diff --git a/internal/phraser/eval/temperature_test.go b/internal/phraser/eval/temperature_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4415fdf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/phraser/eval/temperature_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+package eval
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/llm"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/persona"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/phraser"
+)
+
+// sweepTemperatures — the dial positions worth comparing (Vikunja #402).
+// 0.7 is what the transport has always sent; 0.05 stands in for near-greedy,
+// since 0 means "use the default" to the phraser.
+var sweepTemperatures = []float64{0.7, 0.4, 0.2, 0.05}
+
+// sweepRuns — how many runs per position. Three, because one run of a sampled
+// model tells you nothing about whether a two-point difference is real.
+const sweepRuns = 3
+
+// TestTalkTemperatureSweep scores the talk fixture at each temperature.
+//
+// Opt-in twice over: it needs a llama-server AND it costs roughly
+// len(sweepTemperatures) * sweepRuns * the baseline run time, which is upwards
+// of twenty minutes on the CPU floor.
+//
+//	MAVEN_LLM_URL=http://127.0.0.1:18099 MAVEN_TEMP_SWEEP=1 \
+//	  go test -v -timeout 90m -run TestTalkTemperatureSweep ./internal/phraser/eval/
+//
+// Reports, asserts nothing. The composite is not the number to read — the task
+// says to watch ontopic and invented content against how flat the replies get,
+// and the replies are logged for exactly that reason.
+//
+// Note that only the chat/query/world paths move: the reply path is a Replier
+// over llm.Client, which samples greedily and does not read this dial.
+func TestTalkTemperatureSweep(t *testing.T) {
+	base := os.Getenv("MAVEN_LLM_URL")
+	if base == "" {
+		t.Skip("MAVEN_LLM_URL unset — point it at a running llama-server")
+	}
+	if os.Getenv("MAVEN_TEMP_SWEEP") == "" {
+		t.Skip("MAVEN_TEMP_SWEEP unset — this sweep costs many minutes, see the doc comment")
+	}
+	noProxyLoopback(t)
+
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	f, err := LoadTalk()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("LoadTalk: %v", err)
+	}
+	model, err := llm.ModelID(ctx, base)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("no model at %s: %v", base, err)
+	}
+
+	block := func() string { return persona.Facts{}.Block(time.Now()) }
+	summary := fmt.Sprintf("temperature sweep, %s, %d runs each\n", model, sweepRuns)
+
+	for _, temp := range sweepTemperatures {
+		for run := 1; run <= sweepRuns; run++ {
+			cfg := phraser.DefaultConfig("")
+			cfg.Timeout = 5 * time.Minute
+			cfg.ContextBlock = block
+			cfg.Temperature = temp
+			p := phraser.NewLLMPhraserAt(base, cfg)
+
+			name := fmt.Sprintf("temp %.2f run %d", temp, run)
+			target := Pair{Talker: p, Confirmer: phraser.NewReplier(llm.New(base, cfg.Timeout), block)}
+			rep, err := ScoreTalk(ctx, name, target, f)
+			p.Close()
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatalf("ScoreTalk at %.2f: %v", temp, err)
+			}
+			if rep.Errors == rep.Total {
+				t.Fatalf("every case errored at %.2f — nothing was measured", temp)
+			}
+			t.Log("\n" + rep.String() + "\nreplies:\n" + rep.Replies() + "\nfailures:\n" + rep.Failures())
+			summary += fmt.Sprintf("  %-18s %2d/%2d (%.1f%%)  ontopic %d/%d  errors %d\n",
+				name, rep.Passed, rep.Total, 100*rep.Accuracy(),
+				rep.ByCheck[CheckOnTopic], rep.Total, rep.Errors)
+		}
+	}
+	t.Log("\n" + summary)
+}
diff --git a/internal/phraser/llmphraser.go b/internal/phraser/llmphraser.go
index ddbaa64..37e0020 100644
--- a/internal/phraser/llmphraser.go
+++ b/internal/phraser/llmphraser.go
@@ -131,6 +131,14 @@ type Config struct {
 	// query and reminder phrasing are untouched and still go through the model.
 	LLMNudges bool
 
