Exclude !post from the daily cap

Manual !post overrides were counted toward daily_cap_total, so a few
forced posts could starve the round-robin rotation for the rest of the
day. Tag forced rows in post_log and skip them in CountAllPostsInWindow
so the cap only meters the auto-rotation.

internal/poster/queue.go

@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ func (q *Queue) ForcePost(channel string) bool {
 
 	slog.Info("force-posting story on demand",
 		"guid", item.GUID, "channel", channel)
-	return q.postItem(item)
+	return q.postItem(item, true)
 }
 
 func (q *Queue) drain() {
@@ -194,21 +194,23 @@ func (q *Queue) drainChannel(channel string) {
 	q.queues[channel] = items[1:]
 	q.mu.Unlock()
 
-	q.postItem(item)
+	q.postItem(item, false)
 }
 
 // PostNow sends a story immediately, bypassing the in-memory queue and all
 // pacing limits. Last-mile canonical-URL dedup still applies. Used by !post
 // to satisfy on-demand requests with stories pulled directly from storage.
 func (q *Queue) PostNow(item QueueItem) {
-	q.postItem(item)
+	q.postItem(item, true)
 }
 
 // postItem returns true when a Matrix event was actually sent, false on
 // any non-success path (dedup-skip, transport failure with or without
 // retry, dead-letter). ForcePost uses the return value to decide whether
 // to acknowledge the user-initiated !post or fall back to a DB lookup.
-func (q *Queue) postItem(item QueueItem) bool {
+// forced=true marks the resulting post_log row so it's excluded from the
+// global daily cap (manual overrides shouldn't steal the rotation budget).
+func (q *Queue) postItem(item QueueItem, forced bool) bool {
 	// Last-mile dedup: if this canonical URL was already posted to this channel
 	// within the cooldown window, drop silently. Catches "same article, different
 	// GUID across feeds" and any race where two items slipped past ingest dedup.
@@ -264,7 +266,7 @@ func (q *Queue) postItem(item QueueItem) bool {
 	}
 
 	// Record in post log (INSERT OR IGNORE via unique index)
-	storage.InsertPostLog(item.GUID, item.Channel, string(eventID), canonical)
+	storage.InsertPostLog(item.GUID, item.Channel, string(eventID), canonical, forced)
 
 	slog.Info("story posted",
 		"guid", item.GUID,

internal/poster/tracker_test.go

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ func TestHandleReaction_KnownPost(t *testing.T) {
 	setupTrackerTestDB(t)
 
 	// Insert a post log entry
-	storage.InsertPostLog("story-1", "tech", "$post1:example.org", "")
+	storage.InsertPostLog("story-1", "tech", "$post1:example.org", "", false)
 
 	// Handle a reaction to that post
 	HandleReaction(
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ func TestHandleReaction_UnknownPost(t *testing.T) {
 func TestHandleReaction_DuplicateIgnored(t *testing.T) {
 	setupTrackerTestDB(t)
 
-	storage.InsertPostLog("story-1", "tech", "$post1:example.org", "")
+	storage.InsertPostLog("story-1", "tech", "$post1:example.org", "", false)
 
 	// Send same reaction twice
 	HandleReaction(

internal/scheduler/roundrobin_test.go

@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ func TestTick_AlreadyPostedExcluded(t *testing.T) {
 	setupTestDB(t)
 	insertPostable(t, "t-posted", "GuardianTech", "tech", 200)
 	insertPostable(t, "t-fresh", "GuardianTech", "tech", 100)
-	storage.InsertPostLog("t-posted", "tech", "$evt1", "https://example.com/t-posted")
+	storage.InsertPostLog("t-posted", "tech", "$evt1", "https://example.com/t-posted", false)
 
 	fq := &fakeQueue{}
 	rr := New([]string{"tech"}, 4, fq)

internal/storage/db.go

@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ func runMigrations(d *sql.DB) error {
 	addColumnIfMissing(d, "stories", "paywalled", "INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 0")
 	addColumnIfMissing(d, "stories", "published_at", "INTEGER")
 	addColumnIfMissing(d, "post_log", "url_canonical", "TEXT")
+	addColumnIfMissing(d, "post_log", "forced", "INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 0")
 	addColumnIfMissing(d, "round_robin_state", "last_channel", "TEXT")
 
