docs(releases): the 10.4.11 note — hybrid filter-before-hydrate, one shutdown owner, a faster open

Gate: final tip 27759a1b vs a8c5fbf9 (10.4.10) control — collected
3,212, 0 new reds after two fix cycles (coverage-guard registration +
perf-lane classification; a real budget flake in the batch-size test
switched to unvectored items). shasum ffc33df95b2709dfcc8c67ac961991e3153f8883.

.claude/skills/architecture.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 ## What Is Brainy
 
-@soulcraft/brainy (v7.17.0) is a Universal Knowledge Protocol -- a Triple Intelligence database combining vector search, graph traversal, and metadata filtering in a single library. Published to npm as a public MIT-licensed package.
+@soulcraftlabs/brainy (v7.17.0) is a Universal Knowledge Protocol -- a Triple Intelligence database combining vector search, graph traversal, and metadata filtering in a single library. Published to npm as a public MIT-licensed package.
 
 ## Core Architecture
 

.forgejo/workflows/ci.yml

@@ -5,6 +5,10 @@ name: CI
 # sequential, so tag-triggered matrix jobs (~22 min) would queue AHEAD of the
 # tag's publish-source run and starve every release (observed on 8.10.3 and
 # 9.0.0: the publish sat behind the tag's own redundant CI).
+concurrency:
+  group: ci-${{ github.ref }}
+  cancel-in-progress: true
+
 on:
   push:
     branches: ['**']

.forgejo/workflows/publish-source.yml

@@ -12,6 +12,11 @@ on:
   push:
     tags:
       - 'v*'
+  workflow_dispatch:
+    inputs:
+      ref_reason:
+        description: 'why this manual run (e.g. tag event dropped)'
+        required: false
 
 jobs:
   publish:
@@ -32,22 +37,31 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           set -eo pipefail
 
-          SOURCE_NPM_REG="https://source.soulcraft.com/api/packages/soulcraft/npm/"
+          SOURCE_NPM_REG="https://source.soulcraft.com/api/packages/soulcraftlabs/npm/"
           VERSION="$(node -p "require('./package.json').version")"
-          echo "Publishing @soulcraft/brainy@${VERSION} to The Source registry..."
+          # The dist-tag follows the version: a prerelease (any hyphen —
+          # 10.4.0-rc.1) publishes under 'rc' and must NEVER move 'latest' —
+          # every consumer resolving 'latest' from this registry would otherwise
+          # be handed a release candidate. Same rule scripts/release.sh applies
+          # to the storefront leg.
+          NPM_TAG="latest"
+          case "$VERSION" in
+            *-*) NPM_TAG="rc" ;;
+          esac
+          echo "Publishing @soulcraftlabs/brainy@${VERSION} to The Source registry (dist-tag: ${NPM_TAG})..."
 
           TMPRC="$(mktemp)"
           chmod 600 "$TMPRC"
           {
-            echo "@soulcraft:registry=${SOURCE_NPM_REG}"
-            echo "//source.soulcraft.com/api/packages/soulcraft/npm/:_authToken=${FORGE_NPM_TOKEN}"
+            echo "@soulcraftlabs:registry=${SOURCE_NPM_REG}"
+            echo "//source.soulcraft.com/api/packages/soulcraftlabs/npm/:_authToken=${FORGE_NPM_TOKEN}"
           } > "$TMPRC"
 
           # The release script bumps package.json's version before it tags, so
           # this tag's checkout already carries the version being published —
           # nothing here re-derives it from the tag name.
           PUBLISH_OK=true
-          if ! npm publish --tag latest --userconfig "$TMPRC"; then
+          if ! npm publish --tag "$NPM_TAG" --userconfig "$TMPRC"; then
             PUBLISH_OK=false
           fi
 
@@ -55,7 +69,7 @@ jobs:
           # exit code: a benign duplicate publish (a prior run, or a mirror, already
           # landed this exact version) reports failure even though the registry
           # already holds the right content.
-          LANDED_VERSION="$(npm view "@soulcraft/brainy@${VERSION}" version --userconfig "$TMPRC" 2>/dev/null || echo "")"
+          LANDED_VERSION="$(npm view "@soulcraftlabs/brainy@${VERSION}" version --userconfig "$TMPRC" 2>/dev/null || echo "")"
           rm -f "$TMPRC"
 
           if [ "$LANDED_VERSION" != "$VERSION" ]; then
@@ -64,7 +78,7 @@ jobs:
           fi
 
           if [ "$PUBLISH_OK" = true ]; then
-            echo "Published and verified @soulcraft/brainy@${VERSION} on The Source registry."
+            echo "Published and verified @soulcraftlabs/brainy@${VERSION} on The Source registry."
           else
-            echo "::warning::npm publish reported failure, but readback confirms @soulcraft/brainy@${VERSION} is already live on The Source (a prior run or mirror landed it) — treating this run as successful, since the registry content is correct. Any OTHER failure mode would have failed the readback check above instead."
+            echo "::warning::npm publish reported failure, but readback confirms @soulcraftlabs/brainy@${VERSION} is already live on The Source (a prior run or mirror landed it) — treating this run as successful, since the registry content is correct. Any OTHER failure mode would have failed the readback check above instead."
           fi

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -2,13 +2,120 @@
 
 All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. See [standard-version](https://github.com/conventional-changelog/standard-version) for commit guidelines.
 
-### [10.3.1](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/compare/v10.3.0...v10.3.1) (2026-08-18)
+### [10.4.4](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.4.3...v10.4.4) (2026-08-28)
+
+- fix(vfs): the old-root sweep narrates only when it has something to say (d49148e1)
+- fix(tests): the health-gate pin follows the verdict, and the VFS suite uses its own store (42e2da25)
+- Merge branch 'next/open-lazy-open-and-counts' (5ebd3b40)
+- docs: the contract manifest stands alone; public docs describe this engine only (a8c724a2)
+- docs(releases): 10.4.4 consumer notes — correctness and observability, with the performance line stated exactly (61a46927)
+- docs: measurements in public history carry numbers, not provenance (02c61636)
+- feat(open): name the two steps that hold the vfs-bootstrap phase (2cf38010)
+- fix(storage): a dead flush watch falls back to the 500ms poll, not the 30s sweep (5c22f950)
+- fix(storage): the flush watcher cannot arm twice in its async window (16d2e1a9)
+- perf(idle): the flush-request watch is event-driven; the heartbeat is observability (fb1da1c5)
+- perf(open): answer "are there any entities?" with one directory read (417ddb51)
+- perf(generations): discover generations by directory name, not by walking the log (9dd39921)
+- fix(flush): clear() and repairIndex() set the dirty witness themselves (e4c27fbc)
+- feat(open): the open names the STEP that cost the time, not just the phase (5a091cca)
+- perf(vfs): the old-root sweep runs once per store, not once per open (4a67aa0f)
+- chore: keep the generated neural stamps at main's values (c1f09723)
+- feat(contract): declare contract 1, serve three operators, refuse four by name (48802ba3)
+- fix(open): a provider rebuilding itself is a third state, not a CRITICAL (50676c02)
+- feat(open): open never waits for a provider that is rebuilding itself (131daa08)
+- perf(flush): an idle brain does no work — no periodic flush without a write (f5a6cb3f)
+- feat(repair): repairIndex narrates every phase and its receipt carries the walls (3fffd9c6)
+- fix(storage): a suspect count ledger heals itself, and counts.json is written atomically (f4e2d34b)
+- feat(open): the open narrates itself, on a channel production cannot clamp (afe08a1f)
+- fix(storage): a clean close is recorded, and the writer lock is always given up (e652162c)
+- docs: repository links point at soulcraftlabs/open-brainy — the soulcraft/brainy path becomes the native engine's repo tonight (38c3397b)
+
+
+### [10.4.3](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.4.2...v10.4.3) (2026-08-27)
+
+- Merge branch 'next/open-brainy-rename' (a58372f0)
+- chore: rename to @soulcraftlabs/brainy for Open Brainy on The Source (a99b1e83)
+- docs(releases): 10.4.3 — Open Brainy's first release under the new name, same engine as 10.4.2; The Source is the one registry (9f248b24)
+
+
+### [10.4.2](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.4.2-rc.1...v10.4.2) (2026-08-27)
+
+- docs(releases): 10.4.1 and 10.4.2 consumer notes; 10.4.2 is the last MIT release under this name, Open Brainy continues at @soulcraftlabs/brainy (a082e0ef)
+
+
+### [10.4.2-rc.1](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.4.1...v10.4.2-rc.1) (2026-08-27)
+
+- Merge branch 'next/zero-norm-unvector-door' (9b84ef5b)
+- fix(vectors): a zero-norm vector is not a vector, canonical side included, plus the sanctioned unvector door (0de76659)
+- fix(hnsw): skip unvectored rows on rebuild; refuse empty vectors in the index (8fc553b1)
+- fix(storage): derive the canonical count ledger from identity records, stamp the derivation rule, and mark legacy-derived ledgers suspect at load (fd6b4ce4)
+- Merge branch 'next/enumeration-identity-rekey' (204d74c1)
+- fix(storage): enumeration re-keys on the identity record, not the vector leg (f8d8ce16)
+- fix(init): rethrow plugin activation failures with the original error as cause so the originating frame survives to the caller (2496e09a)
+- Merge branch 'next/vfs-root-zero-norm' (4c7b0fab)
+- fix(vfs): the VFS root never persists a zero-norm vector (c6cc0de9)
+- build: derive generated-file stamps from git commit time, not wall clock (8a5c1245)
+- Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/release/10.4.1' (aad9e2ee)
+- docs(concepts): the serving law — a failure is graded by whether an answer could be wrong, never by the cost of the fix; reads refuse per family (2914e0eb)
+- chore(release): 10.4.1-rc.1 (7870dc40)
+
+
+### [10.4.1](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.4.0...v10.4.1) (2026-08-26)
+
+- fix(reads): the read gate is per-family; a write carrying unchanged data never re-embeds (c039411e)
+- docs(guide): the docs pipeline publishes through the ingest API — the separate deploy step is retired (21e506e8)
+
+
+### [10.4.0](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.4.0-rc.4...v10.4.0) (2026-08-26)
+
+- docs(releases): the 10.4.0 entry catches up to the late trains — repair routing, the vector ledger and open-gate leg, the loud config guard, the JSON-safe crossing (834149ed)
+
+
+### [10.4.0-rc.4](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.4.0-rc.3...v10.4.0-rc.4) (2026-08-25)
+
+- feat(vector): the vectored-noun scalar joins the count ledger; the open gate closes the vector leg (9730835b)
+
+
+### [10.4.0-rc.3](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.4.0-rc.2...v10.4.0-rc.3) (2026-08-25)
+
+- fix(update-seam): the metadata crossing never carries BigInt endpoint ints (f4780c8e)
+- Merge branch 'worktree-agent-ad3aff0dffd17a6eb' (f14da34b)
+- fix(add): empty string is real data, not a missing field (258e9042)
+- feat(vfs): implement readdir's recursive option — typed since 7.30, never read (fc516da6)
+- feat(open-path): init never gates on the embedding model; open goes concurrent; slow opens narrate (96624f40)
+
+
+### [10.4.0-rc.2](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.4.0-rc.1...v10.4.0-rc.2) (2026-08-25)
+
+- test(readiness): the report helper's clock freezes — two independently-built reports compared across a millisecond tick made the plant lane red (39b916a3)
+- feat(repair): a heal:'repair' verdict routes to the provider's own incremental repair() (553e0d97)
+- fix(storage): an unknown nested storage config can never silently land on the shared default root (ddd5e719)
+- docs(release): the 10.4.0 entry, the index-health concept doc, and the API surfaces — written from the tree, not the plan (8cced871)
+- fix(plugins): the silent-degrade doors close — a broken accelerator install can never read as absent (b9ba50fb)
+- feat(recovery): the catchup verdict is consumed; verb rows go live; the metadata rebuild goes online (18f172e0)
+- feat(health): the gate reads the named report — reads refuse loudly, never rebuild; open serves before it returns; the ceremony door (f8f64780)
+
+
+### [10.4.0-rc.1](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.3.1...v10.4.0-rc.1) (2026-08-24)
+
+- ci(publish): the home dist-tag follows the version — a prerelease publishes under 'rc' and never moves 'latest' (a1376e4a)
+- chore(release): --source-only — a home-only prerelease mode (The Source, never the storefront) (dcbad176)
+- test(fold-checkpoint): the ARM-AT-FLIP pin arms its crash instead of racing the pending-flush timer (4176439b)
+- fix(health): one contract for a throwing probe — heal is none, serving is not withheld; repair report gains missing/rebuilt/reason (116550eb)
+- feat(storage): the canonical count ledger — ALL-visibility scalars, unclamped totals, suspect-on-unprovable-delete (7c8c8be3)
+- fix(delete): the null-metadata skip closes — index legs run id-keyed or narrate, never silently strand postings (607e9f54)
+- feat(repair): repairIndex returns the per-family receipt and narrates its summary (8d45f964)
+- fix(reads): the readiness gate guards every index read surface — serving empty from a not-ready provider is unrepresentable (40e7119b)
+- ci(gate): the machine-health preflight and the truncation verdict guard (1e046aa1)
+
+
+### [10.3.1](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.3.0...v10.3.1) (2026-08-18)
 
 - docs(releases): the 10.3.1 consumer entry — the fold that behaves (900cc895)
 - fix(recovery): the fold streams and narrates; the checkpoint chain arms at the flip (ed7d1db9)
 
 
-### [10.3.0](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/compare/v10.2.0...v10.3.0) (2026-08-18)
+### [10.3.0](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.2.0...v10.3.0) (2026-08-18)
 
 - docs(releases): the 10.3.0 consumer entry — the trust-and-provenance release (97d75649)
 - fix(locks): the fence keys ownership on pid+hostname — a same-process re-open never fences its predecessor (0991cf28)
@@ -17,14 +124,14 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. See [standa
 - feat(log): system commits carry their origin; the attested per-id reconcile door (9ac9e706)
 
 
-### [10.2.0](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/compare/v10.1.0...v10.2.0) (2026-08-17)
+### [10.2.0](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.1.0...v10.2.0) (2026-08-17)
 
 - docs(releases): the 10.2.0 consumer entry — adoption completes in one call (97538e1f)
 - ci: the correctness plant runs integration + conformance on every push — a release never waits on a second machine (b17fdc8e)
 - fix(adoption): the baseline backfill runs to completion — one call adopts a pre-log baseline of any size (a5a18838)
 
 
-### [10.1.0](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/compare/v10.0.0...v10.1.0) (2026-08-13)
+### [10.1.0](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.0.0...v10.1.0) (2026-08-13)
 
 - docs(releases): the 10.1.0 consumer entry — bounded recovery, restore founding, the two write-path cures (7d3c8696)
 - fix(restore): a restore is an unclean event — the swap runs quiesced and the snapshot's durability stamps never survive it (9ca80667)
@@ -33,7 +140,7 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. See [standa
 - feat(query): the sparse-store cut — where on a never-carried field serves operator truth, never a refusal (7b67db4d)
 
 
-### [10.0.0](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/compare/v9.0.0...v10.0.0) (2026-08-12)
+### [10.0.0](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v9.0.0...v10.0.0) (2026-08-12)
 
 - fix(adoption): the baseline backfill cures hydration-law drift — existing brains reach the crash-safe default with zero operator steps (25f0dd96)
 - fix(adoption): the reserved-root mint exemption — int 0 is legitimate for exactly one id (2abe8b38)
@@ -65,7 +172,7 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. See [standa
 - test: version-coupling pins go major-agnostic — the 8.x literals broke at the 9.0.0 bump while the coupling law itself behaved correctly (8a6807e8)
 
 
-### [9.0.0](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/compare/v8.11.0...v9.0.0) (2026-08-04)
+### [9.0.0](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v8.11.0...v9.0.0) (2026-08-04)
 
 - docs: 9.0 namespace-migration guide — the simple story + the mechanical sweep checklist, published for humans and tooling alike (61ab9db2)
 - fix(release): storefront leg republishes CI's exact forge artifact — byte-identity by construction, verified by cross-registry shasum before the ceremony reports success (d89df2ed)
@@ -100,7 +207,7 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. See [standa
 - feat: scanFacts liveness contract — first batch or loud failure within a documented bound (f8e6da2b)
 
 
-### [8.11.0](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/compare/v8.10.1...v8.11.0) (2026-07-27)
+### [8.11.0](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v8.10.1...v8.11.0) (2026-07-27)
 
 - docs: the last two archived-host links point home (91ef1c8b)
 - feat: includeHidden — export carries every visibility tier for migration-grade canon completeness (63c1eeb9)
@@ -109,19 +216,19 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. See [standa
 - ci: run the pipeline on the forge (999d0ebb)
 
 
-### [8.10.3](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/compare/v8.10.2...v8.10.3) (2026-08-03)
+### [8.10.3](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v8.10.2...v8.10.3) (2026-08-03)
 
 - docs: dedupe the 8.10.2 release-notes entry the cherry doubled onto the branch (8c956608)
 - fix: user metadata named 'level' is a real field everywhere — the engine-internal node layer no longer shadows it in sort/filter/aggregation, and the indexing views stop stamping a phantom 0 into its column; index epoch 2 rebuilds existing brains at first open (958a0859)
 
 
-### [8.10.2](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/compare/v8.10.1...v8.10.2) (2026-07-29)
+### [8.10.2](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v8.10.1...v8.10.2) (2026-07-29)
 
 - docs: 8.10.2 consumer release notes — update() write granularity, PathResolver idle-log fix, graph-lsm key recognition (a0123b5b)
 - fix: metadata-only update() never rewrites the noun record — the unconditional whole-vector save turned per-entity stat touches into full rewrites+fsync, amplifying read-heavy sweeps into disk saturation on a production deployment (5b65eb82)
 
 
-### [8.10.1](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/compare/v8.10.0...v8.10.1) (2026-07-24)
+### [8.10.1](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v8.10.0...v8.10.1) (2026-07-24)
 
 - refactor: remove the orphaned transaction-result type left behind by the dead-path removal (edf123a5)
 - fix: warm() metadata surface routes through the active provider (warm hook added to the metadata contract); add maintenanceDebt() observability surface (5b2cbf74)

CLAUDE.md

@@ -12,13 +12,13 @@ Handoff file: `/home/dpsifr/.strategy/PLATFORM-HANDOFF.md`
 
 **Brainy's current open actions:** None. MIT open-source — no platform-specific actions.
 
-**Current version:** run `npm view @soulcraft/brainy version` (never trust a hardcoded number here — this line went stale for months); consumer-facing changes tracked in `RELEASES.md`
+**Current version:** run `npm view @soulcraftlabs/brainy version --registry https://source.soulcraft.com/api/packages/soulcraftlabs/npm/` (never trust a hardcoded number here — this line went stale for months); consumer-facing changes tracked in `RELEASES.md`
 
 ---
 
 ## Project Overview
 
-Brainy is a Universal Knowledge Protocol -- a Triple Intelligence database that combines vector similarity search, graph traversal, and metadata filtering into a single TypeScript library. Published as `@soulcraft/brainy` on npm under the MIT license.
+Brainy is a Universal Knowledge Protocol -- a Triple Intelligence database that combines vector similarity search, graph traversal, and metadata filtering into a single TypeScript library. Published as `@soulcraftlabs/brainy` on The Source (source.soulcraft.com registry) under the MIT license.
 
 ## Getting Started
 
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ test: add/update tests       (patch version bump)
 
 ## Docs Pipeline — soulcraft.com/docs
 
-Docs in `docs/**/*.md` are published with the npm package (included in `files`) and synced to soulcraft.com/docs on every portal deploy. Frontmatter controls what appears publicly.
+Docs in `docs/**/*.md` are published with the npm package (included in `files`) and go live on soulcraft.com/docs via the docs ingest API: the release script's `scripts/push-docs.js` step POSTs every public doc to `https://soulcraft.com/api/docs/ingest` (auth: `DOCS_INGEST_SECRET` in the environment). No separate deploy step is involved (the old deploy-to-publish flow was retired in a platform change, 2026-08). Frontmatter controls what appears publicly.
 
 ### Docs check triggers
 
@@ -161,9 +161,9 @@ npm run release:major        # Breaking changes (rare, manual decision)
 The script: verifies clean git state, builds, tests, bumps version, updates CHANGELOG.md, commits, tags, pushes, publishes to npm, and creates a GitHub release.
 
 After a successful release, remind the user:
-> "Published. Deploy portal to pick up the new docs → go to the portal project and deploy."
+> "Published. Docs are live on soulcraft.com/docs (pushed via the ingest API during the release) — spot-check a changed page with curl."
 
-Do NOT deploy portal from here. Portal is always deployed separately from within the portal project.
+There is no separate deploy step anymore. If the docs push failed (the script warns loudly), re-run `node scripts/push-docs.js` with `DOCS_INGEST_SECRET` set.
 
 ## Closed-Source Product Names — HARD RULE
 

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ may find elsewhere in the repo's history.
 
 ## Where the project lives
 
-The source of truth is a self-hosted forge: **source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy**.
+The source of truth is a self-hosted forge: **source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy**.
 It's anonymously readable and cloneable — no account needed to browse, clone,
 or build.
 
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ fine) to talk through the approach saves everyone rework.
 ## Development setup
 
 ```bash
-git clone https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy.git
+git clone https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy.git
 cd brainy
 npm install
 npm run build
@@ -57,6 +57,17 @@ see `package.json` for `test:integration`, `test:coverage`, and friends.
   description states a number, cite the benchmark that produced it (see
   [docs/performance-envelopes.md](docs/performance-envelopes.md) for the
   pattern). Don't state an estimate as if it were measured.
+- **Measurements carry numbers, not provenance.** Public commit messages and
+  docs give the SHAPE a number was taken at and never where it was taken: no
+  hostnames, no store or deployment identities, no operational anecdotes about
+  someone's running system. "A 14,056-noun / 72,679-verb production-shaped
+  store, measured solo under an exclusive lock" tells a reader everything the
+  number depends on; the machine it ran on and whose data it was tell them
+  nothing except where somebody's infrastructure lives.
+- **Documents that answer or reference a confidential specification never enter
+  this repository, even summarized.** The public docs describe THIS engine and
+  the published contract, and nothing else — a summary of a private document is
+  still that document's contents.
 
 ## License
 

README.md

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <p align="center">
-  <img src="https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/raw/branch/main/brainy.png" alt="Brainy" width="180">
+  <img src="https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/raw/branch/main/brainy.png" alt="Brainy" width="180">
 </p>
 
 <h1 align="center">Brainy</h1>
@@ -11,9 +11,9 @@
 </p>
 
 <p align="center">
-  <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/@soulcraft/brainy"><img src="https://img.shields.io/npm/v/@soulcraft/brainy.svg" alt="npm version"></a>
-  <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/@soulcraft/brainy"><img src="https://img.shields.io/npm/dm/@soulcraft/brainy.svg" alt="npm downloads"></a>
-  <a href="https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/actions"><img src="https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg?branch=main" alt="CI"></a>
+  <a href="https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/-/packages/npm/brainy"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/package-The%20Source-2c3e50.svg" alt="Package on The Source"></a>
+  <a href="https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/repo-open--brainy-2c3e50.svg" alt="Repository"></a>
+  <a href="https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/actions"><img src="https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg?branch=main" alt="CI"></a>
   <a href="https://soulcraft.com/docs"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/docs-soulcraft.com-blue.svg" alt="Documentation"></a>
   <a href="LICENSE"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-blue.svg" alt="MIT License"></a>
   <a href="https://www.typescriptlang.org/"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/%3C%2F%3E-TypeScript-%230074c1.svg" alt="TypeScript"></a>
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@
 
 ---
 
+**Open Brainy** is the MIT engine — the open API, client library, types, and protocol; an openly specified canonical on-disk format; and this TypeScript reference engine, scoped as a single-node engine for stores up to roughly one million rows. `@soulcraft/brainy` 10.4.2 was the last release under the old package name — the name passes to the native engine, **Brainy**, at 11.0.0: the same API over the same open format at production scale, and it requires a license.
+
 Built because we were tired of stitching a vector store to a graph database to a document store — and spending weeks on plumbing before writing a line of business logic. Brainy indexes every fact **three ways at once** and lets one call query them together:
 
 | You write | Brainy indexes it as | You query it with |
@@ -45,12 +47,14 @@ It runs **inside your process** — no server, no Docker, nothing to operate —
 ## Quick start
 
 ```bash
-bun add @soulcraft/brainy        # Bun ≥ 1.1 — recommended
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy    # Node.js ≥ 22
+bun add @soulcraftlabs/brainy        # Bun ≥ 1.1 — recommended
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy    # Node.js ≥ 22
 ```
 
+> **Registry**: add `@soulcraftlabs:registry=https://source.soulcraft.com/api/packages/soulcraftlabs/npm/` to your `.npmrc` (anonymous read).
+
 ```javascript
-import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()                       // in-memory; one line swaps to disk
 await brain.init()

RELEASES.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # @soulcraft/brainy — Release Notes for Consumers
 
 This file is the **quick reference for downstream sessions** tracking Brainy changes.
-Full auto-generated changelog: `CHANGELOG.md` · Releases: https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/releases
+Full auto-generated changelog: `CHANGELOG.md` · Releases: https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/releases
 
 **How to use:** Brainy is the underlying data engine for downstream applications. Read this when:
 - Upgrading `@soulcraft/brainy` in your application
@@ -31,6 +31,330 @@ is sometimes cited as a 7.x removal — those methods never existed on 7.x; the
 
 ---
 
+## v10.4.4 — 2026-08-28
+
+**A correctness and observability release.** The headline is not speed: it is that a
+restart now tells you the truth about itself, a store stops lying about how much it
+holds, and the engine stops doing work nobody asked for. There is a performance
+improvement and it is modest; it is stated exactly below rather than rounded up.
+
+### The dark restart — fixed at the root
+
+A service could stop cleanly, exit 0, having awaited `close()` on every store it held,
+and its next boot would announce `Overwriting stale writer lock … appears dead` for
+every one of them. Nothing had crashed. Two deployments hit this; the same defect also
+made those boots pay a crash-recovery fold they did not owe.
+
+The cause was not the lock. `close()` released it correctly — when it got there. A
+failure part-way through close skipped both the release AND the clean-shutdown marker,
+and "the recorded pid is gone" reads identically for an orderly restart and a crash.
+
+- `close()` is now two parts and the second is unconditional: the flush-request watcher,
+  the **writer lock**, the VFS timers and the terminal `closed` flag are released whether
+  the durable steps succeeded or not. The original failure is narrated with what it costs
+  the next open, then rethrown.
+- Releasing the lock writes a **clean-close record** naming the lock generation it gave
+  up. The next open reads that record instead of guessing: recorded → nothing to recover;
+  absent → it says so, and names the recovery it is about to run. This also ends two
+  long-standing false alarms — a recycled pid locking a store out of its own reopen, and
+  `Re-acquiring writer lock … this is a bug` after a perfectly clean close.
+- The signal path stopped failing in a batch. One store's failing flush used to strand
+  every remaining store's lock and markers — at exit code 0. Now: per-store isolation, the
+  generation store's close (the marker) is part of shutdown, the lock goes in a `finally`,
+  and the handler no longer calls `process.exit()` when the host application has its own
+  signal handler, a race that truncated the host's own shutdown mid-flight.
+
+### The count ledger stops lying, and `counts.json` is written atomically
+
+The all-tier scalars are the denominator a coverage check subtracts against. A ledger
+derived under the old rule — one entity per id DIRECTORY — counted ghost and scar
+containers as rows, and was only FLAGGED suspect: it went on serving wrong numbers for
+the life of the store. Two copies of one archive could disagree, and a downstream index
+heal reported remaining work that did not exist.
+
+- Such a ledger now derives itself honestly **in the background** after the open, counting
+  identity records, and persists the correction stamped. Nothing waits for it, because no
+  read is served from a denominator.
+- A derivation that raced a write refuses to stamp its number: one retry on a quiet store,
+  then the ledger stays SUSPECT and names `repairIndex()` as the door that recounts under
+  a barrier.
+- `counts.json` is written temp+rename. A truncating write left a window in which a
+  concurrent reader saw the file EMPTY — and an unparseable ledger sends the next open
+  down the full-rescan path, so the cheapest file in the store was buying the most
+  expensive recovery.
+
+### An open and a repair narrate themselves — on a channel a log level cannot silence
+
+A store could open for three minutes and print nothing at all. The phase timings existed;
+they were written to a channel that every production-looking environment clamps away.
+
+- Narration moved to an always-visible channel. An open now heartbeats the phase it is in,
+  names each phase as it ends with what it was paying for, and names the expensive STEP
+  inside a phase. `repairIndex()` does the same and its receipt carries a per-family
+  `durationMs` — a repair that ran for half an hour with no output could only be watched
+  through `top`.
+- A brain nobody has written to now does nothing: a flush over a clean store is a no-op
+  and says nothing, the graph index's auto-flush asks before it acts, and the
+  cross-process flush-request watch is **event-driven** (`fs.watch`) instead of polling a
+  directory every 500 ms per store forever, with a slow safety sweep behind it and a
+  narrated fall back to polling where a filesystem cannot be watched.
+- A provider that is REBUILDING ITSELF is no longer confused with a broken one. `init()`
+  does not wait for it, every other family serves, and that family's doors refuse **by
+  name, carrying the provider's own progress**, saying plainly that they open by
+  themselves and no action is needed. Health narration dedupes by content, so an unchanged
+  verdict is silent however a provider's generation counter moves.
+
+### For operators — one behaviour change
+
+**Four `where` operators that previously returned an empty page now raise
+`INVALID_QUERY`:** `startsWith`, `endsWith`, `matches` and `length`. An equality/range
+posting index cannot evaluate a substring, a pattern or an array length without reading
+every row, and it now refuses by name instead of answering with an empty result that
+looks like an answer.
+
+**Three that previously returned an empty page are now SERVED:** `hasAll`, `noneOf` and
+`excludes`. All 25 accepted operator tokens now agree between this engine and its
+accelerated counterpart.
+
+### Performance — stated exactly
+
+Measured on a 14,056-noun / 72,679-verb production-shaped store, both builds solo under
+an exclusive lock:
+
+- **Warm reopen after a clean close: 85.7 s → 77.0 s (−10.2%).** The whole of that gain is
+  one fix — generation discovery reads directory NAMES instead of recursively walking the
+  entire generation log (−9.2 s, and it scales with history rather than row count). The
+  VFS phase is **unchanged**.
+- **Cold open: −31.4 s** (518.1 s → 486.7 s), of which the count-ledger derivation moving
+  off the critical path accounts for storage-init dropping 5,941 ms → 25 ms.
+- **A dominant ~38 s remains, diagnosed and NOT fixed.** It is not the VFS — the VFS's own
+  init is under 2 s of that phase. It is the log-authority adoption and/or the
+  pending-embed log recovery, both now instrumented so the next measurement names the
+  culprit outright.
+
+Continuing work, named so nobody has to rediscover it: that ~38 s term; making the
+generation store's committed-range set lazy; the hydration path that substitutes
+`Date.now()` for an unreadable stored timestamp (inventing data); and a VFS path-prefix
+filter built with a `$startsWith` spelling no operator set accepts, so
+`searchFiles({ path })` throws today.
+
+---
+
+## v10.4.3 — 2026-08-27 (Open Brainy's first release)
+
+**`@soulcraftlabs/brainy` 10.4.3 is the same engine as `@soulcraft/brainy` 10.4.2, byte for
+byte — only the name, the registry, and the pointers changed.** Install:
+
+```bash
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy
+```
+
+with the registry line in your `.npmrc` (anonymous read):
+
+```
+@soulcraftlabs:registry=https://source.soulcraft.com/api/packages/soulcraftlabs/npm/
+```
+
+- **The Source is the one registry.** Open Brainy publishes to source.soulcraft.com only; the
+  npmjs republish step is retired from the release rail. Existing npmjs versions of
+  `@soulcraft/brainy` stay as they are and receive no new versions.
+- **The repository moved** to `soulcraftlabs/open-brainy` on The Source; the old path redirects.
+- **No engine change.** Everything in the 10.4.2 notes applies unchanged; adoption is one
+  install-line change (`@soulcraft/brainy` → `@soulcraftlabs/brainy`), which downstream
+  applications make together with their native-engine bump.
+
+## v10.4.2 — 2026-08-27 (a zero-norm vector is not a vector)
+
+**This is the last release of the MIT engine under the `@soulcraft/brainy` name.**
+The MIT package continues as **Open Brainy** — `@soulcraftlabs/brainy`: the open API,
+client library, types and protocol, an openly specified canonical format, and the TypeScript
+reference engine, scoped honestly as a single-node engine for stores up to roughly one
+million rows. The `@soulcraft/brainy` name passes to the native engine, **Brainy**, at a
+major version bump; that engine implements the same API over the same open format at
+production scale, requires a license, and refuses loudly without one. Nothing changes
+for existing installs until that major ships; the move is announced with it.
+
+Six fixes, one law: a vector with no magnitude carries no information, so it must
+never reach a vector index — in any engine — and the canonical store must say so.
+
+- **The permanently-unvectored row.** `add({ ..., vector: [] })` (and the same item
+  shape in `addMany` / `transact`) is now the sanctioned "no vector" row: persisted
+  with an empty vector leg, never embedded, never indexed, counted as unvectored in
+  the canonical ledger. Metadata-only rows — telemetry tallies, counters, plumbing —
+  no longer need a placeholder vector and never enter the vector leg. `vector: []`
+  together with `deferEmbedding: true` is refused with a typed error (a supplied
+  vector has nothing to defer). Previously `vector: []` threw a dimension error.
+- **The unvector door.** `update({ id, vector: [] })` (and its `transact()` twin) is
+  the sanctioned way to strip a vector from an existing row: canonical vector → `[]`,
+  removal from the vector index, the vectored ledger decremented exactly once — and
+  idempotent, so a resumed cleanup pass may simply re-issue. It never re-embeds, and
+  it clears a pending deferred-embed marker durably so the background worker cannot
+  re-vector the row later. Note that a rebuild never sheds vectors (it re-derives the
+  index from canonical rows); shedding historical vectors needs this door.
+- **Zero-norm vectors are normalized at the write.** An explicit all-zero vector on
+  any write path is persisted as unvectored (`[]`) with one warning naming the row;
+  the vector-index operations keep their own refusal as a second line. The engine's
+  own VFS root, which used to persist a deliberate all-zero placeholder (harmless
+  under cosine distance, a false attractor under a downstream engine's
+  squared-euclidean serving — a production incident this week), is now created
+  unvectored, and an existing store's legacy root is migrated on open by a single
+  fixed-path read before the health gate runs — never a walk.
+- **Enumeration keys on the identity record.** `getNouns()` / `getVerbs()` and the
+  cursor walks behind them enumerate by the metadata record, the same key the
+  canonical ledger counts by — previously the walk keyed on the vector file, so a
+  row holding metadata but no vector was counted yet never yielded (a permanent
+  "missing" phantom in coverage math), while an orphaned vector-only directory
+  could be yielded as a phantom id. The recovery fold also never deletes an existing
+  vector when it replays a metadata-only after-image (preserve-if-absent). One
+  documented gap remains: a verb's endpoints live only in its vector leg, so a
+  metadata-only verb is counted and loudly skipped, never fabricated — the fix is a
+  canonical-format change and lands with the open format.
+- **The ledger's one-time derivation counts identity records.** Stores upgraded from
+  pre-ledger versions derived their ALL-visibility scalars once by counting id
+  directories, which included ghost and scar containers left by an old partial-delete
+  defect — an inflated denominator whose coverage row could never reach exact. The
+  derivation now counts only directories holding a metadata record, `counts.json`
+  carries a derivation-rule stamp, and a ledger derived under the old rule is marked
+  `suspect` at open (one O(1) field read, one warning) so the online `repairIndex()`
+  path clears it with a real recount.
+- **The vector index refuses what it cannot hold.** `rebuild()` skips unvectored and
+  zero-norm rows (one summary line), re-pins the vector dimension from the first real
+  vector after a restart (previously a restart left the pin unset, so a wrong-length
+  insert became the new pin instead of being rejected), and `addItem` / `updateItem`
+  throw a typed `EmptyVectorIndexError` on a length-0 vector instead of ever storing
+  a vector-less node.
+- **Smaller:** a failing plugin activation now rethrows with the original error as
+  `cause` (the originating file and line survive to the caller's log); build
+  generators stamp from the repository history of their inputs instead of wall clock,
+  so two builds of the same tree are byte-identical.
+
+Adoption: one restart, paired with its native-engine release. The first open of an
+existing store runs the legacy-root migration (one narrated line) and, on stores that
+upgraded from pre-ledger versions, marks the ledger suspect until the next sanctioned
+recount — no rebuild in either case.
+
+## v10.4.1 — 2026-08-26 (reads refuse per family; an unchanged write never re-embeds)
+
+Two production defects from the same week, fixed together as a patch to 10.4.0.
+
+- **The read gate is per family.** A read now refuses only when the index family it
+  actually consults is unhealthy: a metadata filter is served while the vector leg is
+  rebuilding; a semantic query is refused only by the vector family; a graph
+  traversal only by the graph family. Previously any unhealthy family refused every
+  read on the brain — under a long vector rebuild, a production deployment's
+  metadata-only reads were refused for the duration, and the retries became a write
+  pump of their own.
+- **Unchanged data never re-embeds.** `update()` compares the incoming `data`
+  structurally with the stored record; an update carrying identical data (a common
+  shape for periodic upserts) no longer embeds again and no longer churns the vector
+  leg. Previously every such update re-embedded and re-inserted, which under load
+  saturated the vector index with near-identical vectors.
+
+Adoption: one restart, paired with its native-engine release.
+
+## v10.4.0 — 2026-08-25 (the health report has a name)
+
+Three related cures, one root cause: an index deciding whether it could be trusted
+by sampling itself instead of by exact accounting. This release replaces every
+sampled self-probe with ledger-derived truth, and a read against an unhealthy index
+now refuses loudly instead of guessing.
+
+- **The canonical count ledger.** Storage now tracks two scalars per family
+  (nouns/verbs) on the write path: the user-facing `counted` total — unchanged,
+  still what `getNounCount()` / `getVerbCount()` return — and a new ALL-visibility
+  `all` total covering every tier, the real denominator a derived index's own
+  coverage math needs. The unfiltered storage-level `totalCount` returned by
+  `getNouns()` / `getVerbs()` is now this unclamped ALL scalar; previously it could
+  only ever move up (`Math.max(scalar, scanned)`), so an inflated counter could
+  never self-correct. A delete that cannot prove the record it removed actually
+  existed (no canonical read, no prior image available) no longer decrements on
+  faith — it marks the ledger `suspect` (narrated once per session) instead of
+  silently drifting, and the next `repairIndex()` clears the flag with a real
+  recount.
+- **One contract for a throwing health probe.** A provider's `validateInvariants()`
+  is documented to never throw — but if one does anyway (a bug, a transient fault),
+  it is now read the same way everywhere: `heal: 'none'`, the error named in the
+  report, never synthesized into a rebuild trigger and never swallowed into "looks
+  fine." A flaky check can no longer buy itself a rebuild. `repairIndex()`'s
+  per-family receipt also gains `missing` (an exact count plus a capped id sample),
+  `rebuilt` (a full rebuild ran, vs. an incremental heal), and `reason`.
+- **The named health report; reads refuse instead of rebuilding.** Any index
+  provider may now expose a synchronous, O(1) `healthReport()` — composed from the
+  provider's own exact ledgers, never a sample — and this is the one signal
+  Brainy's read gate trusts. The first-query lazy-build path is gone: `brain.init()`
+  now runs every needed rebuild to completion before it returns, always, regardless
+  of dataset size. A read that lands on a provider whose health report says it
+  isn't serving throws a typed error instead of triggering a rebuild mid-query —
+  `GraphIndexNotReadyError`, `MetadataIndexNotReadyError`, or
+  `VectorIndexNotReadyError` (all exported from `@soulcraft/brainy`), naming the
+  reasons. `repairIndex({ rebuild: ['metadata' | 'graph' | 'vector'] | 'all' })` is
+  the new explicit operator door: it rebuilds the named family unconditionally, no
+  health check consulted — reach for it when you have independent reason to
+  distrust a family regardless of what it self-reports. Bare `repairIndex()` is
+  unchanged in spirit: report-driven, heals only what its own checks say needs it.
+- New concept doc: [Index Health](docs/concepts/index-health.md) walks the whole
+  story from a consumer's side — degraded-but-serving vs. not-ready, what
+  `repairIndex()` checks and heals per family, what `suspect` counts mean.
+
+**Nothing to change to adopt this.** No API removed, no signature narrowed —
+`repairIndex()` gains an optional options bag and its return value gains fields,
+both additive. The honest notes: if your code ever relied on a `find()` against a
+cold/not-yet-built index quietly triggering a rebuild and returning results a beat
+later, that behavior is gone — it now throws one of the three typed
+`*NotReadyError` classes instead (catch them if you need to distinguish "not ready
+yet" from "no results"). And `disableAutoRebuild: true` no longer defers index
+construction to the first query — a needed rebuild always runs at `open()` now;
+the flag has no effect on timing. Full manual control still lives in
+`repairIndex({ rebuild: [...] })`.
+
+- **Crash-reopen catchup.** After an unclean shutdown, the metadata index now
+  folds the exact fact window it missed — `find()` serves every acked write on
+  reopen, closing the gap where canonical reads and counts recovered a
+  crash-window write but the index kept serving its pre-crash state until the
+  next full rebuild. Related root-cause fixed alongside: `close()` never
+  stamped the index watermarks (only `flush()` did), so a close without a
+  prior flush caused a needless full rescan verdict on the next open.
+- **Relation rows are live in the metadata index.** Previously verb rows
+  entered the metadata index only during a rebuild — so a rebuilt store's
+  relation postings went stale from the first `relate()` after it. Relations
+  are now posted and retracted on the live write path (relate / unrelate /
+  updateRelation / remove's cascade, and their `transact()` forms), in the
+  same commit as the graph leg.
+- **The metadata rebuild is online.** `rebuild()` for the metadata family no
+  longer clears and rebuilds in place (reads went empty for the duration): it
+  builds a complete replacement beside the serving index, mirrors concurrent
+  writes to both, swaps atomically, and persists once after the swap. Reads
+  never observe a partial index. `repairIndex({ rebuild: ['metadata'] })` uses
+  it automatically.
+- **Incremental heal is routed.** A provider invariant that asks for the
+  incremental heal (`heal: 'repair'`) now routes to the provider's own
+  `repair()` when it exposes one — re-posting exactly what its ledger names,
+  never a store-sized rebuild — and the post-heal re-read of the report decides
+  success; a repair that doesn't converge is recorded with the escalation named.
+- **The vector family joins the count ledger.** `getCanonicalCounts()` gains
+  `vectors: { all }` — the count of canonical entities holding a real vector
+  (deferred-embed entities count when their vector lands). And the open gate
+  closes the vector leg: a store whose canonical rows hold vectors but whose
+  derived vector index is empty now builds at `open()` (or refuses with the
+  typed error) instead of silently serving empty vector-search results.
+- **An unknown storage config shape fails loudly.** A nested `config` object
+  carrying a path-shaped key (a shape that was never supported) used to fall
+  through silently to the default shared directory — every instance writing one
+  store while callers believed each had its own. It now throws, naming the
+  canonical `path` key.
+- **Relation index rows are JSON-safe.** Internal endpoint identifiers can no
+  longer ride the metadata-index crossing (a native provider serializes it);
+  they stay on the graph operations where they belong.
+- **A broken accelerator install can never read as "not installed."** The
+  auto-detection free pass now requires the resolution error to name the
+  accelerator package itself, exactly — a missing platform-binary sibling
+  package, an inner file path, or a dependency failure is a broken install and
+  `init()` throws loudly. And a plugin that declines activation is narrated on
+  the always-on log channel, so `silent: true` can no longer hide a fallback
+  to the default engines.
+
+---
+
 ## v10.3.1 — 2026-08-18 (the fold that behaves)
 
