# Long Way Round

> A planner for a playful table-top chain-reaction machine that does one dull everyday job the long way
> round, using only the things on your table. Say the job and how it ends (a nudge, a drop or a tug)
> and list your parts, one a line. A free in-browser engine reads what each part can be, leaves out
> anything hot, sharp or glass, plans the machine as simple machines in series (each stage's motion
> out is the next stage's motion in), rates every hand-off, times the run and sets a verdict by a
> fixed rule. One metered task writes the engineer's notes for every stage.

## What it does

- Reads each parts line as a row to topple (3 or more dominoes, books, blocks), a roller, a ramp, a
  tube, a cup, string, a lever, a pivot, a prop or a weight. Lines naming anything hot, sharp, glass,
  electrical or with a flame are left out.
- Plans stages from your push to the job: topple row (push out), ramp and roll along (roll out),
  tunnel (guides a roll), cup and string (roll in, pull out), pull the prop (pull in, drop out),
  see-saw flick (push in and out) and edge drop (push in, drop out). Each part is used once; of the
  machines that fit, the one with the easiest hand-offs wins, with a fixed tie-break.
- Verdict, checked in order: short a part (names the one part to fetch), fiddly (a hard-to-aim
  hand-off, or two tricky ones), ready to run.
- Draws the machine on a wooden table with a play-through, and exports a build card (.txt), Markdown,
  JSON, CSV and the drawing (.svg, .png). Saved machines live in the person's SkillSafe account.

## The paid task

- `task`: `build`
- Input fields (strings): `job`, `parts`, `machine`, `facts` - built by the page from the form.
- Reply: one JSON object with `verdict`, `stages[]` (`n`, `setup`, `handoff`, `watch_for`, `tweak`),
  `first_test`, `fetch`, `safety`, `sign_off`. The page checks every note against its own plan.
- Model: gpt-terra, metered per run. API guide: https://long-way-round.skillsafe.ai/api.html

## Sources

- Built on the SkillSafe skill @selfdriven-octo/mechanical-engineer
  (https://skillsafe.ai/skill/@selfdriven-octo/mechanical-engineer), from selfdriven-octo/skillzeb (CC0-1.0).
- Simple and compound machines: Wikipedia, "Simple machine" (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- A toy for a steady table, not professional advice. Run times are rough estimates.