Workshop Ships Third Tool

The Workshop announces the public release of Tourney, an engine that ranks any list of things by voting on head-to-head matchups. The product is implemented in the Python standard library, records every vote to SQLite, and ships with a terminal interface and an optional local browser application.

Tourney satisfies a longstanding operational requirement that the Founder be able to put a list of things in a defensible order — albums, job candidates, programming languages — without delegating the judgment to a five-star average. The Founder votes on pairs; the engine does the rest. It is built to resist the two ways naive ranking fails: an item that draws strong opponents early is not eliminated for it, and as votes accrue the effort concentrates on sorting the leaders rather than splitting hairs deep in the pack. When the Founder stops voting, a maximum-likelihood pass re-ranks every item from the complete match record, forgiving losses to eventual champions.

example   vote #37   phase 2   12 still in contention   (~84 suggested)

   [1]  Rust
   [2]  Go

   1/2 pick  ·  s skip  ·  u undo  ·  l standings  ·  q save & quit

Tourney is the first Workshop product to exceed one file. Its release was held pending a formal variance to the subsidiary’s standing operating principle — “if it’s longer than one file, it’s a different subsidiary’s problem” — affirmed as recently as the Playoffs filing (No. 2026-05-02-001). The variance is granted. On review, the binding constraint was found to have always been one purpose; one file was its customary consequence, not its substance. Tourney does one thing, in nine files, and is admitted.

Tourney ships via GitHub at github.com/maxspevack/tourney. The Workshop’s domain holdings remain at zero (0); the optional browser application binds to 127.0.0.1 and is not a public-facing web property.

The Workshop now operates three products in regular Founder use, exceeding the subsidiary’s stated portfolio target of two. No further expansion of the target is contemplated.

The principle stands, honored in the breach. The Workshop remains a one-file operation that, on one occasion, required nine.