+	// Temperature — what every phrasing call samples at. 0 ⇒ 0.7, which is
+	// what this transport has always sent.
+	//
+	// A field rather than a constant so the talk fixture can sweep it
+	// (Vikunja #402). Sampling is a dial, and a dial nobody can turn from
+	// outside the package cannot be measured, only argued about.
+	Temperature float64
+
 	// 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
@@ -594,7 +602,7 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) chatWithMessages(ctx context.Context, msgs []chatMsg, maxTo
 	defer release()
 	req := chatReq{
 		Messages:    msgs,
-		Temperature: 0.7,
+		Temperature: p.temperature(),
 		MaxTokens:   maxTokens,
 		Grammar:     p.grammar(),
 	}
@@ -762,7 +770,7 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) chatWithSystem(ctx context.Context, system, user string, ma
 			{Role: "system", Content: system},
 			{Role: "user", Content: user},
 		},
-		Temperature: 0.7,
+		Temperature: p.temperature(),
 		MaxTokens:   maxTokens,
 		Grammar:     p.grammar(),
 	}
diff --git a/internal/phraser/world.go b/internal/phraser/world.go
index a021a4b..08d18d3 100644
--- a/internal/phraser/world.go
+++ b/internal/phraser/world.go
@@ -37,11 +37,19 @@ type Remote interface {
 // (docs/evals/2026-08-02-workstation-gemma4-12b.md).
 var ErrNoWorldModel = errors.New("phraser: no world model available")
 
-// chatTemperature — what the phraser's own transport has always sampled at.
-// Named so the remote path cannot drift from it silently. Whether 0.7 is right
-// at all is Vikunja #402, and answering that here would hide a phrasing change
-// inside a routing change.
-const chatTemperature = 0.7
+// defaultChatTemperature — what the phraser's own transport has always sampled
+// at, and what Config.Temperature falls back to. Named so the remote path
+// cannot drift from the resident one silently.
+const defaultChatTemperature = 0.7
+
+// temperature — the sampling temperature for every phrasing call, resident or
+// remote. Both paths read this, so a sweep moves them together.
+func (p *LLMPhraser) temperature() float64 {
+	if p.cfg.Temperature > 0 {
+		return p.cfg.Temperature
+	}
+	return defaultChatTemperature
+}
 
 // UseRemote points the phraser at the workstation model. Wiring time only, once,
 // before anything phrases: the field is read without a lock on every call
@@ -85,7 +93,7 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) PhraseWorld(ctx context.Context, utterance string, sources
 		User:        user,
 		Grammar:     p.grammar(),
 		MaxTokens:   768,
-		Temperature: chatTemperature,
+		Temperature: p.temperature(),
 	})
 	if err != nil {
 		// The cached probe was one interval stale, or the card went away
@@ -124,7 +132,7 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) remoteChat(ctx context.Context, system, user string, maxTok
 		User:        user,
 		Grammar:     p.grammar(),
 		MaxTokens:   maxTokens,
-		Temperature: chatTemperature,
+		Temperature: p.temperature(),
 	})
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Printf("phraser: workstation model declined, phrasing here instead: %v", err)
diff --git a/internal/phraser/world_test.go b/internal/phraser/world_test.go
index 1cdb6ba..285c9d6 100644
--- a/internal/phraser/world_test.go
+++ b/internal/phraser/world_test.go
@@ -141,9 +141,9 @@ func TestNudgePhrasingPrefersTheWorkstationSilently(t *testing.T) {
 	if len(remote.got) != 1 {
 		t.Fatalf("the workstation saw %d requests, want 1", len(remote.got))
 	}
-	if remote.got[0].Temperature != chatTemperature {
+	if remote.got[0].Temperature != defaultChatTemperature {
 		t.Errorf("temperature = %v, want %v (what the resident transport samples at)",
-			remote.got[0].Temperature, chatTemperature)
+			remote.got[0].Temperature, defaultChatTemperature)
 	}
 	if len(spy.user) != 0 {
 		t.Errorf("the resident model phrased %d nudges, want 0", len(spy.user))