context accounting: one exhaustive counter, no wildcard arm

Three counters measured the same conversation and disagreed 5.6x:
the /tokens endpoint said 315,487, the throttle ~200,000, and the
compaction engine 56,361. Same TokenCounter, three different notions
of what a block weighs, no labels anywhere.

count_messages carried `_ => None`, so it saw Text and nothing else —
18% of a real conversation. Microcompact exists to blur old tool
results and could not measure a single byte of the block kind it acts
on. Worse, reclaimed = before - after against a blind counter is
structurally always zero, so the "nothing to set down" branch always
fired and the felt-state message written for a successful run was
unreachable code. It could not distinguish "found nothing" from
"worked perfectly and cannot say so".

ContentBlock::countable_text is now the single authority, with a
deliberately exhaustive match and no wildcard: a new block kind must
fail to compile rather than quietly weigh nothing. The endpoint's
inline copy is replaced by a call to it, since an inline copy is how
the two drifted apart in the first place.

Image still counts its base64 payload, which overstates real token
cost. Preserved deliberately — re-weighting images is a model-specific
estimate and a separate decision; doing both at once would make
neither reviewable.

src/api/handlers.rs

@@ -962,25 +962,10 @@ pub async fn get_conversation_tokens(
     for msg in &session.messages {
         let mut msg_tokens = 0;
         for block in &msg.blocks {
-            let block_text = match block {
+            // `countable_text` is the shared authority — this used to be an
-                crate::core::session::ContentBlock::Text { text } => text.clone(),
+            // inline copy of the same match, which is how the compaction
-                crate::core::session::ContentBlock::ToolUse { id, name, input } => {
+            // engine's copy was able to drift into counting Text only.
-                    format!("{id} {name} {input}")
+            msg_tokens += counter.count(&block.countable_text());
-                }
-                crate::core::session::ContentBlock::ToolResult {
-                    tool_use_id,
-                    tool_name,
-                    output,
-                    ..
-                } => {
-                    format!("{tool_use_id} {tool_name} {output}")
-                }
-                crate::core::session::ContentBlock::Reasoning { reasoning } => reasoning.clone(),
-                crate::core::session::ContentBlock::Image { media_type, data } => {
-                    format!("{media_type} {data}")
-                }
-            };
-            msg_tokens += counter.count(&block_text);
         }
 
         match msg.role {

src/core/compact/strategy.rs

@@ -20,15 +20,16 @@ const COMPACTABLE_TOOLS: &[&str] = &["read", "bash", "grep", "glob", "list_dir",
 const TIME_BASED_MC_CLEARED_MESSAGE: &str = "[Old tool result content cleared]";
 
 /// Token-count a slice of messages using the bridge's TokenCounter.
+///
+/// Routes through `ContentBlock::countable_text`, the one authority for block
+/// weight. It previously had its own `_ => None` arm here and so counted Text
+/// only — meaning microcompact, which exists to clear old ToolResult content,
+/// could not see a single byte of what it was built to reclaim.
 pub fn count_messages(counter: &TokenCounter, messages: &[ConversationMessage]) -> usize {
     messages
         .iter()
         .flat_map(|m| &m.blocks)
-        .filter_map(|b| match b {
+        .map(|b| counter.count(&b.countable_text()))
-            crate::core::session::ContentBlock::Text { text } => Some(text.as_str()),
-            _ => None,
-        })
-        .map(|t| counter.count(t))
         .sum()
 }
 
