fix(DM): prose-not-scaffolding — DM echoed its planning notes as the scene (narrative crit)

[100yenadmin]

QA 2026-06-05 (sweep-3b, narrative persona — 2 criticals, blocks_progress=True): the .app DM rendered its internal scaffolding notes verbatim as the scene instead of lived prose:

actual: "Devella presses Renn on the doubled patrol and the broken seal. Renn: the rangers made that call themselves — no log entry, no deviation filed…" — pure scaffolding, zero prose.

The #642 runbook injection made it worse — the DM treated the injected arc directive as content to echo. (newbie/veteran were unaffected at 8/7; narrative dropped 8→4.)

Fix:

1. Frame the runbook as [ARC CUE — internal planning ONLY; do NOT quote/echo this line; weave its INTENT into the scene] — so it drives the arc without being rendered.
2. A hard prose-only output rule with the exact failure example (Wrong: terse 'X presses Y…' / Right: render it lived — her jaw tightening, the quoted line, the room).

Keeps the G1 win (the runbook still fires → combat still drives; only its framing changed). Guard test_play_party_drives_the_arc_runbook updated. bash -n clean; 10 harness tests pass. Validation: next multi-run sweep (does narrative recover + combat hold).

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Tests
  • Expanded test coverage to validate that internal planning directives and scaffolding instructions are correctly processed without being displayed to end-users. Updated test assertions ensure the system properly segregates internal planning content and enforces non-echo constraints, maintaining system integrity.

[coderabbitai]

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ℹ️ Recent review info

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Configuration used: Organization UI

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Run ID: aba1f771-2247-4bd4-a49f-df7c145cbb5a

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 4dd0fc8 and ba459b9.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• scripts/play_party.sh
• servers/engine/tests/test_dm_session_remint.py

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

This PR adds an internal planning framing directive to the per-beat DM prompt in the game engine's beat-play orchestrator, marking the runbook and planning content as non-player-facing, and extends test assertions to verify that the DM does not echo this scaffolding into player narration.

Changes

DM Prompt Restructuring

Layer / File(s)	Summary
ARC CUE internal planning framing and scaffolding prevention scripts/play_party.sh, servers/engine/tests/test_dm_session_remint.py	The per-beat DM prompt now opens with an "ARC CUE — internal planning ONLY" directive before injecting the runbook, signaling that planning content should not reach player-facing narration. Test assertions verify this framing is present and that explicit "do NOT quote/echo/render" and "terse scaffolding" constraints prevent the DM from rendering planning text.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~8 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• electricsheephq/WorldOS#631: Both PRs modify scripts/play_party.sh's DM prompt construction and update servers/engine/tests/test_dm_session_remint.py with assertions around that injected DM prompt content.
• electricsheephq/WorldOS#642: Both PRs update scripts/play_party.sh's per-beat DM prompt flow to inject the $RUNBOOK and extend test_dm_session_remint.py to assert runbook-driven beat behavior, with this PR adding the "ARC CUE/internal planning only" framing and stricter anti-scaffolding checks.
• electricsheephq/WorldOS#388: Both PRs modify scripts/play_party.sh to prevent internal planning and scaffolding text from being echoed in player-facing narration, with this PR adding the ARC CUE directive and runbook injection framing.

Poem

🐰 A whisper marked "internal planning only,"
The runbook tucked away, safe and lonely,
No scaffolding leaks to spoil the scene—
The DM's secrets stay backstage, unseen! 📖✨

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Description check	⚠️ Warning	The description covers the problem (DM echoing scaffolding), root cause (runbook injection framing), and solution (internal-only framing + prose rules), but is missing the required CLA certification and licensing checkboxes from the template.	Add the Licensing/CLA section with the required checkboxes checked (or explicitly addressed) to confirm CLA compliance and that no restricted content is included.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the main change: fixing a critical DM narrative output bug where internal scaffolding notes were being echoed verbatim as scene prose instead of being used for internal planning only.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	Docstring coverage is 100.00% which is sufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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