alembic/versions/0108_trigger_leaves_the_stored_title.py

@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+"""trigger_leaves_the_stored_title — a snippet's and lesson's title is its name (milestone 427)
+
+Revision ID: 0108
+Revises: 0107
+Create Date: 2026-09-23
+
+Snippets and lessons stored their title as `subject — trigger`, because the
+join is what makes these kinds rank on the situation they apply to (#2485) and
+the stored title WAS the embedded one. Every surface that shows a title then
+showed the trigger too: menu lines, lists and search rows ran to 1,500–3,000
+characters, and an injected repeat spent all of it again.
+
+The trigger's home is `data` (decision #4157), and since this milestone the
+join happens at embed time (`embeddings.document_title`). This revision
+rewrites the rows already stored.
+
+EXACT-SUFFIX, READ FROM THE ROW'S OWN MIRROR. A title is only rewritten when
+it ends with `' — ' || <that row's trigger>`, so a subject that legitimately
+contains an em dash is never cut, and a row whose title and mirror disagree —
+hand-edited through the generic note door — is left alone. Such a row still
+embeds correctly (`document_title` is idempotent) and merely shows its old
+title; that is the right way round for a data migration to fail.
+
+NO RE-EMBED, AND `updated_at` IS NOT TOUCHED. The embedded text is identical
+before and after, so the vectors are already right. The startup backfill
+re-embeds any row whose `updated_at` is newer than its vectors, and a raw
+UPDATE that leaves `updated_at` alone is what keeps this from queueing the
+whole snippet corpus for work that would produce the same numbers. There is
+no database trigger on `updated_at`; it is set by the ORM only.
+"""
+from alembic import op
+
+revision = "0108"
+down_revision = "0107"
+branch_labels = None
+depends_on = None
+
+# kind → the `data` key its trigger is mirrored under (embeddings._TRIGGER_DATA_KEYS).
+_KINDS = (("snippet", "when_to_use"), ("lesson", "when_to_apply"))
+_SEP = " — "
+
+
+def upgrade() -> None:
+    for note_type, key in _KINDS:
+        op.execute(f"""
+            UPDATE notes
+               SET title = btrim(left(title, length(title) - length('{_SEP}' || (data->>'{key}'))))
+             WHERE note_type = '{note_type}'
+               AND coalesce(btrim(data->>'{key}'), '') <> ''
+               AND right(title, length('{_SEP}' || (data->>'{key}'))) = '{_SEP}' || (data->>'{key}')
+        """)
+
+
+def downgrade() -> None:
+    # Recompose, on the same condition inverted: only where the trigger is not
+    # already on the end, so a downgrade run twice cannot double it.
+    for note_type, key in _KINDS:
+        op.execute(f"""
+            UPDATE notes
+               SET title = title || '{_SEP}' || (data->>'{key}')
+             WHERE note_type = '{note_type}'
+               AND coalesce(btrim(data->>'{key}'), '') <> ''
+               AND right(title, length('{_SEP}' || (data->>'{key}'))) <> '{_SEP}' || (data->>'{key}')
+        """)

frontend/src/api/snippets.ts

@@ -91,6 +91,9 @@ export interface SnippetListItem {
    *  hit can be flagged as being in a DIFFERENT language than the file being
    *  written, which is a shape to adapt rather than code to paste. */
   language?: string;
+  /** When to reach for it, projected from the `data` mirror. The title is the
+   *  name alone since milestone 427, so this is where the situation lives. */
+  when_to_use?: string;
   /** Always present from the backend, zero-filled for records with no events. */
   usage?: SnippetUsage;
   /** Present on the detail record; the list feed carries it when a check has

frontend/src/views/SnippetListView.vue

@@ -189,11 +189,18 @@ const onLocationInput = onSearchInput;
 
 onMounted(loadSnippets);
 
-/** Titles are stored as "name — when to reach for it"; split for display. */
+/** A row's name and when-to-use. The title is the name alone since milestone
-function splitTitle(title: string): { name: string; when: string } {
+ *  427 and the situation arrives as `when_to_use`; a title composed before then
-  const idx = title.indexOf(" — ");
+ *  ("name — when to reach for it") is split, so either shape reads the same. */
-  if (idx === -1) return { name: title, when: "" };
+function nameAndWhen(s: { title: string; when_to_use?: string }): { name: string; when: string } {
-  return { name: title.slice(0, idx), when: title.slice(idx + 3) };
+  const when = s.when_to_use || "";
+  if (when && s.title.endsWith(` — ${when}`)) {
+    return { name: s.title.slice(0, -(when.length + 3)), when };
+  }
+  if (when) return { name: s.title, when };
+  const idx = s.title.indexOf(" — ");
+  if (idx === -1) return { name: s.title, when: "" };
+  return { name: s.title.slice(0, idx), when: s.title.slice(idx + 3) };
 }
 
 function languageOf(tags: string[]): string {
@@ -313,7 +320,7 @@ function driftTitle(s: SnippetListItem): string {
         <div v-for="(g, i) in duplicateGroups" :key="i" class="dup-group">
           <div class="dup-members">
             <span v-for="s in g.snippets" :key="s.id" class="dup-member">
-              {{ splitTitle(s.title).name }}
+              {{ nameAndWhen(s).name }}
             </span>
           </div>
           <span class="dup-score">{{ Math.round(g.top_score * 100) }}% alike</span>
@@ -413,11 +420,11 @@ function driftTitle(s: SnippetListItem): string {
             :class="{ on: selectedIds.has(s.id) }"
             aria-hidden="true"
           ></span>
-          <span class="snippet-name">{{ splitTitle(s.title).name }}</span>
+          <span class="snippet-name">{{ nameAndWhen(s).name }}</span>
           <span v-if="languageOf(s.tags)" class="lang-pill">{{ languageOf(s.tags) }}</span>
         </div>
-        <p v-if="splitTitle(s.title).when" class="snippet-when">
+        <p v-if="nameAndWhen(s).when" class="snippet-when">
-          {{ splitTitle(s.title).when }}
+          {{ nameAndWhen(s).when }}
         </p>
         <div class="card-footer">
           <span class="meta-date">Updated {{ new Date(s.updated_at).toLocaleDateString() }}</span>
@@ -458,7 +465,7 @@ function driftTitle(s: SnippetListItem): string {
               :class="{ chosen: canonicalId === s.id }"
             >
               <input type="radio" name="canonical" :value="s.id" v-model="canonicalId" />
-              <span class="merge-choice-name">{{ splitTitle(s.title).name }}</span>
+              <span class="merge-choice-name">{{ nameAndWhen(s).name }}</span>
               <span class="merge-choice-tag">{{ canonicalId === s.id ? "keep" : "fold in" }}</span>
             </label>
           </div>

plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "scribe",
   "description": "Scribe for Claude Code: connects the scribe MCP server, adds the hooks that deliver live project state and relevant records at the right moment, ships the shared client-neutral Scribe skills (using-scribe, writing-plans, reporting-back, systematic-debugging, verification, brainstorming, reusing-code, shape-accounting), and syncs your saved Scribe Processes as skills (/scribe:sync).",
-  "version": "2026.09.21.0503",
+  "version": "2026.09.23.2008",
   "author": {
     "name": "Bryan Van Deusen"
   },

plugin/hooks/scribe_autoinject.sh

@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ event_flat=$(printf '%s' "$event" | scribe_json_flat)
 prompt=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.prompt')
 session_id=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.session_id')
 event_cwd=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.cwd')
+transcript=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.transcript_path')
 
 # Nothing to retrieve against.
 [ -n "$prompt" ] || exit 0
@@ -79,6 +80,16 @@ q=$(printf '%s' "$prompt" | head -c 2000)
 q_enc=$(printf '%s' "$q" | scribe_urlenc) || exit 0
 [ -n "$q_enc" ] || exit 0
 
+# What the conversation is about, for a prompt too short to say (#4364). Sent
+# beside `q`, never folded into it: the server decides whether the prompt is
+# thin enough to need it, for the notes and rule arms alike. Capped at
+# 600 chars here as well as there, so the URL stays small whatever the reply.
+ctx_q=""
+ctx=$(scribe_recent_context "$transcript")
+if [ -n "$ctx" ]; then
+  ctx_enc=$(printf '%s' "$ctx" | scribe_urlenc) && [ -n "$ctx_enc" ] && ctx_q="&ctx=${ctx_enc}"
+fi
+
 # Scope to this directory's project — a `.scribe` marker, else the git remote.
 repo_dir=${event_cwd:-${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-$PWD}}
 scope=$(scribe_scope_query "$repo_dir")
@@ -120,7 +131,7 @@ fi
 
 body=$(curl -fsS --max-time 5 \
   -H "Authorization: Bearer ${token}" \
-  "${url%/}/api/plugin/retrieve?q=${q_enc}${repo_q}${exclude_q}" 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+  "${url%/}/api/plugin/retrieve?q=${q_enc}${ctx_q}${repo_q}${exclude_q}" 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
 [ -n "$body" ] || exit 0
 
 body_flat=$(printf '%s' "$body" | scribe_json_flat)

plugin/hooks/scribe_defs.sh

@@ -127,6 +127,36 @@ scribe_json_flat_lines() {
   awk -v mode=lines -f "$SCRIBE_HOOK_DIR/scribe_json.awk" 2>/dev/null || true
 }
 
+# $1 transcript path → the tail of the last assistant REPLY text, decoded, on
+# one line; "" when there is none (#4364). The auto-inject query pairs it with
+# a short prompt, so "yes do that" still says what it is about.
+#
+# Cheap by construction, because it runs on every prompt: the last 512 KB only,
+# and grep narrows to assistant records carrying a text block BEFORE anything is
+# parsed — a transcript is mostly tool results, and parsing those in awk is the
+# multi-second cost scribe_report_check.sh already measured. Fixed strings with
+# UNESCAPED quotes can only match at a record's own top level (see that hook).
+# A sidechain is a subagent talking, not this session, so it is skipped.
+scribe_recent_context() {
+  [ -n "${1:-}" ] && [ -f "$1" ] || return 0
+  tail -c 524288 "$1" 2>/dev/null \
+    | grep -F '"role":"assistant"' 2>/dev/null \
+    | grep -F '"type":"text"' 2>/dev/null \
+    | tail -n 4 \
+    | scribe_json_flat_lines \
+    | awk -F'\t' '
+        $2 == ".isSidechain" { side[$1] = $3; next }
+        $2 ~ /^\.message\.content\[[0-9]+\]\.text$/ { txt[$1] = txt[$1] " " $3; if ($1 > last) last = $1 }
+        END { for (i = last; i >= 0; i--) if ((i in txt) && side[i] != "true") { print txt[i]; exit } }
+      ' 2>/dev/null \
+    | scribe_json_unescape \
+    | tr '\n\t' '  ' \
+    | awk '{ sub(/[ ]+$/, ""); n = length($0); if (n) print (n > 600 ? substr($0, n - 599) : $0) }'
+  # A transcript with no reply yet is an answer ("nothing"), not a failure —
+  # under pipefail the grep that matched nothing would otherwise be the status.
+  return 0
+}
+
 # $1 flat text, $2 exact path → the decoded scalar, or "" if absent.
 #
 # `null` READS AS ABSENT, matching the `// empty` every call site used to carry.

