The docs described Steamworks onboarding as pending work. It is pending VALVE: the partner account
exists, identity verification is under review, and the tax interview is in their queue with a quoted
turnaround of up to 30 business days. No app IDs are assigned, no store page exists, and Release
entitlement therefore still fails closed — by design.
Distribution.md §2 becomes a status table plus the critical path computed from Valve's own published
windows (30 business days verification → fee/app IDs → up to 12 business days store review → page
public ≥2 weeks before release → up to 12 business days build review). Earliest realistic launch:
early-to-mid February 2027, leaving ~7 weeks before the 2027-04-01 launch price ends.
Nothing in this blocks the code; commercial.md, TASKS 54 and HANDOFF now say so instead of implying
Steam is an outstanding coding task.
The first half of surge day 1. One question, "may this session emit Pro output?", with
one method on the interface so nothing downstream knows which rail proved it.
SteamEntitlement reads the lifetime SKU the way Valve intends: SteamAPI.Init() then
SteamApps.BIsDlcInstalled(dlcAppId). Four different failure paths all resolve to the
free tier rather than to Pro or to a crash — no DLC id configured, no Steam client,
steam_api64.dll missing (a throw on first touch), and simply not owned. A copied folder
run without Steam is the common case, not an exceptional one.
NotConfigured() is the shipping default until Steamworks creates the DLC app; it answers
false without ever touching the native library, so today's builds behave exactly as they
did before this commit.
HasProOutput is now IsPremium || DeveloperMode || rail, with an internal EntitlementOverride
test seam (internal, because a public setter here is a licence bypass). Four tests: no id
reads false, no client reads false without throwing, the fake reports what a test sets, and
the view model takes its answer from the rail.
Steamworks.NET 2024.8.0 added; the native DLL still comes from scripts/steam-sdk.sh, so the
csproj change is three lines and no formatting churn.
The partner dashboard offers exactly one download because there is only one: the SDK zip
carries the runtime (steam_api64.dll) and the release tooling (sdk/tools/ContentBuilder
with steamcmd.exe for Windows and steamcmd.sh for Linux/macOS, plus the app_build and
depot_build VDF templates). Verified against the zip rather than assumed.
scripts/steam-sdk.sh gains --contentbuilder, opt-in because it is 27 MB of binaries that
only the uploading machine needs.
Distribution.md §2 now opens with that fact — there is no separate ContentBuilder
download to hunt for — plus a reference table of the pages that actually get used:
SteamPipe upload, DLC setup, BIsDlcInstalled, store artwork sizes, Coming Soon window,
the Wallet rule, recurring subs, partner support and Steamworks.NET.
The SDK zip is 24 MB of headers, examples and tools we never build. The runtime
dependency is one native library, so scripts/steam-sdk.sh extracts exactly
sdk/redistributable_bin/win64/steam_api64.dll into steam/ (gitignored, like ffmpeg/ —
the script is the audit trail) and writes steam_appid.txt = 480, Valve's Spacewar app,
so SteamAPI.Init() resolves an app id locally before LlamaCasty has one of its own.
Two csproj details that would have cost a debugging session:
- Link="steam_api64.dll" puts it BESIDE the exe; without Link, None items keep their
relative path and it lands in steam/, where the loader does not look.
- ExcludeFromSingleFile, for the same reason ffmpeg needed it: a native DLL otherwise
gets swallowed into the single-file bundle and cannot be loaded at runtime.
steam_appid.txt is Debug-only — Valve's guidance is not to ship it — and the publish
output confirms it: dll present at the root, no appid file, exe still 127 MB (proof the
DLL was not bundled).
Also queued, as asked: preview undo (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z) in edit mode, noted as the
partner to the defaults-vs-current split — undo covers the slip, defaults cover the mess.
Renames AssemblyName to LlamaCasty before the first Steam depot — Steamworks is explicit
that renaming a live exe is painful, so this had to land first, not later.
Four assembly-qualified pack URIs carried the old name, not three: MainWindow (window
icon), OverlayHost (logo), RenameRecordingDialog and KeepBroadcastDialog. Pack URIs
resolve by assembly name at runtime, so a stale one compiles, passes every test and then
silently renders nothing the first time that view opens. AssemblyIdentityTests guards
both halves — the assembly name, and no source XAML still naming the legacy assembly.
