update_world_state relied entirely on the DM remembering to call it —
no code checked whether it actually happened. Add refresh_if_due(),
called at the top of every DM turn: it counts messages since the
summary was last touched (by the tool or a prior auto-refresh), and
once AUTO_REFRESH_MESSAGE_THRESHOLD (10) is crossed, forces a
dedicated summarization call — a separate, tool-free completion whose
only job is to fold the new messages into the existing summary — and
persists the result directly, without waiting on the main DM turn's
discretion.
The trigger condition (message count) is deterministic; only the
summary text itself still needs an LLM, which is unavoidable for a
task that requires understanding, not just counting.
context.py gained count_messages_since() and build_transcript_text()
(an uncapped, since-filtered plain-text transcript for the
summarizer, as opposed to build_context()'s char-budget-capped chat
list for the main DM call) — factored out of the same underlying
message-labeling logic to avoid duplicating the name-resolution joins.
Verified with a fake LLM client: confirmed the trigger fires exactly
at the threshold and not before, resets after firing, and that the
second refresh's prompt carries the prior summary forward while only
including messages since that refresh (not the whole history again).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Context was pure full-text replay of every message, capped at 40k
chars with oldest-dropped-first — no summarization/world-state layer,
as called out as still-missing in an earlier conversation.
Add a new update_world_state DM tool that persists a compact,
DM-authored recap (key NPCs, current location, open plot threads,
party/inventory state) to a new world_state table, one row per game.
It's injected into the system prompt every turn, ahead of the raw
message window. The DM is instructed to call it regularly — at every
scene change or major event, not just at the end — sending the full
current picture each time (matches the replace-not-merge pattern
already used for combat_stats/abilities/equipment).
Since the summary now backs up everything older, shrink the raw
message window from 40k to 16k chars — it's recent continuity now,
not the sole memory of the session. Full history remains available
via "Volltext laden" regardless, since that reads the messages table
directly rather than through this context builder.
Simplified from the original plan sketch (state JSONB) to a single
free-text summary field — natural-language recaps are something an
LLM authors well; a structured world model would need a schema the
DM would have to conform to for no real benefit here.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
FastAPI + Postgres backend with fastapi-users auth, games/characters
CRUD, and a WebSocket chat endpoint where an x.ai Grok DM narrates
play, rolls dice, and maintains character sheets via tool calls.
React + Tailwind frontend covers registration/login, game list and
creation, participation-code join flow, character viewer, and a
real-time chat session view. Docker Compose skeleton (Postgres +
backend) included; Caddy/frontend container wiring is deferred to
the deploy milestone.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Thorsten