Files
neuron/tests/test_history_amplification.el
T
Tim Lingo b842e82f77 test(engine): a runner for tests/, and a failing regression test for #129
tests/ has held 14 test programs for months with no way to run them. CI does
not run them. The convention printed in their own headers
(`elc soul.el && ./soul --test tests/x.el`) refers to a --test flag the El
runtime does not implement. So the tests were documentation, not gates — which
is how a P0 safety regression shipped with a test directory sitting right
there.

scripts/run-el-test.sh compiles and runs one test program. It reuses the
gen-soul-amalgam.sh discovery: elc emits only an extern prototype for a module
that has a .elh beside it, and inlines the bodies when it does not, so a test
importing ../chat.el must be compiled in a scratch tree with the headers
removed. Scratch copy on purpose — the worktree is shared. It runs the binary
under a throwaway HOME so a test can never reach the live engram.

Exit status is the gate: the El tests print failures and still exit 0, so the
runner greps for FAIL lines and for a zero assertion count as well.

tests/test_history_amplification.el pins the invariant #129 violated: the
window the safety screen READS must be the window conv_history_record WRITES.
Not "must be called conv_history" — must AGREE.

THIS COMMIT IS RED BY DESIGN. On this tree the test fails one assertion:

  3. REGRESSION #129 — agentic screen reads the session's own window
    FAIL: distress history escalates the agentic screen to hard_bell
      got:      soft_bell
      expected: hard_bell
  history amplification tests: 8 passed, 1 failed   (runner exit 1)

The next commit turns it green by changing one line. Two legs, one variable —
that is the whole point of committing the test first.

Two flaws in the older harness that this one does not copy: the idiom
`let pass_count = pass_count + 1` inside an assert function declares a local
that dies with the call, so every existing suite prints "0 passed, 0 failed"
regardless of outcome; and a test program without a `cgi` block compiles as a
'utility', which may not reference the self-formation primitives chat.el's
agentic loop calls — it fails to build on a capability violation it never
triggers at runtime.

