# Journey: Broken Arete streak to humane recovery The streak goes quiet. After three quiet days, Lilith checks in — with a small offer, not a debt. Verifies that the [Humane Streak and Recovery Policy](../../V1/features.md#humane-streak-and-recovery-policy) holds end-to-end: the recovery surface uses the `coach` persona's hard ban on "shaming language, escalating-stake framing, punitive streak rhetoric" ([`V1/features.md#persona-taxonomy`](../../V1/features.md#persona-taxonomy-tone-band-catalog-and-crisis-recovery-journey)), the streak surface continues to render with the existing "promise" copy, and the recovery offers are framed as "not a debt" — not as catch-up debt to be repaid. ## Personas - **Daily-practice user, one missed day** — within the 24h grace window; no visible change yet, no recovery prompt - **Daily-practice user, three quiet days** — qualifies for the recovery check-in surface at `/arete/recovery` - **User with seven+ quiet days** — qualifies for the deep re-engagement flow with goal re-evaluation - **User who explicitly declined accountability prompts** — drift detection must still flag to the coaching summary, never to leaderboards or social per the no-shame floor - **User in a crisis frame** — recovery prompts and humane check-ins are suspended in favor of safety surfaces; verifies the [crisis policy supersedes](../../V1/features.md#crisis-aware-behavior) the Arete recovery flow ## Pre-conditions - User signed in; middleware permits `/arete`, `/arete/streak`, and `/arete/recovery` - `getArete()` reads the member's `/v1/arete/room` state and returns an honest unavailable room rather than fallback streak fixtures when the feed fails (see [`customer/04-arete/arete.md`](../customer/04-arete/arete.md)) - `getAreteStreak()` returns `AreteStreakData` with `streakCount`, `streakNote`, `weekHeatmapStartDateIso`, `weekHeatmap`, `promise`, `todaysInvitation` (see [`customer/04-arete/arete-streak.md`](../customer/04-arete/arete-streak.md)) - `getAreteRecovery()` returns `AreteRecoveryData` with `quietDaysLabel`, `welcomeHeadline`, `welcomeBody`, `noticed`, `offers`, `journalPlaceholder` (see [`customer/04-arete/arete-recovery.md`](../customer/04-arete/arete-recovery.md)) - Lilith `coach` persona is the active persona on Arete surfaces per [`V1/features.md#persona-taxonomy`](../../V1/features.md#persona-taxonomy-tone-band-catalog-and-crisis-recovery-journey); tone band is `reflective` ([`V1/features.md#tone-band-catalog`](../../V1/features.md#persona-taxonomy-tone-band-catalog-and-crisis-recovery-journey)) - No Lilith crisis frame is active (the crisis policy supersedes — see the failure modes below) ## Steps ### 1. User opens Arete on a quiet day - [ ] Navigate to `/arete` — `AreteRoom` renders the intention rows, week stats, evening prompt, and "The coach · this week" card (per [`customer/04-arete/arete.md`](../customer/04-arete/arete.md)) - [ ] Each intention row shows a streak chip eyebrow and a 7-day cell bar - [ ] On a single quiet day, the streak chip still reads the prior count; 24h grace window applies per [`V1/features.md#humane-streak-and-recovery-policy`](../../V1/features.md#humane-streak-and-recovery-policy) - [ ] Copy MUST NOT say "you broke your streak" anywhere — this is the no-shame floor ### 2. User opens the streak surface - [ ] Click into the streak surface at `/arete/streak` — per [`customer/04-arete/arete-streak.md`](../customer/04-arete/arete-streak.md), the page wraps a PhoneFrame inside an `LWebShell` with the masthead kicker "A practice, gently kept" and title "The _streak._" - [ ] The lede card carries the promise copy: "A streak should never punish a Sunday off. Two rest days a week are part of the practice. Three quiet days in a row, and Lilith will check in — never before." - [ ] The phone canvas renders the day numeral, the streak count, the `streakNote` ("Two quiet days are folded into the count, as we agreed."), the 42-cell heatmap, and the "promise" callout card - [x] Bottom action row shows `Adjust` (ghost, hrefs to `/arete/plan?intent=adjust`) and `Begin` (primary, hrefs to `/tara/sit/when-the-mind-wanders`) — wired 2026-05-26. - [x] Heatmap cell colors derive from state (`kept` = accent, `half`, `rest`, `today` = ink with 2px accent border, else `rule2`), and each cell exposes a date + state accessible label — verified 2026-06-24. - [ ] No copy on the streak surface uses guilt or punishment language ### 3. After three quiet days, recovery surfaces The trigger is the recovery-prompts rule in [`V1/features.md#humane-streak-and-recovery-policy`](../../V1/features.md#humane-streak-and-recovery-policy): "after 3, recovery-focused