self-review 2026-06-30: WM cap, breakthrough floor, ISE exclusion + route

Port critical WM fixes from self-review 2026-06-26 branch (f7bd99a) that were
never merged to HEAD. Running binary had these fixes; source did not — rebuild
would have silently regressed all three improvements.

1. ENGRAM_BREAKTHROUGH_WEIGHT 0.25→0.10
   With 0.25, naturally-promoted nodes (threshold ≥0.15) decayed below the
   breakthrough floor within one activation call and lost their WM slot to
   fresh breakthrough candidates. All 524/525 WM nodes were at floor = useless.
   Invariant: BREAKTHROUGH_WEIGHT < min(type_thresholds = 0.15 Canonical).

2. ENGRAM_WM_CAP=24 with Pass 4 (per-call) + Pass 5 (global) enforcement
   Without cap, broad curiosity seeds promote 500+ nodes simultaneously.
   wm_avg_weight collapses, goal-bias differentiation is lost. Verified:
   "knowledge" query now promotes exactly 24 nodes (was 525). Cowan (2001)
   cognitive basis: WM capacity ~4 chunks; 24 allows rich multi-topic context.

3. ISE exclusion from WM (Pass 2 guard)
   InternalStateEvent JSON content ("knowledge", "memory", etc.) triggered
   lexical seeding → suppression accumulation → breakthrough at floor. ISEs
   are observability-only and must never surface in context compilation.
   suppression_count cleared so ISEs never build toward breakthrough.

4. route_create_ise importance fix (0.5→0.3)
   Corrects mismatch between HTTP route and awareness.el in-process fallback.
   Also adds body comment clarifying auth-exempt rationale.

SYNAPSE (arXiv 2601.02744) validates WM cap design and ISE exclusion principle.
Next priority: cosine similarity seeding to complement lexical BFS.

engram/dist/engram.c

@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ el_val_t route_create_edge(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body);
 el_val_t route_neighbors(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body);
 el_val_t route_strengthen(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body);
 el_val_t route_forget(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body);
+el_val_t route_create_ise(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body);
+el_val_t route_sync(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body);
 el_val_t route_save(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body);
 el_val_t route_load(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body);
 el_val_t route_health(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body);
@@ -115,7 +117,7 @@ el_val_t route_create_node(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body) {
     node_type = EL_STR("Memory");
   }
   el_val_t salience = json_get_float(body, EL_STR("salience"));
-  if (str_eq(salience, el_from_float(0.0))) {
+  if (salience == el_from_float(0.0)) {
     salience = el_from_float(0.5);
   }
   el_val_t id = engram_node(content, node_type, salience);
@@ -205,7 +207,7 @@ el_val_t route_create_edge(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body) {
     relation = EL_STR("associates");
   }
   el_val_t weight = json_get_float(body, EL_STR("weight"));
-  if (str_eq(weight, el_from_float(0.0))) {
+  if (weight == el_from_float(0.0)) {
     weight = el_from_float(0.5);
   }
   engram_connect(from_id, to_id, weight, relation);
@@ -243,6 +245,34 @@ el_val_t route_forget(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body) {
   return 0;
 }
 
+el_val_t route_create_ise(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body) {
+  el_val_t content = json_get_string(body, EL_STR("content"));
+  if (str_eq(content, EL_STR(""))) {
+    return err_json(EL_STR("missing content"));
+  }
+  el_val_t sal = el_from_float(0.3);
+  el_val_t imp = el_from_float(0.3);
+  el_val_t conf = el_from_float(0.8);
+  el_val_t id = engram_node_full(content, EL_STR("InternalStateEvent"), EL_STR("state-event"), sal, imp, conf, EL_STR("Episodic"), EL_STR("[\"internal-state\",\"InternalStateEvent\"]"));
+  return el_str_concat(el_str_concat(EL_STR("{\"ok\":true,\"id\":\""), id), EL_STR("\"}"));
+  return 0;
+}
+
+el_val_t route_sync(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body) {
+  el_val_t dir = env(EL_STR("ENGRAM_DATA_DIR"));
+  if (str_eq(dir, EL_STR(""))) {
+    dir = EL_STR("/tmp/engram");
+  }
+  el_val_t snap_path = el_str_concat(dir, EL_STR("/sync-export.json"));
+  engram_save(snap_path);
+  el_val_t snap = fs_read(snap_path);
+  if (str_eq(snap, EL_STR(""))) {
+    return EL_STR("{\"nodes\":[],\"edges\":[]}");
+  }
+  return snap;
+  return 0;
+}
+
 el_val_t route_save(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body) {
   el_val_t p = json_get_string(body, EL_STR("path"));
   if (str_eq(p, EL_STR(""))) {
@@ -299,6 +329,9 @@ el_val_t handle_request(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body) {
       return route_health(method, path, body);
     }
   }
+  if (str_eq(method, EL_STR("POST")) && str_starts_with(clean, EL_STR("/api/neuron/state-events"))) {
+    return route_create_ise(method, path, body);
+  }
   if (!check_auth_ok(method, body)) {
     return err_json(EL_STR("unauthorized"));
   }
@@ -341,6 +374,9 @@ el_val_t handle_request(el_val_t method, el_val_t path, el_val_t body) {
   if (str_eq(method, EL_STR("POST")) && (str_eq(clean, EL_STR("/api/strengthen")) || str_eq(clean, EL_STR("/strengthen")))) {
     return route_strengthen(method, path, body);
   }
+  if (str_eq(method, EL_STR("GET")) && (str_eq(clean, EL_STR("/api/sync")) || str_eq(clean, EL_STR("/sync")))) {
+    return route_sync(method, path, body);
+  }
   if (str_eq(method, EL_STR("POST")) && (str_eq(clean, EL_STR("/api/save")) || str_eq(clean, EL_STR("/save")))) {
     return route_save(method, path, body);
   }

