Internal · SpaceMusic Factory · Status 23 October 2026

The Factory Ecosystem

One page that shows what the Factory is, what each part does and does not do, and what is still worth building.

What the Factory is

We build fast now. With Claude doing most of the typing, a new part can exist a day after someone thinks of it. The risk is no longer slow work. The risk is two people who mean different things by the same word.

This document fixes the words. It starts with one definition:

The Factory is everything that makes, improves, keeps and shows results. A result is one 3D model, with its pictures, and a record of where it came from.

"Where it came from" means the scene, the values, the machine and the SpaceMusic version. For old work it means the Dropbox file. A part belongs to the Factory when it does one of the four verbs to results.

Some things the Factory uses are not part of it:

The SpaceMusic app itself, and its parameters in DNA. The Factory drives SpaceMusic, but it does not build it.
The core library of scenes, models and textures. The Factory reads it.
The desktop tools on the studio PCs: Rhino, Blender, Maya, OrcaSlicer. The Factory calls them.
Live shows and streaming. They use SpaceMusic, not the Factory.

The map

The Factory has five departments, sorted by purpose. Two layers sit under all of them: the Archive, where every result lives, and the shared ground, which does the work and keeps the rules.

Import, the past. Old studio work comes in from Dropbox.Dropbox import, Convert to 3D
Automation, new work. SpaceMusic makes new results from a plan.Builder, Describe it, Queue, SpaceMusic runner, Scene knowledge
Finishing, improve. Results get pictures and better looks.3D views, Studio renders, Render sheet, Place it in a scene, Turntable video
Fabrication, make it real. A model becomes a printable object.Shrinkwrap, Slice, Print
Showroom, judge and act. People and Claude look, choose, and start actions.Gallery, 3D viewer, Rating and tags, Actions card, Claude chat

The outline of a box shows its status. A solid box is live: built and in use. A dashed box is in the works: planned, or built but not yet usable. A dotted box is an idea with no plan yet.

Figure 1 · The Factory as an org chart Open full size · print A3 landscape ↗

The map shows names only. What each part does is in the next section.

What each part does

Every part has the same short spec. Does is its job in one sentence. In is what it takes. Out is what it gives, and where that goes next. Not is the line it does not cross.

The Not column matters most. It is where two people usually disagree without noticing. For example: Import does not copy old files to the server. The Factory app stores nothing. Claude cannot delete. When a new idea needs one of those lines crossed, that is a decision, not a detail.

Import

Part	Does	In	Out, goes to	Not
Dropbox import	Reads a big Dropbox folder, suggests projects, saves each file as a result with a picture and a link.	A Dropbox folder, picked in the Factory.	Result rows, pictures, Dropbox links, the year. → Archive, then Convert to 3D.	Copy originals to the server. They stay in Dropbox.
Convert to 3D	A Worker turns an old .3dm, .fbx, .obj or Maya file into a .glb.	The original, through a short-lived Dropbox link.	A .glb on the same result. → Archive, then 3D views.	Change, move or copy the original.

Automation

Part	Does	In	Out, goes to	Not
Builder	A form: pick a start result, what changes, and when.	A result or scene, plus the settings to sweep.	A plan: run count, machine time, start time. → Queue.	Start anything before a person says yes.
Describe it	The same plan, made from words: the Factory box or a Claude chat.	A sentence, e.g. “50 versions, more twist”.	A plan under “Claude proposed”. → Queue, after a yes.	Start over 200 runs alone. Delete, move or share.
Queue	Holds approved jobs until their time (“tonight” = 22:00) and a free machine.	An approved plan.	A job that one machine may claim. → SpaceMusic runner, Workers.	Run anything itself. Machines pull the work.
SpaceMusic runner	The real-time app renders each run and exports it.	A .smbatch: the list of steps.	.3dm, .glb and export.json per run. → Archive, through library sync.	Pause in the middle of a sweep.
Scene knowledge	Teaches Claude what each parameter means. Later: Claude builds scenes.	Parameter descriptions (DNA), saved scenes.	An explain tool, scene recipes. → Describe it.	Built yet. Two decisions are open.