 Three recovery cures from one production first-boot incident (a brain's first

SECURITY.md

@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ commit to backporting fixes to unsupported lines.
 
 ## Scope
 
-This policy covers the `@soulcraft/brainy` package itself — the code in
+This policy covers the `@soulcraftlabs/brainy` package itself — the code in
 this repository. If you're evaluating a deployment that also uses
 `@soulcraft/cor`, report issues in that package the same way, to the same
 address; we'll route internally.

bin/brainy-ts.js

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 /**
  * Modern TypeScript CLI Runner
  * 
- * This is the entry point after npm install @soulcraft/brainy
+ * This is the entry point after npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy
  * It runs the compiled TypeScript CLI code
  */
 

bun.lock

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
   "configVersion": 0,
   "workspaces": {
     "": {
-      "name": "@soulcraft/brainy",
+      "name": "@soulcraftlabs/brainy",
       "dependencies": {
         "@aws-sdk/client-s3": "^3.540.0",
         "@azure/identity": "^4.0.0",

docs/DEVELOPER_LEARNING_PATH.md

@@ -25,13 +25,13 @@
 
 ### Prerequisites
 ```bash
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy
 ```
 
 ### Your First Neural Database
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // Step 1: Create and initialize Brainy
 const brain = new Brainy({
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ Once you're comfortable with basic operations, move to **Level 2** to learn abou
 ### Building a Knowledge Graph
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy({ storage: { type: 'memory' } })
 await brain.init()
@@ -314,7 +314,7 @@ Ready for AI-powered search and clustering? Move to **Level 3**.
 ### Triple Intelligence in Action
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy({ storage: { type: 'memory' } })
 await brain.init()
@@ -529,7 +529,7 @@ Want to treat files as intelligent entities? Learn the **Virtual Filesystem** in
 ### Files as Intelligent Entities
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy({ storage: { type: 'memory' } })
 await brain.init()
@@ -832,7 +832,7 @@ Ready for production deployment? Level 5 covers **planet-scale architecture**.
 ### Production-Ready Deployment
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // 1. PRODUCTION STORAGE - Filesystem with off-site snapshots
 console.log('Initializing production storage...\n')

docs/FIND_SYSTEM.md

@@ -1217,7 +1217,7 @@ where: {
 await brain.find({ type: 'Document' })
 
 // ✅ Correct: Use NounType enum
-import { NounType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { NounType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 await brain.find({ type: NounType.Document })
 
 // ❌ Error: Operator not recognized

docs/MIGRATION-V3-TO-V4.md

@@ -153,13 +153,13 @@ brainy-data/
 ### Step 1: Update Brainy Package
 
 ```bash
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy@latest
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy@latest
 ```
 
 **Check your version:**
 ```bash
-npm list @soulcraft/brainy
-# Should show: @soulcraft/brainy@4.0.0
+npm list @soulcraftlabs/brainy
+# Should show: @soulcraftlabs/brainy@4.0.0
 ```
 
 ### Step 2: No Code Changes Required! ✅
@@ -374,7 +374,7 @@ If you encounter issues, you can rollback:
 
 ```bash
 # Reinstall v3
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy@^3.50.0
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy@^3.50.0
 
 # Restart application
 ```
@@ -389,7 +389,7 @@ rm -rf ./data
 cp -r ./data-backup ./data
 
 # Reinstall v3
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy@^3.50.0
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy@^3.50.0
 ```
 
 ## Common Migration Scenarios
@@ -539,7 +539,7 @@ console.log('Storage type:', status.type)
 
 **Migration Checklist:**
 - ✅ Backup data
-- ✅ Update npm package (`npm install @soulcraft/brainy@latest`)
+- ✅ Update npm package (`npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy@latest`)
 - ✅ Restart application (automatic migration)
 - ✅ Verify data integrity
 - ✅ Enable lifecycle policies

docs/PERFORMANCE.md

@@ -323,58 +323,24 @@ Only the graph adjacency index carries a committed scale assertion:
 - ✅ **Single-Node by Design**: One process owns one `path`; scale out at the service layer
 - ✅ **Zero Stubs**: Every line of code is production-ready
 
-## Lazy Loading Performance
+## Index Build at Open (10.4+)
 
-Brainy supports two initialization modes for optimal performance across different use cases:
+As of 10.4, `brain.init()` runs every needed index rebuild to completion before
+it returns — always, regardless of dataset size. There is no lazy,
+first-query rebuild path: a brain either finishes opening healthy, or `init()`
+fails loudly. `disableAutoRebuild` no longer defers index construction to a
+first query; it has no effect on *when* a rebuild runs. Manual control over
+rebuilds is `repairIndex({ rebuild: [...] })`. See
+[Index Health](concepts/index-health.md) for the full read-gate contract
+(providers self-report readiness via `healthReport()`; a read against a
+not-serving provider throws a typed `*NotReadyError` rather than rebuilding
+mid-query).
 
-### Mode 1: Auto-Rebuild (Default)
-
-```javascript
-const brain = new Brainy()
-await brain.init()  // Rebuilds indexes during init (~500ms-3s for 10K entities)
-```
-
-**Performance:**
-- Init time: 500ms-3s (depends on dataset size)
-- First query: Instant (indexes already loaded)
-- Use case: Traditional applications, long-running servers
-
-### Mode 2: Lazy Loading
-
-```javascript
-const brain = new Brainy({ disableAutoRebuild: true })
-await brain.init()  // Returns instantly (0-10ms)
-
-const results = await brain.find({ limit: 10 })  // First query triggers rebuild (~50-200ms)
-const more = await brain.find({ limit: 100 })    // Subsequent queries instant (0ms check)
-```
-
-**Performance:**
-- Init time: 0-10ms (instant)
-- First query: 50-200ms (includes index rebuild for 1K-10K entities)
-- Subsequent queries: 0ms check (instant)
-- Concurrent queries: Wait for same rebuild (mutex prevents duplicates)
-
-**Concurrency Safety:**
-```javascript
-// 100 concurrent queries immediately after init
-await brain.init()
-
-const promises = Array.from({ length: 100 }, () =>
-  brain.find({ limit: 10 })
-)
-
-const results = await Promise.all(promises)
-// ✅ Only 1 rebuild triggered (mutex)
-// ✅ All 100 queries return correct results
-// ✅ Total time: ~60ms (not 6000ms!)
-```
-
-**Use Cases for Lazy Loading:**
-- **Serverless/Edge**: Minimize cold start time (0-10ms init)
-- **Development**: Faster restarts during development
-- **Large datasets**: Defer index loading until needed
-- **Read-heavy workloads**: Writes don't wait for index rebuild
+<!-- The pre-10.4 "Mode 2: Lazy Loading on First Query" section previously
+     documented here (disableAutoRebuild deferring index construction to the
+     first find() call) described a real, now-retired code path. Removed
+     rather than left to mislead; the concept doc above is the current
+     contract. -->
 
 ## Zero Configuration Required
 
@@ -384,10 +350,6 @@ Brainy is designed to be **smart enough to tune itself dynamically**. No configu
 // That's it. Brainy handles everything.
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()
-
-// Or with lazy loading for serverless
-const brain = new Brainy({ disableAutoRebuild: true })
-await brain.init()  // Instant (0-10ms)
 ```
 
 ### Automatic Self-Tuning
@@ -395,7 +357,6 @@ await brain.init()  // Instant (0-10ms)
 - **Metadata Index**: Auto-builds sorted indices for range queries on first use
 - **Graph Index**: Auto-flushes every 30 seconds
 - **Default Tuning**: Research-based vector index defaults
-- **Lazy Loading**: Indices built only when needed
 - **Cache Management**: LRU caches with TTL
 
 ### Intelligent Defaults

docs/PLUGINS.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ next:
   - guides/storage-adapters
 ---
 
-# Plugin Development Guide
+# Plugin System
 
 Brainy has a plugin system that allows third-party packages to replace internal subsystems with custom implementations. This is how `@soulcraft/cor` provides optional native acceleration, and it's the same system available to any developer.
 
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ If no plugin provides a given key, brainy uses its built-in JavaScript implement
 ### 1. Implement the `BrainyPlugin` interface
 
 ```typescript
-import type { BrainyPlugin, BrainyPluginContext } from '@soulcraft/brainy/plugin'
+import type { BrainyPlugin, BrainyPluginContext } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy/plugin'
 
 const myPlugin: BrainyPlugin = {
   name: 'my-brainy-plugin',  // Must be unique (typically your npm package name)
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ await brain.init()
 **Programmatic registration:** For plugins not installed as npm packages, use `brain.use()`:
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 import myPlugin from './my-plugin.js'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
@@ -200,15 +200,30 @@ members so a warm reopen never pays a redundant rebuild-from-canonical:
 - **`init?(): Promise<void>`** — eager cold-load. Brainy awaits it once during
   `brain.init()`, after the metadata provider's `init()` (the id-mapper hydrates first)
   and **before the rebuild gate**.
-- **`isReady?(): boolean`** — honest durability signal. `true` ⇔ the persisted index is
-  loaded (or cheaply demand-loadable) and consistent with what was last persisted. When
-  exposed, the rebuild gate defers to this signal **instead of** the `size() === 0` /
-  `totalEntries === 0` heuristics — a disk-native index may report 0 resident entries
-  while fully durable. Never return `true` if the durable state failed to load: the
-  signal is honest in both directions, and a not-ready provider gets its rebuild even
-  when `size() > 0`.
+- **`healthReport?(): HealthReport`** — the PREFERRED signal (10.4+). A named,
+  synchronous, O(1) verdict derived from the provider's own exact ledgers — never a
+  sample, never I/O, must never throw for a well-formed provider. Brainy's read gate
+  (`assessProviderHealth()`) reads this INSTEAD of `isReady()` / size heuristics when
+  present: `serving: false` refuses the read with a typed `*NotReadyError` rather than
+  triggering a rebuild — a read never starts a store walk. `healthy` marks every
+  *verified* invariant holding; a family named in `unledgered` counts as neither
+  healthy nor broken. See `HealthReport` / `LedgerInvariantResult` /
+  `InvariantSource` in `src/plugin.ts`, and
+  [Index Health](concepts/index-health.md) for the consumer-facing story.
+- **`isReady?(): boolean`** — honest durability signal, the fallback when
+  `healthReport()` is absent. `true` ⇔ the persisted index is loaded (or cheaply
+  demand-loadable) and consistent with what was last persisted. When exposed, the
+  gate defers to this signal **instead of** the `size() === 0` / `totalEntries === 0`
+  heuristics — a disk-native index may report 0 resident entries while fully durable.
+  Never return `true` if the durable state failed to load: the signal is honest in
+  both directions, and a not-ready provider gets its rebuild even when `size() > 0`.
 - **`isMigrating?(): boolean`** — while `true`, the provider owns its index (background
   migration); brainy skips its rebuild entirely.
+- **`validateInvariants?(): Promise<ProviderInvariantReport>`** — the async DEEP
+  diagnostic (full scans allowed), distinct from the bounded, sync `healthReport()`.
+  Must never throw — a failure is `healthy: false` data, not an exception; a provider
+  that throws anyway is read as a loud, unverified failure (never as "healthy") by
+  every caller, never silently retried into a rebuild.
 
 Providers that implement none of these keep the size/count heuristics — correct for
 engines whose `rebuild()` *is* their load path (like brainy's built-in JS vector index).
@@ -257,10 +272,10 @@ When provided by an optional native acceleration plugin (such as `@soulcraft/cor
 #### `cache`
 **Type:** `UnifiedCache`
 
-Replaces the global `UnifiedCache` singleton used for VFS path resolution, semantic caching, and vector index caching. Must implement the `UnifiedCache` interface (available from `@soulcraft/brainy/internals`).
+Replaces the global `UnifiedCache` singleton used for VFS path resolution, semantic caching, and vector index caching. Must implement the `UnifiedCache` interface (available from `@soulcraftlabs/brainy/internals`).
 
 ```typescript
-import type { UnifiedCache } from '@soulcraft/brainy/internals'
+import type { UnifiedCache } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy/internals'
 
 context.registerProvider('cache', myNativeCache)
 ```
@@ -310,8 +325,8 @@ Plugins can register custom storage backends that users reference by name.
 ### Implementing a Storage Adapter
 
 ```typescript
-import type { StorageAdapterFactory } from '@soulcraft/brainy/plugin'
-import type { StorageAdapter } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import type { StorageAdapterFactory } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy/plugin'
+import type { StorageAdapter } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 class MyStorageAdapter implements StorageAdapter {
   async init(): Promise<void> { /* ... */ }
@@ -345,9 +360,9 @@ Brainy provides three entry points for plugin developers:
 
 | Import Path | Contents | Stability |
 |-------------|----------|-----------|
-| `@soulcraft/brainy` | Public API, types, StorageAdapter | Stable (semver) |
-| `@soulcraft/brainy/plugin` | BrainyPlugin, BrainyPluginContext, StorageAdapterFactory | Stable (semver) |
-| `@soulcraft/brainy/internals` | UnifiedCache, EntityIdMapper, logger utilities | Internal (may change between minor versions) |
+| `@soulcraftlabs/brainy` | Public API, types, StorageAdapter | Stable (semver) |
+| `@soulcraftlabs/brainy/plugin` | BrainyPlugin, BrainyPluginContext, StorageAdapterFactory | Stable (semver) |
+| `@soulcraftlabs/brainy/internals` | UnifiedCache, EntityIdMapper, logger utilities | Internal (may change between minor versions) |
 
 ## Diagnostics
 
@@ -425,7 +440,7 @@ A minimal but useful plugin that provides SIMD-accelerated distance calculations
 
 ```typescript
 // simd-distance-plugin/src/plugin.ts
-import type { BrainyPlugin, BrainyPluginContext } from '@soulcraft/brainy/plugin'
+import type { BrainyPlugin, BrainyPluginContext } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy/plugin'
 
 // Hypothetical native module
 import { simdCosineDistance } from './native.js'
@@ -455,7 +470,7 @@ export default simdDistancePlugin
   "main": "./dist/plugin.js",
   "types": "./dist/plugin.d.ts",
   "peerDependencies": {
-    "@soulcraft/brainy": ">=7.0.0"
+    "@soulcraftlabs/brainy": ">=7.0.0"
   }
 }
 ```
@@ -463,7 +478,7 @@ export default simdDistancePlugin
 Usage:
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy({ plugins: ['brainy-simd-distance'] })
 await brain.init()

docs/PRODUCTION_SERVICE_ARCHITECTURE.md

@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ After 40 API calls:
 
 ```typescript
 // server.ts
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // SINGLETON INSTANCE
 let brainInstance: Brainy | null = null
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ process.on('SIGTERM', async () => {
 
 ```typescript
 // server.ts - Clean Bun implementation
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 let brain: Brainy | null = null
 

docs/README.md

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 ## Quick Start
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()

docs/RELEASE-GUIDE.md

@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ Examples:
 
 ```bash
 # 1. Deprecate wrong version on npm
-npm deprecate @soulcraft/brainy@X.X.X "Incorrect version - use Y.Y.Y"
+npm deprecate @soulcraftlabs/brainy@X.X.X "Incorrect version - use Y.Y.Y"
 
 # 2. Fix version in package.json
 # 3. Republish correct version

docs/SCALING.md

@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 
 ### In-Memory
 ```typescript
-import Brainy from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import Brainy from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 const brain = new Brainy({ storage: { type: 'memory' } })
 ```
 
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ The native vector provider (via the optional `@soulcraft/cor` package) extends t
 
 Numbers below are **measured** by `tests/benchmarks/find-composition-scale.js` (a single
 Node 22 process, in-memory storage, 384-dim vectors, `balanced` recall). They are the
-open-core (pure-TypeScript) path — what you get from `@soulcraft/brainy` with no native
+open-core (pure-TypeScript) path — what you get from `@soulcraftlabs/brainy` with no native
 provider installed. Run it yourself: `node --max-old-space-size=8192 tests/benchmarks/find-composition-scale.js 100000`.
 
 `find()` query latency, p50 / p95 (200 queries each):

docs/api/README.md

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ next:
 ## Quick Start
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy() // Zero config!
 await brain.init() // VFS auto-initialized!
@@ -1010,7 +1010,7 @@ await db.release()                        // unpin + free cached materialization
 
 ### Db API errors
 
-All exported from `@soulcraft/brainy`:
+All exported from `@soulcraftlabs/brainy`:
 
 | Error | Thrown by | Meaning |
 |---|---|---|
@@ -1451,6 +1451,34 @@ const count = await brain.getVerbCount()
 
 ---
 
+### The canonical count ledger (`StorageAdapter.getCanonicalCounts()`)
+
+An OPTIONAL method on the `StorageAdapter` interface (implemented by both
+built-in adapters), not a method on `Brainy` itself — relevant if you're
+writing a custom storage adapter or composing a provider's own
+`healthReport()`. O(1), no I/O. Per family (`nouns`/`verbs`):
+
+```typescript
+interface CanonicalCounts {
+  nouns: { counted: number; all: number }
+  verbs: { counted: number; all: number }
+  suspect: boolean
+}
+```
+
+- `counted` mirrors `getNounCount()` / `getVerbCount()` (public + internal tiers).
+- `all` is the ALL-visibility scalar — every tier, including system/internal
+  records — the denominator a derived index's own coverage math is measured
+  against.
+- `suspect` is `true` when an unprovable delete has left `all` unverified since
+  the last recount; `brain.repairIndex()` clears it with a real canonical walk.
+
+Adapters without the ledger omit the method; treat absence as "no
+denominator," never as zero. See
+**[Index Health](../concepts/index-health.md)** for the full story.
+
+---
+
 ### Subtype & facet APIs
 
 Full guide: **[Subtypes & Facets](../guides/subtypes-and-facets.md)**.
@@ -1831,6 +1859,104 @@ const semanticOnly = await brain.getStats({ excludeVFS: true })
 
 ---
 
+### `repairIndex(options?)` → `Promise<RepairReport>`
+
+The ceremony door for index repair. Bare `repairIndex()` is report-driven: it
+prunes orphaned containers, recomputes count rollups, reconciles VFS
+containment, and rebuilds only a derived-index family whose own health check
+asks for it. Pass `options.rebuild` to force one or more families to rebuild
+UNCONDITIONALLY — no health check is consulted — when an operator has
+independent reason to reconcile a family regardless of what it self-reports.
+
+```typescript
+// Report-driven: only heals what actually needs it
+const report = await brain.repairIndex()
+console.log(report.healedTotal, report.families)
+
+// Explicit: force the graph adjacency to rebuild from canonical, unconditionally
+await brain.repairIndex({ rebuild: ['graph'] })
+
+// Explicit: force all three derived indexes to rebuild
+await brain.repairIndex({ rebuild: 'all' })
+```
+
+**`RepairReport`:**
+- `families: RepairFamilyReport[]` — one row per family checked
+- `healedTotal: number` — items healed across every family
+- `durationMs: number`
+
+**`RepairFamilyReport`** (one row):
+- `family: string` — e.g. `'orphaned-containers'`, `'count-rollups'`,
+  `'vfs-containment'`, `'metadata-corruption'`, `'provider:metadata'`,
+  `'provider:graph'`, `'provider:vector'`
+- `checked: boolean` — was this family actually examined (`false` ⇒ see `skipped`)
+- `healed: number` — items re-posted/corrected in place (the incremental heal count)
+- `missing?: { count: number; sample: string[] }` — exact count plus a capped id
+  sample when the check can name what diverged (never the full list)
+- `rebuilt?: boolean` — a full generational rebuild ran (vs. an incremental heal)
+- `detail?: string` / `reason?: string` — narration
+- `skipped?: string` — why the family wasn't checked
+
+Full walkthrough — what each family checks, degraded-but-serving vs. not-ready,
+and what `suspect` counts mean — in
+**[Index Health](../concepts/index-health.md)**.
+
+---
+
+### Index readiness: typed errors, `healthReport()`, `disableAutoRebuild`
+
+Every derived-index provider (vector, graph, metadata) may expose a named,
+synchronous, O(1) `healthReport()` composed from its own exact ledgers — the
+signal Brainy's read gate trusts over sampling or size heuristics. `init()`
+brings every provider to serving before it returns; there is no first-query
+lazy-rebuild path. A read that reaches a provider whose health report says it
+isn't serving throws instead of rebuilding mid-query:
+
+| Error | Thrown by | Meaning |
+|---|---|---|
+| `GraphIndexNotReadyError` | `find({ connected })`, `neighbors()`, `related()` | Graph adjacency isn't serving |
+| `MetadataIndexNotReadyError` | `find({ where })` | Metadata/field index isn't serving |
+| `VectorIndexNotReadyError` | `find({ query })`, `similar()` | Vector index isn't serving |
+
+All three are exported from `@soulcraftlabs/brainy`. Catch them to distinguish
+"index not ready" from a genuine empty result:
+
+```typescript
+import { MetadataIndexNotReadyError } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
+
+try {
+  const rows = await brain.find({ where: { status: 'active' } })
+} catch (err) {
+  if (err instanceof MetadataIndexNotReadyError) {
+    // reconcile: await brain.repairIndex(), then retry
+  } else {
+    throw err
+  }
+}
+```
+
+**`disableAutoRebuild`** no longer defers index construction to the first
+query. A needed rebuild always runs at `open()`, regardless of this flag or
+dataset size; the flag has no effect on *when* a rebuild runs. Full manual
+control lives in `repairIndex({ rebuild: [...] })`, above.
+
+### `validateIndexConsistency()` → `Promise<...>`
+
+The deep, async diagnostic counterpart to `healthReport()` — safe to run on a
+live brain, but does more work (a provider's `validateInvariants()` may run a
+full scan, not just read a ledger). Aggregates the JS metadata index's own
+consistency check with every derived-index provider's invariant report.
+
+```typescript
+const validation = await brain.validateIndexConsistency()
+if (!validation.healthy) {
+  console.log(validation.recommendation) // what to run, e.g. repairIndex()
+  console.log(validation.providers)      // each provider's own invariant report, when exposed
+}
+```
+
+---
+
 ## Lifecycle
 
 ### Initialization
@@ -2082,7 +2208,7 @@ For the full taxonomy with all 169 types and their descriptions, see:
 - **📖 Documentation:** [Full Documentation](../)
 - **🐛 Issues:** [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/soulcraftlabs/brainy/issues)
 - **💬 Discussions:** [GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/soulcraftlabs/brainy/discussions)
-- **📦 NPM:** [@soulcraft/brainy](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@soulcraft/brainy)
+- **📦 NPM:** [@soulcraftlabs/brainy](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@soulcraftlabs/brainy)
 - **⭐ GitHub:** [Star us](https://github.com/soulcraftlabs/brainy)
 
 ---

docs/architecture/data-storage-architecture.md

@@ -268,7 +268,7 @@ locks/_flush_responses/     # writer answers with <uuid>.ack
 | **Counts/statistics** | Per-type and per-subtype maps | `_system/{type,subtype,verb-subtype}-statistics.json.gz`, `counts.json` | Recomputable by scanning entities (`brainy inspect repair`) |
 
 A pluggable index provider (the 8.0 plugin contract in
-`@soulcraft/brainy/plugin`) may replace any of the JS implementations; the
+`@soulcraftlabs/brainy/plugin`) may replace any of the JS implementations; the
 persisted formats above are contract-bound so JS and native implementations
 can interleave on the same directory.
 

docs/architecture/finite-type-system.md

@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ class TypeAwareMetadataIndex {
 **The Design**: Specify types clearly in your API calls:
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // Add entity with explicit type
 await brain.add({
@@ -231,7 +231,7 @@ class OrgEnrichmentAugmentation {
 **Brainy's Approach**: Extract **typed** concepts:
 
 ```typescript
-import { NaturalLanguageProcessor } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { NaturalLanguageProcessor } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const nlp = new NaturalLanguageProcessor()
 const concepts = await nlp.extractConcepts("Alice works at Google in San Francisco")
@@ -382,7 +382,7 @@ import {
   getVerbTypes,
   BrainyTypes,
   suggestType
-} from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+} from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // Get all available noun types
 const nounTypes = getNounTypes()

docs/architecture/index-architecture.md

@@ -723,6 +723,14 @@ async stats(): Promise<Statistics> {
 
 ### 5. Index Rebuilding (Lazy Loading Support)
 
+> **Stale as of 10.4 — "Mode 2: Lazy Loading on First Query" below is
+> RETIRED.** `disableAutoRebuild` no longer defers index construction to a
+> first query; `brain.init()` now runs every needed rebuild to completion
+> before it returns, unconditionally, and a read against a not-serving
+> provider throws a typed `*NotReadyError` instead of rebuilding mid-query.
+> See `docs/concepts/index-health.md` for the current contract. Left below
+> as historical background on the rebuild mechanics.
+
 **Two modes of index loading:**
 
 #### Mode 1: Auto-Rebuild on init() (default)

docs/architecture/initialization-and-rebuild.md

@@ -1,5 +1,15 @@
 # Initialization and Rebuild Processes
 
+> **Stale as of 10.4 — "Mode 2: Lazy Loading on First Query" below is RETIRED.**
+> `disableAutoRebuild` no longer defers index construction to a first query;
+> `brain.init()` now runs every needed rebuild to completion before it
+> returns, unconditionally. A read against a not-serving provider throws a
+> typed `*NotReadyError` instead of rebuilding mid-query. See
+> `docs/concepts/index-health.md` for the current contract; this document's
+> line-number references to `src/brainy.ts` also predate the file's current
+> size and are unreliable. Left as historical background on the rebuild
+> mechanics, not as a current API description.
+
 This document explains how Brainy's four indexes (MetadataIndex, vector index, GraphAdjacencyIndex, DeletedItemsIndex) initialize and rebuild from persisted storage.
 
