diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index b013500..6fed4ab 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -343,9 +343,36 @@ the possessive agenda rules claim those cases at stage 0 and name nothing, so no
 label reaches the head. That is the same trade V-660 flagged and it wants the
 owner's call.
 
-**Nothing of this runs in Go.** The weights are `heads.pt` and `out/body_heads/`
-on workpc. Reaching the daemon needs an ONNX export and a caller. The resident
-e5-small must not be replaced by the copy, because recall depends on that file.
+**The heads run in Go and route every turn, since 08-08-2026** (V-664,
+`docs/evals/2026-08-08-routing-heads-in-go.md`). This section used to say
+nothing of it ran. `RouterHeads` in `internal/router/heads.go` loads
+`router_heads.onnx` and reads intent, destination and clarify off one forward
+pass. It is stage 0b: after the grammars, **before** the resident model, and the
+classifier is still behind both. Through the cascade it scores intent **96.9%**
+and destination **75.8%** at p50 27.9ms. That beats the gemma-4-12b cascade,
+84.4% and 72.7%, at a twelfth of its 329ms. The workstation stays the better
+phraser and is no longer the better router.
+
+Three rules around it. The **clarify head decides first**, before the intent
+threshold. It answers a different question. A thin utterance scores low
+intent by construction, so gating it cost 6 of 8 ambiguous cases. The
+**destination head is read on `IntentQuery` only**, since no other intent
+reaches `queryWalk`. And `headsThreshold` is 0.6, the measured knee: every value
+to 0.85 drops right answers and keeps the same two wrong ones.
+
+`voice.embedder.heads_path` is the whole switch. Empty, missing or unloadable
+means the heads are nil and the cascade is byte-for-byte what shipped before
+them. **It must never be pointed at `model_path`.** The resident e5-small must
+not be replaced by the fine-tuned copy. Recall depends on that file scoring
+what it scored.
+
+**The hand-written tokenizer read every long word backwards** until this task
+(`encodeWord`, `onnxembedder.go`). It cost recall@1 7.4 points and recall@3 11.1.
+Nothing caught it because seeds and queries were mangled the same way, so cosine
+survived. The heads found it. They are trained through transformers and read
+through this. The embedder id now carries a tokenizer revision
+(`@384/tok2`), so fixing the tokenizer triggers `ReembedAll` the way swapping the
+model file does. Bump `tokenizerRev` on any change to what it emits.
 
 `Confidence: 1.0` used to be hardcoded in `llmrouter.go`, so the LLM
 path could never ask for clarification (6/6 refusal cases missed on the fixture) — Vikunja
diff --git a/cmd/mavend/chat_degrade_test.go b/cmd/mavend/chat_degrade_test.go
index c376aa0..f127ee0 100644
--- a/cmd/mavend/chat_degrade_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mavend/chat_degrade_test.go
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ func TestChatAnswersWithNoLlamaServer(t *testing.T) {
 	dead := llm.New("http://127.0.0.1:1", 500*time.Millisecond)
 	emb := router.NewHashEmbedder(1024)
 	h.recall.embedder = emb
-	h.router = buildRouter(emb, h.matcher, 0.55, pickLLMRouter(true, dead))
+	h.router = buildRouter(emb, h.matcher, 0.55, pickLLMRouter(true, dead), nil)
 	h.replier = newLLMReplier(dead, nil)
 
 	ctx := withDialogueID(context.Background(), dialogueIDFor(sourceText, "web"))
diff --git a/cmd/mavend/clarify_test.go b/cmd/mavend/clarify_test.go
index 946c393..ec7a47a 100644
--- a/cmd/mavend/clarify_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mavend/clarify_test.go
@@ -317,7 +317,7 @@ func TestClarifyExpiryIsAnnouncedAndWordsStillRoute(t *testing.T) {
 	h, _, now := newClarifyHandler(t)
 	emb := router.NewHashEmbedder(1024)
 	h.recall.embedder = emb
-	h.router = buildRouter(emb, h.matcher, 0.55, nil)
+	h.router = buildRouter(emb, h.matcher, 0.55, nil, nil)
 
 	if _, asked := h.askClarify(ctx, clarifyDec(router.IntentReminder, router.Slots{Text: "напомни"}, "напомни")); !asked {
 		t.Fatal("expected a question")
@@ -671,7 +671,7 @@ func TestUnresolvedActSaysItDoesNotKnowTheCommand(t *testing.T) {
 func newRoutingClarifyHandler(t *testing.T) (*reactiveHandler, *store.Store) {
 	t.Helper()
 	h, st, _ := newClarifyHandler(t)
-	h.router = buildRouter(router.NewHashEmbedder(1024), h.matcher, 0.55, nil)
+	h.router = buildRouter(router.NewHashEmbedder(1024), h.matcher, 0.55, nil, nil)
 	h.recall = recallWiring{embedder: router.NewHashEmbedder(1024), memStore: memory.NewInMemoryStore()}
 	return h, st
 }
diff --git a/cmd/mavend/decisiontrace_test.go b/cmd/mavend/decisiontrace_test.go
index 813d34f..eac9f2e 100644
--- a/cmd/mavend/decisiontrace_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mavend/decisiontrace_test.go
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ func traceHandler(t *testing.T, ring *decision.Ring) *reactiveHandler {
 	return &reactiveHandler{
 		api:       api,
 		recall:    recallWiring{embedder: emb, memStore: memory.NewInMemoryStore()},
-		router:    buildRouter(emb, tool.NewMatcher(api), 0.55, nil),
+		router:    buildRouter(emb, tool.NewMatcher(api), 0.55, nil, nil),
 		replier:   voice.NewStubReplier(),
 		now:       func() time.Time { return now },
 		dataStore: st,
diff --git a/cmd/mavend/dialogue_contract_test.go b/cmd/mavend/dialogue_contract_test.go
index 7db4ced..b4557d9 100644
--- a/cmd/mavend/dialogue_contract_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mavend/dialogue_contract_test.go
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ func newDialogueHandler(t *testing.T) (*reactiveHandler, *store.Store, *time.Tim
 	// and never a coincidence (V-577, V-579). checkEnd refuses any reminder
 	// landing on it, and at 09:00 the row that answers "на 9" would trip that.
 	*now = time.Date(2026, 7, 31, 9, 17, 0, 0, time.UTC)
-	h.router = buildRouter(router.NewHashEmbedder(1024), h.matcher, 0.55, nil)
+	h.router = buildRouter(router.NewHashEmbedder(1024), h.matcher, 0.55, nil, nil)
 	h.recall = recallWiring{embedder: router.NewHashEmbedder(1024), memStore: memory.NewInMemoryStore()}
 	return h, st, now
 }
diff --git a/cmd/mavend/fact_subject_test.go b/cmd/mavend/fact_subject_test.go
index 885f067..34aaed7 100644
--- a/cmd/mavend/fact_subject_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mavend/fact_subject_test.go
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ func TestApplyAction_FactCapture_QueuesEntityResolution(t *testing.T) {
 
 	emb := router.NewHashEmbedder(1024)
 	matcher := tool.NewMatcher(api)
-	rtr := buildRouter(emb, matcher, 0.55, nil)
+	rtr := buildRouter(emb, matcher, 0.55, nil, nil)
 
 	h := &reactiveHandler{
 		api:       api,
diff --git a/cmd/mavend/factgate_test.go b/cmd/mavend/factgate_test.go
index 842bb2c..72ecb87 100644
--- a/cmd/mavend/factgate_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mavend/factgate_test.go
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ func newFactGateHandler(t *testing.T, now time.Time) (*reactiveHandler, ipc.Core
 	h := &reactiveHandler{
 		api:       api,
 		recall:    recallWiring{embedder: emb, memStore: memory.NewInMemoryStore()},
-		router:    buildRouter(emb, tool.NewMatcher(api), 0.55, nil),
+		router:    buildRouter(emb, tool.NewMatcher(api), 0.55, nil, nil),
 		replier:   voice.NewStubReplier(),
 		now:       func() time.Time { return now },
 		dataStore: st,
diff --git a/cmd/mavend/notefragment_test.go b/cmd/mavend/notefragment_test.go
index cf9becc..7e2f50d 100644
--- a/cmd/mavend/notefragment_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mavend/notefragment_test.go
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ func newNoteHandler(t *testing.T) (*reactiveHandler, *store.Store) {
 	h := &reactiveHandler{
 		api:       api,
 		recall:    recallWiring{embedder: emb, memStore: memory.NewInMemoryStore()},
-		router:    buildRouter(emb, tool.NewMatcher(api), 0.55, nil),
+		router:    buildRouter(emb, tool.NewMatcher(api), 0.55, nil, nil),
 		replier:   voice.NewStubReplier(),
 		now:       func() time.Time { return now },
 		dataStore: st,
diff --git a/cmd/mavend/reactive_notes_test.go b/cmd/mavend/reactive_notes_test.go
index 811e706..0449b88 100644
--- a/cmd/mavend/reactive_notes_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mavend/reactive_notes_test.go
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ func TestReactiveNotesReminders(t *testing.T) {
 
 	emb := router.NewHashEmbedder(1024)
 	matcher := tool.NewMatcher(api)
-	rtr := buildRouter(emb, matcher, 0.55, nil)
+	rtr := buildRouter(emb, matcher, 0.55, nil, nil)
 
