Sycophancy mitigation as a structural commitment: the model writes its
full correctAnswer (plus explanation, in that order) BEFORE the learner
sees the question; the commitment rides the persisted call args, is
revealed on submit, and grades his free text in the model's next reply —
the client never grades free recall.
- tools.explain setting (segmented 'Quizzing — Multiple choice | Free
recall' in Agent settings' Tools group): free arms explain and drops
quiz for BOTH agents (prober variant carries no nodeId, same pattern
as the probe quiz); mechanics keys never pass filterEnabledTools —
quiz stays unwritable (the 2026-09-19 wedge ruling stands)
- doctrine lives pi-natively in the tool descriptions (owner ruling —
no conditional system-prompt chunks): explain carries the commitment
rule; the MC option-building craft moved out of the prompt into the
quiz description; shared/20-question-tools.md slims to the
quiz-agnostic core
- display seams: parseExplainInput (LaTeX-debris restoration included),
dock text-mode with an 'I don't know' row (kbd row 0), AnsweredCard
reveal (The answer / Why, no verdict chips), [Explain answer] format
- phases/plan seams recognize both quizzing tools' nodeId tags; explain
answers deliberately feed no ledger evidence (no client grading to
key on — a future ruling can parse the model's grade)
1049/1049 tests, typecheck/lint/build green.
The system: the ladder is the truth, everything snaps to it.
- Prose snaps to the ladder's 16px rung (--lh-prose-size 16.5→16; the
half-pixel was a reskin-era hand-tune with no visible payoff and a
system cost). lh-prose, lh-input, and the session titles all read the
one variable — one reading size, now a ladder citizen. @theme inline
inlines literals without emitting runtime vars, so the variable can't
var()-link to --text-lg: documented as the one deliberate duplication
(change one, change both).
- The 10px rung merges into 11px: one pixel apart was a distinction with
no visible difference, and 10px sits at the mono legibility floor —
quiet labels (Sessions, Background agents, dock hints, model-picker
footers) get their quiet from color + tracking, not a notch of size.
All 13 text-xxs uses → text-xs; --text-xxs token removed.
- Derived constant follows: TEXT_CAP_SCALE 16.5/12.5 → 16/12.5 (1.32 →
1.28; test pin 232.32px → 225.28px) — the plan-graph text cap now
tracks the snapped prose size.
Live: title 16px, Sessions/Background-agents labels 11px, composer 16px
with the 20px lh-input line box. Gates: typecheck, lint, 469/469.
Lane note: components/graph-context-marker.tsx (graph-stream file) had a
mechanical text-xxs → text-xs swap — required: the token removal
otherwise leaves a dead class in their file.
components/ui/glyph-mark.tsx: extracted vector outlines from the system
Zapf Dingbats font — U+2713 (LaTeX \ding{51}, the hand-drawn check) and
U+2715 (\ding{55}, the bulky cross) — as static SVG geometry on an
ink-bounded viewBox with a y-flip path transform (inverse of font axes).
This matches the pifont shape LaTeX renders, not a random glyph. Colors
stay: green/red like the verdict chips; the span keeps data-mark pins.
- Option rows: items-start → items-center — the icon span's top-misalign
came from the row alignment; now marks center across the row.
- The literal ✓/✗ look (owner preference over the round-3 lucide set)
re-rendered as hand-rolled SVG with thick rounded strokes (strokeWidth
3, round caps/joins) — the glyph shape, as a true vector, sized like
the row text. Test pins updated to data-mark=check|x.
The muted 'Why' box's px-3 double-inset with card p-4 — the W-label sat
deeper than the option-box edges. px removed (py-2 stays for vertical
air); the label now aligns with everything else on the left edge. The
rounded bg-muted box is bg-matched so its padding was invisible anyway.
- ✓/✗ in the answered card: replaced literal glyphs with lucide CheckIcon/
XIcon (strokeWidth 2.5) inside a fixed size-4 flex box — text elements
never carried the right size/vertical alignment, vectors do. Test pins
updated (lucide-check/lucide-x classes).
- All user-typed INPUT text now matches markdown output: lh-prose class
replaces the earlier font-prose (family-only) band-aid on the composer,
question-dock text/thinking/Other fields, home topic input, model search
box, and answered-card 'your thinking'/free-text records. lh-prose sets
family+size (16.5px) so placeholders inherit correctly.
- Home view: StatsBar under the composer (model+thinking control) — the
DOCK geometry matches the chat view (max-w-[46rem] px-4) so nothing
shifts when a session starts; pre-chat selection persists via deferred
save (ModelControl chatId-empty) + PUT after POST /api/chats.
- Answer marks (✓/✗): same visual size as row text, vertically centered;
colored green-500/red-500 matching the verdict chips.
- All user-typed inputs (composer, question-dock text/thinking/Other,
answered-card 'your thinking' and free-text records) now render
Source Sans 3 via the font-prose utility. Placeholders inherit the
family via the element.
- Answered-card explanation: markdown wrapper made truly inline so the
'Why:' label + the paragraph sit on one line — removes the oversized
leading gap.
--text-xxs (10px) joins the ladder; every component-level text-[9|10|11px]
literal in owned components now pulls from the ladder (graph-view.tsx and
home.tsx untouched — graph stream). Cosmetic pins updated where touched.
- The learner's own typed Other answer now renders INSIDE the options
container in the answered card, styled exactly like its selected
siblings (border-primary bg-accent) — it is an option, not a loose
quote floating outside the list. Quotes keep the learner's words.