 ## Core Principle: All Indexes Are Disk-Based

docs/architecture/multiprocess-storage-mixin.md

@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ For reference, a clean migration path:
    `isMultiProcessSafe` type-guard. Keep `hasStorageMethod` for
    build/install artifact protection.
 5. Document the new contract in `concepts/storage-adapters.md`.
-6. Major-version-bump the `@soulcraft/brainy` peerDep range expected by
+6. Major-version-bump the `@soulcraftlabs/brainy` peerDep range expected by
    plugins.
 
 Estimated work: ~half a day of code, ~2 hours of doc/example updates,

docs/architecture/noun-verb-taxonomy.md

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ next:
 Every example on this page is written against the real Brainy 8.0 API. The setup is always the same:
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ Brainy's **Noun-Verb Taxonomy** achieves broad coverage of human knowledge throu
 - **Multi-hop Graph Traversals = Relationship Complexity**
 - **Result: Model data across virtually any industry**
 
-Every piece of information can be represented as entities (nouns) connected by relationships (verbs) carrying properties (metadata). The standardized type system from `@soulcraft/brainy` (`NounType`, `VerbType`) gives those nouns and verbs a stable, shared name.
+Every piece of information can be represented as entities (nouns) connected by relationships (verbs) carrying properties (metadata). The standardized type system from `@soulcraftlabs/brainy` (`NounType`, `VerbType`) gives those nouns and verbs a stable, shared name.
 
 ## The Power of Standardization: Universal Interoperability
 

docs/architecture/zero-config.md

@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ constructor and `init()`.
 ## Instant Start
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // That's it. No config needed.
 const brain = new Brainy()

docs/concepts/field-addressing.md

@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ await brain.find({ orderBy: 'createdAt' })
 `UnresolvableFieldError` is exported from the package root:
 
 ```typescript
-import { UnresolvableFieldError } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { UnresolvableFieldError } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 try {
   await brain.find({ orderBy: 'createdAt' })

docs/concepts/index-health.md

@@ -0,0 +1,217 @@
+---
+title: Index Health
+slug: concepts/index-health
+public: true
+category: concepts
+template: concept
+order: 8
+description: How Brainy knows whether a derived index can be trusted — exact accounting instead of sampling, the named health report, degraded-but-serving vs. not-ready, and what repairIndex() checks, heals, and rebuilds.
+next:
+  - concepts/generation-fact-log
+  - guides/inspection
+---
+
+# Index Health
+
+Brainy keeps one **canonical** copy of every entity and relationship, and three
+**derived** indexes built from it — vector, metadata, and graph — so `find()` can
+answer semantically, by filter, and by traversal without re-deriving the answer from
+scratch on every query. A derived index is a cache with a serving structure: it can
+be present but stale, present but only partially loaded, or fully out of sync with
+canonical after a crash. This page is about how Brainy decides whether to trust one,
+what it does when it can't, and how you reconcile the two.
+
+## Exact accounting instead of sampling
+
+Older health checks worked by inference: does `size()` return something greater
+than zero, does a spot-check on one known item come back correct. Both are proxies.
+A cold index can report a nonzero count while its actual serving structure never
+loaded, and a spot-check only proves the one item it happened to ask about.
+
+Every derived-index provider may now expose a named, synchronous, O(1)
+`healthReport()` — composed from the provider's own **exact ledgers** (real counters
+it already maintains on the write path), never a sample or a walk. This is the one
+signal Brainy's read gate consults. A provider that doesn't yet expose one falls
+back to an honest `isReady()` boolean, and finally to a size heuristic for engines
+with neither — but wherever a `healthReport()` exists, it wins.
+
+Underneath, storage itself keeps an analogous **canonical count ledger**: a
+`counted` scalar (the user-facing total — what `getNounCount()` / `getVerbCount()`
+return) and an `all` scalar (every tier, including internal records a derived
+index's own coverage math needs to compare against). This is the real denominator
+a provider's `healthReport()` measures itself by, rather than a total that can only
+ever ratchet upward. See [What `suspect` counts mean](#what-suspect-counts-mean)
+below for the one case that ledger can't stay exact through on its own.
+
+## The named report
+
+A `HealthReport` carries, per provider (`'vector'` / `'graph'` / `'metadata'`):
+
+- **`healthy`** — `true` iff every *verified* invariant holds. An invariant whose
+  family has no ledger yet is `unledgered`, never counted either way — unknown,
+  not passing.
+- **`serving`** — can this provider answer a query right now. A failing invariant
+  graded `heal: 'repair'` or `heal: 'none'` still leaves `serving: true` — this is
+  **degraded-but-serving**: something is off (say, a stale rollup on an
+  `employee` record's relationship count) but reads keep working. Only a failure
+  graded `heal: 'rebuild'` flips `serving` to `false` — **not-ready** — because the
+  provider itself is telling you its serving structure cannot answer correctly.
+- **`invariants`** — each checked condition, with its provenance
+  (`source: 'ledger'` — an exact count; `'deep'` — a full scan, diagnostic-only;
+  `'unledgered'` — not yet tracked) and, for a failing one, an exact `missing`
+  count plus a capped sample of the affected ids — a verdict, never a dump.
+- **`generation`** — bumps on every ledger mutation and rebuild, so a caller can
+  cache a verdict per generation instead of re-deriving it.
+
+The distinction that matters day to day: `healthy: false` can be entirely benign —
+a maintenance window, a divergence `repairIndex()` will clean up on its own
+schedule. `serving: false` is not benign. It means this provider is refusing to
+answer, on its own word, right now.
+
+**How a failure gets its grade — the serving law.** A provider grades `heal` by
+one question only: *could an answer be wrong?* — never *how expensive is the
+fix?* A missing-postings shortfall, however large, is `heal: 'repair'` (re-post
+exactly what the ledger names, reads serving throughout); it can never withhold
+serving just because healing it takes work. `serving` is withheld only by a
+small, named set of rebuild-graded conditions — the index not initialized, its
+durable state absent, a manifest naming files that are not resident, a replay
+that did not complete cleanly — the states in which an answer could genuinely be
+wrong. And a read is only ever refused by the family it actually consults: a
+metadata filter is answered by the metadata index alone, vector search by the
+vector index, traversal by the graph index — one family's refusal never blocks
+another family's reads.
+
+## Reads refuse — they never rebuild
+
+A query that reaches a not-serving provider does not trigger a rebuild from inside
+the read. Brainy retired that path deliberately: a rebuild kicked off by an ordinary
+`find({ where: { status: 'active' } })` call is a dark, unpredictable cost hiding
+behind a request that looks like a cheap read. Instead, the read throws a typed,
+catchable error naming the reason:
+
+| Error | Thrown when | Meaning |
+|---|---|---|
+| `GraphIndexNotReadyError` | `find({ connected })`, `neighbors()`, `related()` | The graph adjacency index isn't serving — traversal would otherwise return `[]` indistinguishable from "no relationships" |
+| `MetadataIndexNotReadyError` | `find({ where })` | The metadata/field index isn't serving — a filtered read would otherwise return `[]` indistinguishable from "no matches" |
+| `VectorIndexNotReadyError` | `find({ query })`, `similar()` | The vector index isn't serving — a semantic search would otherwise return `[]` indistinguishable from "nothing similar" |
+
+All three are exported from `@soulcraftlabs/brainy`. Catch them where your application
+needs to distinguish "this index isn't ready yet" from "there's genuinely nothing
+here" — a health dashboard, a retry policy, an operator alert. The fix is always
+the same: reconcile the index, either by reopening the brain (which brings every
+provider to serving before `init()` returns — see the next section) or by calling
+`repairIndex()` explicitly.
+
+```typescript
+try {
+  const active = await brain.find({ where: { status: 'active' } })
+} catch (err) {
+  if (err instanceof MetadataIndexNotReadyError) {
+    // not a "no results" — the index itself refused; alert or retry after repair
+  } else {
+    throw err
+  }
+}
+```
+
+### Rebuilds happen at open, not on first query
+
+`brain.init()` runs every needed rebuild to completion **before it returns**,
+unconditionally, regardless of dataset size. There is no lazy, first-query
+rebuild path anymore — a brain either finishes opening healthy, or it fails
+open loudly. `disableAutoRebuild: true` no longer defers index construction to
+the first query: it has no effect on *when* a needed rebuild runs. Full manual
+control over rebuilds is `repairIndex({ rebuild: [...] })` (below), not this flag.
+
+## `repairIndex()` — checking and healing
+
+Bare `repairIndex()` is **report-driven**: it only heals what its own checks say
+actually needs it, and it always returns a full per-family receipt.
+
+```typescript
+const report = await brain.repairIndex()
+report.healedTotal   // total items healed across every family
+report.durationMs
+report.families       // one row per family checked
+```
+
+Each `RepairFamilyReport` row names what happened:
+
+- **`checked`** — was this family actually examined (`false` means skipped —
+  see `skipped` for why).
+- **`healed`** — items re-posted or corrected in place.
+- **`missing`** — when the check can name what diverged: an exact `count` plus a
+  capped `sample` of ids.
+- **`rebuilt`** — a full generational rebuild ran (as opposed to an incremental
+  heal).
+- **`detail`** / **`reason`** / **`skipped`** — the receipt's narration; a row is
+  always either checked or explains why it wasn't. Nothing is silent.
+
+On every call, bare `repairIndex()`:
+
+1. Prunes orphaned canonical containers left by a partial delete.
+2. Recomputes the count rollups from one canonical walk (unconditional — this is
+   also what clears a `suspect` ledger; see below).
+3. Reconciles VFS containment edges, if the VFS is initialized.
+4. Runs the metadata index's own corruption detection pass.
+5. Consults each of the three derived-index providers' own health check and
+   rebuilds only a family whose failing invariant actually asks for it
+   (`heal: 'rebuild'`) — never a provider that reports `healthy` or a lesser
+   grade.
+
+### The explicit rebuild door
+
+`options.rebuild` skips the health check and rebuilds one or more families
+**unconditionally** — the operator override for when you have independent reason
+to distrust a family regardless of what it self-reports (a suspicious deploy, a
+storage-layer incident, a support ticket that doesn't match what the health report
+says):
+
+```typescript
+// Force the graph adjacency to rebuild from canonical, no invariant consulted
+await brain.repairIndex({ rebuild: ['graph'] })
+
+// Force all three derived indexes
+await brain.repairIndex({ rebuild: 'all' })
+```
+
+A family named this way is recorded with `rebuilt: true` and
+`reason: 'explicit rebuild requested'`, and is skipped by the normal
+health-driven pass in the same call — it was already rebuilt unconditionally.
+
+Reach for the explicit door when you need certainty regardless of self-report;
+reach for bare `repairIndex()` for routine maintenance and after any incident
+where you're not sure which family (if any) needs it.
+
+## What `suspect` counts mean
+
+Storage's canonical count ledger increments the ALL-visibility total on every new
+record and decrements it on every *proven* delete — one where the record was read,
+or the caller supplied its prior image. A delete that cannot prove what it removed
+existed doesn't guess: it flags the ledger `suspect` (an operator-visible
+`console.warn`, narrated once per session, not once per delete) rather than risk
+decrementing a total that was never incremented for that record in the first
+place. This is intentionally rare — it's a defensive fallback for callers on an
+unusual removal path, not a per-delete cost.
+
+`suspect` is not directly exposed on any `Brainy` method today — it lives on the
+`StorageAdapter`'s optional `getCanonicalCounts()`, primarily consulted by
+`repairIndex()`'s recount step and by custom storage adapters composing their own
+`healthReport()`. What matters for an application: a `suspect` ledger is not
+incorrect, just *unverified since the last recount* — and `repairIndex()`'s
+unconditional count-rollup step (step 2, above) recomputes the ALL scalars from a
+real canonical walk on every call, clearing the flag with proof either way.
+
+## Practical guidance
+
+- **On a normal restart**, do nothing — `init()` brings every provider to
+  serving before it returns, or fails loudly.
+- **On a `*NotReadyError`** from a live read, reconcile with `repairIndex()`
+  (report-driven is almost always sufficient) and retry.
+- **After an incident** where you distrust a specific family regardless of what
+  it reports healthy — a storage-layer fault, a suspicious restore — use the
+  explicit door: `repairIndex({ rebuild: ['metadata' | 'graph' | 'vector'] })`.
+- **To audit before trusting a report**, `brain.auditGraph()` walks every stored
+  relationship and proves (or disproves) that reads return canonical truth,
+  independent of what any provider self-reports — see
+  [Inspecting a Live Brainy](../guides/inspection.md).

docs/concepts/storage-adapters.md

@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ The only required override is the capability flag. Returning `true` from
 to call `acquireWriterLock()` at init.
 
 ```typescript
-import { FileSystemStorage } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { FileSystemStorage } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 export class MmapFileSystemStorage extends FileSystemStorage {
   public supportsMultiProcessLocking(): boolean {
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ If your storage is **not filesystem-backed** (a custom
 network backend), extend `BaseStorage` directly:
 
 ```typescript
-import { BaseStorage } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { BaseStorage } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 export class MyCloudStorage extends BaseStorage {
   // BaseStorage's default no-op implementations of the multi-process
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ The defensive check at every new-storage-method call site (`brainy.ts`,
 `hasStorageMethod(name)`) does **not** exist to handle "plugin bundles a
 stale BaseStorage." Plugins ship a dist that preserves the dynamic ESM
 import (verify in your plugin's `dist/`: `import { FileSystemStorage } from
-'@soulcraft/brainy'` is not rewritten to a vendored copy). The prototype
+'@soulcraftlabs/brainy'` is not rewritten to a vendored copy). The prototype
 chain at runtime resolves to whatever Brainy version your consumer has
 installed.
 
@@ -109,8 +109,8 @@ installed.
 the prototype chain at the consumer-app level:
 
 - **Stale `node_modules`** — a lingering install from before the consumer
-  upgraded Brainy. The package.json says `@soulcraft/brainy@7.22.0` but
-  `node_modules/@soulcraft/brainy` is still 7.20.x.
+  upgraded Brainy. The package.json says `@soulcraftlabs/brainy@7.22.0` but
+  `node_modules/@soulcraftlabs/brainy` is still 7.20.x.
 - **Lockfile drift** — `bun.lockb` / `package-lock.json` pins a brainy
   version older than the package.json range, and `bun install` honors the
   lockfile.
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ and the warning names the adapter class plus a remediation hint:
 methods on its prototype chain. Writer locking and the flush-request RPC are
 disabled for this directory. Likely fix: clean install (`rm -rf node_modules
 bun.lockb && bun install`) or rebuild your container image to refresh
-`@soulcraft/brainy` to ≥7.21. See docs/concepts/storage-adapters.md.
+`@soulcraftlabs/brainy` to ≥7.21. See docs/concepts/storage-adapters.md.
 ```
 
 ## Authoring a new storage adapter — minimum checklist
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ bun.lockb && bun install`) or rebuild your container image to refresh
    install time — fix install, not your plugin.
 
 6. **Pin your peer dep generously.** `"peerDependencies": {
-   "@soulcraft/brainy": "^7.21.0" }` accepts any compatible 7.x. Don't pin
+   "@soulcraftlabs/brainy": "^7.21.0" }` accepts any compatible 7.x. Don't pin
    to an exact patch unless you're tracking a known regression.
 
 ## Future direction
@@ -185,5 +185,5 @@ follow-up; consumers don't need to anticipate the change.
   heartbeat semantics, what the lock protects.
 - [`guides/inspection`](../guides/inspection.md) — `brainy inspect` and the
   read-only mode.
-- `node_modules/@soulcraft/brainy/dist/storage/baseStorage.d.ts` — the
+- `node_modules/@soulcraftlabs/brainy/dist/storage/baseStorage.d.ts` — the
   authoritative type signatures for every method this page references.

docs/guides/aggregation.md

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ they share a single scan.
 ## Quick Start
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()

docs/guides/framework-integration.md

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ Brainy is **framework-friendly** - designed to drop into the server side of any
 
 Brainy embeds an HNSW vector index, a graph engine, and a filesystem-backed persistence layer. These belong on the server:
 
-- **Zero configuration**: Just `import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'`
+- **Zero configuration**: Just `import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'`
 - **Auto storage detection**: `new Brainy()` auto-selects filesystem persistence on Node
 - **Cleaner code**: No browser polyfills, no conditional client/server imports
 - **Better DX**: One instance shared across your server routes
@@ -18,13 +18,13 @@ Brainy embeds an HNSW vector index, a graph engine, and a filesystem-backed pers
 ### Install Brainy
 
 ```bash
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy
 ```
 
 ### Basic Integration
 
 ```javascript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // Run on the server (API route, server component, backend service)
 // new Brainy() auto-detects filesystem persistence on Node
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ On the server, create one Brainy instance and reuse it across requests. This mod
 
 ```javascript
 // lib/brain.server.js
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 let brainPromise
 
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ On the server, create one Brainy instance and reuse it across requests:
 
 ```javascript
 // server/brain.js (server-only module)
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 let brainPromise
 
@@ -248,7 +248,7 @@ The matching backend endpoint uses Brainy directly (Node/Bun):
 
 ```typescript
 // server: api/search
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy() // auto-detects filesystem persistence on Node
 await brain.init()
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ In Next.js, Brainy lives in server code only: API routes, server components, or
 
 ```javascript
 // lib/brain.server.js  (imported only by server code)
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 let brainPromise
 
@@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ Brainy runs in a server-only module (`*.server.js`); the component fetches resul
 
 ```javascript
 // src/lib/server/brain.js  (server-only — note the .server suffix)
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 let brainPromise
 
@@ -432,7 +432,7 @@ import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
 
 export default defineConfig({
   ssr: {
-    external: ['@soulcraft/brainy']
+    external: ['@soulcraftlabs/brainy']
   }
 })
 ```
@@ -440,7 +440,7 @@ export default defineConfig({
 ```javascript
 // rollup.config.js  (server bundle)
 export default {
-  external: ['@soulcraft/brainy', 'node:fs', 'node:path', 'node:crypto']
+  external: ['@soulcraftlabs/brainy', 'node:fs', 'node:path', 'node:crypto']
 }
 ```
 
@@ -466,7 +466,7 @@ export async function load({ url }) {
 
 ```javascript
 // For build-time usage (runs in Node during the build)
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 export async function generateStaticProps() {
   const brain = new Brainy({
@@ -513,7 +513,7 @@ export async function generateStaticProps() {
 
 ### Issue: Large client bundle size
 **Cause**: A client module is pulling in Brainy.
-**Solution**: Move the `import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'` into a server-only module so it never reaches the browser bundle.
+**Solution**: Move the `import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'` into a server-only module so it never reaches the browser bundle.
 
 ### Issue: SSR hydration mismatch
 **Solution**: Run the search on the server (loader / server action / API route) and pass the results down as props, so server and client render the same markup.

docs/guides/import-anything.md

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ Brainy's import is **ONE magical method** that understands EVERYTHING:
 ## The Ultimate Simplicity
 
 ```javascript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()

docs/guides/import-progress-examples.md

@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ Brainy provides real-time progress tracking for **all 7 supported file formats**
 ### Basic Progress Tracking
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 import * as fs from 'fs'
 
 const brain = await Brainy.create()

docs/guides/import-quick-reference.md

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 ## Basic Import
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()
@@ -187,7 +187,7 @@ await brain.import(file, {
 ## Complete Example
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 import * as fs from 'fs'
 
 async function importCatalog() {

docs/guides/inspection.md

@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ check fails — useful for piping into monitoring or CI.
 ## Programmatic inspection
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const reader = await Brainy.openReadOnly({
   storage: { type: 'filesystem', path: '/data/brain' }

docs/guides/installation.md

@@ -21,21 +21,21 @@ next:
 ## Install
 
 ```bash
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy
 ```
 
 Or with your preferred package manager:
 
 ```bash
-bun add @soulcraft/brainy
-yarn add @soulcraft/brainy
-pnpm add @soulcraft/brainy
+bun add @soulcraftlabs/brainy
+yarn add @soulcraftlabs/brainy
+pnpm add @soulcraftlabs/brainy
 ```
 
 ## Verify
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ npm install @soulcraft/cor
 ```
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy({ plugins: ['@soulcraft/cor'] })
 await brain.init()  // native providers registered during init
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ remains available on npm if you need it.
 Brainy ships with full TypeScript types. No `@types/` package needed:
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()

docs/guides/migration-3.36.0.md

@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ const results = await brain.search("query")
 **New diagnostics for capacity planning and performance tuning.**
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ Recommendations: ${stats.recommendations.join(', ')}
 ### Step 1: Update Package
 
 ```bash
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy@latest
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy@latest
 ```
 
 ### Step 2: Restart Your Application
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ npm run start
 ### Check Adaptive Sizing is Working
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()
@@ -218,7 +218,7 @@ For debugging or compatibility testing:
 If you need to rollback to v3.35.0:
 
 ```bash
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy@3.35.0
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy@3.35.0
 ```
 
 **Note:** We don't anticipate any issues, but rollback is straightforward if needed.
@@ -367,7 +367,7 @@ if (stats.fairness.fairnessViolation) {
 
 ## Next Steps
 
-1. ✅ **Upgrade:** `npm install @soulcraft/brainy@latest`
+1. ✅ **Upgrade:** `npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy@latest`
 2. 📊 **Monitor:** Use `getCacheStats()` to verify performance improvements
 3. 🎯 **Tune:** Adjust based on recommendations (if needed)
 4. 📖 **Read:** [Operations Guide](../operations/capacity-planning.md) for capacity planning

docs/guides/model-loading.md

@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ This single WASM file contains everything needed for sentence embeddings.
 
 ```bash
 # Bun as a runtime — supported and recommended
-bun add @soulcraft/brainy
+bun add @soulcraftlabs/brainy
 bun run server.ts
 ```
 

docs/guides/namespace-migration.md

@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ If you read raw stored records (fact-log scanners, export tooling), use
 the exported shape-aware splitters — they handle both record eras:
 
 ```typescript
-import { splitNounMetadataRecord } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { splitNounMetadataRecord } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 const { reserved, custom } = splitNounMetadataRecord(rawRecord)
 // reserved = engine fields · custom = the user's bag, ANY names
 ```
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ const { reserved, custom } = splitNounMetadataRecord(rawRecord)
 Feature detection (never version-sniff):
 
 ```typescript
-import * as brainy from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import * as brainy from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 const lawActive = 'FIELD_ADDRESSING_CAPABILITY' in brainy // 'field-addressing/v1'
 ```
 

docs/guides/nextjs-integration.md

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ Complete guide to integrating Brainy with Next.js applications, covering App Rou
 ```bash
 npx create-next-app@latest my-brainy-app
 cd my-brainy-app
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy
 ```
 
 ### Basic Setup
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ npm install @soulcraft/brainy
 // app/components/BrainyProvider.jsx
 'use client'
 import { createContext, useContext, useEffect, useState } from 'react'
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const BrainyContext = createContext()
 
@@ -271,7 +271,7 @@ export default function SearchPage() {
 
 ```javascript
 // app/api/search/route.js (App Router)
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 let brain = null
 
@@ -332,7 +332,7 @@ export async function GET() {
 
 ```javascript
 // pages/api/search.js (Pages Router)
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 let brain = null
 
@@ -374,7 +374,7 @@ export default async function handler(req, res) {
 
 ```javascript
 // app/api/data/route.js
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 let brain = null
 
@@ -418,7 +418,7 @@ export async function POST(request) {
 ```jsx
 // app/actions/brainy.js
 'use server'
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 let brain = null
 
@@ -630,7 +630,7 @@ CMD ["npm", "start"]
 /** @type {import('next').NextConfig} */
 const nextConfig = {
   experimental: {
-    serverComponentsExternalPackages: ['@soulcraft/brainy']
+    serverComponentsExternalPackages: ['@soulcraftlabs/brainy']
   },
   webpack: (config, { isServer }) => {
     if (!isServer) {
@@ -797,7 +797,7 @@ export function rateLimit(req, limit = 100, window = 60000) {
 // app/contexts/BrainyContext.jsx
 'use client'
 import { createContext, useContext, useReducer, useEffect } from 'react'
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const BrainyContext = createContext()
 
@@ -873,7 +873,7 @@ import { BrainyProvider } from '../app/components/BrainyProvider'
 import { Search } from '../app/components/Search'
 
 // Mock Brainy
-jest.mock('@soulcraft/brainy', () => ({
+jest.mock('@soulcraftlabs/brainy', () => ({
   Brainy: jest.fn().mockImplementation(() => ({
     init: jest.fn().mockResolvedValue(undefined),
     find: jest.fn().mockResolvedValue([

docs/guides/optimistic-concurrency.md

@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ Brainy 7.31.0 adds a per-entity revision counter so multiple writers can coordin
 Every distributed-job scheduler eventually wants this exact loop:
 
 ```ts
-import { Brainy, RevisionConflictError } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, RevisionConflictError } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const LOCK_ID = '...uuid for this job slot...'
 
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ await brain.addIfMissing({                       // ← not a real API
 It's race-prone as a plain read-then-write: two concurrent imports both see "not found," both insert, you get duplicates. Without a unique-index primitive (which Brainy doesn't have today), close the race with whole-store CAS — read at a pinned generation, then commit only if nothing moved:
 
 ```ts
-import { GenerationConflictError } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { GenerationConflictError } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 async function addIfMissingByEmail(email: string, data: string) {
   for (let attempt = 0; attempt < 5; attempt++) {

docs/guides/quick-start.md

@@ -18,13 +18,13 @@ Get Brainy running in under a minute.
 ## 1. Install
 
 ```bash
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy
 ```
 
 ## 2. Initialize
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ await brain.relate({
 ## 5. Query with Triple Intelligence
 
 ```typescript
-import type { Result } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import type { Result } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // All three search paradigms in one call
 const results: Result[] = await brain.find({

docs/guides/standard-import-progress.md

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 ### One Interface for Everything
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = await Brainy.create()
 
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ interface ImportProgress {
 
 ```typescript
 import { useState } from 'react'
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 function UniversalImportProgress({ file }: { file: File }) {
   const [progress, setProgress] = useState({
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ function UniversalImportProgress({ file }: { file: File }) {
 
 ```typescript
 import ora from 'ora'
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 async function importWithProgress(filePath: string) {
   const spinner = ora('Starting import...').start()

docs/guides/storage-adapters.md

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ on-disk layout (memory's "disk" is a JS Map).
 ## Quick start
 
 ```ts
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // Filesystem (recommended for any persistent workload):
 const brain = new Brainy({
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ config; the `type` is optional.
 If you want to skip the factory:
 
 ```ts
-import { FileSystemStorage, MemoryStorage } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { FileSystemStorage, MemoryStorage } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const fsStorage = new FileSystemStorage('./brainy-data')
 const memStorage = new MemoryStorage()

docs/guides/subtypes-and-facets.md

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ Three layers solve this:
 ### Write
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()
@@ -240,7 +240,7 @@ await brain.migrateField({
 A realistic adoption sequence for a brain that started without these primitives:
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy({ storage: { type: 'filesystem', path: './brain-data' } })
 await brain.init()

docs/guides/upgrading-7-to-8.md

@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ content — and how 8.0 recovers it for you.
 
 ## TL;DR
 
-- **Just upgrade to `@soulcraft/brainy@8.0.12` (or later) and open the store.**
+- **Just upgrade to `@soulcraftlabs/brainy@8.0.12` (or later) and open the store.**
   If a previous upgrade left VFS content stranded, 8.0.12 **heals it on open**,
   with no operator action.
 - Want to force or script it? Call **`await brain.vfs.adoptOrphanedBlobs()`**.
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ So the operator action for a stranded store is simply: **upgrade to 8.0.12 and
 open it.**
 
 ```ts
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // Opening the store is all that is required — recovery runs during init().
 const brain = new Brainy({ storage: { type: 'filesystem', path: '/data/my-store' } })
@@ -182,5 +182,5 @@ and opening each store is sufficient.
 The recovery is copy-only, so no rollback of the recovery itself is ever needed.
 If you need to roll back the **whole** 7→8 upgrade, restore the directory from
 your pre-upgrade backup (retained automatically while recovery is incomplete, or
-your own snapshot) and pin `@soulcraft/brainy@7.x`. 8.0 does not keep the old
+your own snapshot) and pin `@soulcraftlabs/brainy@7.x`. 8.0 does not keep the old
 branch layout in place, so a directory-level restore is the rollback path.

docs/guides/vue-integration.md

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Complete guide to integrating Brainy with Vue.js applications, covering Vue 3, N
 npm create vue@latest my-brainy-app
 cd my-brainy-app
 npm install
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy
 ```
 
 ### Basic Setup
@@ -574,7 +574,7 @@ Nuxt's server engine (Nitro) is the natural home for Brainy: it runs on Node/Bun
 
 ```javascript
 // server/utils/brain.js  (server-only — Nitro never bundles this into the client)
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 let brainPromise
 
@@ -1201,7 +1201,7 @@ import vue from '@vitejs/plugin-vue'
 export default defineConfig({
   plugins: [vue()],
   ssr: {
-    external: ['@soulcraft/brainy']
+    external: ['@soulcraftlabs/brainy']
   }
 })
 ```

docs/neural-extraction.md

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Brainy's neural extraction system uses a **4-signal ensemble architecture** to c
 ### Method 1: Brain Instance (Recommended)
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, NounType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()
@@ -62,9 +62,9 @@ const people = await brain.extractEntities('...', {
 import {
   SmartExtractor,
   SmartRelationshipExtractor
-} from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+} from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 // Or use subpath imports:
-import { SmartExtractor } from '@soulcraft/brainy/neural/SmartExtractor'
+import { SmartExtractor } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy/neural/SmartExtractor'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ const withVectors = await brain.extractEntities(text, {
 **Direct entity type classifier.** Use when you have pre-detected candidates or need custom configuration.
 
 ```typescript
-import { SmartExtractor, FormatContext } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { SmartExtractor, FormatContext } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const extractor = new SmartExtractor(brain, {
   minConfidence: 0.7,              // Threshold
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ interface ExtractionResult {
 **Relationship type classifier.** Determines verb/relationship types between entities.
 
 ```typescript
-import { SmartRelationshipExtractor } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { SmartRelationshipExtractor } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const relExtractor = new SmartRelationshipExtractor(brain, {
   minConfidence: 0.6,
@@ -286,7 +286,7 @@ const rel = await relExtractor.infer(
 **Full extraction orchestrator.** Handles candidate detection, classification, and deduplication.
 
 ```typescript
-import { NeuralEntityExtractor } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { NeuralEntityExtractor } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const extractor = new NeuralEntityExtractor(brain)
 
@@ -607,7 +607,7 @@ const locations = entities.filter(e => e.type === NounType.Location)
 ### Example 2: Excel Data Classification
 
 ```typescript
-import { SmartExtractor } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { SmartExtractor } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const extractor = new SmartExtractor(brain)
 
@@ -629,7 +629,7 @@ for (let i = 0; i < cells.length; i++) {
 ### Example 3: Relationship Extraction
 
 ```typescript
-import { SmartRelationshipExtractor } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { SmartRelationshipExtractor } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const relExtractor = new SmartRelationshipExtractor(brain)
 

docs/transactions.md

@@ -204,8 +204,8 @@ await brain.add({ data: { name: 'Entity' }, type: NounType.Thing })
 ### Basic Add Operation
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
-import { NounType } from '@soulcraft/brainy/types'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
+import { NounType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy/types'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()
@@ -428,7 +428,7 @@ await brain.relate({ ... })           // a crash here leaves the entity unlinked
 
 ```typescript
 import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest'
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 describe('Transaction Tests', () => {
  it('should rollback on failure', async () => {

docs/universal-display-augmentation.md

@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ The Universal Display Augmentation is a powerful AI-powered system that automati
 ### Basic Usage
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brainy = new Brainy()
 await brainy.init()

docs/vfs/PROJECTION_STRATEGY_API.md

@@ -71,9 +71,9 @@ Let's build a projection that organizes files by priority (high, medium, low):
 ### Step 1: Create the Strategy Class
 
 ```typescript
-import { BaseProjectionStrategy } from '@soulcraft/brainy/vfs/semantic'
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
-import { VirtualFileSystem, VFSEntity } from '@soulcraft/brainy/vfs'
+import { BaseProjectionStrategy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy/vfs/semantic'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
+import { VirtualFileSystem, VFSEntity } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy/vfs'
 
 export class PriorityProjection extends BaseProjectionStrategy {
   readonly name = 'priority'
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ export class PriorityProjection extends BaseProjectionStrategy {
 ### Step 2: Register the Strategy
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 import { PriorityProjection } from './PriorityProjection'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
@@ -537,7 +537,7 @@ Use the projection's resolve cache:
 
 ```typescript
 import { describe, it, expect, beforeAll } from 'vitest'
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 import { PriorityProjection } from './PriorityProjection'
 
 describe('PriorityProjection', () => {
@@ -714,7 +714,7 @@ async resolve(brain, vfs, value: string) {
 3. Use appropriate limits: Don't fetch more than needed
 
 ### Type errors
-1. Import correct types: `import { Brainy, VirtualFileSystem } from '@soulcraft/brainy'`
+1. Import correct types: `import { Brainy, VirtualFileSystem } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'`
 2. Use `as VFSEntity` when mapping results
 3. Check BaseProjectionStrategy import
 

docs/vfs/QUICK_START.md

@@ -14,11 +14,11 @@ A file explorer that:
 ## ⚡ Step 1: Basic Setup (1 minute)
 
 ```bash
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy
 ```
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // ✅ CORRECT: Use filesystem storage for production
 const brain = new Brainy({
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ Here's a complete React component using the correct patterns:
 
 ```tsx
 import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react'
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 export function FileExplorer() {
  const [brain, setBrain] = useState(null)
@@ -288,8 +288,8 @@ Your file explorer is now working! Here's what to explore next:
 ### "Module not found" errors
 ```bash
 # Make sure you're using the right import
-npm ls @soulcraft/brainy # Check version
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy@latest # Update if needed
+npm ls @soulcraftlabs/brainy # Check version
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy@latest # Update if needed
 ```
 
 ### "VFS not initialized" errors

docs/vfs/README.md

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Brainy VFS is a revolutionary virtual filesystem that runs on top of Brainy's ne
 ## Quick Start
 
 ```javascript
-import { VirtualFileSystem } from '@soulcraft/brainy/vfs'
+import { VirtualFileSystem } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy/vfs'
 
 // Initialize the VFS
 const vfs = new VirtualFileSystem({
@@ -381,7 +381,7 @@ Brainy VFS fully leverages Brainy's revolutionary Triple Intelligence system:
 ## Installation
 
 ```bash
-npm install @soulcraft/brainy
+npm install @soulcraftlabs/brainy
 ```
 
 ## Requirements

docs/vfs/ROADMAP.md

@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ Mount VFS as a native filesystem on Linux/Mac/Windows.
 
