Codex — Chemistry Plan

Drafted 2026-05-17. Per-domain plan for the Chemistry axis of the five-domain expansion. Sibling of PHYSICS_PLAN.md (just drafted) and (forthcoming) BIOLOGY_PLAN.md. Subordinate to BIBLE_EXPANSION_PLAN.md. Drafted in parallel with BIOLOGY_PLAN.md per the umbrella §6 sequence; both will be revised after Physics Wave 1 retro feeds back into the cross-domain link contract.

Status: Draft. Locks the three-section structure, hybrid (units + essays) mode, tier anchors, mastery endpoints, math/physics prereq cone, exclusions, coverage scaffold (since no Fast Track equivalent exists), and the seed slate.

Read before this plan: OVERVIEW.md, BIBLE_EXPANSION_PLAN.md (esp. §2.3 chem exclusions and §3 cross-domain contract), PHYSICS_PLAN.md (chem's biggest inbound dependency).

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§1 What this plan does

1. Decomposes chemistry into three top-level sections §14–16: general + physical chem (§14), organic chem (§15), inorganic chem (§16). Allocates internal chapter ordering within each.
2. Defines hybrid mode operationally for chem — what becomes a tiered unit, what becomes a synthesis essay, with concrete examples in each category.
3. Specifies the coverage scaffold — what chem-as-a-curriculum needs to include, since (unlike math/physics) no Fast Track equivalent exists. Builds the analog from ACS undergrad standards + canonical grad textbook chapter lists.
4. Names Wave 1 seeds — 3 units + 1 synthesis essay, validating the link contract on the chem axis.

It does not:

• Produce units (gated on BIBLE_EXPANSION_PLAN.md §10 patches + Physics Wave 1 retro).
• Re-derive exclusions (those are locked in BIBLE_EXPANSION_PLAN.md §2.3).
• Decide whether biochem mechanism's home stays in §15 or grows its own §17 sibling (deferred to §8 below).

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§2 Chemistry scope

2.1 In scope (v1)

Mainstream chemistry covering: atomic structure and the periodic table, chemical bonding (Lewis through MO theory), stoichiometry, states of matter, chemical equilibrium, chemical kinetics, acid-base chemistry, redox / electrochemistry, chemical thermodynamics, statistical mechanics of molecular systems, quantum chemistry (atoms and molecules), spectroscopy, organic structure and mechanism, organic synthesis principles, coordination chemistry, organometallic chemistry, descriptive inorganic chemistry, biochemistry mechanism (enzyme catalysis as kinetics, redox biochemistry, polymer chemistry of biopolymers, photochemistry of biomolecules).

2.2 Out of scope (v1) — explicit exclusions

From BIBLE_EXPANSION_PLAN.md §2.3 (verbatim, restated for navigability):

Out of v1	Goes to
Materials science (solid-state device physics, semiconductor properties, mechanical properties of materials)	Physics — condensed-matter subarea of §09–13
Geochemistry, atmospheric chem, cosmochemistry, environmental chem	Not in v1
Nuclear chem (decay modes, fission/fusion, radiochemistry of isotope production) — overlap with particle physics	Physics §12 / not v1
Biochemistry as it operates in specific organisms or pathways (e.g., the citric acid cycle in S. cerevisiae, ribosome biology, organism-specific lipid metabolism)	Biology
Chemical engineering / process scale-up / reaction-engineering optimization	Not in v1
Pharmaceutical chemistry as drug development (medicinal chem of specific therapeutic classes, ADMET as applied pharmacology)	Not in v1
Analytical chemistry as a discipline-with-its-own-spine (chromatography theory, mass spec methodology as separate from spectroscopy fundamentals)	Folded into the other branches as application chapters; no standalone §14–16 chapter

Boundary rules:

