Prototype native Diplomat base-defense copying

Allow one committed Worthless to copy an opposing base Shield or Snooper when no actual defense is played, including protection of the selected native trained leader. Expose an optional named public choice after both plans reveal, before traitor calls, and show the activated protection in revealed plans. Discard the chosen physical Worthless once after battle, including winner and traitor-preempted outcomes. Original physical card identities and plans stay intact. Timing and explicit-discard precedence are documented implementation inferences; lower retreat, modified defenses, combined modes and public starts remain guarded.

Reuse legal Worthless planning candidates and add a public-information decision path for all four AI profiles. Bind new battle choices to revealed plans, public skill stance, canonical card custody and an independent event, validate saved continuations before reads/actions, omit internal proof fields from views, and retain unmarked legacy-battle behavior. Independent rules/privacy/persistence review found no blocker.

Validation: focused Diplomat rules/UI/bot/JSON/SQLite checks plus 80 related legacy checks passed; typecheck, lint, 4537 offline tests, production build and 43 HTTP tests passed. Concurrent copy versus decline, stale/corrupt decisions, self-protection and mandatory traitor-winner discard are covered. Browser genuine assignment and a conserved staged battle exercised human plan submission, refresh of the pending choice, actual Snooper copying with Baliset, Hasimir survival, exactly one Baliset discard, ordinary Crysknife retention and final refresh with private cards and four board forces, fifteen reserves, one Tank and eight spice. Basic/Advanced four-profile samples completed in 210/223 actions with six/seven JSON restores and no rejected candidates; neither encountered an eligible copy, so targeted checks establish the effect.

The server was healthy after the power outage. All 563 opening rooms and original seat/recovery records were preserved (597 after QA/HTTP); SQLite integrity and foreign keys passed. No restart, reset or automation was needed.

Verified source tree: 868bb7484cef244e6ab20f8d08d62e118629e257870cf91a436bf42651b968f5

