@hviana/sema 0.1.5 → 0.1.7

package/dist/src/mind/attention.js

@@ -7,19 +7,13 @@
 // not a hand-rolled tally.  The result is one or more independent points of
 // attention for the rest of the pipeline to follow.
 import { isChunk } from "../sema.js";
-import { lightestDerivation } from "../derive/src/index.js";
+import { lightestDerivation, } from "../derive/src/index.js";
 import { consensusFloor, dominates, estimatorNoise } from "../geometry.js";
-import { foldTree, gistOf, perceive, read } from "./primitives.js";
+import { foldTree, gistOf, latin1Key, perceive, read } from "./primitives.js";
 import { recognise } from "./recognition.js";
 import { leafIdRun } from "./canonical.js";
 import { corpusN, edgeAncestors } from "./traverse.js";
-import {
-  cachedRead,
-  junctionContainersFrom,
-  junctionSeeds,
-  junctionSynonyms,
-  walkCache,
-} from "./junction.js";
+import { cachedRead, junctionContainersFrom, junctionSeeds, junctionSynonyms, walkCache, } from "./junction.js";
 import { indexOf } from "../bytes.js";
 import { rNode, traceDerivation } from "./trace.js";
 // ── Public entry points ───────────────────────────────────────────────────
@@ -27,330 +21,301 @@ import { rNode, traceDerivation } from "./trace.js";
  *  resonance, pool the evidence, and return only the ROOT points of
  *  attention — those that cleared commitVotes' significance floor. */
 export async function climbAttention(ctx, query, k, mode = "inverse") {
-  return (await climbAttentionAll(ctx, query, k, mode)).roots;
+    return (await climbAttentionAll(ctx, query, k, mode)).roots;
 }
 /** Full read-out of one consensus climb: both the roots (dominant points of
  *  attention) and the entire ranked list.  Cached via ctx.climbMemo when
  *  ctx.trace is null. */
 export async function climbAttentionAll(ctx, query, k, mode = "inverse") {
-  if (ctx.climbMemo && !ctx.trace) {
-    const key = `${k}:${mode}`;
-    let byRead = ctx.climbMemo.get(query);
-    if (byRead === undefined) {
-      ctx.climbMemo.set(query, byRead = new Map());
-    }
-    const hit = byRead.get(key);
-    if (hit !== undefined) {
-      return hit;
+    // Content-keyed memo — works for both single-turn respond() and multi-turn
+    // respondTurn().  Skipped while tracing.
+    if (ctx.climbMemo && !ctx.trace) {
+        const contentKey = latin1Key(query);
+        const modeKey = `${k}:${mode}`;
+        let byRead = ctx.climbMemo.get(contentKey);
+        if (byRead === undefined) {
+            ctx.climbMemo.set(contentKey, byRead = new Map());
+        }
+        const hit = byRead.get(modeKey);
+        if (hit !== undefined)
+            return hit;
+        const read = await computeAttention(ctx, query, k, mode);
+        byRead.set(modeKey, read);
+        return read;
     }
-    const read = await computeAttention(ctx, query, k, mode);
-    byRead.set(key, read);
-    return read;
-  }
-  return computeAttention(ctx, query, k, mode);
+    return computeAttention(ctx, query, k, mode);
 }
 // ── Pipeline ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 export async function computeAttention(ctx, query, k, mode) {
-  const regions = collectRegions(ctx, query);
-  // Recognised sites carry structural evidence that perceived sub-regions
-  // miss: a word crossing a W-boundary is split into chunks whose partial
-  // gists may not resonate distinctively, but the SITE (content-addressed,
-  // exact) names the whole form.  Adding sites as climb regions lets the
-  // consensus vote with the full word, at zero cost — recognition is already
-  // memoised per response (ctx.recogniseMemo), and gistOf for short sites is
-  // O(|span|·D).  Sites that overlap perceived regions add corroborating
-  // evidence; sites in gaps (like cross-boundary words) fill them.
-  const rec = recognise(ctx, query);
-  for (const s of rec.sites) {
-    regions.push({
-      v: gistOf(ctx, query.subarray(s.start, s.end)),
-      start: s.start,
-      end: s.end,
-      chunk: false,
-      known: true, // a recognised site IS a stored form
-    });
-  }
-  if (regions.length === 0) {
-    return { roots: [], ranked: [] };
-  }
-  const N = corpusN(ctx);
-  // One climb per distinct anchor for the WHOLE query: regions sharing a
-  // chunk, and canonicalChunkId's prefix probes, all hit this memo instead of
-  // re-reading the anchor's full edge fan-out from the store.
-  const reachMemo = new Map();
-  const rvs = await voteRegions(ctx, query, regions, k, mode, N, reachMemo);
-  // ── Cross-region: DIRECT region-to-region interaction ─────────────────
-  // Two regions whose individual climbs land on DIFFERENT contexts leave
-  // their JOINT context — the learnt whole that contains BOTH — with no
-  // vote.  crossRegionVotes recovers it by the bridge's content-addressed
-  // junction ascent (see the note above the function).
-  const cross = await crossRegionVotes(
-    ctx,
-    query,
-    regions,
-    rvs,
-    k,
-    N,
-    reachMemo,
-  );
-  // A vote SUPERSEDED by exact joint evidence (its bytes literally live
-  // inside the joint container, yet it climbed elsewhere — grid aliasing)
-  // is dropped, not down-weighted: the joint container explains it away.
-  const allVotes = cross.votes.length > 0
-    ? [
-      ...rvs.votes.filter((v) => !cross.superseded.has(v)),
-      ...cross.votes,
-    ]
-    : rvs.votes;
-  // ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-  if (allVotes.length === 0) {
-    traceAttention(ctx, regions, rvs.voters, []);
-    return { roots: [], ranked: [] };
-  }
-  const sat = detectSaturated(ctx, regions, rvs.saturated);
-  const pooled = poolVotes(ctx, allVotes, sat, N);
-  return commitVotes(ctx, pooled, sat, regions, rvs.voters, N);
-}
-export function collectRegions(ctx, query) {
-  const regions = [];
-  // A region that DOMINATES the query (covers more than half — the shared
-  // {@link dominates} test liftAnswer uses for a span that swallows its
-  // surroundings) can never itself discriminate between several topics the
-  // query weaves; voting with it only when it is the sole structure (no
-  // narrower region exists) keeps a flat/short query's single point of
-  // attention intact without letting a broad, non-discriminative wrapper
-  // dilute a multi-topic query's vote or masquerade as a genuine second
-  // point of attention.
-  // foldTree (not walkTree): the same post-order walk, but each node also
-  // resolves content-addressed against the store — `known` is what lets the
-  // climb keep exact evidence at full weight while margin-damping the
-  // approximate kind (see voteRegions).  One findLeaf/findBranch per tree
-  // node, the same lookups a deposit pays.
-  foldTree(ctx, perceive(ctx, query), 0, (n, start, end, node) => {
-    if (n.kids === null) {
-      return;
+    const regions = collectRegions(ctx, query);
+    // Recognised sites carry structural evidence that perceived sub-regions
+    // miss: a word crossing a W-boundary is split into chunks whose partial
+    // gists may not resonate distinctively, but the SITE (content-addressed,
+    // exact) names the whole form.  Adding sites as climb regions lets the
+    // consensus vote with the full word, at zero cost — recognition is already
+    // memoised per response (ctx.recogniseMemo), and gistOf for short sites is
+    // O(|span|·D).  Sites that overlap perceived regions add corroborating
+    // evidence; sites in gaps (like cross-boundary words) fill them.
+    const rec = recognise(ctx, query);
+    for (const s of rec.sites) {
+        regions.push({
+            v: gistOf(ctx, query.subarray(s.start, s.end)),
+            start: s.start,
+            end: s.end,
+            chunk: false,
+            known: true, // a recognised site IS a stored form
+        });
     }
-    if (!dominates(end - start, query.length) || regions.length === 0) {
-      regions.push({
-        v: n.v,
-        start,
-        end,
-        chunk: isChunk(n),
-        known: node !== null,
-      });
+    if (regions.length === 0)
+        return { roots: [], ranked: [] };
+    const N = corpusN(ctx);
+    // One climb per distinct anchor for the WHOLE query: regions sharing a
+    // chunk, and canonicalChunkId's prefix probes, all hit this memo instead of
+    // re-reading the anchor's full edge fan-out from the store.
+    const reachMemo = new Map();
+    const rvs = await voteRegions(ctx, query, regions, k, mode, N, reachMemo);
+    // ── Cross-region: DIRECT region-to-region interaction ─────────────────
+    // Two regions whose individual climbs land on DIFFERENT contexts leave
+    // their JOINT context — the learnt whole that contains BOTH — with no
+    // vote.  crossRegionVotes recovers it by the bridge's content-addressed
+    // junction ascent (see the note above the function).
+    const cross = await crossRegionVotes(ctx, query, regions, rvs, k, N, reachMemo);
+    // A vote SUPERSEDED by exact joint evidence (its bytes literally live
+    // inside the joint container, yet it climbed elsewhere — grid aliasing)
+    // is dropped, not down-weighted: the joint container explains it away.