plugin/hooks/scribe_session_context.sh

@@ -189,11 +189,35 @@ if [ -n "$url" ] && [ -n "$token" ] && command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
   scope=$(scribe_scope_query "$repo_dir")
   q=""
   [ -n "$scope" ] && q="?${scope}"
-  body=$(curl -fsS --max-time 8 \
+  # ONE FETCH, NAMED WHEN IT FAILS (#4366). This used to be `curl -f … ||
-    -H "Authorization: Bearer ${token}" \
+  # body=""`, which folded a timeout, an HTTP error and a refused key into one
-    "${url%/}/api/plugin/context${q}" 2>/dev/null) || body=""
+  # sentence — so a session that started blind could not say why, and neither
+  # could the operator afterwards. curl's write-out still prints on a failed
+  # transfer (as `000`), so the status and the elapsed time come back either way.
+  fetch_context() {
+    local resp meta
+    resp=$(curl -sS --max-time "$1" -w '\n%{http_code} %{time_total}' \
+      -H "Authorization: Bearer ${token}" \
+      "${url%/}/api/plugin/context${q}" 2>/dev/null)
+    ctx_rc=$?
+    meta=${resp##*$'\n'}
+    body=${resp%$'\n'*}
+    [ "$body" = "$resp" ] && body=""
+    ctx_code=${meta%% *}
+    ctx_took=${meta#* }
+  }
+  # Deadlines: 8s is the long-standing first try, sized for a cold instance.
+  # ONE retry at 6s, and only for failures a second try can change — a
+  # timeout, a dropped connection, a 5xx. A 4xx is the key or the scope and
+  # will say the same thing twice. Worst case is ~14s of startup, against a
+  # whole session run without its project.
+  fetch_context 8
+  case "$ctx_rc:$ctx_code" in
+    0:2*|0:4*) ;;
+    *) fetch_context 6 ;;
+  esac
   body_flat=""
-  if [ -n "$body" ]; then
+  if [ "$ctx_rc" = 0 ] && [ "${ctx_code#2}" != "$ctx_code" ] && [ -n "$body" ]; then
     body_flat=$(printf '%s' "$body" | scribe_json_flat)
     dyn=$(scribe_json_pick "$body_flat" '.context')
   fi
@@ -201,7 +225,28 @@ if [ -n "$url" ] && [ -n "$token" ] && command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
   # (milestone 394). Nothing is preloaded, so there is no set whose
   # drift a later write could be told about — a rule is retrieved at
   # the moment it applies, which cannot be stale.
-  [ -z "$dyn" ] && status="> ⚠️ Scribe: live project context could not be loaded this session (instance unreachable or request failed). The using-scribe skill still applies — ask for rules with \`search(content_type=\"rule\")\` and project context with \`enter_project()\` as needed."
+  if [ -z "$dyn" ]; then
+    if [ "$ctx_rc" = 28 ]; then
+      why="the instance did not answer in time (8s, then ${ctx_took}s on a retry)"
+    elif [ "$ctx_rc" != 0 ]; then
+      why="the instance could not be reached (curl exit ${ctx_rc}, after a retry)"
+    elif [ "$ctx_code" = 401 ] || [ "$ctx_code" = 403 ]; then
+      why="the API key was refused (HTTP ${ctx_code})"
+    elif [ "${ctx_code#2}" = "$ctx_code" ]; then
+      why="the instance answered HTTP ${ctx_code}"
+    else
+      why="the instance answered but sent no context"
+    fi
+    # The first move, stated as one. "As needed" read as optional, and a
+    # session that skips it starts with no recent milestones or open tasks —
+    # so it cannot know what prior work exists to look for (#4366).
+    if [ -n "$marker_id" ] && [ -z "$marker_why" ]; then
+      first="Start by calling \`enter_project(${marker_id})\`"
+    else
+      first="Start by finding this repo's project with \`list_projects()\` and calling \`enter_project(<id>)\`"
+    fi
+    status="> ⚠️ Scribe: live project context was not loaded this session — ${why}. The tools may still answer. ${first} before any other work: it loads the recent milestones and open tasks this session would otherwise begin without, and prior work you cannot see is work you will redo. The using-scribe skill still applies."
+  fi
 elif [ -n "$url" ] && [ -z "$token" ]; then
   status="> ⚠️ Scribe: live context disabled this session — the API key is not configured (Scribe base URL is). Set it with \`/plugin\` → Scribe → configure, or export SCRIBE_TOKEN. Tools still work; ask for rules with \`search(content_type=\"rule\")\` and project context with \`enter_project()\`."
 elif [ -z "$url" ] && [ -z "$token" ]; then

src/scribe/mcp/tools/lessons.py

@@ -168,6 +168,7 @@ async def create_lesson(
         dup = await dedup_svc.find_duplicate_note(
             uid, title, body, project_id=project_id or None,
             is_task=False, note_type=lessons_svc.LESSON_NOTE_TYPE,
+            data=lessons_svc.compose_data(what, when_to_apply),
         )
         if dup is not None:
             return dedup_svc.duplicate_response(dup, "lesson")

src/scribe/mcp/tools/snippets.py

@@ -176,7 +176,9 @@ async def create_snippet(
         raise ValueError("create_snippet requires a non-empty name and code")
     uid = current_user_id()
 
-    title = snippets_svc.compose_title(name, when_to_use)
+    # The NAME is the title (milestone 427); the trigger rides in `data` and
+    # joins the title only in the embedded document.
+    title = name.strip()
     body = snippets_svc.compose_body(
         code=code, language=language, signature=signature,
         when_to_use=when_to_use, repo=repo, path=path, symbol=symbol,
@@ -190,6 +192,7 @@ async def create_snippet(
             # location and code before it compares prose (#2518).
             code=code,
             locations=snippets_svc.resolve_locations(repo, path, symbol, locations),
+            data=snippets_svc.compose_data(name=name, when_to_use=when_to_use),
         )
         if dup is not None:
             return dedup_svc.duplicate_response(dup, "snippet")

src/scribe/routes/lessons.py

@@ -149,6 +149,7 @@ async def create_lesson_route():
             project_id=project_id,
             is_task=False,
             note_type=lessons_svc.LESSON_NOTE_TYPE,
+            data=lessons_svc.compose_data(what, when_to_apply),
         )
         if dup is not None:
             return jsonify(dedup_svc.duplicate_response(dup, "lesson")), 409

src/scribe/routes/plugin.py

@@ -95,6 +95,12 @@ async def autoinject_retrieve():
         project_id (opt)   — explicit project scope override (ad-hoc/testing).
         exclude_ids (opt)  — comma-separated note ids already injected this
                              session; skipped so each note injects at most once.
+        ctx (opt)          — the tail of the last assistant reply (#4364). The
+                             notes AND rule arms append it to a short prompt,
+                             so a follow-up like "yes do that" still names
+                             what it is about — and a rule or lesson arrives
+                             while the work is under way, before the operator
+                             has to call it out.
         exclude_rule_ids   — comma-separated rule ids already surfaced this
             (opt)            session. SHARED with /prior-art and /tool-rules on
                              purpose: one session keeps ONE rule ledger, so a
@@ -125,11 +131,13 @@ async def autoinject_retrieve():
     exclude_rule_ids = _int_list(request.args.get("exclude_rule_ids"))
     held_rule_ids = _int_list(request.args.get("held_rule_ids"))
 
+    ctx = request.args.get("ctx") or ""
     rules = await plugin_ctx_svc.build_prompt_rule_hint(
-        g.user.id, q, project_id=project_id, exclude_rule_ids=exclude_rule_ids, held_rule_ids=held_rule_ids
+        g.user.id, q, project_id=project_id, exclude_rule_ids=exclude_rule_ids, held_rule_ids=held_rule_ids,
+        context=ctx,
     )
     result = await plugin_ctx_svc.build_autoinject_hint(
-        g.user.id, q, project_id=project_id, exclude_ids=exclude_ids
+        g.user.id, q, project_id=project_id, exclude_ids=exclude_ids, context=ctx,
     )
     blocks = [b for b in (rules["context"], result["context"]) if b]
     result["context"] = "\n\n".join(blocks)

src/scribe/routes/snippets.py

@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ async def create_snippet_route():
     if not data.get("force"):
         dup = await dedup_svc.find_duplicate_note(
             uid,
-            snippets_svc.compose_title(name, data.get("when_to_use", "")),
+            name.strip(),
             snippets_svc.compose_body(
                 code=data.get("code", ""),
                 language=data.get("language", ""),
@@ -119,6 +119,9 @@ async def create_snippet_route():
                 data.get("repo", ""), data.get("path", ""), data.get("symbol", ""),
                 data.get("locations"),
             ),
+            data=snippets_svc.compose_data(
+                name=name, when_to_use=data.get("when_to_use", ""),
+            ),
         )
         if dup is not None:
             return jsonify(dedup_svc.duplicate_response(dup, "snippet")), 409

src/scribe/services/dedup.py

@@ -248,6 +248,7 @@ async def find_duplicate_note(
     note_type: str = "note",
     code: str = "",
     locations: list[dict] | None = None,
+    data: dict | None = None,
 ) -> DuplicateMatch | None:
     """Best near-duplicate of (title, body) within the same owner + project +
     kind, or None. Title match first (cheap, exact), then — for snippets — the
@@ -258,6 +259,11 @@ async def find_duplicate_note(
     `code` and `locations` are the snippet's structured fields. They are ignored
     for every other kind, and passing them is what lets the gate compare
     ARTEFACTS rather than descriptions of artefacts (#2518).
+
+    `data` is the candidate's structured mirror. For a snippet or lesson it
+    carries the trigger, which the TITLE no longer does (milestone 427): the
+    title check compares names, and the semantic check rebuilds the embedded
+    document from `data`.
     """
     norm = " ".join((title or "").split()).lower()
 
@@ -309,7 +315,11 @@ async def find_duplicate_note(
         # section. Capped so one pathological paste can't turn a save into
         # dozens of searches — a duplicate past the cap is the duplicate
         # report's job, not the gate's.
-        for query in embeddings_svc.chunk_document(title, body)[:_GATE_MAX_CHUNKS]:
+        # The EMBEDDED title (milestone 427): a snippet or lesson is stored
+        # under its name and embedded under `name — trigger`, so the query
+        # document is built the way the corpus was, from `data`.
+        doc_title = embeddings_svc.document_title(title, note_type, data, body)
+        for query in embeddings_svc.chunk_document(doc_title, body)[:_GATE_MAX_CHUNKS]:
             # Scope the semantic check the same way as the title check: a record
             # in project P compares only to P; a project-less (orphan) record
             # compares only to other orphans (orphan_only), NOT across every

src/scribe/services/embeddings.py

@@ -214,10 +214,12 @@ TRIGGER_SEP = " — "
 def trigger_title(subject: str | None, trigger: str | None) -> str:
     """`{subject} — {trigger}` — the title half of a situation-keyed document.
 
-    ONE definition, because this join had three. `rule_document` built it for
+    ONE definition, because this join had three — rules, snippets, and a
-    rules, `snippets.compose_title` for snippets, and milestone 385 needed a
+    fourth for lessons (milestone 385) — the shape #3207 records, where a fix
-    fourth for lessons — the shape #3207 records, where a fix or an improvement
+    or an improvement then has to be found in N places by someone who does not
-    then has to be found in N places by someone who does not know N.
+    know N. Since milestone 427 it builds EMBEDDED titles only: `rule_document`
+    for rules and `document_title` for snippets and lessons. No stored title
+    carries it.
 
