fix(embed): stop worker pool from dispatching new slices after a sub-batch failure

Review finding on #3130: when one sub-batch rejected, the surviving pool workers kept draining ALL remaining slices in the background after embedBatch had already rejected — real provider spend post-failure, onBatchComplete firing after the caller handled the error, and stacked 429 pressure when embedBatchWithBackoff retried while the failed run was still draining. A shared failed flag now stops further dispatch (in-flight sibling calls still settle, bounded by concurrency-1) and suppresses post-failure progress callbacks. Pinned by a new test: 10 slices / concurrency 2 / first call fails → no calls after rejection, no completions reported. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
test: fix CI red on #3130 — withEnv for batch-concurrency env + close resetGateway shard-order poison window
2026-08-14 17:02:19 +00:00 · 2026-07-22 11:52:30 -07:00 · 2026-07-22 11:08:07 -07:00 · 2026-07-21 14:39:33 -07:00
50 changed files with 655 additions and 1284 deletions
@@ -71,8 +71,8 @@ GBrain is designed to be installed and operated by an AI agent. The fastest path

 If you don't already have an AI agent platform running, start with one of these. Both are designed to read GBrain's install protocol and execute it:

- **[OpenClaw](https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw)** — deploy [AlphaClaw on Render](https://render.com/deploy?repo=https://github.com/chrysb/alphaclaw) (one click, 8GB+ RAM)
- **[Hermes](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent)** — deploy on [Railway](https://github.com/praveen-ks-2001/hermes-agent-template) (one click)
+- **[OpenClaw](https://github.com/openclawagents/openclaw)** — deploy [AlphaClaw on Render](https://render.com/deploy?repo=https://github.com/chrysb/alphaclaw) (one click, 8GB+ RAM)
+- **[Hermes](https://github.com/openclawagents/hermes)** — deploy on [Railway](https://github.com/praveen-ks-2001/hermes-agent-template) (one click)

 Then paste this into your agent:

@@ -131,9 +131,7 @@ into gbrain so other clients can scaffold it. Default behavior:
  `~/.gbrain/harvest-private-patterns.txt` plus built-in defaults
  (canonical private fork name, common email regex, Slack channel pattern). Any
  match → rollback (delete the harvested files) and exit non-zero.
- `openclaw.plugin.json` updated with the new slug, sorted. Harvest must preserve
-  the top-level OpenClaw-native plugin fields (`id`, `configSchema`, `contracts`)
-  because OpenClaw validates those before it can install the package.
+- `openclaw.plugin.json` updated with the new slug, sorted.
 - `--no-lint` bypasses the linter (after a manual editorial scrub).

 Use the `skillpack-harvest` skill (its companion editorial workflow)
@@ -233,14 +233,13 @@ keep it or `git checkout` to throw it away. Nothing is committed for you.

 **For a skill that ships with gbrain** (anything under the gbrain repo's own
 `skills/`): SkillOpt refuses to overwrite it by default and writes the winner to
-`skills/<name>/skillopt/proposed.md` instead (while keeping `best.md` as the
-optimizer's current-best pointer), so an optimization pass can never silently
-mutate a skill other people depend on. Two ways to handle that:
+`skills/<name>/skillopt/best.md` instead, so an optimization pass can never
+silently mutate a skill other people depend on. Two ways to handle that:

 ```bash
 # See the proposed improvement without touching SKILL.md (works for ANY skill):
 gbrain skillopt meeting-prep --split 1:1:1 --no-mutate
-# → writes skills/meeting-prep/skillopt/proposed.md, updates best.md, and prints the proposal path.
+# → writes skills/meeting-prep/skillopt/best.md (the proposed rewrite), prints its path. Copy what you want.

 # Actually rewrite a bundled skill (explicit opt-in + an independent held-out set):
 gbrain skillopt brain-ops --split 1:1:1 --allow-mutate-bundled \
@@ -1565,8 +1565,8 @@ GBrain is designed to be installed and operated by an AI agent. The fastest path

 If you don't already have an AI agent platform running, start with one of these. Both are designed to read GBrain's install protocol and execute it:

- **[OpenClaw](https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw)** — deploy [AlphaClaw on Render](https://render.com/deploy?repo=https://github.com/chrysb/alphaclaw) (one click, 8GB+ RAM)
- **[Hermes](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent)** — deploy on [Railway](https://github.com/praveen-ks-2001/hermes-agent-template) (one click)
+- **[OpenClaw](https://github.com/openclawagents/openclaw)** — deploy [AlphaClaw on Render](https://render.com/deploy?repo=https://github.com/chrysb/alphaclaw) (one click, 8GB+ RAM)
+- **[Hermes](https://github.com/openclawagents/hermes)** — deploy on [Railway](https://github.com/praveen-ks-2001/hermes-agent-template) (one click)

 Then paste this into your agent:

@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 {
-  "id": "gbrain-context-engine",
  "name": "gbrain",
  "version": "0.32.3.0",
  "description": "Personal knowledge brain with Postgres + pgvector hybrid search",
@@ -266,5 +266,4 @@ editorial pass.
  (e.g. `src/commands/<slug>.ts` if the host SKILL.md declares it
  in frontmatter)
 - gbrain's `openclaw.plugin.json` — adds the slug to `skills:`
-  array, sorted alphabetically, without removing OpenClaw-native plugin fields
-  like `id`, `configSchema`, or `contracts`
+  array, sorted alphabetically
@@ -57,8 +57,6 @@ This mode guarantees:
 - `skills/manifest.json` lists every skill directory
 - `skills/RESOLVER.md` references every skill in the manifest
 - `openclaw.plugin.json` `skills[]` round-trips with both
- `openclaw.plugin.json` keeps OpenClaw install-required native plugin fields
-  (`id`, object `configSchema`, and `contracts.contextEngines` when applicable)
 - No MECE violations (duplicate triggers across skills)

 ### Phases
@@ -74,7 +72,7 @@ This mode guarantees:
 ### Automation

 ```bash
-bun test test/skills-conformance.test.ts test/resolver.test.ts test/openclaw-plugin-manifest.test.ts
+bun test test/skills-conformance.test.ts test/resolver.test.ts
 ```

 The CI-gated check is the package.json `test` script.
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ export function bigintToStringReplacer(_key: string, value: unknown): unknown {
 }

 // CLI-only commands that bypass the operation layer
-export const CLI_ONLY = new Set(['init', 'reinit-pglite', 'upgrade', 'post-upgrade', 'check-update', 'integrations', 'publish', 'check-backlinks', 'lint', 'report', 'import', 'export', 'files', 'embed', 'serve', 'call', 'config', 'doctor', 'migrate', 'eval', 'bench', 'sync', 'extract', 'extract-conversation-facts', 'enrich', 'features', 'autopilot', 'graph-query', 'jobs', 'agent', 'apply-migrations', 'skillpack-check', 'skillpack', 'resolvers', 'integrity', 'repair-jsonb', 'orphans', 'maintain', 'sources', 'mounts', 'dream', 'check-resolvable', 'routing-eval', 'skillify', 'smoke-test', 'providers', 'storage', 'repos', 'code-def', 'code-refs', 'reindex', 'reindex-code', 'reindex-frontmatter', 'code-callers', 'code-callees', 'reconcile-links', 'frontmatter', 'auth', 'friction', 'claw-test', 'book-mirror', 'takes', 'think', 'salience', 'anomalies', 'calibration', 'transcripts', 'models', 'remote', 'recall', 'forget', 'edges-backfill', 'cache', 'ze-switch', 'founder', 'brainstorm', 'lsd', 'schema', 'capture', 'onboard', 'conversation-parser', 'status', 'connect', 'skillopt', 'quarantine', 'self-upgrade', 'advisor', 'watch', 'reindex-search-vector']);
+export const CLI_ONLY = new Set(['init', 'reinit-pglite', 'upgrade', 'post-upgrade', 'check-update', 'integrations', 'publish', 'check-backlinks', 'lint', 'report', 'import', 'export', 'files', 'embed', 'serve', 'call', 'config', 'doctor', 'migrate', 'eval', 'sync', 'extract', 'extract-conversation-facts', 'enrich', 'features', 'autopilot', 'graph-query', 'jobs', 'agent', 'apply-migrations', 'skillpack-check', 'skillpack', 'resolvers', 'integrity', 'repair-jsonb', 'orphans', 'sources', 'mounts', 'dream', 'check-resolvable', 'routing-eval', 'skillify', 'smoke-test', 'providers', 'storage', 'repos', 'code-def', 'code-refs', 'reindex', 'reindex-code', 'reindex-frontmatter', 'code-callers', 'code-callees', 'reconcile-links', 'frontmatter', 'auth', 'friction', 'claw-test', 'book-mirror', 'takes', 'think', 'salience', 'anomalies', 'calibration', 'transcripts', 'models', 'remote', 'recall', 'forget', 'edges-backfill', 'cache', 'ze-switch', 'founder', 'brainstorm', 'lsd', 'schema', 'capture', 'onboard', 'conversation-parser', 'status', 'connect', 'skillopt', 'quarantine', 'self-upgrade', 'advisor', 'watch', 'reindex-search-vector']);
 // CLI-only commands whose handlers print their own --help text. These are
 // excluded from the generic short-circuit so detailed per-command and
 // per-subcommand usage stays reachable.
@@ -78,8 +78,6 @@ const CLI_ONLY_SELF_HELP = new Set([
  'capture',
  // v0.42 self-upgrade ships its own usage (flags + the agent-skill story).
  'self-upgrade',
-  // maintain (#3015) prints its own usage block (modes + not-auto-applied list).
-  'maintain',
  // v0.43 (#2095): watch ships WATCH_HELP (flags + the stdin-turn protocol).
  'watch',
  // v0.37 fix wave (Lane D.4 + CDX2-12): sync's --no-embed flag was
@@ -106,9 +104,6 @@ const CLI_ONLY_SELF_HELP = new Set([
  // `gbrain connect --help` prints its own usage (flags + examples) from
  // runConnect; route around the generic one-line short-circuit.
  'connect',
-  // #1474: bench-publish ships its own detailed HELP (flags, exit codes,
-  // the export → publish → gate loop). Route around the generic stub.
-  'bench',
 ]);

 // v114 (#1941): alias -> operation lookup, kept separate from `cliOps` so
@@ -1432,29 +1427,6 @@ async function handleCliOnly(command: string, args: string[]) {
    return;
  }

-  // #1474: `gbrain bench publish` is pure file I/O (reads a captured
-  // eval-candidates NDJSON from `gbrain eval export`, writes a baseline
-  // NDJSON). No DB access; bypass connectEngine entirely so the documented
-  // export → publish → gate loop works on machines without a brain.
-  // The v0.41.1 wave shipped bench-publish.ts + docs/eval-bench.md but this
-  // dispatcher case was never added, so the command hit 'Unknown command'.
-  if (command === 'bench') {
-    if (args[0] === 'publish') {
-      const { runBenchPublish } = await import('./commands/bench-publish.ts');
-      await runBenchPublish(args.slice(1));
-      return;
-    }
-    if (args.length === 0 || args[0] === '--help' || args[0] === '-h') {
-      const { runBenchPublish } = await import('./commands/bench-publish.ts');
-      await runBenchPublish(['--help']);
-      return;
-    }
-    console.error(`Unknown bench subcommand: ${args[0]}`);
-    console.error('Usage: gbrain bench publish --from <captured.ndjson> --to <baseline.ndjson> [flags]');
-    console.error('  See docs/eval-bench.md for the full loop: eval export → bench publish → eval gate');
-    process.exit(2);
-  }
-
  // v0.42.x (#2390): `gbrain eval chronicle` is deterministic — brings its own
  // in-memory PGLite, no DB/gateway. CI fixture gate runs anywhere.
  if (command === 'eval' && args[0] === 'chronicle') {
@@ -1785,11 +1757,6 @@ async function handleCliOnly(command: string, args: string[]) {
        await runOrphans(engine, args);
        break;
      }
-      case 'maintain': {
-        const { runMaintain } = await import('./commands/maintain.ts');
-        await runMaintain(engine, args);
-        break;
-      }
      // v0.32.7 CJK wave — post-upgrade markdown re-chunk sweep.
      // v0.36 Phase 3 wave — `gbrain reindex --multimodal` re-embeds content_chunks
      // into the unified Voyage multimodal-3 column.
@@ -2250,22 +2217,6 @@ async function connectEngine(opts?: { probeOnly?: boolean }): Promise<BrainEngin
      if (merged.embedding_image_ocr_model !== undefined) {
        process.env.GBRAIN_EMBEDDING_IMAGE_OCR_MODEL = merged.embedding_image_ocr_model;
      }
-      // #1475: stash the merged eval.* flags the same way. The capture gate
-      // (isEvalCaptureEnabled / isEvalScrubEnabled) runs against ctx.config,
-      // which is built from the sync file-plane loadConfig() in both the CLI
-      // op path and MCP dispatch — it never sees the DB plane directly. The
-      // gates consult this stash when the file plane is silent, so
-      // `gbrain config set eval.capture true` actually turns capture on.
-      // A pre-set env value wins over the DB plane (env-above-config, the
-      // incident escape hatch) — unlike GBRAIN_EMBEDDING_MULTIMODAL these
-      // keys have no loadConfig() env mapping, so without this guard the
-      // DB stash would silently clobber an operator's export.
-      if (process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_CAPTURE === undefined && merged.eval?.capture !== undefined) {
-        process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_CAPTURE = String(merged.eval.capture);
-      }
-      if (process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_SCRUB_PII === undefined && merged.eval?.scrub_pii !== undefined) {
-        process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_SCRUB_PII = String(merged.eval.scrub_pii);
-      }
      // Always re-configure with merged values when DB merge succeeded. The
      // trigger used to be field-name-gated (only when embedding_multimodal_model
      // was set); that coupled the gate to the field set and would silently
@@ -581,7 +581,7 @@ async function embedPage(
  for (let j = 0; j < toEmbed.length; j++) {
    embeddingMap.set(toEmbed[j].chunk_index, embeddings[j]);
  }
-  const updated: ChunkInput[] = chunks.map(c => preserveCodeMetadata(c, {
+  const updated: ChunkInput[] = chunks.map(c => ({
    chunk_index: c.chunk_index,
    chunk_text: c.chunk_text,
    chunk_source: c.chunk_source,
@@ -605,31 +605,6 @@ async function embedPage(
  slog(`${slug}: embedded ${toEmbed.length} chunks`);
 }

-/**
- * Carry code-chunk metadata (language, symbol_name, symbol_type, line range,
- * parent scope, doc comment, qualified name) from a loaded Chunk back into a
- * ChunkInput destined for upsertChunks.
- *
- * Issue #769: every re-embed used to strip these fields, and upsertChunks
- * overwrites (does not COALESCE) the metadata columns from EXCLUDED, so
- * each pass clobbered code-def's primary index to NULL. Pulling the
- * preservation into one helper keeps the three re-embed call sites
- * (embedPage, embedAll non-stale, embedAllStale) in lock-step.
- */
-function preserveCodeMetadata(loaded: any, base: ChunkInput): ChunkInput {
-  return {
-    ...base,
-    language: loaded.language ?? undefined,
-    symbol_name: loaded.symbol_name ?? undefined,
-    symbol_type: loaded.symbol_type ?? undefined,
-    start_line: loaded.start_line ?? undefined,
-    end_line: loaded.end_line ?? undefined,
-    parent_symbol_path: loaded.parent_symbol_path ?? undefined,
-    doc_comment: loaded.doc_comment ?? undefined,
-    symbol_name_qualified: loaded.symbol_name_qualified ?? undefined,
-  };
-}
-
 async function embedAll(
  engine: BrainEngine,
  staleOnly: boolean,
@@ -742,10 +717,8 @@ async function embedAll(
      for (let j = 0; j < toEmbed.length; j++) {
        embeddingMap.set(toEmbed[j].chunk_index, embeddings[j]);
      }
-      // Preserve ALL chunks, only update embeddings for stale ones.