• Biochemistry boundary (recurring source of confusion): if the question is "what is the mechanism of this enzyme reaction, treated as a chemical event" → chem §15. If the question is "what is the role of this enzyme in E. coli's glycolysis pathway" → bio. Wave-1 chem seed unit on enzyme kinetics is in chem; the citric-acid-cycle pathway is in bio.
• Materials boundary: if the question is "what governs this material's electronic / magnetic / mechanical behavior at the many-body level" → physics. If the question is "how do we synthesize a coordination compound with these properties" → chem §16. Solid-state chemistry (zeolites, framework solids) lives in §16; solid-state physics (band theory, Fermi liquid) lives in §12 / §11.
• Quantum chem / atomic structure boundary: atomic structure of isolated atoms (hydrogen, multi-electron with Hartree-Fock-level treatment) → §14.04 quantum chemistry. Atomic physics as relativistic / many-body QM → §12. The chem-side treatment cites into §12; the §12 treatment doesn't cite into chem.

2.3 What about "the rest of chem"?

Chemistry-as-discipline has many subspecialties not listed above (polymer science, surface chem, photochem-as-discipline, supramolecular, food chem, etc.). v1 treats these as applications of the three main branches, addressed as cross-link essays or single-unit summaries within the appropriate section. Standalone subsections deferred to v2+.

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§3 The three branches (or: why three, not five)

Unlike physics (where 5 branches map to 5 historically-distinct sub-disciplines with separable methodologies), chemistry breaks cleanly into 3 because the historical sub-disciplines (organic / inorganic / physical / biochem / analytical) overlap heavily and have been re-organized in modern pedagogy. The split below follows the standard modern undergrad-to-grad progression:

• §14 General + Physical Chemistry — atomic/molecular structure, bonding (through MO theory), states of matter, thermodynamics, kinetics, statistical mechanics, quantum chemistry, spectroscopy. The conceptual + computational spine that organic and inorganic both depend on.
• §15 Organic Chemistry — structure, mechanism, reaction classes, synthesis, biochem mechanism (chem-side).
• §16 Inorganic Chemistry — symmetry / group theory in chem, coordination chemistry, organometallic, descriptive inorganic.

The soft-DAG nature of chem is internal to each section: §14 can be entered from atomic structure, bonding, or thermo (three valid starting points); §15 has bond-and-mechanism vs structure-and-spectroscopy entry paths; §16 typically enters via symmetry/group theory or via coordination compounds.

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3.1 §14 General + Physical Chemistry

Internal ordering (loose; reflects standard pchem textbook structure but enterable from multiple points):

Chapter	Topic	Entry-point candidate?
14.01	Atomic structure — electron configurations, periodic trends	✓ entry
14.02	Chemical bonding I — Lewis, VSEPR, valence bond	✓ entry
14.03	Stoichiometry, gas laws, real gases	✓ entry
14.04	Quantum chemistry of atoms — H atom, multi-electron via Hartree-Fock	(needs 14.01 + §12.06)
14.05	Chemical bonding II — MO theory, hybridization, diatomics through polyatomics	(needs 14.04)
14.06	Thermodynamics — laws, state functions, free energy, equilibrium	✓ entry
14.07	Statistical mechanics of molecular systems — partition functions, ensembles applied to chem	(needs 14.06 + §11.04)
14.08	Chemical kinetics — rate laws, Arrhenius, transition state theory	(needs 14.06)
14.09	Solutions and phase equilibria — colligative properties, Raoult, eutectics	(needs 14.06)
14.10	Acid-base chemistry — Brønsted, Lewis, hard-soft, pKa systematics	(needs 14.02)
14.11	Redox / electrochemistry — half-reactions, Nernst, electrochemical cells, corrosion	(needs 14.06 + 14.10)
14.12	Spectroscopy I — UV-Vis, IR, NMR fundamentals (cross-refs §12.07 perturbation, §10 EM)
14.13	Spectroscopy II — mass spectrometry, X-ray, advanced NMR

Math / physics prereq cone:

From	Why
math §01 foundations	linear algebra (for MO theory matrix diagonalization)
math §02 analysis	calculus, ODEs (for kinetics)
math §07 rep theory	character tables, symmetry-adapted linear combinations (for 14.05, full force in §16)
physics §10 EM	light-matter interaction (for spectroscopy in 14.12–13)
physics §11 stat mech	statistical-mech foundations (for 14.07)
physics §12 QM	full QM foundations for quantum chemistry (for 14.04 onward)

