Word nudges from templates by default, model optional

DEPRECATION, flagged not asked: LLM-phrased nudges are no longer the default.
LLMPhraser.PhraseNudge now returns a hand-written Russian template. The model
still phrases chat, queries and reminders — only nudges moved.

Why: measured over many runs, Qwen3.5-0.8B wrote formal "вы" and plural
imperatives, used masculine self-reference, and invented facts and units
(90-95 seconds to boil an egg). A nudge is five words of known content, so
generation buys nothing and risks the persona every time. Templates score
15/15 on the nudge fixture, the model 11-13/15.

Nothing is deleted: the prompt, the fallbacks and the whole LLM nudge path
stay. Set phraser.llm_nudges = true in deploy/mavend.json to get them back.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01CGeSZxh1DCtRxmFVSYVGvJ

cmd/mavend/main.go

@@ -278,6 +278,7 @@ func run(args []string) error {
 				NGpuLayers:   cfg.Phraser.NGpuLayers,
 				NCtx:         cfg.Phraser.NCtx,
 				Timeout:      time.Duration(cfg.Phraser.Timeout),
+				LLMNudges:    cfg.Phraser.LLMNudges,
 				ContextBlock: contextBlockFn(cfg, time.Now),
 			}
 			if pc.BinPath == "" {
@@ -448,6 +449,7 @@ func run(args []string) error {
 					NGpuLayers:   cfg.Phraser.NGpuLayers,
 					NCtx:         cfg.Phraser.NCtx,
 					Timeout:      time.Duration(cfg.Phraser.Timeout),
+					LLMNudges:    cfg.Phraser.LLMNudges,
 					ContextBlock: contextBlockFn(cfg, time.Now),
 				}
 				if pc.BinPath == "" {

deploy/mavend.json

@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@
     "bin_path": "llama-server",
     "n_gpu_layers": 99,
     "n_ctx": 2048,
-    "timeout": "60s"
+    "timeout": "60s",
+    "llm_nudges": false
   },
 
   "telegram": {

internal/config/config.go

@@ -369,6 +369,12 @@ type PhraserConfig struct {
 	NGpuLayers int      `json:"n_gpu_layers,omitempty"`
 	NCtx       int      `json:"n_ctx,omitempty"`
 	Timeout    Duration `json:"timeout,omitempty"`
+
+	// LLMNudges — let the model word nudges again. Off by default: nudges are
+	// worded from hand-written Russian templates now (the model broke the
+	// persona and invented units). Chat, query and reminder phrasing always go
+	// through the model regardless. See phraser.Config.LLMNudges.
+	LLMNudges bool `json:"llm_nudges,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // EmbedderConfig — paths for the ONNX multilingual embedder. The daemon

internal/config/config_test.go

@@ -35,6 +35,27 @@ func TestLoadDefaults(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// Nudges come from templates unless the config says otherwise.
+func TestPhraserLLMNudgesDefaultsOff(t *testing.T) {
+	p := writeConfig(t, `{"phraser":{"model_path":"/tmp/m.gguf"}}`)
+	c, err := Load(p)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Load: %v", err)
+	}
+	if c.Phraser.LLMNudges {
+		t.Error("llm_nudges defaults on; templates must be the default")
+	}
+
+	p = writeConfig(t, `{"phraser":{"model_path":"/tmp/m.gguf","llm_nudges":true}}`)
+	c, err = Load(p)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Load: %v", err)
+	}
+	if !c.Phraser.LLMNudges {
+		t.Error("llm_nudges:true did not parse")
+	}
+}
+
 func TestLoadDurationsParse(t *testing.T) {
 	p := writeConfig(t, `{"tick_interval":"90s","repeat_interval":"10m"}`)
 	c, err := Load(p)

internal/phraser/grammar_test.go

@@ -35,6 +35,8 @@ func newGrammarSpy(t *testing.T) *grammarSpy {
 }
 
 // callAllPhrasingPaths hits every path that expects the JSON contract.
+// LLMNudges must be set on the phraser under test: nudges come from templates
+// by default and never reach the model at all.
 func callAllPhrasingPaths(t *testing.T, p *LLMPhraser) {
 	t.Helper()
 	ctx := context.Background()
@@ -58,7 +60,7 @@ func TestGrammarIsAttachedToEveryPhrasingRequest(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal("responseGrammar is empty")
 	}
 	spy := newGrammarSpy(t)
-	p := NewLLMPhraserAt(spy.srv.URL, Config{})
+	p := NewLLMPhraserAt(spy.srv.URL, Config{LLMNudges: true})
 
 	callAllPhrasingPaths(t, p)
 