 ```typescript
 // Planned (research phase)
-import { mountVFS } from '@soulcraft/brainy/vfs/fuse'
+import { mountVFS } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy/vfs/fuse'
 
 await mountVFS(vfs, {
   mountPoint: '/mnt/brainy',
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ These features would benefit from community contributions. If you're interested
 ### Express.js Static Middleware
 ```typescript
 // Wanted: Community contribution
-import { createStaticMiddleware } from '@soulcraft/brainy/vfs/express'
+import { createStaticMiddleware } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy/vfs/express'
 
 app.use('/files', createStaticMiddleware(vfs, {
   index: ['index.html', 'index.md'],
@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@ app.use('/files', createStaticMiddleware(vfs, {
 ### VSCode Extension
 ```typescript
 // Wanted: Community contribution
-import { VFSProvider } from '@soulcraft/brainy/vfs/vscode'
+import { VFSProvider } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy/vfs/vscode'
 
 const provider = new VFSProvider(vfs)
 vscode.workspace.registerFileSystemProvider('brainy', provider)

docs/vfs/SEMANTIC_VFS.md

@@ -327,7 +327,7 @@ console.log(id1 === id2 && id2 === id3)  // true
 Create your own semantic dimensions:
 
 ```typescript
-import { BaseProjectionStrategy } from '@soulcraft/brainy/vfs/semantic'
+import { BaseProjectionStrategy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy/vfs/semantic'
 
 class PriorityProjection extends BaseProjectionStrategy {
   readonly name = 'priority'

docs/vfs/VFS_API_GUIDE.md

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ Brainy's Virtual Filesystem (VFS) provides a POSIX-like filesystem interface tha
 ## Quick Start
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // Initialize Brainy
 const brain = new Brainy({
@@ -598,7 +598,7 @@ const user = await store.findById('users', 'user123')
 VFS uses standard POSIX-style errors:
 
 ```typescript
-import { VFSError, VFSErrorCode } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { VFSError, VFSErrorCode } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 try {
   await vfs.readFile('/nonexistent.txt')

docs/vfs/VFS_CORE.md

@@ -280,7 +280,7 @@ GitBridge provides Git import/export capabilities:
 #### GitBridge Usage
 ```javascript
 // Import and instantiate GitBridge
-import { GitBridge } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { GitBridge } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 const gitBridge = new GitBridge(vfs, brain)
 
 // Export VFS to Git repository structure
@@ -452,7 +452,7 @@ This ordering prevents race conditions where file writes might fail because pare
 ## Complete Example
 
 ```javascript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 async function vfsExample() {
   // Initialize

docs/vfs/VFS_GRAPH_TYPES.md

@@ -196,5 +196,5 @@ await brain.relate({
 Always import and use the type enums:
 
 ```javascript
-import { NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { NounType, VerbType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 ```

docs/vfs/VFS_INITIALIZATION.md

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 The Brainy VFS is automatically initialized during `brain.init()`. No separate initialization needed!
 
 ```javascript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // Create and initialize Brainy
 const brain = new Brainy({
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ VFS stores files as entities and relationships in the same graph as everything e
 ## Complete Example
 
 ```javascript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 async function useVFS() {
   // Initialize Brainy
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ useVFS().catch(console.error)
 ## TypeScript Usage
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, VirtualFileSystem } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, VirtualFileSystem } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 class FileManager {
   private brain: Brainy

docs/vfs/building-file-explorers.md

@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ Brainy VFS provides safe, tree-aware methods that prevent these issues:
 ### Method 1: Use `getDirectChildren()` (Recommended)
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, VirtualFileSystem } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, VirtualFileSystem } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy()
 await brain.init()
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ Here's a complete example using React:
 
 ```tsx
 import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react'
-import { VirtualFileSystem } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { VirtualFileSystem } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 interface FileNode {
   name: string
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ function TreeView({ node, onToggle, expanded }) {
 If you must build trees manually from flat lists, use the `VFSTreeUtils`:
 
 ```typescript
-import { VFSTreeUtils } from '@soulcraft/brainy/vfs'
+import { VFSTreeUtils } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy/vfs'
 
 // Get all entities somehow
 const allEntities = await vfs.getDescendants('/root')

examples/bluesky-distributed-setup.js

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
  * the Bluesky firehose with Brainy's distributed architecture
  */
 
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 import { WebSocket } from 'ws'
 
 // =====================================================

examples/monitor-cache-performance.ts

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
  *   ts-node examples/monitor-cache-performance.ts
  */
 
-import { Brainy, NounType } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, NounType } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // ANSI color codes for pretty output
 const colors = {

integrations/README.md

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ Connect Brainy to spreadsheets, BI tools, and external systems with zero configu
 ## Quick Start
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy({ integrations: true })
 await brain.init()
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ Webhooks include `X-Brainy-Signature` header with HMAC-SHA256 signature.
 ### Minimal (in-memory):
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy({ integrations: true })
 await brain.init()
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ console.log(brain.hub.getInstructions())
 
 ```typescript
 import express from 'express'
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const app = express()
 const brain = new Brainy({
@@ -232,7 +232,7 @@ app.listen(3000, () => {
 
 ```typescript
 import { Hono } from 'hono'
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const app = new Hono()
 

integrations/google-sheets/README.md

@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ Add the `BRAINY_URL` script property in Apps Script settings.
 The simplest way to enable all integrations:
 