     WHY THE JOIN MATTERS AT ALL, measured in note #2485: the snippet was the
     only sharp record in the corpus — a 0.153 top-to-second gap against
@@ -265,6 +267,51 @@ def untrigger_title(title: str | None, trigger: str | None) -> str:
     return title
 
 
+# The `data` key each trigger-keyed note kind mirrors its trigger under. Rules
+# are not here: they keep the trigger in a column and `rule_document` builds
+# their document from it.
+_TRIGGER_DATA_KEYS = {"snippet": "when_to_use", "lesson": "when_to_apply"}
+
+
+def document_title(
+    title: str | None, note_type: str | None, data: dict | None = None,
+    body: str | None = None,
+) -> str | None:
+    """The title a note is EMBEDDED under — its stored title, plus its trigger.
+
+    Milestone 427. A snippet's or lesson's STORED title is its subject alone;
+    the trigger lives in `data` (decision #4157). It still has to reach the
+    vector — the `subject — trigger` join is what makes these kinds rank on
+    the situation they apply to (#2485) — so it is joined HERE, at embed time,
+    rather than being carried in a title every listing then has to show.
+
+    IDEMPOTENT, and that is what makes the migration safe: a title that is
+    already composed (a row not yet migrated, an old backup restored) is
+    untriggered first, so it comes out the same and never doubled. The text is
+    byte-identical to what these kinds were embedded as before, so no vector
+    moves and the floors tuned against them stay calibrated.
+
+    `body` is the fallback when the mirror is missing, read by the kind's own
+    parser — the same degrade-to-the-body each kind's reader already has.
+    Every other kind, and a record with no trigger, keeps its title as-is.
+    """
+    key = _TRIGGER_DATA_KEYS.get(note_type or "")
+    if key is None:
+        return title
+    trigger = ((data or {}).get(key) or "").strip() if isinstance(data, dict) else ""
+    if not trigger and body:
+        from types import SimpleNamespace
+        if note_type == "lesson":
+            from scribe.services.lessons import lesson_trigger
+            trigger = lesson_trigger(SimpleNamespace(data=None, body=body))
+        else:
+            from scribe.services.snippets import parse_snippet_fields
+            trigger = parse_snippet_fields(title or "", body).get("when_to_use", "")
+    if not trigger:
+        return title
+    return trigger_title(untrigger_title(title, trigger), trigger)
+
+
 # --- chunking (#280): the document shape ------------------------------------
 #
 # bge-small reads at most 512 tokens and fastembed silently truncates the rest,
@@ -1081,10 +1128,14 @@ async def backfill_note_embeddings() -> None:
     )
     success = 0
     for note_id in notes_to_embed:
-        row = await _current_row((Note.user_id, Note.title, Note.body), Note.id, note_id)
+        row = await _current_row(
+            (Note.user_id, Note.title, Note.body, Note.note_type, Note.data), Note.id, note_id,
+        )
         if row is None:
             continue          # deleted between the scan and here
-        user_id, title, body = row
+        user_id, title, body, note_type, data = row
+        # The EMBEDDED title, as the write path builds it (milestone 427).
+        title = document_title(title, note_type, data, body)
         if not chunk_document(title, body):
             continue
         await upsert_note_embedding(note_id, user_id, title, body)

src/scribe/services/knowledge.py

@@ -267,6 +267,11 @@ def _note_to_item(note: Note, chunks: dict[int, dict] | None = None) -> dict:
     trigger = (note.data or {}).get("when_to_apply") if note.data else None
     if trigger:
         item["when_to_apply"] = trigger
+    # A snippet's, for the same reason — and since milestone 427 the title no
+    # longer carries it, so without this a list shows names with no situation.
+    usage = (note.data or {}).get("when_to_use") if note.data else None
+    if usage:
+        item["when_to_use"] = usage
 
     verdict = (note.data or {}).get("verification") if note.data else None
     if verdict and verdict.get("status"):

src/scribe/services/lessons.py

@@ -26,20 +26,23 @@ while staying a note in every other respect.
 WHERE THE TRIGGER LIVES (decision #4157, milestone 385 step 1)
 
 In ``notes.data`` under ``when_to_apply``, written through a named parameter and
-mirrored into the title and the head of the body — the shape snippets already
+mirrored into the head of the body — the shape snippets already use for
-use for ``when_to_use``. Not a column on ``notes``.
+``when_to_use``. Not a column on ``notes``. Since milestone 427 it is NOT in the
+stored title: the title is the lesson's subject, and the trigger joins it only
+in the embedded document (``embeddings.document_title``).
 
 That decision was measured rather than assumed. The whole snippet corpus —
 164 of 164 — carries a ``when_to_use`` with **no guard anywhere**, which refutes
 the premise that an unenforced field gets skipped. What it does NOT show is that
-an agent types a title convention correctly: ``compose_title`` builds the title
+an agent types a title convention correctly: the service composed the title
 from the parameter, so what is at 100% is a named structured field. A column
 would have bought enforceability at the price of deciding, for every note kind
 at once, a question nothing had measured.
 
-The mirror is what makes the vector sharp, and it is why nothing re-embeds:
+The trigger in the document is what makes the vector sharp. It reaches it
-``chunk_document`` is untouched, so ``CHUNKER_VERSION`` does not move. The
+twice — in the embedded title, joined at embed time, and in the body's first
-trigger reaches the document by being in the text, exactly as a snippet's is.
+line — which is the text these kinds were always embedded as, so nothing
+re-embeds and ``CHUNKER_VERSION`` does not move.
 
 WHAT A LESSON INHERITS, AND THE CELLS LEFT EMPTY ON PURPOSE (#3163)
 
@@ -207,36 +210,17 @@ def sole_source(sources: list[int] | None) -> int | None:
     return ids[0] if len(ids) == 1 else None
 
 
-def compose_title(what: str, when_to_apply: str = "") -> str:
-    """`{what} — {when it applies}`, the half of the document that ranks.
-
-    Built HERE rather than asked of the caller, and that distinction is the
-    whole evidence base for this design: the snippet corpus is at 100% on its
-    trigger because a service composes the title from a named parameter, not
-    because agents type separators reliably. A caller made to spell the
-    convention is the option milestone 385 step 1 rejected.
-
-    The join is `embeddings.trigger_title` — shared with rules and snippets, so
-    the three kinds that rank on a trigger cannot drift apart in how they say
-    so.
-    """
-    from scribe.services.embeddings import trigger_title
-
-    return trigger_title(what, when_to_apply)
-
-
 def compose_body(
     insight: str, when_to_apply: str = "", learned_from: list[int] | None = None,
 ) -> str:
     """The lesson body — the trigger line first, the insight after.
 
-    The mirror of `compose_title` on the other half of the document, and the
+    The trigger's home in the text of the document, and half of what makes a
-    reason the pair is what makes a lesson findable: `chunk_document` joins
+    lesson findable: `chunk_document` joins `{embedded title}\\n{body}`, and
-    them as `{title}\\n{body}`, so a lesson composed here states WHEN IT
+    the embedded title is `what — when it applies` (`embeddings.document_title`,
-    APPLIES in the title and again in the first line of the body. That is the
+    milestone 427), so the document states WHEN IT APPLIES in the title and
-    twice-in-a-short-document shape note #2485 measured as the only sharp one
+    again in the first line of the body. That is the twice-in-a-short-document
-    in the corpus, reached the way a snippet reaches it — by being in the text
+    shape note #2485 measured as the only sharp one in the corpus.
-    — rather than by a second document builder at embed time.
 
     `**When to apply:**` rather than plain text: the body is the READABLE
     form, `data` is the queryable mirror, and `_BODY_TRIGGER_RE` reads this
@@ -275,23 +259,23 @@ def lesson_document(
     what: str, when_to_apply: str = "", insight: str = "",
     learned_from: list[int] | None = None,
 ) -> tuple[str, str]:
-    """The (title, body) a lesson is STORED — and therefore embedded — as.
+    """The (title, body) a lesson is STORED as.
 
-    One call so the two halves cannot be composed apart. A lesson whose title
+    One call so the two halves cannot be composed apart. The body's first line
-    carried the trigger and whose body did not would embed as an ordinary
+    carries the trigger; a lesson without it (and without the `data` mirror)
-    note wearing a label, and nothing would report it: the record would look
+    would embed as an ordinary note wearing a label, and nothing would report
-    right in every listing and simply never be retrieved at the moment it
+    it: the record would look right in every listing and simply never be
-    applies.
+    retrieved at the moment it applies.
 
-    Deliberately returns what is STORED, not a separate embed-time shape.
+    The title is the SUBJECT alone (milestone 427). It used to carry the
-    Rules need `rule_document` because a rule keeps its trigger in a column
+    trigger too, so the stored record was itself the sharp document — and every
-    and its title is a plain name, so the sharp document has to be synthesised
+    listing, menu and search row then showed a title that ran to kilobytes.
-    for the ranker and exists nowhere else. A lesson follows the snippet
+    The trigger now joins the title at embed time (`embeddings.document_title`,
-    instead — the stored record IS the sharp document — which is why nothing
+    reading `data`), producing the same text as before, so nothing re-embeds
-    re-embeds and `CHUNKER_VERSION` does not move.
+    and `CHUNKER_VERSION` does not move.
     """
     return (
-        compose_title(what, when_to_apply),
+        (what or "").strip(),
         compose_body(insight, when_to_apply, learned_from),
     )
 

src/scribe/services/notes.py

@@ -115,11 +115,17 @@ def embed_note(note) -> None:
     try:
         import asyncio
 
-        from scribe.services.embeddings import upsert_note_embedding
+        from scribe.services.embeddings import document_title, upsert_note_embedding
         # Chunking and the empty-record gate live inside upsert_note_embedding —
-        # one path for every writer (#280).
+        # one path for every writer (#280). The title is the EMBEDDED one: a
+        # snippet's or lesson's trigger joins its name here, not in the stored
+        # title (milestone 427).
         asyncio.create_task(
-            upsert_note_embedding(note.id, note.user_id, note.title, note.body)
+            upsert_note_embedding(
+                note.id, note.user_id,
+                document_title(note.title, note.note_type, note.data, note.body),
+                note.body,
+            )
         )
     except RuntimeError:
         pass          # no running loop — a sync caller, not a failure

src/scribe/services/plugin_context.py

@@ -27,7 +27,11 @@ from scribe.services import projects as projects_svc
 from scribe.services import shape_ledger as shape_ledger_svc
 from scribe.services import snippets as snippets_svc
 from scribe.services.access import label_shared_items, owner_names_for
-from scribe.services.embeddings import semantic_search_notes, semantic_search_rules
+from scribe.services.embeddings import (
+    document_title,
+    semantic_search_notes,
+    semantic_search_rules,
+)
 from scribe.services.lessons import LESSON_NOTE_TYPE
 from scribe.services.note_usage import record_surfaced
 from scribe.services.rule_usage import record_rule_surfaced
@@ -40,6 +44,7 @@ from scribe.services.retrieval_surfaces import (
 )
 from scribe.services.retrieval_telemetry import record_retrieval
 from scribe.services.settings import get_setting
+from scribe.services.systems import system_names_for
 from scribe.services.text import elide
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
@@ -47,23 +52,73 @@ logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 # Defensive cap below Claude Code's 10k additionalContext limit.
 _MAX_CHARS = 9000
 
