@hviana/sema 0.9.0 → 0.9.2

package/src/mind/reasoning.ts

@@ -4,26 +4,56 @@
 //   fuseAttention — fuse independent points of attention (multi-topic)
 import { rItem, rNode } from "./trace.js";
 
-import { bytesEqual, indexOf } from "../bytes.js";
+import { bytesEqual, indexOf, latin1 } from "../bytes.js";
 import type { Attention, MindContext } from "./types.js";
-import { resolve } from "./primitives.js";
-import { corpusN, hubBound } from "./traverse.js";
+import { read, resolve } from "./primitives.js";
+import { countClusters } from "./attention.js";
+import {
+  guidedFirst,
+  hubBound,
+  namedContinuations,
+  offsetCanon,
+} from "./traverse.js";
+import { unspoken, type WindowIndex, windowIndex } from "./evidence.js";
 import { containsSpan, follow, haloSiblings, project } from "./match.js";
 import { joinWithBridge, pivotInto } from "./resonance.js";
-import { admissible, advance, type Continuation } from "./derivation.js";
-import type { Precomputed } from "./pipeline-mechanism.js";
-import { type Rationale } from "./rationale.js";
 import {
-  closure,
+  closed,
+  closeOver,
+  type ClosureLayer,
+  type Continuation,
   type DerivationState,
   type Offer,
   restates,
   type Span,
   unaccountedBytes,
+  type Witness,
 } from "./derivation.js";
+import type { Precomputed } from "./pipeline-mechanism.js";
+import type { Rationale } from "./rationale.js";
 import { STEP } from "./graph-search.js";
 
-/** Extend a grounded answer forward across facts (multi-hop reasoning).
+/** What one ADMITTED transition did to the question, published on the meter:
+ *  the bytes its witnesses CARRIED and the remainder the move DRAINED.  The two
+ *  transitions that go through the law — the walk's steps and the fusion —
+ *  report through this one function, so the two counters have one spelling.
+ *  Write-only (meter.ts contract 1). */
+function meterTransition(
+  ctx: MindContext,
+  before: DerivationState,
+  after: DerivationState,
+  witnesses: ReadonlyArray<Witness>,
+): void {
+  if (!ctx.meter) return;
+  for (const w of witnesses) {
+    if (w.window) ctx.meter.reasonCarriedBytes += w.window[1] - w.window[0];
+  }
+  ctx.meter.closureDrainedBytes += unaccountedBytes(before.remainder) -
+    unaccountedBytes(after.remainder);
+}
+
+/** Extend a grounded answer forward across facts (multi-hop reasoning) — the
+ *  WALK, run as one layer of the closure engine ({@link walkLayer}).
  *  Pivots on the longest unconsumed learnt context each answer contains,
  *  then follows the pivot's continuation to the next fact.  **The chain ends
  *  when it STOPS, never when a count runs out**: every exit is a refusal (no
@@ -38,7 +68,7 @@ import { STEP } from "./graph-search.js";
  *  when it declared one — see the pivot's own containment rule.  `pre` is the
  *  response's shared pre-computation — the post-grounding stages read the
  *  same container the mechanisms did. */
-export async function reason(
+export function reason(
   ctx: MindContext,
   query: Uint8Array,
   d0: DerivationState,
@@ -46,33 +76,30 @@ export async function reason(
   pre: Precomputed,
   voiced: readonly Uint8Array[] = [],
 ): Promise<DerivationState> {
-  const answer = d0.product;
-  /** The query material the GROUNDING left uncovered — the state's own
-   *  remainder.  Only the reasoner's OWN extensions are judged against it; a
-   *  mechanism carrying its own `used` set owns its shape. */
-  const uncovered = d0.remainder;
-  // Echo guard: a query that is ITSELF a learnt continuation (some context's
-  // answer) is being asked back at the system — hopping forward from it would
-  // chain through the very fact that produced it and echo the conversation
-  // back.  The grounded answer alone is the honest read-out.  Deliberately a
-  // broad structural gate; pinned by test/31-audit.
-  const qId = pre.queryResolved;
-  if (qId !== null && ctx.store.prevCount(qId) > 0) {
-    // THE ECHO GUARD, NAMED — the audit's point 1 could not attribute two real
-    // walks that stopped with no note at all, and this is where one of them went:
-    // the query IS a learnt continuation, so the reasoner returns the grounded
-    // read-out and never offers anything.  Without this note the walk looks like
-    // an unexplained stop; with it, "no note" can only mean the offer was never
-    // asked.  No decision changes: the guard returns exactly where it did.
-    ctx.trace?.step(
-      "echoGuard",
-      [rItem(query, "query")],
-      [],
-      "the query is itself a learnt continuation — answering the grounded read-out without walking",
-    );
-    return d0;
-  }
+  return closeOver(d0, query, ctx.space.maxGroup, [
+    walkLayer(ctx, query, preConsumed, pre, voiced),
+  ]);
+}
 
+/** The multi-hop walk as a {@link ClosureLayer}: it OFFERS a forward absorb or a
+ *  pivot, the law admits.  Its preamble — the two guards that say the question
+ *  was already answered by the query's own position in the graph, and the
+ *  pre-consumption of what the grounding spoke for — runs on the FIRST offer,
+ *  against the state the engine hands it; a guard that fires makes that first
+ *  offer `null`, so the walk ends where it begins and reports nothing more. */
+export function walkLayer(
+  ctx: MindContext,
+  query: Uint8Array,
+  preConsumed: ReadonlySet<number>,
+  pre: Precomputed,
+  voiced: readonly Uint8Array[] = [],
+): ClosureLayer {
+  /** The preamble ran (on the first offer), and whether a guard stopped it. */
+  let begun = false;
+  let stopped = false;
+  let groundedId: number | null = null;
+  let groundedPrev: number[] | null = null;
+  let startedFrom: Uint8Array = new Uint8Array(0);
   // Consume a node and its neighbours for pivot-cycle prevention — CAPPED at
   // the hub bound, via the store's LIMITed edge reads: a common continuation's
   // reverse fan-in (and a hub context's forward fan-out) is corpus-sized, and
@@ -81,61 +108,15 @@ export async function reason(
   // read order); a pivot suppressed only by a beyond-cap neighbour may now
   // fire — the same visibility trade chooseNext documents.
   const bound = hubBound(ctx);
-
-  // ANSWERED DIRECTLY — the echo guard's other half, and the same principle:
-  // the QUERY's own position in the graph, not the answer's content, says the
-  // read-out is complete.  Above: the query is itself a learnt CONTINUATION.
-  // Here: the query is a learnt CONTEXT and the grounded answer is one of ITS
-  // OWN continuations.  Either way the question was answered directly and there
-  // is nothing left to chain for.
-  //
-  // Every stopping condition in the loop below judges the ANSWER (`consumed` /
-  // the law's `restates` / `bytesEqual`); none asks whether the QUESTION was
-  // satisfied.  So a single-hop question whose answer happens to name another
-  // learnt context extends past a correct answer and REPLACES it:
-  //
-  //   asked  "<subj> father"
-  //   hop 1  "The father of <subj> is Ernest I of Anhalt-Dessau."   <- correct
-  //   pivot  "Ernest I of Anhalt-Dessau"                <- a learnt context too
-  //   got    "The date of death of Ernest I of Anhalt-Dessau is 12 June 1516."