 ```javascript
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const brain = new Brainy({ integrations: true })
 await brain.init()
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ With Express:
 
 ```javascript
 import express from 'express'
-import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 const app = express()
 const brain = new Brainy({ integrations: true })

package-lock.json

@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 {
-  "name": "@soulcraft/brainy",
-  "version": "10.3.1",
+  "name": "@soulcraftlabs/brainy",
+  "version": "10.4.4",
   "lockfileVersion": 3,
   "requires": true,
   "packages": {
     "": {
-      "name": "@soulcraft/brainy",
-      "version": "10.3.1",
+      "name": "@soulcraftlabs/brainy",
+      "version": "10.4.4",
       "license": "MIT",
       "dependencies": {
         "@msgpack/msgpack": "^3.1.2",

package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 {
-  "name": "@soulcraft/brainy",
-  "version": "10.3.1",
+  "name": "@soulcraftlabs/brainy",
+  "version": "10.4.4",
+  "brainyContract": 1,
   "description": "Universal Knowledge Protocol™ - World's first Triple Intelligence database unifying vector, graph, and document search in one API. Stage 3 CANONICAL: 42 nouns × 127 verbs covering 96-97% of all human knowledge.",
   "main": "dist/index.js",
   "module": "dist/index.js",
@@ -126,15 +127,16 @@
   "license": "MIT",
   "private": false,
   "publishConfig": {
-    "access": "public"
+    "access": "public",
+    "registry": "https://source.soulcraft.com/api/packages/soulcraftlabs/npm/"
   },
-  "homepage": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy",
+  "homepage": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy",
   "bugs": {
-    "url": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/issues"
+    "url": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/issues"
   },
   "repository": {
     "type": "git",
-    "url": "git+https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy.git"
+    "url": "git+https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy.git"
   },
   "files": [
     "dist/**/*.js",

releases/brainy.json

@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+{
+  "product": "brainy",
+  "entries": [
+    {
+      "version": "11.0.5",
+      "date": "2026-09-02",
+      "headline": "Graph-first finds in production, and opens that stop rescanning history",
+      "items": [
+        "find({ connected, where }) now walks the neighbours first and filters only those rows through a native door — correct at every page and O(neighbours), never the whole store.",
+        "related() with a list of verb types returns every requested kind (a fast path had silently kept only the first).",
+        "Deferred-embedding recovery resumes from a low-water mark instead of rescanning the whole generation log at every open — measured at two minutes on a large brain, now milliseconds."
+      ],
+      "url": null,
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "11.0.4",
+      "date": "2026-09-01",
+      "headline": "Closes in milliseconds, index rebuilds without the disk-sync storm",
+      "items": [
+        "close() no longer pays deferred compaction or waits out an in-flight rebuild — measured 8 ms against the 4-minute closes it replaces; deferred work resumes at the next open, in the background.",
+        "The metadata index's rebuild syncs to disk per shard instead of per row, and the durability point moved to the publish step — the same guarantee, a fraction of the disk traffic.",
+        "A new native filter door evaluates queries over exactly the candidate rows a graph walk found, never the whole store."
+      ],
+      "url": null,
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "11.0.3",
+      "date": "2026-09-01",
+      "headline": "The embedding upgrade ceremony runs on every brain",
+      "items": [
+        "A brain opened through the standard plugin now carries its embedding-model identity, so the full-precision upgrade ceremony can run on it.",
+        "A one-fix release; nothing else changed."
+      ],
+      "url": null,
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "11.0.2",
+      "date": "2026-08-31",
+      "headline": "One embedding quality everywhere, 3–4× faster imports",
+      "items": [
+        "Every runtime embeds with the same full-precision model — search quality no longer depends on where you run.",
+        "Bulk embedding measured 3.1–4.2× faster, and an online re-embed ceremony upgrades existing stores without downtime.",
+        "The engine's change feed is documented, with the SSE/WebSocket fan-out pattern for realtime surfaces."
+      ],
+      "url": null,
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "11.0.1",
+      "date": "2026-08-31",
+      "headline": "Deletes inside transactions are safe",
+      "items": [
+        "Deleting relations inside a transact() no longer corrupts index bookkeeping.",
+        "A store that deletes its last relation keeps serving instead of refusing."
+      ],
+      "url": null,
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "11.0.0",
+      "date": "2026-08-28",
+      "headline": "One install, one engine — Brainy",
+      "items": [
+        "The former two-package pair is one package: the native engine under the familiar API. One import is the whole install.",
+        "A missing native build refuses loudly with its cures named; nothing falls back silently.",
+        "Stores open in place — no migration."
+      ],
+      "url": null,
+      "thumb": null
+    }
+  ],
+  "history": "The version line continues from the 4.3.x native-engine releases; their record lives in the product repository's CHANGELOG.md."
+}

releases/open-brainy.json

@@ -0,0 +1,136 @@
+{
+  "product": "open-brainy",
+  "entries": [
+    {
+      "version": "10.4.11",
+      "date": "2026-09-02",
+      "headline": "Hybrid finds filter before they hydrate, one owner per shutdown, and a faster open",
+      "items": [
+        "Hybrid finds (query/vector combined with a filter, including connected and fusion finds) now filter first and hydrate only the page — one batchGet of exactly the requested rows, instead of hydrating everything the search side found. Fixes a bug where any page after the first came back empty.",
+        "A brain now has exactly one shutdown owner — a host and its engine no longer race to close the same store, and a follow-up flush requested during a running flush is handed off cleanly instead of ever risking a stall.",
+        "find({ path }) and other path-scoped VFS searches now serve a real range over the indexed path (O(log n)) instead of refusing the query outright — both scoped and recursive:false searches were silently broken before this.",
+        "Open no longer rescans a brain's whole fact log on every open — sealed segments the manifest already accounts for are skipped, collapsing a multi-second open term to near-zero on large brains.",
+        "commitTransaction() now refuses by name if single-ops are still pending, and a read-only open no longer writes clean-shutdown evidence it didn't earn — two correctness invariants that were previously assumed, not enforced."
+      ],
+      "url": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/releases/tag/v10.4.11",
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "10.4.10",
+      "date": "2026-09-02",
+      "headline": "A planner door for indexes, batched containment repair, and a fixed near()",
+      "items": [
+        "An optional planFindPage door lets an index plan a find() and answer it in one call, instead of the engine assembling the plan itself.",
+        "repairContainment's reconcile pass now walks paged edges once instead of issuing one graph call per file.",
+        "find({ near }) now searches around the anchor's own vector and refuses by name when none is available, instead of silently querying with no vector at all."
+      ],
+      "url": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/releases/tag/v10.4.10",
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "10.4.9",
+      "date": "2026-09-02",
+      "headline": "Graph-first finds, honest verb arrays, and opens that stop rescanning history",
+      "items": [
+        "find({ connected, where }) now walks the neighbours first and filters only those rows — correct at every page, and O(neighbours) instead of O(store).",
+        "related() with a list of verb types (or sources, or targets) returns every requested kind — four fast paths silently kept only the first.",
+        "Deferred-embedding recovery resumes from a low-water mark instead of rescanning the whole generation log at every open — measured at two minutes on a large brain, now milliseconds."
+      ],
+      "url": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/releases/tag/v10.4.9",
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "10.4.7",
+      "date": "2026-09-01",
+      "headline": "Count ledgers can no longer race themselves",
+      "items": [
+        "Concurrent count flushes coalesce into one writer with a trailing pass — parallel flushes can no longer corrupt a store's count ledger.",
+        "Atomic writes carry a per-process sequence, so two processes' temp files can never collide."
+      ],
+      "url": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/releases/tag/v10.4.7",
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "10.4.6",
+      "date": "2026-08-31",
+      "headline": "Transactions cross the index seam safely",
+      "items": [
+        "Deleting relations inside a transact() no longer fails against the metadata index — operations take a JSON-safe view at the moment they execute.",
+        "Fixes a class of transaction failures on stores with integer-mapped relation endpoints."
+      ],
+      "url": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/releases/tag/v10.4.6",
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "10.4.5",
+      "date": "2026-08-31",
+      "headline": "Recovery tells the truth, docs live at home",
+      "items": [
+        "A torn generation-log tail is a terminal verdict with a named cure — never an endless wait at open.",
+        "A sealed segment declares only the generations it actually holds.",
+        "The engine's documentation now publishes from its own repository."
+      ],
+      "url": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/releases/tag/v10.4.5",
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "10.4.4",
+      "date": "2026-08-28",
+      "headline": "Faster opens, quieter idle",
+      "items": [
+        "Opening a store discovers generations from directory names instead of walking the log, and answers \"any entities?\" with one directory read.",
+        "The flush-request watch is event-driven; idle stores stop paying a polling heartbeat.",
+        "A slow open now names the exact step it is in, so operators see what is being paid and why."
+      ],
+      "url": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/releases/tag/v10.4.4",
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "10.4.3",
+      "date": "2026-08-27",
+      "headline": "Open Brainy, under its own name",
+      "items": [
+        "The same engine as 10.4.2, now published as @soulcraftlabs/brainy — the MIT reference engine, on The Source.",
+        "No code changes; your imports change once and everything else stays put."
+      ],
+      "url": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/releases/tag/v10.4.3",
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "10.4.2",
+      "date": "2026-08-27",
+      "headline": "Vectors that lie are refused, counts that drift are caught",
+      "items": [
+        "A zero-norm vector is not a vector: the index refuses them, rebuilds skip them, and a sanctioned unvector door removes them cleanly.",
+        "The canonical count ledger derives from identity records and marks legacy-derived ledgers suspect at load.",
+        "Plugin activation failures keep their original error as cause, so the real frame reaches your logs."
+      ],
+      "url": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/releases/tag/v10.4.2",
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "10.4.1",
+      "date": "2026-08-26",
+      "headline": "Writes that change nothing cost nothing",
+      "items": [
+        "The read gate is per index family, and a write carrying unchanged data never re-embeds.",
+        "The vectored-row count joins the ledger, so vector coverage is a number you can read, not a guess."
+      ],
+      "url": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/releases/tag/v10.4.1",
+      "thumb": null
+    },
+    {
+      "version": "10.4.0",
+      "date": "2026-08-26",
+      "headline": "Repair routing, the vector ledger, and honest empties",
+      "items": [
+        "Repairs route to the index that owns the damage, and the open gate closes the vector leg until coverage is proven.",
+        "An empty string is real data, not a missing field.",
+        "The metadata crossing never carries raw integer relation endpoints — a whole class of serialization faults closed."
+      ],
+      "url": "https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/releases/tag/v10.4.0",
+      "thumb": null
+    }
+  ],
+  "history": "Earlier releases are recorded in CHANGELOG.md in this repository."
+}

scripts/buildEmbeddedPatterns.ts

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import { TransformerEmbedding } from '../src/utils/embedding.js'
 import * as fs from 'fs/promises'
 import * as path from 'path'
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'url'
+import { resolveDeterministicStamp } from './lib/deterministicStamp.js'
 
 const __dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url))
 
@@ -97,13 +98,22 @@ async function buildEmbeddedPatterns() {
   // Convert to base64 for embedding in TypeScript
   const uint8 = new Uint8Array(buffer)
   const base64 = Buffer.from(uint8).toString('base64')
-  
+
+  // Deterministic stamp: derived from the git commit time of this
+  // generator's inputs, never from wall-clock time — two builds of the
+  // same source tree must produce byte-identical output.
+  const outputPath = path.join(__dirname, '..', 'src', 'neural', 'embeddedPatterns.ts')
+  const generatedStamp = resolveDeterministicStamp(
+    [path.join(__dirname, 'buildEmbeddedPatterns.ts'), libraryPath],
+    outputPath
+  )
+
   // Generate TypeScript file with everything embedded
   const tsContent = `/**
  * 🧠 BRAINY EMBEDDED PATTERNS
  * 
  * AUTO-GENERATED - DO NOT EDIT
- * Generated: ${new Date().toISOString()}
+ * Generated: ${generatedStamp}
  * Patterns: ${libraryData.patterns.length}
  * Coverage: 94-98% of all queries
  * 
@@ -197,7 +207,6 @@ prodLog.info(\`🧠 Brainy Pattern Library loaded: \${EMBEDDED_PATTERNS.length}
 `
 
   // Write the TypeScript file
-  const outputPath = path.join(__dirname, '..', 'src', 'neural', 'embeddedPatterns.ts')
   await fs.writeFile(outputPath, tsContent)
   
   // Report statistics

scripts/buildTypeEmbeddings.ts

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import * as fs from 'fs/promises'
 import * as path from 'path'
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'url'
 import { NounType, VerbType } from '../src/types/graphTypes.js'
+import { resolveDeterministicStamp } from './lib/deterministicStamp.js'
 
 const __dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url))
 
@@ -373,12 +374,24 @@ async function buildTypeEmbeddings() {
   const uint8 = new Uint8Array(buffer)
   const base64 = Buffer.from(uint8).toString('base64')
 
+  // Deterministic stamp: derived from the git commit time of this
+  // generator's inputs, never from wall-clock time — two builds of the
+  // same source tree must produce byte-identical output.
+  const outputPath = path.join(__dirname, '..', 'src', 'neural', 'embeddedTypeEmbeddings.ts')
+  const generatedStamp = resolveDeterministicStamp(
+    [
+      path.join(__dirname, 'buildTypeEmbeddings.ts'),
+      path.join(__dirname, '..', 'src', 'types', 'graphTypes.ts')
+    ],
+    outputPath
+  )
+
   // Generate TypeScript file
   const tsContent = `/**
  * 🧠 BRAINY EMBEDDED TYPE EMBEDDINGS
  *
  * AUTO-GENERATED - DO NOT EDIT
- * Generated: ${new Date().toISOString()}
+ * Generated: ${generatedStamp}
  * Noun Types: ${nounTypes.length}
  * Verb Types: ${verbTypes.length}
  *
@@ -395,7 +408,7 @@ export const TYPE_METADATA = {
   verbTypes: ${verbTypes.length},
   totalTypes: ${totalTypes},
   embeddingDimensions: ${embeddingDim},
-  generatedAt: "${new Date().toISOString()}",
+  generatedAt: "${generatedStamp}",
   sizeBytes: {
     embeddings: ${buffer.byteLength},
     base64: ${base64.length}
@@ -494,7 +507,6 @@ prodLog.info(\`🧠 Brainy Type Embeddings loaded: \${TYPE_METADATA.nounTypes} n
 `
 
   // Write the TypeScript file
-  const outputPath = path.join(__dirname, '..', 'src', 'neural', 'embeddedTypeEmbeddings.ts')
   await fs.writeFile(outputPath, tsContent)
 
   // Report statistics

scripts/emit-contract-manifest.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+/**
+ * Emit this build's API-contract manifest to docs/api-contract.json.
+ *
+ * WHY IT IS GENERATED, NOT WRITTEN: a hand-kept list of doors drifts from the
+ * code the first time somebody adds one. This reads the surface the build
+ * actually exposes — the prototype's own methods and accessors, the exported
+ * error classes, the `where` operator sets, the field-addressing vocabulary,
+ * the health verdicts — so a diff between two engines' manifests is a diff
+ * between two engines, never between two authors.
+ *
+ * Requirement marking (required / optional per door) is NOT derivable from the
+ * surface — it is a commitment, recorded with the contract's owner rather than
+ * here. This manifest carries the surface; the promise lives with the contract.
+ *
+ * Usage: node scripts/emit-contract-manifest.mjs [--check]
+ *   --check exits non-zero when the committed manifest is stale.
+ */
+
+import { writeFileSync, readFileSync, existsSync } from 'node:fs'
+import { join, dirname } from 'node:path'
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url'
+
+const ROOT = join(dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), '..')
+const OUT = join(ROOT, 'docs', 'api-contract.json')
+
+const { Brainy } = await import(join(ROOT, 'dist', 'brainy.js'))
+const errorsModule = await import(join(ROOT, 'dist', 'errors', 'brainyError.js'))
+const versionModule = await import(join(ROOT, 'dist', 'utils', 'version.js'))
+const fieldAddressing = await import(join(ROOT, 'dist', 'db', 'fieldAddressing.js'))
+
+/** Every own method and accessor on the class's prototype, minus the private ones. */
+function surfaceOf(ctor) {
+  const doors = []
+  for (const name of Object.getOwnPropertyNames(ctor.prototype)) {
+    if (name === 'constructor' || name.startsWith('_')) continue
+    const descriptor = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(ctor.prototype, name)
+    if (!descriptor) continue
+    if (typeof descriptor.value === 'function') {
+      doors.push({ name, kind: 'method', arity: descriptor.value.length })
+    } else if (descriptor.get) {
+      doors.push({ name, kind: 'accessor' })
+    }
+  }
+  return doors.sort((a, b) => a.name.localeCompare(b.name))
+}
+
+const errors = Object.entries(errorsModule)
+  .filter(([name, value]) => typeof value === 'function' && /Error$/.test(name))
+  .map(([name]) => name)
+  .sort()
+
+// The operator sets, read from the engine's own refusal message so the
+// manifest can never disagree with the validator.
+const filterSource = readFileSync(join(ROOT, 'src', 'utils', 'metadataFilter.ts'), 'utf-8')
+const acceptedMatch = filterSource.match(/const VALUE_OPERATORS = new Set<string>\(\[([\s\S]*?)\]\)/)
+if (!acceptedMatch) throw new Error('VALUE_OPERATORS not found — the manifest refuses to guess')
+const accepted = [...acceptedMatch[1].matchAll(/'([^']+)'/g)].map((m) => m[1]).sort()
+
+const indexSource = readFileSync(join(ROOT, 'src', 'utils', 'metadataIndex.ts'), 'utf-8')
+const refusedByIndex = ['endsWith', 'length', 'matches', 'startsWith'].filter((op) =>
+  // Proven by the refusal path: these are the tokens with no case in the
+  // index's operator switch, so they fall to its default and are refused.
+  !new RegExp(`case '${op}':`).test(indexSource)
+)
+const servedOnIndex = accepted.filter((op) => !refusedByIndex.includes(op))
+
+const manifest = {
+  contractVersion: versionModule.contractVersion(),
+  engine: '@soulcraftlabs/brainy',
+  compatibility: {
+    minor:
+      'additive — a new optional door, a new served operator, a new error class; every existing implementation still conforms',
+    major:
+      'breaking — a door removed, an answer narrowed, an ordering law changed, an optional door promoted to required, or an operator moved from served to refused'
+  },
+  doors: surfaceOf(Brainy),
+  errors,
+  operators: {
+    accepted,
+    servedOnIndexPath: servedOnIndex,
+    refusedByIndexPath: refusedByIndex,
+    combinators: ['allOf', 'anyOf', 'not']
+  },
+  fieldAddressing: {
+    systemKeyPrefix: 'system.',
+    systemEntityScalars: [...(fieldAddressing.SYSTEM_ENTITY_SCALARS ?? [])].sort(),
+    systemRelationScalars: [...(fieldAddressing.SYSTEM_RELATION_SCALARS ?? [])].sort(),
+    plumbingFields: [...(fieldAddressing.PLUMBING_FIELDS ?? [])].sort()
+  },
+  health: {
+    verdicts: ['pass', 'warn', 'fail'],
+    healKinds: ['none', 'repair', 'rebuild'],
+    servingWithholdingInvariants: [
+      'index-initialized',
+      'durable-state-present',
+      'manifest-residency',
+      'replay-clean',
+      'strand-latch'
+    ]
+  }
+}
+
+const rendered = `${JSON.stringify(manifest, null, 2)}\n`
+
+if (process.argv.includes('--check')) {
+  if (!existsSync(OUT)) {
+    console.error(`docs/api-contract.json is missing — run: node scripts/emit-contract-manifest.mjs`)
+    process.exit(1)
+  }
+  if (readFileSync(OUT, 'utf-8') !== rendered) {
+    console.error(
+      `docs/api-contract.json is STALE — the public surface changed. Re-emit it and announce ` +
+        `the addition (minor = additive; a removal is a contract major).`
+    )
+    process.exit(1)
+  }
+  console.log(`docs/api-contract.json is current (${manifest.doors.length} doors, contract ${manifest.contractVersion}).`)
+  process.exit(0)
+}
+
+writeFileSync(OUT, rendered)
+console.log(
+  `Wrote docs/api-contract.json — contract ${manifest.contractVersion}, ` +
+    `${manifest.doors.length} doors, ${manifest.errors.length} error classes, ` +
+    `${manifest.operators.accepted.length} operators ` +
+    `(${manifest.operators.refusedByIndexPath.length} refused by the index path).`
+)

scripts/lib/deterministicStamp.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+/**
+ * Deterministic generation-stamp resolution for Brainy's build-time code
+ * generators.
+ *
+ * Two builds of the same source tree must produce byte-identical output.
+ * A wall-clock stamp (`new Date()`) breaks that guarantee, so every
+ * generator that writes a "Generated:" header or a `generatedAt` field
+ * into its output must resolve the stamp through this module instead.
+ *
+ * Resolution order:
+ *   1. The newest git commit timestamp among the generator's input files
+ *      (the generator script itself always counts as an input).
+ *   2. If git metadata is unavailable (for example, building from a
+ *      published npm tarball with no `.git` directory), the stamp already
+ *      recorded in the previously generated output file.
+ *   3. If neither is available, the fixed epoch string
+ *      `1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z`.
+ *
+ * Every fallback logs a line to stderr — deterministic degradation is
+ * loud, never a silent divergence.
+ */
+
+import { execFileSync } from 'child_process'
+import * as fs from 'fs'
+
+const EPOCH_STAMP = '1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z'
+const STAMP_PATTERN = /\*\s*Generated:\s*(\S+)/
+
+/**
+ * Resolve the deterministic stamp for a generator run.
+ *
+ * @param inputPaths Absolute paths to every file whose content determines
+ *   the generator's output, including the generator script itself.
+ * @param previousOutputPath Absolute path to the previously generated
+ *   file, used for the existing-stamp fallback when git is unavailable.
+ * @returns An ISO-8601 timestamp string that is deterministic for a given
+ *   source tree.
+ */
+export function resolveDeterministicStamp(
+  inputPaths: string[],
+  previousOutputPath: string
+): string {
+  const gitStamp = newestGitCommitTimestamp(inputPaths)
+  if (gitStamp) {
+    return gitStamp
+  }
+
+  const existingStamp = readExistingStamp(previousOutputPath)
+  if (existingStamp) {
+    process.stderr.write(
+      `[deterministic-stamp] no git commit history found for generator inputs; ` +
+        `reusing existing stamp from ${previousOutputPath}: ${existingStamp}\n`
+    )
+    return existingStamp
+  }
+
+  process.stderr.write(
+    `[deterministic-stamp] no git commit history and no previous output at ` +
+      `${previousOutputPath}; falling back to fixed epoch stamp ${EPOCH_STAMP}\n`
+  )
+  return EPOCH_STAMP
+}
+
+/**
+ * Find the newest git commit timestamp among the given input paths.
+ * Returns null if git is unavailable, the tree is not a git repository,
+ * or none of the inputs have any commit history yet.
+ */
+function newestGitCommitTimestamp(inputPaths: string[]): string | null {
+  let newest: string | null = null
+
+  for (const inputPath of inputPaths) {
+    if (!fs.existsSync(inputPath)) {
+      continue
+    }
+
+    let out: string
+    try {
+      out = execFileSync(
+        'git',
+        ['log', '-1', '--format=%cI', '--', inputPath],
+        { stdio: ['ignore', 'pipe', 'ignore'] }
+      )
+        .toString()
+        .trim()
+    } catch {
+      // git missing, not a repository, or no permissions — handled by the
+      // caller's fallback chain.
+      continue
+    }
+
+    if (!out) {
+      // Path exists but has no commit history yet (e.g. newly created,
+      // uncommitted file).
+      continue
+    }
+
+    if (!newest || new Date(out).getTime() > new Date(newest).getTime()) {
+      newest = out
+    }
+  }
+
+  return newest
+}
+
+/**
+ * Parse the `* Generated: <ISO timestamp>` header out of a previously
+ * generated file, if one exists.
+ */
+function readExistingStamp(outputPath: string): string | null {
+  if (!fs.existsSync(outputPath)) {
+    return null
+  }
+
+  const content = fs.readFileSync(outputPath, 'utf-8')
+  const match = content.match(STAMP_PATTERN)
+  return match ? match[1] : null
+}

scripts/release.sh

@@ -15,6 +15,12 @@ NC='\033[0m' # No Color
 RELEASE_TYPE="${1:-patch}"  # patch, minor, or major
 SKIP_TESTS=false
 DRY_RUN=false
+# --source-only is now a no-op: The Source is the one registry, so every
+# release already ships Source-only — tag, CI's publish to The Source, the
+# release page, and the docs push, with no separate storefront leg to skip.
+# The flag is still accepted (for backward-compatible invocations) and just
+# prints a notice; it no longer changes behavior.
+SOURCE_ONLY=false
 
 for arg in "$@"; do
   case $arg in
@@ -24,6 +30,9 @@ for arg in "$@"; do
     --dry-run)
       DRY_RUN=true
       ;;
+    --source-only)
+      SOURCE_ONLY=true
+      ;;
   esac
 done
 
@@ -100,7 +109,7 @@ else
       ;;
     *)
       echo -e "${RED}❌ Invalid release type: ${RELEASE_TYPE}${NC}"
-      echo "Usage: ./scripts/release.sh [patch|minor|major|<explicit-version>] [--dry-run]"
+      echo "Usage: ./scripts/release.sh [patch|minor|major|<explicit-version>] [--dry-run] [--source-only (no-op; The Source is the one registry)]"
       exit 1
       ;;
   esac
@@ -119,6 +128,9 @@ echo -e "${BLUE}New version: ${NEW_VERSION}${NC}"
 if [ "$PRERELEASE" = true ]; then
   echo -e "${YELLOW}⚠️  Prerelease → npm dist-tag '${NPM_TAG}', GitHub prerelease${NC}"
 fi
+if [ "$SOURCE_ONLY" = true ]; then
+  echo -e "${YELLOW}⚠️  The Source is the one registry; --source-only is implied${NC}"
+fi
 echo ""
 
 if [ "$DRY_RUN" = true ]; then
@@ -142,7 +154,7 @@ else
 fi
 
 # Create new changelog entry
-CHANGELOG_ENTRY="### [${NEW_VERSION}](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/compare/v${CURRENT_VERSION}...v${NEW_VERSION}) ($(date +%Y-%m-%d))
+CHANGELOG_ENTRY="### [${NEW_VERSION}](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v${CURRENT_VERSION}...v${NEW_VERSION}) ($(date +%Y-%m-%d))
 
 ${COMMITS}
 "
@@ -193,9 +205,9 @@ echo -e "${GREEN}✅ Pushed to origin${NC}\n"
 # .forgejo/workflows/publish-source.yml, which builds and publishes on The
 # Source's own runner (datacenter-side: seconds, not the laptop's WAN timing
 # out on an 87MB tarball PUT). The laptop holds no home-registry publish
-# credential anymore; it only waits for CI's result before trusting the
-# home/npmjs pair enough to publish the storefront leg.
-SOURCE_NPM_REG="https://source.soulcraft.com/api/packages/soulcraft/npm/"
+# credential anymore; it only waits for CI's result before continuing on to
+# the release page and the docs push.
+SOURCE_NPM_REG="https://source.soulcraft.com/api/packages/soulcraftlabs/npm/"
 SOURCE_POLL_INTERVAL_S=15
 SOURCE_POLL_MAX_ATTEMPTS=200  # 200 × 15s = 50 minutes — the runner is sequential and a busy day's ci.yml
                              # backlog has twice exceeded the old 20-minute window (8.10.3, 9.0.0);
@@ -203,7 +215,7 @@ SOURCE_POLL_MAX_ATTEMPTS=200  # 200 × 15s = 50 minutes — the runner is sequen
 echo -e "${BLUE}9️⃣  Waiting for CI to publish v${NEW_VERSION} to The Source registry (home)...${NC}"
 SOURCE_LANDED=false
 for ((attempt = 1; attempt <= SOURCE_POLL_MAX_ATTEMPTS; attempt++)); do
-  LANDED_VERSION=$(npm view "@soulcraft/brainy@${NEW_VERSION}" version "--@soulcraft:registry=${SOURCE_NPM_REG}" 2>/dev/null || echo "")
+  LANDED_VERSION=$(npm view "@soulcraftlabs/brainy@${NEW_VERSION}" version "--@soulcraftlabs:registry=${SOURCE_NPM_REG}" 2>/dev/null || echo "")
   if [ "$LANDED_VERSION" = "$NEW_VERSION" ]; then
     SOURCE_LANDED=true
     break
@@ -216,50 +228,8 @@ if [ "$SOURCE_LANDED" = true ]; then
   echo -e "${GREEN}✅ CI published v${NEW_VERSION} to The Source${NC}\n"
 else
   echo -e "${RED}❌ CI's home publish did not land — check the workflow run on The Source; the pair must not diverge.${NC}"
-  echo -e "${RED}   v${NEW_VERSION} was tagged and pushed, but @soulcraft/brainy@${NEW_VERSION} never became visible on the${NC}"
-  echo -e "${RED}   Source registry after ${SOURCE_POLL_MAX_ATTEMPTS} attempts, ${SOURCE_POLL_INTERVAL_S}s apart. Aborting before npmjs.${NC}"
-  exit 1
-fi
-
-echo -e "${BLUE}9️⃣½  Publishing to npmjs (storefront, dist-tag: ${NPM_TAG})...${NC}"
-# BYTE-IDENTITY LAW: the storefront republishes CI's EXACT artifact — download
-# the tarball The Source serves and publish that file, never a fresh local pack
-# (a local rebuild can differ byte-wise, and the fleet verifies the pair by
-# shasum across registries).
-STOREFRONT_TMP="$(mktemp -d)"
-(cd "$STOREFRONT_TMP" && npm pack "@soulcraft/brainy@${NEW_VERSION}" "--@soulcraft:registry=${SOURCE_NPM_REG}" >/dev/null)
-SOURCE_TARBALL="$(ls "$STOREFRONT_TMP"/soulcraft-brainy-*.tgz)"
-echo -e "${BLUE}   home artifact: $(sha256sum "$SOURCE_TARBALL" | cut -d' ' -f1)${NC}"
-npm publish "$SOURCE_TARBALL" --tag "$NPM_TAG" "--@soulcraft:registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/"
-rm -rf "$STOREFRONT_TMP"
-# Brainy is the only PUBLIC @soulcraft package — verify visibility after every publish.
-npm access get status @soulcraft/brainy "--@soulcraft:registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/" || true
-# Verify the pair is byte-identical by registry-reported shasum — divergence
-# here means the storefront leg must be treated as failed, loudly. RETRIED
-# with raw curl: npmjs metadata propagates with a lag measured in minutes,
-# and a one-shot npm-view probe fired a false DIVERGENCE on 10.0.0 while a
-# raw curl of the registry document already confirmed byte-identity. The
-# probe now reads the registry JSON directly (no npm cache in the path) and
-# gives propagation up to 5 minutes before calling the pair divergent.
-NPMJS_VERIFY_ATTEMPTS=20
-NPMJS_VERIFY_INTERVAL_S=15  # 20 × 15s = 5 minutes of propagation grace
-SOURCE_SHA=$(npm view "@soulcraft/brainy@${NEW_VERSION}" dist.shasum "--@soulcraft:registry=${SOURCE_NPM_REG}" 2>/dev/null || echo "source-unavailable")
-PAIR_IDENTICAL=false
-for ((attempt = 1; attempt <= NPMJS_VERIFY_ATTEMPTS; attempt++)); do
-  NPMJS_SHA=$(curl -fsSL "https://registry.npmjs.org/@soulcraft%2Fbrainy" 2>/dev/null \
-    | node -e "let d='';process.stdin.on('data',c=>d+=c).on('end',()=>{try{const v=JSON.parse(d).versions[process.argv[1]];console.log(v?v.dist.shasum:'')}catch{console.log('')}})" "${NEW_VERSION}" \
-    || echo "")
-  if [ -n "$NPMJS_SHA" ] && [ "$SOURCE_SHA" = "$NPMJS_SHA" ]; then
-    PAIR_IDENTICAL=true
-    break
-  fi
-  echo -e "${YELLOW}   … npmjs metadata not settled (attempt ${attempt}/${NPMJS_VERIFY_ATTEMPTS}: '${NPMJS_SHA:-absent}' vs '${SOURCE_SHA}'); retrying in ${NPMJS_VERIFY_INTERVAL_S}s${NC}"
-  sleep "$NPMJS_VERIFY_INTERVAL_S"
-done
-if [ "$PAIR_IDENTICAL" = true ]; then
-  echo -e "${GREEN}✅ Published to npmjs — byte-identical pair (shasum ${NPMJS_SHA})${NC}\n"
-else
-  echo -e "${RED}❌ REGISTRY DIVERGENCE: The Source shasum ${SOURCE_SHA} != npmjs shasum ${NPMJS_SHA} after ${NPMJS_VERIFY_ATTEMPTS} attempts — investigate before announcing${NC}\n"
+  echo -e "${RED}   v${NEW_VERSION} was tagged and pushed, but @soulcraftlabs/brainy@${NEW_VERSION} never became visible on the${NC}"
+  echo -e "${RED}   Source registry after ${SOURCE_POLL_MAX_ATTEMPTS} attempts, ${SOURCE_POLL_INTERVAL_S}s apart. Aborting.${NC}"
   exit 1
 fi
 
@@ -267,7 +237,7 @@ fi
 # and RELEASES.md are the record; this just gives The Source's UI a release page).
 echo -e "${BLUE}🔟 Creating release page on The Source...${NC}"
 if [ -n "${FORGEJO_RELEASE_TOKEN:-}" ]; then
-  if curl -sf -X POST "https://source.soulcraft.com/api/v1/repos/soulcraft/brainy/releases" \
+  if curl -sf -X POST "https://source.soulcraft.com/api/v1/repos/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/releases" \
     -H "Authorization: token ${FORGEJO_RELEASE_TOKEN}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d "{\"tag_name\":\"v${NEW_VERSION}\",\"name\":\"v${NEW_VERSION}\",\"prerelease\":${PRERELEASE}}" >/dev/null; then
     echo -e "${GREEN}✅ Release page created on The Source${NC}\n"
@@ -278,21 +248,15 @@ else
   echo -e "${RED}⚠️  FORGEJO_RELEASE_TOKEN unset — no release page created; tag + CHANGELOG remain the record${NC}\n"
 fi
 
-# Step 12: Push public docs to the soulcraft.com docs ingest door
-# (VENUE-DOCS-RELEASE-PUSH). Skips with a loud warning when
-# DOCS_INGEST_SECRET is unset; fails loudly (without undoing the publish —
-# that already happened) when a push errors, so the docs site never
-# silently trails npm.
-echo -e "${BLUE}1️⃣2️⃣ Pushing public docs to soulcraft.com/docs...${NC}"
-if node scripts/push-docs.js; then
-  echo -e "${GREEN}✅ Docs push step done${NC}\n"
-else
-  echo -e "${RED}❌ Docs push FAILED — soulcraft.com/docs trails npm until re-run or interim sync${NC}\n"
-fi
+# Step 12 RETIRED (2026-08-31, CORTEX-SITE-BRAINY-RENAME round 12, David-ruled):
+# soulcraft.com/docs carries the paid product's documentation only. This
+# engine's documentation home is THIS repository — README and docs/ — and the
+# site serves 301s for the slugs this rail used to push. The push script stays
+# in the tree for history; the rail no longer calls it.
+echo -e "${BLUE}Docs step: this engine documents itself in its own repo (site push retired 2026-08-31)${NC}"
 
 echo -e "${GREEN}━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━${NC}"
 echo -e "${GREEN}🎉 Release ${NEW_VERSION} complete!${NC}"
 echo -e "${GREEN}━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━${NC}"
 echo ""
-echo -e "📦 npm: ${BLUE}https://www.npmjs.com/package/@soulcraft/brainy/v/${NEW_VERSION}${NC}"
-echo -e "🏠 The Source: ${BLUE}https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraft/brainy/releases/tag/v${NEW_VERSION}${NC}"
+echo -e "🏠 The Source: ${BLUE}https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/releases/tag/v${NEW_VERSION}${NC}"

src/coreTypes.ts

@@ -801,6 +801,17 @@ export interface DerivedFamilyDeclaration {
 export interface CanonicalCounts {
   nouns: { counted: number; all: number }
   verbs: { counted: number; all: number }
+  /**
+   * The count of canonical nouns holding a REAL (non-empty) vector — the
+   * coverage denominator a vector index's node-count ledger is measured
+   * against (`nodeCount === vectors.all` is the whole-store coverage
+   * verdict for the vector leg, the vector-side mirror of `nouns.all` for
+   * metadata/graph). A deferred-embed noun (`add({ deferEmbedding: true })`)
+   * counts only once its vector actually LANDS — its canonical record exists
+   * (counted in `nouns.all`) with an empty vector until then, so it is
+   * deliberately NOT counted here in the interim.
+   */
+  vectors: { all: number }
   /** An unprovable delete has left the `all` scalars unverified since the last recount. */
   suspect: boolean
 }
@@ -819,14 +830,68 @@ export interface StorageAdapter {
    * Save noun metadata separately
    * @param id Noun ID
    * @param metadata Noun metadata
+   * @param hasVector - OPTIONAL vectored-noun ledger hint: `true` when this
+   *   write is a FRESH insert (`isNew`) whose vector is a real, non-empty
+   *   array — the caller already knows this for free (the insert's own
+   *   `vector` local), so the increment rides the SAME isNew gate that
+   *   already protects `totalNounCountAll` from double-counting on HNSW
+   *   neighbor-link re-saves (`saveNoun_internal` re-runs on every link
+   *   change; this metadata seam does not). Absent/`false` ⇒ no ledger
+   *   action. A deferred-embed insert passes `false` (its vector lands
+   *   later — see {@link StorageAdapter.noteVectorLanded}).
    */
-  saveNounMetadata(id: string, metadata: NounMetadata): Promise<void>
+  saveNounMetadata(id: string, metadata: NounMetadata, hasVector?: boolean): Promise<void>
 
   /**
    * Delete noun metadata
    * @param id Noun ID
+   * @param priorRecord - OPTIONAL already-known metadata (the caller's
+   *   pre-delete read) — see {@link StorageAdapter.deleteNoun}.
+   * @param hadVector - OPTIONAL vectored-noun ledger hint: `true`/`false`
+   *   when the caller already knows (read as a side effect of ITS OWN delete
+   *   flow — e.g. `remove()`'s pre-read for the vector-index removal — never
+   *   a read added FOR this ledger), `undefined` when genuinely unknown. A
+   *   known `true` decrements the vectored-noun ledger; a known `false` is a
+   *   no-op (it was never counted); `undefined` marks the ledger SUSPECT
+   *   rather than guessing — the delete path must never add a canonical read
+   *   to answer this question.
    */
-  deleteNounMetadata(id: string): Promise<void>
+  deleteNounMetadata(id: string, priorRecord?: NounMetadata | null, hadVector?: boolean): Promise<void>
+
+  /**
+   * OPTIONAL narrow ledger hook: record that a canonical noun's vector just
+   * LANDED for the first time. Exists ONLY for the deferred-embedding
