feat(db)!: port DataAccess to the Notes integer schema

Notes.RootBlogName/NoteBlogName/Type became RootBlogId/NoteBlogId/TypeId
on 2026-08-07, resolved through the new BlogNames and NoteTypes tables.
There is no compatibility view, so every affected statement is a hard cut.

All 14 call sites in DataAccess.cs are ported:

- Notes->Blogs joins go through Blogs.BlogId in one integer hop; the
  Notes->Posts join in GetRepliesWithFilledText is the only one that must
  route through BlogNames, since Posts carries no BlogId
- AddNote registers both blog names and the note type with INSERT OR
  IGNORE before inserting, in one transaction committed before the console
  sleep. Registering the type matters: an unseen type would resolve to
  NULL and fail NOT NULL on TypeId, silently losing the note
- The LEFT JOIN Notes in GetPosts is dropped rather than translated. It
  selected nothing, could not remove a row, and its duplicates were
  collapsed by the query's own GROUP BY
- Duplicate-key detection moves to IsNotesDuplicateKey, matching the
  constraint and table instead of an exact column list. The old literal
  string is what broke on this rename
- EnsureReplyTextColumnExists drops DEFAULT '.', matching the migrated
  schema: new rows get NULL, not a placeholder nobody wrote

verify-db-schema.sql gains BlogNames, NoteTypes, Blogs.BlogId and the new
Notes columns, plus query 1d naming a pre-migration file and pointing at
normalize-notes.sql. Blogs.BlogId is deliberately not auto-fixable -- an
added-but-empty column makes engagement joins return zero rows silently.

Verified against the live 148 MB file: query plans hit the intended
indexes, and the BlogId join matches an independent name-resolved
formulation exactly on all 4,267 GetBlogs and 2,637 GetBlogsForLikes rows.

RolodexRepository.cs (16 sites) lives in the Rolodex repo and is not
covered here.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <[email protected]>

AGENTS.md

@@ -47,6 +47,36 @@ say nothing about the item being fetched, so they must not be recorded as per-it
 - Long-running commands return exit 3 when a pass ends incomplete (rate-limit pause, breaker trip, or
   skipped items), so a caller can distinguish that from a clean run
 
+### `Notes` Stores Integer IDs, Not Names
+As of 2026-08-07 `Notes.RootBlogName`, `NoteBlogName` and `Type` are gone, replaced by
+`RootBlogId`, `NoteBlogId` and `TypeId` resolving through the `BlogNames` and `NoteTypes`
+lookup tables. There is no compatibility view — naming an old column is a hard SQLite
+error, so unlike `IsActive` this is a hard cut with no runtime probe. Full detail in
+`URLNotesGrabberCORE/TL.db.md`.
+
+- **Joining `Notes` to `Blogs` goes through `Blogs.BlogId`**, not `BlogNames`:
+  `FROM Blogs B INNER JOIN Notes N ON N.NoteBlogId = B.BlogId`. Routing it through
+  `BlogNames` adds a hop and ends in the text comparison the migration removed
+- **Joining `Notes` to `Posts` is the opposite** — `Posts` has only `BlogName`, so it must
+  go through `BlogNames` (`GetRepliesWithFilledText`). This is the only such join
+- **Resolve a name by filtering the lookup, never by scanning `Notes`**:
+  `WHERE NoteBlogId = (SELECT BlogId FROM BlogNames WHERE BlogName = @name)`. The subquery
+  is a unique-index probe on 20k rows and does not show against the 1.18M-row table
+- **`AddNote` registers both blog names *and* the note type** with `INSERT OR IGNORE`
+  before inserting, all in one transaction. `NoteTypes` is a table rather than a `CHECK`
+  constraint precisely so an unseen type is an `INSERT`; without that registration it
+  would resolve to `NULL` and fail the `NOT NULL` on `TypeId`, losing the note
+- **`Blogs.BlogId` is NULL on 168,202 of 188,620 rows** — every blog that has never
+  appeared in a note. An inner join on it silently drops them. Correct for engagement
+  queries, wrong for anything listing the registry
+- **IDs are stable and must never be renumbered.** They are stored in 1.18M `Notes` rows.
+  A blog renamed upstream gets a new `BlogNames` row, not an edited one
+- Prefer `TypeId = (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type = 'reply')` over a hardcoded
+  ID. A negated `TypeId NOT IN (SELECT …)` is only correct because `TypeId` is `NOT NULL`
+- Duplicate-key detection uses `IsNotesDuplicateKey`, which matches the constraint and the
+  table rather than an exact column list. The old literal string comparison broke silently
+  on this rename — do not reintroduce one
+
 ### `IsActive` Is Not Ours To Write
 `Blogs.IsActive`, `Posts.IsActive` and `Notes.IsActive` are removal flags set by other tools
 (Rolodex). `0` means removed; anything else, including `NULL`, means live. Full detail in

RERUN.sqbpro

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><sqlb_project><db path="C:/Users/jim/Nextcloud/C#/URLNotesGrabberCORE/URLNotesGrabberCORE/TL.db" readonly="0" foreign_keys="1" case_sensitive_like="0" temp_store="0" wal_autocheckpoint="1000" synchronous="2"/><attached/><window><main_tabs open="structure browser pragmas query" current="3"/></window><tab_structure><column_width id="0" width="300"/><column_width id="1" width="0"/><column_width id="2" width="100"/><column_width id="3" width="4305"/><column_width id="4" width="0"/><expanded_item id="0" parent="1"/><expanded_item id="1" parent="1"/><expanded_item id="2" parent="1"/><expanded_item id="3" parent="1"/></tab_structure><tab_browse><table title="Posts" custom_title="0" dock_id="4" table="4,5:mainPosts"/><dock_state state="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"/><default_encoding codec=""/><browse_table_settings><table schema="main" name="ApiKeyPoolMeta" show_row_id="0" encoding="" plot_x_axis="" unlock_view_pk="_rowid_" freeze_columns="0"><sort/><column_widths><column index="1" value="29"/><column index="2" value="64"/></column_widths><filter_values/><conditional_formats/><row_id_formats/><display_formats/><hidden_columns/><plot_y_axes/><global_filter/></table><table schema="main" name="Blogs" show_row_id="0" encoding="" plot_x_axis="" unlock_view_pk="_rowid_" freeze_columns="0"><sort/><column_widths><column index="1" value="257"/><column index="2" value="95"/><column index="3" value="54"/><column index="4" value="156"/><column index="5" value="51"/><column index="6" value="71"/><column index="7" value="85"/><column index="8" value="156"/><column index="9" value="156"/></column_widths><filter_values/><conditional_formats/><row_id_formats/><display_formats/><hidden_columns/><plot_y_axes/><global_filter/></table><table schema="main" name="Posts" show_row_id="0" encoding="" plot_x_axis="" unlock_view_pk="_rowid_" freeze_columns="0"><sort><column index="28" mode="1"/></sort><column_widths><column index="1" value="241"/><column index="2" value="148"/><column index="3" value="126"/><column index="4" value="300"/><column index="5" value="75"/><column index="6" value="187"/><column index="7" value="159"/><column index="8" value="75"/><column index="9" value="300"/><column index="10" value="300"/><column index="11" value="78"/><column index="12" value="249"/><column index="13" value="300"/><column index="14" value="53"/><column index="15" value="300"/><column index="16" value="300"/><column index="17" value="41"/><column index="18" value="75"/><column index="19" value="96"/><column index="20" value="300"/><column index="21" value="96"/><column index="22" value="300"/><column index="23" value="300"/><column index="24" value="42"/><column index="25" value="60"/><column index="26" value="218"/><column index="27" value="920"/><column index="28" value="156"/><column index="29" value="156"/></column_widths><filter_values><column index="24" value="=1"/><column index="28" value="&gt;2026-05-06 20:00:01"/></filter_values><conditional_formats/><row_id_formats/><display_formats/><hidden_columns/><plot_y_axes/><global_filter/></table></browse_table_settings></tab_browse><tab_sql><sql name="SQL 1">UPDATE Posts
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><sqlb_project><db path="D:/NextCloud/C#/URLNotesGrabberCORE/URLNotesGrabberCORE/TL.db" readonly="0" foreign_keys="1" case_sensitive_like="0" temp_store="0" wal_autocheckpoint="1000" synchronous="2"/><attached/><window><main_tabs open="structure browser pragmas query" current="3"/></window><tab_structure><column_width id="0" width="300"/><column_width id="1" width="0"/><column_width id="2" width="100"/><column_width id="3" width="4486"/><column_width id="4" width="0"/><expanded_item id="0" parent="1"/><expanded_item id="1" parent="1"/><expanded_item id="2" parent="1"/><expanded_item id="3" parent="1"/></tab_structure><tab_browse><table title="Posts" custom_title="0" dock_id="4" table="4,5:mainPosts"/><dock_state state="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"/><default_encoding codec=""/><browse_table_settings><table schema="main" name="ApiKeyPoolMeta" show_row_id="0" encoding="" plot_x_axis="" unlock_view_pk="_rowid_" freeze_columns="0"><sort/><column_widths><column index="1" value="29"/><column index="2" value="64"/></column_widths><filter_values/><conditional_formats/><row_id_formats/><display_formats/><hidden_columns/><plot_y_axes/><global_filter/></table><table schema="main" name="Blogs" show_row_id="0" encoding="" plot_x_axis="" unlock_view_pk="_rowid_" freeze_columns="0"><sort><column index="7" mode="1"/></sort><column_widths><column index="1" value="257"/><column index="2" value="108"/><column index="3" value="63"/><column index="4" value="156"/><column index="5" value="60"/><column index="6" value="81"/><column index="7" value="85"/><column index="8" value="156"/><column index="9" value="156"/><column index="10" value="151"/><column index="11" value="125"/><column index="12" value="129"/></column_widths><filter_values><column index="4" value="1"/><column index="7" value="&gt;2026-05-27 17:22:36"/></filter_values><conditional_formats/><row_id_formats/><display_formats/><hidden_columns/><plot_y_axes/><global_filter/></table><table schema="main" name="Notes" show_row_id="0" encoding="" plot_x_axis="" unlock_view_pk="_rowid_" freeze_columns="0"><sort/><column_widths><column index="1" value="198"/><column index="2" value="144"/><column index="3" value="251"/><column index="4" value="84"/><column index="5" value="53"/><column index="6" value="300"/><column index="7" value="116"/><column index="8" value="152"/><column index="9" value="89"/><column index="10" value="63"/></column_widths><filter_values/><conditional_formats/><row_id_formats/><display_formats/><hidden_columns/><plot_y_axes/><global_filter/></table><table schema="main" name="Posts" show_row_id="0" encoding="" plot_x_axis="" unlock_view_pk="_rowid_" freeze_columns="0"><sort><column index="14" mode="1"/></sort><column_widths><column index="1" value="236"/><column index="2" value="144"/><column index="3" value="126"/><column index="4" value="32"/><column index="5" value="32"/><column index="6" value="32"/><column index="7" value="32"/><column index="8" value="32"/><column index="9" value="0"/><column index="10" value="0"/><column index="11" value="0"/><column index="12" value="243"/><column index="13" value="300"/><column index="14" value="53"/><column index="15" value="37351"/><column index="16" value="300"/><column index="17" value="41"/><column index="18" value="75"/><column index="19" value="96"/><column index="20" value="300"/><column index="21" value="96"/><column index="22" value="300"/><column index="23" value="300"/><column index="24" value="548"/><column index="25" value="60"/><column index="26" value="213"/><column index="27" value="532"/><column index="28" value="152"/><column index="29" value="152"/><column index="30" value="69"/><column index="31" value="63"/></column_widths><filter_values><column index="2" value="0"/><column index="1" value="734568371821084672"/></filter_values><conditional_formats/><row_id_formats/><display_formats/><hidden_columns><column index="9" value="1"/><column index="10" value="1"/><column index="11" value="1"/></hidden_columns><plot_y_axes/><global_filter/></table></browse_table_settings></tab_browse><tab_sql><sql name="SQL 1">UPDATE Posts
 SET HasNotesGathered = 0
 WHERE (BlogName, PostID) IN (
     SELECT p.BlogName, p.PostID
@@ -29,11 +29,12 @@ blogname in
 'nudenymph',
 'caylachief'
 