-      // preserveCodeMetadata threads code-chunk metadata (#769) so re-embed
-      // doesn't clobber language/symbol_name/symbol_type to NULL.
-      const updated: ChunkInput[] = chunks.map(c => preserveCodeMetadata(c, {
+      // Preserve ALL chunks, only update embeddings for stale ones
+      const updated: ChunkInput[] = chunks.map(c => ({
        chunk_index: c.chunk_index,
        chunk_text: c.chunk_text,
        chunk_source: c.chunk_source,
@@ -1039,10 +1012,7 @@ async function embedAllStale(
          for (let j = 0; j < stale.length; j++) {
            staleIdxToEmbedding.set(stale[j].chunk_index, embeddings[j]);
          }
-          // preserveCodeMetadata threads code-chunk metadata (#769) so the
-          // autopilot --stale path doesn't clobber language/symbol_name/etc
-          // to NULL on every cycle.
-          const merged: ChunkInput[] = existing.map(c => preserveCodeMetadata(c, {
+          const merged: ChunkInput[] = existing.map(c => ({
            chunk_index: c.chunk_index,
            chunk_text: c.chunk_text,
            chunk_source: c.chunk_source,
@@ -1651,7 +1651,7 @@ async function extractTimelineFromDB(
 * make re-extraction idempotent). EVERY processed page is stamped, including
 * zero-link pages — they WERE processed.
 */
-export async function extractStaleFromDB(
+async function extractStaleFromDB(
  engine: BrainEngine,
  opts: {
    dryRun: boolean;
@@ -170,10 +170,14 @@ export async function runImport(
  // v0.22.13 (PR #490 Q2): shared parseWorkers helper rejects bad input
  // (--workers 0, -3, "foo") with a loud error instead of silently falling
  // through to 1. Mirrors sync.ts's flag handling.
-  const { parseWorkers } = await import('../core/sync-concurrency.ts');
-  let workerCount: number;
+  const { parseWorkers, autoConcurrency } = await import('../core/sync-concurrency.ts');
+  // #1207: undefined (no --workers flag) defers to autoConcurrency below —
+  // the shared sync/import policy (PGLite → 1, >100 files → 4) — instead of
+  // hardcoding serial. Large Postgres imports stop paying one embedding
+  // round-trip per file in sequence.
+  let workerCount: number | undefined;
  try {
-    workerCount = parseWorkers(workersArg ?? undefined) ?? 1;
+    workerCount = parseWorkers(workersArg ?? undefined);
  } catch (e) {
    console.error(e instanceof Error ? e.message : String(e));
    process.exit(1);
@@ -252,8 +256,9 @@ export async function runImport(
  }
  const files = resumeFilter(allFiles, dir, completed);

-  // Determine actual worker count
-  const actualWorkers = workerCount > 1 ? workerCount : 1;
+  // Determine actual worker count. Explicit --workers wins; otherwise the
+  // shared autoConcurrency policy decides from engine kind + file count.
+  const actualWorkers = autoConcurrency(engine, files.length, workerCount);
  if (actualWorkers > 1) {
    console.log(`Using ${actualWorkers} parallel workers`);
  }
@@ -1,224 +0,0 @@
-/**
- * gbrain maintain — conservative self-healing maintenance.
- *
- * This command automates the safe parts of the operator runbook:
- *   - stale link/timeline extraction
- *   - stale per-source dream cycles when doctor reports cycle_freshness
- *
- * It deliberately does NOT mutate source files, apply schema-pack upgrades, or
- * invent semantic hub links. Those need review or a separate command with an
- * auditable proposal surface.
- */
-
-import { existsSync } from 'fs';
-import type { BrainEngine } from '../core/engine.ts';
-import type { BrainHealth } from '../core/types.ts';
-import { buildChecks, computeDoctorReport, type DoctorReport, type Check } from './doctor.ts';
-import { extractStaleFromDB } from './extract.ts';
-import { runCycle, type CycleReport } from '../core/cycle.ts';
-
-type ActionStatus = 'ok' | 'would_apply' | 'applied' | 'blocked' | 'skipped';
-
-export interface MaintenanceAction {
-  name: string;
-  status: ActionStatus;
-  message: string;
-  details?: Record<string, unknown>;
-}
-
-export interface MaintainOptions {
-  json: boolean;
-  safe: boolean;
-  dryRun: boolean;
-  help: boolean;
-}
-
-export interface MaintainReport {
-  mode: 'dry-run' | 'safe';
-  before: {
-    health: BrainHealth;
-    doctor: DoctorReport;
-  };
-  actions: MaintenanceAction[];
-  after: {
-    health: BrainHealth;
-    doctor: DoctorReport;
-  };
-}
-
-export function parseMaintainArgs(args: string[]): MaintainOptions {
-  const safe = args.includes('--safe');
-  return {
-    json: args.includes('--json'),
-    safe,
-    dryRun: args.includes('--dry-run') || !safe,
-    help: args.includes('--help') || args.includes('-h'),
-  };
-}
-
-export function extractCycleFreshnessSourceIds(checks: Check[]): string[] {
-  const ids = new Set<string>();
-  for (const check of checks) {
-    if (check.name !== 'cycle_freshness' || check.status === 'ok') continue;
-    const re = /Source '([^']+)' last cycled/g;
-    for (const match of check.message.matchAll(re)) {
-      const id = match[1]?.trim();
-      if (id) ids.add(id);
-    }
-  }
-  return [...ids].sort();
-}
-
-async function buildDoctorReport(engine: BrainEngine): Promise<DoctorReport> {
-  const checks = await buildChecks(engine, ['--json', '--scope=brain']);
-  return computeDoctorReport(checks);
-}
-
-async function runStaleExtraction(
-  engine: BrainEngine,
-  beforeHealth: BrainHealth,
-  dryRun: boolean,
-): Promise<MaintenanceAction> {
-  if (beforeHealth.stale_pages <= 0) {
-    return { name: 'extract_stale', status: 'ok', message: 'No stale pages.' };
-  }
-
-  if (dryRun) {
-    return {
-      name: 'extract_stale',
-      status: 'would_apply',
-      message: `Would run DB-backed stale extraction for ${beforeHealth.stale_pages} page(s).`,
-      details: { stale_pages: beforeHealth.stale_pages },
-    };
-  }
-
-  const result = await extractStaleFromDB(engine, {
-    dryRun: false,
-    jsonMode: false,
-    includeFrontmatter: false,
-    catchUp: false,
-  });
-
-  return {
-    name: 'extract_stale',
-    status: 'applied',
-    message: `Processed ${result.pagesProcessed} stale page(s); ${result.staleRemaining} remain.`,
-    details: {
-      links_created: result.linksCreated,
-      timeline_created: result.timelineCreated,
-      pages_processed: result.pagesProcessed,
-      stale_remaining: result.staleRemaining,
-    },
-  };
-}
-
-async function runCycleFreshnessMaintenance(
-  engine: BrainEngine,
-  beforeDoctor: DoctorReport,
-  dryRun: boolean,
-): Promise<MaintenanceAction[]> {
-  const sourceIds = extractCycleFreshnessSourceIds(beforeDoctor.checks);
-  if (sourceIds.length === 0) {
-    return [{ name: 'cycle_freshness', status: 'ok', message: 'All sources cycled recently.' }];
-  }
-
-  if (dryRun) {
-    return sourceIds.map((sourceId) => ({
-      name: 'cycle_freshness',
-      status: 'would_apply',
-      message: `Would run source-scoped dream cycle for ${sourceId}.`,
-      details: { source_id: sourceId },
-    }));
-  }
-
-  const sources = await engine.listAllSources();
-  const actions: MaintenanceAction[] = [];
-
-  for (const sourceId of sourceIds) {
-    const source = sources.find((s) => s.id === sourceId);
-    const localPath = source?.local_path ?? null;
-    const brainDir = localPath && existsSync(localPath) ? localPath : null;
-    const report: CycleReport = await runCycle(engine, {
-      brainDir,
-      dryRun: false,
-      pull: false,
-      sourceId,
-    });
-    actions.push({
-      name: 'cycle_freshness',
-      status: report.status === 'failed' ? 'blocked' : 'applied',
-      message: `Ran source-scoped dream cycle for ${sourceId}: ${report.status}.`,
-      details: {
-        source_id: sourceId,
-        brain_dir: brainDir,
-        cycle_status: report.status,
-        phases: report.phases.map((p) => ({ phase: p.phase, status: p.status })),
-      },
-    });
-  }
-
-  return actions;
-}
-
-export async function runMaintain(engine: BrainEngine, args: string[]): Promise<MaintainReport | void> {
-  const opts = parseMaintainArgs(args);
-  if (opts.help) {
-    console.log(`Usage: gbrain maintain [--safe] [--dry-run] [--json]
-
-Conservative self-healing maintenance.
-
-Modes:
-  --dry-run   Preview safe actions without writes. Default when --safe is absent.
-  --safe      Apply safe actions: stale extraction and source cycle freshness.
-  --json      Emit a structured before/action/after report.
-
-Not auto-applied:
-  source-file frontmatter fixes, schema-pack upgrades, atom-pack changes,
-  semantic hub-link guesses, and destructive cleanup.
-`);
-    return;
-  }
-
-  const beforeHealth = await engine.getHealth();
-  const beforeDoctor = await buildDoctorReport(engine);
-  const actions: MaintenanceAction[] = [];
-
-  actions.push(await runStaleExtraction(engine, beforeHealth, opts.dryRun));
-  actions.push(...await runCycleFreshnessMaintenance(engine, beforeDoctor, opts.dryRun));
-
-  const afterHealth = await engine.getHealth();
-  const afterDoctor = await buildDoctorReport(engine);
-  const report: MaintainReport = {
-    mode: opts.dryRun ? 'dry-run' : 'safe',
-    before: { health: beforeHealth, doctor: beforeDoctor },
-    actions,
-    after: { health: afterHealth, doctor: afterDoctor },
-  };
-
-  if (opts.json) {
-    console.log(JSON.stringify(report, null, 2));
-  } else {
-    printMaintainReport(report);
-  }
-  return report;
-}
-
-function printMaintainReport(report: MaintainReport): void {
-  console.log(`GBrain maintain (${report.mode})`);
-  console.log(
-    `Before: brain_score=${Math.round(report.before.health.brain_score)}/100 ` +
-    `stale=${report.before.health.stale_pages} islands=${report.before.health.orphan_pages} ` +
-    `doctor=${report.before.doctor.status}`,
-  );
-  for (const action of report.actions) {
-    console.log(`  ${action.status}: ${action.name} — ${action.message}`);
-  }
-  console.log(
-    `After:  brain_score=${Math.round(report.after.health.brain_score)}/100 ` +
-    `stale=${report.after.health.stale_pages} islands=${report.after.health.orphan_pages} ` +
-    `doctor=${report.after.doctor.status}`,
-  );
-  if (report.mode === 'dry-run') {
-    console.log('Run `gbrain maintain --safe` to apply safe actions.');
-  }
-}
@@ -15,11 +15,6 @@
 import type { BrainEngine } from '../core/engine.ts';
 import { createProgress, startHeartbeat } from '../core/progress.ts';
 import { getCliOptions, cliOptsToProgressOptions } from '../core/cli-options.ts';
-import {
-  shouldExcludeFromOrphanReporting,
-  loadOrphanPolicyOverrides,
-  type OrphanPolicyOverrides,
-} from '../core/orphan-policy.ts';

 // --- Types ---

@@ -37,14 +32,65 @@ export interface OrphanResult {
  excluded: number;
 }

+// --- Filter constants ---
+
+/** Slug suffixes that are always auto-generated root files */
+const AUTO_SUFFIX_PATTERNS = ['/_index', '/log'];
+
+/** Page slugs that are pseudo-pages by convention */
+const PSEUDO_SLUGS = new Set(['_atlas', '_index', '_stats', '_orphans', '_scratch', 'claude']);
+
+/** Slug segment that marks raw sources */
+const RAW_SEGMENT = '/raw/';
+
+/** Slug prefixes where no inbound links is expected */
+const DENY_PREFIXES = [
+  'output/',
+  'dashboards/',
+  'scripts/',
+  'templates/',
+  'openclaw/config/',
+];
+
+/** First slug segments where no inbound links is expected */
+const FIRST_SEGMENT_EXCLUSIONS = new Set([
+  'scratch',
+  'thoughts',
+  'catalog',
+  'entities',
+  'raw',
+  'atoms',
+  'skills',
+]);
+
 // --- Filter logic ---

 /**
 * Returns true if a slug should be excluded from orphan reporting by default.
 * These are pages where having no inbound links is expected / not a content problem.
 */
-export function shouldExclude(slug: string, overrides?: OrphanPolicyOverrides): boolean {
-  return shouldExcludeFromOrphanReporting(slug, overrides);
+export function shouldExclude(slug: string): boolean {
+  // Pseudo-pages (exact match)
+  if (PSEUDO_SLUGS.has(slug)) return true;
+
+  // Auto-generated suffix patterns
+  for (const suffix of AUTO_SUFFIX_PATTERNS) {
+    if (slug.endsWith(suffix)) return true;
+  }
+
+  // Raw source slugs
+  if (slug.includes(RAW_SEGMENT)) return true;
+
+  // Deny-prefix slugs
+  for (const prefix of DENY_PREFIXES) {
+    if (slug.startsWith(prefix)) return true;
+  }
+
+  // First-segment exclusions
+  const firstSegment = slug.split('/')[0];
+  if (FIRST_SEGMENT_EXCLUSIONS.has(firstSegment)) return true;
+
+  return false;
 }

 /**
@@ -110,7 +156,6 @@ export async function findOrphans(
  let allOrphans: { slug: string; title: string; domain: string | null }[];
  let total: number;
  let excludedAll: number;
-  const overrides = includePseudo ? undefined : await loadOrphanPolicyOverrides(engine);
  try {
    allOrphans = await engine.findOrphanPages(
      sourceIds ? { sourceIds } : sourceId ? { sourceId } : undefined,
@@ -139,7 +184,7 @@ export async function findOrphans(
    total = liveRows.length;
    excludedAll = includePseudo
      ? 0
-      : liveRows.reduce((n, r) => n + (shouldExclude(r.slug, overrides) ? 1 : 0), 0);
+      : liveRows.reduce((n, r) => n + (shouldExclude(r.slug) ? 1 : 0), 0);
  } finally {
    stopHb();
    progress.finish();
@@ -147,7 +192,7 @@ export async function findOrphans(

  const filtered = includePseudo
    ? allOrphans
-    : allOrphans.filter(row => !shouldExclude(row.slug, overrides));
+    : allOrphans.filter(row => !shouldExclude(row.slug));

  const orphans: OrphanPage[] = filtered.map(row => ({
    slug: row.slug,
@@ -1513,12 +1513,21 @@ export async function embed(texts: string[], opts?: EmbedOpts): Promise<Float32A

  const embedding = recipe.touchpoints?.embedding;
  const maxBatchTokens = embedding?.max_batch_tokens;
+  const maxBatchCount = embedding?.max_batch_count;
  const charsPerToken = embedding?.chars_per_token ?? DEFAULT_CHARS_PER_TOKEN;

-  // Pre-split is gated on max_batch_tokens. Recipes without it (e.g. OpenAI)
-  // ride the fast path: one embedMany call, no recursion safety net.
-  const batches = maxBatchTokens
-    ? splitByTokenBudget(truncated, Math.floor(maxBatchTokens * effectiveSafetyFactor(recipe)), charsPerToken)
+  // Pre-split is gated on max_batch_tokens / max_batch_count. Recipes with
+  // neither (e.g. OpenAI) ride the fast path: one embedMany call, no
+  // recursion safety net.
