embeddenator 0.21.1

Sparse ternary VSA implementation for holographic data encoding
# Project Status - Embeddenator

**Version:** 0.20.0-alpha  
**Last Updated:** January 10, 2026  
**License:** MIT  

## Development Phase

 **EARLY DEVELOPMENT - ALPHA RELEASE**

This project is in active development. APIs are unstable and subject to change. Not recommended for production use.

## What Works (Verified)

### Core VSA Operations 
- **Sparse ternary vector representation** - Fully implemented and tested
- **Bundle operation** - Superposition of vectors working correctly
- **Bind operation** - Compositional operations verified
- **Cosine similarity** - Distance metrics functional
- **Test coverage**: 29 tests for exhaustive ternary arithmetic

### Balanced Ternary Encoding 
- **64-bit encoding** - 39-40 trits per register
- **Roundtrip encoding/decoding** - Verified with multiple test values
- **Metadata preservation** - Tested and working
- **Range validation** - Boundary checking implemented
- **Parity computation** - Correctness verified
- **Test coverage**: 6 tests covering all operations

### Codebook Operations 
- **Initialization** - Standard basis construction working
- **Data projection** - Encoding data into VSA space
- **Deterministic behavior** - Repeatability verified
- **Test coverage**: 5 tests for projection operations

### File Encoding/Decoding 
- **Text file reconstruction** - Byte-perfect verification
- **Binary file reconstruction** - Exact binary recovery tested
- **Chunked encoding** - 4KB default chunk size
- **Manifest generation** - File structure metadata
- **Test coverage**: 8 CLI integration tests, 6 E2E regression tests

### Hierarchical Operations 
- **Multi-level bundling** - Hierarchical structure creation
- **Deterministic artifacts** - Stable manifest generation
- **Node sharding** - Optional chunk limiting per node
- **Selective unfolding** - Targeted data retrieval
- **Test coverage**: 5 tests for hierarchical operations

### Error Handling 
- **Corruption detection** - Malformed file handling
- **Concurrent access** - Thread safety verified
- **Graceful failures** - Error propagation tested
- **Recovery mechanisms** - Corruption recovery strategies
- **Test coverage**: 19 tests for error scenarios

### CLI Tool 
- **Ingest command** - Directory to engram conversion
- **Extract command** - Engram to directory reconstruction
- **Query command** - Similarity search
- **Query-text command** - Text string queries
- **Bundle-hier command** - Hierarchical artifact generation
- **Test coverage**: 8 CLI integration tests

### Infrastructure 
- **Component architecture** - 6 modular library crates
- **Comprehensive testing** - 160+ tests, 97.6% pass rate
- **Documentation** - Rustdoc comments, examples
- **CI foundation** - Test automation framework

## What's Experimental/In Progress

### SIMD Acceleration 
- **Status**: Basic implementation exists
- **AVX2/NEON support**: Conditional compilation working
- **Performance**: 2-4x speedup observed (not fully validated)
- **Issues**: Limited edge case testing
- **Next steps**: Comprehensive benchmarking, edge case validation

### FUSE Filesystem (EmbrFS) 
- **Status**: Partial implementation
- **Basic operations**: Some filesystem operations implemented
- **Issues**: Not fully integrated, limited testing
- **Next steps**: Complete implementation, integration testing

### Large-Scale Testing 
- **Status**: Testing up to MB-scale verified
- **TB-scale**: Design exists, not yet validated
- **Performance**: Benchmarking in progress
- **Issues**: Need infrastructure for large-scale testing
- **Next steps**: Establish test infrastructure, run validation

### Query Performance 
- **Status**: Basic retrieval working
- **Optimization**: Some optimizations applied
- **Issues**: Performance not fully characterized
- **Next steps**: Comprehensive benchmarking, optimization

### Docker Support 
- **Status**: Dockerfiles exist, basic builds working
- **Multi-arch**: amd64 primary, arm64 in development
- **Issues**: Not fully tested, integration incomplete
- **Next steps**: Complete integration, testing, documentation

## What's Planned (Not Started)

### Security Audit 
- **Current state**: Security properties under research
- **Cryptographic analysis**: Not yet completed
- **Formal verification**: Not yet performed
- **Timeline**: Future release (post-1.0)

### Performance Optimization 
- **Profiling**: Limited profiling done
- **Bottleneck analysis**: Ongoing
- **Optimization passes**: Planned
- **Timeline**: Ongoing through 1.0

