Stop the docs claiming the LLM router is off

CLAUDE.md's routing section said "llmrouter is wired nil" and called the
classifier cascade the committed default. That stopped being true when the
integration merge landed: voice.go:214 wires pickLLMRouter, DefaultLLMRouter is
on, and deploy/mavend.json sets llm_router true. It is the first thing anyone
reads before touching the router, so it was pointing the next reader at a
wiring job that is already done.

Rewritten to say the LLM router is the default, the classifier is the failure
floor and must not be deleted, and what the two actually measure — 36.8% at
p50 31ms against 67.5%/72.7% at p50 ~2.7s, a trade accepted on purpose. Names
the one thing still open on that path: Confidence is hardcoded 1.0 in
llmrouter.go, so the LLM never asks for clarification (#359).

Also in CLAUDE.md: the persona line pointed at a memory file that does not
exist, so the actual rule was nowhere in the repo. Written out instead —
feminine self-reference, informal singular address, pet names forbidden but his
name allowed — plus the three eval checks that enforce it.

MODEL-BAKEOFF: three claims had gone stale within hours of being written. There
IS a make eval-models target now; the routing numbers ARE the production path,
not a bench artifact waiting on a wiring change; and the truncated 293 MB gguf
is deleted. Struck through rather than removed, since the caveats are part of
how the evening read at the time.

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

CLAUDE.md

@@ -7,9 +7,20 @@ talking over unix sockets; one resident small model for routing + phrasing; whis
 Deploy target is a Ryzen laptop (homesrv) with Vulkan offload to the Vega iGPU (`n_gpu_layers: 99`,
 compose passes `/dev/dri` + the render gid) — the resident model stays ≤1.7B either way.
 
-**Resident model:** currently **Qwen3.5-0.8B** (`Q4_K_M`), the smallest checkpoint in the gguf
+**Resident model:** currently **Qwen3-1.7B** (`UD-Q4_K_XL`), stock — not yet the CPT'd one.
-library, picked for CPU/iGPU latency. The **target** is the locally CPT'd **Qwen3-1.7B**; that
+It replaced Qwen3.5-0.8B on 2026-07-31 because it measured better on both fixtures we have:
-training is still in flight (Vikunja #122), so no such gguf exists yet. Model files live in
+67.5% vs 59.7% intent-only on the 77-case RU routing fixture, and 20/27 vs 11-17/27 on the
+talk fixture. See `MODEL-BAKEOFF-31-07-2026.md`. It is a Thinking variant, so `n_ctx` is 4096
+— reasoning tokens need the room, and 4096 is what the scores above were measured at.
+
+The **target** is still the locally CPT'd **Qwen3-1.7B** (Vikunja #122, training in flight).
+Stock already speaks good Russian; what it gets wrong is the persona — it writes `я рад`,
+masculine, where Maven needs `рада`. That is what the CPT is for.
+
+**Do not bother with sub-500M models.** LFM2.5-230M and 350M were measured on 2026-07-31 and
+both are unusable in Russian: the 350M routes at 5.2% (worse than guessing) and answers
+"столица Франции?" with the invented non-word "Сторзит"; the 230M replies to Russian in
+Spanish. Their strong published IFEval/BFCL numbers are English-only. Model files live in
 `/mnt/hdd1/llms`, bind-mounted to `/opt/maven/models/llm` — which **shadows** the repo's
 `models/llm/`, so the LFM2.5 gguf sitting there is not loaded by anything. Swapping the resident
 model is a one-line change to `phraser.model_path` in `deploy/mavend.json`.
@@ -58,19 +69,30 @@ protocol; the config in `deploy/mavend.json` (with `${VAR}` env expansion from g
 
 ## Routing — read this before touching the router
 
-`internal/router/` has TWO layered engines and the committed default is an **interim
+`internal/router/` has TWO layered engines. **The LLM router is now the default and it is
-stopgap, not the intended design** (see memory `routing-architecture-target`):
+on in deploy** — this section used to say it was wired `nil`, which stopped being true on
+2026-07-31.
 
-- **Target (REARCH.md):** LLM-as-router. One resident Qwen3-1.7B (`llmrouter.go`) emits
+- **LLM router (the intended design, REARCH.md):** the resident Qwen3-1.7B (`llmrouter.go`)
-  GBNF-constrained structured JSON, and the SAME model phrases replies. Embedder is demoted
+  emits GBNF-constrained structured JSON, and the SAME model phrases replies. Embedder is
-  from a routing gate to a RAG hint.
+  demoted from a routing gate to a RAG hint. Wired at `voice.go:214` via
-- **Current stopgap:** `llmrouter` is wired `nil` (around `voice.go`), so the
+  `pickLLMRouter(cfg.Voice.UseLLMRouter(), llmClient)`; the flag is `voice.llm_router`
-  `classifier.go` + `embedder.go` nearest-neighbour cascade actually runs. It routes by
+  (`config.go`), `DefaultLLMRouter` is **on**, and `deploy/mavend.json` sets it `true`.
-  similarity to frozen seed phrases — the known cause of weak RU query handling.
+- **Classifier cascade (the failure floor, not dead code):** `classifier.go` +
+  `embedder.go` nearest-neighbour over frozen seed phrases. It runs when the LLM router is
+  off, when there is no llama-server to talk to (`pickLLMRouter` logs that and degrades),
+  and on any per-turn LLM error. Do not delete it — routing by seed similarity is the known
+  cause of weak RU query handling, but a turn must never break on the model.
 
 Cascade order: `stage0.go` exact-match fast-path → LLM router (when non-nil) → classifier
 fallback. Any LLM error falls through to the classifier so a turn never breaks on the model.
 
+Measured on the 77-case RU fixture (`MODEL-BAKEOFF-31-07-2026.md`): the classifier scores
+36.8% full accuracy at p50 31ms; Qwen3-1.7B scores 67.5% intent-only / 72.7% through the
+cascade at p50 ≈2.7s. Accuracy roughly doubled, latency is ~90× worse, and that trade was
+accepted deliberately. Still open: `Confidence: 1.0` is hardcoded in `llmrouter.go`, so the
+LLM path never asks for clarification (6/6 refusal cases missed) — Vikunja #359.
+
 ## LLM output contract
 
 All phrasing paths emit `{"response":"...","mood":"..."}` (parsed in `replier_llm.go` and
@@ -82,8 +104,26 @@ workspace enforces that the Go and relabelling prompts remain identical.
 
 ## Non-goals (hard constraints)
 
-Never phones home. Not a nag, not autonomous. Maven's persona is **feminine** — Russian
+Not a nag, not autonomous. Maven's persona is **feminine** — Russian
-self-reference must use feminine forms (the user is male; see memory `maven-persona-gender`).
+self-reference must use feminine forms — `рада`, not `рад`; `поняла`, not `понял`. The owner
+is male and is addressed informally: "ты", singular, never "вы"/"ваш" and never "он"/"его"
+(she talks TO him, not about him). Pet names ("милый", "дорогой") are forbidden; his name
+("Ками") is not. The eval enforces this: `CheckAddress`, `CheckFeminine` and `CheckCringe` in
+`internal/phraser/eval/checks.go`, scored by `make eval-phrasing`.
+
+**"Never phones home" is DEPRECATED** (owner's call, 2026-07-31). It used to be a hard
+constraint and it is not one any more: a 0.8B — and a 1.7B — does not know enough to answer
+world questions, so she needs to read external sources. What replaces it:
+
+- **No telemetry, no cloud model, no third-party account.** That part never changes. Nothing
+  about Maven is reported to anyone, and inference stays on the box.
+- **Local sources first.** Kiwix ZIMs on homesrv (Wikipedia, ifixit) before anything on the
+  network. Reading beats recalling for a small model, and a local read costs nothing.
+- **External search is allowed and off unless configured**, like the weather and telegram
+  capabilities.
+- **His notes and facts are never search input.** Looking up why the sky is blue and sending
+  his stored personal notes to an upstream engine are different acts. Only the utterance goes
+  out, never the persona block, history, or matched notes.
 
