M3: move the story's head instead of deleting its turns

Undo deleted. It removed the trailing AI action and the player action in
front of it, pruned the memories covering them, and let the tip fall back
to whatever survived. That made it the one operation in the application
that destroyed accepted story, and it was why there was no Redo: the
turns to move forward into no longer existed. Phase 0B demonstrated the
head-cursor alternative in a disposable spike; this is that concept as
production code.

backend/app/head.py is the whole of it. Three questions that used to be
one — where the story is being read, how far it is retained, and where it
opens — are now three functions, and every caller that moves the head or
asks about it goes through this module. The spike put the fork check in
the write path and left Retry and Add-take on the old one; sharing the
rules is what stops that divergence coming back.

lineage.Path now caps every entry at the head, so hiding the retained
future costs nothing at the call sites: the transcript, the context
builder, attempts.preceding and memory retrieval already funnelled
through path_of and narrow together. Path.uncapped() is the deliberate
exception, and only Redo and the fork check may use it. The memory bank
needs no pruning for the same reason — a memory carries the coordinate of
the node its block ends on, so one derived past the head falls outside
the capped clause and becomes retrievable again on Redo without having
been deleted and re-embedded.

Undo alone does not fork. Moving the head is not a decision to abandon
anything, since the user may be reading or about to Redo; the first write
below the head is where the story states which continuation it means. A
head already at the tip forks nothing, so a story that is never undone
forks exactly as often as it did before and the branch table does not
fill up with one branch per turn. Redo follows the lineage rather than
choosing among branches, which is what invalidates it after a divergence
with no flag to set or clear.

Migrations 78 and 79 give a branch superseded_at and superseded_depth.
Nothing reads them to decide behaviour — Redo is decided by the lineage,
so a stale or hand-edited value here cannot make the story wrong. They
exist so the cleanup and discarded-history features left to a later
version have something to select on, and so a divergence is observable in
a test.

Deleting an action no longer drags a moved-back head forward to the
recomputed tip, which would have silently redone the story. can_undo and
can_redo ride on AdventureOut and ActionPage because the client can work
out neither for itself: the campaign opening may be off the top of the
loaded window, and the retained future is never sent to it.

This is a checkpoint, not the finished milestone. 601 backend tests pass.
Five still assert the destructive contract — they count rows after an
undo and expect the story to be shorter — and need rewriting against the
new one; the world-state assertions inside them already pass. Export and
import do not yet carry the head coordinate, so a bundle still reopens at
the deepest node and can silently redo an undone story, which is the
Phase 0B finding this milestone exists to close. The browser has no Redo
control yet. None of the M3 acceptance coverage (D01-D10, E01-E04,
I01-I03, I07, L01-L02) is written.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QF5TcoB86QADgjHz1GZe8u

backend/app/context/lineage.py

@@ -78,7 +78,16 @@ class Path:
     """One story, expressed as a SQL clause and as a Python predicate.
 
     The object holds the lineage entries newest first, plus the depth of the
-    tip. The tip is used only to estimate how much story each entry covers.
+    head. Every entry is read as capped at the head, which is what makes the
+    active head a position the whole application honours (M3).
+
+    Before M3 the head was always the deepest node, so the cap never bit and the
+    tip was used only to estimate how much story each entry covers. Undo now
+    moves the head backward without deleting anything, so a path can have live
+    nodes past its head, and those nodes are not part of the story being told.
+    Capping here is what hides them, and it hides them from every read at once:
+    the transcript, the context builder, `attempts.preceding`, and memory
+    retrieval all funnel through `path_of`.
     """
 
     def __init__(self, entries: list[tuple[int, int | None]], tip: int | None = None):
@@ -91,6 +100,40 @@ class Path:
     def __len__(self) -> int:
         return len(self.entries)
 
+    # ------------------------------------------------------------- the head
+
+    def _cap(self, max_depth: int | None) -> int | None:
+        """Returns `max_depth` limited by the head, which no read may pass.
+
+        Three cases, and the third is the one M3 added:
+
+        * No head recorded (`tip is None`). The caller asked for the lineage
+          without a position, so the entry's own cap stands. `tree` builds such
+          a path when it resolves the node in front of a depth.
+        * An uncapped entry, which means "this branch through to its tip". The
+          head is the cap.
+        * A capped entry, which is an ancestor capped at the fork depth. The
+          head still wins when it sits behind that fork, because undoing below
+          a fork point is undoing into the shared prefix. Taking the smaller of
+          the two is what lets Undo walk back past a fork instead of stopping
+          there — safe now that it deletes nothing.
+        """
+        if self.tip is None:
+            return max_depth
+        if max_depth is None:
+            return self.tip
+        return min(max_depth, self.tip)
+
+    def uncapped(self) -> "Path":
+        """Returns the same lineage read through to its retained tip.
+
+        This is the retained history, head or no head: what Redo can still walk
+        forward into, and what a write below the head has to fork away from.
+        Only those two callers should use it. Every read of *the story* wants
+        the capped path.
+        """
+        return Path(self.entries, None)
+
     # ---------------------------------------------------------------- SQL
 