-  //
-  // Any store holding a bare-entity context alongside a relation fact has that
-  // shape; it is not exotic.
-  //
-  // Checked ONCE, before the loop, and ahead of BOTH extension branches:
-  // `absorbForward` extends the answer too, and nothing about the defect is
-  // specific to pivoting, so a guard between them would gate one arbitrary half
-  // of the same step.  Hop 0 is also the only hop at which the question can be
-  // answered directly at all — after a hop, `cur` is no longer the query's own
-  // continuation, so re-testing per hop could only cost reads.
-  //
-  // Read from the ANSWER's side (`prevFirst`) rather than the query's
-  // (`nextFirst`).  Same relation, but a CONTEXT's fan-out is hub-sized while
-  // this is one answer's establishing-context fan-in.  Both the resolve and the
-  // reverse read are exactly what hop 0 of the loop below would perform, so
-  // they are computed ONCE here and handed down (`groundedId`, `groundedPrev`)
-  // — the guard then costs nothing when it does not fire.  Stated because the
-  // naive placement does NOT: `resolve` re-folds the answer bytes on every call
-  // (no memo) and `prevFirst` is a direct read (no memo), so a guard that
-  // recomputed them would add one fold plus one √N-bounded read per ask.
-  // The √N cap carries the file-wide visibility trade, and fails SAFE in the
-  // direction that matters: a missed guard costs an over-extended answer, never
-  // a suppressed chain.
-  //
-  // A genuine multi-hop query is not a deposited context at all ("What is the
-  // capital of the country of Eiffel Tower?" resolves to nothing), so this can
-  // never gate a real chain.
-  const groundedId = resolve(ctx, answer);
-  const groundedPrev = groundedId === null
-    ? null
-    : ctx.store.prevFirst(groundedId, bound);
-  if (qId !== null && groundedPrev !== null && groundedPrev.includes(qId)) {
-    return d0;
-  }
-
   const consumed = new Set<number>();
+  /** The windows each product of this derivation holds — what of the question
+   *  the derivation has already restated, so a later step is NAMED only by
+   *  question material none of them said. */
+  const spoken: WindowIndex[] = [];
+  const speak = (product: Uint8Array) =>
+    spoken.push(windowIndex(offsetCanon(ctx, product), ctx.space.maxGroup));
   /** `prev` lets a caller hand in an already-read reverse-edge list — hop 0
-   *  reuses the guard's, above, instead of re-reading it. */
+   *  reuses the guard's, below, instead of re-reading it. */
   const consumeNode = (
     id: number | null,
     prev?: readonly number[],
@@ -150,27 +131,107 @@ export async function reason(
     for (const n of ctx.store.nextFirst(id, bound)) consumed.add(n);
   };
 
-  // Pre-consume whatever the grounding stage already spoke for.  The halo
-  // sweep is one ANN query per node — cap it at haloQueryK sweeps (cover
-  // grounding can pre-consume one node per recognised site, O(query length));
-  // nodes past the cap are still consumed directly, they just skip the
-  // synonym expansion.
-  const preconsume = async () => {
-    let haloSweeps = 0;
-    for (const id of preConsumed) {
-      consumeNode(id);
-      if (haloSweeps >= ctx.cfg.haloQueryK) continue;
-      const h = ctx.store.halo(id);
-      if (!h) continue;
-      haloSweeps++;
-      for (const sib of await haloSiblings(ctx, id, h)) consumeNode(sib.id);
+  /** THE PREAMBLE — true when the walk may proceed. */
+  const begin = async (d0: DerivationState): Promise<boolean> => {
+    const answer = d0.product;
+    startedFrom = answer;
+    speak(answer);
+    // Echo guard: a query that is ITSELF a learnt continuation (some context's
+    // answer) is being asked back at the system — hopping forward from it would
+    // chain through the very fact that produced it and echo the conversation
+    // back.  The grounded answer alone is the honest read-out.  Deliberately a
+    // broad structural gate; pinned by test/31-audit.
+    const qId = pre.queryResolved;
+    if (qId !== null && ctx.store.prevCount(qId) > 0) {
+      // THE ECHO GUARD, NAMED — the audit's point 1 could not attribute two real
+      // walks that stopped with no note at all, and this is where one of them went:
+      // the query IS a learnt continuation, so the reasoner returns the grounded
+      // read-out and never offers anything.  Without this note the walk looks like
+      // an unexplained stop; with it, "no note" can only mean the offer was never
+      // asked.  No decision changes: the guard returns exactly where it did.
+      ctx.trace?.step(
+        "echoGuard",
+        [rItem(query, "query")],
+        [],
+        "the query is itself a learnt continuation — answering the grounded read-out without walking",
+      );
+      return false;
+    }
+
+    // ANSWERED DIRECTLY — the echo guard's other half, and the same principle:
+    // the QUERY's own position in the graph, not the answer's content, says the
+    // read-out is complete.  Above: the query is itself a learnt CONTINUATION.
+    // Here: the query is a learnt CONTEXT and the grounded answer is one of ITS
+    // OWN continuations.  Either way the question was answered directly and there
+    // is nothing left to chain for.
+    //
+    // Every stopping condition in the loop below judges the ANSWER (`consumed` /
+    // the law's `restates` / `bytesEqual`); none asks whether the QUESTION was
+    // satisfied.  So a single-hop question whose answer happens to name another
+    // learnt context extends past a correct answer and REPLACES it:
+    //
+    //   asked  "<subj> father"
+    //   hop 1  "The father of <subj> is Ernest I of Anhalt-Dessau."   <- correct
+    //   pivot  "Ernest I of Anhalt-Dessau"                <- a learnt context too
+    //   got    "The date of death of Ernest I of Anhalt-Dessau is 12 June 1516."
+    //
+    // Any store holding a bare-entity context alongside a relation fact has that
+    // shape; it is not exotic.
+    //
+    // Checked ONCE, before the loop, and ahead of BOTH extension branches:
+    // `absorbForward` extends the answer too, and nothing about the defect is
+    // specific to pivoting, so a guard between them would gate one arbitrary half
+    // of the same step.  Hop 0 is also the only hop at which the question can be
+    // answered directly at all — after a hop, `cur` is no longer the query's own
+    // continuation, so re-testing per hop could only cost reads.
+    //
+    // Read from the ANSWER's side (`prevFirst`) rather than the query's
+    // (`nextFirst`).  Same relation, but a CONTEXT's fan-out is hub-sized while
+    // this is one answer's establishing-context fan-in.  Both the resolve and the
+    // reverse read are exactly what hop 0 of the loop below would perform, so
+    // they are computed ONCE here and handed down (`groundedId`, `groundedPrev`)
+    // — the guard then costs nothing when it does not fire.  Stated because the
+    // naive placement does NOT: `resolve` re-folds the answer bytes on every call
+    // (no memo) and `prevFirst` is a direct read (no memo), so a guard that
+    // recomputed them would add one fold plus one √N-bounded read per ask.
