fix(regional): keep impossible compact article dates unknown

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 - Tool string length validation counts Unicode characters correctly, including characters outside the basic multilingual plane.
 
 - Director timeline seeks cross the dateline along the short longitude arc.
+- Regional articles retain unknown publication times when compact source dates do not identify a real calendar instant.
 
 - Treat explicitly current, complete empty vessel coverage as a successful update,
   clearing obsolete contacts while retaining stale or incomplete snapshots.

docs/CURRENT-STATE.md

@@ -5326,3 +5326,8 @@ datacenters, dams and the Nepal locator retain that shared credit while displaye
 
 Military fragments stitch by source identity. Different mapped parcels merge only
 when their footprints touch or contain one another, never across a seam tolerance gap.
+
+
+### fix(regional): keep impossible compact article dates unknown
+
+Round-trip compact timestamps through a valid Date and retain the article with an unknown timestamp when its source date is impossible. Valid compact and ordinary ISO output formats are preserved.

src/data/regional-calendar-evidence.test.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+import test from 'node:test';
+import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
+import { normalizeRegionalArticles } from './regionalModel.js';
+test('compact source dates must denote an actual calendar instant', () => {
+  for (const date of [
+    '20260230T120000Z',
+    '20260431T120000Z',
+    '20261301T120000Z',
+    '20260716T240000Z',
+    '20260716T126000Z',
+    '20260716T120060Z',
+  ]) {
+    const [article] = normalizeRegionalArticles({
+      articles: [
+        {
+          title: 'Fixture',
+          url: 'https://fixture.example/news',
+          seendate: date,
+        },
+      ],
+    });
+    assert.equal(article.publishedAt, null, date);
+    assert.equal(article.title, 'Fixture');
+  }
+  for (const [input, expected] of [
+    ['20240229T004500Z', '2024-02-29T00:45:00Z'],
+    ['20260716T000000Z', '2026-07-16T00:00:00Z'],
+    ['2026-07-16T12:00:00Z', '2026-07-16T12:00:00.000Z'],
+  ]) {
+    assert.equal(
+      normalizeRegionalArticles({
+        articles: [
+          {
+            title: 'Fixture',
+            url: 'https://fixture.example/news',
+            seendate: input,
+          },
+        ],
+      })[0].publishedAt,
+      expected,
+    );
+  }
+});

src/data/regionalModel.js

@@ -67,11 +67,20 @@ export function normalizeRegionalArticles(payload, limit = MAX_ARTICLES) {
     seen.add(signature);
     const rawDate = cleanText(row?.seendate, 32);
     const compactDate = /^(\d{8})T(\d{6})Z$/.exec(rawDate);
-    const publishedAt = compactDate
+    const candidateDate = compactDate
       ? `${compactDate[1].slice(0, 4)}-${compactDate[1].slice(4, 6)}-${compactDate[1].slice(6, 8)}T${compactDate[2].slice(0, 2)}:${compactDate[2].slice(2, 4)}:${compactDate[2].slice(4, 6)}Z`
-      : Number.isNaN(Date.parse(rawDate))
+      : rawDate;
-        ? null
+    const parsedMs = Date.parse(candidateDate);
-        : new Date(rawDate).toISOString();
+    const validDate =
+      Number.isFinite(parsedMs) &&
+      (!compactDate ||
+        new Date(parsedMs).toISOString().slice(0, 19) ===
+          candidateDate.slice(0, 19));
+    const publishedAt = validDate
+      ? compactDate
+        ? candidateDate
+        : new Date(parsedMs).toISOString()
+      : null;
     articles.push({
       title,
       url,