+    const allVotes = cross.votes.length > 0
+        ? [
+            ...rvs.votes.filter((v) => !cross.superseded.has(v)),
+            ...cross.votes,
+        ]
+        : rvs.votes;
+    // ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+    if (allVotes.length === 0) {
+        traceAttention(ctx, regions, rvs.voters, []);
+        return { roots: [], ranked: [] };
     }
-  });
-  return regions;
+    const sat = detectSaturated(ctx, regions, rvs.saturated);
+    const pooled = poolVotes(ctx, allVotes, sat, N);
+    return commitVotes(ctx, pooled, sat, regions, rvs.voters, N);
 }
-export async function voteRegions(ctx, query, regions, k, mode, N, reachMemo) {
-  const regionSaturated = new Array(regions.length).fill(false);
-  const regionVotes = [];
-  const regionVoter = ctx.trace ? regions.map(() => null) : [];
-  for (let ri = 0; ri < regions.length; ri++) {
-    const { v, start, end, chunk, known } = regions[ri];
-    // EXACT-FIRST: a chunk whose canonical anchor is content-addressed needs
-    // no estimator — identity is exact, so its score is 1 BY DEFINITION (the
-    // estimated cosine of a form with itself, minus quantisation noise, and
-    // the caveat atop geometry.ts forbids trusting the estimate over the
-    // exact resolution anyway).  The ANN query is deferred behind
-    // `ensureHits` and paid only when actually consulted: the orphan
-    // fallback, the contrastive margin (approximate regions only), or a
-    // region with no usable canonical.  On chunk-heavy queries this removes
-    // the resonate() call for most exact regions — the single largest
-    // remaining inference sink — with the anchor choice unchanged (the
-    // canonical branch already ignored hits[0]).
-    const canonicalId = chunk
-      ? canonicalChunkId(ctx, query.subarray(start, end), N, reachMemo)
-      : null;
-    const canonicalUsable = canonicalId !== null &&
-      (ctx.store.hasParents(canonicalId) ||
-        ctx.store.hasContainers(canonicalId));
-    let hits = null;
-    const ensureHits = async () => hits ??= await ctx.store.resonate(v, k);
-    const canonicalFailed = chunk && canonicalId === null;
-    let voterId;
-    let score;
-    let scoreId; // the node the score was measured against
-    if (canonicalUsable) {
-      voterId = canonicalId;
-      score = 1;
-      scoreId = canonicalId;
-    } else {
-      const h = await ensureHits();
-      if (h.length === 0) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      voterId = h[0].id;
-      score = h[0].score;
-      scoreId = h[0].id;
-    }
-    let reach = edgeAncestors(ctx, voterId, N, reachMemo);
-    // A region's vote must not die with the TOP hit: `hits[1..k]` were
-    // already fetched, and the top-ranked anchor being a structural orphan
-    // (no edge-bearing ancestors) is an accident of the approximate ranking,
-    // not evidence the region relates to nothing.  Walk the remaining hits —
-    // nearest first, climbs memoised — until one climbs.  A SATURATED reach
-    // is not an orphan: it is a deliberate abstention, kept as-is.
-    if (reach.roots.length === 0 && !reach.saturated) {
-      for (const h of await ensureHits()) {
-        if (h.id === voterId) {
-          continue;
-        }
-        const r2 = edgeAncestors(ctx, h.id, N, reachMemo);
-        if (r2.saturated || r2.roots.length > 0) {
-          ctx.trace?.step(
-            "anchorFallback",
-            [rNode(ctx, voterId, "orphan-anchor", score)],
-            [rNode(ctx, h.id, "anchor", h.score)],
-            "the top-ranked anchor climbs to no context — a lower-ranked hit votes instead",
-          );
-          reach = r2;
-          voterId = h.id;
-          score = h.score;
-          scoreId = h.id;
-          break;
+export function collectRegions(ctx, query) {
+    const regions = [];
+    // A region that DOMINATES the query (covers more than half — the shared
+    // {@link dominates} test liftAnswer uses for a span that swallows its
+    // surroundings) can never itself discriminate between several topics the
+    // query weaves; voting with it only when it is the sole structure (no
+    // narrower region exists) keeps a flat/short query's single point of
+    // attention intact without letting a broad, non-discriminative wrapper
+    // dilute a multi-topic query's vote or masquerade as a genuine second
+    // point of attention.
+    // foldTree (not walkTree): the same post-order walk, but each node also
+    // resolves content-addressed against the store — `known` is what lets the
+    // climb keep exact evidence at full weight while margin-damping the
+    // approximate kind (see voteRegions).  One findLeaf/findBranch per tree
+    // node, the same lookups a deposit pays.
+    foldTree(ctx, perceive(ctx, query), 0, (n, start, end, node) => {
+        if (n.kids === null)
+            return;
+        if (!dominates(end - start, query.length) || regions.length === 0) {
+            regions.push({
+                v: n.v,
+                start,
+                end,
+                chunk: isChunk(n),
+                known: node !== null,
+            });
         }
-      }
-    } else if (!canonicalUsable && reach.saturated) {
-      // TIE-BAND saturation fallback.  A saturated top hit abstains the whole
-      // region (a hub's reach concludes nothing) — but the hub may only CLAIM
-      // that abstention when it is DISTINGUISHABLY the nearest anchor.  The
-      // resonance ranking is an estimate: the difference between two scores
-      // against the same query carries √2× the estimator's per-score error,
-      // ≈ 1/√D ({@link estimatorNoise}) — so any hit within that band of the
-      // top is the SAME rank at measurement resolution, and letting the hub
-      // win the tie decides the region by quantisation accident (observed:
-      // a 0.1σ rank inversion flipped a pinned behaviour when the query
-      // estimator sharpened from 4 to 8 bits).  Walk the tied hits, nearest
-      // first; the first that climbs somewhere non-saturated votes for the
-      // region.  Beyond the band the hub is genuinely nearest and its
-      // abstention stands.  A KNOWN (content-addressed) region never enters:
-      // its anchor is exact, not an estimate.
-      const band = estimatorNoise(ctx.store.D);
-      for (const h of await ensureHits()) {
-        if (h.id === voterId) {
-          continue;
+    });
+    return regions;
+}
+export async function voteRegions(ctx, query, regions, k, mode, N, reachMemo) {
+    const regionSaturated = new Array(regions.length).fill(false);
+    const regionVotes = [];
+    const regionVoter = ctx.trace ? regions.map(() => null) : [];
+    for (let ri = 0; ri < regions.length; ri++) {
+        const { v, start, end, chunk, known } = regions[ri];
+        // EXACT-FIRST: a chunk whose canonical anchor is content-addressed needs
+        // no estimator — identity is exact, so its score is 1 BY DEFINITION (the
+        // estimated cosine of a form with itself, minus quantisation noise, and
+        // the caveat atop geometry.ts forbids trusting the estimate over the
+        // exact resolution anyway).  The ANN query is deferred behind
+        // `ensureHits` and paid only when actually consulted: the orphan
+        // fallback, the contrastive margin (approximate regions only), or a
+        // region with no usable canonical.  On chunk-heavy queries this removes
+        // the resonate() call for most exact regions — the single largest
+        // remaining inference sink — with the anchor choice unchanged (the
+        // canonical branch already ignored hits[0]).
+        const canonicalId = chunk
+            ? canonicalChunkId(ctx, query.subarray(start, end), N, reachMemo)
+            : null;
+        const canonicalUsable = canonicalId !== null &&
+            (ctx.store.hasParents(canonicalId) ||
+                ctx.store.hasContainers(canonicalId));
+        let hits = null;
+        const ensureHits = async () => hits ??= await ctx.store.resonate(v, k);
+        const canonicalFailed = chunk && canonicalId === null;
+        let voterId;
+        let score;
+        let scoreId; // the node the score was measured against
+        if (canonicalUsable) {
+            voterId = canonicalId;
+            score = 1;
+            scoreId = canonicalId;
         }
-        if (h.score < score - band) {
-          break; // hits are nearest-first
+        else {
+            const h = await ensureHits();
+            if (h.length === 0)
+                continue;
+            voterId = h[0].id;
+            score = h[0].score;
+            scoreId = h[0].id;
         }
-        const r2 = edgeAncestors(ctx, h.id, N, reachMemo);
-        if (!r2.saturated && r2.roots.length > 0) {
-          ctx.trace?.step(
-            "anchorFallback",
-            [rNode(ctx, voterId, "saturated-anchor", score)],
-            [rNode(ctx, h.id, "anchor", h.score)],
-            "the top-ranked anchor is a saturated hub tied within estimator noise — the tied hit votes instead",
-          );
-          reach = r2;
-          voterId = h.id;
-          score = h.score;
-          scoreId = h.id;
-          break;
+        let reach = edgeAncestors(ctx, voterId, N, reachMemo);
+        // A region's vote must not die with the TOP hit: `hits[1..k]` were
+        // already fetched, and the top-ranked anchor being a structural orphan
+        // (no edge-bearing ancestors) is an accident of the approximate ranking,
+        // not evidence the region relates to nothing.  Walk the remaining hits —
+        // nearest first, climbs memoised — until one climbs.  A SATURATED reach
+        // is not an orphan: it is a deliberate abstention, kept as-is.