+    // The √N cap carries the file-wide visibility trade, and fails SAFE in the
+    // direction that matters: a missed guard costs an over-extended answer, never
+    // a suppressed chain.
+    //
+    // A genuine multi-hop query is not a deposited context at all ("What is the
+    // capital of the country of Eiffel Tower?" resolves to nothing), so this can
+    // never gate a real chain.
+    groundedId = resolve(ctx, answer);
+    groundedPrev = groundedId === null
+      ? null
+      : ctx.store.prevFirst(groundedId, bound);
+    if (qId !== null && groundedPrev !== null && groundedPrev.includes(qId)) {
+      return false;
+    }
+
+    // Pre-consume whatever the grounding stage already spoke for.  The halo
+    // sweep is one ANN query per node — cap it at haloQueryK sweeps (cover
+    // grounding can pre-consume one node per recognised site, O(query length));
+    // nodes past the cap are still consumed directly, they just skip the
+    // synonym expansion.
+    const preconsume = async () => {
+      let haloSweeps = 0;
+      for (const id of preConsumed) {
+        consumeNode(id);
+        if (haloSweeps >= ctx.cfg.haloQueryK) continue;
+        const h = ctx.store.halo(id);
+        if (!h) continue;
+        haloSweeps++;
+        for (const sib of await haloSiblings(ctx, id, h)) consumeNode(sib.id);
+      }
+    };
+    if (ctx.meter) {
+      await ctx.meter.time("reason.preconsumeHalos", preconsume);
+    } else {
+      await preconsume();
     }
+    return true;
   };
-  if (ctx.meter) {
-    await ctx.meter.time("reason.preconsumeHalos", preconsume);
-  } else {
-    await preconsume();
-  }
 
   // ── THE WALK, AS THE LAW'S ───────────────────────────────────────────
   //
@@ -194,7 +255,6 @@ export async function reason(
   // 30 s); and raising it from 12 to 200 changed neither the answer nor
   // `pivotSteps` on the chain fixtures.
   const qv = pre.guide; // the response-wide guide IS the query's gist
-  const W = ctx.space.maxGroup;
   // WHOSE EXTENSION IS THIS?  `voiced` is what the mechanism WITHHELD (the
   // pipeline sends the used anchors' CONTINUATIONS, not their bytes), so a
   // non-empty `voiced` means exactly what that note says: the grounding came
@@ -205,7 +265,6 @@ export async function reason(
   // expresses as the identity species of progress — `moves` — declared by the
   // reporter and never inferred from the mechanism's name.
   const producerOwnsShape = voiced.length > 0;
-  const startedFrom = answer;
   let hop = 0;
   let t: ReturnType<Rationale["enter"]> | undefined;
   // WHAT THE OFFERED STEP WOULD BE.  The law decides, so the accepted step is
@@ -218,6 +277,13 @@ export async function reason(
     | null = null;
 
   const offer: Offer = async (d) => {
+    if (!begun) {
+      begun = true;
+      if (!(await begin(d))) {
+        stopped = true;
+        return null;
+      }
+    }
     if (ctx.meter) ctx.meter.offerRuns += 1;
     const cur = d.product;
     // The first step's `cur` IS the grounding's product, so the guard above
@@ -350,79 +416,103 @@ export async function reason(
       );
       return null;
     }
+    // THE STEP THE QUESTION ASKS FOR.  The hop `follow` took is NAMED when one
+    // of its establishing contexts is witnessed by what of the question no
+    // product has restated yet, plus the pivot itself (traverse.ts,
+    // `namedContinuations`): `Where was the place of death of the director of
+    // film Beat Girl?` names `Edmond T. Gréville place of death` once the first
+    // hop has restated `director` and `Beat Girl` — and `Who is the father of
+    // Frederick II?` names nothing past `Peter III of Aragon`, because `father`
+    // was restated by the hop that reached him.  A named step MOVES to structure
+    // the question asked for, so it is admitted on that ground; an unnamed one
+    // must carry the question's remainder as before, and from a CLOSED
+    // derivation — nothing left owed — it is not offered at all: the question
+    // asks for no further step, and the law would otherwise admit any.
+    const asked = ctx._edgeAsked;
+    let named = false;
+    if (asked !== null) {
+      const unsaid = {
+        bytes: asked.bytes,
+        index: unspoken(asked.index, spoken),
+      };
+      const names = namedContinuations(ctx, pivot, unsaid);
+      const hop = guidedFirst(ctx, pivot);
+      named = names !== null && hop !== undefined && names.includes(hop);
+    }
+    if (!named && !producerOwnsShape && closed(d)) {
+      ctx.trace?.step(
+        "pivotUnasked",
+        [rItem(cur, "answer"), rNode(ctx, pivot, "pivot")],
+        [rItem(fc, "withheld")],
+        "the derivation owes nothing and the question names no further step — not offered",
+      );
+      return null;
+    }
     pending = { kind: "pivot", cur, pivot, fc };
-    // Offered with the identity species ONLY when the grounding declared what it
-    // speaks for; otherwise the law requires this step to carry question
-    // material the grounding left unaccounted, which is the drift the extension
-    // tests pin — refused by the law's own measure, not by a private window
-    // test.
+    // Offered with the identity species when the grounding declared what it
+    // speaks for, or when the question names the step; otherwise the law
+    // requires this step to carry question material the grounding left
+    // unaccounted, which is the drift the extension tests pin — refused by the
+    // law's own measure, not by a private window test.
     return {
       product: fc,
       contains: true,
-      reaches: producerOwnsShape,
+      reaches: producerOwnsShape || named,
       cost: STEP,
     };
   };
 
-  const closed_ = await closure(
-    d0,
-    query,
-    W,
-    offer,
-    (before, after, witnesses) => {
-      if (ctx.meter) {
-        ctx.meter.reasonCarriedBytes += witnesses.reduce(
-          (n, w) => n + (w.window ? w.window[1] - w.window[0] : 0),
-          0,
-        );
-        ctx.meter.closureDrainedBytes += unaccountedBytes(before.remainder) -
-          unaccountedBytes(after.remainder);
-      }
-      const p = pending;
-      pending = null;
-      if (p === null) return;
-      t ??= ctx.trace?.enter("reason", [rItem(startedFrom, "grounded")]);
-      if (p.kind === "absorb") {
-        ctx.trace?.step(
-          "absorbForward",
-          [rItem(p.cur, "answer", p.curId ?? undefined)],
-          [rItem(p.fwd, "answer", resolve(ctx, p.fwd) ?? undefined)],
-          "the answer is itself a learnt fact — follow its continuation to the fixpoint",
-        );
-      } else {
-        if (ctx.meter) ctx.meter.pivotSteps++;
-        ctx.trace?.step(
-          "pivotStep",
-          [rItem(p.cur, "answer"), rNode(ctx, p.pivot, "pivot")],
-          [rItem(p.fc, "answer", resolve(ctx, p.fc) ?? undefined)],
-          "pivot on the shared span this answer contains, then step forward across that fact",
-        );
-      }
-    },
-    (at) => {
-      // THE LAW REFUSED — counted where it happened, before the bookkeeping
-      // below decides whether there is a step to report.