Anchor literature:

Tier	Anchor
Beginner	Tro Chemistry: A Molecular Approach; Khan Academy / Crash Course Chemistry; Atkins Chemistry: A Very Short Introduction
Intermediate	Atkins & de Paula Physical Chemistry; Engel & Reid Physical Chemistry (alt); Oxtoby Principles of Modern Chemistry (gen-chem heavy)
Master	McQuarrie Quantum Chemistry; Levine Quantum Chemistry; McQuarrie Statistical Mechanics; Steinfeld-Francisco-Hase Chemical Kinetics and Dynamics

Mastery endpoints:

Tier	Endpoint
Beginner	Predict the polarity of a molecule from Lewis structure; balance equations and do stoichiometric calculations; identify what kind of reaction is occurring (acid-base, redox, precipitation)
Intermediate	Work Atkins problems including thermo state-function calculations, equilibrium with K and Q, rate-law derivation, MO diagrams for diatomics; predict NMR/IR spectra qualitatively
Master	Work McQuarrie / Levine problems; perform Hartree-Fock by hand on small systems; derive partition functions for chemical equilibrium; treat transition state theory rigorously; read a J. Chem. Phys. or J. Phys. Chem. paper and identify the technique

Outbound hooks (taxonomy):

• → Biology: enzyme kinetics (chem-side) → metabolic regulation (bio-side); chemical thermodynamics → bioenergetics; spectroscopy → biological imaging / NMR of proteins
• → Philosophy: the bond as a non-classical object (orbital ontology); emergence of chemical properties from quantum mechanics; reduction vs autonomy of chemistry

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3.2 §15 Organic Chemistry

Internal ordering:

Chapter	Topic
15.01	Structure of organic molecules — hybridization, geometry, conformation, stereochemistry
15.02	Functional groups and nomenclature
15.03	Acids and bases in organic chem; pKa-based reasoning
15.04	Substitution and elimination — SN1 / SN2 / E1 / E2 mechanisms
15.05	Addition reactions to alkenes and alkynes
15.06	Aromatic chemistry — Hückel rule, EAS, NAS
15.07	Carbonyl chemistry — nucleophilic addition, condensation, enolates
15.08	Radical reactions and pericyclic reactions
15.09	Organometallic methods in synthesis — Grignard, cross-couplings (overlap with §16)
15.10	Retrosynthetic analysis and synthesis design
15.11	Spectroscopy of organic molecules — NMR (1D and 2D), MS, IR (cross-refs §14.12–13)
15.12	Biomolecules I — amino acids, peptides, proteins (chem-side: structure + mechanism)
15.13	Biomolecules II — carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids (chem-side)
15.14	Enzyme mechanism — catalysis from a chemical-mechanism standpoint (boundary with bio)
15.15	Polymers — synthetic + biopolymer chemistry
15.16	Photochemistry of organic molecules (cross-refs §12 QM, §10 EM)

Math / physics prereq cone:

From	Why
§14.02	Lewis structures, valence bond, hybridization
§14.05	MO theory (for advanced understanding of aromaticity, pericyclics)
§14.08	Kinetics (for mechanism analysis)
§14.10	pKa systematics (for acid-base reasoning)
§14.12	Spectroscopy foundations
physics §12 QM	for orbital symmetry / Woodward-Hoffmann at master

Anchor literature:

Tier	Anchor
Beginner	Klein Organic Chemistry as a Second Language; Crash Course / Khan; Vollhardt-Schore (beginner-tier sections)
Intermediate	Clayden, Greeves, Warren Organic Chemistry (gold standard); Vollhardt-Schore Organic Chemistry (alt); Bruice (alt)
Master	Carey-Sundberg Advanced Organic Chemistry Parts A + B; March's Advanced Organic Chemistry; Anslyn-Dougherty Modern Physical Organic Chemistry; Hartwig Organotransition Metal Chemistry