+        if (reach.roots.length === 0 && !reach.saturated) {
+            for (const h of await ensureHits()) {
+                if (h.id === voterId)
+                    continue;
+                const r2 = edgeAncestors(ctx, h.id, N, reachMemo);
+                if (r2.saturated || r2.roots.length > 0) {
+                    ctx.trace?.step("anchorFallback", [rNode(ctx, voterId, "orphan-anchor", score)], [rNode(ctx, h.id, "anchor", h.score)], "the top-ranked anchor climbs to no context — a lower-ranked hit votes instead");
+                    reach = r2;
+                    voterId = h.id;
+                    score = h.score;
+                    scoreId = h.id;
+                    break;
+                }
+            }
         }
-      }
-    }
-    regionSaturated[ri] = reach.saturated;
-    if (reach.roots.length === 0) {
-      continue;
-    }
-    if (reach.saturated) {
-      continue;
-    }
-    // One IDF per region — dfWeight() and the focus weight used to compute
-    // the same logarithm independently.
-    const idf = Math.log(N / Math.max(1, reach.contextsReached));
-    const df = Math.log(1 + reach.contextsReached);
-    const wf = mode === "direct" ? df : mode === "combined" ? idf + df : idf;
-    if (wf <= 0) {
-      continue;
-    }
-    // CONTRASTIVE-MARGIN GATE — the compensation the linear (byte-proportional)
-    // fold demands, applied to APPROXIMATE evidence only.  Under the linear
-    // fold a resonance score reads "fraction of aligned shared bytes", so a
-    // NOVEL span sharing a frame with several stored exemplars scores high
-    // against each of them without being evidence of ANY of them: the shared
-    // scaffolding, not the span's own content, carries the similarity.  Such a
-    // frame region resonates ~equally to every framed exemplar, so its top hit
-    // barely beats the best DIFFERENT-conclusion rival (a different climb
-    // root-set) — its discriminative margin, score MINUS that rival, collapses
-    // toward zero.  A region votes only when that margin clears the estimator's
-    // own noise floor (1/√D — see {@link estimatorNoise}); below it the margin
-    // is quantisation noise, not evidence.  A KNOWN region (content-addressed,
-    // exact) skips the contrast: it IS learnt content, not an approximation.
-    //
-    // The margin GATES; it does NOT scale the weight.  A surviving region votes
-    // at its genuine strength (score²·wf) — the SAME scale {@link
-    // consensusFloor} is derived for.  Using the margin as a MULTIPLIER
-    // (score·margin) conflated "discriminative" with "strong": a genuinely
-    // discriminative span whose frame-rival happened to score close got a tiny
-    // vote, systematically compressing correct scaffolding-dominated groundings
-    // (reordered / paraphrased queries) below the floor so they grounded
-    // nothing.  Gating at the noise floor keeps frame-echo suppression (a frame
-    // region's margin ≈ 0 is gated out) without penalising honest evidence.
-    if (!known) {
-      let margin = score;
-      for (const h of await ensureHits()) {
-        if (h.id === voterId) {
-          continue;
+        else if (!canonicalUsable && reach.saturated) {
+            // TIE-BAND saturation fallback.  A saturated top hit abstains the whole
+            // region (a hub's reach concludes nothing) — but the hub may only CLAIM
+            // that abstention when it is DISTINGUISHABLY the nearest anchor.  The
+            // resonance ranking is an estimate: the difference between two scores
+            // against the same query carries √2× the estimator's per-score error,
+            // ≈ 1/√D ({@link estimatorNoise}) — so any hit within that band of the
+            // top is the SAME rank at measurement resolution, and letting the hub
+            // win the tie decides the region by quantisation accident (observed:
+            // a 0.1σ rank inversion flipped a pinned behaviour when the query
+            // estimator sharpened from 4 to 8 bits).  Walk the tied hits, nearest
+            // first; the first that climbs somewhere non-saturated votes for the
+            // region.  Beyond the band the hub is genuinely nearest and its
+            // abstention stands.  A KNOWN (content-addressed) region never enters:
+            // its anchor is exact, not an estimate.
+            const band = estimatorNoise(ctx.store.D);
+            for (const h of await ensureHits()) {
+                if (h.id === voterId)
+                    continue;
+                if (h.score < score - band)
+                    break; // hits are nearest-first
+                const r2 = edgeAncestors(ctx, h.id, N, reachMemo);
+                if (!r2.saturated && r2.roots.length > 0) {
+                    ctx.trace?.step("anchorFallback", [rNode(ctx, voterId, "saturated-anchor", score)], [rNode(ctx, h.id, "anchor", h.score)], "the top-ranked anchor is a saturated hub tied within estimator noise — the tied hit votes instead");
+                    reach = r2;
+                    voterId = h.id;
+                    score = h.score;
+                    scoreId = h.id;
+                    break;
+                }
+            }
         }
-        const r2 = edgeAncestors(ctx, h.id, N, reachMemo);
-        if (r2.saturated || r2.roots.length === 0) {
-          continue; // concludes nothing
+        regionSaturated[ri] = reach.saturated;
+        if (reach.roots.length === 0)
+            continue;
+        if (reach.saturated)
+            continue;
+        // One IDF per region — dfWeight() and the focus weight used to compute
+        // the same logarithm independently.
+        const idf = Math.log(N / Math.max(1, reach.contextsReached));
+        const df = Math.log(1 + reach.contextsReached);
+        const wf = mode === "direct" ? df : mode === "combined" ? idf + df : idf;
+        if (wf <= 0)
+            continue;
+        // CONTRASTIVE-MARGIN GATE — the compensation the linear (byte-proportional)
+        // fold demands, applied to APPROXIMATE evidence only.  Under the linear
+        // fold a resonance score reads "fraction of aligned shared bytes", so a
+        // NOVEL span sharing a frame with several stored exemplars scores high
+        // against each of them without being evidence of ANY of them: the shared
+        // scaffolding, not the span's own content, carries the similarity.  Such a
+        // frame region resonates ~equally to every framed exemplar, so its top hit
+        // barely beats the best DIFFERENT-conclusion rival (a different climb
+        // root-set) — its discriminative margin, score MINUS that rival, collapses
+        // toward zero.  A region votes only when that margin clears the estimator's
+        // own noise floor (1/√D — see {@link estimatorNoise}); below it the margin
+        // is quantisation noise, not evidence.  A KNOWN region (content-addressed,
+        // exact) skips the contrast: it IS learnt content, not an approximation.
+        //
+        // The margin GATES; it does NOT scale the weight.  A surviving region votes
+        // at its genuine strength (score²·wf) — the SAME scale {@link
+        // consensusFloor} is derived for.  Using the margin as a MULTIPLIER
+        // (score·margin) conflated "discriminative" with "strong": a genuinely
+        // discriminative span whose frame-rival happened to score close got a tiny
+        // vote, systematically compressing correct scaffolding-dominated groundings
+        // (reordered / paraphrased queries) below the floor so they grounded
+        // nothing.  Gating at the noise floor keeps frame-echo suppression (a frame
+        // region's margin ≈ 0 is gated out) without penalising honest evidence.
+        if (!known) {
+            let margin = score;
+            for (const h of await ensureHits()) {
+                if (h.id === voterId)
+                    continue;
+                const r2 = edgeAncestors(ctx, h.id, N, reachMemo);
+                if (r2.saturated || r2.roots.length === 0)
+                    continue; // concludes nothing
+                if (sameRoots(r2.roots, reach.roots))
+                    continue; // same conclusion
+                margin = score - h.score; // hits are nearest-first: the best rival
+                break;
+            }
+            if (margin <= estimatorNoise(ctx.store.D))
+                continue;
         }
-        if (sameRoots(r2.roots, reach.roots)) {
-          continue; // same conclusion
+        // MUTUAL-EXPLANATION WEIGHT (angle + magnitude).  Under the linear fold
+        // cos = shared/(‖r‖·‖h‖) with ‖·‖² = content bytes, so the old score²
+        // was already — implicitly — (shared/len_r)·(shared/len_h): the fraction
+        // of the REGION the hit explains times the fraction of the HIT the
+        // region pins down.  Made explicit, each factor is computed from the two
+        // magnitudes (the region's own span; the hit's, read from the store —
+        // contentLen, √bytes being the linear fold's gist norm) and CAPPED at 1:
+        // the estimated cosine can imply more shared content than the smaller
+        // side even holds, and the uncapped square silently credited that
+        // impossible surplus — a small region echoing inside a large context, or
+        // the reverse, voted above its physical evidence.  In the uncapped
+        // regime this is exactly score², the scale {@link consensusFloor} is
+        // derived for.  (The margin gate above deliberately stays in raw cosine
+        // units: it tests the ESTIMATOR's noise floor, which lives in cosine
+        // space; converting each side by its own hit's magnitude would compare
+        // noise floors of different scales.)
+        const lenR = Math.max(1, end - start);
+        // Cap the magnitude read at lenR·D: past it s/ratio ≤ s/√D — below the
+        // estimator's own noise floor — so the mutual weight is ~0 regardless
+        // and the clamped value yields exactly that; no full walk of a huge hit.
