Try the native VM

The native workbench is a complete local demonstration of durable approval, restart, exact effect recovery, and portable evidence. It uses one algal executable. Bun, Cargo, a repository checkout, credentials, and a web server are not runtime requirements. Verify a native release first.

The decision is an embedded deterministic fixture. The process supervisor, mailboxes, journals, receipt replay, and crash recovery are real. This demonstrates execution guarantees, not model quality or a live coding provider.

1. Start a program, then leave it waiting

Use a new directory; the CLI refuses to merge into an existing one:

algal demo start ./my-review
algal demo inspect ./my-review

Open my-review/report.html in your browser. It is a passive, self-contained report: no server, remote assets, telemetry, or model call. Inspect the proposal, its input evidence, and the retained history. The first invocation exits with one recorded fixture decision, one proposal delivery, and no publication. The process is waiting for an external approval. Closing the browser, exiting the terminal, or restarting the CLI does not lose the proposal.

Run inspect again in another terminal. The verified process head and recorded effect counts are unchanged. Inspection can refresh derived report files; it never advances the VM.

For your own small JSON evidence (at most 8 KiB, depth 16, and 512 JSON nodes):

algal demo start ./my-evidence-review --evidence ./checks.json

The evidence is retained in the workbench and exported history. Use data you intend to retain and share. The fixture's recommendation is not an independent assessment of the truth of your input.

2. Authorize the exact action

The report offers Copy approve command and Copy deny command. It uses the absolute executable that generated the report. Copying does not execute anything; review and paste the command into your terminal.

The command includes the exact proposal digest and action:

algal demo approve ./my-review \
  --proposal sha256:REPLACE_WITH_THE_REPORTED_DIGEST \
  --action publish-local-report

Use deny in place of approve to finish without publishing. The approval is bound to the workbench's identity, input evidence, full proposal, and local publication destination. A wrong digest or action is rejected before admission. A denied workflow is complete, but it is not approved.

Reopen report.html after the command. Approval yields one local outbox delivery and publication.json; denial yields neither. Repeat the same decision: it creates no new VM generation, decision effect, or publication delivery. A conflicting second decision is rejected. Derived projections may be refreshed from the verified retained execution.

The local CLI is the operator authority. This is not a multi-user identity or permissions system. No remote publication occurs.

3. Verify the history after moving the source away

algal demo export ./my-review > review.evidence.json
mv ./my-review ./my-review-retained-away
algal demo verify ./review.evidence.json

The final command needs only the evidence file and the executable. It does not activate host tools or require the original store. The same file is accepted by algal process verify-evidence. Altering hashed records or removing required objects fails verification. Receipt replay checks execution consistency; it does not authenticate an author, establish provider truth, or transfer custody.

Moving a workbench intentionally prevents further local workbench operations: its admitted root and filesystem identity are bound. A moved HTML report is an archived snapshot; its copied operational commands still refer to the original root. Use the portable evidence file for detached verification. For an active review, leave its root in place.

4. Run the actual crash laboratory

algal demo prove ./crash-laboratory

This runs bounded child invocations of the same executable. It waits for an exact token-bound durable journal barrier, sends SIGKILL only to its own child, joins that child, then uses explicit recovery of the retained intent. It writes proof.json and the following evidence:

The last case is a successful safety demonstration: one local write occurred, but the VM has no confirmed result, so it retains uncertain and refuses to repeat it. The read and write fixtures are deliberately different. This does not claim that every interrupted approval or arbitrary provider write can be recovered. Do not delete an uncertain journal or recreate the operation to force it through.

Build identity and operating limits

algal doctor reports the embedded source commit, bounded native-source input digest, target, and Rust compiler. An installation made with the archive installer also retains checksum-bound release metadata. This is diagnostic provenance, not a publisher signature. The native release guide describes the package checks and platform support.

The CLI remains an application VM, not an OS sandbox or hypervisor. It has bounded programs and process journals, but no general multi-tenant service, distributed custody, global store quota, or retention/GC service. Native packages are still unsigned, unnotarized prereleases. Coding-job reconciliation and repair validation currently use the Bun host; this native demo makes no claim of their parity.