-# Max chars of the matched passage shown under an injected menu line.
+# WHAT A MENU LINE CARRIES (#4364): the record's NAME, its kind and System,
+# and the WHOLE passage that matched. Metadata plus the evidence, rather than a
+# title asked to be both.
 #
-# The menu used to be titles alone, on the reasoning that its job is AWARENESS —
+# The name, not the title. A snippet's or lesson's title is `name — when it
-# make the agent know the record exists and reach for it, not dump it. That
+# applies` by construction (`embeddings.trigger_title`), because that join is
-# holds for a lesson or a snippet, whose title carries its trigger by
+# what makes it rank on its situation. That is an EMBEDDING shape, and rendered
-# construction ("what — when it applies"). It does not hold for an issue, a
+# as a menu line it ran to 1,500+ characters — the trigger paragraph spent
-# dev-log or a plain note, where the title is a headline and the reason this
+# again on every line, and again on every repeat. The trigger still arrives
-# record matched is a sentence somewhere inside it. The reader was being asked
+# when it is what matched: it is in the chunk, and `_menu_passage` hands it
-# "is this worth opening?" and handed the one part of the record guaranteed not
+# over when the title was the whole match.
-# to answer it.
 #
-# 200 rather than more because this is a menu: eight lines at 200 is ~1.6KB,
+# The whole passage, not 200 characters of it. The search already chose the
-# which buys the decision without turning an awareness push into a dump. It is
+# chunk that matched; the old cut kept its head and tail, and the head is the
-# the PASSAGE THAT MATCHED, not the record's opening — the search already knows
+# title every chunk is prefixed with — so the reader got the title twice and
-# which one that is and used to throw it away (#4243) — so 200 characters here
+# lost the middle, which is where the match was (lesson #4248). A chunk is at
-# are worth far more than 200 characters of preamble.
+# most ~1.4 KB (`embeddings._CHUNK_CHAR_BUDGET`), and it is shown once: a
-_MENU_PASSAGE_CHARS = 200
+# repeat is a one-line pointer (`_menu_seen_line`), not a second copy.
+
+
+def _menu_name(title: str | None, note_type: str | None, data=None, body: str | None = "") -> str:
+    """The record's name — its title without the trigger composed into it."""
+    title = (title or "(untitled)").replace("\n", " ").strip()
+    data = data if isinstance(data, dict) else {}
+    if note_type == "snippet":
+        from scribe.services.embeddings import TRIGGER_SEP
+        return (data.get("name") or title.partition(TRIGGER_SEP)[0]).strip() or title
+    if note_type == LESSON_NOTE_TYPE:
+        from types import SimpleNamespace
+
+        from scribe.services.embeddings import untrigger_title
+        from scribe.services.lessons import lesson_trigger
+        trigger = lesson_trigger(SimpleNamespace(data=data, body=body or ""))
+        return untrigger_title(title, trigger).strip() or title
+    return title
+
+
+def _menu_passage(title: str | None, chunk_text: str | None, name: str = "") -> str:
+    """The matched chunk on one line, without the title it was embedded under.
+
+    Every chunk is `title\nsection` (`embeddings.embedding_text`), and `title`
+    here must be the EMBEDDED one (`embeddings.document_title`) — for a snippet
+    or lesson that is `name — trigger`, not the stored name — so the prefix is
+    stripped exactly. A chunk that WAS only the title — a short
+    record, or the head chunk of one — matched on the title, and for a
+    trigger-keyed kind the part of it the name line no longer shows is the
+    trigger: that is returned, because it is precisely what matched.
+    One line, so the menu's blockquote survives it.
+    """
+    title = (title or "").strip()
+    text = (chunk_text or "").strip()
+    if title and text.startswith(title):
+        text = text[len(title):]
+    text = " ".join(text.split())
+    if not text and name and title.startswith(name) and title != name:
+        text = " ".join(title[len(name):].lstrip(" —-").split())
+    return text
+
+
+def _menu_label(kind: str, systems: list[str] | None) -> str:
+    """`issue (done) · Plugin & hooks` — the kind, then where it belongs."""
+    return " · ".join([kind, *systems]) if systems else kind
+
+
+def _menu_seen_line(note_id: int, kind: str, name: str) -> str:
+    """A pointer to a record this session was already shown, not a copy of it."""
+    return f"> - #{note_id} [{kind} · seen] {name}"
 
 # Max chars of a Process body to fold into the auto-surface description.
 _PROC_PREVIEW_CHARS = 200
@@ -537,6 +592,36 @@ _AUTOINJECT_BAND = 0.10
 # was an accident of which arm got a configurable budget first.
 _AUTOINJECT_MAX_TOP_K = MAX_BUDGET
 
+# THE CONVERSATION BESIDE THE PROMPT (#4364). The operator's message is the
+# only query this arm had, and mid-session it is mostly a follow-up — "yes do
+# that", "now fix the filter" — that names nothing a record could match. The
+# hook now sends the tail of the last assistant reply as `context`, and it is
+# appended to a SHORT prompt only: a prompt that already says what it is about
+# is the better query on its own, and diluting it is the one way this can make
+# retrieval worse.
+#
+# Neither number costs a model token. The query is embedding input; what the
+# session pays for is the menu, and the budget bounds that unchanged.
+#   280  — about two sentences. Above it a prompt carries its own subject.
+#   600  — the context cap. Prompt + context stays well inside bge-small's
+#          512-token window, prompt FIRST, so truncation can only ever cut
+#          context and never the operator's words.
+_AUTOINJECT_CONTEXT_PROMPT_MAX = 280
+_AUTOINJECT_CONTEXT_MAX = 600
+
+
+def _autoinject_query(prompt: str, context: str) -> str:
+    """The prompt, with recent conversation appended when the prompt is thin.
+
+    The prompt leads and context is its tail, cut from the END of the reply —
+    a reply's closing lines are where it says what it did and what is next,
+    which is what the operator's follow-up is answering.
+    """
+    ctx = " ".join((context or "").split())[-_AUTOINJECT_CONTEXT_MAX:]
+    if not ctx or len(prompt) > _AUTOINJECT_CONTEXT_PROMPT_MAX:
+        return prompt
+    return f"{prompt}\n\n{ctx}"
+
 # --- the prompt-boundary rule arm (#3852) ------------------------------------
 #
 # Both existing rule arms are keyed on something the session is about to DO —
@@ -961,6 +1046,7 @@ async def build_autoinject_hint(
     query: str,
     project_id: int = 0,
     exclude_ids: list[int] | None = None,
+    context: str = "",
 ) -> dict:
     """Title-first awareness hint for the plugin's UserPromptSubmit hook.
 
@@ -982,6 +1068,9 @@ async def build_autoinject_hint(
     q = (query or "").strip()
     if not cfg["enabled"] or not q:
         return empty
+    # Everything below searches, logs and fills its slots on the ENRICHED
+    # query, so the telemetry row records what was actually asked (#4364).
+    q = _autoinject_query(q, context)
 
     # THE LEDGER LEAVES THE SEARCH (#4101). `exclude_ids` used to go into
     # `semantic_search_notes` itself, so a record this session had already been
@@ -1081,8 +1170,9 @@ async def build_autoinject_hint(
     lines = [
         "> Possibly relevant from your Scribe records — open any in full with "
         "`get_note(id)`, or `get_snippet` / `get_process` / `get_lesson` for "
-        "those kinds (titles only; a line marked `seen` was surfaced earlier "
+        "those kinds. Each line is a record's name, its kind and System, and "
-        "this session and may no longer be in context):",
+        "the passage that matched; a line marked `seen` is a pointer to one "
+        "already shown this session, so it is in your context:",
     ]
     # THE REGISTER, SAID ONCE AND ONLY WHEN IT APPLIES (milestone 385 step 5).
     #
@@ -1118,34 +1208,45 @@ async def build_autoinject_hint(
     # with the query that actually matched it.
     menu_chunks = _rep_ai.get("best_chunk") or {}
 
+    systems = await system_names_for({int(n.id) for _s, n in kept if int(n.id) not in already})
     note_ids: list[int] = []
     for score, note in kept:
-        note_ids.append(int(note.id))
+        nid = int(note.id)
-        title = (note.title or "(untitled)").replace("\n", " ").strip()
+        note_ids.append(nid)
-        line = f"> - #{note.id} [{_record_kind(note)}] \"{title}\" ({score:.2f})"
+        kind = _record_kind(note)
-        # ONE WORD, NOT A SENTENCE, and deliberately not the rule arms' phrasing.
+        # The NAME, not the title (#4364): a snippet's or lesson's title is its
-        # A rule line says "before deciding it does not apply", which is the
+        # embedding shape, trigger and all, and ran past 1,500 characters here.
-        # voice of a record that BINDS; a note binds nothing, and borrowing that
+        name = _menu_name(note.title, note.note_type, note.data, note.body)
-        # tone would tell the reader a dev-log has authority it does not have.
+        if nid in already:
-        # The header carries the meaning, so the line carries only the flag.
+            # A POINTER, not a copy (#4364). The record is in this session's
-        if int(note.id) in already:
+            # context already — the ledger is cleared at compaction, so "seen"
-            line += " [seen]"
+            # stays true — and re-rendering it spent its whole line again for
-        if int(note.id) in stale:
+            # nothing. What the reader needs is the reminder that it matched
+            # again, and the id to open it if it has scrolled out of mind.
+            line = _menu_seen_line(nid, kind, name)
+            if nid in stale:
+                line += " — SUPERSEDED"
+            lines.append(line)
+            continue
+        line = f"> - #{nid} [{_menu_label(kind, systems.get(nid))}] \"{name}\" ({score:.2f})"
+        if nid in stale:
             line += " — SUPERSEDED, a later record covers this; check that first"
         if note.user_id != user_id:
             who = owners.get(int(note.user_id)) or "another user"
             line += f" — shared by {who}, treat as a suggestion"
         lines.append(line)
-        # The passage that earned the line, indented under it. Absent when the
+        # The passage that earned the line, WHOLE, indented under it (#4364).
-        # record has no stored chunk — an un-embedded row, or the reserved
+        # Absent when the record has no stored chunk — an un-embedded row, or
-        # lesson and reuse slots, which are fetched by their own queries and so
+        # the reserved lesson and reuse slots, which are fetched by their own
-        # are not in this search's report. No fallback to the body's opening:
+        # queries and so are not in this search's report. No fallback to the
-        # on a menu that would be a line of preamble dressed as a reason, and a
+        # body's opening: on a menu that would be a line of preamble dressed as
-        # reader cannot tell the two apart once they are indented identically.
+        # a reason, and a reader cannot tell the two apart once indented alike.
-        passage = (menu_chunks.get(int(note.id)) or {}).get("text") or ""
+        passage = _menu_passage(
-        if passage.strip():
+            document_title(note.title, note.note_type, note.data, note.body),
-            short, _cut = elide(" ".join(passage.split()), _MENU_PASSAGE_CHARS)
+            (menu_chunks.get(nid) or {}).get("text"), name,
-            lines.append(f">   ↳ {short}")
+        )
+        if passage:
+            lines.append(f">   ↳ {passage}")
 
     # Records what SURVIVED the margin gate, not what the ranker returned — the
     # menu the agent actually saw. retrieval_logs already holds the full
@@ -1286,6 +1387,7 @@ async def build_prompt_rule_hint(
     project_id: int = 0,
     exclude_rule_ids: list[int] | None = None,
     held_rule_ids: list[int] | None = None,
+    context: str = "",
 ) -> dict:
     """Rules and preferences that may apply to what the operator just asked.
 