 	h := &reactiveHandler{
 		api:       api,
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ func TestSpokenTaskCaptureFilesATask(t *testing.T) {
 	h := &reactiveHandler{
 		api:       api,
 		recall:    recallWiring{embedder: emb, memStore: memory.NewInMemoryStore()},
-		router:    buildRouter(emb, matcher, 0.55, nil),
+		router:    buildRouter(emb, matcher, 0.55, nil, nil),
 		replier:   voice.NewStubReplier(),
 		now:       func() time.Time { return now },
 		dataStore: st,
diff --git a/cmd/mavend/simulator_test.go b/cmd/mavend/simulator_test.go
index bf347a0..23b5957 100644
--- a/cmd/mavend/simulator_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mavend/simulator_test.go
@@ -474,7 +474,7 @@ func newSimWorld(t *testing.T, sc scenario) *simWorld {
 	// used to be built on a nil API, which meant any scenario that produced an
 	// act panicked the moment the matcher was consulted.
 	matcher := tool.NewMatcher(api)
-	rtr := buildRouter(emb, matcher, config.DefaultRouterThreshold, router.NewLLMRouter(scripted))
+	rtr := buildRouter(emb, matcher, config.DefaultRouterThreshold, router.NewLLMRouter(scripted), nil)
 
 	w.handler = &reactiveHandler{
 		stt:    simTranscriber{},
diff --git a/cmd/mavend/sttseam_test.go b/cmd/mavend/sttseam_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..007e3cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/mavend/sttseam_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/config"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/stt"
+)
+
+// A box with no workstation.stt block transcribes exactly as it did before the
+// seam existed: the floor is handed back untouched, and nothing probes.
+func TestSttSeamWithNoBlockIsTheFloor(t *testing.T) {
+	floor := stt.NewStub()
+	got, pair := sttSeam(&config.Config{}, floor)
+	if pair != nil {
+		t.Fatal("no block must build no pair")
+	}
+	if got != stt.Transcriber(floor) {
+		t.Fatal("no block must hand back the floor itself")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestSttSeamPrefersTheWorkstation(t *testing.T) {
+	cfg := &config.Config{Workstation: &config.WorkstationConfig{
+		URL: "http://127.0.0.1:1",
+		Stt: &config.WorkstationSttConfig{
+			URL:    "http://127.0.0.1:2/transcribe",
+			Health: "http://127.0.0.1:2/health",
+		},
+	}}
+	got, pair := sttSeam(cfg, stt.NewStub())
+	if pair == nil {
+		t.Fatal("a configured block must build a pair")
+	}
+	defer pair.Stop()
+	if got != stt.Transcriber(pair) {
+		t.Fatal("the pair is what callers must transcribe through")
+	}
+	// Nothing answers on port 2, so the seam is the floor until it does.
+	if pair.Available() {
+		t.Fatal("an unreachable workstation must not be available")
+	}
+}
diff --git a/cmd/mavend/voicewire.go b/cmd/mavend/voicewire.go
index 9e308e9..f3a2f7f 100644
--- a/cmd/mavend/voicewire.go
+++ b/cmd/mavend/voicewire.go
@@ -36,7 +36,9 @@ type voiceWiring struct {
 	sessions  *voice.Sessions
 	voiceSink delivery.Sink
 	embedder  router.Embedder
-	handler   *reactiveHandler // the reactive handler for IPC Chat
+	// heads — the routing heads, nil unless embedder.heads_path is set.
+	heads   *router.RouterHeads
+	handler *reactiveHandler // the reactive handler for IPC Chat
 	// worker clients (set when configured as Remote): closed on shutdown so
 	// mavsttd / mavttsd don't keep a stale conn into a restarting daemon.
 	sttClient *worker.Client
@@ -53,7 +55,11 @@ type voiceWiring struct {
 	// unless a `workstation` block names an address. Held here only so the
 	// prober is stopped on shutdown; callers were handed it at build time.
 	pair *llm.Pair
-	mcp  *mcpWiring
+	// sttPair — CrisperWhisper 2.0 on the workstation with mavsttd as the
+	// floor, nil unless the `workstation.stt` block names an address. Held for
+	// the same reason as pair: to stop its prober on shutdown.
+	sttPair *stt.Pair
+	mcp     *mcpWiring
 	// home — the Home Assistant client, nil unless the `smarthome` block is
 	// enabled (Vikunja #256). Its devices land in the same allowlist as every
 	// other act, so nothing else here has to know about it.
@@ -72,6 +78,9 @@ func (w *voiceWiring) close() {
 	if w.embedder != nil {
 		_ = w.embedder.Close()
 	}
+	if w.heads != nil {
+		_ = w.heads.Close()
+	}
 	if w.server != nil {
 		_ = w.server.Close()
 	}
@@ -84,6 +93,9 @@ func (w *voiceWiring) close() {
 	if w.pair != nil {
 		w.pair.Stop()
 	}
+	if w.sttPair != nil {
+		w.sttPair.Stop()
+	}
 	w.mcp.close()
 }
 
@@ -112,6 +124,7 @@ func wireVoice(cfg *config.Config, coreAPI ipc.CoreAPI, phr phraser.Phraser, mem
 	} else {
 		transcriber = stt.NewStub()
 	}
+	transcriber, w.sttPair = sttSeam(cfg, transcriber)
 	w.transcriber = transcriber
 
 	// ----- tts (Stub in-process OR Remote) -----
@@ -147,6 +160,24 @@ func wireVoice(cfg *config.Config, coreAPI ipc.CoreAPI, phr phraser.Phraser, mem
 		emb = router.NewHashEmbedder(1024)
 	}
 	w.embedder = emb
+
+	// ----- router: routing heads (only when configured, and never fatal) -----
+	// A missing or broken weights file logs and leaves w.heads nil, which is
+	// byte-for-byte the cascade that shipped before V-664. Refusing to start
+	// over a routing accelerator would trade a working box for a better one.
+	if cfg.Voice.Embedder != nil && cfg.Voice.Embedder.HeadsPath != "" {
+		h, err := router.NewRouterHeads(
+			cfg.Voice.Embedder.HeadsPath,
+			cfg.Voice.Embedder.TokenizerPath,
+		)
+		if err != nil {
+			log.Printf("voice: routing heads unavailable, cascade unchanged: %v", err)
+		} else {
+			log.Printf("voice: routing heads loaded from %s", cfg.Voice.Embedder.HeadsPath)
+			w.heads = h
+		}
+	}
+
 	repairFactVectors(dataStore, emb)
 	checkStoredEmbedder(dataStore, emb)
 	// Retention is enforced on write, which is not enough on its own: a box that
@@ -223,7 +254,8 @@ func wireVoice(cfg *config.Config, coreAPI ipc.CoreAPI, phr phraser.Phraser, mem
 	// against the classifier's 50.0%, at about 1s a turn instead of 30ms (see
 	// config.VoiceConfig.LLMRouter). The classifier always stays wired as the
 	// fallback, so a model error never breaks a turn.
-	rtr := buildRouter(emb, matcher, threshold, pickLLMRouter(cfg.Voice.UseLLMRouter(), hot))
+	rtr := buildRouter(emb, matcher, threshold,
+		pickLLMRouter(cfg.Voice.UseLLMRouter(), hot), w.heads)
 
 	// ----- sessions registry (shared with voicesink) -----
 	sessions := voice.NewSessions()
@@ -366,6 +398,44 @@ func modelSeam(cfg *config.Config, resident *llm.Client) (router.Completer, *llm
 	return pair, pair
 }
 
+// sttSeam builds the transcription seam the voice path and the meeting
+// recorder share. It is modelSeam for audio and follows the same rule.
+//
+// With no `workstation.stt` block it hands back the floor untouched, which is
+// today's deploy exactly. With one, it is an stt.Pair preferring CrisperWhisper
+// 2.0 on workpc, which scores 10.4% WER in Russian against the floor's 27.5%
+// (docs/evals/2026-08-09-crisperwhisper2-russian-wer.md).
+//
+// Only the silent half of the degradation rule applies here. A worse transcript
+// is still a turn, so there is nothing to name a gap about and the fallback is
+// never spoken. That is why stt.Pair has no TranscribeRemote.
+func sttSeam(cfg *config.Config, floor stt.Transcriber) (stt.Transcriber, *stt.Pair) {
+	if cfg.Workstation == nil || cfg.Workstation.Stt == nil {
+		return floor, nil
+	}
+	s := cfg.Workstation.Stt
+	lang := ""
+	if cfg.Voice != nil {
+		lang = cfg.Voice.Lang
+		if cfg.Voice.Stt != nil && cfg.Voice.Stt.Lang != "" {
+			lang = cfg.Voice.Stt.Lang
+		}
+	}
+	pair := stt.NewPair(
+		stt.NewHTTPTranscriber(s.URL, s.Token, lang, time.Duration(s.Timeout)),
+		floor,
+		s.Health,
+		time.Duration(s.Probe),
+	)
+	pair.Start(context.Background())
+	if s.Token == "" {
+		log.Print("voice: the workstation transcriber has no token, so anything on the LAN can post audio to it")
+	}
+	log.Printf("voice: workstation transcriber at %s, probed every %s, mavsttd as the floor",
+		s.URL, time.Duration(s.Probe))
+	return pair, pair
+}
+
 func pickLLMRouter(enabled bool, c router.Completer) *router.LLMRouter {
 	if !enabled {
 		return nil
@@ -390,7 +460,8 @@ func pickLLMRouter(enabled bool, c router.Completer) *router.LLMRouter {
 //     intent from seedDir (models/seeds/<intent>.txt) — see seedClassifier
 //     below for the current intent list and file names.
 //   - Threshold is from voice.router_threshold config (default 0.55).
-func buildRouter(emb router.Embedder, acts router.ActMatcher, threshold float64, llmR *router.LLMRouter) *router.Router {
+func buildRouter(emb router.Embedder, acts router.ActMatcher, threshold float64,
+	llmR *router.LLMRouter, heads *router.RouterHeads) *router.Router {
 	cls := router.NewClassifier(emb)
 	seedClassifier(cls)
 	grammars := router.DefaultGrammars(acts)
@@ -442,6 +513,7 @@ func buildRouter(emb router.Embedder, acts router.ActMatcher, threshold float64,
 		},
 		Threshold: threshold,
 		LLM:       llmR,
+		Heads:     heads,
 	})
 }
 
