From 8c380bb6f347c72ac9e6063048891dd75573ffcf Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: richtondag-art <tondagrichardmark2@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2026 10:16:28 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] fix(salience): exclude retired claims from the reflex

the entity-salience reflex counted every claim referencing a matched
entity, skipping the retired-claim exclusion that context, graph,
digest, health and experts all apply. a superseded, archived or
redacted claim therefore inflated an entity's claim_count and could be
handed back as its top_claim_id, pointing an agent at knowledge the
reviewer had already retracted.

#78 closed this leak on the context path and the same exclusion was
carried to the other read surfaces; the salience sidebar was missed.
compute_salience now skips retired claims, so _meta.vouch_salience
reports live evidence only.

the regression test covers all three retired statuses. it fails on the
previous code: the retired claim sorts ahead of the live one, so it
both inflates claim_count and takes top_claim_id.
---
 CHANGELOG.md           |  8 ++++++++
 src/vouch/salience.py  | 13 +++++++++++++
 tests/test_salience.py | 27 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 3 files changed, 47 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 65407d84..40aaa629 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,6 +6,14 @@ All notable changes to vouch are documented here. Format follows
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Fixed
+- the entity-salience reflex skipped the retired-claim exclusion every
+  other read surface applies, so a superseded, archived or redacted claim
+  still counted toward an entity's `claim_count` and could be handed back
+  as its `top_claim_id` — pointing an agent at redacted text the reviewer
+  had already pulled. `_meta.vouch_salience` now counts live claims only,
+  consistent with context, graph, digest, health and experts (#78).
+
 ## [1.4.0] — 2026-07-17
 
 ### Added
diff --git a/src/vouch/salience.py b/src/vouch/salience.py
index a6038f72..ef04b30b 100644
--- a/src/vouch/salience.py
+++ b/src/vouch/salience.py
@@ -28,12 +28,23 @@
 from typing import Any
 
 from . import index_db
+from .models import ClaimStatus
 from .storage import KBStore
 
 DEFAULT_WINDOW = 8
 DEFAULT_TOP_K = 3
 _EXPIRY_SECONDS = 30 * 60
 
+# A superseded / archived / redacted claim is not live evidence, so it must
+# neither inflate an entity's claim_count nor surface as its top_claim_id
+# (consistent with issue #78, and with the same exclusion in context, graph,
+# digest, health and experts).
+_RETIRED_CLAIM_STATUSES = frozenset({
+    ClaimStatus.SUPERSEDED,
+    ClaimStatus.ARCHIVED,
+    ClaimStatus.REDACTED,
+})
+
 
 @dataclass
 class _SessionBuffer:
@@ -141,6 +152,8 @@ def compute_salience(
     # Claims referencing each matched entity, by claim id (for stable picking).
     claims_by_entity: dict[str, list[str]] = {}
     for claim in store.list_claims():
+        if claim.status in _RETIRED_CLAIM_STATUSES:
+            continue
         for eid in claim.entities:
             if eid in scores:
                 claims_by_entity.setdefault(eid, []).append(claim.id)
diff --git a/tests/test_salience.py b/tests/test_salience.py
index bfd47c68..f80f50b7 100644
--- a/tests/test_salience.py
+++ b/tests/test_salience.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 import pytest
 
 from vouch import health, salience
-from vouch.models import Claim, Entity, EntityType
+from vouch.models import Claim, ClaimStatus, Entity, EntityType
 from vouch.storage import KBStore
 
 
@@ -45,6 +45,31 @@ def test_record_then_compute_highlights_entity(store: KBStore) -> None:
     assert rec["top_claim_id"] == "c1"
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "status",
+    [ClaimStatus.SUPERSEDED, ClaimStatus.ARCHIVED, ClaimStatus.REDACTED],
+)
+def test_retired_claims_are_not_salient(store: KBStore, status: ClaimStatus) -> None:
+    # a retired claim is not live evidence: it must neither inflate claim_count
+    # nor surface as top_claim_id. "c0" sorts before the live "c1", so a
+    # retired claim that is still counted wins the top slot.
+    src = store.put_source(b"auth notes")
+    store.put_claim(
+        Claim(
+            id="c0",
+            text="auth used basic auth",
+            evidence=[src.id],
+            entities=["jwt"],
+            status=status,
+        )
+    )
+    for _ in range(3):
+        salience.record_query("sess-1", "jwt")
+    rec = salience.compute_salience(store, "sess-1")[0]
+    assert rec["claim_count"] == 1
+    assert rec["top_claim_id"] == "c1"
+
+
 def test_attach_adds_meta_when_enabled(store: KBStore) -> None:
     for _ in range(3):
         salience.record_query("sess-1", "jwt")

From e10376055ebea258d916642bd593ee1db4d34b15 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: richtondag-art <tondagrichardmark2@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2026 10:22:39 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] style(salience): lowercase the exclusion comment

house style is lowercase prose in comments; the new frozenset comment
opened with a capital. no behaviour change.
---
 src/vouch/salience.py | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/src/vouch/salience.py b/src/vouch/salience.py
index ef04b30b..889015fc 100644
--- a/src/vouch/salience.py
+++ b/src/vouch/salience.py
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 DEFAULT_TOP_K = 3
 _EXPIRY_SECONDS = 30 * 60
 
-# A superseded / archived / redacted claim is not live evidence, so it must
+# a superseded / archived / redacted claim is not live evidence, so it must
 # neither inflate an entity's claim_count nor surface as its top_claim_id
 # (consistent with issue #78, and with the same exclusion in context, graph,
 # digest, health and experts).