### Production Hardening 
- **Stability**: API stabilization needed
- **Backward compatibility**: Not yet guaranteed
- **Production testing**: Needs validation
- **Timeline**: 1.0 release goal

### Advanced Features 
- **Package isolation**: Design exists, not implemented
- **Selective decryption**: Concept phase
- **Differential updates**: Future enhancement
- **Timeline**: Post-1.0

## Known Issues

### Test Failures (Infrastructure)
- **Issue**: 4 tests fail due to disk space (OS error 28)
- **Tests affected**: `qa_comprehensive.rs` tests
- **Impact**: Infrastructure only, not code defects
- **Resolution**: Tests pass with sufficient disk space

### Deprecation Warnings
- **Issue**: `SparseVec::from_data()` deprecated
- **Impact**: Warnings in benchmarks and some tests
- **Severity**: Low - functionality unaffected
- **Resolution**: Migration to `encode_data()` planned

### API Instability
- **Issue**: APIs subject to change in alpha phase
- **Impact**: Breaking changes may occur
- **Severity**: Expected for alpha release
- **Resolution**: Will stabilize for 1.0

## Performance Characteristics (Preliminary)

These are preliminary measurements, not guaranteed:

- **Small files (<1KB)**: ~1-5ms encoding/decoding
- **Medium files (1-100KB)**: ~5-50ms encoding/decoding
- **Large files (>1MB)**: Varies, hierarchical encoding recommended
- **Memory usage**: ~100-500MB typical for 10,000 dimension vectors
- **Dimension**: Currently 10,000 with ~1% sparsity

**Note**: Performance optimization is ongoing. These numbers may change significantly.

## API Stability Roadmap

### Current (v0.20.0-alpha)
-  **Unstable**: Breaking changes expected
- Core types and operations may change
- CLI interface may evolve

### Target (v1.0)
-  **Stable**: Semantic versioning guarantees
- Core API frozen
- Backward compatibility maintained

### Planned Path
1. **v0.20.x-alpha**: Feature development, API refinement
2. **v0.90.0-beta**: API freeze, testing focus
3. **v1.0.0**: Stable release with guarantees

## Contributing

Contributions welcome! Before contributing:

1. Review [TESTING.md]TESTING.md for test guidelines
2. Check existing issues and discussions
3. Ensure tests pass (`cargo test --workspace`)
4. Follow Rust API guidelines
5. Add tests for new features

## Testing Status

### Overall Coverage
- **Total tests**: 170+ individual tests
- **Pass rate**: 97.6% (166/170)
- **Test suites**: 23 integration test suites
- **Coverage areas**: All core functionality covered

### Test Categories (All Passing)
-  Balanced ternary arithmetic: 29 tests
-  Codebook operations: 11 tests
-  VSA operations: 42 tests
-  Error recovery: 19 tests
-  Hierarchical operations: 5 tests
-  CLI integration: 8 tests
-  E2E workflows: 6 tests
-  Incremental updates: 18 tests

See [TESTING.md](TESTING.md) for complete testing documentation.

## Documentation Status

### Completed 
- [x] README with accurate feature descriptions
- [x] LICENSE file (MIT)
- [x] TESTING.md with comprehensive guide
- [x] This PROJECT_STATUS.md document
- [x] Rustdoc comments on core types
- [x] CLI help text and examples
- [x] Handoff documentation (QA → Documentation)

### In Progress 
- [ ] Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) review
- [ ] API documentation completion
- [ ] Usage examples and tutorials
- [ ] Performance benchmarking documentation

### Planned 
- [ ] Contribution guidelines (CONTRIBUTING.md)
- [ ] Security policy (SECURITY.md)
- [ ] Changelog maintenance
- [ ] Migration guides for API changes

## License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the [LICENSE](LICENSE) file for details.

```
MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025-2026 Tyler Zervas <tz-dev@vectorweight.com>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction...
```

Full license text available in the LICENSE file.

## Contact

- **Author**: Tyler Zervas <tz-dev@vectorweight.com>
- **Repository**: https://github.com/tzervas/embeddenator
- **Issues**: https://github.com/tzervas/embeddenator/issues

## Acknowledgments

This project builds on research in Vector Symbolic Architectures and holographic computing. See research documentation for citations and references.

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**Remember**: This is alpha software. Use at your own risk. Contributions and feedback welcome!