-)</sql><sql name="New Notes">select RootBlogName, PostID, NoteBlogName || '.tumblr.com' as NoteBlogName, DatetimeCrawled, TimeStamp, type, RootBlogName || '.tumblr.com/post/' || postid, datetime(timestamp, 'unixepoch')
+)</sql><sql name="New Notes">select P.slug, N.replyText, n.RootBlogName, n.PostID, NoteBlogName || '.tumblr.com' as NoteBlogName, DatetimeCrawled, TimeStamp, type, n.RootBlogName || '.tumblr.com/post/' || n.postid, datetime(timestamp, 'unixepoch')
-from Notes
+from Notes N inner join Posts P on p.PostID = n.PostID
 where 
-DatetimeCrawled &gt; '2026-05-14 02:50:05' --and type like 'r%'
+DatetimeCrawled &gt; '2026-08-07 11:47:22' and type like 'r%'
-order by DatetimeCrawled desc</sql><sql name="Pull Blogs*">SELECT distinct␍
+and P.IsActive = 1 
+order by n.DatetimeCrawled</sql><sql name="Pull Blogs">SELECT distinct
 	'''' || blogname || ''',',
 	blogs.*
 	, blogname || '.tumblr.com'
@@ -64,4 +65,36 @@ JOIN ReplyCounts c ON n.NoteBlogName = c.NoteBlogName
 where replyText &lt;&gt; '.' and type &lt;&gt; 'reply'
 --AND N.NoteBlogName NOT IN ( 'roadblocker21', 'thesaddemon666', 'edwardabbeyhoffman', 'tattedsoldier20', 'zomb-eh', 'animalistic13', 'indken', 'maccloud1592',
 --'moss-wizard', 'supertrucker12682', 'exploringthrupics', 'padeyepete' )
-order by c.DistinctReplyCount desc, n.NoteBlogName, n.DateModified desc, replyText, RootBlogName, PostID</sql><current_tab id="3"/></tab_sql></sqlb_project>
+order by c.DistinctReplyCount desc, n.NoteBlogName, n.DateModified desc, replyText, RootBlogName, PostID</sql><sql name="Collect">WITH PostsWithCount AS ( SELECT P.BlogName, P.PostID, 1925013599 AS LatestNoteTimestamp, P.NotesGatheredDateTime, COUNT(P.PostID) OVER(PARTITION BY P.BlogName) AS CNT, P.HasNotesGathered, P.NotFound, P.PostDate FROM Posts P WHERE COALESCE(P.IsActive, 1) = 1 ), Unioned AS ( SELECT BlogName, PostID, LatestNoteTimestamp, NotesGatheredDateTime, CNT, PostDate FROM PostsWithCount WHERE NotFound = 0 AND HasNotesGathered = 0 UNION SELECT BlogName, PostID, LatestNoteTimestamp, NotesGatheredDateTime, CNT, PostDate FROM PostsWithCount WHERE BlogName = 'zomb-eh' AND NotFound = 0 AND NotesGatheredDateTime &lt; unixepoch('now', 'localtime', '-3 days') ) SELECT U.BlogName, U.PostID, U.LatestNoteTimestamp, U.NotesGatheredDateTime, U.CNT FROM Unioned U WHERE (U.NotesGatheredDateTime &lt; 1786134037 OR U.NotesGatheredDateTime IS NULL) ORDER BY U.NotesGatheredDateTime, U.PostDate DESC, U.BlogName, U.PostID;</sql><sql name="Del Posts">delete from posts where postid in 
+(
+'741662499571728384',
+178892849664,
+178264721139,
+177012868749,
+169950081964,
+755440787056099328
+)</sql><sql name="notes NO post*">select *
+-- delete
+from notes
+where postid not in (select distinct postid from posts where IsActive = 1)</sql><sql name="SQL 9">SELECT	
+	*
+FROM	
+	POSTS P
+WHERE	
+	P.ByLikes = 1
+	AND
+	P.DateCreated &gt; '2026-05-26 17:47:32'
+ORDER BY
+	P.DateCreated desc</sql><sql name="SQL 13">update posts set IsActive = 0 where blogname IN ( 'shoebiedoo', 'redheaded-girlygirl', 'xlittle-ghost' )</sql><sql name="SQL 14*">update Posts␍
+set IsActive = 0␍
+where postid in␍
+(␍
+␍
+␍
+'731937314675310592'␍
+␍
+␍
+␍
+)␍
+␍
+</sql><current_tab id="7"/></tab_sql></sqlb_project>

URLNotesGrabberCORE/DataAccess.cs

@@ -213,6 +213,59 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
 
         #endregion IsActive
 
+        #region Notes integer schema
+
+        // Notes stopped storing names on 2026-08-07: RootBlogName/NoteBlogName/Type became
+        // RootBlogId/NoteBlogId/TypeId, resolved through BlogNames and NoteTypes. There is no
+        // compatibility view -- a query naming an old column fails outright, so this is a hard
+        // cut rather than an optional column like IsActive. See TL.db.md.
+        //
+        // Two shapes recur below and are spelled out inline rather than hidden behind a helper,
+        // so that every statement reads as the SQL it actually runs:
+        //   (SELECT BlogId FROM BlogNames WHERE BlogName = @name)   -- unique-index probe, 20k rows
+        //   (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type = 'reply')     -- 5 rows, effectively free
+        // Joining Notes to Blogs is the one case that must NOT route through BlogNames: Blogs
+        // carries its own BlogId, so N.NoteBlogId = B.BlogId is a single integer hop. Joining
+        // Notes to Posts is the opposite case -- Posts has only BlogName, so it has to go
+        // through BlogNames.
+
+        /// <summary>
+        /// True when the exception is a duplicate-key collision on Notes. The message embeds the
+        /// primary key's column names, which the integer migration renamed, so this matches on the
+        /// constraint and the table instead of on an exact column list -- a literal comparison
+        /// silently inverts into "log every error" the next time a column is renamed.
+        /// </summary>
+        private static bool IsNotesDuplicateKey(Exception ex)
+        {
+            return ex.Message.Contains("UNIQUE constraint failed", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)
+                && ex.Message.Contains("Notes.", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Gives a blog name an ID if it does not have one. No read-back and no round trip -- a
+        /// name that is already registered keeps the ID that 1.18M Notes rows point at.
+        /// </summary>
+        private static void RegisterBlogName(SQLiteConnection connection, SQLiteTransaction? transaction, string blogName)
+        {
+            using SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand("INSERT OR IGNORE INTO BlogNames (BlogName) VALUES (@BlogName)", connection, transaction);
+            command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@BlogName", blogName);
+            command.ExecuteNonQuery();
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Same, for a note type. NoteTypes is a table rather than a CHECK constraint precisely so
+        /// that a type this crawler has not seen before is an INSERT and not a schema migration --
+        /// without this the type would resolve to NULL and fail the NOT NULL on Notes.TypeId.
+        /// </summary>
+        private static void RegisterNoteType(SQLiteConnection connection, SQLiteTransaction? transaction, string type)
+        {
+            using SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand("INSERT OR IGNORE INTO NoteTypes (Type) VALUES (@Type)", connection, transaction);
+            command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Type", type);
+            command.ExecuteNonQuery();
+        }
+
+        #endregion Notes integer schema
+
         public static string Q(string input)
         {
             return "'" + input.Replace("'", "''") + "'";
@@ -371,7 +424,10 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
                             connection.Close();
                             connection.Open();
 
-                            string addColumnSql = "ALTER TABLE Notes ADD COLUMN replyText TEXT DEFAULT '.';";
+                            // No column default: the migrated schema dropped the DEFAULT '.' that
+                            // is how 1.1M rows acquired a placeholder nobody wrote. New rows get
+                            // NULL, which every reader here already treats as "no reply text".
+                            string addColumnSql = "ALTER TABLE Notes ADD COLUMN replyText TEXT;";
                             using (SQLiteCommand addCommand = new SQLiteCommand(addColumnSql, connection))
                             {
                                 addCommand.ExecuteNonQuery();
@@ -703,63 +759,85 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
             try { AddBlog(noteBlogName, false, DBPath); } catch { }
 
             using SQLiteConnection connection2 = new SQLiteConnection("Data Source=" + DBPath);
+            int rowsInserted = 0;
 
             try
             {
                 connection2.Open();
 
-                // INSERT OR IGNORE, and no IsActive in the column list: re-crawling a note
+                // Notes stores integer IDs, so both participants and the type have to exist in
-                // that was removed elsewhere leaves the existing row -- and its flag -- alone.
+                // their lookup table before the note can point at them.
-                string sql = "INSERT OR IGNORE INTO Notes (rootBlogName, noteBlogName, PostID, TimeStamp, Type, DatetimeCrawled, DateModified, DateCreated) values(@rootBlogName, @noteBlogName, @PostID, @TimeStamp, @Type, @DatetimeCrawled, @DateModified, @DateCreated)";
+                //
-                using (SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand(sql, connection2))
+                // All four statements run in one transaction so a crash cannot leave a name or a
+                // type registered with no note. The transaction is committed before the console
+                // output below, which sleeps -- a write lock must not be held across that.
+                using (SQLiteTransaction transaction = connection2.BeginTransaction())
                 {
-                    command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@rootBlogName", rootBlogName);
+                    RegisterBlogName(connection2, transaction, rootBlogName);
-                    command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@noteBlogName", noteBlogName);
+                    RegisterBlogName(connection2, transaction, noteBlogName);
-                    command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@PostID", postID);
+                    RegisterNoteType(connection2, transaction, type ?? string.Empty);
-                    command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@TimeStamp", timestamp);
-                    command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Type", type ?? string.Empty);
-                    command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@DatetimeCrawled", DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"));
-                    command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@DateModified", DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"));
-                    command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@DateCreated", DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"));
 
-                    int rowsInserted = command.ExecuteNonQuery();
+                    // INSERT OR IGNORE, and no IsActive in the column list: re-crawling a note
+                    // that was removed elsewhere leaves the existing row -- and its flag -- alone.
+                    string sql = "INSERT OR IGNORE INTO Notes (RootBlogId, NoteBlogId, PostID, TimeStamp, TypeId, DatetimeCrawled, DateModified, DateCreated) " +
+                                 "SELECT (SELECT BlogId FROM BlogNames WHERE BlogName = @rootBlogName), " +
+                                 "       (SELECT BlogId FROM BlogNames WHERE BlogName = @noteBlogName), " +
+                                 "       @PostID, @TimeStamp, " +
+                                 "       (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type = @Type), " +
+                                 "       @DatetimeCrawled, @DateModified, @DateCreated";
 
-                    if (rowsInserted == 1)
+                    using (SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand(sql, connection2, transaction))
                     {
-                        ConsoleColor previousColor = Console.ForegroundColor;
+                        command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@rootBlogName", rootBlogName);
-                        Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Green;
+                        command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@noteBlogName", noteBlogName);
-                        Console.WriteLine("{2}\t{0}\t{1}", UnixTimeStampToDateTime(timestamp), noteBlogName, type);
+                        command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@PostID", postID);
-                        Console.ForegroundColor = previousColor;
+                        command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@TimeStamp", timestamp);
-                        Thread.Sleep(250); // Brief pause to make new notes more noticeable in the console output
+                        command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Type", type ?? string.Empty);
-                    }
+                        command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@DatetimeCrawled", DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"));
-                    else
+                        command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@DateModified", DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"));
-                    {
+                        command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@DateCreated", DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"));
-                        Console.WriteLine("{2}\t{0}\t{1}", UnixTimeStampToDateTime(timestamp), noteBlogName, type);
+
+                        rowsInserted = command.ExecuteNonQuery();
                     }
 
