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+# Logo concepts
+
+**Status:** exploration, nothing adopted
+**Drafted:** 2026-08-12
+
+Ten directions for the `shared-memory` mark. Eight are fresh concepts, two are
+refinements of the mark currently shipping in `apps/web/public/logo.svg` and
+`apps/web/app/icon.svg`.
+
+Every concept is drafted as a real SVG in `docs/logo-concepts/`, authored the
+same way the shipped mark is: a 64×64 viewBox, `currentColor` so it inherits the
+surrounding text colour, round caps, and opacity rather than a second hue for
+depth. That means any of them can be dropped straight into the app, and the tile
+(favicon) variant is a mechanical derivation — wrap it in the rounded `#11151b`
+rect and substitute the accent blues.
+
+## How these were judged
+
+A mark for this project has to survive three places: the browser tab at 16px,
+the app header at 32–64px, and a README at whatever size GitHub renders. Small
+size is the brutal filter — it is where most of the concepts below die, and it
+is where the *currently shipped* mark is weakest, which is the single most
+useful finding here.
+
+Each was rendered at 120px, 24px and 16px and looked at, not just reasoned
+about. The failures noted below are observed, not predicted.
+
+---
+
+## The concepts
+
+### 01 · Venn core
+
+Two outlined circles; the lens where they overlap is filled solid. The overlap
+*is* the shared memory.
+
+The most literal, most immediately-readable statement of "shared" in the set —
+nobody needs it explained. That is also the problem: Venn diagrams are visual
+public domain, and this would not be ownable. At 16px the two outlines fuse into
+a single blob with a bright centre, which is legible but says nothing.
+
+### 02 · Handoff
+
+Two brackets facing each other around a single node — one session passing a
+memory to the next.
+
+Calm and symmetric, and the metaphor is exactly right for what the MCP does
+across sessions. It reads as `( • )`, which unfortunately is also how a hundred
+focus / aperture / eye icons read. Holds together at 16px better than 01.
+
+### 03 · Braid
+
+Two threads woven through each other with real over/under crossings, neither
+subordinate to the other.
+
+The most distinctive mark here by a wide margin, and the only one that looks
+*crafted* rather than assembled from primitives. It also has the cleanest
+meaning: two agents, one durable strand, and the weave is what makes it hold.
+
+**It fails as a favicon.** At 16px the crossings collapse and it becomes an
+unreadable smudge. This is not fixable by thickening strokes — the weave needs
+the crossings to be visible, and they need room. Use it as a hero graphic or a
+wordmark companion, not as the app icon.
+
+### 04 · Return arc
+
+An open ring with a solid node inside it: write it down, leave, come back to it.
+The gap in the ring is where the next session enters.
+
+The best small-size performer of the fresh concepts — completely legible at
+16px, and the interior node keeps it from being just a shape. The risk is
+literal: at small sizes it reads as a **©**. Worth checking against that
+association before committing.
+
+### 05 · Anchor
+
+One fixed point that three separate agents reference from wherever they are.
+
+Clean, balanced, and conceptually accurate — the memory is the fixed thing and
+the clients are transient. But a three-spoke hub at this weight lands very close
+to the Mercedes-Benz mark, and adjacent to the peace symbol. Both would come up
+in any trademark review. Included for completeness; hard to recommend.
+
+### 06 · Spine
+
+A vertical spine with entries branching off it, the active one reaching furthest
+to a node. An index, a ledger.
+
+The only rectilinear mark in the set, so it stands apart from the others
+immediately. It is also the most honest about what the product actually is —
+a queryable index, not an abstraction. The risk is that it reads as a bar chart,
+which pushes the association toward analytics rather than memory.
+
+### 07 · Knot
+
+A single continuous thread with no start and no end.
+
+Renders flawlessly at every size tested — genuinely the most legible mark here.
+That is its only advantage. It is the infinity symbol, which means near-zero
+ownability, and it says "endless", not "shared". Kept in the set as the
+legibility baseline the others are measured against.
+
+### 08 · Triad
+
+Three nodes joined by edges, one lit brighter than the others: the smallest
+possible shared graph, with one participant currently active.