docs/RULE_DECISIONS.md

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ Updated 13 September 2026. This is the authoritative navigation index for existi
 | Spice Banker battle spending | Secret own-spice commitment is separate from support; only the surviving selected disc gains strength. Core Battle Plan payment rules spend it on death/loss and waive it for a sole traitor-call winner. This payment composition is explicit; upper deferred-income custody remains pending. | [Source contract and prototype](SPICE_BANKER_RUNTIME.md) |
 | Smuggler shipping | Optional free companion is included in the actual total; apply Guild rounding to the reduced priced count. Ordinary Fremen reserves are on planet. The officially permitted owned No-Field plus a separate free force is now prototyped at the unchanged one-marker price. Legacy unstamped ordinary declarations keep their quoted full price. | [Ordinary contract](SMUGGLER_SHIPMENT.md), [No-Field combination](SMUGGLER_NO_FIELD.md) |
 | Sandmaster movement | One optional board spice per distinct entered territory on an explicit legal route; source-only repositioning earns none. Per-movement Hajr reset is a documented grammatical inference. Canceled moves earn nothing; multiple-pile collection remains guarded. | [Source and connected prototype](SANDMASTER_MOVEMENT.md) |
+| Diplomat defense | With no actual defense, one physical Worthless card in either Battle Plan slot may copy the opponent's canonical base Shield or Snooper. The same native trained disc may protect itself. The public after-reveal/before-traitor choice and mandatory discard after traitor preemption are documented implementation inferences. Lower retreat and modified or multirole defenses remain guarded. | [Source and connected prototype](DIPLOMAT_DEFENSE.md) |
 | Leader battle effects | Rihani normal peek and reshuffle precede a separate committed optional draw; ordering is an explicit printed-order inference. Unused excludes actual calls, not mere disclosure. Mentat/Bureaucrat change scores; Sandmaster adds board spice. Multiple piles and Face Dancer composition stay guarded. | [Source contract and prototype](LEADER_BATTLE_EFFECTS.md) |
 | Source and readiness | Separate published rules, explicit implementation choices and unfinished interpretations; Advanced/expansion gates stay closed. | [Base/Advanced audit](BASE_ADVANCED_READINESS_20260907.md), [checklist](../game/reference.ts) |
 | Setup and Fremen movement | Preserve source-ordered setup and the distinct declared-movement cancellation; do not recreate fixed historical gaps. | [Setup contract](ADVANCED_SETUP_TEST_SEAM.md), [Fremen Karama](FREMEN_MOVEMENT_KARAMA_RULES.md) |
@@ -20,7 +21,7 @@ Updated 13 September 2026. This is the authoritative navigation index for existi
 | Expansion Nexus families | Source audit coverage does not imply every panel is playable; consult later runtime records in the status log. | [Ixian Cunning](NEXUS_IXIAN_CUNNING_RULES.md), [Ixian replacement](NEXUS_IXIAN_REPLACEMENT_RULES.md), [Tleilaxu](NEXUS_TLEILAXU_RULES.md), [CHOAM](NEXUS_CHOAM_RULES.md), [Richese](NEXUS_RICHESE_RULES.md), [Ecaz](NEXUS_ECAZ_RULES.md), [Moritani](NEXUS_MORITANI_RULES.md) |
 | CHOAM Secret Ally | Absent-faction Collection trade spends one actual Worthless card and the Nexus for two bank spice. It is separate from native Cunning and Auditor; the battle inspection alternative remains missing. | [Prototype contract](NEXUS_CHOAM_SECRET_ALLY.md) |
 | Sapho movement | At a clean boundary, first reorders only remaining unstarted turns; completed turns stay completed. Advanced Guild must have finished or be absent. Last retains existing protection after Guild. | [Existing source contract](JUICE_OF_SAPHO_SOURCE_UPDATE.md#movement-firstlast), [runtime](JUICE_OF_SAPHO_RUNTIME.md) |
-| Leader Skills | Fourteen physical cards, variant setup order, public/hidden assignment, death return, own-leader revival and captured lower-band effects are sourced. Five battle disciplines, Planetologist movement/Special substitution, Suk Graduate rescues and common lifecycle are prototyped; Rihani, lower Mentat/Bureaucrat/Sandmaster and normal Smuggler now have connected follow-ups. Remaining bands and combinations stay missing. Known skilled capture identifies the leader through its unique public card. | [Source contract](LEADER_SKILLS_RULES.md), [capture inference](LEADER_SKILLS_CAPTURE.md), [runtime](LEADER_SKILLS_RUNTIME.md), [Planetologist](PLANETOLOGIST_RULES.md), [Suk Graduate](SUK_GRADUATE_RULES.md) |