+  const batches = (maxBatchTokens || maxBatchCount)
+    ? splitByTokenBudget(
+        truncated,
+        maxBatchTokens
+          ? Math.floor(maxBatchTokens * effectiveSafetyFactor(recipe))
+          : Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER,
+        charsPerToken,
+        maxBatchCount,
+      )
    : [truncated];

  const allEmbeddings: Float32Array[] = [];
@@ -1568,6 +1577,9 @@ export async function embed(texts: string[], opts?: EmbedOpts): Promise<Float32A
 *   responsible for applying any safety-factor shrink before passing in.
 * @param charsPerToken - Provider-specific character density. Defaults to
 *   `DEFAULT_CHARS_PER_TOKEN` (4) when omitted, matching OpenAI tiktoken.
+ * @param maxBatchCount - #1199: optional cap on INPUTS per sub-batch, for
+ *   providers that reject batches by count (DashScope: 10). When omitted,
+ *   only the token budget governs.
 *
 * @internal exported for tests; not part of the public gateway API.
 */
@@ -1575,15 +1587,17 @@ export function splitByTokenBudget(
  texts: string[],
  budgetTokens: number,
  charsPerToken: number = DEFAULT_CHARS_PER_TOKEN,
+  maxBatchCount?: number,
 ): string[][] {
  const ratio = charsPerToken > 0 ? charsPerToken : DEFAULT_CHARS_PER_TOKEN;
+  const maxCount = maxBatchCount !== undefined && maxBatchCount > 0 ? maxBatchCount : Infinity;
  const batches: string[][] = [];
  let current: string[] = [];
  let currentTokens = 0;

  for (const text of texts) {
    const estTokens = Math.ceil(text.length / ratio);
-    if (current.length > 0 && currentTokens + estTokens > budgetTokens) {
+    if (current.length > 0 && (currentTokens + estTokens > budgetTokens || current.length >= maxCount)) {
      batches.push(current);
      current = [];
      currentTokens = 0;
@@ -1609,7 +1623,11 @@ export function isTokenLimitError(err: unknown): boolean {
    /token.*limit.*exceeded/i.test(msg) ||
    // OpenAI embeddings: "Invalid 'input': maximum request size is 300000 tokens per request."
    /maximum request size.*tokens/i.test(msg) ||
-    /max.*tokens.*per.*request/i.test(msg)
+    /max.*tokens.*per.*request/i.test(msg) ||
+    // DashScope: "batch size is invalid, it should not be larger than 10." (#1199)
+    // Count-cap error, but recursive halving shrinks count too, so the same
+    // safety net converges.
+    /batch size is invalid/i.test(msg)
  );
 }

@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ export const dashscope: Recipe = {
      // path. Conservative declaration so the gateway pre-splits before
      // hitting whatever undocumented server-side limit exists.
      max_batch_tokens: 8192,
+      // #1199: DashScope hard-caps embeddings at 10 inputs per request
+      // ("batch size is invalid, it should not be larger than 10"). The
+      // token budget alone admits far more than 10 short chunks per batch.
+      max_batch_count: 10,
      // text-embedding-v3 mixes English + CJK heavily; the tokenizer is
      // closer to Voyage density than OpenAI tiktoken for CJK-dominant
      // content. Conservative chars_per_token=2 leaves headroom.
@@ -16,6 +16,15 @@ export const google: Recipe = {
      dims_options: [768, 1536, 3072],
      cost_per_1m_tokens_usd: 0.15,
      price_last_verified: '2026-04-20',
+      // #970: Gemini's documented limits are per-INPUT (2048 tokens,
+      // silently truncated beyond) and per-REQUEST count (batchEmbedContents
+      // caps at 100 inputs). There is no separate per-request token cap, so
+      // the token budget is derived: 100 inputs × 2048 tokens. The count cap
+      // binds first for typical chunk sizes. Do NOT copy the 2048 per-input
+      // limit into max_batch_tokens — that would over-split 50×.
+      max_batch_tokens: 204_800,
+      chars_per_token: 4,
+      max_batch_count: 100,
    },
    expansion: {
      models: ['gemini-2.0-flash', 'gemini-2.0-flash-lite'],
@@ -58,5 +58,8 @@ export function getRecipe(id: string): Recipe | undefined {
 }

 export function listRecipes(): Recipe[] {
-  return [...ALL];
+  // Read the map (not ALL) so there is one source of truth — getRecipe,
+  // model-resolver, and listRecipes all see the same registry, and tests
+  // can inject a synthetic recipe via RECIPES to exercise registry walks.
+  return [...RECIPES.values()];
 }
@@ -46,6 +46,16 @@ export interface EmbeddingTouchpoint {
   * Only consulted when `max_batch_tokens` is also set.
   */
  chars_per_token?: number;
+  /**
+   * #1199: maximum number of INPUTS per embedding request, for providers
+   * that hard-cap batch size by count rather than (or in addition to)
+   * tokens — DashScope text-embedding-v3 rejects batches > 10 with
+   * `InvalidParameter`, Gemini batchEmbedContents caps at 100 requests.
+   * When set, the gateway's pre-split flushes a sub-batch at this count
+   * even if the token budget still has room. Independent of
+   * `max_batch_tokens`; either alone triggers the pre-split.
+   */
+  max_batch_count?: number;
  /**
   * Budget-utilization ceiling in (0, 1]. The gateway pre-splits at
   * `safety_factor × max_batch_tokens` to leave headroom for tokenizer
@@ -816,25 +816,6 @@ export async function loadConfigWithEngine(
    merged.dream = mergedDream;
  }

-  // #1475: eval.* DB-plane merge. `gbrain config set eval.capture true`
-  // writes the DB plane (both keys are in KNOWN_CONFIG_KEYS, so `set`
-  // accepts them silently), but the capture gate (isEvalCaptureEnabled)
-  // reads the merged config. Without this merge the DB value was written
-  // and never read — capture only fired via GBRAIN_CONTRIBUTOR_MODE=1.
-  // Sparse per-key merge: file/env wins per key, DB fills the gaps.
-  const dbEvalCapture = await dbBool('eval.capture');
-  const dbEvalScrub = await dbBool('eval.scrub_pii');
-  const mergedEval: NonNullable<GBrainConfig['eval']> = { ...(merged.eval ?? {}) };
-  if (mergedEval.capture === undefined && dbEvalCapture !== undefined) {
-    mergedEval.capture = dbEvalCapture;
-  }
-  if (mergedEval.scrub_pii === undefined && dbEvalScrub !== undefined) {
-    mergedEval.scrub_pii = dbEvalScrub;
-  }
-  if (Object.keys(mergedEval).length > 0) {
-    merged.eval = mergedEval;
-  }
-
  return merged;
 }

@@ -54,7 +54,6 @@ import {
 import {
  generatePerChunkSynopsis,
  SYNOPSIS_PROMPT_VERSION,
-  SYNOPSIS_DOC_MAX_CHARS,
  type GeneratePerChunkSynopsisResult,
 } from './page-summary.ts';
 import {
@@ -104,17 +103,8 @@ function getEmbeddingModelTag(): string {
 export function computeCorpusGeneration(args: {
  crMode: CRMode;
  haikuModel: string;
-  /**
-   * Resolved `SYNOPSIS_DOC_MAX_CHARS` for per_chunk_synopsis runs. When
-   * present, folded into the hash so changes to
-   * `GBRAIN_SYNOPSIS_DOC_MAX_CHARS` invalidate the prior cache cleanly.
-   * Omit for `crMode !== 'per_chunk_synopsis'` — title / none modes
-   * don't consult the cap and the field stays out of the hash for
-   * back-compat with pre-cap embeddings.
-   */
-  synopsisDocMaxChars?: number;
 }): string {
-  const h = createHash('sha256')
+  return createHash('sha256')
    .update(args.crMode)
    .update('|')
    .update(String(SYNOPSIS_PROMPT_VERSION))
@@ -123,11 +113,9 @@ export function computeCorpusGeneration(args: {
    .update('|')
    .update(String(TITLE_WRAPPER_VERSION))
    .update('|')
-    .update(getEmbeddingModelTag());
-  if (args.synopsisDocMaxChars !== undefined) {
-    h.update('|doc_cap=').update(String(args.synopsisDocMaxChars));
-  }
-  return h.digest('hex').slice(0, 16);
+    .update(getEmbeddingModelTag())
+    .digest('hex')
+    .slice(0, 16);
 }

 /**
@@ -265,11 +253,7 @@ export async function reembedPageWithContextualRetrieval(
      args.pageSlug,
      args.sourceId,
      resolution.mode,
-      computeCorpusGeneration({
-        crMode: resolution.mode,
-        haikuModel: args.haikuModel ?? DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL,
-        synopsisDocMaxChars: resolution.mode === 'per_chunk_synopsis' ? SYNOPSIS_DOC_MAX_CHARS : undefined,
-      }),
+      computeCorpusGeneration({ crMode: resolution.mode, haikuModel: args.haikuModel ?? DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL }),
    );
    return { kind: 'skipped', reason: 'no_chunks' };
  }
@@ -298,7 +282,6 @@ export async function reembedPageWithContextualRetrieval(
      const corpus_generation = computeCorpusGeneration({
        crMode: attemptMode,
        haikuModel,
-        synopsisDocMaxChars: attemptMode === 'per_chunk_synopsis' ? SYNOPSIS_DOC_MAX_CHARS : undefined,
      });

      // ── PHASE 2: single DB transaction ───────────────────────────
@@ -79,15 +79,34 @@ export interface EmbedBatchOptions {
   * and amplify rate-limit pressure.
   */
  maxRetries?: number;
+  /**
+   * #1818: bounded parallelism across BATCH_SIZE sub-batches. Defaults to
+   * `GBRAIN_EMBED_BATCH_CONCURRENCY` env, else 4. Results are
+   * index-addressed so output order always matches input order. Set 1 to
+   * force the pre-v0.42 serial dispatch.
+   */
+  concurrency?: number;
 }

 /**
 * Embed a batch of texts via the gateway. Sub-batches of 100 so upstream
 * progress callbacks fire incrementally on large imports. The gateway owns
 * adaptive batch splitting and per-recipe token-budget logic; this paginator
- * is purely about progress-callback granularity.
+ * owns progress-callback granularity and (#1818) bounded parallel dispatch
+ * of the sub-batches — the embed-stale.ts worker-pool pattern, scoped down.
 */
 const BATCH_SIZE = 100;
+const DEFAULT_EMBED_BATCH_CONCURRENCY = 4;
+
+function resolveEmbedBatchConcurrency(options: EmbedBatchOptions): number {
+  if (options.concurrency !== undefined) {
+    return Math.max(1, Math.floor(options.concurrency));
+  }
+  const env = Number(process.env.GBRAIN_EMBED_BATCH_CONCURRENCY);
+  if (Number.isFinite(env) && env >= 1) return Math.floor(env);
+  return DEFAULT_EMBED_BATCH_CONCURRENCY;
+}
+
 export async function embedBatch(
  texts: string[],
  options: EmbedBatchOptions = {},
@@ -103,13 +122,44 @@ export async function embedBatch(
  if (texts.length <= BATCH_SIZE && !options.onBatchComplete) {
    return gatewayEmbed(texts, gwOpts);
  }
-  const results: Float32Array[] = [];
+  // #1818: dispatch sub-batches through a bounded worker pool instead of a
+  // serial loop. Results are written into a preallocated index-addressed
+  // array so output order matches input order regardless of completion
+  // order; onBatchComplete reports a monotonic completed-embedding count.
+  const slices: Array<{ start: number; texts: string[] }> = [];
  for (let i = 0; i < texts.length; i += BATCH_SIZE) {
-    const slice = texts.slice(i, i + BATCH_SIZE);
-    const out = await gatewayEmbed(slice, gwOpts);
-    results.push(...out);
-    options.onBatchComplete?.(results.length, texts.length);
+    slices.push({ start: i, texts: texts.slice(i, i + BATCH_SIZE) });
  }
+  const results = new Array<Float32Array>(texts.length);
+  let next = 0;
+  let done = 0;
+  const numWorkers = Math.min(resolveEmbedBatchConcurrency(options), slices.length);
+  // Once any sub-batch fails, `failed` stops the surviving workers from
+  // dispatching FURTHER slices — the whole call is rejecting anyway, so
+  // continuing would burn real provider spend in the background and fire
+  // onBatchComplete after the caller already saw the failure (worst with
+  // embedBatchWithBackoff, whose 429 backoff assumes nothing is in flight).
+  // In-flight sibling calls still run to completion (bounded by numWorkers-1).
+  let failed = false;
+  const worker = async (): Promise<void> => {
+    while (!failed && next < slices.length) {
+      // NOTE: no local aborted-check here — an aborted signal makes the next
+      // gatewayEmbed call throw (SDK-side), which rejects the pool. Returning
+      // silently instead would resolve with holes in `results`.
+      const slice = slices[next++];
+      let out: Float32Array[];
+      try {
+        out = await gatewayEmbed(slice.texts, gwOpts);
+      } catch (err) {
+        failed = true;
+        throw err;
+      }
+      for (let j = 0; j < out.length; j++) results[slice.start + j] = out[j];
+      done += out.length;
+      if (!failed) options.onBatchComplete?.(done, texts.length);
+    }
+  };
+  await Promise.all(Array.from({ length: numWorkers }, () => worker()));
  return results;
 }

@@ -251,14 +251,6 @@ registerBackgroundWorkDrainer({
 export function isEvalCaptureEnabled(config: GBrainConfig | null | undefined): boolean {
  if (config?.eval?.capture === true) return true;
  if (config?.eval?.capture === false) return false;
-  // #1475: DB-plane stash. `gbrain config set eval.capture true` lands in the
-  // config table; connectEngine stamps the merged value here because
-  // ctx.config is the sync file-plane load and never sees the DB plane.
-  // Explicit per-key setting (file above, DB here) beats the broad
-  // CONTRIBUTOR_MODE flag, matching how file-plane `false` already wins.
-  // Doubles as a direct operator env knob.
-  if (process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_CAPTURE === 'true') return true;
-  if (process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_CAPTURE === 'false') return false;
  return process.env.GBRAIN_CONTRIBUTOR_MODE === '1';
 }

@@ -271,8 +263,5 @@ export function isEvalCaptureEnabled(config: GBrainConfig | null | undefined): b
 * have explicit `capture: true`.
 */
 export function isEvalScrubEnabled(config: GBrainConfig | null | undefined): boolean {
-  if (config?.eval?.scrub_pii === false) return false;
-  if (config?.eval?.scrub_pii === true) return true;
-  // #1475: DB-plane stash — see isEvalCaptureEnabled. Default stays true.
-  return process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_SCRUB_PII !== 'false';
+  return config?.eval?.scrub_pii !== false;
 }
@@ -733,11 +733,6 @@ export async function importFromContent(
      : computeCorpusGeneration({
          crMode: effectiveCRMode,
          haikuModel: 'anthropic:claude-haiku-4-5-20251001',
-          // Inline import-file path never uses per_chunk_synopsis (refuses
-          // upstream); pass undefined so the doc-cap field stays out of
-          // the hash here. Per_chunk_synopsis runs through the Minion
-          // backfill handler which threads SYNOPSIS_DOC_MAX_CHARS through
-          // the service layer.
        });

  // Transaction wraps all DB writes. Every per-page tx call carries the
@@ -489,22 +489,7 @@ export async function extractPageLinks(
      // text inside `[[...]]` before any `|`), NOT the display alias
      // (ref.name = match[2]). `[[struktura|the project]]` must resolve
      // `struktura`, not "the project". The display text is for context only.