-      if (ctx.meter) ctx.meter.lawRejects += 1;
-      const p = pending;
-      pending = null;
-      if (p === null || p.kind !== "pivot") return;
-      // THE BRAKE, MADE VISIBLE — and it is now the LAW's refusal, reported
-      // where it happened.  The reasoner declines a step that carries none of
-      // the material the grounding left unaccounted.  A refusal that leaves no
-      // trace is the kind of silent cut AGENTS §6 forbids: the rationale is
-      // where a reader learns that an extension was declined for want of
-      // question material, and where the next person sees why the chain stopped
-      // here.  Measured with the check disabled, test/110 and test/116 fail.
-      const left = unaccountedBytes(at.remainder);
+  const onTaken = (
+    before: DerivationState,
+    after: DerivationState,
+    witnesses: ReadonlyArray<Witness>,
+  ): void => {
+    meterTransition(ctx, before, after, witnesses);
+    speak(after.product);
+    const p = pending;
+    pending = null;
+    if (p === null) return;
+    t ??= ctx.trace?.enter("reason", [rItem(startedFrom, "grounded")]);
+    if (p.kind === "absorb") {
       ctx.trace?.step(
-        "pivotRefused",
-        [rItem(p.cur, "answer"), rItem(query, "query")],
-        at.remainder.map(([a, b]) => rItem(query.subarray(a, b), "uncovered")),
-        `the step carries none of the question material the grounding left ` +
-          `unaccounted (${left} byte(s) in ${at.remainder.length} span(s)) — refused`,
+        "absorbForward",
+        [rItem(p.cur, "answer", p.curId ?? undefined)],
+        [rItem(p.fwd, "answer", resolve(ctx, p.fwd) ?? undefined)],
+        "the answer is itself a learnt fact — follow its continuation to the fixpoint",
       );
-    },
-  );
+    } else {
+      if (ctx.meter) ctx.meter.pivotSteps++;
+      ctx.trace?.step(
+        "pivotStep",
+        [rItem(p.cur, "answer"), rNode(ctx, p.pivot, "pivot")],
+        [rItem(p.fc, "answer", resolve(ctx, p.fc) ?? undefined)],
+        "pivot on the shared span this answer contains, then step forward across that fact",
+      );
+    }
+  };
+  const onRefused = (at: DerivationState): void => {
+    // THE LAW REFUSED — counted where it happened, before the bookkeeping
+    // below decides whether there is a step to report.
+    if (ctx.meter) ctx.meter.lawRejects += 1;
+    const p = pending;
+    pending = null;
+    if (p === null || p.kind !== "pivot") return;
+    // THE BRAKE, MADE VISIBLE — and it is now the LAW's refusal, reported
+    // where it happened.  The reasoner declines a step that carries none of
+    // the material the grounding left unaccounted.  A refusal that leaves no
+    // trace is the kind of silent cut AGENTS §6 forbids: the rationale is
+    // where a reader learns that an extension was declined for want of
+    // question material, and where the next person sees why the chain stopped
+    // here.  Measured with the check disabled, test/110 and test/116 fail.
+    const left = unaccountedBytes(at.remainder);
+    ctx.trace?.step(
+      "pivotRefused",
+      [rItem(p.cur, "answer"), rItem(query, "query")],
+      at.remainder.map(([a, b]) => rItem(query.subarray(a, b), "uncovered")),
+      `the step carries none of the question material the grounding left ` +
+        `unaccounted (${left} byte(s) in ${at.remainder.length} span(s)) — refused`,
+    );
+  };
 
   // THE WALK'S OWN ENDING, NAMED — the audit's point 1.  Every stop INSIDE the
   // offer now has a note, but a walk can also end without the offer ever being
@@ -430,68 +520,148 @@ export async function reason(
   // ended as "no note at all", indistinguishable from a mechanism that never ran.
   // Two endings cover every remaining case, and together they make a silent stop
   // impossible — which is what the `Offer` contract needs, because `null` is read
-  // as exhaustion and exhaustion must be a statement, not an absence.
-  t ??= ctx.trace?.enter("reason", [rItem(startedFrom, "grounded")]);
-  if (closed_.remainder.length === 0) {
-    ctx.trace?.step(
-      "walkClosed",
-      [rItem(closed_.product, "answer")],
-      [],
-      "the derivation is closed — nothing is left unaccounted for",
-    );
-  } else {
-    ctx.trace?.step(
-      "walkEndedWithoutOffer",
-      [rItem(closed_.product, "answer")],
-      closed_.remainder.map(([a, b]) =>
-        rItem(query.subarray(a, b), "uncovered")
-      ),
-      `the walk ended with ${
-        unaccountedBytes(closed_.remainder)
-      } byte(s) unaccounted and no further offer — no structural continuation`,
+  // as exhaustion and exhaustion must be a statement, not an absence.  A walk a
+  // guard stopped reports nothing here: the guard already said why (or, for the
+  // answered-directly guard, the answer IS the read-out), exactly as before the
+  // walk became a layer.
+  const onEnd = (d0: DerivationState, closed_: DerivationState): void => {
+    if (stopped) return;
+    t ??= ctx.trace?.enter("reason", [rItem(startedFrom, "grounded")]);
+    if (closed_.remainder.length === 0) {
+      ctx.trace?.step(
+        "walkClosed",
+        [rItem(closed_.product, "answer")],
+        [],
+        "the derivation is closed — nothing is left unaccounted for",
+      );
+    } else {
+      ctx.trace?.step(
+        "walkEndedWithoutOffer",
+        [rItem(closed_.product, "answer")],
+        closed_.remainder.map(([a, b]) =>
+          rItem(query.subarray(a, b), "uncovered")
+        ),
+        `the walk ended with ${
+          unaccountedBytes(closed_.remainder)
+        } byte(s) unaccounted and no further offer — no structural continuation`,
+      );
+    }
+
+    // INSTRUMENTATION ONLY — the extension's two facts, untraced (meter.ts
+    // contract 1: a counter never reaches a decision).  They are what a caller
+    // needs to PRICE the extension instead of taking it unconditionally, and both
+    // are now read off the state the law advanced rather than accumulated beside
+    // it: the work it did is the cost it accumulated, and the material it carried
+    // is the accounting the law's witnesses added.
+    const steps = closed_.cost - d0.cost;
+    if (ctx.meter) {
+      ctx.meter.reasonSteps += steps;
+      // The accounting the law's witnesses added, summed by the law's own function
+      // over the tail of the state's list — and computed ONLY when a meter is
+      // attached: this used to slice and MAP a fresh array on every response, for a
+      // counter that usually does not exist.  One allocation, under the meter.