Packaging/Package.appxmanifest and package-msix.sh carry the exe name too.
scripts/publish.sh replaces the by-hand publish: single-file win-x64, ReadyToRun,
ffmpeg beside the exe, and it refuses to finish if ffmpeg, LICENSE, PRIVACY.md or
THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt are missing, or if a test assembly leaked in.
That last guard exists because the first publish was wrong in a way no test could see:
PublishSingleFile + IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract bundled the libav*.dll family
into the exe — a 9-file output with no ffmpeg folder and a 182 MB binary, so the locator
would have found nothing at runtime. ExcludeFromSingleFile="true" on the content keeps
the folder a folder. Diffing against a control publish without the single-file flags
found it; guessing at item globs wasted two attempts first (recorded in MyMistakes.md).
Measured: 127 MB exe + 129 MB ffmpeg = 257 MB depot. Tests: AssemblyIdentity,
StorePackaging, BuildStamp, BundledFonts all pass; app builds with 0 warnings.
The site said "Coming soon to Steam" while the app docs still said direct download plus
winget primary with Steam parked. One of them had to move, and the creator's ruling is
Steam exclusive: a free app on Steam with the paid edition as a Steam DLC, and the
$10/month plan sold off-Steam by Polar.
Records the constraint that shapes the code, not just the prose:
- Steamworks requires in-app purchases to use the Steam Wallet (Microtransactions doc,
quoted in commercial.md), so the monthly is *stated*, never *sold*, inside a Steam
build; the lifetime is plain DLC bought on the store page and read with BIsDlcInstalled.
- Entitlement is `steamDlcOwned || polarKeyValid`, both resolving to one OutputProfile.
steam_api64.dll ships beside the exe and is a functional dependency, not the rejected
"IP protection" native DLL — without it DLC ownership cannot be read. Launched without
Steam, the app falls back to the free profile rather than refusing to start.
- Signing is moot: Steam installs never meet SmartScreen. Artifact Signing stays on the
shelf for the day a non-Steam download exists. Year-one fixed cost is ~$115.
- The exe rename must land before the first depot upload — Steamworks warns about
renaming a live exe.
Distribution.md is rewritten to SteamPipe mechanics (publish output, depot, steamcmd,
DLC wiring, clean-account purchase/refund test). product.md, decisions.md (a new
"Steam exclusive" entry with every dead vector), TASKS.md (Steamworks entitlement row,
Steam packaging row), ai.md, index.md and the TASK 48 banner follow. MyMistakes.md gains
the Steam rules that cost real time today: installs skip SmartScreen, updates are free,
the Wallet rule, and the recurring-billing caveat.
Four things derived this session superseded what the plan said twenty-four hours earlier,
and the docs are corrected where each one died:
**Licensing needs no server.** Polar's customer-portal endpoints authenticate on the key
itself plus the public organization_id; the org access token is only needed to create
products. Channel binding rides in `conditions: {channel_id}`, re-checked on every
validate — so the "claim page" (a hosted OAuth flow that wrote the UC id onto the key)
and the key database it implied are deleted. Device management, key rotation and
subscription auto-revocation are Polar's; four states, one lease, no callback endpoint.
**Signing is deferred until two subscribers.** It never removes the day-one SmartScreen
warning (EV's instant-bypass died in 2024), so buying it before revenue buys only the
publisher line. Renamed to Azure Artifact Signing, $9.99/mo Basic, and it requires a
paid Azure subscription. Year-one fixed cost drops from ~$135 to ~$15.
**The Store account is free.** Microsoft waived the $19 individual fee and removed the
$99 company fee in May 2026, which makes the Store the only zero-cost route to a
Microsoft-signed install — the free answer to SmartScreen, noted beside the paid one.
**Support is a filter, not a promise.** Email, best effort, no SLA, refunds on request
without argument; no training service, no helpdesk. A repeated question becomes a
training video on @llamacasty, which is content and monetization instead of a ticket.
GitHub issues on the releases repo are the deliberate friction.
Also settled: binaries live in a second Gitea repo (`llamacasty-releases`) push-mirrored
to a public GitHub repo — issues and assets public, code private, one publish direction
(a git mirror carries refs, not GitHub Release assets); `@llamacasty` is
standard-verified with intermediate features, so live streaming, >15 min uploads and
custom thumbnails work today and no SIM or ID is needed; and OAuth comes out of Testing
mode by publishing the app (100-user lifetime cap, no 7-day token death).
