fix(embed): thread write column into sumStaleChunkChars — sync cost gate followed the legacy predicate (#1262 )

Review follow-up: the PR threaded the write-side column through countStaleChunks/listStaleChunks but not sumStaleChunkChars, so the sync cost gate counted an alt-column brain's fully-embedded corpus as phantom backlog on every gate (inflating the --full estimate and the deferred-mode backlog note). Both engines already share buildStaleChunkWhere, so this is a type widening + one call-site thread + a contrast assertion. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
fix(embed): dynamic embedding column write target for upsertChunks + stale scans (#1262 )
2026-08-17 10:22:34 +00:00 · 2026-07-22 10:59:36 -07:00 · 2026-07-21 15:04:38 -07:00
49 changed files with 742 additions and 1609 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",
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ health_checks:
    label: "Auth provider"
    checks:
      - type: http
-        url: "$CLAWVISOR_URL/ready"
+        url: "$CLAWVISOR_URL/health"
        label: "ClawVisor"
      - type: env_exists
        name: GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ Tell the user:

 Validate:
 ```bash
-curl -sf "$CLAWVISOR_URL/ready" && echo "PASS: ClawVisor reachable" || echo "FAIL"
+curl -sf "$CLAWVISOR_URL/health" && echo "PASS: ClawVisor reachable" || echo "FAIL"
 ```

 **STOP until ClawVisor validates.**
@@ -1,308 +0,0 @@
---
-id: contacts-to-brain
-name: Contacts-to-Brain
-version: 0.1.0
-description: Google Contacts become canonical people/ pages, enriching brain entities with ground-truth name/email/phone/org data.
-category: sense
-requires: [credential-gateway]
-secrets:
-  - name: CLAWVISOR_URL
-    description: ClawVisor gateway URL (Option A — recommended, handles OAuth for you)
-    where: https://clawvisor.com — create an agent, activate Google Contacts service
-  - name: CLAWVISOR_AGENT_TOKEN
-    description: ClawVisor agent token (Option A)
-    where: https://clawvisor.com — agent settings, copy the agent token
-  - name: GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID
-    description: Google OAuth2 client ID (Option B — direct API access, you manage tokens)
-    where: https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials — create OAuth 2.0 Client ID
-  - name: GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET
-    description: Google OAuth2 client secret (Option B)
-    where: https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials — same page as client ID
-health_checks:
-  - type: any_of
-    label: "Auth provider"
-    checks:
-      - type: http
-        url: "$CLAWVISOR_URL/ready"
-        label: "ClawVisor"
-      - type: env_exists
-        name: GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID
-        label: "Google OAuth"
-setup_time: 15 min
-cost_estimate: "$0 (both options are free)"
---
-
-# Contacts-to-Brain: Your Address Book Becomes Ground Truth
-
-Calendar attendees and email senders are the bulk of `people/<slug>` brain pages.
-Your Google Contacts is the ground-truth directory — canonical name, email, phone,
-organization — for those same entities. Syncing it closes the "who is this person"
-loop automatically and feeds enrichment.
-
-## IMPORTANT: Instructions for the Agent
-
-**You are the installer.** Follow these steps precisely.
-
-**Why this matters:** email-to-brain and calendar-to-brain create people pages
-from whatever name string the API returned — sometimes an email prefix, sometimes
-a nickname. Contacts carries the authoritative record. After this recipe runs,
-"j.smith@acme-example.com" and "Jon S" resolve to the same person page with the
-right display name, phone, and company.
-
-**The output is staging files, not direct writes:** the deterministic collector
-dumps contact records to `brain/contacts/.staging/`; YOU (the agent) merge them
-into `people/<slug>` pages using judgment — the Notability Gate in
-`skills/_brain-filing-rules.md` applies. Not every contact deserves a page.
-
-**Do not skip steps. Verify after each step.**
-
-## Architecture
-
-```
-Google Contacts (People API, paginated)
-  ↓ (ClawVisor credential gateway: list_contacts / get_contact / search_contacts)
-Contacts Sync Script (deterministic Node.js)
-  ↓ Outputs:
-  ├── brain/contacts/.raw/contacts-{date}.json      (raw API responses, provenance)
-  └── brain/contacts/.staging/{slug}.md             (one markdown record per contact)
-  ↓
-Agent reads staging files
-  ↓ Judgment calls (Notability Gate):
-  ├── Merge into existing people/<slug> pages (name/email/phone/org enrichment)
-  ├── Create new pages ONLY for notable contacts not already in brain
-  └── Skip the rest (staging is not the brain)
-```
-
-## Opinionated Defaults
-
-**Staging record format** (one file per contact, deterministic):
-```markdown
-# Alice Example
-
- **Emails:** alice@acme-example.com, alice@gmail.com
- **Phone:** +1 555 0100
- **Organization:** Acme Example — VP Engineering
- **Source:** Google Contacts (resourceName people/c123, synced 2026-07-21)
-```
-
-**Enrichment, not duplication:** if `people/alice-example.md` already exists,
-append missing fields to it with a `[Source: Google Contacts]` citation. Do NOT
-create a second page. Slug-match by normalized name, then by email against
-existing page content.
-
-**Notability Gate (from `skills/_brain-filing-rules.md`):** a contact with no
-brain presence gets a new page only if they appear elsewhere in the brain
-(calendar attendee, email correspondent) or the user confirms they matter.
-When in doubt, DON'T create — a junk page degrades search quality.
-
-## Prerequisites
-
-1. **GBrain installed and configured** (`gbrain doctor` passes)
-2. **Node.js 18+** (for the sync script)
-3. **Google Contacts access** via ONE of:
-   - **Option A: ClawVisor** (recommended, handles OAuth for you, no token management)
-   - **Option B: Google OAuth2 directly** (you manage tokens, no extra service needed)
-
-## Setup Flow
-
-### Step 1: Choose and Configure Contacts Access
-
-Ask the user: "How do you want to connect to Google Contacts?
-
-**Option A: ClawVisor (recommended)**
-ClawVisor handles OAuth, token refresh, and encryption. If you already use
-ClawVisor for email-to-brain or calendar-to-brain, this uses the same setup —
-just activate the Google Contacts service on your existing agent.
-
-**Option B: Google OAuth2 directly**
-Connect to the Google People API directly. No extra service needed, but you
-manage OAuth tokens yourself."
-
-#### Option A: ClawVisor Setup
-
-Tell the user:
-"I need your ClawVisor URL and agent token.
-1. Go to https://clawvisor.com
-2. Create an agent (or use existing)
-3. Activate the **Google Contacts** service
-4. Create a standing task with purpose: 'Full contacts access for people
-   enrichment: list contacts, read contact details, search contacts across
-   all connected Google accounts.'
-   IMPORTANT: Be EXPANSIVE in the task purpose. Narrow purposes block requests.
-5. Copy the gateway URL and agent token"
-
-Validate:
-```bash
-curl -sf "$CLAWVISOR_URL/ready" && echo "PASS: ClawVisor reachable" || echo "FAIL"
-```
-
-**STOP until ClawVisor validates.**
-
-#### Option B: Google OAuth2 Setup
-
-Same flow as `recipes/credential-gateway.md` Option B, with the contacts scope:
-
-1. https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials — create an OAuth client ID
-   (Desktop app), consent screen scope: `https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts.readonly`
-2. Enable the People API: https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/library/people.googleapis.com
-3. Run the OAuth flow; store tokens in `~/.gbrain/google-tokens.json` (auto-refresh on expiry)
-
-Validate:
-```bash
-[ -n "$GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID" ] && [ -n "$GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET" ] \
-  && echo "PASS: Google OAuth credentials set" \
-  || echo "FAIL: Missing GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID or GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET"
-```
-
-**STOP until OAuth flow completes and tokens are stored.**
-
-### Step 2: Set Up the Contacts Sync Script
-
-```bash
-mkdir -p contacts-sync
-cd contacts-sync
-npm init -y
-```
-
-The sync script needs these capabilities:
-
-1. **Paginated retrieval** — `list_contacts` (People API `people.connections.list`)
-   returns pages of up to 100; follow `nextPageToken` until exhausted. Request
-   fields: names, emailAddresses, phoneNumbers, organizations, metadata.
-2. **Deterministic staging output** — one markdown file per contact at
-   `brain/contacts/.staging/{slug}.md`, slug from normalized display name
-   (fall back to email prefix). Same contact = same file on every run (idempotent).
-3. **Raw JSON preservation** — save raw API responses to
-   `brain/contacts/.raw/contacts-{date}.json` for provenance.
-4. **Skip empty records** — contacts with no name AND no email are noise; drop them.
-
-### Step 3: Run the Full Sync
-
-```bash
-node contacts-sync.mjs
-```
-
-Verify:
-```bash
-ls brain/contacts/.staging/ | head -10
-```
-
-Should show one file per contact, e.g. `alice-example.md`, `charlie-example.md`.
-
-### Step 4: Enrich People Pages (Agent Judgment)
-
-This is YOUR job (the agent). For each staging record:
-
-1. **Check brain**: `gbrain search "contact name"` — do they have a
-   `people/<slug>` page? Also search by email address.
-2. **Existing page** → merge the ground-truth fields (canonical name, emails,
-   phone, organization) into the page, each with a
-   `[Source: Google Contacts]` citation. Fix a wrong/partial display name.
-3. **No page** → apply the Notability Gate: create a page only if the contact
-   already appears in the brain (calendar, email) or is clearly relevant.
-   Otherwise skip.
-4. **Back-link** per the Iron Law in `skills/_brain-filing-rules.md`: an
-   organization with a brain page gets a link from the person's page and back.
-
-After enrichment, import and embed:
-```bash
-gbrain sync --no-pull --no-embed && gbrain embed --stale
-```
-
-Verify:
-```bash
-gbrain search "alice-example" --limit 3
-```
-
-Should return the enriched people page with contact details.
-
-### Step 5: Set Up Weekly Sync
-
-Contacts change slowly; once a week is plenty:
-```bash
-# Cron: every Sunday at 9 AM
-0 9 * * 0 cd /path/to/contacts-sync && node contacts-sync.mjs
-```
-
-After each sync, re-run the Step 4 enrichment pass over CHANGED staging files
-only (compare mtime or diff against git), then:
-```bash
-gbrain sync --no-pull --no-embed && gbrain embed --stale
-```
-
-### Step 6: Log Setup Completion
-
-```bash
-mkdir -p ~/.gbrain/integrations/contacts-to-brain
-echo '{"ts":"'$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)'","event":"setup_complete","source_version":"0.1.0","status":"ok","details":{"contacts":"CONTACT_COUNT"}}' >> ~/.gbrain/integrations/contacts-to-brain/heartbeat.jsonl
-```
-
-Tell the user: "Contacts-to-brain is set up. [N] contacts staged; [M] people
-pages enriched with ground-truth contact data. Weekly sync keeps it current."
-
-## Implementation Guide
-
-### Pagination
-
-```
-list_all_contacts():
-  contacts = []
-  token = null
-  do:
-    page = list_contacts({ pageSize: 100, pageToken: token,
-      personFields: 'names,emailAddresses,phoneNumbers,organizations,metadata' })
-    contacts += page.connections
-    token = page.nextPageToken
-  while token
-  return contacts
-```
-
-### Slug Normalization
-
-```
-slugify(contact):
-  name = contact.names?[0]?.displayName
-  if not name:
-    name = contact.emailAddresses?[0]?.value.split('@')[0]
-  return name.toLowerCase().normalize('NFD')
-             .replace(/[^a-z0-9]+/g, '-').replace(/^-|-$/g, '')
-```
-
-Collision (two contacts, same slug): suffix with the email domain
-(`alice-example-acme-example`) rather than overwrite.
-
-### What the Agent Should Test After Setup
-
-1. **Idempotency:** run the sync twice. `git status` on `brain/contacts/.staging/`
-   shows no changes on the second run.
-2. **Pagination:** with 250+ contacts, verify the staging count matches the
-   Google Contacts count (not capped at 100).
-3. **Notability Gate:** verify a one-off contact with no brain presence did NOT
-   get a `people/` page.
-4. **Enrichment merge:** verify an existing people page gained contact fields
-   without losing its prior content, each with a `[Source: Google Contacts]`
-   citation.
-
-## Cost Estimate
-
-| Component | Monthly Cost |
-|-----------|-------------|
-| ClawVisor (free tier) | $0 |
-| Google People API | $0 (within free quota) |
-| **Total** | **$0** |
-
-## Troubleshooting
-
-**No contacts returned:**
- Check ClawVisor has the Google Contacts service activated
- Check the standing task purpose is expansive enough
- Option B: verify the People API is enabled and the token carries
-  `contacts.readonly`
-
-**Duplicate people pages after enrichment:**
- The agent matched by name but the brain page slug differs — search by email
-  address too before creating, then merge and delete the duplicate
-
-**Contacts with no name:**
- The sync script falls back to the email prefix; records with neither name
-  nor email are dropped as noise
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ health_checks:
    label: "Auth provider"
    checks:
      - type: http
-        url: "$CLAWVISOR_URL/ready"
+        url: "$CLAWVISOR_URL/health"
        label: "ClawVisor"
      - type: env_exists
        name: GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ Tell the user:
 3. Activate the services you need:
   - **Gmail** (for email-to-brain)
   - **Google Calendar** (for calendar-to-brain)
-   - **Google Contacts** (for contacts-to-brain)
+   - **Google Contacts** (for enrichment)
 4. Create a standing task with a broad purpose. CRITICAL: be EXPANSIVE.