+        const ratio = Math.sqrt(Math.max(1, ctx.store.contentLen(scoreId, lenR * ctx.store.D)) / lenR);
+        const mutual = Math.min(1, score * ratio) * Math.min(1, score / ratio);
+        const w = (mutual * wf) / reach.roots.length;
+        const wFocus = (mutual * idf) / reach.roots.length;
+        regionVotes.push({
+            start,
+            end,
+            canonicalFailed,
+            roots: reach.roots,
+            w,
+            wFocus,
+        });
+        if (ctx.trace) {
+            regionVoter[ri] = { id: voterId, score, w: wf };
         }
-        margin = score - h.score; // hits are nearest-first: the best rival
-        break;
-      }
-      if (margin <= estimatorNoise(ctx.store.D)) {
-        continue;
-      }
-    }
-    // MUTUAL-EXPLANATION WEIGHT (angle + magnitude).  Under the linear fold
-    // cos = shared/(‖r‖·‖h‖) with ‖·‖² = content bytes, so the old score²
-    // was already — implicitly — (shared/len_r)·(shared/len_h): the fraction
-    // of the REGION the hit explains times the fraction of the HIT the
-    // region pins down.  Made explicit, each factor is computed from the two
-    // magnitudes (the region's own span; the hit's, read from the store —
-    // contentLen, √bytes being the linear fold's gist norm) and CAPPED at 1:
-    // the estimated cosine can imply more shared content than the smaller
-    // side even holds, and the uncapped square silently credited that
-    // impossible surplus — a small region echoing inside a large context, or
-    // the reverse, voted above its physical evidence.  In the uncapped
-    // regime this is exactly score², the scale {@link consensusFloor} is
-    // derived for.  (The margin gate above deliberately stays in raw cosine
-    // units: it tests the ESTIMATOR's noise floor, which lives in cosine
-    // space; converting each side by its own hit's magnitude would compare
-    // noise floors of different scales.)
-    const lenR = Math.max(1, end - start);
-    // Cap the magnitude read at lenR·D: past it s/ratio ≤ s/√D — below the
-    // estimator's own noise floor — so the mutual weight is ~0 regardless
-    // and the clamped value yields exactly that; no full walk of a huge hit.
-    const ratio = Math.sqrt(
-      Math.max(1, ctx.store.contentLen(scoreId, lenR * ctx.store.D)) / lenR,
-    );
-    const mutual = Math.min(1, score * ratio) * Math.min(1, score / ratio);
-    const w = (mutual * wf) / reach.roots.length;
-    const wFocus = (mutual * idf) / reach.roots.length;
-    regionVotes.push({
-      start,
-      end,
-      canonicalFailed,
-      roots: reach.roots,
-      w,
-      wFocus,
-    });
-    if (ctx.trace) {
-      regionVoter[ri] = { id: voterId, score, w: wf };
     }
-  }
-  return {
-    votes: regionVotes,
-    saturated: regionSaturated,
-    voters: regionVoter,
-  };
+    return {
+        votes: regionVotes,
+        saturated: regionSaturated,
+        voters: regionVoter,
+    };
 }
 /** The consensus vote as EVIDENCE POOLING, not shortest path: each surviving
  *  region is an axiom; it contributes to every root it climbed to (or, for a
@@ -365,286 +330,267 @@ export async function voteRegions(ctx, query, regions, k, mode, N, reachMemo) {
  *  read-outs {@link commitVotes} always gated on; only how they accumulate
  *  changed. */
 export function poolVotes(ctx, regionVotes, sat, N) {
-  const eligible = [];
-  for (let ri = 0; ri < regionVotes.length; ri++) {
-    const rv = regionVotes[ri];
-    if (
-      rv.canonicalFailed &&
-      sat.intervals.some((iv) => rv.start >= iv.start && rv.end <= iv.end)
-    ) {
-      continue;
-    }
-    eligible.push(ri);
-  }
-  const key = (it) =>
-    it.kind === "region"
-      ? `r${it.ri}`
-      : it.kind === "anchor"
-      ? `a${it.id}`
-      : `x${it.id}`;
-  const pool = new Map();
-  const system = {
-    key,
-    *axioms() {
-      for (const ri of eligible) {
-        yield { item: { kind: "region", ri }, cost: 0 };
-      }
-    },
-    isGoal: () => false, // exhaust every axiom; there is no single goal to stop at
-    // Every region axiom ties at cost 0, so the agenda's pop order among them
-    // is otherwise unspecified; ordering by `ri` here only steers the HEAP
-    // (never added to a stored cost — see relax's use of h) so pooling fires
-    // in exactly the regionVotes array order the original loop used, byte-for-
-    // byte reproducing its accumulation and tie-break order.
-    heuristic: (it) => it.kind === "region" ? it.ri : 0,
-    *rules(it) {
-      if (it.kind !== "region") {
-        return;
-      }
-      const rv = regionVotes[it.ri];
-      // The same hub bound the rest of the system uses (edgeAncestors' parent
-      // cutoff, chooseNext's candidate cap): a terminal answer followed by
-      // more than √N contexts is a non-discriminative hub — spreading a
-      // region's vote across its FULL corpus-sized fan-in yields O(corpus)
-      // rule applications per region and near-zero per-target weight anyway.
-      // Cap the redistribution at the first √N contexts (insertion order,
-      // the same convention chooseNext caps by).
-      const hubBound = Math.ceil(Math.sqrt(N));
-      for (const r of rv.roots) {
-        // CAPPED read: only the first hubBound targets are ever credited, so
-        // only they are read — a common continuation's full reverse fan-in
-        // is corpus-sized and is never materialised.
-        const pv = ctx.store.prevFirst(r, hubBound);
-        const isAnswer = pv.length > 0 && !ctx.store.hasNext(r);
-        const targets = isAnswer ? pv : [r];
-        for (const t of targets) {
-          yield {
-            premises: [it],
-            conclusion: { kind: "anchor", id: t },
-            cost: rv.w / targets.length,
-            combine: "sum",
-          };
-          yield {
-            premises: [it],
-            conclusion: { kind: "anchorFocus", id: t },
-            cost: rv.wFocus / targets.length,
-            combine: "sum",
-          };
-        }
-      }
-    },
-    pool,
-  };
-  lightestDerivation(system);
-  const votes = new Map();
-  const votesIdf = new Map();
-  const support = new Map();
-  const steps = [];
-  let order = 0;
-  for (const pc of pool.values()) {
-    if (pc.item.kind === "anchor") {
-      votes.set(pc.item.id, pc.cost);
-      const premises = [];
-      const seenRi = new Set();
-      for (const c of pc.contributions) {
-        const p0 = c.premises[0].item;
-        if (p0.kind !== "region" || seenRi.has(p0.ri)) {
-          continue;
+    const eligible = [];
+    for (let ri = 0; ri < regionVotes.length; ri++) {
+        const rv = regionVotes[ri];
+        if (rv.canonicalFailed &&
+            sat.intervals.some((iv) => rv.start >= iv.start && rv.end <= iv.end)) {
+            continue;
         }
-        seenRi.add(p0.ri);
-        const rv = regionVotes[p0.ri];
-        premises.push({ kind: "form", span: [rv.start, rv.end] });
-      }
-      steps.push({
-        order: order++,
-        move: "pool-vote",
-        premises,
-        conclusion: { kind: "form", span: [-1, -1], node: pc.item.id },
-        cost: pc.cost,
-        producers: [],
-      });
-    } else if (pc.item.kind === "anchorFocus") {
-      votesIdf.set(pc.item.id, pc.cost);
-      let bestRv = null;
-      for (const c of pc.contributions) {
-        const p0 = c.premises[0].item;
-        if (p0.kind !== "region") {
-          continue;
+        eligible.push(ri);
+    }
+    const key = (it) => it.kind === "region"
+        ? `r${it.ri}`
+        : it.kind === "anchor"
+            ? `a${it.id}`
+            : `x${it.id}`;
+    const pool = new Map();
+    const system = {
+        key,
+        *axioms() {
+            for (const ri of eligible) {
+                yield { item: { kind: "region", ri }, cost: 0 };
+            }
+        },
+        isGoal: () => false, // exhaust every axiom; there is no single goal to stop at
+        // Every region axiom ties at cost 0, so the agenda's pop order among them
+        // is otherwise unspecified; ordering by `ri` here only steers the HEAP
+        // (never added to a stored cost — see relax's use of h) so pooling fires
+        // in exactly the regionVotes array order the original loop used, byte-for-
+        // byte reproducing its accumulation and tie-break order.
+        heuristic: (it) => it.kind === "region" ? it.ri : 0,
+        *rules(it) {
+            if (it.kind !== "region")
+                return;
+            const rv = regionVotes[it.ri];
+            // The same hub bound the rest of the system uses (edgeAncestors' parent
+            // cutoff, chooseNext's candidate cap): a terminal answer followed by
+            // more than √N contexts is a non-discriminative hub — spreading a
+            // region's vote across its FULL corpus-sized fan-in yields O(corpus)
+            // rule applications per region and near-zero per-target weight anyway.
+            // Cap the redistribution at the first √N contexts (insertion order,
+            // the same convention chooseNext caps by).
+            const hubBound = Math.ceil(Math.sqrt(N));
+            for (const r of rv.roots) {
+                // CAPPED read: only the first hubBound targets are ever credited, so
+                // only they are read — a common continuation's full reverse fan-in
+                // is corpus-sized and is never materialised.
