feat: grow new accounts by commenting on active threads

A new Reddit account cannot start chats until Reddit considers it
established, and nothing in the app previously did anything about that.
Account growth posts a small number of AI-written comments per day on
active threads in an operator-chosen list of communities, per account,
so the history that lifts the hold actually accumulates.

Growth is account-scoped rather than part of the shared outreach funnel:
karma, comment history and pacing all belong to one identity. It runs as
the lowest-priority work in the account runtime, after inbound replies,
and deliberately keeps running while an account is held out of outbound
messaging.

Comments publish without operator review, so the guards are the feature:

- Both screening stages fail closed. A deterministic gate rejects links,
  contact solicitation, user tags, filler and any text that reveals the
  generator; the classifier must actively approve with confidence, and
  an outage stalls growth rather than publishing unreviewed text.
- Thread text reaches the model only as fenced untrusted data, since
  Reddit posts do contain instructions aimed at automated readers.
- The daily allowance is adaptive, not configured: it starts at two per
  day and rises only while comments survive and earn upvotes.
- Posted comments are swept at ~15m/2h/24h with one batched info.json
  request, plus a single signed-out probe that detects a comment the
  public cannot see. Two consecutive removals, an invisible comment, or
  a captcha challenge pauses the account until an operator clears it. A
  failed probe never pauses anything.
- One comment per thread across every owned account, enforced by a
  unique index, because two of our accounts on one post is the easiest
  pattern to correlate.
- A comment interrupted mid-post is abandoned, never retried: we cannot
  know whether the write landed and a duplicate cannot be withdrawn.
- Reddit's refusals are authoritative — a ban disables that community
  for that account, a throttle backs off at the scope Reddit named, and
  a signed-out response invalidates the session.

Comments are submitted through the account's own browser session against
the old.reddit form endpoint, which returns machine-readable error codes
and needs no credentials beyond the cookies already imported.

API-first: /api/growth exposes state, settings, the community list and
pause/resume, all verified against a local instance. Route responses are
parsed with the shared contracts in tests so the server-side mirror
cannot drift from what the dashboard expects.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

docs/api.md

@@ -105,6 +105,14 @@ an administrator credential.
 | `GET` | `/api/analytics/ai-usage` | Get OpenRouter cost and model reliability | read | no |
 | `GET` | `/api/attention` | Get operator attention items | read | no |
 | `GET` | `/api/outreach` | Get active outreach candidates and funnel stages | read | no |
+| `GET` | `/api/growth` | Get per-account comment growth state | read | no |
+| `GET` | `/api/growth/{accountId}` | Get one account's growth settings, communities and comment history | read | no |
+| `PATCH` | `/api/growth/{accountId}` | Enable, disable or re-pace comment growth for an account | admin | yes |
+| `POST` | `/api/growth/{accountId}/pause` | Stop an account from posting further comments | control | yes |
+| `POST` | `/api/growth/{accountId}/resume` | Clear a growth pause after reviewing the cause | admin | yes |
+| `POST` | `/api/growth/{accountId}/subreddits` | Add a community to an account's growth list | admin | yes |
+| `PATCH` | `/api/growth/{accountId}/subreddits/{subreddit}` | Change a growth community's weight, cap or enabled state | admin | yes |
+| `DELETE` | `/api/growth/{accountId}/subreddits/{subreddit}` | Remove a community from an account's growth list | admin | yes |
 | `GET` | `/api/config` | Get non-secret application configuration | read | no |
 | `PUT` | `/api/config` | Update application configuration | admin | yes |
 | `GET` | `/api/push-notifications` | Get push notification settings | read | no |

