Buildable tools and devices: what they do, what you need, how to build or use them, and a worked example. The interactive ones open a tool.

An instrument

The Instrument Workshop

Combines a Grimoire aspect, a machine pattern and an instrument form into a buildable brief.

Open the tool

What it is

To turn 'I want to make something for this planet' into a specific instrument with parts, a build order and a test.

At a glance

Inputs: A Grimoire aspect; a technical pattern; an instrument form; a seed.
Outputs: A one-page brief: name, purpose, parts, build order, test, variation and a record field.

How to use it

Choose an aspect, or let the workshop draw one.
Choose a technical pattern — a cron job, a queue, a hash, a canvas.
Choose a form — a sigil engine, a servitor, an oracle, a ward.
Generate the brief and read it as a set of constraints, not a prophecy.
Build the smallest version in one sitting; use the test to see whether it does anything.
Record the build, the test and the next change in the ledger.

What you need

A code editor
A terminal
A browser
A ledger file

A worked example

Aspect: Saturn. Pattern: scheduled job. Form: ward. The brief: 'A Saturday-night permission gate that reviews the week's exceptions and closes the open loops.' Parts: a cron entry, a JSON list of exceptions, a closing message, a log. Test: run it for two Saturdays and count the loops it closed.

Variations

Use a tarot card as the aspect and let its number set the number of parts.
Build the same brief twice, once as a browser tool and once as a shell script, and compare which you actually use.
Make the brief a group exercise: each person builds one part and the group tests the whole.

Code sketch

This is a sketch, not a runnable program. It names the shape of the automation; the definitions are yours.

const brief = (aspect, pattern, form, seed) => ({
  name: `${aspect.name} ${form.name}`,
  purpose: `${form.description} for ${aspect.name.toLowerCase()}, built as ${pattern.name.toLowerCase()}.`,
  parts: [pattern.build, `a ${aspect.name.toLowerCase()} mark`, 'a log', 'a close'],
  test: 'one week, one record, one change',
  seed,
});

Related entries

Practices

Protocols

Work by planetary hour

Constructs

Correspondences

Workings

The Mercury Hour Daemon

One of 110 entries in the Technomancy workshop. How a working is built Is it wrong somewhere?

Mentioned by 22

Every entry that names The Instrument Workshop, grouped by section.

⌬ Correspondences 8

Venus — cache Instrument
Sun — dashboard Instrument
Fire — event listener Instrument
Air — network socket Instrument
The Magician — build pipeline Instrument
The Hermit — offline Instrument
The Lovers — pairing Instrument
The World — deploy Instrument

⚙ Instruments 6

⌁ Currents 1

Cybermagic Instruments

More in Instruments

The entries either side of this one in the same section.

All of Instruments →