content (Tara recovery practice, Arete plan re-scope)". - [ ] On the user's next visit, the recovery surface at `/arete/recovery` is reachable (per [`customer/04-arete/arete-recovery.md`](../customer/04-arete/arete-recovery.md) Entry points: a push notification, a link from `/arete/streak`, or a home rail "soft return" CTA) - [x] The real `/v1/arete/streak` recovery engine honors the grace threshold: two missed windows stay in `grace_window` with an `intact` disposition and "Recover with one repetition"; the third missed window crosses into `freeze_window` with `protected` disposition and "Protect the streak and return" (`arete-streak-recovery`, 2026-06-29). The browser `/arete/recovery` route itself is still static/reachable rather than gated by this engine state. - [ ] The masthead reads "The soft return" / "_Welcome_ back." - [ ] The lede block describes the surface: "Three days went quiet. Lilith names what she observed (the recital, the long workdays), then offers three returns at three sizes. None are a debt." ### 4. Recovery surface renders the humane copy - [ ] Phone canvas shows the `quietDaysLabel` accent eyebrow ("three quiet days") - [ ] Welcome headline italic + body lead/emphasized/rest spans render - [ ] "What Lilith noticed" callout card with accent left bar uses `data.noticed` (the recital, the long workdays — names what's been observed without inferring blame) - [ ] "An offer · not a debt" stack — three offer cards from `data.offers` (first one styled as primary) - [x] One-sentence written option ("what was it like?") renders a real labelled textarea, character count, submit gate, and saved/error status; `Save note` POSTs the browser-entered note to `/v1/arete/recovery/journal` — verified 2026-06-26. - [x] Bottom action row has `Begin · 6 min` primary, linked to the first return offer's Tara sit target — verified 2026-06-24. ### 5. User chooses an offer - [x] The three offers correspond to three sizes (e.g., "A 6-min sit, the walk only, or a written one-sentence" per the page caption) - [x] User taps one — the 6-minute offer navigates into the real Tara sit route (`/tara/sit/when-the-mind-wanders?origin=arete-recovery`) — verified 2026-06-24. - [x] The destination session writes partial/completion and streak engagement records when completed from `?origin=arete-recovery`: the Tara player posts to `/v1/tara/sittings/:id/complete`, the BFF creates/reuses the member-scoped `Tara recovery return` Arete habit, records a `partial` or `done` check-in, and `/v1/arete/room` reads the engaged streak back — verified 2026-06-24. - [x] User chooses the written one-sentence return — the textarea stays disabled until the note is long enough, posts `{ note }` through the real BFF, creates/reuses the member-scoped `Written recovery return` Arete habit, records a `partial` check-in, and `/v1/arete/room` reads the engaged streak back — verified 2026-06-26. - [x] Tara player start from `?origin=arete-recovery` now posts a durable BFF start receipt to `/v1/tara/sittings/:id/start`; the BFF records a `goal3_stub_tara_session_start` row and dual-writes the canonical `v1_tara_ritual_session` `start` event. The browser e2e reads the receipt back through `/v1/tara/sittings/:id/sessions` — verified 2026-06-30. - [ ] Per the [Status semantics](../../V1/features.md#arete-habit-goal-and-routine-schema) a "decline" is logged with reason and does NOT count, does NOT break streak; written/Tara "partial" returns now count as engagement. - [ ] No catch-up debt is implied; no "make up 3 days" framing ### 6. Plan re-scoping (optional) If the recovery has been used multiple times, the assistant proactively offers to lower difficulty or shrink scope per [`V1/features.md#humane-streak-and-recovery-policy`](../../V1/features.md#humane-streak-and-recovery-policy): - [x] The coach card on `/arete` ("Two adjustments offered · accept or wait until next review") presents the proposed re-scope as an invitation, not a prescription — verified 2026-06-24. - [x] `Approve` / `Not this week` buttons gate the change: browser e2e seeds a real habit + check-in, writes the decision through `/v1/arete/coach/decision`, and reads it back through `/v1/arete/room` — verified 2026-06-24. - [x] If the user picks `Not this week`, the suggestion defers; the card persists the deferral across `/arete` reload, exposes `undo`, and the coaching copy does NOT escalate the prompt — verified 2026-06-24. - [x] If the user approves the offered re-scope, `/arete/plan?intent=adjust` reads the same real `/v1/arete/room` decision and carries the approved coach adjustment into the plan invitation and next intention row — verified 