[frandallfarmer]

Supersedes #702, which is included here as the first commit — the two changes touch the same lines and are the same subject: where paper goes when the Oracle is done with it.

1. Blank paper goes on the ground, not in a pocket (your rule)

-  return bot.send({ op: 'PUT', to: ref, containerNoid: me.noid, x: 0, y: DISCARD_SLOT, orientation: 0 })
+  return bot.send({ op: 'PUT', to: ref, containerNoid: THE_REGION })

Paper.PUT defaults containerNoid to THE_REGION (Constants.java:272) and x/y/orientation to the avatar's own, so this drops the sheet at the bot's feet, where the region recycles it. A pocket would keep it, and a bot that accumulates paper runs out of slots.

2. Never blank a letter — it deletes a body other sheets still point at

Elko's trace, 2026-09-30:

17:05:00.922  Showing written Paper paper-i-2495581085713971936-…      ← read OK
17:05:01.998  Avatar Oracle requested clearing of contents for Paper …  ← body DELETED
17:05:02.500  PUT success for Paper text-emptypaper: true               ← that sheet destroyed ✓
17:05:03.006  Advanced Mail slot … to paper-i-2495581085713971936-…     ← new sheet → deleted body

Letter bodies are shared: Paper.sendMailToUser reuses the sender's text_path for the queued record (Paper.java:657), and Avatar.advance_mail_slot points the next MAIL_SLOT sheet at that same path (Avatar.java:1990). Paper.WRITE's clear calls deletePaperContents(), deleting the body document — so blanking one sheet destroys content other sheets and queued records reference. Three sheets carried that one body in the trace.

The handed-over letter is then unreadable from birth. clearHands can't deliver it and correctly refuses to destroy an unread letter, so it stays in the hands — and a full hand blocks every Paper.GET, killing mail in both directions. That is what left husks in the Oracle's hands in September and again on Sept 30.

putDownHeldPaper puts a sheet down exactly as it is. Paper.PUT only destroys when is_blank(), so a letter survives intact and the hands come free. special_get already spawned the replacement in MAIL_SLOT.

• drainMailSlot — after reading a letter: put down, no blanking
• oracle.js — after relaying a recovered letter: put down, no blanking
• discardHeldPaper — unchanged, now documented as our own drafts only: we created those bodies, so blanking them is safe

A human rarely blanks a letter they received, which is why this went unnoticed; the bot did it to every letter it read.

npm test — 58 pass, including new tests that a blanked sheet goes to THE_REGION with no pocket slot, and that a letter read from the mail slot is not blanked.

What this does not fix

Read letters now accumulate on the floor of context-oraclehome, one per inbound mail, because the region only recycles blank paper. The real fix is server-side — don't delete a body another sheet or queued record still references, or copy the body on delivery rather than sharing it. That's elko, so it needs your sign-off.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01PP6PsCtYXunah4Y9vczMJb