Organic book quality:
- write_chapter: strip key_events spoilers from character context so the writer
doesn't know planned future events when writing early chapters
- write_chapter: added next_chapter_hint — seeds anticipation for the next scene
in the final paragraphs of each chapter for natural story flow
- write_chapter: added DIALOGUE VOICE instruction referencing CHARACTER TRACKING
speech styles so every character sounds distinctly different
- Lowered SCORE_AUTO_ACCEPT 9→8 to stop over-refining already-professional drafts
Speed improvements:
- check_pacing: reduced from every chapter to every other chapter (~50% fewer calls)
- refine_persona: reduced from every 3 to every 5 chapters (~40% fewer calls)
- Resume summary rebuild: uses first + last-4 chapters instead of all chapters
to avoid massive prompts when resuming mid-book
- Summary context sent to writer capped at 8000 chars (most-recent events)
- update_tracking text cap lowered 500000→20000 (covers any realistic chapter)
Logging and progress bars:
- Progress bar updates at chapter START, not just after completion
- Chapter banner logged before each write so the log shows which chapter is active
- Word count logged after first draft (e.g. "Draft: 2,341 words (target: ~2200)")
- Word count added to chapter completion TIMING line
- Pacing check now logs "Pacing OK" with reason when no intervention needed
- utils: added log_banner() helper for phase separator lines
UI:
- run_details.html: log lines are now phase-coloured (WRITER=cyan, ARCHITECT=green,
TIMING=gray, SYSTEM=yellow, TRACKER=purple, RESUME=orange, etc.)
- Status bar shows current active phase (e.g. "Status: Running — WRITER")
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Model selection (ai.py):
- get_optimal_model() now scores Gemini 2.5 > 2.0 > 1.5 when ranking candidates
- get_default_models() fallbacks updated to gemini-2.0-pro-exp (logic) and gemini-2.0-flash (writer/artist)
- AI selection prompt rewritten: includes Gemini 2.x pricing context, guidance to avoid 'thinking' models for writer/artist roles, and instructions to prefer 2.x over 1.5
- Added image_model_name and image_model_source globals for UI visibility
- init_models() now reads MODEL_IMAGE_HINT; tries imagen-3.0-generate-001 then imagen-3.0-fast-generate-001 on both Gemini API and Vertex AI paths
Cover generation (marketing.py):
- Fixed display bug: "Attempt X/5" now correctly reads "Attempt X/3"
- Added imagen-3.0-fast-generate-001 as intermediate fallback before legacy Imagen 2
- Quality threshold: images with score < 5 are only kept if nothing better exists
- Smarter prompt refinement on retry: deformity, blur, and watermark critique keywords each append targeted corrections to the art prompt
- Fixed missing sys import (sys.platform check for macOS was silently broken)
Config / Docker:
- config.py: added MODEL_IMAGE_HINT env var, bumped version to 1.2.0
- docker-compose.yml: added MODEL_IMAGE environment variable
- Dockerfile: added libpng-dev and libfreetype6-dev for better font/PNG rendering; added HEALTHCHECK so Portainer detects unhealthy containers
System status UI:
- system_status.html: added Image row showing active Imagen model and provider (Gemini API / Vertex AI)
- Added cache expiry countdown with colour-coded badges
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