Mastery endpoints:

Tier	Endpoint
Beginner	Identify functional groups; predict whether a reaction will proceed and what its product is for simple substrates; draw Lewis structures correctly
Intermediate	Predict mechanism and product for arbitrary problems from Clayden including stereochemistry; push curly arrows correctly; analyze 1D NMR / IR / MS to identify a small unknown; perform a multi-step retrosynthesis at the level of a Clayden end-of-chapter problem
Master	Work Carey-Sundberg / Anslyn problems; design a multi-step synthesis with stereocontrol; analyze 2D NMR (COSY, HSQC, NOESY) on a complex molecule; read a JACS Org. Lett. or Angew. paper and identify the disconnection logic and key step

Outbound hooks:

• → Biology: amino acid chemistry → protein folding; nucleic acid chemistry → genetic biology; enzyme mechanism (§15.14) → enzyme biology in specific systems
• → Philosophy: chemical structure as informational vs as physical (the question of how the formula relates to the reality); the Lewis bond as a fictional vs real entity

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3.3 §16 Inorganic Chemistry

Internal ordering:

Chapter	Topic
16.01	Atomic and ionic structure across the periodic table — periodic trends quantified
16.02	Symmetry and group theory in chemistry — point groups, character tables (heavy cross-ref to math §07)
16.03	Crystal field theory and ligand field theory — d-orbital splitting, spectrochemical series
16.04	Coordination chemistry — geometries, isomerism, stability constants, kinetics
16.05	Organometallic chemistry — bonding (16-electron / 18-electron rules), reactivity, catalysis
16.06	Bioinorganic chemistry — metalloenzymes, electron-transfer proteins (chem-side; cross-refs bio)
16.07	Solid-state chemistry — ionic, covalent, metallic solids; band structure intro (boundary with physics §11/§12)
16.08	Main-group chemistry — descriptive coverage of s- and p-block
16.09	Transition-metal descriptive chemistry — d-block characteristic reactivity
16.10	Lanthanides, actinides, and f-block
16.11	Spectroscopy of inorganic compounds — Mössbauer, EPR, advanced NMR (cross-refs §14.13)

Math / physics prereq cone:

From	Why
§14.04–05	atomic and molecular orbital theory
math §07 rep theory	symmetry-adapted linear combinations, character tables, full force at master
physics §12 QM	crystal field theory (16.03) needs full QM foundations
physics §11 stat mech / §12 condensed matter	for 16.07 solid-state

Anchor literature:

Tier	Anchor
Beginner	Atkins / Shriver Chemistry: A Very Short Introduction (Beginner sections); Crash Course relevant episodes
Intermediate	Housecroft-Sharpe Inorganic Chemistry; Miessler-Fischer-Tarr Inorganic Chemistry (alt)
Master	Cotton-Wilkinson Advanced Inorganic Chemistry; Hartwig Organotransition Metal Chemistry; Crabtree The Organometallic Chemistry of the Transition Metals; Lippard-Berg Principles of Bioinorganic Chemistry

Mastery endpoints:

Tier	Endpoint
Beginner	Identify common coordination geometries; recognize what kind of compound (covalent solid vs metallic vs ionic) something is; predict simple periodic trends
Intermediate	Work Housecroft / Miessler problems on coordination geometry, isomerism, d-orbital splitting, organometallic e-counting; apply character tables to molecular symmetry
Master	Cotton-Wilkinson problems; ligand-field-theory-based predictions of spectra and magnetism; rationalize organometallic catalytic cycles mechanistically; read a JACS Inorg. Chem. or Organometallics paper

Outbound hooks:

• → Biology: metalloenzymes (§16.06) → biological electron transfer, oxygen handling, photosynthesis center chemistry; bioinorganic models
• → Physics: solid-state chem (§16.07) ↔ condensed-matter physics (§12.17); molecular magnetism ↔ quantum magnetism
• → Philosophy: structural realism in molecular ontology; the chemistry-physics reduction question (does crystal field theory "reduce" to QM, or is it autonomous?)

