Cycle 4 research gate: rank evidence-backed AI and gaming opportunities #23

Goal

Run Cycle 4 as a bounded, evidence-led cycle: refresh AI and gaming workflow pain reports, audit current OpenController ownership and gaps, rank the candidate backlog, then select one measurable build slice or document a no-build decision. End with independently reviewed implementation, required checks, a merge if justified, roadmap closeout, and the next research gate. Candidate issues are a research backlog, not build approval.

Starting state

• Cycle 3 implementation #14 merged in PR #19 at f2baa6b; release checks passed on the integrated main state.
• Cycle 3 gate #16 closed after PR docs: close Cycle 3 and open Cycle 4 gate #24. This Cycle 4 gate completed its selection and closeout in PR docs: close Cycle 4 and open Cycle 5 research gate #30 after selected issue Seed Agent Fighter local decisions for repeatable evaluation #22 merged in PR feat(agent-fighter): seed local policy decisions #25.
• Existing deferred leads: #10 macOS physical input for OBS and #15 Agent Fighter keyboard remapping. Reconsider them only if refreshed evidence or feasibility changes their fit.
• Selected issue #22 merged in PR #25 at 8eb744c. Roadmap closeout PR #30 closed this gate and opened Cycle 5 gate #29, which is now unblocked. Candidates #20 and #21 remain deferred.

Dated source seeds (2026-10-04 refresh)

These are individual public reports and adjacent workflow requests. They do not estimate prevalence or prove an OpenController defect. Candidate descriptions link each report to its limits.

Source coverage limits

• GitHub issues/discussions, Steam for Linux, Hacker News, and OpenAI Developer Community were reachable for targeted searches. Reddit returned HTTP 403, so no Reddit post was reviewed. Steam Community search returned a generic page without a verifiable dated result.
• Search was targeted, not exhaustive. Threads are individual reports or requests; comment counts, search results, and engagement are not prevalence estimates. Several sources concern adjacent projects or upstream SDL/Steam/browser/game behavior.
• Do not claim OpenController can repair Steam, SDL, OBS, browser, or game-specific behavior without a reproducible repository-owned failure.

Cycle 4 research decision (2026-10-04)

The repository audit inspected current main f2baa6b, including native doctor/test commands and tests, profile-to-report conformance docs, and the Agent Fighter local policy and headless runner. It confirmed the native test command already covers the happy path and the compatibility matrix could duplicate existing conformance/doctor coverage. The code gap for #22 is direct: local policy decisions use unseeded Math.random and the headless runner has no seed input/output. The external Fami-Pixel and STS2 requests are adjacent signals, not prevalence evidence.

Selection: #22, seeded local-policy decisions for the headless runner. Add an isolated seeded RNG for the local policy, accept/report the seed for runner-spawned servers, and test identical decisions for identical seed plus observation sequence. Do not claim whole-match determinism, include OpenAI outputs, or add stored baselines in this slice. If a stable local-policy scenario cannot be demonstrated, record the limit and defer baselines. The estimated effort remains medium (3–5 days) with browser/timing risks.

Deferred: #20 and #21. #20 is a real code-path cleanup question but has weak external fit evidence; revisit with a native-helper failure reproducer. #21's value is plausible, but existing profile conformance and native doctor/test already cover parts of it, and physical host evidence is not available in normal CI. #10 and #15 remain deferred.

Research, audit, and decision checklist

• Refresh dated reports across AI developer forums, gaming communities, GitHub issues/discussions, Steam, Hacker News, Reddit if reachable, and accessibility communities if relevant. Keep direct observations separate from interpretation; Reddit and Steam Community gaps are explicit.
• Record source URLs/dates, workflow, failure/request, stated workaround or absence, evidence strength, and coverage limits in the source table and candidate issues; make no prevalence estimate.
• Audit current main, native doctor/test, profile-to-report tests/docs, Agent Fighter local-policy/headless runner, and merged work to avoid duplicates.
• Rank Explore host-side physical gamepad input for OBS overlays #10, Make Agent Fighter keyboard bindings configurable #15, Preserve cleanup and failure context in native test #20, Track tested and unverified host and game compatibility #21, and Seed Agent Fighter local decisions for repeatable evaluation #22 by user value, evidence strength, repository ownership, implementation cost, and risk; select Seed Agent Fighter local decisions for repeatable evaluation #22 and defer the others.
• Select bounded issue Seed Agent Fighter local decisions for repeatable evaluation #22 and define its acceptance, non-goals, dependency DAG, validation, and determinism limits before implementation begins.
• Unblock selected Seed Agent Fighter local decisions for repeatable evaluation #22 and make this gate wait on it; move deferred Preserve cleanup and failure context in native test #20/Track tested and unverified host and game compatibility #21 outside the active milestone.
• Delegate independent research, implementation, integration, and review to gpt-6-luna agents with separate file/package ownership; use fresh worktrees, fetch before integration, and keep each PR mergeable against its declared parent.
• Independently review the integrated result, run relevant checks, merge in DAG order only when review/checks pass, then update the roadmap and open the next gate in PR docs: close Cycle 4 and open Cycle 5 research gate #30.

Cycle DAG

flowchart TD
  A[Cycle 3 closeout PR #24 merged; gate #16 closed] --> B[Cycle 4 evidence refresh and repository audit]
  B --> C[Rank candidates and select #22]
  C --> D[Implement seeded local-policy decisions]
  D --> E[Independent Luna review and required checks]
  E --> F[PR #25 merged to main]
  F --> G[PR #30 roadmap closeout and Cycle 5 gate #29]
  G --> H[Close Cycle 4 gate #23 and unblock #29]

Acceptance

• Current code and previous merges were audited before a candidate is selected.
• Sources are dated and linked; upstream behavior, external interest, and OpenController-owned gaps are not conflated.
• The chosen work has measurable acceptance and bounded claims, or the gate records a reasoned no-build decision.
• Implementation is independently reviewed and required checks pass before merge.
• Cycle 4 closes only after its selected implementation is reviewed and merged (or a no-build decision is recorded), the roadmap is updated, and the next cycle gate exists.