fix(generation): stop catalog fill spinning on placeholder tools

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What changed

• Catalog batch selection now treats placeholder the same as failed after 3 attempts, so Generate can finish when tools never become displayable.
• faceReading always persists { placeholder: true } even with a photo on file. After PR feat(profile): persist every catalog report on Generate #68, that left faceReading in pendingToolSlugs forever and the client hit “Report generation timed out. Try Generate again.” after 80 batches.
• Palmistry/Hellenistic/KP and similar fallbacks that return placeholders had the same retry loop.

Why this change is safe

• Root cause identified: isCatalogSlugExhausted only checked state === 'failed'. Placeholders are classified separately and never exhaust, so selectRunnableCatalogSlugs keeps re-picking them and catalogFillComplete stays false.
• Scope is focused (exhaustion helper + tests; no persist/hash/billing changes).
• Risk areas reviewed: Generate / catalog fill only. Failed slugs still retry 3 times. Placeholders still retry until the same cap (covers transient palmistry API failures). Distinct from open fix(generation): refill catalog after birth-data hash change #69 (hash skip-fill), fix(generation): do not advance profile hash without natal regen #71 (hash advance without natal), Fix stale tool reports after birth-data regeneration #53/Fix on-demand persist reverting profile hash after concurrent generate #57/Fix on-demand tool persist unlocking in-flight natal generate #58 persist races, Fix double credit debit when mystical regen races the generation lock #31 debit-before-lock.

Verification

• pnpm exec eslint on lib/catalogBatchSelection.ts, tests/unit/fillCatalogReportsClient.test.ts, tests/integration/generate-catalog-batch.test.ts (0 errors)
• pnpm run lint:security passed
• pnpm test — 73 suites / 397 tests passed
• Playwright smoke (not required; no UI/routing change)

Regression prevention

• Unit tests: skip exhausted placeholders, keep retrying until the cap, empty batch when only placeholders remain.
• Integration test: generate-catalog-batch returns catalogFillComplete: true without generating when faceReading is an exhausted placeholder.
• Existing failed-slug skip behavior unchanged.

Release checklist (solo-friendly)

• CI is green:
  • CI / Lint + Jest
  • CI / Playwright smoke
• Ready to merge to main.
• Post-merge: Generate Full Report with photos should complete instead of timing out after catalog fill; Face Reading can remain a non-ready placeholder without blocking /tools.

  

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Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated
future-seer	Ready	Preview	Sep 7, 2026 11:13am UTC