Replaces the LangUndetermined placeholder with whatlanggo-backed body detection on every send path, then adds a translation cache keyed on (message_id, target_lang) populated lazily on the per-message read endpoint. The noop translator that ships with Stage D returns engine="noop", which the service treats as "translation unavailable" — wiring a real backend (LibreTranslate HTTP client is the documented next step) is a one-file swap. GetMessage and ListInbox now accept a targetLang argument; the HTTP layer resolves the caller's accounts.preferred_language and forwards it. Inbox uses the cache only (never calls the translator) so bulk reads stay fast under future SaaS backends. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
diplomail
diplomail owns the diplomatic-mail subsystem of the Galaxy backend
service. Messages live in the lobby-side domain (their storage and
lifecycle are tied to a game), but they are surfaced inside the game UI
— the lobby exposes only an unread-count badge per game.
Stages
The package ships in four staged increments. Stage A is the surface described below; the remaining stages add admin / system mail, lifecycle hooks, paid-tier broadcast, multi-game broadcast, bulk purge, and the language-detection / translation cache.
| Stage | Scope | Status |
|---|---|---|
| A | Schema, personal single-recipient send / read / delete, unread badge, push event with body-language und |
shipped |
| B | Owner / admin sends + lifecycle hooks (paused, cancelled, kick); strict soft-access for kicked players | shipped |
| C | Paid-tier personal broadcast + admin multi-game broadcast + bulk purge + admin observability | shipped |
| D | Body-language detection (whatlanggo) + translation cache + lazy per-read translator dispatch | shipped |
Tables
Three Postgres tables in the backend schema:
diplomail_messages— one row per send (personal, admin, or system). Capturesgame_nameand IP at insert time so audit rendering survives renames and purges.diplomail_recipients— one row per (message, recipient). Holds per-userread_at,deleted_at,delivered_at,notified_atstate. Snapshot fields (recipient_user_name,recipient_race_name) are captured at insert time and survive membership revocation.diplomail_translations— cached per (message, target_lang) rendering. One translation is reused across every recipient that asks for that language.
Permissions
| Action | Caller | Pre-conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Send personal | user | active membership in game; recipient is active member |
| Paid-tier broadcast | paid-tier user | active membership; recipients = every other active member |
| Send admin (single user) | game owner OR site admin | recipient is any-status member of the game |
| Send admin (broadcast) | game owner OR site admin | recipient scope ∈ active / active_and_removed / all_members; sender excluded |
| Multi-game admin broadcast | site admin | scope selected (with game_ids) or all_running |
| Bulk purge | site admin | older_than_years >= 1; targets games with terminal status finished more than N years ago |
| Read message | the recipient | row exists in diplomail_recipients(message_id, user_id); non-active members see admin-kind only |
| Mark read | the recipient | row exists; idempotent if already marked |
| Soft delete | the recipient | read_at IS NOT NULL (open-then-delete, item 10) |
Stage D will add body-language detection (whatlanggo) and the translation cache + async worker.
System mail is produced internally by lobby lifecycle hooks:
Service.transition() emits game.paused / game.cancelled system
mail to every active member; Service.changeMembershipStatus /
Service.AdminBanMember emit membership.removed /
membership.blocked system mail addressed to the affected user.
Content rules
- Body is plain UTF-8 text. The server does not parse, sanitise,
or escape HTML — the UI renders messages via
textContent. - Body length is capped by
BACKEND_DIPLOMAIL_MAX_BODY_BYTES(default 4096). Subject length is capped byBACKEND_DIPLOMAIL_MAX_SUBJECT_BYTES(default 256). Both limits live in the service layer so they can be tuned without a schema migration. body_langis filled at send time by the configureddetector.LanguageDetector(default:whatlanggo, body-only, ≥ 25 runes; shorter bodies stayund).
Translation
Stage D adds a lazy translation cache. When a recipient reads a
message through GET /api/v1/user/games/{game_id}/mail/messages/{id},
the handler resolves the caller's accounts.preferred_language and
asks Service.GetMessage(…, targetLang) to attach a translation:
- on cache hit (row in
diplomail_translations), the rendering is returned directly undertranslated_subject/translated_body; - on cache miss, the configured
translator.Translatoris invoked. A non-noop result is persisted and returned to the caller; the noop translator that ships with Stage D returnsengine == "noop", which is treated as "translation unavailable" and the caller falls back to the original body.
The inbox listing (/inbox) reuses cached translations but never
calls the translator on miss — bulk listings stay fast even when a
real translator (LibreTranslate, SaaS engine) introduces I/O cost.
Future work plugs a real translator.Translator (LibreTranslate
HTTP client is the documented next step) without touching the rest
of the system.
Push integration
Every successful send emits a diplomail.message.received push
intent through the existing notification pipeline. The catalog entry
limits delivery to the push channel — email is intentionally absent;
the inbox endpoint is the durable fallback for offline users. The
payload includes the recipient's freshly recomputed unread count for
the lobby badge and for the in-game header.
Lifecycle hooks (Stage B)
The lobby module is the producer of system mail. Stage B will add a
DiplomailPublisher collaborator on lobby.Service and call it on
paused / cancelled transitions and on BlockMembership /
AdminBanMember. The publisher constructs a
kind='admin', sender_kind='system' message with a templated body;
the recipient receives the durable copy in their inbox even after the
membership is revoked.
If a future stage adds inactivity-based player removal at the lobby sweeper, that path must call the same publisher so the kicked player has the explanation in their inbox.
Wiring
cmd/backend/main.go constructs *diplomail.Service with three
collaborators:
*Storeover the shared Postgres pool;MembershipLookupadapter that walks the lobby cache for the active(game_id, user_id)row and stitches in the immutableaccounts.user_name;NotificationPublisheradapter that translates eachDiplomailNotificationinto anotification.Intentand routes it through*notification.Service.Submit.