-      //
-      // The literal may be path-qualified (`[[notes/struktura]]`). The FS
-      // path (resolveSlugAll) strips the dirname before its basename lookup,
-      // but this path passed the raw literal to an index keyed by final
-      // segments only — so every slash-containing wikilink outside
-      // DIR_PATTERN silently resolved to nothing. Query by the final
-      // segment, then use the written path as a disambiguation filter
-      // (the analogue of the FS ancestor walk honoring the written path):
-      // a match must end with the literal, so `[[notes/struktura]]` can
-      // resolve to `vault/notes/struktura` but never to `wiki/struktura`.
-      const slashIdx = ref.slug.lastIndexOf('/');
-      const basename = slashIdx === -1 ? ref.slug : ref.slug.slice(slashIdx + 1);
-      let matches = await resolver.resolveBasenameMatches(basename);
-      if (slashIdx !== -1) {
-        matches = matches.filter(m => m === ref.slug || m.endsWith(`/${ref.slug}`));
-      }
+      const matches = await resolver.resolveBasenameMatches(ref.slug);
      if (matches.length === 0) continue;
      const idx = content.indexOf(ref.slug);
      const context = idx >= 0 ? excerpt(content, idx, 240) : ref.name;
@@ -1,116 +0,0 @@
-/**
- * Shared orphan-reporting exclusion policy.
- *
- * These are pages where "no inbound links" is expected and should not count
- * against health. Keep this in core so the CLI orphan report and engine health
- * dashboard cannot drift.
- *
- * Defaults are GBrain-wide conventions only. Brain-specific exclusions
- * (private folder names, one-off fixture slugs) belong in the brain's own
- * config, not here:
- *
- *   gbrain config set orphans.exclude_prefixes "my-private-folder/,archive/"
- *   gbrain config set orphans.exclude_slugs "some-one-off-page"
- */
-
-const AUTO_SUFFIX_PATTERNS = ['/_index', '/log'];
-
-const PSEUDO_SLUGS = new Set(['_atlas', '_index', '_stats', '_orphans', '_scratch', 'claude']);
-
-const RAW_SEGMENT = '/raw/';
-
-const DENY_PREFIXES = [
-  'output/',
-  'dashboards/',
-  'scripts/',
-  'templates/',
-  '_templates/',
-  'openclaw/config/',
-  'extracts/',
-];
-
-const FIRST_SEGMENT_EXCLUSIONS = new Set([
-  'scratch',
-  'thoughts',
-  'catalog',
-  'entities',
-  'raw',
-  'atoms',
-  'skills',
-  'dreaming',
-  'daily',
-]);
-
-const ROOT_DATE_SLUG = /^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}(?:-.+)?$/;
-
-function isAgentWorkspaceConvention(slug: string): boolean {
-  if (!slug.startsWith('agents/')) return false;
-  if (slug.includes('/memory/dreaming/')) return true;
-  return /^agents\/[^/]+\/(?:agents|identity|soul|tools|user|heartbeat|dreams|dormant)$/.test(slug);
-}
-
-/** Per-brain additions to the convention defaults (from config). */
-export interface OrphanPolicyOverrides {
-  excludePrefixes?: string[];
-  excludeSlugs?: string[];
-}
-
-/** Config keys for per-brain orphan exclusions (comma-separated values). */
-export const ORPHAN_EXCLUDE_PREFIXES_KEY = 'orphans.exclude_prefixes';
-export const ORPHAN_EXCLUDE_SLUGS_KEY = 'orphans.exclude_slugs';
-
-function parseList(value: string | null): string[] {
-  if (!value) return [];
-  return value.split(',').map(s => s.trim()).filter(Boolean);
-}
-
-/**
- * Load per-brain orphan exclusions from the brain config table. Callers with
- * an engine in hand (getHealth, `gbrain orphans`) pass the result as the
- * second argument to shouldExcludeFromOrphanReporting.
- */
-export async function loadOrphanPolicyOverrides(
-  engine: { getConfig(key: string): Promise<string | null> },
-): Promise<OrphanPolicyOverrides> {
-  const [prefixes, slugs] = await Promise.all([
-    engine.getConfig(ORPHAN_EXCLUDE_PREFIXES_KEY),
-    engine.getConfig(ORPHAN_EXCLUDE_SLUGS_KEY),
-  ]);
-  return { excludePrefixes: parseList(prefixes), excludeSlugs: parseList(slugs) };
-}
-
-export function shouldExcludeFromOrphanReporting(
-  slug: string,
-  overrides?: OrphanPolicyOverrides,
-): boolean {
-  if (PSEUDO_SLUGS.has(slug)) return true;
-
-  for (const suffix of AUTO_SUFFIX_PATTERNS) {
-    if (slug.endsWith(suffix)) return true;
-  }
-
-  if (slug.includes(RAW_SEGMENT)) return true;
-  if (slug.includes('/daily/')) return true;
-
-  for (const prefix of DENY_PREFIXES) {
-    if (slug.startsWith(prefix)) return true;
-  }
-
-  const firstSegment = slug.split('/')[0];
-  if (FIRST_SEGMENT_EXCLUSIONS.has(firstSegment)) return true;
-
-  if (ROOT_DATE_SLUG.test(slug)) return true;
-
-  if (slug.startsWith('_brain-')) return true;
-
-  if (isAgentWorkspaceConvention(slug)) return true;
-
-  if (overrides) {
-    if (overrides.excludeSlugs?.includes(slug)) return true;
-    for (const prefix of overrides.excludePrefixes ?? []) {
-      if (slug.startsWith(prefix)) return true;
-    }
-  }
-
-  return false;
-}
@@ -44,33 +44,6 @@ const HAIKU_MAX_TOKENS = 200;
 /** Default model when caller doesn't override. Resolves through the gateway. */
 const DEFAULT_SYNOPSIS_MODEL = 'anthropic:claude-haiku-4-5-20251001';

-/**
- * Hard cap on `documentText` length (chars) before send.
- *
- * 2026-05-25 fix wave: small local chat models (Gemma 4 E2B, Qwen3 4B) get
- * dramatically slower on long contexts even with 131K-token windows declared.
- * A 73K-char page synopsis on Gemma 4 E2B takes 60-120s, exceeding the
- * worker's default 30s `lockDuration` and tripping `lock-lost` errors.
- *
- * Truncate to a budget that fits a small model's effective throughput while
- * preserving enough document context for the synopsis to be useful. Truncates
- * the TAIL because the head (title, frontmatter, intro) carries the
- * document-level anchor the synopsis needs.
- *
- * Override per workload via `GBRAIN_SYNOPSIS_DOC_MAX_CHARS`. Default 32768
- * (~8K tokens at 4 chars/tok) keeps small-model synopsis under ~30s.
- * Anthropic Haiku is unaffected at this cap; bump higher when running
- * frontier models if you want richer document anchoring.
- */
-export const SYNOPSIS_DOC_MAX_CHARS = (() => {
-  const env = process.env.GBRAIN_SYNOPSIS_DOC_MAX_CHARS;
-  if (env && /^\d+$/.test(env)) {
-    const n = parseInt(env, 10);
-    if (n >= 512 && n <= 1_048_576) return n;
-  }
-  return 32768;
-})();
-
 /**
 * Synopsis prompt version. Folded into corpus_generation so prompt edits
 * invalidate prior embeddings via the v0.40.3.0 query_cache.page_generations
@@ -215,19 +188,11 @@ function buildUserPrompt(
  documentText: string,
  chunkText: string,
 ): string {
-  // Tail-truncate `documentText` to `SYNOPSIS_DOC_MAX_CHARS` so small local
-  // chat models don't stall on >100KB pages. Head preserved (title block,
-  // frontmatter, intro paragraphs carry the document-level anchor).
-  let trimmedDoc = documentText;
-  if (documentText.length > SYNOPSIS_DOC_MAX_CHARS) {
-    trimmedDoc = documentText.slice(0, SYNOPSIS_DOC_MAX_CHARS) +
-      `\n\n[... ${documentText.length - SYNOPSIS_DOC_MAX_CHARS} chars truncated for synopsis budget ...]`;
-  }
  return [
    `<page_title>${pageTitle}</page_title>`,
    '',
    '<full_document>',
-    trimmedDoc,
+    documentText,
    '</full_document>',
    '',
    '<chunk>',
@@ -57,8 +57,6 @@ import { finalizeLastSeen } from './chronicle/last-seen.ts';
 import { computeAnomaliesFromBuckets } from './cycle/anomaly.ts';
 import { resolveBoostMap, resolveHardExcludes } from './search/source-boost.ts';
 import { buildSourceFactorCase, buildHardExcludeClause, buildVisibilityClause, buildRecencyComponentSql, buildBestPerPagePoolCte, buildOrFallbackWebsearchQuery } from './search/sql-ranking.ts';
-import { shouldExcludeFromOrphanReporting, loadOrphanPolicyOverrides } from './orphan-policy.ts';
-import { LINK_EXTRACTOR_VERSION_TS } from './link-extraction.ts';
 import {
  normalizeEngineColumn,
  buildVectorCastFragment,
@@ -2324,10 +2322,6 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
    // v0.40.3.0 D24 NULL→non-NULL race fix mirrors postgres-engine.ts. Two writers
    // racing on the same chunk previously raced last-write-wins; the fix lets the
    // fresher `embedded_at` win in the text-unchanged branch.
-    //
-    // Code-chunk metadata columns follow the same chunk_text-gated CASE pattern as `embedding`
-    // (#769). Re-chunk trusts EXCLUDED outright; pure re-embed COALESCEs so a caller carrying
-    // only embedding-shaped fields doesn't clobber metadata to NULL.
    await this.db.query(
      `INSERT INTO content_chunks ${cols} VALUES ${rowParts.join(', ')}
       ON CONFLICT (page_id, chunk_index) DO UPDATE SET
@@ -2351,14 +2345,14 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
                THEN EXCLUDED.embedded_at
           ELSE content_chunks.embedded_at
         END,
-         language = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.language ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.language, content_chunks.language) END,
-         symbol_name = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.symbol_name ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.symbol_name, content_chunks.symbol_name) END,
-         symbol_type = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.symbol_type ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.symbol_type, content_chunks.symbol_type) END,
-         start_line = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.start_line ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.start_line, content_chunks.start_line) END,
-         end_line = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.end_line ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.end_line, content_chunks.end_line) END,
-         parent_symbol_path = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.parent_symbol_path ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.parent_symbol_path, content_chunks.parent_symbol_path) END,
-         doc_comment = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.doc_comment ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.doc_comment, content_chunks.doc_comment) END,
-         symbol_name_qualified = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.symbol_name_qualified ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.symbol_name_qualified, content_chunks.symbol_name_qualified) END,
+         language = EXCLUDED.language,
+         symbol_name = EXCLUDED.symbol_name,
+         symbol_type = EXCLUDED.symbol_type,
+         start_line = EXCLUDED.start_line,
+         end_line = EXCLUDED.end_line,
+         parent_symbol_path = EXCLUDED.parent_symbol_path,
+         doc_comment = EXCLUDED.doc_comment,
+         symbol_name_qualified = EXCLUDED.symbol_name_qualified,
         modality = EXCLUDED.modality,
         embedding_image = COALESCE(EXCLUDED.embedding_image, content_chunks.embedding_image)`,
      params
@@ -5213,10 +5207,15 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
        (SELECT count(*) FROM pages) as page_count,
        (SELECT count(*) FROM content_chunks WHERE embedded_at IS NOT NULL)::float /
          GREATEST((SELECT count(*) FROM content_chunks), 1)::float as embed_coverage,
-        0 as stale_pages,
-        -- Bug 11 — orphan = islanded (no inbound AND no outbound). The raw
-        -- list is filtered in TS using the shared orphan-reporting policy.
-        0 as orphan_pages,
+        (SELECT count(*) FROM pages p
+         WHERE p.updated_at < (SELECT MAX(te.created_at) FROM timeline_entries te WHERE te.page_id = p.id)
+        ) as stale_pages,
+        -- Bug 11 — orphan = islanded (no inbound AND no outbound).
+        -- See BrainHealth.orphan_pages docstring; docs updated to match this.
+        (SELECT count(*) FROM pages p
+         WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM links l WHERE l.to_page_id = p.id)
+           AND NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM links l WHERE l.from_page_id = p.id)
+        ) as orphan_pages,
        (SELECT count(*) FROM links l
         WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM pages p WHERE p.id = l.to_page_id)
        ) as dead_links,
@@ -5241,20 +5240,10 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
      LIMIT 5
    `);

-    const { rows: islandedRows } = await this.db.query(`
-      SELECT p.slug
-      FROM pages p
-      WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM links l WHERE l.to_page_id = p.id)
-        AND NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM links l WHERE l.from_page_id = p.id)
-    `);
-
    const r = h as Record<string, unknown>;
    const pageCount = Number(r.page_count);
    const embedCoverage = Number(r.embed_coverage);
-    const stalePages = await this.countStalePagesForExtraction({ versionTs: LINK_EXTRACTOR_VERSION_TS });
-    const orphanOverrides = await loadOrphanPolicyOverrides(this);
-    const orphanPages = (islandedRows as { slug: string }[])
-      .filter(row => !shouldExcludeFromOrphanReporting(row.slug, orphanOverrides)).length;
+    const orphanPages = Number(r.orphan_pages);
    const deadLinks = Number(r.dead_links);
    const linkCount = Number(r.link_count);
    const pagesWithTimeline = Number(r.pages_with_timeline);
@@ -5282,7 +5271,7 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
    return {
      page_count: pageCount,
      embed_coverage: embedCoverage,
-      stale_pages: stalePages,
+      stale_pages: Number(r.stale_pages),
      orphan_pages: orphanPages,
      missing_embeddings: Number(r.missing_embeddings),
      brain_score: brainScore,
@@ -67,8 +67,6 @@ import { resolveBoostMap, resolveHardExcludes } from './search/source-boost.ts';
 import { buildSourceFactorCase, buildHardExcludeClause, buildVisibilityClause, buildRecencyComponentSql, buildBestPerPagePoolCte, buildOrFallbackWebsearchQuery } from './search/sql-ranking.ts';
 import { DEFAULT_EMBEDDING_MODEL, DEFAULT_EMBEDDING_DIMENSIONS } from './ai/defaults.ts';
 import { DELETE_BATCH_SIZE } from './engine-constants.ts';
-import { shouldExcludeFromOrphanReporting, loadOrphanPolicyOverrides } from './orphan-policy.ts';
-import { LINK_EXTRACTOR_VERSION_TS } from './link-extraction.ts';

 function escapeSqlStringLiteral(value: string): string {
  return value.replace(/'/g, "''");
@@ -2475,13 +2473,6 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
    //   - new is fresher (embedded_at > existing.embedded_at) → take new
    //   - otherwise → keep existing (slower writer with stale embedding loses)
    // Mirrored in pglite-engine.ts; pinned by test/e2e/concurrent-embed-race.test.ts.