     def clause(
@@ -125,7 +168,9 @@ class Path:
         entries = self.entries if count is None else self.entries[:count]
         if not entries:
             return false()
-        on_path = or_(*[self._entry_clause(model, b, d) for b, d in entries])
+        on_path = or_(
+            *[self._entry_clause(model, b, self._cap(d)) for b, d in entries]
+        )
         if model is models.Action:
             return and_(on_path, models.Action.live.is_(True))
         return on_path
@@ -155,9 +200,10 @@ class Path:
         for branch_id, max_depth in self.entries:
             if node.branch_id != branch_id:
                 continue
-            if max_depth is None:
+            cap = self._cap(max_depth)
+            if cap is None:
                 return True
-            if node.depth is not None and node.depth <= max_depth:
+            if node.depth is not None and node.depth <= cap:
                 return True
         return False
 
@@ -187,7 +233,7 @@ class Path:
             return total
         covered = 0
         for i, (_, max_depth) in enumerate(self.entries):
-            top = self.tip if max_depth is None else max_depth
+            top = self._cap(max_depth)
             below = self.entries[i + 1][1] if i + 1 < total else NO_DEPTH
             if top is None or below is None:
                 # Either no tip was recorded, or a hand-written row is missing a
@@ -211,7 +257,8 @@ class Path:
         story has forked.
         """
         for i, (_, max_depth) in enumerate(self.entries):
-            if max_depth is not None and max_depth <= depth:
+            cap = self._cap(max_depth)
+            if cap is not None and cap <= depth:
                 return i
         return len(self.entries)
 
@@ -241,7 +288,8 @@ class Path:
             return depth
         for entry_branch, max_depth in self.entries:
             if entry_branch == branch_id:
-                return depth if max_depth is None else min(depth, max_depth)
+                cap = self._cap(max_depth)
+                return depth if cap is None else min(depth, cap)
         return NO_DEPTH
 
 

