A 530-char program overview memory with confidence 0.96 was filling
the entire 25% project-memory budget at equal overlap score (3 tokens),
beating shorter query-relevant newly-promoted memories (confidence
0.5) on the confidence tiebreaker. The long memory legitimately
scored well, but its length starved every other memory from the band.
Fix: truncate each formatted entry to 250 chars with '...' so at
least 2-3 memories fit the ~700-char available budget. This doesn't
change ranking — the most relevant memory still goes first — but
it ensures the runner-up can also appear.
Harness fixture delta: Day 7 regression pass pending after deploy.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Per-type ranking was still starving later types: when a p05 query
matched a 'knowledge' memory best but 'project' came first in the
type order, the project-type candidates filled the budget before
the knowledge-type pool was even ranked.
Collect all candidates into a single pool, dedupe by id, then
rank the whole pool once against the query before walking the
flat budget. Python's stable sort preserves insertion order (which
still reflects the caller's memory_types order) as a natural
tiebreaker when scores are equal.
Regression surfaced by the retrieval eval harness:
p05-vendor-signal still missing 'Zygo' after 5aeeb1c — the vendor
memory was type=knowledge but never reached the ranker because
type=project consumed the budget first.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
get_memories_for_context now accepts an optional query string.
When provided, candidate memories are reranked by lexical overlap
with the query (stemmed token intersection, ties broken by
confidence) before the budget walk. Without a query the order is
unchanged — effectively "by confidence desc" as before — so
non-builder callers see no behaviour change.
The fetch limit is raised from 10 to 30 so there's a real pool to
rerank. Token overlap reuses _normalize/_tokenize from
reinforcement.py so ranking and reinforcement matching share the
same notion of distinctive terms.
build_context passes the user_prompt through to both the identity/
preference and project-memory calls. The retrieval harness
regression the fix is targeting:
- p05-vendor-signal FAIL @ 1161645: "Zygo" missing from the pack
even though an active vendor memory contained it. Root cause:
higher-confidence p05 memories filled the 25% budget slice
before the vendor memory ever got a chance. Query-aware ordering
puts the vendor memory first when the query is about vendors.
New regression test test_project_memories_query_relevance_ordering
locks the behaviour in with two p05 memories and a tight budget.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The per-type slicing (available // len(memory_types)) starved
paragraph-length memories: with 3 types and a 450-char budget,
each type got ~131 chars while real project memories are 300-500
chars each — every entry was skipped and the new Project Memories
band never appeared in the live pack.
Switch to a flat budget pool walked type-by-type in order. Short
identity/preference memories still get first pick when the budget
is tight, but long project memories can now compete for space.
Caught on the first post-deploy probe: 2 active p04 memories
existed but none landed in formatted_context.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The retrieval-quality review on 2026-04-11 found that active
project/knowledge/episodic memories never reached the pack: only
Trusted Project State and identity/preference memories were being
assembled. Reinforcement bumped confidence on memories that had
no retrieval outlet, so the reflection loop was half-open.
This change adds a third memory tier between identity/preference
and retrieved chunks:
- PROJECT_MEMORY_BUDGET_RATIO = 0.15
- Memory types: project, knowledge, episodic
- Only populated when a canonical project is in scope — without
a project hint, project memories stay out (cross-project bleed
would rot the signal)
- Rendered under a dedicated "--- Project Memories ---" header
so the LLM can distinguish it from the identity/preference band
- Trim order in _trim_context_to_budget: retrieval → project
memories → identity/preference → project state (most recently
added tier drops first when budget is tight)
get_memories_for_context gains header/footer kwargs so the two
memory blocks can be distinguished in a single pack without a
second helper.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three findings from codex's review of the previous P1+P2 fix. The
earlier commit (f2372ef) only fixed alias resolution at the context
builder. Codex correctly pointed out that the same fragmentation
applies at every other place a project name crosses a boundary —
project_state writes/reads, interaction capture/listing/filtering,
memory create/queries, and reinforcement's downstream queries. Plus
a real bug in the interaction `since` filter where the storage
format and the documented ISO format don't compare cleanly.
The fix is one helper used at every boundary instead of duplicating
the resolution inline.
