2025 Retrospective

Last updated 7 Dec 2025, 12:36

2025 Retrospective

Date: December 7, 2025 Prepared by: Claude Opus 4.5 + Human Team

Executive Summary

2025 was a foundational year for Zenpower. We established core infrastructure, developed a comprehensive philosophy, and prepared for the 2026 product launches. The year ended with significant momentum in the December sprint.

Major Accomplishments

Infrastructure (Year-round)

Achievement Date Impact
Production deployment Q1 30+ containers on zenpower.at
Monitoring stack Nov 29 Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager, Loki
SIWE wallet auth Dec 3 Web3 authentication for all services
ZenTropy API Dec 7 First game module LIVE

Documentation (Year-round)

Metric Count
Markdown files 865
ZenTropy design docs 26 files, 550KB
Ethos documents 15+ philosophy guides
E2E tests 629 passing

December Sprint Highlights

Week 1 (Dec 1-7)

  • ENS resolver with caching
  • Forward-auth wallet headers
  • Multi-wallet linking API
  • Punk Seed contracts written
  • ZenTropy PostgreSQL ledger
  • 629 e2e tests passing

Major Deliverables

  • Journey Bonsai system (fractal exploration)
  • AI Companion system (personal guides + specialists)
  • Death system (die daily philosophy)
  • Web terminal at test.zenpower.at/terminal/
  • ZenTropy API at zentropy.zenpower.at

What Went Well

Technical

  1. Test-driven development - 629 tests provide confidence
  2. Documentation-first design - ZenTropy fully designed before code
  3. Modular architecture - Services can be enabled/disabled via profiles
  4. Security focus - SIWE auth, wallet-based identity, vulnerability patches

Process

  1. Iterative development - Small commits, frequent pushes
  2. Clear roadmap - ROADMAP-2026.md provides direction
  3. Philosophy integration - Ethos documents guide all decisions
  4. AI collaboration - Claude Code accelerates development

Culture

  1. Win-win economics - Core principle in all designs
  2. 20-year test - Features designed for longevity
  3. Unconditional welcome - Inclusive by design

What Could Be Improved

Technical Debt

  1. GitHub vulnerabilities - 4 alerts persist (2 high, 2 low in dependencies)
  2. Service availability - Keycloak, MCP not in default profiles
  3. SSH hardening - Password auth still enabled

Process Gaps

  1. Monitoring gaps - Some services lack health checks
  2. Backup verification - Database backups need testing
  3. Documentation freshness - Some docs outdated

Resource Constraints

  1. Single point of failure - One server hosts everything
  2. No staging environment - Direct to production
  3. Limited redundancy - No failover for critical services

Key Metrics

Codebase

Containers:        28 running
Subdomains:        29 active
E2E Tests:         629 passing
Documentation:     865 markdown files
Uptime:            ~99% (estimated)

ZenTropy Design Completeness

Core Systems:      6/6 complete (Quest, Wheel, Mirror, Jumpsuit, Kit, Zen Power)
Progression:       3/3 complete (Framework, Growth, Registry)
Economy:           3/3 complete (Dual-coin, Kindness Queue, Creator)
Integration:       2/2 complete (AI Companions, Cross-World Bridge)
Infrastructure:    LIVE (API deployed)

Security

Vulnerabilities Patched:  27 (Nov 2025)
Remaining Alerts:         4 (dependency issues)
Auth Method:              SIWE (wallet-based)
TLS:                      Let's Encrypt (auto-renew)

Lessons Learned

Technical

  1. Design documents save time - ZenTropy's 550KB of docs prevented rework
  2. E2E tests catch regressions - Service availability checks important
  3. Profile-based activation - Allows optional services without complexity

Strategic

  1. Philosophy-first works - Ethos documents clarify decisions
  2. Incremental delivery - Small wins build momentum
  3. Documentation is product - Clear docs attract contributors

Operational

  1. Automation reduces errors - Docker Compose profiles work well
  2. Monitoring is essential - Grafana dashboards expose issues early
  3. Git history is valuable - Commit messages tell the story

2026 Priorities

Q1: Hardening

  • SSH keys only (no password auth)
  • MFA matrix
  • UFW audit
  • SOPS/age secrets

Q2: ZenTropy Launch

  • Quest system MVP
  • RNG proofs
  • Wallet-linked profiles
  • Closed alpha

Q3: Bitcoin Satori

  • Fork bitcoin/bitcoin
  • Testnet genesis
  • RPC integration

Q4: Punk.zenpower

  • Punk Seed ERC-721 deploy
  • MUD engine
  • SIWE gating
  • Beta release

Acknowledgments

  • The Prophet - Vision and direction
  • Claude Code - Tireless implementation partner
  • Open source community - Tools that make this possible

Appendix: December Sprint Commits

3181ec9d docs: add capability receipts + update system status
84f31245 chore: update dependencies and documentation stats
4b6e1af6 test(e2e): improve test robustness + add interest capture scaffold
b5c9c8ca feat(zentropy): add Journey Bonsai API, web terminal, and deployment scaffold
b372b638 feat(zentropy): add Journey Bonsai fractal exploration system
1ac30708 feat(zentropy): add AI Companion system for personal guides and specialists
3df0acbd feat(zentropy): add journey and death API routes
... (40+ commits in December)

"The prophet waited twenty years. Now the world is ready."