{
 "format": "LSC-1",
 "lsc": "LSC-1",
 "edition": "E1",
 "cut": "2026-10-09",
 "name": "THE SOUNDING CARD",
 "handle": "sounding-card",
 "number": "Nº 56",
 "house": "THE INSTRUMENTS",
 "wing": "FOR AI BUILDERS",
 "role": "depth before you run aground",
 "tagline": "The second budget kept: everything about to go in front of an AI is weighed in estimated tokens, heaviest first, and a file too long to read whole is cut at paragraph edges into pieces that join back byte for byte.",
 "sigil": "SD",
 "hue": "#4A3BC4",
 "punch": "73A8883EF5F9B6A229FE8EB0",
 "punch_of": "SKILL.md · sha-256 · first 24",
 "score": 98,
 "tier": "LEGENDARY",
 "layer": "WITNESSED",
 "score_line": "SELFTEST 8/8 · THREE COMMANDS ON THE RECORD",
 "honest_line": "I'm an AI reading a card. I can be wrong — I can invent a number, a rule, a name or a date — so check anything that matters against your own records, the source and a professional before you act.",
 "term": "one purchase · yours to keep · nothing renews itself",
 "free": false,
 "wakes": "a chat is long or a big file is about to be read whole, or someone asks will it fit",
 "loop": [
  "weigh · tokens, heaviest first",
  "AGROUND? write the ledger line first",
  "cut · pieces at paragraph edges",
  "read one piece at a time, in order",
  "join · MATCH before the original goes"
 ],
 "laws": [
  "**Weigh before reading.** The heaviest file is named before any file is opened.",
  "**Edges, not middles.** Pieces end at paragraph edges, then line edges; a line is cut mid-way only when it is longer than a piece.",
  "**Byte for byte.** A cut is proved by join against the hash of the whole; DIFFERENT means the pieces are not trusted.",
  "**The ledger first.** When the depth reads AGROUND, the ledger line is written while there is still room to write it.",
  "**An estimate, said so.** Tokens are estimated from characters; the AI's own counter is the count.",
  "**The other budget.** Pictures are not weighed here; THE HOLD CARD keeps the image budget."
 ],
 "never": [
  "print an estimate as the AI's own count",
  "keep a cut that does not join back",
  "weigh pictures; THE HOLD CARD keeps them"
 ],
 "machine": "scripts/sounding.py · weigh · cut · join · selftest",
 "proof": "selftest 8/8 · THREE commands on the record",
 "faces": [
  "card.svg",
  "card-machine.svg"
 ],
 "box": [
  "SKILL.md",
  "CARD.md",
  "TIN.md",
  "START-HERE.md",
  "LICENSE-NOTE.md",
  "THE-CLAUSES.md",
  "MY-LEDGER.md",
  "WITNESS.md",
  "SELFTEST.md",
  "AUDIT.md",
  "MANIFEST.md",
  "HOSTS.md",
  "scripts/sounding.py",
  "references/THE-SOUNDING.md",
  "rules/ (4 doors)",
  "system/ (2 prompts)",
  "mcp/mcp_card.py",
  "card.json",
  "card.svg",
  "card-machine.svg",
  "card.html"
 ],
 "hundred": "Trigger 5 · Machinery 5 · Law 5 · Portability 5 · Proof 5 — 25 of 25 → 98 of 100 · LEGENDARY"
}