+
+The strongest *conceptual* fit after the braid — it shows plurality, connection,
+and activity in one figure, and the lit node gives it somewhere to go for a
+loading or live state. Degrades gracefully: at 16px the edges thin out but three
+dots in a triangle still reads. The concern is category crowding — triangular
+node graphs are the default visual language of network and blockchain branding.
+
+### 09 · Current mark, rebalanced
+
+The shipped mark with three targeted changes, all aimed at 16px:
+
+| | Shipped | Rebalanced |
+|---|---|---|
+| Converging strokes end at | `x=35` (2.5px from the node) | `x=30` (4px clear) |
+| Outer stroke opacity | `.45` / `.55` | `.7` |
+| Node radius | `7.5` | `8.5` |
+
+At 16px the shipped mark loses its outer strokes to rasterisation and the
+remaining gap between stroke and node fills in, so it renders as an
+indeterminate horizontal smear. The rebalanced version resolves as an arrow
+meeting a node at the same size.
+
+This is the lowest-risk option on the table: it is not a rebrand, it keeps
+whatever recognition the current mark has already earned, and it fixes a real
+defect. It is worth doing *regardless* of what happens with the eight concepts
+above.
+
+### 10 · Lockup
+
+Not an alternative mark — the missing asset. The rebalanced mark set against the
+wordmark in the project's monospace stack, on a shared baseline, with the hyphen
+dropped to 45% so `shared` and `memory` read as two things joined.
+
+For README headers, the docs site, and the OAuth consent screen, where a bare
+64px glyph is too little and the full app header is too much.
+
+---
+
+## Recommendation
+
+Three separate decisions, not one:
+
+1. **Ship 09 now.** The small-size failure of the current mark is a real defect
+   and the fix is a five-line diff. It does not depend on choosing a new
+   direction.
+2. **Adopt 10** for the README and docs headers, using whichever mark wins.
+3. **If a genuine replacement is wanted**, the shortlist is **08 Triad** (best
+   concept-to-legibility ratio) and **04 Return arc** (best legibility, pending
+   the © check). **03 Braid** is the most beautiful and should be used
+   *somewhere* — as a hero graphic — but cannot be the icon.
+
+Concepts 01, 05 and 07 are documented here so the reasoning against them is on
+record, not because they are live candidates.
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64" width="64" height="64" role="img" aria-label="Venn core">
+  <title>Venn core</title>
+  <!-- Two participants; the filled lens is the memory they hold in common. -->
+  <g fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="5" opacity=".5">
+    <circle cx="24" cy="32" r="15"/>
+    <circle cx="40" cy="32" r="15"/>
+  </g>
+  <path d="M32 19.31A15 15 0 0 1 32 44.69 15 15 0 0 1 32 19.31Z" fill="currentColor"/>
+</svg>
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64" width="64" height="64" role="img" aria-label="Handoff">
+  <title>Handoff</title>
+  <!-- Two sessions facing each other, passing one memory between them. -->
+  <g fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="6.5" stroke-linecap="round" opacity=".65">
+    <path d="M26 16Q10 32 26 48"/>
+    <path d="M38 16Q54 32 38 48"/>
+  </g>
+  <circle cx="32" cy="32" r="7" fill="currentColor"/>
+</svg>
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64" width="64" height="64" role="img" aria-label="Braid">
+  <title>Braid</title>
+  <!--
+    Two independent threads woven into one strand - neither is subordinate,
+    and the weave is what holds. Crossings computed at (20,32) and (44,32);
+    the mask punches the first one so strand A reads as passing over it.
