feat(retrieval): the standing-rule arm gets its own bar, and asks for one rule not two (#3318)

Milestone 333 step 4 — the split #2223 made one surface down, now made for the
third corpus. The arm inherited WRITEPATH_DEFAULT_THRESHOLD = 0.68, a number
measured against code-vs-note-PROSE and never re-derived for code-vs-RULE-TEXT.

THE DEFAULT IS ARGUED STRUCTURALLY, NOT READ OFF A HISTOGRAM (rule 115). Two
facts hold on any install, including one with six rules and no telemetry:

- The eligible corpus is tiny — conditional rules only, a handful to a few
  dozen against thousands of notes. A top-k over forty candidates always
  returns something, so "the best match cleared the bar" stops meaning "a good
  match exists". A bar calibrated for best-of-thousands is cleared by
  best-of-forty as arithmetic, not relevance.
- Rules are short imperative technical English, far more homogeneous than note
  prose. #2223 put the code-vs-prose floor at 0.55-0.63 and set 0.68 above it;
  a more homogeneous corpus has a HIGHER floor, so 0.68 is not merely
  inherited, it sits below where this corpus's noise lives.

0.72 errs deliberately toward silence on an asymmetry that is also structural:
this hint fires on EVERY write. A missed rule is recoverable — it is still in
Scribe and the agent can search it. A hint that cries wolf is not: it teaches
the reader to skip the whole block, and the true positives go with it. The
arm's own comment already said "noise on a hint that fires on every write is
how a hint gets ignored".

Pinned as an INEQUALITY, not a value: test_the_rule_bar_defaults_above_the_code_bar
asserts RULEHINT > WRITEPATH, so tuning the number stays free while inverting
the relationship — which would silently reinstate #3311 — does not.

RULEHINT_LIMIT = 1, and deliberately not a knob. With a corpus this small, k=2
means the second line is almost always the second-best noise wearing the same
confident framing as the first; halving k halves that regardless of the bar.
It stays a constant because it is a decision about how loud one hint may be,
not a per-install tuning question — and a knob nobody turns only adds a way to
misconfigure the surface.

Reachable from Settings, no restart (rule 25), with copy that says which way to
move it and points at retrieval_telemetry's rule pull-through — which step 3
made readable — to tell "arriving unread" from "never arrived".

Every config stand-in in the suite gained the key, not just the one that
noticed. The arm reads `rule_threshold` while BUILDING its search arguments, so
a missing key raises inside its fail-open except and turns the arm into a
silent no-op — indistinguishable from it running and finding nothing. That is
the same vacuous-pass shape that bit step 2, one layer down (rule 33).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01TcCs1CcQ1ormdnzSshKqvN

tests/test_note_usage.py

@@ -154,7 +154,8 @@ async def test_unscored_location_arms_are_recorded(lookups, expected_source):
         patch.object(
             plugin_context,
             "get_writepath_config",
-            AsyncMock(return_value={"enabled": True, "threshold": 0.55, "top_k": 3}),
+            AsyncMock(return_value={"enabled": True, "threshold": 0.55, "top_k": 3,
+                                    "rule_threshold": 0.72}),
         ),
         patch.object(
             plugin_context.snippets_svc,

tests/test_rule_usage_wiring.py

@@ -47,17 +47,25 @@ _PRIOR_ART = [(0.72, fake_note(id=9, title="debounce helper", user_id=1,
                                note_type="snippet"))]
 
