COMPARATOR_PIPELINES_REFERENCE.md

pipelines/COMPARATOR_PIPELINES_REFERENCE.md

COMPARATOR PIPELINES — THE CITED REFERENCE PACK

Provenance. Josh, 2026-08-05, verbatim: *"What about their pipelines?"* The comparator-lens program

(docs/proposals/COMPARATOR_LENS_PROGRAM.md) had studied the teachers' outcomes — what their games

achieve — and had never studied their production. This pack is the research answer: how the teachers

actually BUILD, read against our own factory, with every adoptable technique routed to a lane and every

rejection carrying its reason.

What this file is. The consolidated, cited pack. Three researchers ran in parallel and landed their

findings as **in-place addenda on the owning PIPE_* dossiers** (the pipe-dossiers-bind law). This file

does not duplicate them — it is the index, the verification ledger, and the **routed adoption

worklist**. Read a dossier section for the domain detail; read this for provenance and routing.

Standing rule this pack enforces. Cited-or-cut applies to adoptions exactly as it applies to canon.

An adoption whose mechanism was never read directly is a hallucination risk wearing a citation.

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1. WHERE THE RESEARCH LIVES

DomainDossier sectionTeachers covered
Quest authoring · world populationpipeline_review/tech_research/PIPE_CONTROL_PLANE_2026-07-29.md §8CD Projekt Red · Nintendo · Rockstar · Bethesda
World building · density · measurementpipeline_review/tech_research/GEODATA_TERRAIN_CHAIN.md §8Ubisoft (Far Cry 5) · Guerrilla · Nintendo · CDPR/Rockstar
Itemization · loot · factions · live toolingpipeline_review/tech_research/PIPE_CONTROL_PLANE_2026-07-29.md §7Blizzard (WoW, D4, Overwatch) · Epic · Game Freak
Zone/region productionpipeline_review/tech_research/PIPE_ART_2026-07-29.md §8Blizzard (WoW zone process) · Game Freak
Ability-VFX authoringpipeline_review/tech_research/PIPE_ART_2026-07-29.md §7Square Enix (FF7R / Rebirth) · EA (Frostbite)
Creature moveset · combat feelpipeline_review/tech_research/PIPE_ANIMATION_2026-07-29.md §7Capcom · Santa Monica · id Software · 343
Creature assets · rigs · automationpipeline_review/tech_research/PIPE_3D_2026-07-29.md §7Capcom (Monster Hunter Wilds)
Audio lane (routing pass, not research)pipeline_review/tech_research/PIPE_AUDIO_MUSIC_2026-07-29.md §7Capcom · Naughty Dog/Santa Monica round-table · Nintendo
The lane that had no dossierpipeline_review/tech_research/PIPE_QUEST_WORLD_2026-08-05.md (minted this pass)binding home for quest/world

---

2. SOURCE TIERS — the vocabulary used throughout

TierMeaning
FIRST-PARTYThe studio's own published tooling documentation, own talk page, or official dev blog
TALK-RECAPA named journalist or practitioner recap of a named GDC/CEDEC session, speaker identified
COMMUNITY-DOCOpen-source schema definitions or emulator documentation of shipped data — reverse-engineered but verifiable by reading the files
REVERSE-ENGINEEREDCommunity documentation of shipped data files with no developer statement behind it
SECONDARYPress or conference write-up of a talk whose slides could not be read verbatim

---

3. THE VERIFICATION LEDGER

The synthesizer independently re-fetched the load-bearing claims — the ones that drive an adoption —

rather than trusting the researcher returns. **Thirteen claim clusters were checked. Twelve confirmed

verbatim. Three precision defects were found and corrected in place. One block remains flagged.**