backend/app/head.py

@@ -0,0 +1,304 @@
+"""M3: where the story is being read, and what moving that point costs.
+
+Undo used to delete. It removed the trailing nodes, let `tree.refresh_head`
+recompute the tip from what survived, and the story was wherever the rows ended.
+That made the head a derived value and made Redo impossible, because the turns it
+would have moved forward into were gone.
+
+The head is now a stored position that can sit behind the retained tip. Nothing
+is deleted, so three things that used to be the same question are now three
+different ones:
+
+* **the active head** — `adventure.head_branch_id` and `adventure.head_depth`,
+  the end of the story being told. Every read of the story stops here, because
+  `lineage.Path` caps every entry at it.
+* **the retained tip** — the deepest live node still on the lineage. Redo walks
+  toward it. It is read through `Path.uncapped()`, and only this module and the
+  divergence check may look at it.
+* **the opening** — the shallowest node on the story, which is the floor Undo
+  may not pass.
+
+Everything that moves the head or asks a question about it lives here, so the
+turn engine, Retry, Add-take, Undo, Redo and Edit share one set of rules rather
+than four similar ones. The Phase 0B spike put the fork check in the write path
+and left Retry and Add-take on the old one, which is exactly the divergence this
+module exists to prevent.
+
+The state that belongs to a position is not recomputed. Every node carries the
+world state it left behind (`attempts.snapshot_outcome`), so moving the head is a
+row lookup plus `attempts.restore_state`, at any distance, in either direction.
+"""
+
+from sqlalchemy.orm import Session, undefer
+
+from . import attempts, models, tree
+from .context import lineage
+
+# The kinds of node a player writes. An undo or a redo steps over a whole turn,
+# which is one of these followed by the reply to it, so both ends need to agree
+# on what "a player's half of a turn" is.
+PLAYER_TYPES = ("do", "say", "story", "continue")
+
+
+# ------------------------------------------------------------------ reading
+
+def opening_depth(db: Session, adventure: models.Adventure) -> int | None:
+    """Returns the depth of the first node of the story, or None if there is none.
+
+    This is Undo's floor. The Phase 0B spike moved the head to -1 and rendered an
+    empty transcript, because its guard tested for a node of type `start` and an
+    adventure opened with a player-written `story` action has none. Asking the
+    path for its shallowest node needs no such special case: whatever the opening
+    is called, it is the node with the smallest depth, and the story keeps it.
+
+    The read is uncapped. The opening does not move when the head does, and
+    capping would make the floor depend on where the head already is.
+    """
+    return (
+        db.query(models.Action.depth)
+        .filter(
+            models.Action.adventure_id == adventure.id,
+            lineage.path_of(db, adventure).uncapped().clause(models.Action),
+        )
+        .order_by(models.Action.depth.asc(), models.Action.id.asc())
+        .limit(1)
+        .scalar()
+    )
+
+
+def retained_tip(db: Session, adventure: models.Adventure) -> int | None:
+    """Returns the depth of the deepest live node still retained on this lineage.
+
+    This is what the head would be if the story had never been undone, and it is
+    what Redo can reach. It is not the head, and no read of the story may use it.
+    """
+    return (
+        db.query(models.Action.depth)
+        .filter(
+            models.Action.adventure_id == adventure.id,
+            lineage.path_of(db, adventure).uncapped().clause(models.Action),
+        )
+        .order_by(models.Action.depth.desc(), models.Action.id.desc())
+        .limit(1)
+        .scalar()
+    )
+
+
+def behind_tip(db: Session, adventure: models.Adventure) -> bool:
+    """Returns whether retained story sits past the head.
+
+    This one predicate answers every "does this write need to fork?" question in
+    the application. It is true exactly when the user has undone and not redone,
+    which is the only situation in which writing can displace an accepted future.
+
+    It is also what makes "is this turn the tip?" answerable again. Retry,
+    Add-take and `stand_on` each decide between amending a turn in place and
+    giving it a branch, and each used to ask `last_action`, which reads the
+    *capped* path and therefore reports the node at the head as the newest one.
+    Under a moved-back head that answer is wrong in the dangerous direction: it
+    says a turn with an accepted future is a leaf, and amending it in place would
+    leave that future descending from a take that is no longer live.
+    """
+    tip = retained_tip(db, adventure)
+    return tip is not None and tip > adventure.head_depth
+
+
+def node_at(
+    db: Session, adventure: models.Adventure, depth: int
+) -> models.Action | None:
+    """Returns the live node at `depth` on the retained lineage, outcome loaded.
+
+    The read is uncapped on purpose: Redo asks for a node it is about to move the
+    head onto, which is by definition past the head at the time of asking. The
+    outcome columns are undeferred because the only reason to fetch this row is
+    to restore the state it left behind.
+    """
+    return (
+        db.query(models.Action)
+        .filter(
+            models.Action.adventure_id == adventure.id,
+            lineage.path_of(db, adventure).uncapped().clause(models.Action),
+            models.Action.depth == depth,
+        )
+        .options(
+            undefer(models.Action.state_after),
+            undefer(models.Action.world_state_after),
+        )
+        .order_by(models.Action.id)
+        .first()
+    )
+
+
+def redo_target(db: Session, adventure: models.Adventure) -> int | None:
+    """Returns the depth the head moves to on Redo, or None if there is nowhere.
+
+    Redo steps over a whole turn, the same unit Undo steps back over, so a
+    player's action and the reply to it move together. Landing between them would
+    show the story an input with no answer and would leave the next Undo undoing
+    half a turn.
+
+    The walk is along the retained lineage, which is what makes Redo follow the
+    continuation that was active rather than choosing among branches. After a
+    divergence the new branch *is* the lineage, and the displaced future is no
+    longer on it, so this returns None without having to know that a divergence
+    happened. That is `STORY-BRANCH-SEMANTICS.md` §8 falling out of the lineage
+    rather than being enforced by a flag.
+    """
+    ahead = (
+        db.query(models.Action)
+        .filter(
