Count the rides a question takes, without the reset (V-663)

MaxSuspends did not move the number it was written for. Twenty-six of 140
turns carried a parked clarify tail before it landed and twenty-six after.

Two bounds rearm each other. An aside spends no attempt, so MaxAttempts
never reaches it. A turn reading as a failed answer zeroes Suspends, so
MaxSuspends never reaches the asides. Alternating them restores each bound
with the other's traffic. Measured on 2026-08-08: one question about a
reminder's day rode turns 7 to 13.

PendingQuestion.Rides is the same event counted without the resets. Set
once, incremented only in noteSuspended, carried across the re-park in
askRemainingGap, read by nothing that could lower it. MaxRides is 4, one
looser than MaxSuspends so the tighter statement about a run stays
reachable.

It ends the measured ride one turn early and no more. Most of that ride is
attempts, spent because classifyTurnRole reads "спасибо" and "привет" as
failed answers. Said so in the constant and in the design doc rather than
claiming a fix.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_013ptwopxyo3Z2kwFckHkLvN

cmd/mavend/clarify.go

@@ -489,15 +489,19 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) noteSuspended(ctx context.Context, q *dialogue.Pending
 	if !q.CanResume() {
 		h.clarifyStore.Delete(dialogueIDOf(ctx))
 		h.noteDropped(ctx)
-		log.Printf("voice: clarify — the question about %s stepped aside %d times; letting the request go", q.Missing[0], q.Suspends)
+		log.Printf("voice: clarify — letting the question about %s go: %d asides in a row, %d rides in all", q.Missing[0], q.Suspends, q.Rides)
 		return
 	}
 	q.Suspends++
+	// Rides is the same event counted without the reset (V-663). Incremented
+	// beside Suspends and never anywhere else, so the two cannot disagree about
+	// what happened, only about how much of it they remember.
+	q.Rides++
 	q.Asked = h.now()
 	h.clarifyStore.Put(dialogueIDOf(ctx), q)
 	rt.resume = question
 	rt.suspended = true
-	log.Printf("voice: clarify — is its own request; suspending the question about %s and resuming it in the same reply (suspend %d of %d)", q.Missing[0], q.Suspends, dialogue.MaxSuspends)
+	log.Printf("voice: clarify — is its own request; suspending the question about %s and resuming it in the same reply (suspend %d of %d, ride %d of %d)", q.Missing[0], q.Suspends, dialogue.MaxSuspends, q.Rides, dialogue.MaxRides)
 }
 
 // foldAnswerIntoUtterance appends an answered subject to the original words,
@@ -540,6 +544,11 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) askRemainingGap(ctx context.Context, q *dialogue.Pendi
 	// Suspends is not carried, and by this point it is already zero: the answer
 	// path resets it (V-654). Left off the literal so the zero is stated where
 	// the struct is built, rather than inherited from a field nobody names.
+	//
+	// Rides IS carried, and that is the whole point of it (V-663). This is the
+	// same request under a second question, not a new one, so the turns it has
+	// already ridden still count against it. Dropping the field here is exactly
+	// the re-basing that let one question ride twenty-six replies.
 	h.clarifyStore.Put(dialogueIDOf(ctx), &dialogue.PendingQuestion{
 		Intent:      q.Intent,
 		Slots:       merged,
@@ -550,6 +559,7 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) askRemainingGap(ctx context.Context, q *dialogue.Pendi
 		TTL:         clarifyTTL,
 		Attempts:    q.Attempts + 1,
 		MaxAttempts: q.MaxAttempts,
+		Rides:       q.Rides,
 	})
 	log.Printf("voice: clarify — one gap filled, still missing %s for intent=%s, asking again (attempt %d)", remaining[0], intent, q.Attempts+1)
 	return question, true

