website/MODULE_API.md

@@ -454,6 +454,24 @@ half needs rethinking before Phase 2 builds on it.
 finds (`MODULE_SYSTEM.md` §1.12). The database is not consulted. `MODULES_DIR` defaults to
 `<repo>/modules` and is overridable by env for tests and for the Docker volume mount.
 
+**The trigger is one explicit call, and there is no lazy self-scan** (§7.6). `app.js` calls
+
+```js
+modules.load({ public: publicRouter, admin: adminRouter, player: playerRouter })
+```
+
+exactly once, and every accessor throws until it has run rather than answering with an empty list —
+"no modules installed" is a real state, and a caller must not be handed it by accident. Its position
+in `app.js` is load-bearing in both directions: **after** `app.use('/api', apiRouter)`, so every core
+prefix is already on the tier routers when §4.3 asks them what core owns and so first-match-wins
+means a module cannot shadow a core route; **before** the `/api` 404, so a module route reaches its
+handler instead of the catch-all.
+
+**Mounting is a second pass** over the modules that survived validation, not part of the scan loop.
+Otherwise the first module's layers sit on the tier router while the second is being validated,
+indistinguishable from core's — the second module would be told it collided with *core*, naming the
+wrong culprit, and the module-versus-module check would be unreachable.
+
 ### 4.2 Order
 
 Alphabetical by `id`, deterministically. There is no dependency resolution between modules (§2.0 of
@@ -472,6 +490,14 @@ other order would imply a precedence that is not being computed.
 
 A failure at any step is that module's failure and nobody else's.
 
+**Step 3 asks the live tier routers, not a list.** Whether core owns a prefix is answered by probing
+the tier router's own stack with express's `layer.match()`, skipping root-mounted (`fast_slash`)
+layers — `public/index.js` ends with `use('/', siteRouter)` and `admin/index.js` with the dashboard
+router, and both match every path, so counting them would report every prefix as taken and no module
+could ever mount. A hardcoded prefix table was tried in the spike and was already one prefix stale
+when it was written; deriving it means the check cannot drift the first time core adds a capability
+router, and needs no second declaration of the mount table.
+
 ### 4.4 `startup_failed` is a state, not a crash
 
 Per `MODULE_SYSTEM.md` §2.4, the loader try/catches the **entire** lifecycle — require, validation,
@@ -690,10 +716,15 @@ They are recorded so nobody reads them as intended shape:
 3. **The module has no `swagger-fragment.json`** — §6.1a's obligation needs core's merge helper on
    the other side of it, which is Phase 2.
 
-### 7.6 A finding for Phase 2's loader
+### 7.6 A finding for Phase 2's loader — **settled: an explicit `load()`**
 
-`scan()` is lazy — requiring the loader does not run it. That is deliberate (app.js decides when
+`scan()` was lazy — requiring the loader did not run it. That was deliberate (app.js decides when
 modules are discovered) but it is a sharp edge: a caller that requires the loader and reads nothing
-gets an empty, *silent* module list. It cost one confusing test failure during the spike. Phase 2
-should either make the trigger explicit in the name or scan at require time and let app.js order the
-require.
+gets an empty, *silent* module list. It cost one confusing test failure during the spike.
+
+**Phase 2 PR 2 made the trigger explicit** rather than scanning at require time. `app.js` calls
+`modules.load(tierRouters)` once, and `list()` throws until it has. Scanning on require was the
+alternative and was rejected for two reasons: the loader now needs the tier routers *handed to it*
+for the §4.3 collision check, which a require-time side effect cannot receive; and it would make the
+ordering constraint invisible, enforced by where a `require` sits rather than by an argument that is
+missing if it is wrong.

website/MODULE_SYSTEM.md

@@ -453,9 +453,23 @@ too (API §7.2).
 Exit criterion: `routes.manifest.json` diff is zero lines and every existing test passes. If Phase 2
 changes one URL, it is wrong.
 
-**Progress: PR 1 done** — `installed_modules` and the state machine, with the stored shape and the
-boot rules settled in §2.4 above. No loader, no routes, no boot wiring yet, so it changes nothing an
-operator or a client can see.
+**Progress: PRs 1-2 done.**
+
+- **PR 1** — `installed_modules` and the state machine, with the stored shape and the boot rules
+  settled in §2.4 above.
+- **PR 2** — `server/src/modules/loader.js`: the filesystem scan, manifest validation, prefix and
+  table-name collision rejection, per-module try/catch and the tier mount, behind the §4.5 dispatch
+  guard. Two decisions landed with it, both recorded in [`MODULE_API.md`](MODULE_API.md): the load
+  trigger is **one explicit `modules.load(tierRouters)` call in `app.js`**, never a lazy scan
+  (API §7.6); and the "does core own this prefix" check **probes the live tier routers** rather than
+  a hardcoded table, so it cannot drift when core adds a capability router (API §4.3). The three
+  de-entanglement registries and the two lifecycle hooks throw `not available until phase 2 PR 4/5`
+  rather than no-op — an accepting stub would let a module believe it had registered something.
+  28 tests, all on the failure paths.
+
+There is still no module on the volume, no schema replay and no boot wiring, so this changes nothing
+an operator or a client can see: 842 tests pass and `routes.manifest.json` is unchanged at 229
+routes.
 
 **Phase 3 — Extract `module-uo`.** Moves out of `website/`: the 8 model directories and their 25
 tables; the nine UO `utils/` files plus `newsGump.js`; the 13 router/controller files;