fix(mission-control): headerless journal blocks corrupt the previous entry and missing dates fabricate "now"

[adolfousier]

The Activity panel showed a 12-day hole with two entries stamped "10s ago". Neither is true: the entries exist in ~/.opencrabs/rsi/improvements.md with correct dates, and the parser misreads them.

Mechanism

src/brain/mission_control/activity_service.rs only opens a new draft on a ## line, and applies any field line to whatever draft is currently open:

if let Some(rest) = line.strip_prefix("## ") {
    ...
    current = Some(EntryDraft::from_header(rest));
} else if let Some(draft) = current.as_mut() {
    apply_field_line(line, draft);   // no guard: applies to the PREVIOUS entry
}

Two compounding defects:

1. apply_field_line overwrites unconditionally, and a parse failure wipes a good value:

   draft.date = parse_date(rest.trim());   // returns None on an unparseable string

2. finish() invents a timestamp when none survived:

   let date = self.date.unwrap_or_else(Utc::now);

Evidence

Two non-conforming blocks in a 722-entry journal.

A headerless block (opens with ---, not ## ). Having never opened a draft, all four of its fields land on the preceding entry:

## [Updated] Add rule about accepting user-confirmed data
**Date:** 2026-07-17 12:16 UTC
**Status:** Updated (surgical replace)

---

**Date:** 2026-07-18 (RSI cycle)
**Target:** SOUL.md
**Status:** Applied

2026-07-18 (RSI cycle) fails %Y-%m-%d %H:%M, so parse_date returns None and destroys the good 2026-07-17 date. The later entry is swallowed whole, and the earlier one renders with the wrong rationale under a fabricated timestamp.

A config-sync block with the date in the header and no **Date:** field:

## 2026-07-26 23:33 UTC - config.toml config sync

Date falls back to now; the title becomes the raw date string, which is what the panel displays.

Blast radius: 1 unparseable date, 2 headers without the [Status] prefix, 721 **Date:** lines for 722 headers.

Fix

The parser is one half; the journal having three writers emitting three shapes is the other.

• Do not let a field line mutate a draft it does not belong to. A **Date:** arriving when the current draft already has one signals a headerless block: flush and start a new draft rather than overwrite.
• Never overwrite a parsed value with a parse failure.
• Drop the Utc::now() fallback. An entry with no date should sort and render as undated, not as this instant. Inventing a timestamp is what made a 9-day-old entry look like it happened during the render.
• Accept the date-in-header shape so config-sync entries carry their real time.

Impact

• Activity feed shows fabricated "seconds ago" timestamps for entries days or weeks old
• One journal entry is lost entirely and its fields corrupt a neighbour
• The apparent gap made a working RSI loop look dead for 12 days

[adolfousier]

Fixed in 5562d6b5.

Parser

• A repeated **Date:** inside one draft now flushes and starts a new entry. That is the only available signal for a block the journal wrote without a ## header, separated by a bare ---.
• A failed date parse no longer overwrites a parsed one. Assigning that None is what erased the neighbour's correct timestamp.
• A date carried in the header is read, so the config-sync shape keeps its real time and stops rendering the date as its title.

Type
McActivity.timestamp is now Option<DateTime<Utc>>. The Utc::now() fallback is gone: an entry with no parseable date renders as undated in the panel, the detail popup and the report. Borrowing the render instant is what displayed weeks-old entries as seconds old and manufactured the apparent 12-day gap.

Tests
src/tests/mission_control_activity_malformed_test.rs reproduces both real shapes with synthetic content:

• the headerless block becomes its own entry, and its neighbour keeps its own date, target and rationale
• an unparseable date leaves the entry undated, never "now"
• a header date is read and stripped from the title, across each separator the journal uses
• a well-formed run of entries parses exactly as before, so the new boundary rule does not disturb the normal path

The existing missing_date_does_not_drop_entry asserted the now-fallback and was updated to assert None, since that behaviour was the defect.

cargo clippy --all-features --lib --bins --tests -- -D warnings clean, 5646 tests pass.