-    //
-    // Code-chunk metadata columns (language / symbol_name / symbol_type / line range /
-    // parent_symbol_path / doc_comment / symbol_name_qualified) follow the SAME chunk_text-gated
-    // CASE pattern as `embedding` (#769). Re-chunk (chunk_text changed) trusts EXCLUDED outright;
-    // pure re-embed (chunk_text unchanged) COALESCEs so a caller that only carries embedding
-    // doesn't clobber metadata to NULL. Without this, every embed --stale pass nuked code-def's
-    // primary index for thousands of chunks at once.
    await sql.unsafe(
      `INSERT INTO content_chunks ${cols} VALUES ${rows.join(', ')}
       ON CONFLICT (page_id, chunk_index) DO UPDATE SET
@@ -2505,14 +2496,14 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
                THEN EXCLUDED.embedded_at
           ELSE content_chunks.embedded_at
         END,
-         language = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.language ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.language, content_chunks.language) END,
-         symbol_name = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.symbol_name ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.symbol_name, content_chunks.symbol_name) END,
-         symbol_type = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.symbol_type ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.symbol_type, content_chunks.symbol_type) END,
-         start_line = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.start_line ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.start_line, content_chunks.start_line) END,
-         end_line = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.end_line ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.end_line, content_chunks.end_line) END,
-         parent_symbol_path = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.parent_symbol_path ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.parent_symbol_path, content_chunks.parent_symbol_path) END,
-         doc_comment = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.doc_comment ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.doc_comment, content_chunks.doc_comment) END,
-         symbol_name_qualified = CASE WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.symbol_name_qualified ELSE COALESCE(EXCLUDED.symbol_name_qualified, content_chunks.symbol_name_qualified) END,
+         language = EXCLUDED.language,
+         symbol_name = EXCLUDED.symbol_name,
+         symbol_type = EXCLUDED.symbol_type,
+         start_line = EXCLUDED.start_line,
+         end_line = EXCLUDED.end_line,
+         parent_symbol_path = EXCLUDED.parent_symbol_path,
+         doc_comment = EXCLUDED.doc_comment,
+         symbol_name_qualified = EXCLUDED.symbol_name_qualified,
         modality = EXCLUDED.modality,
         embedding_image = COALESCE(EXCLUDED.embedding_image, content_chunks.embedding_image)`,
      params as Parameters<typeof sql.unsafe>[1],
@@ -5322,9 +5313,11 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
  async getHealth(): Promise<BrainHealth> {
    const sql = this.sql;
    // Bug 11 doc-drift fix — orphan_pages means "islanded" (no inbound AND
-    // no outbound links). The raw islanded list is filtered through the same
-    // policy as `gbrain orphans` so convention pages do not count against
-    // dashboard health.
+    // no outbound links), aligning both engines with the user-facing
+    // definition. The type comment previously said "no inbound" but the
+    // SQL required both — docs now match code so users can trust the
+    // number. A hub page that links out to many but has no back-references
+    // is working as intended, not an orphan.
    const [h] = await sql`
      WITH entity_pages AS (
        SELECT id, slug FROM pages WHERE type IN ('person', 'company')
@@ -5333,8 +5326,13 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
        (SELECT count(*) FROM pages) as page_count,
        (SELECT count(*) FROM content_chunks WHERE embedded_at IS NOT NULL)::float /
          GREATEST((SELECT count(*) FROM content_chunks), 1)::float as embed_coverage,
-        0 as stale_pages,
-        0 as orphan_pages,
+        (SELECT count(*) FROM pages p
+         WHERE p.updated_at < (SELECT MAX(te.created_at) FROM timeline_entries te WHERE te.page_id = p.id)
+        ) as stale_pages,
+        (SELECT count(*) FROM pages p
+         WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM links l WHERE l.to_page_id = p.id)
+           AND NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM links l WHERE l.from_page_id = p.id)
+        ) as orphan_pages,
        (SELECT count(*) FROM links l
         WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM pages p WHERE p.id = l.to_page_id)
        ) as dead_links,
@@ -5358,18 +5356,9 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
      LIMIT 5
    `;

-    const islandedRows = await sql<{ slug: string }[]>`
-      SELECT p.slug
-      FROM pages p
-      WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM links l WHERE l.to_page_id = p.id)
-        AND NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM links l WHERE l.from_page_id = p.id)
-    `;
-
    const pageCount = Number(h.page_count);
    const embedCoverage = Number(h.embed_coverage);
-    const stalePages = await this.countStalePagesForExtraction({ versionTs: LINK_EXTRACTOR_VERSION_TS });
-    const orphanOverrides = await loadOrphanPolicyOverrides(this);
-    const orphanPages = islandedRows.filter(row => !shouldExcludeFromOrphanReporting(row.slug, orphanOverrides)).length;
+    const orphanPages = Number(h.orphan_pages);
    const deadLinks = Number(h.dead_links);
    const linkCount = Number(h.link_count);
    const pagesWithTimeline = Number(h.pages_with_timeline);
@@ -5397,7 +5386,7 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
    return {
      page_count: pageCount,
      embed_coverage: embedCoverage,
-      stale_pages: stalePages,
+      stale_pages: Number(h.stale_pages),
      orphan_pages: orphanPages,
      missing_embeddings: Number(h.missing_embeddings),
      brain_score: brainScore,
@@ -93,13 +93,7 @@ import { resolveLrSchedule } from './lr-schedule.ts';
 import { preflight, formatPreflightReport } from './preflight.ts';
 import { isRejected, loadRejectedBuffer, makeRejectedEntry, saveRejectedBuffer } from './rejected-buffer.ts';
 import { runReflect, runOneShotRewrite, describeJudges } from './reflect.ts';
-import {
-  acceptCandidate,
-  proposedPath as proposedFilePath,
-  revertAllPending,
-  skillPath,
-  writeProposed,
-} from './version-store.ts';
+import { acceptCandidate, bestPath, revertAllPending, skillPath, writeProposed } from './version-store.ts';
 import { runValidationGate, scoreSkillOnTasks } from './validate-gate.ts';
 import { ROLLOUT_SUCCESS_THRESHOLD } from './types.ts';
 import type { SkillOptOpts, EditOp, RunReceipt, BenchmarkTask } from './types.ts';
@@ -708,9 +702,9 @@ async function runOptimizationLoop(
  // to the catch's assignment values only (it can't prove the async callback ran).
  const finalOutcome = outcome as 'accepted' | 'no_improvement' | 'aborted' | 'errored';
  if (!mutateDecision.mutate && finalOutcome === 'accepted') {
-    // writeProposed() emitted both the best pointer and the stable review
-    // artifact in the accept branch. SKILL.md remains untouched.
-    proposedPath = proposedFilePath(skillsDir, skillName);
+    // best.md was written by writeProposed() in the accept branch (no-mutate
+    // path); it doubles as proposed.md for human review. SKILL.md untouched.
+    proposedPath = bestPath(skillsDir, skillName);
  } else if (mutateDecision.mutate) {
    mutatedSkillFile = finalOutcome === 'accepted';
  }
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@
 *
 *   history.json
 *   best.md
- *   proposed.md
 *   versions/
 *     v0001_e1_s1.md
 *     v0002_e1_s2.md
@@ -53,10 +52,6 @@ export function bestPath(skillsDir: string, skillName: string): string {
  return path.join(skilloptDir(skillsDir, skillName), 'best.md');
 }

-export function proposedPath(skillsDir: string, skillName: string): string {
-  return path.join(skilloptDir(skillsDir, skillName), 'proposed.md');
-}
-
 export function skillPath(skillsDir: string, skillName: string): string {
  return path.join(skillsDir, skillName, 'SKILL.md');
 }
@@ -176,18 +171,17 @@ export function acceptCandidate(input: AcceptInput): AcceptResult {
 }

 /**
- * Write the candidate to both `best.md` and `proposed.md` WITHOUT touching
- * SKILL.md or the history ledger. `best.md` remains the optimizer's current
- * best pointer; `proposed.md` is the stable human-review artifact promised by
- * `--no-mutate`. Returns the proposal path. Each write is atomic (.tmp + rename).
+ * Write the candidate to `best.md` (which doubles as `proposed.md`) WITHOUT
+ * touching SKILL.md or the history ledger. Used by the `--no-mutate` /
+ * bundled-without-allow paths: the optimizer found a better candidate but the
+ * caller opted out of in-place mutation, so we surface it for human review.
+ * Returns the path written. Atomic (.tmp + rename).
 */
 export function writeProposed(skillsDir: string, skillName: string, candidateText: string): string {
-  const best = bestPath(skillsDir, skillName);
-  const proposed = proposedPath(skillsDir, skillName);
-  fs.mkdirSync(path.dirname(best), { recursive: true });
-  atomicWrite(best, candidateText);
-  atomicWrite(proposed, candidateText);
-  return proposed;
+  const p = bestPath(skillsDir, skillName);
+  fs.mkdirSync(path.dirname(p), { recursive: true });
+  atomicWrite(p, candidateText);
+  return p;
 }

 /**
@@ -63,26 +63,25 @@ interface PluginCtx {
  [key: string]: unknown;
 }

-export function register(api: PluginApi) {
-  api.registerContextEngine(ENGINE_ID, (ctx: PluginCtx) => {
-    const hostResolver =
-      typeof ctx.resolveEntities === 'function'
-        ? ctx.resolveEntities
-        : typeof ctx.brainQuery === 'function'
-          ? ctx.brainQuery
-          : undefined;
-    return createGBrainContextEngine({
-      workspaceDir: ctx.workspaceDir,
-      resolveEntities: hostResolver,
-    });
-  });
-}
-
 const entry: PluginEntry = {
  id: 'gbrain-context-engine',
  name: 'GBrain Context Engine',
  description: 'Deterministic temporal/spatial context injection on every turn',
-  register,
+
+  register(api: PluginApi) {
+    api.registerContextEngine(ENGINE_ID, (ctx: PluginCtx) => {
+      const hostResolver =
+        typeof ctx.resolveEntities === 'function'
+          ? ctx.resolveEntities
+          : typeof ctx.brainQuery === 'function'
+            ? ctx.brainQuery
+            : undefined;
+      return createGBrainContextEngine({
+        workspaceDir: ctx.workspaceDir,
+        resolveEntities: hostResolver,
+      });
+    });
+  },
 };

 export default entry;
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@ import {
  __getShrinkStateForTests,
 } from '../../src/core/ai/gateway.ts';
 import { AIConfigError, AITransientError } from '../../src/core/ai/errors.ts';
+import { RECIPES } from '../../src/core/ai/recipes/index.ts';
+import type { Recipe } from '../../src/core/ai/types.ts';

 // The last test in this file leaves the gateway configured with a remote
 // provider + fake key and a REAL embed transport. Without a final reset,
@@ -93,6 +95,14 @@ function configureGoogle(): void {
  });
 }

+function configureDashscope(): void {
+  configureGateway({
+    embedding_model: 'dashscope:text-embedding-v3',
+    embedding_dimensions: 1024,
+    env: { DASHSCOPE_API_KEY: 'sk-fake' },
+  });
+}
+
 // --------- 1. Pure helpers ---------

 describe('splitByTokenBudget (pure helper)', () => {
@@ -149,6 +159,27 @@ describe('splitByTokenBudget (pure helper)', () => {
    expect(splitByTokenBudget(texts, 96_000, 0)).toEqual(splitByTokenBudget(texts, 96_000, 4));
    expect(splitByTokenBudget(texts, 96_000, -1)).toEqual(splitByTokenBudget(texts, 96_000, 4));
  });
+
+  // #1199: count cap for providers that reject batches by input count.
+  test('max_batch_count flushes even when token budget has room', () => {
+    const texts = Array.from({ length: 25 }, (_, i) => `t${i}`);
+    const result = splitByTokenBudget(texts, 1_000_000, 4, 10);
+    expect(result.map(b => b.length)).toEqual([10, 10, 5]);
+    expect(result.flat()).toEqual(texts);
+  });
+
+  test('token budget still governs alongside max_batch_count', () => {
+    const texts = ['a'.repeat(50_000), 'b'.repeat(50_000), 'c'.repeat(50_000)];
+    const result = splitByTokenBudget(texts, 96_000, 1, 10);
+    expect(result).toHaveLength(3);
+  });
+
+  test('undefined / zero / negative max_batch_count is ignored', () => {
+    const texts = Array.from({ length: 25 }, () => 'x');
+    expect(splitByTokenBudget(texts, 1_000_000, 4, undefined)).toHaveLength(1);
+    expect(splitByTokenBudget(texts, 1_000_000, 4, 0)).toHaveLength(1);
+    expect(splitByTokenBudget(texts, 1_000_000, 4, -5)).toHaveLength(1);
+  });
 });

 describe('isTokenLimitError (pure helper)', () => {
@@ -179,6 +210,12 @@ describe('isTokenLimitError (pure helper)', () => {
    expect(isTokenLimitError(new Error('Exceeded 300000 max tokens per request'))).toBe(true);
  });

+  test('matches DashScope batch-count error (#1199)', () => {
+    expect(isTokenLimitError(new Error(
+      'InvalidParameter: batch size is invalid, it should not be larger than 10.',
+    ))).toBe(true);
+  });
+
  test('does not match unrelated errors', () => {
    expect(isTokenLimitError(new Error('Connection refused'))).toBe(false);
    expect(isTokenLimitError(new Error('Invalid API key'))).toBe(false);
@@ -387,26 +424,92 @@ describe('shrink-on-miss adaptive cache', () => {
  });
 });

+// --------- 8. Pre-split count cap through public embed() (#1199 / #970) ---------
+
+describe('embed() pre-split honors max_batch_count', () => {
+  beforeEach(() => resetGateway());
+  afterEach(() => __setEmbedTransportForTests(null));
+
+  test('dashscope never dispatches more than 10 inputs per call (#1199)', async () => {
+    configureDashscope();
+    const stub = mock(async ({ values }: { values: string[] }) => fakeEmbeddings(values, 1024));
+    __setEmbedTransportForTests(stub as any);
+
+    // 25 short texts fit trivially in the 8192-token budget; without the
+    // count cap they'd ship as ONE batch and DashScope would reject it.
+    const texts = Array.from({ length: 25 }, (_, i) => `short-${i}`);
+    const result = await embed(texts);
+
+    expect(result).toHaveLength(25);
+    const callLengths = stub.mock.calls.map(([arg]) => (arg as { values: string[] }).values.length);
+    expect(Math.max(...callLengths)).toBeLessThanOrEqual(10);
+    expect(callLengths.reduce((a, b) => a + b, 0)).toBe(25);
+    // Order preserved across sub-batches.
+    expect((stub.mock.calls[0][0] as { values: string[] }).values[0]).toBe('short-0');
+  });
+
+  test('google pre-splits at 100 inputs per batchEmbedContents call (#970)', async () => {
+    configureGoogle();
+    const stub = mock(async ({ values }: { values: string[] }) => fakeEmbeddings(values, 768));
+    __setEmbedTransportForTests(stub as any);
+
+    const texts = Array.from({ length: 250 }, (_, i) => `g${i}`);
+    const result = await embed(texts);
+
+    expect(result).toHaveLength(250);
+    const callLengths = stub.mock.calls.map(([arg]) => (arg as { values: string[] }).values.length);
+    expect(callLengths).toEqual([100, 100, 50]);
+  });
+});
+
 // --------- 7. Startup warning (D9-B) ---------

 describe('startup warning for recipes missing max_batch_tokens', () => {
  beforeEach(() => resetGateway());

+  // #970 closed google's missing cap, so no registered recipe is capless
+  // anymore. Inject a synthetic capless recipe to keep the warning path
+  // covered for the NEXT recipe that forgets the field.
+  const caplessRecipe: Recipe = {
+    id: 'capless-test',
+    name: 'Capless Test Provider',
+    tier: 'openai-compat',
+    implementation: 'openai-compatible',
+    base_url_default: 'https://example.invalid/v1',
+    auth_env: { required: [] },
+    touchpoints: {
+      embedding: { models: ['capless-embed-1'], default_dims: 768 },
+    },
+  };
+
+  function configureCapless(): void {
+    configureGateway({
+      embedding_model: 'capless-test:capless-embed-1',
+      embedding_dimensions: 768,
+      env: {},
+    });
+  }
+
  test('configured missing-cap recipe warns once; unrelated recipes stay quiet', () => {
    const warnings: string[] = [];
    const original = console.warn;
    console.warn = (msg: string) => warnings.push(String(msg));
+    RECIPES.set(caplessRecipe.id, caplessRecipe);
    try {
      configureOpenAI();
      expect(warnings.length).toBe(0);
+      // #970 regression: google now declares max_batch_tokens → quiet.
      configureGoogle();
+      expect(warnings.length).toBe(0);
+      configureCapless();
      const firstCallCount = warnings.length;
      // Reconfigure: the warning should NOT re-fire for the same recipes
      // within one process (we already told the operator).