diff --git a/deploy/mavend.json b/deploy/mavend.json
index 2881cb6..aa0d95b 100644
--- a/deploy/mavend.json
+++ b/deploy/mavend.json
@@ -251,7 +251,8 @@
     "embedder": {
       "model_path": "/opt/maven/models/embedder/multilingual-e5-small/model_quantized.onnx",
       "tokenizer_path": "/opt/maven/models/embedder/multilingual-e5-small/tokenizer.json",
-      "lib_path": "/opt/maven/lib/libonnxruntime.so"
+      "lib_path": "/opt/maven/lib/libonnxruntime.so",
+      "heads_path": "/opt/maven/models/embedder/router-heads/router_heads.onnx"
     },
     "llm_router": true,
     "query_min_score": 0.55,
diff --git a/docs/evals/2026-08-08-routing-heads-in-go.md b/docs/evals/2026-08-08-routing-heads-in-go.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aea3a6a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/evals/2026-08-08-routing-heads-in-go.md
@@ -0,0 +1,146 @@
+# The routing heads, running in Go
+
+Date: 2026-08-08. Vikunja V-664.
+Weights: `router_heads.onnx`, fp32, exported from `heads.pt` on workpc.
+Fixture: `internal/router/eval/ru_routing_v1.json`, 96 cases, 33 carrying a destination.
+Runner: `make t PKG=./internal/router/eval/ RUN=TestONNXRoutingHeads`.
+
+The four heads of V-661 ran nowhere. This is the number they score through the
+Go cascade. Same fixture and same grammars as `TestONNXBaseline`, and only the
+middle stage varies.
+
+## Headline
+
+| | classifier + ONNX | heads + classifier | gemma-4-12b cascade |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| intent | 75.0% (72/96) | **96.9% (93/96)** | 84.4% |
+| destination | 33.3% (11/33) | **75.8% (25/33)** | 72.7% |
+| false clarify | 0 | 1 | 2 |
+| missed clarify | 8 | 1 | 1 |
+| p50 | 24.5ms | 27.9ms | 329ms |
+
+A 118M encoder beats the 12B teacher it was distilled from. It wins on both
+halves of the route, at a twelfth of the latency. The workstation stays the
+better phraser and is no longer the better router.
+
+The p50 is not the heads. Most of it is the classifier's own embedder pass on
+the turns the heads decline, plus process warm-up on the first case. The heads'
+own forward pass measures 7.3ms on workpc.
+
+## Two defects were in the way, and the first was not in the heads
+
+**The tokenizer read every long word backwards.** `encodeWord` backtracks the
+Viterbi path from the end of a word and prepends each piece. That puts them back
+in reading order, and a second reverse after the loop undid it. So
+`query: вода` tokenized to `[0 12 1294 41 12489 2]` where the reference
+tokenizer gives `[0 41 1294 12 12489 2]`.
+
+It was found here and only here. The heads were trained through transformers and
+are read through the hand-written tokenizer. So a mismatch shows up as a score
+far below what Python measured on the same weights. Nothing else in the suite
+compares the two.
+
+Measured on the recall fixture, same 27 cases either way:
+
+| | reversed | fixed |
+|---|---|---|
+| recall@1 | 70.4% (19/27) | **77.8% (21/27)** |
+| recall@3 | 85.2% (23/27) | **96.3% (26/27)** |
+| answered after gate | 63.0% | 66.7% |
+| wrong note on top | 8 | 6 |
+| false recall | 0/5 | 1/5 |
+
+The classifier barely moved, 76.0% to 75.0%, and destination 36.4% to 33.3%.
+Both are one case on 96 and neither is a finding. Seeds and queries were mangled
+the same way, so cosine survived it. Recall is where it cost, because a stored
+passage and a live query are different lengths and break differently.
+
+The one new false recall is the honest cost and it is not being hidden. A
+sharper embedder scores every candidate higher, including the ones that should
+have stayed under the gate. That is the same trade `2026-08-04-recall-e5-small.md`
+recorded when e5-small replaced MiniLM.
+
+The embedder id now carries a tokenizer revision, `model_quantized@384/tok2`.
+Stored vectors were written under rev 1 and no longer sit in the same space as a
+query embedded now. The model file's name never moved, so nothing would have
+triggered `ReembedAll`. On the box the marker fired on start, and the re-embed
+rewrote 65 notes and 19 facts in 5 seconds.
+
+**The clarify head was being thrown away.** It was read only when the intent head
+cleared its own threshold. That cost 6 of the 8 ambiguous cases. `вода` reads as intent
+`act` at 0.233 and clarify at 0.983. Burying that handed the turn to the
+classifier, which routed it confidently and never asked. The clarify head answers
+a different question, which is whether there is enough here to act on at all. So
+it decides on its own and decides first.
+
+| | intent-gated | clarify decides first |
+|---|---|---|
+| intent | 90.6% | 96.9% |
+| missed clarify | 7 | 1 |
+| false clarify | 0 | 1 |
+
+## The threshold is measured, not chosen
+
+Max softmax over the intent head, on the 88 cases carrying an intent:
+
+| threshold | kept | accuracy kept | wrong kept | right dropped |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| 0.5 | 84 | 96.4% | 3 | 2 |
+| **0.6** | **81** | **97.5%** | **2** | **4** |
+| 0.7 | 75 | 97.3% | 2 | 10 |
+| 0.8 | 64 | 96.9% | 2 | 21 |
+| 0.9 | 46 | 100.0% | 0 | 37 |
+
+0.6 is the knee. Every value from 0.7 to 0.85 drops right answers and keeps the
+same two wrong ones. 0.9 is the only value that clears them, and it costs 37
+correct routes to do it.
+
+## Quantization was measured and rejected
+
+| build | size | intent | destination | p50 |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| fp32 | 470MB | 83/88 (94.3%) | 28/33 (84.8%) | 7.3ms |
+| int8 | 118MB | 79/88 (89.8%) | 26/33 (78.8%) | 4.0ms |
+| fp16 | 235MB | will not load | — | — |
+
+Python numbers, on the heads alone rather than through the cascade. int8 costs
+4.5 points of intent and 6 of destination to save 3ms. The cascade around it has
+a p50 over a second when the resident model answers. The fp16 graph is broken:
+`convert_float_to_float16` leaves a Cast node emitting float16 where the graph
+expects float, and onnxruntime refuses the session. It was not worth fixing.
+
+The exporter also had to be told to write one file. It splits weights into a
+`.onnx.data` sidecar by default. This onnxruntime resolves that path against the
+process working directory rather than the model. A split graph loads from one
+directory only.
+
+## What is still wrong
+
+**Four of the eight destination misses are calendar.** Training cannot move them.
+The possessive agenda rules claim those cases at stage 0 and name nothing on
+purpose. That caution was free while nothing downstream could name anything
+either. It has now cost four points in three separate measurements. The call is
+the owner's and it is still open.
+
+**The slot head is exported and not read.** Slots come from the stage-2
+extractor. Mapping BIO tags back to text needs character offsets the unigram
+tokenizer does not keep, which is its own piece of work.
+
+**`поужинал` is a false clarify**, which is the same defect `thinSingleToken`
+was narrowed for on 2026-08-01, arriving now from a different direction.
+
+## On the box
+
+Deployed to homesrv the same day. `voice: routing heads loaded` on start, and
+`/trace` shows `routing-heads` winning or thinning every turn. The resident model
+and the classifier are both marked never asked. Live probes:
+
+```text
+что такое TCP?                 -> kiwix     a real definition
+кто такой Линус Торвальдс?     -> kiwix     a real answer
+во сколько я лёг вчера         -> personal  не нашла у тебя такой записи
+вода                           -> thinned to clarify at 0.233 / 0.983
+```
+
+A missing or broken weights file logs and leaves the heads nil, which is
+byte-for-byte the cascade that shipped before this.
diff --git a/docs/evals/2026-08-09-crisperwhisper2-russian-wer.md b/docs/evals/2026-08-09-crisperwhisper2-russian-wer.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a6603b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/evals/2026-08-09-crisperwhisper2-russian-wer.md
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+# CrisperWhisper 2.0 in Russian, measured
+
+Date: 2026-08-09. Vikunja V-665.
+Corpus: `bond005/sberdevices_golos_10h_crowd`, test split, first 200 clips.
+Harness: `~/Programs/cw2-eval` on workpc, not in this repo.
+Runner: `./.venv/bin/python run_asr.py <arm>...` then `score.py`.
+
+The model card benchmarks disfluency F1 in German and English. It never names
+Russian and publishes no per-language WER. So the measurement came before the
+wiring.
+
+## The corpus
+
+200 clips, 13.7 minutes, 1001 reference words. Median clip 3.91s, range 1.04s
+to 13.5s. Golos crowd is short crowd-sourced Russian spoken close to the
+microphone, which is the nearest public thing to someone talking to Maven. The
+alternatives are read speech, which flatters every model equally.
+
+Two rows carry a null transcription and are skipped.
+
+Scoring normalizes both sides: lowercase, `ё` to `е`, punctuation stripped, and
+digits expanded to Russian words through num2words. Without that last step a
+model is penalized for writing `60000` where the reference says
+`шестьдесят тысяч`. Thousands separators are joined before expansion, or
+`60 000` expands to `шестьдесят ноль`.
+
+## Headline
+
+| arm | WER | CER | exact | empty | RTF |
+|---|---|---|---|---|---|
+| cw2-turbo-intended | **10.4%** | 3.4% | 65.5% | 0 | 0.065 |
+| cw2-turbo-verbatim | 10.8% | **3.1%** | **66.5%** | 0 | 0.065 |
+| whisper-turbo | 11.8% | 4.1% | 64.0% | 0 | 0.031 |
+| cw2-large-intended | 12.3% | 3.8% | 63.5% | 0 | 0.107 |
+| whisper-small | 27.5% | 9.8% | 35.0% | 0 | 0.026 |
+
+`whisper-small` is the floor, because `ggml-small.bin` is what mavsttd loads on
+homesrv today. CW2 turbo beats it by 17 points of WER and takes exact matches
+from 35.0% to 65.5%.
+
+Two results are worth naming beyond the winner. CW2 turbo beats its own base
+model, whisper-large-v3-turbo, by 1.4 points. And it beats CW2 large by 1.9
+points, which inverts what the card implies by calling turbo a degraded draft.
+No arm returned an empty transcript.
+
+## Intended and verbatim are closer than the mode names suggest
+
+The two modes disagree on 70 of the 200 clips before normalization and on 29
+after it. So the raw difference is mostly casing and punctuation, which
+normalization removes and which Maven does not read either.
+
+Verbatim scores worse on WER and better on CER and exact matches. The reason is
+script, not disfluency:
+
+```text
+ref: футбольный матч челси брайтон
+int: Футбольный матч Chelsea-Брайтон.
+ver: Футбольный матч Челси Брайтон.
+```
+
+Intended writes foreign entity names in Latin script and verbatim
+transliterates them. Golos references are Cyrillic throughout, so verbatim
+collects the exact matches. That is a property of this corpus rather than a
+quality difference.
+
+**This corpus cannot settle the mode choice.** Golos crowd is clean short
+commands with almost no disfluency. The two modes have nothing to disagree
+about here. They separate on spontaneous speech with fillers, restarts and
+repairs, which is what the owner speaks. Intended stays the choice for the
+reason it was always the choice. Maven wants what was meant, not every stumble
+on the way there.
+
+The Latin-script habit is the one finding here that touches routing. The
+routing heads were trained on Cyrillic utterances, so an entity name arriving
+in Latin script is out of distribution for them. Nothing measures that yet.
+
+## The runtime is workpc, because whisper.cpp cannot load CW2
+
+`num_languages()` in `deps/whisper.cpp/src/whisper.cpp` derives the language
+count from the vocabulary size:
+
+```cpp
+return n_vocab - 51765 - (is_multilingual() ? 1 : 0);
+```
+
+CW2 carries 31 extra tokens, so `n_vocab` is 51897 and this yields 131
+languages. The derived `dt` offset becomes 33 and shifts seven special token
+ids, including `token_beg` and `token_transcribe`. The architecture is
+otherwise byte-identical to whisper-large-v3-turbo, and the new tokens sit
+above every whisper special id.
+
+So loading CW2 in whisper.cpp is a patch to a vendored dependency, not a port.
+It was not taken, because STT is moving to workpc anyway under V-486. CW2 turbo
+becomes the preferred remote and `ggml-small.bin` on homesrv stays the floor,
+which is the shape `modelSeam` already uses for routing and replies. The 27.5%
+floor is what a turn falls back to when the workstation is down, and this table
+is what that costs.
+
+## License
+
+Standard CW2 weights carry `nyra-health-non-commercial-research`. The Pro
+variants are commercial-license only. Maven is personal and self-hosted, so the
+standard weights are usable and the Pro ones are not free to take.
+
+## What is not measured
+
+Disfluent spontaneous speech, which is the whole reason to prefer Intended.
+Long-form audio beyond 13.5s. Far-field or noisy microphones. English, which
+Maven also speaks. The ONNX turbo export, which was never run, since the
+transformers path already meets the latency budget at RTF 0.065.
diff --git a/internal/config/voice.go b/internal/config/voice.go
index 752a8f6..1e9a9e3 100644
--- a/internal/config/voice.go
+++ b/internal/config/voice.go
@@ -37,6 +37,16 @@ type EmbedderConfig struct {
 	ModelPath     string `json:"model_path,omitempty"`
 	TokenizerPath string `json:"tokenizer_path,omitempty"`
 	LibPath       string `json:"lib_path,omitempty"`
+
+	// HeadsPath — the routing heads graph, which is a fine-tuned COPY of the
+	// model above with four linear heads on its pooled output (V-664). Empty
+	// means no heads, and the cascade runs exactly as it did before they
+	// existed. It shares LibPath and TokenizerPath, and router_heads.json is
+	// read from the same directory.
+	//
+	// It must never be pointed at ModelPath. Memory recall depends on the
+	// resident copy scoring what it scored, and the fine-tuned one does not.
+	HeadsPath string `json:"heads_path,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // WeatherConfig configures the weather provider for voice queries.
diff --git a/internal/config/workstation.go b/internal/config/workstation.go
index 7a79813..6fab688 100644
--- a/internal/config/workstation.go
+++ b/internal/config/workstation.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package config
 
