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Current limitations

  • Trusted network only. The classic wire is plaintext and unauthenticated; the host listener must not be internet-facing.
  • Alpha packaging. A fail-closed assembler now produces the signed host DMG, embedded classic catalog, generic .img.bin, loose update pairs, release manifest, and checksums from one recorded component set. A real release still needs its licensed CarbonLib descriptor, signing identity, and release-commit review. Classic updates remain unsigned, and website integration, notarization, internet update discovery, and host self-update are not implemented.
  • Guided setup is not yet metal-verified. Its routes and media builders are tested and the image mounts in Mac OS 9.1 QEMU, but a classic-browser download, automatic decoding, and first physical-hardware hello have not completed as one verified path.
  • PowerPC-only alpha. The NOW-68K/pre-Carbon build is currently stale and excluded from the alpha. Its source and contributor documentation remain, but are not a support or packaging promise.
  • Optional Extension. The NOW Extension is required only for the deeper Mirror features listed in the feature coverage matrix, including live interface structure, guarded interaction, modal-loop reachability, remote drag sessions, and cursor following. Ordinary modules remain available without it at their declared levels.
  • Mirror remains experimental. Finder and application-window interiors have narrower evidence and known incomplete behaviors. An unavailable Extension feature is not evidence that a window has no content. Human requests now outrank queued ambient reads at safe boundaries and invalidation hints trigger coalesced refresh, but running guest work is not preempted and the PowerBook latency target remains unverified.
  • File resume remains narrower than basic transfer. The repository records resume-by-offset hangs even where ordinary transfers are proven.
  • Development is not yet a fully autonomous loop. A host-owned project can build and launch through MPW on the PowerBook, but guest-home promotion, typed test receipts, CodeKitten document acceptance, and reliable semantic UI settlement after launch remain incomplete or unverified.
  • MPW is fetched, not shipped. No release output contains Apple's developer tools; the host downloads one checksum-pinned image on request and a personalized setup image carries it. Registration on the classic Mac stays a human act, and it must name the copy on the hard disk — a toolchain registered on the mounted image cannot build.
  • Chat's workspace lane is the one power this app does not audit. On by default and reversible in Settings > Chat, it lets a turn typed at the classic machine spawn a Claude runtime with its own file and command tools in New Old World's own folder on the modern Mac. That folder's own policy governs those tools, not this app's per-capability consent; the New Old World half of the same turn is audited as before. Emulator-verified only.
  • Hardware evidence is specific. A result on the PowerBook 1400c does not prove the PowerBook 180c path, and emulator evidence is not metal evidence.
  • Classic platform recovery matters. The optional extension must remain removable by booting with Extensions disabled.

For the exhaustive current account, read status, known-wrong behavior, and the open-issues ledger.