Ledger-First Dark Factory

Ledger-First Dark Factory is a generic five-seat software factory for Band Desktop. We did not write the app: we built the factory, then sent the band one task message per stage and nothing else. How it works. The Lead plans each stage and cuts work items with one owner each. The Analyst turns every sentence of the specification into a numbered requirements ledger before any code exists, then writes acceptance tests from it, because most judged tests are hidden but all of them come from the spec. The Builder and the Designer build in parallel, test first. The Verifier never fixes anything: it rebuilds each revision in a clean worktree, re-runs every check, and accepts or rejects it with a reproducing command. Every handoff is a self-contained packet in the room; every commit carries its seat's name. Results on the pocketful track: four stages in 6 h 23 min of band time, 55 work items, 244 commits by five seats. Stages 1 to 3 passed the band's own stage gate; on our isolated run of the event's checks, all four stages pass. The band caught its own bad results: 14 rejections, each fixed by a new commit, including an export that grew until the service refused to import it, and an error hidden under the phone tab bar that only a screenshot revealed. Cost: $244 at API list-price equivalent, measured per seat. We kept the failures honest: stage 4 was complete but its gate never ran because a verdict named the Lead in plain text instead of a mention. FACTORY.md documents it, the recovery, and the protocol fix. The mandates contain no track vocabulary, so a different task builds a different product.