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ZBBS-HOME-445: scene-scope salem-generic's chat history (stop the cascade transcript bleed) #237

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Merged
jeffdafoe merged 1 commit into from
Jun 12, 2026
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ZBBS-HOME-445: scene-scope salem-generic's chat history (stop the cascade transcript bleed) #237

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22 changes: 20 additions & 2 deletions node/api/src/services/virtual-agent.js
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -2410,10 +2410,27 @@ async function handleDirectChat(virtualAgentName, fromAgent, messageText, messag
// continuity layer (actor_narrative_state, actor_relationship)
// baked into the perception, not from chat history.
//
// salem-generic is the engine's stateless cascade utility VA
// (atmosphere prose, noticeboard authoring). Every cascade call
// mints a fresh scene_id precisely so calls stay isolated, and the
// engine prompt carries all needed context explicitly (the prior
// atmosphere / prior notice ride along as anti-anchors) — so
// scene-scoped history is correctly EMPTY for it. Before it was
// added here (ZBBS-HOME-445), every cascade call dragged the
// unscoped window — virtual_agent_chat_history_hours (72 live) ×
// LIMIT 50 — of mixed atmosphere+noticeboard transcript into the
// prompt (~35KB observed), drowning the instruction.
//
// Persistent VAs (zbbs-prudence-ward, zbbs-john-ellis, etc.) have
// their own actor row per persona, so the actor1↔actor2 filter
// already scopes correctly — pass null and keep the time-windowed
// history they had pre-fix.
// history they had pre-fix. That unscoped history IS their
// cross-tick continuity channel, which is why this can't simply
// scope on sceneId presence (sim ticks always carry one).
//
// This slug list is acknowledged tech debt: the classification
// belongs on the agent row as configuration, not in code. See
// shared/tasks/icebox/memory-api-config-driven-shared-va-classification.
//
// Defensive: if a shared-VA call arrives with no sceneId, do NOT
// fall through to unscoped history (that's the cross-persona
Expand All @@ -2422,7 +2439,8 @@ async function handleDirectChat(virtualAgentName, fromAgent, messageText, messag
// user message, the model just gets no prior context. The engine
// always passes a sceneId for sim ticks, so this branch only fires
// for misconfigured callers and is intentionally fail-closed.
const isSharedVA = agent.agent === 'salem-visitor' || agent.agent === 'salem-vendor';
const isSharedVA = agent.agent === 'salem-visitor' || agent.agent === 'salem-vendor'
|| agent.agent === 'salem-generic';
let history;
if (isSharedVA && !sceneId) {
history = [];
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