+                const pv = ctx.store.prevFirst(r, hubBound);
+                const isAnswer = pv.length > 0 && !ctx.store.hasNext(r);
+                const targets = isAnswer ? pv : [r];
+                for (const t of targets) {
+                    yield {
+                        premises: [it],
+                        conclusion: { kind: "anchor", id: t },
+                        cost: rv.w / targets.length,
+                        combine: "sum",
+                    };
+                    yield {
+                        premises: [it],
+                        conclusion: { kind: "anchorFocus", id: t },
+                        cost: rv.wFocus / targets.length,
+                        combine: "sum",
+                    };
+                }
+            }
+        },
+        pool,
+    };
+    lightestDerivation(system);
+    const votes = new Map();
+    const votesIdf = new Map();
+    const support = new Map();
+    const steps = [];
+    let order = 0;
+    for (const pc of pool.values()) {
+        if (pc.item.kind === "anchor") {
+            votes.set(pc.item.id, pc.cost);
+            const premises = [];
+            const seenRi = new Set();
+            for (const c of pc.contributions) {
+                const p0 = c.premises[0].item;
+                if (p0.kind !== "region" || seenRi.has(p0.ri))
+                    continue;
+                seenRi.add(p0.ri);
+                const rv = regionVotes[p0.ri];
+                premises.push({ kind: "form", span: [rv.start, rv.end] });
+            }
+            steps.push({
+                order: order++,
+                move: "pool-vote",
+                premises,
+                conclusion: { kind: "form", span: [-1, -1], node: pc.item.id },
+                cost: pc.cost,
+                producers: [],
+            });
         }
-        const rv = regionVotes[p0.ri];
-        if (!bestRv || rv.wFocus > bestRv.wFocus) {
-          bestRv = rv;
+        else if (pc.item.kind === "anchorFocus") {
+            votesIdf.set(pc.item.id, pc.cost);
+            let bestRv = null;
+            for (const c of pc.contributions) {
+                const p0 = c.premises[0].item;
+                if (p0.kind !== "region")
+                    continue;
+                const rv = regionVotes[p0.ri];
+                if (!bestRv || rv.wFocus > bestRv.wFocus)
+                    bestRv = rv;
+            }
+            if (bestRv) {
+                support.set(pc.item.id, {
+                    start: bestRv.start,
+                    end: bestRv.end,
+                    w: bestRv.wFocus,
+                });
+            }
         }
-      }
-      if (bestRv) {
-        support.set(pc.item.id, {
-          start: bestRv.start,
-          end: bestRv.end,
-          w: bestRv.wFocus,
-        });
-      }
     }
-  }
-  return { votes, votesIdf, support, steps };
+    return { votes, votesIdf, support, steps };
 }
 export function commitVotes(ctx, pooled, sat, regions, regionVoter, N) {
-  const { votes, votesIdf, support, steps } = pooled;
-  if (votes.size === 0) {
-    traceAttention(ctx, regions, regionVoter, [], steps);
-    return { roots: [], ranked: [] };
-  }
-  const ranked = [...votes.entries()]
-    .map(([anchor, vote]) => {
-      const s = support.get(anchor);
-      return { anchor, vote, start: s.start, end: s.end };
+    const { votes, votesIdf, support, steps } = pooled;
+    if (votes.size === 0) {
+        traceAttention(ctx, regions, regionVoter, [], steps);
+        return { roots: [], ranked: [] };
+    }
+    const ranked = [...votes.entries()]
+        .map(([anchor, vote]) => {
+        const s = support.get(anchor);
+        return { anchor, vote, start: s.start, end: s.end };
     })
-    .sort((a, b) => b.vote - a.vote);
-  const overlaps = (a, b) => a.start < b.end && b.start < a.end;
-  const idfDesc = [...votesIdf.values()].sort((a, b) => b - a);
-  const rootCut = naturalBreak(idfDesc);
-  // A FURTHER point of attention (beyond the dominant one, which always
-  // grounds) must clear the same absolute significance floor
-  // recallByResonance trusts a climb anchor with — log(N) + 1/2, three-ish
-  // halvings of confidence above pure chance at this corpus scale — not
-  // merely beat whatever its immediate neighbour in the ratio happens to be.
-  // Without it, naturalBreak's ratio is scale-free but not FLOOR-free: on a
-  // large, topic-diverse corpus the steepest ratio in a long noise tail can
-  // sit far below any real signal, admitting scaffolding echoes as if they
-  // were genuine further topics.
-  const floor = consensusFloor(N);
-  const placed = [];
-  const roots = [];
-  for (const point of ranked) {
-    const absorbed = placed.some((p) => overlaps(point, p));
-    if (!absorbed) {
-      const pastLeading = !sat.hasLeading ||
-        roots.length === 0 || point.start >= sat.leadingEnd;
-      const vote = votesIdf.get(point.anchor) ?? 0;
-      if (
-        (roots.length === 0 || (vote >= rootCut && vote >= floor)) &&
-        pastLeading
-      ) {
-        roots.push(point);
-      } else {
-        continue;
-      }
+        .sort((a, b) => b.vote - a.vote);
+    const overlaps = (a, b) => a.start < b.end && b.start < a.end;
+    const idfDesc = [...votesIdf.values()].sort((a, b) => b - a);
+    const rootCut = naturalBreak(idfDesc);
+    // A FURTHER point of attention (beyond the dominant one, which always
+    // grounds) must clear the same absolute significance floor
+    // recallByResonance trusts a climb anchor with — log(N) + 1/2, three-ish
+    // halvings of confidence above pure chance at this corpus scale — not
+    // merely beat whatever its immediate neighbour in the ratio happens to be.
+    // Without it, naturalBreak's ratio is scale-free but not FLOOR-free: on a
+    // large, topic-diverse corpus the steepest ratio in a long noise tail can
+    // sit far below any real signal, admitting scaffolding echoes as if they
+    // were genuine further topics.
+    const floor = consensusFloor(N);
+    const placed = [];
+    const roots = [];
+    for (const point of ranked) {
+        const absorbed = placed.some((p) => overlaps(point, p));
+        if (!absorbed) {
+            const pastLeading = !sat.hasLeading ||
+                roots.length === 0 || point.start >= sat.leadingEnd;
+            const vote = votesIdf.get(point.anchor) ?? 0;
+            if ((roots.length === 0 || (vote >= rootCut && vote >= floor)) &&
+                pastLeading) {
+                roots.push(point);
+            }
+            else {
+                continue;
+            }
+        }
+        placed.push(point);
     }
-    placed.push(point);
-  }
-  traceAttention(ctx, regions, regionVoter, roots, steps);
-  return { roots, ranked };
+    traceAttention(ctx, regions, regionVoter, roots, steps);
+    return { roots, ranked };
 }
 export function detectSaturated(ctx, regions, saturated) {
-  // Intervals are built from CHUNK regions only.  collectRegions emits the
-  // tree in POST-ORDER — a parent region arrives AFTER its children and
-  // shares its first child's `start` — so the raw array is not monotone in
-  // byte position, and a saturated parent would fuse with a later saturated
-  // chunk into an interval swallowing a NON-saturated child.  Chunk regions
-  // (leaf-parents) are disjoint and already in byte order, and saturation
-  // masking exists to drop canonicalFailed CHUNK votes (see poolVotes), so
-  // chunks are both the sufficient and the safe basis.  A region without a
-  // `chunk` flag (a bare {start,end} from a direct caller) is treated as a
-  // chunk.
-  const intervals = [];
-  let intStart = -1;
-  let intEnd = -1;
-  let totalLen = 0;
-  for (let ri = 0; ri < regions.length; ri++) {
-    const r = regions[ri];
-    totalLen = Math.max(totalLen, r.end);
-    if (r.chunk === false) {
-      continue;
+    // Intervals are built from CHUNK regions only.  collectRegions emits the
+    // tree in POST-ORDER — a parent region arrives AFTER its children and
+    // shares its first child's `start` — so the raw array is not monotone in
+    // byte position, and a saturated parent would fuse with a later saturated
+    // chunk into an interval swallowing a NON-saturated child.  Chunk regions
+    // (leaf-parents) are disjoint and already in byte order, and saturation
+    // masking exists to drop canonicalFailed CHUNK votes (see poolVotes), so
+    // chunks are both the sufficient and the safe basis.  A region without a
+    // `chunk` flag (a bare {start,end} from a direct caller) is treated as a
+    // chunk.
