Index: test/escalation-teapot.test.js
===================================================================
--- test/escalation-teapot.test.js	(revision 3d882bdbd7d45a727ffdcb64eacb870baecdb05d)
+++ test/escalation-teapot.test.js	(revision 3d882bdbd7d45a727ffdcb64eacb870baecdb05d)
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+// FEP-633c §4.1 — a malformed guardian must not cost a child the good ones.
+//
+// A "guardian" that carries guardians of its own is not one (§1). When a ward
+// calls for help, an escalation addressed to such an actor goes nowhere: there
+// is no grand-guardian to recurse to. The spec's answer is to fail SOFTLY —
+// drop that one target, keep delivering to the rest — because the alternative
+// is a child whose call for help fails entirely because one adult's account is
+// misconfigured.
+//
+// Klonkt enforced this nowhere until now; the daemon has had it since the
+// beginning, which is the divergence shaer-6d9 exists to catch.
+import { test } from 'node:test';
+import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
+
+process.env.DATABASE_PATH = ':memory:';
+process.env.PUBLIC_BASE_URL = 'https://test.example';
+
+const dbMod = await import('../src/config/database.js');
+const db = dbMod.default;
+dbMod.initializeDatabase();
+const AP = (await import('../src/services/ActivityPubService.js')).default;
+
+const BASE = 'https://test.example';
+const local = (slug) => `${BASE}/ap/users/${slug}`;
+
+db.prepare('INSERT INTO users (id, username, email, password_hash, role) VALUES (?,?,?,?,?)')
+  .run('u1', 'u1', 'u1@test', 'x', 'god');
+let n = 0;
+function site(slug) {
+  db.prepare('INSERT INTO sites (id, slug, title, owner_id, is_primary) VALUES (?,?,?,?,?)')
+    .run(`s${++n}`, slug, slug, 'u1', n === 1 ? 1 : 0);
+  return db.prepare('SELECT * FROM sites WHERE slug = ?').get(slug);
+}
+const guards = (slug, other) =>
+  db.prepare("INSERT INTO ap_guardianships (slug, role, other_uri, status) VALUES (?, 'ward', ?, 'accepted')")
+    .run(slug, other);
+
+const kid = site('kid');       // the ward calling for help
+site('good');                  // a proper guardian
+site('bad');                   // listed as a guardian, but a ward itself
+site('gran');                  // who guards `bad`
+
+guards('kid', local('good'));
+guards('kid', local('bad'));
+guards('bad', local('gran'));  // this is what makes `bad` malformed as a guardian
+
+const help = await AP.deliverDirectNote(kid, {
+  recipients: [local('good'), local('bad')],
+  text: 'ik snap dit niet', helpRequest: true,
+});
+
+test('an escalation skips the malformed guardian and still reaches the others (§4.1)', () => {
+  assert.ok(help && help.id, 'the note was built');
+  assert.deepEqual(help.teapots, [local('bad')],
+    'the dropped target is named — SHOULD log the condition, not swallow it');
+  assert.equal(help.delivered, 1,
+    'and the well-formed guardian still got it: a malformed target MUST NOT block the others');
+});
+
+test('an ordinary direct note is not an escalation, so nobody is dropped', async () => {
+  // §4.1 is about escalations. A ward messaging another ward is ordinary
+  // conversation, and silently dropping recipients from it would be a bug
+  // wearing a spec reference.
+  const chat = await AP.deliverDirectNote(kid, { recipients: [local('bad')], text: 'hoi' });
+  assert.ok(chat && chat.id);
+  assert.deepEqual(chat.teapots, []);
+  assert.equal(chat.delivered, 1, 'delivered to a ward, because that is allowed');
+});
+
+test('a ward whose every guardian is malformed calls out into nothing', async () => {
+  // §4 does not cover this, because §4.1 assumes there are others to continue
+  // to. There are not. The call reaches no one, which is the single outcome
+  // this FEP exists to prevent — so it fails loudly in the log rather than
+  // reporting a delivery that did not happen.
+  const orphan = site('orphan');
+  guards('orphan', local('bad'));
+  const nowhere = await AP.deliverDirectNote(orphan, {
+    recipients: [local('bad')], text: 'help', helpRequest: true,
+  });
+  assert.equal(nowhere, null, 'no note, no false "delivered"');
+});