   Good purpose: 'Full executive assistant access to Gmail, Calendar, and
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ Tell the user:

 Validate:
 ```bash
-curl -sf "$CLAWVISOR_URL/ready" \
+curl -sf "$CLAWVISOR_URL/health" \
  && echo "PASS: ClawVisor reachable" \
  || echo "FAIL: ClawVisor not reachable — check the URL"
 ```
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ can now access your Google services."

 ## How to Verify

-1. **ClawVisor:** `curl $CLAWVISOR_URL/ready` returns OK.
+1. **ClawVisor:** `curl $CLAWVISOR_URL/health` returns OK.
 2. **Google OAuth:** Tokens exist at `~/.gbrain/google-tokens.json`.
 3. **Gmail access:** Run the email collector — it should pull recent messages.
 4. **Calendar access:** Run the calendar sync — it should pull today's events.
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ health_checks:
    label: "Auth provider"
    checks:
      - type: http
-        url: "$CLAWVISOR_URL/ready"
+        url: "$CLAWVISOR_URL/health"
        label: "ClawVisor"
      - type: env_exists
        name: GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ Tell the user:

 Validate:
 ```bash
-curl -sf "$CLAWVISOR_URL/ready" && echo "PASS: ClawVisor reachable" || echo "FAIL"
+curl -sf "$CLAWVISOR_URL/health" && echo "PASS: ClawVisor reachable" || echo "FAIL"
 ```

 **STOP until ClawVisor validates.**
@@ -328,7 +328,7 @@ threads you already replied to. Sent mail acts as a negative filter.
 ## Troubleshooting

 **No emails collected:**
- Check ClawVisor health: `curl $CLAWVISOR_URL/ready`
+- Check ClawVisor health: `curl $CLAWVISOR_URL/health`
 - Check standing task is active and has Gmail service enabled
 - Check task purpose is expansive enough (narrow purposes block requests)

@@ -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', '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
@@ -1759,11 +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.
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import type { BrainEngine } from '../core/engine.ts';
 import { embedBatch, currentEmbeddingSignature } from '../core/embedding.ts';
-import type { ChunkInput } from '../core/types.ts';
+import type { ChunkInput, ResolvedColumn } from '../core/types.ts';
+import { resolveWriteColumnForEngine } from '../core/search/embedding-column.ts';
 import { chunkText } from '../core/chunkers/recursive.ts';
 import { createProgress, type ProgressReporter } from '../core/progress.ts';
 import { getCliOptions, cliOptsToProgressOptions } from '../core/cli-options.ts';
@@ -183,8 +184,13 @@ export class EmbeddingDimMismatchError extends Error {
 * fresh-install bug class at the very first invocation instead of letting
 * the worker pool hammer N pages with raw 22000 errors.
 */
-async function preflightDimMismatch(engine: BrainEngine, dryRun: boolean): Promise<void> {
+async function preflightDimMismatch(engine: BrainEngine, dryRun: boolean, embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn): Promise<void> {
  if (dryRun) return; // dry-run never embeds, no risk
+  // #1262: an alt-column brain writes to `embeddingColumn`, not the legacy
+  // `embedding` column — the legacy column's dims are irrelevant, and the
+  // registry entry (validated at resolve time) pins the target's dims. Only
+  // the legacy default path needs the schema-vs-gateway dim comparison.
+  if (embeddingColumn && embeddingColumn.name !== 'embedding') return;
  const { readContentChunksEmbeddingDim, embeddingMismatchMessage } = await import('../core/embedding-dim-check.ts');
  const { getEmbeddingDimensions, getEmbeddingModel } = await import('../core/ai/gateway.ts');
  let existing;
@@ -238,7 +244,12 @@ export async function runEmbedCore(engine: BrainEngine, opts: EmbedOpts): Promis
  // v0.37.11.0 (Lane D.2): pre-flight dim-mismatch check. Catches the headline
  // fresh-install bug class before the worker pool spends 20 parallel calls
  // hitting raw Postgres dimension errors.
-  await preflightDimMismatch(engine, !!opts.dryRun);
+  // #1262: resolve the write-side embedding column ONCE at the boundary
+  // (merged config + gateway model) and thread the descriptor through every
+  // upsertChunks / stale-scan below. undefined => legacy `embedding` column.
+  const embeddingColumn = await resolveWriteColumnForEngine(engine);
+
+  await preflightDimMismatch(engine, !!opts.dryRun, embeddingColumn);

  const result: EmbedResult = {
    embedded: 0,
@@ -253,7 +264,7 @@ export async function runEmbedCore(engine: BrainEngine, opts: EmbedOpts): Promis
    for (const s of opts.slugs) {
      if (isAborted(opts.signal)) break; // #1737: stop the per-slug loop on abort
      try {
-        await embedPage(engine, s, !!opts.dryRun, result, opts.sourceId, opts.signal);
+        await embedPage(engine, s, !!opts.dryRun, result, opts.sourceId, opts.signal, embeddingColumn);
      } catch (e: unknown) {
        serr(`  Error embedding ${s}: ${e instanceof Error ? e.message : e}`);
      }
@@ -347,7 +358,7 @@ export async function runEmbedCore(engine: BrainEngine, opts: EmbedOpts): Promis
        catchUp: opts.catchUp,
        pacer,
        paceMaxConcurrency,
-      }, opts.signal);
+      }, opts.signal, embeddingColumn);
    } finally {
      // E1: surface pacing telemetry (human + structured) when pacing was on.
      const snap = pacer.snapshot();
@@ -376,7 +387,7 @@ export async function runEmbedCore(engine: BrainEngine, opts: EmbedOpts): Promis
    return result;
  }
  if (opts.slug) {
-    await embedPage(engine, opts.slug, !!opts.dryRun, result, opts.sourceId, opts.signal);
+    await embedPage(engine, opts.slug, !!opts.dryRun, result, opts.sourceId, opts.signal, embeddingColumn);
    return result;
  }
  throw new Error('No embed target specified. Pass { slug }, { slugs }, { all }, or { stale }.');
@@ -521,8 +532,13 @@ async function embedPage(
  result: EmbedResult,
  sourceId?: string,
  signal?: AbortSignal,
+  embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn,
 ) {
  const opts = sourceId ? { sourceId } : undefined;
+  // #1262: write-side descriptor rides only on WRITE calls (upsertChunks).
+  const chunkOpts = (sourceId || embeddingColumn)
+    ? { ...(sourceId && { sourceId }), ...(embeddingColumn && { embeddingColumn }) }
+    : undefined;
  const page = await engine.getPage(slug, opts);
  if (!page) {
    throw new Error(`Page not found: ${slug}`);
@@ -554,7 +570,7 @@ async function embedPage(
    }

    if (inputs.length > 0) {
-      await engine.upsertChunks(slug, inputs, opts);
+      await engine.upsertChunks(slug, inputs, chunkOpts);
      chunks = await engine.getChunks(slug, opts);
    }
  }
@@ -581,7 +597,7 @@ 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,
@@ -589,7 +605,7 @@ async function embedPage(
    token_count: c.token_count || Math.ceil(c.chunk_text.length / 4),
  }));

-  await engine.upsertChunks(slug, updated, opts);
+  await engine.upsertChunks(slug, updated, chunkOpts);
  // v0.41.31: stamp provenance so a later model/dims swap is detectable as
  // stale. embedPage is the per-slug path used by `gbrain embed <slug>` AND
  // by `gbrain sync`'s post-import embed step (runEmbedCore({slugs})).
@@ -605,31 +621,6 @@ 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,
@@ -647,6 +638,7 @@ async function embedAll(
    paceMaxConcurrency?: number;
  },
  signal?: AbortSignal,
+  embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn,
 ) {
  // v0.41.31: current embedding provenance signature. Stamped onto pages
  // when their chunks are (re)embedded so a later model/dimension swap is
@@ -669,7 +661,7 @@ async function embedAll(
    // D7: thread sourceId so `gbrain embed --stale --source X` actually scopes.
    // v0.41.18.0 (A13): thread batchSize/priority/catchUp into the stale path.
    // #1737: thread the external abort signal so the cycle embed phase bails.
-    return await embedAllStale(engine, sourceId, dryRun, result, onProgress, staleOpts, signature, signal);
+    return await embedAllStale(engine, sourceId, dryRun, result, onProgress, staleOpts, signature, signal, embeddingColumn);
  }

  // --all path: pacer (no-op when off). E-1: lower the worker count to the
@@ -742,17 +734,18 @@ 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,
        embedding: embeddingMap.get(c.chunk_index) ?? undefined,
        token_count: c.token_count || Math.ceil(c.chunk_text.length / 4),
      }));
-      await observed(pacer, () => engine.upsertChunks(page.slug, updated, pageOpts));
+      await observed(pacer, () => engine.upsertChunks(page.slug, updated, {
+        ...(pageSourceId && { sourceId: pageSourceId }),
+        ...(embeddingColumn && { embeddingColumn }),
+      }));
      // v0.41.31: stamp embedding provenance so a later model swap is
      // detectable as stale.
      await observed(pacer, () =>
@@ -832,10 +825,16 @@ async function embedAllStale(
  },
  signature?: string,
  externalSignal?: AbortSignal,
+  embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn,
 ) {
  // D7: thread sourceId so source-scoped runs only count + visit
  // that source's NULL embeddings.
-  const sourceOpt = sourceId ? { sourceId } : undefined;
+  // #1262: the stale predicate follows the write-side column — without it an
+  // alt-column brain would perpetually re-select (and re-pay for) chunks whose
+  // target column is already populated.
+  const sourceOpt = (sourceId || embeddingColumn)
+    ? { ...(sourceId && { sourceId }), ...(embeddingColumn && { embeddingColumn }) }
+    : undefined;