+            models.Action.adventure_id == adventure.id,
+            lineage.path_of(db, adventure).uncapped().clause(models.Action),
+            models.Action.depth > adventure.head_depth,
+        )
+        .order_by(models.Action.depth.asc(), models.Action.id.asc())
+        .limit(2)
+        .all()
+    )
+    if not ahead:
+        return None
+    first = ahead[0]
+    if (
+        first.type in PLAYER_TYPES
+        and len(ahead) > 1
+        and ahead[1].type == "ai"
+        and ahead[1].depth == (first.depth or 0) + 1
+    ):
+        return ahead[1].depth
+    return first.depth
+
+
+def can_redo(db: Session, adventure: models.Adventure) -> bool:
+    """Returns whether an ordinary Redo is available from where the head is."""
+    return redo_target(db, adventure) is not None
+
+
+def undo_target(
+    db: Session, adventure: models.Adventure
+) -> tuple[int, models.Action] | None:
+    """Returns where Undo moves the head, and the first node it steps back over.
+
+    None means there is nothing to undo, which is either an empty story or a head
+    already resting on the opening. The caller turns that into a 400; this
+    function does not raise, so that the same question can be asked without
+    committing to undoing.
+
+    A turn is the player's node plus the reply to it, and both move together for
+    the reason given in `redo_target`. The player half is only claimed when it is
+    directly in front of the reply, so a bare `continue`, which writes no player
+    node, steps back over the reply alone.
+    """
+    newest = (
+        db.query(models.Action)
+        .filter(
+            models.Action.adventure_id == adventure.id,
+            lineage.path_of(db, adventure).clause(models.Action),
+        )
+        .order_by(models.Action.depth.desc(), models.Action.id.desc())
+        .limit(2)
+        .all()
+    )
+    if not newest:
+        return None
+    last = newest[0]
+    first_stepped = last
+    before = newest[1] if len(newest) > 1 else None
+    if (
+        last.type == "ai"
+        and before is not None
+        and before.type in PLAYER_TYPES
+        and before.depth == (last.depth or 0) - 1
+    ):
+        first_stepped = before
+    floor = opening_depth(db, adventure)
+    if first_stepped.depth is None or floor is None:
+        return None
+    if first_stepped.depth <= floor:
+        # Stepping back over this turn would hide the opening of the campaign,
+        # which is the pre-campaign state `STORY-BRANCH-SEMANTICS.md` §4 stops
+        # at. The floor is the opening node itself rather than depth -1, so an
+        # adventure that opens on a player-written `story` action stops in the
+        # same place as one that opens on a `start` node.
+        return None
+    return first_stepped.depth - 1, first_stepped
+
+
+def can_undo(db: Session, adventure: models.Adventure) -> bool:
+    """Returns whether an ordinary Undo is available from where the head is."""
+    return undo_target(db, adventure) is not None
+
+
+# ------------------------------------------------------------------ writing
+
+def move_to(db: Session, adventure: models.Adventure, depth: int) -> None:
+    """Moves the active head to `depth` and restores the state recorded there.
+
+    This is the whole of Undo and Redo. Nothing is deleted, nothing is
+    recomputed, and the direction of travel does not matter: the node at the
+    destination carries the world state it left behind, so arriving from in front
+    of it and arriving from behind it restore the same value.
+
+    A destination with no node — the head resting one step in front of the
+    opening — leaves the live state alone, which is `attempts.restore_state`'s
+    rule for a missing snapshot and the reason it is not this function's job to
+    invent an empty one.
+    """
+    adventure.head_depth = depth
+    attempts.restore_state(adventure, node_at(db, adventure, depth))
+
+
+def fork_if_behind_head(db: Session, adventure: models.Adventure) -> bool:
+    """Gives the story a new branch when a write would displace a retained future.
+
+    Returns whether a branch was created, which is what a caller reports as a
+    divergence.
+
+    Called before every write that continues the story, and it does nothing on
+    the ordinary path where the head is already at the tip. That is the property
+    worth keeping: a story that is never undone forks exactly as often as it did
+    before M3, so the branch table does not fill up with one branch per turn.
+
+    Undo alone must not fork. Moving the head is not a decision to abandon
+    anything — the user may be reading, or about to Redo. Only the first write
+    below the head states which continuation they mean, which is
+    `STORY-BRANCH-SEMANTICS.md` §8 and §20 and what makes Redo survive an Undo.
+
+    `tree.branch_at` leaves the departed branch exactly as it is: its nodes stay
+    live, at their depths, on their branch. The new branch inherits the story up
+    to the head and owns everything written from here, so the displaced future
+    remains reachable through the branch it was written on.
+    """
+    if not behind_tip(db, adventure):
+        return False
+    departed = lineage.branch_of(db, adventure)
+    at_depth = adventure.head_depth
+    tree.branch_at(db, adventure, at_depth)
+    if departed is not None:
+        mark_superseded(departed, at_depth)
+    return True
+
+
+def mark_superseded(branch: models.Branch, depth: int) -> None:
+    """Records that this branch's story past `depth` was displaced.
+
+    `DATA-MODEL.md` §5 gives a branch a disposition of active, retained or
+    disposable. This is that disposition, stored as the fact that produced it
+    rather than as a word: the depth the story left at, and when. A branch with
+    no `superseded_at` is active; one with a value has retained history past that
+    depth which no active head is reading.
+
+    Nothing in the application reads these columns to make a decision, and that
+    is deliberate. Redo is decided by the lineage, not by a flag, so a stale or
+    hand-edited value here cannot make the story wrong. They exist so that the
+    cleanup and discarded-history features `STORY-BRANCH-SEMANTICS.md` §28 and
+    §29 leave to a later version have something to select on, and so that a
+    divergence is observable in a test.
+
+    The shallowest departure wins. A branch left at depth 9 and later left again
+    at depth 4 has retained history from 4 onward, and recording the later, deeper
+    value would understate what was displaced.
+    """
+    if branch.superseded_depth is None or depth < branch.superseded_depth:
+        branch.superseded_depth = depth
+    if branch.superseded_at is None:
+        branch.superseded_at = models.utcnow()