 import (
+	"net/url"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 )
@@ -35,12 +36,54 @@ type WorkstationConfig struct {
 	// 0 ⇒ DefaultWorkstationTimeout. A big model on a LAN host is slower than
 	// the resident one, and a request that overruns falls back to the floor.
 	Timeout Duration `json:"timeout,omitempty"`
+
+	// Stt — CrisperWhisper 2.0 on the same machine, a separate service on its
+	// own port. Absent ⇒ every utterance goes to mavsttd, which is today.
+	Stt *WorkstationSttConfig `json:"stt,omitempty"`
+}
+
+// WorkstationSttConfig — speech-to-text on the workstation.
+//
+// It is a second service and not a second endpoint on mavgpud: whisper.cpp
+// cannot load CrisperWhisper 2.0 at all, because it derives its language count
+// from the vocabulary size and CW2's 51897 tokens shift seven special token
+// ids. So CW2 runs under transformers, and this block addresses it.
+//
+// Worth the trouble: CW2 turbo scores 10.4% WER in Russian against 27.5% for
+// the ggml-small.bin homesrv loads
+// (docs/evals/2026-08-09-crisperwhisper2-russian-wer.md).
+type WorkstationSttConfig struct {
+	// URL — the transcribe endpoint, e.g.
+	// "http://192.168.1.105:8081/transcribe". Empty ⇒ the block is normalised
+	// to nil and mavsttd takes every turn.
+	URL string `json:"url,omitempty"`
+
+	// Health — the admission endpoint. Empty ⇒ the URL's origin + "/health".
+	// It answers 503 while the card is held, and that is the signal.
+	Health string `json:"health,omitempty"`
+
+	// Token — the bearer token the service checks. Audio is the most sensitive
+	// thing that crosses this seam, so a LAN deployment should set one. Write
+	// it as ${MAVEN_STT_TOKEN} and keep the value in deploy/telegram.env, the
+	// way every other secret in this file is written.
+	Token string `json:"token,omitempty"`
+
+	// Probe — how often admission is re-checked. 0 ⇒ DefaultWorkstationProbe.
+	Probe Duration `json:"probe,omitempty"`
+
+	// Timeout — the per-request budget for one utterance. 0 ⇒
+	// DefaultWorkstationSttTimeout. A request that overruns falls back to
+	// mavsttd, which costs a worse transcript and not the turn.
+	Timeout Duration `json:"timeout,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // Workstation defaults, applied in normaliseWorkstation.
 const (
 	DefaultWorkstationProbe   = 15 * time.Second
 	DefaultWorkstationTimeout = 90 * time.Second
+	// One utterance, not one completion. A voice turn waits on this, so the
+	// budget is a few seconds and not a minute and a half.
+	DefaultWorkstationSttTimeout = 10 * time.Second
 )
 