  // v0.41.31: re-embed pages whose embedding_signature drifted (model/dims
  // swap). dry-run must NOT mutate, so it counts signature-stale via the
@@ -994,6 +993,7 @@ async function embedAllStale(
            afterUpdatedAt,
          }),
          ...(sourceId && { sourceId }),
+          ...(embeddingColumn && { embeddingColumn }),
        }),
      );
      if (batch.length === 0) {
@@ -1039,17 +1039,17 @@ 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,
            embedding: staleIdxToEmbedding.get(c.chunk_index) ?? undefined,
            token_count: c.token_count || Math.ceil(c.chunk_text.length / 4),
          }));
-          await observed(pacer, () => engine.upsertChunks(slug, merged, { sourceId: keySourceId }));
+          await observed(pacer, () => engine.upsertChunks(slug, merged, {
+            sourceId: keySourceId,
+            ...(embeddingColumn && { embeddingColumn }),
+          }));
          // v0.41.31: stamp provenance after the page's chunks are embedded —
          // but only when EVERY chunk was stale (fully re-embedded this pass).
          // A partially-stale page keeps preserved chunks of unknown/old
@@ -1120,7 +1120,7 @@ async function embedAllStale(
  // as a clean run — re-running won't help until the underlying failure is fixed.
  if (staleOpts?.catchUp && !effectiveSignal.aborted && embedFailures > 0) {
    const remaining = await engine.countStaleChunks(
-      signature ? { signature, ...(sourceId ? { sourceId } : {}) } : (sourceId ? { sourceId } : undefined),
+      signature ? { signature, ...sourceOpt } : sourceOpt,
    );
    if (remaining > 0) {
      serr(`\n  [embed] catch-up finished but ${remaining} chunk(s) remain stale after ${embedFailures} embed failure(s). These are not embeddable as-is; re-running won't clear them until the underlying error is resolved.`);
@@ -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;
@@ -334,10 +334,6 @@ export async function scanIntegrity(
    if (!page) continue;
    // Skip grandfathered pages (opted out of brain-integrity enforcement)
    if ((page.frontmatter as Record<string, unknown> | undefined)?.validate === false) continue;
-    // Skip code pages: indexed source files aren't prose. 'tweet' in an
-    // identifier or comment is not a bare-tweet citation gap, and auto-repair
-    // would inject wikilink brackets into source code.
-    if (page.type === 'code') continue;
    pagesScanned++;
    bareHits.push(...findBareTweetHits(page.compiled_truth, slug));
    externalHits.push(...findExternalLinks(page.compiled_truth, slug));
@@ -367,9 +363,6 @@ async function scanIntegrityBatch(
  // YAML) diverges from the sequential path's strict === false check. Intentional
  // — gbrain lint should reject stringly-typed validate at write time.
  const validateCondition = sql`AND (frontmatter->>'validate' IS NULL OR frontmatter->>'validate' != 'false')`;
-  // Mirror of the sequential path's `page.type === 'code'` skip: code pages
-  // (indexed source files) are never prose-integrity candidates.
-  const codeCondition = sql`AND type IS DISTINCT FROM 'code'`;

  // v0.32.8: scan ONE row per (source_id, slug) pair, not one per slug.
  // Pre-fix used DISTINCT ON (slug) which collapsed multi-source rows into
@@ -379,7 +372,7 @@ async function scanIntegrityBatch(
  const rows = await sql`
    SELECT slug, compiled_truth, frontmatter
    FROM pages
-    WHERE 1=1 ${typeCondition} ${validateCondition} ${codeCondition}
+    WHERE 1=1 ${typeCondition} ${validateCondition}
    ORDER BY source_id, slug
    LIMIT ${limit}
  `;
@@ -468,9 +461,6 @@ async function cmdAuto(args: string[]): Promise<void> {

      const page = await engine.getPage(slug, { sourceId: source_id });
      if (!page) continue;
-      // Never auto-repair code pages — injecting tweet citations into
-      // indexed source files corrupts them. Same gate as scanIntegrity.
-      if (page.type === 'code') continue;

      pagesProcessed++;
      progress.tick(1, slug);
@@ -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,
@@ -576,9 +576,16 @@ async function runInlineCostGate(

  // Stale backlog: cheap single SQL; fail-open to 0 so a transient DB hiccup
  // never blocks the sync. Signature-aware (model/dims swap surfaces here).
+  // #1262: follow the write-side embedding column — otherwise an alt-column
+  // brain's fully-embedded corpus counts as phantom backlog on every gate.
  let staleChars = 0;
  try {
-    staleChars = await engine.sumStaleChunkChars({ signature: currentEmbeddingSignature() });
+    const { resolveWriteColumnForEngine } = await import('../core/search/embedding-column.ts');
+    const embeddingColumn = await resolveWriteColumnForEngine(engine);
+    staleChars = await engine.sumStaleChunkChars({
+      signature: currentEmbeddingSignature(),
+      ...(embeddingColumn && { embeddingColumn }),
+    });
  } catch {
    staleChars = 0;
  }
@@ -54,7 +54,6 @@ import {
 import {
  generatePerChunkSynopsis,
  SYNOPSIS_PROMPT_VERSION,
-  SYNOPSIS_DOC_MAX_CHARS,
  type GeneratePerChunkSynopsisResult,
 } from './page-summary.ts';
 import {
@@ -62,6 +61,7 @@ import {
  type SynopsisFailureKind,
 } from './audit-synopsis.ts';
 import type { BrainEngine } from './engine.ts';
+import { resolveWriteColumnForEngine } from './search/embedding-column.ts';
 import type { ChunkInput, CRMode, Page } from './types.ts';
 import type { SourceRow } from './sources-ops.ts';

@@ -104,17 +104,8 @@ 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 +114,9 @@ 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 +254,7 @@ 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' };
  }
@@ -298,14 +283,17 @@ 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 ───────────────────────────
      try {
+        // #1262: contextual re-embeds write TEXT embeddings — thread the
+        // caller-resolved write column like every other embed path.
+        const embeddingColumn = await resolveWriteColumnForEngine(args.engine);
        await args.engine.transaction(async (tx) => {
          await tx.upsertChunks(args.pageSlug, phase1.embeddedChunks, {
            sourceId: args.sourceId,
+            ...(embeddingColumn && { embeddingColumn }),
          });
          await tx.updatePageContextualRetrievalState(
            args.pageSlug,
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 */

 import type { BrainEngine } from './engine.ts';
-import type { ChunkInput } from './types.ts';
+import type { ChunkInput, ResolvedColumn } from './types.ts';
 import { embedBatchWithBackoff } from '../commands/embed.ts';
 import { type DbPacer, createNoopPacer, observed } from './db-pacer.ts';
 import { AbortError } from './abort-check.ts';
@@ -61,6 +61,13 @@ export interface EmbedStaleOpts {
   * Omit to keep the legacy `embedding IS NULL`-only behavior.
   */
  embeddingSignature?: string;
+  /**
+   * #1262: caller-resolved write-side embedding column. Threaded into BOTH
+   * listStaleChunks (staleness predicate) and upsertChunks (write target) so
+   * an alt-column brain converges instead of re-selecting embedded rows.
+   * Resolve at the boundary via `resolveWriteColumnForEngine()`.
+   */
+  embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn;
  /**
   * DB-contention pacer (paced-backfill). When enabled it (a) supplies the
   * worker count via the caller passing `concurrency = bundle.maxConcurrency`
@@ -156,6 +163,7 @@ export async function embedStaleForSource(
        afterPageId,
        afterChunkIndex,
        sourceId,
+        ...(opts.embeddingColumn && { embeddingColumn: opts.embeddingColumn }),
      }),
    );
    if (batch.length === 0) {
@@ -223,7 +231,10 @@ export async function embedStaleForSource(
          doc_comment: c.doc_comment ?? undefined,
          symbol_name_qualified: c.symbol_name_qualified ?? undefined,
        }));
-        await observed(pacer, () => engine.upsertChunks(slug, merged, { sourceId: keySourceId }));
+        await observed(pacer, () => engine.upsertChunks(slug, merged, {
+          sourceId: keySourceId,
+          ...(opts.embeddingColumn && { embeddingColumn: opts.embeddingColumn }),
+        }));
        // v0.41.31: stamp provenance only when EVERY chunk was stale (fully
        // re-embedded this pass) — a partially-stale page keeps preserved
        // chunks of unknown provenance, so don't claim current. After the
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import type {
  BrainStats, BrainHealth,
  IngestLogEntry, IngestLogInput,
  EngineConfig,
+  ResolvedColumn,
  CodeEdgeInput, CodeEdgeResult,
  EvalCandidate, EvalCandidateInput,
  EvalCaptureFailure, EvalCaptureFailureReason,
@@ -987,8 +988,13 @@ export interface BrainEngine {
   * — Postgres rolls back automatically on conn drop, so commit-ambiguous
   * failure replays to the same end state. Callers MUST NOT wrap externally;
   * see {@link BatchOpts} retry-contract block.
+   *
+   * `opts.embeddingColumn` (optional) selects the content_chunks column that
+   * receives TEXT embeddings (#1262). The caller resolves the descriptor at
+   * the import/embed boundary via `resolveWriteColumn()`; engines never read
+   * config or choose columns themselves. Omitted => legacy `embedding`.
   */
-  upsertChunks(slug: string, chunks: ChunkInput[], opts?: { sourceId?: string } & BatchOpts): Promise<void>;
+  upsertChunks(slug: string, chunks: ChunkInput[], opts?: { sourceId?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn } & BatchOpts): Promise<void>;
  /**
   * Read every chunk for a page. `opts.sourceId` source-scopes the page
   * lookup; without it, multi-source brains return chunks from every
@@ -1005,8 +1011,13 @@ export interface BrainEngine {
   * counts across every source in the brain. Operators running
   * `gbrain embed --stale --source media-corpus` expect only that
   * source's NULLs touched; the caller threads `sourceId` here.
+   *
+   * `opts.embeddingColumn` switches the staleness predicate from the legacy
+   * `embedding` column to the resolved write-side column, so alt-column
+   * brains do not perpetually re-select rows whose target column is already
+   * populated (#1262). Must match the eventual upsertChunks target.
   */
-  countStaleChunks(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string }): Promise<number>;
+  countStaleChunks(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn }): Promise<number>;
  /**
   * Sum of LENGTH(chunk_text) over stale chunks — the character-count
   * backlog the embed phase / embed-backfill will process. Sibling of
@@ -1020,8 +1031,13 @@ export interface BrainEngine {
   * model signature (a model/dims swap). NULL signature is GRANDFATHERED
   * (never counted) so the post-migration corpus isn't flagged en masse.
   * Omit `signature` for the legacy `embedding IS NULL`-only count.
+   *
+   * `opts.embeddingColumn` switches the staleness predicate to the resolved
+   * write-side column (#1262) — same contract as countStaleChunks — so the
+   * sync cost gate doesn't count an alt-column brain's fully-embedded corpus
+   * as phantom backlog.
   */
-  sumStaleChunkChars(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string }): Promise<number>;
+  sumStaleChunkChars(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn }): Promise<number>;
  /**
   * Stamp `pages.embedding_signature = signature` for one page. Called after
   * a page's chunks are (re)embedded so a later model swap can detect it as
@@ -1069,6 +1085,9 @@ export interface BrainEngine {
    // both round-trip TIMESTAMPTZ as Date | string; ISO string is the
    // common denominator on the wire).
    afterUpdatedAt?: string | null;
+    // #1262: staleness predicate targets this column when set (must match
+    // countStaleChunks and the eventual upsertChunks write target).
+    embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn;
  }): Promise<StaleChunkRow[]>;
  /**
   * Delete every chunk for a page. Internal page-id lookup is sourceId-scoped
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@ import { findChunkForOffset } from './chunkers/edge-extractor.ts';
 import { extractCodeRefs, imageOfCandidates } from './link-extraction.ts';
 import { embedBatch, embedMultimodal, currentEmbeddingSignature } from './embedding.ts';
 import { slugifyPath, slugifyCodePath, isCodeFilePath } from './sync.ts';
-import type { ChunkInput, PageInput, PageType } from './types.ts';
+import type { ChunkInput, PageInput, PageType, ResolvedColumn } from './types.ts';
+import { resolveWriteColumnForEngine } from './search/embedding-column.ts';
 import { computeEffectiveDate } from './effective-date.ts';
 import { MARKDOWN_CHUNKER_VERSION } from './chunkers/recursive.ts';
 import { logSlugFallback } from './audit-slug-fallback.ts';
@@ -733,11 +734,6 @@ 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
@@ -745,6 +741,14 @@ export async function importFromContent(
  // schema DEFAULT — required for multi-source brains; harmless ('default')
  // for single-source callers.
  const txOpts = sourceId ? { sourceId } : undefined;
+  // #1262: resolve the write-side embedding column once (merged config +
+  // gateway model) BEFORE the transaction; the descriptor rides only on
+  // upsertChunks so text embeddings land in the registered column.
+  const chunkWriteColumn = await resolveWriteColumnForEngine(engine);
+  const chunkOpts: { sourceId?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn } | undefined =
+    (sourceId || chunkWriteColumn)
+      ? { ...(sourceId && { sourceId }), ...(chunkWriteColumn && { embeddingColumn: chunkWriteColumn }) }
+      : undefined;
  await engine.transaction(async (tx) => {
    if (existing) await tx.createVersion(slug, txOpts);