+    const intervals = [];
+    let intStart = -1;
+    let intEnd = -1;
+    let totalLen = 0;
+    for (let ri = 0; ri < regions.length; ri++) {
+        const r = regions[ri];
+        totalLen = Math.max(totalLen, r.end);
+        if (r.chunk === false)
+            continue;
+        if (saturated[ri]) {
+            if (intStart === -1)
+                intStart = r.start;
+            intEnd = r.end;
+        }
+        else {
+            if (intStart !== -1) {
+                intervals.push({ start: intStart, end: intEnd });
+                intStart = -1;
+            }
+        }
     }
-    if (saturated[ri]) {
-      if (intStart === -1) {
-        intStart = r.start;
-      }
-      intEnd = r.end;
-    } else {
-      if (intStart !== -1) {
+    if (intStart !== -1) {
         intervals.push({ start: intStart, end: intEnd });
-        intStart = -1;
-      }
     }
-  }
-  if (intStart !== -1) {
-    intervals.push({ start: intStart, end: intEnd });
-  }
-  const leading = intervals.length > 0 && intervals[0].start === 0
-    ? intervals[0]
-    : null;
-  const hasLeading = leading !== null &&
-    leading.end >= ctx.space.maxGroup &&
-    leading.end < totalLen;
-  const leadingEnd = leading !== null ? leading.end : 0;
-  return { leadingEnd, hasLeading, intervals };
+    const leading = intervals.length > 0 && intervals[0].start === 0
+        ? intervals[0]
+        : null;
+    const hasLeading = leading !== null &&
+        leading.end >= ctx.space.maxGroup &&
+        leading.end < totalLen;
+    const leadingEnd = leading !== null ? leading.end : 0;
+    return { leadingEnd, hasLeading, intervals };
 }
 /** Set equality of two climb root lists (the "same conclusion" test the
  *  contrastive margin skips rivals by). */
 function sameRoots(a, b) {
-  if (a.length !== b.length) {
-    return false;
-  }
-  const s = new Set(a);
-  for (const x of b) {
-    if (!s.has(x)) {
-      return false;
-    }
-  }
-  return true;
+    if (a.length !== b.length)
+        return false;
+    const s = new Set(a);
+    for (const x of b)
+        if (!s.has(x))
+            return false;
+    return true;
 }
 export function canonicalChunkId(ctx, regionBytes, N, reachMemo) {
-  const len = Math.min(regionBytes.length, ctx.space.maxGroup);
-  for (let off = 0; off + len <= regionBytes.length; off++) {
-    const ids = leafIdRun(ctx, regionBytes, off, off + len);
-    if (ids === null) {
-      return null;
-    }
-    const flatId = ctx.store.findBranch(ids);
-    if (flatId === null) {
-      continue;
-    }
-    if (len < 2) {
-      return flatId;
-    }
-    let bestId = flatId;
-    let bestReach = edgeAncestors(ctx, flatId, N, reachMemo);
-    for (let k2 = 1; k2 < len; k2++) {
-      const shortIds = ids.slice(0, len - k2);
-      const shortId = ctx.store.findBranch(shortIds);
-      if (shortId === null) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      const shortReach = edgeAncestors(ctx, shortId, N, reachMemo);
-      if (
-        shortReach.saturated ||
-        shortReach.contextsReached > bestReach.contextsReached
-      ) {
-        bestId = shortId;
-        bestReach = shortReach;
-      }
+    const len = Math.min(regionBytes.length, ctx.space.maxGroup);
+    for (let off = 0; off + len <= regionBytes.length; off++) {
+        const ids = leafIdRun(ctx, regionBytes, off, off + len);
+        if (ids === null)
+            return null;
+        const flatId = ctx.store.findBranch(ids);
+        if (flatId === null)
+            continue;
+        if (len < 2)
+            return flatId;
+        let bestId = flatId;
+        let bestReach = edgeAncestors(ctx, flatId, N, reachMemo);
+        for (let k2 = 1; k2 < len; k2++) {
+            const shortIds = ids.slice(0, len - k2);
+            const shortId = ctx.store.findBranch(shortIds);
+            if (shortId === null)
+                continue;
+            const shortReach = edgeAncestors(ctx, shortId, N, reachMemo);
+            if (shortReach.saturated ||
+                shortReach.contextsReached > bestReach.contextsReached) {
+                bestId = shortId;
+                bestReach = shortReach;
+            }
+        }
+        return bestId;
     }
-    return bestId;
-  }
-  return null;
+    return null;
 }
 export function naturalBreak(votes) {
-  if (votes.length <= 1) {
-    return votes[0] ?? 0;
-  }
-  let breakAt = 1;
-  let steepest = Infinity;
-  for (let i = 1; i < votes.length; i++) {
-    if (votes[i - 1] <= 0) {
-      break;
-    }
-    const ratio = votes[i] / votes[i - 1];
-    if (ratio < steepest) {
-      steepest = ratio;
-      breakAt = i;
+    if (votes.length <= 1)
+        return votes[0] ?? 0;
+    let breakAt = 1;
+    let steepest = Infinity;
+    for (let i = 1; i < votes.length; i++) {
+        if (votes[i - 1] <= 0)
+            break;
+        const ratio = votes[i] / votes[i - 1];
+        if (ratio < steepest) {
+            steepest = ratio;
+            breakAt = i;
+        }
     }
-  }
-  return votes[breakAt - 1];
+    return votes[breakAt - 1];
 }
 // ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
 // Cross-region attention — DIRECT region-to-region interaction.
@@ -703,314 +649,250 @@ export function naturalBreak(votes) {
 // container does not hold (a genuine second topic) are untouched.
 // ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
 async function crossRegionVotes(ctx, query, regions, rvs, k, N, reachMemo) {
-  // Candidate regions: every region that ALREADY CAST ITS OWN VOTE in
-  // voteRegions — individually idf > 0, genuinely discriminative on its own,
-  // just not necessarily for the SAME context as its partner.  This is the
-  // exact shape of the binding problem: "red" alone votes for `red square`,
-  // "circle" alone for `circle` — each independently informative, disagreeing
-  // on the conclusion — and only their CONJUNCTION resolves to the one
-  // context, `red circle`, that actually holds both.
-  //
-  // A region that never voted (idf == 0 — e.g. a repeated system-prompt
-  // prefix shared by every deposit) carries NO individual signal, and must be
-  // excluded here too: ascending from a non-discriminative fragment's seeds
-  // can still land on some deeper, incidentally-unique DESCENDANT container —
-  // its rarity would come entirely from context OUTSIDE the fragments
-  // actually composed, manufacturing confidence the query gave no reason to
-  // have.  Requiring a prior individual vote is the same discipline the noise
-  // drop already applies to single regions, extended to compositions — with
-  // one graded relaxation: a KNOWN region that did NOT vote (saturated, or
-  // idf ≤ 0) may still serve as the WEAK side of a pair whose other side DID
-  // vote.  Saturation is an abstention about where the region CLIMBS; its
-  // content-addressed identity is still exact, and the junction asks a
-  // different question — "which whole holds both?" — whose conclusion the
-  // container's own idf gate below still guards.  Two non-voting regions
-  // never pair (that is exactly the shared-prefix trap above), so at least
-  // one side is always individually discriminative.
-  //
-  // Only MAXIMAL spans compose: a span contained in another candidate is a
-  // fragment of that candidate's evidence, never independent of it.
-  const votedSpans = new Set();
-  for (const rv of rvs.votes) {
-    votedSpans.add(`${rv.start},${rv.end}`);
-  }
-  const seen = new Set();
-  const eligible = [];
-  const strong = new Set();
-  for (let ri = 0; ri < regions.length; ri++) {
-    const r = regions[ri];
-    const key = `${r.start},${r.end}`;
-    const isStrong = votedSpans.has(key);
-    if ((!isStrong && !r.known) || seen.has(key)) {
-      continue;
-    }
-    seen.add(key);
-    eligible.push(ri);
-    if (isStrong) {
-      strong.add(ri);
-    }
-  }
-  const cand = eligible.filter((x) =>
-    !eligible.some((y) =>
-      y !== x &&
-      regions[y].start <= regions[x].start &&
-      regions[x].end <= regions[y].end &&
-      regions[y].end - regions[y].start > regions[x].end - regions[x].start
-    )
-  );
-  const none = { votes: [], superseded: new Set() };
-  if (cand.length < 2) {
-    return none;
-  }
-  cand.sort((x, y) =>
-    regions[x].start - regions[y].start || regions[x].end - regions[y].end
-  );
-  const dec = (b) => new TextDecoder().decode(b).replace(/\s+/g, " ").trim();
-  const cache = walkCache(ctx);
-  // One junctionSeeds per candidate for the WHOLE pairing loop — a candidate
-  // recurs in up to |cand|−1 pairs, and its seeds are a pure function of its
-  // bytes.
-  const seedsMemo = new Map();
-  const seedsOf = (ri) => {
-    let s = seedsMemo.get(ri);
-    if (s === undefined) {
-      const r = regions[ri];
-      s = junctionSeeds(ctx, query.subarray(r.start, r.end));
-      seedsMemo.set(ri, s);
-    }
-    return s;
-  };
-  const overlapsSpan = (e, s) => e.start < s.end && s.start < e.end;
-  const out = [];
-  const superseded = new Set();
-  // A candidate consumed by one junction does not seed another: its evidence
-  // is already composed at full joint strength, and re-pairing it would vote
-  // the same container (or a sub-container of it) twice.
-  const consumed = new Set();
-  let probes = 0;
-  for (let a = 0; a < cand.length && probes < k; a++) {
-    if (consumed.has(cand[a])) {
-      continue;
+    // Candidate regions: every region that ALREADY CAST ITS OWN VOTE in
+    // voteRegions — individually idf > 0, genuinely discriminative on its own,
+    // just not necessarily for the SAME context as its partner.  This is the
+    // exact shape of the binding problem: "red" alone votes for `red square`,
+    // "circle" alone for `circle` — each independently informative, disagreeing
+    // on the conclusion — and only their CONJUNCTION resolves to the one
+    // context, `red circle`, that actually holds both.
+    //
+    // A region that never voted (idf == 0 — e.g. a repeated system-prompt
+    // prefix shared by every deposit) carries NO individual signal, and must be
+    // excluded here too: ascending from a non-discriminative fragment's seeds
+    // can still land on some deeper, incidentally-unique DESCENDANT container —
+    // its rarity would come entirely from context OUTSIDE the fragments
+    // actually composed, manufacturing confidence the query gave no reason to
+    // have.  Requiring a prior individual vote is the same discipline the noise
+    // drop already applies to single regions, extended to compositions — with
+    // one graded relaxation: a KNOWN region that did NOT vote (saturated, or
+    // idf ≤ 0) may still serve as the WEAK side of a pair whose other side DID
+    // vote.  Saturation is an abstention about where the region CLIMBS; its
+    // content-addressed identity is still exact, and the junction asks a
+    // different question — "which whole holds both?" — whose conclusion the
+    // container's own idf gate below still guards.  Two non-voting regions
+    // never pair (that is exactly the shared-prefix trap above), so at least
+    // one side is always individually discriminative.
