Polish release aimed at new-user happiness. v2.0.5's cognitive stack was already shipping; v2.0.6 makes it *feel* alive in the dashboard and stays out of your way on the prompt side.
### Added
#### Dashboard visual feedback for six live events
-`minimal` (default) — 3-sentence MCP `instructions` string telling the client how to use Vestige and how to react to explicit feedback. Safe for every audience, every client, every use case.
-`full` — opt in to the composition mandate (Composing / Never-composed / Recommendation response shape + FSRS-trust blocking phrase). Useful for high-stakes decision workflows; misfires on trivial retrievals, which is why it is not the default.
Advertised in `vestige-mcp --help` alongside `VESTIGE_DASHBOARD_ENABLED`.
### Fixed
#### Dashboard intentions page
-`IntentionItem.priority` was typed as `string` but the API returns the numeric FSRS-style scale (1=low, 2=normal, 3=high, 4=critical). Every intention rendered as "normal priority" regardless of its real value. Now uses a `PRIORITY_LABELS` map keyed by the numeric scale.
-`trigger_value` was typed as a plain string but the API returns `trigger_data` as a JSON-encoded payload (e.g. `{"type":"time","at":"..."}`). The UI surfaced raw JSON for every non-manual trigger. A new `summarizeTrigger()` helper parses `trigger_data` and picks the most human-readable field — `condition` / `topic` / formatted `at` / `in_minutes` / `codebase/filePattern` — before truncating for display. Closes the loop on PR #26's snake_case TriggerSpec fix at the UI layer.
### Docs
-`README.md` — new "What's New in v2.0.6" header up top; v2.0.5 block strengthened with explicit contrast against Ebbinghaus 1885 passive decay and Anderson 1994 retrieval-induced forgetting; new "Forgetting" row in the RAG-vs-Vestige comparison table.
- Intel-Mac and Windows install steps replaced with a working `cargo build --release -p vestige-mcp` snippet. The pre-built binaries for those targets are blocked on upstream toolchain gaps (`ort-sys` lacks Intel-Mac prebuilts in the 2.0.0-rc.11 release pinned by `fastembed 5.13.2`; `usearch 2.24.0` hit a Windows MSVC compile break tracked as [usearch#746](https://github.com/unum-cloud/usearch/issues/746)).
### Safety
No regressions of merged contributor PRs — v2.0.6 only touches regions that are non-overlapping with #20 (resource URI strip), #24 (codex integration docs), #26 (snake_case TriggerSpec), #28 (deep_reference query relevance), #29 (older glibc feature flags), #30 (`VESTIGE_DASHBOARD_ENABLED`), #32 (dream eviction), and #33 (keyword-first search).
Every AI memory system stores too much. Vestige now treats forgetting as a first-class, neuroscientifically-grounded primitive. This release adds **active forgetting** — top-down inhibitory control over memory retrieval, based on two 2025 papers that no other AI memory system has implemented.
### Scientific grounding
- **Anderson, M. C., Hanslmayr, S., & Quaegebeur, L. (2025).** *"Brain mechanisms underlying the inhibitory control of thought."* Nature Reviews Neuroscience. DOI: [10.1038/s41583-025-00929-y](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41583-025-00929-y). Establishes the right lateral PFC as the domain-general inhibitory controller, and Suppression-Induced Forgetting (SIF) as compounding with each stopping attempt.
- **Cervantes-Sandoval, I., Chakraborty, M., MacMullen, C., & Davis, R. L. (2020).** *"Rac1 Impairs Forgetting-Induced Cellular Plasticity in Mushroom Body Output Neurons."* Front Cell Neurosci. [PMC7477079](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7477079/). Establishes Rac1 GTPase as the active synaptic destabilization mechanism — forgetting is a biological PROCESS, not passive decay.