@@ -829,7 +833,7 @@ export async function importFromContent(
    }

    if (chunks.length > 0) {
-      await tx.upsertChunks(slug, chunks, txOpts);
+      await tx.upsertChunks(slug, chunks, chunkOpts);
      // v0.41.31: stamp embedding provenance when this import actually
      // embedded (not --no-embed), so a later model/dims swap is detectable
      // as stale via embed --stale. The deferred/backfill + per-slug embed
@@ -1069,6 +1073,12 @@ export async function importCodeFile(
  const title = `${relativePath} (${lang})`;
  const sourceId = opts.sourceId;
  const txOpts = sourceId ? { sourceId } : undefined;
+  // #1262: write-side embedding column descriptor (rides only on upsertChunks).
+  const chunkWriteColumn = await resolveWriteColumnForEngine(engine);
+  const chunkOpts: { sourceId?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn } | undefined =
+    (sourceId || chunkWriteColumn)
+      ? { ...(sourceId && { sourceId }), ...(chunkWriteColumn && { embeddingColumn: chunkWriteColumn }) }
+      : undefined;

  const byteLength = Buffer.byteLength(content, 'utf-8');
  if (byteLength > MAX_FILE_SIZE) {
@@ -1188,7 +1198,7 @@ export async function importCodeFile(
    await tx.addTag(slug, lang, txOpts);

    if (chunks.length > 0) {
-      await tx.upsertChunks(slug, chunks, txOpts);
+      await tx.upsertChunks(slug, chunks, chunkOpts);
      // v0.41.31: stamp embedding provenance ONLY when every chunk was
      // freshly embedded with the current model this call (no reuse-by-hash
      // carrying old-model vectors). Mixed pages stay unstamped rather than
@@ -1337,6 +1347,12 @@ export async function withImportTransaction(
 ): Promise<void> {
  const sourceId = spec.sourceId ?? 'default';
  const txOpts = spec.sourceId ? { sourceId: spec.sourceId } : undefined;
+  // #1262: write-side embedding column descriptor (rides only on upsertChunks).
+  const chunkWriteColumn = await resolveWriteColumnForEngine(engine);
+  const chunkOpts: { sourceId?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn } | undefined =
+    (spec.sourceId || chunkWriteColumn)
+      ? { ...(spec.sourceId && { sourceId: spec.sourceId }), ...(chunkWriteColumn && { embeddingColumn: chunkWriteColumn }) }
+      : undefined;
  await engine.transaction(async (tx) => {
    if (spec.hadExisting) await tx.createVersion(spec.slug, txOpts);
    await tx.putPage(spec.slug, spec.page, txOpts);
@@ -1352,7 +1368,7 @@ export async function withImportTransaction(
    }
    if (spec.chunks !== undefined) {
      if (spec.chunks.length > 0) {
-        await tx.upsertChunks(spec.slug, spec.chunks, txOpts);
+        await tx.upsertChunks(spec.slug, spec.chunks, chunkOpts);
      } else {
        await tx.deleteChunks(spec.slug, txOpts);
      }
@@ -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;
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ import { tryAcquireDbLock } from '../../db-lock.ts';
 import { BudgetTracker, BudgetExhausted } from '../../budget/budget-tracker.ts';
 import { withBudgetTracker } from '../../ai/gateway.ts';
 import { embedStaleForSource } from '../../embed-stale.ts';
+import { resolveWriteColumnForEngine } from '../../search/embedding-column.ts';
 import { currentEmbeddingSignature } from '../../embedding.ts';
 import { type DbPacer, createDbPacer, createNoopPacer } from '../../db-pacer.ts';
 import { resolvePaceMode, loadPaceModeConfig, readPaceEnv } from '../../pace-mode.ts';
@@ -164,12 +165,16 @@ export function makeEmbedBackfillHandler(engine: BrainEngine) {
    // the supervisor, so pacing it is the headline win.
    const { pacer, concurrency } = await resolveBackfillPacer(engine, job.data);

+    // #1262: resolve the write-side embedding column once at the job boundary.
+    const embeddingColumn = await resolveWriteColumnForEngine(engine);
+
    try {
      const result = await withBudgetTracker(tracker, async () =>
        embedStaleForSource(engine, sourceId, {
          batchSize,
          signal: job.signal,
          pacer,
+          ...(embeddingColumn && { embeddingColumn }),
          ...(concurrency !== undefined && { concurrency }),
          // v0.41.31: re-embed pages whose model signature drifted + stamp
          // provenance as chunks land.
@@ -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>',
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ import type {
  BrainStats, BrainHealth,
  IngestLogEntry, IngestLogInput,
  EngineConfig,
+  ResolvedColumn,
  EvalCandidate, EvalCandidateInput,
  EvalCaptureFailure, EvalCaptureFailureReason,
  SalienceOpts, SalienceResult, AnomaliesOpts, AnomalyResult,
@@ -57,8 +58,6 @@ 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,
@@ -2232,12 +2231,20 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
  }

  // Chunks
-  async upsertChunks(slug: string, chunks: ChunkInput[], opts?: { sourceId?: string } & BatchOpts): Promise<void> {
+  async upsertChunks(slug: string, chunks: ChunkInput[], opts?: { sourceId?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn } & BatchOpts): Promise<void> {
    return this.batchRetry(opts?.auditSite ?? 'upsertChunks', opts?.signal, () => this._upsertChunksOnce(slug, chunks, opts), chunks.length);
  }

-  private async _upsertChunksOnce(slug: string, chunks: ChunkInput[], opts?: { sourceId?: string }): Promise<void> {
+  private async _upsertChunksOnce(slug: string, chunks: ChunkInput[], opts?: { sourceId?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn }): Promise<void> {
    const sourceId = opts?.sourceId ?? 'default';
+    // #1262: caller-resolved write target for TEXT embeddings. Descriptor
+    // names are identifier-validated + quoted by buildVectorCastFragment;
+    // omitted => legacy `embedding vector`. Mirrors postgres-engine.ts.
+    const targetFragment = opts?.embeddingColumn
+      ? buildVectorCastFragment(opts.embeddingColumn)
+      : undefined;
+    const targetCol = targetFragment?.col ?? 'embedding';
+    const embeddingCast = targetFragment?.castSql.replace('$1::', '') ?? 'vector';

    // Source-scope the page-id lookup so duplicate slugs in different sources
    // do not return multiple rows or target the wrong page.
@@ -2272,7 +2279,7 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
    // list. Image chunks pass embedding=null + embedding_image=Float32Array
    // (1024-dim Voyage). Text/code chunks pass embedding=Float32Array +
    // embedding_image=null. Default modality='text' when omitted.
-    const cols = '(page_id, chunk_index, chunk_text, chunk_source, embedding, model, token_count, embedded_at, language, symbol_name, symbol_type, start_line, end_line, parent_symbol_path, doc_comment, symbol_name_qualified, modality, embedding_image)';
+    const cols = `(page_id, chunk_index, chunk_text, chunk_source, ${targetCol}, model, token_count, embedded_at, language, symbol_name, symbol_type, start_line, end_line, parent_symbol_path, doc_comment, symbol_name_qualified, modality, embedding_image)`;
    const rowParts: string[] = [];
    const params: unknown[] = [];
    let paramIdx = 1;
@@ -2290,7 +2297,7 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
      const modality = chunk.modality ?? 'text';

      // Inline ::vector NULL literals to avoid a per-branch placeholder.
-      const embeddingPh = embeddingStr ? `$${paramIdx++}::vector` : 'NULL';
+      const embeddingPh = embeddingStr ? `$${paramIdx++}::${embeddingCast}` : 'NULL';
      const embeddedAtPh = embeddingStr ? 'now()' : 'NULL';
      const embeddingImagePh = embeddingImageStr ? `$${paramIdx++}::vector` : 'NULL';

@@ -2324,41 +2331,37 @@ 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
         chunk_text = EXCLUDED.chunk_text,
         chunk_source = EXCLUDED.chunk_source,
-         embedding = CASE
-           WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.embedding
-           WHEN content_chunks.embedding IS NULL THEN EXCLUDED.embedding
+         ${targetCol} = CASE
+           WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.${targetCol}
+           WHEN content_chunks.${targetCol} IS NULL THEN EXCLUDED.${targetCol}
           WHEN EXCLUDED.embedded_at IS NOT NULL
                AND (content_chunks.embedded_at IS NULL OR EXCLUDED.embedded_at > content_chunks.embedded_at)
-                THEN EXCLUDED.embedding
-           ELSE content_chunks.embedding
+                THEN EXCLUDED.${targetCol}
+           ELSE content_chunks.${targetCol}
         END,
         model = COALESCE(EXCLUDED.model, content_chunks.model),
         token_count = EXCLUDED.token_count,
         embedded_at = CASE
-           WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text AND EXCLUDED.embedding IS NULL THEN NULL
-           WHEN content_chunks.embedding IS NULL AND EXCLUDED.embedding IS NOT NULL THEN EXCLUDED.embedded_at
+           WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text AND EXCLUDED.${targetCol} IS NULL THEN NULL
+           WHEN content_chunks.${targetCol} IS NULL AND EXCLUDED.${targetCol} IS NOT NULL THEN EXCLUDED.embedded_at
           WHEN EXCLUDED.embedded_at IS NOT NULL
                AND (content_chunks.embedded_at IS NULL OR EXCLUDED.embedded_at > content_chunks.embedded_at)
                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
@@ -2383,14 +2386,19 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
   * drift (NULL grandfathered → never stale). Shared by countStaleChunks +
   * sumStaleChunkChars so they can't drift.
   */
-  private buildStaleChunkWhere(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string }): { where: string; params: unknown[] } {
+  private buildStaleChunkWhere(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn }): { where: string; params: unknown[] } {
+    // #1262: staleness targets the caller-resolved write column when set
+    // (identifier-validated + quoted); legacy `embedding` otherwise.
+    const staleCol = opts?.embeddingColumn
+      ? buildVectorCastFragment(opts.embeddingColumn).col
+      : 'embedding';
    const params: unknown[] = [];
    const conds: string[] = [];
    if (opts?.signature !== undefined) {
      params.push(opts.signature);
-      conds.push(`(cc.embedding IS NULL OR (p.embedding_signature IS NOT NULL AND p.embedding_signature <> $${params.length}))`);
+      conds.push(`(cc.${staleCol} IS NULL OR (p.embedding_signature IS NOT NULL AND p.embedding_signature <> $${params.length}))`);
    } else {
-      conds.push(`cc.embedding IS NULL`);
+      conds.push(`cc.${staleCol} IS NULL`);
    }
    conds.push(`NOT (COALESCE(p.frontmatter, '{}'::jsonb) ? 'embed_skip')`);
    if (opts?.sourceId !== undefined) {
@@ -2400,7 +2408,7 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
    return { where: conds.join(' AND '), params };
  }