docs/architecture.md

@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ SIGINT/SIGTERM abort shared loops, stop account runtimes, stop the web server, c
 - verified Reddit and Matrix identity;
 - persistent Playwright browser profile;
 - posts, messages, outcomes, activity, outbox, and conversation state repositories;
+- growth settings, community list, comment history, and adaptive comment allowance;
 - Matrix chat cache and sync cursor;
 - media index and files;
 - rate limiter and invitation cooldown;
@@ -135,6 +136,7 @@ docs/                          Maintainer and agent documentation
 - New persisted state: add an append-only migration, expose it through a small repository, and test fresh plus upgraded databases.
 - Shared operator media: keep it under `MediaLibraryService`/`MediaLibraryRepository`; never merge it with account-owned received media.
 - New account behavior: place it in the account runtime or a service injected into it; do not add mutable cross-account identity to a singleton.
+- New account-growth behavior: keep it account-scoped and lowest-priority, fail closed before anything is published, and make every outcome visible in the growth audit trail.
 - New candidate stage: make transitions durable and idempotent, expose counts/reasons, and define lease/retry behavior.
 - New dashboard feature: add a feature slice and route, use shared schemas and query keys, and treat HTTP as authoritative.
 

docs/configuration.md

@@ -54,6 +54,8 @@ Subreddit `type` is `image` or `chat`. Conversation policy contains `mode`, `max
 
 Contains image/chat primary and fallback models plus the analysis, message, and chat-opener prompt templates. The API key is environment-only. Model fallback and prompt changes affect cost, behavior, and experiment attribution and need focused tests plus operator-visible metadata.
 
+`growthCommentPrompt` is the template the account grower uses to write a public comment on someone else's thread. It supports `{subreddit}`, `{title}`, `{selftext}`, and `{flair}`. The thread is appended separately as fenced untrusted data and the deterministic safety gate runs on the result regardless of prompt wording, so editing this template changes tone, not the safety boundary.
+
 ### `rateLimit`
 
 - `minDelayBetweenMessagesMs`;
@@ -91,6 +93,12 @@ Each has exploration rate, minimum mature samples, response window, and weighted
 
 Controls enabled state, port, optional tokens after environment injection, and dangerous debug endpoint enablement. Production secrets should never live in YAML.
 
+### Account growth
+
+Growth is configured per account through `/api/growth`, not through `config.yaml` or `app_config`, because the community list, allowance, and pause state belong to one Reddit identity. The stores are `account_growth_settings` and `account_growth_subreddits`; see `docs/database.md`.
+
+Operator-settable per account: enabled, minimum spacing, jitter, quiet hours, NSFW opt-in, the community list with per-community weight and daily cap, and pause/resume. The daily allowance itself is **not** operator-settable — it is derived from an adaptive trust level that the verification sweep maintains. `browser.dryRun` also suppresses growth posting.
+
 ## Runtime-editable subset
 
 The dashboard/API exposes a deliberate subset: rate limits, dry-run, recency and ready-funnel limits, subreddit definitions/conversation behavior, and selected advanced configuration. Shared transport schemas live in `packages/api-contracts/src/config.ts`; the backend source schema is still the final validator.

docs/database.md

@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@ The application uses one `better-sqlite3` database, normally `data/reddit-bot.db
 - `reddit_media`: account-scoped private-media metadata and relative file path.
 - `media_library_assets`: process-global operator-owned image metadata, overlapping anatomy tags, SFW/NSFW classification, consent time, enablement, dimensions, hash, and private relative path.
 - `media_library_sends`: account/conversation/inbound-event reservation and confirmed/failed Matrix delivery audit for a shared library asset.
+- `account_growth_settings`: per-account commenting switch, adaptive trust level, spacing/jitter, quiet hours, NSFW opt-in, and the operator-clearable pause reason.
+- `account_growth_subreddits`: per-account community list with weight, daily cap, and any Reddit-imposed disable reason or cooldown.
+- `account_growth_comments`: durable growth comment records from discovery through posting and verification, including the exact text posted, score history, removal and public-visibility verdicts.
 
 The special legacy-unassigned account exists only to preserve rows created before account ownership was introduced. New runtime data must use a verified account ID.
 