 ## Web UI conventions
 

DESIGN.md

@@ -15,7 +15,8 @@
 
 **Maven** — self-hosted personal assistant. Manages your day, acts on your
 homelab. One daemon on homesrv (always-on, not the workstation), multiple
-client surfaces. All local, never phones home.
+client surfaces. Inference and data stay on the box; she may READ external
+sources (see Non-goals — "never phones home" is deprecated).
 
 Primary name is "Maven", with feminine-gendered Russian self-reference
 ("она", "меня", "помогла"). Clients may choose their own UI label. Consistent
@@ -35,8 +36,13 @@ Inside boundary — the ones that actually constrain the build:
   she records. A confident wrong fact is worse than a known gap.
 - **Not a nag** — she'd rather miss a nudge than be mutable. Shuts up when
   uncertain. Load-bearing.
-- **Not a stranger** — runs on your stuff, your model, your data. Never
+- **Not a stranger** — runs on your stuff, your model, your data. No
-  phones home.
+  telemetry, no cloud model, no third-party account. She may READ external
+  sources to answer world questions (Kiwix first, then optional search); she
+  never reports anything about you to anyone, and your notes and facts are
+  never used as search input. **"Never phones home" as an absolute is
+  deprecated** — owner's call, 2026-07-31: a small model does not know enough
+  to be useful without reading.
 - **Not a relationship** — mom-tone is a function that makes nudges land, not
   emotional company. Names the drift a warm small model falls into.
 
@@ -458,7 +464,7 @@ decides *insistence*. Both are needed.
 
 sev ≤ 2 drops on away, sev ≥ 3 holds: a missed water nudge is noise, a missed
 backup failure isn't. Away-channels (ntfy/telegram) leave the box — the one
-path that crosses "never phones home," through your own relay. **Minimal
+path that leaves the box for a person to see, through your own relay. **Minimal
 body** — "disk low on homesrv," not detail; don't make notifications a
 shoulder-surf exfil surface.
 

