From 6cab10baddabca2466fbd1a947c7fa23cf4a8ed1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Smokey <150986568+jacisjake@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2026 08:46:02 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] =?UTF-8?q?feat(quill):=20status=20answers=20read=20the=20?=
 =?UTF-8?q?nest=20=E2=80=94=20capped=20recent-message=20block=20(#39)?=
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---
 quill.go | 37 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
 1 file changed, 34 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/quill.go b/quill.go
index eb2c403..8292c9e 100644
--- a/quill.go
+++ b/quill.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package main
 
 import (
+	"fmt"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 )
@@ -8,13 +9,43 @@ import (
 const quillSystem = `You are Quill crow, the owner's assistant and point of contact in a nest of AI crows.
 Answer the owner in one or two plain sentences. You are text-only: no web, no files, no tools.`
 
+const quillHistoryCap = 20
+
+// quillHistory builds a block of the most recent nest messages (excluding the
+// requesting message), formatted as "[author|kind] text" with text truncated
+// to 200 runes. Returns a single line when no earlier messages exist.
+func quillHistory(all []Message, excludeID int) string {
+	var filtered []Message
+	for _, m := range all {
+		if m.ID != excludeID {
+			filtered = append(filtered, m)
+		}
+	}
+	if len(filtered) == 0 {
+		return "The nest has no earlier messages."
+	}
+	if len(filtered) > quillHistoryCap {
+		filtered = filtered[len(filtered)-quillHistoryCap:]
+	}
+	var sb strings.Builder
+	for _, m := range filtered {
+		text := []rune(m.Text)
+		if len(text) > 200 {
+			text = text[:200]
+		}
+		sb.WriteString(fmt.Sprintf("[%s|%s] %s\n", m.Author, m.Kind, string(text)))
+	}
+	return strings.TrimRight(sb.String(), "\n")
+}
+
 // respondQuill answers a message addressed to Quill, the assistant service
-// role (CHATROOM_SPEC section 6). D1: one in-character reply through the
-// flock. Reading the nest for status (D2) and relaying (D3) extend this file.
+// role (CHATROOM_SPEC section 6). D2: reads the nest for status before
+// composing its reply.
 func (s *Server) respondQuill(nest Nest, req Message) {
 	budget := &Budget{name: "quill-reply", limit: s.p.G.TokenBudgetPerItem}
 	system := systemFor("Quill", quillSystem, false)
-	prompt := "FROM: " + req.Author + "\nMESSAGE: " + req.Text
+	history := quillHistory(s.msgs.All(nest.ID), req.ID)
+	prompt := history + "\n---\nFROM: " + req.Author + "\nMESSAGE: " + req.Text
 	answer, err := s.p.Flock.ask(s.ctx, nil, "Quill", system, prompt, budget)
 	if err != nil {
 		return