+   * lifecycle — the landing commit (`system:embed-landing`) carries a vector
+   * write with no accompanying metadata operation, so the normal
+   * `saveNounMetadata(..., hasVector)` seam never fires for it. Callers MUST
+   * call this only when the noun held NO real vector before this write (the
+   * deferred-embed worker already holds that fact for free, from its own
+   * pre-embed read — never an added read). A backend without vectored-noun
+   * tracking is a no-op via this method's absence (feature-detected).
+   * @param id - The noun whose vector just landed.
+   */
+  noteVectorLanded?(id: string): Promise<void>
+
+  /**
+   * OPTIONAL narrow ledger hook, the mirror of {@link noteVectorLanded}:
+   * record that a canonical noun's vector was just REMOVED — rewritten from
+   * a real (non-empty) vector to the "unvectored" empty-array shape. Exists
+   * for the ONE sanctioned reverse migration this engine supports: the VFS
+   * root's zero-norm fix (see `VirtualFileSystem.doInitializeRoot()` and
+   * `Brainy.unvectorNounForRootMigration()`), which rewrites a pre-fix
+   * store's all-zero placeholder root vector to `[]` and must decrement
+   * `vectors.all` through this hook so the coverage ledger never drifts.
+   * NOT a general-purpose "I removed a vector" callback — ordinary
+   * application data has no sanctioned path from vectored back to
+   * unvectored (`update()` refuses an empty vector as a dimension
+   * mismatch by design). Callers MUST call this only when the noun held a
+   * REAL vector immediately before this write (the caller already holds
+   * that fact for free, from its own pre-write read — never an added read).
+   * A backend without vectored-noun tracking is a no-op via this method's
+   * absence (feature-detected).
+   * @param id - The noun whose vector was just removed.
+   */
+  noteVectorUnlanded?(id: string): Promise<void>
 
   /**
    * Get noun with metadata combined
@@ -875,8 +940,11 @@ export interface StorageAdapter {
    *   REQUIRE re-reading the record being removed: when the internal read
    *   returns `null` (replace race, or a ghost left by an earlier version) the
    *   decrement falls back to this record instead of being silently skipped.
+   * @param hadVector OPTIONAL vectored-noun ledger hint — see
+   *   {@link StorageAdapter.deleteNounMetadata}'s `hadVector` param, which
+   *   this forwards to unchanged.
    */
-  deleteNoun(id: string, priorMetadata?: NounMetadata | null): Promise<void>
+  deleteNoun(id: string, priorMetadata?: NounMetadata | null, hadVector?: boolean): Promise<void>
 
   /**
    * Save verb - Pure HNSW verb with core fields only

src/db/errors.ts

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
  *   speculative `with()` overlay; the canonical storage walk only ever answers
  *   "what is live right now."
  *
- * All are exported from the package root (`@soulcraft/brainy`).
+ * All are exported from the package root (`@soulcraftlabs/brainy`).
  */
 
 /**

src/db/familyStamp.ts

@@ -12,9 +12,11 @@
  *   the verified surface is a small set of rollup invariants (entity/
  *   relationship counts) plus `sourceGeneration`.
  *
- * `sourceGeneration` is the generation of the source-of-truth log this
- * projection reflects — open-time coherence becomes a COMPARISON (stamp vs
- * log head), not a walk:
+ * `sourceGeneration` is the COMMITTED generation of the source-of-truth log
+ * this projection reflects — never the allocated counter, which names a
+ * generation that may never commit (see {@link StampVerdict.torn}) — so
+ * open-time coherence becomes a COMPARISON (stamp vs committed head), not a
+ * walk:
  *
  * - equal + invariants hold → coherent, serve.
  * - behind → the projection missed the tail (crash between commit and stamp);
@@ -24,6 +26,9 @@
  * - invariants FAIL at equal generation → genuine incoherence: loud, and the
  *   repair ritual (`repairIndex()`, whose recount rebuilds the rollups from a
  *   canonical walk) heals it.
+ * - AHEAD → a torn generation-log tail: the stamp's fsync outlived the log
+ *   tail's. TERMINAL, never a wait — the generation the stamp names does not
+ *   exist to arrive.
  *
  * Stamps are JSON on purpose — every incident gets debugged by reading a
  * stamp in a terminal.
@@ -70,6 +75,12 @@ export type StampVerdict =
   | { state: 'coherent' }
   | { state: 'absent' } // legacy store — first stamp writes at the next flush
   | { state: 'behind'; stampSource: number; head: number }
+  /**
+   * TORN GENERATION-LOG TAIL: the stamp witnesses a source generation the
+   * store's committed watermark can no longer show. TERMINAL — there is no
+   * generation to wait for, so the open demotes (or refuses) and never spins.
+   */
+  | { state: 'torn'; stampSource: number; head: number }
   | { state: 'incoherent'; failures: string[] }
   | { state: 'unverifiable'; reason: string } // a FAULT reading the stamp — never conflated with absence
 
@@ -118,12 +129,15 @@ export function verifyFamilyStamp(
 ): StampVerdict {
   if (stamp === null) return { state: 'absent' }
   if (stamp.sourceGeneration > head) {
-    // A stamp AHEAD of the log claims state that never committed — the
-    // projection was stamped against truth that a crash rolled back.
-    return {
-      state: 'incoherent',
-      failures: [`sourceGeneration ${stamp.sourceGeneration} is ahead of the log head ${head}`]
-    }
+    // A stamp AHEAD of committed truth witnesses a generation the store can no
+    // longer show: the stamp's fsync survived a crash that the log tail did
+    // not. This is the TORN GENERATION-LOG TAIL — its own class, never folded
+    // in with `incoherent` (a count that drifted at a generation both sides
+    // agree on), because the two have opposite cures: incoherence is recounted,
+    // a tear is DEMOTED. It is also terminal by construction — there is no
+    // generation the open can wait for, because the one the stamp names is
+    // gone.
+    return { state: 'torn', stampSource: stamp.sourceGeneration, head }
   }
   if (stamp.sourceGeneration < head) {
     return { state: 'behind', stampSource: stamp.sourceGeneration, head }

src/db/generationSegments.ts

@@ -147,6 +147,60 @@ export class GenerationSegmentStore {
     return this.coveringSegment(gen) !== null
   }
 
+  /**
+   * @description True when `meta` declares more generations than it holds
+   * frames — a segment sealed by a writer that folded across a hole. The
+   * manifest records `frames` at fold time, so this is an O(1) comparison
+   * against the declared span and needs no I/O.
+   */
+  private isSparse(meta: SegmentMeta): boolean {
+    return meta.lastGeneration - meta.firstGeneration + 1 !== meta.frames
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * @description The generations this tier ACTUALLY holds, as coalesced
+   * ascending intervals — not what the segments declare.
+   *
+   * Dense segments (every one a current writer produces) contribute their
+   * declared range with no I/O. A SPARSE segment — one sealed before the
+   * density law was enforced, whose declared range spans generations it has
+   * no frame for — has its real generation list read from its sidecar and
+   * contributed instead, with the discrepancy narrated once.
+   *
+   * This is what keeps a store that already carries the damage from wedging.
+   * `open()` seeds `committedRanges` from these intervals, so a hole is never
+   * re-admitted as a committed generation, and the auto-compaction pass that
+   * used to fail on every run with "packed history is damaged" simply never
+   * asks for the missing frame.
+   *
+   * @returns Ascending, non-overlapping `[first, last]` intervals.
+   */
+  async actualRanges(): Promise<Array<[number, number]>> {
+    const out: Array<[number, number]> = []
+    for (const meta of this.manifest.segments) {
+      if (!this.isSparse(meta)) {
+        out.push([meta.firstGeneration, meta.lastGeneration])
+        continue
+      }
+      const missing = meta.lastGeneration - meta.firstGeneration + 1 - meta.frames
+      prodLog.warn(
+        `[GenerationSegments] sealed segment ${meta.file} declares generations ` +
+          `${meta.firstGeneration}..${meta.lastGeneration} but holds only ${meta.frames} ` +
+          `frame(s) — ${missing} generation(s) in that span were never folded into it. ` +
+          `Serving the frames it actually holds; the declared span is not treated as ` +
+          `committed history. (Written by a pre-density-law writer that folded across a ` +
+          `gap; the segment itself is intact and no record is lost.)`
+      )
+      const idx = await this.sidecarFor(meta)
+      for (const [gen] of idx.generations) {
+        const last = out[out.length - 1]
+        if (last !== undefined && gen === last[1] + 1) last[1] = gen
+        else out.push([gen, gen])
+      }
+    }
+    return out
+  }
+
   /**
    * Fold consecutive generations into ONE new sealed segment + sidecar and
    * append it to the manifest atomically. Caller guarantees: `gens` is
@@ -164,6 +218,38 @@ export class GenerationSegmentStore {
         throw new Error('[GenerationSegments] fold() input must be strictly ascending')
       }
     }
+    // THE DENSITY LAW, MADE MECHANICAL.
+    //
+    // A sealed segment declares a CONTIGUOUS range [firstGeneration,
+    // lastGeneration] and every reader treats that range as containment:
+    // `coveringSegment` is an interval test, `hasGeneration` returns true for
+    // anything inside it, and `open()` seeds committedRanges from it. So a
+    // segment folded from a SPARSE input silently claims generations it does
+    // not hold, and the first read of one of those holes throws
+    // "inside sealed segment ... but has no frame — packed history is damaged".
+    //
+    // That is exactly how the damage was produced. `repackHistory` skipped
+    // generations mid-batch — ones absent from committedRanges, ones still in
+    // the pending buffer, ones whose tx.json would not read — and handed the
+    // survivors here, where the range was computed from the first and last of
+    // them. Worse, the mis-declared range was then merged back into
+    // committedRanges at the next open, which is what turned a quiet hole into
+    // a repeating auto-compaction failure on every subsequent run.
+    //
+    // Callers now split at discontinuities; this refusal is what keeps any
+    // future caller from reintroducing the class. A refusal here loses
+    // nothing — the generations stay in the live tier, readable, and the next
+    // pass folds them correctly.
+    for (let i = 1; i < gens.length; i++) {
+      if (gens[i].generation !== gens[i - 1].generation + 1) {
+        throw new Error(
+          `[GenerationSegments] fold() input is not contiguous: ${gens[i - 1].generation} → ` +
+            `${gens[i].generation} skips ${gens[i].generation - gens[i - 1].generation - 1} ` +
+            `generation(s). A sealed segment declares a dense range, so folding a sparse ` +
+            `batch would claim generations it does not hold. Split the batch at the gap.`
+        )
+      }
+    }
     const last = this.manifest.segments[this.manifest.segments.length - 1]
     if (last && gens[0].generation <= last.lastGeneration) {
       throw new Error(
@@ -364,12 +450,37 @@ export class GenerationSegmentStore {
         return this.decodeFrame(payload)
       }
     }
-    // In the covering range but not present: the packed tier is dense by
-    // construction (fold packs every generation it is handed, including
-    // record-less ones) — absence inside a sealed range is damage.
+    // Inside the covering range but with no frame. Two very different causes,
+    // and conflating them is what made this class wedge every maintenance pass
+    // on the affected stores.
+    //
+    // (1) A SPARSE SEGMENT — the manifest's own `frames` count is smaller than
+    //     the span it declares. That segment was sealed by a writer that
+    //     folded across a hole (the class this file's density law now bars).
+    //     The segment is INTACT and nothing is lost; it simply never held this
+    //     generation. Answering "not packed" is the honest answer, and it lets
+    //     the caller's two-tier read decide what a genuinely absent generation
+    //     means, instead of every compaction pass dying on a repeating throw.
+    //     `actualRanges()` keeps such holes out of committedRanges at open, so
+    //     in a healed store nobody asks this question in the first place.
+    //
+    // (2) A DENSE SEGMENT missing a frame it says it has — the manifest and
+    //     the sidecar disagree about a segment that claims to be complete.
+    //     That IS damage, and it stays loud.
+    if (this.isSparse(meta)) {
+      prodLog.warn(
+        `[GenerationSegments] generation ${gen} falls inside sealed segment ${meta.file}'s ` +
+          `declared range ${meta.firstGeneration}..${meta.lastGeneration}, but that segment ` +
+          `holds ${meta.frames} frame(s) for a ${meta.lastGeneration - meta.firstGeneration + 1}` +
+          `-generation span — it was sealed across a gap and never held this generation. ` +
+          `Reporting it as unpacked rather than as damage; no record is lost.`
+      )
+      return null
+    }
     throw new Error(
       `[GenerationSegments] generation ${gen} is inside sealed segment ${meta.file}'s declared ` +
-        `range but has no frame — packed history is damaged`
+        `range but has no frame, and that segment declares a complete ${meta.frames}-frame ` +
+        `span — the manifest and the sidecar disagree; packed history is damaged`
     )
   }
 

src/db/generationStore.ts

@@ -96,6 +96,35 @@ export const FOLD_CHECKPOINT_PATH = '_system/fold-checkpoint.json'
 /** Storage-root-relative prefix of the per-generation record directories. */
 export const GENERATIONS_PREFIX = '_generations'
 
+/**
+ * @description Split an ascending list of fold candidates into maximal
+ * CONTIGUOUS runs — `[7,8,9,12,13]` becomes `[[7,8,9],[12,13]]`.
+ *
+ * A sealed segment declares one dense range `[firstGeneration,
+ * lastGeneration]`, and every reader treats that range as containment. So a
+ * batch with a hole in it must never become one segment: it would claim a
+ * generation it does not hold, and the first read of that hole reports the
+ * packed history as damaged. One run, one segment — the ranges then describe
+ * exactly what the segments contain.
+ *
+ * @param gens - Fold candidates, strictly ascending by generation.
+ * @returns One array per contiguous run, in ascending order. Empty in, empty out.
+ */
+export function contiguousRuns(gens: FoldGeneration[]): FoldGeneration[][] {
+  const runs: FoldGeneration[][] = []
+  let run: FoldGeneration[] = []
+  for (const g of gens) {
+    const prev = run[run.length - 1]
+    if (prev !== undefined && g.generation !== prev.generation + 1) {
+      runs.push(run)
+      run = []
+    }
+    run.push(g)
+  }
+  if (run.length > 0) runs.push(run)
+  return runs
+}
+
 /**
  * @description Phases of the {@link GenerationStore.commitTransaction} commit
  * protocol at which a test-only fault injector can simulate a process crash.
@@ -537,12 +566,29 @@ export class GenerationStore {
     this.horizonGen = finiteGen(manifest?.horizon, 'manifest horizon')
     this.counter = Math.max(finiteGen(counterFile?.generation, 'generation counter'), this.committed)
 
-    // Discover existing generation record directories.
-    const recordPaths = await this.storage.listRawObjects(GENERATIONS_PREFIX)
+    // Discover existing generation record directories — BY DIRECTORY NAME.
+    // This used to call listRawObjects(), which recurses the whole
+    // `_generations/` tree and returns every file in every generation, to
+    // extract a set of integers the top-level directory names already spell.
+    // MEASURED on a real store with an 11 GB generation history: the phase
+    // this sits in cost 55,538 ms of a WARM REOPEN after a clean close, with
+    // no fold to blame — this walk is what it was doing. An adapter without
+    // the one-level door falls back to the recursive listing, unchanged.
     const seenGens = new Set<number>()
-    for (const p of recordPaths) {
-      const gen = parseGenerationFromPath(p)
-      if (gen !== null) seenGens.add(gen)
+    const oneLevel = (
+      this.storage as { listRawPrefixes?: (prefix: string) => Promise<string[]> }
+    ).listRawPrefixes
+    if (typeof oneLevel === 'function') {
+      for (const name of await oneLevel.call(this.storage, GENERATIONS_PREFIX)) {
+        const gen = Number(name)
+        if (Number.isSafeInteger(gen) && gen >= 0) seenGens.add(gen)
+      }
+    } else {
+      const recordPaths = await this.storage.listRawObjects(GENERATIONS_PREFIX)
+      for (const p of recordPaths) {
+        const gen = parseGenerationFromPath(p)
+        if (gen !== null) seenGens.add(gen)
+      }
     }
 
     let rolledBack = 0
@@ -652,21 +698,56 @@ export class GenerationStore {
             : 'WHOLE-LOG fold'
           : 'above-manifest replay'
         let replayed = 0
+        const foldStartedAt = Date.now()
         const replayFact = async (fact: CommitFact): Promise<void> => {
           for (const op of fact.ops) {
-            const image =
-              op.record === null
-                ? { metadata: null, vector: null }
-                : { metadata: op.record.metadata, vector: op.record.vector }
+            let image: { metadata: unknown | null; vector: unknown | null }
+            if (op.record === null) {
+              // A genuine tombstone (both legs absent) — the fold removes
+              // both legs, exactly like `writeNounRaw`/`writeVerbRaw`'s raw
+              // exact-restore contract.
+              image = { metadata: null, vector: null }
+            } else if (
+              op.record.metadata !== null &&
+              (op.record.vector === null || op.record.vector === undefined)
+            ) {
+              // PRESERVE-IF-ABSENT (population law, ADR-008 G1 — the fold's
+              // half): a metadata-only after-image must never DELETE an
+              // existing vector leg through the fold. `writeNounRaw`/
+              // `writeVerbRaw` are exact-restore primitives — a `vector:
+              // null` there means "delete", which is exactly right for
+              // `rollBackUncommittedGeneration`'s before-image restore (a
+              // transaction abort legitimately un-writes a vector the failed
+              // transaction added). It is NOT right here: this fold replays
+              // AFTER-IMAGES, and re-applying an already-intact record must
+              // be byte-safe (this module's own invariant, see the log-authority
+              // comment above) — silently erasing a landed vector because one
+              // replayed fact's vector leg came back null is the exact defect
+              // that left metadata-counted, never-enumerated rows in a
+              // production store (confirmed root cause: the enumeration walk
+              // used to key on the vector leg, so a preserved-but-then-deleted
+              // vector made the row invisible while the ledger still counted
+              // it by metadata). A genuine "unvector" has its own sanctioned,
+              // ledger-correct path (`Brainy.unvectorNounForRootMigration`) —
+              // never this raw primitive, and never the fold.
+              const current =
+                op.kind === 'verb'
+                  ? await this.storage.readVerbRaw(op.id)
+                  : await this.storage.readNounRaw(op.id)
+              image = { metadata: op.record.metadata, vector: current.vector ?? null }
+            } else {
+              image = { metadata: op.record.metadata, vector: op.record.vector }
+            }
             if (op.kind === 'verb') await this.storage.writeVerbRaw(op.id, image)
             else await this.storage.writeNounRaw(op.id, image)
             this.noteCheckpointDirty(op.kind, op.id)
           }
           replayed++
           if (replayed % 1000 === 0) {
-            prodLog.warn(
+            prodLog.narrate(
               `[GenerationStore] recovery fold in progress — ${replayed} fact(s) folded ` +
-                `(at generation ${fact.generation}); do not restart, the fold is finite`
+                `in ${Date.now() - foldStartedAt}ms (at generation ${fact.generation}); ` +
+                `do not restart, the fold is finite`
             )
           }
           if (fact.generation > this.committed) {
@@ -681,7 +762,7 @@ export class GenerationStore {
           }
         }
         if (uncleanOpen) {
-          prodLog.warn(
+          prodLog.narrate(
             `[GenerationStore] log-authority recovery: ${foldKind} beginning ` +
               `(unclean shutdown detected) — streaming replay, bounded memory, ` +
               `progress every 1000 facts. Do not restart the process; a restart ` +
@@ -704,9 +785,10 @@ export class GenerationStore {
           }
           await this.storage.writeRawObject(MANIFEST_PATH, manifest)
           await this.storage.syncRawObjects([MANIFEST_PATH])
-          prodLog.warn(
+          prodLog.narrate(
             `[GenerationStore] log-authority recovery replayed ${replayed} fact(s) into ` +
-              `canonical (${foldKind}; committed at ${this.committed}) — an acked write is never lost`
+              `canonical in ${Date.now() - foldStartedAt}ms (${foldKind}; committed at ` +
+              `${this.committed}) — an acked write is never lost`
           )
         }
         // A recovery fold re-applied (and the barrier below re-syncs) every
@@ -731,9 +813,15 @@ export class GenerationStore {
     if (storageSupportsFactLog(this.storage)) {
       this.segments = new GenerationSegmentStore(this.storage)
       await this.segments.open()
-      const packedRanges = this.segments
-        .segments()
-        .map((s): [number, number] => [s.firstGeneration, Math.min(s.lastGeneration, this.committed)])
+      // ACTUAL ranges, not declared ones. A segment sealed by a pre-density-law
+      // writer can declare a span wider than the frames it holds; seeding
+      // committedRanges from the declared span re-admits those holes as
+      // committed generations, and every later maintenance pass then asks for a
+      // frame that was never written. `actualRanges()` reads the real
+      // generation list from the sidecar for exactly those segments (and does
+      // no I/O for the dense ones, which is all of them on a healthy store).
+      const packedRanges = (await this.segments.actualRanges())
+        .map((r): [number, number] => [r[0], Math.min(r[1], this.committed)])
         .filter(([lo, hi]) => lo <= hi)
       if (packedRanges.length > 0) {
         // Merge packed (older) + live (newer) interval sets — both ascending;
@@ -3068,13 +3156,26 @@ export class GenerationStore {
           foldInput.push({ generation: gen, timestamp: delta.timestamp, delta, records })
         }
         if (foldInput.length === 0) continue
-        await segments.fold(foldInput)
-        segmentsCreated++
-        // Segment + manifest durable → the live copies retire.
-        for (const g of foldInput) {
-          await this.storage.removeRawPrefix(`${GENERATIONS_PREFIX}/${g.generation}`)
+        // SPLIT AT DISCONTINUITIES. `eligible` is NOT contiguous — three
+        // filters above punch holes in it: a generation missing from
+        // committedRanges never appears, one still in the pending buffer is
+        // skipped, and one whose tx.json will not read is skipped. A sealed
+        // segment declares a DENSE range, so folding across such a hole makes
+        // the segment claim a generation it does not hold; the next open
+        // merges that mis-declared range into committedRanges, and every
+        // subsequent auto-compaction pass then asks for the missing frame and
+        // fails with "packed history is damaged". Fold each contiguous RUN as
+        // its own segment instead — same bytes, honest ranges.
+        for (const run of contiguousRuns(foldInput)) {
+          if (deadline !== undefined && Date.now() >= deadline) break
+          await segments.fold(run)
+          segmentsCreated++
+          // Segment + manifest durable → the live copies retire.
+          for (const g of run) {
+            await this.storage.removeRawPrefix(`${GENERATIONS_PREFIX}/${g.generation}`)
+          }
+          folded += run.length
         }
-        folded += foldInput.length
       }
       if (folded > 0) {
         prodLog.info(

src/db/types.ts

@@ -450,6 +450,21 @@ export interface GenerationStorage {
   deleteRawObject(path: string): Promise<void>
   /** List raw object paths under a prefix (normalized, `.gz`-stripped). */
   listRawObjects(prefix: string): Promise<string[]>
+  /**
+   * OPTIONAL: the IMMEDIATE child directory names under a prefix — one level,
+   * no recursion, no file paths.
+   *
+   * Why it exists: discovering which generations are on disk needs only the
+   * top-level directory NAMES under `_generations/`, but the only door for it
+   * was `listRawObjects`, which recurses the whole tree and returns every file
+   * in every generation. On a store with a long history that is a full walk of
+   * the entire generation log, paid on EVERY open, to learn a set of integers
+   * the directory names already spell out.
+   *
+   * An adapter without this door keeps working — the caller falls back to the
+   * recursive listing.
+   */
+  listRawPrefixes?(prefix: string): Promise<string[]>
   /** Remove every object under a prefix (and the directory itself on disk). */
   removeRawPrefix(prefix: string): Promise<void>
   /** Durability barrier: fsync the given object paths (no-op in memory). */

src/embeddings/wasm/modelLoader.ts

@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ async function loadBunAssets(): Promise<ModelAssets> {
   }
 
   // Strategy 2: node_modules path relative to CWD (for installed packages)
-  const nmPath = './node_modules/@soulcraft/brainy/assets/models/all-MiniLM-L6-v2'
+  const nmPath = './node_modules/@soulcraftlabs/brainy/assets/models/all-MiniLM-L6-v2'
   pathsToTry.push([
     `${nmPath}/model.safetensors`,
     `${nmPath}/tokenizer.json`,
@@ -168,9 +168,9 @@ async function loadBunAssets(): Promise<ModelAssets> {
   // If all strategies fail, provide helpful error message
   throw new Error(
     'Could not load model assets. For bun --compile, ensure model files are accessible:\n' +
-    '  Option 1: Keep node_modules/@soulcraft/brainy/assets/ alongside your binary\n' +
+    '  Option 1: Keep node_modules/@soulcraftlabs/brainy/assets/ alongside your binary\n' +
     '  Option 2: Copy assets/ folder to your working directory\n' +
-    '  Option 3: Use --asset flag: bun build --compile --asset="./node_modules/@soulcraft/brainy/assets/**/*"'
+    '  Option 3: Use --asset flag: bun build --compile --asset="./node_modules/@soulcraftlabs/brainy/assets/**/*"'
   )
 }
 
@@ -190,7 +190,7 @@ async function loadNodeAssets(): Promise<ModelAssets> {
   if (!fs.existsSync(assetsDir)) {
     throw new Error(
       `Model assets not found: ${assetsDir}\n` +
-      `Ensure @soulcraft/brainy is installed correctly.`
+      `Ensure @soulcraftlabs/brainy is installed correctly.`
     )
   }
 

src/errors/notFound.ts

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
  * - {@link RelationNotFoundError} — a referenced relationship (verb) does
  *   not exist.
  *
- * Both are exported from the package root (`@soulcraft/brainy`).
+ * Both are exported from the package root (`@soulcraftlabs/brainy`).
  */
 
 /**

src/graph/graphAdjacencyIndex.ts

@@ -1052,6 +1052,17 @@ export class GraphAdjacencyIndex implements GraphIndexProvider {
    */
   private startAutoFlush(): void {
     this.flushTimer = setInterval(async () => {
+      // NO PERIODIC WORK WITHOUT A CAUSE. Ask first, in two O(1) reads: an
+      // index nobody has written to since the last flush has nothing to
+      // write, and calling into the trees (and their logging) on a cadence
+      // over a quiet store is exactly the idle cost this law exists to
+      // remove.
+      if (
+        !this.lsmTreeVerbsBySource.hasPendingWrites() &&
+        !this.lsmTreeVerbsByTarget.hasPendingWrites()
+      ) {
+        return
+      }
       await this.flush()
     }, this.config.flushInterval)
     // Background maintenance must never keep the host process alive —

src/graph/lsm/LSMTree.ts

@@ -687,6 +687,17 @@ export class LSMTree {
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * @description Whether this tree holds anything a flush would write —
+   * the MemTable is non-empty. Synchronous and O(1), so a background cadence
+   * can ask before it does anything at all: the engine does no periodic work
+   * without a cause.
+   * @returns true when a flush would write; false when it would be a no-op.
+   */
+  hasPendingWrites(): boolean {
+    return !this.memTable.isEmpty()
+  }
+
   async close(): Promise<void> {
     this.stopCompactionTimer()
 

src/hnsw/hnswIndex.ts

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import {
   Vector,
   VectorDocument
 } from '../coreTypes.js'
-import { euclideanDistance, calculateDistancesBatch } from '../utils/index.js'
+import { euclideanDistance, calculateDistancesBatch, isZeroNormVector } from '../utils/index.js'
 import type { BaseStorage } from '../storage/baseStorage.js'
 import { getGlobalCache, UnifiedCache } from '../utils/unifiedCache.js'
 import { prodLog } from '../utils/logger.js'
@@ -64,6 +64,34 @@ export class HnswFlushError extends Error {
   }
 }
 
+/**
+ * @description Thrown by {@link JsHnswVectorIndex.addItem} / {@link
+ * JsHnswVectorIndex.updateItem} when handed a length-0 vector. A length-0
+ * vector is the sanctioned "unvectored" shape for a canonical noun record
+ * (class-J: a VFS-system row, a deferred embed not yet landed, or any other
+ * legitimately-vector-less row) — but it is NEVER a legal INDEX insert. The
+ * index itself has no concept of "unvectored"; deciding that a row is
+ * unvectored and therefore skippable is the FILL/REBUILD/LOAD consumer's job
+ * (see {@link JsHnswVectorIndex.rebuild}), done BEFORE ever calling addItem.
+ * A length-0 vector reaching this point is a caller bug: silently accepting
+ * it would pin `this.dimension = 0` on an empty index (poisoning every real
+ * insert thereafter with a dimension mismatch) or store a vector-less node
+ * that a distance calculation can never safely compare against. Loud errors,
+ * never quiet losses — this throws instead of either.
+ */
+export class EmptyVectorIndexError extends Error {
+  constructor(public readonly id: string, operation: 'addItem' | 'updateItem') {
+    super(
+      `${operation}(${id}): refusing to index a length-0 vector — a length-0 vector is the ` +
+        `sanctioned "unvectored" shape for a canonical row, but it is never a legal index ` +
+        `insert. Callers that fill/rebuild/load the index must skip vector.length === 0 rows ` +
+        `themselves (unvectored = nothing to index, not an error at that layer); reaching ` +
+        `here with one is a caller bug.`
+    )
+    this.name = 'EmptyVectorIndexError'
+  }
+}
+
 /**
  * Implements {@link VectorIndexProvider}: the vector-index surface Brainy calls
  * on whatever the `'vector'` factory returns (its own `JsHnswVectorIndex`, or a native
@@ -580,6 +608,15 @@ export class JsHnswVectorIndex implements VectorIndexProvider {
       throw new Error('Vector is undefined or null')
     }
 
+    // THE INDEX REFUSES A LENGTH-0 VECTOR (see EmptyVectorIndexError's JSDoc):
+    // an empty vector is the sanctioned "unvectored" shape at the canonical
+    // layer, never a legal index member. Refusing here — loudly, before the
+    // dimension pin below — means no future fill/rebuild/load path can ever
+    // poison `this.dimension` to 0 or park a vector-less node in the graph.
+    if (vector.length === 0) {
+      throw new EmptyVectorIndexError(id, 'addItem')
+    }
+
     // Set dimension on first insert
     if (this.dimension === null) {
       this.dimension = vector.length
@@ -954,6 +991,13 @@ export class JsHnswVectorIndex implements VectorIndexProvider {
       return
     }
 
+    // Same refusal as addItem (see EmptyVectorIndexError's JSDoc) — an
+    // in-place relink must never rewrite an already-indexed node down to the
+    // unvectored shape or poison the pinned dimension.
+    if (vector.length === 0) {
+      throw new EmptyVectorIndexError(id, 'updateItem')
+    }
+
     if (this.dimension === null) {
       this.dimension = vector.length
     } else if (vector.length !== this.dimension) {
@@ -1555,7 +1599,15 @@ export class JsHnswVectorIndex implements VectorIndexProvider {
       }
 
       const loaded = await this.storage.getNounVector(noun.id)
-      if (!loaded) {
+      // `loaded` is a length-0 array (not null/undefined) for a canonical row
+      // that is legitimately unvectored — `![]` is FALSE (an empty array is
+      // truthy), so the bare `!loaded` check below would silently accept it
+      // as "found" and hand a dimension-0 vector to a distance calculation.
+      // A node only reaches this lazy-load path because it is a MEMBER of
+      // the live index (rebuild() now refuses to admit unvectored rows — see
+      // its JSDoc), so an empty vector here is never legitimate: treat it
+      // exactly like "not found", loudly.
+      if (!loaded || loaded.length === 0) {
         throw new Error(`Vector not found for noun ${noun.id}`)
       }
 
@@ -1765,9 +1817,56 @@ export class JsHnswVectorIndex implements VectorIndexProvider {
 
         totalCount = result.totalCount || result.items.length
 
+        // UNVECTORED ROWS ARE NOT AN INDEX MEMBER (the class-J law): a canonical
+        // noun whose vector leg is `[]` (a VFS-root-style system row, a
+        // deferred embed not yet landed, or a best-effort fallback for an
+        // unreadable vector leg) is a normal, enumerable, countable row — it
+        // is simply not indexed. `storage.getVectorIndexData()` derives its
+        // {level, connections} answer straight from the noun's OWN record, so
+        // it returns non-null for every existing noun regardless of whether
+        // that noun ever actually reached `addItem()` — it cannot be used to
+        // decide indexability. `nounData.vector.length === 0` is the one
+        // truthful signal (mirrors the `noun.vector.length > 0` guards in
+        // {@link getVectorSafe} / {@link getVectorSync}): skip here, counted
+        // once in a summary line, never per-row spam.
+        let skippedUnvectored = 0
+
         // Process all nouns at once
         for (const nounData of result.items) {
           try {
+            if (!Array.isArray(nounData.vector) || nounData.vector.length === 0) {
+              skippedUnvectored++
+              continue
+            }
+            // THE ZERO-NORM LAW — bulk-rebuild leg: a persisted zero-norm
+            // vector (a pre-10.4.2 row the canonical write has not yet
+            // normalized) must never enter the index either, mirroring the
+            // belt AddToVectorIndexOperation enforces on the live write path.
+            // Only the canonical vector is authoritative here — persisted
+            // HNSW graph metadata (level/connections) can outlive an unvector.
+            if (isZeroNormVector(nounData.vector)) {
+              prodLog.warn(
+                `[HNSW] rebuild(): skipping entity ${nounData.id} — persisted vector is ` +
+                  `zero-norm (a zero-norm vector is not a vector and never crosses an ` +
+                  `engine boundary)`
+              )
+              continue
+            }
+
+            // Restore the pinned dimension from the first real vector this
+            // rebuild loads. `addItem`/`updateItem` only pin `this.dimension`
+            // on a LIVE insert — a fresh rebuild from storage never goes
+            // through either, so without this the pin stays `null` across a
+            // restart. A `null` pin means the very next insert (correct OR
+            // wrong length) silently BECOMES the new pin instead of being
+            // checked against the store's real dimension — the wrong-length
+            // case then fails much later and less clearly, inside a distance
+            // calculation against an already-loaded node, instead of here,
+            // immediately, with a named expected-vs-got mismatch.
+            if (this.dimension === null) {
+              this.dimension = nounData.vector.length
+            }
+
             // Load HNSW graph data for this entity
             const hnswData = await this.storage.getVectorIndexData(nounData.id)
 
@@ -1815,7 +1914,10 @@ export class JsHnswVectorIndex implements VectorIndexProvider {
           options.onProgress(loadedCount, totalCount)
         }
 
-        prodLog.info(`HNSW: Loaded ${loadedCount.toLocaleString()} nodes (${storageType})`)
+        prodLog.info(
+          `HNSW: Loaded ${loadedCount.toLocaleString()} nodes (${storageType})` +
+          (skippedUnvectored > 0 ? ` — ${skippedUnvectored.toLocaleString()} unvectored row(s) skipped` : '')
+        )
       }
 
       // Step 5: CRITICAL - Recover entry point if missing)

src/index.ts

@@ -184,6 +184,7 @@ export {
 
 // Export version utilities
 export { getBrainyVersion } from './utils/version.js'
+export { contractVersion, BRAINY_CONTRACT_VERSION } from './utils/version.js'
 
 // Export plugin system
 export type { BrainyPlugin, BrainyPluginContext, StorageAdapterFactory } from './plugin.js'
@@ -269,6 +270,10 @@ export type { FamilyStamp, StampMembers, StampVerdict } from './db/familyStamp.j
 export { isVersionedIndexProvider } from './plugin.js'
 export type { VersionedIndexProvider } from './plugin.js'
 export type { ProviderInvariantReport, InvariantResult, InvariantHeal } from './plugin.js'
+// The named, synchronous, O(1) health-report contract (the read gate's ONLY
+// source of truth for "can I serve right now") — see HealthReport's
+// derivation laws in plugin.ts.
+export type { HealthReport, LedgerInvariantResult, InvariantSource } from './plugin.js'
 // Optional provider self-report of outstanding background maintenance work
 // (compaction, deferred writes, etc.) — the payload type for
 // brain.maintenanceDebt(). See the measure-only-what-you-track contract on
@@ -385,7 +390,10 @@ import type {
   HNSWVerb,
   HNSWConfig,
   StorageAdapter,
-  DerivedFamilyDeclaration
+  DerivedFamilyDeclaration,
+  // The canonical count ledger a storage adapter maintains (counted + ALL-visibility
+  // scalars per family, the coverage-ledger denominators) — see StorageAdapter.getCanonicalCounts.
+  CanonicalCounts
 } from './coreTypes.js'
 
 // Export vector index implementation (the JS HNSW path)

src/integrations/index.ts

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
  *
  * @example Enable integrations (recommended)
  * ```typescript
- * import { Brainy } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+ * import { Brainy } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
  *
  * const brain = new Brainy({ integrations: true })
  * await brain.init()

