Hero emotional-safety guardrail + calmer card polish

Hero guardrail (core to the promise, not cosmetic):
- New hero.py: the lead story is chosen with a stricter filter than the rest of
  the brief — very low cortisol/ragebait and no grief/medical/violence terms
  (cancer, glioblastoma, death, diagnosis, ...). Such constructive-but-charged
  stories stay among the five; they just never lead by default.
- /api/brief applies user avoid-terms FIRST, then lead_with_gentle, so personal
  boundaries always take precedence over the general guardrail.
- Verified live: the brief no longer leads with a glioblastoma story.

Card polish (per review):
- Secondary cards with no real image are now text-first (no row of empty media
  bands); hero still always shows media or a typographic fallback.
- Inline tuning actions are quiet until hover/focus on pointer devices, and stay
  visible (softer) on touch — less interface machinery.

Tests: hero safety + lead reordering (70 total).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

frontend/src/lib/components/ArticleCard.svelte

@@ -15,15 +15,20 @@
   }
 </script>
 
-<article class:hero>
-  <a class="media" href={safeHref} target="_blank" rel="noopener">
-    {#if article.image_url && imgOk}
-      <img src={article.image_url} alt="" loading="lazy" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"
-           onerror={() => (imgOk = false)} />
-    {:else}
-      <span class="fallback">{article.topic ?? 'good news'}</span>
-    {/if}
-  </a>
+<article class:hero class:textfirst={!hero && !(article.image_url && imgOk)}>
+  <!-- Hero always shows media (image or fallback). Secondary cards only show a
+       media band when a real image exists, so image-less cards are text-first
+       rather than a row of empty blocks. -->
+  {#if hero || (article.image_url && imgOk)}
+    <a class="media" href={safeHref} target="_blank" rel="noopener">
+      {#if article.image_url && imgOk}
+        <img src={article.image_url} alt="" loading="lazy" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"
+             onerror={() => (imgOk = false)} />
+      {:else}
+        <span class="fallback">{article.topic ?? 'good news'}</span>
+      {/if}
+    </a>
+  {/if}
 
   <div class="body">
     <div class="tags">
@@ -95,9 +100,24 @@
   .actions { margin-top: auto; padding-top: 10px; display: flex; gap: 14px; flex-wrap: wrap; }
   .actions button {
     background: none; border: none; padding: 0; color: var(--muted);
-    font-size: 0.78rem; border-bottom: 1px dotted var(--line);
+    font-size: 0.76rem; border-bottom: 1px dotted var(--line);
   }
   .actions button:hover { color: var(--sage-deep); border-bottom-color: var(--sage); }
+  /* On pointer devices, keep the tuning controls quiet until the card is hovered
+     or focused — they shouldn't read as interface machinery. Touch devices (no
+     hover) keep them visible. */
+  @media (hover: hover) {
+    .actions { opacity: 0; transition: opacity 0.16s ease; }
+    article:hover .actions,
+    article:focus-within .actions { opacity: 1; }
+  }
+
+  /* Text-first secondary cards (no real image): a little breathing room up top. */
+  .textfirst .body { padding-top: 18px; }
+  .textfirst .body::before {
+    content: ""; display: block; width: 28px; height: 3px;
+    background: var(--sage-soft); border-radius: 2px; margin-bottom: 4px;
+  }
 
   .hero { display: grid; grid-template-columns: 1.1fr 1fr; }
   .hero .media { aspect-ratio: auto; height: 100%; min-height: 280px; }

goodnews/api.py

@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ from pydantic import BaseModel
 from . import feeds, queries
 from .db import connect, init_db
 from .filters import filter_articles, prefs_from_json
+from .hero import lead_with_gentle
 from .llm import LocalModelClient
 from .moods import MOODS
 from .taxonomy import FLAVORS, TOPICS
@@ -280,7 +281,11 @@ def create_app() -> FastAPI:
         items = data["items"]
         if not fp.is_empty():
             # MVP: filter the stored brief DOWN; no refill from outside the brief.
+            # Runs before hero selection, so personal avoid-terms take precedence.
             items = filter_articles(items, fp, datetime.now(timezone.utc))
+        # Lead with an emotionally-safe story (constructive-but-charged stories
+        # stay in the five, just not as the first thing seen).
+        items = lead_with_gentle(items)
         return BriefResponse(
             brief_date=data["brief_date"],
             title=data["title"],