+    //
+    // Only MAXIMAL spans compose: a span contained in another candidate is a
+    // fragment of that candidate's evidence, never independent of it.
+    const votedSpans = new Set();
+    for (const rv of rvs.votes)
+        votedSpans.add(`${rv.start},${rv.end}`);
+    const seen = new Set();
+    const eligible = [];
+    const strong = new Set();
+    for (let ri = 0; ri < regions.length; ri++) {
+        const r = regions[ri];
+        const key = `${r.start},${r.end}`;
+        const isStrong = votedSpans.has(key);
+        if ((!isStrong && !r.known) || seen.has(key))
+            continue;
+        seen.add(key);
+        eligible.push(ri);
+        if (isStrong)
+            strong.add(ri);
     }
-    const ra = regions[cand[a]];
-    for (let b = a + 1; b < cand.length && probes < k; b++) {
-      if (consumed.has(cand[b])) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      const rb = regions[cand[b]];
-      if (!strong.has(cand[a]) && !strong.has(cand[b])) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      if (ra.end >= rb.start) {
-        continue; // overlap or adjacent — nothing between
-      }
-      // A single KNOWN region covering both: the whole form is already a
-      // stored identity that votes directly; its pieces add nothing.
-      if (
-        regions.some((r) => r.known && r.start <= ra.start && rb.end <= r.end)
-      ) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      probes++;
-      const left = query.subarray(ra.start, ra.end);
-      const right = query.subarray(rb.start, rb.end);
-      // Phrase-scale contract, exactly as the bridge: the glue between the two
-      // forms may be up to W× the content it joins.
-      const maxInterior = (left.length + right.length) * ctx.space.maxGroup;
-      const cap = left.length + right.length + maxInterior;
-      // Tier 1 — exact containers (both forms as substrings, either order, by
-      // DAG ascent).  Exact evidence first; only falls through to synonyms
-      // when the exact ascent finds nothing — the SAME graded ladder the
-      // bridge uses.
-      let containers = junctionContainersFrom(
-        ctx,
-        left,
-        right,
-        cap,
-        seedsOf(cand[a]),
-        seedsOf(cand[b]),
-        undefined,
-        true,
-      );
-      if (containers.length === 0) {
-        // Tier 2.5 — synonym containers (halo sibling of one side + the other).
-        containers = await junctionSynonyms(
-          ctx,
-          left,
-          right,
-          maxInterior,
-          true,
-        );
-      }
-      if (containers.length === 0) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      // N-ARY selection: the container covering the MOST remaining candidate
-      // forms wins (then tightest interior, then lowest id).  Reads are
-      // cache hits — every container's bytes were already read by the walk.
-      //
-      // SELF-EVIDENCE GUARD: a junction is BINDING evidence only when the
-      // container joins forms the query mentions APART.  When the container's
-      // own joined occurrence (left..right including its interior) is a
-      // literal substring of the query, the query already spells that phrase
-      // out contiguously — perception already voted with it, and grid shards
-      // of one phrase pairing "around" a gap chunk would merely rediscover
-      // the phrase they are shards of, then explain away its rivals.
-      let best = null;
-      let bestExtras = [];
-      let bestCov = -1;
-      for (const c of containers) {
-        const bytes = cachedRead(ctx, cache, c.id, cap);
-        const li = indexOf(bytes, left, 0);
-        const ri = indexOf(bytes, right, 0);
-        if (li >= 0 && ri >= 0) {
-          const joined = bytes.subarray(
-            Math.min(li, ri),
-            Math.max(li + left.length, ri + right.length),
-          );
-          if (indexOf(query, joined, 0) >= 0) {
-            continue; // query says it itself
-          }
+    const cand = eligible.filter((x) => !eligible.some((y) => y !== x &&
+        regions[y].start <= regions[x].start &&
+        regions[x].end <= regions[y].end &&
+        regions[y].end - regions[y].start > regions[x].end - regions[x].start));
+    const none = { votes: [], superseded: new Set() };
+    if (cand.length < 2)
+        return none;
+    cand.sort((x, y) => regions[x].start - regions[y].start || regions[x].end - regions[y].end);
+    const dec = (b) => new TextDecoder().decode(b).replace(/\s+/g, " ").trim();
+    const cache = walkCache(ctx);
+    // One junctionSeeds per candidate for the WHOLE pairing loop — a candidate
+    // recurs in up to |cand|−1 pairs, and its seeds are a pure function of its
+    // bytes.
+    const seedsMemo = new Map();
+    const seedsOf = (ri) => {
+        let s = seedsMemo.get(ri);
+        if (s === undefined) {
+            const r = regions[ri];
+            s = junctionSeeds(ctx, query.subarray(r.start, r.end));
+            seedsMemo.set(ri, s);
         }
-        let cov = left.length + right.length;
-        const extras = [];
-        for (const ei of cand) {
-          if (ei === cand[a] || ei === cand[b] || consumed.has(ei)) {
+        return s;
+    };
+    const overlapsSpan = (e, s) => e.start < s.end && s.start < e.end;
+    const out = [];
+    const superseded = new Set();
+    // A candidate consumed by one junction does not seed another: its evidence
+    // is already composed at full joint strength, and re-pairing it would vote
+    // the same container (or a sub-container of it) twice.
+    const consumed = new Set();
+    let probes = 0;
+    for (let a = 0; a < cand.length && probes < k; a++) {
+        if (consumed.has(cand[a]))
             continue;
-          }
-          const e = regions[ei];
-          if (overlapsSpan(e, ra) || overlapsSpan(e, rb)) {
-            continue;
-          }
-          const eb = query.subarray(e.start, e.end);
-          if (indexOf(bytes, eb, 0) >= 0) {
-            extras.push(ei);
-            cov += eb.length;
-          }
-        }
-        if (
-          cov > bestCov ||
-          (cov === bestCov && best !== null &&
-            (c.interior.length < best.interior.length ||
-              (c.interior.length === best.interior.length && c.id < best.id)))
-        ) {
-          best = c;
-          bestExtras = extras;
-          bestCov = cov;
-        }
-      }
-      if (best === null) {
-        continue; // every container was self-evidence
-      }
-      const reach = edgeAncestors(ctx, best.id, N, reachMemo);
-      if (reach.saturated || reach.roots.length === 0) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      const idf = Math.log(N / Math.max(1, reach.contextsReached));
-      if (idf <= 0) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      // EXACT joint evidence (score = 1): the container literally contains
-      // every composed form.  Mutual-explanation weight over their COMBINED
-      // byte length — the same magnitude reading voteRegions uses, here with
-      // the estimator collapsed to certainty, so mutual = min(ratio, 1/ratio).
-      const lenR = Math.max(1, bestCov);
-      const ratio = Math.sqrt(
-        Math.max(1, ctx.store.contentLen(best.id, lenR * ctx.store.D)) / lenR,
-      );
-      const mutual = Math.min(1, ratio) * Math.min(1, 1 / ratio);
-      const w = (mutual * idf) / reach.roots.length;
-      let spanStart = ra.start;
-      let spanEnd = rb.end;
-      for (const ei of bestExtras) {
-        spanStart = Math.min(spanStart, regions[ei].start);
-        spanEnd = Math.max(spanEnd, regions[ei].end);
-      }
-      out.push({
-        start: spanStart,
-        end: spanEnd,
-        canonicalFailed: false, // content-addressed: never saturation-masked
-        roots: reach.roots,
-        w,
-        wFocus: w,
-      });
-      consumed.add(cand[a]);
-      consumed.add(cand[b]);
-      for (const ei of bestExtras) {
-        consumed.add(ei);
-      }
-      // EXPLAINING AWAY — see the block comment above the function.  Byte
-      // containment in the joint container is the relatedness test (the
-      // vote's bytes are literally part of the learnt whole), and FULL root
-      // disjointness is the disagreement test: a vote sharing even one root
-      // with the junction corroborates it and keeps its say elsewhere.
-      const containerBytes = cachedRead(ctx, cache, best.id, cap);
-      const jointRoots = new Set(reach.roots);
-      for (const rv of rvs.votes) {
-        if (rv.roots.some((r) => jointRoots.has(r))) {
-          continue;
+        const ra = regions[cand[a]];
+        for (let b = a + 1; b < cand.length && probes < k; b++) {
+            if (consumed.has(cand[b]))
+                continue;
+            const rb = regions[cand[b]];
+            if (!strong.has(cand[a]) && !strong.has(cand[b]))
+                continue;
+            if (ra.end >= rb.start)
+                continue; // overlap or adjacent — nothing between
+            // A single KNOWN region covering both: the whole form is already a
+            // stored identity that votes directly; its pieces add nothing.
+            if (regions.some((r) => r.known && r.start <= ra.start && rb.end <= r.end))
+                continue;
+            probes++;
+            const left = query.subarray(ra.start, ra.end);
+            const right = query.subarray(rb.start, rb.end);
+            // Phrase-scale contract, exactly as the bridge: the glue between the two
+            // forms may be up to W× the content it joins.
+            const maxInterior = (left.length + right.length) * ctx.space.maxGroup;
+            const cap = left.length + right.length + maxInterior;
+            // Tier 1 — exact containers (both forms as substrings, either order, by
+            // DAG ascent).  Exact evidence first; only falls through to synonyms
+            // when the exact ascent finds nothing — the SAME graded ladder the
+            // bridge uses.