MODEL-BAKEOFF-31-07-2026.md

@@ -0,0 +1,223 @@
+# Resident model bake-off — 31-07-2026
+
+**Outcome: the resident model is stock Qwen3-1.7B** (`UD-Q4_K_XL`). Two sweeps ran this
+evening and the second one changed the answer — read to the end before acting on any table
+here. [Second sweep](#second-sweep-same-evening--five-models-and-a-resident-model-change)
+is the one that holds.
+
+## First sweep — LFM2.5-1.2B vs Qwen3.5-0.8B
+
+**Verdict, scoped to this pair: keep Qwen3.5-0.8B over LFM2.5-1.2B.** LFM2.5-1.2B is worse
+at routing (52.6% vs 60.5% intent accuracy), and the loss is almost entirely Russian
+(18/61 vs 22/61 RU, while EN is a wash). It is also 2.4× slower. The Thinking variant is
+far worse again. This verdict still stands as written — it rejects LFM2.5-1.2B. It is
+**not** a recommendation to keep 0.8B as the resident model; the second sweep replaced it
+with Qwen3-1.7B.
+
+Settles Vikunja **#278 / #250**.
+
+- Same fixture and scorer as `ROUTING-EVAL-31-07-2026.md`: `internal/router/eval/`
+  (`ru_routing_v1.json`, 76 held-out cases).
+- Reproduce: `MAVEN_LLM_URL=http://127.0.0.1:<port> make eval-router`
+  (`TestLLMRouterBaseline`). (This line used to say there is no `make eval-models` target.
+  There is one now — start a server with the gguf you want, then
+  `make eval-models MAVEN_LLM_URL=http://127.0.0.1:<port>`. It runs only the LLM test, since
+  the classifier baselines do not depend on the model.)
+- All three models served by the same `llama-server` flags — `-c 2048 -ngl 99 -t 6`, only
+  `-m` and `--port` differ. One server at a time on an otherwise idle box, so latencies are
+  real and not contention.
+- Measured on top of the router prompt fix (`origin/overnight/router-prompt` merged in), so
+  the Qwen column is directly comparable to the numbers already recorded.
+
+## Results
+
+`llm-only` — the model alone. This is the column that measures the model.
+
+| | Qwen3.5-0.8B | LFM2.5-1.2B Instruct | LFM2.5-1.2B Thinking |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| **intent-only accuracy** | **60.5%** | 52.6% | 36.8% |
+| full accuracy (intent+slots+gate) | **36.8%** | 32.9% | 21.1% |
+| **RU** | **22/61** | 18/61 | 10/61 |
+| EN | 6/15 | **7/15** | 6/15 |
+| route errors | 0 | 0 | 0 |
+| **p50 / p95 latency** | **1.05s / 1.71s** | 2.47s / 3.62s | 2.42s / 3.24s |
+| missed clarify | 6 / 6 | 6 / 6 | 6 / 6 |
+
+`cascade+llm` — stage-0 → model → classifier floor, what #320 would actually ship. Same
+ordering.
+
+| | Qwen3.5-0.8B | LFM2.5-1.2B Instruct | LFM2.5-1.2B Thinking |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| intent-only accuracy | **61.8%** | 55.3% | 38.2% |
+| full accuracy | **46.1%** | 42.1% | 30.3% |
+| RU / EN | **27/61** / 8/15 | 23/61 / **9/15** | 15/61 / 8/15 |
+| route errors | 0 | 0 | 0 |
+| p50 / p95 latency | **1.28s / 1.94s** | 2.18s / 2.72s | 2.27s / 3.19s |
+
+Full logs: the three runs are archived in the session scratchpad
+(`qwen08.txt`, `lfm-instruct.txt`, `lfm-thinking.txt`).
+
+## Russian-specific failures — the owner's worry is confirmed
+
+LFM2.5's Russian loss is not spread out. It has one large, specific failure: **it hears
+almost any Russian imperative or short phrase as `reminder`.**
+
+- `перезапусти докер` → reminder (want act)
+- `включи вытяжку` → reminder (want act)
+- `закрой жалюзи` → reminder (want act)
+- `заметка: продлить домен в августе` → reminder (want note)
+- `запиши что кран на кухне снова капает` → reminder (want note)
+- `доброе утро` → reminder (want chat)
+- `спасибо тебе` → reminder (want note/chat)
+- `переходи в тихий режим` → reminder (want system)
+
+That is `note→reminder ×4`, `act→reminder ×4`, `chat→reminder ×2` in one run. Qwen's
+equivalent failure axis is `query→fact ×8`, which is a narrower and already-understood bug.
+
+Two more Russian-side problems worth naming:
+
+1. **Fact keys come back empty or wrong in Russian.** `воды попил наконец`, `поужинал`,
+   `поспал часов пять` and `отметь что я позавтракал овсянкой` all returned an empty key.
+   `сходил в душ` and `отдохнул минут двадцать` both returned `water`. Qwen does not do this.
+2. **It leaked German.** `slept about seven hours` produced the fact key
+   `"7 Stunden geschlafen"`. Grammar-valid, semantically garbage — a sign the multilingual
+   mix is not anchored where Maven needs it.
+
+The claimed tool-calling advantage did not show up here. `act` is the closest thing this
+fixture has to a tool call, and LFM2.5 got it wrong more often than Qwen, mostly by calling
+it a reminder. It also produced no `fn` slot on any act, same as Qwen.
+
+## The Thinking variant
+
+Not viable. 36.8% intent accuracy, 10/61 Russian, and no latency saving over Instruct — the
+thinking trace costs time without buying accuracy on a short enum classification. With the
+`enable_thinking=false` diagnostic it collapsed further to 28.9% with 2 route errors
+(`query→reminder ×12`). Do not pursue.
+
+## Notes
+
+- Nothing crashed, nothing ignored the GBNF grammar, and no model produced unparseable JSON
+  in the shippable configurations. Zero route errors for both Instruct and Thinking in
+  `llm-only` and `cascade+llm`. The problem with LFM2.5 is what it decides, not whether it
+  can emit the contract.
+- The `6 / 6` missed clarify is unchanged across all three models. No model fixes the missing
+  refusal lane — that is `Confidence: 1.0` hardcoded in `llmrouter.go` (Vikunja #359), not a
+  model property.
+- The report labels every configuration `(0.8B)`; that string is hardcoded in the test, not a
+  reflection of which gguf was loaded. Model identity was confirmed per run via `/v1/models`.
+- No Go code was changed for this measurement, and no bug was found that needed one.
+
+## What this does not settle
+
+Routing only. LFM2.5 might still phrase better, and phrasing is the resident model's other
+job — that needs its own fixture. But routing is the load-bearing path and Maven is
+Russian-first, so on the evidence here the switch is not worth making.
+
+---
+
+# Second sweep, same evening — five models, and a resident-model change
+
+The sections above compared LFM2.5-1.2B against Qwen3.5-0.8B on routing and concluded
+"the switch is not worth making". That still holds. This sweep asked a different
+question — whether a *smaller* model could work, since LFM2.5's published
+instruction-following scores beat Qwen3.5-0.8B badly — and answered it, plus found a
+better resident model by accident.
+
+**Outcome: the resident model is now stock Qwen3-1.7B.** Sub-500M is a dead end.
+
+## Routing — 77 Russian cases, one run each
+
+| model | on disk | llm-only (full) | llm-only (intent) | cascade + fallback |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| LFM2.5-230M-Q8_0 | 246 MB | 23.4% | 33.8% | 36.4% |
+| LFM2.5-350M-Q8_0 | 379 MB | 2.6% | **5.2%** | 20.8% |
+| Qwen3.5-0.8B-Q4_K_M | 527 MB | 36.4% | 59.7% | 61.0% |
+| Qwen3.5-2B-UD-Q4_K_XL | 1.34 GB | 42.9% | 62.3% | 63.6% |
+| **Qwen3-1.7B-UD-Q4_K_XL (stock)** | 1.13 GB | **44.2%** | **67.5%** | **72.7%** |
+
+Qwen3-1.7B wins every column, including against a model 20% larger than it.
+
+## Talk fixture — 27 cases, three runs each, idle box
+
+| | Qwen3.5-0.8B | Qwen3-1.7B stock |
+|---|---|---|
+| composite | 13, 11, 8 | **20, 21, 18** |
+| address | 21, 18, 18 | **26, 25, 23** |
+| feminine | 27, 25, 26 | 26, 27, 26 |
+| lang | 27, 27, 26 | 26, 27, 27 |
+| ontopic | 16, 19, 19 | **22, 23, 23** |
+| canned fallbacks | 8, 5, 6 | **0, 2, 0** |
+
+This also fills the row `TALK-EVAL-31-07-2026.md` had to void for contamination:
+**600ch/1024tok on Qwen3.5-0.8B scores 13, 11, 8.**
+
+`address` is the headline. It sat at 18-22 of 27 on the 0.8B no matter how the prompt
+was worded — the prompt explicitly forbids "вы" and the model writes `вашей`,
+`подождите`, `делаете` anyway. That was read as "prompting is out of levers", and it
+was really "0.8B is out of capacity". The 1.7B mostly holds the constraint.
+
+The fallback column matters too: 5-8 of 27 turns on the 0.8B end in a hardcoded
+`"не знаю."`, meaning it failed to emit parseable JSON about a quarter of the time.
+The 1.7B does that 0-2 times.
+
+## Latency — the long tail is not the Thinking block
+
+| | p50 | p95 |
+|---|---|---|
+| Qwen3.5-0.8B | 2.4s, 2.9s, 2.0s | 17.4s, 17.6s, 17.4s |
+| Qwen3-1.7B stock | 2.7s, 2.6s, 2.8s | 16.4s, 6.6s, 3.9s |
+
+p50 is flat across a 2× size difference. The first instinct on seeing the 1.7B's
+16s p95 was "that is the reasoning trace, cap it" — wrong. The 0.8B's p95 is a
+consistent 17s and the 1.7B beat it in two of three runs. The tail is shared and
+lives somewhere else. Do not spend time on `/no_think` on this evidence.
+
+## Sub-500M: not close, and the benchmarks say otherwise for a reason
+
+LFM2.5-350M publishes IFEval 76.96 against Qwen3.5-0.8B's 59.94, and BFCLv3 44.11
+against 35.08 — better at instruction-following and structured output, at 2/3 the
+size. Those numbers are real and they are **English**. Every benchmark in that
+table except Multi-IF is English-only.
+
+In Russian, with a 300-token budget and temperature 0:
+
+- **350M**, «Столица Франции? Ответь кратко.» → *«Сторзит в Париже.»* — `Сторзит` is
+  not a word; it is invented morphology.
+- **350M**, asked to read back a reminder → a fortune cookie about being attentive
+  and confident. No reminder in it.
+- **230M**, «Привет, как дела?» → answered **in Spanish**.
+
+The 230M beating the 350M six-fold on routing (33.8% vs 5.2%) is the other tell:
+when the larger sibling collapses like that it is format compliance failing, not
+reasoning.
+
+This is a pretraining gap, not a fine-tuning gap. Teaching Russian to a 350M from
+near-zero is not an afternoon on a Colab, which was the premise worth checking.
+
+## Why this vindicates the 1.7B CPT
+
+Stock Qwen3-1.7B, untrained and unprompted, answers all three probes in fluent
+correct Russian. What it gets wrong is the persona: *«Привет! Я рад, что ты здесь»*
+— `рад` is masculine and Maven needs `рада`. That is the right kind of remaining
+problem, and it is exactly what the CPT (Vikunja #122) is for.
+
+The 1.7B was the correct model choice. What was wrong was treating it as a
+**blocker**: stock already beats what was deployed, so it ships now and gets
+swapped again when the CPT lands.
+
+## Caveats
+
+- Routing is one run per model, not three. The gaps between families are far larger
+  than the run-to-run spread seen on the talk fixture, but the 2B-vs-1.7B gap (62.3
+  vs 67.5) is not safe to call on one run.
+- ~~The routing numbers only reach production once the LLM router is wired on. It is
+  still `nil`.~~ **Resolved the same evening:** the LLM router is wired at `voice.go:214`
+  behind `voice.llm_router`, the default is on, and `deploy/mavend.json` sets it `true`.
+  These numbers are the production path now, so the p50 ≈2.7s is a real per-turn cost and
+  not a bench artifact.
+- ~~`/mnt/hdd1/llms/LFM2.5/Qwen3-1.7B-UD-Q4_K_XL.gguf` is a 293 MB truncated download
+  in the wrong directory.~~ **Deleted 2026-07-31.** The good 1.13 GB copy in `qwen3/` is
+  what `deploy/mavend.json` loads.
+- Harness: `scratchpad/bakeoff.sh`, one server at a time, health-checked before each
+  run, `/v1/models` recorded per run. Never run two LLM consumers at once — see the
+  contamination note in `TALK-EVAL-31-07-2026.md`.

