setup-payoff-ledger

When to use

• Building or updating the “伏笔台账”
• Author edits cause deviations and you need to check whether setups were broken or payoffs drifted.

Output files (human-readable)

• artifacts/ledger/setup_payoff_ledger.md: SSOT structured ledger entries (author editable)
• artifacts/ledger/reports/<run_id>_setup_payoff_report.md: derived scan report (auto-generated)

Entry schema (v1 deterministic JSON block)

setup_payoff_ledger.md must contain a ```json code block like:

{
  "entries": [
    {
      "id": "promise-a",
      "type": "promise",
      "title": "A promises to reveal X",
      "setupPattern": "I will tell you X",
      "payoffPattern": "X is revealed",
      "deadlineChapter": 12,
      "regex": false,
      "severity": "MAJOR"
    }
  ]
}

Fields (recommended):

• id: stable id (unique)
• type: setup / promise / debt (free-form for now)
• title: one-line human title
• setupPattern: keyword or regex to locate the setup
• payoffPattern: keyword or regex to locate the payoff
• deadlineChapter: optional “should be paid by chapter N”
• regex: true to treat patterns as regex
• severity: MINOR / MAJOR (free-form for now)

Heuristics (assistant mindset)

• A setup is “broken” if later text contradicts its promise without an intentional twist.
• A payoff is “weak” if it resolves mechanically without emotional/meaningful consequence.
• “Upgradable” setups are those with high emotional stakes but low information cost.

Procedure

1. Scan story outline + existing chapters for explicit promises and implicit debts.
2. Normalize them into ledger entries (avoid duplicates).
3. Mark conflicts introduced by author deviations.
4. Generate 2-3 payoff roadmaps:
   • conservative (minimal edits)
   • aggressive (rewrite/upgrade to a bigger twist)
   • branch option (if it risks breaking the mainline)