 // normaliseWorkstation applies the block's defaults. No address, no preferred
@@ -63,4 +106,36 @@ func (c *Config) normaliseWorkstation() {
 	if w.Timeout <= 0 {
 		w.Timeout = Duration(DefaultWorkstationTimeout)
 	}
+	normaliseWorkstationStt(w)
+}
+
+// normaliseWorkstationStt applies the speech-to-text block's defaults. No
+// address, no remote: mavsttd then takes every utterance, which is today.
+func normaliseWorkstationStt(w *WorkstationConfig) {
+	if w.Stt != nil && strings.TrimSpace(w.Stt.URL) == "" {
+		w.Stt = nil
+	}
+	if w.Stt == nil {
+		return
+	}
+	s := w.Stt
+	if strings.TrimSpace(s.Health) == "" {
+		s.Health = healthOrigin(s.URL)
+	}
+	if s.Probe <= 0 {
+		s.Probe = Duration(DefaultWorkstationProbe)
+	}
+	if s.Timeout <= 0 {
+		s.Timeout = Duration(DefaultWorkstationSttTimeout)
+	}
+}
+
+// healthOrigin derives the admission endpoint from the transcribe endpoint.
+// The URL names a path, so appending to it would ask for /transcribe/health.
+func healthOrigin(raw string) string {
+	u, err := url.Parse(raw)
+	if err != nil || u.Host == "" {
+		return strings.TrimRight(raw, "/") + "/health"
+	}
+	return u.Scheme + "://" + u.Host + "/health"
 }
diff --git a/internal/router/decisiontrace.go b/internal/router/decisiontrace.go
index f66ac2a..140ec20 100644
--- a/internal/router/decisiontrace.go
+++ b/internal/router/decisiontrace.go
@@ -14,12 +14,15 @@ import (
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/decision"
 )
 
-// The two routing engines, named as claimants. They are one stage and not two,
-// because only one of them ever runs: the classifier is reached when the model
-// is absent or errored, never alongside it.
+// The three routing engines, named as claimants. The model and the classifier
+// are one stage and not two, because only one of them ever runs: the classifier
+// is reached when the model is absent or errored, never alongside it. The heads
+// run before both and decline on low confidence, so they can appear beside
+// either one in a record.
 const (
 	claimantLLM        = "llm-router"
 	claimantClassifier = "classifier"
+	claimantHeads      = "routing-heads"
 )
 
 // thinReason names which arm of gateLLMDecision cut the confidence. The gate
diff --git a/internal/router/embedderid_test.go b/internal/router/embedderid_test.go
index 03f1e16..6b2ecfd 100644
--- a/internal/router/embedderid_test.go
+++ b/internal/router/embedderid_test.go
@@ -1,10 +1,13 @@
 package router
 
-import "testing"
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
 
 func TestEmbedderIDFromModelPath(t *testing.T) {
 	got := modelIDFromPath("/opt/maven/models/embedder/multilingual-e5-small.onnx")
-	if got != "multilingual-e5-small@384" {
+	if got != "multilingual-e5-small@384/tok2" {
 		t.Fatalf("modelIDFromPath = %q", got)
 	}
 	// A different model file must produce a different id, even at 384 dim.
@@ -12,6 +15,13 @@ func TestEmbedderIDFromModelPath(t *testing.T) {
 	if old == got {
 		t.Fatal("two different models share one id")
 	}
+	// The tokenizer is half of what makes a vector, and it changes under a
+	// model file whose name never moves (V-664). An id that ignored it would
+	// leave stored passages in one space and every new query in another, with
+	// nothing to trigger the re-embed.
+	if !strings.Contains(got, "/tok") {
+		t.Fatalf("id %q does not name the tokenizer revision", got)
+	}
 }
 
 func TestEmbedderIDIncludesDim(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/internal/router/eval/heads_test.go b/internal/router/eval/heads_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c65fd36
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/router/eval/heads_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+package eval
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/config"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/router"
+)
+
+// TestONNXRoutingHeads — the cascade with the routing heads wired, which is
+// what V-664 deploys. Opt-in via MAVEN_ONNX_LIB, same as TestONNXBaseline, and
+// one TestONNX* per process.
+//
+// The comparison worth reading is against TestONNXBaseline, which is the same
+// cascade with the same grammars and the same classifier floor and no heads.
+// Only the middle arm varies.
+//
+// It also checks the Go unigram tokenizer against the Python one, because the
+// heads were trained through transformers and are read through a hand-written
+// tokenizer. A mismatch shows up here as a score below what Python measured on
+// the same weights, and nowhere else.
+func TestONNXRoutingHeads(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")
+	}
+	// Absolute, because onnxruntime resolves a graph's external weights file
+	// against the model path it was given, and a relative one lands in the
+	// test's working directory.
+	root, err := filepath.Abs("../../..")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	model := filepath.Join(root, "models/embedder/multilingual-e5-small/model_quantized.onnx")
+	tok := filepath.Join(root, "models/embedder/multilingual-e5-small/tokenizer.json")
+	heads := filepath.Join(root, "models/embedder/router-heads/router_heads.onnx")
+	for _, p := range []string{lib, model, tok, heads} {
+		if _, err := os.Stat(p); err != nil {
+			t.Skipf("missing %s: %v", p, err)
+		}
+	}
+	emb, err2 := router.NewONNXEmbedder(model, tok, lib)
+	if err2 != nil {
+		t.Skipf("onnx embedder unavailable: %v", err2)
+	}
+	err = nil
+	defer emb.Close()
+
+	h, err := router.NewRouterHeads(heads, tok)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Skipf("routing heads unavailable: %v", err)
+	}
+	defer h.Close()
+
+	f, err := Load()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Load: %v", err)
+	}
+	rep, err := Score(context.Background(), "heads+classifier", withHeads(t, emb, h), f)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Score: %v", err)
+	}
+	t.Log("\n" + rep.String() + rep.Failures())
+}
+
+// withHeads mirrors newBaselineRouter and adds the one arm under test. It is a
+// separate function rather than a parameter so the baseline's signature stays
+// the shape every other test calls it with.
+func withHeads(t *testing.T, emb router.Embedder, h *router.RouterHeads) *router.Router {
+	t.Helper()
+	acts := router.DefaultActMatcher{Fns: actFns}
+	return router.New(router.Config{
+		Grammars:   baselineGrammars(acts),
+		Classifier: newBaselineClassifier(t, emb),
+		Extractor: router.Extractor{
+			Time:  router.StubDateTimeParser{},
+			Acts:  acts,
+			Facts: router.DefaultFactParser{},
+		},
+		Threshold: config.DefaultRouterThreshold,
+		Heads:     h,
+	})
+}
diff --git a/internal/router/heads.go b/internal/router/heads.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..acb2b99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/router/heads.go
@@ -0,0 +1,243 @@
+package router
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"math"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+
+	ort "github.com/yalue/onnxruntime_go"
+)
+
+// The routing heads (V-546, V-661, V-664). Four linear heads over one masked
+// mean pool of a fine-tuned copy of multilingual-e5-small: intent,
+// destination, BIO slot tags and clarify. Trained on workpc, exported to ONNX,
+// and read here.
+//
+// Why this is not the classifier. The classifier compares one utterance to
+// frozen seed phrases by cosine. A head is a softmax over the label set, so it
+// cannot name a value that does not exist, and its max is a calibratable
+// confidence where Confidence: 1.0 was a hardcode.
+//
+// Why it is not the resident model either. It answers in single-digit
+// milliseconds against the model's p50 of 1.19s, and it names a destination
+// the classifier arm never names at all.
+//
+// The body is a COPY of the embedder weights, fine-tuned. It must never
+// replace models/embedder/multilingual-e5-small — memory recall depends on
+// that file scoring what it scored.
+//
+// The slot head is exported and deliberately not read. Slots already come from
+// the stage-2 extractor, and mapping BIO tags back to text needs character
+// offsets the unigram tokenizer does not keep. Reading it is separate work.
+const (
+	// headsSeq — the sequence length the heads were trained at. Padding is
+	// masked out of both attention and the pool, so this changes nothing but
+	// truncation, and truncation is what training did at 64.
+	headsSeq = 64
+
+	// headsThreshold — max softmax over the intent head, below which the heads
+	// decline and the cascade carries on to the resident model.
+	//
+	// 0.6 is the knee measured on the 88-case intent fixture
+	// (docs/evals/2026-08-08-routing-heads-in-go.md). It keeps 81 of 88 cases
+	// at 97.5% accuracy. Every higher value up to 0.9 drops right answers and
+	// keeps the same two wrong ones, so it buys nothing.
+	headsThreshold = 0.6
+)
+
+// RouterHeads runs the exported graph. Nil is a working value everywhere: a
+// deployment with no weights file routes exactly as it did before this
+// existed.
+type RouterHeads struct {
+	tokenizer *unigramTokenizer
+	session   *ort.DynamicSession[int64, float32]
+	intents   []Intent
+	sources   []Source
+	threshold float64
+}
+
+// headsMeta — router_heads.json, written beside the weights by the exporter.
+// The label order is the head's output order and cannot be inferred from Go.
+type headsMeta struct {
+	Intents []string `json:"intents"`
+	Sources []string `json:"sources"`
+	Prefix  string   `json:"prefix"`
+}
+
+// NewRouterHeads loads the graph and its label order. modelPath points at the
+// .onnx; the external weights and router_heads.json sit beside it.
+//
+// It assumes the ONNX environment is already initialised, because the embedder
+// does that at startup and the runtime allows it once.
+func NewRouterHeads(modelPath, tokenizerPath string) (*RouterHeads, error) {
+	metaPath := filepath.Join(filepath.Dir(modelPath), "router_heads.json")
+	raw, err := os.ReadFile(metaPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("heads: read %s: %w", metaPath, err)
+	}
+	var meta headsMeta
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &meta); err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("heads: parse %s: %w", metaPath, err)
+	}
+	if meta.Prefix != queryPrefix {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("heads: trained with prefix %q, this build uses %q",
+			meta.Prefix, queryPrefix)
+	}
+
+	intents := make([]Intent, len(meta.Intents))
+	for i, s := range meta.Intents {
+		intents[i] = Intent(s)
+	}
+	sources := make([]Source, len(meta.Sources))
+	for i, s := range meta.Sources {
+		// SourceUnknown is not in Sources, because it is the absence of a
+		// choice. It is a class the head can emit, and the one it should emit
+		// often, so it is allowed here and nowhere else.
+		if s != string(SourceUnknown) && !ValidSource(Source(s)) {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("heads: unknown destination %q in %s", s, metaPath)
+		}
+		sources[i] = Source(s)
+	}
+
+	tok, err := newUnigramTokenizer(tokenizerPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("heads: tokenizer: %w", err)
+	}
+	session, err := ort.NewDynamicSession[int64, float32](
+		modelPath,
+		[]string{"input_ids", "attention_mask"},
+		[]string{"intent", "source", "slots", "clarify"},
+	)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("heads: create session: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	return &RouterHeads{
+		tokenizer: tok,
+		session:   session,
+		intents:   intents,
+		sources:   sources,
+		threshold: headsThreshold,
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func (h *RouterHeads) Close() error {
+	if h == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
+	h.session.Destroy()
+	return nil
+}
+
+// headsResult — one forward pass, read back.
+type headsResult struct {
+	Intent     Intent
+	Source     Source
+	Confidence float64
+	Clarify    bool
+}
+
+// Route runs the heads and reports whether they are confident enough to answer.
+// A false second return is a decline, not an error: the cascade goes on to the
+// resident model, which is what happens today.
+func (h *RouterHeads) Route(ctx context.Context, utterance string) (headsResult, bool, error) {
+	if h == nil {
+		return headsResult{}, false, nil
+	}
+	ids, mask, _ := h.tokenizer.Encode(queryPrefix + utterance)
+	ids, mask = ids[:headsSeq], mask[:headsSeq]
+	// The tokenizer pads and truncates to its own length, which is longer than
+	// this one. Cutting the tail can cut the separator with it, so put it back.
+	if mask[headsSeq-1] == 1 {
+		ids[headsSeq-1] = sepTokenID
+	}
+
+	shape := ort.NewShape(1, headsSeq)
+	idsT, err := ort.NewTensor(shape, ids)
+	if err != nil {
+		return headsResult{}, false, fmt.Errorf("heads: ids tensor: %w", err)
+	}
+	defer idsT.Destroy()
+	maskT, err := ort.NewTensor(shape, mask)
+	if err != nil {
+		return headsResult{}, false, fmt.Errorf("heads: mask tensor: %w", err)
+	}
+	defer maskT.Destroy()
+
+	intentT, err := ort.NewEmptyTensor[float32](ort.NewShape(1, int64(len(h.intents))))
+	if err != nil {
+		return headsResult{}, false, fmt.Errorf("heads: intent tensor: %w", err)
+	}
+	defer intentT.Destroy()
+	sourceT, err := ort.NewEmptyTensor[float32](ort.NewShape(1, int64(len(h.sources))))
+	if err != nil {
+		return headsResult{}, false, fmt.Errorf("heads: source tensor: %w", err)
+	}
+	defer sourceT.Destroy()
+	slotsT, err := ort.NewEmptyTensor[float32](ort.NewShape(1, headsSeq, int64(numBIOTags)))
+	if err != nil {
+		return headsResult{}, false, fmt.Errorf("heads: slots tensor: %w", err)
+	}
+	defer slotsT.Destroy()
+	clarifyT, err := ort.NewEmptyTensor[float32](ort.NewShape(1, 2))
+	if err != nil {
+		return headsResult{}, false, fmt.Errorf("heads: clarify tensor: %w", err)
+	}
+	defer clarifyT.Destroy()
+
+	if err := h.session.Run(
+		[]*ort.Tensor[int64]{idsT, maskT},
+		[]*ort.Tensor[float32]{intentT, sourceT, slotsT, clarifyT},
+	); err != nil {
+		return headsResult{}, false, fmt.Errorf("heads: run: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	// The graph applies its own softmax, so these are probabilities and the max
+	// is the same number the eval calibrated the threshold against.
+	i, conf := argmax(intentT.GetData())
+	res := headsResult{
+		Intent:     h.intents[i],
+		Confidence: conf,
+	}
+	cl := clarifyT.GetData()
+	res.Clarify = len(cl) == 2 && cl[1] > cl[0]
+
+	// The destination head is trained on query rows and is meaningless on any
+	// other intent, the same way queryWalk is never reached by one.
+	if res.Intent == IntentQuery {
+		s, _ := argmax(sourceT.GetData())
+		res.Source = h.sources[s]
+	}
+
+	// The clarify head decides on its own, and it decides first. It answers a
+	// different question from the intent head — not which intent, but whether
+	// there is enough here to act on at all — so a low intent confidence is no
+	// reason to discard it. It is usually the same turns: "вода" reads as
+	// intent act at 0.23 and clarify at 0.98, and letting the intent threshold
+	// bury that hands the turn to the classifier, which routes it confidently
+	// and never asks.
+	if res.Clarify {
+		return res, true, nil
+	}
+	if conf < h.threshold {
+		return res, false, nil
+	}
+	return res, true, nil
+}
+
+// numBIOTags — O plus B- and I- for each of Maven's five slots. The head is not
+// read, but the graph writes it and the output tensor has to be the right size.
+const numBIOTags = 11
+
+func argmax(v []float32) (int, float64) {
+	best, bestV := 0, math.Inf(-1)
+	for i, x := range v {
+		if float64(x) > bestV {
+			best, bestV = i, float64(x)
+		}
+	}
+	return best, bestV
+}
diff --git a/internal/router/onnxembedder.go b/internal/router/onnxembedder.go
index cbbf63c..005255f 100644
--- a/internal/router/onnxembedder.go
+++ b/internal/router/onnxembedder.go
@@ -66,12 +66,19 @@ func NewONNXEmbedder(modelPath, tokenizerPath, libPath string) (*onnxEmbedder, e
 func (e *onnxEmbedder) Dim() int { return embedDim }
 