Makefile

@@ -103,14 +103,17 @@ eval-router:
 eval-recall:
 	MAVEN_ONNX_LIB="$(MAVEN_ONNX_LIB)" $(GO) test -v -count=1 ./internal/memory/recalleval/
 
-# eval-phrasing -- score nudge phrasing (internal/phraser/eval). Verbose so the
+# eval-phrasing -- score nudge phrasing AND the conversational paths (chat,
+# query, general knowledge) in internal/phraser/eval. Verbose so the
 # report and every generated message land in the terminal. With no environment
 # it scores the deterministic Stub only, which is what CI runs. Set
 # MAVEN_LLM_URL to add the resident model:
 #   MAVEN_LLM_URL=http://127.0.0.1:18099 make eval-phrasing
-# The model run is slow (minutes) -- the timeout is raised to match.
+# The model run is slow (minutes) -- the timeout is raised to match. It covers
+# two fixtures now (15 nudges + 27 conversational cases, and the chat replies are
+# the long ones), hence 90m rather than 40m.
 eval-phrasing:
-	$(GO) test -v -count=1 -timeout 40m ./internal/phraser/eval/
+	$(GO) test -v -count=1 -timeout 90m ./internal/phraser/eval/
 
 # eval-models — score ONE llama-server against the same fixture, for the
 # resident-model bake-off (#278, #250). Start a server with the gguf you want,

PHRASING-EVAL-31-07-2026.md

@@ -0,0 +1,169 @@
+# Phrasing evaluation — 31-07-2026
+
+How Maven words a nudge, measured instead of argued. Counterpart to
+`ROUTING-EVAL-31-07-2026.md`.
+
+- Fixture + scorer: `internal/phraser/eval/` (`nudges_v1.json`, 15 cases; `eval.go`, `checks.go`)
+- Reproduce: `MAVEN_LLM_URL=http://127.0.0.1:18099 make eval-phrasing`
+- Model: Qwen3.5-0.8B Q4_K_M, the resident model. Not swapped.
+- Commit: `a40bc55` (prompt fix)
+
+Every check is a string or length test a human can read and disagree with. No model
+grades another model here.
+
+## Result
+
+| | before | after |
+|---|---|---|
+| **cases passing every check** | **0/15** | **13/15** |
+| mood in enum | 6/15 | 15/15 |
+| Russian | 2/15 | 14/15 |
+| length (≤120 chars, ≤16 words) | 13/15 | 15/15 |
+| feminine self-reference | 15/15 | 15/15 |
+| no cringe | 13/15 | 15/15 |
+| on topic | 6/15 | 13/15 |
+| p50 latency | 11.4s | 11.4s |
+
+Latency did not move and is not good. 11s to word one nudge on this box.
+
+## The bug reproduced
+
+Yes, exactly as reported. 7 of 15 messages were the literal string `"..."`, and one was
+`"full voice message"`. Both are text copied straight out of the prompt.
+
+The system prompt said:
+
+```
+Respond ONLY with valid JSON: {"response": "full voice message", "mood": "neutral"}
+```
+
+and the user prompt said:
+
+```
+Respond as JSON: {"response": "...", "mood": "..."}
+```
+
+A 0.8B does not read `"..."` as "put your answer here". It reads it as the answer. The
+prompt was a worked example whose worked part was blank, so the model filled the slot by
+copying. This is the whole of finding 1.
+
+## What else was wrong
+
+Four separate faults, all prompt-side:
+
+1. **Placeholder echo** (7 cases) — above.
+2. **Wrong language** (13/15 failed the language check). The prompt was entirely English
+   and said "in the user's language (Russian or English)". The model picked English. It is
+   never English: the nudge is spoken by a Russian piper voice.
+3. **Rule names are English identifiers.** `netdata_critical`, `service_down`, `break` went
+   into the prompt raw. The model cannot nudge about a topic it has not been told in words,
+   so 9/15 were off topic. The daemon knows what its own rules mean; now it says so.
+4. **Mood invented** (`"warm"`, twice). The enum was listed in a parenthesis at the end of
+   an English sentence. Now it is its own line: "ровно одно из: neutral, happy, thinking,
+   tired, confused."
+
+Plus two non-prompt faults the run exposed:
+
+- **The no-parse fallback was English.** When the model returned nothing usable, the body
+  became `fmt.Sprintf("%s — %s", rule, sev)` — `"water — care"` — and that string went to
+  a Russian TTS. Now it falls back to plain Russian.
+- **Durations were English.** `humanDur` returns "3 hours"; it was landing verbatim inside
+  Russian sentences. Nudges now use a Russian formatter.
+
+## Three iterations, and what each taught
+
+| | score | change |
+|---|---|---|
+| baseline | 0/15 | — |
+| iter 1 | 2/15 | Russian prompt, filled-in examples, Russian durations |
+| iter 2 | 11/15 | required keyword per rule, one example instead of five, Russian fallback |
+| iter 3 | **13/15** | examples moved to topics that are not rules |
+
+The interesting step is 1 → 2. Fixing the placeholder did not fix the disease, it moved it:
+the model stopped copying `"..."` and started copying my first example instead. Five nudges
+in a row came back as `"Ты не пил воду три часа. Налей стакан."` regardless of the rule.
+
+**A small model copies the nearest concrete text in its prompt.** That is one failure mode
+with two symptoms. The fix that stuck was making the examples about laundry and a laptop
+battery — topics no rule ever produces, so copying them is visible in the score rather than
+invisibly passing the water cases.
+
+## Do not oversell 13/15
+
+Seven of the thirteen passes are the **deterministic fallback**, not the model:
+`"Напоминаю: таблетки."`, `"Сервис не отвечает."`, `"Критический алярм: проверь диск."`,
+`"Ты давно не пил воду."`. Those are strings this commit added to Go. The model returned
+nothing parseable and the fallback scored.
+
+So the honest reading is roughly **6/15 from the model, 7/15 from a fallback, 2/15 failing**.
+The prompt fix is real — `"..."` is nearly gone and the language and mood checks are clean —
+but a large part of the jump is that failure now degrades into Russian instead of into
+`"water — care"`. That is a genuine improvement for the operator and a weak one for the model.
+
+The two remaining failures: one `"..."` recurrence (`routine-stretch`) and one meal nudge
+that never says food.
+
+## Tried and reverted: an example-led nudge prompt (#393)
+
+The idea was that a 0.8B copies examples better than it follows rules, so the nudge prompt
+was rewritten to lead with five on-topic examples (water, break, pills, morning, service) and
+the prose rules were compressed to pay for the tokens: 1190 chars down to 986.
+
+It measured **worse**, three runs each side, same llama-server, same fixture:
+
+| run | before | after |
+|---|---|---|
+| 1 | 12/15 (address 14) | 11/15 (address 13) |
+| 2 | 13/15 (address 15) | 12/15 (address 15) |
+| 3 | 14/15 (address 15) | 11/15 (address 12) |
+
+`feminine` and `hisgender` were 15/15 on all six runs, so they measure nothing here. The
+regression is all in `address`: 44/45 before, 40/45 after. Formal "вы"/"ваше" and plural
+imperatives came back, and so did `"..."`.
+
+Two likely causes, both about the same thing — **examples do not carry a prohibition**. The
+old prompt spent a whole sentence on «говоришь на "ты", в единственном числе»; the new one
+demoted that to one item in a long "никогда" list, and the model stopped obeying it. And
+making the examples on-topic let their *wording* leak: a break case came back as
+«Вы давно не пили воду. Выпей стакан.» — the water example, verbatim, in the wrong slot.
+That is exactly the failure the laundry/laptop examples were chosen to avoid.
+
+Change reverted. What survives is the measurement: a rule the model must obey needs its own
+sentence, and examples must stay off-topic. Also note the before side alone spans 12–14 of
+15 — this fixture cannot resolve anything smaller than about three cases.
+
+## Broken, found, not fixed
+
+1. ~~**`checkFeminine` only catches half the constraint.**~~ **Fixed** (#381). It scanned for
+   masculine self-reference only, so three messages that addressed the *owner* in the feminine
+   ("ты давно не отдыхал**а**") scored clean. There is now a second check, `hisgender`: a
+   feminine past-tense verb (-ла/-лась) in a sentence addressed to him ("ты", "тебе", "твой")
+   fails, unless the verb is hers ("я заметила", "напомнила тебе"). It is a suffix rule, not a
+   parser — see the comment in `checks.go` for what it misses. A fresh 15-case run after adding
+   it scored **12/15** with `hisgender` 15/15; the model did not repeat the feminine address in
+   that sample, and the check is pinned by unit tests on the recorded bad strings instead.
+2. **Grammar is not checked at all, and it is bad.** `"Он не ел 11 дней"` (it was 11 hours),
+   `"Сонуждились 7 дней"` (not a word), `"Они забыли воду"` (wrong person entirely). Every
+   one of these passes all six checks. The fixture measures properties, not fluency, and at
+   0.8B fluency is the binding constraint.
+3. **Unit confusion.** The model turns hours into days about a third of the time. The
+   prompt now says "11 ч"; it reads it as days.
+4. **11s p50.** Unchanged and untouched here. A nudge the model takes eleven seconds to
+   word has missed its moment. Worth its own task.
+5. **The keyword hint is close to teaching to the test.** `ruleKeywords` names the word the
+   on-topic check looks for. It is defensible — the daemon genuinely knows its rule topics
+   and the model genuinely cannot infer them from `netdata_critical` — but the on-topic
+   number is softer than the others because of it.
+
+## Next steps
+
+1. ~~**Add a second-person gender check**~~ — done, `hisgender` in `checks.go` (#381).
+2. **Decide whether the fallback should count as a pass.** Right now `Score` cannot tell a
+   model answer from a fallback. Either mark fallback bodies in `PhrasedNudge` or count them
+   in their own column. Without that, any future prompt change can score well by failing
+   more.
+3. **Attack the 11s.** Nudge phrasing is short and non-interactive; thinking off is the first
+   thing to try, as it was for routing (#376).
+4. **Re-measure when #122 lands.** The CPT'd Qwen3-1.7B is the target. 13/15 with seven
+   fallbacks is the floor it has to beat, and the fluency problems above are the ones a
+   bigger, Russian-trained checkpoint should actually fix.

