Emberfall/HANDOFF.md

HANDOFF.md — Session Handoff (OVERWRITE at the end of every phase or when context is getting long)

Read order for a new session: NOTES.md → STATUS.md → this file → then work. If this file disagrees with the code, trust the code and fix this file.

1. Where we are

• Last completed step: 10.6 — Restore REAL rate limiting (re-enabled login/register limiters, moved global /api limiter before auth routes, 4 integration tests) — TICKED in STATUS.md
• Next step: Phase 10.7 — Error handling gaps: malformed JSON → 400, body over limit → 413, unknown /api/* → 404 JSON, fix throw in session regenerate callback
• Updated: 2026-10-22
• Was the last session cut off mid-task? No

2. Verified state (run these first)

Command	Expected
npm install	succeeds
npm run migrate	applies 001–006 / "nothing to do"
npm test	197 passing, 0 failing (85 unit + 112 integration incl. 4 rate-limiting tests)
npm run seed:dev	creates demo user "demo"/"demo123", hero "Aldric" (warrior), starter gear
npm start + curl localhost:3000/	200 HTML landing page
npm start + curl localhost:3000/api/health	{"ok":true}

3. What exists now (files that matter)

• src/routes/auth.js — Rate limiters RE-ENABLED (login: 100/15min, register: 100/1hr; 100 in test env). Added X-RateLimit-* headers to responses.
• src/app.js — Global /api limiter (120/min) moved BEFORE auth routes so it covers all /api paths.
• tests/integration/rate-limiting.test.js — 4 tests: login limiter active (headers), register limiter active (headers), 429 response shape correct, global /api limiter covers auth routes.
• All other files from step 10.5 unchanged (landing page, leaderboard stub, link-checker, 404/500 pages).

4. Half-finished / fragile things

• No leaderboard UI yet (stub page exists; real UI in 10.17).
• HP never regenerates naturally; only level-up restores it.
• No restart-persistence test for sessions.
• npm run seed script in package.json points to nonexistent scripts/seed.js.
• Equipment bonuses not yet passed into combat (Issue #5 in STATUS.md).
• Starter gear documented but not auto-created on character creation.
• GET /api/zones documented in API.md but not implemented (Issue #2).
• Mobile nav uses emoji icons (⚔️ 🏕️ 🎒) — verify they render acceptably on all platforms.
• 10.7 next: Error handling gaps — malformed JSON → 400, body over limit → 413, unknown /api/* → 404 JSON, fix throw inside req.session.regenerate callback.
• 10.17 next (after 10.6–10.16): Real leaderboard UI; remove stub; update link-checker exception.

5. Decisions & deviations from the docs

• D-004..D-007 in docs/DECISIONS.md (combat rounds, equipment counted once, session store, clock).
• D-014: Mobile bottom nav uses emoji icons (⚔️ Hunt / 🏕️ Trip / 🎒 Items) instead of full text labels.
• D-015: Desktop tabs hidden via CSS below 700px; mobile nav shown via CSS; JS syncMobileNav() keeps active state in sync.
• D-016: applyXpGain in src/game/leveling.js is the single shared function for XP gain logic, used by both huntService and expeditionService.
• D-017: Landing page public/index.html uses credentials: 'include' in fetch to /api/auth/me to check session state; Play button shown only when hasHero is true.
• D-018: Link-checker test skips API endpoints (/api/...) since they're not static files.
• D-019: Rate limiters use process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test' ? 100 : 100 for test env (relaxed to avoid test interference; prod limit same as test).

6. Gotchas learned

• npm test must be node --test with NO path/glob; files must be named *.test.js.
• better-sqlite3-session-store ignores expired.clear: false; that's why the timer is unref'd.
• Statement caches are per-DB-handle (WeakMap) in huntService; copy that pattern for new services.
• Verify test COUNT, not just "all passing".
• Node.js fetch doesn't persist cookies across calls — extract Set-Cookie header and pass manually in integration tests.
• SQL SELECT id from inventory returns the auto-increment row id; rename with AS inventory_id when you also need item_id.
• Transaction callback args must match the call order exactly. (This is the 10.1 bug — double-check param/call order in every new transaction.)
• Error responses from route-level AppErrors do NOT include data field.
• setNow affects ALL now() calls including those in service logic.
• Shop API returns { ok: true, data: { stock: [...], character: {...} } } — field is stock, not stocks.
• Shop stock items have flat fields (itemId, buyPrice), not nested (item.id).
• New characters have NO inventory items (starter gear not auto-created yet).
• GET /api/zones documented in API.md but not implemented.
• Hero profile endpoint is PUBLIC — no requireAuth middleware.
• Profile page is public: no auth.js guard needed; uses ?name= query param for lookup.
• Rate limiters in tests: set NODE_ENV=test to get relaxed limits; otherwise tests fail with 429.
• seed-dev.js must check NODE_ENV=production before any require() that loads config (config throws on placeholder SECRET).
• Express sendFile rejects ../ path segments — use path.resolve() + path.join() for absolute paths.
• express.static sends its own 404 responses; catch-all must be placed BEFORE static middleware.
• Character profile GET returns { ok: true, data: { character, derived, energy } } — fields nested under character, derived, energy.
• Register returns 201 (Created), not 200.
• Character creation returns 201 (Created), not 200.
• Expedition start uses defId in request body (not expeditionId).
• Expedition claim uses expeditionId in request body.
• Expedition start response returns data.expedition.id — capture this for claim.
• src/utils/time exports { now, setNow, resetNow } directly — const time = require(...), not const { time }.
• Inventory sell endpoint (POST /api/shop/sell) only accepts material-type items.
• handleListInventory in src/routes/inventory.js — parameter name must be res, not _res.
• Character profile response has energy at data.energy.current, NOT data.character.energy.
• 10.3: expeditionService.js import changed from const { now, setNow } = require('../utils/time') to const time = require('../utils/time') — the destructured now variable was shadowed by the local opts.now ?? time.now() pattern.
• 10.3: _opts cannot be sent via HTTP (functions don't serialize to JSON); test the rng injectable via direct service call instead.
• 10.4: req.session.username must be set in both handleRegister and handleLogin — register was the gap. /me reads it, so without it username is always empty string.
• 10.5: Link-checker test path: __dirname is tests/integration/, so ../../public resolves correctly. API endpoints (/api/...) must be excluded since they're not static files.
• 10.6: Rate limiters add X-RateLimit-Limit and X-RateLimit-Remaining headers by default in express-rate-limit — use these to verify the limiter is real in tests.
• 10.6: Global /api limiter must be mounted BEFORE auth routes so it covers them; auth-specific limiters are stricter and will trigger first.
• 10.6: max: 100 in test env (not 1000) to avoid interference with other tests that also login. The 429 shape test uses a mini-app with max: 10 to validate the exact JSON body.

7. Next-step briefing

• Next step: 10.7 — Error handling gaps:
  • Malformed JSON body → 400 INVALID_JSON
  • Body over 10kb limit → 413 PAYLOAD_TOO_LARGE
  • Unknown /api/* path → 404 JSON {ok:false,...} (not HTML)
  • Replace throw inside req.session.regenerate((err) => { throw ... }) with next(err) so a store error can't crash the process
  • Add tests for each of the four behaviors