fix(dream): stamp incremental extraction watermark (#2636)

The Dream cycle disables sync's inline extraction and routes changed
slugs through extractForSlugs, which flushed link/timeline batches but
never stamped links_extracted_at — so incrementally extracted pages
stayed permanently visible to `extract --stale` / doctor.

Collect processedRefs per successfully processed page and stamp them
via stampExtracted (best-effort) after both batch flushes, non-dry-run
mode 'all' only. Source-id threading from the original PR #2637 already
landed on master via #1503/#1747, so this rebase carries only the
missing watermark stamp plus regression tests.

Takeover of #2637.

Co-authored-by: JavanC <JavanC@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

docs/tutorials/improving-skills-with-skillopt.md

@@ -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 \

src/commands/extract.ts

@@ -1025,6 +1025,10 @@ async function extractForSlugs(
   let linksCreated = 0;
   let timelineCreated = 0;
   let pagesProcessed = 0;
+  // #2636: successfully processed pages get their extraction watermark
+  // stamped after the final flush (mode 'all' only — a partial-mode run
+  // hasn't done the full extraction the watermark asserts).
+  const processedRefs: Array<{ slug: string; source_id: string }> = [];
 
   // Issue #972: read the basename flag once per extract run.
   const globalBasename = await isGlobalBasenameEnabled(engine);
@@ -1113,6 +1117,7 @@ async function extractForSlugs(
         }
 
         pagesProcessed++;
+        if (!dryRun) processedRefs.push({ slug, source_id: sourceId ?? 'default' });
       } catch { /* skip unreadable */ }
       progress.tick(1);
     },
@@ -1120,6 +1125,13 @@ async function extractForSlugs(
 
   await flushLinks();
   await flushTimeline();
+  // #2636: the Dream cycle disables sync's inline extraction and routes
+  // changed slugs through this incremental path — without a stamp here,
+  // those pages never get links_extracted_at and stay permanently visible
+  // to `extract --stale` / doctor. Stamp only after BOTH batches flushed.
+  if (!dryRun && mode === 'all') {
+    await stampExtracted(engine, processedRefs);
+  }
   progress.finish();
 
   if (!jsonMode) {

src/core/skillopt/orchestrator.ts

@@ -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';
   }

src/core/skillopt/version-store.ts

@@ -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;
 }
 
 /**

test/e2e/skillopt-loop.serial.test.ts

@@ -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');

test/extract-incremental.test.ts

@@ -60,6 +60,51 @@ async function seedPage(slug: string, body: string): Promise<void> {
 }
 
 describe('runExtractCore — incremental cycle path (#417)', () => {
+  test('Dream incremental all-mode stamps the source-scoped extraction watermark (#2636)', async () => {
+    await engine.executeRaw(
+      `INSERT INTO sources (id, name, local_path) VALUES ($1, $2, $3)`,
+      ['repo-a', 'repo-a', tempDir],
+    );
+    await engine.putPage('people/alice-example', {
+      type: 'person',
+      title: 'alice-example',
+      compiled_truth: '# alice',
+      timeline: '',
+      frontmatter: {},
+      content_hash: 'h',
+    }, { sourceId: 'repo-a' });
+    writeFileSync(join(tempDir, 'people/alice-example.md'), '# alice');
+
+    await runExtractCore(engine as unknown as BrainEngine, {
+      mode: 'all',
+      dir: tempDir,
+      slugs: ['people/alice-example'],
+      sourceId: 'repo-a',
+    });
+
+    const rows = await engine.executeRaw<{ links_extracted_at: string | null }>(
+      `SELECT links_extracted_at FROM pages WHERE slug = $1 AND source_id = $2`,
+      ['people/alice-example', 'repo-a'],
+    );
+    expect(rows[0]?.links_extracted_at).not.toBeNull();
+    expect(await engine.countStalePagesForExtraction({ sourceId: 'repo-a' })).toBe(0);
+  });
+
+  test('Dream incremental dry-run does NOT stamp the watermark', async () => {
+    await seedPage('people/alice-example', '# alice');
+    await runExtractCore(engine as unknown as BrainEngine, {
+      mode: 'all',
+      dir: tempDir,
+      slugs: ['people/alice-example'],
+      dryRun: true,
+    });
+    const rows = await engine.executeRaw<{ links_extracted_at: string | null }>(
+      `SELECT links_extracted_at FROM pages WHERE slug = $1`,
+      ['people/alice-example'],
+    );
+    expect(rows[0]?.links_extracted_at ?? null).toBeNull();
+  });
+
   test('1. slugs: [] returns immediately with zero counts (early-return path)', async () => {
     await seedPage('people/alice-example', '# alice');
     const result = await runExtractCore(engine as unknown as BrainEngine, {

test/skillopt/version-store.test.ts

@@ -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);