src/mcp/README.md

@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ The `BrainyMCPService` has been refactored to separate the core functionality fr
 ### In Any Environment (Browser, Node.js, Server)
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, BrainyMCPAdapter, MCPAugmentationToolset } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, BrainyMCPAdapter, MCPAugmentationToolset } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // Create a Brainy instance
 const brainyData = new Brainy()
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ const toolResponse = await toolset.handleRequest({
 ### In Browser Environment (Core Functionality Only)
 
 ```typescript
-import { Brainy, BrainyMCPService } from '@soulcraft/brainy'
+import { Brainy, BrainyMCPService } from '@soulcraftlabs/brainy'
 
 // Create a Brainy instance
 const brainyData = new Brainy()

src/neural/embeddedPatterns.ts

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
  * 🧠 BRAINY EMBEDDED PATTERNS
  * 
  * AUTO-GENERATED - DO NOT EDIT
- * Generated: 2026-07-02T21:43:26.976Z
+ * Generated: 2025-09-29T10:10:00-07:00
  * Patterns: 220
  * Coverage: 94-98% of all queries
  * 

src/neural/embeddedTypeEmbeddings.ts

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
  * 🧠 BRAINY EMBEDDED TYPE EMBEDDINGS
  *
  * AUTO-GENERATED - DO NOT EDIT
- * Generated: 2026-02-09T16:59:48.867Z
+ * Generated: 2026-06-29T10:04:19-07:00
  * Noun Types: 42
  * Verb Types: 127
  *
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ export const TYPE_METADATA = {
   verbTypes: 127,
   totalTypes: 169,
   embeddingDimensions: 384,
-  generatedAt: "2026-02-09T16:59:48.867Z",
+  generatedAt: "2026-06-29T10:04:19-07:00",
   sizeBytes: {
     embeddings: 259584,
     base64: 346112

src/plugin.ts

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
  * registered manually via `brain.use()` — there is no implicit detection.
  */
 
+import { prodLog } from './utils/logger.js'
 import type {
   StorageAdapter,
   Vector,
@@ -21,7 +22,7 @@ import type { GraphIndexStats } from './graph/graphAdjacencyIndex.js'
 
 // Re-export the provider contracts that already live closer to their
 // implementations so a plugin author (Cor) can import the *entire*
-// provider surface from one stable entrypoint: `@soulcraft/brainy/plugin`.
+// provider surface from one stable entrypoint: `@soulcraftlabs/brainy/plugin`.
 export type { ColumnStoreProvider } from './indexes/columnStore/types.js'
 export type {
   AggregationProvider,
@@ -40,7 +41,7 @@ export interface BrainyPlugin {
   name: string
 
   /**
-   * Optional semver range of `@soulcraft/brainy` this plugin supports
+   * Optional semver range of `@soulcraftlabs/brainy` this plugin supports
    * (e.g. `'>=8.0.0 <9.0.0'` or `'^8.0.0'`). When set and the running brainy is
    * OUTSIDE the range, `init()` THROWS rather than silently falling back to the
    * default JS engine. This is the version-coupling guard for the native
@@ -171,6 +172,66 @@ export interface ProviderInvariantReport {
   durationMs: number
 }
 
+/**
+ * @description Where a {@link LedgerInvariantResult} verdict came from:
+ * - `'ledger'`     — decided from an exact, durable ledger (a real count, not a sample).
+ * - `'deep'`       — decided by a full/expensive scan (the `validateInvariants()` diagnostic path only).
+ * - `'unledgered'` — this family has no ledger yet; the verdict is UNKNOWN, never healthy and never broken.
+ */
+export type InvariantSource = 'ledger' | 'deep' | 'unledgered'
+
+/**
+ * @description One invariant verdict inside a {@link HealthReport}. Extends
+ * {@link InvariantResult} with the provenance of the verdict ({@link InvariantSource})
+ * and, for a failing set-membership invariant, an exact count plus a capped sample
+ * of the diverging ids — a VERDICT, never a dump. `sample` MUST be capped at 16 ids;
+ * `count` is the exact number even when `sample` is truncated.
+ */
+export interface LedgerInvariantResult extends InvariantResult {
+  /** Provenance of this verdict — see {@link InvariantSource}. */
+  source: InvariantSource
+  /** Exact count of diverging/missing items plus a capped (≤16 ids) sample. Present only on a failing set-membership invariant. */
+  missing?: { count: number; sample: string[] }
+}
+
+/**
+ * @description The NAMED, SYNCHRONOUS, O(1) health report a provider exposes via
+ * {@link MetadataIndexProvider.healthReport} / {@link GraphIndexProvider.healthReport} /
+ * {@link VectorIndexProvider.healthReport}. This is the read gate's ONLY source of
+ * truth for "can I serve right now" — it replaces sampled self-probes and the
+ * unnamed `isReady()` latch with an exact, ledger-derived verdict.
+ *
+ * Derivation laws (a provider MUST honor these; brainy's read gate assumes them):
+ * - `healthy` = every VERIFIED invariant in {@link invariants} holds. An invariant
+ *   whose family is named in {@link unledgered} is NEVER counted toward `healthy`
+ *   either way — it is unknown, not passing.
+ * - `serving` = no verified invariant in {@link invariants} FAILS with `heal: 'rebuild'`.
+ *   A failure with `heal: 'repair'` or `heal: 'none'` is degraded-but-serving —
+ *   `serving` stays `true`. Only a `'rebuild'`-grade failure makes `serving` `false`.
+ * - `validateInvariants()` remains the async DEEP diagnostic (full scans allowed,
+ *   `source: 'deep'` results); `healthReport()` MUST be synchronous, O(1) from
+ *   exact ledgers/counters, and MUST NOT throw for a well-formed provider — a
+ *   provider that cannot produce a safe verdict reports it as a failing invariant,
+ *   it does not throw (a throw is read by the gate as a CONTRACT VIOLATION, not as
+ *   "unknown").
+ */
+export interface HealthReport extends ProviderInvariantReport {
+  /**
+   * Monotonic per provider: bumps on every ledger mutation and every rebuild
+   * boundary. Consumers (the read gate's narration dedup, external callers) may
+   * cache a verdict per generation.
+   */
+  generation: number
+  /** Each checked invariant, with provenance — see {@link LedgerInvariantResult}. */
+  invariants: LedgerInvariantResult[]
+  /**
+   * Families with no ledger yet. NAMED here so an operator can see what is not
+   * yet tracked — NEVER counted as healthy (they are not verified) and NEVER
+   * counted as broken (there is nothing to fail).
+   */
+  unledgered: string[]
+}
+
 /**
  * @description A provider's self-report of its own outstanding background
  * maintenance work (compaction, deferred writes, a build-new→verify→swap in
@@ -266,6 +327,20 @@ export interface MetadataIndexProvider {
    */
   validateInvariants?(): Promise<ProviderInvariantReport>
 
+  /**
+   * @description OPTIONAL. The named, SYNCHRONOUS, O(1) health verdict this
+   * provider derives from its own exact ledgers — see {@link HealthReport} for
+   * the full derivation laws. MUST NOT perform I/O and MUST NOT throw for a
+   * well-formed provider (brainy treats a throw as a CONTRACT VIOLATION, never
+   * as "unknown"). When present, brainy's read gate (`assessProviderHealth()`)
+   * reads THIS instead of `isReady()` / size heuristics: `serving` decides
+   * whether reads may proceed; a `false` refuses the read loudly rather than
+   * triggering a rebuild. Absent → the gate falls back to `isReady?()` / the
+   * size heuristic (this train's JS built-in providers stay on that interim
+   * path).
+   */
+  healthReport?(): HealthReport
+
   /**
    * @description OPTIONAL. A native provider returns true from the moment its
    * `init()` detects a large epoch-drift until its background
@@ -462,6 +537,20 @@ export interface GraphIndexProvider {
    */
   validateInvariants?(): Promise<ProviderInvariantReport>
 
+  /**
+   * @description OPTIONAL. The named, SYNCHRONOUS, O(1) health verdict this
+   * provider derives from its own exact ledgers — see {@link HealthReport} for
+   * the full derivation laws. MUST NOT perform I/O and MUST NOT throw for a
+   * well-formed provider (brainy treats a throw as a CONTRACT VIOLATION, never
+   * as "unknown"). When present, brainy's read gate (`assessProviderHealth()`)
+   * reads THIS instead of `isReady()` / size heuristics: `serving` decides
+   * whether reads may proceed; a `false` refuses the read loudly rather than
+   * triggering a rebuild. Absent → the gate falls back to `isReady?()` / the
+   * size heuristic (this train's JS built-in providers stay on that interim
+   * path).
+   */
+  healthReport?(): HealthReport
+
   /**
    * @description OPTIONAL eager cold-load. Called once during brain init — AFTER
    * the metadata provider's `init()` (so the id-mapper is hydrated; a native int
@@ -1225,6 +1314,20 @@ export interface VectorIndexProvider {
    */
   validateInvariants?(): Promise<ProviderInvariantReport>
 
+  /**
+   * @description OPTIONAL. The named, SYNCHRONOUS, O(1) health verdict this
+   * provider derives from its own exact ledgers — see {@link HealthReport} for
+   * the full derivation laws. MUST NOT perform I/O and MUST NOT throw for a
+   * well-formed provider (brainy treats a throw as a CONTRACT VIOLATION, never
+   * as "unknown"). When present, brainy's read gate (`assessProviderHealth()`)
+   * reads THIS instead of `isReady()` / size heuristics: `serving` decides
+   * whether reads may proceed; a `false` refuses the read loudly rather than
+   * triggering a rebuild. Absent → the gate falls back to `isReady?()` / the
+   * size heuristic (this train's JS built-in providers stay on that interim
+   * path).
+   */
+  healthReport?(): HealthReport
+
   /**
    * @description OPTIONAL. A native provider returns true from the moment its
    * `init()` detects a large epoch-drift until its background
@@ -1472,9 +1575,13 @@ export class PluginRegistry {
         this.activated.add(name)
         activated.push(name)
       } else {
-        // Documented graceful decline (activate() → false). Surface it loudly so
-        // a silent degrade to the default engine never goes unnoticed.
-        console.warn(
+        // Documented graceful decline (activate() → false). Surface it on the
+        // ALWAYS-ON channel: `silent: true` patches console, and a declined
+        // accelerator warned into a patched console is a silent degrade to the
+        // default engines — the exact invisible-fallback class this registry
+        // exists to prevent (a production storm ran the WASM engine for 90s
+        // behind one suppressed warn).
+        prodLog.warn(
           `[brainy] Plugin "${name}" declined activation (activate() returned false); ` +
             `the default engine is in use for its providers.`
         )

src/storage/adapters/baseStorageAdapter.ts

@@ -1041,16 +1041,43 @@ export abstract class BaseStorageAdapter implements StorageAdapter {
    */
   protected totalNounCountAll = 0
   protected totalVerbCountAll = 0
+  /**
+   * The count of canonical nouns holding a REAL (non-empty) vector — the
+   * vector-side mirror of `totalNounCountAll` and the coverage denominator a
+   * vector index's node-count ledger is measured against. A deferred-embed
+   * noun (`add({ deferEmbedding: true })`) counts only once its vector
+   * LANDS (the `system:embed-landing` commit) — its canonical record exists
+   * (already counted in `totalNounCountAll`) with an empty vector until
+   * then. Maintained on the write path (a fresh insert whose vector is
+   * non-empty +1, a deferred embed's landing +1, a PROVEN delete of a
+   * vectored noun −1), persisted beside the other ALL scalars, recomputed by
+   * the sanctioned recount. Shares `allCountsSuspect` — no separate flag.
+   */
+  protected totalVectoredNounCount = 0
   /**
    * `true` when a delete could not prove whether the record existed (no
    * canonical read, no caller-provided prior) — the ALL scalar may be off by
    * the unprovable deletes since. Loud, persisted, and cleared only by the
    * sanctioned recount; a consumer reading the scalar as a ledger denominator
-   * must treat a suspect scalar as unverified, never as exact.
+   * must treat a suspect scalar as unverified, never as exact. Also covers
+   * `totalVectoredNounCount` — a delete whose vector-presence fact was
+   * unknowable marks this SAME flag rather than minting a second one.
    */
   protected allCountsSuspect = false
   /** One narration per session for the suspect transition (never per delete). */
   private allCountsSuspectNarrated = false
+  /**
+   * Which rule produced the ALL scalars currently in memory. `'identity-record'`
+   * means one counted entity per metadata content leg — the honest rule: a
+   * bare id-directory (a ghost or scar left by a partial-delete defect, no
+   * content leg) counts zero. Set by the one-time derivation and by the
+   * sanctioned recount, alongside `allCountsSuspect = false`; left `undefined`
+   * when a loaded counts.json carries the ALL scalars but no stamp — the
+   * legacy container-rule derivation, which forces `allCountsSuspect = true`
+   * at load instead. A filesystem concern: `MemoryStorage` has no counts.json
+   * and never sets this.
+   */
+  protected allCountsDerivedBy?: 'identity-record'
   protected entityCounts: Map<string, number> = new Map() // type -> count
   protected verbCounts: Map<string, number> = new Map() // verb type -> count
   protected countCache: Map<string, { count: number; timestamp: number }> = new Map()
@@ -1083,15 +1110,19 @@ export abstract class BaseStorageAdapter implements StorageAdapter {
    * The canonical count ledger — O(1), no I/O. `counted` is the user-facing
    * scalar (public/internal tiers, what `getNounCount()` returns); `all` is
    * the ALL-visibility scalar every unfiltered storage walk is measured
-   * against (the coverage-ledger denominator for derived-index providers).
-   * `suspect` is `true` when an unprovable delete has made `all` unverified
-   * since the last sanctioned recount (`rebuildTypeCounts`).
-   * @returns Both scalars per family plus the suspect flag.
+   * against (the coverage-ledger denominator for derived-index providers);
+   * `vectors.all` is the vectored-noun scalar — the coverage denominator for
+   * a vector index's node-count ledger specifically.
+   * `suspect` is `true` when an unprovable delete has made `all` (any
+   * family, including `vectors`) unverified since the last sanctioned
+   * recount (`rebuildTypeCounts`).
+   * @returns All scalars per family plus the suspect flag.
    */
   async getCanonicalCounts(): Promise<CanonicalCounts> {
     return {
       nouns: { counted: this.totalNounCount, all: this.totalNounCountAll },
       verbs: { counted: this.totalVerbCount, all: this.totalVerbCountAll },
+      vectors: { all: this.totalVectoredNounCount },
       suspect: this.allCountsSuspect
     }
   }
@@ -1103,7 +1134,7 @@ export abstract class BaseStorageAdapter implements StorageAdapter {
    * @param family - Which family's delete was unprovable.
    * @param id - The id whose existence could not be established.
    */
-  protected markAllCountsSuspect(family: 'noun' | 'verb', id: string): void {
+  protected markAllCountsSuspect(family: 'noun' | 'verb' | 'noun-vector', id: string): void {
     this.allCountsSuspect = true
     if (!this.allCountsSuspectNarrated) {
       this.allCountsSuspectNarrated = true
@@ -1116,6 +1147,41 @@ export abstract class BaseStorageAdapter implements StorageAdapter {
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * OPTIONAL narrow ledger hook (see {@link StorageAdapter.noteVectorLanded}):
+   * record a deferred-embed noun's FIRST real vector landing. The caller
+   * (the deferred-embed worker) proves this is a genuine landing — not a
+   * re-embed of an already-vectored row — by observing its own pre-embed
+   * read's vector was empty, at no added storage cost.
+   * @param id - The noun whose vector just landed (retained for a future
+   *   narration seam; the count itself needs no id-keyed state).
+   */
+  async noteVectorLanded(id: string): Promise<void> {
+    void id
+    this.totalVectoredNounCount++
+    this.scheduleCountPersist().catch(() => {
+      // Ignore persist errors — the in-memory count is authoritative; a later op retries.
+    })
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * OPTIONAL narrow ledger hook (see {@link StorageAdapter.noteVectorUnlanded}):
+   * the mirror of {@link noteVectorLanded} — record a noun's vector was just
+   * REMOVED (rewritten to the unvectored `[]` shape). Never below zero: a
+   * caller that (incorrectly) fires this for a noun already unvectored would
+   * otherwise drive the ledger negative — clamped defensively, matching the
+   * delete path's `if (this.totalVectoredNounCount > 0)` guard.
+   * @param id - The noun whose vector was just removed (retained for a
+   *   future narration seam; the count itself needs no id-keyed state).
+   */
+  async noteVectorUnlanded(id: string): Promise<void> {
+    void id
+    if (this.totalVectoredNounCount > 0) this.totalVectoredNounCount--
+    this.scheduleCountPersist().catch(() => {
+      // Ignore persist errors — the in-memory count is authoritative; a later op retries.
+    })
+  }
+
   /**
    * Increment count for entity type - O(1) operation.
    * Concurrency is handled by the process-global mutex

src/storage/adapters/fileSystemStorage.ts

@@ -14,10 +14,13 @@ import {
   StorageBatchConfig,
   SYSTEM_DIR,
   STATISTICS_KEY,
-  WriterLockInfo
+  WriterLockInfo,
+  WriterCloseRecord
 } from '../baseStorage.js'
 import { getBrainyVersion } from '../../utils/index.js'
 import { isAbsentError } from '../../utils/errorClassification.js'
+import { prodLog } from '../../utils/logger.js'
+import { isZeroNormVector } from '../../utils/distance.js'
 import {
   TornRecordError,
   isUnparseablePayloadError,
@@ -97,7 +100,30 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
   // timer rewrites the lock every 10s so stale-lock detection can tell a dead
   // writer from a slow one. The constant name matches the file path used.
   private static readonly WRITER_LOCK_FILE = '_writer.lock'
-  private static readonly WRITER_HEARTBEAT_MS = 10_000
+  /**
+   * The clean-close record at `locks/_writer.close` (see
+   * {@link WriterCloseRecord}). Written when the lock is released, consumed by
+   * the next claim, so an open can distinguish "the previous writer left" from
+   * "the previous writer died" without inferring either from a pid.
+   */
+  private static readonly WRITER_CLOSE_FILE = '_writer.close'
+  /**
+   * How often the lock file's `lastHeartbeat` is rewritten.
+   *
+   * THIS IS OBSERVABILITY ONLY, and the cadence follows from that. Staleness
+   * is decided by PID LIVENESS alone (see isWriterLockStale) and the fence
+   * compares pid + hostname — no decision anywhere reads this timestamp. It
+   * exists so an operator inspecting a lock file, or reading the
+   * BRAINY_WRITER_LOCKED error, can judge liveness themselves.
+   *
+   * At 10s it was a lock-file WRITE every ten seconds per brain, forever: 2.1
+   * writes/s across a production process holding 21 idle brains, for a
+   * human-readable timestamp nothing computes with. At 60s an operator still
+   * sees a heartbeat inside the minute, at a sixth of the cost. With the
+   * clean-close record now recording orderly releases explicitly, the
+   * heartbeat carries even less weight than it did.
+   */
+  private static readonly WRITER_HEARTBEAT_MS = 60_000
   private static readonly WRITER_STALE_THRESHOLD_MS = 60_000
   private writerLockHeartbeat?: NodeJS.Timeout
   private writerLockInfo?: WriterLockInfo
@@ -110,6 +136,13 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
    */
   private writerHeartbeatInFlight?: Promise<void>
 
+  /**
+   * The in-flight background count-ledger derivation, if one was needed at
+   * open. See {@link scheduleCountLedgerDerivation} — awaited only by
+   * {@link whenCountLedgerSettled}, never by a read.
+   */
+  private countLedgerDerivation?: Promise<void>
+
   // Flush-request RPC state. The writer polls `locks/_flush_requests/` for
   // new `.req` files and emits `.ack` files in `locks/_flush_responses/` after
   // flushing. Inspectors call `requestFlushOverFilesystem` to drop a request
@@ -118,9 +151,16 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
   private static readonly FLUSH_REQUEST_DIR = '_flush_requests'
   private static readonly FLUSH_RESPONSE_DIR = '_flush_responses'
   private static readonly FLUSH_WATCH_INTERVAL_MS = 500
+  /**
+   * The safety sweep behind the fs.watch: catches events an exotic filesystem
+   * dropped, and runs the stale-request GC. See startFlushRequestWatcher.
+   */
+  private static readonly FLUSH_SAFETY_SWEEP_MS = 30_000
   private static readonly FLUSH_POLL_INTERVAL_MS = 100
   private static readonly FLUSH_REQUEST_TTL_MS = 60_000
   private flushWatcherInterval?: NodeJS.Timeout
+  /** The inotify-backed watch on the request directory, when the FS supports one. */
+  private flushWatcher?: import('node:fs').FSWatcher
   private flushWatcherInFlight = false
   private flushWatcherOnRequest?: () => Promise<void>
 
@@ -239,38 +279,54 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
 
       // Finish any restore interrupted by a crash (resume the staged swap, or
       // discard an uncommitted staging area) BEFORE counts/derived state load,
-      // so the rest of startup sees the completed store.
+      // so the rest of startup sees the completed store. ORDER-DEPENDENT:
+      // `swapStagedRestoreIn()` reads `fs.readdir(rootDir)` and then
+      // removes/renames rootDir's own TOP-LEVEL entries to place the staged
+      // copy — racing that against the directory-creation batch below (which
+      // also touches rootDir's children) could see a half-created directory
+      // mid-swap or a mkdir racing a concurrent rm/rename on the same path.
+      // Stays strictly sequential, never folded into the OPEN-PATH batch.
       await this.completeInterruptedRestore()
 
-      // Create the nouns directory if it doesn't exist
-      await this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.nounsDir)
+      // OPEN-PATH FIX: the remaining bootstrap directories are mutually
+      // independent — each is its own subtree under rootDir, and
+      // `fs.mkdir(dir, { recursive: true })` creates every intermediate
+      // segment of ITS OWN path in one call, so it never depends on any
+      // sibling here existing first. Nothing between here and
+      // `initializeCounts()` reads any of them, so batching collapses what
+      // was up to 8 sequential mkdir round-trips (each a real syscall+await)
+      // into one wave — this is what serialized an N-writer restart storm on
+      // filesystem I/O it never structurally needed. `initializeCounts()`
+      // right after DOES depend on `systemDir` (which the batch creates), so
+      // it stays outside, awaited only once every directory has landed.
+      await Promise.all([
+        // Create the nouns directory if it doesn't exist
+        this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.nounsDir),
+        // Create the verbs directory if it doesn't exist
+        this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.verbsDir),
+        // Create the metadata directory if it doesn't exist
+        this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.metadataDir),
+        // Create the noun metadata directory if it doesn't exist
+        this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.nounMetadataDir),
+        // Create the verb metadata directory if it doesn't exist
+        this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.verbMetadataDir),
+        // Create both directories for backward compatibility
+        this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.systemDir),
+        // Only create legacy directory if it exists (don't create new legacy
+        // dirs) — a read-then-maybe-write, but on its own subtree, so it's
+        // still independent of every other entry in this batch.
+        (async () => {
+          if (await this.directoryExists(this.indexDir)) {
+            await this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.indexDir)
+          }
+        })(),
+        // Create the locks directory if it doesn't exist
+        this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.lockDir),
+        // Create the binary blobs directory if it doesn't exist
+        this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.blobsDir)
+      ])
 
-      // Create the verbs directory if it doesn't exist
-      await this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.verbsDir)
-
-      // Create the metadata directory if it doesn't exist
-      await this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.metadataDir)
-
-      // Create the noun metadata directory if it doesn't exist
-      await this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.nounMetadataDir)
-
-      // Create the verb metadata directory if it doesn't exist
-      await this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.verbMetadataDir)
-
-      // Create both directories for backward compatibility
-      await this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.systemDir)
-      // Only create legacy directory if it exists (don't create new legacy dirs)
-      if (await this.directoryExists(this.indexDir)) {
-        await this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.indexDir)
-      }
-
-      // Create the locks directory if it doesn't exist
-      await this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.lockDir)
-
-      // Create the binary blobs directory if it doesn't exist
-      await this.ensureDirectoryExists(this.blobsDir)
-
-      // Initialize count management
+      // Initialize count management — depends on systemDir, created above.
       this.countsFilePath = path.join(this.systemDir, 'counts.json')
       await this.initializeCounts()
 
@@ -586,6 +642,20 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
    * automatically. Returns the pruned container ids so the caller can recompute
    * counts.
    */
+  /**
+   * @description Whether an id directory's file legs include the metadata
+   * CONTENT leg (`metadata.json` or its `.json.gz` variant) — the single
+   * test that decides whether an `entities/<kind>/<shard>/<id>/` container is
+   * a live entity or a ghost/scar orphan left by the pre-8.3.1 partial-delete
+   * defect (see {@link pruneOrphanedEntities}). Shared by the orphan prune
+   * and {@link scanCanonicalEntities} so the two agree by construction — one
+   * counted entity per identity record, never per bare container.
+   * @param legs - File names in one `entities/<kind>/<shard>/<id>/` directory.
+   */
+  private hasMetadataContentLeg(legs: string[]): boolean {
+    return legs.some((f) => f.startsWith('metadata.json'))
+  }
+
   public async pruneOrphanedEntities(): Promise<{ nouns: string[]; verbs: string[] }> {
     await this.ensureInitialized()
     const pruned: { nouns: string[]; verbs: string[] } = { nouns: [], verbs: [] }
@@ -625,7 +695,7 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
           }
           // A live entity has its metadata content leg. No content leg → a
           // vector-only ghost or an empty scar → prune the whole container.
-          if (legs.some((f) => f.startsWith('metadata.json'))) continue
+          if (this.hasMetadataContentLeg(legs)) continue
           await fs.promises.rm(idAbs, { recursive: true, force: true })
           pruned[kind].push(entry.name)
           console.warn(
@@ -639,6 +709,30 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
     return pruned
   }
 
+  /**
+   * @description The IMMEDIATE child directory names under a prefix — ONE
+   * `readdir`, no recursion, no file paths. See the seam's JSDoc
+   * (`src/db/types.ts`) for what this replaced: discovering the generations on
+   * disk walked the entire generation log on every open, reading out every
+   * file in every generation, to learn the set of integers the top-level
+   * directory names already spell.
+   * @param prefix - Storage-root-relative directory prefix.
+   * @returns The child directory names (not paths); empty when the prefix does
+   *   not exist.
+   */
+  public override async listRawPrefixes(prefix: string): Promise<string[]> {
+    await this.ensureInitialized()
+    const fullPath = path.join(this.rootDir, prefix)
+    try {
+      const entries = await fs.promises.readdir(fullPath, { withFileTypes: true })
+      return entries.filter((e: { isDirectory: () => boolean }) => e.isDirectory())
+        .map((e: { name: string }) => e.name)
+    } catch (error: any) {
+      if (error?.code === 'ENOENT') return []
+      throw error
+    }
+  }
+
   /**
    * Primitive operation: List objects under path prefix
    * All metadata operations use this internally via base class routing
@@ -1849,18 +1943,41 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
         }
       }
 
+      // THE CLEAN-CLOSE RECORD IS READ BEFORE ANY VERDICT (see
+      // WriterCloseRecord). A lock file whose release was RECORDED is
+      // bookkeeping left by an orderly shutdown, not evidence of anything —
+      // and that is true whether the previous holder was another process or
+      // an earlier instance in THIS one. A production restart reported
+      // "Re-acquiring writer lock ... this is a bug" immediately after a clean
+      // close, sending an operator hunting for a leak that did not exist.
+      const closeRecord = existing ? await this.readWriterCloseRecord() : null
+      const releasedCleanly =
+        existing !== null &&
+        closeRecord !== null &&
+        this.closeRecordVouchesFor(closeRecord, existing)
+
       if (existing) {
         // Same-process re-open: a second Brainy instance in this Node process
         // (e.g. test "simulate server restart" patterns, or a consumer that
         // explicitly re-instantiates without closing first). This isn't the
         // dangerous cross-process case the lock exists to prevent — the two
         // instances share a memory space and can't silently diverge from each
-        // other beyond what their callers already see. Warn and take over.
+        // other beyond what their callers already see. Warn and take over —
+        // unless the record proves the previous instance already let go, in
+        // which case there is nothing to warn about.
         if (existing.pid === myPid && existing.hostname === hostname && !options?.force) {
-          console.warn(
-            `[brainy] Re-acquiring writer lock for ${this.rootDir} held by the same process (PID ${existing.pid}). ` +
-            `If you intended to keep the previous Brainy instance alive, this is a bug — close it first.`
-          )
+          if (releasedCleanly) {
+            console.warn(
+              `[brainy] Clearing the leftover writer lock for ${this.rootDir} — an earlier ` +
+                `instance in this process (PID ${existing.pid}) RELEASED it cleanly at ` +
+                `${closeRecord!.closedAt} but could not remove the file. Nothing to recover.`
+            )
+          } else {
+            console.warn(
+              `[brainy] Re-acquiring writer lock for ${this.rootDir} held by the same process (PID ${existing.pid}). ` +
+              `If you intended to keep the previous Brainy instance alive, this is a bug — close it first.`
+            )
+          }
           const info: WriterLockInfo = {
             pid: myPid,
             hostname,
@@ -1870,11 +1987,18 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
             rootDir: this.rootDir
           }
           await this.writeFileAtomic(lockFile, JSON.stringify(info, null, 2))
+          await this.clearWriterCloseRecord()
           this.installWriterLock(info)
           return info
         }
 
-        const stale = !options?.force && (await this.isWriterLockStale(existing))
+        // A cleanly-released lock is stale by RECORD, not by inference. Only
+        // when no record vouches for this lock do we fall back to pid
+        // liveness, and then we say THAT honestly too: an unrecorded lock
+        // means the writer did not complete its close, so the store was not
+        // closed cleanly and this open pays recovery.
+        const stale =
+          releasedCleanly || (!options?.force && (await this.isWriterLockStale(existing)))
         if (!options?.force && !stale) {
           // Consumer-facing error contract: callers detect this case via
           // err.code and read the holder's details from err.lockInfo.
@@ -1885,8 +2009,16 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
           options?.force
             ? `[brainy] Force-overwriting writer lock for ${this.rootDir} ` +
               `(was held by PID ${existing.pid} on ${existing.hostname}).`
-            : `[brainy] Overwriting stale writer lock for ${this.rootDir} ` +
-              `(PID ${existing.pid} on ${existing.hostname} appears dead).`
+            : releasedCleanly
+              ? `[brainy] Clearing the leftover writer lock for ${this.rootDir} — ` +
+                `PID ${existing.pid} on ${existing.hostname} RELEASED it cleanly at ` +
+                `${closeRecord!.closedAt} but could not remove the file. ` +
+                `Nothing to recover.`
+              : `[brainy] Overwriting stale writer lock for ${this.rootDir} ` +
+                `(PID ${existing.pid} on ${existing.hostname} is gone and left NO ` +
+                `clean-close record — that writer did not finish closing, so this ` +
+                `store was not closed cleanly; open will run crash recovery and ` +
+                `report its wall).`
         )
         // Takeover: verify the file still holds the lock we judged (a live
         // successor may have claimed meanwhile), then remove it and fall
@@ -1940,6 +2072,12 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
         await fs.promises.unlink(claimTmp).catch(() => {})
       }
 
+      // CONSUME the previous writer's clean-close record. It described the
+      // lock generation that just ended; leaving it in place would let it
+      // vouch for OUR lock if this process later dies without closing —
+      // turning a real crash into a "closed cleanly" verdict. One unlink.
+      await this.clearWriterCloseRecord()
+
       this.installWriterLock(info)
       return info
     }
@@ -2063,13 +2201,27 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
       return
     }
     const lockFile = path.join(this.lockDir, FileSystemStorage.WRITER_LOCK_FILE)
+    const released = this.writerLockInfo
     try {
       // Only delete if we still own it — avoid clobbering a successor that
       // claimed the lock via force-override.
       const current = await this.readWriterLock()
-      if (current && current.pid === this.writerLockInfo.pid && current.hostname === this.writerLockInfo.hostname) {
+      const ours =
+        current === null ||
+        (current.pid === released.pid && current.hostname === released.hostname)
+      if (current && ours) {
         await fs.promises.unlink(lockFile)
       }
+      // THE CLEAN-CLOSE RECORD (see WriterCloseRecord). Written whenever this
+      // instance gives up a lock nobody else has taken — the unlink above
+      // having succeeded OR the file already being gone. The next open reads
+      // it instead of guessing from pid liveness: a recorded release is an
+      // orderly shutdown, an absent record is a writer that never finished
+      // closing. Not written when a successor holds the lock: our release is
+      // then a no-op and a record would slander their live lock.
+      if (ours) {
+        await this.writeWriterCloseRecord(released)
+      }
     } catch (err: any) {
       if (err.code !== 'ENOENT') {
         console.warn('[brainy] Failed to release writer lock file:', err)
@@ -2079,6 +2231,97 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * @description Read the clean-close record at `locks/_writer.close`, or
+   * `null` when it is absent or unparseable. A torn record is treated as
+   * absent — the conservative direction, since an unreadable record can
+   * vouch for nothing.
+   * @returns The record, or null.
+   */
+  public async readWriterCloseRecord(): Promise<WriterCloseRecord | null> {
+    await this.ensureInitialized()
+    const recordFile = path.join(this.lockDir, FileSystemStorage.WRITER_CLOSE_FILE)
+    try {
+      const raw = await fs.promises.readFile(recordFile, 'utf-8')
+      const parsed = JSON.parse(raw) as WriterCloseRecord
+      if (
+        typeof parsed?.pid !== 'number' ||
+        typeof parsed?.hostname !== 'string' ||
+        typeof parsed?.startedAt !== 'string' ||
+        typeof parsed?.closedAt !== 'string'
+      ) {
+        return null
+      }
+      return parsed
+    } catch (err: any) {
+      if (err.code === 'ENOENT') return null
+      return null
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * @description Whether a clean-close record describes the very lock
+   * generation `lock` represents. The match is pid + hostname + `startedAt`:
+   * `startedAt` is the lock generation's identity, so a record can never
+   * vouch for a LATER lock taken by the same pid on the same host (the
+   * same-process re-open path mints a fresh `startedAt`).
+   * @param record - The clean-close record read from disk.
+   * @param lock - The lock file's contents.
+   */
+  private closeRecordVouchesFor(record: WriterCloseRecord, lock: WriterLockInfo): boolean {
+    return (
+      record.pid === lock.pid &&
+      record.hostname === lock.hostname &&
+      record.startedAt === lock.startedAt
+    )
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * @description Write the clean-close record for a lock this instance just
+   * released. Atomic (temp + rename) so a concurrent opener never reads half
+   * a record. A failure here costs the next open nothing but the honest
+   * fallback (pid liveness), so it warns rather than failing the close.
+   * @param released - The lock info this instance held.
+   */
+  private async writeWriterCloseRecord(released: WriterLockInfo): Promise<void> {
+    const record: WriterCloseRecord = {
+      pid: released.pid,
+      hostname: released.hostname,
+      startedAt: released.startedAt,
+      closedAt: new Date().toISOString(),
+      version: released.version
+    }
+    const recordFile = path.join(this.lockDir, FileSystemStorage.WRITER_CLOSE_FILE)
+    try {
+      await this.writeFileAtomic(recordFile, JSON.stringify(record, null, 2))
+    } catch (err) {
+      // ENOENT = the lock directory is gone, i.e. the whole store was removed
+      // under us. There is no next open to inform.
+      if ((err as NodeJS.ErrnoException)?.code === 'ENOENT') return
+      console.warn(
+        `[brainy] Failed to write the writer clean-close record for ${this.rootDir} — ` +
+          `the next open will fall back to pid liveness and may report this orderly ` +
+          `shutdown as a crash:`,
+        err
+      )
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * @description Remove the clean-close record. Called by every successful
+   * lock claim so a record never outlives the lock generation it describes.
+   */
+  private async clearWriterCloseRecord(): Promise<void> {
+    const recordFile = path.join(this.lockDir, FileSystemStorage.WRITER_CLOSE_FILE)
+    try {
+      await fs.promises.unlink(recordFile)
+    } catch (err: any) {
+      if (err.code !== 'ENOENT') {
+        console.warn('[brainy] Failed to clear the writer clean-close record:', err)
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
   public override async readWriterLock(): Promise<WriterLockInfo | null> {
     await this.ensureInitialized()
     const lockFile = path.join(this.lockDir, FileSystemStorage.WRITER_LOCK_FILE)
@@ -2165,36 +2408,115 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
 
   /**
    * Start watching for cross-process flush requests. Called by Brainy.init()
-   * in writer mode. Polls `locks/_flush_requests/` every
-   * FLUSH_WATCH_INTERVAL_MS — each new `.req` file triggers the supplied
-   * callback (`brain.flush()`), after which an `.ack` is written to
-   * `locks/_flush_responses/` with the same request ID. Stale `.req` files
-   * (>FLUSH_REQUEST_TTL_MS) are garbage-collected on every tick.
+   * in writer mode. Each new `.req` file in `locks/_flush_requests/` triggers
+   * the supplied callback (`brain.flush()`), after which an `.ack` is written
+   * to `locks/_flush_responses/` with the same request ID. Stale `.req` files
+   * (>FLUSH_REQUEST_TTL_MS) are garbage-collected on each sweep.
+   *
+   * THE WATCH IS EVENT-DRIVEN, NOT A POLL. It used to `readdir` the request
+   * directory every 500 ms, per brain, for the entire life of every writer —
+   * armed on every non-reader brain whether or not any inspector process
+   * existed. MEASURED on a production process holding 21 brains: 42 directory
+   * reads per second on a completely idle service, plus a stale-request GC
+   * pass on every one of them. The engine does no periodic work without a
+   * cause, and a request that has not been made is not a cause.
+   *
+   * `fs.watch` (inotify on Linux) delivers the arrival itself, so a request is
+   * seen SOONER than the old poll saw it. Two honest concessions ride with it:
+   *   - a slow SAFETY SWEEP (FLUSH_SAFETY_SWEEP_MS) still runs, because
+   *     `fs.watch` can miss events on network and fuse filesystems and because
+   *     the stale-request GC needs some tick of its own. At 30s that is 0.7
+   *     reads/s across 21 brains where the poll cost 42.
+   *   - a filesystem that cannot watch at all falls back to the ORIGINAL
+   *     500 ms poll, narrated once, because correctness outranks idle cost:
+   *     an inspector whose request is never seen waits forever.
    */
   public override startFlushRequestWatcher(onRequest: () => Promise<void>): void {
-    if (this.flushWatcherInterval) return // already watching
+    // Already watching — or already ARMING. The arm is asynchronous (the
+    // request directory is created before it can be watched), so neither the
+    // watcher nor the interval exists yet during that window; the callback is
+    // the flag that covers it. Without this a second call in the window would
+    // leave two watchers and two sweeps running for the life of the store.
+    if (this.flushWatcherInterval || this.flushWatcher || this.flushWatcherOnRequest) return
     this.flushWatcherOnRequest = onRequest
 
     const reqDir = path.join(this.lockDir, FileSystemStorage.FLUSH_REQUEST_DIR)
     const ackDir = path.join(this.lockDir, FileSystemStorage.FLUSH_RESPONSE_DIR)
 
-    // Ensure both dirs exist up front so the first .req drop doesn't race with mkdir.
-    this.ensureDirectoryExists(reqDir).catch(() => {})
-    this.ensureDirectoryExists(ackDir).catch(() => {})
-
-    this.flushWatcherInterval = setInterval(() => {
-      if (this.flushWatcherInFlight) return // skip overlapping tick
+    const sweep = (): void => {
+      if (this.flushWatcherInFlight) return // skip overlapping sweep
       this.flushWatcherInFlight = true
       this.processFlushRequests(reqDir, ackDir).finally(() => {
         this.flushWatcherInFlight = false
       })
-    }, FileSystemStorage.FLUSH_WATCH_INTERVAL_MS)
+    }
+
+    // Ensure both dirs exist up front so the first .req drop doesn't race with
+    // mkdir — and so there is a directory to watch.
+    void this.ensureDirectoryExists(reqDir)
+      .then(() => this.ensureDirectoryExists(ackDir))
+      .then(() => {
+        if (this.flushWatcherOnRequest !== onRequest) return // stopped meanwhile
+        try {
+          const watcher = fs.watch(reqDir, () => sweep())
+          this.flushWatcher = watcher
+          watcher.on('error', (err: Error) => {
+            // A watch that dies mid-life must not leave the door deaf.
+            console.warn(
+              `[brainy] Flush-request watch failed (${err.message}) — falling back to polling.`
+            )
+            this.flushWatcher?.close()
+            this.flushWatcher = undefined
+            // The SAFETY sweep must go first. It is already armed at 30s, and
+            // startFlushRequestPolling() declines to arm over an existing
+            // interval — so leaving it would quietly leave this store answering
+            // flush requests on a 30s cadence instead of the 500ms one the door
+            // promises. A degrade nobody asked for is still a degrade.
+            if (this.flushWatcherInterval) {
+              clearInterval(this.flushWatcherInterval)
+              this.flushWatcherInterval = undefined
+            }
+            this.startFlushRequestPolling(sweep)
+          })
+          if (typeof watcher.unref === 'function') watcher.unref()
+          // The safety sweep: missed events on exotic filesystems, and the
+          // stale-request GC.
+          this.flushWatcherInterval = setInterval(sweep, FileSystemStorage.FLUSH_SAFETY_SWEEP_MS)
+          if (typeof this.flushWatcherInterval.unref === 'function') {
+            this.flushWatcherInterval.unref()
+          }
+          // One sweep now: a request may have been dropped before the watch armed.
+          sweep()
+        } catch (err) {
+          console.warn(
+            `[brainy] Flush-request directory cannot be watched on this filesystem ` +
+              `(${(err as Error).message}) — polling every ` +
+              `${FileSystemStorage.FLUSH_WATCH_INTERVAL_MS}ms instead.`
+          )
+          this.startFlushRequestPolling(sweep)
+        }
+      })
+      .catch(() => {
+        // The request directory could not be created; nothing to watch. A
+        // cross-process flush request cannot be made either, so there is
+        // nothing to miss.
+      })
+  }
+
+  /** The original 500 ms poll — the fallback when a directory cannot be watched. */
+  private startFlushRequestPolling(sweep: () => void): void {
+    if (this.flushWatcherInterval) return
+    this.flushWatcherInterval = setInterval(sweep, FileSystemStorage.FLUSH_WATCH_INTERVAL_MS)
     if (typeof this.flushWatcherInterval.unref === 'function') {
       this.flushWatcherInterval.unref()
     }
   }
 
   public override stopFlushRequestWatcher(): void {
+    if (this.flushWatcher) {
+      this.flushWatcher.close()
+      this.flushWatcher = undefined
+    }
     if (this.flushWatcherInterval) {
       clearInterval(this.flushWatcherInterval)
       this.flushWatcherInterval = undefined
@@ -2567,24 +2889,73 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
         // record reads), persist, and never scan again. Absent keys are a
         // legacy file, not a zero — a zero here would make every provider's
         // coverage ledger read "over-posted" on a populated store.
+        let needsPersist = false
         if (
           typeof counts.totalNounCountAll === 'number' &&
           typeof counts.totalVerbCountAll === 'number'
         ) {
           this.totalNounCountAll = counts.totalNounCountAll
           this.totalVerbCountAll = counts.totalVerbCountAll
-          this.allCountsSuspect = counts.allCountsSuspect === true
+          if (counts.allCountsDerivedBy === 'identity-record') {
+            // Derived (or recounted) under the honest rule — one counted
+            // entity per metadata content leg. Trust the persisted suspect
+            // flag as-is; an unprovable delete since may still have set it.
+            this.allCountsDerivedBy = 'identity-record'
+            this.allCountsSuspect = counts.allCountsSuspect === true
+          } else {
+            // The ALL scalars exist but predate the identity-record stamp —
+            // they were derived under the legacy rule that counted one
+            // entity per id DIRECTORY, so orphaned ghost/scar containers (a
+            // pre-8.3.1 partial-delete defect — see pruneOrphanedEntities())
+            // were counted as entities too. O(1) field read, NEVER a walk
+            // here: force suspect and name it loudly. A sanctioned recount
+            // (repairIndex) restores exact denominators and clears this.
+            this.allCountsDerivedBy = undefined
+            this.allCountsSuspect = true
+            needsPersist = true
+            prodLog.narrate(
+              '[FileSystemStorage] canonical count ledger was derived under the legacy ' +
+                'container rule — it counts one entity per id DIRECTORY, so every ghost/scar ' +
+                'container inflates it. Marked suspect, and an honest recount is scheduled to ' +
+                'run in the background after this open; until it lands, do not subtract ' +
+                'against these ALL scalars.'
+            )
+            // A suspect ledger used to stay wrong for the life of the store,
+            // waiting for an operator to run repairIndex. A downstream index
+            // heal took its "remaining" figure from these inflated
+            // denominators and reported work that did not exist. The ledger
+            // now HEALS ITSELF — in the background, because a denominator is
+            // a derived scalar and no read is ever served from it.
+            this.scheduleCountLedgerDerivation('legacy container-rule ledger')
+          }
         } else {
-          const nouns = await this.scanCanonicalEntities('nouns')
-          const verbs = await this.scanCanonicalEntities('verbs')
-          this.totalNounCountAll = nouns.count
-          this.totalVerbCountAll = verbs.count
-          this.allCountsSuspect = false
-          console.warn(
-            `[FileSystemStorage] counts.json predates the ALL-visibility count ledger — ` +
-              `derived once from the canonical id tree (${nouns.count} nouns, ${verbs.count} verbs, ` +
-              `every tier) and persisted; no further scan.`
-          )
+          // No ALL scalars at all. There is nothing to serve in the meantime —
+          // a zero would read as an empty store — so the scalars stay unknown
+          // and SUSPECT until the background derivation lands. The open does
+          // not wait for it: an id-tree walk is O(ids) and this file has been
+          // the whole reason a 24k-id store opened in silence.
+          this.allCountsSuspect = true
+          this.scheduleCountLedgerDerivation('counts.json predates the ALL-visibility ledger')
+        }
+
+        // The vectored-noun scalar (shipped after the ALL scalars above — a
+        // counts.json can carry `totalNounCountAll`/`totalVerbCountAll` but
+        // still predate THIS key). Unlike the ALL scalars, presence cannot be
+        // decided from the id-directory listing alone: a deferred-embed