REARCH.md

@@ -90,4 +90,7 @@ later* is the worker + RAG.
 4. **Deferred work** — larger reasoner, custom Piper voice and other expansions.
 
 ## Non-goals (unchanged)
-Never phones home. Not a nag. Not autonomous. Feminine-gendered RU self-ref.
+Not a nag. Not autonomous. Feminine-gendered RU self-ref. No telemetry, no
+cloud model, no third-party account — but she MAY read external sources to
+answer world questions (Kiwix first, search optional). "Never phones home" as
+an absolute is deprecated, owner's call 2026-07-31; see CLAUDE.md § Non-goals.

RECALL-EVAL-31-07-2026.md

@@ -75,6 +75,14 @@ same vector. A note is indexed in both places with the same embedding, so if it
 `QueryNotes` it fails again here — the branch can only ever return a **fact**. Its comment calls it
 "additive"; for notes it is not.
 
+**Fixed (Vikunja #373).** The memory pass now runs *first*, as one search over notes and facts with
+one gate, so whichever memory is clearly the best match answers — note or fact. The notes-only pass
+stays behind it for notes the vector index does not hold. No threshold changed, so the set of
+questions Maven answers is the same; only which memory answers them. The fixture gained two mixed
+note+fact cases (`ru-mixed-031`, `ru-mixed-032`), which is why the counts below are out of 27
+answerable cases and not 25: hash recall@1 36.0% (9/25) → 37.0% (10/27), e5 recall@1 72.0% (18/25) →
+70.4% (19/27) with answered-after-gate 68.0% → 66.7% and false recall unchanged at 1/5.
+
 ### 5. Ranking has no recency or type signal, and the store is not the bottleneck
 
 `internal/store/notes.go:67` sorts by cosine and uses `ts` only to break an exact float tie, which

ROUTING-EVAL-31-07-2026.md

@@ -66,15 +66,113 @@ Three things this run settles:
    `запиши что…` phrasings toward fact, and that suspicion stands — all five `ru-note-*`
    cases now land on fact. Tracked as Vikunja #375.
 
-**Thinking off is the best configuration measured so far**, on both accuracy and latency
+The `thinking off` column above read as the best configuration measured so far (Vikunja #376).
-(Vikunja #376). That is worth understanding before flipping: routing is a short
+**It was wrong** — see the controlled re-run below. Ignore that column.
-classification into a fixed enum with grammar-constrained output, so there is little to
-reason about, and the thinking trace mostly gives a small model room to talk itself out of
-the right answer. Phrasing is a different job and needs measuring separately.
 
 Still `6 / 6` missed clarify — the router has no way to say "I don't know" (Vikunja #359).
 That is unchanged by anything here.
 
+## Thinking off — 31-07-2026, controlled re-run (Vikunja #376)
+
+The "thinking off wins by 6 points" observation above **does not hold**. It was a measurement
+artefact, and the earlier table's `thinking off` column should be ignored.
+
+The thinking-off variant was scored by a hand-rolled HTTP client living in the test file
+instead of `llm.Client`. That copy did not send `repeat_penalty`, which the real router does
+send (`routeRepeatPenalty = 1.15`). So the two columns differed on two axes at once, and the
+one that mattered was the penalty, not the thinking mode.
+
+Re-measured with everything else held equal — same fixture, same prompt, same grammar, same
+sampling, same idle box, the three configurations run back to back and never concurrently:
+
+| | llm-only, thinking on | llm-only, thinking off | cascade+llm |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| intent-only accuracy | 59.2% (45/76) | 59.2% (45/76) | 61.8% (47/76) |
+| full accuracy (intent+slots+gate) | 38.2% (29/76) | 38.2% (29/76) | 57.9% (44/76) |
+| route errors | 3 | 3 | 0 |
+| grammar violations | 3 (all 3 route errors) | 3 (same 3 cases) | 0 |
+| missed clarify | 5 / 6 | 5 / 6 | 5 / 6 |
+| p50 latency | 836ms | 920ms | 810ms |
+| p95 latency | 1.41s | 2.00s | 1.31s |
+
+Thinking off is not just a tie on the headline numbers — it is identical case for case, with
+the same confusion matrix and the same three unparseable replies. The latency difference is
+run-to-run noise on one box, and it points the wrong way here.
+
+The reason is simpler than any accuracy argument: **this llama-server build ignores the
+request-level thinking switch for this model.** Probed directly against the running server
+with `chat_template_kwargs.enable_thinking = false`, `chat_template_kwargs.thinking = false`
+and top-level `reasoning_budget = 0` — all three return a byte-identical answer with the
+thinking trace still in `reasoning_content`, and the server reports the prompt prefix as
+cached, meaning the rendered template did not change. There was never anything being turned
+off, which is also why the numbers match exactly.
+
+Nothing was defaulted. `internal/llm` still has no `chat_template_kwargs` field, `VoiceConfig`
+has no thinking flag, and `deploy/mavend.json` is unchanged. The misleading third
+configuration is removed from `internal/router/eval` so the table it produced cannot be quoted
+again.
+
+Two caveats worth saying out loud:
+
+- **The fixture is 76 cases.** A 6-point difference on 76 cases is roughly 4-5 cases and would
+  not have been worth trusting even if it had reproduced. This one was exactly 0 cases, which
+  is a much easier call.
+- **This is one server build and one checkpoint** (`b9351`, Qwen3.5-0.8B Q4_K_M). If the
+  #122 checkpoint or a newer llama.cpp does honour the switch, the question reopens — but it
+  reopens as an unmeasured question, not as a 6-point win.
+
+Phrasing was **not** measured. Whether thinking helps there is still open, and now also blocked
+on the same "can we even turn it off" question.
+
+## Clock and calendar rule — 31-07-2026 (Vikunja #374)
+
+`routeSystem` never said whether "который час" or "какое число завтра" are `system` or
+`query`, and `system→query ×4` showed up in every run. The rule added says: the clock and the
+calendar date themselves are `system`; what is *written in* the calendar or in memory
+("что у меня завтра", "какие есть напоминания") stays `query`; and a time named inside a
+request ("напомни завтра…") is just a detail of the request, not a reason for `system`.
+
+That split is not a preference. In `cmd/mavend/voice.go` only `replySystem` owns the clock and
+the date formatter, so a clock question routed to `query` falls into the embedder + note RAG
+and answers "не знаю". The agenda, on the other hand, is answered by `ParseCalendarDate` +
+`CalendarEvents` *inside* the `query` branch, so that side has to stay `query`. The rule sits
+above the question test because every one of these utterances carries a question word and a
+later rule would never be reached.
+
+The fixture is now 77 cases: one calendar-agenda case was added
+(`ru-query-019` "что у меня стоит в календаре на послезавтра", intent `query`) specifically so
+an over-broad system rule cannot pass unnoticed. The clock/date cases (`ru-sys-001/002/005`,
+`en-sys-001`) already existed.
+
+Three runs, same box, back to back, never concurrently:
+
+| | baseline | first rule (too broad) | rule as committed |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| llm-only intent-only | 59.2% (45/76) | 54.5% (42/77) | 59.7% (46/77) |
+| llm-only full | 38.2% | 35.1% | 39.0% |
+| llm-only route errors | 3 | 4 | 5 |
+| llm-only p50 | 1.09s | 0.91s | 0.93s |
+| cascade+llm intent-only | 61.8% (47/76) | 58.4% | 62.3% (48/77) |
+| cascade+llm full | 57.9% | 54.5% | 59.7% |
+| cascade+llm route errors | 0 | 0 | 0 |
+| cascade+llm p50 | 0.91s | 0.80s | 1.04s |
+
+**The targeted bug is fixed and the headline number did not move.** `system→query ×4` is gone
+in both LLM configurations — the `time` and `date` tags go from 0/2 and 0/2 to 2/2 and 2/2 —
+but the model then over-applies the rule, and `query→system ×5` plus `reminder→system ×2`
+appear where they did not exist before. Net accuracy is a wash, inside the noise of a 77-case
+fixture.
+
+The first attempt is shown because it is the honest history: it said "спрашивает время, дату
+или день недели → system" with no scope, which swept up reminders, and it cost 3-5 points. It
+was tightened once, on the reasoning that a rule capturing "напомни завтра в 7" is simply
+wrong, and not tuned further. The remaining `query/reminder → system` over-trigger is a new,
+separate weakness of the sub-1B model and deserves its own task rather than more prompt
+kneading against a held-out fixture.
+
+The rule is kept. It is correct about what the daemon can answer, and the failure it replaces
+was silent ("не знаю" to "который час") while the one it introduces is loud.
+
 ## Findings
 