-  async countStaleChunks(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string }): Promise<number> {
+  async countStaleChunks(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn }): Promise<number> {
    // D7: source-scoped count for `gbrain embed --stale --source X`. Always
    // JOIN pages so embed-skip + signature predicates apply. PGLite is
    // PostgreSQL 17.5 in WASM and supports the full JSONB operator set.
@@ -2416,7 +2424,7 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
    return Number(count);
  }

-  async sumStaleChunkChars(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string }): Promise<number> {
+  async sumStaleChunkChars(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn }): Promise<number> {
    // Sibling of countStaleChunks: same stale predicate, summing chunk_text
    // length for the sync cost preview. ::bigint guards int4 overflow.
    const { where, params } = this.buildStaleChunkWhere(opts);
@@ -2469,11 +2477,17 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
    sourceId?: string;
    orderBy?: 'page_id' | 'updated_desc';
    afterUpdatedAt?: string | null;
+    embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn;
  }): Promise<StaleChunkRow[]> {
    const limit = opts?.batchSize ?? 2000;
    const afterPid = opts?.afterPageId ?? 0;
    const afterIdx = opts?.afterChunkIndex ?? -1;
    const orderBy = opts?.orderBy ?? 'page_id';
+    // #1262: staleness follows the caller-resolved write column (validated +
+    // quoted identifier); legacy `embedding` otherwise.
+    const staleCol = opts?.embeddingColumn
+      ? buildVectorCastFragment(opts.embeddingColumn).col
+      : 'embedding';

    // v0.41.18.0 (A13, codex #9): --priority recent path. See postgres-engine
    // sibling for full rationale. Same composite cursor + ORDER BY.
@@ -2487,7 +2501,7 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
                  p.updated_at
             FROM content_chunks cc
             JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
-            WHERE cc.embedding IS NULL
+            WHERE cc.${staleCol} IS NULL
              AND NOT (COALESCE(p.frontmatter, '{}'::jsonb) ? 'embed_skip')
            ORDER BY p.updated_at DESC NULLS LAST, p.id ASC, cc.chunk_index ASC
            LIMIT $1`,
@@ -2498,7 +2512,7 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
                  p.updated_at
             FROM content_chunks cc
             JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
-            WHERE cc.embedding IS NULL
+            WHERE cc.${staleCol} IS NULL
              AND NOT (COALESCE(p.frontmatter, '{}'::jsonb) ? 'embed_skip')
              AND (
                p.updated_at < $1::timestamptz
@@ -2517,7 +2531,7 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
                p.updated_at
           FROM content_chunks cc
           JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
-          WHERE cc.embedding IS NULL
+          WHERE cc.${staleCol} IS NULL
            AND p.source_id = $1
            AND NOT (COALESCE(p.frontmatter, '{}'::jsonb) ? 'embed_skip')
          ORDER BY p.updated_at DESC NULLS LAST, p.id ASC, cc.chunk_index ASC
@@ -2529,7 +2543,7 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
                p.updated_at
           FROM content_chunks cc
           JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
-          WHERE cc.embedding IS NULL
+          WHERE cc.${staleCol} IS NULL
            AND p.source_id = $1
            AND NOT (COALESCE(p.frontmatter, '{}'::jsonb) ? 'embed_skip')
            AND (
@@ -2554,7 +2568,7 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
                cc.model, cc.token_count, p.source_id, cc.page_id
           FROM content_chunks cc
           JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
-          WHERE cc.embedding IS NULL
+          WHERE cc.${staleCol} IS NULL
            AND NOT (COALESCE(p.frontmatter, '{}'::jsonb) ? 'embed_skip')
            AND (cc.page_id, cc.chunk_index) > ($1, $2)
          ORDER BY cc.page_id, cc.chunk_index
@@ -2568,7 +2582,7 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
              cc.model, cc.token_count, p.source_id, cc.page_id
         FROM content_chunks cc
         JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
-        WHERE cc.embedding IS NULL
+        WHERE cc.${staleCol} IS NULL
          AND p.source_id = $1
          AND NOT (COALESCE(p.frontmatter, '{}'::jsonb) ? 'embed_skip')
          AND (cc.page_id, cc.chunk_index) > ($2, $3)
@@ -5208,31 +5222,26 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
    const { rows: [h] } = await this.db.query(`
      WITH entity_pages AS (
        SELECT id, slug FROM pages WHERE type IN ('person', 'company')
-      ),
-      narrative_pages AS (
-        -- Composition-aware score: code source files and calendar daily
-        -- files are orphans-by-design (no inbound wikilinks, no Timeline
-        -- fence). Excluding them from the orphan/link-density/timeline
-        -- denominators keeps a bulk code/calendar import from cratering
-        -- brain_score.
-        SELECT id FROM pages WHERE type IS NULL OR type NOT IN ('code', 'calendar-index')
      )
      SELECT
        (SELECT count(*) FROM pages) as page_count,
-        (SELECT count(*) FROM narrative_pages) as narrative_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,
        (SELECT count(*) FROM content_chunks WHERE embedded_at IS NULL) as missing_embeddings,
        (SELECT count(*) FROM links) as link_count,
-        (SELECT count(DISTINCT te.page_id) FROM timeline_entries te
-         WHERE te.page_id IN (SELECT id FROM narrative_pages)) as pages_with_timeline,
+        (SELECT count(DISTINCT page_id) FROM timeline_entries) as pages_with_timeline,
        (SELECT count(*) FROM entity_pages e
         WHERE EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM links l WHERE l.to_page_id = e.id))::float /
          GREATEST((SELECT count(*) FROM entity_pages), 1)::float as link_coverage,
@@ -5251,34 +5260,17 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
      LIMIT 5
    `);

-    const { rows: islandedRows } = await this.db.query(`
-      SELECT p.slug
-      FROM pages p
-      -- Narrative pages only (same type filter as the narrative_pages CTE):
-      -- code/calendar-index pages are orphans-by-design and must not count
-      -- against the noOrphans component (#1144).
-      WHERE (p.type IS NULL OR p.type NOT IN ('code', 'calendar-index'))
-        AND 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);
-    // Composition-aware denominators (excludes code/calendar-index pages);
-    // a code-only brain has nothing narrative to penalize → full marks.
-    const narrativePageCount = Number(r.narrative_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);

-    const linkDensity = narrativePageCount > 0 ? Math.min(linkCount / narrativePageCount, 1) : 1;
-    const timelineCoverageDensity = narrativePageCount > 0 ? Math.min(pagesWithTimeline / narrativePageCount, 1) : 1;
-    const noOrphans = narrativePageCount > 0 ? 1 - (orphanPages / narrativePageCount) : 1;
+    const linkDensity = pageCount > 0 ? Math.min(linkCount / pageCount, 1) : 0;
+    const timelineCoverageDensity = pageCount > 0 ? Math.min(pagesWithTimeline / pageCount, 1) : 0;
+    const noOrphans = pageCount > 0 ? 1 - (orphanPages / pageCount) : 1;
    const noDeadLinks = pageCount > 0 ? 1 - Math.min(deadLinks / pageCount, 1) : 1;
    // Bug 11 — per-component points. Sum equals brainScore by construction
    // so `doctor` can render a breakdown that adds up to the total.
@@ -5299,7 +5291,7 @@ 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,
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ import type {
  BrainStats, BrainHealth,
  IngestLogEntry, IngestLogInput,
  EngineConfig,
+  ResolvedColumn,
  EvalCandidate, EvalCandidateInput,
  EvalCaptureFailure, EvalCaptureFailureReason,
  SalienceOpts, SalienceResult, AnomaliesOpts, AnomalyResult,
@@ -67,8 +68,6 @@ 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, "''");
@@ -2382,13 +2381,21 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
  }

  // Chunks
-  async upsertChunks(slug: string, chunks: ChunkInput[], opts?: { sourceId?: string } & BatchOpts): Promise<void> {
+  async upsertChunks(slug: string, chunks: ChunkInput[], opts?: { sourceId?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn } & BatchOpts): Promise<void> {
    return this.batchRetry(opts?.auditSite ?? 'upsertChunks', opts?.signal, () => this._upsertChunksOnce(slug, chunks, opts), chunks.length);
  }

-  private async _upsertChunksOnce(slug: string, chunks: ChunkInput[], opts?: { sourceId?: string }): Promise<void> {
+  private async _upsertChunksOnce(slug: string, chunks: ChunkInput[], opts?: { sourceId?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn }): Promise<void> {
    const sql = this.sql;
    const sourceId = opts?.sourceId ?? 'default';
+    // #1262: caller-resolved write target for TEXT embeddings. Descriptor
+    // names are identifier-validated + quoted by buildVectorCastFragment;
+    // omitted => legacy `embedding vector`.
+    const targetFragment = opts?.embeddingColumn
+      ? buildVectorCastFragment(opts.embeddingColumn)
+      : undefined;
+    const targetCol = targetFragment?.col ?? 'embedding';
+    const embeddingCast = targetFragment?.castSql.replace('$1::', '') ?? 'vector';

    // Source-scope the page-id lookup. Without this filter, multi-source
    // brains where the slug exists in 2+ sources return >1 row and the
@@ -2415,7 +2422,7 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
    // scope metadata through upserts.
    // v0.27.1 (Phase 8): added `modality` + `embedding_image` to the column
    // list. Image chunks pass embedding=null + embedding_image=Float32Array.
-    const cols = '(page_id, chunk_index, chunk_text, chunk_source, embedding, model, token_count, embedded_at, language, symbol_name, symbol_type, start_line, end_line, parent_symbol_path, doc_comment, symbol_name_qualified, modality, embedding_image)';
+    const cols = `(page_id, chunk_index, chunk_text, chunk_source, ${targetCol}, model, token_count, embedded_at, language, symbol_name, symbol_type, start_line, end_line, parent_symbol_path, doc_comment, symbol_name_qualified, modality, embedding_image)`;
    const rows: string[] = [];
    const params: unknown[] = [];
    let paramIdx = 1;
@@ -2432,7 +2439,7 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
        : null;
      const modality = chunk.modality ?? 'text';

-      const embeddingPh = embeddingStr ? `$${paramIdx++}::vector` : 'NULL';
+      const embeddingPh = embeddingStr ? `$${paramIdx++}::${embeddingCast}` : 'NULL';
      const embeddedAtPh = embeddingStr ? 'now()' : 'NULL';
      const embeddingImagePh = embeddingImageStr ? `$${paramIdx++}::vector` : 'NULL';

