Architecture refactor follow-ups: improve prep-stage accumulator decomposition + salience/outcome repos (post D-series)

[itlackey]

Two follow-ups deferred out of the architecture-refactor D-series (completed in #669/#670/#671). Both are genuine improvements that were intentionally not done as part of the decomposition because they require a redesign rather than a behavior-preserving move.

1. Decompose the runImprovePreparationStage accumulator blocks

After D1c, src/commands/improve/preparation.ts holds the prep pipeline, but ~3 internal phases could not be extracted as pure moves:

• WS-2 Outcome loop, the proactive / high-salience selectors, and the replay-selection layer.

They are entangled through salienceMap — a cross-phase mutable accumulator that the salience-ranking phase, the Outcome loop, and replay-seeding all read and mutate in place. Carving any one out as a function changes behavior unless the accumulator is threaded explicitly.

Proposed work: redesign the prep stage to pass the salience accumulator (and the related pendingForgettingRefs) explicitly between phase functions (or build it in one pass and pass it read-only downstream), then extract the Outcome loop / selectors / replay as named functions. This is a behavior-changing refactor → needs its own RED characterization tests for the salience ranking + forgetting-candidate outputs first.

2. Move command-layer asset_salience / asset_outcome SQL into repositories, then widen X4

X4 (#671) shipped a narrow repository-boundary lint (scripts/lint-repository-sql.ts) guarding src/registry/** + src/workflows/runtime/**. It was deliberately not widened to the improve command layer because raw asset_salience / asset_outcome SQL still lives directly in:

• src/commands/improve/salience.ts
• src/commands/improve/outcome-loop.ts
• src/commands/improve/homeostatic.ts
• (read-side also in src/commands/health.ts)

Proposed work: extract src/core/state/salience-repo.ts + src/core/state/outcome-repo.ts (mirroring the D2 repo pattern), move the raw SQL behind them, then add src/commands/improve/** (or the specific files) to the X4 guard's GUARDED_PREFIXES so the boundary covers the improve layer too. The X4 meta-test already proves the guard fires, so widening is a one-line allowlist change once the SQL is relocated.

Notes

• These are independent of each other and of the merged D-series; neither is a regression.
• Separately, the #499 health test (tests/health-command.test.ts — "legacy row with started_at==completed_at falls back…") remains an intermittent host-load flake (passes in isolation; fails only under heavy concurrent sharded load). Root cause is the documented open test-isolation issue, not the refactor.

Plan of record: docs/technical/architecture-refactor-plan.md (see the X4 row + "genuine future follow-ups" in the priming section).

[itlackey]

Triage verification @ 0.9.0-beta.57 (main): both parts still open. One file-reference correction below.

Part 1 — prep-stage accumulator decomposition: NOT done. runImprovePreparationStage is still a single large function in src/commands/improve/preparation.ts (~:772→EOF). salienceMap remains a mutable cross-phase accumulator (declared :1645, mutated :1702, :1998-2000; read across :1773/:1789/:1806/:1822/:1826/:1874/:2084), as does pendingForgettingRefs (declared :1751, reassigned :1799/:1853, read :1893/:1896/:1928). The Outcome loop / selectors / replay layer are still inline. No commit references this decomposition.

Part 2 — salience/outcome repos + X4 widening: NOT done, and two file references in the issue have drifted (unrelated prior refactors), so updating for whoever picks this up:

• src/core/state/salience-repo.ts and outcome-repo.ts do not exist (src/core/state/ contains only migrations.ts).
• Raw SQL still lives in the command layer: src/commands/improve/salience.ts (asset_salience at :440/:480/:497/:523/:533/:543) and src/commands/improve/outcome-loop.ts (asset_outcome at :279/:319/:334/:351).
• ⚠️ src/commands/improve/homeostatic.ts no longer exists — folded into salience.ts by commit decb2f0 (fold homeostatic decay into the live recency term). Its SQL is now inline in salience.ts, still not behind a repo.
• ⚠️ src/commands/health.ts was decomposed into src/commands/health/*.ts (commit 7aaf156); the read-side asset_salience query now lives at src/commands/health/metrics.ts:218.
• X4 guard not widened: scripts/lint-repository-sql.ts:45 GUARDED_PREFIXES is still just ["src/registry/", "src/workflows/runtime/"].

Substance of both parts unchanged — keeping open.

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