The self-learning loop stopped two days ago and reported success the whole
time. 1,444 ledger rows from 2026-08-01 sit unsettled with settle_attempts=0
-- never even attempted -- and every accruing challenger has been starved of
settled sample as a result.
ROOT CAUSE. settleLedger fetched open ids, then REFETCHED the full rows with
.in('id', ids). PostgREST puts filters in the URL, so 500 UUIDs became an
18,499-character request that the fetch layer rejects with "TypeError: fetch
failed". The result was destructured as `const { data: rows } = ...` with NO
error binding, so rows came back null, the loop body never executed, and the
function returned {settled:0, voided:0, unrecoverable:0, pending:0} --
byte-identical to a clean "nothing to settle". Reproduced against prod before
changing anything.
WHY IT HID FOR TWO DAYS. It is volume-triggered. Daily volume ran 20-260 rows
and settled perfectly for weeks; 2026-08-01 was the first day past the 500-row
fetch limit. And the zero-settle ops alarm reads these very return values, so
pending:0 told the watchdog the backlog was empty -- the alarm built to catch
exactly this could not see it.
THE FIX. The refetch existed only to add game_date/settle_attempts/
dclv_computed_at. Selecting them in the first query removes the id list
entirely, so there is no URL to overflow at any volume. A failed fetch now
surfaces its error instead of being reported as an empty backlog.
captureClosing carried the same shape one level down -- .in('id', g.ids) on an
UPDATE, which fails identically once a single line|odds group gets large on a
big slate. Its id filters are now chunked at 100 (~3.7 KB).
Tests: the regression is locked by asserting settlement issues NO id-list
filter at 500 rows, and that a failed fetch is never reported as an empty
backlog -- the two properties that would have caught this. Two existing
suites asserted the old two-query shape and were updated to the real one.
4,159 tests green (332 suites); web build exit 0.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01W1sivYNqY2TS5ftykmHBU9
CARD BADGE ONLY. Ticker-CLV explicitly DEFERRED (named, not lost).
PHASE 1 — SERVER-SIDE GATE AT THE DATA LAYER. A Free request never
RECEIVES dclv data: the CLV columns are appended to the SELECT only behind
canAccess(tier,'clv_badge') (new capability, analyst+desk), and responses
are ALSO stripped as defence in depth so a future SELECT change cannot
quietly leak. No CSS/client gate — data that reaches the browser has left
the building. dclv_fair_lock/fair_close are de-vig internals and are never
sent at all.
SURFACE AUDIT, all six channels, each test-locked to contain no CLV:
public profile (share link), snapshot/card feed, ticker feed, share
card/OG, embeddable widget, newsletter. A test also asserts no
ledger_entries read uses select('*') — a star would auto-leak every new
column, which is exactly how a gate becomes theatre.
PHASE 2 — IMMUTABLE ONCE COMPUTED. A settle can re-run (stat correction,
protested game) and a badge that flips positive->negative AFTER a user saw
or screenshotted it is a credibility failure. First computation wins: dclv
is only computed when dclv_computed_at is null, so a re-settle can never
rewrite a shown badge. Same discipline as the locked grade.
PHASE 3 — RENDER, test-first, ABSENCE IS HONEST. unknown / flat / null /
missing-receipt all render NOTHING — no element, no placeholder, no
"pending". Proven on an ALL-NULL board (today: 0 badges) and a MIXED board
(tomorrow: 1 of 4 badged, badge-less cards clean). Binary states only:
positive -> MOVED TOWARD US "graded -110 · closed -145"
negative -> MOVED AWAY "graded -110 · closed +120"
The RECEIPT is the persuasive part, so a badge with no numbers is
suppressed rather than shown as a bare claim. Negative is neutral context
and NEVER touches the locked grade — no back-door re-grading.
NO aggregate, count or rollup exists by construction: the module exports
exactly {clvBadge, fmtPrice} and a badge payload carries exactly
{tone,label,receipt} — asserted by test, because an on-screen tally would
be the held aggregate claim through the side door.
Build gotcha hit and fixed: clvBadge is CommonJS (allowJs) with no TS
types, so the .tsx needed an explicit cast at the call site — the build
worker exits 1 on type errors even though compilation "succeeds".
Suite 288/3473 green, build exit 0.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SmNjJAwEnqHPtXbvSZR8kA
builtbykev