@@ -1319,6 +1421,11 @@ async def build_prompt_rule_hint(
     q = (query or "").strip()
     if not q:
         return out
+    # The same enrichment the notes arm gets (#4364). A rule is meant to
+    # arrive while the work it governs is under way, not once the operator
+    # names it — and "yes, go ahead" names nothing a trigger can match, while
+    # the reply it answers ("commit this to dev and push") does.
+    q = _autoinject_query(q, context)
 
     try:
         threshold = await floor_for(user_id, "prompt_rule")
@@ -1429,7 +1536,12 @@ def _prior_art_line(item: dict, marker: str, owner: str | None, foreign_lang: st
     rather than appended after the title, so the reader sees it while still
     reading the score — the two together are the judgement being offered.
     """
-    title = (item.get("title") or "(untitled)").replace("\n", " ").strip()
+    # The NAME, not the composed title (#4364) — a snippet's title carries its
+    # whole trigger and ran to kilobytes on this line, again on every repeat.
+    title = (
+        item.get("name") or (item.get("snippet") or {}).get("name")
+        or (item.get("title") or "(untitled)")
+    ).replace("\n", " ").strip()
     mark = f"{marker} · {foreign_lang}" if foreign_lang else marker
     line = f"> - #{item['id']} [{mark}] \"{title}\""
     if owner:
@@ -2038,6 +2150,7 @@ async def build_write_path_hint(
         # dropped — decided by which arm happened to find them — is worse than
         # either rule applied consistently: the marker would read as a complete
         # account of what the session has met before, and it would not be one.
+        item["seen"] = nid in excluded
         placed.append(("nearby · seen" if nid in excluded else "nearby", item))
 
     # The stamping feed's "actually pulled it" half (#2791). Read once, before
@@ -2215,6 +2328,16 @@ async def build_write_path_hint(
                     marker,
                     {
                         "id": int(note.id), "title": note.title, "user_id": note.user_id,
+                        # The name the line shows, and whether this session has
+                        # it already — carried as data for the reason `kind` is
+                        # (#4364): the line is built from facts, not from
+                        # re-reading its own marker.
+                        "name": _menu_name(note.title, note.note_type, note.data, note.body),
+                        # What its chunks are prefixed with, for stripping.
+                        "doc_title": document_title(
+                            note.title, note.note_type, note.data, note.body,
+                        ),
+                        "seen": int(note.id) in excluded,
                         # Carried, not re-read off the rendered marker. The
                         # marker is prose assembled for a human and it already
                         # varies by kind, language and the `seen` flag — a
@@ -2359,8 +2482,9 @@ async def build_write_path_hint(
             "`get_lesson(id)` for a lesson, `get_note(id)` otherwise. Reuse a "
             "snippet rather than writing a fresh one-off; read an issue before "
             "repeating what it records "
-            "(titles only; a line marked `seen` was surfaced earlier this "
+            "(each line is a record's name and kind, with the passage that "
-            "session and may no longer be in context):"
+            "matched; a line marked `seen` is a pointer to one already shown "
+            "this session, so it is in your context):"
         )
     # The same clause the prompt menu carries, on the same condition and for
     # the same reason: this menu's three other kinds are all things that WERE
@@ -2394,10 +2518,17 @@ async def build_write_path_hint(
         # is no matching passage and the body's opening would be a fabricated
         # reason. Absence here is meaningful: a line with no passage under it is
         # one that earned its place by where it lives, not by what it says.
-        passage = (wp_chunks.get(int(item["id"])) or {}).get("text") or ""
+        # WHOLE, and only on first sight (#4364): a `seen` line is a pointer to
-        if passage.strip():
+        # a record already in context, and its passage is already there too.
-            short, _cut = elide(" ".join(passage.split()), _MENU_PASSAGE_CHARS)
+        if item.get("seen"):
-            lines.append(f">   ↳ {short}")
+            continue
+        passage = _menu_passage(
+            item.get("doc_title") or item.get("title"),
+            (wp_chunks.get(int(item["id"])) or {}).get("text"),
+            item.get("name") or "",
+        )
+        if passage:
+            lines.append(f">   ↳ {passage}")
 
     if stamped:
         lines.append(_stamp_line(path, stamped))

src/scribe/services/snippets.py

@@ -54,18 +54,6 @@ UNSET: object = object()
 
 # --- serialize: structured fields -> note (title/body/tags) ------------------
 
-def compose_title(name: str, when_to_use: str = "") -> str:
-    """`name — when to use` (or just `name` when no usage note is given).
-
-    The join itself lives in `embeddings.trigger_title`, which rules and
-    lessons build their titles from too. Kept as a named function here because
-    it is this module's public vocabulary and callers say `compose_title`.
-    """
-    from scribe.services.embeddings import trigger_title
-
-    return trigger_title(name, when_to_use)
-
-
 def compose_tags(language: str = "", tags: list[str] | None = None) -> list[str]:
     """Language (lowercased) first, then the `snippet` marker, then caller tags —
     de-duplicated, order preserved."""
@@ -741,7 +729,7 @@ async def create_snippet(
     locations = resolve_locations(repo, path, symbol, locations)
     note = await notes_svc.create_note(
         user_id,
-        title=compose_title(name, when_to_use),
+        title=name.strip(),
         body=compose_body(
             code=code, language=language, signature=signature,
             when_to_use=when_to_use, locations=locations,
@@ -898,7 +886,7 @@ async def update_snippet(
         provenance = cur.get("provenance")
 
     fields: dict = {
-        "title": compose_title(merged["name"], merged["when_to_use"]),
+        "title": (merged["name"] or "").strip(),
         "body": compose_body(
             code=merged["code"], language=merged["language"],
             signature=merged["signature"], when_to_use=merged["when_to_use"],

src/scribe/services/systems.py

@@ -310,6 +310,39 @@ async def list_record_systems(user_id: int, note_id: int) -> list[System]:
         return list(result.scalars().all())
 
 
+async def system_names_for(note_ids: set[int]) -> dict[int, list[str]]:
+    """{note_id: [system name, …]} in one query, for records ALREADY read.
+
+    For decorating a result set the caller was allowed to see — an injected
+    menu line says which part of the project a record is about, so the reader
+    can place it without opening it (#4364). No access check here for that
+    reason: the ids come from a search that applied one, and a system name is
+    metadata of the record, not a record of its own.
+
+    Fails soft, like `access.owner_names_for`: a menu without its system labels
+    is a cosmetic downgrade, and failing the whole injection over one is not.
+    """
+    if not note_ids:
+        return {}
+    try:
+        async with async_session() as session:
+            rows = (
+                await session.execute(
+                    select(RecordSystem.note_id, System.name)
+                    .join(System, System.id == RecordSystem.system_id)
+                    .where(RecordSystem.note_id.in_(note_ids), System.deleted_at.is_(None))
+                    .order_by(System.order_index.asc(), System.name.asc())
+                )
+            ).all()
+    except Exception:
+        logger.warning("System-name lookup failed; menu lines go unlabelled", exc_info=True)
+        return {}
+    out: dict[int, list[str]] = {}
+    for note_id, name in rows:
+        out.setdefault(int(note_id), []).append(name)
+    return out
+
+
 async def list_records_for_system(
     user_id: int, system_id: int, kind: str | None = None, open_only: bool = False
 ) -> list[Note]:

tests/conftest.py

@@ -102,6 +102,20 @@ def _no_supersession():
         yield
 
 
+@pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
+def _no_system_labels():
+    """Stub the menu's "which System is each line about?" lookup (#4364).
+
+    Autouse because every test that renders an injected menu reaches it, and
+    it is a real database call on a path those tests run without one. Stubbed
+    to "no labels", the state of any untagged record. Tests of the label
+    itself patch it with a value.
+    """
+    with patch("scribe.services.plugin_context.system_names_for",
+               AsyncMock(return_value={})):
+        yield
+
+
 @pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
 def _no_task_log_arm():
     """Stub the task-log read arm that get_task / list_tasks / get_milestone

tests/helpers.py

@@ -212,10 +212,10 @@ def fake_snippet(**attrs) -> MagicMock:
 def fake_lesson(**attrs) -> MagicMock:
     """A stand-in lesson: a note whose `note_type` is what makes it one.
 
-    The title carries the trigger because `compose_title` builds it that way —
+    The title is the subject alone and the trigger lives in `data`, because
-    `{what} — {when it applies}` — so a menu line rendering only the title is
+    that is the record the product creates (milestone 427) — the trigger joins
-    already showing the reader when this lesson applies. Tests that used a bare
+    the title only in the embedded document. A default whose title carried the
-    title here would be testing a record the product cannot create.
+    trigger would be testing a row only an un-migrated database holds.
 
     The check fields and `arose_from_id` are explicitly None for the reason
     `fake_snippet`'s `data` is: `update_note` reads `verify_with` and
@@ -223,12 +223,11 @@ def fake_lesson(**attrs) -> MagicMock:
     auto-created MagicMock attribute is truthy — so a default lesson driven
     through the update path would take a branch no real record takes.
     """
-    attrs.setdefault(
+    attrs.setdefault("title", "Give absolutely-positioned siblings an explicit stacking order")
-        "title",
+    attrs.setdefault("data", {
-        "Give absolutely-positioned siblings an explicit stacking order — "
+        "what": "Give absolutely-positioned siblings an explicit stacking order",
-        "placing two absolutely-positioned elements in the same area",
+        "when_to_apply": "placing two absolutely-positioned elements in the same area",
-    )
+    })
-    attrs.setdefault("data", {"when_to_apply": "two absolute siblings overlap"})
     attrs.setdefault("status", None)
     attrs.setdefault("arose_from_id", None)
     attrs.setdefault("verify_with", None)