-      configureGoogle();
+      configureCapless();
      expect(warnings.length).toBe(firstCallCount);
    } finally {
      console.warn = original;
+      RECIPES.delete(caplessRecipe.id);
    }

    // The warning text should match the documented contract.
@@ -415,11 +518,12 @@ describe('startup warning for recipes missing max_batch_tokens', () => {
    );
    expect(contractMatch.length).toBe(1);

-    // Voyage declares max_batch_tokens → suppressed. OpenAI is the
-    // canonical fast-path recipe → also suppressed by id. Both must be
-    // absent from the warnings.
+    // Voyage + google declare max_batch_tokens → suppressed. OpenAI is the
+    // canonical fast-path recipe → also suppressed by id. All must be
+    // absent from the warnings; only the synthetic capless recipe fires.
    expect(warnings.find(w => w.includes('"voyage"'))).toBeUndefined();
    expect(warnings.find(w => w.includes('"openai"'))).toBeUndefined();
-    expect(warnings.find(w => w.includes('"google"'))).toBeDefined();
+    expect(warnings.find(w => w.includes('"google"'))).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(warnings.find(w => w.includes('"capless-test"'))).toBeDefined();
  });
 });
@@ -52,16 +52,7 @@ describe('v0.32 #779: no_batch_cap suppresses the missing-max_batch_tokens warni
    }
  });

-  test('configureGateway warns for google only when google embedding is configured', () => {
-    warnSpy.mockClear();
-    resetGateway();
-    configureGateway({ env: {} });
-    let messages = warnSpy.mock.calls.map(c => String(c[0] ?? ''));
-    expect(
-      messages.some(m => m.includes('"google"') && m.includes('without max_batch_tokens')),
-      'google should not warn while OpenAI default is configured',
-    ).toBe(false);
-
+  test('configureGateway does NOT warn for google now that it declares batch caps (#970)', () => {
    warnSpy.mockClear();
    resetGateway();
    configureGateway({
@@ -69,11 +60,20 @@ describe('v0.32 #779: no_batch_cap suppresses the missing-max_batch_tokens warni
      embedding_dimensions: 768,
      env: { GOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY: 'fake' },
    });
-    messages = warnSpy.mock.calls.map(c => String(c[0] ?? ''));
+    const messages = warnSpy.mock.calls.map(c => String(c[0] ?? ''));
    expect(
      messages.some(m => m.includes('"google"') && m.includes('without max_batch_tokens')),
-      'google should warn when configured because it has fixed-cap models',
-    ).toBe(true);
+      'google declares max_batch_tokens/max_batch_count since #970 — no warning',
+    ).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  test('google recipe declares its derived batch caps (#970)', () => {
+    const e = getRecipe('google')!.touchpoints.embedding!;
+    // Count cap is the REAL Gemini limit (batchEmbedContents: 100 inputs);
+    // the token budget is derived (100 × 2048 per-input tokens), NOT the
+    // 2048 per-input limit — copying that verbatim would over-split 50×.
+    expect(e.max_batch_count).toBe(100);
+    expect(e.max_batch_tokens).toBe(204_800);
  });

  test('every recipe with empty models[] declares user_provided_models OR has openai-fast-path', () => {
@@ -55,6 +55,11 @@ describe('recipe: dashscope', () => {
    expect(r.touchpoints.embedding!.chars_per_token).toBeGreaterThan(0);
  });

+  test('declares max_batch_count: 10 — DashScope rejects larger batches (#1199)', () => {
+    const r = getRecipe('dashscope')!;
+    expect(r.touchpoints.embedding!.max_batch_count).toBe(10);
+  });
+
  test('dimsProviderOptions threads dimensions for text-embedding-v3 (Matryoshka)', async () => {
    // Codex finding #1: DashScope text-embedding-v3 is Matryoshka 64-1024.
    // Without `dimensions` on the wire, user-selected non-default dims are
@@ -1,67 +0,0 @@
-// #1474: the v0.41.1 wave shipped bench-publish.ts + docs/eval-bench.md
-// advertising `gbrain bench publish`, but the cli.ts dispatcher case was never
-// added — the documented command hit 'Unknown command'. These tests spawn the
-// real CLI (no DB needed; bench publish is pure file I/O) and fail on any
-// regression of the dispatcher wiring.
-import { describe, expect, test } from 'bun:test';
-import { mkdtempSync, writeFileSync, existsSync, rmSync } from 'node:fs';
-import { tmpdir } from 'node:os';
-import { join } from 'node:path';
-import { spawnSync } from 'node:child_process';
-
-function runCli(args: string[]): { stdout: string; stderr: string; code: number } {
-  const result = spawnSync(process.execPath, ['run', 'src/cli.ts', 'bench', ...args], {
-    encoding: 'utf8',
-    cwd: process.cwd(),
-    env: { ...process.env },
-  });
-  return { stdout: result.stdout ?? '', stderr: result.stderr ?? '', code: result.status ?? -1 };
-}
-
-describe('gbrain bench dispatcher (#1474)', () => {
-  test('bench --help reaches bench-publish help without a DB (was: Unknown command)', () => {
-    const { stdout, stderr, code } = runCli(['--help']);
-    expect(stderr).not.toContain('Unknown command');
-    expect(code).toBe(0);
-    expect(stdout).toContain('gbrain bench publish');
-    expect(stdout).toContain('--from');
-  });
-
-  test('unknown bench subcommand exits 2 with usage', () => {
-    const { stderr, code } = runCli(['bogus']);
-    expect(code).toBe(2);
-    expect(stderr).toContain('Unknown bench subcommand');
-    expect(stderr).toContain('bench publish');
-  });
-
-  test('bench publish roundtrip: captured NDJSON in, baseline file out', () => {
-    const tmp = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'bench-cli-'));
-    try {
-      const row = {
-        tool_name: 'query',
-        query: 'hello world',
-        retrieved_slugs: ['slug-a'],
-        retrieved_chunk_ids: [1],
-        source_ids: ['default'],
-        expand_enabled: false,
-        detail: 'medium',
-        detail_resolved: 'medium',
-        vector_enabled: true,
-        expansion_applied: false,
-        latency_ms: 100,
-        remote: false,
-        job_id: null,
-        subagent_id: null,
-      };
-      const from = join(tmp, 'captured.ndjson');
-      const to = join(tmp, 'personal.baseline.ndjson');
-      writeFileSync(from, `${JSON.stringify(row)}\n`);
-      const { code, stderr } = runCli(['publish', '--from', from, '--to', to]);
-      expect(stderr).not.toContain('Unknown command');
-      expect(code).toBe(0);
-      expect(existsSync(to)).toBe(true);
-    } finally {
-      rmSync(tmp, { recursive: true, force: true });
-    }
-  });
-});
@@ -172,59 +172,6 @@ describe('issue #972 — DB-source (gbrain extract links --source db)', () => {
    expect(strk!.link_type).toBe('wikilink_basename');
  });

-  test('flag ON → path-qualified wikilink outside DIR_PATTERN resolves via DB path', async () => {
-    // `[[notes/struktura]]` — `notes` is not in DIR_PATTERN, so the ref
-    // reaches the generic pass with its dirname intact. Regression: the DB
-    // path queried the basename index with the raw literal (which is keyed
-    // by final segments only), so path-qualified wikilinks outside
-    // DIR_PATTERN silently produced zero edges while the FS path resolved
-    // the identical content.
-    await engine.putPage('notes/struktura', {
-      type: 'concept' as any, title: 'Struktura Notes',
-      compiled_truth: '', timeline: '',
-    });
-    await engine.putPage('concepts/knowledge-graph', {
-      type: 'concept', title: 'Knowledge Graph',
-      compiled_truth: 'Background in [[notes/struktura]].', timeline: '',
-    });
-    await engine.setConfig('link_resolution.global_basename', 'true');
-
-    await runExtract(engine, ['links', '--source', 'db']);
-
-    const outLinks = await engine.getLinks('concepts/knowledge-graph');
-    const strk = outLinks.find(l => l.to_slug === 'notes/struktura');
-    expect(strk).toBeDefined();
-    expect(strk!.link_type).toBe('wikilink_basename');
-    expect(strk!.link_source).toBe('wikilink-resolved');
-  });
-
-  test('path-qualified wikilink never attaches to a basename-only sibling', async () => {
-    // Both notes/struktura and wiki/struktura exist. The author wrote
-    // `[[notes/struktura]]` — the written path must exclude wiki/struktura
-    // (a bare `[[struktura]]` would legitimately match both).
-    await engine.putPage('notes/struktura', {
-      type: 'concept' as any, title: 'Struktura Notes',
-      compiled_truth: '', timeline: '',
-    });
-    await engine.putPage('wiki/struktura', {
-      type: 'concept' as any, title: 'Struktura Wiki',
-      compiled_truth: '', timeline: '',
-    });
-    await engine.putPage('concepts/x', {
-      type: 'concept', title: 'X',
-      compiled_truth: 'See [[notes/struktura]].', timeline: '',
-    });
-    await engine.setConfig('link_resolution.global_basename', 'true');
-
-    await runExtract(engine, ['links', '--source', 'db']);
-
-    const outLinks = await engine.getLinks('concepts/x');
-    const basenameLinks = outLinks
-      .filter(l => l.link_type === 'wikilink_basename')
-      .map(l => l.to_slug);
-    expect(basenameLinks).toEqual(['notes/struktura']);
-  });
-
  test('flag OFF → no basename edges via DB path (back-compat)', async () => {
    await engine.putPage('projects/struktura', {
      type: 'project', title: 'Struktura',
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ import { runSkillOpt } from '../../src/core/skillopt/orchestrator.ts';
 import {
  bestPath,
  loadHistory,
-  proposedPath,
  skillPath,
 } from '../../src/core/skillopt/version-store.ts';
 import { loadRejectedBuffer } from '../../src/core/skillopt/rejected-buffer.ts';
@@ -742,7 +741,7 @@ describe('skillopt T3 — F11 held-out gate, ablation opts, no-DB-pollution', ()
    } finally { fixture.cleanup(); }
  });

-  test('--no-mutate writes proposed.md and best.md, leaves SKILL.md untouched', async () => {
+  test('--no-mutate writes proposed.md (best.md), leaves SKILL.md untouched', async () => {
    const fixture = setupFixture(SKILL_PEOPLE_ONLY, CITATIONS_BENCHMARK);
    try {
      installStub({
@@ -754,9 +753,10 @@ describe('skillopt T3 — F11 held-out gate, ablation opts, no-DB-pollution', ()
          const result = await runOnce(fixture, { noMutate: true });
          expect(result.outcome).toBe('accepted');
          expect(result.mutatedSkillFile).toBe(false);
-          expect(result.proposedPath).toBe(proposedPath(fixture.skillsDir, SKILL));
+          expect(result.proposedPath).toBeDefined();
+          // proposed.md (best.md) exists and carries the improvement.
+          expect(fs.existsSync(result.proposedPath!)).toBe(true);
          expect(fs.readFileSync(result.proposedPath!, 'utf8')).toContain('## Citations');
-          expect(fs.readFileSync(bestPath(fixture.skillsDir, SKILL), 'utf8')).toContain('## Citations');
          // SKILL.md on disk is UNCHANGED (still People-only).
          const skill = fs.readFileSync(skillPath(fixture.skillsDir, SKILL), 'utf8');
          expect(skill).not.toContain('## Citations');
@@ -0,0 +1,161 @@
+/**
+ * #1818: embedBatch dispatches its 100-input sub-batches through a bounded
+ * worker pool (the embed-stale.ts concurrency pattern) instead of a serial
+ * `for` loop. This file pins:
+ *
+ *   - output order matches input order regardless of completion order
+ *     (index-addressed results)
+ *   - parallelism actually happens (max in-flight > 1) and stays bounded
+ *     (max in-flight <= configured concurrency)
+ *   - concurrency: 1 restores the serial pre-#1818 dispatch
+ *   - GBRAIN_EMBED_BATCH_CONCURRENCY env is honored when the option is unset
+ *   - onBatchComplete reports a monotonic completed count ending at total
+ *
+ * Transport is stubbed via the gateway's __setEmbedTransportForTests seam
+ * (same pattern as test/ai/adaptive-embed-batch.test.ts). OpenAI recipe =
+ * fast path (no pre-split), so each embedBatch sub-batch is exactly one
+ * transport call.
+ */
+
+import { afterAll, afterEach, beforeEach, describe, expect, test } from 'bun:test';
+import {
+  configureGateway,
+  resetGateway,
+  __setEmbedTransportForTests,
+} from '../src/core/ai/gateway.ts';
+import { embedBatch } from '../src/core/embedding.ts';
+import { withEnv } from './helpers/with-env.ts';
+
+const DIMS = 1536;
+
+function configureOpenAI(): void {
+  configureGateway({
+    embedding_model: 'openai:text-embedding-3-large',
+    embedding_dimensions: DIMS,
+    env: { OPENAI_API_KEY: 'sk-fake' },
+  });
+}
+
+/**
+ * Install a transport whose returned embedding encodes the GLOBAL input
+ * index in dim 0 (texts are `t<N>`), so order can be asserted end-to-end.
+ * Tracks the max number of concurrently in-flight transport calls.
+ */
+function installTrackingTransport(delayMs = 5): { maxInFlight: () => number } {
+  let inFlight = 0;
+  let maxInFlight = 0;
+  __setEmbedTransportForTests((async ({ values }: { values: string[] }) => {
+    inFlight++;
+    maxInFlight = Math.max(maxInFlight, inFlight);
+    await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, delayMs));
+    inFlight--;
+    return {
+      embeddings: values.map(v => {
+        const idx = Number(v.slice(1));
+        return Array.from({ length: DIMS }, (_, j) => (j === 0 ? idx : 0.1));
+      }),
+    };
+  }) as any);
+  return { maxInFlight: () => maxInFlight };
+}
+
+const texts = Array.from({ length: 250 }, (_, i) => `t${i}`);
+
+afterAll(() => resetGateway());
+
+describe('embedBatch bounded parallelism (#1818)', () => {
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    resetGateway();
+    configureOpenAI();
+  });
+  afterEach(() => {
+    __setEmbedTransportForTests(null);
+  });
+
+  test('default pool dispatches sub-batches in parallel, order preserved', async () => {
+    const tracker = installTrackingTransport();
+    const result = await embedBatch(texts, { onBatchComplete: () => {} });
+    expect(result).toHaveLength(250);
+    for (let i = 0; i < 250; i++) {
+      expect(result[i][0]).toBe(i);
+    }
+    // 250 texts → 3 sub-batches; default concurrency 4 → all 3 in flight.
+    expect(tracker.maxInFlight()).toBeGreaterThan(1);
+    expect(tracker.maxInFlight()).toBeLessThanOrEqual(4);
+  });
+
+  test('concurrency: 1 keeps the serial dispatch', async () => {
+    const tracker = installTrackingTransport();
+    const result = await embedBatch(texts, { concurrency: 1, onBatchComplete: () => {} });
+    expect(result).toHaveLength(250);
+    expect(tracker.maxInFlight()).toBe(1);
+  });
+
+  test('GBRAIN_EMBED_BATCH_CONCURRENCY env bounds the pool when option unset', async () => {
+    const tracker = installTrackingTransport();
+    await withEnv({ GBRAIN_EMBED_BATCH_CONCURRENCY: '2' }, async () => {
+      await embedBatch(texts, { onBatchComplete: () => {} });
+    });
+    expect(tracker.maxInFlight()).toBeGreaterThan(1);
+    expect(tracker.maxInFlight()).toBeLessThanOrEqual(2);
+  });
+
+  test('onBatchComplete reports a monotonic count ending at total', async () => {
+    installTrackingTransport();
+    const seen: number[] = [];
+    await embedBatch(texts, {
+      onBatchComplete: (done, total) => {
+        expect(total).toBe(250);
+        seen.push(done);
+      },
+    });
+    expect(seen).toHaveLength(3); // 100 + 100 + 50 sub-batches
+    for (let i = 1; i < seen.length; i++) {
+      expect(seen[i]).toBeGreaterThan(seen[i - 1]);
+    }
+    expect(seen[seen.length - 1]).toBe(250);
+  });
+
+  test('a failing sub-batch rejects the whole call', async () => {
+    let call = 0;
+    __setEmbedTransportForTests((async ({ values }: { values: string[] }) => {
+      call++;
+      if (call === 2) throw new Error('boom');
+      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 2));
+      return { embeddings: values.map(() => Array.from({ length: DIMS }, () => 0.1)) };
+    }) as any);
+    await expect(embedBatch(texts, { onBatchComplete: () => {} })).rejects.toThrow();
+  });
+
+  test('after a failure, surviving workers stop dispatching new slices', async () => {
+    // 1000 texts → 10 slices, concurrency 2. First call fails immediately;
+    // without the `failed` flag the second worker would keep draining all
+    // 10 slices in the background AFTER embedBatch already rejected —
+    // burning provider spend and firing onBatchComplete post-rejection.