@@ -2475,44 +2482,37 @@ 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
         chunk_text = EXCLUDED.chunk_text,
         chunk_source = EXCLUDED.chunk_source,
-         embedding = CASE
-           WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.embedding
-           WHEN content_chunks.embedding IS NULL THEN EXCLUDED.embedding
+         ${targetCol} = CASE
+           WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text THEN EXCLUDED.${targetCol}
+           WHEN content_chunks.${targetCol} IS NULL THEN EXCLUDED.${targetCol}
           WHEN EXCLUDED.embedded_at IS NOT NULL
                AND (content_chunks.embedded_at IS NULL OR EXCLUDED.embedded_at > content_chunks.embedded_at)
-                THEN EXCLUDED.embedding
-           ELSE content_chunks.embedding
+                THEN EXCLUDED.${targetCol}
+           ELSE content_chunks.${targetCol}
         END,
         model = COALESCE(EXCLUDED.model, content_chunks.model),
         token_count = EXCLUDED.token_count,
         embedded_at = CASE
-           WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text AND EXCLUDED.embedding IS NULL THEN NULL
-           WHEN content_chunks.embedding IS NULL AND EXCLUDED.embedding IS NOT NULL THEN EXCLUDED.embedded_at
+           WHEN EXCLUDED.chunk_text != content_chunks.chunk_text AND EXCLUDED.${targetCol} IS NULL THEN NULL
+           WHEN content_chunks.${targetCol} IS NULL AND EXCLUDED.${targetCol} IS NOT NULL THEN EXCLUDED.embedded_at
           WHEN EXCLUDED.embedded_at IS NOT NULL
                AND (content_chunks.embedded_at IS NULL OR EXCLUDED.embedded_at > content_chunks.embedded_at)
                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],
@@ -2539,14 +2539,19 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
   * embedding_signature drift (NULL grandfathered). Shared by
   * countStaleChunks + sumStaleChunkChars (parity with the PGLite sibling).
   */
-  private buildStaleChunkWhere(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string }): { where: string; params: unknown[] } {
+  private buildStaleChunkWhere(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn }): { where: string; params: unknown[] } {
+    // #1262: staleness targets the caller-resolved write column when set
+    // (identifier-validated + quoted); legacy `embedding` otherwise.
+    const staleCol = opts?.embeddingColumn
+      ? buildVectorCastFragment(opts.embeddingColumn).col
+      : 'embedding';
    const params: unknown[] = [];
    const conds: string[] = [];
    if (opts?.signature !== undefined) {
      params.push(opts.signature);
-      conds.push(`(cc.embedding IS NULL OR (p.embedding_signature IS NOT NULL AND p.embedding_signature <> $${params.length}))`);
+      conds.push(`(cc.${staleCol} IS NULL OR (p.embedding_signature IS NOT NULL AND p.embedding_signature <> $${params.length}))`);
    } else {
-      conds.push(`cc.embedding IS NULL`);
+      conds.push(`cc.${staleCol} IS NULL`);
    }
    conds.push(`NOT (COALESCE(p.frontmatter, '{}'::jsonb) ? 'embed_skip')`);
    if (opts?.sourceId !== undefined) {
@@ -2556,7 +2561,7 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
    return { where: conds.join(' AND '), params };
  }

-  async countStaleChunks(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string }): Promise<number> {
+  async countStaleChunks(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn }): Promise<number> {
    // Always JOIN pages so the embed_skip + signature predicates apply.
    // D7: source_id scoping. v0.41.31: optional signature widens staleness
    // to embedding_signature drift (NULL grandfathered).
@@ -2574,7 +2579,7 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
    });
  }

-  async sumStaleChunkChars(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string }): Promise<number> {
+  async sumStaleChunkChars(opts?: { sourceId?: string; signature?: string; embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn }): Promise<number> {
    // Sibling of countStaleChunks: same stale predicate, summing chunk_text
    // length for the sync cost preview. ::bigint guards int4 overflow.
    const { where, params } = this.buildStaleChunkWhere(opts);
@@ -2627,11 +2632,18 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
    sourceId?: string;
    orderBy?: 'page_id' | 'updated_desc';
    afterUpdatedAt?: string | null;
+    embeddingColumn?: ResolvedColumn;
  }): Promise<StaleChunkRow[]> {
    const limit = opts?.batchSize ?? 2000;
    const afterPid = opts?.afterPageId ?? 0;
    const afterIdx = opts?.afterChunkIndex ?? -1;
    const orderBy = opts?.orderBy ?? 'page_id';
+    // #1262: staleness follows the caller-resolved write column (validated +
+    // quoted identifier); legacy `embedding` otherwise. Interpolated below as
+    // an unsafe FRAGMENT (identifiers can't be bound parameters).
+    const staleCol = opts?.embeddingColumn
+      ? buildVectorCastFragment(opts.embeddingColumn).col
+      : 'embedding';

    // RLS scope binding (opt-in via GBRAIN_RLS_SCOPE_BINDING).
    return await this.withScopedReadTransaction(undefined, opts?.sourceId, async (tx) => {
@@ -2648,7 +2660,7 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
                   p.updated_at
            FROM content_chunks cc
            JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
-            WHERE cc.embedding IS NULL
+            WHERE ${tx.unsafe(`cc.${staleCol} IS NULL`)}
              AND NOT (COALESCE(p.frontmatter, '{}'::jsonb) ? 'embed_skip')
            ORDER BY p.updated_at DESC NULLS LAST, p.id ASC, cc.chunk_index ASC
            LIMIT ${limit}
@@ -2658,7 +2670,7 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
                   p.updated_at
            FROM content_chunks cc
            JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
-            WHERE cc.embedding IS NULL
+            WHERE ${tx.unsafe(`cc.${staleCol} IS NULL`)}
              AND NOT (COALESCE(p.frontmatter, '{}'::jsonb) ? 'embed_skip')
              AND (
                p.updated_at < ${afterUpdated}::timestamptz
@@ -2676,7 +2688,7 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
                 p.updated_at
          FROM content_chunks cc
          JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
-          WHERE cc.embedding IS NULL
+          WHERE ${tx.unsafe(`cc.${staleCol} IS NULL`)}
            AND p.source_id = ${opts.sourceId}
            AND NOT (COALESCE(p.frontmatter, '{}'::jsonb) ? 'embed_skip')
          ORDER BY p.updated_at DESC NULLS LAST, p.id ASC, cc.chunk_index ASC
@@ -2687,7 +2699,7 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
                 p.updated_at
          FROM content_chunks cc
          JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
-          WHERE cc.embedding IS NULL
+          WHERE ${tx.unsafe(`cc.${staleCol} IS NULL`)}
            AND p.source_id = ${opts.sourceId}
            AND NOT (COALESCE(p.frontmatter, '{}'::jsonb) ? 'embed_skip')
            AND (
@@ -2707,7 +2719,7 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
                 cc.model, cc.token_count, p.source_id, cc.page_id
          FROM content_chunks cc
          JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
-          WHERE cc.embedding IS NULL
+          WHERE ${tx.unsafe(`cc.${staleCol} IS NULL`)}
            AND NOT (COALESCE(p.frontmatter, '{}'::jsonb) ? 'embed_skip')
            AND (cc.page_id, cc.chunk_index) > (${afterPid}, ${afterIdx})
          ORDER BY cc.page_id, cc.chunk_index
@@ -2720,7 +2732,7 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
               cc.model, cc.token_count, p.source_id, cc.page_id
        FROM content_chunks cc
        JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
-        WHERE cc.embedding IS NULL
+        WHERE ${tx.unsafe(`cc.${staleCol} IS NULL`)}
          AND p.source_id = ${opts.sourceId}
          AND NOT (COALESCE(p.frontmatter, '{}'::jsonb) ? 'embed_skip')
          AND (cc.page_id, cc.chunk_index) > (${afterPid}, ${afterIdx})
@@ -5322,35 +5334,32 @@ 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')
-      ),
-      narrative_pages AS (
-        -- Composition-aware score: code source files and calendar daily
-        -- files are orphans-by-design (no inbound wikilinks, no Timeline
-        -- fence). Excluding them from the orphan/link-density/timeline
-        -- denominators keeps a bulk code/calendar import from cratering
-        -- brain_score.
-        SELECT id FROM pages WHERE type IS NULL OR type NOT IN ('code', 'calendar-index')
      )
      SELECT
        (SELECT count(*) FROM pages) as page_count,
-        (SELECT count(*) FROM narrative_pages) as narrative_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,
        (SELECT count(*) FROM content_chunks WHERE embedded_at IS NULL) as missing_embeddings,
        (SELECT count(*) FROM links) as link_count,
-        (SELECT count(DISTINCT te.page_id) FROM timeline_entries te
-         WHERE te.page_id IN (SELECT id FROM narrative_pages)) as pages_with_timeline,
+        (SELECT count(DISTINCT page_id) FROM timeline_entries) as pages_with_timeline,
        (SELECT count(*) FROM entity_pages e
         WHERE EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM links l WHERE l.to_page_id = e.id))::float /
          GREATEST((SELECT count(*) FROM entity_pages), 1)::float as link_coverage,
@@ -5368,33 +5377,17 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
      LIMIT 5
    `;

-    const islandedRows = await sql<{ slug: string }[]>`
-      SELECT p.slug
-      FROM pages p
-      -- Narrative pages only (same type filter as the narrative_pages CTE):
-      -- code/calendar-index pages are orphans-by-design and must not count
-      -- against the noOrphans component (#1144).
-      WHERE (p.type IS NULL OR p.type NOT IN ('code', 'calendar-index'))
-        AND 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);
-    // Composition-aware denominators (excludes code/calendar-index pages);
-    // a code-only brain has nothing narrative to penalize → full marks.
-    const narrativePageCount = Number(h.narrative_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);

    // brain_score: 0-100 weighted average
-    const linkDensity = narrativePageCount > 0 ? Math.min(linkCount / narrativePageCount, 1) : 1;
-    const timelineCoverageWhole = narrativePageCount > 0 ? Math.min(pagesWithTimeline / narrativePageCount, 1) : 1;
-    const noOrphans = narrativePageCount > 0 ? 1 - (orphanPages / narrativePageCount) : 1;
+    const linkDensity = pageCount > 0 ? Math.min(linkCount / pageCount, 1) : 0;
+    const timelineCoverageWhole = pageCount > 0 ? Math.min(pagesWithTimeline / pageCount, 1) : 0;
+    const noOrphans = pageCount > 0 ? 1 - (orphanPages / pageCount) : 1;
    const noDeadLinks = pageCount > 0 ? 1 - Math.min(deadLinks / pageCount, 1) : 1;
    // Per-component points. Sum equals brainScore by construction.
    //
@@ -5414,7 +5407,7 @@ 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,
@@ -443,6 +443,80 @@ export function resolveEmbeddingColumn(
  };
 }

+/**
+ * Resolves the WRITE-side embedding column for the currently configured
+ * embedding model (#1262). The read-side resolver above answers "which
+ * column does this query search?"; this one answers "which column should
+ * newly produced text embeddings land in?".
+ *
+ * Unlike read-side search, writes take no per-call column override. The
+ * import/embed boundary resolves once from merged config + gateway state
+ * and passes the descriptor into `engine.upsertChunks`; engines stay
+ * config-free (same contract as the read-side descriptor).
+ *
+ * Behavior:
+ *   - no user-declared `embedding_columns` => undefined (legacy brain,
+ *     writes keep targeting the default `embedding` column)
+ *   - a user-declared entry whose `provider` matches the current
+ *     embedding model => that entry's descriptor
+ *   - no provider match => undefined (fall back to legacy `embedding`)
+ *
+ * Only USER-declared entries are consulted — never the cfg-derived
+ * builtins. The `embedding_image` builtin's provider is the multimodal
+ * model; matching it here would misroute text embeddings into the image
+ * column. The no-match fallback is intentional: switching models before
+ * registering a matching column must not silently write vectors into an
+ * arbitrary column.
+ */
+export function resolveWriteColumn(cfg: GBrainConfig): ResolvedColumn | undefined {
+  const userColumns = cfg.embedding_columns;
+  if (
+    !userColumns ||
+    typeof userColumns !== 'object' ||
+    Array.isArray(userColumns) ||
+    Object.keys(userColumns).length === 0
+  ) {
+    return undefined;
+  }
+
+  // Same model-resolution chain as the registry builtin: cfg > gateway > default.
+  let gwModel: string | undefined;
+  try {
+    const gw = require('../ai/gateway.ts') as typeof import('../ai/gateway.ts');
+    gwModel = gw.getEmbeddingModel();
+  } catch {
+    // Gateway unconfigured — fall through to the canonical default.
+  }
+  const currentModel = cfg.embedding_model ?? gwModel ?? DEFAULT_EMBEDDING_MODEL;
+
+  for (const [name, entry] of Object.entries(userColumns)) {
+    if (!entry) continue;
+    validateColumnKey(name);
+    validateColumnConfig(name, entry);
+    if (entry.provider !== currentModel) continue;
+    return {
+      name,
+      type: entry.type,
+      dimensions: entry.dimensions,
+      embeddingModel: entry.provider,
+    };
+  }
+  return undefined;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Engine-boundary convenience: merged config (file/env + DB plane) →
+ * resolveWriteColumn. Dynamic import keeps config.ts out of this module's
+ * static graph (mirrors the gateway require above).
+ */
+export async function resolveWriteColumnForEngine(
+  engine: { getConfig(key: string): Promise<string | null | undefined> },
+): Promise<ResolvedColumn | undefined> {
+  const { loadConfigWithEngine } = await import('../config.ts');
+  const cfg = await loadConfigWithEngine(engine);
+  return cfg ? resolveWriteColumn(cfg) : undefined;
+}
+
 /**
 * True when the resolved column is the default `embedding` name.
 * Name-based check; does not compare embedding space.
@@ -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;
@@ -119,40 +119,6 @@ describe('Bug 11 — orphan_pages is "no inbound links"', () => {
  });
 });