TASKS.md now opens with the four-day surge slice — artifact shape, output gate,
entitlement seam, real-machine day — because those are what the first public release
waits on. HANDOFF.md rewritten. MyMistakes.md gains the Polar recipe and the
"verify means three different things" entry. MARCOM.md gains the support→content loop
and the surface roles.
The commercial plan was spread over five documents written in five different weeks,
and they contradicted each other: product.md sold the Store, decisions.md called the
Store dead then re-opened, Distribution.md (736 lines) still described Polar as a
download host, MARCOM.md quoted "no subscription" next to a paid tier, and README.md
promised "free forever". An outsider could not tell what ships.
docs/ai/commercial.md is now the only place money is decided: free = whole app at a
921,600 px / 30 fps output profile covering the recording as well as the stream; Pro =
$10/mo or $400 lifetime through Polar, key bound to the buyer's YouTube channel ID via
a claim page, 2 activations, 7–14 day lease with offline grace, fail closed, never
downgrade a running stream; one portable zip + winget primary, Steam and the Store
parked; Azure Trusted Signing (~$9.99/mo), no EV; Founding 200 promo; ~$135/yr costs;
anti-piracy posture and what is permanently rejected.
Everything else now points at it instead of restating it:
- product.md — money sections replaced with pointers; packaging rewritten to
winget-first, Store parked; signing updated to Trusted Signing.
- decisions.md — graveyard with cause of death for free-forever, the Store ordering,
the updater, and the 2026-10-30 reversal of the quality-ceiling rejection.
- Distribution.md — rewritten to release mechanics only (artifact, GitHub Releases,
winget manifest, signing, checklist, takedown): 736 → 120 lines.
- TASKS.md — TASK 54 rewritten, TASK 48's route settled, TASK 10 superseded, five new
rows (entitlement seam, output-profile gate, licence UI, system messages, packaging).
- README.md — "free forever" replaced with the real split.
- capture.md — obs-backgroundremoval is GPL-3.0 and so licence-INCOMPATIBLE since the
proprietary EULA; the old "compatible" line was falsified by that change.
- TASKS/task-10, task-48, task-51, task-54 — superseded-banner at the top of each, so
none of them reads as current policy.
- HANDOFF.md — rewritten: plan settled, next code unit is the entitlement seam.
MARCOM.md and MONETIZATION.md (gitignored) were corrected in place: policy pointer at
the top of each, the flash removed from every live claim, the Polar fee break-even
corrected to ~$900/mo, and the projections flagged as written against a dead model.
The manifest the Store route needs, and a real package built from it.
Packaging/Package.appxmanifest is a full-trust packagedClassicApp: EntryPoint
Windows.FullTrustApplication, uap10:TrustLevel=mediumIL,
uap10:RuntimeBehavior=packagedClassicApp, the rescap runFullTrust capability, and
webcam + microphone DeviceCapabilities. That combination is what lets the packaged
app launch the bundled ffmpeg as a child process and write to the user's profile;
an appContainer package would virtualise the recordings folder instead. x64 only,
en-US only (policy 10.7).
Packaging/Assets/ carries the four tiles the packer requires, generated from the
app's own Assets/llamacasty-logo.jpg by scripts/make-store-logos.py - listing art
and app art cannot drift.
scripts/package-msix.sh publishes Release win-x64 self-contained into
artifacts/msix-stage (a RID-less publish would copy every RID's ONNX native),
stages the manifest as AppxManifest.xml + Assets, and runs the Windows SDK's
makeappx. MSIX_PFX/MSIX_PFX_PASSWORD sign a package for a local test install; the
Store signs submissions. artifacts/ is gitignored.
First real package: artifacts/LlamaCasty.msix, 159 MB, 509 files, 'Package
creation succeeded'.
Schema traps found by packing (makeappx reports one error at a time):
Square310x310Logo and Wide310x150Logo are NOT uap:VisualElements attributes - they
live on uap:DefaultTile.
Guard: StorePackagingTests.The_package_manifest_declares_full_trust_camera_and_
microphone - identity/architecture, the full-trust application element, the three
capabilities, no appContainer VALUE (not the file text: the manifest's own comment
says the word), en-US only, and every referenced logo present.