 // ID names the loaded model for the DB marker (Vikunja #378): the model file's
-// own name plus the dimension, so pointing the config at another model changes
-// the string on its own.
+// own name, the dimension, and the tokenizer revision, so pointing the config
+// at another model changes the string on its own.
 func (e *onnxEmbedder) ID() string { return e.id }
 
+// tokenizerRev — bumped whenever the tokenizer changes what it emits for the
+// same text, because that changes every vector while the model file's name
+// stays put. Rev 2 is the fix for the reversed word pieces (V-664): stored
+// passages embedded under rev 1 no longer sit in the same space as a query
+// embedded now, and ReembedAll rewrites them because this string moved.
+const tokenizerRev = 2
+
 // modelIDFromPath turns /opt/.../multilingual-e5-small.onnx into
-// "multilingual-e5-small@384".
+// "multilingual-e5-small@384/tok2".
 func modelIDFromPath(modelPath string) string {
 	name := modelPath
 	if i := strings.LastIndexAny(name, "/\\"); i >= 0 {
@@ -81,7 +88,7 @@ func modelIDFromPath(modelPath string) string {
 	if name == "" {
 		name = "onnx"
 	}
-	return fmt.Sprintf("%s@%d", name, embedDim)
+	return fmt.Sprintf("%s@%d/tok%d", name, embedDim, tokenizerRev)
 }
 
 // Embed treats the text as a query. The classifier compares one short
@@ -339,14 +346,17 @@ func (t *unigramTokenizer) encodeWord(word string) []int64 {
 		}
 	}
 
+	// Backtracking walks the word from its end, and prepending each piece puts
+	// it back in reading order. There used to be a second reverse after this
+	// loop, which undid it: every multi-piece word came out backwards, and
+	// "query: вода" tokenized to [0 12 1294 41 12489 2] where the reference
+	// tokenizer gives [0 41 1294 12 12489 2] (V-664). A transformer reads
+	// position, so the pieces of a long Russian word were being read in the
+	// wrong order on every turn.
 	var result []int64
 	for i := n; i > 0; i = prev[i] {
 		result = append([]int64{bestID[i]}, result...)
 	}
-	// Reverse
-	for l, r := 0, len(result)-1; l < r; l, r = l+1, r-1 {
-		result[l], result[r] = result[r], result[l]
-	}
 	return result
 }
 
diff --git a/internal/router/router.go b/internal/router/router.go
index 2a6415d..3ad9653 100644
--- a/internal/router/router.go
+++ b/internal/router/router.go
@@ -31,6 +31,12 @@ type Config struct {
 	// error/parse failure, falls through to the classifier (never fails the
 	// turn on the model).
 	LLM *LLMRouter
+	// Heads — optional routing heads over the fine-tuned embedder copy. When
+	// set, Route consults them after stage 0 and before the LLM router. They
+	// decline below their own confidence threshold, so a low-confidence turn
+	// reaches the model exactly as it does today. Nil is the shipped-before
+	// behaviour and costs nothing.
+	Heads *RouterHeads
 }
 
 // Router — the deterministic cascade. Route never guesses: stage 0 wins
@@ -42,6 +48,7 @@ type Router struct {
 	extractor  Extractor
 	threshold  float64
 	llm        *LLMRouter
+	heads      *RouterHeads
 }
 
 func New(cfg Config) *Router {
@@ -51,6 +58,7 @@ func New(cfg Config) *Router {
 		extractor:  cfg.Extractor,
 		threshold:  cfg.Threshold,
 		llm:        cfg.LLM,
+		heads:      cfg.Heads,
 	}
 }
 
