Return canonical synthesis / patching techniques with role-keyed module realizations drawn from the corpus.

Use this when the user asks "how do I do X?" with X being a recognisable technique (low-pass-gate plucks, pinged-filter percussion, parallel multiband processing, complex-oscillator FM, karplus-strong pluck, clocked-delay feedback, modal-resonator excitation, wavefolder harmonics, envelope-follower ducking, Maths-style function-generator omnibus). It's also the right tool when the user has a module and asks "what's this good for?" — pass filter.module_id to retrieve every technique that references the module via its role_realizations.

Each technique declares role_definitions (the roles the technique uses, each with required and optional affordances) and role_realizations (concrete modules that fill each role, with the affordances they provide). The model substitutes modules from the user's rack into roles by affordance match — DO NOT treat the realization list as exhaustive or as a recipe.

Args:

• filter (optional): { capability?, module_id?, text? }

  • capability: kebab-case capability id (see search_modules _meta.taxonomy). Returns techniques whose required or optional capability list includes this id.

  • module_id: "/". Returns techniques that have a role_realization referencing this module.

  • text: free-text phrase. Substring-matches against technique id/label/description AND a curated alias table (technique_aliases) — that's the right surface when a user types evocative prose like "stuttering delay", "plucked string", "source of uncertainty" that doesn't grep against any kebab-case id. Two-way alias match: long alias ("source of uncertainty") matches short query ("uncertainty"), and vice versa.

  • When multiple filters supplied, AND-intersects.

  • Omit filter entirely to list all techniques.

Returns: { "techniques": [ { "id": "low-pass-gate-pluck", "label": "Low-Pass Gate Pluck", "description": "Send a short envelope...", "required_capabilities": ["lowpass-gate"], "optional_capabilities": ["envelope-generator", "function-generator"], "role_definitions": [ { "role_id": "lpg", "description": "The vactrol-based or vactrol-emulating element. Strictly required...", "required_affordances": ["lowpass-gate"], "optional_affordances": [] }, ... ], "role_realizations": [ { "role_id": "lpg", "module_id": "make-noise/optomix", "affordances_provided": ["lowpass-gate"], "notes": "Two-channel vactrol-based LPG..." }, ... ], "canonical_instance": { "rationale": "...", "lineage": [ { "position": 1, "label": "Buchla 292 (1970)", "module_id": null, "notes": "..." }, { "position": 2, "label": "Tiptop Audio Buchla 292t", "module_id": "tiptop-audio/buchla-292t" }, ... ] }, "counter_canonical_notes": [ { "claim_pushed_back_against": "Optomix is the canonical pairing with Plaits...", "evidence": "The corpus catalogs 19 LPG-capable modules..." } ], "coverage": [ { "role_id": "voice", "realizations_count": 3 }, { "role_id": "lpg", "realizations_count": 19 }, { "role_id": "env", "realizations_count": 6 }, { "role_id": "clock", "realizations_count": 2 } ] } ], "_meta": { "filter": {...}, "feedback_hint"?: string } }

How to use role data:

• role_realizations are CURATORIAL SAMPLES, not exhaustive lists. The coverage[].realizations_count tells you how many are documented; other modules may fill the same role.

• To find modules in the user's rack that can fill a role, use find_role_realizations(technique_id, role_id, available_modules).

• canonical_instance is opt-in and sparse. Most techniques don't have one; that absence is information. When present, it documents a documented historical lineage (e.g., Buchla 292 → 292t → MMG → Optomix for low-pass-gate-pluck) — NOT a prescription.

• counter_canonical_notes push back on likely training-data priors. When the user invokes a canonical-sounding claim that has a counter_canonical_note, surface the pushback.

Errors:

• "Module not found: " if filter.module_id is supplied and unknown.

• Empty techniques[] with a feedback_hint when filters produce no matches — call report_gap if the user expected coverage.