Full suite 438/438, 0 warnings. Cold-start smoke test after the Velopack removal:
MainWindow loaded, no exceptions.
The creator's ruling (2026-09-27) is Store MSIX + Store IAP, so Microsoft delivers
the updates and the in-app updater is gone rather than parked. This is a
COMPLIANCE action, not cleanup: the Velopack bootstrap downloaded and executed a
payload, which Store policy 10.2.2 does not permit.
Three edit sites, as planned: the PackageReference in ytLive.csproj, 'using
Velopack;' in App.xaml.cs, and the bootstrap block. The self-hosted DigitalOcean
update-URL droplet dies with it.
Guard: ytLive.Tests/StorePackagingTests.cs - the ONE test asserts the app project
references no updater package (Velopack/Squirrel/NetSparkle/AutoUpdater/WinSparkle)
and that no app source file uses the updater API. The check matches CODE (a using
directive, a type usage), not a bare word, so a file's prose may still name what it
deliberately does not do.
Smoke-tested after the removal: MainWindow loaded, 0 exceptions in startup.log.
Full suite 437/437, 0 warnings.
The pricing ruling landed twice (2026-09-21 one-time, then 2026-09-27 Store IAP
$10/mo + $400 lifetime) and the map never caught up. Six tracked files still told
a future session that billing was Polar and the price was $29/$49. A stale memory
map is worse than a stale comment: it is the file every session trusts, and this
one was actively steering work toward a deleted provider.
MONETIZATION.md (gitignored, so not in this commit) was rebuilt first:
- "Revenue projections" now carries a modelled Year 1 forecast —
pessimistic $4.0K / base $15.4K / optimistic $53.3K net, ~$22K weighted.
Funnel is installs -> 35-45% activate -> 1.5-3% of active users pay.
- Three findings recorded: Year 1 is ~97% lifetime transactions (subs net $392
of $15.4K, so MRR is not a Year-1 planning input); conversion dominates price
(~1pp of conversion = ~$7K net, and ADA 6(h) locks $10 anyway); subscriber
churn moves Year 1 by under $200 and is a Year-2 problem.
- Break-even restated for $400: $25K net = 74 lifetime buyers, not 862.
The price cut the volume requirement ~10x and raised the skill requirement
to match.
- Market sizing willingness-to-pay row rewritten. The 100K-400K TAM was
price-bound to $29-49 and is wrong at $400; revised ~20K-60K, flagged as an
estimate rather than a sourced number.
- Flagged a real contradiction: $500K ARR needs ~4,900 concurrent subscribers,
so the Exit section's ARR multiples do not describe what Years 1-3 produce.
The defensible asset there is lifetime cash flow, not ARR.
Tracked files corrected to match:
- ai.md: paid-delta, pricing and billing bullets rewritten; Polar product id,
org id, LCYT- key prefix and LLAMAFOUNDER/LLAMA50 marked as deleted;
15% share + net-after-tax recorded with the ADA 6(b)(i) citation.
- TASKS.md: catalog row retitled as a teardown; the "still to verify — the
price is not decided" note closed (it contradicted the ruling 20 lines
below it); the OverlayHost "Polar unlocks alerts" open question marked
resolved; Polar file-hosting deliverable removed from the release build.
- task-10: reframed as a teardown. Steps 4-5 marked as surviving, 1-2-3-6-7 as
deleting, 8 as a compliance action (Velopack downloads AND executes, which
Store policy 10.2.2 does not permit).
- task-36 item 5 (license-expiry reminders) struck — no key, no expiry, no
lapse under Store IAP, so there is nothing to remind anyone about.
- Distribution.md 4.2 / 4.4 / 4.5 marked obsolete; 4.5's "already implemented"
corrected, since PolarLicenseService is being deleted rather than shipped.
- README: "one-time license" -> "paid tier".
Historical Polar sections are retained deliberately — the reasoning is reusable
(merchant-of-record, fee comparison), only the conclusions are dead. Each is now
labelled so it cannot be mistaken for the plan.
No code touched.