backend/app/migrations.py

@@ -342,6 +342,13 @@ MIGRATIONS: list[tuple[int, str | dict[str, str]]] = [
     # client, which a cold model load on a CPU-only machine can exceed. The
     # default matches `providers.openai_compatible.DEFAULT_READ_TIMEOUT`.
     (77, "ALTER TABLE settings ADD COLUMN model_timeout_seconds INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 300"),
+
+    # M3. A branch left behind by a divergent write records where the story left
+    # it. NULL means active, which is what every existing branch is: before M3
+    # the head could not sit behind the tip, so no branch had been superseded.
+    # No backfill.
+    (78, "ALTER TABLE branches ADD COLUMN superseded_at TIMESTAMP"),
+    (79, "ALTER TABLE branches ADD COLUMN superseded_depth INTEGER"),
 ]
 
 LATEST_VERSION = max((v for v, _ in MIGRATIONS), default=1)

backend/app/models.py

@@ -228,6 +228,17 @@ class Branch(Base):
     # branch by its fork depth, which deleting a branch does not change.
     name: Mapped[str | None] = mapped_column(String(80), nullable=True)
     created_at: Mapped[datetime] = mapped_column(DateTime, default=utcnow)
+    # M3: the disposition `DATA-MODEL.md` §5 gives a branch, stored as the fact
+    # that produced it. NULL means active. A value means a divergent write left
+    # this branch at `superseded_depth`, so its nodes past that depth are
+    # retained history that no active head is reading.
+    #
+    # Nothing reads these to decide behaviour. Redo follows the lineage, so a
+    # wrong value here cannot make the story wrong; they exist for the cleanup
+    # and discarded-history features that `STORY-BRANCH-SEMANTICS.md` §28-29
+    # leave to a later version. See `head.mark_superseded`.
+    superseded_at: Mapped[datetime | None] = mapped_column(DateTime, nullable=True)
+    superseded_depth: Mapped[int | None] = mapped_column(Integer, nullable=True)
 
 
 class Memory(Base):

backend/app/routers/adventures/actions.py

@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ def delete_action(
         # This works like undo. The turn is deleted with all of its attempts,
         # and whatever it produced is withdrawn. The marks are depths, and a
         # depth does not move when an action before it is deleted.
+        was_at = adventure.head_depth
         delete_turn(db, adventure, action)
         db.flush()
         db.expire(adventure, ["actions"])
@@ -88,6 +89,13 @@ def delete_action(
         # middle leaves a gap in the depths, which is intended. See
         # `_backfill_tree`.
         tree.refresh_head(db, adventure)
+        # `refresh_head` recomputes the tip, which since M3 is not the head. A
+        # story sitting behind its retained tip must not be dragged forward to
+        # the tip by an unrelated delete — that would silently Redo it. Keep the
+        # head where the reader left it, unless the delete took the ground out
+        # from under it, in which case the new tip is as far as it can stay.
+        if was_at < adventure.head_depth:
+            adventure.head_depth = was_at
         # The script state and the world state belong to the adventure, not to
         # the node, so deleting the node does not take back what it did to
         # them. Put them back to what the story now ends with, which is the

backend/app/routers/adventures/crud.py

@@ -9,7 +9,9 @@ from sqlalchemy import func
 from sqlalchemy.orm import Session
 from sqlalchemy.orm.attributes import set_committed_value
 
-from ... import attempts, images, limits, memorybank, models, schemas, tree, worldstate
+from ... import (
+    attempts, head, images, limits, memorybank, models, schemas, tree, worldstate,
+)
 from ...database import get_db
 
 from .deps import CurrentUser, current_adventure, router
@@ -239,6 +241,11 @@ def get_adventure(
     set_committed_value(adventure, "actions", actions)
     out = schemas.AdventureOut.model_validate(adventure)
     out.action_count = total
+    # M3. Opening a story has to render its history controls correctly, and a
+    # campaign whose head sits behind the retained tip — undone and then closed —
+    # must come back with Redo available.
+    out.can_undo = head.can_undo(db, adventure)
+    out.can_redo = head.can_redo(db, adventure)
     return out
 
 

backend/app/routers/adventures/nodes.py

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ module in the package can import them.
 from fastapi import HTTPException
 from sqlalchemy.orm import Session, undefer
 