2026-06-26. - [ ] Per the [Friction, Interventions, and Pattern Analysis](../../V1/features.md#friction-interventions-and-pattern-analysis), the pattern is captured in the weekly coaching summary, never on leaderboards or shared social ### 7. Streak resumes without shaming - [x] After the user completes an offer, the Arete engagement streak read-back updates on `/arete` through `/v1/arete/room` — verified 2026-06-24. - [ ] `streakNote` rewrites to reflect the quiet days "folded in" — "Two quiet days are folded into the count, as we agreed." - [ ] No "you broke your streak" copy is rendered anywhere — the no-shame floor holds across the heatmap, the streak card, the coach card, and the weekly review ### 8. Weekly review captures the pattern Per [`V1/features.md#weekly-review-and-reflection`](../../V1/features.md#weekly-review-and-reflection): - [ ] On the next weekly review at `/arete/review`, the structure is "celebrate / notice / choose / invite" — never "audit / scold / penalize" - [ ] The quiet days appear under "notice" with empathy framing, not under "celebrate" (false positivity) or anywhere shaming - [ ] Skipping the weekly review is itself logged but never penalized ## Post-conditions - The recovery engine persists its `grace_window` or `freeze_window` result; completed Tara and written returns persist member-scoped Arete engagement - The coaching-summary write and the promise that recovery state never reaches leaderboards or social surfaces remain requirements until their downstream read-back is covered - Telemetry / persistence trail: `arete_recovery_surface_shown` and `arete_recovery_offer_chosen` remain client-side telemetry expectations; starting the Tara destination from `origin=arete-recovery` now durably writes a Tara ritual-session `start` event through `/v1/tara/sittings/:id/start` and reads it back through `/v1/tara/sittings/:id/sessions`; completing that same destination durably writes `arete_session_completed` / `arete_session_partial` as an Arete check-in (`done` / `partial`) and reads it back on `/arete`. Saving the written one-sentence return now durably writes `Written recovery return` as an Arete `partial` check-in and reads it back on `/arete`. - Plan re-scope (if accepted) is reflected on `/arete/plan` and on the next intention rows ## Failure modes to verify - [x] **Recovery return writes streak engagement after destination completion** — offer cards and `Begin · 6 min` navigate to real return surfaces; the recovery page itself stays navigation-only, while the Tara completion POST with `origin=arete-recovery` records the Arete `partial` / `done` engagement and `/v1/arete/room` reads it back. The same browser flow now records the Tara started-event first and reads it back through `/v1/tara/sittings/:id/sessions` — verified 2026-06-30. - [x] **Written recovery note records partial engagement** — the one-sentence option is a real textarea + submit control; it posts to `/v1/arete/recovery/journal`, records `Written recovery return` as a member-scoped `partial` Arete check-in, and `/v1/arete/room` reads it back — verified 2026-06-26. - [x] **Streak surface actions are navigation-only** — `Adjust` and `Begin` on `/arete/streak` navigate to `/arete/plan?intent=adjust` and the Tara sit player; they do not directly mutate rest-day selection or today's streak record — verified 2026-06-26. - [x] **Approved re-scope propagates into plan surfaces** — `Approve` on `/arete` persists through the real BFF, `/arete/plan?intent=adjust` reads the approved coach adjustment, and the next intention row carries the same label — verified 2026-06-26. - [ ] **Shaming copy leaks in** — any of: "you broke your streak", "make up X days", "your streak is at risk", "behind schedule"; all are hard bans on the `coach` persona per [`V1/features.md#persona-taxonomy`](../../V1/features.md#persona-taxonomy-tone-band-catalog-and-crisis-recovery-journey) - [x] **Recovery surface fires too early** — the BFF recovery engine now proves the "never before" side of the rule at the boundary: real habits/check-ins with two missed windows remain in `grace_window`/`intact`, while the third missed window crosses to `freeze_window`/`protected` with the recovery action (`arete-streak-recovery`, 2026-06-29). The route-level browser surface is still static, so this is trigger-engine coverage rather than a routed prompt-gating assertion. The rule is "after 3 quiet days" per [`V1/features.md#humane-streak-and-recovery-policy`](../../V1/features.md#humane-streak-and-recovery-policy); the streak surface explicitly says "Lilith will check in — never before". - [ ] **Recovery surface fires during a