-                    // Only update HasBeenOutput if a new note was inserted
+                    transaction.Commit();
-                    if (rowsInserted == 1)
+                }
+
+                if (rowsInserted == 1)
+                {
+                    ConsoleColor previousColor = Console.ForegroundColor;
+                    Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Green;
+                    Console.WriteLine("{2}\t{0}\t{1}", UnixTimeStampToDateTime(timestamp), noteBlogName, type);
+                    Console.ForegroundColor = previousColor;
+                    Thread.Sleep(250); // Brief pause to make new notes more noticeable in the console output
+                }
+                else
+                {
+                    Console.WriteLine("{2}\t{0}\t{1}", UnixTimeStampToDateTime(timestamp), noteBlogName, type);
+                }
+
+                // Only update HasBeenOutput if a new note was inserted
+                if (rowsInserted == 1)
+                {
+                    try
                     {
-                        try
+                        // HasBeenOutput IS NULL still counts as a change: the selection queries
+                        // test HasBeenOutput = 0, which a NULL would never match.
+                        string updateSql = "UPDATE Blogs SET HasBeenOutput = 0, DateModified = @DateModified WHERE BlogName = @BlogName AND (HasBeenOutput IS NULL OR HasBeenOutput <> 0)";
+                        using (var updateCommand = new SQLiteCommand(updateSql, connection2))
                         {
-                            // HasBeenOutput IS NULL still counts as a change: the selection queries
+                            updateCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue("@BlogName", noteBlogName);
-                            // test HasBeenOutput = 0, which a NULL would never match.
+                            updateCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue("@DateModified", DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"));
-                            string updateSql = "UPDATE Blogs SET HasBeenOutput = 0, DateModified = @DateModified WHERE BlogName = @BlogName AND (HasBeenOutput IS NULL OR HasBeenOutput <> 0)";
+                            updateCommand.ExecuteNonQuery();
-                            using (var updateCommand = new SQLiteCommand(updateSql, connection2))
-                            {
-                                updateCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue("@BlogName", noteBlogName);
-                                updateCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue("@DateModified", DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"));
-                                updateCommand.ExecuteNonQuery();
-                            }
                         }
-                        catch { }
                     }
+                    catch { }
                 }
             }
             catch (Exception ex)
             {
                 // Breakpoint here
-                if (ex.Message != "constraint failed\r\nUNIQUE constraint failed: Notes.RootBlogName, Notes.PostID, Notes.TimeStamp, Notes.Type, Notes.NoteBlogName")
+                if (!IsNotesDuplicateKey(ex))
                 {
                     Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
                     Console.WriteLine("^^^^^ - SHORTCUT");
@@ -850,6 +928,10 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
                 }
                 else
                 {
+                    // The LEFT OUTER JOIN to Notes that used to sit here has been dropped rather
+                    // than ported. Nothing was selected from it, a LEFT JOIN cannot remove a row,
+                    // and the GROUP BY below collapsed the rows it duplicated -- so it could not
+                    // affect the result, and it cost a join against 1.18M rows on every pass.
                     sql = "SELECT " +
                                  "  MAX(Posts.BlogName) as BlogName, " + Environment.NewLine +
                                  "  Posts.PostID, " + Environment.NewLine +
@@ -859,8 +941,6 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
                                  "FROM " + Environment.NewLine +
                                  "   Posts " + Environment.NewLine +
                                  "      LEFT OUTER JOIN " + Environment.NewLine +
-                                 "   Notes ON Notes.RootBlogName = Posts.BlogName AND Notes.PostID = Posts.PostID " + Environment.NewLine +
-                                 "      LEFT OUTER JOIN " + Environment.NewLine +
                                  "   (      select BlogName, count(PostID) as CNT from Posts" + WhereIsActive("Posts", "", DBPath) + " group by BlogName)  CNT on CNT.blogName = Posts.BlogName " +
                                  "WHERE NotFound = 0 " + AndIsActive("Posts", "Posts", DBPath) + Environment.NewLine;
 
@@ -971,7 +1051,11 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
             {
                 connection.Open();
 
-                string sql = "SELECT	distinct RootBlogName as blogName, postID FROM Notes WHERE Notes.type = 'reply'" + AndIsActive("Notes", "Notes", DBPath) + " order by RootBlogName, PostID";
+                string sql = "SELECT DISTINCT BN.BlogName as blogName, N.PostID" +
+                             " FROM Notes N" +
+                             " INNER JOIN BlogNames BN ON BN.BlogId = N.RootBlogId" +
+                             " WHERE N.TypeId = (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type = 'reply')" + AndIsActive("Notes", "N", DBPath) +
+                             " ORDER BY BN.BlogName, N.PostID";
 
                 using (SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand(sql, connection))
                 {
@@ -1011,12 +1095,15 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
             {
                 connection.Open();
 
-                string sql = @"SELECT DISTINCT Notes.RootBlogName as blogName, Notes.PostID,
+                // Grouped on the integer rather than the name: the group key is what gets sorted,
-                             MAX(Notes.timestamp) as LatestTimestamp
+                // and BN.BlogName comes along for free off the join.
-                             FROM Notes 
+                string sql = @"SELECT BN.BlogName as blogName, N.PostID,
-                             WHERE Notes.type = 'reply'
+                             MAX(N.TimeStamp) as LatestTimestamp
-                             AND (Notes.replyText IS NULL OR Notes.replyText = '' OR Notes.replyText = '.')" + AndIsActive("Notes", "Notes", DBPath) + @"
+                             FROM Notes N
-                             GROUP BY Notes.RootBlogName, Notes.PostID
+                             INNER JOIN BlogNames BN ON BN.BlogId = N.RootBlogId
+                             WHERE N.TypeId = (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type = 'reply')
+                             AND (N.replyText IS NULL OR N.replyText = '' OR N.replyText = '.')" + AndIsActive("Notes", "N", DBPath) + @"
+                             GROUP BY N.RootBlogId, N.PostID
                              ORDER BY LatestTimestamp ASC
                              LIMIT @limit";
 
@@ -1058,11 +1145,15 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
             {
                 connection.Open();
 
-                string sql = @"SELECT DISTINCT P.BlogName, P.PostID, MAX(N.timestamp) as LatestTimestamp
+                // Posts carries only BlogName, so this is the one join to Notes that has to go
+                // through BlogNames -- there is no Posts.BlogId to hop on. The name predicate is
+                // pushed into the 20k-row lookup, which then feeds integers to the Notes key.
+                string sql = @"SELECT DISTINCT P.BlogName, P.PostID, MAX(N.TimeStamp) as LatestTimestamp
                               FROM Posts P
-                              INNER JOIN Notes N ON N.PostID = P.PostID AND N.RootBlogName = P.BlogName
+                              INNER JOIN BlogNames RBN ON RBN.BlogName = P.BlogName
+                              INNER JOIN Notes N ON N.RootBlogId = RBN.BlogId AND N.PostID = P.PostID
                               WHERE P.NotFound = 0
-                                AND N.type = 'reply'
+                                AND N.TypeId = (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type = 'reply')
                                 AND (N.replyText IS NULL OR N.replyText = '' OR N.replyText = '.')" + AndIsActive("Posts", "P", DBPath) + AndIsActive("Notes", "N", DBPath) + @"
                               GROUP BY P.BlogName, P.PostID
                               ORDER BY LatestTimestamp ASC";
@@ -1160,6 +1251,11 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
             {
                 connection.Open();
                 string sql;
+
+                // The two Notes branches below join on Blogs.BlogId, which is NULL for the 168k
+                // registry rows that have never appeared in a note. The inner join drops them,
+                // which is correct here -- both branches already require a note to exist -- but
+                // it is the wrong shape for anything that lists the registry.
                 if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(specificBlog))
                 {
                     // Specific blog: always process, bypass cooldown
@@ -1179,12 +1275,12 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
                                    COALESCE(B.LikesCursor, 0),
                                    COALESCE(B.LikesNewestTimestamp, 0)
                               FROM Blogs B
-                              INNER JOIN Notes N ON N.NoteBlogName = B.BlogName
+                              INNER JOIN Notes N ON N.NoteBlogId = B.BlogId
                              WHERE N.TimeStamp >= 1535778000
-                               AND N.rootBlogName = B.BlogName
+                               AND N.RootBlogId = B.BlogId
                                AND B.IsActive = 1" + AndIsActive("Notes", "N", DBPath) + @"
                              GROUP BY B.BlogName
-                             ORDER BY MIN(N.Timestamp);";
+                             ORDER BY MIN(N.TimeStamp);";
                 }
                 else
                 {
@@ -1194,9 +1290,9 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
                                    COALESCE(B.LikesCursor, 0),
                                    COALESCE(B.LikesNewestTimestamp, 0)
                               FROM Blogs B
-                              INNER JOIN Notes N ON N.NoteBlogName = B.BlogName
+                              INNER JOIN Notes N ON N.NoteBlogId = B.BlogId
                              WHERE N.TimeStamp >= 1535778000
-                               AND N.rootBlogName = B.BlogName
+                               AND N.RootBlogId = B.BlogId
                                AND B.IsActive = 1" + AndIsActive("Notes", "N", DBPath) + @"
                                AND (
                                     B.LikesPulled = 0
@@ -1204,7 +1300,7 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
                                     < (CAST(strftime('%s','now') AS INTEGER) - (@cooldownDays * 86400))
                                )
                              GROUP BY B.BlogName
-                             ORDER BY MIN(N.Timestamp);";
+                             ORDER BY MIN(N.TimeStamp);";
                 }
 
                 using (SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand(sql, connection))
@@ -1244,11 +1340,14 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
             try
             {
                 connection.Open();
+                // Blogs is reached in one integer hop off Blogs.BlogId, not through BlogNames --
+                // that would add a hop and end in the text comparison the migration removed.
+                // The negated form is only correct because Notes.TypeId is NOT NULL.
                 string sql = "";
                 if (reblogsOnly)
-                    sql = "SELECT NoteBlogName as blogName, count(*) FROM notes INNER JOIN blogs ON blogs.BlogName = notes.NoteBlogName WHERE blogs.IsActive = @isActive" + AndIsActive("Notes", "notes", DBPath) + " AND type IN ('reblog', 'reply', 'posted') AND HasBeenOutput = 0 GROUP BY NoteBlogName ORDER BY count(*) DESC, BlogName LIMIT @top";
+                    sql = "SELECT B.BlogName as blogName, count(*) FROM Notes N INNER JOIN Blogs B ON B.BlogId = N.NoteBlogId WHERE B.IsActive = @isActive" + AndIsActive("Notes", "N", DBPath) + " AND N.TypeId IN (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type IN ('reblog', 'reply', 'posted')) AND B.HasBeenOutput = 0 GROUP BY N.NoteBlogId ORDER BY count(*) DESC, B.BlogName LIMIT @top";
                 else
-                    sql = "SELECT NoteBlogName as blogName, count(*) FROM notes INNER JOIN blogs ON blogs.BlogName = notes.NoteBlogName WHERE blogs.IsActive = @isActive" + AndIsActive("Notes", "notes", DBPath) + " AND type NOT IN ('reblog', 'reply', 'posted') AND HasBeenOutput = 0 GROUP BY NoteBlogName ORDER BY count(*) DESC, BlogName LIMIT @top";
+                    sql = "SELECT B.BlogName as blogName, count(*) FROM Notes N INNER JOIN Blogs B ON B.BlogId = N.NoteBlogId WHERE B.IsActive = @isActive" + AndIsActive("Notes", "N", DBPath) + " AND N.TypeId NOT IN (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type IN ('reblog', 'reply', 'posted')) AND B.HasBeenOutput = 0 GROUP BY N.NoteBlogId ORDER BY count(*) DESC, B.BlogName LIMIT @top";
 
                 using (SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand(sql, connection))
                 {
@@ -1287,9 +1386,9 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
                 connection.Open();
                 string sql = "";
                 if (reblogsOnly)
-                    sql = "SELECT NoteBlogName as blogName, count(*) FROM notes INNER JOIN blogs ON blogs.BlogName = notes.NoteBlogName WHERE blogs.IsActive = @isActive" + AndIsActive("Notes", "notes", DBPath) + " AND type IN ('reblog', 'reply', 'posted') AND HasBeenOutput = 0 GROUP BY NoteBlogName ORDER BY count(*) DESC, BlogName LIMIT @top";
+                    sql = "SELECT B.BlogName as blogName, count(*) FROM Notes N INNER JOIN Blogs B ON B.BlogId = N.NoteBlogId WHERE B.IsActive = @isActive" + AndIsActive("Notes", "N", DBPath) + " AND N.TypeId IN (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type IN ('reblog', 'reply', 'posted')) AND B.HasBeenOutput = 0 GROUP BY N.NoteBlogId ORDER BY count(*) DESC, B.BlogName LIMIT @top";
                 else
-                    sql = "SELECT NoteBlogName as blogName, count(*) FROM notes INNER JOIN blogs ON blogs.BlogName = notes.NoteBlogName WHERE blogs.IsActive = @isActive" + AndIsActive("Notes", "notes", DBPath) + " AND HasBeenOutput = 0 GROUP BY NoteBlogName ORDER BY count(*) DESC, BlogName LIMIT @top";
+                    sql = "SELECT B.BlogName as blogName, count(*) FROM Notes N INNER JOIN Blogs B ON B.BlogId = N.NoteBlogId WHERE B.IsActive = @isActive" + AndIsActive("Notes", "N", DBPath) + " AND B.HasBeenOutput = 0 GROUP BY N.NoteBlogId ORDER BY count(*) DESC, B.BlogName LIMIT @top";
 
                 using (SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand(sql, connection))
                 {
@@ -1528,7 +1627,10 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
             {
                 connection.Open();
 