- The thinking field submits with ⌘↵ on macOS, Ctrl↵ elsewhere
(metaKey || ctrlKey — the Gmail convention, same handler on every
platform). Plain Enter stays a newline: the field is for dumping.
A quiet "⌘/Ctrl + ↵ submits" hint sits next to Submit for
discoverability (text mode keeps Enter-to-submit, no hint).
The note was the transfer channel of the whole product presented as an
afterthought: an unlabeled one-line slot whispering "optional". Now:
- A labeled composer-TWIN field ("Your thinking") between the options
and Submit, docked with the submit button inside it exactly like the
chat composer's send. The placeholder invites dumping ("Why this
answer? What are you unsure about? Say as much as you like — the
teacher reads all of this."); the word "optional" is banished.
- Enter makes a NEWLINE in the thinking field (it is for dumping, soon
dictated); the button submits. Text-mode answers keep Enter-to-submit.
- Phase-scaled prominence: teaching = a generous dump area, probing =
one quick row (threaded from the session phase via DockOverlay).
- "Other…" (ask questions) is now an editable OPTION ROW — radio circle
that fills on selection + inline input, styled like its siblings — so
picking Other never displaces the thinking field; typed text survives
deselection.
- The answered card promotes the thinking to a quoted first-class
block above the verdict, labeled "Your thinking" — the transcript
reads as a dialogue of thinking, not a buried "Note:" footnote.
The frozen core is untouched (the teacher-facing "Note:" transcript
line in question-core.ts is protocol text, flagged to master).
The shell now imports through exactly two barrels, enforced by
import/no-restricted-paths (npm run lint):
components/** -> "@/src/core" (pure core API, browser-safe)
app/** -> "@/src/core" + "@/src/server" (server entries)
Zone violations are lint errors with architecture-pointer messages; the
pure-core modules (contracts, question-core, plan-tree, phases, pending,
math-delims, ui-message) may never import agent/server/store.
Supporting moves (direction: IO layers -> core):
- core/index.ts: the core public API barrel
- core/ui-message.ts: moved from src/agent (it was shell-facing all along)
- quiz/ask input zod schemas moved agent/tools -> core/question-core
(the question contract, alongside the grading logic)
- ChatRecord/ChatSummary moved store/chats -> core/contracts (single schema)
- GraphSnapshot/NodeStateClass moved core/graph -> core/contracts (the
/api/graph payload IS a contract; the pure renderer needs only these)
- src/server/{chats,graph,jobs}.ts + index.ts: thin server entries for the
transport layer; GET /api/graph's fold side-effect now lives behind
graphView() instead of inline in the route
Gates: tsc clean, 190/190 tests, eslint clean (law verified to fire on
store/agent/subpath violations), production build clean.
(Repo repair en route: a git object (app/chat/[id] tree) was missing from
the object store — reconstructed byte-exactly via mktree from its blob;
the broken node_modules that stalled the build was cleanly reinstalled.)
Layout:
- Home = knowledge-graph placeholder (main view) with new-session input
docked below; session list moved out of home into a hamburger drawer
- SessionDrawer: slide-over session navigation (backdrop/ESC close, active
highlight, fetches /api/chats on open) on both home and chat headers
- Chat header loses the back button — the drawer is the navigation
Math (inline $ was silently not rendering):
- @streamdown/math defaults singleDollarTextMath:false — now
createMathPlugin({ singleDollarTextMath: true }) in message + reasoning
- katex.min.css imported in layout (streamdown does not inject plugin
styles; display math only looked right via browser MathML fallback)
- QuizCard/AnsweredCard route question/options/explanation through
MessageResponse; user chat bubbles render markdown+math too
- Currency hazard: micromark-extension-math@3.1 lacks pandoc's
closing-digit rule, so bare '$5 and $10' parses as math — defense is at
the source: system prompt now instructs escaped \$5 / 'USD' for money
Hydration fix (React #418):
- QuizCard shuffled options with Math.random() — server/client orders
diverged. shuffleOptions now takes an injectable RNG; QuizCard passes
seededRandom(toolCallId) (mulberry32/FNV-1a in question-core). Same
question → same stable order across reloads; still varies per question.
Tests: 53 pass (5 new math-rendering pins incl. fenced-vs-one-line $$
behavior and the escaped-currency contract). tsc + next build clean.
Verified live in browser: inline/display math in text + cards, drawer
open/navigate/active-highlight/ESC, no console errors, no font 404s.
The teaching agent no longer runs on pi. Stack:
- ToolLoopAgent (ai@7) + OpenRouter (OPENROUTER_API_KEY), model via LH_MODEL,
default anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5 with reasoning tokens
- quiz/ask_user_question = client-side tools (no server execute): the call
lands as a typed tool part in input-available state; the card grades via
src/core/question-core.ts; addToolOutput sends the verdict; the teacher's
reaction continues the same assistant message
- resume-mid-quiz is free: the pending tool part persists in the transcript
- persistence: one JSON per chat (data/chats/), full UIMessage transcripts,
saved onFinish (also on abort)
- UI: AI Elements (owned copy-paste components, pruned to the five in use)
+ button-based QuizCard/AnsweredCard (ask answers never graded)
- pi fully removed: TUI, extensions, Fastify+WS server, bridge, custom
protocol all deleted (recoverable from git history)
- tests: question-core units carry over; chat-flow integration drives
handleChatRequest with MockLanguageModelV4 (48 tests, zero tokens);
render smoke tests guard the cards (renderToStaticMarkup)
Carried over unchanged: teacher system prompt, question-core, schema/
ledger/derive/extract pipeline, data model.
amosblomqvist