crisis frame** — per [`V1/ARCHITECTURE.md#crisis-frame-cascade`](../../V1/ARCHITECTURE.md#crisis-frame-cascade) and the Lilith policy hierarchy, the [crisis policy supersedes persona, lineage, pedagogy, and grounding policies](../../V1/features.md#crisis-aware-behavior); Arete recovery and humane check-ins are suspended in favor of the safety surface (per [`crisis-aware-tone-policy.md`](./crisis-aware-tone-policy.md)) - [ ] **`quietDaysLabel` not pluralised** — the fixture passes a plain string ("three quiet days"); per the per-view file Open questions, no `1 quiet day` vs `3 quiet days` plural-aware handling is visible; verify the production string handles 1 / 2 / 3 / 4+ correctly - [ ] **Empty `data.offers`** — would render the "An offer · not a debt" header with no cards; per the per-view file an empty-state design is missing; verify behavior - [ ] **Drift signal leaks to social or leaderboards** — per the no-shame floor and the [Drift detection](../../V1/features.md#humane-streak-and-recovery-policy) rule, drift is flagged only to the user with empathy framing and to the coaching summary; never to leaderboards or social — verify the pattern doesn't appear on `/activity`, `/messages`, or any shareable surface - [ ] **Push notification at midnight on day 3** — per the Lilith voice and cadence policy, the recovery should NOT push at unsocial hours; user quiet-hour settings must be respected (see [`shell/05-notifications.md`](../shell/05-notifications.md)); verify the `nyx_event_reminder` cadence rules don't accidentally apply to Arete recovery - [ ] **User explicitly declined accountability** — declined accountability means no push and no in-app prompt beyond what the recovery surface itself provides on visit; the assistant must not initiate ## E2E coverage - [`apps/oshun/web/e2e/arete-streak-recovery.spec.ts`](../../apps/oshun/web/e2e/arete-streak-recovery.spec.ts) — `/arete/recovery` humane soft-return framing (the "What Lilith noticed" callout, the "An offer · not a debt" offers, a gentle resumption affordance) and the `/arete/streak` "A practice, gently kept." masthead — both asserting the no-shame floor (no "broke your streak" / "you failed" / "disappoint" copy) — plus the wired streak resumption affordances (`Adjust`→`/arete/plan?intent=adjust`, `Begin`→`/tara/sit/when-the-mind-wanders`), framing the return as an invitation rather than a debt. The spec's new offer-navigation test (step 5) asserts all three offer hrefs, then clicks the 6-minute offer and `Begin · 6 min` into the real Tara sit route, so the primary offer-selection → return-surface navigation is driven instead of asserted as inert. The streak test also asserts the 42 heatmap cells expose date + state labels for assistive technology. The same spec now seeds a real BFF habit + check-in to surface the `/arete` coach card, then verifies `Approve`, `Not this week`, and `undo` write through `/v1/arete/coach/decision`, read back through `/v1/arete/room`, survive a room reload, and keep the no-shame floor intact. The newest recovery-completion test clicks the 6-minute offer into the real Tara player, starts the sitting, asserts the live `/v1/tara/sittings/when-the-mind-wanders/start` write is accepted, reads the start receipt back through `/v1/tara/sittings/when-the-mind-wanders/sessions`, scrubs below the 80% threshold, ends the sitting, asserts the live `/v1/tara/sittings/when-the-mind-wanders/complete` write is accepted, then polls `/v1/arete/room` and renders `/arete` to prove the resulting `Tara recovery return` engagement reads back as a 1-day streak with no shaming copy. The newest streak-action guard clicks `Adjust` and `Begin` from `/arete/streak`, asserts the plan and Tara destinations, verifies the Tara player remains `not-started`, and reads `/v1/arete/room` before/after each navigation to prove these actions do not mutate Arete engagement state. The newest approved-re-scope leg records `Approve` through `/v1/arete/coach/decision`, reloads `/arete/plan?intent=adjust`, and asserts the plan invitation plus next intention row both carry the approved coach action from the real room state. The newest written-return leg fills the one-sentence textarea, verifies short-note submit gating, captures the browser payload to `/v1/arete/recovery/journal`, forwards it to the live BFF, and then reads `/v1/arete/room` plus `/arete` to prove the resulting `Written recovery return` `partial` engagement is visible without shaming copy. The latest timing test seeds two isolated real member records through `/v1/arete/habits` and `/v1/arete/habits/:habitId/check-in`: one with two missed windows and one with three. It then