ACTION REQUIRED (8 nights old) — nightly 2026-08-24: a low-confidence finding was promoted as unqualified fact

lib/agent-runtime/promotion.mjs

@@ -352,6 +352,16 @@ export function promoteDiscovery(kbRoot, opts = {}) {
     promotion_decision: scoreResult?.decision ?? null,
     contradiction_status: contradictionResult.status,
     explicit_approval: explicitApproval || false,
+    // Carry the qualifiers the scorer read. Without these the promoted page
+    // asserts every claim with equal weight: a `confidence: low` observation
+    // backed by nothing and a `confidence: high` one backed by nine pieces of
+    // evidence produced byte-identical frontmatter, so an uncertain claim read
+    // as unqualified fact and the citations that justified it were reachable
+    // only by following `source_path` back to the bus item. Defaults match the
+    // ones scorePromotion applies above, so the page records what was scored.
+    confidence: item.meta.confidence || 'medium',
+    related_sources: item.meta.related_sources || [],
+    evidence_count: item.meta.evidence_count || 0,
   }, '\n' + (item.body || '').trim() + '\n\n---\n> Promoted from [[' + id + ']] by ' + approver + ' on ' + now.slice(0, 10) + '\n')
 
   atomicWrite(targetFull, promoted)

tests/agents/promotion-provenance.test.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+// Regression: promoteDiscovery read `confidence`, `related_sources` and
+// `evidence_count` off the bus item to score it, then dropped all three when
+// writing the promoted page. Two candidates at opposite ends of the evidence
+// scale — one `confidence: high` with nine evidence points and three cited
+// sources, one `confidence: low` with none — produced promoted frontmatter
+// that was identical on every qualifier. An uncertain claim therefore read as
+// unqualified fact to anyone loading the page, and the citations behind it
+// were reachable only by following `source_path` back to the bus item.
+import { test } from 'node:test'
+import assert from 'node:assert/strict'
+import fs from 'fs'
+import path from 'path'
+import os from 'os'
+
+import { promoteDiscovery } from '../../lib/agent-runtime/promotion.mjs'
+import { parseFrontmatter } from '../../lib/agent-runtime/frontmatter.mjs'
+
+const CONTRACT = { agent_id: 'lead-1', tier: 'lead', domain: 'platform' }
+
+function makeFixture() {
+  const root = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'promo-prov-'))
+  for (const d of ['wiki/system/bus/discovery', 'wiki/system/bus/standards', 'wiki/system/bus/review', 'logs']) {
+    fs.mkdirSync(path.join(root, d), { recursive: true })
+  }
+  return root
+}
+
+function writeItem(root, id, fields) {
+  const lines = Object.entries(fields).map(([k, v]) =>
+    `${k}: ${Array.isArray(v) ? JSON.stringify(v) : v}`)
+  fs.writeFileSync(
+    path.join(root, `wiki/system/bus/discovery/${id}.md`),
+    `---\nid: ${id}\nchannel: discovery\nstatus: open\ntitle: Finding ${id}\n` +
+    `from: w1\ncreated_at: ${new Date().toISOString()}\n${lines.join('\n')}\n---\n\nbody of ${id}\n`,
+  )
+}
+
+function promoteAndRead(root, id) {
+  const result = promoteDiscovery(root, {
+    channel: 'discovery', id, approver: 'jay', contract: CONTRACT, explicitApproval: true,
+  })
+  assert.notEqual(result.blocked, true, `${id} should clear the gate for this test`)
+  const raw = fs.readFileSync(path.join(root, result.target), 'utf8')
+  return parseFrontmatter(raw).data
+}
+
+test('a promoted page carries the confidence, sources and evidence count it was scored on', () => {
+  const root = makeFixture()
+  writeItem(root, 'disc-strong', {
+    confidence: 'high',
+    evidence_count: 9,
+    related_sources: ['wiki/a.md', 'wiki/b.md', 'wiki/c.md'],
+  })
+
+  const fm = promoteAndRead(root, 'disc-strong')
+
+  assert.equal(fm.confidence, 'high')
+  assert.equal(fm.evidence_count, 9)
+  assert.deepEqual(fm.related_sources, ['wiki/a.md', 'wiki/b.md', 'wiki/c.md'])
+})
+
+test('a low-confidence promotion is distinguishable from a high-confidence one', () => {
+  const root = makeFixture()
+  writeItem(root, 'disc-strong', {
+    confidence: 'high', evidence_count: 9, related_sources: ['wiki/a.md', 'wiki/b.md'],
+  })
+  writeItem(root, 'disc-weak', {
+    confidence: 'low', evidence_count: 1, related_sources: [],
+  })
+
+  const strong = promoteAndRead(root, 'disc-strong')
+  const weak = promoteAndRead(root, 'disc-weak')
+
+  // The whole point: these must not read alike.
+  assert.notEqual(strong.confidence, weak.confidence)
+  assert.equal(weak.confidence, 'low')
+  assert.equal(weak.evidence_count, 1)
+  assert.deepEqual(weak.related_sources, [])
+  assert.deepEqual(strong.related_sources, ['wiki/a.md', 'wiki/b.md'])
+})
+
+test('the unscored path records the same defaults rather than omitting them', () => {
+  const root = makeFixture()
+  // No confidence/evidence_count/related_sources at all, promoted with the
+  // scorer skipped — the path where nothing else would state a qualifier. The
+  // page must carry the same medium/0/[] defaults scorePromotion applies, so
+  // that "unstated" and "explicitly medium" are not indistinguishable and a
+  // scored page and an unscored one can be compared on the same fields.
+  writeItem(root, 'disc-bare', { note: 'none' })
+
+  const result = promoteDiscovery(root, {
+    channel: 'discovery', id: 'disc-bare', approver: 'jay', skipScorer: true,
+  })
+  assert.notEqual(result.blocked, true)
+  const fm = parseFrontmatter(fs.readFileSync(path.join(root, result.target), 'utf8')).data
+
+  assert.equal(fm.confidence, 'medium')
+  assert.equal(fm.evidence_count, 0)
+  assert.deepEqual(fm.related_sources, [])
+})