Echelon Project Plan

Echelon Project Plan

## 1. Overview
- Goal: Ship Echelon, a standalone Rust-based motion- and voice-driven performance instrument that can also bridge Serato/Ableton and feed cloud rehearsal services.
- Timeline Baseline: 24-week program across four releases (Prototype → Alpha → Beta → 1.0) aligned with `Echelon.md` roadmap expectations.
- Success Metrics: <10 ms audio latency, beat-safe automation, gesture/voice control parity with Episode 1 demos, phrase recommendation latency <5 ms, rehearsal loop turnaround <24 h, NPS ≥40 among pilot DJs.

## 2. Phase Breakdown & Milestones
| Phase | Duration | Exit Criteria | Milestone Links |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Prototype (Weeks 1–6) | Rust audio engine running two decks with limiter; Link clock stubbed | Milestone 1 – Engine Bring-up (`Echelon.md` 133-135) |
| Alpha (Weeks 7–12) | Scheduler with Link sync, safety policies, MIDI learn for core actions | Milestone 2 – Scheduler + Link (`Echelon.md` 136-141) |
| Beta (Weeks 13–18) | Motion/voice integrations, phrase intelligence online, UI deck lanes | Milestones 3 & 4 (`Echelon.md` 149-150, 142-147) |
| Release (Weeks 19–24) | Computational rehearsal loop operational, installer & telemetry ready | Milestone 5 + product polish (`Echelon.md` 151-154, 236-239) |

## 3. Workstreams & Leads
- Audio Engine (Lead: Rust Audio Lead)
- Tasks: cpal/cubeb drivers, node graph, resampling/time-stretch, mixer/mastering (`Echelon.md` 25-31, 45-48).
- Dependencies: access to sample libraries, Rubber Band licensing, performance profiling.
- Scheduler & Safety (Lead: Control Systems Lead)
- Tasks: Link integration, quantized intents, deck locks, cooldowns (`COMPLETE_IMPLEMENTATION_SUMMARY.txt` 144-148).
- Dependencies: action taxonomy from DJ Agent, Link SDK approval.
- AI Services & Phrase Brain (Lead: AI Services Lead)
- Tasks: wrap Episode 1 embeddings (`EPISODE1_OVERVIEW.py` 27-35), ANN service (<5 ms), whisper-rs intents, DELL bridge.
- Dependencies: GPU sidecar infrastructure, model conversion budget.
- Human Interface (Lead: UX Lead + Frontend Engineer)
- Tasks: egui/iced UI (deck lanes, phrase browser, automation curves), MIDI learn UX, telemetry (`Echelon.md` 8-12, 243-254).
- Dependencies: scheduler IPC spec, design system, usability testing participants.
- Computational Rehearsal & Cloud (Lead: Data Ops Lead)
- Tasks: reuse logging/replay (`EPISODE1_OVERVIEW.py` 59-62), nightly training pipelines, dashboard updates.
- Dependencies: cloud infra budget, data retention policy.
- DevOps & QA (Lead: Platform Lead)
- Tasks: CI/CD, automated latency tests (`COMPLETE_IMPLEMENTATION_SUMMARY.txt` 71-74), crash telemetry, installer packaging.
- Dependencies: hardware lab, signing certificates, QA staffing.

## 4. Detailed Schedule (Gantt Outline)
- Weeks 1-2: Engine skeleton, ring buffer IPC prototype, project scaffolding.
- Weeks 3-4: Deck player, crossfader, limiter profiling; scheduler API draft.
- Weeks 5-6: Latency harness, Link stub integration, Prototype demo.
- Weeks 7-8: Action masks port, Link sync validation, MIDI learn MVP.
- Weeks 9-10: Safety regression tests mirrored from Python suite, panic routes.
- Weeks 11-12: Serato/Ableton bridge handshake, Alpha review with internal DJs.
- Weeks 13-14: DELL motion stream integration, whisper-rs command confirmation.
- Weeks 15-16: Phrase DB service, top-K recommendation, rehearsal crate builder.
- Weeks 17-18: egui performance UI, usability sessions, Beta sign-off.
- Weeks 19-20: Computational rehearsal automation, nightly cloud jobs.
- Weeks 21-22: Installer builds, telemetry dashboards, pre-release soak tests.
- Weeks 23-24: Pilot artist onboarding, 1.0 go/no-go, backlog triage for v1.1.

## 5. Deliverables
- Engine crate, scheduler crate, IPC contracts, UI executable, sidecar services, CI pipelines, documentation updates, training scripts, onboarding materials.
- Demo checkpoints: Prototype audio demo, Alpha safety walkthrough, Beta performer rehearsal, Release candidate performance set.

## 6. Dependencies & External Approvals
- Ableton Link SDK licensing, Rubber Band/SoundTouch redistribution terms, whisper-rs model usage rights.
- Hardware: dedicated low-latency audio interface, wearables for motion capture, test rig for macOS/Windows.
- Cloud: budget allocation for rehearsal training clusters, storage for logs.

## 7. Risks & Mitigations
- Audio latency regressions: institute automated profiling (<10 ms) each PR; keep feature flags for optional FX.
- IPC contention or stalls: finalize lock-free ring buffers early, establish backpressure policies, fuzz with load tests.
- Model drift or quality gaps: nightly regression on Episode 1 datasets, pilot DJ feedback loops, fallback to safe heuristics.
- UI complexity creep: lock MVP scope (deck view, phrase browser, automation curves); maintain change control board.
- Licensing delays: start legal review in Week 1, identify alternatives (open-source Link implementations) if blocked.

## 8. Communication & Reporting
- Weekly cross-functional standup; milestone demos at phase exits.
- Status dashboard (Notion/Jira) tracking milestone burndown and latency metrics.
- Engineering decision logs stored alongside `docs/echelon_architecture_alignment.md`.
- Pilot feedback sessions bi-weekly during Beta/Release phases.

## 9. Immediate Next Actions
- Finalize owner assignments per workstream and circulate in kickoff meeting.
- Publish the architecture brief (`docs/echelon_architecture_alignment.md`) and capture approvals.
- Spin Rust workspace repo structure, CI scaffolding, and baseline profiling harness.
- Initiate licensing/dependency audit for Link, Rubber Band, whisper-rs.