@@ -55,6 +58,9 @@ The special legacy-unassigned account exists only to preserve rows created befor
 7. Private media paths in SQLite are relative to the persistent data root; HTTP access remains authenticated.
 8. Received `reddit_media` and operator `media_library_assets` are separate ownership domains; no automatic copy or promotion exists. Received-media identity represents the account-scoped Matrix message occurrence, so repeated use of one remote asset can produce multiple gallery rows that safely share the same private relative file path.
 9. A library image content hash has at most one reservation per account conversation, even if the same file is later re-uploaded under a new asset ID; an inbound request also has at most one selected asset. Failed or uncertain attempts remain reserved to prevent duplicates.
+11. Exactly one account may comment on a given thread. `account_growth_comments` enforces this with a unique index on `post_id` across all accounts, because two owned accounts commenting on the same post is the easiest pattern for Reddit to correlate.
+12. A growth comment interrupted while posting is rejected, never retried. The process cannot know whether the write reached Reddit, and a duplicate comment cannot be withdrawn.
+
 10. Recipient account status changes only after a definitive Reddit profile response. Transient lookup failures retain the previous value, and the shared check timestamp prevents duplicate lookups across account runtimes during the four-hour interval.
 
 ## Repository map

docs/frontend.md

@@ -19,10 +19,13 @@ Shared HTTP/SSE schemas live in `packages/api-contracts`. The server and client
 | `/media-library` | Upload, classify, correct, enable, preview, and delete shared exchange images. |
 | `/performance` | Mature outcome trends, strategy/subreddit results, and model usage. |
 | `/operations` | Background jobs, sync state, events, rate limits, and technical logs. |
+| `/growth` | Per-account comment growth: switch, communities with daily caps, adaptive allowance, and the posted-comment audit trail. |
 | `/settings` | Validated runtime configuration and account/session management. |
 
 Navigation is declared in `app/navigation.ts`; route elements are composed in `app/router.tsx`.
 
+The account-growth page states plainly that comments are AI-written and posted without review, shows the adaptive allowance and trust level rather than a settable rate, and surfaces every posted comment's exact text alongside its score and removal state. A paused account replaces the pause control with a resume control and explains why it stopped, because resuming is the one action that can compound the damage.
+
 The Monitoring settings section owns the optional physique-targeting toggle and inclusive 1–10 range. It explains that the signal is subjective, applies only to image posts, and screens out unscorable images while enabled.
 
 Prepared cards in the authenticated outreach funnel expose the exact opener, grounded image analysis, attractiveness and physique scores, current target range, detected gender, strategy/tone/model metadata, and original source image. The live range is returned through the existing preparation field so cached dashboard bundles remain compatible during a rolling deployment. The durable queue still owns the historical preparation snapshot used for reconciliation. The source image uses the shared `OriginPostCard` privacy behavior: blurred initially, first click reveals it, and a later click opens the full-screen preview. Candidates from older persisted snapshots degrade cleanly when newer optional metadata is absent.

docs/product-and-safety.md

@@ -53,6 +53,22 @@ Two of those stops are terminal rather than handoffs. A reply that pushes the co
 
 Optional second-stage AI screening (`conversations.aiReplyScreening`) runs only when the deterministic rules come up clean, classifies the inbound side of the conversation as genuine, seller, off-platform, scam, bot, or unclear, and kills at or above `killConfidence` while handing off at or above `flagConfidence`. It fails open: a classifier error or outage never blocks a reply, and each inbound event is screened at most once per process. Short refusals are interpreted in sequence: phrases such as “I’m good” become media boundaries only when they answer a media request.
 