+            let containers = junctionContainersFrom(ctx, left, right, cap, seedsOf(cand[a]), seedsOf(cand[b]), undefined, true);
+            if (containers.length === 0) {
+                // Tier 2.5 — synonym containers (halo sibling of one side + the other).
+                containers = await junctionSynonyms(ctx, left, right, maxInterior, true);
+            }
+            if (containers.length === 0)
+                continue;
+            // N-ARY selection: the container covering the MOST remaining candidate
+            // forms wins (then tightest interior, then lowest id).  Reads are
+            // cache hits — every container's bytes were already read by the walk.
+            //
+            // SELF-EVIDENCE GUARD: a junction is BINDING evidence only when the
+            // container joins forms the query mentions APART.  When the container's
+            // own joined occurrence (left..right including its interior) is a
+            // literal substring of the query, the query already spells that phrase
+            // out contiguously — perception already voted with it, and grid shards
+            // of one phrase pairing "around" a gap chunk would merely rediscover
+            // the phrase they are shards of, then explain away its rivals.
+            let best = null;
+            let bestExtras = [];
+            let bestCov = -1;
+            for (const c of containers) {
+                const bytes = cachedRead(ctx, cache, c.id, cap);
+                const li = indexOf(bytes, left, 0);
+                const ri = indexOf(bytes, right, 0);
+                if (li >= 0 && ri >= 0) {
+                    const joined = bytes.subarray(Math.min(li, ri), Math.max(li + left.length, ri + right.length));
+                    if (indexOf(query, joined, 0) >= 0)
+                        continue; // query says it itself
+                }
+                let cov = left.length + right.length;
+                const extras = [];
+                for (const ei of cand) {
+                    if (ei === cand[a] || ei === cand[b] || consumed.has(ei))
+                        continue;
+                    const e = regions[ei];
+                    if (overlapsSpan(e, ra) || overlapsSpan(e, rb))
+                        continue;
+                    const eb = query.subarray(e.start, e.end);
+                    if (indexOf(bytes, eb, 0) >= 0) {
+                        extras.push(ei);
+                        cov += eb.length;
+                    }
+                }
+                if (cov > bestCov ||
+                    (cov === bestCov && best !== null &&
+                        (c.interior.length < best.interior.length ||
+                            (c.interior.length === best.interior.length && c.id < best.id)))) {
+                    best = c;
+                    bestExtras = extras;
+                    bestCov = cov;
+                }
+            }
+            if (best === null)
+                continue; // every container was self-evidence
+            const reach = edgeAncestors(ctx, best.id, N, reachMemo);
+            if (reach.saturated || reach.roots.length === 0)
+                continue;
+            const idf = Math.log(N / Math.max(1, reach.contextsReached));
+            if (idf <= 0)
+                continue;
+            // EXACT joint evidence (score = 1): the container literally contains
+            // every composed form.  Mutual-explanation weight over their COMBINED
+            // byte length — the same magnitude reading voteRegions uses, here with
+            // the estimator collapsed to certainty, so mutual = min(ratio, 1/ratio).
+            const lenR = Math.max(1, bestCov);
+            const ratio = Math.sqrt(Math.max(1, ctx.store.contentLen(best.id, lenR * ctx.store.D)) / lenR);
+            const mutual = Math.min(1, ratio) * Math.min(1, 1 / ratio);
+            const w = (mutual * idf) / reach.roots.length;
+            let spanStart = ra.start;
+            let spanEnd = rb.end;
+            for (const ei of bestExtras) {
+                spanStart = Math.min(spanStart, regions[ei].start);
+                spanEnd = Math.max(spanEnd, regions[ei].end);
+            }
+            out.push({
+                start: spanStart,
+                end: spanEnd,
+                canonicalFailed: false, // content-addressed: never saturation-masked
+                roots: reach.roots,
+                w,
+                wFocus: w,
+            });
+            consumed.add(cand[a]);
+            consumed.add(cand[b]);
+            for (const ei of bestExtras)
+                consumed.add(ei);
+            // EXPLAINING AWAY — see the block comment above the function.  Byte
+            // containment in the joint container is the relatedness test (the
+            // vote's bytes are literally part of the learnt whole), and FULL root
+            // disjointness is the disagreement test: a vote sharing even one root
+            // with the junction corroborates it and keeps its say elsewhere.
+            const containerBytes = cachedRead(ctx, cache, best.id, cap);
+            const jointRoots = new Set(reach.roots);
+            for (const rv of rvs.votes) {
+                if (rv.roots.some((r) => jointRoots.has(r)))
+                    continue;
+                const bytes = query.subarray(rv.start, rv.end);
+                if (indexOf(containerBytes, bytes, 0) >= 0)
+                    superseded.add(rv);
+            }
+            const label = [cand[a], cand[b], ...bestExtras]
+                .sort((x, y) => regions[x].start - regions[y].start)
+                .map((ri) => dec(query.subarray(regions[ri].start, regions[ri].end)))
+                .join(" ▸ ");
+            ctx.trace?.step("crossRegion", [{ text: label, role: "pair" }], reach.roots.map((r) => ({
+                text: dec(read(ctx, r)).slice(0, 60),
+                node: r,
+                role: "joint-context",
+            })), `${label} → junction node ${best.id}` +
+                (best.interior.length === 0
+                    ? " (adjacent)"
+                    : ` (interior "${dec(best.interior)}")`) +
+                ` → ${reach.roots.length} context(s), by content-addressed ascent` +
+                (superseded.size > 0
+                    ? `; ${superseded.size} aliasing vote(s) explained away`
+                    : ""));
+            break; // ra is consumed — move to the next unconsumed candidate
         }
-        const bytes = query.subarray(rv.start, rv.end);
-        if (indexOf(containerBytes, bytes, 0) >= 0) {
-          superseded.add(rv);
-        }
-      }
-      const label = [cand[a], cand[b], ...bestExtras]
-        .sort((x, y) => regions[x].start - regions[y].start)
-        .map((ri) => dec(query.subarray(regions[ri].start, regions[ri].end)))
-        .join(" ▸ ");
-      ctx.trace?.step(
-        "crossRegion",
-        [{ text: label, role: "pair" }],
-        reach.roots.map((r) => ({
-          text: dec(read(ctx, r)).slice(0, 60),
-          node: r,
-          role: "joint-context",
-        })),
-        `${label} → junction node ${best.id}` +
-          (best.interior.length === 0
-            ? " (adjacent)"
-            : ` (interior "${dec(best.interior)}")`) +
-          ` → ${reach.roots.length} context(s), by content-addressed ascent` +
-          (superseded.size > 0
-            ? `; ${superseded.size} aliasing vote(s) explained away`
-            : ""),
-      );
-      break; // ra is consumed — move to the next unconsumed candidate
     }
-  }
-  return { votes: out, superseded };
+    return { votes: out, superseded };
 }
 export function traceAttention(ctx, regions, regionVoter, roots, steps = []) {
-  if (!ctx.trace) {
-    return;
-  }
-  const voters = [];
-  for (let i = 0; i < regions.length; i++) {
-    const rv = regionVoter[i];
-    if (rv == null) {
-      continue;
+    if (!ctx.trace)
+        return;
+    const voters = [];
+    for (let i = 0; i < regions.length; i++) {
+        const rv = regionVoter[i];
+        if (rv == null)
+            continue;
+        const item = rNode(ctx, rv.id, "sub-region", rv.score);
+        item.text = `${item.text}  (df-w ${rv.w.toFixed(2)})`;
+        voters.push(item);
     }
-    const item = rNode(ctx, rv.id, "sub-region", rv.score);
-    item.text = `${item.text}  (df-w ${rv.w.toFixed(2)})`;
-    voters.push(item);
-  }
-  const t = ctx.trace.enter("climbConsensus", voters);
-  // The pooled-evidence decision, one DerivationStep per anchor — the same
-  // shape {@link GraphSearch}'s own cover steps take (see traceDerivation).
-  if (steps.length > 0) {
-    traceDerivation(ctx, steps);
-  }
-  t.done(
-    roots.map((r) => rNode(ctx, r.anchor, "anchor", r.vote)),
-    roots.length === 0
-      ? `${regions.length} sub-regions climbed the DAG, but none agreed on a context`
-      : roots.length === 1
-      ? `${voters.length} of ${regions.length} sub-regions voted; IDF-weighted consensus picked one context (vote ${
-        roots[0].vote.toFixed(2)
-      })`
-      : `${voters.length} of ${regions.length} sub-regions voted; consensus ordered ${roots.length} INDEPENDENT points of attention (votes ${
-        roots.map((r) => r.vote.toFixed(2)).join(", ")
-      })`,
-  );
+    const t = ctx.trace.enter("climbConsensus", voters);
+    // The pooled-evidence decision, one DerivationStep per anchor — the same
+    // shape {@link GraphSearch}'s own cover steps take (see traceDerivation).
+    if (steps.length > 0)
+        traceDerivation(ctx, steps);
+    t.done(roots.map((r) => rNode(ctx, r.anchor, "anchor", r.vote)), roots.length === 0
+        ? `${regions.length} sub-regions climbed the DAG, but none agreed on a context`
+        : roots.length === 1
+            ? `${voters.length} of ${regions.length} sub-regions voted; IDF-weighted consensus picked one context (vote ${roots[0].vote.toFixed(2)})`
+            : `${voters.length} of ${regions.length} sub-regions voted; consensus ordered ${roots.length} INDEPENDENT points of attention (votes ${roots.map((r) => r.vote.toFixed(2)).join(", ")})`);
 }