New helper: src/atocore/projects/registry.py::resolve_project_name
---------------------------------------------------------------
- Single canonicalization boundary for project names
- Returns the canonical project_id when the input matches any
registered id or alias
- Returns the input unchanged for empty/None and for unregistered
names (preserves backwards compat with hand-curated state that
predates the registry)
- Documented as the contract that every read/write at the trust
boundary should pass through
P1 — Trusted Project State endpoints
------------------------------------
src/atocore/context/project_state.py: set_state, get_state, and
invalidate_state now all canonicalize project_name through
resolve_project_name BEFORE looking up or creating the project row.
Before this fix:
- POST /project/state with project="p05" called ensure_project("p05")
which created a separate row in the projects table
- The state row was attached to that alias project_id
- Later context builds canonicalized "p05" -> "p05-interferometer"
via the builder fix from f2372ef and never found the state
- Result: trusted state silently fragmented across alias rows
After this fix:
- The alias is resolved to the canonical id at every entry point
- Two captures (one via "p05", one via "p05-interferometer") write
to the same row
- get_state via either alias or the canonical id finds the same row
Fixes the highest-priority gap codex flagged because Trusted Project
State is supposed to be the most dependable layer in the AtoCore
trust hierarchy.
P2.a — Interaction capture project canonicalization
----------------------------------------------------
src/atocore/interactions/service.py: record_interaction now
canonicalizes project before storing, so interaction.project is
always the canonical id regardless of what the client passed.
Downstream effects:
- reinforce_from_interaction queries memories by interaction.project
-> previously missed memories stored under canonical id
-> now consistent because interaction.project IS the canonical id
- the extractor stamps candidates with interaction.project
-> previously created candidates in alias buckets
-> now creates candidates in the canonical bucket
- list_interactions(project=alias) was already broken, now fixed by
canonicalizing the filter input on the read side too
Memory service applied the same fix:
- src/atocore/memory/service.py: create_memory and get_memories
both canonicalize project through resolve_project_name
- This keeps stored memory.project consistent with the
reinforcement query path
P2.b — Interaction `since` filter format normalization
------------------------------------------------------
src/atocore/interactions/service.py: new _normalize_since helper.
The bug:
- created_at is stored as 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' (no timezone, UTC by
convention) so it sorts lexically and compares cleanly with the
SQLite CURRENT_TIMESTAMP default
- The `since` parameter was documented as ISO 8601 but compared as
a raw string against the storage format
- The lexically-greater 'T' separator means an ISO timestamp like
'2026-04-07T12:00:00Z' is GREATER than the storage form
'2026-04-07 12:00:00' for the same instant
- Result: a client passing ISO `since` got an empty result for any
row from the same day, even though those rows existed and were
technically "after" the cutoff in real-world time
The fix:
- _normalize_since accepts ISO 8601 with T, optional Z suffix,
optional fractional seconds, optional +HH:MM offsets
- Uses datetime.fromisoformat for parsing (Python 3.11+)
- Converts to UTC and reformats as the storage format before the
SQL comparison
- The bare storage format still works (backwards compat path is a
regex match that returns the input unchanged)
- Unparseable input is returned as-is so the comparison degrades
gracefully (rows just don't match) instead of raising and
breaking the listing endpoint
builder.py refactor
-------------------
The previous P1 fix had inline canonicalization. Now it uses the
shared helper for consistency:
- import changed from get_registered_project to resolve_project_name
- the inline lookup is replaced with a single helper call
- the comment block now points at representation-authority.md for
the canonicalization contract
New shared test fixture: tests/conftest.py::project_registry
------------------------------------------------------------
- Standardizes the registry-setup pattern that was duplicated
across test_context_builder.py, test_project_state.py,
test_interactions.py, and test_reinforcement.py
- Returns a callable that takes (project_id, [aliases]) tuples
and writes them into a temp registry file with the env var
pointed at it and config.settings reloaded
- Used by all 12 new regression tests in this commit
Tests (12 new, all green on first run)
--------------------------------------
test_project_state.py:
- test_set_state_canonicalizes_alias: write via alias, read via
every alias and the canonical id, verify same row id
- test_get_state_canonicalizes_alias_after_canonical_write
- test_invalidate_state_canonicalizes_alias
- test_unregistered_project_state_still_works (backwards compat)
test_interactions.py:
- test_record_interaction_canonicalizes_project
- test_list_interactions_canonicalizes_project_filter
- test_list_interactions_since_accepts_iso_with_t_separator
- test_list_interactions_since_accepts_z_suffix
- test_list_interactions_since_accepts_offset
- test_list_interactions_since_storage_format_still_works
test_reinforcement.py:
- test_reinforcement_works_when_capture_uses_alias (end-to-end:
capture under alias, seed memory under canonical, verify
reinforcement matches)
- test_get_memories_filter_by_alias
Full suite: 174 passing (was 162), 1 warning. The +12 is the
new regression tests, no existing tests regressed.