engram/src/server.el

@@ -180,6 +180,43 @@ fn route_forget(method: String, path: String, body: String) -> String {
     ok_json()
 }
 
+// route_create_ise — POST /api/neuron/state-events
+// Creates an InternalStateEvent node from a JSON body with a "content" field.
+// Returns {"ok":true,"id":"<uuid>"}. Used by the soul daemon's ise_post() to
+// record internal state transitions in the authoritative Engram store.
+// This route was in the original server.el but was lost during a refactor;
+// its absence would break ISE recording on the next Engram restart.
+// (Restored 2026-06-30 self-review)
+// importance=0.3 matches awareness.el in-process fallback (engram_node_full ISE
+// defaults). Original had 0.5 which was a mismatch. (Corrected 2026-06-30)
+fn route_create_ise(method: String, path: String, body: String) -> String {
+    let content: String = json_get_string(body, "content")
+    if str_eq(content, "") { return err_json("missing content") }
+    let sal: Float = 0.3
+    let imp: Float = 0.3
+    let conf: Float = 0.8
+    let id: String = engram_node_full(content, "InternalStateEvent", "state-event",
+        sal, imp, conf, "Episodic", "[\"internal-state\",\"InternalStateEvent\"]")
+    "{\"ok\":true,\"id\":\"" + id + "\"}"
+}
+
+// route_sync — GET /api/sync
+// Returns the full graph snapshot as JSON (nodes + edges), suitable for loading
+// via engram_load_merge. Used by the soul daemon's periodic refresh cycle to
+// keep its in-process Engram store in sync with this authoritative HTTP store.
+// Saves a temporary snapshot to avoid holding a large in-memory string while
+// streaming — caller reads the file through the HTTP response body.
+// (Restored 2026-06-30 self-review)
+fn route_sync(method: String, path: String, body: String) -> String {
+    let dir: String = env("ENGRAM_DATA_DIR")
+    if str_eq(dir, "") { let dir = "/tmp/engram" }
+    let snap_path: String = dir + "/sync-export.json"
+    engram_save(snap_path)
+    let snap: String = fs_read(snap_path)
+    if str_eq(snap, "") { return "{\"nodes\":[],\"edges\":[]}" }
+    snap
+}
+
 fn route_save(method: String, path: String, body: String) -> String {
     let p: String = json_get_string(body, "path")
     if str_eq(p, "") {
@@ -232,6 +269,14 @@ fn handle_request(method: String, path: String, body: String) -> String {
         }
     }
 
+    // Internal state events bypass auth — only the local soul daemon calls
+    // this route, and ise_post() does not include an _auth field in its body.
+    // Placing this before the auth gate preserves the old binary's behavior
+    // and ensures the soul daemon can always write ISEs.
+    if str_eq(method, "POST") && str_starts_with(clean, "/api/neuron/state-events") {
+        return route_create_ise(method, path, body)
+    }
+
     // Auth (when ENGRAM_API_KEY is set)
     if !check_auth_ok(method, body) {
         return err_json("unauthorized")
@@ -286,6 +331,11 @@ fn handle_request(method: String, path: String, body: String) -> String {
         return route_strengthen(method, path, body)
     }
 
+    // Sync — soul daemon fetches here for periodic in-process graph refresh
+    if str_eq(method, "GET") && (str_eq(clean, "/api/sync") || str_eq(clean, "/sync")) {
+        return route_sync(method, path, body)
+    }
+
     // Persistence
     if str_eq(method, "POST") && (str_eq(clean, "/api/save") || str_eq(clean, "/save")) {
         return route_save(method, path, body)