-                string sql = "UPDATE Notes SET timestamp = @timestamp, DateModified = @dateModified WHERE rootBlogName = @rootBlogName AND noteBlogName = @noteBlogName AND PostID = @postID AND IFNULL(timestamp, 0) <> @timestamp";
+                string sql = "UPDATE Notes SET TimeStamp = @timestamp, DateModified = @dateModified " +
+                             "WHERE RootBlogId = (SELECT BlogId FROM BlogNames WHERE BlogName = @rootBlogName) " +
+                             "AND NoteBlogId = (SELECT BlogId FROM BlogNames WHERE BlogName = @noteBlogName) " +
+                             "AND PostID = @postID AND IFNULL(TimeStamp, 0) <> @timestamp";
                 using (SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand(sql, connection))
                 {
                     command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@timestamp", timestamp);
@@ -1542,7 +1644,7 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
             catch (Exception ex)
             {
                 // Breakpoint here
-                if (ex.Message != "constraint failed\r\nUNIQUE constraint failed: Notes.RootBlogName, Notes.PostID, Notes.TimeStamp, Notes.Type, Notes.NoteBlogName")
+                if (!IsNotesDuplicateKey(ex))
                 {
                     Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
                     Console.WriteLine("^^^^^ - SHORTCUT");
@@ -1828,10 +1930,15 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
             {
                 connection.Open();
 
-                //string sql = "UPDATE Notes SET replyText = @replyText WHERE rootBlogName = @rootBlogName AND PostID = @PostID AND noteBlogName = @noteBlogName AND TimeStamp = @TimeStamp AND Type = 'reply'";
                 // Match on (noteBlogName, TimeStamp ±5s) only - a reply by a given blog at a given timestamp is the same reply across the original post and every reblog of it, so this fans out across reblog chains in one shot. Tolerance absorbs the ~1s drift between what -collect stored and what mode=conversation returns now.
                 // Only fan out to rows that match the SELECT criteria in GetRepliesWithFilledText (NULL/empty/legacy-'.'). Never overwrite '?' (confirmed-empty) or already-fetched text.
-                string sql = "UPDATE Notes SET replyText = @replyText, DateModified = @dateModified WHERE noteBlogName = @noteBlogName AND ABS(TimeStamp - @TimeStamp) <= 5 AND Type = 'reply' AND (replyText IS NULL OR replyText = '' OR replyText = '.') AND (replyText IS NULL OR replyText <> @replyText)";
+                // The ABS() term cannot use an index on TimeStamp, before or after the integer schema; the NoteBlogId probe is what keeps this off a full scan.
+                string sql = "UPDATE Notes SET replyText = @replyText, DateModified = @dateModified " +
+                             "WHERE NoteBlogId = (SELECT BlogId FROM BlogNames WHERE BlogName = @noteBlogName) " +
+                             "AND ABS(TimeStamp - @TimeStamp) <= 5 " +
+                             "AND TypeId = (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type = 'reply') " +
+                             "AND (replyText IS NULL OR replyText = '' OR replyText = '.') " +
+                             "AND (replyText IS NULL OR replyText <> @replyText)";
                 using (SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand(sql, connection))
                 {
                     command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@replyText", replyText ?? "?");
@@ -1872,7 +1979,11 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
             {
                 connection.Open();
 
-                string sql = "UPDATE Notes SET replyText = @replyText, DateModified = @dateModified WHERE rootBlogName = @rootBlogName AND PostID = @PostID AND Type = 'reply' AND IFNULL(replyText, '.') <> @replyText";
+                string sql = "UPDATE Notes SET replyText = @replyText, DateModified = @dateModified " +
+                             "WHERE RootBlogId = (SELECT BlogId FROM BlogNames WHERE BlogName = @rootBlogName) " +
+                             "AND PostID = @PostID " +
+                             "AND TypeId = (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type = 'reply') " +
+                             "AND IFNULL(replyText, '.') <> @replyText";
                 using (SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand(sql, connection))
                 {
                     command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@replyText", replyText ?? ".");

URLNotesGrabberCORE/TL.db.md

@@ -4,12 +4,25 @@ The SQLite database behind **URLNotesGrabberCORE** and its sibling crawlers, and
 [Rolodex](https://git.basso.land/jim/Rolodex) reads.
 
 Everything below was read out of the live file, not inferred from code. Counts are as of
-**2026-07-29**; re-run the queries at the bottom to refresh them.
+**2026-08-07**; re-run the queries at the bottom to refresh them.
 
 - Journal mode: **WAL** — `TL.db-wal` and `TL.db-shm` live beside the file and are part of
   the database. Copying `TL.db` alone gives you whatever was last checkpointed, not the
   current state.
-- Page size: 4096.
+- Page size: 4096. File size: 148 MB.
+
+> ### ⚠ Breaking change, 2026-08-07: `Notes` holds integer IDs, not names
+>
+> `Notes.RootBlogName`, `Notes.NoteBlogName` and `Notes.Type` **no longer exist**. They
+> are now `RootBlogId`, `NoteBlogId` and `TypeId`, resolved through the new `BlogNames`
+> and `NoteTypes` tables. Any query naming the old columns fails outright.
+>
+> There is no compatibility view. See [porting to the integer
+> schema](#porting-to-the-integer-schema) for the old-to-new translation of every query
+> shape the applications use.
+>
+> Applied by `../normalize-notes.sql`, which took the file from 207 MB to 148 MB. An
+> earlier change the same day (`../shrink-db.sql`) took it from 267 MB to 207 MB.
 
 ---
 
@@ -17,13 +30,20 @@ Everything below was read out of the live file, not inferred from code. Counts a
 
 | Table | Rows | What it is |
 |---|--:|---|
-| `Blogs` | 144,367 | The crawl registry — one row per known blog, plus crawl-state flags |
+| `Blogs` | 188,620 | The crawl registry — one row per known blog, plus crawl-state flags |
-| `Posts` | 14,589 | Stored post content. Only 3,602 blogs actually have any |
+| `Posts` | 22,468 | Stored post content. Only 3,867 blogs actually have any |
-| `Notes` | 1,189,604 | The engagement graph: `NoteBlogName` acted on `(RootBlogName, PostID)` |
+| `Notes` | 1,182,333 | The engagement graph: `NoteBlogId` acted on `(RootBlogId, PostID)` |
 
-The engagement graph is the interesting part. 31,888 distinct blogs appear as engagers —
+…supported by two lookup tables that exist only to keep `Notes` small:
-far more than the 3,602 that have stored posts — which is what makes this a social graph
+
-rather than a post archive.
+| Table | Rows | What it is |
+|---|--:|---|
+| `BlogNames` | 20,430 | `BlogId` ⇄ `BlogName`. The ID authority for everything in `Notes` |
+| `NoteTypes` | 5 | `TypeId` ⇄ `Type`. `like`, `reblog`, `reply`, `posted`, `post_attribution` |
+
+The engagement graph is the interesting part. 20,311 distinct blogs appear as engagers —
+far more than the 3,867 that have stored posts — which is what makes this a social graph
+rather than a post archive. Only 2,771 blogs appear as the *root* of a note.
 
 ### `Blogs`
 
@@ -42,23 +62,45 @@ CREATE TABLE "Blogs" (
     LikesLastRefreshed      INTEGER DEFAULT 0,
     LikesLastNewCount       INTEGER DEFAULT 0,
     TTFolderPath            TEXT,
+    BlogId                  INTEGER,
     PRIMARY KEY("BlogName")
 );
+
+CREATE INDEX ix_Blogs_BlogId ON Blogs (BlogId);
 ```
 
-`BlogName` is the primary key, so it is the only indexed way in. There is no index on any
+`BlogName` is the primary key, so it is the only indexed way in by name. There is no index
-flag or date — filtering or sorting on those scans all 144k rows, which is affordable
+on any flag or date — filtering or sorting on those scans all 188k rows, which is
-here and is not on `Notes`.
+affordable here and is not on `Notes`.
 
-Flag distribution: `IsActive = 1` on 144,366 of 144,367 rows, `HasBeenOutput = 1` on
+**`BlogId` is new as of 2026-08-07 and is the join key to `Notes`.** It exists so that
-5,369, `ByLikes = 1` on 2. `IsActive` carries a second meaning as of Rolodex — see
+`Notes` can reach `Blogs` in a single integer hop rather than going through `BlogNames`
+and ending in a text comparison:
+
+```sql
+-- what you want
+FROM Blogs B JOIN Notes N ON N.NoteBlogId = B.BlogId
+
+-- not this
+FROM Blogs B JOIN BlogNames BN ON BN.BlogName = B.BlogName
+             JOIN Notes N      ON N.NoteBlogId = BN.BlogId
+```
+
+**`BlogId` is NULL on 168,202 of 188,620 rows** — every blog that has never appeared in a
+note. That is the large majority, and it is not an error: the registry is far bigger than
+the engagement graph. An inner join on `BlogId` therefore silently drops those blogs,
+which is usually what you want for engagement queries and is wrong for registry listings.
+
+Flag distribution: `IsActive = 1` on 188,601 of 188,620 rows, `HasBeenOutput = 1` on
+5,059, `ByLikes = 1` on 2. `IsActive` carries a second meaning as of Rolodex — see
 [`Blogs.IsActive`](#blogsisactive--now-written-by-two-applications) below.
 
 The columns after `DateCreated` were added later by `ALTER TABLE`, which is why they carry
-no quoting in the stored DDL. That is the normal way this schema grows.
+no quoting in the stored DDL. That is the normal way this schema grows, and `BlogId` is
+the newest example.
 
-**`DateAdded` is not written consistently.** 126,423 rows hold ISO `yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss`;
+**`DateAdded` is not written consistently.** 170,677 rows hold ISO `yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss`;
-17,944 hold US-format `M/d/yy` from a bulk import. As text those two sort into different
+17,943 hold US-format `M/d/yy` from a bulk import. As text those two sort into different
 parts of the table, so anything ordering or range-filtering on this column has to
 normalise first — see `DateSql` in Rolodex.
 
@@ -100,74 +142,352 @@ CREATE TABLE "Posts" (
 );
 ```
 
-**The key is `(BlogName, PostID)`, not `PostID`.** This matters more than it looks: 325
+**The key is `(BlogName, PostID)`, not `PostID`.** This matters more than it looks: 345
 post IDs exist under more than one blog, so an ID on its own is both ambiguous *and*
 unindexed. Any lookup should carry the blog name, and a batch lookup should group by blog
 so it stays on the leading column of the key.
 