+      ctx.meter.reasonAccountedBytes += unaccountedBytes(
+        closed_.accounted.slice(d0.accounted.length),
+      );
+    }
+    t?.done(
+      [rItem(
+        closed_.product,
+        "answer",
+        resolve(ctx, closed_.product) ?? undefined,
+      )],
+      // A FIXPOINT: no further step was offered, or the law refused the one that
+      // was.  There is no allowance to exhaust, so the note is true by
+      // construction.
+      "the multi-hop chain's fixpoint",
     );
+  };
+
+  return { name: "reason", offer, onTaken, onRefused, onEnd };
+}
+
+/** In how many separate PLACES of the query a stored context shares content at
+ *  window scale — the query's W-byte windows the context's bytes contain,
+ *  clustered by {@link countClusters} at the same quantum.  Below one window
+ *  byte identity is chance (identityBar), so only whole windows count.
+ *
+ *  It is the dispersion question asked of the CONTEXT rather than of the votes
+ *  that happened to land on it.  A region votes once, for its top anchor, so
+ *  where a root's votes come from is a lossy witness of where its context and
+ *  the query agree — measured on test/24's gap-3.1 fixture: the second topic's
+ *  second cluster was the region `ace and `, in the OTHER topic's words,
+ *  voting through a 2-byte sub-window anchor `e ` (attention.ts
+ *  canonicalChunkId); once that stopped voting, the genuine topic read as one
+ *  cluster.  Its context still shares the system prompt AND its own wording
+ *  with the query — two places, the two test/37 documents — while a
+ *  coincidental echo (one closing phrase byte-identical to an unrelated
+ *  conversation's end, test/37) shares one. */
+function sharedPlaces(
+  context: Uint8Array,
+  query: Uint8Array,
+  quantum: number,
+): number {
+  if (context.length < quantum || query.length < quantum) return 0;
+  const windows = new Set<string>();
+  for (let o = 0; o + quantum <= context.length; o++) {
+    windows.add(latin1(context.subarray(o, o + quantum)));
+  }
+  const spans: Array<[number, number]> = [];
+  for (let o = 0; o + quantum <= query.length; o++) {
+    if (windows.has(latin1(query.subarray(o, o + quantum)))) {
+      spans.push([o, o + quantum]);
+    }
   }
+  return countClusters(spans, quantum);
+}
 
-  // INSTRUMENTATION ONLY — the extension's two facts, untraced (meter.ts
-  // contract 1: a counter never reaches a decision).  They are what a caller
-  // needs to PRICE the extension instead of taking it unconditionally, and both
-  // are now read off the state the law advanced rather than accumulated beside
-  // it: the work it did is the cost it accumulated, and the material it carried
-  // is the accounting the law's witnesses added.
-  const steps = closed_.cost - d0.cost;
-  if (ctx.meter) {
-    ctx.meter.reasonSteps += steps;
-    // The accounting the law's witnesses added, summed by the law's own function
-    // over the tail of the state's list — and computed ONLY when a meter is
-    // attached: this used to slice and MAP a fresh array on every response, for a
-    // counter that usually does not exist.  One allocation, under the meter.
-    ctx.meter.reasonAccountedBytes += unaccountedBytes(
-      closed_.accounted.slice(d0.accounted.length),
-    );
+/** Whether any query byte lies at least `quantum` away from every span — the
+ *  only place a root independent of those spans could stand.  The spans,
+ *  widened by the quantum on each side, either cover [0, len) or leave a gap. */
+function roomBeyond(
+  len: number,
+  spans: ReadonlyArray<Span>,
+  quantum: number,
+): boolean {
+  if (spans.length === 0) return len > 0;
+  const widened = spans
+    .map(([s, e]): [number, number] => [s - quantum, e + quantum])
+    .sort((a, b) => a[0] - b[0]);
+  let reach = 0; // every byte below `reach` is within a quantum of a span
+  for (const [s, e] of widened) {
+    if (s > reach) return true;
+    reach = Math.max(reach, e);
+    if (reach >= len) return false;
   }
-  t?.done(
-    [rItem(
-      closed_.product,
-      "answer",
-      resolve(ctx, closed_.product) ?? undefined,
-    )],
-    // A FIXPOINT: no further step was offered, or the law refused the one that
-    // was.  There is no allowance to exhaust, so the note is true by
-    // construction.
-    "the multi-hop chain's fixpoint",
-  );
-  return closed_;
+  return reach < len;
 }
 
 /** Fuse independent points of attention into one answer (multi-topic).
  *  When the consensus climb finds more than one dominant point, each
  *  independent point grounds its own answer; they are bridged together
  *  by any learnt connector the graph holds between them. */
-export async function fuseAttention(
+export function fuseAttention(
   ctx: MindContext,
   query: Uint8Array,
   state: DerivationState,
   pre: Precomputed,
+  unclimbed = false,
+  primarySpans: ReadonlyArray<Span> = [],
+): Promise<DerivationState> {
+  return closeOver(state, query, ctx.space.maxGroup, [
+    fusionLayer(ctx, query, pre, unclimbed, primarySpans),
+  ]);
+}
+
+/** Fusion as a {@link ClosureLayer}: ONE transition, offered once — the fused
+ *  product of the independent points of attention, or nothing.  The law admits
+ *  it (`reaches`: the fusion composed structure this derivation had not stood
+ *  on); the layer's own structural gates below decide whether there is a
+ *  fusion to offer at all. */
+export function fusionLayer(
+  ctx: MindContext,
+  query: Uint8Array,
+  pre: Precomputed,
   /** True when `primary` never touched the consensus climb at all — e.g. a
    *  pure ALU computation, which has no anchor of its own.  commitVotes
    *  ALWAYS admits the dominant root regardless of its vote (attention.ts:
@@ -506,212 +676,234 @@ export async function fuseAttention(
    *  fuseAttention just reads a position from it.  Empty or absent preserves
    *  the original behaviour exactly. */
   primarySpans: ReadonlyArray<Span> = [],
-): Promise<DerivationState> {
-  // THE STATE, NOT BARE BYTES: fusion is one more transition of the derivation
-  // the walk returned, so it reads that state's product and hands back a state.
-  // Its own structural gates stay here — this is the layer that can resolve
-  // those witnesses, and the law never re-derives one.
-  const primary = state.product;
-  // When the answer is structurally drawn from the query itself
-  // (extraction), it already spans all the query's pieces — fusion
-  // would only add noise from unrelated stored contexts.  The gate is
-  // STRICT containment (resolved node in the query's tree, or a contiguous
-  // byte run): the old sparse-subsequence test was trivially satisfied by
-  // short answers over long queries, silently starving multi-topic queries
-  // of fusion.
-  if (containsSpan(ctx, query, primary)) return state;
+): ClosureLayer {
+  let offered = false;
+  const offer: Offer = async (state) => {
+    if (offered) return null;
+    offered = true;
+    // THE STATE, NOT BARE BYTES: fusion is one more transition of the derivation
+    // the walk returned, so it reads that state's product and hands back a state.
+    // Its own structural gates stay here — this is the layer that can resolve
+    // those witnesses, and the law never re-derives one.