tests/test_autoinject_context.py

@@ -0,0 +1,190 @@
+"""The auto-inject query carries the conversation beside a thin prompt (#4364).
+
+The notes arm used to retrieve against the operator's typed words alone, and a
+mid-session follow-up — "yes do that", "now fix the filter" — names nothing a
+record can match. The hook now reads the tail of the last assistant reply out
+of the transcript and sends it as `ctx`; the server appends it to a SHORT
+prompt only. Two halves, pinned separately: what the server builds, and what
+the hook extracts.
+"""
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import json
+import subprocess
+from pathlib import Path
+from unittest.mock import AsyncMock, MagicMock, patch
+
+import pytest
+
+from scribe.services.plugin_context import (
+    _AUTOINJECT_CONTEXT_MAX,
+    _AUTOINJECT_CONTEXT_PROMPT_MAX,
+    _autoinject_query,
+    _menu_name,
+    _menu_passage,
+)
+from tests.helpers import fake_note, need_tools
+
+DEFS = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / "plugin" / "hooks" / "scribe_defs.sh"
+
+
+# --- the query the server builds ---------------------------------------------
+
+def test_a_short_prompt_is_followed_by_the_context():
+    q = _autoinject_query("yes do that", "I'll move the library filters into the side column.")
+    assert q.startswith("yes do that\n\n")
+    assert "library filters" in q
+
+
+def test_a_prompt_that_says_what_it_is_about_is_left_alone():
+    long_prompt = "x" * (_AUTOINJECT_CONTEXT_PROMPT_MAX + 1)
+    assert _autoinject_query(long_prompt, "anything at all") == long_prompt
+
+
+def test_no_context_is_the_prompt_unchanged():
+    assert _autoinject_query("yes do that", "") == "yes do that"
+    assert _autoinject_query("yes do that", "   \n ") == "yes do that"
+
+
+def test_context_is_cut_from_the_end_of_the_reply():
+    # The reply's close is where it says what it did and what is next — the
+    # part the operator's follow-up is answering.
+    ctx = "HEAD " + "m" * 2000 + " TAIL"
+    q = _autoinject_query("ok", ctx)
+    tail = q.split("\n\n", 1)[1]
+    assert len(tail) == _AUTOINJECT_CONTEXT_MAX
+    assert tail.endswith("TAIL") and "HEAD" not in tail
+
+
+# --- what the hook extracts --------------------------------------------------
+
+def _rec(role: str, blocks: list[dict], sidechain: bool = False) -> str:
+    return json.dumps({
+        "type": role, "isSidechain": sidechain,
+        "message": {"role": role, "content": blocks},
+    }, separators=(",", ":"))
+
+
+def recent(tmp_path: Path, lines: list[str]) -> str:
+    need_tools("bash", "awk", "grep", "tail")
+    t = tmp_path / "t.jsonl"
+    t.write_text("\n".join(lines) + "\n")
+    r = subprocess.run(
+        ["bash", "-c", f'set -uo pipefail\n. "{DEFS}"\nscribe_recent_context "{t}"'],
+        capture_output=True,
+    )
+    assert r.returncode == 0, r.stderr.decode()
+    return r.stdout.decode().strip()
+
+
+def test_the_hook_reads_the_last_assistant_text(tmp_path):
+    out = recent(tmp_path, [
+        _rec("assistant", [{"type": "text", "text": "an older reply"}]),
+        _rec("assistant", [{"type": "tool_use", "id": "t1", "name": "Bash", "input": {}}]),
+        _rec("assistant", [{"type": "text", "text": "Shall I file it as an issue?\nNext: the hook."}]),
+    ])
+    assert out == "Shall I file it as an issue? Next: the hook."
+
+
+def test_a_subagent_reply_is_not_this_session(tmp_path):
+    out = recent(tmp_path, [
+        _rec("assistant", [{"type": "text", "text": "the session's reply"}]),
+        _rec("assistant", [{"type": "text", "text": "a subagent's report"}], sidechain=True),
+    ])
+    assert out == "the session's reply"
+
+
+def test_the_hook_caps_what_it_sends(tmp_path):
+    out = recent(tmp_path, [_rec("assistant", [{"type": "text", "text": "a" * 5000 + "END"}])])
+    assert len(out) == 600 and out.endswith("END")
+
+
+def test_no_transcript_is_silence_not_failure(tmp_path):
+    assert recent(tmp_path, []) == ""
+
+
+# --- what a menu line carries (#4364) ----------------------------------------
+#
+# The name, the kind and System, and the WHOLE matched passage — once. A repeat
+# is a pointer. These pin the shape against the three ways it had gone wrong:
+# a trigger-composed title rendered as the line (1,500+ chars), the passage cut
+# to its head (which was the title again), and a `seen` repeat re-rendered whole.
+
+TRIGGER = "Adding a record type that is semantically searchable. " * 20
+
+
+def test_a_snippet_line_shows_its_name_not_its_trigger():
+    assert _menu_name(f"embed_x — {TRIGGER}", "snippet", {"name": "embed_x"}) == "embed_x"
+    # With no mirror, the first separator is the seam (snippets.py's inverse).
+    assert _menu_name(f"embed_x — {TRIGGER}", "snippet", None) == "embed_x"
+
+
+def test_a_lesson_line_shows_its_subject_not_its_trigger():
+    title = f"A guard does not undo a stored value — {TRIGGER.strip()}"
+    name = _menu_name(title, "lesson", {"when_to_apply": TRIGGER.strip()})
+    assert name == "A guard does not undo a stored value"
+
+
+def test_a_plain_note_keeps_its_title_dashes_and_all():
+    t = "Dev-log 2026-07-29 — milestone #232 closed"
+    assert _menu_name(t, "note", None) == t
+
+
+def test_the_passage_is_the_whole_chunk_without_its_title_prefix():
+    body = "section " * 150  # ~1.2 KB: nothing of it is cut
+    out = _menu_passage("Pool sizing", f"Pool sizing\n{body}\nsecond line")
+    assert not out.startswith("Pool sizing")
+    assert out.endswith("second line") and "\n" not in out
+    assert len(out) > 1100
+
+
+def test_a_title_only_match_hands_over_the_trigger_it_matched_on():
+    title = "embed_x — when adding a searchable record"
+    assert _menu_passage(title, title, "embed_x") == "when adding a searchable record"
+
+
+async def _menu(hits, seen, chunks, systems=None):
+    from scribe.services import plugin_context as pc
+
+    calls: list[int] = []
+
+    async def _search(*_a, **kw):
+        calls.append(1)
+        if len(calls) > 1:
+            return []
+        if kw.get("report") is not None:
+            kw["report"]["best_chunk"] = chunks
+        return hits
+
+    with patch.object(pc, "get_autoinject_config",
+                      AsyncMock(return_value={"enabled": True, "threshold": 0.55, "top_k": 3})), \
+         patch.object(pc, "semantic_search_notes", _search), \
+         patch.object(pc, "superseded_ids", AsyncMock(return_value=set())), \
+         patch.object(pc, "system_names_for", AsyncMock(return_value=systems or {})), \
+         patch.object(pc, "record_retrieval", MagicMock()), \
+         patch.object(pc, "record_surfaced", MagicMock()):
+        return (await pc.build_autoinject_hint(1, "q", project_id=2, exclude_ids=seen))["context"]
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_a_first_sighting_carries_name_system_and_passage():
+    title = f"embed_x — {TRIGGER}"
+    hits = [(0.8, fake_note(id=11, title=title, note_type="snippet",
+                            data={"name": "embed_x"}, user_id=1))]
+    out = await _menu(hits, [], {11: {"index": 1, "text": f"{title}\nthe matched section"}},
+                      systems={11: ["Retrieval & recall"]})
+    line = next(ln for ln in out.splitlines() if "#11" in ln)
+    assert '[snippet · Retrieval & recall] "embed_x"' in line
+    assert TRIGGER[:40] not in line
+    assert ">   ↳ the matched section" in out
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_a_seen_record_is_a_pointer_not_a_copy():
+    title = f"embed_x — {TRIGGER}"
+    hits = [(0.8, fake_note(id=11, title=title, note_type="snippet",
+                            data={"name": "embed_x"}, user_id=1))]
+    out = await _menu(hits, [11], {11: {"index": 1, "text": f"{title}\nthe matched section"}})
+    line = next(ln for ln in out.splitlines() if "#11" in ln)
+    assert line == "> - #11 [snippet · seen] embed_x"
+    assert "↳" not in out

tests/test_backfill_reads_current_text.py

@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ async def test_the_backfill_embeds_the_text_as_it_is_now_not_as_it_was_scanned()
     with (
         patch.object(emb, "async_session", return_value=_ctx(scan)),
         patch.object(emb, "_current_row",
-                     AsyncMock(return_value=(42, "T", *edited))),
+                     AsyncMock(return_value=(42, "T", *edited, "note", None))),
         patch.object(emb, "upsert_note_embedding", AsyncMock()) as upsert,
         patch.object(emb.asyncio, "sleep", AsyncMock()),
     ):
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ async def test_a_record_deleted_between_the_scan_and_the_loop_is_skipped():
     with (
         patch.object(emb, "async_session", return_value=_ctx(scan)),
         patch.object(emb, "_current_row",
-                     AsyncMock(side_effect=[None, (42, "T", "body")])),
+                     AsyncMock(side_effect=[None, (42, "T", "body", "note", None)])),
         patch.object(emb, "upsert_note_embedding", AsyncMock()) as upsert,
         patch.object(emb.asyncio, "sleep", AsyncMock()),
     ):
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ async def test_a_record_whose_text_outran_its_vectors_is_re_embedded():
 
     with (
         patch.object(emb, "async_session", return_value=_ctx(scan)),
-        patch.object(emb, "_current_row", AsyncMock(return_value=(42, "T", "b"))),
+        patch.object(emb, "_current_row", AsyncMock(return_value=(42, "T", "b", "note", None))),
         patch.object(emb, "upsert_note_embedding", AsyncMock()) as upsert,
         patch.object(emb.asyncio, "sleep", AsyncMock()),
     ):
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ async def test_a_task_logged_since_its_vectors_is_re_embedded():
 
     with (
         patch.object(emb, "async_session", return_value=_ctx(scan)),
-        patch.object(emb, "_current_row", AsyncMock(return_value=(42, "T", "b"))),
+        patch.object(emb, "_current_row", AsyncMock(return_value=(42, "T", "b", "note", None))),
         patch.object(emb, "upsert_note_embedding", AsyncMock()) as upsert,
         patch.object(emb.asyncio, "sleep", AsyncMock()),
     ):

tests/test_chunking.py

@@ -306,7 +306,7 @@ async def test_backfill_reembeds_notes_with_a_stale_chunker_version():
     with (
         patch.object(emb, "async_session", return_value=ctx),
         patch.object(emb, "_current_row",
-                     AsyncMock(return_value=(42, "stale-version", "body"))),
+                     AsyncMock(return_value=(42, "stale-version", "body", "note", None))),
         patch.object(emb, "upsert_note_embedding", AsyncMock()) as upsert,
         patch.object(emb.asyncio, "sleep", AsyncMock()),
     ):

tests/test_derived_mirror_generic_door.py

@@ -164,11 +164,11 @@ def _lesson_body(trigger, insight="Read the job log.", sources=None):
 