Creator ruling 2026-09-27. Criteria, verbatim: "zero headaches, minimal
maintenance (for me) while still providing accountability and a reasonably
easy upgrade flow." Route A is the only combination where all four are solved
by handing the work to Microsoft rather than to a certificate vendor: $0/yr,
no certificate, no HSM, no annual renewal, no SmartScreen ramp — plus Store
auto-update, Store-side payments/entitlements/refunds/support, and Microsoft
review as the accountability layer.
The rejected options and their reasons stay in research-store-certification.md
§3 so a later session reads the ruling instead of re-deriving it.
What this deletes:
- The entire licensing backend. PolarLicenseService, PolarLicense,
MainViewModel.License.cs (PremiumUrl, customer portal, the OfflineGracePeriod
= 14 days subscription-era artifact, renewal/lapse copy) and the wrong
"Polar unlocks alerts" string all become dead code. IsPremium is derived from
the Store entitlement instead of an HTTP call, which also removes the whole
"network flaky -> app thinks I'm expired" bug class.
- Velopack, the update URL, and the self-hosted droplet — the Store updates.
- Distribution.md's premise: Polar as the distribution backbone, Polar file
hosting, and code signing as our problem. The IP-protection sections (1, 5,
6, 7) still stand and the build-posture ceiling is unchanged.
What does NOT change: the entitlement. Free gets everything; the branding
flash stays the only paid delta. Store IAP changes how IsPremium is obtained,
never what it gates.
Still open, deliberately: the price. The Store revenue share is unverified (do
not assume a percentage), and MONETIZATION.md's $29 -> $49 one-time decision is
re-opened against a fresh instinct toward ~$99/yr. No price encoded yet.
The first code unit is unchanged: bundle ffmpeg (TASK 48 item 1). That clears
the one hard certification gate and fixes a real user-facing 404.
MARCOM.md and MONETIZATION.md were edited too but are gitignored by design, so
those changes stayed local.
The distribution answer existed only in conversation, so every session re-derived
it. It is now in the map, and the route decision is explicitly parked as the
creator's.
new TASKS/research-store-certification.md — Store Policies 7.20 + MSIX packaging:
which policies bind, which don't (and why), cert economics, camera/mic gating
layers, YouTube age + COPPA, the 11.12 UGC judgment call.
Two real defects surfaced, neither fixed (docs-only unit):
- FfmpegLocator downloads an unsigned exe from GitHub and runs it. That is
policy 10.2.2 (dynamic code inclusion) verbatim, and it is the root cause of
the 2026-09-01 404 — the pin aged out of BtbN's 14-day retention on the
creator's first real recording attempt. -> TASK 48 item 1, not
Store-conditional.
- Distribution.md:318 recommended a $400+/yr EV cert for a SmartScreen bypass
Microsoft removed in March 2024. Fixed; had it shipped it would have cost
$400+/yr to buy what $150 buys.
Also new: TASKS/task-48 (checklist, carved out of TASK 36 item 6) and
TASKS/task-49 (chat profanity filter, not blocked). ai.md gains the durable
invariants — full trust or recording breaks silently, chat is rendered never
stored — plus a correction to the FFmpeg locator section. MyMistakes.md records
the lesson: a policy citation is a claim about scope, not just text.
MARCOM.md got the privacy-copy guard but is gitignored by design, so that edit
stays local and did not travel here.
Click-to-pin an open window as the full-bleed Live backdrop, via the existing
window:<hwnd> capture path (same render layer as game/desktop). Session-scoped:
window:/picker: keys heal to auto on reload (HWND-recycle hazard); pin wins
while the window enumerates, then auto-fallbacks (game → desktop → static); a
dead window's capture session heals to auto, no dead ends.
Fix: ScreenCaptureSourceFactory.Resolve hex-parsed "window:0x<Hwnd>" WITHOUT
stripping the 0x prefix — NumberStyles.HexNumber rejects it, so every pin
resolved null ("No capture target for this key") and the heal silently rolled
back. Same flaw in IsAliveWindowPin (pin-wins guard was dead). Both fixed.
Commit also carries an out-of-scope prerequisite: PillRadioTests.cs:105 had a
committed stray token ("...PrimaryStartButtonLabel soil;", CS1003) blocking the
whole test-project compile — token removed.
Plus the previous session's uncommitted pricing docs (one-time $29/$49) that
share TASKS.md/ai.md/HANDOFF.md.
gramps