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§4 Hybrid mode — what's a unit vs an essay in chemistry

BIBLE_EXPANSION_PLAN.md §2.6 locks the general criteria. Concretely, in chem:

4.1 Tiered units (most of chem)

Chemistry has a high unit-to-essay ratio because most chemical content has a testable endpoint, clear prereq tree, and 20–50min scope:

• Mechanisms — predict product / explain selectivity / push arrows.
• Theoretical concepts — derive MO diagram / apply group theory / compute thermo quantities.
• Reaction classes — recognize, predict, design.
• Spectroscopy interpretation — identify a structure from a spectrum.

4.2 Synthesis essays (sparingly)

Topics that span chapters or are interpretive rather than mechanism-teaching:

Candidate essay	Why an essay, not a unit
"What reactivity is, structurally"	Cuts across orbital theory (14.05), kinetics (14.08), thermo (14.06), and pKa systematics (14.10) — no single prereq tree
"The chemical bond — many-body phenomenon vs effective two-center object"	Interpretive; treats the bond ontology question across Lewis / VB / MO / DFT framings
"What chemistry inherits from physics, and what is autonomous"	Cross-domain philosophical synthesis; pairs with phil §20
"Periodic-table conceptual unity — why does the table work"	Synthesis across §14.01, atomic structure, and the historical / pedagogical question of why the table predicts so much
"Synthesis as a discipline — what makes a good retrosynthesis"	Meta-pedagogical; not teaching one mechanism
"Spectroscopy as inverse problem"	Spans the three sections; treats the conceptual identity of identifying structure from observation

Initial essay budget: start with ≤ 5 essays across the chem axis. Earn more case-by-case. Essays without a clear "this couldn't be a unit because X" justification get rejected at review.

4.3 Where they live in the file tree

Locked (per UNIT_SPEC.md §2.2):

• Tiered chem units live at content/14-genchem-pchem/, content/15-orgchem/, content/16-inorgchem/ per the standard unit layout.
• Essays live at site/src/content/chemistry/NN-slug.md with frontmatter:

  id: <14|15|16>.essays.NN
  applies_to: [<section-numbers>]   # list of sections it synthesizes
  

• An essay's id uses the primary section prefix — the section the essay most belongs to. Cross-section synthesis essays declare every section they span in applies_to:. E.g., "The chemical bond" essay synthesizes §14 (gen+phys chem) and §15 (organic), with potential reach into phil §20 — its ID is 14.essays.01 (primary), applies_to: [14, 15, 20].

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§5 Coverage scaffold — what to include, given no Fast Track equivalent

Chemistry has no canonical equivalent of the Fast Track booklist. Three sources combine to form the chem coverage scaffold:

5.1 ACS undergraduate-curriculum standards (the spine)

The American Chemical Society publishes guidelines that define what a B.S. chem curriculum includes. v1 chem covers every topic the ACS guidelines name as core for the four sub-disciplines (general / organic / physical / inorganic), at Beginner + Intermediate tiers. Specifically:

• Foundation topics (anything in a first-year gen-chem course): §14.01–03, §14.06, §14.09, §14.10, §15.01–02, §16.01.
• Core breadth (the 2nd–3rd year courses): rest of §14, §15.01–11, §16.01–05, §16.08–09.
• Capstone topics (4th year electives): §15.12–16, §16.06–07, §16.10–11, §14.13.

5.2 Graduate-textbook chapter lists (the master tier)

For the Master tier, use the canonical grad-tier textbooks' chapter lists as the topic spec:

Section	Master-tier spec source
§14 quantum chem	McQuarrie Quantum Chemistry chapter list
§14 stat mech	McQuarrie Statistical Mechanics chapter list
§14 kinetics	Steinfeld-Francisco-Hase chapter list
§15 organic	Carey-Sundberg Parts A + B combined chapter list
§15 phys organic	Anslyn-Dougherty chapter list
§16 organometallic	Hartwig / Crabtree chapter list
§16 inorganic	Cotton-Wilkinson chapter list
§16 bioinorganic	Lippard-Berg chapter list

A unit exists at Master tier when its corresponding grad-textbook chapter (or coherent chapter-cluster) is covered.

