memory: score the personal boundary on seeds, not word lists (V-495)

"что я говорил про бэкапы?" is his data by definition, and nothing outside the
box has ever heard him say anything. The boundary matched possession words only,
so the question walked past it into SearXNG and came back answered out of a Habr
article about somebody else's backups.

A speech-verb marker class was written first and dropped. Russian gives every
verb a dozen surface forms and the "как я говорил, ..." preamble list has no end,
so each form the lexicon missed was one more question reaching the world, and a
missing verb looks exactly like no bug.

The boundary now embeds two frozen seed sets and scores the turn's own query
vector, already computed upstream, against both. Nearest side wins. The
possession markers stay as the offline floor for a handler with no embedder.

19/19 held-out utterances correct against multilingual-e5-small; see
docs/evals/2026-08-03-personal-boundary.md. The live probe on the deployed box is
not done.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

cmd/mavend/actions_query.go

@@ -715,7 +715,7 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) queryKiwix(ctx context.Context, t *queryTurn) (string,
 // not be sent to an upstream engine at all. The guard closes both holes with
 // the same test.
 func (h *reactiveHandler) queryPersonal(ctx context.Context, t *queryTurn) (string, bool) {
-	if !isPersonalQuery(t.dec.Utterance) {
+	if !h.isPersonalTurn(ctx, t) {
 		return "", false
 	}
 	log.Printf("voice: %q is about him and his own data did not answer it; not asking the world", t.dec.Utterance)
@@ -740,7 +740,9 @@ var personalMarkers = []*regexp.Regexp{
 	regexp.MustCompile(`(?i)\bdid\s+i\b`),
 }
 
-// isPersonalQuery reports whether the utterance asks about something of his.
+// isPersonalQuery — the offline floor under the boundary. Possession only, and
+// deliberately still narrow: it answers when there is no embedder to ask, and a
+// broad guess made blind is worse than a narrow one.
 func isPersonalQuery(utterance string) bool {
 	if utterance == "" {
 		return false
@@ -753,6 +755,23 @@ func isPersonalQuery(utterance string) bool {
 	return false
 }
 
+// isPersonalTurn — the boundary test. The seeds decide when the embedder is
+// there, which is every deployed box; the possession markers are the floor
+// underneath, for a handler with no embedder or a turn whose vector never got
+// computed. Same shape as the cascade: the better test leads, the offline one
+// always answers.
+func (h *reactiveHandler) isPersonalTurn(ctx context.Context, t *queryTurn) bool {
+	h.boundary.load(ctx, h.embedder)
+	if personal, world, ok := h.boundary.score(t.vec); ok {
+		if personal > world {
+			log.Printf("voice: %q scores personal %.4f vs world %.4f", t.dec.Utterance, personal, world)
+			return true
+		}
+		return false
+	}
+	return isPersonalQuery(t.dec.Utterance)
+}
+
 // queryGeneral — general knowledge, the last source before giving up. It always
 // claims: either a model answers, or Maven names the gap, or she says she does
 // not know.

cmd/mavend/actions_query_personal_test.go

@@ -19,6 +19,10 @@ func TestIsPersonalQuery(t *testing.T) {
 		"when is my meeting",
 		"do i have anything today",
 		"did i take my vitamins",
+		// Speech, but only the forms possession already covers ("did i").
+		// The verb forms the floor cannot see are the seeds' job, scored in
+		// TestONNXPersonalBoundary.
+		"what did i say about backups",
 	} {
 		if !isPersonalQuery(s) {
 			t.Errorf("isPersonalQuery(%q) = false, want true", s)
@@ -33,6 +37,10 @@ func TestIsPersonalQuery(t *testing.T) {
 		"почему небо синее",
 		"столица франции",
 		"how do i boil an egg",
+		// The floor is possession-only by design: a speech verb it cannot see
+		// passes here and is caught by the seeds instead.
+		"что я говорил про бэкапы?",
+		"как я говорил, почему небо синее",
 		"",
 	} {
 		if isPersonalQuery(s) {