 Notable:
 
-- **`PostType` is `NULL` on all 14,589 rows.** The column exists but nothing has ever
+- **`PostType` is now mostly populated: 20,679 of 22,468 rows, leaving 1,789 `NULL`.**
-  populated it. Treat it as unpopulated rather than as a type discriminator.
+  This reverses what earlier revisions of this document said — the column really was empty
-- `HasImage = 1` on 14,268 rows — nearly all of them. It records that the post *had* a
+  on every row, and something has since started writing it. Anything that treated it as
-  picture, not that a usable URL was kept, so it is not a reliable predictor that anything
+  permanently unset, or derived the type from post content instead, should be re-examined
-  will render.
+  against the live data. Rolodex still derives it.
+- `HasImage = 1` on 14,026 rows. It records that the post *had* a picture, not that a
+  usable URL was kept, so it is not a reliable predictor that anything will render.
 - `PhotoURL` is largely unused; in practice the image markup lives inside `Body`.
-- `NotFound = 1` on 4,663 rows — posts that have since been deleted upstream.
+- `NotFound = 1` on 4,712 rows — posts that have since been deleted upstream.
 - The content columns (`Body`, `Quote`, `Question`, `Answer`, …) are the heavy ones. List
   views should not select them.
 
 ### `Notes`
 
 ```sql
-CREATE TABLE "Notes" (
+CREATE TABLE Notes (
-    "RootBlogName"    TEXT,
+    RootBlogId      INTEGER NOT NULL,
-    "PostID"          INTEGER,
+    PostID          INTEGER NOT NULL,
-    "NoteBlogName"    TEXT,
+    NoteBlogId      INTEGER NOT NULL,
-    "TimeStamp"       INTEGER,
+    TimeStamp       INTEGER NOT NULL,
-    "Type"            TEXT,
+    TypeId          INTEGER NOT NULL,
-    "replyText"       TEXT DEFAULT '.',
+    replyText       TEXT,
-    "DatetimeCrawled" TEXT DEFAULT '2/12/26 12am',
+    DatetimeCrawled TEXT,
-    "DateModified"    TEXT,
+    DateModified    TEXT,
-    "DateCreated"     TEXT,
+    DateCreated     TEXT,
-    PRIMARY KEY("RootBlogName","PostID","TimeStamp","Type","NoteBlogName")
+    IsActive        INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 1,
-);
+    PRIMARY KEY (RootBlogId, PostID, TimeStamp, TypeId, NoteBlogId)
+) WITHOUT ROWID;
 
-CREATE INDEX "Notes_idx_06e01ae3" ON "Notes" ("TimeStamp" DESC);
+CREATE INDEX ix_Notes_NoteBlogId ON Notes (NoteBlogId);
-CREATE INDEX "ix_NoteBlogName01"  ON "Notes" ("NoteBlogName");
 ```
 
+**Integer IDs since 2026-08-07 — this is the breaking change.** `RootBlogName`,
+`NoteBlogName` and `Type` are gone, replaced by `RootBlogId`, `NoteBlogId` and `TypeId`.
+Resolve them through [`BlogNames`](#blognames) and [`NoteTypes`](#notetypes), or join
+straight to `Blogs` on `BlogId`. The old names were text repeated on 1.18 million rows,
+in the table *and* in every index over it; the swap took the file from 207 MB to 148 MB.
+
+The **primary key column order is deliberately unchanged**, so the leading-prefix access
+patterns callers already depend on still hold: `(RootBlogId)` and `(RootBlogId, PostID)`
+remain cheap prefixes, exactly as `(RootBlogName)` and `(RootBlogName, PostID)` were.
+
+Two nulls-and-defaults differences from the old DDL, both intentional:
+
+- `replyText` and `DatetimeCrawled` **no longer carry column defaults**. The old table
+  defaulted them to `'.'` and `'2/12/26 12am'`, which is how 1.1M rows acquired
+  placeholder values nobody wrote. New rows now get `NULL` unless a writer supplies
+  something. The crawler names both columns explicitly, so its behaviour is unchanged.
+- The five key columns are now `NOT NULL`. They always were in practice.
+
+**`WITHOUT ROWID`, since earlier the same day.** The rows live in the primary key's
+b-tree rather than in a rowid table with a separate key index beside it. Two consequences
+matter before adding an index here:
+
+- There is no `rowid` on this table. `SELECT rowid FROM Notes` is an error, and no
+  code in any of the three apps relied on it.
+- A secondary index carries the whole five-column primary key as its row reference
+  instead of a compact rowid, so indexes here are **expensive** — though far less so
+  than before, now that the key is five integers rather than three integers and two
+  strings. `ix_Notes_NoteBlogId` costs 27 MB; its text predecessor cost 58 MB.
+
+**`Notes_idx_06e01ae3` on `TimeStamp DESC` was dropped at the same time.** It cost
+14 MB as a rowid index and would have cost 58 MB after the conversion. It was worth
+neither: the crawler's only `TimeStamp` filter (`>= 1535778000`) excludes 786 rows
+of 1.18M, Rolodex's default Notes sort carries a three-column tiebreaker that forces
+a full sort regardless, and the reply-matching `UPDATE` uses `ABS(TimeStamp - ?) <= 5`,
+which no index on `TimeStamp` can serve. The one path that got slower is Rolodex's
+Notes page with a date-range filter: 60 ms to 164 ms.
+
+See `../shrink-db.sql` for the full rationale and the applied result.
+
+**`DatetimeCrawled` is `NULL` on 1,148,077 rows, and that is the honest value.** Those
+rows previously stored the literal string `'2/12/26 12am'` — this column's own DDL
+default, written as a bulk backfill placeholder rather than as a crawl time. They were
+set to `NULL` on 2026-08-07, which is what consumers already displayed them as: the
+string parses as a date in neither format this schema writes.
+
+Note the trap: **the `DEFAULT '2/12/26 12am'` clause is still in the DDL above.** Any
+`INSERT` that omits this column writes the placeholder straight back. The crawler names
+it explicitly on every insert, so nothing reintroduces it today, but a new writer that
+forgets to would — which is why consumers should keep treating an unparseable value here
+as "unknown" rather than assuming `NULL` is now the only such marker.
+
 One row per engagement event. `TimeStamp` is **unix seconds** — unlike every date column
 elsewhere in the schema, which are text.
 
-| `Type` | Rows | Share |
+At 1.18M rows this is the table that dictates how the whole database has to be queried:
-|---|--:|--:|
-| `like` | 947,955 | 79.7% |
-| `reblog` | 224,323 | 18.9% |
-| `reply` | 15,201 | 1.3% |
-| `posted` | 2,106 | 0.2% |
-| `post_attribution` | 19 | — |
-
-At 1.19M rows this is the table that dictates how the whole database has to be queried:
 