5.3 Where to source reference material from

reference/ archive must be expanded for chem. Currently it has math/physics-focused notes (Tong, quantum-well, etc.). For chem we'll need (sourcing TBD per per-unit production):

• Open-access chem texts where they exist (some ACS publications, OpenStax Chemistry).
• Lecture notes from MIT OCW, Stanford Online, etc. for chem courses (license-permitting).
• Primary-literature pulls for Master-tier units (J. Chem. Phys., JACS, Inorg. Chem.).

Sourcing is a Wave 1 chem deliverable. Same posture as the math/physics NEED_TO_SOURCE.md — chem will have its own.

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§6 First wave — three seed units + one synthesis essay

Purpose: validate the link contract on chem material with both unit and essay forms exercised.

Branch	Seed unit / essay	Why this one
§14 PChem	14.05.02 Molecular orbital theory for homonuclear diatomics	Clean cite to §14.02, §12 QM (orbital reps), math §01 linear algebra; hooks out to bio (oxygen biochemistry depends on O2 MO diagram), phil (orbital ontology); MO theory is the chem-side concept that most directly emerges from physics QM, so it stress-tests cross-domain prereqs and confirmed-hook semantics
§15 OChem	15.04.02 SN1 vs SN2 mechanism	Canonical intermediate-tier organic unit; tests kinetics + stereochemistry + mechanism; well-anchored in Clayden; hooks out to bio (enzymatic SN reactions in DNA / RNA chemistry), phil (mechanism as scientific-realism case study)
§16 InorgChem	16.03.02 Crystal field splitting in octahedral complexes	Cleanly tests math §07 rep theory cross-cite; hooks out to bio (metalloenzyme active sites), physics §12 (CFT as application of QM angular momentum)
§14 essay	"The chemical bond — many-body phenomenon vs effective two-center object"	Cuts across 14.02, 14.05, and §12 QM; pairs with phil §20; exercises essay-with-cross-references shape

Sequence: 14.05.02 → 15.04.02 → 16.03.02 → essay.

Rationale for order:

• MO theory first because it's the strongest physics-side dependency (clean cross-domain prereq to §12 QM); validates the link contract under the heaviest dependency.
• SN1/SN2 second because it's mostly self-contained within chem; calibrates the chem-side mechanism rubric.
• Crystal field third because it brings in math §07 (rep theory) — different prereq axis.
• Essay last because it benefits from the three units already existing — it can cite them.

6.1 Success criteria (Wave 1 chem)

The wave succeeds if:

• All 3 units exist in content/1{4..6}-<slug>/ per UNIT_SPEC.md with hooks_out populated.
• The synthesis essay exists at site/src/content/chemistry/01-the-chemical-bond.md with ID 14.essays.01 and frontmatter compatible with the cross-domain link contract.
• All hooks_out to physics (§09–13) land on units that either exist (e.g., 12.01.02 if Physics Wave 1 shipped) or are explicitly pending per the pending_prereqs mechanism.
• At least one hooks_out → bio and one hooks_out → 20.essays.NN exist across the wave.
• The synthesis essay declares applies_to: [14, 15, 20] (or chosen frontmatter shape) so the cross-domain audit can find it.
• Reviewer attestation logged for the units; reviewer for the essay is the chem-side editorial reviewer.
• Retro into docs/pilot-lessons.md.

The wave fails if:

• The MO unit ships without a prerequisites entry into §12 QM. (Would mean we didn't actually exercise cross-domain prereqs on the chem axis.)
• The essay's cross-refs into §14 / §15 units don't resolve (validator should fail the build).
• More than ~2 hours per unit production once the pattern is established — would suggest chem rubric needs adjustment before scaling.
• No outbound hooks to bio across the 3 units — chem→bio is the densest expected hook surface; an empty result is a strong signal something's off.

