Caught by the live round-trip sweep: a dedup-key re-save (a device echo
or a client re-POSTing a bookmark it already had) carried no locator
fields, and the full-column sync update wrote zeroes — which
pgFloat8/pgInt4 turn into NULLs — erasing the stored
percentage/page/cfi on every echo. The highlight stack had string
coalescing for exactly this reason (its locatorRefresher doctrine
comment); the numeric columns and the two cloned stacks never got it.
One primitive now carries the whole doctrine: coalesce[T comparable]
(zero value -> stored value), applied at the single write point of
each LWW apply — highlight (percentages, color, note_text,
chapter_reference added to its existing string coalescing), bookmark
(page/chapter/percentage/epubcfi/chapter_reference added to its
cfi/position pair), note (all locators). The redundant pre-coalescing
in the id-targeted resolution blocks is removed — the apply is the one
coalesce point, so dedup-path and id-path edits behave identically.
Verified live on the rebuilt container: dedup re-save and legacy
3-field PUTs preserve every stored locator on all three stacks; an
explicitly-sent field still lands. Pins, H1/H3 tests, unit suites
green.
John O'Keefe
edb4e60679