Backend: emotional-state GET endpoints don't echo stored metadata — blocks Postmark verification and Ballast

[Dithilli]

Problem

GET /emotional-state and GET /emotional-state/recent do not echo stored metadata — proven live 2026-07-12: five registers stored the same day (post-0.19.0, where the store path attaches both source: "openclaw_agent_end" and Postmark's channelId) all return empty/absent metadata on GET. Since source has been attached to every store for months, its absence on read proves the endpoint drops metadata entirely rather than Postmark failing to write.

Impact

• Postmark (Emotional register carries no channel/medium signal, even though hot-buffer already tags it #74, shipped in 0.19.0) cannot be verified end-to-end via the API — write-side is unit-proven, read-back impossible.
• Ballast (Emotional-state arc is recency-only — shallow-but-real conversations can crowd out a deep one #68, queued) depends on reading depth_score/turn_count metadata back at fetch time for arc selection — its guide explicitly flagged this echo as its backend verification gate; that gate now conclusively FAILS. Ballast's graceful-degradation design (neutral depth when metadata absent) means it can still ship, but it will behave as pure recency until the backend echoes metadata.

What we could do

Backend ask (Hyperspell API): include stored metadata in emotional-state GET responses. Client-side is already speculatively mapped (see #68's guide: EmotionalStateLatest.metadata?). This is the highest-leverage single backend change for the emotional-register roadmap.

How we'd test it

Store a register with known metadata, GET it back, assert the keys round-trip — the exact probe run 2026-07-12 that produced this finding (metadata-only output, content suppressed).