goodnews/hero.py

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+"""Hero (lead-story) emotional-safety guardrail.
+
+The single most prominent thing on the page must feel safe to encounter before
+coffee. A story can be objectively hopeful — a cancer breakthrough, say — and
+still be personally painful to meet unprompted at the top of the page.
+
+So the lead is chosen with a STRICTER filter than the rest of the brief: it must
+be very calm and must not mention grief/medical/violence terms. Such stories are
+still welcome among the five — they just don't lead by default. Per-user
+avoid-terms are applied to the brief before this runs, so a reader's personal
+boundaries always take precedence.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from .filters import text_matches_avoid_terms
+
+# Terms too emotionally charged to lead with, even inside a constructive story.
+HERO_GUARD_TERMS = [
+    "cancer", "glioblastoma", "tumor", "tumour", "carcinoma", "chemotherapy", "chemo",
+    "death", "died", "dies", "dying", "dead", "fatal", "terminal", "deadly",
+    "diagnosis", "diagnosed", "dementia", "alzheimer", "parkinson",
+    "suicide", "murder", "killed", "killing", "war", "assault", "abuse",
+    "overdose", "hospice", "palliative", "disease",
+]
+
+HERO_MAX_CORTISOL = 1
+HERO_MAX_RAGEBAIT = 1
+
+
+def safe_to_lead(article: dict) -> bool:
+    """True if an article is calm enough to be the page's lead."""
+    if (article.get("cortisol_score") or 0) > HERO_MAX_CORTISOL:
+        return False
+    if (article.get("ragebait_score") or 0) > HERO_MAX_RAGEBAIT:
+        return False
+    blob = f"{article.get('title') or ''} {article.get('description') or ''}"
+    return not text_matches_avoid_terms(blob, HERO_GUARD_TERMS)
+
+
+def lead_with_gentle(items: list[dict]) -> list[dict]:
+    """Reorder so the highest-ranked lead-safe item is first (the hero).
+
+    The remaining items keep their ranked order. If nothing qualifies, the list
+    is returned unchanged — the brief still needs a lead, and we never drop a
+    constructive story, we only decline to make a charged one the first thing seen.
+    """
+    for i, article in enumerate(items):
+        if safe_to_lead(article):
+            if i > 0:
+                return [items[i], *items[:i], *items[i + 1:]]
+            return items
+    return items

ideas.md

@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 - Ability to silence some categories temporarily (Maybe a user doesn't even want to see health-related articles, even good ones, so they're not reminded of an ongoing medical issue -- a way to avoid something purposely for a bit)
 - Terms to avoid list (To filter even good news that you'd rather not hear about)
--
+- Favorite/save articles

tests/test_hero.py

@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+from goodnews.hero import lead_with_gentle, safe_to_lead
+
+
+def art(title, desc="", cortisol=0, ragebait=0):
+    return {"title": title, "description": desc, "cortisol_score": cortisol, "ragebait_score": ragebait}
+
+
+def test_calm_story_is_safe_to_lead():
+    assert safe_to_lead(art("Rare British plant returns from the brink"))
+
+
+def test_medical_grief_terms_are_not_safe_to_lead():
+    assert not safe_to_lead(art("Nanofiber implant doubles survival in glioblastoma mice", "brain cancer"))
+    assert not safe_to_lead(art("New drug for a deadly disease"))
+    assert not safe_to_lead(art("A community remembers those who died"))
+
+
+def test_high_cortisol_or_ragebait_not_safe():
+    assert not safe_to_lead(art("Calm-sounding title", cortisol=4))
+    assert not safe_to_lead(art("Calm-sounding title", ragebait=3))
+
+
+def test_substring_safe_words_not_falsely_flagged():
+    # "scar" must not trip on "scared"? we don't list scar; ensure clean titles pass
+    assert safe_to_lead(art("Volunteers restore a coastal wetland"))
+
+
+def test_lead_with_gentle_promotes_first_safe_item():
+    items = [
+        art("Cancer breakthrough in mice", "kill cancer cells"),  # charged — must not lead
+        art("Tiny blue octopus found off the Galapagos"),         # calm — should lead
+        art("Solar exports hit a record"),
+    ]
+    out = lead_with_gentle(items)
+    assert out[0]["title"].startswith("Tiny blue octopus")
+    assert len(out) == 3
+    assert any("Cancer" in a["title"] for a in out)  # still present, just not first
+
+
+def test_lead_with_gentle_keeps_order_when_first_is_already_safe():
+    items = [art("A gentle discovery"), art("Cancer news")]
+    assert lead_with_gentle(items)[0]["title"] == "A gentle discovery"
+
+
+def test_lead_with_gentle_unchanged_when_none_safe():
+    items = [art("Cancer story"), art("War deaths reported", cortisol=8)]
+    out = lead_with_gentle(items)
+    assert out[0]["title"] == "Cancer story"  # unchanged; brief still needs a lead