+| Leader Skills | Fourteen physical cards, variant setup order, public/hidden assignment, death return, own-leader revival and captured lower-band effects are sourced. Five battle disciplines, Planetologist movement/Special substitution, Suk Graduate rescues and common lifecycle are prototyped; Rihani, lower Mentat/Bureaucrat/Sandmaster, normal Smuggler and normal Diplomat now have connected follow-ups. Remaining bands and combinations stay missing. Known skilled capture identifies the leader through its unique public card. | [Source contract](LEADER_SKILLS_RULES.md), [capture inference](LEADER_SKILLS_CAPTURE.md), [runtime](LEADER_SKILLS_RUNTIME.md), [Diplomat](DIPLOMAT_DEFENSE.md), [Planetologist](PLANETOLOGIST_RULES.md), [Suk Graduate](SUK_GRADUATE_RULES.md) |
 | Discoveries | Preserve seven sourced Spice Cards and eight physical tokens, private faction peeks and Collection choices. Revealed locations are separate territories; only Jacurutu counts toward stronghold victory. Next-turn free entry, sole-occupant Cistern income and later-turn Ornithopter spending are prototyped; Jacurutu income, Testing Station and Shrine have bounded prototypes; Orgiz and contested/mixed cases remain pending. | [Component authority](DISCOVERY_COMPONENTS.md), [prototype boundary](DISCOVERY_PROTOTYPE.md) |
 | Guild Secret Ally | One explicit Guild-priced ordinary shipment; borrowed prices/routes preserve native identity. Free Fremen reinforcement remains a separate choice. | [Route contract](NEXUS_GUILD_SECRET_ALLY_RULES.md), [verified runtime](NEXUS_GUILD_SECRET_ALLY_RUNTIME.md) |
 | Homeworld custody and mobility | Physical home/visitor groups, population thresholds, tariffs and transport permissions retain distinct sources; Homeworld immunity is not universal immunity. | [Homeworld rules](HOMEWORLD_RULES.md), [benefits](HOMEWORLD_BENEFITS_RULES.md), [mobility](HOMEWORLD_MOBILITY_RULES.md), [invasion](HOMEWORLD_INVASION_RULES.md), [Guild transport](GUILD_HOMEWORLD_TRANSPORT_RULES.md) |
@@ -35,7 +36,7 @@ These are unresolved in the cited records. Do not infer an answer from elapsed t
 | Sapho remaining timing | First versus unspent Advanced Guild priority, partly completed combined turns, cyclic auction duration and remaining battle timing stay guarded. Prior questions remain unanswered. | [Source audit](JUICE_OF_SAPHO_SOURCE_UPDATE.md), [battle review](JUICE_OF_SAPHO_BATTLE_REVIEW.md) |
 | Mirror Weapon | Whether copied Tooth/Artillery mandatory-discard rules attach to the physical Mirror remains unanswered; arithmetic helpers do not admit the full battle card. | [Engine audit](MIRROR_WEAPON_ENGINE_AUDIT.md) |
 | Semuta Drug | Full-hand take-before-discard and the privacy-neutral immediate reaction protocol remain unresolved. Typed discard continuations already exist; they are not activation. | [Source update](SEMUTA_SOURCE_UPDATE_20260907.md), [privacy review](SEMUTA_PRIVACY_REVIEW.md) |
-| Leader Skills edge cases | Capture/replacement eligibility, Banker escrow custody (user question sent), Smuggler survival settlement, Mentat empty-hand/death disclosure, Diplomat retreat ordering and simultaneous optional timing need resolution before those cases are enabled. These are newly recorded source gaps, not answered user rulings. | [Material boundaries](LEADER_SKILLS_RULES.md#material-boundaries-not-settled-by-the-sources) |
+| Leader Skills edge cases | Capture/replacement eligibility, Banker escrow custody (user question sent), Smuggler survival settlement, Mentat empty-hand/death disclosure, Diplomat lower retreat ordering, modified-defense inheritance and remaining simultaneous optional timing need resolution before those cases are enabled. These are recorded source gaps, not answered user rulings. | [Material boundaries](LEADER_SKILLS_RULES.md#material-boundaries-not-settled-by-the-sources), [Diplomat boundary](DIPLOMAT_DEFENSE.md#evidence-and-remaining-scope) |
 | Suk Graduate / Atreides | Whether rescued dialed casualties count toward the seven-loss Kwisatz Haderach threshold remains unresolved. The user question has been sent; Advanced Atreides rescue stays guarded. | [Source and runtime boundary](SUK_GRADUATE_RULES.md) |
 | Ordinary Guild cancellation | Unaffordable repricing, replacement/retry/decline, consumed opportunity, contributor adjustment and ordering with special shipment-stop. The affordability question was already sent. | [Material timing](GUILD_RATE_KARAMA_RULES.md#material-unresolved-timing) |
 | Base special Karama | Unfunded auction recovery, stopped-shipment settlement and Atreides full-plan commitment order remain provisional. Native full-plan/Voice/Prescience/Truthtrance/Ghola interactions now have genuine-setup focused evidence, but the source audit does not settle the special offer/deadline or target-first interpretation. | [Explicit base interpretations](BASE_ADVANCED_READINESS_20260907.md#explicit-unresolved-base-interpretations), [full-plan interaction audit](ATREIDES_FULL_PLAN_TIMING.md) |