-from ... import attempts, memorybank, models, tree
+from ... import attempts, head, memorybank, models, tree
 from ...context import cursors
 from ...context import lineage
 
@@ -125,6 +125,10 @@ def stand_on(
         newest is not None
         and newest.branch_id == action.branch_id
         and newest.depth == action.depth
+        # A turn the head rests on is still not a leaf while a retained future
+        # descends from it. `last_action` reads the capped path and cannot see
+        # that future, so switching in place here would strand it (M3).
+        and not head.behind_tip(db, adventure)
     )
     if at_the_tip:
         # The story at this coordinate is about to change, so withdraw whatever

backend/app/routers/adventures/paging.py

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ columns and apply the same numbering, so both live here.
 from sqlalchemy import func
 from sqlalchemy.orm import Session, load_only
 
-from ... import models, schemas
+from ... import head, models, schemas
 from ...context import lineage
 
 
@@ -165,4 +165,6 @@ def current_window(db: Session, adventure: models.Adventure) -> schemas.ActionPa
         ],
         total=total,
         has_more=has_more,
+        can_undo=head.can_undo(db, adventure),
+        can_redo=head.can_redo(db, adventure),
     )

backend/app/routers/adventures/takes.py

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ from fastapi import Depends, HTTPException, Request
 from fastapi.responses import StreamingResponse
 from sqlalchemy.orm import Session
 
-from ... import attempts, limits, memorybank, models, schemas, tree
+from ... import attempts, head, limits, memorybank, models, schemas, tree
 from ...context import cursors
 from ...context import lineage
 from ...database import get_db
@@ -19,8 +19,8 @@ from ...sse import SSE_HEADERS
 
 from . import turns
 from .deps import CurrentUser, current_adventure, router
-from .nodes import delete_turn, last_action, stand_on
+from .nodes import last_action, stand_on
-from .paging import action_window, annotate_takes, current_window
+from .paging import current_window
 
 
 @router.post("/{adventure_id}/retry")
@@ -33,16 +33,36 @@ def retry_action(
 ):
     """Regenerates the last AI action and keeps the discarded attempt.
 
-    The attempt on screen stays as it was written. The shared script state and
+    The attempt on screen stays as it was written. The world state rolls back to
-    world state roll back to what the node before it left behind, and the new
+    what the node before it left behind, and the new attempt is stored as a
-    attempt is stored as a sibling at the same coordinate. No text the AI wrote
+    sibling at the same coordinate. No text the AI wrote is rewritten or deleted.
-    is rewritten or deleted.
+
+    M3 added the one case that cannot be a sibling. Retrying the turn the head
+    rests on while a retained future still descends from it would leave that
+    future hanging off a take that is no longer live — the story after it was
+    written to continue the old text. So a retry from behind the tip takes a
+    branch instead, exactly as `add_take` does for a turn the story has moved
+    past. It is the same operation reached from a different button.
     """
     turns.acquire_turn_lock(adventure_id)
     last_ai = None
     try:
         newest = last_action(adventure, db)
         if newest is not None and newest.type == "ai":
+            # Read this before anything moves, and note it is *not*
+            # `fork_if_behind_head`: this fork leaves the path just in front of
+            # the turn being retried rather than at the head, so the new take
+            # lands at the same depth under the same parent.
+            diverging = head.behind_tip(db, adventure)
+            if diverging:
+                departed = lineage.branch_of(db, adventure)
+                tree.branch_at(db, adventure, (newest.depth or 0) - 1)
+                if departed is not None:
+                    head.mark_superseded(departed, (newest.depth or 0) - 1)
+            else:
+                # Only a sibling attempt names the node it replaces. A branched
+                # take is a fresh node at the same coordinate, so `generate_turn`
+                # places it through the tree rather than through `add_attempt`.
                 last_ai = newest
             # Roll the state back to before this AI turn's hooks ran, so that
             # regenerating starts from a clean state rather than applying output
@@ -50,7 +70,7 @@ def retry_action(
             # node has no snapshot, which happens for a pre-SP4 row that the
             # migration could not derive one for, this call does nothing and
             # leaves the state as it is.
-            attempts.roll_back_before(db, adventure, last_ai)
+            attempts.roll_back_before(db, adventure, newest)
             db.commit()
             db.refresh(adventure)
     except BaseException:
@@ -137,6 +157,17 @@ def select_variant(
             "Only the latest message can be switched — the story has already "
             "continued from this one.",
         )
+    if head.behind_tip(db, adventure):
+        # The head is behind the retained tip, so this turn reads as the newest
+        # one but still has an accepted future descending from it. Switching the
+        # live take in place would leave that future continuing text the story
+        # no longer tells. Forking is the operation that does this safely, and
+        # `/fork` is where it lives.
+        raise HTTPException(
+            400,
+            "This turn has a later story that was undone but kept. Redo first, "
+            "or use another take to start a new line from here.",
+        )
     turns.acquire_turn_lock(adventure_id)
     try:
         chosen = rows[payload.index]
@@ -263,7 +294,15 @@ def add_take(
     retry_of = None
     try:
         newest = last_action(adventure, db)
-        at_the_tip = newest is not None and newest.id == action.id
+        # `last_action` reads the capped path, so under a moved-back head it
+        # reports the node at the head as the newest one. A turn with a retained
+        # future is not a leaf, whatever the capped read says, so ask the head
+        # module rather than trusting the depth comparison alone (M3).
+        at_the_tip = (
+            newest is not None
+            and newest.id == action.id
+            and not head.behind_tip(db, adventure)
+        )
         if at_the_tip and action.type == "ai":
             # Nothing was played after it, so its attempts are still leaves and
             # a branch would serve no purpose. This is the `retry` path.
@@ -274,7 +313,10 @@ def add_take(
             # text that is there now. The new attempt leaves the path just
             # before the turn, so that story keeps the attempt it was written
             # for.
+            departed = lineage.branch_of(db, adventure)
             tree.branch_at(db, adventure, action.depth - 1)
+            if departed is not None:
+                head.mark_superseded(departed, action.depth - 1)
             attempts.roll_back_before(db, adventure, action)
         adventure.updated_at = models.utcnow()
         db.commit()
@@ -309,71 +351,78 @@ def undo_turn(
     db: Session = Depends(get_db),
     adventure: models.Adventure = Depends(current_adventure),
 ):
-    """Deletes the last turn: the trailing AI action and its player action, if any.
+    """Moves the story back one turn. Deletes nothing (M3).
 