@@ -98,6 +106,60 @@ func (r *Router) Route(ctx context.Context, utterance string, now time.Time) (De
 	}
 	r.noteGrammarOutcomes(ctx, len(r.grammars), declinedBuild, "", "")
 
+	// stage 0b — routing heads (when wired). A softmax over the label set, so
+	// it cannot name an intent or a destination that does not exist, and its
+	// max is a real confidence. It runs before the model because it is three
+	// orders of magnitude faster and scores better on both halves of the route.
+	//
+	// It declines below its threshold rather than clarifying. A declined turn
+	// carries on to the model and then the classifier, which is what a box with
+	// no weights file does on every turn.
+	if r.heads != nil {
+		res, ok, err := r.heads.Route(ctx, utterance)
+		switch {
+		case err != nil:
+			log.Printf("router: heads fell through to the rest of the cascade: %v", err)
+			decision.Note(ctx, decision.Claim{
+				Stage: decision.StageRoute, Claimant: claimantHeads,
+				Outcome: decision.Declined, Reason: "error: " + err.Error(),
+			})
+		case !ok:
+			decision.Note(ctx, decision.Scored(decision.StageRoute, claimantHeads,
+				string(res.Intent), res.Confidence, decision.Declined,
+				"below the heads confidence threshold"))
+		default:
+			d := Decision{
+				Utterance:  utterance,
+				Stage:      2,
+				Intent:     res.Intent,
+				Confidence: res.Confidence,
+				Source:     res.Source,
+				Clarify:    res.Clarify,
+			}
+			r.fillSlots(ctx, &d, now)
+			decision.Note(ctx, decision.Claim{
+				Stage: decision.StageRoute, Claimant: claimantLLM,
+				Outcome: decision.NeverAsked, Reason: "the routing heads answered",
+			})
+			decision.Note(ctx, decision.Claim{
+				Stage: decision.StageRoute, Claimant: claimantClassifier,
+				Outcome: decision.NeverAsked, Reason: "the routing heads answered",
+			})
+			outcome, reason := decision.Won, ""
+			if d.Clarify {
+				outcome, reason = decision.Thinned, "the clarify head says there is too little here to act on"
+			}
+			decision.Note(ctx, decision.Scored(decision.StageRoute, claimantHeads,
+				string(d.Intent), d.Confidence, outcome, reason))
+			return d, nil
+		}
+	} else {
+		decision.Note(ctx, decision.Claim{
+			Stage: decision.StageRoute, Claimant: claimantHeads,
+			Outcome: decision.NeverAsked, Reason: "no routing heads are wired",
+		})
+	}
+
 	// stage 1a — LLM router (when wired). It reasons over the utterance instead
 	// of nearest-centroid guessing. On any error/parse-fail, fall through to the
 	// classifier cascade (never fail the turn on the model).
diff --git a/internal/stt/http.go b/internal/stt/http.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..adf04fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/stt/http.go
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+package stt
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"net/http"
+	"strconv"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/audio"
+)
+
+// HTTPTranscriber — speech-to-text on another host, over HTTP.
+//
+// mavsttd is whisper.cpp linked into a Go daemon and reached over a unix
+// socket. CrisperWhisper 2.0 cannot be reached that way: whisper.cpp derives
+// its language count from the vocabulary size, and CW2's 51897 tokens shift
+// seven special token ids. It runs under transformers instead, as a service
+// beside the model on workpc. See docs/evals/2026-08-09-crisperwhisper2-russian-wer.md.
+//
+// So this is the second transport for the same seam, not a second seam. The
+// caller still sees stt.Transcriber and one method.
+type HTTPTranscriber struct {
+	url   string
+	token string
+	lang  string
+	http  *http.Client
+}
+
+// NewHTTPTranscriber builds the remote client. token may be empty for a
+// service on a trusted socket, but audio is the most sensitive thing that
+// crosses this seam, so a LAN deployment should always set one.
+func NewHTTPTranscriber(url, token, lang string, timeout time.Duration) *HTTPTranscriber {
+	return &HTTPTranscriber{
+		url:   url,
+		token: token,
+		lang:  lang,
+		http:  &http.Client{Timeout: timeout},
+	}
+}
+
+// ErrFormat — the audio is not the one canonical shape. Refused at the seam
+// rather than sent to a model that expects something else.
+var ErrFormat = errors.New("stt: audio is not 16kHz mono pcm_s16le")
+
+type httpTranscript struct {
+	Text       string  `json:"text"`
+	Confidence float64 `json:"confidence"`
+}
+
+// Transcribe posts the raw PCM and reads back the text.
+//
+// The body is the PCM bytes themselves rather than JSON. A minute of 16kHz
+// mono is under 2MB raw and about 2.6MB base64, and the format is fixed by
+// audio.PCM16kMono, so a header carries it more cheaply than an envelope.
+func (t *HTTPTranscriber) Transcribe(ctx context.Context, a audio.Audio) (string, float64, error) {
+	if !a.Format.IsValid() {
+		return "", 0, ErrFormat
+	}
+	req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, http.MethodPost, t.url, bytes.NewReader(a.Bytes))
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", 0, fmt.Errorf("stt: build request: %w", err)
+	}
+	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/octet-stream")
+	req.Header.Set("X-Sample-Rate", strconv.Itoa(a.Format.SampleRate))
+	req.Header.Set("X-Channels", strconv.Itoa(a.Format.Channels))
+	req.Header.Set("X-Sample-Bits", strconv.Itoa(a.Format.SampleBits))
+	req.Header.Set("X-Language", t.lang)
+	if t.token != "" {
+		req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+t.token)
+	}
+
+	resp, err := t.http.Do(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", 0, fmt.Errorf("stt: post audio: %w", err)
+	}
+	defer resp.Body.Close()
+	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
+		return "", 0, fmt.Errorf("stt: remote returned %d", resp.StatusCode)
+	}
+
+	var out httpTranscript
+	if err := json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(&out); err != nil {
+		return "", 0, fmt.Errorf("stt: decode transcript: %w", err)
+	}
+	return out.Text, out.Confidence, nil
+}
+
+var _ Transcriber = (*HTTPTranscriber)(nil)
diff --git a/internal/stt/http_test.go b/internal/stt/http_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..85d3289
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/stt/http_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+package stt
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"errors"
+	"io"
+	"net/http"
+	"net/http/httptest"
+	"strconv"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/audio"
+)
+
+func TestHTTPTranscriberSendsRawPCM(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+	var gotBody []byte
+	var gotHeader http.Header
+	srv := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		gotBody, _ = io.ReadAll(r.Body)
+		gotHeader = r.Header.Clone()
+		w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
+		_, _ = io.WriteString(w, `{"text":"привет","confidence":0.82}`)
+	}))
+	defer srv.Close()
+
+	a := audio.Audio{Format: audio.PCM16kMono, Bytes: []byte("pcm-bytes")}
+	tr := NewHTTPTranscriber(srv.URL, "s3cret", "ru", 2*time.Second)
+	text, conf, err := tr.Transcribe(context.Background(), a)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Transcribe: %v", err)
+	}
+	if text != "привет" || conf != 0.82 {
+		t.Fatalf("got %q %v", text, conf)
+	}
+	if string(gotBody) != "pcm-bytes" {
+		t.Fatalf("body should be the PCM itself, got %q", gotBody)
+	}
+	if got := gotHeader.Get("X-Sample-Rate"); got != strconv.Itoa(audio.PCM16kMono.SampleRate) {
+		t.Fatalf("X-Sample-Rate = %q", got)
+	}
+	if got := gotHeader.Get("X-Language"); got != "ru" {
+		t.Fatalf("X-Language = %q", got)
+	}
+	// Audio is the most sensitive thing crossing this seam.
+	if got := gotHeader.Get("Authorization"); got != "Bearer s3cret" {
+		t.Fatalf("Authorization = %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestHTTPTranscriberOmitsEmptyToken(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+	var auth string
+	srv := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		auth = r.Header.Get("Authorization")
+		_, _ = io.WriteString(w, `{"text":"x"}`)
+	}))
+	defer srv.Close()
+	a := audio.Audio{Format: audio.PCM16kMono, Bytes: []byte("x")}
+	if _, _, err := NewHTTPTranscriber(srv.URL, "", "ru", time.Second).Transcribe(context.Background(), a); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Transcribe: %v", err)
+	}
+	if auth != "" {
+		t.Fatalf("Authorization should be absent, got %q", auth)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestHTTPTranscriberRefusesWrongFormat(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+	a := audio.Audio{Format: audio.Format{SampleRate: 44100, Channels: 2, SampleBits: 16, Encoding: "pcm_s16le"}}
+	_, _, err := NewHTTPTranscriber("http://example.invalid", "", "ru", time.Second).Transcribe(context.Background(), a)
+	if !errors.Is(err, ErrFormat) {
+		t.Fatalf("want ErrFormat, got %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestHTTPTranscriberErrorsOnBadStatus(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+	srv := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, _ *http.Request) {
+		w.WriteHeader(http.StatusUnauthorized)
+	}))
+	defer srv.Close()
+	a := audio.Audio{Format: audio.PCM16kMono, Bytes: []byte("x")}
+	_, _, err := NewHTTPTranscriber(srv.URL, "", "ru", time.Second).Transcribe(context.Background(), a)
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("a 401 must be an error, so the Pair falls back")
+	}
+}
diff --git a/internal/stt/pair.go b/internal/stt/pair.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2001ed6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/stt/pair.go
@@ -0,0 +1,157 @@
