Codex-approved evolution: the reader controls the "emotional radius" of the landing.
- Census-region "Regional" grain (geo.region_of / region_states). Scope-aware tiering
(queries.home_tiers): closest->widest lead, confidence-gated on state + region, never
a hard filter — blends outward so the set is always full. 'world' = the global brief.
- queries.home_brief takes a scope; /api/brief gains a scope param (nearby|region|
country|world). Country-only / non-US homes collapse to country.
- Homepage dial replaces the 2-button toggle: adaptive stops (4 with a US state, else
Country/World), persisted scope, "Good news closest first" framing. Concrete, soft
section labels (Around New Jersey / Across the Northeast / Across the US / Around the
world) so the reader sees the dial worked.
Backend 366 + frontend tests green. (Latest feed still on v1 local-first; aligning it
to the dial is the immediate follow-up.)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Per the owner's call (overrides the earlier "Brief sacred" stance): when a home is
set, the homepage opens with local good news first, not global. This is the hook —
you land and see awesome stories from YOUR corner first.
- queries.home_brief: local-first highlights (high/medium-confidence near, blended
out to country then world so it's always a full, strong set), preferring already-
summarized stories so the calm read stays rich. Recent window, ranked within tier.
- /api/brief gains a `home` param: private/no-store when set; over-fetches + caps so
dismissal/boundary filtering never thins it; falls back to global top-up if needed.
- Landing UI: a Local <-> Global toggle ("📍 Near you / 🌍 Everywhere") when a home
is set, the calm picker invite when not (dismissible), and Change. Default leads
local; one tap back to the global brief. No home set => exactly today's behavior.
Backend + frontend tests green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
"Closer to Home" foundation (audit greenlit by Codex). Durable geography, kept
decoupled from volatile scoring.
- Schema: article_geo (breadth/confidence/rationale/geo_version) + article_places
(0..N ISO-coded places), separate from article_scores so re-runs/audits never
disturb scoring or acceptance. "local" is never stored — it's relative to the
reader; the UI computes "Near you" later.
- geo.py: LLM proposes place NAMES, code disposes to ISO codes (country alpha-2,
US state 2-letter); region words like "Europe" can never become a country.
'global'/placeless is first-class, not failure. Confidence calibrated so 'high'
needs an explicit location. Geo is its OWN LLM pass, not merged into the scoring
prompt (durable metadata, re-runnable, keeps the sensitive prompt untouched).
- store_geo replaces places (geo is re-derivable, unlike scores). tag_articles is
idempotent by geo_version, only touches accepted non-duplicate articles.
- CLI `geo` command (cycle-locked, --limit/--reclassify) for backfill, plus a
bounded geo step in the cycle (--geo-limit 60, --no-geo). scripts/geo_audit.py
is the prototype audit tool.
360 tests green; live smoke tagged real articles correctly (Gaza->PS, London->GB,
placeless science->global). No UI / SEO pages yet — ranking/personalization only.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
thejayman77