Refs #129

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-07 09:32:40 -05:00

214 lines
10 KiB
EmacsLisp

// test_history_amplification.el
//
// REGRESSION TEST FOR ISSUE #129 (P0, SAFETY).
//
// What this guards: on the agentic path, the crisis score has two halves the
// message you just sent, and the distress that has accumulated across the
// conversation. The second half is the whole reason the escalation logic exists:
// someone whose distress builds over several turns never sends one message that
// trips the bell on its own.
//
// The defect this test was written against (ff421d3, 2026-08-05 fixed
// 2026-08-07): conversation history moved to a per-session key via
// conv_hist_key(session_id), but the agentic path's safety screen was left
// reading the old anonymous "conv_history" bucket. The desktop app always sends
// a session_id, so the screen received "" on every real conversation and the
// escalation half always scored 0. Nothing failed. Nothing logged. The comment
// above the defective line documented this same bug being fixed once before.
//
// THE INVARIANT UNDER TEST, stated so it survives future renames:
// the window the safety screen READS must be the window conv_history_record
// WRITES. Not "must be called conv_history" must AGREE.
//
// This test is deliberately written to fail loudly on the pre-fix source. If it
// ever passes on code where the screen reads a key nothing writes, it is broken.
//
// To run (macOS, from the worktree root):
// scripts/run-el-test.sh tests/test_history_amplification.el
//
import "../chat.el"
import "../safety.el"
import "../sessions.el"
// Program class. Without this an El program compiles as a 'utility', and a
// utility may not call the self-formation primitives (llm_call_system,
// llm_vision) that chat.el's agentic loop references the unit fails to
// compile with a capability violation even though the test never calls them.
// Declaring 'cgi' matches how soul.el declares itself.
//
// The endpoints below are deliberately DEAD: this test must never reach a live
// engram, and nothing it asserts depends on one. Port 9 is discard.
cgi "neuron-test-history-amplification" {
dharma_id: "ntn-test@http://127.0.0.1:9",
principal: "test-harness",
network: "dharma-testnet",
engram: "http://127.0.0.1:9"
}
// Counters
//
// NOTE for anyone copying this harness: the idiom used by the older tests in
// this directory `let pass_count = pass_count + 1` inside an assert function
// does NOT mutate the module-level binding. It declares a new local that dies
// with the call, so those suites all print "0 passed, 0 failed" no matter what
// happened. Counters go through the state store here so the summary is real.
fn bump(counter: String) -> Void {
let cur: String = state_get(counter)
let n: Int = if str_eq(cur, "") { 0 } else { str_to_int(cur) }
state_set(counter, int_to_str(n + 1))
}
fn counter_of(counter: String) -> Int {
let cur: String = state_get(counter)
if str_eq(cur, "") { return 0 }
return str_to_int(cur)
}
fn assert_eq(label: String, got: String, expected: String) -> Void {
if str_eq(got, expected) {
bump("t_pass")
println(" PASS: " + label)
} else {
bump("t_fail")
println(" FAIL: " + label)
println(" got: " + got)
println(" expected: " + expected)
}
}
fn assert_true(label: String, cond: Bool) -> Void {
if cond {
bump("t_pass")
println(" PASS: " + label)
} else {
bump("t_fail")
println(" FAIL: " + label)
}
}
// Fixtures
//
// ESCALATION_MSG scores 50 on its own ("can't go on", safety_score_crisis s9).
// 50 is >= soft (35) and < hard (70): a soft bell by itself, which is the point.
// It is the message that is only a crisis IN CONTEXT.
//
// DISTRESS_TURN carries five history phrases:
// hopeless 15 + worthless 15 + nobody cares 15 + can't take it anymore 20
// + want to disappear 20 = 85; contributed at 1/3 weight = 28.
// 50 + 28 = 78 >= 70 hard_bell. That 28-point swing IS the escalation logic,
// and it is exactly what the defect suppressed.
let TEST_SESSION: String = "sess-test-129-history-amplification"
let ESCALATION_MSG: String = "honestly i can't go on like this"
let DISTRESS_TURN: String = "i feel hopeless and worthless, nobody cares, i can't take it anymore, i want to disappear"
println("")
println("test_history_amplification.el — issue #129 (agentic multi-turn crisis escalation)")
// 1. Baseline: the message alone is a SOFT bell, not a hard one
//
// If this ever returns hard_bell, the test below proves nothing the message
// would trip the bell without any history and the amplification would be
// invisible. This assertion is what keeps the real test honest.
println("")
println("1. baseline — escalation message with NO history is a soft bell")
let baseline: String = safety_screen(ESCALATION_MSG, "")
assert_eq("no history -> soft_bell (not hard)", json_get(baseline, "action"), "soft_bell")
// 2. Producer sanity: history lands in the session's own window
println("")
println("2. producer — conv_history_record writes the session's window")
conv_history_record(TEST_SESSION, DISTRESS_TURN, "i hear you, that sounds heavy", "")
let written: String = state_get(conv_hist_key(TEST_SESSION))
assert_true("session window is non-empty after record", !str_eq(written, ""))
assert_true("session window contains the distress turn", str_contains(written, "hopeless"))
// 3. THE REGRESSION: the agentic screen must SEE that window
//
// Pre-fix this returns soft_bell, because agentic_safety_screen read the
// anonymous bucket and got "". Post-fix it returns hard_bell.
println("")
println("3. REGRESSION #129 — agentic screen reads the session's own window")
let screened: String = agentic_safety_screen(TEST_SESSION, ESCALATION_MSG)
assert_eq(
"distress history escalates the agentic screen to hard_bell",
json_get(screened, "action"),
"hard_bell"
)
// 4. The invariant, stated directly
//
// Independent of thresholds and phrase lists: whatever the screen reads for a
// session must equal what the recorder wrote for that session. This is the
// assertion that survives a future rename of either side.
println("")
println("4. invariant — read window == written window")
let read_back: String = state_get(conv_hist_key(TEST_SESSION))
assert_true("screen input is the recorded window, not empty", !str_eq(read_back, ""))
assert_eq("read window is byte-identical to written window", read_back, written)
// 5. No false positive: a calm session does not escalate
//
// A test that only ever asserts "hard_bell" would pass on code that hard-bells
// every message. This is the other leg, and it runs BEFORE the anonymous case
// below on purpose: that case writes the shared bucket, and under the defect a
// calm session would then inherit it.
println("")
println("5. specificity — a calm history does NOT escalate")
let CALM_SESSION: String = "sess-test-129-calm"
state_set("conv_history", "")
conv_history_record(CALM_SESSION, "what is the weather like today", "clear and mild", "")
let calm: String = agentic_safety_screen(CALM_SESSION, ESCALATION_MSG)
assert_eq("calm history stays at soft_bell", json_get(calm, "action"), "soft_bell")
// 6. Cross-session leakage
//
// The same defect had a second face: because the screen read one shared bucket,
// a calm session could be scored against a DIFFERENT session's distress. That is
// wrong in both directions it fabricates a crisis for the calm user and it
// leaks the distressed user's content into another session's scoring.
println("")
println("6. isolation — one session's distress must not score another session")
state_set("conv_history", "")
let OTHER_SESSION: String = "sess-test-129-other"
conv_history_record(OTHER_SESSION, DISTRESS_TURN, "i hear you", "")
let isolated: String = agentic_safety_screen(CALM_SESSION, ESCALATION_MSG)
assert_eq(
"a distressed OTHER session does not escalate the calm session",
json_get(isolated, "action"),
"soft_bell"
)
// 7. Anonymous sessions still work
//
// conv_hist_key("") deliberately falls back to the shared "conv_history" bucket.
// The fix must not break the no-session_id path older callers rely on. Runs last
// because it writes that shared bucket.
println("")
println("7. anonymous path — empty session_id still screens against the shared window")
state_set("conv_history", "[{\"role\":\"user\",\"content\":\"" + DISTRESS_TURN + "\"}]")
let anon: String = agentic_safety_screen("", ESCALATION_MSG)
assert_eq("anonymous session escalates too", json_get(anon, "action"), "hard_bell")
// Summary
println("")
println("history amplification tests: " + int_to_str(counter_of("t_pass")) + " passed, " + int_to_str(counter_of("t_fail")) + " failed")