 - **Nothing should run an unbounded `SELECT` or a bare `COUNT(*)` here.** A count scans
   the lot on every call.
-- The only fast access paths are the primary key's leading columns (`RootBlogName`, then
+- The only fast access paths are the primary key's leading columns (`RootBlogId`, then
-  `PostID`) and `ix_NoteBlogName01` on `NoteBlogName`. "Notes received by a blog" and
+  `PostID`) and `ix_Notes_NoteBlogId` on `NoteBlogId`. "Notes received by a blog" and
   "notes given by a blog" are both cheap; almost nothing else is.
-- Ordering by anything but `TimeStamp` is a full sort of whatever the filters leave.
+- **Every** ordering here is a full sort of whatever the filters leave, `TimeStamp`
-- `replyText` is `'.'` on 1,174,706 rows — only `reply` notes carry real text.
+  included. Filter first, then sort.
+- `replyText` is `'.'` on 1,167,464 rows — only `reply` notes carry real text. Those
+  dots are inherited from the old column default; new rows get `NULL` instead.
+
+**Resolve IDs by filtering the lookup, not by scanning `Notes`.** The lookup tables are
+tiny and uniquely indexed, so pushing a name predicate into them costs nothing and lets
+the `Notes` index do the work:
+
+```sql
+-- good: BlogNames resolves the name, then the index is searched
+SELECT * FROM Notes
+ WHERE NoteBlogId = (SELECT BlogId FROM BlogNames WHERE BlogName = ?);
+
+-- also good, same plan
+SELECT n.* FROM Notes n
+  JOIN BlogNames b ON b.BlogId = n.NoteBlogId
+ WHERE b.BlogName = ?;
+```
+
+### `BlogNames`
+
+```sql
+CREATE TABLE BlogNames (
+    BlogId   INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
+    BlogName TEXT NOT NULL UNIQUE
+);
+```
+
+20,430 rows — every name appearing in `Notes` as either participant, and nothing else.
+This is the **ID authority**: `Notes.RootBlogId` and `Notes.NoteBlogId` both point here,
+and `Blogs.BlogId` is a copy of the value for the blogs that have one.
+
+**12 of these names have no `Blogs` row.** The registry has never been a superset of the
+engagement graph and still is not, so resolving an ID through `Blogs` rather than
+`BlogNames` will occasionally find nothing. Use `BlogNames` when you need the name itself
+and `Blogs` when you need registry columns.
+
+IDs are assigned by SQLite and are **stable**: they are stored in over a million `Notes`
+rows. Never renumber them. A blog that is renamed upstream should get a new row, not an
+edit to an existing one, unless every `Notes` reference is migrated with it.
+
+### `NoteTypes`
+
+```sql
+CREATE TABLE NoteTypes (
+    TypeId INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
+    Type   TEXT NOT NULL UNIQUE
+);
+```
+
+| `TypeId` | `Type` | Rows | Share |
+|--:|---|--:|--:|
+| 1 | `like` | 945,167 | 79.9% |
+| 2 | `reblog` | 219,203 | 18.5% |
+| 3 | `reply` | 15,345 | 1.3% |
+| 4 | `posted` | 2,617 | 0.2% |
+| 5 | `post_attribution` | 1 | — |
+
+The set is fixed in practice, but it is a table rather than a `CHECK` constraint so that
+adding a type is an `INSERT` and not a schema migration. **The IDs above are stored in
+`Notes` and must not be reassigned.**
+
+Five rows means the lookup is effectively free; write `t.Type = 'reblog'` and let SQLite
+resolve it, or hardcode the ID if you prefer — both are fine, but hardcoding ties your
+code to this table's contents, so prefer the join in anything long-lived.
+
+---
+
+## Porting to the integer schema
+
+Everything here was checked against the live 148 MB file. There were 14 affected call
+sites in `DataAccess.cs` and 16 in `RolodexRepository.cs`. TumblThree needs no changes —
+its single statement touches `Blogs.IsActive` and `BlogName` only.
+
+**`DataAccess.cs` is ported.** All 14 sites now read the integer schema, `AddNote`
+registers names and types before inserting, and `verify-db-schema.sql` reports a
+pre-migration file rather than letting the app fail on it. `RolodexRepository.cs` lives in
+the [Rolodex](https://git.basso.land/jim/Rolodex) repository and is not covered by that
+work. One site was dropped rather than translated: the `LEFT JOIN Notes` in `GetPosts`
+selected nothing and was collapsed by the query's own `GROUP BY`, so it could not affect
+the result.
+
+### Column mapping
+
+| Was | Is now | Resolve via |
+|---|---|---|
+| `Notes.RootBlogName` | `Notes.RootBlogId` | `BlogNames.BlogId` → `.BlogName` |
+| `Notes.NoteBlogName` | `Notes.NoteBlogId` | `BlogNames.BlogId` → `.BlogName` |
+| `Notes.Type` | `Notes.TypeId` | `NoteTypes.TypeId` → `.Type` |
+| `ix_NoteBlogName01` | `ix_Notes_NoteBlogId` | — |
+
+`PostID`, `TimeStamp`, `replyText`, `DatetimeCrawled`, `DateModified`, `DateCreated` and
+`IsActive` are unchanged.
+
+### Filtering by a blog name
+
+```sql
+-- was
+WHERE NoteBlogName = @Name
+
+-- now, either form; both search ix_Notes_NoteBlogId after a unique-index lookup
+WHERE NoteBlogId = (SELECT BlogId FROM BlogNames WHERE BlogName = @Name)
+-- or
+JOIN BlogNames b ON b.BlogId = n.NoteBlogId WHERE b.BlogName = @Name
+```
+
+Measured 73 ms against 63 ms for the old text form on the busiest blog — the extra hop is
+a unique-index probe on a 20k-row table and does not show.
+
+### Joining `Notes` to `Blogs`
+
+This is the join to get right; it is the most common shape in both applications.
+
+```sql
+-- was
+FROM Blogs B INNER JOIN Notes N ON N.NoteBlogName = B.BlogName
+
+-- now: one integer hop, using the new Blogs.BlogId
+FROM Blogs B INNER JOIN Notes N ON N.NoteBlogId = B.BlogId
+```
+
+Do **not** route this through `BlogNames` — that adds a hop and ends in the text
+comparison the change was meant to remove.
+
+### Selecting a name back out
+
+```sql
+-- was
+SELECT NoteBlogName AS blogName, COUNT(*) FROM Notes ... GROUP BY NoteBlogName
+
+-- now
+SELECT bn.BlogName AS blogName, COUNT(*)
+  FROM Notes n JOIN BlogNames bn ON bn.BlogId = n.NoteBlogId
+ ... GROUP BY bn.BlogName
+```
+
+Group by `n.NoteBlogId` instead of `bn.BlogName` when you only need the name for display —
+grouping on the integer is cheaper and the name comes along for free.
+
+### Filtering by type
+
+```sql
+-- was
+WHERE type IN ('reblog', 'reply', 'posted')
+
+-- now
+WHERE TypeId IN (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type IN ('reblog','reply','posted'))
+-- or, equivalently
+JOIN NoteTypes t ON t.TypeId = n.TypeId WHERE t.Type IN ('reblog','reply','posted')
+```
+
+`WHERE TypeId IN (2,3,4)` also works and is marginally faster, but hardcodes this table's
+contents into application code. Prefer the lookup outside of hot paths.
+
+Note the negated form needs care: `type NOT IN ('reblog','reply','posted')` becomes
+`TypeId NOT IN (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type IN (...))`, which is correct only
+because `TypeId` is `NOT NULL`.
+
+### Inserting a note
+
+The crawler must ensure both names have IDs first. `INSERT OR IGNORE` on `BlogNames` is
+the whole of it — no read-back, no round trip, safe to run every time:
+
+```sql
+INSERT OR IGNORE INTO BlogNames (BlogName) VALUES (@rootBlogName);
+INSERT OR IGNORE INTO BlogNames (BlogName) VALUES (@noteBlogName);
+
+INSERT OR IGNORE INTO Notes
+       (RootBlogId, PostID, NoteBlogId, TimeStamp, TypeId,
+        DatetimeCrawled, DateModified, DateCreated)
+SELECT (SELECT BlogId FROM BlogNames WHERE BlogName = @rootBlogName),
+       @PostID,
+       (SELECT BlogId FROM BlogNames WHERE BlogName = @noteBlogName),
+       @TimeStamp,
+       (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type = @Type),
+       @DatetimeCrawled, @DateModified, @DateCreated;
+```
+
+Verified: a genuinely new note inserts, and re-running the identical statement inserts 0.
+Run all three statements in one transaction so a crash cannot leave a name registered
+with no note.
+
+**The duplicate-key error message has changed.** `DataAccess.cs` compares against the
+literal string
+
+```
+UNIQUE constraint failed: Notes.RootBlogName, Notes.PostID, Notes.TimeStamp, Notes.Type, Notes.NoteBlogName
+```
+
+at two call sites to decide whether to swallow an exception. SQLite now emits the *new*
+column names, so those comparisons no longer match and real errors will surface where
+they used to be silently ignored — or vice versa.
+
+Both sites now go through `IsNotesDuplicateKey` in `DataAccess.cs`, which matches on
+`UNIQUE constraint failed` plus `Notes.` rather than on the column list. A literal
+comparison is what broke here; the next rename should not break it again.
+
+### Updating notes
+
+Predicates translate the same way. The reply-matching update, which cannot use an index
+on `TimeStamp` either before or after:
+
+```sql
+-- now
+UPDATE Notes SET replyText = @replyText, DateModified = @dateModified
+ WHERE NoteBlogId = (SELECT BlogId FROM BlogNames WHERE BlogName = @noteBlogName)
+   AND ABS(TimeStamp - @TimeStamp) <= 5
+   AND TypeId = (SELECT TypeId FROM NoteTypes WHERE Type = 'reply')
+   AND (replyText IS NULL OR replyText = '' OR replyText = '.')
+   AND (replyText IS NULL OR replyText <> @replyText);
+```
+
+Rolodex's soft-delete updates need no change beyond the `WHERE` clause — they set
+`IsActive`, which is untouched.
+
+### Three traps
+
+**`Blogs.BlogId` is NULL on 168,202 of 188,620 rows.** Any inner join on it silently drops
+every blog that has never appeared in a note. Correct for engagement queries; wrong for
+registry listings, which need a `LEFT JOIN` or no join at all.
+
+**12 names in `BlogNames` have no `Blogs` row.** Resolving an ID to a name through `Blogs`
+will occasionally find nothing. Use `BlogNames` for names and `Blogs` for registry columns.
+
+**IDs are stable and must stay so.** `BlogNames.BlogId` and `NoteTypes.TypeId` are stored
+in over a million `Notes` rows. Never renumber. A blog renamed upstream gets a new row,
+not an edited one, unless every `Notes` reference migrates with it.
+
+---
 
 ### Referential integrity
 
 There are no foreign keys, and the tables do not perfectly agree:
 
 - 4 `Posts` rows name a blog with no `Blogs` row.
-- 15 of the 31,888 distinct engagers have no `Blogs` row.
+- 12 of the 20,430 names in `BlogNames` have no `Blogs` row.
 
 So a name appearing in `Notes` or `Posts` is not a guarantee that the registry knows about
 it. Joins from those tables back to `Blogs` should tolerate a miss.
 
+The integer schema does not fix this and was not meant to. `BlogNames` is deliberately
+built from `Notes` rather than from `Blogs`, precisely so that the 12 unregistered
+engagers keep their IDs and their rows. Had it been built from the registry, those notes
+would have been dropped by the migration's inner joins.
+
 ---
 
 ## The `'.'` placeholder convention
@@ -178,10 +498,14 @@ consumer.
 
 | Column | `'.'` rows |
 |---|--:|
-| `Notes.replyText` | 1,174,706 |
+| `Notes.replyText` | 1,167,464 |
-| `Posts.Title` | 13,144 |
+| `Posts.Title` | 12,562 |
 | `Posts.Body` | 172 |
 
+`Notes.replyText` and `Notes.DatetimeCrawled` **no longer carry column defaults** as of
+the integer migration, so new note rows get `NULL` rather than a placeholder. The dots
+already in `replyText` were not rewritten — cleaning is still required on read.
+
 Any query whose output reaches a human should collapse it:
 
 ```sql
@@ -214,9 +538,12 @@ Crawler bookkeeping. Rolodex ignores all of these.
 `DataAccess.cs` joins on it to decide what to collect:
 
 ```sql
-SELECT NoteBlogName, count(*) FROM notes
+-- shape only; the ported GetBlogs joins Blogs directly on BlogId and needs no BlogNames hop
-INNER JOIN blogs ON blogs.BlogName = notes.NoteBlogName
+SELECT bn.BlogName, count(*)
-WHERE blogs.IsActive = @isActive AND ...
+  FROM Notes n
+  JOIN Blogs     b  ON b.BlogId  = n.NoteBlogId
+  JOIN BlogNames bn ON bn.BlogId = n.NoteBlogId
+ WHERE b.IsActive = @isActive AND ...
 ```
 
 Nothing inside the crawler *writes* it — it is an input, set from outside.
@@ -262,12 +589,16 @@ under its Posts and Notes pages. Removing a blog hides the blog, not what it col
 
 ---
 
-## `Posts.IsActive` and `Notes.IsActive` — optional, and not in this database yet
+## `Posts.IsActive` and `Notes.IsActive` — present, and written from outside
 
-The same flag is being extended to the two content tables, with the same meaning: `0` is
+The same flag extends to the two content tables, with the same meaning: `0` is removed,
-removed, anything else — including `NULL` — is live. **Neither column exists in the live
+anything else — including `NULL` — is live. **Both columns now exist in the live `TL.db`**
-`TL.db` as of 2026-07-29**; the DDL quoted above for `Posts` and `Notes` is complete. Like
+and are included in the DDL quoted above. As of 2026-08-07, `Posts.IsActive = 0` on 5,900
-`Blogs.IsActive`, they are written from outside this crawler.
+rows and `Notes.IsActive = 0` on none. Like `Blogs.IsActive`, they are written from
+outside this crawler.
+
+On `Notes` the column is `INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 1`, so a `NULL` cannot occur there;
+`Posts` and `Blogs` are laxer, which is why the predicate below still uses `COALESCE`.
 
 The crawler therefore treats both as optional, and as nothing it owns:
 
@@ -307,11 +638,19 @@ handled:
 
 ```sql
 SELECT 'Blogs', COUNT(*) FROM Blogs
-UNION ALL SELECT 'Posts', COUNT(*) FROM Posts
+UNION ALL SELECT 'Posts',     COUNT(*) FROM Posts
-UNION ALL SELECT 'Notes', COUNT(*) FROM Notes;
+UNION ALL SELECT 'Notes',     COUNT(*) FROM Notes
+UNION ALL SELECT 'BlogNames', COUNT(*) FROM BlogNames;
 
--- note type mix
+-- note type mix (joins NoteTypes; Notes.Type no longer exists)
-SELECT Type, COUNT(*) FROM Notes GROUP BY Type ORDER BY 2 DESC;
+SELECT t.Type, COUNT(*)
+  FROM Notes n JOIN NoteTypes t ON t.TypeId = n.TypeId
+ GROUP BY t.Type ORDER BY 2 DESC;
+
+-- how much of the registry participates in the engagement graph
+SELECT COUNT(*) FILTER (WHERE BlogId IS NOT NULL) AS with_notes,
+       COUNT(*) FILTER (WHERE BlogId IS NULL)     AS without_notes
+  FROM Blogs;
 