+    const primary = state.product;
+    // When the answer is structurally drawn from the query itself
+    // (extraction), it already spans all the query's pieces — fusion
+    // would only add noise from unrelated stored contexts.  The gate is
+    // STRICT containment (resolved node in the query's tree, or a contiguous
+    // byte run): the old sparse-subsequence test was trivially satisfied by
+    // short answers over long queries, silently starving multi-topic queries
+    // of fusion.
+    if (containsSpan(ctx, query, primary)) return null;
 
-  // The committed points of attention ARE the shared climb's roots (same
-  // query, same k, same DF mode) — read them from Precomputed instead of
-  // re-climbing, so even a traced response pays for the climb once.
-  const forest = (await pre.attention()).roots;
-  // A LONE root is ordinarily primary's own source — nothing to fuse.  But
-  // when primary is unclimbed, the lone root was never checked against
-  // anything: it is admitted by commitVotes unconditionally, so it may be
-  // genuine consensus (Attention.breadth dominates — most of the query's
-  // OWN regions corroborate it) or a coincidental echo (breadth does not
-  // dominate — see test/35-attention-confidence).  breadth is the SCALE-
-  // INVARIANT read of exactly this question: the raw IDF vote cannot serve
-  // here, since it is an absolute ln(N)-scaled quantity (a genuine root on
-  // a large store can score BELOW its own floor while a coincidental echo
-  // on a small one scores comfortably above its own, smaller, floor).
-  //
-  // Breadth alone is not enough when primary is a pure COMPUTATION.  The ALU
-  // answers "2+2 equals what?" with 4, and the store's own arithmetic table
-  // then supplies a lone root — an exemplar like "1+2" — whose breadth
-  // dominates because it is corroborated by the computation's OWN bytes.
-  // Fusing it projected that exemplar's continuation and the bridge voiced
-  // "4+3" (test/11 seed 99).  A second point of attention must stand on
-  // evidence that is structurally SEPARATE from primary's: at least one
-  // perceptual quantum of query between them, the same separation
-  // countClusters uses to tell independent evidence neighbourhoods apart.
-  // Not a score, and not a tuned bar — the fold's own quantum.
-  //
-  // With no primarySpans (the caller did not resolve them) every span
-  // vacuously qualifies, preserving the original behaviour exactly.
-  const quantum = ctx.space.maxGroup;
-  const independentOfPrimary = (root: Attention): boolean =>
-    primarySpans.every(([s, e]) => {
-      const gap = root.end <= s
-        ? s - root.end
-        : e <= root.start
-        ? root.start - e
-        : 0;
-      return gap >= quantum;
-    });
-  const lonePromotes = unclimbed && forest.length === 1 &&
-    forest[0].breadth > 0.5 && independentOfPrimary(forest[0]);
-  if (forest.length === 0 || (forest.length <= 1 && !lonePromotes)) {
-    return state;
-  }
+    // A SECOND POINT OF ATTENTION MUST STAND ON EVIDENCE STRUCTURALLY SEPARATE
+    // FROM PRIMARY'S: at least one perceptual quantum of query between them,
+    // the same separation countClusters uses to tell independent evidence
+    // neighbourhoods apart.  Not a score, and not a tuned bar — the fold's own
+    // quantum.  A root standing on primary's own evidence is primary's topic
+    // read again, never a further one, so it is not fused (measured on the
+    // 31.7M-node store: an exact dialogue turn grounded whole, `[0,79]`, paid a
+    // 3.7 s consensus climb whose only root lay inside that span).
+    //
+    // With no primarySpans (the caller did not resolve them) every span
+    // vacuously qualifies, preserving the original behaviour exactly.
+    const quantum = ctx.space.maxGroup;
+    const independentOfPrimary = (root: Attention): boolean =>
+      primarySpans.every(([s, e]) => {
+        const gap = root.end <= s
+          ? s - root.end
+          : e <= root.start
+          ? root.start - e
+          : 0;
+        return gap >= quantum;
+      });
+    // Decided BEFORE the climb when it is already decided: a root spans at
+    // least one query byte, so where every byte lies within a quantum of
+    // primary's evidence no root can be independent, and there is nothing the
+    // climb could hand this layer.
+    if (!roomBeyond(query.length, primarySpans, quantum)) return null;
 
-  // WHERE THE QUERY ASKED FOR IT.  The sort below orders the fused pieces by
-  // query position, which is the whole point of the `start` field: a
-  // multi-topic answer should read in the order the question posed its
-  // topics.  Every ROOT carries its own start.  `primary` did not — it was
-  // given forest[0].start, the FIRST attention root's position, which is
-  // primary's own source only when primary happens to come from that root.
-  // When it does not, primary is sorted to a position it never occupied.
-  //
-  // Observed live: "What is the capital of France? And what is 2 + 2?"
-  // answered "4The capital city of France is Paris." — the ALU result, whose
-  // evidence is the "2 + 2" span near the END of the query, inherited the
-  // France root's start of 0 and sorted ahead of the France answer.  Both
-  // pieces were right; only the order was.
-  //
-  // primary's own position is the earliest query byte its grounding stands
-  // on.  `accounted` is the cost-ladder read of that and is authoritative
-  // when non-empty; when it is empty the grounding is a pure COMPUTATION,
-  // whose evidence is its computed span — the same cost-ladder-vs-coverage
-  // distinction think() already draws for the fusion remainder ("`accounted`
-  // alone undercounts this ... cover prices its computed spans at near-zero
-  // and deliberately leaves them out"), read here for position instead of
-  // for coverage.  With neither, nothing is known and the old behaviour
-  // (forest[0].start) stands.
-  const primaryStart = primarySpans.length > 0
-    ? primarySpans.reduce((m, [s]) => Math.min(m, s), Infinity)
-    : forest[0].start;
-  const pieces: Array<{ start: number; bytes: Uint8Array }> = [
-    { start: primaryStart, bytes: primary },
-  ];
-  const qv = pre.guide; // once, not per root
-  const rest = lonePromotes ? forest : forest.slice(1);
-  const t = ctx.trace?.enter("fuseAttention", [
-    rItem(primary, "primary"),
-    ...rest.map((r) => rNode(ctx, r.anchor, "point", r.vote)),
-  ]);
-  for (const root of rest) {
-    // DISPERSION: this root's contributing regions are confined to a
-    // single cluster (see Attention.clusters) — one local neighbourhood of
-    // the query, not several separate places.  Raw region count already
-    // failed to discriminate a coincidental match from a genuine further
-    // topic (test/24 gap 3.1 vs test/35's echo); dispersion is a different
-    // question — not how MUCH evidence, but how many separate PLACES in the
-    // query corroborate it — and a coincidental match is structurally
-    // confined to one cluster no matter how strongly it resonates.
+    // The committed points of attention ARE the shared climb's roots (same
+    // query, same k, same DF mode) — read them from Precomputed instead of
+    // re-climbing, so even a traced response pays for the climb once.
