Flow

The flow axis

The trend of a per-token signal: its windowed slope, its direction, how long it has held that direction, and where it reverses. The signal is the magnitude by default, the stress depth or the token length on request, or any per-token value a caller computes.

Source: src/flow.rs.

The readings

Reading	Meaning
slope	the average per-step change over the trailing window
direction	`+1` rising, `0` steady, `-1` falling, with a steady band around zero
momentum	consecutive tokens holding the same non-steady direction

Event	Meaning
reversal	the trend flips between rising and falling; steady does not count

Signal	`--over`	Source
`Magnitude`	`magnitude`	the magnitude of each token
`StressDepth`	`stress`	the stress depth of each token
`Length`	`length`	each token’s byte length

analyze_signal(tokens, signal, cfg) takes any precomputed per-token f32.

Reading the axis

$ trex flow --text '1 10 100 1000 50 5'
trex flow (over magnitude): 18 bytes, 6 tokens, 1 reversal(s)
  peak momentum: 4 (rising)

let field = trex::flow::analyze_bytes(b"1 10 100 1000 50 5", trex::flow::Signal::Magnitude);
assert_eq!((field.n_tokens, field.reversals.len()), (6, 1));
assert_eq!(field.frames.iter().map(|f| f.momentum).max(), Some(4));

PS> Measure-TrexFlow '1 10 100 1000 50 5' | Select-Object Tokens, Signal, PeakMomentum, Reversals | Format-List

Tokens       : 6
Signal       : Magnitude
PeakMomentum : 50 at 14, Rising
Reversals    : {5 at 17, Falling}

--over magnitude|stress|length picks the signal, --field prints the per-token slope, direction and momentum, and --reversals the turning points. In PowerShell -Signal picks the signal and -Detail adds a frame at every token.

Data model

FlowFrame, one token’s reading:

Field	Type	Meaning
`slope`	`f32`	windowed rate of change
`direction`	`i8`	`-1`, `0` or `+1`
`momentum`	`u16`	consecutive same-direction tokens

FlowField, keyed by byte offset:

Field	Type	Meaning
`n_tokens`	`usize`	token count
`spans`	`Vec<(usize, usize)>`	byte span per token
`frames`	`Vec<FlowFrame>`	one per token
`reversals`	`Vec<usize>`	turning-point byte offsets

Query API: slope_at(byte), direction_at(byte).

Algorithm

Per token: slope = (signal[i] - signal[i - window]) / window, the average trend over the trailing window; direction thresholds the slope against a steady band; momentum is the run length of the same non-steady direction; a reversal is recorded where the direction flips between +1 and -1. One pass, O(1) per token; the signal costs one pass of the axis it comes from.

Stress Observation