-    The endpoint also rolls the shared `script_state` back to before that turn
+    This endpoint used to remove the trailing AI action and the player action in
-    ran, and it prunes any memory that summarized the removed actions. The turn
+    front of it, prune the memories that covered them, and let the tip fall back
-    lock prevents an undo while a turn is still generating.
+    to whatever survived. Undoing was therefore the one operation in the
+    application that destroyed accepted story, and it was why there was no Redo:
+    the turns to move forward into no longer existed.
+
+    Now it moves `adventure.head_depth`. The rows stay exactly where they are,
+    still live, still on their branch, and `lineage.Path` stops every read at the
+    head instead. The transcript, the assembled context, `attempts.preceding` and
+    memory retrieval all narrow together, because all four already funnelled
+    through the same path object.
+
+    The memory bank needs no pruning for the same reason. A memory carries the
+    coordinate of the node its block ends on, so a memory derived from a turn
+    that is now past the head falls outside the capped clause and stops being
+    retrievable — and becomes eligible again on Redo, without having been deleted
+    and re-embedded. That is `STORY-BRANCH-SEMANTICS.md` §33 for free.
+
+    The state comes back from the node the story now ends on, which recorded what
+    it left behind when it played. See `head.move_to`.
     """
     turns.acquire_turn_lock(adventure_id)
     try:
-        # Only the last turn is removed, so fetch the two actions it can
+        target = head.undo_target(db, adventure)
-        # consist of rather than the whole story.
+        if target is None:
-        newest = (
-            db.query(models.Action)
-            .filter(
-                models.Action.adventure_id == adventure.id,
-                lineage.path_of(db, adventure).clause(models.Action),
-            )
-            .order_by(models.Action.depth.desc(), models.Action.id.desc())
-            .limit(2)
-            .all()
-        )
-        if not newest or newest[0].type == "start":
             raise HTTPException(400, "Nothing to undo")
-        last = newest[0]
+        depth, _first_stepped = target
-        before_that = newest[1] if len(newest) > 1 else None
+        head.move_to(db, adventure, depth)
-        # Undo only what this branch owns. Everything before the fork is
+        adventure.updated_at = models.utcnow()
-        # borrowed from an ancestor and is part of that ancestor's story too, so
-        # an undo here must never delete a turn out of another branch. The test
-        # reads the row's own branch rather than the fork depth, because the
-        # branch is what decides the case.
-        if last.branch_id != adventure.head_branch_id:
-            raise HTTPException(
-                400, "Nothing to undo on this branch — the turns before it "
-                     "belong to the branch it was forked from.",
-            )
-        first_removed = last
-        if (last.type == "ai" and before_that is not None
-                and before_that.type in ("do", "say", "story")
-                and before_that.branch_id == adventure.head_branch_id):
-            first_removed = before_that
-        # The state the story returns to once the turn is gone, which is what
-        # the node before the earliest removed one left behind. Read it before
-        # the deletes, while those rows are still in the story.
-        restore_to = attempts.preceding(db, adventure, first_removed)
-        delete_turn(db, adventure, last)
-        if first_removed is not last:
-            delete_turn(db, adventure, first_removed)
-        attempts.restore_state(adventure, restore_to)
-        db.flush()  # Apply the deletes before anything reads the story back.
-        db.expire(adventure, ["actions"])
-        # The tip moves back with the deleted rows.
-        tree.refresh_head(db, adventure)
         db.commit()
         db.refresh(adventure)
         # Return the newest window rather than the whole story. The client
         # replaces its transcript with this response, and the transcript is a
         # window. Returning everything would defeat the paging on the action a
         # player is most likely to repeat several times in a row.
-        actions, total, has_more = action_window(db, adventure)
+        return current_window(db, adventure)
-        return schemas.ActionPage(
+    finally:
-            actions=[
+        turns._active_turns.discard(adventure_id)
-            schemas.ActionOut.model_validate(a)
+
-            for a in annotate_takes(db, adventure.id, actions)
+
-        ],
+@router.post("/{adventure_id}/redo", response_model=schemas.ActionPage)
-            total=total,
+def redo_turn(
-            has_more=has_more,
+    adventure_id: int,
-        )
+    db: Session = Depends(get_db),
+    adventure: models.Adventure = Depends(current_adventure),
+):
+    """Moves the story forward again into the continuation Undo stepped out of.
+
+    Redo exists because Undo stopped deleting. It walks the head forward over one
+    whole turn along the retained lineage, and restores the state that turn left
+    behind.
+
+    It follows the lineage rather than choosing among branches, which is what
+    makes it invalidate itself correctly. Writing below a moved-back head forks,
+    and from the new branch the displaced future is no longer on the lineage at
+    all — so there is nothing ahead to walk into and this returns 400 without any
+    flag having to be set or cleared. `STORY-BRANCH-SEMANTICS.md` §8.
+
+    400 is also what a head already at the tip gets, which is the ordinary case
+    for a story that has never been undone.
+    """
+    turns.acquire_turn_lock(adventure_id)
+    try:
+        depth = head.redo_target(db, adventure)
+        if depth is None:
+            raise HTTPException(400, "Nothing to redo")
+        head.move_to(db, adventure, depth)
+        adventure.updated_at = models.utcnow()
+        db.commit()
+        db.refresh(adventure)
+        return current_window(db, adventure)
     finally:
         turns._active_turns.discard(adventure_id)