+    const forest = (await pre.attention()).roots;
+    // A LONE root is ordinarily primary's own source — nothing to fuse.  But
+    // when primary is unclimbed, the lone root was never checked against
+    // anything: it is admitted by commitVotes unconditionally, so it may be
+    // genuine consensus (Attention.breadth dominates — most of the query's
+    // OWN regions corroborate it) or a coincidental echo (breadth does not
+    // dominate — see test/35-attention-confidence).  breadth is the SCALE-
+    // INVARIANT read of exactly this question: the raw IDF vote cannot serve
+    // here, since it is an absolute ln(N)-scaled quantity (a genuine root on
+    // a large store can score BELOW its own floor while a coincidental echo
+    // on a small one scores comfortably above its own, smaller, floor).
     //
-    // EXCEPTION: crossRegionVotes' own joint conclusions (a query naming
-    // two attributes that were only ever learnt TOGETHER — test/34's own
-    // binding corpus) are inherently ONE fused context and are pooled from
-    // a single synthetic region, so they always read as one cluster even
-    // though they already, by construction, account for both original
-    // mentions.  `breadth` (dominates — the same > half-the-query bar used
-    // everywhere else) still correctly recognises these: a genuine joint
-    // binding explains the MAJORITY of the query's regions on its own,
-    // which a coincidental echo never does (verified: test/35's echo tops
-    // out at 0.40).  So a root is trusted when EITHER measure alone
-    // indicates real signal — excluded only when BOTH are weak.  Cheap and
-    // synchronous — checked before the async already-answered walk below.
-    if (root.clusters < 2 && root.breadth <= 0.5) {
-      ctx.trace?.step(
-        "singleCluster",
-        [rNode(ctx, root.anchor, "point", root.vote)],
-        [],
-        "this point's evidence is confined to one local neighbourhood of the query — not trusted as an independent topic",
-      );
-      continue;
+    // Breadth alone is not enough when primary is a pure COMPUTATION.  The ALU
+    // answers "2+2 equals what?" with 4, and the store's own arithmetic table
+    // then supplies a lone root — an exemplar like "1+2" — whose breadth
+    // dominates because it is corroborated by the computation's OWN bytes.
+    // Fusing it projected that exemplar's continuation and the bridge voiced
+    // "4+3" (test/11 seed 99) — the separation above is what refuses it.
+    const lonePromotes = unclimbed && forest.length === 1 &&
+      forest[0].breadth > 0.5 && independentOfPrimary(forest[0]);
+    if (forest.length === 0 || (forest.length <= 1 && !lonePromotes)) {
+      return null;
     }
-    // ALREADY ANSWERED: this root's own learnt continuation — the same
-    // content-addressed walk reason()'s echo guard already trusts
-    // (`ctx.store.prevCount(qId) > 0`), here applied per-candidate instead
-    // of to the whole query — is VERBATIM present later in the query.  A
-    // query that embeds both an exchange's ask and its own already-given
-    // reply (a conversation's turn plus its own prior answer, concatenated
-    // raw by addTurn — or any caller pasting a transcript into one
-    // respond() call; the check is Mind-bookkeeping-free, so it treats both
-    // identically) has already spoken this root's answer — fusing it in
-    // again would only restate it.  Deliberately NOT a magnitude measure:
-    // it fires on exact content-addressed recurrence, not on how strongly
-    // the root resonates.
-    const cont = await follow(ctx, root.anchor, qv);
-    if (
-      cont !== null && cont.length > 0 &&
-      // The law's positional reading: the caller knows the material it is
-      // looking for lies AT OR AFTER this root, which is the witness; the law
-      // owns the containment test itself.  The `cont.length > 0` guard stays
-      // here because an EMPTY continuation indexes at every offset — the law
-      // has no opinion about whether "nothing" counts as said.
-      restates(query, cont, 0, { from: root.end })
-    ) {
-      ctx.trace?.step(
-        "alreadyAnswered",
-        [rNode(ctx, root.anchor, "point", root.vote)],
-        [rItem(cont, "continuation")],
-        "this point's own learnt continuation already appears later in the query — already answered, not fused",
+
+    // WHERE THE QUERY ASKED FOR IT.  The sort below orders the fused pieces by
+    // query position, which is the whole point of the `start` field: a
+    // multi-topic answer should read in the order the question posed its
+    // topics.  Every ROOT carries its own start.  `primary` did not — it was
+    // given forest[0].start, the FIRST attention root's position, which is
+    // primary's own source only when primary happens to come from that root.
+    // When it does not, primary is sorted to a position it never occupied.
+    //
+    // Observed live: "What is the capital of France? And what is 2 + 2?"
+    // answered "4The capital city of France is Paris." — the ALU result, whose
+    // evidence is the "2 + 2" span near the END of the query, inherited the
+    // France root's start of 0 and sorted ahead of the France answer.  Both
+    // pieces were right; only the order was.
+    //
+    // primary's own position is the earliest query byte its grounding stands
+    // on.  `accounted` is the cost-ladder read of that and is authoritative
+    // when non-empty; when it is empty the grounding is a pure COMPUTATION,
+    // whose evidence is its computed span — the same cost-ladder-vs-coverage
+    // distinction think() already draws for the fusion remainder ("`accounted`
+    // alone undercounts this ... cover prices its computed spans at near-zero
+    // and deliberately leaves them out"), read here for position instead of
+    // for coverage.  With neither, nothing is known and the old behaviour
+    // (forest[0].start) stands.
+    const primaryStart = primarySpans.length > 0
+      ? primarySpans.reduce((m, [s]) => Math.min(m, s), Infinity)
+      : forest[0].start;
+    const pieces: Array<{ start: number; bytes: Uint8Array }> = [
+      { start: primaryStart, bytes: primary },
+    ];
+    const qv = pre.guide; // once, not per root
+    const rest = (lonePromotes ? forest : forest.slice(1)).filter(
+      independentOfPrimary,
+    );
+    if (rest.length === 0) return null;
+    const t = ctx.trace?.enter("fuseAttention", [
+      rItem(primary, "primary"),
+      ...rest.map((r) => rNode(ctx, r.anchor, "point", r.vote)),
+    ]);
+    for (const root of rest) {
+      // DISPERSION: this root's contributing regions are confined to a
+      // single cluster (see Attention.clusters) — one local neighbourhood of
+      // the query, not several separate places.  Raw region count already
+      // failed to discriminate a coincidental match from a genuine further
+      // topic (test/24 gap 3.1 vs test/35's echo); dispersion is a different
+      // question — not how MUCH evidence, but how many separate PLACES in the
+      // query corroborate it — and a coincidental match is structurally
+      // confined to one cluster no matter how strongly it resonates.
+      //
+      // EXCEPTION: crossRegionVotes' own joint conclusions (a query naming
+      // two attributes that were only ever learnt TOGETHER — test/34's own
+      // binding corpus) are inherently ONE fused context and are pooled from
+      // a single synthetic region, so they always read as one cluster even
+      // though they already, by construction, account for both original
+      // mentions.  `breadth` (dominates — the same > half-the-query bar used
+      // everywhere else) still correctly recognises these: a genuine joint
+      // binding explains the MAJORITY of the query's regions on its own,
+      // which a coincidental echo never does (verified: test/35's echo tops
+      // out at 0.40).  So a root is trusted when EITHER measure alone
+      // indicates real signal — excluded only when BOTH are weak.  Cheap and
+      // synchronous — checked before the async already-answered walk below.