+  -->
+  <mask id="sm-braid-gap">
+    <rect width="64" height="64" fill="#fff"/>
+    <circle cx="20" cy="32" r="6.25" fill="#000"/>
+  </mask>
+  <g fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="6.5" stroke-linecap="round">
+    <path d="M8 20C20 20 20 44 32 44 44 44 44 20 56 20" opacity=".75"/>
+    <path d="M8 44C20 44 20 20 32 20 44 20 44 44 56 44" mask="url(#sm-braid-gap)"/>
+  </g>
+</svg>
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64" width="64" height="64" role="img" aria-label="Return arc">
+  <title>Return arc</title>
+  <!-- Write, leave, come back to it. The gap is where the next session enters. -->
+  <path d="M42.3 46.7A18 18 0 1 1 42.3 17.3" fill="none" stroke="currentColor"
+        stroke-width="6.5" stroke-linecap="round" opacity=".7"/>
+  <circle cx="30" cy="32" r="7.5" fill="currentColor"/>
+</svg>
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64" width="64" height="64" role="img" aria-label="Anchor">
+  <title>Anchor</title>
+  <!-- One fixed point that separate agents reference from wherever they are. -->
+  <g fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="6" stroke-linecap="round" opacity=".6">
+    <path d="M32 8V20"/>
+    <path d="M11.2 44L21.6 38"/>
+    <path d="M52.8 44L42.4 38"/>
+  </g>
+  <circle cx="32" cy="32" r="8.5" fill="currentColor"/>
+</svg>
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64" width="64" height="64" role="img" aria-label="Spine">
+  <title>Spine</title>
+  <!-- An index: many entries on one shared spine, the active one reaching furthest. -->
+  <g fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="6" stroke-linecap="round">
+    <path d="M16 13V51"/>
+    <path d="M16 21H34" opacity=".5"/>
+    <path d="M16 32H42"/>
+    <path d="M16 43H34" opacity=".5"/>
+  </g>
+  <circle cx="52" cy="32" r="5" fill="currentColor"/>
+</svg>
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64" width="64" height="64" role="img" aria-label="Knot">
+  <title>Knot</title>
+  <!-- One continuous thread with no start and no end; it persists past any session. -->
+  <path d="M32 32C38 20 50 20 50 32 50 44 38 44 32 32 26 20 14 20 14 32 14 44 26 44 32 32Z"
+        fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="6.5" stroke-linejoin="round"/>
+</svg>
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64" width="64" height="64" role="img" aria-label="Triad">
+  <title>Triad</title>
+  <!-- The smallest possible shared graph: three peers, one currently speaking. -->
+  <path d="M32 16L17 44H47Z" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="5"
+        stroke-linejoin="round" opacity=".4"/>
+  <g fill="currentColor">
+    <circle cx="32" cy="16" r="7"/>
+    <circle cx="17" cy="44" r="7" opacity=".55"/>
+    <circle cx="47" cy="44" r="7" opacity=".55"/>
+  </g>
+</svg>
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+<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64" width="64" height="64" role="img" aria-label="Current mark, rebalanced">
+  <title>Current mark, rebalanced</title>
+  <!--
+    The shipped mark with three changes aimed at 16px: strokes stop earlier so
+    the gap to the node survives rasterisation, outer opacity raised .45 -> .7
+    so the neighbours don't drop out, node enlarged 7.5 -> 8.5.
+  -->
+  <g fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-width="7">
+    <path d="M12 16C24 16 25 32 30 32" opacity=".7"/>
+    <path d="M12 32H30"/>
+    <path d="M12 48C24 48 25 32 30 32" opacity=".7"/>
+  </g>
+  <circle cx="46" cy="32" r="8.5" fill="currentColor"/>
+</svg>
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 292 64" width="292" height="64" role="img" aria-label="shared-memory">
+  <title>shared-memory lockup</title>
+  <!-- Horizontal lockup: rebalanced mark + monospace wordmark on a shared baseline. -->
+  <g fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-width="7">
+    <path d="M12 16C24 16 25 32 30 32" opacity=".7"/>
+    <path d="M12 32H30"/>
+    <path d="M12 48C24 48 25 32 30 32" opacity=".7"/>
+  </g>
+  <circle cx="46" cy="32" r="8.5" fill="currentColor"/>
+  <text x="72" y="41" fill="currentColor"
+        font-family="ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, Menlo, Consolas, monospace"
+        font-size="26" letter-spacing="-0.8">shared<tspan opacity=".45">-</tspan>memory</text>
+</svg>