 
-def _arm_patches(pc, hits, recorder, prior_art=None):
-    """The minimum stubbing that lets the rule arm run and nothing else."""
+def _arm_patches(pc, hits, recorder, prior_art=None, cfg=None, rule_search=None):
+    """The minimum stubbing that lets the rule arm run and nothing else.
+
+    `cfg` and `rule_search` are overridable so a caller can inspect what the
+    arm ASKED for rather than only what it did with the answer — patching them
+    a second time on top would work, but reads as an accident.
+    """
     return (
         patch.object(pc, "get_writepath_config",
-                     AsyncMock(return_value={"enabled": True, "threshold": 0.6,
-                                             "top_k": 3})),
+                     AsyncMock(return_value=cfg or {
+                         "enabled": True, "threshold": 0.6,
+                         "top_k": 3, "rule_threshold": 0.6,
+                     })),
         patch.object(pc.snippets_svc, "list_snippets", AsyncMock(return_value=([], 0))),
         patch.object(pc, "semantic_search_notes",
                      AsyncMock(return_value=_PRIOR_ART if prior_art is None
                                else prior_art)),
-        patch.object(pc, "semantic_search_rules", AsyncMock(return_value=hits)),
+        patch.object(pc, "semantic_search_rules",
+                     rule_search or AsyncMock(return_value=hits)),
         patch.object(pc, "record_retrieval", MagicMock()),
         patch.object(pc, "record_surfaced", MagicMock()),
         patch.object(pc, "record_rule_surfaced", recorder),
@@ -122,6 +130,36 @@ async def test_nothing_is_recorded_when_every_hit_was_already_held():
     assert rec.call_count == 0
 
 
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_the_arm_searches_on_its_OWN_bar_not_the_code_one():
+    """The consuming half of step 4. `get_writepath_config` assembling a
+    separate `rule_threshold` means nothing if the arm still passes
+    `cfg["threshold"]` to its search — the split would exist in the config and
+    not in the behaviour, and #3311 would be exactly where it was.
+
+    The two values are deliberately different here so the assertion can tell
+    them apart.
+    """
+    from scribe.services import plugin_context as pc
+
+    search = AsyncMock(return_value=[])
+    with ExitStack() as stack:
+        for ctx in _arm_patches(
+            pc, [], MagicMock(), rule_search=search,
+            cfg={"enabled": True, "threshold": 0.60,
+                 "top_k": 3, "rule_threshold": 0.81},
+        ):
+            stack.enter_context(ctx)
+        await pc.build_write_path_hint(
+            1, "frontend/src/api/client.ts", code="x" * 400,
+        )
+
+    kw = search.await_args.kwargs
+    assert kw["threshold"] == 0.81, "the arm is still using the code threshold"
+    assert kw["limit"] == pc.RULEHINT_LIMIT
+    assert kw["tier"] == "conditional"
+
+
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
 async def test_the_arm_does_not_fire_on_a_write_that_matched_nothing():
     """The gate, pinned — because the fixture above now depends on it and a

tests/test_services_plugin_context.py

@@ -419,7 +419,8 @@ async def test_write_path_semantic_arm_asks_for_experience_not_just_snippets():
     rec = MagicMock()
     with patch.object(pc, "get_writepath_config",
                       AsyncMock(return_value={"enabled": True, "threshold": 0.6,
-                                              "top_k": 3})), \
+                                              "top_k": 3,
+                                              "rule_threshold": 0.72})), \
          patch.object(pc.snippets_svc, "list_snippets",
                       AsyncMock(return_value=([], 0))), \
          patch.object(pc, "semantic_search_notes", search), \
@@ -451,7 +452,8 @@ async def test_write_path_labels_a_non_snippet_hit_with_its_kind():
             (0.71, fake_note(id=7, title="Debounce dropped the trailing call", user_id=1, is_task=True, task_kind="issue"))]
     with patch.object(pc, "get_writepath_config",
                       AsyncMock(return_value={"enabled": True, "threshold": 0.6,
-                                              "top_k": 3})), \
+                                              "top_k": 3,
+                                              "rule_threshold": 0.72})), \
          patch.object(pc.snippets_svc, "list_snippets",
                       AsyncMock(return_value=([], 0))), \
          patch.object(pc, "semantic_search_notes", AsyncMock(return_value=hits)), \

tests/test_write_path_trigger.py

@@ -25,7 +25,13 @@ def _snippet_item(nid, title, user_id=1):
 
 
 def _cfg(**over):
-    base = {"enabled": True, "threshold": 0.68, "top_k": 3}
+    # `rule_threshold` is the standing-rule arm's own bar (milestone 333 step
+    # 4). It belongs in the stand-in even though most tests here never reach
+    # that arm: the arm reads it while BUILDING its search arguments, so a
+    # missing key raises inside its fail-open except and turns the arm into a
+    # silent no-op — which is indistinguishable from it working and finding
+    # nothing.
+    base = {"enabled": True, "threshold": 0.68, "top_k": 3, "rule_threshold": 0.72}
     base.update(over)
     return base
 