 ### 1. The resident model does route better — 50.0% vs 36.8%
@@ -145,11 +243,11 @@ Note the grammar's `string ::= "\"" ([^"\\] | "\\" .)* "\""` is unbounded, so no
 
 ### 7. Two hypotheses tested and closed
 
-- **Thinking mode is a non-issue.** Qwen3.5's template defaults `thinking = 1`, so
+- **Thinking mode is a non-issue.** Confirmed twice now, the second time properly — see the
-  grammar-constrained JSON lands in `reasoning_content` with `content` empty —
+  controlled re-run section. Grammar-constrained JSON lands in `reasoning_content` with
-  `llm.Client`'s fallback handles it. A `thinking off` run scored *identically* (18/76,
+  `content` empty and `llm.Client`'s fallback handles it; the request-level switch does
-  48.7%, same p50). `internal/llm` deliberately does **not** grow a `chat_template_kwargs`
+  nothing on this build. `internal/llm` deliberately does **not** grow a
-  field.
+  `chat_template_kwargs` field.
 - **Runaway array repetition does not reproduce.** An isolated smoke test with a stripped
   grammar emitted `{"intent":"reminder"}` until `MaxTokens`; under the real `routeSystem`
   prompt the few-shot examples anchor it to one object. 2 errors in 76, not 76.

TALK-EVAL-31-07-2026.md

@@ -0,0 +1,150 @@
+# Conversational phrasing eval — 31-07-2026
+
+Every score measured tonight, on the three paths the nudge eval never touched:
+chat, query-with-notes, and general knowledge.
+
+**Short version: the plumbing got fixed and the score barely moved.** Grammar and
+Russian prompts together took the composite from ~9 to ~14 of 27. Everything
+still failing is the model not knowing things or not holding a constraint, and
+prompting is out of levers. Settles the measurement half of Vikunja #395 / #398 /
+#400.
+
+## How to reproduce
+
+```sh
+# llama-server: -c 4096 -ngl 99 -t 6, model /mnt/hdd1/llms/qwen3.5/Qwen3.5-0.8B.Q4_K_M.gguf
+MAVEN_LLM_URL=http://127.0.0.1:18099 no_proxy=127.0.0.1,localhost \
+  deps/go/go/bin/go test -count=1 -timeout 40m \
+  -run TestLLMTalkBaseline ./internal/phraser/eval/ -v
+```
+
+Three runs per configuration, always. The fixture is 27 cases, so one reply
+changing moves the composite by 3.7 points — a single run cannot tell a real
+change from sampling noise. This was learned the expensive way: an earlier claim
+that "one nudge case fails every run" turned out to be three different cases
+across three runs.
+
+**Run the box otherwise idle.** See the contamination note at the bottom.
+
+## Composite, per configuration
+
+| config | overall /27 | chat /9 | query /9 | knowledge /9 | canned fallbacks |
+|---|---|---|---|---|---|
+| baseline, no grammar | 7, 12, 7 | 1, 1, 0 | 2, 4, 2 | 4, 7, 5 | 0, 0, 0 |
+| + GBNF grammar (#398) | 14, 15, 8 | 1, 3, 0 | 5, 6, 3 | 8, 6, 5 | 0, 0, 0 |
+| + Russian prompts (#400) | 11, 17, 15 | 1, 5, 3 | 5, 6, 8 | 5, 6, 4 | 0, 0, 0 |
+| + truncation fix, 1000ch/768tok | 12, 13, 10 | 2, 2, 1 | 7, 7, 5 | 3, 4, 4 | 3, 3, 6 |
+| + rebalanced, 600ch/1024tok | **void — contaminated** | | | | |
+
+"Canned fallbacks" counts replies that came back as the hardcoded `"не знаю."`
+or `"поговорили."`. It is not a check, it is a health signal: those strings mean
+the phraser gave up, and the eval scores them as ordinary bad replies.
+
+## Per-check
+
+| check | no grammar | + grammar | + RU prompts | + truncation fix |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| nonempty | 27, 27, 27 | 27, 27, 27 | 27, 27, 27 | 27, 27, 27 |
+| ellipsis | 20, 19, 23 | 27, 27, 27 | 27, 27, 27 | 27, 27, 27 |
+| lang | 13, 16, 15 | 23, 26, 26 | 25, 26, 25 | 26, 27, 27 |
+| feminine | — | — | 25, 24, 26 | 25, 25, 27 |
+| address | — | — | 21, 22, 22 | 22, 21, 22 |
+| ontopic | — | — | 17, 24, 18 | 17, 19, 14 |
+
+`nonempty` reading 27/27 everywhere is not good news — it was a broken check.
+It tested for a non-blank string, so replies of literally `{` and `"15-16"`
+passed it. Fixed on `overnight/fix-truncation`; it needs a letter now.
+
+## What each change actually bought
+
+**GBNF grammar (#398) — the biggest single win.** Qwen3.5-0.8B writes
+`Thinking Process:` as plain text with no tags, `stripThink` only handles
+`</think>`, so the JSON never closed and the plain-text fallback shipped the
+literal reasoning. `ellipsis` went 20→27 and `lang` 13→26. The router had been
+using a grammar for ages; the phraser asking nicely in the prompt was the
+oversight.
+
+**Russian prompts (#400) — modest, plus a large latency win.** Chat 1.3→3.0
+average, query 4.7→6.3, knowledge 6.3→5.0. All inside the run-to-run spread, so
+"probably better on the paths it targeted, not provable in three runs". p50
+latency dropped from ~11.5s to ~2.3s and that part is consistent across all
+three runs — shorter prompts, and she stopped emitting English reasoning first.
+
+**Truncation fix — necessary, and did not help the score.** Two real bugs
+(replies of `{`, and a `nonempty` check that passed them), both fixed, and the
+composite went nowhere. A complete rambling wrong answer fails the same checks a
+truncated one did. Worth doing anyway: the daemon was shipping `{` to a
+text-to-speech voice.
+
+## The truncation bug, since the cause was counter-intuitive
+
+The grammar's `string ::= ... {0,400}` rule was the cause, not the token cap.
+Measured against Qwen3.5-0.8B at three caps — 256, 768 and 2048 — the reply came
+back **exactly 400 characters every time, cut mid-word** (`"Нужно записать и,"`).
+
+Then I raised the bound to 1000 while the cap was 768 tokens and made it worse:
+Russian runs ~1.5 characters per token here, so generation died on the *token*
+cap instead, mid-object, and the new guard correctly refused it and shipped
+`"не знаю."` — 3, 3 and 6 fallbacks per run, from zero. **The two limits have to
+agree.** 600 characters needs ~400 tokens; the cap is 1024.
+
+## Where the remaining failures live
+
+`address` is stuck at 21-22 of 27 and `ontopic` at 14-19. Both resist prompting.
+
+**The prompt now explicitly forbids exactly what she does.** It says never "вы",
+use the singular — and she writes `вашей`, `подождите`, `делаете`, `хотите`,
+`напишите`. Telling a 0.8B "never do X" does not work. Same for
+`feminine`: `я готов`, `я понял`, `я нашел`, `я заметил`, `я сказал`.
+
+**Some of `ontopic` is the fixture, not the model.** `chat-how-are-you` got
+`"Привет! Я здесь, чтобы поговорить. Как дела сегодня?"` — a fine reply that
+fails because `want_any` is `[норм, хорош, порядк, тут, работ]`. It fails in
+every run, so it inflates the count. The `ontopic` column currently measures the
+fixture as much as the model. Not fixed yet, deliberately: changing it would
+break comparability with the runs above.
+
+**Two replies worth reading, because they are not fixable by prompting:**
+
+- Thunder and lightning: *"Скорость молнии — 8-10 тысяч километров в секунду, но
+  звук — 300 метров в секунду, что делает молнию громче."* Confidently wrong,
+  and it concludes lightning is *louder* rather than sound being *slower*.
+- "расскажи обо мне": *"Ты — прекрасное существо, с душой и вниманием… Спасибо за
+  твою улыбку… О тебе — заповедь любви."* Sycophantic filler, zero information,
+  and precisely the "not a relationship" non-goal.
+- Boiling an egg: `"15-16"` one run, `"1"` another. No unit, wrong number.
+
+The first argues for reading instead of recalling (#403 — Kiwix retrieval scores
+8/8 on the same questions given English keywords). The second and third argue
+for templates on the paths where correctness matters (#392).
+
+## Contamination note — how the last row got voided
+
+I started the query-rewrite agent against the same llama-server the sweep was
+using, and assumed contention would only affect latency. It did not. The
+knowledge path collapsed to 0 of 9 with eight canned `"не знаю."` replies, p95
+tripled to 23.7s, and **the report still said "0 errors"**.
+
+That is Vikunja #397, and it is worse than filed: a merely *busy* server
+produces a clean-looking report with a third of the fixture silently answering
+`"не знаю."`. `PhraseChat` and `PhraseQuery` swallow every failure and return a
+hardcoded string, so infrastructure trouble is indistinguishable from bad
+phrasing in the score. The talk test guards the *start* and *end* of a run with
+a model check, which catches a dead server but not a loaded one.
+
+**Until #397 is fixed, treat any run made on a busy box as void.**
+
+## Next
+
+- Re-run 600ch/1024tok clean, to fill the void row.
+- Score `Qwen3.5-2B-UD-Q4_K_XL` (already at `/mnt/hdd1/llms/qwen3.5/`, never
+  measured) on this fixture and the router fixture. Not the 4B — too big for
+  this box, owner's call.
+- Newer sub-500M candidates (LFM2.5 200M/300M) are worth a run for routing.
+  Note `MODEL-BAKEOFF-31-07-2026.md` found LFM2.5-**1.2B** worse than
+  Qwen3.5-0.8B at Russian routing and 2.4× slower — but those are a different,
+  older generation, so that result does not predict the small ones.
+- Fix `chat-how-are-you`'s `want_any`, and re-baseline once, so `ontopic`
+  measures the model.
+- #397 first if anything, since it decides whether any of the above is
+  trustworthy.

