fix(salience): exclude retired claims from the reflex

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -6,6 +6,14 @@ All notable changes to vouch are documented here. Format follows
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Fixed
+- the entity-salience reflex skipped the retired-claim exclusion every
+  other read surface applies, so a superseded, archived or redacted claim
+  still counted toward an entity's `claim_count` and could be handed back
+  as its `top_claim_id` — pointing an agent at redacted text the reviewer
+  had already pulled. `_meta.vouch_salience` now counts live claims only,
+  consistent with context, graph, digest, health and experts (#78).
+
 ## [1.4.0] — 2026-07-17
 
 ### Added

src/vouch/salience.py

@@ -28,12 +28,23 @@
 from typing import Any
 
 from . import index_db
+from .models import ClaimStatus
 from .storage import KBStore
 
 DEFAULT_WINDOW = 8
 DEFAULT_TOP_K = 3
 _EXPIRY_SECONDS = 30 * 60
 
+# a superseded / archived / redacted claim is not live evidence, so it must
+# neither inflate an entity's claim_count nor surface as its top_claim_id
+# (consistent with issue #78, and with the same exclusion in context, graph,
+# digest, health and experts).
+_RETIRED_CLAIM_STATUSES = frozenset({
+    ClaimStatus.SUPERSEDED,
+    ClaimStatus.ARCHIVED,
+    ClaimStatus.REDACTED,
+})
+
 
 @dataclass
 class _SessionBuffer:
@@ -141,6 +152,8 @@ def compute_salience(
     # Claims referencing each matched entity, by claim id (for stable picking).
     claims_by_entity: dict[str, list[str]] = {}
     for claim in store.list_claims():
+        if claim.status in _RETIRED_CLAIM_STATUSES:
+            continue
         for eid in claim.entities:
             if eid in scores:
                 claims_by_entity.setdefault(eid, []).append(claim.id)

tests/test_salience.py

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 import pytest
 
 from vouch import health, salience
-from vouch.models import Claim, Entity, EntityType
+from vouch.models import Claim, ClaimStatus, Entity, EntityType
 from vouch.storage import KBStore
 
 
@@ -45,6 +45,31 @@ def test_record_then_compute_highlights_entity(store: KBStore) -> None:
     assert rec["top_claim_id"] == "c1"
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "status",
+    [ClaimStatus.SUPERSEDED, ClaimStatus.ARCHIVED, ClaimStatus.REDACTED],
+)
+def test_retired_claims_are_not_salient(store: KBStore, status: ClaimStatus) -> None:
+    # a retired claim is not live evidence: it must neither inflate claim_count
+    # nor surface as top_claim_id. "c0" sorts before the live "c1", so a
+    # retired claim that is still counted wins the top slot.
+    src = store.put_source(b"auth notes")
+    store.put_claim(
+        Claim(
+            id="c0",
+            text="auth used basic auth",
+            evidence=[src.id],
+            entities=["jwt"],
+            status=status,
+        )
+    )
+    for _ in range(3):
+        salience.record_query("sess-1", "jwt")
+    rec = salience.compute_salience(store, "sess-1")[0]
+    assert rec["claim_count"] == 1
+    assert rec["top_claim_id"] == "c1"
+
+
 def test_attach_adds_meta_when_enabled(store: KBStore) -> None:
     for _ in range(3):
         salience.record_query("sess-1", "jwt")