- Hero constraint: _pick_lead now runs only within the CLOSEST non-empty section of a
personalized Brief, so a "gentler" wider-region/world story can never be floated into
the hero slot above a local one. Only widens if the closest section is empty.
- Dial gains a visible Clear (alongside Change) so a reader never feels locked into
personalization; "World" stays the keep-home-but-go-global option.
366 tests green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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>
Codex polish before deploy: anything elevated as Near you / Close to home must have
geo_confidence in (high, medium) — the feature's promise is relevance. Country-only
mode now gates "near" too; since it has no "country" tier, the "world" scope is
widened to absorb low-confidence home-country stories so they surface there instead
of vanishing between tiers (the same edge-case class, fixed). State mode unchanged.
364 tests green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Completes the server side of "Closer to Home". /api/feed gains a `home` param
('US' or 'US-NY'); when set the response is private (like prefs) and sectioned:
- Near you (+ Elsewhere in your country when a state is set) is a ONE-TIME lead
block on page 0; the world is the paginated body. next_offset tells the client
where to continue, so the lead block never skews world paging.
- Thin tiers fold down (MIN_TIER=3) so a header is never shown empty (lead, don't trap).
- State match counts only on high/medium geo confidence; the "country" tier excludes
exactly what went to "near", so a low-confidence home-state story still surfaces
(it doesn't vanish between tiers — caught + tested).
- Items carry a `section` tag; paywalled sort is now within-section. No home => exact
prior behavior (section null, default/edge-cached feed unchanged), Brief untouched.
364 tests green. Frontend next: Home picker + sectioned feed rendering.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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