3.1 Confirmed verbatim by direct fetch (2026-08-05)

#Claim clusterSourceResult
V1Phase scope-exit: every live node inside a phase dies when the signal passes an Out socketCDPR REDkit HOW-TO (FIRST-PARTY)CONFIRMED — *"Once the signal passes this all other nodes inside the phase will die."*
V2Signal model: starts at Start, can be in two or more places at once, End kills all remaining signalsCDPR Quest Editor (FIRST-PARTY)CONFIRMED
V3loot_template composition: Reference splices, GroupId is one-of-group, self-reference crashes, sum-100 guarantees a drop and below-100 risks empty, references compete inside groupsAzerothCore wiki (COMMUNITY-DOC)CONFIRMED on every sub-claim
V4RandPropPoints carries Epic[5]/Superior[5]/Good[5] plus float twinswowdev/WoWDBDefs (COMMUNITY-DOC)CONFIRMED (with a precision note — see 3.2)
V5Far Cry 5: 64×64 m sectors · nightly multi-machine rebuild · determinism required for map junctions and navmesh · three refresh scopes · biome knobs (viability, priority, priority radius, density ramps, size-linked-to-viability) · 2.5-year terrain churnCarrier GDC 2018 talk notes (TALK-RECAP)CONFIRMED on every sub-claim
V6Capcom: nightly mayapy automation for texture bake / LOD / asset commit · Ziva VFX · ngSkinTools · Simplygon · Quad Remesher · MotionBuilder · in-house Anim Tool · PBD · skeleton→muscle→skin-and-fat order · three animation sources · ~60-person character sectionAutodesk production feature (vendor-published)CONFIRMED on every sub-claim, including the verbatim nightly-automation sentence
V7The Witcher 3: 35+ hours of dialogue vs 2.5 hours of cutscenes · 1,463 systemic dialogues · generator parses VO audio · 180-degree rule · ~35 idles per skeleton type · ~2,400 anims reused via additive/bone-mask/blend-weightgameanim.com GDC 2016 breakdown (TALK-RECAP)CONFIRMED — except the hand-polish claim (see 3.2)
V8FF7 Rebirth: Niagara user parameters adjust count/velocity/scale on one base effect; the documented example is a background class ("Life Spot"), not hero magic; VAB replaces VAT; 4K/8K generics; 60fps forced load balancingCGWorld (trade feature)CONFIRMED including the scope correction — the researcher's own correction was right
V9FF7 Remake: luminance separated from colour as an independent parameter · 8×8 = 64-frame sheets with emissive/opacity/normal/occlusion · 64³ Perlin VolumeTexture for Materia · Arnold sky spheres · four VFX streams · shared test mapCGWorld (trade feature)CONFIRMED, luminance quoted verbatim in the original Japanese
V10Epic/Nomad: 20,000 concurrent cooks · 2,000+ hosts · 14M cooks in six months · spread-not-binpack · node-class routing · four-phase lifecycle (validate-in / main / SLA watchdog / crash+cache) · 500-node clusters on a hash ringHashiCorp case study (PRIMARY, Epic engineer quoted)CONFIRMED on every sub-claim
V11BotW/Nintendo: triangle rule at three scales · rectangles hide · "gravity" attractors · heat maps showing concentrated then redistributed traffic · 2,344 nightly map screens · 120 sections × 4 zoom · 5-minute ROM builds · Jenkins 48% · in-world task signs · bug reports carrying coordinates/scene/event · 6,000 ZELDA_ERROR sites · 617 freezes in two days · LayoutEditor/SLink/AssetBinder · two UI designersCEDEC 2017 Matt Walker translation (TALK-RECAP)CONFIRMED on all fourteen sub-claims
V12Diablo IV: Greater Affixes 1.5x, Ancestral-only, discovery-only · six temper categories · Masterworking every 4th tier · fixed 925 Item Power above level 95 · affixes reduced to 3/2news.blizzard.com (PRIMARY)CONFIRMED on all five
V13Audio-lane facts: RE Engine plays SFX/BGM into the live capture scene · GoW impact envelope (low-end slam → high-frequency slash) · hit stop holds both parties · camera legibility repaid in audio and animation · SLink assigns sounds by clicking an actordigitaltrends · blog.playstation.com · CEDEC translationCONFIRMED, each re-fetched before routing