cmd/mavend/clarify.go

@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ package main
 import (
 	"context"
 	"log"
+	"math/rand"
+	"strings"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/dialogue"
@@ -21,8 +23,12 @@ const clarifyTTL = 90 * time.Second
 // raw utterance, chat and system have nothing to fill in. For those a clarify
 // decision keeps the canned "не поняла" reply — inventing a question for noise
 // is worse than admitting she missed it.
+// A reminder wants BOTH what to remind about and when. Subject first: "напомни
+// в 11" has a time and nothing to say at 11, and a reminder with no subject is
+// not worth setting. Order here is the order she asks in — she still only asks
+// about the first one missing.
 var wantedSlots = map[router.Intent][]dialogue.Slot{
-	router.IntentReminder: {dialogue.SlotTime},
+	router.IntentReminder: {dialogue.SlotText, dialogue.SlotTime},
 	router.IntentFact:     {dialogue.SlotKey},
 	router.IntentAct:      {dialogue.SlotFn},
 }
@@ -35,14 +41,94 @@ var wantedSlots = map[router.Intent][]dialogue.Slot{
 // questions, so there is no gender agreement to get wrong; the feminine
 // self-reference lives in the reply she gives when she drops the request.
 var clarifyQuestions = map[dialogue.Slot]string{
-	dialogue.SlotTime: "На когда напомнить?",
+	dialogue.SlotTime: "Когда?",
+	dialogue.SlotText: "О чём напомнить?",
 	dialogue.SlotKey:  "Что записать?",
 	dialogue.SlotFn:   "Что сделать?",
 }
 
-// clarifyDropped — she asked once, the answer still did not fill the gap, so
+// clarifyGaveUp — she is out of questions and still does not have the slot. She
-// the request is gone. Said plainly, once, with no second question.
+// says so out loud: dropping the request in silence would leave him thinking it
-const clarifyDropped = "Не разобрала — скажи целиком, пожалуйста."
+// landed. Feminine self-reference ("поняла"), as everywhere.
+const clarifyGaveUp = "Прости, я не поняла. Скажи, пожалуйста, по-другому."
+
+// clarifyExpiredVariants — his answer came after the TTL, so the parked request
+// is already gone. Same tone as clarifyGaveUp, different reason: too much time
+// passed, not "I did not understand". Feminine self-reference ("ждала",
+// "отпустила"); he is addressed with a plain imperative.
+//
+// Five phrasings, not one. This is the line he hears whenever he walks off
+// mid-request, so it is the line that repeats most — and the same sentence every
+// time is what makes a house assistant sound like a kiosk. They all carry the
+// same two facts (the old request is gone; say it again if it still matters),
+// because the wording may vary and the meaning may not.
+//
+// Fixed templates rather than model output, for the same reason as
+// clarifyQuestions: this text has to be right every time, and it is not worth a
+// generation to say something this small.
+var clarifyExpiredVariants = []string{
+	"Прости, я слишком долго ждала ответа и отпустила прошлую просьбу. Если она ещё нужна, скажи заново.",
+	"Кажется, прошлая просьба уже не важна — я её отпустила. Если я ошибаюсь, повтори.",
+	"Ты как-то резко замолчал, и я не стала ждать дальше. Если та просьба ещё нужна, скажи заново.",
+	"Я не дождалась ответа и убрала прошлую просьбу. Повтори, если она всё ещё нужна.",
+	"Столько времени прошло, что я отпустила прошлую просьбу. Скажи заново, если она в силе.",
+}
+
+// clarifyExpiredLine picks one of them at random.
+func clarifyExpiredLine() string {
+	return clarifyExpiredVariants[rand.Intn(len(clarifyExpiredVariants))]
+}
+
+// isClarifyExpired reports whether s opens with any of the expiry lines. The
+// notice is glued in front of this turn's reply (see withNotice), so a caller
+// checking for it has to match a prefix, not the whole string.
+func isClarifyExpired(s string) bool {
+	for _, v := range clarifyExpiredVariants {
+		if strings.HasPrefix(s, v) {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
+// trimClarifyExpired strips a leading expiry notice, leaving this turn's actual
+// reply. "" ⇒ the notice was the whole thing.
+func trimClarifyExpired(s string) string {
+	for _, v := range clarifyExpiredVariants {
+		if strings.HasPrefix(s, v) {
+			return strings.TrimSpace(strings.TrimPrefix(s, v))
+		}
+	}
+	return strings.TrimSpace(s)
+}
+
+// clarifyExpiredNotice returns that line when a parked question had just timed
+// out, and "" when nothing was parked. Call it right after
+// resolveClarifyAnswer: a live question is answered there, an expired one is
+// only reported here — the words themselves still go on to be routed fresh.
+func (h *reactiveHandler) clarifyExpiredNotice() string {
+	if h.clarifyStore == nil {
+		return ""
+	}
+	if !h.clarifyStore.TakeExpired(voiceDialogueID, h.now()) {
+		return ""
+	}
+	log.Printf("voice: clarify — parked question expired, telling him and routing the words fresh")
+	return clarifyExpiredLine()
+}
+
+// withNotice glues the expiry notice in front of this turn's reply. One turn
+// carries one reply on the wire, so the notice cannot be a message of its own —
+// but neither the notice nor the fresh answer may be dropped.
+func withNotice(notice, reply string) string {
+	if notice == "" {
+		return reply
+	}
+	if reply == "" {
+		return notice
+	}
+	return notice + " " + reply
+}
 