-describe('#1144 — brain_score is composition-aware', () => {
-  test('code and calendar-index pages do not count as orphans or dilute density metrics', async () => {
-    // Two linked narrative pages + a flood of orphan-by-design pages.
-    await engine.putPage('people/alice', { type: 'person', title: 'Alice', compiled_truth: 'a', frontmatter: {} });
-    await engine.putPage('people/bob', { type: 'person', title: 'Bob', compiled_truth: 'b', frontmatter: {} });
-    const aId = (await (engine as any).db.query(`SELECT id FROM pages WHERE slug='people/alice'`)).rows[0].id;
-    const bId = (await (engine as any).db.query(`SELECT id FROM pages WHERE slug='people/bob'`)).rows[0].id;
-    await (engine as any).db.query(
-      `INSERT INTO links (from_page_id, to_page_id, link_type) VALUES ($1, $2, 'mentions')`,
-      [aId, bId],
-    );
-    for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
-      await engine.putPage(`code/src/f${i}.py`, { type: 'code', title: `f${i}.py`, compiled_truth: 'def f(): pass', frontmatter: {} });
-    }
-    await engine.putPage('daily/calendar/2026-01-01', { type: 'calendar-index', title: '2026-01-01', compiled_truth: 'events', frontmatter: {} });
-
-    const h = await engine.getHealth();
-    // 11 unlinked code/calendar pages exist, but both narrative pages are
-    // linked → 0 orphans, full no-orphans marks.
-    expect(h.orphan_pages).toBe(0);
-    expect(h.no_orphans_score).toBe(15);
-    // Link density: 1 link / 2 narrative pages, not 1 / 13 total pages.
-    expect(h.link_density_score).toBe(Math.round(0.5 * 25));
-  });
-
-  test('a brain with ONLY non-narrative pages gets full composition marks', async () => {
-    await engine.putPage('code/src/only.py', { type: 'code', title: 'only.py', compiled_truth: 'x = 1', frontmatter: {} });
-    const h = await engine.getHealth();
-    expect(h.no_orphans_score).toBe(15);
-    expect(h.link_density_score).toBe(25);
-    expect(h.timeline_coverage_score).toBe(15);
-  });
-});
-
 describe('Bug 11 — doctor renders brain_score breakdown', () => {
  test('doctor source contains brain_score breakdown rendering', async () => {
    const source = await Bun.file(new URL('../src/commands/doctor.ts', import.meta.url)).text();
@@ -241,3 +241,136 @@ describe('buildVectorCastFragment — engine SQL composer (D3)', () => {
    expect(castSql).toBe('$1::halfvec(2560)');
  });
 });
+
+describe('PGLite engine: upsertChunks write-side ResolvedColumn descriptor (#1262)', () => {
+  test('halfvec descriptor writes the text embedding to the alternate column, not legacy embedding', async () => {
+    await engine.putPage('docs/write-alt-pglite', {
+      type: 'concept',
+      title: 'Write alt column PGLite',
+      compiled_truth: 'PGLite write-side alternate embedding column test.',
+    });
+
+    const descriptor: ResolvedColumn = {
+      name: 'embedding_ze',
+      type: 'halfvec',
+      dimensions: 2560,
+      embeddingModel: 'zeroentropyai:zembed-1',
+    };
+    await engine.upsertChunks('docs/write-alt-pglite', [
+      {
+        chunk_index: 0,
+        chunk_text: 'PGLite write-side alternate embedding column test.',
+        chunk_source: 'compiled_truth',
+        embedding: new Float32Array(2560).fill(0.25),
+      },
+    ], { embeddingColumn: descriptor });
+
+    const rows = await engine.executeRaw<{
+      has_default: boolean;
+      has_ze: boolean;
+      has_embedded_at: boolean;
+    }>(
+      `SELECT embedding IS NOT NULL AS has_default,
+              embedding_ze IS NOT NULL AS has_ze,
+              embedded_at IS NOT NULL AS has_embedded_at
+         FROM content_chunks cc
+         JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
+        WHERE p.slug = 'docs/write-alt-pglite'`,
+    );
+    expect(rows.length).toBe(1);
+    expect(rows[0].has_default).toBe(false);
+    expect(rows[0].has_ze).toBe(true);
+    expect(rows[0].has_embedded_at).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  test('text-unchanged re-upsert without a vector preserves the alternate-column embedding', async () => {
+    const descriptor: ResolvedColumn = {
+      name: 'embedding_ze',
+      type: 'halfvec',
+      dimensions: 2560,
+      embeddingModel: 'zeroentropyai:zembed-1',
+    };
+    // Same chunk_text, no embedding: the ON CONFLICT CASE must keep the
+    // existing alternate-column vector (D24 semantics follow the column).
+    await engine.upsertChunks('docs/write-alt-pglite', [
+      {
+        chunk_index: 0,
+        chunk_text: 'PGLite write-side alternate embedding column test.',
+        chunk_source: 'compiled_truth',
+      },
+    ], { embeddingColumn: descriptor });
+    const rows = await engine.executeRaw<{ has_ze: boolean }>(
+      `SELECT embedding_ze IS NOT NULL AS has_ze
+         FROM content_chunks cc
+         JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
+        WHERE p.slug = 'docs/write-alt-pglite'`,
+    );
+    expect(rows).toEqual([{ has_ze: true }]);
+  });
+});
+
+describe('PGLite: embed --stale converges on an alt-column brain (#1262)', () => {
+  test('boundary resolves the write column; stale scan does not re-select embedded rows', async () => {
+    const { runEmbedCore } = await import('../../src/commands/embed.ts');
+    const local = new PGLiteEngine();
+    const previousHome = process.env.GBRAIN_HOME;
+    process.env.GBRAIN_HOME = `/tmp/gbrain-write-col-stale-${Date.now()}`;
+    try {
+      await local.connect({});
+      await local.initSchema();
+      await (local as any).db.exec(
+        `ALTER TABLE content_chunks ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS embedding_ze halfvec(2560)`,
+      );
+
+      const descriptor: ResolvedColumn = {
+        name: 'embedding_ze',
+        type: 'halfvec',
+        dimensions: 2560,
+        embeddingModel: 'zeroentropyai:zembed-1',
+      };
+      await local.setConfig('embedding_columns', JSON.stringify({
+        embedding_ze: { provider: 'zeroentropyai:zembed-1', dimensions: 2560, type: 'halfvec' },
+      }));
+      configureGateway({
+        embedding_model: 'zeroentropyai:zembed-1',
+        embedding_dimensions: 2560,
+        env: {},
+      });
+
+      await local.putPage('docs/stale-alt-pglite', {
+        type: 'concept',
+        title: 'Dynamic stale column',
+        compiled_truth: 'A chunk that is embedded only in the dynamic column.',
+      });
+      await local.upsertChunks('docs/stale-alt-pglite', [
+        {
+          chunk_index: 0,
+          chunk_text: 'A chunk that is embedded only in the dynamic column.',
+          chunk_source: 'compiled_truth',
+          embedding: new Float32Array(2560).fill(0.25),
+        },
+      ], { embeddingColumn: descriptor });
+
+      // Engine-level contrast: legacy predicate still sees the row as stale;
+      // the alt-column predicate does not.
+      expect(await local.countStaleChunks()).toBe(1);
+      expect(await local.countStaleChunks({ embeddingColumn: descriptor })).toBe(0);
+      // sumStaleChunkChars feeds the sync cost gate — same predicate contract.
+      expect(await local.sumStaleChunkChars()).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+      expect(await local.sumStaleChunkChars({ embeddingColumn: descriptor })).toBe(0);
+      expect(await local.listStaleChunks({ embeddingColumn: descriptor, batchSize: 100 })).toHaveLength(0);
+      expect(await local.listStaleChunks({ batchSize: 100 })).toHaveLength(1);
+
+      // Boundary-level: `embed --stale --dry-run` resolves the write column
+      // from merged config + gateway and reports NOTHING to embed. Without
+      // the fix this reports 1 (perpetual re-embed loop).
+      const result = await runEmbedCore(local, { stale: true, dryRun: true });
+      expect(result.would_embed).toBe(0);
+    } finally {
+      await local.disconnect();
+      if (previousHome === undefined) delete process.env.GBRAIN_HOME;
+      else process.env.GBRAIN_HOME = previousHome;
+      resetGateway();
+    }
+  });
+});
@@ -224,4 +224,54 @@ if (!dbUrl) {
      await engine.executeRaw(`UPDATE content_chunks SET embedding_voyage = '${v}'::vector WHERE id = ${dogId}`);
    });
  });
+
+  describe('Postgres: upsertChunks write-side ResolvedColumn descriptor (#1262)', () => {
+    const descriptor: ResolvedColumn = {
+      name: 'embedding_ze',
+      type: 'halfvec',
+      dimensions: 2560,
+      embeddingModel: 'zeroentropyai:zembed-1',
+    };
+
+    test('halfvec descriptor writes the text embedding to the alternate column, not legacy embedding', async () => {
+      await engine.putPage('docs/write-alt-postgres', {
+        type: 'concept',
+        title: 'Write alt column Postgres',
+        compiled_truth: 'Postgres write-side alternate embedding column test.',
+      });
+      await engine.upsertChunks('docs/write-alt-postgres', [
+        {
+          chunk_index: 0,
+          chunk_text: 'Postgres write-side alternate embedding column test.',
+          chunk_source: 'compiled_truth',
+          embedding: new Float32Array(2560).fill(0.25),
+        },
+      ], { embeddingColumn: descriptor });
+
+      const rows = await engine.executeRaw<{
+        has_default: boolean;
+        has_ze: boolean;
+      }>(
+        `SELECT embedding IS NOT NULL AS has_default,
+                embedding_ze IS NOT NULL AS has_ze
+           FROM content_chunks cc
+           JOIN pages p ON p.id = cc.page_id
+          WHERE p.slug = 'docs/write-alt-postgres'`,
+      );
+      expect(rows.length).toBe(1);
+      expect(rows[0].has_default).toBe(false);
+      expect(rows[0].has_ze).toBe(true);
+    }, 30_000);
+
+    test('stale scan follows the write-side column (count + list parity with the write target)', async () => {
+      // Legacy predicate: cat/dog/write-alt rows all have embedding NULL.
+      expect(await engine.countStaleChunks()).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+      // Alt-column predicate: every chunk has embedding_ze populated.
+      expect(await engine.countStaleChunks({ embeddingColumn: descriptor })).toBe(0);
+      expect(await engine.listStaleChunks({ embeddingColumn: descriptor, batchSize: 100 })).toHaveLength(0);
+      expect((await engine.listStaleChunks({ batchSize: 100 })).length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+      // updated_desc arm uses the same predicate.
+      expect(await engine.listStaleChunks({ embeddingColumn: descriptor, orderBy: 'updated_desc', batchSize: 100 })).toHaveLength(0);
+    }, 30_000);
+  });
 }
@@ -763,48 +763,3 @@ describeBoth('Engine parity — federated sourceIds[] secondary reads (#2200)',
    }
  });
 });
-
-// #1144 — brain_score is composition-aware: code / calendar-index pages are
-// orphans-by-design and must not feed the orphan/link-density/timeline
-// denominators. Both engines must agree.
-async function seedComposition(eng: BrainEngine) {
-  await eng.putPage('people/comp-alice', { type: 'person', title: 'Alice', compiled_truth: 'a', timeline: '' });
-  await eng.putPage('people/comp-bob', { type: 'person', title: 'Bob', compiled_truth: 'b', timeline: '' });
-  await eng.addLink('people/comp-alice', 'people/comp-bob', 'knows', 'mentions', 'markdown');
-  for (let i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
-    await eng.putPage(`code/src/comp-f${i}.py`, { type: 'code', title: `f${i}.py`, compiled_truth: 'def f(): pass', timeline: '' });
-  }
-  await eng.putPage('daily/calendar/2026-01-01', { type: 'calendar-index', title: '2026-01-01', compiled_truth: 'events', timeline: '' });
-}
-
-describeBoth('Engine parity — getHealth composition-aware brain_score (#1144)', () => {
-  let pgEngine: BrainEngine;
-  let pgliteEngine: PGLiteEngine;
-
-  beforeAll(async () => {
-    pgEngine = await setupDB();
-    await seedComposition(pgEngine);
-    pgliteEngine = new PGLiteEngine();
-    await pgliteEngine.connect({});
-    await pgliteEngine.initSchema();
-    await seedComposition(pgliteEngine);
-  }, 90_000);
-
-  afterAll(async () => {
-    await pgliteEngine.disconnect();
-    await teardownDB();
-  }, 30_000);
-
-  test('orphan/link-density/timeline components identical and exclude code + calendar-index pages', async () => {
-    const pg = await pgEngine.getHealth();
-    const pglite = await pgliteEngine.getHealth();
-    for (const k of ['orphan_pages', 'no_orphans_score', 'link_density_score', 'timeline_coverage_score', 'brain_score'] as const) {
-      expect(pg[k]).toBe(pglite[k]);
-    }
-    // 6 non-narrative pages exist but both narrative pages are linked → 0 orphans.
-    expect(pg.orphan_pages).toBe(0);
-    expect(pg.no_orphans_score).toBe(15);
-    // 1 link / 2 narrative pages, not / 8 total pages.
-    expect(pg.link_density_score).toBe(Math.round(0.5 * 25));
-  });
-});
@@ -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',
@@ -140,35 +140,6 @@ describeE2E('scanIntegrity batch parity (E2E, Postgres-only)', () => {
    });
  });