+    let calls = 0;
+    const completions: number[] = [];
+    __setEmbedTransportForTests((async ({ values }: { values: string[] }) => {
+      calls++;
+      if (calls === 1) throw new Error('boom');
+      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 5));
+      return { embeddings: values.map(() => Array.from({ length: DIMS }, () => 0.1)) };
+    }) as any);
+    const many = Array.from({ length: 1000 }, (_, i) => `t${i}`);
+    await expect(
+      embedBatch(many, { concurrency: 2, onBatchComplete: d => completions.push(d) }),
+    ).rejects.toThrow('boom');
+    const callsAtRejection = calls;
+    await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 50)); // would-be background drain window
+    expect(calls).toBe(callsAtRejection); // no new dispatch after rejection
+    expect(calls).toBeLessThanOrEqual(2); // only the in-flight sibling ran
+    expect(completions).toHaveLength(0); // no progress reported after failure
+  });
+
+  test('single small batch without callback stays on the one-call fast path', async () => {
+    const tracker = installTrackingTransport(1);
+    const result = await embedBatch(['t0', 't1', 't2']);
+    expect(result).toHaveLength(3);
+    expect(result[1][0]).toBe(1);
+    expect(tracker.maxInFlight()).toBe(1);
+  });
+});
@@ -803,107 +803,3 @@ describe('embedAllStale --source threading (D7)', () => {
    expect((firstCallOpts as { sourceId?: string }).sourceId).toBe('media-corpus');
  });
 });
-
-// ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-// Code metadata preservation across re-embed (regression for #769)
-// ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-//
-// gbrain v0.30.1 and earlier silently clobbered code-chunk metadata
-// (language, symbol_name, symbol_type, start_line, end_line,
-// parent_symbol_path, doc_comment, symbol_name_qualified) on every
-// re-embed pass. The chunker populated those columns at import time,
-// but embed.ts loaded chunks via getChunks then mapped them to a
-// stripped ChunkInput carrying only 5 fields. upsertChunks then
-// OVERWROTE (not COALESCEd) the metadata columns from EXCLUDED, so
-// re-embed wiped them to NULL. End result on a real brain: 4875 code
-// pages, 47866 chunks, all with NULL language/symbol_name/symbol_type;
-// code-def returned 0 hits across every indexed repo.
-//
-// All three runEmbed paths (--stale autopilot, --all, --slugs) must
-// thread metadata through the re-upsert. Tests below assert that the
-// engine.upsertChunks call carries the same metadata it loaded.
-
-describe('runEmbed preserves code-chunk metadata across re-embed (regression for #769)', () => {
-  const fullCodeChunk = {
-    chunk_index: 0,
-    chunk_text: '[Java] foo/Bar.java:10-20 method baz',
-    chunk_source: 'compiled_truth' as const,
-    embedded_at: null,
-    token_count: 12,
-    language: 'java',
-    symbol_name: 'baz',
-    symbol_type: 'function',
-    start_line: 10,
-    end_line: 20,
-    parent_symbol_path: ['Bar'],
-    doc_comment: 'does the thing',
-    symbol_name_qualified: 'Bar.baz',
-  };
-
-  function metadataOf(chunk: any) {
-    return {
-      language: chunk.language,
-      symbol_name: chunk.symbol_name,
-      symbol_type: chunk.symbol_type,
-      start_line: chunk.start_line,
-      end_line: chunk.end_line,
-      parent_symbol_path: chunk.parent_symbol_path,
-      doc_comment: chunk.doc_comment,
-      symbol_name_qualified: chunk.symbol_name_qualified,
-    };
-  }
-
-  test('--stale (autopilot path) carries code metadata into upsertChunks', async () => {
-    const stale = [{
-      slug: 'code-page',
-      chunk_index: 0,
-      chunk_text: fullCodeChunk.chunk_text,
-      chunk_source: 'compiled_truth',
-      model: null,
-      token_count: 12,
-    }];
-    let upsertChunkArgs: any[] | null = null;
-    const engine = mockEngine({
-      countStaleChunks: async () => 1,
-      listStaleChunks: async () => stale,
-      getChunks: async () => [fullCodeChunk],
-      upsertChunks: async (_slug: string, chunks: any[]) => { upsertChunkArgs = chunks; },
-    });
-
-    await runEmbed(engine, ['--stale']);
-
-    expect(upsertChunkArgs).not.toBeNull();
-    expect(upsertChunkArgs!).toHaveLength(1);
-    expect(metadataOf(upsertChunkArgs![0])).toEqual(metadataOf(fullCodeChunk));
-  });
-
-  test('--all (full re-embed) carries code metadata into upsertChunks', async () => {
-    let upsertChunkArgs: any[] | null = null;
-    const engine = mockEngine({
-      listPages: async () => [{ slug: 'code-page' }],
-      getChunks: async () => [fullCodeChunk],
-      upsertChunks: async (_slug: string, chunks: any[]) => { upsertChunkArgs = chunks; },
-    });
-
-    await runEmbed(engine, ['--all']);
-
-    expect(upsertChunkArgs).not.toBeNull();
-    expect(upsertChunkArgs!).toHaveLength(1);
-    expect(metadataOf(upsertChunkArgs![0])).toEqual(metadataOf(fullCodeChunk));
-  });
-
-  test('--slugs (per-page embed) carries code metadata into upsertChunks', async () => {
-    let upsertChunkArgs: any[] | null = null;
-    const engine = mockEngine({
-      getPage: async () => ({ slug: 'code-page', compiled_truth: 'x', timeline: '' }),
-      getChunks: async () => [fullCodeChunk],
-      upsertChunks: async (_slug: string, chunks: any[]) => { upsertChunkArgs = chunks; },
-    });
-
-    await runEmbed(engine, ['--slugs', 'code-page']);
-
-    expect(upsertChunkArgs).not.toBeNull();
-    expect(upsertChunkArgs!).toHaveLength(1);
-    expect(metadataOf(upsertChunkArgs![0])).toEqual(metadataOf(fullCodeChunk));
-  });
-});
@@ -309,62 +309,3 @@ describe('isEvalCaptureEnabled / isEvalScrubEnabled (CONTRIBUTOR_MODE-gated)', (
    } finally { restore(); }
  });
 });
-
-describe('DB-plane stash (#1475): GBRAIN_EVAL_CAPTURE / GBRAIN_EVAL_SCRUB_PII', () => {
-  // connectEngine stamps `gbrain config set eval.capture` (DB plane) onto
-  // these env vars because ctx.config is the sync file-plane load. Without
-  // the stash check the DB value was written and never read.
-  const origCapture = process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_CAPTURE;
-  const origScrub = process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_SCRUB_PII;
-  const origMode = process.env.GBRAIN_CONTRIBUTOR_MODE;
-  const restore = () => {
-    if (origCapture === undefined) delete process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_CAPTURE;
-    else process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_CAPTURE = origCapture;
-    if (origScrub === undefined) delete process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_SCRUB_PII;
-    else process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_SCRUB_PII = origScrub;
-    if (origMode === undefined) delete process.env.GBRAIN_CONTRIBUTOR_MODE;
-    else process.env.GBRAIN_CONTRIBUTOR_MODE = origMode;
-  };
-
-  test('stash=true turns capture on when file plane is silent (the #1475 repro)', () => {
-    delete process.env.GBRAIN_CONTRIBUTOR_MODE;
-    process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_CAPTURE = 'true';
-    try {
-      expect(isEvalCaptureEnabled(null)).toBe(true);
-      // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any
-      const noEval: any = { engine: 'pglite' };
-      expect(isEvalCaptureEnabled(noEval)).toBe(true);
-    } finally { restore(); }
-  });
-
-  test('stash=false wins over CONTRIBUTOR_MODE=1 (explicit per-key beats broad flag)', () => {
-    process.env.GBRAIN_CONTRIBUTOR_MODE = '1';
-    process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_CAPTURE = 'false';
-    try {
-      expect(isEvalCaptureEnabled(null)).toBe(false);
-    } finally { restore(); }
-  });
-
-  test('file-plane explicit value still wins over the stash', () => {
-    process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_CAPTURE = 'true';
-    try {
-      // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any
-      const disabled: any = { engine: 'pglite', eval: { capture: false } };
-      expect(isEvalCaptureEnabled(disabled)).toBe(false);
-    } finally { restore(); }
-  });
-
-  test('scrub stash: false disables, file plane wins, default stays true', () => {
-    process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_SCRUB_PII = 'false';
-    try {
-      expect(isEvalScrubEnabled(null)).toBe(false);
-      // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any
-      const fileWins: any = { engine: 'pglite', eval: { scrub_pii: true } };
-      expect(isEvalScrubEnabled(fileWins)).toBe(true);
-    } finally { restore(); }
-    delete process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_SCRUB_PII;
-    try {
-      expect(isEvalScrubEnabled(null)).toBe(true);
-    } finally { restore(); }
-  });
-});
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 * overwrites this preload.
 */
 import { configureGateway, getEmbeddingDimensions } from '../../src/core/ai/gateway.ts';
-import { beforeEach } from 'bun:test';
+import { afterEach, beforeEach } from 'bun:test';

 const LEGACY_CONFIG = {
  embedding_model: 'openai:text-embedding-3-large',
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ applyLegacy();
 //   2. file-local beforeAll → may overwrite to ZE/1280
 // Since beforeAll runs once per file BEFORE the first beforeEach,
 // file-local beforeAll wins for that file's tests. ✓
-beforeEach(() => {
+function applyLegacyIfEmpty() {
  try {
    // Only re-apply if the gateway was reset (or never configured).
    // Tests that explicitly configured a different model in their
@@ -62,4 +62,28 @@ beforeEach(() => {
  } catch {
    applyLegacy();
  }
-});
+}
+
+beforeEach(applyLegacyIfEmpty);
+
+// PR #3130 shard-order fix: beforeEach alone leaves ONE window open — a file
+// whose LAST afterEach calls resetGateway() poisons the NEXT file's
+// beforeAll, which runs BEFORE any beforeEach fires. A beforeAll there that
+// does engine.initSchema() then sizes the embedding column from the gateway
+// DEFAULTS (zembed-1/1280d) instead of the pinned legacy 1536, and every
+// 1536-d Float32Array fixture in that file dies with
+// "expected 1280 dimensions, not 1536". Which file pair collides is a
+// function of shard composition, so adding/removing ANY test file can
+// surface it (that is exactly how it bit shard 9).
+//
+// Preload hooks are registered before any file-local hooks, and bun runs
+// after-hooks inside-out (file-local afterEach first, then this one), so
+// this repairs the empty slot immediately after the poisoning reset —
+// before the next file's beforeAll can observe it.
+//
+// Known remaining window: a file whose afterAll() resets the gateway (no
+// hook runs between its afterAll and the next file's beforeAll). Files
+// that reset in afterAll and can precede a schema-creating file should
+// re-apply their own config, or the victim file should configureGateway()
+// explicitly in its beforeAll.
+afterEach(applyLegacyIfEmpty);
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+/**
+ * #1207: `gbrain import` without `--workers` used to hardcode workerCount=1,
+ * so a large Postgres import paid one serial embedding round-trip per file.
+ * runImport now routes the default through the shared autoConcurrency policy
+ * (PGLite → 1, >100 files on Postgres → DEFAULT_PARALLEL_WORKERS), while an
+ * explicit `--workers N` still wins.
+ *
+ * The engine here is a minimal postgres-kind stub with no database_url in
+ * config — runImport's parallel branch then falls back to serial processing
+ * (its PR #490 guard) but the WORKER-COUNT DECISION (the thing #1207 fixes)
+ * is still observable via the "Using N parallel workers" log line. Per-file
+ * imports fail against the stub engine and are swallowed by runImport's
+ * per-file catch; that's fine — this test pins the policy, not the import.
+ */
+
+import { afterEach, beforeEach, describe, expect, test } from 'bun:test';
+import { mkdtempSync, writeFileSync, mkdirSync, rmSync, realpathSync } from 'fs';
+import { tmpdir } from 'os';
+import { join } from 'path';
+import { withEnv } from './helpers/with-env.ts';
+import { runImport } from '../src/commands/import.ts';
+
+const fakePostgresEngine = {
+  kind: 'postgres',
+  executeRaw: async () => [],
+  logIngest: async () => {},
+  setConfig: async () => {},
+  getConfig: async () => null,
+} as any;
+
+let workspace: string;
+let brainDir: string;
+let logs: string[];
+const realLog = console.log;
+
+beforeEach(() => {
+  workspace = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'gbrain-import-workers-home-'));
+  mkdirSync(join(workspace, '.gbrain'), { recursive: true });
+  brainDir = realpathSync(mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'gbrain-import-workers-brain-')));
+  // 101 files: one past AUTO_CONCURRENCY_FILE_THRESHOLD (100).
+  for (let i = 0; i < 101; i++) {
+    writeFileSync(join(brainDir, `page-${i}.md`), `# Page ${i}\n\nbody ${i}\n`);
+  }
+  logs = [];
+  console.log = (msg?: unknown) => logs.push(String(msg));
+});
+
+afterEach(() => {
+  console.log = realLog;
+  rmSync(workspace, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  rmSync(brainDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+});
+
+describe('import default worker count (#1207)', () => {
+  test('no --workers flag → autoConcurrency picks 4 for >100 files on Postgres', async () => {
+    await withEnv({ GBRAIN_HOME: join(workspace, '.gbrain'), GBRAIN_SOURCE: undefined }, async () => {
+      await runImport(fakePostgresEngine, [brainDir, '--no-embed'], { sourceId: 'default' });
+    });
+    expect(logs.some(l => l.includes('Using 4 parallel workers'))).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  test('explicit --workers 2 still wins over the auto policy', async () => {
+    await withEnv({ GBRAIN_HOME: join(workspace, '.gbrain'), GBRAIN_SOURCE: undefined }, async () => {
+      await runImport(fakePostgresEngine, [brainDir, '--no-embed', '--workers', '2'], { sourceId: 'default' });
+    });
+    expect(logs.some(l => l.includes('Using 2 parallel workers'))).toBe(true);
+    expect(logs.some(l => l.includes('Using 4 parallel workers'))).toBe(false);
+  });
+});
@@ -403,77 +403,6 @@ describe('extractPageLinks', () => {
    expect(candidates).toEqual([]);
  });

-  test('path-qualified wikilink outside DIR_PATTERN queries by final segment', async () => {
-    // `[[notes/struktura]]` (dir not in DIR_PATTERN) falls to the generic
-    // pass. The resolver's basename index is keyed by final path segments,
-    // so the lookup must strip the dirname — mirroring the FS path
-    // (resolveSlugAll). Regression: the raw literal was passed through,
-    // which never matched, so these links silently dropped.