@@ -426,6 +432,74 @@ async def test_writepath_threshold_is_operator_tunable_and_clamped():
     assert (await _cfg_with("banana"))["threshold"] == pc.WRITEPATH_DEFAULT_THRESHOLD
 
 
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_the_rule_arm_has_its_own_tunable_bar():
+    """Rule #25 again, for the THIRD corpus (milestone 333 step 4).
+
+    Separate from the code threshold above and separately settable, because the
+    two are measured against different things: 0.68 was derived from code
+    against note PROSE (#2223), and rules are short imperative technical
+    English — a more homogeneous corpus whose noise floor sits higher.
+    """
+    from scribe.services import plugin_context as pc
+
+    async def _cfg_with(raw):
+        stored = {pc.RULEHINT_THRESHOLD_KEY: raw}
+        with patch.object(pc, "get_setting",
+                          AsyncMock(side_effect=lambda uid, k, d: stored.get(k, d))):
+            return await pc.get_writepath_config(1)
+
+    assert (await _cfg_with("0.8"))["rule_threshold"] == 0.8
+    assert (await _cfg_with("5"))["rule_threshold"] == 1.0
+    assert (await _cfg_with("-3"))["rule_threshold"] == 0.0
+    # Garbage falls back to the default, not to 0.0 — which on THIS arm would
+    # attach a standing rule to every write in the session.
+    assert (await _cfg_with("banana"))["rule_threshold"] == pc.RULEHINT_DEFAULT_THRESHOLD
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_the_two_write_path_bars_are_independent():
+    """The split, asserted. Setting one must not move the other — the failure
+    that would silently undo this step is a config assembler that reads one key
+    into both fields."""
+    from scribe.services import plugin_context as pc
+
+    stored = {pc.WRITEPATH_THRESHOLD_KEY: "0.90", pc.RULEHINT_THRESHOLD_KEY: "0.61"}
+    with patch.object(pc, "get_setting",
+                      AsyncMock(side_effect=lambda uid, k, d: stored.get(k, d))):
+        cfg = await pc.get_writepath_config(1)
+
+    assert cfg["threshold"] == 0.90
+    assert cfg["rule_threshold"] == 0.61
+
+
+def test_the_rule_bar_defaults_above_the_code_bar():
+    """Not a number check — a DIRECTION check, and the only part of the default
+    that is defensible without one instance's histogram (rule 115).
+
+    The eligible rule corpus is orders of magnitude smaller than the note
+    corpus, so a top-k over it always returns something and a bar calibrated
+    for best-of-thousands is cleared by best-of-forty as arithmetic. Rules are
+    also more homogeneous than note prose, so their noise floor is higher. Both
+    facts point the same way: this bar must sit ABOVE the one it inherited.
+
+    Pinned as an inequality so tuning the value stays free while inverting the
+    relationship — which would silently reinstate #3311 — does not.
+    """
+    from scribe.services import plugin_context as pc
+
+    assert pc.RULEHINT_DEFAULT_THRESHOLD > pc.WRITEPATH_DEFAULT_THRESHOLD
+
+
+def test_the_rule_arm_asks_for_one_rule_not_two():
+    """With a corpus this small, top-k does as much damage as the threshold:
+    k=2 over a few dozen candidates means the second line is almost always the
+    second-best noise, carrying the same confident framing as the first."""
+    from scribe.services import plugin_context as pc
+
+    assert pc.RULEHINT_LIMIT == 1
+
+
 # --- the minimum-substance floor on the semantic arm (#2223) ------------------
 
 @pytest.mark.asyncio