diff --git a/src/lib/diff/tree-mutator.hpp b/src/lib/diff/tree-mutator.hpp
index 2a13bdbc3..aae3cbd0b 100644
--- a/src/lib/diff/tree-mutator.hpp
+++ b/src/lib/diff/tree-mutator.hpp
@@ -73,15 +73,8 @@ namespace diff{
   using std::string;
   
   namespace {
-    class ChangeOperationBinder
-      {
-      public:
-        void
-        operator= (function<void(string)> closure)
-          {
-            UNIMPLEMENTED("install closure");
-          }
-      };
+    template<class PAR>
+    class Builder;
     
     ////////TODO only preliminary....
     typedef Literal ID;
@@ -106,59 +99,94 @@ namespace diff{
       
       /* ==== operation API ==== */
       
-      void
-      reiterate()
-        {
-          UNIMPLEMENTED("reset point of reference");
-        }
-      
-      void
+      virtual void
       insertChild (ID id)
         {
           UNIMPLEMENTED("establish new child node at current position");
         }
       
-      void
+      virtual void
       deleteChild (ID id)
         {
           UNIMPLEMENTED("destroy child node at current position");
         }
       
-      void
-      acceptChild (ID id)
-        {
-          UNIMPLEMENTED("acknowledge existence of child at current pos and move ahead");
-        }
-      
-      void
+      virtual void
       findChild (ID id)
         {
           UNIMPLEMENTED("look ahead, find and retrieve denoted child to be relocated at current position");
         }
       
-      TreeMutator&
+      virtual TreeMutator&
       mutateChild (ID id)
         {
           UNIMPLEMENTED("expose a recursive TreeMutator to transform the denoted child");
         }
       
-      void
+      virtual void
       setAttribute (ID id, Attribute newValue)
         {
-          UNIMPLEMENTED("apply a value change to the named attribute");
+          std::cout << "Empty Base Impl: apply a value change to the named attribute"<<std::endl;      ////////////////TODO empty implementation should be NOP
         }
       
-      
-      /* ==== binding API ==== */
-      
-      ChangeOperationBinder
-      change (Literal attributeID)
-        {
-          UNIMPLEMENTED ("setup binder");
-        }
+      /**
+       * start building a custom adapted tree mutator,
+       * where the operations are tied by closures or
+       * wrappers into the current implementation context.
+       */
+      static Builder<TreeMutator> build();
     };
   
+  namespace {
+    
+    template<class PAR>
+    struct ChangeOperation
+      : PAR
+      {
+        function<void(string)> change_;
+        
+        virtual void
+        setAttribute (ID id, Attribute newValue)
+          {
+            PAR::setAttribute(id, newValue);  ////////////////////TODO only as a check to verify the class chaining. Of course we do *not* want to call the inherited implementeation
+            
+            string dummy("blubb");
+            change_(dummy);
+          }
+        
+        ChangeOperation(function<void(string)> clo, PAR const& chain)
+          : PAR(chain)
+          , change_(clo)
+          { }
+      };
+    
+    template<class PAR>
+    struct Builder
+      : PAR
+      {
+        using Chain = ChangeOperation<PAR>;
+        
+        Builder(PAR par)
+          : PAR(par)
+          { }
+        
+        
+        /* ==== binding API ==== */
+        
+        Builder<Chain>
+        change (Literal attributeID, function<void(string)> closure)
+          {
+            return Builder<Chain> (Chain (closure, *this));
+          }
+      };
+
+  }
   
+  Builder<TreeMutator>
+  TreeMutator::build ()
+  {
+    return Builder<TreeMutator>(TreeMutator());
+  }
   
   
 }} // namespace lib::diff
diff --git a/tests/library/diff/generic-tree-mutator-test.cpp b/tests/library/diff/generic-tree-mutator-test.cpp
index 2a75f7832..1cef76642 100644
--- a/tests/library/diff/generic-tree-mutator-test.cpp
+++ b/tests/library/diff/generic-tree-mutator-test.cpp
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@ using std::string;
 using std::cout;
 using std::endl;
 
+using lib::test::showType;
+using lib::test::demangleCxx;
+
 
 namespace lib {
 namespace diff{
@@ -87,15 +90,25 @@ namespace test{
       simpleAttributeBinding()
         {
           string localData;
-          TreeMutator mutator;
+          auto mutator =
+          TreeMutator::build()
+            .change("something", [&](string val)
+              {
+                cout << "Oink-Oink"<<endl;
+                localData = "Oink-Oink";
+              })
+            .change("something", [&](string val)
+              {
+                cout << "Change closure invoked with val="<<val<<endl;
+                localData = val;
+              });
           
-          mutator.change("something") = [&](string val)
-            {
-              cout << "Change closure invoked with val="<<val<<endl;
-              localData = val;
-            };
+          cout << "concrete TreeMutator type="<< demangleCxx (showType (mutator)) <<endl;
           
           CHECK (isnil (localData));
+          mutator.setAttribute("zoing", {});
+          CHECK (!isnil (localData));
+          cout << "localData changed to:"<<localData<<endl;
         }