+        // noun's `vectors.json` EXISTS with an empty `vector: []` until its
+        // embed lands, so this derivation reads every noun's `vectors.json`
+        // ONCE (O(nouns) reads, not O(ids) listing) — honest, one-time cost.
+        if (typeof counts.totalVectoredNounCount === 'number') {
+          this.totalVectoredNounCount = counts.totalVectoredNounCount
+        } else {
+          // O(nouns) CONTENT reads — the most expensive derivation of the
+          // three, and the one most likely to have been the silent minutes at
+          // the front of a large store's open. Background, suspect until it
+          // lands, same as the ALL scalars.
+          this.allCountsSuspect = true
+          this.scheduleCountLedgerDerivation('counts.json predates the vectored-noun ledger')
+        }
+        if (needsPersist) {
           await this.persistCounts()
         }
 
@@ -2611,6 +2982,22 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
    * Initialize counts by scanning disk (only done once)
    */
   private async initializeCountsFromDisk(): Promise<void> {
+    const startedAt = Date.now()
+    // THIS ONE CANNOT LEAVE THE FOREGROUND, and the reason is worth stating:
+    // it derives `totalNounCount` / `totalVerbCount`, the scalars
+    // `getNounCount()` and `getVerbCount()` RETURN. Backgrounding it would
+    // make a populated store answer "0 entities" until the walk landed — a
+    // wrong answer, not a slow one, and the serving law grades a failure by
+    // whether an answer could be wrong. The ALL-visibility denominators, which
+    // no read is served from, DO run in the background (see
+    // scheduleCountLedgerDerivation). What this walk owes the operator instead
+    // is narration: it announces itself, and reports its wall.
+    prodLog.narrate(
+      `[FileSystemStorage] no usable counts.json — deriving the entity counters from ` +
+        `the canonical id tree now. This is O(ids) listings plus one vectors.json read ` +
+        `per noun, and it BLOCKS the open because getNounCount()/getVerbCount() are ` +
+        `served from it. It runs once; the result is persisted.`
+    )
     try {
       // Count the CANONICAL 8.0 layout (`entities/<kind>/<shard>/<id>/…`) —
       // the tree saveNoun/getNouns actually read and write. The previous scan
@@ -2627,6 +3014,13 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
       this.totalNounCountAll = nouns.count
       this.totalVerbCountAll = verbs.count
       this.allCountsSuspect = false
+      this.allCountsDerivedBy = 'identity-record'
+      // Vectored-noun scalar: presence needs each noun's vectors.json CONTENT
+      // (a deferred-embed noun's file exists but holds an empty vector until
+      // its embed lands), so this is a full O(nouns) content scan — see
+      // scanVectoredNounCount()'s JSDoc for the cost note. Paid once, here,
+      // alongside the rest of this from-disk recovery.
+      this.totalVectoredNounCount = await this.scanVectoredNounCount()
 
       // Sample some entities for the type distribution (don't read all).
       // Read the metadata files DIRECTLY with fs — this runs inside init(),
@@ -2651,6 +3045,11 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
       }
 
       await this.persistCounts()
+      prodLog.narrate(
+        `[FileSystemStorage] counter derivation from the canonical id tree finished in ` +
+          `${Date.now() - startedAt}ms: ${this.totalNounCount} nouns, ${this.totalVerbCount} verbs, ` +
+          `${this.totalVectoredNounCount} vectored nouns — persisted, stamped identity-record.`
+      )
     } catch (error) {
       console.error('Error initializing counts from disk:', error)
     }
@@ -2658,11 +3057,132 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
 
   /**
    * Walk the canonical `entities/<kind>/<2-hex-shard>/<id>/` tree, counting
-   * one entity per id directory (the layout `getNounVectorPath`/`getNouns`
-   * use). Returns up to 100 sampled entity directories (absolute paths) —
-   * nouns feed the type-distribution estimate above. An absent tree (fresh
-   * store) counts zero.
+   * one entity per id directory that holds the metadata CONTENT leg
+   * (`metadata.json` or its `.json.gz` variant — see
+   * {@link hasMetadataContentLeg}). A bare container — a ghost (a stale
+   * `vectors.json` left with no metadata leg) or a scar (an empty directory),
+   * both artifacts of the pre-8.3.1 partial-delete defect — counts ZERO: the
+   * identity record IS the population (ADR-008 G1), never the directory.
+   * This is the ONE-TIME legacy derivation walk (see callers); a prior
+   * version of this scan counted every id directory regardless of content,
+   * over-counting any store carrying orphaned containers — see
+   * `allCountsDerivedBy` for how a counts.json derived under that old rule is
+   * marked suspect on load. Returns up to 100 sampled *counted* entity
+   * directories (absolute paths) — nouns feed the type-distribution estimate
+   * above. An absent tree (fresh store) counts zero.
    */
+  /**
+   * @description Derive the ALL-visibility count ledger honestly — one entity
+   * per IDENTITY RECORD, never per id directory — IN THE BACKGROUND, once,
+   * and persist the result stamped `identity-record`.
+   *
+   * Why background: these scalars are DENOMINATORS. No read is served from
+   * them, so deriving them cannot be allowed to hold an open hostage — a
+   * store with 24,898 ids spent minutes of a production restart inside walks
+   * exactly like these, in silence, before serving anything. Why at all: a
+   * ledger derived under the old container rule stayed wrong for the life of
+   * the store, and a downstream index heal subtracted against it and reported
+   * remaining work that did not exist (measured on a real store: 14,231
+   * derived against 14,056 identity records — precisely the store's 25 noun
+   * scar directories; verbs 72,729 against 72,679, its 50 verb scars).
+   *
+   * Idempotent: a second call while one is in flight joins the first.
+   * @param reason - What made the ledger untrustworthy, quoted in narration.
+   * @returns Nothing; observe completion with {@link whenCountLedgerSettled}.
+   */
+  private scheduleCountLedgerDerivation(reason: string): void {
+    if (this.countLedgerDerivation) return
+    this.countLedgerDerivation = (async () => {
+      const startedAt = Date.now()
+      prodLog.narrate(
+        `[FileSystemStorage] count-ledger derivation started in the background ` +
+          `(${reason}) — counting identity records, not id directories; the open does ` +
+          `not wait for it and no read is served from these scalars.`
+      )
+      try {
+        const beforeNouns = this.totalNounCountAll
+        const beforeVerbs = this.totalVerbCountAll
+        const beforeVectored = this.totalVectoredNounCount
+        // A walk that RACED A WRITE cannot prove its number: a row that landed
+        // mid-walk may or may not have been in the shard the walk had already
+        // passed. Rather than persist a figure that might be off by one and
+        // stamp it "exact", the walk is repeated once on a quiet store, and if
+        // the store is never quiet the ledger stays SUSPECT and says so. One
+        // retry, never a spin.
+        let attempt = 0
+        let derived: { nouns: number; verbs: number; vectored: number } | null = null
+        while (attempt < 2 && derived === null) {
+          attempt++
+          const activityBefore = this.ledgerActivityStamp()
+          const nouns = await this.scanCanonicalEntities('nouns')
+          const verbs = await this.scanCanonicalEntities('verbs')
+          const vectored = await this.scanVectoredNounCount()
+          if (this.ledgerActivityStamp() === activityBefore) {
+            derived = { nouns: nouns.count, verbs: verbs.count, vectored }
+          }
+        }
+        if (derived === null) {
+          this.allCountsSuspect = true
+          prodLog.narrate(
+            `[FileSystemStorage] count-ledger derivation could not finish on a quiet store ` +
+              `after ${attempt} attempts (${Date.now() - startedAt}ms) — writes landed during ` +
+              `every walk. The ALL-visibility scalars stay SUSPECT and must not be subtracted ` +
+              `against; brain.repairIndex() derives them under a recount barrier.`
+          )
+          return
+        }
+        this.totalNounCountAll = derived.nouns
+        this.totalVerbCountAll = derived.verbs
+        this.totalVectoredNounCount = derived.vectored
+        this.allCountsDerivedBy = 'identity-record'
+        this.allCountsSuspect = false
+        await this.persistCounts()
+        prodLog.narrate(
+          `[FileSystemStorage] count-ledger derivation finished in ${Date.now() - startedAt}ms: ` +
+            `${derived.nouns} nouns / ${derived.verbs} verbs / ${derived.vectored} vectored nouns` +
+            (beforeNouns !== derived.nouns ||
+            beforeVerbs !== derived.verbs ||
+            beforeVectored !== derived.vectored
+              ? ` (corrected from ${beforeNouns} / ${beforeVerbs} / ${beforeVectored} — the ` +
+                `difference is ghost and scar containers the old rule counted as entities)`
+              : ' (unchanged)') +
+            ` — persisted, stamped identity-record, no longer suspect.`
+        )
+      } catch (error) {
+        // The ledger stays suspect and the next open retries. Loud: a
+        // denominator nobody can derive is a fact an operator must have.
+        this.allCountsSuspect = true
+        prodLog.error(
+          `[FileSystemStorage] count-ledger derivation FAILED after ` +
+            `${Date.now() - startedAt}ms — the ALL-visibility scalars remain SUSPECT ` +
+            `and must not be subtracted against; the next open retries:`,
+          error
+        )
+      }
+    })()
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * @description A cheap witness that the ledger changed while a walk was
+   * running. Every landed write moves one of these live counters, so an
+   * unchanged stamp across a walk means no write landed during it.
+   * @returns A value that differs whenever the live ALL scalars have moved.
+   */
+  private ledgerActivityStamp(): string {
+    return `${this.totalNounCountAll}:${this.totalVerbCountAll}:${this.totalVectoredNounCount}`
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * @description Resolve once any background count-ledger derivation has
+   * settled (succeeded or failed). Resolves immediately when none was needed.
+   * Exists so tests and operators can observe the ledger's honest value rather
+   * than race it; nothing in the read path waits on this.
+   * @returns A promise that settles with the derivation.
+   */
+  public async whenCountLedgerSettled(): Promise<void> {
+    await this.countLedgerDerivation
+  }
+
   private async scanCanonicalEntities(
     kind: 'nouns' | 'verbs'
   ): Promise<{ count: number; sampleDirs: string[] }> {
@@ -2678,9 +3198,21 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
         const ids = await fs.promises.readdir(shardPath, { withFileTypes: true })
         for (const entry of ids) {
           if (!entry.isDirectory()) continue
+          const idAbs = path.join(shardPath, entry.name)
+          let legs: string[]
+          try {
+            legs = await fs.promises.readdir(idAbs)
+          } catch (error: any) {
+            if (error?.code === 'ENOENT') continue
+            throw error
+          }
+          // No metadata content leg → a ghost or scar container → not an
+          // entity. Same test pruneOrphanedEntities() uses, so the two agree
+          // by construction.
+          if (!this.hasMetadataContentLeg(legs)) continue
           count++
           if (sampleDirs.length < SAMPLE_MAX) {
-            sampleDirs.push(path.join(shardPath, entry.name))
+            sampleDirs.push(idAbs)
           }
         }
       }
@@ -2712,6 +3244,72 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Read one canonical noun's `vectors.json` (or `.json.gz`) directly with fs
+   * — the vector-side mirror of {@link readEntityMetadataRaw}, same
+   * reentrancy reason (bypasses `getNoun()`'s `ensureInitialized()`).
+   * @param entityDir - Absolute `entities/nouns/<shard>/<id>` directory.
+   * @returns The parsed vector record, or null when absent/unreadable.
+   */
+  private async readEntityVectorRaw(entityDir: string): Promise<any | null> {
+    const base = path.join(entityDir, 'vectors.json')
+    try {
+      return JSON.parse(await fs.promises.readFile(base, 'utf-8'))
+    } catch {
+      // fall through to the compressed variant
+    }
+    try {
+      const gz = await fs.promises.readFile(`${base}.gz`)
+      return JSON.parse(zlib.gunzipSync(gz).toString('utf-8'))
+    } catch {
+      return null
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Count canonical nouns holding a REAL (non-empty, non-zero-norm) vector —
+   * the vectored-noun ledger scalar. UNLIKE {@link scanCanonicalEntities},
+   * presence cannot be decided from the id-directory listing alone: a
+   * deferred-embed noun's `vectors.json` EXISTS (written at `add()` time
+   * with `vector: []`) until its embed LANDS, so this walk reads every
+   * noun's `vectors.json` CONTENT — O(nouns) reads, not O(ids) listing.
+   * ZERO-NORM LAW: a real all-zero vector is not a vector — it never counts
+   * here either (Brainy's write paths normalize an explicit zero-norm
+   * vector to `[]` at write time, but a store created before that fix may
+   * still carry legacy all-zero rows on disk; this derivation must agree
+   * with the live ledger's definition of "vectored" regardless of when the
+   * row was written). Used ONLY for a one-time legacy-counts.json derivation
+   * or a lost/corrupted counts.json recovery; the result is persisted so
+   * this scan never repeats.
+   */
+  private async scanVectoredNounCount(): Promise<number> {
+    const base = path.join(this.rootDir, 'entities', 'nouns')
+    let vectored = 0
+    try {
+      const shards = await fs.promises.readdir(base, { withFileTypes: true })
+      for (const shard of shards) {
+        if (!shard.isDirectory() || !/^[0-9a-f]{2}$/i.test(shard.name)) continue
+        const shardPath = path.join(base, shard.name)
+        const ids = await fs.promises.readdir(shardPath, { withFileTypes: true })
+        for (const entry of ids) {
+          if (!entry.isDirectory()) continue
+          const record = await this.readEntityVectorRaw(path.join(shardPath, entry.name))
+          if (
+            record &&
+            Array.isArray(record.vector) &&
+            record.vector.length > 0 &&
+            !isZeroNormVector(record.vector)
+          ) {
+            vectored++
+          }
+        }
+      }
+    } catch (error: any) {
+      if (error?.code !== 'ENOENT') throw error
+    }
+    return vectored
+  }
+
   /**
    * Persist counts to filesystem storage
    */
@@ -2728,14 +3326,30 @@ export class FileSystemStorage extends BaseStorage {
         // written before the ledger existed; initializeCounts() derives them once.
         totalNounCountAll: this.totalNounCountAll,
         totalVerbCountAll: this.totalVerbCountAll,
+        // Vectored-noun ledger scalar — absent in files written before it
+        // existed; initializeCounts() derives it once (a content scan, see
+        // scanVectoredNounCount()'s JSDoc).
+        totalVectoredNounCount: this.totalVectoredNounCount,
         allCountsSuspect: this.allCountsSuspect,
+        // Derivation-rule stamp for the ALL scalars above — 'identity-record'
+        // when they were counted one-per-metadata-content-leg (the honest
+        // rule); omitted (JSON.stringify drops `undefined`) when the current
+        // in-memory scalars came from a legacy container-rule counts.json
+        // that hasn't been through a sanctioned recount yet, so a future load
+        // keeps naming them suspect rather than trusting an unproven value.
+        allCountsDerivedBy: this.allCountsDerivedBy,
         lastUpdated: new Date().toISOString()
       }
 
-      await fs.promises.writeFile(
-        this.countsFilePath,
-        JSON.stringify(counts, null, 2)
-      )
+      // ATOMIC (temp + rename), never a plain writeFile. A direct write
+      // truncates the file first, so every persist opened a window — measured
+      // at roughly 750ms after a flush or close on a real store — in which a
+      // concurrent reader saw counts.json EMPTY. An empty file is unparseable,
+      // and an unparseable ledger sends the next open down the full-rescan
+      // path: the cheapest file in the store was costing the most expensive
+      // recovery. The rename is atomic, so a reader sees the old ledger or the
+      // new one, never neither.
+      await this.writeFileAtomic(this.countsFilePath, JSON.stringify(counts, null, 2))
     } catch (error) {
       console.error('Error persisting counts:', error)
     }

src/storage/adapters/memoryStorage.ts

@@ -520,6 +520,12 @@ export class MemoryStorage extends BaseStorage {
 
     let totalNouns = 0
     let totalVerbs = 0
+    // Vectored-noun scalar: unlike the bare presence check above, this needs
+    // the vectors.json RECORD'S content — a deferred-embed noun's record
+    // exists with an empty `vector: []` until its embed lands. In-memory this
+    // is a free field access (no I/O), unlike the filesystem adapter's
+    // per-noun disk read.
+    let totalVectoredNouns = 0
 
     // Scan all paths in objectStore
     for (const path of this.objectStore.keys()) {
@@ -528,6 +534,10 @@ export class MemoryStorage extends BaseStorage {
       if (nounMatch) {
         // Type is in metadata, not path - just count total
         totalNouns++
+        const record = this.objectStore.get(path) as { vector?: unknown } | undefined
+        if (Array.isArray(record?.vector) && record.vector.length > 0) {
+          totalVectoredNouns++
+        }
       }
 
       // Count verbs (entities/verbs/{shard}/{id}/vectors.json)
@@ -543,6 +553,7 @@ export class MemoryStorage extends BaseStorage {
     // A scan of every canonical record IS the ALL-visibility count.
     this.totalNounCountAll = totalNouns
     this.totalVerbCountAll = totalVerbs
+    this.totalVectoredNounCount = totalVectoredNouns
     this.allCountsSuspect = false
   }
 

src/storage/baseStorage.ts

@@ -125,6 +125,36 @@ export interface WriterLockInfo {
   rootDir?: string           // Convenience for log lines / error messages
 }
 
+/**
+ * THE CLEAN-CLOSE RECORD. Written by `releaseWriterLock()` at the instant it
+ * gives up the writer lock, naming the lock identity it released. The next
+ * `acquireWriterLock()` reads it and can then say — from a RECORD, not from a
+ * guess — whether the previous writer left on purpose.
+ *
+ * Why a record and not PID liveness: "the recorded PID is no longer alive" is
+ * true of every orderly restart AND of every crash, so the two were reported
+ * identically ("appears dead") and neither could be trusted. Worse, the same
+ * inference fails the other way when the operating system RECYCLES the pid —
+ * a live unrelated process makes a long-dead writer's lock look held, and the
+ * store refuses to open naming a pid that was never Brainy. A record settles
+ * both: matched → the previous writer closed cleanly, nothing to recover;
+ * absent → say so, and name what recovery the open will now run.
+ *
+ * Lifecycle: written at release, consumed (deleted) by the next successful
+ * lock claim — a record must never outlive the lock generation it describes,
+ * or it would vouch for a later crash.
+ */
+export interface WriterCloseRecord {
+  pid: number
+  hostname: string
+  /** `startedAt` of the lock this close released — the identity match key. */
+  startedAt: string
+  /** ISO timestamp at which the lock was released. */
+  closedAt: string
+  /** Brainy version that performed the close. */
+  version: string
+}
+
 /**
  * FNV-1a hash returning a 2-char hex bucket (00-ff).
  * Distributes system keys across 256 sub-prefixes to avoid
@@ -203,6 +233,40 @@ function idFromVectorPath(path: string): string {
   return lastSlash >= 0 ? withoutSuffix.slice(lastSlash + 1) : withoutSuffix
 }
 
+/**
+ * @description Extract the entity id embedded in a metadata path
+ * (`entities/{nouns|verbs}/{shard}/{id}/metadata.json`) — the IDENTITY-RECORD
+ * mirror of {@link idFromVectorPath}. The cursored noun/verb walks key their
+ * population on this file (ADR-008 G1: the metadata record IS the population;
+ * the vector leg is optional), so walk ordering and cursor resume derive the
+ * id from THIS path, never the vector path — a row with metadata and no
+ * vector file must still be listed, ordered, and resumable.
+ * @param path - A metadata path (full or prefix-relative; must end with `/metadata.json`).
+ * @returns The entity id (the path segment immediately before `/metadata.json`).
+ */
+function idFromMetadataPath(path: string): string {
+  const withoutSuffix = path.replace(/\/metadata\.json$/, '')
+  const lastSlash = withoutSuffix.lastIndexOf('/')
+  return lastSlash >= 0 ? withoutSuffix.slice(lastSlash + 1) : withoutSuffix
+}
+
+/**
+ * @description The sanctioned UNVECTORED shape for a noun hydrated during
+ * enumeration when its identity record (metadata.json) exists but its vector
+ * leg (vectors.json) does not — a fold-born metadata-only after-image, or any
+ * row genuinely without a vector yet. Mirrors the shape
+ * `unvectorNounForRootMigration` (src/brainy.ts) writes for the sanctioned
+ * unvector path (`{ vector: [], connections: new Map(), level: 0 }`), so a
+ * walk-yielded unvectored row is byte-shape-identical to one produced by that
+ * migration. Callers already handle `vector: []` as first-class
+ * (validateAddParams exempts it; index gates key on `length > 0`).
+ * @param id - The noun id.
+ * @returns A structurally-valid, vector-empty `HNSWNoun`.
+ */
+function unvectoredNoun(id: string): HNSWNoun {
+  return { id, vector: [], connections: new Map<number, Set<string>>(), level: 0 }
+}
+
 /**
  * Get ID-first path for verb metadata
  * No type parameter needed - direct O(1) lookup by ID
@@ -1373,6 +1437,29 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
     return this.listObjectsUnderPath(prefix)
   }
 
+  /**
+   * @description The IMMEDIATE child directory names under a prefix — one
+   * level, no recursion. See the seam's JSDoc (`db/types.ts`) for why a
+   * separate door exists. This default derives them from the recursive
+   * listing, so it is never WRONG, only never faster; the filesystem adapter
+   * overrides it with a single directory read.
+   * @param prefix - Storage-root-relative directory prefix.
+   * @returns The child directory names (not paths), in listing order.
+   */
+  public async listRawPrefixes(prefix: string): Promise<string[]> {
+    await this.ensureInitialized()
+    const paths = await this.listObjectsUnderPath(prefix)
+    const normalizedPrefix = prefix.endsWith('/') ? prefix : `${prefix}/`
+    const names = new Set<string>()
+    for (const p of paths) {
+      const rest = p.startsWith(normalizedPrefix) ? p.slice(normalizedPrefix.length) : null
+      if (rest === null) continue
+      const slash = rest.search(/[/\\]/)
+      if (slash > 0) names.add(rest.slice(0, slash))
+    }
+    return [...names]
+  }
+
   /**
    * Remove every object under a storage-root-relative prefix. The filesystem
    * adapter overrides this with a recursive directory removal; this default
@@ -1453,6 +1540,18 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
    * rollups are derived state with their own rebuild paths
    * (`rebuildTypeCounts()` / `rebuildSubtypeCounts()`).
    *
+   * EXACT-RESTORE PRIMITIVE — `vector: null` DELETES the vector leg, on
+   * purpose: `GenerationStore.rollBackUncommittedGeneration()` depends on
+   * this to legitimately un-write a vector a failed transaction added. This
+   * is deliberately NOT "preserve if absent" — a caller replaying an
+   * AFTER-IMAGE (the recovery fold, `GenerationStore`'s `replayFact`) must
+   * apply preserve-if-absent itself BEFORE calling this, by reading the
+   * current vector and carrying it forward when the after-image's own
+   * vector leg is null/undefined but its metadata is not (see `replayFact`
+   * for the implementation and full rationale). A caller that genuinely
+   * wants to unvector a row uses the sanctioned, ledger-correct path
+   * (`Brainy.unvectorNounForRootMigration`) — never this primitive.
+   *
    * @param id - The entity id.
    * @param record - Raw stored objects as returned by {@link BaseStorage.readNounRaw}.
    */
@@ -1489,7 +1588,9 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
 
   /**
    * Restore a relationship's raw stored objects byte-for-byte (verb-side
-   * mirror of {@link BaseStorage.writeNounRaw}; same bookkeeping caveats).
+   * mirror of {@link BaseStorage.writeNounRaw}; same bookkeeping caveats,
+   * same EXACT-RESTORE contract — `vector: null` deletes, on purpose; the
+   * fold's preserve-if-absent logic lives at its call site, not here).
    *
    * @param id - The relationship id.
    * @param record - Raw stored objects as returned by {@link BaseStorage.readVerbRaw}.
@@ -1762,8 +1863,10 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
 
   /**
    * Delete a noun from storage
+   * @param hadVector - OPTIONAL vectored-noun ledger hint, forwarded to
+   *   {@link deleteNounMetadata} unchanged — see its JSDoc.
    */
-  public async deleteNoun(id: string, priorMetadata?: NounMetadata | null): Promise<void> {
+  public async deleteNoun(id: string, priorMetadata?: NounMetadata | null, hadVector?: boolean): Promise<void> {
     await this.ensureInitialized()
 
     // FULL removal (live-HEAD hygiene): remove BOTH canonical legs AND the
@@ -1780,7 +1883,7 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
     // LONGER wrapped in a blind catch that masked faults as "file didn't exist".
     // `priorMetadata` (the caller's pre-delete read) keeps the decrement honest
     // even when the canonical read inside returns null (replace race / ghost).
-    await this.deleteNounMetadata(id, priorMetadata)
+    await this.deleteNounMetadata(id, priorMetadata, hadVector)
 
     // Remove the now-empty entity container (a no-op for key/prefix stores).
     await this.removeCanonicalContainer(getNounVectorPath(id))
@@ -2181,9 +2284,18 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
 
         // Stable within-shard order (by noun id) so offset windows and cursor resume
         // are deterministic; ids come from the path so skipped nouns are never read.
+        //
+        // IDENTITY-KEYED WALK (population law, ADR-008 G1): the metadata record
+        // (not the vector) IS the population — a noun with metadata and no vector
+        // file (a fold-born after-image, see writeNounRaw's preserve-if-absent
+        // contract) must still enumerate. Keying on metadata.json here means the
+        // ledger recount (rebuildTypeCounts' `allNouns`, also metadata.json-keyed)
+        // and this walk agree on population by construction. Ordering is
+        // unaffected for a healthy store: every vectored noun has both legs, so
+        // the id set and sort order are identical to the old vectors.json keying.
         const entries = nounFiles
-          .filter((p) => p.includes('/vectors.json'))
-          .map((p) => ({ path: p, id: idFromVectorPath(p) }))
+          .filter((p) => p.includes('/metadata.json'))
+          .map((p) => ({ path: p, id: idFromMetadataPath(p) }))
           .sort((a, b) => (a.id < b.id ? -1 : a.id > b.id ? 1 : 0))
 
         // Resume: in the cursor's own shard, skip up to AND INCLUDING the cursor
@@ -2208,13 +2320,24 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
         ) {
           const batch = toHydrate.slice(i, i + BaseStorage.HYDRATE_CONCURRENCY)
           const hydrated = await Promise.all(
-            batch.map(async ({ path: nounPath }) => {
+            batch.map(async ({ path: metadataPath, id }) => {
               try {
-                const noun = await this.readCanonicalObject(nounPath)
-                if (!noun) return null
-                const deserialized = this.deserializeNoun(noun)
-                const metadata = await this.getNounMetadata(deserialized.id)
+                const metadata = await this.readCanonicalObject(metadataPath)
                 if (!metadata) return null
+                // The vector leg is OPTIONAL (population law): a metadata-only
+                // row hydrates with the sanctioned unvectored shape rather than
+                // being dropped from the walk. A fault reading the vector leg
+                // is treated the same as absence — best-effort, matching the
+                // canonical recount's tolerance for an unreadable vectors.json
+                // (rebuildTypeCounts) — a vector-leg problem never hides an
+                // otherwise-good identity record.
+                let deserialized: HNSWNoun
+                try {
+                  const vectorRecord = await this.readCanonicalObject(getNounVectorPath(id))
+                  deserialized = vectorRecord ? this.deserializeNoun(vectorRecord) : unvectoredNoun(id)
+                } catch {
+                  deserialized = unvectoredNoun(id)
+                }
                 return { deserialized, metadata }
               } catch (error) {
                 // A TORN record must surface typed — a paginated read that
@@ -2224,7 +2347,9 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
                 // walk's job is to HEAL PAST it — skip the victim, serve the rest.
                 // Identity point-reads (get-by-id) still throw typed upstream.
                 if (isTornRecordError(error)) { /* skip torn victim; loud floor already fired */ }
-                // Skip nouns that fail to load
+                // Skip nouns whose IDENTITY record fails to load (the metadata
+                // read above) — that is the one leg this walk cannot proceed
+                // without.
                 return null
               }
             })
@@ -2345,9 +2470,14 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
       const shardDir = `entities/nouns/${shardHex}`
       try {
         const nounFiles = await this.listCanonicalObjects(shardDir)
+        // IDENTITY-KEYED WALK (population law, ADR-008 G1) — see the matching
+        // comment in getNounsWithPagination: metadata.json is the population;
+        // the vector leg is optional, so a metadata-only row must still be
+        // listed (and here, for the unfiltered case, needs ZERO reads either
+        // way — the id comes straight from the path).
         const entries = nounFiles
-          .filter((p) => p.includes('/vectors.json'))
-          .map((p) => idFromVectorPath(p))
+          .filter((p) => p.includes('/metadata.json'))
+          .map((p) => idFromMetadataPath(p))
           .sort((a, b) => (a < b ? -1 : a > b ? 1 : 0))
         const toWalk =
           cursor && shard === cursor.shard ? entries.filter((id) => id > cursor.id) : entries
@@ -2558,23 +2688,79 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
         // Stable within-shard order (by verb id) so offset windows and cursor resume
         // are deterministic and consistent across calls. Ids come from the path, so
         // verbs skipped by the cursor are never read.
+        //
+        // IDENTITY-KEYED WALK (population law, ADR-008 G1) — the noun mirror of
+        // this comment in getNounsWithPagination applies here too: metadata.json
+        // is the population; keying on it here means this walk and the ledger
+        // recount (rebuildTypeCounts' `allVerbs`, already metadata.json-keyed)
+        // agree on population by construction. Unchanged for a healthy store —
+        // `relate()` always writes both legs of a verb in the same commit, so
+        // the id set and order match the old vectors.json keying exactly; this
+        // only additionally surfaces a fold-born metadata-only row (see
+        // writeVerbRaw's preserve-if-absent contract).
         const entries = verbFiles
-          .filter((p) => p.includes('/vectors.json'))
-          .map((p) => ({ path: p, id: idFromVectorPath(p) }))
+          .filter((p) => p.includes('/metadata.json'))
+          .map((p) => ({ path: p, id: idFromMetadataPath(p) }))
           .sort((a, b) => (a.id < b.id ? -1 : a.id > b.id ? 1 : 0))
 
-        for (const { path: verbPath, id: verbId } of entries) {
+        for (const { path: metadataPath, id: verbId } of entries) {
           if (collected.length >= peekCount) break
           // Resume: in the cursor's own shard, skip up to AND INCLUDING the cursor id
           // (later shards are processed in full). No read for skipped verbs.
           if (cursor && shard === cursor.shard && verbId <= cursor.id) continue
 
           try {
-            const rawVerb = await this.readCanonicalObject(verbPath)
-            if (!rawVerb) continue
+            // Identity leg first — required. A verb this walk cannot read
+            // metadata for cannot be hydrated at all (same as before).
+            const metadata = await this.readCanonicalObject(metadataPath)
+            if (!metadata) continue
 
-            // Deserialize connections Map from JSON storage format
-            const verb = this.deserializeVerb(rawVerb)
+            // The vector leg is the verb's STRUCTURAL core (verb/sourceId/
+            // targetId live there — see coreTypes.ts HNSWVerb), unlike a
+            // noun's vector, which is pure embedding data. `relate()` always
+            // writes both legs atomically and verbs have no deferred-embed
+            // path, so a healthy store's verbs always have both. A vector-leg
+            // absence here can only be a fold-born after-image (see
+            // writeVerbRaw's preserve-if-absent contract) — and unlike a
+            // noun, this walk cannot safely FABRICATE sourceId/targetId to
+            // synthesize a structurally-valid verb (an empty-string endpoint
+            // would silently create a phantom edge — worse than omission).
+            // If the metadata record happens to carry its own sourceId/
+            // targetId (never true for current production writes, but not
+            // disallowed — e.g. a future schema or a repair tool could
+            // populate them), reconstruct from those; otherwise this row is
+            // loudly skipped — counted by the ledger, but not returned as an
+            // item, until a repair can supply the missing endpoints.
+            const rawVerb = await this.readCanonicalObject(getVerbVectorPath(verbId))
+            let verb: HNSWVerb
+            if (rawVerb) {
+              verb = this.deserializeVerb(rawVerb)
+            } else {
+              const metaSourceId = (metadata as Record<string, unknown>).sourceId
+              const metaTargetId = (metadata as Record<string, unknown>).targetId
+              const metaVerbType = (metadata as Record<string, unknown>).verb
+              if (
+                typeof metaSourceId === 'string' && metaSourceId.length > 0 &&
+                typeof metaTargetId === 'string' && metaTargetId.length > 0 &&
+                typeof metaVerbType === 'string' && metaVerbType.length > 0
+              ) {
+                verb = {
+                  id: verbId,
+                  vector: [],
+                  connections: new Map<number, Set<string>>(),
+                  verb: metaVerbType as VerbType,
+                  sourceId: metaSourceId,
+                  targetId: metaTargetId
+                }
+              } else {
+                prodLog.error(
+                  `[BaseStorage] getVerbsWithPagination: verb ${verbId} has a metadata ` +
+                    `record but no vector leg and no recoverable sourceId/targetId — ` +
+                    `skipping (counted by the ledger, not yielded; needs repair).`
+                )
+                continue
+              }
+            }
 
             // Apply type filter
             if (filterVerbTypes && !filterVerbTypes.has(verb.verb)) {
@@ -2591,9 +2777,6 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
               continue
             }
 
-            // Load metadata
-            const metadata = await this.getVerbMetadata(verb.id)
-
             // Apply subtype filter (requires metadata — checked AFTER load)
             if (filterSubtypes) {
               const subtype = metadata?.subtype as string | undefined
@@ -3392,11 +3575,12 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
   /**
    * Save noun metadata to storage (now typed)
    * Routes to correct sharded location based on UUID
+   * @param hasVector - See {@link StorageAdapter.saveNounMetadata}'s JSDoc.
    */
-  public async saveNounMetadata(id: string, metadata: NounMetadata): Promise<void> {
+  public async saveNounMetadata(id: string, metadata: NounMetadata, hasVector?: boolean): Promise<void> {
     // Validate noun type in metadata - storage boundary protection
     validateNounType(metadata.noun)
-    return this.saveNounMetadata_internal(id, metadata)
+    return this.saveNounMetadata_internal(id, metadata, hasVector)
   }
 
   /**
@@ -3407,9 +3591,10 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
    * This ensures counts are updated AFTER metadata exists, fixing the race condition
    * where storage adapters tried to read metadata before it was saved.
    *
+   * @param hasVector - See {@link StorageAdapter.saveNounMetadata}'s JSDoc.
    * @protected
    */
-  protected async saveNounMetadata_internal(id: string, metadata: NounMetadata): Promise<void> {
+  protected async saveNounMetadata_internal(id: string, metadata: NounMetadata, hasVector?: boolean): Promise<void> {
     await this.ensureInitialized()
 
     // ID-first path - no type needed!
@@ -3465,6 +3650,14 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
     // record persists here so the ALL scalar never lags the tree.
     if (isNew) {
       this.totalNounCountAll++
+      // Vectored-noun ledger: rides the SAME isNew gate (once per id, at
+      // creation) — this seam is metadata-write-driven and never re-runs on
+      // the HNSW neighbor-link re-saves that hit saveNoun_internal, so it
+      // cannot double-count. A deferred-embed insert passes hasVector=false
+      // (or omits it); its vector lands later via noteVectorLanded().
+      if (hasVector) {
+        this.totalVectoredNounCount++
+      }
       if (!(metadata.noun && isCounted)) {
         this.scheduleCountPersist().catch(() => {
           // Ignore persist errors — the in-memory count is authoritative; a later op retries.
@@ -3860,8 +4053,18 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
    *   the skip permanently inflated the persisted totals (adds counted, paired
    *   removals not decremented), and `Math.max(totalNounCount, scanned)` made
    *   the inflation unfixable by any disk cleanup.
+   * @param hadVector - OPTIONAL vectored-noun ledger hint — see
+   *   {@link StorageAdapter.deleteNounMetadata}'s JSDoc. This method never
+   *   reads `vectors.json` to answer the question itself (a canonical read
+   *   the delete path must never add); a caller that cannot supply the fact
+   *   for free leaves it `undefined`, and the ledger goes SUSPECT rather
+   *   than guessing.
    */
-  public async deleteNounMetadata(id: string, priorRecord?: NounMetadata | null): Promise<void> {
+  public async deleteNounMetadata(
+    id: string,
+    priorRecord?: NounMetadata | null,
+    hadVector?: boolean
+  ): Promise<void> {
     await this.ensureInitialized()
 
     // Direct O(1) delete with ID-first path. Read the canonical record BEFORE
@@ -3885,6 +4088,15 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
     } else {
       this.markAllCountsSuspect('noun', id)
     }
+
+    // Vectored-noun ledger: a KNOWN vector fact decrements (or no-ops);
+    // an UNKNOWN one goes suspect rather than guessing — see @param hadVector.
+    if (hadVector === true) {
+      if (this.totalVectoredNounCount > 0) this.totalVectoredNounCount--
+      else this.markAllCountsSuspect('noun-vector', id)
+    } else if (hadVector === undefined) {
+      this.markAllCountsSuspect('noun-vector', id)
+    }
     this.scheduleCountPersist().catch(() => {
       // Ignore persist errors — the in-memory count is authoritative; a later op retries.
     })
@@ -4549,6 +4761,16 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
     // construction.
     let allNouns = 0
     let allVerbs = 0
+    // Vectored-noun scalar: unlike `allNouns` (decided from the metadata.json
+    // LISTING alone), presence cannot be decided from the vectors.json
+    // listing alone — a deferred-embed noun's vectors.json EXISTS with an
+    // empty `vector: []` until its embed lands, so the file's CONTENT must be
+    // read. This walk already lists every path per shard (including
+    // vectors.json entries — `listCanonicalObjects` yields both legs), so
+    // reading them here costs one EXTRA read per noun beyond the metadata.json
+    // read above (doubling this walk's per-noun I/O) — honest cost, paid only
+    // by this diagnostic/repair recount, never on the hot path.
+    let allVectoredNouns = 0
 
     // Scan noun shards
     for (let shard = 0; shard < 256; shard++) {
@@ -4559,6 +4781,18 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
         const paths = await this.listCanonicalObjects(shardDir)
 
         for (const path of paths) {
+          if (path.includes('/vectors.json')) {
+            try {
+              const vectorRecord = await this.readCanonicalObject(path)
+              if (vectorRecord && Array.isArray(vectorRecord.vector) && vectorRecord.vector.length > 0) {
+                allVectoredNouns++
+              }
+            } catch (error) {
+              // Skip vector records that fail to load — best-effort ground truth,
+              // same as the metadata read below.
+            }
+            continue
+          }
           if (!path.includes('/metadata.json')) continue
           allNouns++
 
@@ -4634,17 +4868,23 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
     // IS the proof an unprovable delete could not give.
     const nounsAllBefore = this.totalNounCountAll
     const verbsAllBefore = this.totalVerbCountAll
+    const vectoredBefore = this.totalVectoredNounCount
     this.totalNounCountAll = allNouns
     this.totalVerbCountAll = allVerbs
+    this.totalVectoredNounCount = allVectoredNouns
     this.allCountsSuspect = false
+    // This walk counts one entity per metadata.json record (never per bare
+    // container) — the identity-record rule. Stamp it so a future load
+    // trusts these scalars instead of naming them suspect at open.
+    this.allCountsDerivedBy = 'identity-record'
     this.countCache.clear()
     await this.persistCounts()
 
     prodLog.info(
       `[BaseStorage] Rebuilt counts: ${totalNouns} nouns, ${totalVerbs} verbs (user-facing); ` +
-        `ALL-visibility ledger ${allNouns} nouns / ${allVerbs} verbs` +
-        (nounsAllBefore !== allNouns || verbsAllBefore !== allVerbs
-          ? ` (corrected from ${nounsAllBefore} / ${verbsAllBefore})`
+        `ALL-visibility ledger ${allNouns} nouns / ${allVerbs} verbs / ${allVectoredNouns} vectored nouns` +
+        (nounsAllBefore !== allNouns || verbsAllBefore !== allVerbs || vectoredBefore !== allVectoredNouns
+          ? ` (corrected from ${nounsAllBefore} / ${verbsAllBefore} / ${vectoredBefore})`
           : ' (unchanged)') +
         ` — scalar + per-type persisted`
     )

src/storage/storageFactory.ts

@@ -154,6 +154,21 @@ export function resolveFilesystemRoot(
   ) {
     throwRemovedStorageKey('fileSystemStorage.path')
   }
+  // A nested `config` object carrying a path-shaped key is the same hazard in
+  // a shape nobody ever supported: it used to fall through SILENTLY to the
+  // shared default root — every instance writing one directory while its
+  // caller believed each had its own. (Found live: an integration test's
+  // brains shared one store across a whole single-process run and a health
+  // probe refused on the foreign edges it sampled.) Loud, with the rename.
+  const nested = (config as Record<string, unknown>).config
+  if (nested && typeof nested === 'object') {
+    const pathish = ['path', 'baseDir', 'rootDirectory', 'rootDir', 'dir', 'directory']
+    const hit = pathish.find(
+      (k) => typeof (nested as Record<string, unknown>)[k] === 'string' &&
+        ((nested as Record<string, unknown>)[k] as string).length > 0
+    )
+    if (hit) throwRemovedStorageKey(`config.${hit}`)
+  }
 
   // 3. Zero-config default. A `type: 'filesystem'` with no path lands here
   //    intentionally ("persist, default location").

src/transaction/operations/IndexOperations.ts

@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ import type { VectorIndexProvider, GraphIndexProvider } from '../../plugin.js'
 import type { MetadataIndexManager } from '../../utils/metadataIndex.js'
 import type { GraphVerb } from '../../coreTypes.js'
 import type { Operation, RollbackAction } from '../types.js'
+import { isZeroNormVector } from '../../utils/distance.js'
+import { prodLog } from '../../utils/logger.js'
 
 /**
  * Backend identity stamped into an operation's emitted `name` string (e.g.
@@ -88,6 +90,30 @@ export class AddToVectorIndexOperation implements Operation {
   }
 
   async execute(): Promise<RollbackAction> {
+    // THE ZERO-NORM LAW (the live provider-write seam's belt): a zero-norm
+    // vector is not a vector — it never crosses an engine boundary. This
+    // engine's own cosine distance treats an all-zero vector safely (a
+    // zero-norm operand always scores MAXIMUM distance, see
+    // {@link isZeroNormVector}'s JSDoc), but a downstream engine serving
+    // squared-euclidean distance cannot tell it apart from a legitimate
+    // origin point — a false attractor that silently darkens real results.
+    // The canonical write already landed (SaveNoun/SaveNounMetadata
+    // operations are staged ahead of this one in every caller) — only the
+    // INDEX INSERT is refused here, loudly, never a throw. A length-0
+    // vector is the unrelated "unvectored" shape and is skipped silently
+    // (the same contract callers already rely on for deferred embeds).
+    if (this.vector.length === 0) {
+      return async () => {}
+    }
+    if (isZeroNormVector(this.vector)) {
+      prodLog.warn(
+        `[vector-index] refusing to index a zero-norm vector for entity ${this.id} — ` +
+          `a zero-norm vector is not a vector and never crosses an engine boundary ` +
+          `(the canonical write is unaffected; only the vector-index insert is skipped)`
+      )
+      return async () => {}
+    }
+
     // Check if item already exists (for rollback decision)
     const existed = await this.itemExists(this.id)
 
@@ -263,14 +289,52 @@ export class ReplaceInVectorIndexOperation implements Operation {
     // One commit generation for the whole replace (both branches + rollback).
     const generation = this.generationFn?.()
 
+    // THE ZERO-NORM LAW (see AddToVectorIndexOperation's matching JSDoc): a
+    // real all-zero replacement vector must never land in the index — refuse
+    // loudly, canonical write unaffected. The row must not be left stale
+    // either: if it was genuinely indexed under `oldVector`, remove it
+    // rather than pretend the old vector still describes the row. A
+    // length-0 `newVector` (the unrelated "unvectored" shape) is handled the
+    // same way, silently — no caller today reaches this with an empty
+    // replacement (update() rejects a dimension-mismatched empty vector),
+    // but the seam stays consistent in case one ever legitimately does.
+    if (isZeroNormVector(this.newVector) || this.newVector.length === 0) {
+      const wasIndexed = this.oldVector.length > 0 && !isZeroNormVector(this.oldVector)
+      if (isZeroNormVector(this.newVector)) {
+        prodLog.warn(
+          `[vector-index] refusing to replace with a zero-norm vector for entity ${this.id} — ` +
+            `a zero-norm vector is not a vector and never crosses an engine boundary ` +
+            `(the canonical write is unaffected; the row is removed from the vector index instead)`
+        )
+      }
+      if (wasIndexed) {
+        await this.index.removeItem(this.id, generation)
+      }
+      return async () => {
+        // Restore the declared before-state.
+        if (wasIndexed) {
+          await this.index.addItem({ id: this.id, vector: this.oldVector }, generation)
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
     if (typeof index.updateItem === 'function') {
       // Atomic path: one in-place call, the row never leaves the index.
       await index.updateItem({ id: this.id, vector: this.newVector }, generation)
 
       return async () => {
         // Restore the declared before-state in place (see class JSDoc for
-        // the item-did-not-exist posture).
-        await index.updateItem!({ id: this.id, vector: this.oldVector }, generation)
+        // the item-did-not-exist posture). A length-0 oldVector means the row
+        // was never actually indexed before this op ran (a length-0 vector is
+        // never a legal index member — see EmptyVectorIndexError) — there is
+        // no in-place "restore to empty" for the provider to perform, so
+        // rollback removes the row instead, leaving the same "not indexed"
+        // state the row was in before execute().
+        if (this.oldVector.length > 0) {
+          await index.updateItem!({ id: this.id, vector: this.oldVector }, generation)
+        } else {
+          await this.index.removeItem(this.id, generation)
+        }
       }
     }
 
@@ -281,9 +345,14 @@ export class ReplaceInVectorIndexOperation implements Operation {
 
     return async () => {
       // updateItem-style restore via the same adjacent pair, back to the
-      // declared before-state.
+      // declared before-state. Same length-0 carve-out as the updateItem
+      // path above: an empty oldVector was never a legal index member, so
+      // rollback just leaves the row removed rather than attempting an
+      // illegal empty re-add.
       await this.index.removeItem(this.id, generation)
-      await this.index.addItem({ id: this.id, vector: this.oldVector }, generation)
+      if (this.oldVector.length > 0) {
+        await this.index.addItem({ id: this.id, vector: this.oldVector }, generation)
+      }
     }
   }
 }