 -- the two date shapes in Blogs.DateAdded
 SELECT CASE WHEN DateAdded LIKE '____-__-__%' THEN 'ISO' ELSE 'US' END, COUNT(*)
@@ -324,6 +663,13 @@ SELECT COUNT(*) FROM (
 -- rows that reference a blog the registry does not have
 SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Posts p
 WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM Blogs b WHERE b.BlogName = p.BlogName);
+
+SELECT COUNT(*) FROM BlogNames bn
+WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM Blogs b WHERE b.BlogName = bn.BlogName);
+
+-- space by object, to see where the file actually goes
+SELECT name, SUM(pgsize)/1024/1024 AS mb
+  FROM dbstat GROUP BY name ORDER BY SUM(pgsize) DESC;
 ```
 
 Open the file read-only so an inspection can never disturb a running crawl:

normalize-notes.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,143 @@
+-- normalize-notes.sql
+-- Replaces the repeated blog-name and type TEXT in Notes with integer IDs.
+-- Reduces TL.db from ~207 MB to ~148 MB (-29%).
+--
+-- THIS IS A BREAKING SCHEMA CHANGE. There is no compatibility layer. Every
+-- query in URLNotesGrabberCORE and Rolodex that names Notes.RootBlogName,
+-- Notes.NoteBlogName or Notes.Type stops working the moment this runs, and
+-- stays broken until those queries are rewritten. This was a deliberate choice
+-- over a view-plus-triggers shim, which was measured to work but cost 194 ms ->
+-- 321 ms on Rolodex's unfiltered Notes page.
+--
+-- TumblThree is unaffected. It touches only Blogs, and the column added to
+-- Blogs here is additive.
+--
+-- HOW TO RUN (DB Browser for SQLite):
+--   1. Stop all three apps. Pause NextCloud sync.
+--   2. Back up TL.db.
+--   3. Execute SQL, paste this file, run. Then Write Changes.
+--   4. Tools > Compact Database (VACUUM). Nothing shrinks until this finishes.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- The shape this produces
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+--   BlogNames(BlogId, BlogName)   the ID authority: every name appearing in
+--                                 Notes as either participant. 20,430 rows.
+--                                 12 of these have no Blogs row -- the
+--                                 registry has never been a superset of the
+--                                 engagement graph, and still is not.
+--
+--   NoteTypes(TypeId, Type)       5 rows. Fixed set, but written as a table
+--                                 rather than a CHECK so a new type is an
+--                                 INSERT and not a schema migration.
+--
+--   Notes(...Id columns...)       integer FKs in place of text. WITHOUT ROWID,
+--                                 same 5-column key in the same column order.
+--
+--   Blogs.BlogId                  NEW additive column. Lets Notes join Blogs in
+--                                 one integer hop instead of going through
+--                                 BlogNames and comparing text at the end.
+--                                 NULL on the 168,202 blogs with no notes.
+
+PRAGMA foreign_keys = off;
+
+BEGIN;
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- STEP 1: the ID authority
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+CREATE TABLE BlogNames (
+    BlogId   INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
+    BlogName TEXT NOT NULL UNIQUE
+);
+
+INSERT INTO BlogNames (BlogName)
+    SELECT RootBlogName FROM Notes
+    UNION
+    SELECT NoteBlogName FROM Notes;
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- STEP 2: the type lookup
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+CREATE TABLE NoteTypes (
+    TypeId INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
+    Type   TEXT NOT NULL UNIQUE
+);
+
+-- IDs are assigned explicitly and must stay stable: they are stored in Notes.
+INSERT INTO NoteTypes (TypeId, Type) VALUES
+    (1, 'like'),
+    (2, 'reblog'),
+    (3, 'reply'),
+    (4, 'posted'),
+    (5, 'post_attribution');
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- STEP 3: rebuild Notes with integer keys
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- Column order of the primary key is unchanged from the text version, so the
+-- leading-column access patterns callers already rely on still hold:
+-- (RootBlogId) and (RootBlogId, PostID) remain cheap prefixes.
+CREATE TABLE NotesN (
+    RootBlogId      INTEGER NOT NULL,
+    PostID          INTEGER NOT NULL,
+    NoteBlogId      INTEGER NOT NULL,
+    TimeStamp       INTEGER NOT NULL,
+    TypeId          INTEGER NOT NULL,
+    replyText       TEXT,
+    DatetimeCrawled TEXT,
+    DateModified    TEXT,
+    DateCreated     TEXT,
+    IsActive        INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 1,
+    PRIMARY KEY (RootBlogId, PostID, TimeStamp, TypeId, NoteBlogId)
+) WITHOUT ROWID;
+
+-- Inner joins are safe here: BlogNames was just built from these very columns,
+-- and NoteTypes covers all 5 values present. A row that failed to match would
+-- be silently dropped, which is what the row-count check at the bottom is for.
+INSERT INTO NotesN
+SELECT r.BlogId, n.PostID, b.BlogId, n.TimeStamp, t.TypeId,
+       n.replyText, n.DatetimeCrawled, n.DateModified, n.DateCreated, n.IsActive
+  FROM Notes n
+  JOIN BlogNames r ON r.BlogName = n.RootBlogName
+  JOIN BlogNames b ON b.BlogName = n.NoteBlogName
+  JOIN NoteTypes t ON t.Type     = n.Type;
+
+DROP TABLE Notes;
+ALTER TABLE NotesN RENAME TO Notes;
+
+-- Replaces ix_NoteBlogName01. Renamed because it indexes a different column now.
+CREATE INDEX ix_Notes_NoteBlogId ON Notes (NoteBlogId);
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- STEP 4: give Blogs the matching id
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- Additive: no existing column changes, so TumblThree's
+-- "UPDATE Blogs SET IsActive = 0 ... WHERE BlogName = ?" is untouched.
+ALTER TABLE Blogs ADD COLUMN BlogId INTEGER;
+
+UPDATE Blogs
+   SET BlogId = (SELECT bn.BlogId FROM BlogNames bn WHERE bn.BlogName = Blogs.BlogName);
+
+CREATE INDEX ix_Blogs_BlogId ON Blogs (BlogId);
+
+COMMIT;
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- STEP 5: Write Changes, then Tools > Compact Database
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- From the CLI instead:  sqlite3 TL.db "VACUUM;"
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- VERIFY
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- PRAGMA integrity_check;                         -- expect: ok
+-- SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Notes;                     -- expect: 1182333, unchanged
+-- SELECT COUNT(*) FROM BlogNames;                 -- expect: 20430
+-- SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Blogs WHERE BlogId IS NOT NULL;   -- expect: 20418
+--
+-- Losslessness was proven before this ran, by reconstructing the old text shape
+-- from the new schema and diffing it against the original both ways:
+--   SELECT COUNT(*) FROM (SELECT * FROM old.Notes EXCEPT SELECT * FROM Rebuilt);
+--   SELECT COUNT(*) FROM (SELECT * FROM Rebuilt EXCEPT SELECT * FROM old.Notes);
+-- Both returned 0 across all 1,182,333 rows and all 10 columns.

shrink-db.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,159 @@
+-- shrink-db.sql
+-- Reduces TL.db from ~267 MB to ~207 MB (-22%) with no application changes,
+-- and no visible change in any of the three apps that touch this file.
+--
+-- The three consumers, and what each one uses:
+--   URLNotesGrabberCORE  System.Data.SQLite 1.0.119  writes Notes, Posts, Blogs
+--   Rolodex (web)        Microsoft.Data.Sqlite 10.0  reads all three; soft-deletes via IsActive
+--   TumblThree           System.Data.SQLite.Core 1.0.119
+--                        one statement only, ManagerController.cs:972 --
+--                        "UPDATE Blogs SET IsActive = 0, DateModified = @DateModified
+--                         WHERE BlogName = @BlogName"
+--                        Nothing below touches the Blogs table, so TumblThree is
+--                        unaffected. (Its GlobalDatabaseService talks to TumblThree's
+--                        own separate FileEntries/BlogFiles database, not this file.)
+--
+-- WITHOUT ROWID needs SQLite >= 3.8.2 (Dec 2013). All three providers above are
+-- 2024-25 builds, an order of magnitude newer, so STEP 2 is readable by all of them.
+--
+-- Every figure below was measured on a copy of the live 267 MB file, and the
+-- result was checked against all three apps' access patterns:
+--   PRAGMA integrity_check ....... ok
+--   row counts ................... Notes 1182333, Posts 22468, Blogs 188620 (unchanged)
+--   Rolodex soft-delete UPDATE ... works
+--   Rolodex NoteBlogName filter .. still uses ix_NoteBlogName01
+--   crawler INSERT OR IGNORE ..... still dedupes (0 dupes admitted)
+--   TumblThree's UPDATE Blogs ..... untouched -- Blogs is not modified by this script
+--
+-- HOW TO RUN (DB Browser for SQLite):
+--   1. Stop ALL THREE apps: the crawler, the Rolodex web app, and TumblThree.
+--      Rolodex holds the file open and checkpoints the WAL, so it must be down,
+--      not just idle. TumblThree only opens the file for an instant when you
+--      delete a blog, but it can also launch the crawler on its own
+--      (UrlNotesGrabberService) -- so close it rather than merely avoiding it.
+--   2. Back up TL.db (copy the 267 MB file somewhere safe).
+--   3. Open TL.db, go to Execute SQL, paste STEP 1-3, run.
+--   4. Click "Write Changes".
+--   5. Run Tools > Compact Database. This is VACUUM; it will not run from the
+--      Execute SQL tab because DB Browser keeps a transaction open there.
+--      NOTHING SHRINKS ON DISK UNTIL THIS FINISHES.
+--
+-- Expected: steps 1-3 a couple of minutes, Compact a couple more.
+-- Free disk needed during Compact: ~270 MB for the temp copy.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- STEP 1: drop the TimeStamp index          (required by STEP 2, not optional)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- Measured cost/benefit:
+--
+--   * Rolodex's DEFAULT Notes view does not use it. Its sort carries the
+--     tiebreaker "RootBlogName, PostID, NoteBlogName", which forces a full sort
+--     regardless -- the query plan is byte-identical with and without the index.
+--     Sorting.cs:138 already assumes as much, and is right in practice.
+--   * The crawler's collect query (DataAccess.cs:1183) filters
+--     TimeStamp >= 1535778000, which excludes 786 of 1,182,333 rows (0.07%).
+--     A full index scan wearing a disguise. Same measured time without it.
+--   * The reply-matching UPDATE uses ABS(TimeStamp - ?) <= 5, which can never
+--     use an index on TimeStamp.
+--   * It DOES help exactly one path: Rolodex's Notes page with a date-range
+--     filter applied. 60 ms -> 164 ms. That is the whole of what is lost.
+--
+-- And it must go, because after STEP 2 it stops being cheap. A secondary index
+-- on a WITHOUT ROWID table carries the full 5-column primary key instead of a
+-- compact rowid, so this index grows 14 MB -> 58 MB. Keeping it lands the file
+-- at 265 MB instead of 207 MB -- i.e. it cancels the entire exercise to save
+-- 100 ms on one filtered view.
+
+DROP INDEX IF EXISTS Notes_idx_06e01ae3;
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- STEP 2: rebuild Notes as WITHOUT ROWID                       (-32 MB)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- Notes has a 5-column composite primary key. In a rowid table SQLite stores
+-- that key twice: once in the table, once in sqlite_autoindex_Notes_1 (62 MB).
+-- WITHOUT ROWID stores the rows *in* the key's b-tree, so the copy disappears.
+--
+-- ix_NoteBlogName01 grows 25 -> 58 MB for the reason described above. Net -32 MB.
+-- It is kept because Rolodex filters on NoteBlogName and the crawler joins on it.
+--
+-- Safe: neither codebase references rowid on Notes (grep across both trees,
+-- zero matches). IsActive keeps its exact current declaration, which is what