-    const seen: string[] = [];
-    const resolver: SlugResolver = {
-      resolve: async () => null,
-      resolveBasenameMatches: async (name) => {
-        seen.push(name);
-        return name === 'struktura' ? ['notes/struktura'] : [];
-      },
-    };
-    const { candidates } = await extractPageLinks(
-      'concepts/x', 'See [[notes/struktura]].',
-      {}, 'concept', resolver, { globalBasename: true },
-    );
-    expect(seen).toContain('struktura');
-    expect(seen).not.toContain('notes/struktura');
-    expect(candidates.map(c => c.targetSlug)).toEqual(['notes/struktura']);
-    expect(candidates[0].linkType).toBe('wikilink_basename');
-    expect(candidates[0].linkSource).toBe('wikilink-resolved');
-  });
-
-  test('path-qualified wikilink keeps only matches ending with the written path', async () => {
-    // The written path disambiguates: `[[notes/struktura]]` must never
-    // attach to `wiki/struktura` even though both share the basename.
-    const resolver: SlugResolver = {
-      resolve: async () => null,
-      resolveBasenameMatches: async (name) =>
-        name === 'struktura' ? ['notes/struktura', 'wiki/struktura'] : [],
-    };
-    const { candidates } = await extractPageLinks(
-      'concepts/x', 'See [[notes/struktura]].',
-      {}, 'concept', resolver, { globalBasename: true },
-    );
-    expect(candidates.map(c => c.targetSlug)).toEqual(['notes/struktura']);
-  });
-
-  test('path-qualified wikilink matches a deeper real slug by path suffix', async () => {
-    // The page lives at vault/notes/struktura; the author wrote the shorter
-    // tail `[[notes/struktura]]`. Suffix matching connects them, while the
-    // basename-only sibling `wiki/struktura` stays excluded.
-    const resolver: SlugResolver = {
-      resolve: async () => null,
-      resolveBasenameMatches: async (name) =>
-        name === 'struktura' ? ['vault/notes/struktura', 'wiki/struktura'] : [],
-    };
-    const { candidates } = await extractPageLinks(
-      'concepts/x', 'See [[notes/struktura]].',
-      {}, 'concept', resolver, { globalBasename: true },
-    );
-    expect(candidates.map(c => c.targetSlug)).toEqual(['vault/notes/struktura']);
-  });
-
-  test('path-qualified self-link is dropped like the bare form', async () => {
-    // `[[notes/struktura]]` written on notes/struktura itself must not
-    // produce a self-loop (same guard as the bare `[[own-tail]]` case).
-    const resolver: SlugResolver = {
-      resolve: async () => null,
-      resolveBasenameMatches: async (name) =>
-        name === 'struktura' ? ['notes/struktura'] : [],
-    };
-    const { candidates } = await extractPageLinks(
-      'notes/struktura', 'See [[notes/struktura]].',
-      {}, 'concept', resolver, { globalBasename: true },
-    );
-    expect(candidates).toEqual([]);
-  });
-
  test('bare wikilink resolution does not interfere with DIR_PATTERN wikilinks', async () => {
    // 2b refs (people/alice) take the verb-inferred type;
    // 2c refs (struktura) take wikilink_basename. Same call.
@@ -302,29 +302,4 @@ describe('loadConfigWithEngine (Phase 4 / F3)', () => {
      expect(merged?.engine).toBe('pglite');
    });
  });
-
-  describe('eval.* DB-plane merge (#1475)', () => {
-    test('gbrain config set eval.capture true reaches the merged config', async () => {
-      // The #1475 repro: DB plane has eval.capture=true, file plane silent.
-      // Pre-fix the merge skipped eval.* entirely and capture never fired.
-      const base: GBrainConfig = { engine: 'pglite' };
-      const engine = makeEngine({ 'eval.capture': 'true', 'eval.scrub_pii': 'false' });
-      const merged = await loadConfigWithEngine(engine, base);
-      expect(merged?.eval?.capture).toBe(true);
-      expect(merged?.eval?.scrub_pii).toBe(false);
-    });
-
-    test('file plane wins per key; DB fills only the gaps', async () => {
-      const base: GBrainConfig = { engine: 'pglite', eval: { capture: false } };
-      const engine = makeEngine({ 'eval.capture': 'true', 'eval.scrub_pii': 'false' });
-      const merged = await loadConfigWithEngine(engine, base);
-      expect(merged?.eval?.capture).toBe(false); // file wins
-      expect(merged?.eval?.scrub_pii).toBe(false); // DB fills the gap
-    });
-
-    test('no eval keys anywhere leaves cfg.eval undefined', async () => {
-      const merged = await loadConfigWithEngine(makeEngine({}), { engine: 'pglite' });
-      expect(merged?.eval).toBeUndefined();
-    });
-  });
 });
@@ -1,62 +0,0 @@
-import { describe, expect, test } from 'bun:test';
-import {
-  extractCycleFreshnessSourceIds,
-  parseMaintainArgs,
-} from '../src/commands/maintain.ts';
-import type { Check } from '../src/commands/doctor.ts';
-
-describe('maintain args', () => {
-  test('defaults to dry-run unless --safe is explicit', () => {
-    expect(parseMaintainArgs([])).toMatchObject({
-      safe: false,
-      dryRun: true,
-      json: false,
-    });
-  });
-
-  test('--safe enables mutating safe mode', () => {
-    expect(parseMaintainArgs(['--safe', '--json'])).toMatchObject({
-      safe: true,
-      dryRun: false,
-      json: true,
-    });
-  });
-
-  test('--dry-run wins over --safe', () => {
-    expect(parseMaintainArgs(['--safe', '--dry-run'])).toMatchObject({
-      safe: true,
-      dryRun: true,
-    });
-  });
-});
-
-describe('cycle freshness source extraction', () => {
-  test('extracts stale source ids from doctor messages', () => {
-    const checks: Check[] = [
-      {
-        name: 'cycle_freshness',
-        status: 'fail',
-        message: "Source 'brain-sync-remote-teffur' last cycled 40h ago. Run `gbrain dream --source <id>`.",
-      },
-      {
-        name: 'cycle_freshness',
-        status: 'fail',
-        message: "Source 'wiki' last cycled 25h ago. Source 'wiki' last cycled 25h ago.",
-      },
-    ];
-
-    expect(extractCycleFreshnessSourceIds(checks)).toEqual([
-      'brain-sync-remote-teffur',
-      'wiki',
-    ]);
-  });
-
-  test('ignores ok and unrelated checks', () => {
-    const checks: Check[] = [
-      { name: 'cycle_freshness', status: 'ok', message: "Source 'fresh' last cycled recently." },
-      { name: 'frontmatter_integrity', status: 'warn', message: "Source 'wiki' has frontmatter issues." },
-    ];
-
-    expect(extractCycleFreshnessSourceIds(checks)).toEqual([]);
-  });
-});
@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
-import { describe, expect, it } from 'bun:test';
-import { readFileSync } from 'fs';
-import { join } from 'path';
-
-describe('root OpenClaw plugin manifest', () => {
-  it('declares the id required by OpenClaw plugin installs', () => {
-    const manifest = JSON.parse(readFileSync(join(import.meta.dir, '..', 'openclaw.plugin.json'), 'utf8'));
-    const entrySource = readFileSync(join(import.meta.dir, '..', 'src', 'openclaw-context-engine.ts'), 'utf8');
-    const entryId = entrySource.match(/id:\s*'([^']+)'/)?.[1];
-
-    expect(manifest.id).toBe(entryId);
-    expect(manifest.configSchema).toBeDefined();
-    expect(typeof manifest.configSchema).toBe('object');
-    expect(manifest.contracts?.contextEngines).toContain('gbrain-context');
-    expect(entrySource).toContain('export function register');
-  });
-});
@@ -186,67 +186,11 @@ describe('shouldExclude — orphan filter regression (preserve curation)', () =>
    expect(shouldExclude('entities/anonymous')).toBe(true);
    expect(shouldExclude('atoms/fact-123')).toBe(true);
    expect(shouldExclude('skills/gbrain-operations')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('dreaming/light/2026-07-20')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('daily/2026-07-20')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('agent-openclaw/daily/2026-07-20')).toBe(true);
-  });
-
-  test('workspace convention slugs are excluded', () => {
-    expect(shouldExclude('_brain-conventions')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('_templates/decision')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('extracts/2026-06-30/takes.proposed/round-single')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('2026-07-20')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('2026-07-20-qa-sweep')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('agents/arya/identity')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('agents/arya/memory/dreaming/deep/2026-07-20')).toBe(true);
  });

  test('regular slugs are NOT excluded', () => {
    expect(shouldExclude('people/alice')).toBe(false);
    expect(shouldExclude('companies/acme')).toBe(false);
    expect(shouldExclude('writing/post-1')).toBe(false);
-    expect(shouldExclude('agents/arya/qa-reports/launch-review')).toBe(false);
-  });
-});
-
-describe('getHealth orphan_pages uses shared exclusion policy', () => {
-  test('excluded convention islands do not count against health', async () => {
-    await engine.putPage('_templates/decision', {
-      type: 'template', title: 'Decision', compiled_truth: 'template', timeline: '', frontmatter: {},
-    });
-    await engine.putPage('skills/arya/source-check', {
-      type: 'concept', title: 'Skill', compiled_truth: 'skill', timeline: '', frontmatter: {},
-    });
-    await engine.putPage('agents/arya/identity', {
-      type: 'note', title: 'Identity', compiled_truth: 'identity', timeline: '', frontmatter: {},
-    });
-    await engine.putPage('people/alice', {
-      type: 'person', title: 'Alice', compiled_truth: 'real island', timeline: '', frontmatter: {},
-    });
-
-    const health = await engine.getHealth();
-
-    expect(health.orphan_pages).toBe(1);
-  });
-
-  test('per-brain config overrides (orphans.exclude_*) also apply to health', async () => {
-    await engine.putPage('my-private-folder/secret-ref', {
-      type: 'note', title: 'Ref', compiled_truth: 'ref', timeline: '', frontmatter: {},
-    });
-    await engine.putPage('one-off-fixture-page', {
-      type: 'note', title: 'Fixture', compiled_truth: 'fixture', timeline: '', frontmatter: {},
-    });
-    await engine.putPage('people/alice', {
-      type: 'person', title: 'Alice', compiled_truth: 'real island', timeline: '', frontmatter: {},
-    });
-
-    expect((await engine.getHealth()).orphan_pages).toBe(3);
-
-    await engine.setConfig('orphans.exclude_prefixes', 'my-private-folder/');
-    await engine.setConfig('orphans.exclude_slugs', 'one-off-fixture-page');
-    expect((await engine.getHealth()).orphan_pages).toBe(1);
-
-    await engine.unsetConfig('orphans.exclude_prefixes');
-    await engine.unsetConfig('orphans.exclude_slugs');
  });
 });
@@ -66,10 +66,6 @@ describe('shouldExclude', () => {
    expect(shouldExclude('templates/meeting-note')).toBe(true);
  });

-  test('excludes deny-prefix: _templates/', () => {
-    expect(shouldExclude('_templates/meeting-note')).toBe(true);
-  });
-
  test('excludes deny-prefix: openclaw/config/', () => {
    expect(shouldExclude('openclaw/config/agent')).toBe(true);
  });
@@ -90,44 +86,10 @@ describe('shouldExclude', () => {
    expect(shouldExclude('entities/product-hunt')).toBe(true);
  });

-  test('excludes first-segment: skills, dreaming, and daily', () => {
-    expect(shouldExclude('skills/arya/source-check')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('dreaming/light/2026-07-20')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('daily/2026-07-20')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('agent-openclaw/daily/2026-07-20')).toBe(true);
-  });
-
-  test('excludes root date logs and agent workspace conventions', () => {
-    expect(shouldExclude('_brain-conventions')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('2026-07-20')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('2026-07-20-qa-sweep')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('agents/arya/identity')).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('agents/arya/memory/dreaming/deep/2026-07-20')).toBe(true);
-  });
-
-  test('excludes generated extracts', () => {
-    expect(shouldExclude('extracts/2026-06-30/takes.proposed/round-single')).toBe(true);
-  });
-
-  test('brain-specific exclusions come from config overrides, not global defaults', () => {
-    // No baked-in defaults for these:
-    expect(shouldExclude('my-private-folder/some-secret-ref.md')).toBe(false);
-    expect(shouldExclude('one-off-fixture-page')).toBe(false);
-    // The per-brain config plane (orphans.exclude_prefixes / exclude_slugs):
-    const overrides = {
-      excludePrefixes: ['my-private-folder/'],
-      excludeSlugs: ['one-off-fixture-page'],
-    };
-    expect(shouldExclude('my-private-folder/some-secret-ref.md', overrides)).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('one-off-fixture-page', overrides)).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldExclude('people/jane-doe', overrides)).toBe(false);
-  });
-
  test('does NOT exclude a normal content page', () => {
    expect(shouldExclude('companies/acme')).toBe(false);
    expect(shouldExclude('people/jane-doe')).toBe(false);
    expect(shouldExclude('projects/gbrain')).toBe(false);
-    expect(shouldExclude('agents/arya/qa-reports/launch-review')).toBe(false);
  });

  test('does NOT exclude a page ending with log-like text that is not /log', () => {
@@ -218,21 +218,15 @@ describe('progress reporter', () => {
  test('only one process-level signal handler installed across many reporters', () => {
    // Baseline: one handler already installed by prior tests in this file.
    const installedBefore = __signalHandlerInstalledForTest();
-    // liveReporters is process-global: earlier test files in the same shard
-    // can leave a live entry behind (e.g. a production path that skips
-    // finish() on an error branch). Assert NET-zero leak from THIS test's
-    // lifecycles, not an absolute zero we don't control — same tolerance
-    // the handler assertion below already applies via `installedBefore`.
-    const liveBefore = __liveReporterCountForTest();
    const { stream } = sink(false);
    for (let i = 0; i < 50; i++) {
      const p = createProgress({ mode: 'json', stream, minIntervalMs: 0, minItems: 1 });
      p.start(`phase_${i}`, 1);
      p.finish();
    }
-    // After 50 reporter lifecycles, still exactly one handler and zero NEWLY leaked live entries.
+    // After 50 reporter lifecycles, still exactly one handler and zero leaked live entries.
    expect(__signalHandlerInstalledForTest()).toBe(installedBefore || true);
-    expect(__liveReporterCountForTest()).toBe(liveBefore);
+    expect(__liveReporterCountForTest()).toBe(0);
  });

  test('startHeartbeat() fires heartbeats and stop() clears', async () => {
@@ -12,11 +12,9 @@ import {
  bestPath,
  historyPath,
  loadHistory,
-  proposedPath,
  revertAllPending,
  skillPath,
  versionsDir,
-  writeProposed,
 } from '../../src/core/skillopt/version-store.ts';

 let tmpDir: string;
@@ -81,19 +79,6 @@ describe('acceptCandidate (D8 two-phase commit)', () => {
  });
 });

-describe('writeProposed', () => {
-  test('writes distinct best and proposed artifacts without mutating SKILL.md (#2635)', () => {
-    const candidate = '---\nname: test\n---\nproposed body\n';
-
-    const written = writeProposed(tmpDir, SKILL, candidate);
-
-    expect(written).toBe(proposedPath(tmpDir, SKILL));
-    expect(fs.readFileSync(bestPath(tmpDir, SKILL), 'utf8')).toBe(candidate);
-    expect(fs.readFileSync(proposedPath(tmpDir, SKILL), 'utf8')).toBe(candidate);
-    expect(fs.readFileSync(skillPath(tmpDir, SKILL), 'utf8')).toContain('baseline body');
-  });
-});
-
 describe('revertAllPending (D8 crash recovery)', () => {
  test('no-op when no pending rows', () => {
    const reverted = revertAllPending(tmpDir, SKILL);