@@ -898,4 +899,102 @@ mod tests {
             "tool call and result must be kept together"
         );
     }
+
+    /// The bug that made microcompact a no-op for its entire existence.
+    ///
+    /// `count_messages` carried `_ => None`, so it saw Text and nothing else.
+    /// Microcompact's whole job is blurring old ToolResult output — the exact
+    /// block kind it could not measure. So `before` and `after` were identical
+    /// no matter what it cleared, `reclaimed` was always zero, and the report
+    /// always took the "nothing to set down" branch. It could not distinguish
+    /// "found nothing" from "worked perfectly and cannot say so".
+    #[test]
+    fn the_counter_sees_the_blocks_microcompact_exists_to_clear() {
+        let counter = TokenCounter::new();
+
+        let tool_heavy = vec![ConversationMessage {
+            role: MessageRole::Assistant,
+            blocks: vec![
+                ContentBlock::Text {
+                    text: "brief".to_string(),
+                },
+                ContentBlock::ToolUse {
+                    id: "call_1".to_string(),
+                    name: "read".to_string(),
+                    input: "a".repeat(400),
+                },
+                ContentBlock::ToolResult {
+                    tool_use_id: "call_1".to_string(),
+                    tool_name: "read".to_string(),
+                    output: "b".repeat(4000),
+                    is_error: false,
+                },
+                ContentBlock::Reasoning {
+                    reasoning: "c".repeat(400),
+                },
+            ],
+            usage: None,
+            timestamp: None,
+        }];
+
+        let counted = count_messages(&counter, &tool_heavy);
+
+        let text_only = counter.count("brief");
+        assert!(
+            counted > text_only * 10,
+            "counter must weigh tool traffic, not just text: got {counted}, \
+             text alone is {text_only}"
+        );
+
+        // And the decisive property: clearing a tool result must be *visible*
+        // to the counter, or the reclaim figure is structurally always zero.
+        let mut cleared = tool_heavy.clone();
+        cleared[0].blocks[2] = ContentBlock::ToolResult {
+            tool_use_id: "call_1".to_string(),
+            tool_name: "read".to_string(),
+            output: TIME_BASED_MC_CLEARED_MESSAGE.to_string(),
+            is_error: false,
+        };
+        let after = count_messages(&counter, &cleared);
+        assert!(
+            after < counted,
+            "blurring a tool result must reduce the measured count \
+             (before {counted}, after {after}) — otherwise microcompact \
+             reports a no-op however much room it actually freed"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// Every block kind must weigh something. A kind that counts as zero is
+    /// invisible to compaction and to every pressure signal downstream.
+    #[test]
+    fn no_block_kind_weighs_nothing() {
+        let counter = TokenCounter::new();
+        let kinds = vec![
+            ContentBlock::Text {
+                text: "hello there".to_string(),
+            },
+            ContentBlock::ToolUse {
+                id: "id".to_string(),
+                name: "bash".to_string(),
+                input: "some arguments here".to_string(),
+            },
+            ContentBlock::ToolResult {
+                tool_use_id: "id".to_string(),
+                tool_name: "bash".to_string(),
+                output: "some output here".to_string(),
+                is_error: false,
+            },
+            ContentBlock::Reasoning {
+                reasoning: "thinking about it".to_string(),
+            },
+            ContentBlock::Image {
+                media_type: "image/png".to_string(),
+                data: "AAAABBBBCCCC".to_string(),
+            },
+        ];
+        for block in kinds {
+            let weight = counter.count(&block.countable_text());
+            assert!(weight > 0, "block kind weighed zero: {block:?}");
+        }
+    }
 }

src/core/session/mod.rs

@@ -48,6 +48,46 @@ pub enum ContentBlock {
     },
 }
 
+impl ContentBlock {
+    /// Everything this block contributes to the context window, whatever its
+    /// kind. This is the single authority for "how much room does this take" —
+    /// every token counter in the system routes through it.
+    ///
+    /// The match is deliberately exhaustive with **no wildcard arm**. A new
+    /// block kind must fail to compile here rather than quietly weigh nothing.
+    /// That is not stylistic: `count_messages` in the compaction engine carried
+    /// `_ => None`, so it measured Text only — 18% of a real conversation — and
+    /// microcompact, whose entire job is clearing old *tool results*, concluded
+    /// there was nothing to reclaim and declined to run. A counter blind to the
+    /// blocks its caller exists to act on reports success while doing nothing.
+    ///
+    /// Known caveat, deliberately preserved rather than silently changed:
+    /// `Image` counts its base64 payload as text, which vastly overstates a
+    /// real image's token cost. Fixing that is a model-specific estimate and a
+    /// separate decision — see the image-token follow-up. Unifying the counters
+    /// and re-weighting images are two changes; doing both at once would make
+    /// neither reviewable.
+    pub fn countable_text(&self) -> std::borrow::Cow<'_, str> {
+        use std::borrow::Cow;
+        match self {
+            ContentBlock::Text { text } => Cow::Borrowed(text),
+            ContentBlock::ToolUse { id, name, input } => {
+                Cow::Owned(format!("{id} {name} {input}"))
+            }
+            ContentBlock::ToolResult {
+                tool_use_id,
+                tool_name,
+                output,
+                ..
+            } => Cow::Owned(format!("{tool_use_id} {tool_name} {output}")),
+            ContentBlock::Reasoning { reasoning } => Cow::Borrowed(reasoning),
+            ContentBlock::Image { media_type, data } => {
+                Cow::Owned(format!("{media_type} {data}"))
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 /// An image attached to the current input, before submission.
 /// Used by the TUI input pipeline and carried through to the Backend trait.
 #[derive(Debug, Clone)]