From 3ec9a48151086f71402d24e6d992b48d492e7ccc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Aaron Nelson <aaron@aaronnelson.studio>
Date: Fri, 22 May 2026 23:18:00 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] dream_observation: reorder select_mode so 3-day staleness
 wins over the quiet rule
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Bug: the previous order checked the "nothing changed → return None" rule
first, so the spec's "corpus unchanged 3+ days → Late REM (shake things
loose)" branch could never fire. Stasis was permanent — quiet would just
keep returning None forever as long as no new chunks or journals appeared,
regardless of how stale the corpus got.

Fix: check staleness first. Quiet remains the default within the 1-2-day
window the spec implicitly grants for the dreamer to "go quiet rather than
manufacturing novelty." At day 3+, Late REM fires automatically — the
spec's mechanism for breaking out of the silence when the corpus isn't
delivering new material.

Observed symptom that triggered this: dreamer fired 2026-05-21 08:00 and
2026-05-22 08:00, both went quiet. Real cause was no new content (which
is correct quiet behavior for days 1-2), but the bug would have made it
stay quiet indefinitely had we not fixed it before day 3.
---
 scripts/dream_observation.py | 17 +++++++++++------
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/scripts/dream_observation.py b/scripts/dream_observation.py
index d51dc5f..9ba7ff4 100644
--- a/scripts/dream_observation.py
+++ b/scripts/dream_observation.py
@@ -209,9 +209,14 @@ def select_mode(signal, task=None, explicit_mode=None):
     new_journal = signal["new_journal_entries"]
     days_since = signal["days_since_dream"]
 
-    # Spec line 67: nothing changed → quiet
-    if new_chunks < NEW_CHUNK_THRESHOLD and not new_journal:
-        return None
+    # Spec line 72: corpus unchanged ≥3 days → Late REM ("shake things loose").
+    # This rule has to win against the "go quiet" rule below — the spec uses
+    # quiet as the default for 1-2 days of silence, then deliberately fires
+    # Late REM at 3+ days to break the stasis. Checking staleness first is
+    # what implements that intent. (Previous version checked "go quiet" first
+    # and never reached this branch.)
+    if days_since >= STALENESS_TRIGGER_DAYS:
+        return "late-rem"
 
     # Spec line 71: journal entry → Early REM
     # We treat "any new journal entry" as the trigger. Refining to detect
@@ -220,9 +225,9 @@ def select_mode(signal, task=None, explicit_mode=None):
     if new_journal:
         return "early-rem"
 
-    # Spec line 72: corpus unchanged 3+ days → Late REM
-    if days_since >= STALENESS_TRIGGER_DAYS:
-        return "late-rem"
+    # Spec line 67: nothing changed within the staleness window → quiet
+    if new_chunks < NEW_CHUNK_THRESHOLD and not new_journal:
+        return None
 
     # Default: new chunks above threshold → NREM
     return "nrem"