From 558891ed3784af6979b6f57a7854c86735d70125 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "claude (blind_chess)" <claude@sethpc.xyz>
Date: Mon, 18 May 2026 20:00:25 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] feat(bot): suppress bot retry-search churn from the moderator
 log

Pop intermediate wont_help/illegal_move/no_such_piece/no_legal_moves
announcements produced during the bot's decision cycle before any
broadcast reaches the human opponent.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 packages/server/src/bot/driver.ts            | 10 ++++++++++
 packages/server/test/unit/bot/driver.test.ts | 18 ++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 28 insertions(+)

diff --git a/packages/server/src/bot/driver.ts b/packages/server/src/bot/driver.ts
index 178650e..4e561b9 100644
--- a/packages/server/src/bot/driver.ts
+++ b/packages/server/src/bot/driver.ts
@@ -165,6 +165,16 @@ export class BotDriver {
           const text = result.announcements[0]!.text;
           if (text === 'wont_help' || text === 'illegal_move'
               || text === 'no_such_piece' || text === 'no_legal_moves') {
+            // Attempted-move announcements are audience 'both'. The bot's
+            // intermediate retry rejections are internal search churn, not
+            // deliberate probing — suppress them so they don't broadcast to
+            // the human. The bot tracks its own rejections via attemptHistory,
+            // so removing the announcement is safe. The whole decision cycle
+            // runs before ws.ts broadcasts, so this pop always happens before
+            // any broadcast.
+            const rejection = result.announcements[0]!;
+            const anns = this.game.announcements;
+            if (anns[anns.length - 1] === rejection) anns.pop();
             return {
               kind: 'retry',
               entry: {
diff --git a/packages/server/test/unit/bot/driver.test.ts b/packages/server/test/unit/bot/driver.test.ts
index 041c7b8..1684fb4 100644
--- a/packages/server/test/unit/bot/driver.test.ts
+++ b/packages/server/test/unit/bot/driver.test.ts
@@ -172,6 +172,24 @@ describe('BotDriver', () => {
     expect(brain.dispose).toHaveBeenCalled();
   });
 
+  it('suppresses the bot intermediate retry rejection from the moderator log', async () => {
+    // Pinned-bishop position: first action is rejected (wont_help), second
+    // is a legal king move. The wont_help must NOT survive in announcements.
+    const fen = '4k2K/4b3/8/8/8/8/8/4R3 b - - 0 1';
+    game = makeGame({ fen });
+    brain = new StubBrain();
+    driver = new BotDriver({ game, brain, color: 'b' });
+    await driver.init();
+    brain.enqueue(
+      { type: 'commit', from: 'e7', to: 'd6' }, // rejected: wont_help
+      { type: 'commit', from: 'e8', to: 'f8' }, // legal king move
+    );
+    await driver.onStateChange();
+    const texts = game.announcements.map((a) => a.text);
+    expect(texts).not.toContain('wont_help');
+    expect(texts).toContain('black_moved');
+  });
+
   it('bot move that delivers checkmate finalizes game.status', async () => {
     // FEN: '1k6/8/1K6/8/8/8/8/7Q w - - 0 1'
     // White king b6, white queen h1, black king b8.