The thief-chase serves the blow, not the nearness

An automaton beside the wizard carrying its gold shuttled on and off
their square until every move was spent — the chase goal flipped
between "the thief's cell" and "the gold" with each step, because it
keyed on whether the thief stood underfoot. The chase now claims the
march only while the blow it exists to deliver is still live (an
attack in hand, the turn's attack unspent, casting open): those gates
hold still as the clockwork walks, so the goal cannot flip mid-march.
Caught with the strike live, it stands its ground; otherwise the gold
has its legs for the turn. A regression walks the exact scene and
forbids the A-B-A shuttle. The bot-vs-bot harness also learns to
route WARD's pending moment to the treasure's owner.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015RCWSTnb1KYTPyL4GmhGnF

packages/engine/test/automaton.test.ts

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import { pushSustained } from "./helpers";
 /** Whose input does the maze want right now? */
 function actingSeat(state: GameState): PlayerId {
   return (
+    state.wardPending?.ownerId ??
     state.stack?.waitingOn ??
     state.pendingDiscard ??
     state.chaosPending?.queue[0] ??
@@ -735,3 +736,42 @@ describe("the clockwork flees the dread", () => {
     }
   });
 });
+
+describe("the thief-chase holds one goal per turn", () => {
+  it("a clockwork beside its thief never shuttles on and off their square", () => {
+    let { state } = createGame({ playerIds: ["thief", "bot"], seed: 42, sets: ["basic", "expansion1"] });
+    // Round 2, thief's turn burned; the bot acts with a full allowance.
+    while (state.turn.round < 2 || state.players[state.turn.activeIndex]!.id !== "bot") {
+      const r = applyCommand(state, actingSeat(state), { type: "endTurn", draw: 0 });
+      if (!r.ok) throw new Error(r.error);
+      state = r.state;
+    }
+    const thief = state.players.find((p) => p.id === "thief")!;
+    const bot = state.players.find((p) => p.id === "bot")!;
+    // The thief carries the bot's gold and stands one step away.
+    const mine = state.treasures.find((t) => t.owner === "bot")!;
+    mine.carriedBy = "thief";
+    mine.position = null;
+    thief.position = { x: 2, y: 4 };
+    bot.position = { x: 2, y: 5 };
+    state.edgeOverrides[edgeKey({ x: 2, y: 4 }, "S")] = "open";
+    // A number card and no attacks: the blow the chase serves cannot land.
+    bot.hand = [];
+    bot.hand.push({ cardId: "number-2", instanceId: "N2" } as never);
+    const visited = [cellKey(bot.position)];
+    for (let guard = 0; guard < 40; guard++) {
+      const view = viewFor(state, "bot");
+      const cmd = automatonCommand(view, "hunter", "archmage") ?? automatonFallback(view, "archmage");
+      if (cmd.type === "endTurn") break;
+      const r = applyCommand(state, "bot", cmd);
+      if (!r.ok) break;
+      state = r.state;
+      const at = cellKey(state.players.find((p) => p.id === "bot")!.position);
+      if (cmd.type === "move" && at !== visited[visited.length - 1]) visited.push(at);
+    }
+    // No step may return to the square just departed: A-B-A is the shuttle.
+    for (let i = 2; i < visited.length; i++) {
+      expect(visited[i]).not.toBe(visited[i - 2]);
+    }
+  });
+});