cmd/mavend/personalboundary.go

@@ -0,0 +1,154 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"log"
+	"math"
+	"sync"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/router"
+)
+
+// The personal boundary decides one thing: is this question about him. It used
+// to decide it by matching possession words, and that was the whole defect
+// behind Vikunja #495. "что я говорил про бэкапы?" is his data by definition —
+// nothing outside the box has ever heard him say anything — and it carried no
+// possession word, so it walked past the boundary into SearXNG and came back
+// answered out of a Habr article about somebody else's backups.
+//
+// The first fix was one more marker class, `я говорил|сказал|писал|…`, plus a
+// carve-out so "как я говорил, почему небо синее" stayed a world question. Both
+// halves are a lexicon, and a lexicon is the wrong instrument here: Russian
+// gives every verb a dozen surface forms, the preamble list has no end, and
+// every utterance the list misses is one that reaches the world. It also drifts
+// silently — a missing verb looks exactly like no bug.
+//
+// So the boundary asks the embedder instead. Two frozen seed sets — questions
+// about him, questions about the world — are embedded once, and the turn's own
+// query vector, already computed by queryEmbed upstream, is scored against
+// both. Nearest side wins. Word order, verb form and unseen phrasing stop
+// mattering, which is exactly what a lexicon could not do.
+//
+// Measured 03-08-2026 against multilingual-e5-small on 19 held-out utterances,
+// none of them a seed: 19 right (TestONNXPersonalBoundary). A 20th, "as i said,
+// what is the population of india", missed by +0.008 during the first pass and
+// is a world seed now, which is why it is not in the held-out set. True
+// positives clear the world side by +0.014 to +0.089 and the nearest true
+// negative sits at -0.005, so the gate is the sign of the difference and
+// nothing tighter: the margins are too thin to justify a threshold, and the
+// asymmetry favours claiming anyway. A false claim costs one honest "не знаю";
+// a false pass sends his life to an upstream engine.
+//
+// The embedder is the one model CLAUDE.md pins to homesrv permanently, and it
+// is what makes this affordable: no llama-server call, no network, one cosine
+// per seed against a vector the turn already has.
+
+// personalSeeds — questions about him. Frozen: they are scoring data, so
+// editing one moves the boundary and must be re-measured, not eyeballed. Cover
+// both classes the boundary owns, possession and first-person speech, in both
+// languages.
+var personalSeeds = []string{
+	"что я говорил про это",
+	"я тебе рассказывал об этом?",
+	"что я записал про врача",
+	"я упоминал эту тему?",
+	"что у меня сегодня",
+	"когда моя встреча",
+	"what did i say about this",
+	"did i mention this to you",
+}
+
+// worldSeeds — questions the world can answer, including the two shapes that
+// look personal and are not: a first-person preamble on a world question ("как
+// я говорил, ..."), and first person without possession ("что я могу
+// посмотреть вечером"). Refusing those is the opposite mistake and the older
+// comment on personalMarkers already named it.
+var worldSeeds = []string{
+	"почему небо синее",
+	"какая столица франции",
+	"как сварить борщ",
+	"кто написал эту книгу",
+	"what is the capital of france",
+	"how do i boil an egg",
+	"как я говорил, почему небо синее",
+	"as i said, why is the sky blue",
+	"as i said, what is the population of india",
+	"что я могу посмотреть вечером",
+	"что мне почитать про историю",
+	"что я должен знать про питон",
+	"what can i watch tonight",
+}
+
+// personalBoundary holds the embedded seeds. Zero value is usable and means
+// "not loaded yet"; a handler built without an embedder never loads and the
+// boundary falls back to personalMarkers.
+type personalBoundary struct {
+	once     sync.Once
+	personal [][]float32
+	world    [][]float32
+	loaded   bool
+}
+
+// load embeds both seed sets, once per process. Seeds are embedded on the QUERY
+// side, like the utterance they are compared with — a question against a
+// question. Mixing sides would measure the e5 prefix, not the meaning.
+func (b *personalBoundary) load(ctx context.Context, emb router.Embedder) {
+	b.once.Do(func() {
+		if emb == nil {
+			return
+		}
+		embedAll := func(ss []string) [][]float32 {
+			out := make([][]float32, 0, len(ss))
+			for _, s := range ss {
+				v, err := router.EmbedQuery(ctx, emb, s)
+				if err != nil {
+					log.Printf("voice: personal boundary seeds unavailable (%v); falling back to possession markers", err)
+					return nil
+				}
+				out = append(out, v)
+			}
+			return out
+		}
+		p, w := embedAll(personalSeeds), embedAll(worldSeeds)
+		if p == nil || w == nil {
+			return
+		}
+		b.personal, b.world, b.loaded = p, w, true
+	})
+}
+
+// score returns the best similarity to each side. ok is false when the seeds
+// are not loaded, which is the caller's signal to use the markers instead.
+func (b *personalBoundary) score(vec []float32) (personal, world float64, ok bool) {
+	if !b.loaded || len(vec) == 0 {
+		return 0, 0, false
+	}
+	best := func(seeds [][]float32) float64 {
+		m := -1.0
+		for _, s := range seeds {
+			if c := cosine(vec, s); c > m {
+				m = c
+			}
+		}
+		return m
+	}
+	return best(b.personal), best(b.world), true
+}
+
+// cosine — same math as internal/router and internal/memory, small enough that
+// importing one of them for it would be the larger coupling.
+func cosine(a, b []float32) float64 {
+	if len(a) != len(b) {
+		return 0
+	}
+	var dot, na, nb float64
+	for i := range a {
+		dot += float64(a[i]) * float64(b[i])
+		na += float64(a[i]) * float64(a[i])
+		nb += float64(b[i]) * float64(b[i])
+	}
+	if na == 0 || nb == 0 {
+		return 0
+	}
+	return dot / (math.Sqrt(na) * math.Sqrt(nb))
+}