Finishing

Part	Does	In	Out, goes to	Not
3D views	Renders top, front and right pictures of every new .glb.	A result's .glb.	View pictures on the same result. → Archive, Showroom.	Make a new result.
Studio renders	Blender ray-traces the model as a sculpture: studio, museum, water.	A result's .glb and the stages someone ticked.	A 4K render and a preview on the same result. → Archive, Showroom.	Run without an NVIDIA PC with Blender.
Render sheet	Pick results and stages, get one sheet of renders.	Chosen results, chosen stages.	A contact sheet. → Showroom.	Built yet.
Place it in a scene	An image AI puts the model into a place you describe.	A render or view, plus a sentence.	A new picture on the same result. → Showroom.	Change the 3D model.
Turntable video	A short video of the model turning, to share.	A result's .glb.	A video on the same result. → Showroom.	Built yet.

Fabrication

Part	Does	In	Out, goes to	Not
Shrinkwrap	Rhino wraps the model in one closed mesh.	A result's .3dm.	A new result: a watertight .stl. → Slice.	Run from the Factory yet. It has no button.
Slice	OrcaSlicer turns the mesh into printer code.	An .stl plus the printer's preset files.	A new result: .gcode or .3mf. → Print.	Guess settings. No presets = skipped.
Print	Sends a sliced file to a Bambu printer.	A .gcode or .3mf.	A print job. → The printer.	Built yet.

Showroom

Part	Does	In	Out, goes to	Not
Gallery	Every result as a picture. Runs as stacks. A morning review on Home.	Result rows and pictures.	What people see. “New for you”. → People.	Store anything. The Factory app has no state.
3D viewer	Opens a .glb in the browser. Morphs between results. Full screen.	A .glb.	A 3D view and a link to share. → People, also on a phone.	Open .3dm files. They are too heavy.
Rating and tags	Stars, hearts, tags and projects.	A person's judgement.	Ratings and tags on the result. → Archive.	Change the model itself.
Actions card	One card on every result with everything you can do with it. Soon tiles show what comes next.	A result and one click.	A job for a Worker, a file or a link. → Automation, Finishing, Fabrication, Archive.	Do the work itself. Workers and the api do it.
Claude chat	Finds results, looks at pictures, says what is new.	A question in a chat.	Answers with links. → People, Describe it.	Delete, move, rename, import or share.

Under everything

Part	Does
Archive	Every result and its files. One row per result: scene, values, machine, version, rating, origin.
Files	Small files in MinIO. Big .3dm in Dropbox. Imports stay where they were.
Libraries and sharing	Your library, the core library, libraries shared with you (read only).
Delete and undo	7 days to undo, then gone for good.
Workers	Studio PCs that pull jobs and do the heavy work: SpaceMusic, Rhino, Blender.
api	api.spacemusic.tv: all data, the queue and every rule. The single back end.
Sign-in	One studio account (SSO). The Factory always acts as you.
Claude door	Claude chats reach the Factory through MCP. Plan first, a person says yes.

One result, many actions

Everything in the Factory turns around one thing: the result. Results come in from three sides. Old work comes through Import, new sweeps through Automation, and single exports from the SpaceMusic app, made by hand.

Once a result is there, a person acts on it. Each action hands the result to the department that does the work. A Worker renders it, or prepares it for print, or SpaceMusic sweeps its scene again. What comes out lands back on the same result, or as a new result linked to it.

Figure 2 · One result, many actions Open full size · print A3 landscape ↗

This is a shift in weight. Until 22 October the result page put one action first: New automation from this. Now every result has an Actions card, one place for everything you can do with it. A new automation lives inside Make more like this, next to Studio renders, Download everything and Open in Dropbox. Tools that are coming already show as greyed Soon tiles: Prepare for 3D print, Turntable video, Place it in a scene.