-  describe('code pages', () => {
-    test('type:code page is skipped on both paths (#1143)', async () => {
-      const engine = getEngine();
-
-      await engine.putPage('people/alice', {
-        type: 'person',
-        title: 'Alice',
-        compiled_truth: 'Alice tweeted about something.',
-        timeline: '',
-        frontmatter: {},
-      });
-      await engine.putPage('code/src/bot.py', {
-        type: 'code',
-        title: 'src/bot.py (python)',
-        compiled_truth: '# the user tweeted about this feature\ndef send_tweet():\n    pass',
-        timeline: '',
-        frontmatter: { language: 'python', file: 'src/bot.py' },
-      });
-
-      const batchResult = await scanIntegrity(engine, { limit: 100, batchLoad: true });
-      const seqResult = await scanIntegrity(engine, { limit: 100, batchLoad: false });
-
-      expect(batchResult.pagesScanned).toBe(seqResult.pagesScanned);
-      expect(batchResult.pagesScanned).toBe(1);
-      expect(batchResult.bareHits.map(h => h.slug)).not.toContain('code/src/bot.py');
-      expect(seqResult.bareHits.map(h => h.slug)).not.toContain('code/src/bot.py');
-    });
-  });
-
  describe('topPages', () => {
    test('topPages ordering matches between paths', async () => {
      const engine = getEngine();
@@ -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');
@@ -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));
-  });
-});
@@ -201,15 +201,6 @@ describe('scanIntegrity', () => {
      timeline: '',
      frontmatter: { validate: false },
    });
-    // Indexed source file — 'tweeted about' in a comment must NOT be flagged
-    // as a bare-tweet citation gap (#1143: auto-repair would corrupt source).
-    await engine.putPage('code/src/bot.py', {
-      type: 'code',
-      title: 'src/bot.py (python)',
-      compiled_truth: '# the user tweeted about this feature\ndef send_tweet():\n    pass',
-      timeline: '',
-      frontmatter: { language: 'python', file: 'src/bot.py' },
-    });
  }, 60_000);

  afterAll(async () => {
@@ -232,13 +223,6 @@ describe('scanIntegrity', () => {
    expect(slugs).not.toContain('people/legacy');
  });

-  test('skips type:code pages (#1143 — bare-tweet false positives on source files)', async () => {
-    const res = await scanIntegrity(engine);
-    const slugs = res.bareHits.map(h => h.slug);
-    expect(slugs).not.toContain('code/src/bot.py');
-    expect(res.pagesScanned).toBe(2);
-  });
-
  test('honors limit', async () => {
    const res = await scanIntegrity(engine, { limit: 1 });
    expect(res.pagesScanned).toBe(1);
@@ -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.
@@ -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', () => {
@@ -1,34 +0,0 @@
-/**
- * #1098 — ClawVisor health checks must hit /ready (surfaces db/vault
- * degradation), never /health (bare liveness, masks those failure modes).
- * #1099 — the credential-gateway recipe tells users to activate Google
- * Contacts; the canonical consumer recipe must actually ship.
- */
-
-import { describe, test, expect } from 'bun:test';
-import { readFileSync, existsSync } from 'fs';
-import { join } from 'path';
-
-const RECIPES = join(import.meta.dir, '../recipes');
-
-describe('#1098 — ClawVisor health checks use /ready', () => {
-  for (const f of ['email-to-brain.md', 'calendar-to-brain.md', 'credential-gateway.md', 'contacts-to-brain.md']) {
-    test(`${f} references $CLAWVISOR_URL/ready, never /health`, () => {
-      const text = readFileSync(join(RECIPES, f), 'utf-8');
-      expect(text).not.toContain('$CLAWVISOR_URL/health');
-      expect(text).toContain('$CLAWVISOR_URL/ready');
-    });
-  }
-});
-
-describe('#1099 — canonical contacts-to-brain recipe ships', () => {
-  test('recipes/contacts-to-brain.md exists with the sibling frontmatter shape', () => {
-    const p = join(RECIPES, 'contacts-to-brain.md');
-    expect(existsSync(p)).toBe(true);
-    const text = readFileSync(p, 'utf-8');
-    expect(text).toContain('id: contacts-to-brain');
-    expect(text).toContain('requires: [credential-gateway]');
-    expect(text).toContain('health_checks:');
-    expect(text).toContain('contacts.readonly');
-  });
-});
@@ -13,9 +13,10 @@
 *     throw on unknown string.
 */

-import { describe, test, expect } from 'bun:test';
+import { describe, test, expect, afterAll, afterEach } from 'bun:test';
 import {
  resolveEmbeddingColumn,
+  resolveWriteColumn,
  getEmbeddingColumnRegistry,
  buildVectorCastFragment,
  quoteIdentifier,
@@ -34,6 +35,28 @@ import {
 } from '../../src/core/search/embedding-column.ts';
 import type { GBrainConfig } from '../../src/core/config.ts';
 import type { ResolvedColumn } from '../../src/core/types.ts';
+import { configureGateway, resetGateway } from '../../src/core/ai/gateway.ts';
+
+/**
+ * Teardown: reset AND re-apply the legacy preload config
+ * (test/helpers/legacy-embedding-preload.ts). A bare resetGateway() would
+ * leave the slot empty for the NEXT file's beforeAll (the preload's
+ * per-test beforeEach only fires before tests, not before beforeAll), which
+ * would make sibling PGLite fixtures initSchema at the 1280 default instead
+ * of the legacy 1536 their seed vectors assume.
+ */
+function restorePreloadGateway() {
+  resetGateway();
+  configureGateway({
+    embedding_model: 'openai:text-embedding-3-large',
+    embedding_dimensions: 1536,
+    env: { ...process.env },
+  });
+}
+
+afterAll(() => {
+  restorePreloadGateway();
+});

 function cfg(overrides: Partial<GBrainConfig> = {}): GBrainConfig {
  return { engine: 'pglite', ...overrides };
@@ -522,3 +545,89 @@ describe('codex /ship #4 — isCacheSafe (embedding-space-based skip)', () => {
    expect(isCacheSafe(r, cfg())).toBe(true);
  });
 });
+
+describe('resolveWriteColumn — write-side boundary resolution (#1262)', () => {
+  afterEach(() => {
+    restorePreloadGateway();
+  });
+
+  test('no registry / empty registry returns undefined (legacy single-column brain)', () => {
+    expect(resolveWriteColumn(cfg())).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(resolveWriteColumn(cfg({ embedding_columns: {} }))).toBeUndefined();
+  });
+
+  test('provider match via cfg.embedding_model returns the descriptor', () => {
+    const r = resolveWriteColumn(cfg({
+      embedding_model: 'voyage:voyage-3-large',
+      embedding_dimensions: 1024,
+      embedding_columns: {
+        embedding_voyage: { provider: 'voyage:voyage-3-large', dimensions: 1024, type: 'vector' },
+      },
+    }));
+    expect(r).toEqual({
+      name: 'embedding_voyage',
+      type: 'vector',
+      dimensions: 1024,
+      embeddingModel: 'voyage:voyage-3-large',
+    });
+  });
+
+  test('provider match via gateway state (cfg.embedding_model unset) returns descriptor', () => {
+    configureGateway({
+      embedding_model: 'zeroentropyai:zembed-1',
+      embedding_dimensions: 2560,
+      env: {},
+    });
+    const r = resolveWriteColumn(cfg({
+      embedding_columns: {
+        embedding_ze: { provider: 'zeroentropyai:zembed-1', dimensions: 2560, type: 'halfvec' },
+      },
+    }));
+    expect(r).toEqual({
+      name: 'embedding_ze',
+      type: 'halfvec',
+      dimensions: 2560,
+      embeddingModel: 'zeroentropyai:zembed-1',
+    });
+  });
+
+  test('no provider match returns undefined instead of guessing a column', () => {
+    configureGateway({
+      embedding_model: 'zeroentropyai:zembed-1',
+      embedding_dimensions: 2560,
+      env: {},
+    });
+    const r = resolveWriteColumn(cfg({
+      embedding_columns: {
+        embedding_voyage: { provider: 'voyage:voyage-3-large', dimensions: 1024, type: 'vector' },
+      },
+    }));
+    expect(r).toBeUndefined();
+  });
+
+  test('only USER-declared columns are consulted — multimodal builtin never captures text writes', () => {
+    // Current model equals the embedding_image BUILTIN's provider; a registry
+    // walk that consulted builtins would misroute text writes into the image
+    // column. resolveWriteColumn must return undefined here.
+    configureGateway({
+      embedding_model: 'voyage:voyage-multimodal-3',
+      embedding_dimensions: 1024,
+      env: {},
+    });
+    const r = resolveWriteColumn(cfg({
+      embedding_columns: {
+        embedding_other: { provider: 'openai:text-embedding-3-large', dimensions: 1536, type: 'vector' },
+      },
+    }));
+    expect(r).toBeUndefined();
+  });
+
+  test('malformed registry entry throws loud (same validation as the read side)', () => {
+    expect(() => resolveWriteColumn(cfg({
+      embedding_model: 'voyage:voyage-3-large',
+      embedding_columns: {
+        'bad"col': { provider: 'voyage:voyage-3-large', dimensions: 1024, type: 'vector' },
+      } as never,
+    }))).toThrow(EmbeddingColumnConfigError);
+  });
+});
@@ -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);