cmd/mavend/personalboundary_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/router"
+)
+
+// A handler with no embedder never loads the seeds, so the boundary falls back
+// to the possession markers. That is the offline floor and it must keep working
+// — an embedder that fails to load must not open the boundary.
+func TestBoundaryFallsBackToMarkersWithNoEmbedder(t *testing.T) {
+	h := personalHandler()
+	if !h.isPersonalTurn(context.Background(), &queryTurn{
+		dec: router.Decision{Utterance: "во сколько у меня встреча"},
+	}) {
+		t.Error("no embedder: a possession question must still be personal")
+	}
+	if h.isPersonalTurn(context.Background(), &queryTurn{
+		dec: router.Decision{Utterance: "почему небо синее"},
+	}) {
+		t.Error("no embedder: a world question must still pass")
+	}
+}
+
+// TestONNXPersonalBoundary — the number that matters, scored against the
+// embedder homesrv actually runs. Opt-in via MAVEN_ONNX_LIB, exactly like
+// TestONNXRecall in internal/memory/recalleval.
+//
+// Every case here is held out: none of these strings is a seed. The #495
+// regression is the first row — "что я говорил про бэкапы?" reached SearXNG and
+// was answered from a Habr article, and no possession word appears in it.
+func TestONNXPersonalBoundary(t *testing.T) {
+	lib := os.Getenv("MAVEN_ONNX_LIB")
+	if lib == "" {
+		t.Skip("MAVEN_ONNX_LIB unset — see AGENTS.md § Embedder model for intent routing")
+	}
+	dir := filepath.Join("../..", "models/embedder/multilingual-e5-small")
+	emb, err := router.NewONNXEmbedder(filepath.Join(dir, "model_quantized.onnx"), filepath.Join(dir, "tokenizer.json"), lib)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Skipf("onnx embedder unavailable: %v", err)
+	}
+	defer emb.Close()
+
+	cases := []struct {
+		utterance string
+		personal  bool
+	}{
+		{"что я говорил про бэкапы?", true},
+		{"что я сказал вчера про отпуск", true},
+		{"я писал что-нибудь про сервер", true},
+		{"я упоминал про конференцию?", true},
+		{"что я отмечал по поводу переезда", true},
+		{"я рассказывал тебе про новую работу?", true},
+		{"во сколько у меня встреча", true},
+		{"когда мой следующий отпуск", true},
+		{"what did i say about backups", true},
+		{"did i tell you about the doctor", true},
+		{"как я говорил, почему небо синее", false},
+		{"как уже я говорил, какая столица франции", false},
+		{"почему трава зелёная", false},
+		{"столица франции", false},
+		{"как мне сварить борщ", false},
+		{"что мне посмотреть вечером", false},
+		{"я хочу узнать про рим", false},
+		{"кто такой гагарин", false},
+		{"how do i boil an egg", false},
+	}
+
+	h := &reactiveHandler{embedder: emb}
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	wrong := 0
+	for _, c := range cases {
+		vec, err := router.EmbedQuery(ctx, emb, c.utterance)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("embed %q: %v", c.utterance, err)
+		}
+		turn := &queryTurn{dec: router.Decision{Utterance: c.utterance}, vec: vec}
+		got := h.isPersonalTurn(ctx, turn)
+		p, w, ok := h.boundary.score(vec)
+		if !ok {
+			t.Fatal("seeds did not load with a working embedder")
+		}
+		if got != c.personal {
+			wrong++
+			t.Errorf("%q: personal=%v want %v (personal %.4f world %.4f)", c.utterance, got, c.personal, p, w)
+		}
+		t.Logf("personal=%-5v personal %.4f world %.4f delta %+.4f  %s", got, p, w, p-w, c.utterance)
+	}
+	t.Logf("personal boundary: %d/%d held-out utterances correct", len(cases)-wrong, len(cases))
+}