The heavy work happens on the studio PCs, never on the server. A Worker on each PC pulls one job at a time from the queue. That is why a job for an offline machine waits, and why a crashed PC never loses a job.

Gaps and next modules

Most of the map is live. These parts are built in half, planned, or only an idea:

Part	State	What is missing
Shrinkwrap, Slice	Partly	They run, but only through the API. Their tile, Prepare for 3D print, says Soon.
Print	Planned	Sending a sliced file to the Bambu printer.
Render sheet	Planned	Pick results and stages, get one sheet.
Scene knowledge	Planned	Claude knows what parameters mean, then builds scenes. Two decisions are open.
Turntable video	Idea	A short video of the model turning. Its tile says Soon.
Place it in a scene	Idea	An image AI puts the model into a place you describe. Its tile says Soon.

Two things the map makes visible:

Every new tool is two things. It is a part in a department, mostly Finishing or Fabrication, and a tile on the Actions card. It needs no new department and no new storage. That keeps the next tools cheap: each Soon tile is one part and one action away.
Fabrication's door is drawn, but still closed. Its first two steps work, but only through the API, so no designer can reach them. Their tile, Prepare for 3D print, is the closest Soon tile to working.

Some things are decided against, and are listed here so nobody plans them again: screenshots of studio machines, schedules inside the Worker, opening .3dm files in the browser, and copying old originals to the server.

Keeping the map true

A map that is wrong is worse than no map. One rule keeps it true:

No new part without a spec. Before we build it, it gets a department and the five rows: Does, In, Out, Not, To. A new tool also gets the name of its action.

If a new idea fits no department, stop and talk first. Either the idea is outside the Factory, or the map needs a new department, and both are decisions for people, not for Claude. If a spec cannot fill its Not row, the idea is not clear enough yet.

Claude can redraw this page at any time. The source of truth stays the same: the plans in docs/Plans and the pages on docs.spacemusic.tv.

Glossary

Terms used in this document, in plain language.

Action: One thing you can do with a result, from the Actions card on its page: render it, download it, sweep it, later print it.
Archive: The list of all results plus their files. One row per result in the api database; files in MinIO and Dropbox.
Automation: A saved recipe: one scene plus the settings that change. It can run again.
.3dm: A Rhino 3D file. Exact, but big and slow to open.
.glb: A small 3D file for the web. The 3D viewer and Blender read it.
.stl, .gcode: A closed mesh for printing, and the step-by-step code a 3D printer runs.
.smbatch: The list of steps SpaceMusic runs for one automation.
api: api.spacemusic.tv, the single back end. It holds the data, the queue and the rules.
DNA: The database of SpaceMusic's parameters. Outside the Factory.
MCP: Model Context Protocol. The door through which a Claude chat reaches the Factory.
MinIO: File storage on our server for small files: pictures, .glb files, sidecars.
Nano Banana: The nickname of Google's image AI (a Gemini model). It can place an object into a scene you describe.
Plan: A checked, counted sweep that waits for a person's yes. Nothing runs before that.
Result: One 3D model, its pictures, and where it came from.
Run: One launch of an automation. The gallery shows it as a stack of results.
SSO: Single sign-on. One studio account for all our web tools.
Sweep: Many runs of one scene, each with different values.
Worker: A small program on a studio PC. It pulls jobs and starts SpaceMusic, Rhino or Blender for them.

Settled

Five departments, one centre

Import, Automation, Finishing, Fabrication, Showroom. Everything turns around the result, kept in the Archive. Workers do the heavy work.

Open the Soon tiles

The Actions card is live. Next: turn the Soon tiles into working actions. Prepare for 3D print is closest, because its tools already run.

Later

Claude understands scenes

Scene knowledge (plan 088) is the bridge from "plan a sweep" to "make a new scene".