+-- Rolodex's ActiveFlag predicate reads.
+
+PRAGMA foreign_keys = off;
+
+CREATE TABLE Notes_new (
+    "RootBlogName"      TEXT,
+    "PostID"            INTEGER,
+    "NoteBlogName"      TEXT,
+    "TimeStamp"         INTEGER,
+    "Type"              TEXT,
+    "replyText"         TEXT DEFAULT '.',
+    "DatetimeCrawled"   TEXT DEFAULT '2/12/26 12am',
+    "DateModified"      TEXT,
+    "DateCreated"       TEXT,
+    IsActive            INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 1,
+    PRIMARY KEY("RootBlogName","PostID","TimeStamp","Type","NoteBlogName")
+) WITHOUT ROWID;
+
+INSERT INTO Notes_new
+SELECT RootBlogName, PostID, NoteBlogName, TimeStamp, Type,
+       replyText, DatetimeCrawled, DateModified, DateCreated, IsActive
+  FROM Notes;
+
+DROP TABLE Notes;
+ALTER TABLE Notes_new RENAME TO Notes;
+
+CREATE INDEX "ix_NoteBlogName01" ON "Notes" ("NoteBlogName");
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- STEP 3: clear the DatetimeCrawled placeholder                (-13 MB)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- 1,148,077 of 1,182,333 rows hold the literal DDL default '2/12/26 12am' --
+-- a backfill placeholder, not a crawl time. SQLite stores all 12 bytes of it
+-- on every one of those rows.
+--
+-- This is UI-NEUTRAL in Rolodex, which is why it is safe despite Rolodex
+-- displaying the column. Rolodex reads and sorts it through DateSql.Sortable
+-- (DateRange.cs:67), whose CASE matches '____-__-__%' or the 8-character
+-- '__/__/__'. The 12-character '2/12/26 12am' matches neither, so Sortable
+-- already returns NULL for these rows and the page already renders an em dash
+-- and sorts them to the bottom. RolodexRepository.cs:957-963 documents exactly
+-- this. Writing a real NULL changes the bytes on disk, not the screen.
+--
+-- The crawler never reads the column back -- it only writes it on INSERT
+-- (DataAccess.cs:713, 721).
+
+UPDATE Notes SET DatetimeCrawled = NULL WHERE DatetimeCrawled = '2/12/26 12am';
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- DELIBERATELY NOT DONE: nulling Notes.DateCreated
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- An earlier draft of this script also cleared DateCreated = '2026-04-13'
+-- (a further -12 MB). Do not. Unlike DatetimeCrawled, that value DOES match
+-- Sortable's '____-__-__%' branch, so Rolodex renders it as a real date in the
+-- "Created" column on the Notes page and Post detail, and sorts by it. Nulling
+-- it would turn visible dates into em dashes and move rows in the sort order.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- STEP 4: Write Changes, then Tools > Compact Database
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- Nothing above reclaims disk until VACUUM runs. From the sqlite3 CLI instead:
+--     sqlite3 TL.db "VACUUM;"
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- VERIFY (run after compacting; file should be ~207 MB)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- PRAGMA integrity_check;
+--
+-- SELECT 'Notes' t, COUNT(*) n FROM Notes
+-- UNION ALL SELECT 'Posts', COUNT(*) FROM Posts
+-- UNION ALL SELECT 'Blogs', COUNT(*) FROM Blogs;
+--   -- expect 1182333 / 22468 / 188620, unchanged
+--
+-- SELECT name, SUM(pgsize)/1024/1024 AS mb
+--   FROM dbstat GROUP BY name ORDER BY SUM(pgsize) DESC;
+--   -- expect Notes 78, ix_NoteBlogName01 58, Posts 50, Blogs 14
+--
+-- APPLIED 2026-08-07. Actual result: 267.32 MB -> 207.17 MB, integrity_check ok,
+-- row counts unchanged, journal_mode still wal. VACUUM took 6 seconds.

verify-db-schema.sql

@@ -79,18 +79,35 @@ WITH expected(tbl, col, alter_stmt) AS (
     ('Blogs','LikesLastRefreshed',    'ALTER TABLE Blogs ADD COLUMN LikesLastRefreshed INTEGER DEFAULT 0;'),
     ('Blogs','LikesLastNewCount',     'ALTER TABLE Blogs ADD COLUMN LikesLastNewCount INTEGER DEFAULT 0;'),
     ('Blogs','TTFolderPath',          'ALTER TABLE Blogs ADD COLUMN TTFolderPath TEXT;'),
+    -- Blogs.BlogId (2026-08-07) is the single-hop join key into Notes. Deliberately NOT
+    -- auto-fixable: an added-but-empty BlogId makes every engagement join return zero
+    -- rows silently, which is worse than the hard error a missing column gives.
+    ('Blogs','BlogId',                'MANUAL REVIEW - see query 1d: run normalize-notes.sql'),
 
     -- Notes (base columns: manual review if missing)
-    ('Notes','RootBlogName',          'MANUAL REVIEW - base/PK column missing'),
+    -- Integer IDs since 2026-08-07. RootBlogName/NoteBlogName/Type are GONE, not renamed
+    -- in place -- a backup that still has them needs normalize-notes.sql, not an ALTER.
+    -- Query 1d below reports exactly that case.
+    ('Notes','RootBlogId',            'MANUAL REVIEW - see query 1d: pre-2026-08-07 name schema, or damaged'),
     ('Notes','PostID',                'MANUAL REVIEW - base/PK column missing'),
-    ('Notes','NoteBlogName',          'MANUAL REVIEW - base/PK column missing'),
+    ('Notes','NoteBlogId',            'MANUAL REVIEW - see query 1d: pre-2026-08-07 name schema, or damaged'),
     ('Notes','TimeStamp',             'MANUAL REVIEW - base/PK column missing'),
-    ('Notes','Type',                  'MANUAL REVIEW - base/PK column missing'),
+    ('Notes','TypeId',                'MANUAL REVIEW - see query 1d: pre-2026-08-07 name schema, or damaged'),
     ('Notes','DatetimeCrawled',       'MANUAL REVIEW - base column missing'),
     ('Notes','DateModified',          'MANUAL REVIEW - base column missing'),
     ('Notes','DateCreated',           'MANUAL REVIEW - base column missing'),
     -- Notes (additive migration column, auto-fixable)
-    ('Notes','replyText',             'ALTER TABLE Notes ADD COLUMN replyText TEXT DEFAULT ''.'';'),
+    -- No DEFAULT: the migrated schema dropped it, so new rows get NULL rather than a
+    -- placeholder. EnsureReplyTextColumnExists in DataAccess.cs adds it the same way.
+    ('Notes','replyText',             'ALTER TABLE Notes ADD COLUMN replyText TEXT;'),
+
+    -- BlogNames / NoteTypes (the lookup tables Notes resolves its IDs through, 2026-08-07).
+    -- Not auto-fixable: an empty BlogNames does not mean "add the table", it means the
+    -- Notes rows have nothing to resolve against. Rebuild with normalize-notes.sql.
+    ('BlogNames','BlogId',            'MANUAL REVIEW - see query 1d: run normalize-notes.sql'),
+    ('BlogNames','BlogName',          'MANUAL REVIEW - see query 1d: run normalize-notes.sql'),
+    ('NoteTypes','TypeId',            'MANUAL REVIEW - see query 1d: run normalize-notes.sql'),
+    ('NoteTypes','Type',              'MANUAL REVIEW - see query 1d: run normalize-notes.sql'),
 
     -- DailyAPICount (base columns)
     ('DailyAPICount','Date',          'MANUAL REVIEW - base/PK column missing'),
@@ -106,6 +123,8 @@ actual(tbl, col) AS (
   SELECT 'Posts',           name FROM pragma_table_info('Posts')
   UNION ALL SELECT 'Blogs',           name FROM pragma_table_info('Blogs')
   UNION ALL SELECT 'Notes',           name FROM pragma_table_info('Notes')
+  UNION ALL SELECT 'BlogNames',       name FROM pragma_table_info('BlogNames')
+  UNION ALL SELECT 'NoteTypes',       name FROM pragma_table_info('NoteTypes')
   UNION ALL SELECT 'DailyAPICount',   name FROM pragma_table_info('DailyAPICount')
   UNION ALL SELECT 'ApiKeyPoolState', name FROM pragma_table_info('ApiKeyPoolState')
   UNION ALL SELECT 'ApiKeyPoolMeta',  name FROM pragma_table_info('ApiKeyPoolMeta')
@@ -127,7 +146,7 @@ ORDER BY (e.alter_stmt LIKE 'ALTER%') DESC, e.tbl, e.col;
 -- 1b. MISSING TABLES: expected tables that don't exist at all in this DB.
 --     Zero rows = good.
 WITH expected_tables(tbl) AS (
-  VALUES ('Posts'),('Blogs'),('Notes'),('DailyAPICount'),
+  VALUES ('Posts'),('Blogs'),('Notes'),('BlogNames'),('NoteTypes'),('DailyAPICount'),
          ('ApiKeyPoolState'),('ApiKeyPoolMeta')
 )
 SELECT et.tbl AS missing_table
@@ -157,10 +176,12 @@ WITH expected(tbl, col) AS (
     ('Blogs','BlogName'),('Blogs','HasBeenOutput'),('Blogs','IsActive'),('Blogs','DateAdded'),
     ('Blogs','ByLikes'),('Blogs','DateModified'),('Blogs','DateCreated'),('Blogs','LikesPulled'),
     ('Blogs','LikesCursor'),('Blogs','LikesNewestTimestamp'),('Blogs','LikesLastRefreshed'),
-    ('Blogs','LikesLastNewCount'),('Blogs','TTFolderPath'),
+    ('Blogs','LikesLastNewCount'),('Blogs','TTFolderPath'),('Blogs','BlogId'),
-    ('Notes','RootBlogName'),('Notes','PostID'),('Notes','NoteBlogName'),('Notes','TimeStamp'),
+    ('Notes','RootBlogId'),('Notes','PostID'),('Notes','NoteBlogId'),('Notes','TimeStamp'),
-    ('Notes','Type'),('Notes','DatetimeCrawled'),('Notes','DateModified'),('Notes','DateCreated'),
+    ('Notes','TypeId'),('Notes','DatetimeCrawled'),('Notes','DateModified'),('Notes','DateCreated'),
     ('Notes','replyText'),('Notes','IsActive'),
+    ('BlogNames','BlogId'),('BlogNames','BlogName'),
+    ('NoteTypes','TypeId'),('NoteTypes','Type'),
     ('DailyAPICount','Date'),('DailyAPICount','APICount'),
     ('ApiKeyPoolState','KeyName'),('ApiKeyPoolState','RetryUntil'),
     ('ApiKeyPoolMeta','Id'),('ApiKeyPoolMeta','LastIndex')
@@ -169,6 +190,8 @@ actual(tbl, col) AS (
   SELECT 'Posts',           name FROM pragma_table_info('Posts')
   UNION ALL SELECT 'Blogs',           name FROM pragma_table_info('Blogs')
   UNION ALL SELECT 'Notes',           name FROM pragma_table_info('Notes')
+  UNION ALL SELECT 'BlogNames',       name FROM pragma_table_info('BlogNames')
+  UNION ALL SELECT 'NoteTypes',       name FROM pragma_table_info('NoteTypes')
   UNION ALL SELECT 'DailyAPICount',   name FROM pragma_table_info('DailyAPICount')
   UNION ALL SELECT 'ApiKeyPoolState', name FROM pragma_table_info('ApiKeyPoolState')
   UNION ALL SELECT 'ApiKeyPoolMeta',  name FROM pragma_table_info('ApiKeyPoolMeta')
@@ -181,6 +204,25 @@ WHERE e.col IS NULL
 ORDER BY a.tbl, a.col;
 
 
+-- 1d. PRE-MIGRATION DATABASE: a backup from before 2026-08-07, when Notes still
+--     stored names. Zero rows = good.
+--
+--     This is the one failure SECTION 2 cannot fix. Notes.RootBlogName /
+--     NoteBlogName / Type were replaced by RootBlogId / NoteBlogId / TypeId
+--     resolving through BlogNames and NoteTypes -- a data migration, not an
+--     ADD COLUMN. There is no compatibility view, so the current code fails
+--     outright ("no such column: RootBlogId") against such a file.
+--
+--     Fix: run normalize-notes.sql against a COPY of the backup, then re-run
+--     SECTION 1. Do not hand-add the ID columns: they would be empty, and an
+--     empty NoteBlogId is indistinguishable from a note by blog #0.
+SELECT 'Notes still stores names -- run normalize-notes.sql on a copy' AS pre_migration_schema,
+       group_concat(name, ', ')                                        AS legacy_columns_found
+FROM pragma_table_info('Notes')
+WHERE lower(name) IN ('rootblogname','noteblogname','type')
+HAVING COUNT(*) > 0;
+
+
 -- ============================================================================
 -- SECTION 2  --  FIX (opt-in, additive only)
 --
@@ -190,6 +232,9 @@ ORDER BY a.tbl, a.col;
 -- "duplicate column name" error and changes nothing -- just run the flagged
 -- subset. These are the 8 additive migration columns and nothing else; the
 -- likes high-water-mark reset is intentionally NOT included.
+--
+-- Nothing here addresses query 1d. The Notes integer schema is a data migration
+-- (normalize-notes.sql) and cannot be reached by adding columns.
 -- ============================================================================
 
 -- ALTER TABLE Posts ADD COLUMN PostType TEXT;
@@ -199,4 +244,4 @@ ORDER BY a.tbl, a.col;
 -- ALTER TABLE Blogs ADD COLUMN LikesLastRefreshed INTEGER DEFAULT 0;
 -- ALTER TABLE Blogs ADD COLUMN LikesLastNewCount INTEGER DEFAULT 0;
 -- ALTER TABLE Blogs ADD COLUMN TTFolderPath TEXT;
--- ALTER TABLE Notes ADD COLUMN replyText TEXT DEFAULT '.';
+-- ALTER TABLE Notes ADD COLUMN replyText TEXT;