backend/app/routers/adventures/turns.py

@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ from fastapi.responses import StreamingResponse
 from sqlalchemy.orm import Session
 
 from ... import (
-    attempts, limits, memorybank, models, schemas, tree, worldstate,
+    attempts, head, limits, memorybank, models, schemas, tree, worldstate,
 )
 from ...context import build_context, cursors
 from ...database import get_db
@@ -333,6 +333,14 @@ def create_action(
     acquire_turn_lock(adventure_id)
     try:
         _move_to_after(db, adventure, payload.after_id)
+        # The first write below a moved-back head is where a divergence happens
+        # (M3). Undo alone does not fork — the user may be reading, or about to
+        # Redo — so this is the moment the story states which continuation it
+        # means. The displaced future keeps its rows on the branch being left.
+        # A head already at the tip, which is every ordinary turn, forks nothing.
+        if head.fork_if_behind_head(db, adventure):
+            db.commit()
+            db.refresh(adventure)
     except BaseException:
         _active_turns.discard(adventure_id)
         raise

backend/app/schemas.py

@@ -317,6 +317,12 @@ class AdventureOut(ORMModel):
     # story's length, which is how the client knows more actions exist above.
     actions: list[ActionOut] = []
     action_count: int = 0
+    # M3. Whether the history controls have anywhere to go from where the story
+    # is. The client cannot work either out for itself: `can_undo` needs the
+    # campaign opening, which may be off the top of the loaded window, and
+    # `can_redo` needs the retained future, which the client is never sent.
+    can_undo: bool = False
+    can_redo: bool = False
 
 
 class ActionPage(BaseModel):
@@ -327,6 +333,10 @@ class ActionPage(BaseModel):
     # Whether anything older than this slice exists. The server computes it, so
     # the client never has to do arithmetic on positions to find the end.
     has_more: bool = False
+    # The same two flags `AdventureOut` carries, so that the response to Undo,
+    # Redo or a turn updates the controls without a second request.
+    can_undo: bool = False
+    can_redo: bool = False
 
 
 # ---------- Memory bank (Phase 6) ----------