+## Account growth policy
+
+A new Reddit account cannot start chats until Reddit considers it established. Account growth addresses that by posting a small number of AI-written comments on active threads in an operator-chosen list of communities, per account.
+
+This is inauthentic account activity under Reddit's content policy, and many subreddits prohibit it independently. The realistic failure mode is not a warning but silent filtering, followed by a ban that would also destroy the established accounts alongside it. The controls therefore exist to keep volume low and to detect suppression early, not merely to satisfy a prompt:
+
+- Disabled by default, per account, and never inferred from any other setting.
+- Comments post without operator review, so both screening stages fail closed. The deterministic gate rejects links, contact solicitation, user tags, low-effort filler, and any text that reveals the generator or narrates the task. The second-stage classifier must actively approve with sufficient confidence; an outage stalls growth rather than publishing unreviewed text.
+- Thread text is attacker-controlled and is passed to the model only as fenced untrusted data. Reddit posts do contain text aimed at automated readers.
+- The daily allowance is adaptive, not configured: it starts at two comments per day and only rises while comments demonstrably survive and earn upvotes. A removal or a heavily downvoted comment lowers it immediately.
+- Two consecutive removals, a comment invisible to signed-out visitors, or a captcha challenge pauses the account until an operator clears it. A failed visibility probe proves nothing and never pauses anything.
+- One comment per thread across every owned account, a per-community daily cap, quiet hours, and jittered spacing.
+- Reddit's own refusals are authoritative: a community ban disables that community for that account, a throttle backs off at the scope Reddit named, and a signed-out response invalidates the session rather than being retried.
+- Growth deliberately continues while an account is held out of outbound messaging, because building the history is what lifts that hold. It is always the lowest-priority work an account performs, after inbound replies.
+- Dry run prepares and records a comment but never posts it. Every posted comment, and every comment refused by either gate, is kept with its reason in the growth audit trail.
+
 ## Operator exchange media
 
 The exchange library contains only operator-uploaded images. Upload requires confirmation that every depicted adult consented to storage and bot delivery. Received conversation media is account-owned evidence and can never be promoted into this shared library.

docs/services.md

@@ -29,6 +29,21 @@ This is an ownership map, not an API dump. Read the owning implementation and te
 | `utils/rate-limiter.ts` | Per-account send spacing/hour limits/jitter | Increment only for confirmed sends; reply priority may use the same limiter. |
 | `database/candidate-queue-repository.ts` | Durable candidate state machine, leases, retries, counts | Mutations require the expected worker lease; recover expired/interrupted work. |
 
+## Account growth
+
+Comment-based growth exists so a new account accumulates the age/karma history Reddit requires before it will accept chat invitations. It is account-scoped rather than part of the shared outreach funnel, it is the lowest-priority work an account runtime performs, and it deliberately keeps running while the account is held out of outbound messaging — building that history is what lifts the hold.
+
+| Module | Owns | Important constraints |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| `services/account-growth.ts` | Per-account discovery, generation, posting, verification, and trust updates | Auto-posts without operator review, so both screening stages fail closed; an interrupted post is never retried. |
+| `services/growth-pacer.ts` | Adaptive allowance ladder, promote/demote/pause decisions, quiet hours, spacing | Pure and clock-injected. Pause beats demote beats promote; jitter is derived from the previous post so the gate cannot flap. |
+| `services/growth-thread-screening.ts` | Pure thread eligibility (age window, comment count, locked/stickied/NSFW) | A comment on a dead or saturated thread wastes a scarce daily allowance. |
+| `services/growth-comment-safety.ts` | Deterministic pre-publication gate on generated comment text | Rejects links, contact solicitation, user tags, filler, and any text revealing the generator. Independent of prompt wording. |
+| `reddit/comment-client.ts` | Comment submission and comment-state lookups for one account | Classifies Reddit's error codes into retry/abandon/disable/re-auth/stop; runs inside the account's own browser session and shares the request coordinator. |
+| `database/growth-repository.ts` | Growth settings, per-account community list, durable comment records | One comment per thread across every account; mutations require the expected worker lease. |
+
+Verification is the safety mechanism that matters most. Posted comments are swept at roughly 15 minutes, 2 hours, and 24 hours using one batched `info.json` request, and a single signed-out probe on the second sweep decides whether the comment is publicly visible at all. Two consecutive removals, or one invisible comment, hard-pauses the account until an operator clears it; a failed probe never pauses anything.
+
 ## Conversation, chat, and media
 
 | Module | Owns | Important constraints |