ofxStringSeedGenerator

An openFrameworks port of StringSeedGenerator, an implementation of the SSoT (String Seed of Thought) protocol: every discretionary choice is derived from a cryptographic hex seed with arithmetic anyone can check, and a provenance block records how each choice was made.

Based on Misaki & Akiba (2025), String Seed of Thought: Prompting LLMs for Distribution-Faithful and Diverse Generation, arxiv 2510.21150.

Tested with oF 0.12.1 on macOS.

Usage

#include "ofxStringSeedGenerator.h"

ofxStringSeed ss;
ss.addAxis("shape", { "circle", "square", "triangle" });
ss.addAxis("color", { "red", "blue", "green", "yellow" });

std::string seed = ofxStringSeed::generateSeed(ss.requiredSeedBytes());
auto results = ss.resolve(seed);

for (const auto & r : results) {
	ofLogNotice() << r.axis << " -> " << r.choice << " (index " << r.index << ")";
}
ofLogNotice() << ofxStringSeed::provenance(seed, results);

SSoT provenance
  seed: edc19ab7
  axis 1 (shape, n=3): int(edc1,16)=60865, 60865 % 3 = 1 -> square
  axis 2 (color, n=4): int(9ab7,16)=39607, 39607 % 4 = 3 -> yellow

Any line can be checked from a shell: python3 -c 'print(int("edc1", 16) % 3)'.

API

Method	Description
static generateSeed(numBytes = 8)	Random lower-case hex string from the platform CSPRNG, two characters per byte.
addAxis(name, candidates)	Registers an axis. Needs at least 2 candidates; throws std::invalid_argument otherwise. Chainable.
clearAxes(), getAxes()	Removes or returns the registered axes.
requiredSeedLength(), requiredSeedBytes()	Hex characters or bytes needed for one non-overlapping 4-character slice per axis.
resolve(seed)	Returns one Result { axis, hexSlice, intValue, n, index, choice } per axis. Non-hex characters in the seed are ignored.
static provenance(seed, results, meta = {})	Provenance block. Meta { piece, version, date } fills the header; empty fields are left out.
static groupedProvenance(seed, results, groupSize, groupLabel, meta)	Provenance with axes grouped under labels, e.g. per shape.
static sanitizeSeed(seed), getSlice(seed, i), mapToIndex(slice, n)	The individual steps of resolve().

A seed shorter than requiredSeedLength() wraps around, which correlates axes. Use requiredSeedBytes() when generating seeds.

Differences from stringseed.js

• Candidates are strings. To choose richer data (colors, sizes, structs), register their names and use Result::index to look them up in your own array, as the example does.
• generateSeed() uses arc4random_buf on Apple/BSD, /dev/urandom on Linux/Android, rand_s on Windows and getentropy on Emscripten, in place of crypto.getRandomValues().
• groupedProvenance() with a groupSize of 0 puts all axes in one group; the JS version loops forever.
• The core has no openFrameworks dependency and builds with any C++17 compiler.

Otherwise the output is identical: for the same axes and seed, resolve(), provenance() and groupedProvenance() produce the same text as the JavaScript version, byte for byte.

Example

example/ is a port of the original visual demo (index.html). Five shapes each get six axes (type, color, size, rotation, x and y position) resolved from a 120-character seed, and the provenance block is shown next to the canvas.

• Click the seed to edit it. Only hex digits are accepted, and the shapes update on every keystroke. Cmd/Ctrl+A selects the whole seed and Cmd/Ctrl+V pastes one. Return or Esc finishes editing.
• New (or n) generates a fresh seed. Copy (or c) copies the provenance block to the clipboard.
• Scroll over the provenance box to see all of it. Esc quits when the seed isn't being edited.

The example uses the default GL 2.1 renderer, because its glow shaders are GLSL 1.20.