Clarify rumination deepening guard

notes/fresh-workspace-handoff.md

@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ Git history and smoke artifacts carry routine proof. `state/evidence.jsonl` shou
 - The old memory-organ script family, legacy moderation-state template, and legacy moderation context exporter have been deleted. Do not revive their cleanup, agency, dream, vector-incubation, or mirror-repair behavior as compatibility scaffolding.
 - `scripts/run-void-memory-maintenance.ps1` is the first replacement memory-maintenance organ. It builds a bounded context from typed memories/incubation/candidates/runtime, loads `prompts/void-memory-maintenance.md`, and applies only allowed memory/incubation/candidate typed operation proposals through `scripts/void-self-state.mjs`. In sleep mode, memory pressure sets `sleepDirective.forceDistillation`; a real model pass returning no operations under pressure fails visibly.
 - Rumination does not write durable memory. It can only emit `record_short_term_memory`; sleep maintenance must promote short-term records with `apply_memory_distillation`, merge them into incubation and prune them, or prune them outright. A real sleep pass that leaves short-term records behind fails.
-- Short-term rumination memory is clustered at the typed service boundary now. When a new `record_short_term_memory` operation repeats the same target/topic pressure, the service keeps one provisional memory, merges anchors/tags, preserves a stable source id for sleep, and updates the thought instead of stacking duplicates. `npm run moderation:short-term-clustering:fixture` proves the guard.
+- Short-term rumination memory is clustered at the typed service boundary now. When a new `record_short_term_memory` operation repeats the same target/topic pressure, the service keeps one provisional memory, merges anchors/tags, preserves a stable source id for sleep, and updates the thought instead of stacking duplicates. This is meant to protect deepening, not suppress it: low-saturation or newly anchored thoughts should keep developing inside the cluster until they stop changing. `npm run moderation:short-term-clustering:fixture` proves the guard.
 - Long-term memory is durable, not immutable. `revise_durable_memory`, `retire_durable_memory`, and `crystallize_memory_into_identity` make memory reconsolidation explicit; `npm run moderation:memory-lifecycle:fixture` proves a short-term thought can promote, revise, retire superseded durable records, and crystallize into an identity memory plus self-profile value.
 - Agency has a typed pressure surface now: `upsert_agency_pressure` / `retire_agency_pressure` own discomforts, active tensions, self-advocacy requests, and world-advocacy requests. Candidate interventions are possible speech/actions emerging from pressure, not the pressure itself. `npm run moderation:agency-pressure:fixture` verifies the pressure enters `.cc`, renders in self-state summary, and affects mood speaking pressure.
 - Most of the deterministic legacy translation and retention code is recent compensator cruft from failed attempts to manually clean an exploded state file. Do not preserve it as an earned organ. Architect the state boundary so that bad state cannot enter, and keep only narrow historical migrations for old debris.

notes/voidbot-current-system-map.md

@@ -225,7 +225,7 @@ Within the Postgres path, the implementation is split on purpose now too:
 ### Memory Lifecycle
 
 1. Rumination may only write short-term memories. It cannot directly mutate durable memory.
-2. The typed state service clusters repeated short-term memories before sleep sees them. If a new record repeats the same target/topic pressure, it updates one provisional memory and merges anchors instead of stacking another variant.
+2. The typed state service clusters repeated short-term memories before sleep sees them. If a new record repeats the same target/topic pressure, it updates one provisional memory and merges anchors instead of stacking another variant. This preserves deepening: fresh anchors and sharper tensions should accumulate inside the cluster, while unchanged paraphrases should not become separate memories.
 3. Sleep maintenance promotes, merges, prunes, revises, retires, or crystallizes memory through typed operations.
 4. Durable memory is not immutable. `revise_durable_memory` creates an explicit replacement and retires superseded source memories; `retire_durable_memory` marks obsolete memory inactive; `crystallize_memory_into_identity` promotes a stable thought into an `identity_seam` and may update self-profile values or private notes.
 5. Prompt-facing language should talk about anchors: what made the thought real. The schema still accepts old `evidenceRefs`, but new memory payloads should prefer `anchorRefs` or explicit `anchor:missing`.

notes/voidbot-implementation-plan.md

@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ Memory-bearing operations have a stricter contract than historical projections.
 
 If those fields are missing, the operation is invalid. This is the wall that keeps the next iteration from turning into topic sludge and asking cleanup to be its personality.
 
-Short-term memory also has a self-novelty wall now. If a rumination write repeats an existing target/topic cluster, the state service keeps the existing source id, merges anchors/tags, and stores the incoming narrowed thought as the current working version. Same repo is not enough to merge; the topic pressure must overlap.
+Short-term memory also has a self-novelty wall now. If a rumination write repeats an existing target/topic cluster, the state service keeps the existing source id, merges anchors/tags, and stores the incoming narrowed thought as the current working version. Same repo is not enough to merge; the topic pressure must overlap. This wall should preserve deepening, not forbid attention: saturation is about whether the thought is still gaining anchors, tension, and consequence, not whether the topic has appeared before.
 
 ```json
 {
@@ -289,7 +289,7 @@ Verdict: the foundation is coherent enough for cautious live operation. Do not a
 - Landed scheduled rumination re-enable: one observed live scheduled pass completed with Last Result `0`, proposed one anchored short-term memory, delivered no speech, and kept exact timestamps out of the prompt-facing context.
 - Landed live sleep-maintenance verification: a manual typed nap ran real memory maintenance on live state, promoted the scheduled rumination short-term memory into one durable `identity_seam`, and left `thoughtMemory.shortTerm` empty.
 - Landed sleep brake: scheduled rumination now skips before model invocation during naps when there are no new room messages or open cases. `npm run moderation:rumination:nap-skip-fixture` proves the model path is not touched and no operation proposals are written.
-- Landed short-term clustering guard: `record_short_term_memory` folds repeated same-target/topic pressure into one provisional memory with merged anchors, and `npm run moderation:short-term-clustering:fixture` proves the synth-boundary duplicate case without merging unrelated same-repo thoughts.
+- Landed short-term clustering guard: `record_short_term_memory` folds repeated same-target/topic pressure into one provisional memory with merged anchors, and `npm run moderation:short-term-clustering:fixture` proves the synth-boundary duplicate case without merging unrelated same-repo thoughts. The prompt now states explicitly that underexplored, low-saturation, newly anchored thoughts may keep deepening inside the cluster.
 - Remaining work: let ordinary scheduling run and inspect the next unattended awake rumination and sleep cycle for repeated thought clusters, stale short-term residue, or ungrounded memory writes before calling the system broadly stable.
 
 ### Commit 10: Resume Product Hardening