 	// FTS5 virtual tables don't support IF NOT EXISTS reliably.

internal/storage/queries.go

@@ -122,10 +122,16 @@ func GetStoryByGUID(guid string) (*Story, error) {
 
 // InsertPostLog records that a story was posted to a channel.
 // Uses OR IGNORE to prevent duplicate posts for the same story+channel.
-func InsertPostLog(guid, channel, eventID, urlCanonical string) {
+// forced=true marks the row as a manual !post override so it doesn't count
+// against the global daily cap.
+func InsertPostLog(guid, channel, eventID, urlCanonical string, forced bool) {
+	f := 0
+	if forced {
+		f = 1
+	}
 	exec("insert post_log",
-		`INSERT OR IGNORE INTO post_log (guid, channel, event_id, url_canonical, posted_at) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?)`,
+		`INSERT OR IGNORE INTO post_log (guid, channel, event_id, url_canonical, posted_at, forced) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)`,
-		guid, channel, eventID, nullIfEmpty(urlCanonical), nowUnix())
+		guid, channel, eventID, nullIfEmpty(urlCanonical), nowUnix(), f)
 }
 
 // GetLastPostTime returns the unix timestamp of the most recent post to a channel.
@@ -139,10 +145,11 @@ func GetLastPostTime(channel string) int64 {
 }
 
 // CountAllPostsInWindow counts posts across ALL channels within a time window.
-// Used for the global daily cap.
+// Used for the global daily cap. Excludes forced (!post) entries so manual
+// overrides don't eat into the auto-rotation budget.
 func CountAllPostsInWindow(windowStart int64) int {
 	var count int
-	if err := Get().QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM post_log WHERE posted_at >= ?`, windowStart).Scan(&count); err != nil {
+	if err := Get().QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM post_log WHERE posted_at >= ? AND forced = 0`, windowStart).Scan(&count); err != nil {
 		slog.Error("CountAllPostsInWindow query failed", "err", err)
 		return 1<<31 - 1 // fail closed: huge number prevents posting
 	}

internal/storage/schema.go

@@ -25,7 +25,8 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS post_log (
     channel       TEXT NOT NULL,
     event_id      TEXT,
     url_canonical TEXT,
-    posted_at     INTEGER NOT NULL
+    posted_at     INTEGER NOT NULL,
+    forced        INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 0
 );
 
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS round_robin_state (

internal/storage/storage_test.go

@@ -98,8 +98,8 @@ func TestMarkClassified(t *testing.T) {
 func TestPostLogAndLookup(t *testing.T) {
 	setupTestDB(t)
 
-	InsertPostLog("story-1", "tech", "$event1:example.org", "")
+	InsertPostLog("story-1", "tech", "$event1:example.org", "", false)
-	InsertPostLog("story-2", "politics", "$event2:example.org", "")
+	InsertPostLog("story-2", "politics", "$event2:example.org", "", false)
 
 	guid, channel, found := LookupPostGUID("$event1:example.org")
 	if !found {
@@ -193,9 +193,9 @@ func TestMarshalUnmarshalPlatforms(t *testing.T) {
 func TestInsertPostLog_DuplicateIgnored(t *testing.T) {
 	setupTestDB(t)
 
-	InsertPostLog("story-1", "tech", "$event1:example.org", "")
+	InsertPostLog("story-1", "tech", "$event1:example.org", "", false)
 	// Same guid+channel should be silently ignored
-	InsertPostLog("story-1", "tech", "$event1-retry:example.org", "")
+	InsertPostLog("story-1", "tech", "$event1-retry:example.org", "", false)
 
 	var count int
 	Get().QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM post_log WHERE guid = ? AND channel = ?`, "story-1", "tech").Scan(&count)
@@ -204,7 +204,7 @@ func TestInsertPostLog_DuplicateIgnored(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	// Different channel should be allowed
-	InsertPostLog("story-1", "politics", "$event2:example.org", "")
+	InsertPostLog("story-1", "politics", "$event2:example.org", "", false)
 	Get().QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM post_log WHERE guid = ?`, "story-1").Scan(&count)
 	if count != 2 {
 		t.Errorf("expected 2 post_log entries across channels, got %d", count)