ingestion/internal/mcp/tools_notes.go

@@ -344,7 +344,9 @@ func frontmatterScalars(doc string) map[string]string {
 	if !ok {
 		return out
 	}
-	for _, line := range strings.Split(block, "\n") {
+	lines := strings.Split(block, "\n")
+	for i := 0; i < len(lines); i++ {
+		line := lines[i]
 		if line != "" && (line[0] == ' ' || line[0] == '\t') {
 			continue
 		}
@@ -352,7 +354,31 @@ func frontmatterScalars(doc string) map[string]string {
 		if !ok {
 			continue
 		}
-		out[strings.TrimSpace(key)] = strings.TrimSpace(val)
+		val = strings.TrimSpace(val)
+		if val == "" {
+			// Round 6: a colon with nothing after it is ambiguous — it can
+			// be a genuinely empty/omitted value, or the start of a YAML
+			// block scalar whose real value lives on the indented
+			// continuation line(s) that follow (e.g. "half_life:\n
+			// durable"). Treating the latter as absent let an edit smuggle
+			// an invalid value straight past ValidateEnvelope: the field
+			// read as unset while the disk actually carried a value. Fold
+			// the continuation in as a best-effort join so oneOf() still
+			// sees it. A genuinely empty value (no indented line follows)
+			// still folds to "", preserving present()'s existing
+			// placeholder-not-assertion contract.
+			var cont []string
+			for i+1 < len(lines) {
+				next := lines[i+1]
+				if next == "" || (next[0] != ' ' && next[0] != '\t') {
+					break
+				}
+				cont = append(cont, strings.TrimSpace(next))
+				i++
+			}
+			val = strings.Join(cont, " ")
+		}
+		out[strings.TrimSpace(key)] = val
 	}
 	return out
 }

ingestion/internal/mcp/tools_notes_test.go

@@ -249,6 +249,38 @@ func TestBrainEdit_RejectsAnInvalidEnvelopeOnABOMPrefixedNote(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Contains(t, string(got), "claim_provenance: asserted", "rejected edit must leave the note byte-identical")
 }
 
+func TestBrainEdit_RejectsAFoldedScalarThatHidesAnInvalidValue(t *testing.T) {
+	// Found in round-6 review: a different mechanism from the encoding
+	// family (rounds 1-6 were all about fence detection; this is the field
+	// extractor). old_str="half_life: durable", new_str="half_life:\n
+	// garbage-value" turns the field into a YAML block-scalar shape: the
+	// top-level line is now "half_life:" with an empty inline value, and
+	// the real value lives on the indented continuation line that follows.
+	// frontmatterScalars's indentation guard skips that continuation line
+	// outright, so the field reads as present-with-empty-value —
+	// present()'s own contract then treats that as absent (a placeholder,
+	// not an assertion) — and claim.ValidateEnvelope never sees the
+	// invalid value at all. No encoding quirk needed: one ordinary
+	// brain_edit call smuggles an out-of-enum value straight past the
+	// check the field was supposed to be validated by.
+	dir := newBrainRepo(t)
+	note := filepath.Join(dir, "wiki/homelab/facts/n.md")
+	require.NoError(t, os.WriteFile(note,
+		[]byte("---\ntitle: 'n'\nhalf_life: durable\napplies: universal\nclaim_provenance: asserted\n---\n\nbody\n"), 0o644))
+	srv := mcp.NewServer(dir, nil, nil, nil)
+
+	resp := call(t, srv, "brain_edit", map[string]any{
+		"path":    "wiki/homelab/facts/n.md",
+		"old_str": "half_life: durable",
+		"new_str": "half_life:\n  garbage-value",
+	})
+	require.Contains(t, resp, "error", "%v", resp)
+
+	got, err := os.ReadFile(note)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.Contains(t, string(got), "half_life: durable", "rejected edit must leave the note byte-identical")
+}
+
 func TestBrainEdit_AllowsAValidClaimEnvelopeEdit(t *testing.T) {
 	dir := newBrainRepo(t)
 	note := filepath.Join(dir, "wiki/homelab/facts/n.md")