cmd/mavend/turnrole_test.go

@@ -372,4 +372,68 @@ func TestAnAnsweredGapResetsTheSuspendBudget(t *testing.T) {
 	if q.Suspends != 0 {
 		t.Fatalf("answering a gap must reset the suspend budget: suspends = %d", q.Suspends)
 	}
+	// The ride it already took is carried across the re-park (V-663). Resetting
+	// both counters here is what let one question ride twenty-six replies.
+	if q.Rides != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("the aside it already took was forgotten: rides = %d", q.Rides)
+	}
+}
+
+// TestTwoBoundsCannotRearmEachOther — V-663.
+//
+// MaxSuspends landed and the measurement did not move: twenty-six of 140 turns
+// carried a tail before it and twenty-six after. This is the shape it misses,
+// taken from the 2026-08-08 run, where one question rode turns 7 to 13.
+//
+// An aside spends no attempt, so MaxAttempts never reaches it. A turn that
+// reads as a failed answer zeroes Suspends, so MaxSuspends never reaches the
+// asides either. Alternating the two rearms each bound with the other's
+// traffic. Rides counts both kinds and is never reset, so it is what ends this.
+func TestTwoBoundsCannotRearmEachOther(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	h, _ := newRoutingClarifyHandler(t)
+	id := dialogueIDFor(sourceText, "web")
+	resumed, _ := clarifyResumedFor(dialogue.SlotTime)
+
+	if reply := h.handleText(ctx, "web", "напомни позвонить маме"); !strings.Contains(reply, "?") {
+		t.Fatalf("expected the time question, got %q", reply)
+	}
+
+	// Two asides. Each one rides and neither spends an attempt.
+	for i := 0; i < 2; i++ {
+		reply := h.handleText(ctx, "web", "какие у меня напоминания?")
+		if !strings.HasSuffix(reply, resumed) {
+			t.Fatalf("aside %d: the question must come back, got %q", i+1, reply)
+		}
+	}
+	q := h.clarifyStore.Get(id, h.now())
+	if q == nil || q.Rides != 2 || q.Suspends != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("after two asides: %+v", q)
+	}
+
+	// A failed answer. It spends an attempt and puts Suspends back to zero, so
+	// the old bound starts over. Rides does not.
+	h.handleText(ctx, "web", "спасибо")
+	if q = h.clarifyStore.Get(id, h.now()); q == nil || q.Suspends != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("the failed answer did not rearm the old bound: %+v", q)
+	}
+	if q.Rides != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("the rides it already took were forgotten: %+v", q)
+	}
+
+	// Three more asides. Suspends only reaches three, one short of firing, and
+	// would go back to zero on the next pleasantry. Rides passes MaxRides and
+	// the request goes, out loud.
+	h.handleText(ctx, "web", "какие у меня напоминания?")
+	h.handleText(ctx, "web", "какие у меня напоминания?")
+	reply := h.handleText(ctx, "web", "какие у меня напоминания?")
+	if !strings.Contains(reply, clarifyDropped) {
+		t.Fatalf("the question rode four asides and was let go in silence: %q", reply)
+	}
+	if strings.HasSuffix(reply, resumed) {
+		t.Fatalf("a question she has let go must not be asked again: %q", reply)
+	}
+	if h.clarifyStore.Get(id, h.now()) != nil {
+		t.Fatal("the question must be gone once she has said she let it go")
+	}
 }

docs/design.md

@@ -308,6 +308,29 @@ The count is of CONSECUTIVE step-asides. It resets the moment he answers, in
 too. "Позвонить маме" against a question about the time is still him in the
 exchange. The retry it costs is bound enough on its own.
 