3.2 Precision defects found and corrected in place

#DefectCorrection landed
D1The return claimed "all 1,463 dialogues were touched by hand" and drew from it an adoption of *universal hand-polish, 100% author touch as the plan*. The source says the opposite in part: the generator left *"some less-important dialogues hardly touched."*PIPE_CONTROL_PLANE §8.1 C10 + teach-point 6. Corrected shape: generator output as the baseline for 100% of rows, with hand-polish TIERED by narrative importance. The corrected reading is the cheaper one and the one with evidence behind it
D2The return attributed Rebirth's total Cascade→Niagara rebuild to Cascade's maintenance having ended. A direct re-fetch gives a different and sharper deciding factor: Square's proprietary engine modifications were so extensive that Epic's automatic conversion tool could not be usedPIPE_ART §7.6. The corrected reason transfers harder to us, because our own posture is heavy customisation of an engine we do not own — deeper customisation means less of any future migration is automatable
D3C2's scope-exit rule was cited to two pages; only one carries it. RandPropPoints's "one row per item level" is the runtime meaning of the ID, not something the .dbd statesPIPE_CONTROL_PLANE §8.1 C2 and §7.1. Citations tightened to the page that actually carries each claim; the adoption does not depend on the row-semantics reading

3.3 The one block that remains FLAGGED

Bethesda / Radiant aliases (PIPE_CONTROL_PLANE §8.4, B1-B4). UESP returned **HTTP 403 on both

ck.uesp.net and en.uesp.net**, across two independent passes — the whole domain is unreachable from

this environment, not one page. A second search-index pass *did* corroborate the ordered-fill semantics

(aliases fill in order at quest start; order matters where aliases depend on each other). What remains

unread by any direct fetch is the exact fill-type name list and the **alias-versus-base-actor design

rule**.

The adoption was therefore SPLIT rather than swallowed:

two *verified* legs (CDPR's category-tagged action points, FIRST-PARTY; Rockstar's five-verb scenario

vocabulary, REVERSE-ENGINEERED). It never needed Bethesda.

extracts.

---

4. THE ROUTED ADOPTION WORKLIST

Machine-readable mirror: docs/research/comparator_pipeline_adoptions.json.

60 adoptions routed · 11 explicit no-adopts · 1 gated (QW-8) · 1 open director fork (QW-16).

4.1 Quest and world (lane: quest_worldPIPE_QUEST_WORLD_2026-08-05.md)

#TechniqueTeacherVerdictRoute
QW-1Phase-scoped quest graph with structural scope-exitCDPRADOPT — highest leveragequest runtime
QW-2One facts surface with per-fact expiry behind state_writesCDPRADOPTCONDITION_EXPRESSION_GRAMMAR.md write side
QW-3--start-at-phase entry point for QA replayCDPRADOPTquest runtime · QA loop
QW-4Population as spawn-set × timetable × category-tagged pointsCDPR + RockstarADOPTT0_Region_Index.ambient_population_band_default becomes a table
QW-5Composition percentages must sum correctly or a gate failsRockstarADOPTharness/ population check
QW-6A tiny closed ambient-verb vocabulary; variety from the joinRockstarADOPT as constraintpersona / dwelling registries
QW-7Behaviour on the slot, not the entityCDPR + RockstarADOPTpersona · faction-standing · companion re-read
QW-8Alias/slot-filled quest templates over keyword-tagged locationsBethesdaGATED — re-verify firstparticipant_entity_refs fill contract
QW-9Quest count drives world size, not the reverseCDPRADOPT as framingregion sizing
QW-10Every delayed consequence produces a player-legible callbackCDPRADOPT as a gateworld_memory_write needs a surfaced downstream read
QW-11Bug reports emitted by the game carrying coordinates + phase + factsNintendoADOPTQA-loop bug emitter payload
QW-12Deterministic nightly world rebuild on a sector gridFar Cry 5ADOPTGEODATA_TERRAIN_CHAIN §8.5 · the idle 5090 overnight window
QW-13Three-scale relief (landmark / view-blocking / tempo) as a computed gateBotWADOPTT0_Region_Index, computed off DEM layers
QW-14QA traversal heat maps as the standing world-quality instrumentBotWADOPTthe AI QA loop is our player; traversal is loggable
QW-15Per-node placement posture (hand-crafted in slice, rule-driven outside)CDPR vs FC5ADOPT as a field, not a stanceT0_Region_Index
QW-16Bake-time vs run-time placementHorizonOPEN — director forkstated, deliberately unresolved
QW-17Derive abiotic layers once per region (slope, curvature, occlusion, flow, illumination, altitude)Far Cry 5ADOPTnew Step 2b in the world chain
QW-18FC5 biome rule vocabulary as the PCG target shapeFar Cry 5ADOPTcloses GEODATA Residual Unknown 6
QW-19In-world task pinning to a coordinate, not a document lineNintendoADOPTregion pages / board

