client-core: an unasked page is not an empty one, and two guarded invariants

Review of 73251d6's port of TranscriptSource/joinPages.

`TranscriptSource::page` answered `before == 0` with an empty `Vec`, which
is the same value it answers "this conversation has no more history" with.
That is the state the Kotlin keeps apart: `loadOlderPage` returns false at
`oldestSeq == 0` *without* touching `moreHistory`, and returns false on an
empty page *by latching it*. Collapsing the two moved AGENTS.md's paging
bug one layer down rather than fixing it. `page` returns `OlderPage` now --
`Events(vec![])` is the start of the conversation, `NothingLoaded` is not
an answer about the conversation at all.

`join_pages`' `debug_assert!` on seq ordering across the boundary is not a
true invariant: a peer note carries the seq its turn began at, which can be
older than the page it arrived in, so an ordinary transcript would have
panicked a debug build there. Replaced with the one the function exists to
enforce -- no tool id surviving in both halves.

`fetch_transcript_lines` stores `RawValue`'s exact server bytes, so the
"neither source can produce a newline" comment in `SessionCache::append`
now rests on the server's serializer staying compact rather than on a
local normalization. Checked with a `debug_assert!` in `append` and
`store_page` rather than trusted.

Tests for the failure half, which the port had none of: a 500 mid-page, a
cached line this build cannot read, and the `after` bound in the case that
actually carries one (the existing test asserted only the case with no
bound). `cargo fmt`, `cargo clippy --all-targets`, `cargo test` (112) clean
in client-core; `cargo check -p desktop-app` clean.

docs/CLIENT_CORE.md

@@ -104,7 +104,14 @@ landing cleanly between two already-finished calls (most of them) leaves
 one run drawn as two. `a_call_split_across_the_boundary_merges_into_one_row`,
 `a_message_split_across_the_boundary_is_rejoined_with_the_newer_halfs_identity`,
 and `adopt_run_never_renames_into_a_question_row` cover the other three
-edges the Kotlin doc calls out.
+edges the Kotlin doc calls out. `join_pages` ends in a `debug_assert!`
+that no tool id survives in both halves -- the duplicate row it exists to
+prevent, checked rather than assumed. What it deliberately does *not*
+assert is seq ordering across the boundary: a peer note carries the seq
+its turn began at (`place_peer_note`), which can be older than the page
+it arrived in, so the two pages' seqs legitimately interleave there. An
+earlier draft asserted it and would have panicked in debug builds on an
+ordinary transcript.
 
 **Known gap, and a decision for whoever closes it:** `event_model::Event`
 has no `Unknown`/catch-all variant, unlike `Events.kt`'s hand-kept mirror.
@@ -142,14 +149,25 @@ wrong") and `page`'s cache-vs-server split bounded by `covered_up_to`.
 Two additions beyond a literal port, both load-bearing:
 
 - **`page(before, ..)` refuses `before == 0` before touching the cache or
-  the network**, returning an empty page immediately. This is
-  AGENTS.md's `loadOlderPage` incident (`before = 0` is "no event before
-  the first one," indistinguishable from "reached the start of history"
-  if a caller ever asks it) moved out of the Kotlin screen and into this
-  layer, so every future caller gets the guard rather than having to
-  remember it. `paging_before_the_first_event_makes_no_request_at_all`
-  asserts zero transport calls, not just an empty result, since a request
-  that happens to answer empty is exactly what caused the original bug.
+  the network**, answering `OlderPage::NothingLoaded`. This is AGENTS.md's
+  `loadOlderPage` incident (`before = 0` is "no event before the first
+  one," indistinguishable from "reached the start of history" if a caller
+  ever asks it) moved out of the Kotlin screen and into this layer, so
+  every future caller gets the guard rather than having to remember it.
+  **The return type is `OlderPage`, not a `Vec`, and that is the guard.**
+  The Kotlin's two falses are different answers -- `oldestSeq == 0`
+  returns without touching `moreHistory`, an empty page latches it false
+  -- so a port that answered both with an empty list would have moved the
+  bug rather than fixed it, one layer down and out of sight of the screen
+  that used to hold the check. `OlderPage::Events(vec![])` means the start
+  of the conversation; `OlderPage::NothingLoaded` is not an answer about
+  the conversation at all. Reviewed 2026-09-06.
+  `paging_before_the_first_event_makes_no_request_at_all` asserts zero
+  transport calls, not just the variant, since a request that happens to
+  answer empty is exactly what caused the original bug, and
+  `a_failing_server_page_is_an_error_rather_than_an_empty_one` plus
+  `an_unreadable_cached_page_is_a_parse_error_rather_than_an_empty_one`
+  are the same rule for the two ways a page can fail.
 - **`fetch_transcript_lines`** (new in `api.rs`) hands back each line
   paired with the exact server bytes it came from, via
   `serde_json::value::RawValue` rather than re-serializing a parsed