### Added
#### `suppress` MCP Tool (NEW — Tool #24)
- **Top-down memory suppression.** Distinct from `memory.delete` (which removes) and `memory.demote` (which is a one-shot hit). Each `suppress` call compounds: `suppression_count` increments, and a `k × suppression_count` penalty (saturating at 80%) is subtracted from retrieval scores during hybrid search.
- **Rac1 cascade.** Background worker piggybacks the existing consolidation loop, walks `memory_connections` edges from recently-suppressed seeds, and applies attenuated FSRS decay to co-activated neighbors. You don't just forget "Jake" — you fade the café, the roommate, the birthday.
- **Reversible 24h labile window** — matches Nader reconsolidation semantics on a 24-hour axis. Pass `reverse: true` within 24h to undo. After that, it locks in.
- **Never deletes** — the memory persists and is still accessible via `memory.get(id)`. It's INHIBITED, not erased.
#### `active_forgetting` Cognitive Module (NEW — #30)
-`crates/vestige-core/src/neuroscience/active_forgetting.rs` — stateless helper for SIF penalty computation, labile window tracking, and Rac1 cascade factors.
- 7 unit tests + 9 integration tests = 16 new tests.
- Partial indices on both columns for efficient sweep queries.
- Additive-only — backward compatible with all existing v2.0.x databases.
#### Dashboard
-`ForgettingIndicator.svelte` — new status pill that pulses when suppressed memories exist.
- 3D graph nodes dim to 20% opacity and lose emissive glow when suppressed.
- New WebSocket events: `MemorySuppressed`, `MemoryUnsuppressed`, `Rac1CascadeSwept`.
-`Heartbeat` event now carries `suppressed_count` for live dashboard display.
### Changed
-`search` scoring pipeline now includes an SIF penalty applied after the accessibility filter.
- Consolidation worker (`VESTIGE_CONSOLIDATION_INTERVAL_HOURS`, default 6h) now runs `run_rac1_cascade_sweep` after each `run_consolidation` call.
- Tool count assertion bumped from 23 → 24.
- Workspace version bumped 2.0.4 → 2.0.5.
### Tests
- Rust: 1,284 passing (up from 1,237). Net +47 new tests for active forgetting, Rac1 cascade, migration V10.
- Dashboard (Vitest): 171 passing (up from 150). +21 regression tests locking in the issue #31 UI fix.
- Zero warnings, clippy clean across all targets.
### Fixed
- **Dashboard graph view rendered glowing squares instead of round halos** ([#31](https://github.com/samvallad33/vestige/issues/31)). Root cause: the node glow `THREE.SpriteMaterial` had no `map` set, so `Sprite` rendered as a solid-coloured 1×1 plane; additive blending plus `UnrealBloomPass(strength=0.8, radius=0.4, threshold=0.85)` then amplified the square edges into hard-edged glowing cubes. The aggressive `FogExp2(..., 0.008)` swallowed edges at depth and dark-navy `0x4a4a7a` lines were invisible against the fog. Fix bundled:
- Generated a shared 128×128 radial-gradient `CanvasTexture` (module-level singleton) and assigned it as `SpriteMaterial.map`. Gradient stops: `rgba(255,255,255,1.0) → rgba(255,255,255,0.7) → rgba(255,255,255,0.2) → rgba(255,255,255,0.0)`. Sprite now reads as a soft round halo; bloom diffuses cleanly.
- Retuned `UnrealBloomPass` to `(strength=0.55, radius=0.6, threshold=0.2)` — gentler, allows mid-tones to bloom instead of only blown-out highlights.
- Halved fog density `FogExp2(0x050510, 0.008) → FogExp2(0x0a0a1a, 0.0035)` so distant memories stay visible.
- Bumped edge color `0x4a4a7a → 0x8b5cf6` (brand violet). Opacity `0.1 + weight*0.5 → 0.25 + weight*0.5`, cap `0.6 → 0.8`. Added `depthWrite: false` so edges blend cleanly through fog.