What's still NOT canonicalized (and why)
----------------------------------------
- _rank_chunks's secondary substring boost in builder.py — the
retriever already does the right thing via its own
_project_match_boost which calls get_registered_project. The
redundant secondary boost still uses the raw hint but it's a
multiplicative factor on top of correct retrieval, not a
filter, so it can't drop relevant chunks. Tracked as a future
cleanup but not a P1.
- update_memory's project field (you can't change a memory's
project after creation in the API anyway).
- The retriever's project_hint parameter on direct /query calls
— same reasoning as the builder boost, plus the retriever's
own get_registered_project call already handles aliases there.
Phase 9 Commit B from the agreed plan. With Commit A capturing what
AtoCore fed to the LLM and what came back, this commit closes the
weakest part of the loop: when a memory is actually referenced in a
response, its confidence should drift up, and stale memories that
nobody ever mentions should stay where they are.
This is reinforcement only — nothing is promoted into trusted state
and no candidates are created. Extraction is Commit C.
Schema (additive migration):
- memories.last_referenced_at DATETIME (null by default)
- memories.reference_count INTEGER DEFAULT 0
- idx_memories_last_referenced on last_referenced_at
- memories.status now accepts the new "candidate" value so Commit C
has the status slot to land on. Existing active/superseded/invalid
rows are untouched.
New module: src/atocore/memory/reinforcement.py
- reinforce_from_interaction(interaction): scans the interaction's
response + response_summary for echoes of active memories and
bumps confidence / reference_count for each match
- matching is intentionally simple and explainable:
* normalize both sides (lowercase, collapse whitespace)
* require >= 12 chars of memory content to match
* compare the leading 80-char window of each memory
- the candidate pool is project-scoped memories for the interaction's
project + global identity + preference memories, deduplicated
- candidates and invalidated memories are NEVER reinforced; only
active memories move
Memory service changes:
- MEMORY_STATUSES = ["candidate", "active", "superseded", "invalid"]
- create_memory(status="candidate"|"active"|...) with per-status
duplicate scoping so a candidate and an active with identical text
can legitimately coexist during review
- get_memories(status=...) explicit override of the legacy active_only
flag; callers can now list the review queue cleanly
- update_memory accepts any valid status including "candidate"
- reinforce_memory(id, delta): low-level primitive that bumps
confidence (capped at 1.0), increments reference_count, and sets
last_referenced_at. Only active memories; returns (applied, old, new)
- promote_memory / reject_candidate_memory helpers prepping Commit C
Interactions service:
- record_interaction(reinforce=True) runs reinforce_from_interaction
automatically when the interaction has response content. reinforcement
errors are logged but never raised back to the caller so capture
itself is never blocked by a flaky downstream.
- circular import between interactions service and memory.reinforcement
avoided by lazy import inside the function
API:
- POST /interactions now accepts a reinforce bool field (default true)
- POST /interactions/{id}/reinforce runs reinforcement on an existing
captured interaction — useful for backfilling or for retrying after
a transient error in the automatic pass
- response lists which memory ids were reinforced with
old / new confidence for audit
Tests (17 new, all green):
- reinforce_memory bumps, caps at 1.0, accumulates reference_count
- reinforce_memory rejects candidates and missing ids
- reinforce_memory rejects negative delta
- reinforce_from_interaction matches active memory
- reinforce_from_interaction ignores candidates and inactive
- reinforce_from_interaction requires minimum content length
- reinforce_from_interaction handles empty response cleanly
- reinforce_from_interaction normalizes casing and whitespace
- reinforce_from_interaction deduplicates across memory buckets
- record_interaction auto-reinforces by default
- record_interaction reinforce=False skips the pass
- record_interaction handles empty response
- POST /interactions/{id}/reinforce runs against stored interaction
- POST /interactions/{id}/reinforce returns 404 for missing id
- POST /interactions accepts reinforce=false
Full suite: 135 passing (was 118).
Trust model unchanged:
- reinforcement only moves confidence within the existing active set
- the candidate lifecycle is declared but only Commit C will actually
create candidate memories
- trusted project state is never touched by reinforcement
Next: Commit C adds the rule-based extractor that produces candidate
memories from captured interactions plus the promote/reject review
queue endpoints.