4.2 Systems, itemization and the control plane (lane: control_plane)

#TechniqueTeacherVerdictRoute
C-1Budget-curve table keyed (tier × grade × slot); the item row holds allocation onlyWoWADOPTmint the curve table; T0_Item_Derivation_Rule references it
C-2reference_drop_id + group_id on drop tablesWoW-derivedADOPT — highest leverage schema addT0_RNG_Drop_Table; guards in harness/check_drop_seed_join.py
C-3Rarity grade as a derived multiplier over an existing affix rowD4ADOPTmaterialization_policy = DERIVED_MULTIPLIER
C-4Many short category-keyed vocabularies over one long flat poolD4ADOPT as constraintT0_Item_Axis_Registry incl. the three NONE_YET axes
C-5Flatten the magnitude axis at the top of the curveD4ADOPTbuild-space sweep end-of-curve rule
C-6Per-faction arrival conditionsWoWADOPTfaction_arrival_condition on the condition grammar
C-7Standing propagation up a faction tree with modifier and capWoWADOPTT0_Faction_Registry + FACTION_STANDING_WIRING_SPEC.md
C-9Four-phase job contract (validate-in · main · SLA watchdog · crash+cache)EpicADOPTDR-2 job contract §3
C-10Per-class scheduling hints; exclusive class for heavy ordersEpicCORROBORATES the C-14 rulingrouting table gains a scheduling-class column
C-11Measure control-plane overhead as batch N grows (1/20/200)EpicADOPTnew §6 benchmark-day question
C-12Hotfix/CVar layer for balance numbersFortniteADOPT — scoped questionengine lane
C-13Generated output returned into the running editor sessionUEFNADOPT — stretchASSET_DROPIN_CONTRACT.md
C-14Preview and share content BEFORE committingOverwatchADOPTboards/publish staging surface
C-15Species and form as rows on one fixed schemaPokémonADOPT as constraintvariants are FORMS, not entities (GAP-185)
C-16Rig-archetype (mould) animation inheritancePokémonADOPT — routed to animationbody_mould_ref on the creature roster

4.3 Art, VFX and region production (lane: art_vfx)

#TechniqueTeacherVerdictRoute
B-1A baked VFX source-asset library under the family system (flipbooks + baked sim carrying emissive/opacity/normal/occlusion; volume textures for aura and field beats)FF7RADOPT — the missing layerdeclared rung of the art lane; wave 7
B-2Separate LUMINANCE from COLOR as its own axisFF7RADOPT — sharpest single transferdocs/element_visual_law.json + wave-7 parameter surface
B-3Niagara MODULE library + data-asset parameter surface FIRST, then the 31 familiesFF7RADOPT as build orderwave 7 sequencing
B-4The family architecture must settle BEFORE volume authoring (a VFX library is rebuilt, never ported)FF7 RebirthADOPTconfirms ENGINE_OPTIMIZATION_DOCTRINE D9
B-5Aftermath beat coupled to the place's own windFF7 RebirthADOPTthe AFTERMATH beat
B-6One shared proving map with looping parameter previewFF7RADOPTshared by VFX · animation · audio
CA-1Four-class kit manifest per region (foliage, architecture, props, terrain textures) before layoutWoWADOPTCONCEPT_ART_PRODUCTION_PROGRAM.md D1-05 extension
CA-2Kit DIORAMA built and looked at before the first real region of that kitWoWADOPT — genuine gapregion factory step; visual-verification directive
CA-3Persistent in-engine REFERENCE ZONE of finished kit assetsWoWADOPTASSET_DROPIN_CONTRACT.md, RefZone_<region>
CA-4Authored layout diffed against the compiled minimap as a gateWoWADOPT — post-first-regionWorldPartitionMiniMapBuilder
CA-5Consistency held by a shared trained artifact, not per-asset disciplinePokémonCORROBORATES the style-LoRA rulingno change