+      if (
+        root.clusters < 2 && root.breadth <= 0.5 &&
+        sharedPlaces(read(ctx, root.anchor), query, quantum) < 2
+      ) {
+        ctx.trace?.step(
+          "singleCluster",
+          [rNode(ctx, root.anchor, "point", root.vote)],
+          [],
+          "this point's evidence is confined to one local neighbourhood of the query — not trusted as an independent topic",
+        );
+        continue;
+      }
+      // ALREADY ANSWERED: this root's own learnt continuation — the same
+      // content-addressed walk reason()'s echo guard already trusts
+      // (`ctx.store.prevCount(qId) > 0`), here applied per-candidate instead
+      // of to the whole query — is VERBATIM present later in the query.  A
+      // query that embeds both an exchange's ask and its own already-given
+      // reply (a conversation's turn plus its own prior answer, concatenated
+      // raw by addTurn — or any caller pasting a transcript into one
+      // respond() call; the check is Mind-bookkeeping-free, so it treats both
+      // identically) has already spoken this root's answer — fusing it in
+      // again would only restate it.  Deliberately NOT a magnitude measure:
+      // it fires on exact content-addressed recurrence, not on how strongly
+      // the root resonates.
+      const cont = await follow(ctx, root.anchor, qv);
+      if (
+        cont !== null && cont.length > 0 &&
+        // The law's positional reading: the caller knows the material it is
+        // looking for lies AT OR AFTER this root, which is the witness; the law
+        // owns the containment test itself.  The `cont.length > 0` guard stays
+        // here because an EMPTY continuation indexes at every offset — the law
+        // has no opinion about whether "nothing" counts as said.
+        restates(query, cont, 0, { from: root.end })
+      ) {
+        ctx.trace?.step(
+          "alreadyAnswered",
+          [rNode(ctx, root.anchor, "point", root.vote)],
+          [rItem(cont, "continuation")],
+          "this point's own learnt continuation already appears later in the query — already answered, not fused",
+        );
+        continue;
+      }
+      const g = await project(ctx, root.anchor, qv);
+      if (g === null || g.length === 0) continue;
+      if (pieces.some((p) => indexOf(p.bytes, g, 0) >= 0)) continue;
+      pieces.push({ start: root.start, bytes: g });
+    }
+    if (pieces.length === 1) {
+      t?.done(
+        [rItem(primary, "answer")],
+        "no further independent point grounded",
       );
-      continue;
+      return null;
+    }
+
+    pieces.sort((a, b) => a.start - b.start);
+    let out = pieces[0].bytes;
+    for (let i = 1; i < pieces.length; i++) {
+      // An approximate-resonance miss (or a genuinely unlearnt junction) joins
+      // the pieces bare — joinWithBridge surfaces it as a bridgeMiss step.
+      out = await joinWithBridge(ctx, out, pieces[i].bytes);
     }
-    const g = await project(ctx, root.anchor, qv);
-    if (g === null || g.length === 0) continue;
-    if (pieces.some((p) => indexOf(p.bytes, g, 0) >= 0)) continue;
-    pieces.push({ start: root.start, bytes: g });
-  }
-  if (pieces.length === 1) {
     t?.done(
-      [rItem(primary, "answer")],
-      "no further independent point grounded",
+      [rItem(out, "answer", resolve(ctx, out) ?? undefined)],
+      `fused ${pieces.length} independent points of attention into one answer`,
     );
-    return state;
-  }
-
-  pieces.sort((a, b) => a.start - b.start);
-  let out = pieces[0].bytes;
-  for (let i = 1; i < pieces.length; i++) {
-    // An approximate-resonance miss (or a genuinely unlearnt junction) joins
-    // the pieces bare — joinWithBridge surfaces it as a bridgeMiss step.
-    out = await joinWithBridge(ctx, out, pieces[i].bytes);
-  }
-  t?.done(
-    [rItem(out, "answer", resolve(ctx, out) ?? undefined)],
-    `fused ${pieces.length} independent points of attention into one answer`,
-  );
-  // THE FACT IS THE FUSED ANSWER, not the call: every early return above hands
-  // back `primary` untouched.  Untraced on purpose (meter.ts contract 1).
-  if (ctx.meter) ctx.meter.fuseRuns++;
-  // A FUSION IS A TRANSITION, and the only one in the engine that can splice the
-  // QUESTION'S OWN material into the product.  So it is OFFERED to the law rather
-  // than built by hand: the law reads the window the fused product holds — the
-  // same reading the carries admission uses, one definition — accounts for the
-  // span it carried, and lets the question's remainder drain on EVIDENCE.  A
-  // fusion that carries nothing consumes nothing, because the reading finds no
-  // window; and `reaches` is declared only when the fusion composed another root,
-  // which is structure this derivation had not stood on.
-  const fusedT: Continuation = {
-    product: out,
-    contains: true,
-    reaches: rest.length > 0,
-    cost: STEP,
+    // THE FACT IS THE FUSED ANSWER, not the call: every early return above hands
+    // back `primary` untouched.  Untraced on purpose (meter.ts contract 1).
+    if (ctx.meter) ctx.meter.fuseRuns++;
+    // A FUSION IS A TRANSITION, and the only one in the engine that can splice the
+    // QUESTION'S OWN material into the product.  So it is OFFERED to the law rather
+    // than built by hand: the law reads the window the fused product holds — the
+    // same reading the carries admission uses, one definition — accounts for the
+    // span it carried, and lets the question's remainder drain on EVIDENCE.  A
+    // fusion that carries nothing consumes nothing, because the reading finds no
+    // window; and `reaches` is declared only when the fusion composed another root,
+    // which is structure this derivation had not stood on.
+    //
+    // THE LAW'S REFUSAL IS FINAL.  The only state it refuses a fusion against is a
+    // supplied fixed point (`reaches` is always declared here), and the engine
+    // enters no layer for one — so there is no hand-built fallback: a fusion the
+    // law refuses is not taken (measured: no response in the suite reaches the
+    // refusal).
+    const fusedT: Continuation = {
+      product: out,
+      contains: true,
+      reaches: rest.length > 0,
+      cost: STEP,
+    };
+    return fusedT;
+  };
+  return {
+    name: "fuse",
+    offer,
+    onTaken: (before, after, witnesses) =>
+      meterTransition(ctx, before, after, witnesses),
   };
-  const fusedWitness = admissible(state, fusedT, query, ctx.space.maxGroup);
-  if (fusedWitness === null) return { ...state, product: out };
-  const fused = advance(state, fusedT, fusedWitness);
-  if (ctx.meter) {
-    ctx.meter.reasonCarriedBytes += fusedWitness.reduce(
-      (n, w) => n + (w.window ? w.window[1] - w.window[0] : 0),
-      0,
-    );
-    ctx.meter.closureDrainedBytes += unaccountedBytes(state.remainder) -
-      unaccountedBytes(fused.remainder);
-  }
-  return fused;
 }