6.2 Production strategy

Item	Strategy	Notes
14.05.02 MO theory	Manual	Pattern-setter for chem; first unit gets one human hand-pass
15.04.02 SN1/SN2	Agent-drafted + editorial pass	Standard textbook content; agent should perform
16.03.02 Crystal field	Agent-drafted + editorial pass	Same
14.essays.01 essay	Manual	Essay-mode is new — first one gets full human authorship before establishing a template

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§7 Reviewer roster

Tyler's chem background is not assumed at expert level (cf. PHYSICS_PLAN where gauge-theory expertise is named). Default posture: outside reviewer recruitment is a harder problem for chem than for physics, because there is no obvious researcher overlap with the math/physics roster.

Branch	Tyler-solo?	Outside reviewer needed
§14 gen + phys chem	Yellow at beginner/intermediate; Red at master (quantum chem, stat mech of molecular systems)	Quantum chemist (master-tier 14.04–05); physical chemist (master-tier 14.06–08)
§15 organic chem	Yellow at beginner; Red at intermediate/master (Clayden+ depth)	Organic chemist (intermediate/master across 15.04–11); synthesis specialist (15.10, master)
§16 inorganic chem	Yellow with rep-theory grounding from math §07; Red at master (Cotton-Wilkinson + Hartwig depth)	Inorganic chemist (master across 16.03–05, 16.08–10); bioinorganic specialist (16.06)

Recruitment priority (before Wave 2):

1. Organic chemist — single highest-bandwidth need; §15 has the most chapters at intermediate+master and the least Tyler-solo coverage.
2. Quantum chemist — covers the master-tier of §14 and physical-organic depth.
3. Inorganic / bioinorganic chemist — covers §16 and the bio cross-overs.

LLM-augmented review (per REVIEWER_PLAN.md) is more relied-on for chem than physics because the gap between Tyler's expertise and the rubric's demands is wider. Honest acknowledgment: LLM review catches "did the author make a basic mechanism error" but not "is the master-tier treatment of this Cotton-Wilkinson chapter actually publication-quality." Master-tier chem units should be flagged for human review and held in draft until a reviewer is available.

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§8 Open questions (deferred)

Question	Deferred to	Why now is wrong
Does biochem mechanism stay in §15.12–14 + §16.06, or grow its own §17 section?	After Wave 2, when biochem-mechanism unit count is measurable	Premature; can't predict the volume without producing
Should "analytical chemistry" become its own section once spectroscopy and electrochemistry units accumulate?	After Wave 3 at earliest	Treat as application chapters first; consolidate later if mass justifies it
How does v1 handle topics that are neither cleanly chem nor cleanly anything else (e.g., chemical biology — the "small molecules in cells" subdiscipline)?	Per-unit, as those units come up	Most v1 production won't hit this until biology gets going
Does v1 ship any nuclear / radiochemistry coverage?	Per per-unit production demand; default no	Out of scope per umbrella
Whether to formalize an "essay budget" cap (e.g., ≤ 8 essays per domain in v1)	After Wave 2, when essay accumulation rate is observable	Premature limit-setting; criteria in BIBLE_EXPANSION_PLAN.md §2.6 should self-regulate

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§9 Risks

Risk	Mitigation
Reviewer recruitment for chem stalls; Wave 2+ master-tier units accumulate in draft without sign-off	Recruitment is named in §7 as a Wave-2-blocker. If unrecruited by then, restrict chem production to Beginner+Intermediate tiers and defer Master to v0.x→v1 transition.
The MO theory seed unit (14.05.02) needs §12 QM units that don't exist yet (Physics Wave 1 ships §12.01.02 Stern-Gerlach, but MO theory needs more)	Use pending_prereqs: true on the prereq edges into §12; register pending edges in manifests/deps.json. Same posture as math waves.
Chem essay accumulation degrades into a "chem blog" rather than a curriculum	§4.2 essay candidate list is finite (≤ 5 for Wave 1+2); each new essay needs explicit "couldn't be a unit because X" justification at review.
Boundary creep: biochem-in-organism units sneak into §15 because authors don't enforce the chem-vs-bio split	Reviewers check §2.2 boundary rules per unit; specifically the citric-acid-cycle test (chem if mechanism only; bio if pathway-in-organism).
Coverage scaffold (ACS + grad chapter lists) is more porous than Fast Track — gaps go undetected	manifests/production/plan.json (per FASTTRACK_COVERAGE_ROADMAP.md analog) extended with chem-coverage view: each scaffold-source chapter mapped to one-or-more Codex units. Unmapped → gap. Audit deliverable.