+#### And it may ride four turns in all
+
+Decided 2026-08-08 (V-663), because the bound above did not move the number it
+was written for. Twenty-six of 140 turns carried a tail before it landed and
+twenty-six carried one after.
+
+Two bounds rearm each other. An aside spends no attempt, so `MaxAttempts` never
+reaches it. A turn that reads as a failed answer zeroes `Suspends`, so
+`MaxSuspends` never reaches the asides. Alternating them, each bound is restored
+by the other's traffic. Measured on 2026-08-08: one question about a reminder's
+day rode turns 7 to 13. It ended only because turn 14 was a new request.
+
+`PendingQuestion.Rides` counts the same event as `Suspends` with the resets
+taken out. It is set once, incremented only in `noteSuspended`, carried across
+the re-park in `askRemainingGap`, and read by nothing that could lower it.
+`MaxRides` is 4, one looser than `MaxSuspends` so that the tighter statement
+about a run stays reachable.
+
+This is a bound, not a cure. It ends the measured ride one turn early. Most of
+that ride's length is attempts, spent because `classifyTurnRole` reads "спасибо"
+and "привет" as failed answers to a question about a day. That is the next
+thing to fix and it is not a bound.
+
 The re-ask is also two sentences rather than one. It used to be spliced onto the
 answer with a comma. On a real answer that buries the question in the tail of
 one run-on thought:

internal/dialogue/clarify.go

@@ -47,6 +47,11 @@ type PendingQuestion struct {
 	// charging it a retry is the V-554 shape. See CanResume for why it is
 	// counted at all.
 	Suspends int
+	// Rides counts every turn this question has ridden out on the end of
+	// someone else's reply, over the whole life of the request. Unlike Suspends
+	// it is never reset and never re-based, which is the only property that
+	// matters about it (V-663).
+	Rides int
 }
 
 // MaxSuspends — how many times one question may step aside and come back before
@@ -63,10 +68,52 @@ type PendingQuestion struct {
 // is that he has moved on and has not said so.
 const MaxSuspends = 3
 
+// MaxRides — how many turns one question may ride out on the end of an
+// unrelated reply, counted over its whole life (V-663).
+//
+// MaxSuspends did not move the measurement it was written for. Twenty-six of
+// 140 turns carried a tail before it landed and twenty-six carried one after.
+// Every bound on this question is rearmed by something ordinary:
+//
+//   - The TTL is an inactivity timer, and both noteSuspended and reaskOrGiveUp
+//     restart it, so it cannot arrive while he keeps talking.
+//   - Suspends is zeroed by any turn that reads as an answer, which is where
+//     "спасибо" and "привет" land. It resets before anything is known to have
+//     been filled.
+//   - askRemainingGap builds a fresh question for the second gap, so a reminder
+//     with two gaps gets a new allowance halfway through.
+//
+// So Suspends only bites on four strictly consecutive side queries with nothing
+// chat-like between them, which is not the shape real conversation has. Rides is
+// the same idea with the resets taken out: set once, incremented, carried
+// across a re-park, and read by nothing that could lower it.
+//
+// The shape it is aimed at is measured, not imagined. In the 2026-08-08 run one
+// question about a reminder's day rode turns 7 to 13 and ended only because
+// turn 14 was a new request. Three asides, then two turns that read as failed
+// answers, then two more asides. The asides spend no attempt and the answers
+// reset Suspends, so the two bounds take turns being rearmed by the other's
+// traffic.
+//
+// Four, not three. It has to be looser than MaxSuspends or that bound is dead
+// code, because Rides is never lower than Suspends and would always fire first.
+//
+// Do not read this as a fix for the whole ride. It ends the measured one a turn
+// early and no more. Most of that ride's length is attempts, spent by turns
+// like "спасибо" and "привет" being read as failed answers to a question about
+// a day. That is a defect in classifyTurnRole and not in any bound here.
+const MaxRides = 4
+
 // CanResume reports whether this question may step aside once more. False ⇒ the
 // caller lets the request go and says so; it must never simply stop resuming,
 // because a question dropped in silence reads as one that was answered.
-func (q *PendingQuestion) CanResume() bool { return q.Suspends < MaxSuspends }
+//
+// Two bounds, and they answer different questions. Suspends asks whether he has
+// walked away from this exchange in the last few turns. Rides asks whether this
+// question has been riding long enough that the answer is no regardless.
+func (q *PendingQuestion) CanResume() bool {
+	return q.Suspends < MaxSuspends && q.Rides < MaxRides
+}
 
 // Action reads the parked question as the typed action it is assembling
 // (pending.go). Derived rather than stored: the question's fields stay the one