains. In the flow, it just guides.
- 05CoachOne contextual instruction at a time until the gap closes.
- 06FadeAs your confidence rises, it says less - until it mostly watches quietly.
The north star
The physical bench, body mapped to senses
The first rung is live: the game's Rig mode pairs real cameras and sensors today (a one-time token, a heartbeat, live status), posting evidence in with no hands and no commands out. Everything else here is the spec that rung climbs toward - cameras as eyes, an LCD face, speakers, nerves, memory. Hover a part to see what it measures.
EyesVoice / faceMouthHands (none)MemoryNerves
Hover a part of the bench to see what it senses, the twin field it measures, and how the shipped simulator stands in for it today. Everything routes through the on-bench compute, and, deliberately, the bench has no hands.
◈ Topology: Outbound-only. The bench initiates every connection (fetch models, sync finished twins, and, from H4, call an LLM) and accepts no inbound control. A camera-equipped, tool-adjacent device must never be remotely drivable. Read the hardware spec →
How it gets built
Five phases, cheapest and most honest first
Sensing before voice before eyes: a hygrometer and calipers make the twin honest for a few hundred dollars; cameras roughly double it and are where the real cost and CV risk live. None started.
- H1plannedSensingA hygrometer, Bluetooth calipers, and a bench scale on a Pi turn the twin's humidity, flatness, and thickness from claims into measurements, the cheapest, highest-honesty win, with no CV risk.
- H2plannedVoiceThe simulator's screen becomes the bench's screen on a real LCD, and the speechSynthesis device voice is promoted to real speakers. No new engine, the sim components are the UI.
- H3plannedEyesOverhead + oblique cameras with switchable raking light, and the first CV task (glue coverage or panel flatness). Where the real cost and risk live; the compute choice (Pi vs NPU vs mini-PC) is forced only here.
- H4plannedLive mentorAn LLM endpoint reasons over the CV gap + the expert model, replacing the scripted instruction/correction. Adds ongoing inference cost, not hardware, and never a confident-but-wrong instruction near a tool.
- H5plannedMemory & planningA per-maker style profile over the twin archive: it stops forcing a house style and recognises yours, eventually proposing original designs that build on how you already work.
Bill of materials, priced to scope: a sensing + voice bench (H1–H2) ≈ $410; add eyes (H3) ≈ $645. Estimates, not a shopping list.
Guardrails
What the bench must never do
No actuation
No motors, relays, or tool control. It cannot start, feed, or stop a saw, lathe, or router, every physical action is the maker's.
No inbound control
Outbound-only topology; the bench is not a server and accepts no remote drive.
No confident-but-wrong instruction
Low-confidence CV degrades to “stop and check,” never a wrong instruction with authority near a running tool.
Frames are exhaust, not a recording
Camera frames are compared and discarded unless the maker opts one into the twin. The bench watches the work, not the person.
Every piece carries its story
Scan the QR, read the build
Because the cameras were watching, every finished object gets a digital twin. Not just “walnut chess board” - the whole build, ready to sell with its provenance attached.
Chess Set #14
- Workshop
- Workshop #001
- Wood
- Black Walnut · Hard Maple
- Built
- September 18
- Humidity
- 43%
- Finish
- Hardwax oil
- Cure
- 14 days
- Hours
- 16.2
- Builder
- Jake
◈ Digital twin archive available
Commission it
Ask the workshop for a thing
The order board is real: what you type here lands as a request card in the game's Build mode, and if it's accepted it gets built at the actual bench and settled in the actual ledger. A cutting board, a printed hook, a fix - ask.
Keep exploring
Where this connects
Follow the workshop as it gets built
An occasional note when the simulator grows a new mechanic - or the real bench takes shape. No schedule, easy out.