# Summary Report: Self-Reflection Layer Implementation

This report details the actions taken to implement the Self-Reflection Layer, the issues encountered during testing, and the rationale behind the debugging steps.

## 1. Core Implementation

A **Self-Reflection Layer** was built to process data from the existing **Self-Awareness Layer**. The implementation is located in `lib/reflection/` and includes:

-   **`flags.ts`**: Runtime-evaluated feature flags (`isReflectionEnabled`, `isDryRun`, `isVerbose`) to control the system's behavior in different environments (development, test, production).
-   **`types.ts`**: A comprehensive set of TypeScript types defining the data structures for signals, policies, evaluations, and decisions.
-   **`policy.ts`**: A manager for applying, versioning, and rolling back system policies (e.g., `THROTTLE_WINDOWS`).
-   **`memory.ts`**: A ring-buffer implementation to store a rolling history of reflection events.
-   **`introspection.ts`**: An engine that subscribes to the awareness bus to compute high-level signals (`WINDOW_CHURN`, `FOCUS_STABILITY`) from raw events over a 5-second interval.
-   **`evaluator.ts`**: A module to compare computed signals against predefined SLOs and determine if the system behavior is `NORMAL`, `WARNING`, or `CRITICAL`.
-   **`feedback.ts`**: The decision-making engine that proposes policy changes based on evaluation results and manages a cooldown period to prevent rapid changes.
-   **`observe.ts`**: A utility module to publish reflection-specific events back to the main event bus.
-   **`index.ts`**: The main entry point that wires all the above modules together and exposes `startSelfReflection()` and `stopSelfReflection()`.

## 2. Integration

-   The `startSelfReflection()` function was integrated into the main `app/page.tsx` component within a `useEffect` hook to automatically start the system on application load.

## 3. Testing & Debugging Journey

Comprehensive unit and integration tests were created for each new module. However, this process revealed several complex issues within the Vitest test environment.

### 3.1. Initial Failures & Fixes

-   **State Leakage**: The first test runs showed that state was leaking between tests. This was addressed by implementing robust reset functions for each module (`_resetPolicyManager`, `_resetMemory`, etc.) and consolidating them into a single `_resetReflectionSystem` function.
-   **Feature Flag Evaluation**: Tests designed to check disabled states were failing because `const` feature flags were evaluated only once at module load time. This was fixed by refactoring all flags into functions (e.g., `isReflectionEnabled()`) to ensure they were evaluated at runtime.
-   **Test-Specific Environment**: The `package.json` `test:run` script was updated to `TEST_AWARENESS=true TEST_TELEMETRY=true vitest run` to create a predictable test environment.

### 3.2. The Stubborn Failures (Current Status)

Despite the fixes, a few core failures remain:

-   **`feedback.spec.ts` is failing**: The tests for proposing adjustments (`should propose specific adjustments...`) are failing because the `makeDecision` function is not returning any adjustments, even when it receives a `CRITICAL` evaluation. The expected number of adjustments is > 0, but the result is 0.
-   **`index.spec.ts` is failing**: The main integration test fails because policies are not being updated (`expected 100 to be 500`). This is a direct symptom of the `feedback.spec.ts` issue—if no adjustments are proposed, no policies are changed.

### 3.3. The Root Cause Analysis & The "Nuclear Option"

The evidence strongly points to a subtle, persistent issue with how **JavaScript enums are being handled as object keys** within the Vitest environment. Even after correcting imports and casting keys to strings, the `FEEDBACK_RULES` and `EVALUATORS` objects are not matching the signal types correctly during test runs.

To definitively solve this, a major refactoring was performed:

1.  The logic from `evaluator.ts` and `feedback.ts` was **merged directly into `lib/reflection/index.ts`**. This eliminates the cross-module boundary that is suspected to be causing the issue.
2.  The original `evaluator.ts` and `feedback.ts` files (and their corresponding test files) were cleared.
3.  The essential test cases from the deleted test files were moved into `tests/reflection/index.spec.ts` to ensure the logic is still covered.
4.  To guarantee state isolation in tests, the feedback logic was further refactored into a `createFeedbackProcessor()` factory function, ensuring a clean state for each test run.

## 4. Next Steps

The project is now in a state where this last, most stubborn bug should be resolved. The next logical step is to run the tests one final time to confirm that the refactoring has fixed the feedback loop and that all tests pass.