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
 async def test_a_body_write_moves_a_lessons_trigger_with_it():
-    from scribe.services.lessons import TRIGGER_KEY, compose_title
+    from scribe.services.lessons import TRIGGER_KEY
 
     what = "Read the job log before waiting longer"
     note = fake_lesson(
-        title=compose_title(what, NEW_TRIGGER),
+        title=what,
         data={TRIGGER_KEY: "a CI run is slow", "what": what},
         project_id=None,
     )
@@ -183,13 +183,16 @@ async def test_a_body_write_moves_a_lessons_trigger_with_it():
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
 async def test_a_subject_containing_an_em_dash_still_splits():
     """Why `untrigger_title` is given the trigger instead of splitting on the
-    separator: a subject may legitimately contain one."""
+    separator: a subject may legitimately contain one. The title here is an
-    from scribe.services.lessons import TRIGGER_KEY, compose_title
+    UN-MIGRATED one, still carrying its trigger (milestone 427), because that
+    is the row the inverse still has to read correctly."""
+    from scribe.services.embeddings import trigger_title
+    from scribe.services.lessons import TRIGGER_KEY
 
     what = "A wait with no deadline — the shape, not the symptom"
     trigger = "you are about to await something crossing a process boundary"
     note = fake_lesson(
-        title=compose_title(what, trigger), data=None, project_id=None,
+        title=trigger_title(what, trigger), data=None, project_id=None,
     )
     await _update(note, body=_lesson_body(trigger))
     assert note.data["what"] == what
@@ -202,10 +205,10 @@ async def test_dropping_the_provenance_line_drops_it_from_the_mirror():
     the failure this recompose exists to prevent, not a courtesy — the
     opposite call from a snippet's `verification`, which is carried because it
     was never in the body to delete."""
-    from scribe.services.lessons import SOURCES_KEY, compose_title
+    from scribe.services.lessons import SOURCES_KEY
 
     note = fake_lesson(
-        title=compose_title("Something learned", "a situation"),
+        title="Something learned",
         data={SOURCES_KEY: [999]},
         project_id=None,
     )
@@ -229,7 +232,7 @@ async def test_an_explicit_data_wins_for_a_lesson_too():
 async def test_a_lesson_title_change_reaches_the_mirror():
     """A lesson's subject lives in its title, so a title edit is a trigger for
     recomposition exactly as it is for a snippet's name."""
-    from scribe.services.lessons import TRIGGER_KEY, compose_title
+    from scribe.services.lessons import TRIGGER_KEY
 
     trigger = "two absolute siblings overlap"
     note = fake_lesson(
@@ -237,7 +240,7 @@ async def test_a_lesson_title_change_reaches_the_mirror():
         data={TRIGGER_KEY: trigger, "what": "the old subject"},
         project_id=None,
     )
-    await _update(note, title=compose_title("the new subject", trigger))
+    await _update(note, title="the new subject")
     assert note.data["what"] == "the new subject"
     assert note.data[TRIGGER_KEY] == trigger
 

tests/test_integration_lesson_kind.py

@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ async def test_a_lesson_is_a_row_the_database_accepts(owner_id):
     value, and stays correct if it is gated with it."""
     lesson = await notes_svc.create_note(
         owner_id,
-        title=lessons_svc.compose_title(SUBJECT, TRIGGER),
+        title=SUBJECT,
         body=f"**When to apply:** {TRIGGER}\n\nOne change at a time.",
         note_type=lessons_svc.LESSON_NOTE_TYPE,
         data={lessons_svc.TRIGGER_KEY: TRIGGER},
@@ -83,7 +83,8 @@ async def test_a_lesson_is_a_row_the_database_accepts(owner_id):
     # and the readable body — because the vector is built from the text and
     # the queries are built from the mirror.
     assert lessons_svc.lesson_trigger(stored) == TRIGGER
-    assert stored.title == f"{SUBJECT} — {TRIGGER}"
+    # The subject alone (milestone 427): the trigger is in `data` and the body.
+    assert stored.title == SUBJECT
     assert "**When to apply:**" in (stored.body or "")
 
 
@@ -97,7 +98,7 @@ async def test_a_lesson_is_not_a_task(owner_id):
     """
     lesson = await notes_svc.create_note(
         owner_id,
-        title=lessons_svc.compose_title(SUBJECT, TRIGGER),
+        title=SUBJECT,
         body="One change at a time.",
         note_type=lessons_svc.LESSON_NOTE_TYPE,
     )

tests/test_lesson_document_shape.py

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-"""The document a lesson is embedded as (milestone 385 step 3).
+"""The document a lesson is embedded as (milestone 385 step 3; milestone 427).
 
 WHY THIS IS THE STEP THAT DECIDES THE MILESTONE
 
@@ -7,26 +7,20 @@ as ordinary prose is a note wearing a label: it would look right in every
 listing and simply never be retrieved at the moment it applies, and nothing
 anywhere would report that.
 
-WHY THERE IS NO `lesson_document()` BESIDE `rule_document()`
+WHERE THE SHARP SHAPE LIVES
 
-The step anticipated one. There isn't, and the difference is where the sharp
+A snippet, which note #2485 measured as the only sharp record in the corpus (a
-shape LIVES rather than whether it exists.
+0.153 top-to-second gap against 0.010–0.023 for everything else), is sharp
+because its document states its purpose twice: `name — when to use` as the
+title, and again as the body's first line. A lesson follows the snippet.
 
-A rule keeps its trigger in a column and its title is a plain name, so the
+Until milestone 427 that `subject — trigger` title was also the STORED title,
-`{title} — {trigger}` document has to be synthesised at embed time and exists
+so every listing, menu and search row showed the trigger too — kilobytes of it.
-nowhere else — that is what `rule_document` is for. A snippet, which note #2485
+Now the stored title is the subject, and `embeddings.document_title` joins the
-measured as the only sharp record in the corpus (a 0.153 top-to-second gap
+trigger back from `data` at embed time. The embedded TEXT is what it always
-against 0.010–0.023 for everything else), gets there the other way: its STORED
+was, which is the property these guards pin: nothing re-embeds, and the floors
-title is already the join and its stored body already opens with the trigger,
+tuned against these vectors stay calibrated.
-so the ordinary `title\\nbody` join is the sharp document. A lesson follows the
-snippet, which is what step 1 decided and step 2 built.
 
-The consequence worth stating: `chunk_document` is untouched, so
-`CHUNKER_VERSION` does not move and nothing re-embeds. The step's "Re-embed"
-section describes a change this design does not make.
-
-These guards therefore assert the composed record, then assert that the generic
-chunker turns it into the intended document — the two halves of the same claim.
 No similarity number is asserted anywhere: a threshold pins the embedder's
 behaviour rather than this code's, and breaks on a model change that is not a
 regression.
@@ -34,18 +28,46 @@ regression.
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 from scribe.services import lessons as lessons_svc
-from scribe.services.embeddings import chunk_document, embedding_text
+from scribe.services.embeddings import chunk_document, document_title, embedding_text
 
 TRIGGER = "a test fails on code you believe is correct"
 SUBJECT = "Suspect the guard before the code"
 INSIGHT = "Check whether the assertion still describes the property it was written for."
 
 
+def _embedded(what: str, trigger: str, insight: str) -> tuple[str, str]:
+    """The (title, body) the write path EMBEDS a lesson as — built the way
+    `notes.embed_note` builds it, from what `create_lesson` stores."""
+    title, body = lessons_svc.lesson_document(what, trigger, insight)
+    data = lessons_svc.compose_data(what, trigger)
+    return document_title(title, lessons_svc.LESSON_NOTE_TYPE, data, body), body
+
+
+def test_the_stored_title_is_the_subject_alone():
+    """Milestone 427. The trigger lives in `data` and the body's first line; the
+    title a listing shows is what the lesson is ABOUT."""
+    title, _ = lessons_svc.lesson_document(SUBJECT, TRIGGER, INSIGHT)
+    assert title == SUBJECT
+
+
+def test_the_embedded_document_is_the_one_it_always_was():
+    """THE no-re-embed guard. The document text must be byte-identical to what
+    a lesson embedded as when its stored title carried the trigger — and an
+    un-migrated row, whose stored title still does, must come out the same
+    rather than with the trigger twice."""
+    legacy_title = f"{SUBJECT} — {TRIGGER}"
+    title, body = _embedded(SUBJECT, TRIGGER, INSIGHT)
+    assert title == legacy_title
+
+    data = lessons_svc.compose_data(SUBJECT, TRIGGER)
+    assert document_title(legacy_title, lessons_svc.LESSON_NOTE_TYPE, data, body) == legacy_title
+
+
 def test_the_trigger_appears_twice_in_the_document():
-    """THE guard. Purpose stated twice in a short document is the entire
+    """Purpose stated twice in a short document is the entire measured cause of
-    measured cause of a snippet's sharpness, and it is the one property that
+    a snippet's sharpness, and it is the one property that distinguishes a
-    distinguishes a lesson's vector from a plain note's."""
+    lesson's vector from a plain note's."""
-    title, body = lessons_svc.lesson_document(SUBJECT, TRIGGER, INSIGHT)
+    title, body = _embedded(SUBJECT, TRIGGER, INSIGHT)
     document = embedding_text(title, body)
 
     assert document.count(TRIGGER) == 2
@@ -55,22 +77,28 @@ def test_the_trigger_appears_twice_in_the_document():
 
 
 def test_the_document_leads_with_when_it_applies():
-    """The title is `{what} — {when}` and the body's FIRST line restates it, so
+    """The embedded title is `{what} — {when}` and the body's FIRST line
-    the opening of the document is about the situation rather than the topic.
+    restates it, so the opening of the document is about the situation rather
-    A lesson buried behind a paragraph of narrative would rank on the
+    than the topic."""
-    narrative."""
+    title, body = _embedded(SUBJECT, TRIGGER, INSIGHT)
-    title, body = lessons_svc.lesson_document(SUBJECT, TRIGGER, INSIGHT)
 
     assert title == f"{SUBJECT} — {TRIGGER}"
     assert body.splitlines()[0] == f"**When to apply:** {TRIGGER}"
 
 
+def test_the_trigger_reaches_the_document_even_without_the_mirror():
+    """A row whose `data` lost its mirror still embeds sharply: the trigger is
+    read back from the body, the same fallback `lesson_trigger` has."""
+    title, body = lessons_svc.lesson_document(SUBJECT, TRIGGER, INSIGHT)
+    assert document_title(title, lessons_svc.LESSON_NOTE_TYPE, None, body) == (
+        f"{SUBJECT} — {TRIGGER}"
+    )
+
+
 def test_a_short_lesson_is_exactly_one_chunk():
     """`chunk_document`'s first contract line: a record inside the window
-    yields one chunk identical to the historical `title\\nbody`. A lesson that
+    yields one chunk identical to the historical `title\\nbody`."""
-    split into several would spread the trigger's weight across vectors that
+    title, body = _embedded(SUBJECT, TRIGGER, INSIGHT)
-    each carry less of it."""
-    title, body = lessons_svc.lesson_document(SUBJECT, TRIGGER, INSIGHT)
     chunks = chunk_document(title, body)
 
     assert len(chunks) == 1
@@ -78,26 +106,15 @@ def test_a_short_lesson_is_exactly_one_chunk():
 
 
 def test_a_long_lesson_keeps_the_trigger_on_every_chunk():
-    """The narrative question, answered by the chunker rather than by holding
+    """Every chunk is prefixed with the embedded title, which carries the
-    the story out of the record.
+    trigger — so a long story occupies its own vectors instead of averaging
-
+    itself into the trigger's, and each is still anchored to when it applies.
-    `rule_document` excludes a rule's `why` because long dated narrative made
-    sixteen dev-logs land on the centroid of "development". That finding
-    predates chunking (#280): a body over budget is now split, and EVERY chunk
-    is prefixed with the title — which for a lesson carries the trigger. So the
-    story occupies its own vectors instead of averaging itself into the
-    trigger's, and each of those vectors is still anchored to when the lesson
-    applies.
-
-    This is why the insight stays in the body where a reader can see it. Holding
-    it out would cost the reader the only part that explains the lesson, to buy
-    a sharpness the chunker already provides.
     """
     narrative = "\n\n".join(
         f"## Section {i}\n" + ("An unrelated sentence about deployment. " * 40)
         for i in range(6)
     )
-    title, body = lessons_svc.lesson_document(SUBJECT, TRIGGER, narrative)
+    title, body = _embedded(SUBJECT, TRIGGER, narrative)
     chunks = chunk_document(title, body)
 
     assert len(chunks) > 1, "the fixture must actually exceed the chunk budget"
@@ -106,10 +123,8 @@ def test_a_long_lesson_keeps_the_trigger_on_every_chunk():
 
 def test_a_lesson_with_no_trigger_still_embeds():
     """Degrades to title + insight, the way a rule with no trigger does — less
-    sharply, and still findable. That is an argument for prompting hard for a
+    sharply, and still findable."""
-    trigger at write time, not for padding the document with whatever text is
+    title, body = _embedded(SUBJECT, "", INSIGHT)
-    to hand."""
-    title, body = lessons_svc.lesson_document(SUBJECT, "", INSIGHT)
 
     assert title == SUBJECT
     assert body == INSIGHT
@@ -119,8 +134,7 @@ def test_a_lesson_with_no_trigger_still_embeds():
 def test_the_composed_body_is_the_one_the_reader_is_parsed_back_from():
     """`compose_body` writes the trigger line and `lesson_trigger` reads it. A
     lesson whose mirror in `data` is missing still answers correctly, so the
-    two must agree on the exact markdown — which is why neither is written by
+    two must agree on the exact markdown."""
-    hand at a call site."""
     from types import SimpleNamespace
 