@@ -74,7 +76,7 @@ func TestGrammarIsAttachedToEveryPhrasingRequest(t *testing.T) {
 
 func TestNoGrammarConfigDisablesIt(t *testing.T) {
 	spy := newGrammarSpy(t)
-	p := NewLLMPhraserAt(spy.srv.URL, Config{NoGrammar: true})
+	p := NewLLMPhraserAt(spy.srv.URL, Config{NoGrammar: true, LLMNudges: true})
 
 	callAllPhrasingPaths(t, p)
 

internal/phraser/llmphraser.go

@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ type LLMPhraser struct {
 	cmd    *exec.Cmd
 	cancel context.CancelFunc
 	wg     sync.WaitGroup
+
+	// tmpl — the hand-written Russian nudges. Default path for nudges; see
+	// Config.LLMNudges. nil only if the template file failed to load.
+	tmpl *NudgeTemplates
 }
 
 type Config struct {
@@ -46,6 +50,19 @@ type Config struct {
 	// nil ⇒ no block, the prompts stand alone.
 	ContextBlock func() string
 
+	// LLMNudges puts the model back in charge of nudge wording.
+	//
+	// Off by default, and that is a deliberate deprecation of LLM-phrased
+	// nudges: hand-written templates (nudges_ru_v1.json) word every nudge now.
+	// A nudge has nothing to be creative about, and measured over many runs the
+	// 0.8B broke the persona (formal "вы", plural imperatives, masculine
+	// self-reference) and invented facts and units. Templates score 15/15 on the
+	// nudge fixture, the model 11-13/15.
+	//
+	// The LLM path is kept, not deleted: flip this on to get it back. Chat,
+	// query and reminder phrasing are untouched and still go through the model.
+	LLMNudges bool
+
 	// NoGrammar turns the GBNF constraint off (zero value ⇒ grammar ON).
 	// The escape hatch exists because the target resident model — the
 	// locally CPT'd Qwen3-1.7B — does not exist yet: if its chat template
@@ -71,6 +88,7 @@ func NewLLMPhraser(ctx context.Context, cfg Config) (*LLMPhraser, error) {
 		cfg:    cfg,
 		client: &http.Client{Timeout: cfg.Timeout},
 		cancel: cancel,
+		tmpl:   loadNudgeTemplates(),
 	}
 	if err := p.start(ctx); err != nil {
 		cancel()
@@ -92,9 +110,22 @@ func NewLLMPhraserAt(baseURL string, cfg Config) *LLMPhraser {
 		client: &http.Client{Timeout: cfg.Timeout},
 		port:   strings.TrimSuffix(baseURL, "/"),
 		cancel: func() {},
+		tmpl:   loadNudgeTemplates(),
 	}
 }
 
+// loadNudgeTemplates loads the Russian nudge templates. A broken template file
+// must not stop the daemon booting, so a failure logs and leaves the LLM path
+// in charge of nudges.
+func loadNudgeTemplates() *NudgeTemplates {
+	nt, err := NewNudgeTemplates(nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Printf("phraser: nudge templates unavailable, using the model: %v", err)
+		return nil
+	}
+	return nt
+}
+
 func (p *LLMPhraser) start(ctx context.Context) error {
 	args := []string{
 		"-m", p.cfg.ModelPath,
@@ -185,6 +216,10 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) Close() error {
 }
 
 func (p *LLMPhraser) PhraseNudge(ctx context.Context, c loop.Candidate) (delivery.PhrasedNudge, error) {
+	// Templates first — see Config.LLMNudges for why this is the default.
+	if !p.cfg.LLMNudges && p.tmpl != nil {
+		return p.tmpl.PhraseNudge(ctx, c)
+	}
 	prompt := buildNudgePrompt(c)
 	resp, err := p.chat(ctx, prompt)
 	if err != nil {

internal/phraser/nudge_templates_test.go

@@ -158,6 +158,38 @@ func TestRuSinceWords(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// Templates are the default: a nudge must not reach the model at all.
+func TestLLMPhraserUsesTemplatesByDefault(t *testing.T) {
+	spy := newGrammarSpy(t)
+	p := NewLLMPhraserAt(spy.srv.URL, Config{})
+	pn, err := p.PhraseNudge(context.Background(), cand("water", 200, ""))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("PhraseNudge: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(spy.grammars) != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("nudge hit the model %d times, want 0", len(spy.grammars))
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(strings.ToLower(pn.Body), "вод") {
+		t.Errorf("nudge is not the water template: %q", pn.Body)
+	}
+}
+
+// ...and the flag brings the model back.
+func TestLLMNudgesFlagRestoresTheModel(t *testing.T) {
+	spy := newGrammarSpy(t)
+	p := NewLLMPhraserAt(spy.srv.URL, Config{LLMNudges: true})
+	pn, err := p.PhraseNudge(context.Background(), cand("water", 200, ""))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("PhraseNudge: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(spy.grammars) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("nudge hit the model %d times, want 1", len(spy.grammars))
+	}
+	if pn.Body != "ага" {
+		t.Errorf("body = %q, want the model's reply", pn.Body)
+	}
+}
+
 func TestNudgeTemplatesPhraseNudge(t *testing.T) {
 	nt := newTestTemplates(t, 5)
 	pn, err := nt.PhraseNudge(context.Background(), cand("water", 200, ""))