4.4 Creatures, rigs and combat feel (lanes: 3d, animation)

#TechniqueTeacherVerdictRoute
A-1Temp-animation stage reviewed with cue VFX present, gating the final brush-upCapcomADOPT — re-orders our wavecreature moveset cadence
A-2Three-source animation policy declared per move (reuse / generated / hand)CapcomADOPT as a required fieldcreature move rows
A-3Mocap/generated motion is MATERIAL, not deliveryCapcomADOPT — validates the honest supply statementPIPE_ANIMATION
A-4Signature-mechanic register that stays OPEN across waves with a named ownerSanta MonicaADOPTfirst entries: cast-delivery projectile, FG-01/FG-11 committed-swing window
A-5"Windup shrinks, tell survives" as a measurable A/Bid SoftwareADOPTagainst FG-01's measured 0.146 s windup
A-6Shelf playtest as a pre-commit gate with the critic read recorded343ADOPTQA loop is the playerbase
A-7Root-cause decomposition required in critic findings343ADOPT"the recovery window, not the windup"
A-8Skeleton-before-deformation order + real-anatomy citation per creatureCapcomADOPTPIPE_3D creature rigs
A-9A declared skin-weight repair stageCapcomADOPT — the genuine gap foundcreature finishing chain
A-10Nightly blender --background --python for bake / LOD / commitCapcomADOPT verbatim — highest value, lowest costthe 24/7 5090 box
A-11ONE scripted Blender↔UE exchange tool owning rig-switch and attachment casesCapcomADOPT as patterndrop-in contract
A-12Asset metadata arrives WITH the asset (id, poly count, shader, collision)CapcomADOPTdrop-in manifest extension
A-13Per-appendage-class templates (tails, wings, mandibles, cloth)CapcomADOPT as a classcreature roster

4.5 Audio (lane: audio) — synthesizer-routed, each fact re-verified

#TechniqueTeacherVerdictRoute
S-1Cue audio wired into the proving map at authoring time, not afterCapcomADOPT — principle onlyshared proving map
S-2Impact envelope: low-end effort → high-frequency slashGoW round-tableADOPT as cue-design lawthe impact beat
S-3Escalate the intensity axis, hold the identity axis — tier escalation is a low-end-mass delta with the high-frequency read held constantsynthesis of S-2 + B-2ADOPT — cross-lane lawaudio + VFX presentation ladder
S-4Audio binding declared on the entity row where the entity is authoredNintendo (SLink)ADOPT as patternregistry-as-authoring-surface

---

5. THE NO-ADOPTS, WITH REASONS

#RejectedTeacherReason
N-1Rockstar's quest/mission authoring approach, wholesaleRockstarNot a pipeline teacher. Missions are compiled bytecode with native hashes rotated every patch; internal tools and language are undocumented. Any lane claiming to follow it is claiming something unverifiable. Recorded so budget stops going here — their comparator value stays on the outcome lenses
N-2Ziva VFX muscle simulationCapcomMaya-bound, paid, outside the ruled Blender-headless chain. The quality delta is named honestly, not papered over: their skin slides over simulated muscle; ours will not
N-3Motion-capture stage infrastructure (36–150 camera studios)CapcomWe have no stage and will not have one; the *principle* (review motion with its audio in context) is adopted instead
N-4Capcom's headcount (~60-person character section, hundreds of devs)CapcomRecorded precisely so that a future "we do what Capcom does" claim is read against it. Automation and ORDER transfer; headcount never does
N-5Houdini Engine fur reduction / alpha optimisationCapcomNot this cycle
N-6DOOM's resource-loop-replaces-pickups designid SoftwareA genre-specific answer to a scarcity problem we do not have
N-7Client-side binary DB2 table formatWoWThe format is not the lesson; the allocation/magnitude split is
N-8Alternate ladder curves per factionWoWNO-ADOPT NOW, recorded: the nine bands are ruled canon and stay the default; ladder_ref is already shaped for a second ladder if a joinable ranked order ever earns one. Do not mint speculatively
N-9Seasonal wipe and ladder cadenceD4Single-player narrative RPG; the item-space lessons transfer, the cadence that motivated them does not
N-10Multi-cluster federation at 500 nodesEpicOne box. Only the *reason* transfers — coordination cost became the bottleneck before the workers did (routed as C-11)
N-11Print-the-2D-map-onto-terrain sculptingWoWOur terrain chain starts from real geodata, which already supplies the base the printed map substitutes for