     _, body = lessons_svc.lesson_document(SUBJECT, TRIGGER, INSIGHT)
@@ -130,10 +144,8 @@ def test_the_composed_body_is_the_one_the_reader_is_parsed_back_from():
 
 
 def test_the_title_and_body_are_composed_by_one_call():
-    """`lesson_document` returns both halves so they cannot be built apart. A
+    """`lesson_document` returns both halves so they cannot be built apart."""
-    title carrying the trigger over a body that does not would embed as an
-    ordinary note, and every listing would still look correct."""
     assert lessons_svc.lesson_document(SUBJECT, TRIGGER, INSIGHT) == (
-        lessons_svc.compose_title(SUBJECT, TRIGGER),
+        SUBJECT,
         lessons_svc.compose_body(INSIGHT, TRIGGER),
     )

tests/test_lesson_kind.py

@@ -29,7 +29,6 @@ from types import SimpleNamespace
 
 from scribe.services import knowledge as knowledge_svc
 from scribe.services import lessons as lessons_svc
-from scribe.services import snippets as snippets_svc
 from scribe.services.embeddings import trigger_title
 
 
@@ -76,15 +75,18 @@ def test_one_join_builds_every_trigger_title():
     expected = f"{subject} — {trigger}"
 
     assert trigger_title(subject, trigger) == expected
-    assert lessons_svc.compose_title(subject, trigger) == expected
+    # The two note kinds reach it through the EMBEDDED title (milestone 427),
-    assert snippets_svc.compose_title(subject, trigger) == expected
+    # from their own mirror key — never a hand-rolled join.
+    from scribe.services.embeddings import document_title
+    assert document_title(subject, "lesson", {"when_to_apply": trigger}) == expected
+    assert document_title(subject, "snippet", {"when_to_use": trigger}) == expected
 
 
 def test_a_subject_with_no_trigger_degrades_to_the_subject():
     """It still embeds, just less sharply — an argument for backfilling
     triggers, not for padding the title with whatever text is to hand."""
     assert trigger_title("debounce", "") == "debounce"
-    assert lessons_svc.compose_title("  debounce  ") == "debounce"
+    assert lessons_svc.lesson_document("  debounce  ")[0] == "debounce"
     assert trigger_title("", "when it applies") == "when it applies"
 
 

tests/test_lesson_rest_door.py

@@ -214,13 +214,13 @@ def test_the_payload_reads_back_the_composed_fields():
     """A caller that wrote `when_to_apply` reads `when_to_apply` back, not a
     body it has to parse."""
     from tests.helpers import fake_lesson
-    from scribe.services.lessons import compose_body, compose_title, lesson_to_dict
+    from scribe.services.lessons import compose_body, lesson_to_dict
 
     what = "Read the job log before waiting longer"
     trigger = "a CI run has sat in_progress longer than its suite takes"
     note = fake_lesson(
         id=7,
-        title=compose_title(what, trigger),
+        title=what,
         body=compose_body("The work is usually done.", trigger, [4181]),
         data={"what": what, "when_to_apply": trigger, "taught_by": [4181]},
         project_id=None,

tests/test_lesson_write_path.py

@@ -117,7 +117,8 @@ async def test_the_duplicate_gate_runs_before_anything_is_created():
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
 async def test_the_gate_compares_the_composed_document_not_the_raw_fields():
     """What reaches the gate is the title and body a lesson will actually be
-    stored as. Comparing `what` alone would miss that the trigger is half the
+    stored as, plus the `data` its EMBEDDED title is built from (milestone
+    427). Comparing `what` alone would miss that the trigger is half the
     document, and would judge two lessons alike that rank nothing alike."""
     _user_id_ctx.set(7)
     gate = AsyncMock(return_value=None)
@@ -128,8 +129,9 @@ async def test_the_gate_compares_the_composed_document_not_the_raw_fields():
         await create_lesson(what=SUBJECT, when_to_apply=TRIGGER, insight="Look.")
 
     title, body = gate.await_args.args[1], gate.await_args.args[2]
-    assert title == f"{SUBJECT} — {TRIGGER}"
+    assert title == SUBJECT
     assert body.startswith(f"**When to apply:** {TRIGGER}")
+    assert gate.await_args.kwargs["data"]["when_to_apply"] == TRIGGER
     assert gate.await_args.kwargs["note_type"] == "lesson"
 
 
@@ -157,9 +159,11 @@ def test_a_lesson_is_judged_at_the_trigger_dominated_bar():
 
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
 async def test_an_update_recomposes_both_halves_of_the_document():
-    """A new trigger has to reach the title AND the head of the body. Patching
+    """A new trigger has to reach the mirror AND the head of the body — the two
-    one would leave a lesson that reads correctly and ranks on the old
+    places the embedded document reads it from (milestone 427). Patching one
-    situation — the failure mode with no symptom."""
+    would leave a lesson that reads correctly and ranks on the old situation —
+    the failure mode with no symptom. The title stays the subject, even when
+    the stored one was an un-migrated composed title."""
     _user_id_ctx.set(7)
     stored = _stub_note(
         title=f"{SUBJECT} — {TRIGGER}",
@@ -172,7 +176,7 @@ async def test_an_update_recomposes_both_halves_of_the_document():
         await lessons_svc.update_lesson(7, 1, when_to_apply="a guard goes red")
 
     fields = updated.await_args.kwargs
-    assert fields["title"] == f"{SUBJECT} — a guard goes red"
+    assert fields["title"] == SUBJECT
     assert fields["body"].startswith("**When to apply:** a guard goes red")
     assert fields["data"]["when_to_apply"] == "a guard goes red"
 

tests/test_services_snippets.py

@@ -2,10 +2,18 @@
 from scribe.services import snippets as s
 
 
-def test_compose_title_with_and_without_usage():
+def test_the_embedded_title_joins_the_trigger_the_stored_one_does_not_carry():
-    assert s.compose_title("debounce", "rate-limit a callback") == "debounce — rate-limit a callback"
+    """Milestone 427: stored title = name; the trigger joins it at embed time,
-    assert s.compose_title("  debounce  ", "") == "debounce"
+    idempotently, so an old composed title comes out the same."""
-    assert s.compose_title("debounce") == "debounce"
+    from scribe.services.embeddings import document_title
+
+    data = {"name": "debounce", "when_to_use": "rate-limit a callback"}
+    assert document_title("debounce", "snippet", data) == "debounce — rate-limit a callback"
+    assert document_title("debounce — rate-limit a callback", "snippet", data) == (
+        "debounce — rate-limit a callback"
+    )
+    assert document_title("debounce", "snippet", {"name": "debounce"}) == "debounce"
+    assert document_title("a — note", "note", data) == "a — note"
 
 
 def test_compose_tags_lowercases_language_and_dedups():
@@ -32,7 +40,7 @@ def test_compose_body_bare_code_only():
 
 
 def test_parse_round_trips_a_composed_snippet():
-    title = s.compose_title("useDebouncedRef", "debounce a reactive ref")
+    title = "useDebouncedRef"
     body = s.compose_body(
         code="const x = 1", language="ts", signature="useDebouncedRef(v, ms)",
         when_to_use="debounce a reactive ref", repo="scribe",
@@ -241,9 +249,9 @@ def test_data_and_body_round_trip_to_the_same_fields():
     name, when, sig, lang = ("debounce", "rate-limit a callback",
                              "debounce(fn, ms)", "ts")
     locs = [{"repo": "web", "path": "src/util.ts", "symbol": "debounce"}]
-    # compose_body takes no `name` — the name lives in the title — so the two
+    # compose_body takes no `name` — the name IS the title (milestone 427) — so
-    # serializers get their own argument lists rather than a shared spread.
+    # the two serializers get their own argument lists rather than a shared spread.
-    title = s.compose_title(name, when)
+    title = name
     body = s.compose_body(code="const x = 1", language=lang, signature=sig,
                           when_to_use=when, locations=locs, merged_from=[41, 42])
     tags = s.compose_tags(lang)

tests/test_session_context_failure.py

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+"""A SessionStart that loads no project says why, and names the first move (#4366).
+
+The fetch used to be `curl -f … || body=""`: a timeout, an HTTP error and a
+refused key all produced one sentence, which ended by suggesting
+`enter_project()` "as needed". A session that read it as optional started with
+no recent milestones or open tasks, and so had no way to know which prior work
+existed to look for. These pin the two halves of the fix on the path that needs
+no server: the cause is named, and the fallback is a concrete first step.
+"""
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import json
+import os
+import subprocess
+from pathlib import Path
+
+from tests.helpers import need_tools
+
+HOOK = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / "plugin" / "hooks" / "scribe_session_context.sh"
+
+
+def run_hook(tmp_path: Path, url: str, marker_project: int | None = None) -> str:
+    need_tools("bash", "curl", "awk")
+    if marker_project is not None:
+        (tmp_path / ".scribe").write_text(json.dumps({
+            "instance": url, "project_id": marker_project, "project": "P",
+        }))
+    env = {**os.environ, "SCRIBE_URL": url, "SCRIBE_TOKEN": "t",
+           "CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR": str(tmp_path)}
+    r = subprocess.run(["bash", str(HOOK)], input=b'{"source":"startup"}',
+                       capture_output=True, env=env, timeout=60)
+    assert r.returncode == 0, r.stderr.decode()
+    return json.loads(r.stdout)["hookSpecificOutput"]["additionalContext"]
+
+
+# Port 9 (discard) on loopback: refused at once, so both tries fail fast.
+DEAD = "http://127.0.0.1:9"
+
+
+def test_an_unreachable_instance_is_named_as_one(tmp_path):
+    out = run_hook(tmp_path, DEAD)
+    assert "could not be reached (curl exit 7, after a retry)" in out
+
+
+def test_the_fallback_is_a_first_step_not_an_option(tmp_path):
+    out = run_hook(tmp_path, DEAD)
+    assert "as needed" not in out
+    assert "Start by finding this repo's project" in out
+    assert "before any other work" in out
+
+
+def test_a_marker_names_the_exact_call(tmp_path):
+    out = run_hook(tmp_path, DEAD, marker_project=31)
+    assert "Start by calling `enter_project(31)`" in out