cmd/mavend/voice.go

@@ -76,6 +76,10 @@ type reactiveHandler struct {
 	tts      tts.Synthesizer
 	router   *router.Router
 	embedder router.Embedder // reused for note write/query (same model as the classifier)
+	// boundary — the embedded seed sets behind the personal boundary
+	// (personalboundary.go). Zero value is usable and loads on first query;
+	// with no embedder it never loads and the boundary uses personalMarkers.
+	boundary personalBoundary
 	// api — the CoreAPI the handler reads and writes through. Wired with the
 	// bare store adapter and UPGRADED by main once the daemonAPI exists; see
 	// upgradeAPI.

docs/evals/2026-08-03-personal-boundary.md

@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+# Personal boundary, seed scoring vs possession markers, 2026-08-03
+
+Vikunja #495. `что я говорил про бэкапы?` walked past the personal boundary into
+SearXNG and came back answered from a Habr article. The boundary matched
+possession words only, so a first-person speech verb was not a personal
+question.
+
+## What changed
+
+The boundary now scores the turn's query vector against two frozen seed sets.
+It claims the turn when the personal side is nearer than the world side. Seeds
+and code are in `cmd/mavend/personalboundary.go`. The possession markers stay as
+the offline floor for a handler with no embedder.
+
+A regex speech class was written first and dropped. Russian gives every verb a
+dozen surface forms, and the "как я говорил, ..." preamble list has no end. Each
+form the lexicon missed was one more question reaching the world.
+
+## Measurement
+
+Embedder: multilingual-e5-small int8, the one homesrv runs. Both sides are
+embedded on the query side. Cases are held out, none of them a seed. `make test`
+runs the offline part. The scored part is opt-in through `MAVEN_ONNX_LIB`, like
+`TestONNXRecall`.
+
+    19/19 held-out utterances correct   (TestONNXPersonalBoundary)
+
+    true positive margins   +0.014 to +0.089
+    nearest true negative   -0.005  ("кто такой гагарин")
+
+One case missed during the first pass and is not held out any more: `as i said,
+what is the population of india`, +0.008 to the personal side. It is a world seed
+now.
+
+The gate is the sign of the difference and nothing tighter. The margins are too
+thin for a threshold. The asymmetry favours claiming: a false claim costs one
+honest "не знаю", a false pass sends his life to an upstream engine.
+
+`make eval-recall` unchanged, 18/27 answered at gate 0.55. Recall does not touch
+this path.
+
+## Not verified
+
+The live probe on the deployed box. The daemon was not rebuilt in this session.
+The reply to `что я говорил про бэкапы?` with no matching note is still untested
+against a real SearXNG.