+package stt
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"errors"
+	"log"
+	"net/http"
+	"sync"
+	"sync/atomic"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/audio"
+)
+
+// Pair — a preferred transcriber on the workstation, with mavsttd as the floor.
+//
+// Same arrangement as llm.Pair and for the same reason. The microphone is at
+// workpc, the card there has 16GB, and CrisperWhisper 2.0 turbo scores 10.4%
+// WER in Russian against 27.5% for the ggml-small.bin homesrv loads
+// (docs/evals/2026-08-09-crisperwhisper2-russian-wer.md). The workstation is
+// never assumed up: it sleeps, and the card is often held by a training run.
+//
+// Speech-to-text has only the silent half of the degradation rule. A worse
+// transcript is still a turn, and there is nothing to name a gap about, so
+// Transcribe always falls back. That is the whole difference from llm.Pair,
+// which also carries CompleteRemote for callers that must refuse instead.
+type Pair struct {
+	remote Transcriber
+	floor  Transcriber
+
+	// up — the cached admission answer, written only by the prober and read by
+	// every turn. A voice turn must never wait on a machine that may be asleep.
+	up atomic.Bool
+
+	health   string
+	interval time.Duration
+	http     *http.Client
+	stop     chan struct{}
+	stopOnce sync.Once
+}
+
+const (
+	probeTimeout         = 2 * time.Second
+	defaultProbeInterval = 15 * time.Second
+)
+
+// ErrNoFloor — a Pair was built with no local transcriber to fall back to. A
+// configuration mistake: the floor is what makes the remote optional.
+var ErrNoFloor = errors.New("stt: no floor transcriber")
+
+// NewPair builds the two-transcriber arrangement. remote may be nil, which is
+// the unconfigured deploy: every turn goes to the floor and nothing probes.
+func NewPair(remote, floor Transcriber, health string, interval time.Duration) *Pair {
+	if interval <= 0 {
+		// The config normalises this, so a zero here is a caller that built the
+		// Pair directly. Panicking in a ticker is the wrong way to say so.
+		interval = defaultProbeInterval
+	}
+	return &Pair{
+		remote:   remote,
+		floor:    floor,
+		health:   health,
+		interval: interval,
+		http:     &http.Client{Timeout: probeTimeout},
+		stop:     make(chan struct{}),
+	}
+}
+
+// Start begins probing. The first probe runs before the first tick, so a
+// workstation that is already up serves the first utterance rather than the
+// second. Safe with a nil remote.
+func (p *Pair) Start(ctx context.Context) {
+	if p.remote == nil || p.health == "" {
+		return
+	}
+	go func() {
+		p.probe(ctx)
+		t := time.NewTicker(p.interval)
+		defer t.Stop()
+		for {
+			select {
+			case <-ctx.Done():
+				return
+			case <-p.stop:
+				return
+			case <-t.C:
+				p.probe(ctx)
+			}
+		}
+	}()
+}
+
+// Stop ends the prober. Idempotent and safe from two goroutines.
+func (p *Pair) Stop() {
+	p.stopOnce.Do(func() { close(p.stop) })
+}
+
+// Available reports whether the workstation will transcribe right now.
+func (p *Pair) Available() bool {
+	return p.remote != nil && p.up.Load()
+}
+
+func (p *Pair) probe(ctx context.Context) {
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, probeTimeout)
+	defer cancel()
+	req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, http.MethodGet, p.health, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		p.set(false)
+		return
+	}
+	resp, err := p.http.Do(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		p.set(false)
+		return
+	}
+	defer resp.Body.Close()
+	p.set(resp.StatusCode == http.StatusOK)
+}
+
+// set records the admission answer and logs only transitions. A machine that
+// sleeps nightly would otherwise write one line per interval forever.
+func (p *Pair) set(up bool) {
+	if p.up.Swap(up) == up {
+		return
+	}
+	if up {
+		log.Printf("stt: workstation transcriber available at %s", p.health)
+	} else {
+		log.Print("stt: workstation transcriber unavailable, falling back to mavsttd")
+	}
+}
+
+// Transcribe sends the audio to the workstation when it will take work, and to
+// mavsttd otherwise. A remote that fails mid-request falls back too, because
+// the admission answer is a cache and can be one interval out of date.
+//
+// Killing the remote mid-session must not drop the turn. That is the whole
+// point of the floor, and it is what TestPairFallsBackWhenRemoteFails pins.
+func (p *Pair) Transcribe(ctx context.Context, a audio.Audio) (string, float64, error) {
+	if p.floor == nil {
+		return "", 0, ErrNoFloor
+	}
+	if p.Available() {
+		text, conf, err := p.remote.Transcribe(ctx, a)
+		if err == nil {
+			log.Print("stt: transcribed on the workstation")
+			return text, conf, nil
+		}
+		// The cached answer was wrong. Correct it now rather than sending the
+		// next utterance into the same hole, then fall back.
+		p.set(false)
+		log.Printf("stt: workstation failed mid-request, falling back: %v", err)
+	}
+	return p.floor.Transcribe(ctx, a)
+}
+
+var _ Transcriber = (*Pair)(nil)
diff --git a/internal/stt/pair_test.go b/internal/stt/pair_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b14b241
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/stt/pair_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,143 @@
+package stt
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"errors"
+	"net/http"
+	"net/http/httptest"
+	"sync/atomic"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/audio"
+)
+
+// scripted — a Transcriber that answers with a fixed text, or fails.
+type scripted struct {
+	text  string
+	err   error
+	calls atomic.Int32
+}
+
+func (s *scripted) Transcribe(_ context.Context, _ audio.Audio) (string, float64, error) {
+	s.calls.Add(1)
+	if s.err != nil {
+		return "", 0, s.err
+	}
+	return s.text, 0.9, nil
+}
+
+func sample() audio.Audio {
+	return audio.Audio{Format: audio.PCM16kMono, Bytes: make([]byte, 3200)}
+}
+
+// up builds a Pair whose admission answer is already true, without probing.
+func up(remote, floor Transcriber) *Pair {
+	p := NewPair(remote, floor, "", time.Minute)
+	p.up.Store(true)
+	return p
+}
+
+func TestPairPrefersTheWorkstation(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+	remote := &scripted{text: "с рабочей станции"}
+	floor := &scripted{text: "с homesrv"}
+	text, _, err := up(remote, floor).Transcribe(context.Background(), sample())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Transcribe: %v", err)
+	}
+	if text != "с рабочей станции" {
+		t.Fatalf("want the remote transcript, got %q", text)
+	}
+	if floor.calls.Load() != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("floor was called %d times, want 0", floor.calls.Load())
+	}
+}
+
+// The turn is what matters. A remote that dies mid-session must cost a worse
+// transcript and nothing else. This is the V-486 bar.
+func TestPairFallsBackWhenRemoteFails(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+	remote := &scripted{err: errors.New("connection refused")}
+	floor := &scripted{text: "с homesrv"}
+	p := up(remote, floor)
+
+	text, conf, err := p.Transcribe(context.Background(), sample())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("a failed remote must not fail the turn: %v", err)
+	}
+	if text != "с homesrv" {
+		t.Fatalf("want the floor transcript, got %q", text)
+	}
+	if conf != 0.9 {
+		t.Fatalf("want the floor confidence, got %v", conf)
+	}
+	if p.Available() {
+		t.Fatal("a failed request must correct the cached admission answer")
+	}
+
+	// The next utterance goes straight to the floor rather than into the
+	// same hole.
+	if _, _, err := p.Transcribe(context.Background(), sample()); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("second turn: %v", err)
+	}
+	if remote.calls.Load() != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("remote called %d times, want 1", remote.calls.Load())
+	}
+}
+
+func TestPairWithNoRemoteIsTheFloor(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+	floor := &scripted{text: "с homesrv"}
+	p := NewPair(nil, floor, "", time.Minute)
+	p.Start(context.Background()) // no health url, so this is a no-op
+	if p.Available() {
+		t.Fatal("an unconfigured remote is never available")
+	}
+	text, _, err := p.Transcribe(context.Background(), sample())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Transcribe: %v", err)
+	}
+	if text != "с homesrv" {
+		t.Fatalf("want the floor transcript, got %q", text)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestPairWithNoFloorRefuses(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+	_, _, err := NewPair(nil, nil, "", time.Minute).Transcribe(context.Background(), sample())
+	if !errors.Is(err, ErrNoFloor) {
+		t.Fatalf("want ErrNoFloor, got %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestPairProbeReadsHealth(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+	var ok atomic.Bool
+	srv := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, _ *http.Request) {
+		if !ok.Load() {
+			w.WriteHeader(http.StatusServiceUnavailable)
+			return
+		}
+		w.WriteHeader(http.StatusOK)
+	}))
+	defer srv.Close()
+
+	p := NewPair(&scripted{text: "remote"}, &scripted{text: "floor"}, srv.URL, time.Minute)
+	p.probe(context.Background())
+	if p.Available() {
+		t.Fatal("a 503 means the card is busy, so the workstation is not available")
+	}
+	ok.Store(true)
+	p.probe(context.Background())
+	if !p.Available() {
+		t.Fatal("a 200 means the workstation will take work")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestPairStopIsIdempotent(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+	p := NewPair(nil, &scripted{}, "", time.Minute)
+	p.Stop()
+	p.Stop()
+}