- Added explicit `scene.background = 0x05050f` and a 2000-point starfield distributed on a spherical shell at radius 600–1000, additive-blended with subtle cool-white/violet vertex colors.
- Glow sprite scale bumped `size × 4 → size × 6` so the gradient has visible screen footprint.
- All node glow sprites share a single `CanvasTexture` instance (singleton cache — memory leak guard for large graphs).
- 21 regression tests added in `apps/dashboard/src/lib/graph/__tests__/ui-fixes.test.ts`. Hybrid strategy: runtime unit tests via the existing `three-mock.ts` (extended to propagate `map`/`color`/`depthWrite`/`blending` params and added `createRadialGradient` to the canvas context mock), plus source-level regex assertions on `scene.ts` and `nodes.ts` magic numbers so any accidental revert of fog/bloom/color/helper fails the suite immediately.
-`apps/dashboard/package.json` version stale at 2.0.3 — bumped to 2.0.5 to match the workspace.
-`packages/vestige-mcp-npm/.gitignore` missing `bin/vestige-restore` and `bin/vestige-restore.exe` entries — the other three binaries were already ignored as postinstall downloads.
Context windows hit 1M tokens. Memory matters more than ever. This release removes artificial limits, adds contradiction detection, and hardens security.
### Added
#### cross_reference Tool (NEW — Tool #22)
- **Connect the dots across memories.** Given a query or claim, searches broadly, detects agreements and contradictions between memories, identifies superseded/outdated information, and returns a confidence-scored synthesis.
- Pairwise contradiction detection using negation pairs + correction signals, gated on shared topic words to prevent false positives.
- **Real-time 3D animations** — memories pulse on access, burst particles on creation, shockwave rings on dreams, golden flash lines on connection discovery, fade on decay
- **Bloom post-processing** — cinematic neural network aesthetic with UnrealBloomPass
- **GPU instanced rendering** — 1000+ nodes at 60fps via Three.js InstancedMesh
- **`token_budget` parameter on `search`** — limits response size (100-10000 tokens). Results exceeding budget moved to `expandable` array with `tokensUsed`/`tokenBudget` tracking.
- **Reader/writer connection split** — `Storage` struct uses `Mutex<Connection>` for separate reader/writer SQLite handles with WAL mode. All methods take `&self` (interior mutability). `Arc<Mutex<Storage>>` → `Arc<Storage>` across ~30 files.
- **Tool consolidation: 23 → 18 tools** — merged redundant tools while maintaining 100% backward compatibility via deprecated redirects
- **`ingest` → `smart_ingest`** — `ingest` was a duplicate of `smart_ingest`; now redirects automatically
- **`session_checkpoint` → `smart_ingest` batch mode** — new `items` parameter on `smart_ingest` accepts up to 20 items, each running the full cognitive pipeline (importance scoring, intent detection, synaptic tagging, hippocampal indexing). Old `session_checkpoint` skipped the cognitive pipeline.
- **`promote_memory` + `demote_memory` → `memory` unified** — new `promote` and `demote` actions on the `memory` tool with optional `reason` parameter and full cognitive feedback pipeline (reward signal, reconsolidation, competition)
- **`health_check` + `stats` → `system_status`** — single tool returns combined health status, full statistics, FSRS preview, cognitive module health, state distribution, warnings, and recommendations
- **CLAUDE.md automation overhaul** — all 18 tools now have explicit auto-trigger rules; session start expanded to 5 steps (added `system_status` + `predict`); full proactive behaviors table
### Added
-`smart_ingest` batch mode with `items` parameter (max 20 items, full cognitive pipeline per item)
-`memory` actions: `promote` and `demote` with optional `reason` parameter
-`system_status` tool combining health check + statistics + cognitive health
- 30 new tests (305 → 335)
### Deprecated (still work via redirects)
-`ingest` → use `smart_ingest`
-`session_checkpoint` → use `smart_ingest` with `items`
-`promote_memory` → use `memory(action="promote")`