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§10 Decision log entries (to be added to OVERVIEW.md §12 on the same date)

Date	Decision	Rationale
2026-05-17	Chem decomposes into three sections §14 (gen + pchem), §15 (organic), §16 (inorganic), not the historical five (separating biochem and analytical)	Biochem mechanism folds into §15; analytical methods fold into the spectroscopy chapters of §14/§15/§16. Reduces section count; matches modern undergrad/grad pedagogy.
2026-05-17	Coverage scaffold = ACS undergrad standards (Beginner + Intermediate) + canonical grad textbook chapter lists (Master)	No Fast Track equivalent; needed an explicit source-of-truth for what chem coverage looks like. Avoids "arbitrary holes" risk.
2026-05-17	Boundary rules locked: biochem-mechanism → chem §15.14; biochem-in-organism → bio. Materials → physics. Crystal-field-theory → chem §16.03 (cites into physics §12 QM, doesn't relocate). Solid-state chem → §16.07; solid-state physics → §12.17	Without explicit boundaries, chem scope balloons during production and creates duplication with bio and physics.
2026-05-17	Hybrid-mode essay budget capped to ≤ 5 across chem v1 (initial); essay-list-of-candidates fixed	Essays accumulate worse than units because no validator gates proliferation. Hard initial budget forces discipline.
2026-05-17	Wave 1 chem: 3 units + 1 essay (14.05.02 MO theory → 15.04.02 SN1/SN2 → 16.03.02 crystal field → essay on the chemical bond)	Validates link contract under the heaviest physics dependency (MO theory ← §12 QM) first; calibrates chem-side mechanism rubric on standard material; ends with the essay form
2026-05-17	Chem reviewer recruitment is gated as a Wave-2 blocker; master-tier production restricted otherwise	Honest about reviewer-bandwidth being the limiting factor for chem specifically (Tyler's chem expertise is less than math/physics).

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§11 Next immediate actions

Gated on BIBLE_EXPANSION_PLAN.md §10 patches AND Physics Wave 1 retro:

1. Sourcing pass — populate reference/_meta/SOURCES.md extensions for chem; identify license-permissive primary sources for the first chem units. Same posture as math/physics NEED_TO_SOURCE.md.
2. Coverage-scaffold manifest — create manifests/production/chem-coverage.json mapping ACS scaffold + grad chapter lists to (eventually) Codex unit IDs. Empty initially; populated as units ship.
3. Reviewer recruitment — start outreach for the three named reviewer roles (§7). Bandwidth target: 1 hire by start of Wave 2.
4. Produce 14.05.02 MO theory manually — the chem-side equivalent of pilot-unit-#1. Surfaces chem-specific spec gaps before scaling.
5. Retro on 14.05.02 — what worked, what's missing in the spec, what the chem-side production rubric needs.
6. Produce 15.04.02 + 16.03.02 agent-drafted with editorial pass.
7. Produce the synthesis essay manually; establishes the essay-mode template for non-philosophy domains.
8. Cross-domain audit on Wave 1 chem: review the hooks_out → bio and hooks_out → phil proposals; harvest the hooks_in from physics to verify which physics units are needed sooner.

This plan is the canonical reference for the chemistry axis. When uncertain about chem section structure, branch boundaries, or coverage scaffold, check here. When updating, propagate to OVERVIEW.md §12 and BIBLE_EXPANSION_PLAN.md §6 the same day.