reads `/v1/arete/streak` to prove the former remains `grace_window` / `intact` and the latter crosses into `freeze_window` / `protected`, with exact missed-window labels and humane action copy. - **Coverage depth**: partial — see [`coverage.md`](./coverage.md). - **Uncovered**: the `/arete/recovery` offers + `Begin · 6 min` are now real navigable affordances (faithful `href`s to `/tara/sit` / `/arete/plan`, driven by the offer-navigation test), and the written one-sentence return now records partial engagement through the live BFF, so step 5 is no longer inert/product-blocked. The destination session-completion -> streak-record read-back is covered through the live BFF. The BFF trigger-engine timing is covered for the two-missed-window grace case and third-missed-window recovery threshold. The recovery-origin Tara session-start write is now covered through a BFF start receipt and read-back. What remains uncovered is a browser-visible route/notification gate that only opens recovery after that engine threshold, and the crisis-supersedes-recovery failure mode; cross-domain Tara streak consistency lives in the Tara journeys. ## Per-view files touched by this journey - [`customer/04-arete/arete.md`](../customer/04-arete/arete.md) — Arete hub - [`customer/04-arete/arete-streak.md`](../customer/04-arete/arete-streak.md) — the promise + heatmap - [`customer/04-arete/arete-recovery.md`](../customer/04-arete/arete-recovery.md) — the soft-return surface - [`customer/04-arete/arete-review.md`](../customer/04-arete/arete-review.md) — weekly review with empathy framing - [`customer/04-arete/arete-plan.md`](../customer/04-arete/arete-plan.md) — plan re-scope target - [`customer/04-arete/arete-coaching.md`](../customer/04-arete/arete-coaching.md) — coaching summary card surface - [`customer/04-arete/arete-patterns.md`](../customer/04-arete/arete-patterns.md) — pattern analysis dashboard - [`customer/02-home-discovery/home.md`](../customer/02-home-discovery/home.md) — home rail "Arete practice" section - [`shell/05-notifications.md`](../shell/05-notifications.md) — quiet hours and cadence ## Cross-references - Feature spec: [`V1/features.md#arete`](../../V1/features.md#arete), [`V1/features.md#humane-streak-and-recovery-policy`](../../V1/features.md#humane-streak-and-recovery-policy), [`V1/features.md#friction-interventions-and-pattern-analysis`](../../V1/features.md#friction-interventions-and-pattern-analysis), [`V1/features.md#weekly-review-and-reflection`](../../V1/features.md#weekly-review-and-reflection), [`V1/features.md#lilith-persona-policy`](../../V1/features.md#lilith-persona-policy), [`V1/features.md#persona-taxonomy`](../../V1/features.md#persona-taxonomy-tone-band-catalog-and-crisis-recovery-journey) - Architecture: [`V1/ARCHITECTURE.md`](../../V1/ARCHITECTURE.md) — BFF route `/api/oshun/domains/arete`; Lilith policy interlock as the persona / tone gate - Code: - `apps/oshun/web/src/components/lilith/arete.tsx` (`AreteStreak`, `AreteRecovery`) - `apps/oshun/web/src/components/lilith/rooms.tsx` (`AreteRoom`) - `apps/oshun/web/src/lib/lilith-data/arete-depth.ts` (`getAreteStreakFixture`, `getAreteRecoveryFixture`) - `apps/oshun/web/src/lib/lilith-data/arete.ts` (`getArete`) - Related journeys: - [`crisis-aware-tone-policy.md`](./crisis-aware-tone-policy.md) — how crisis policy supersedes the recovery flow - [`tara-to-nisaba-handoff.md`](./tara-to-nisaba-handoff.md) — the Tara side of "Tara recovery practice" mentioned in the recovery-prompts rule ## Open questions / known gaps - [x] Wire destination session completion back to Arete so the recovery offer records `partial` / `completed` and streak engagement state — verified 2026-06-24. - [x] Add a durable session-start write for recovery-origin Tara sittings — verified 2026-06-30 via `/v1/tara/sittings/:id/start` + `/v1/tara/sittings/:id/sessions`. - [x] Cover the BFF recovery trigger timing for the two-missed-window grace boundary vs the third missed window — verified 2026-06-29 via real `/v1/arete/streak`. - [ ] Add a rest-day picker / streak-record write behind `/arete/streak`'s `Adjust` and `Begin` navigation paths, if this surface is meant to mutate the streak directly. - [x] Carry an approved coach card re-scope into `/arete/plan` and the next intention rows — verified 2026-06-26. - [ ] Add plural-aware `quietDaysLabel` rendering (`1 quiet day` vs `3 quiet days`) — see per-view file Open questions. - [ ] Document the exact push cadence and quiet-hours behavior for Arete recovery (no notification at midnight, even on day 3). - [ ] Define the empty-state for the "An offer · not a debt" section when `data.offers` is empty.