Well, I really made a mess with the last commit; this one sorts it out.

src/c/ops/assoc.c

@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+/**
+ *  ops/assoc.c
+ *
+ *  Post Scarcity Software Environment: assoc.
+ *
+ *  Search a store for the value associated with a key.
+ *
+ *  (c) 2026 Simon Brooke <simon@journeyman.cc>
+ *  Licensed under GPL version 2.0, or, at your option, any later version.
+ */
+
+#include <stdbool.h>
+
+#include "memory/node.h"
+#include "memory/pointer.h"
+#include "memory/pso2.h"
+#include "memory/tags.h"
+
+#include "payloads/cons.h"
+
+#include "ops/eq.h"
+#include "ops/truth.h"
+
+/**
+ * @brief: fundamental search function; only knows about association lists
+ *
+ * @param key a pointer indicating the key to search for;
+ * @param store a pointer indicating the store to search;
+ * @param return_key if a binding is found for `key` in `store`, if true
+ * 			return the key found in the store, else return the value
+ *
+ * @return nil if no binding for `key` is found in `store`; otherwise, if
+ * 			`return_key` is true, return the key from the store; else
+ * 			return the binding.
+ */
+struct pso_pointer search( struct pso_pointer key,
+                                  struct pso_pointer store,
+                                  bool return_key ) {
+	struct pso_pointer result = nil;
+	bool found = false;
+
+	if (consp( store)) {
+		for ( struct pso_pointer cursor = store;
+				consp( store) && found == false;
+				cursor = cdr( cursor)) {
+			struct pso_pointer pair = car( cursor);
+
+			if (consp(pair) && equal(car(pair), key)) {
+				found = true;
+				result = return_key ? car(pair) : cdr( pair);
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
+	return result;
+}
+
+/**
+ * @prief: bootstap layer assoc; only knows about association lists.
+ *
+ * @param key a pointer indicating the key to search for;
+ * @param store a pointer indicating the store to search;
+ *
+ * @return a pointer to the value of the key in the store, or nil if not found
+ */
+struct pso_pointer assoc( struct pso_pointer key, struct pso_pointer store) {
+	return search( key, store, false);
+}
+
+/**
+ * @prief: bootstap layer interned; only knows about association lists.
+ *
+ * @param key a pointer indicating the key to search for;
+ * @param store a pointer indicating the store to search;
+ *
+ * @return a pointer to the copy of the key in the store, or nil if not found.
+ */
+struct pso_pointer interned(struct pso_pointer key, struct pso_pointer store) {
+	return search( key, store, true);
+}
+
+/**
+ * @prief: bootstap layer interned; only knows about association lists.
+ *
+ * @param key a pointer indicating the key to search for;
+ * @param store a pointer indicating the store to search;
+ *
+ * @return `true` if a pointer the key was found in the store..
+ */
+bool internedp(struct pso_pointer key, struct pso_pointer store) {
+	return !nilp( search( key, store, true));
+}