---

6. CROSS-CUTTING FINDINGS

1. Three independent pipelines converged on "behaviour goes on the SLOT, not the entity" — CDPR's

category-tagged action points, Rockstar's five scenario kinds, Bethesda's aliases. Two of the three are

verified. Our persona, faction-standing and companion systems each deserve one question: *is this

authored onto the entity, or onto a slot the entity can fill?*

2. Two teachers rebuild derived world data every night, on 2017-era hardware (Far Cry 5's sectors,

BotW's 2,344 map screens). **Our 5090 is idle overnight by design. The nightly rebuild is the single

most obvious unused capacity in the plan.**

3. **Two of the four world teachers automated placement heavily and two rejected it — all four shipped

genre-defining worlds.** The split is team shape, not quality. Recommendation, flagged as inference:

CDPR posture inside the AAAAA slice (Prologue → Ch 13), FC5 posture across the other 66 nodes, carried

as a per-node field rather than a project-wide stance.

4. Non-programmer authoring of systems is the endgame of a mature pipeline — two UI designers shipped

BotW's UI; Guerrilla's published direction is visual programming for every discipline. Every

harness/apply_*.py in this repo is that same move, externally validated.

5. "Escalate the intensity axis, hold the identity axis" appears independently on two lanes: separate

luminance from hue (VFX), separate low-end mass from the high-frequency read (audio). Synthesizer

inference, flagged.

6. Provenance trap, named for the whole program. The widely-quoted "40-second rule" and "three POIs on

the horizon" are practitioner writing, not Nintendo. No published numeric BotW spacing rule was

found. If a lane cites those numbers it must cite the practitioner, not the game.

---

7. STRUCTURAL GAPS FOUND (gap-hunter output)

GapStatus
No dossier owned quests / world population — the largest content surface in the gameCLOSED this pass: PIPE_QUEST_WORLD_2026-08-05.md minted as the ninth dossier
No PIPE_VFX dossier — VFX law is scattered across ASSET_DROPIN_CONTRACT §2/§7, D1-27_ELEMENT_VISUAL_LAW and ENGINE_OPTIMIZATION_DOCTRINE §5.4BOARDED. The ability-VFX addendum landed on PIPE_ART §7 by necessity and is written as that dossier's seed; cheapest close is promoting it with the scattered law gathered in
No audio-pipeline comparator research was ever runNAMED, not hidden. PIPE_AUDIO_MUSIC §7 is a routing pass over other lanes' findings, not a research pass. Boarded for the next fan-out
No kit diorama and no in-engine reference zone anywhere in the corpusRouted as CA-2 / CA-3
No skin-weight repair stage in the creature chainRouted as A-9
Drop tables cannot composeRouted as C-2

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8. OPEN RE-FETCHES (what a later pass should read first)

1. Creation Kit / UESP alias documentation — 403 across the whole domain, twice. Gates QW-8.

2. Santa Monica's GDC 2023 combat-accessibility deck (Adam Oliver, "Breaking Barriers") — fetched

empty. The most on-target public source for telegraph and readability structure.

3. GDC 2024 "Tunes of the Kingdom" — the SOUND half. Only the physics half was extracted; a named

audio speaker presented the rest.

4. CEDEC 2015 Luminous VFX Editor deck (Square Enix, first-party) — not read; the best remaining

first-party source for hardening the luminance-axis adoption.

5. The Overwatch data-building deck — image-only PDF, could not be rendered; its five goals are cited

SECONDARY with the caveat declared in place.

6. Four GDC talk videos behind the combat-feel section (MHW postmortem, Taking an Axe, Push Forward

Combat, Breaking Barriers) — written coverage only. Watch before quoting a number into a gate.

7. CGWorld FF7R feature part 1 — carries an often-repeated claim about attack actions being authored

jointly by designers, camera staff and animators; reached us only as a search summary. UNVERIFIED.

---

9. THE HONEST LIMIT ON THE WHOLE PACK

**No public talk documents a solo-director-plus-agent-fan-out pipeline, and none documents a per-element

VFX family at our key space (31 elements × 8 live tiers). Every adoption above is a cadence, order or

discipline transfer** — never a headcount transfer, and never a matching precedent. Our architecture is

validated *by analogy*, which is exactly why the quality teeth must be measured on our own build rather

than inherited from anyone's published practice.

Generated by harness/site/structure_site.py — the URL path is the repo path. review root