 // missingFor returns the slots a decision still needs, most important first.
 // Empty ⇒ there is nothing identifiable to ask about.
@@ -79,13 +165,14 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) askClarify(dec router.Decision) (string, bool) {
 		return "", false
 	}
 	h.clarifyStore.Put(voiceDialogueID, &dialogue.PendingQuestion{
-		Intent:    dialogue.Intent(dec.Intent),
+		Intent:      dialogue.Intent(dec.Intent),
-		Slots:     toDialogueSlots(dec.Slots),
+		Slots:       toDialogueSlots(dec.Slots),
-		Missing:   []dialogue.Slot{slot},
+		Missing:     []dialogue.Slot{slot},
-		Utterance: dec.Utterance,
+		Utterance:   dec.Utterance,
-		Asked:     h.now(),
+		Asked:       h.now(),
-		TTL:       clarifyTTL,
+		TTL:         clarifyTTL,
-		Attempts:  1, // asked once; MaxAttempts is 1, so there is no second ask
+		Attempts:    1, // this ask
+		MaxAttempts: h.clarifyMaxAttempts,
 	})
 	log.Printf("voice: clarify — asked about %s for intent=%s", slot, dec.Intent)
 	return question, true
@@ -97,8 +184,9 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) askClarify(dec router.Decision) (string, bool) {
 // resolveConfirm and checked in the same place.
 //
 // The answer is parsed with the same extractor the router uses, for the intent
-// she parked — no second parser. If it still does not fill the gap the request
+// she parked — no second parser. If it still does not fill the gap she asks
-// is dropped: she does not ask again.
+// again, up to MaxAttempts; after that she says out loud that she did not
+// understand. She never drops the request in silence.
 func (h *reactiveHandler) resolveClarifyAnswer(ctx context.Context, text string) (string, bool) {
 	if h.clarifyStore == nil {
 		return "", false
@@ -107,17 +195,14 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) resolveClarifyAnswer(ctx context.Context, text string)
 	if q == nil {
 		return "", false
 	}
-	// One shot either way: the question is consumed whether or not the answer
-	// works, so a failed answer can't leave the question armed.
-	h.clarifyStore.Delete(voiceDialogueID)
 
 	intent := router.Intent(q.Intent)
 	answer := h.extractor.Extract(ctx, intent, text, h.now())
 	merged := q.Answer(text, toDialogueSlots(answer))
 	if len(dialogue.StillMissing(q.Missing, merged)) > 0 {
-		log.Printf("voice: clarify — answer %q did not fill %v, dropping", text, q.Missing)
+		return h.reaskOrGiveUp(q, merged, text), true
-		return clarifyDropped, true
 	}
+	h.clarifyStore.Delete(voiceDialogueID)
 
 	// Rebuild the decision as if it had routed cleanly, then run it down the
 	// normal path. Clarify is deliberately false and the intent is unchanged:
@@ -133,6 +218,29 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) resolveClarifyAnswer(ctx context.Context, text string)
 	return h.finishClarified(ctx, dec), true
 }
 
+// reaskOrGiveUp handles an answer that left the gap open: ask the same question
+// again while she has attempts left, otherwise say she did not understand and
+// let the request go. Never returns "" — a mute give-up reads as "done".
+func (h *reactiveHandler) reaskOrGiveUp(q *dialogue.PendingQuestion, merged dialogue.Slots, text string) string {
+	question := ""
+	if len(q.Missing) > 0 {
+		question = clarifyQuestions[q.Missing[0]]
+	}
+	if question == "" || !q.CanAsk() {
+		h.clarifyStore.Delete(voiceDialogueID)
+		log.Printf("voice: clarify — gave up on %v after %d question(s), answer was %q", q.Missing, q.Attempts, text)
+		return clarifyGaveUp
+	}
+	// Re-park with whatever the answer DID give, the clock restarted and one
+	// more question spent.
+	q.Slots = merged
+	q.Attempts++
+	q.Asked = h.now()
+	h.clarifyStore.Put(voiceDialogueID, q)
+	log.Printf("voice: clarify — answer %q did not fill %v, asking again (attempt %d)", text, q.Missing, q.Attempts)
+	return question
+}
+
 // finishClarified runs a completed decision through the same steps a freshly
 // routed one takes: remember the turn, act, then phrase.
 func (h *reactiveHandler) finishClarified(ctx context.Context, dec router.Decision) string {
@@ -146,6 +254,10 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) finishClarified(ctx context.Context, dec router.Decisi
 	if reply == "" {
 		reply = h.replier.Reply(dec)
 	}
+	if reply == "" {
+		// Belt: an empty reply here would be a silent drop.
+		reply = clarifyGaveUp
+	}
 	return reply
 }
 

cmd/mavend/clarify_test.go

@@ -56,10 +56,13 @@ func TestClarifyQuestionForMissingSlot(t *testing.T) {
 		want  string
 		asked bool
 	}{
-		{"reminder without a time", clarifyDec(router.IntentReminder, router.Slots{Text: "напомни позвонить маме"}, "напомни позвонить маме"), "На когда напомнить?", true},
+		{"reminder without a time", clarifyDec(router.IntentReminder, router.Slots{Text: "напомни позвонить маме"}, "напомни позвонить маме"), "Когда?", true},
 		{"fact without a key", clarifyDec(router.IntentFact, router.Slots{Text: "запиши"}, "запиши"), "Что записать?", true},
 		{"act without a fn", clarifyDec(router.IntentAct, router.Slots{Text: "сделай это"}, "сделай это"), "Что сделать?", true},
-		{"reminder that already has a time", clarifyDec(router.IntentReminder, router.Slots{HasTime: true}, "напомни в 11"), "", false},
+		// A time with nothing to say at that time is still half a reminder, so
+		// the subject is what she asks about — not silence.
+		{"reminder that has a time but no subject", clarifyDec(router.IntentReminder, router.Slots{HasTime: true}, "напомни в 11"), "О чём напомнить?", true},
+		{"reminder that has both", clarifyDec(router.IntentReminder, router.Slots{Text: "позвонить маме", HasTime: true}, "напомни в 11 позвонить маме"), "", false},
 		{"chat is never worth a question", clarifyDec(router.IntentChat, router.Slots{Text: "мгм"}, "мгм"), "", false},
 		{"query is never worth a question", clarifyDec(router.IntentQuery, router.Slots{Text: "а"}, "а"), "", false},
 	}
@@ -78,7 +81,7 @@ func TestClarifyReminderCompletesOnAnswer(t *testing.T) {
 	h, st, _ := newClarifyHandler(t)
 
 	question, asked := h.askClarify(clarifyDec(router.IntentReminder, router.Slots{Text: "напомни позвонить маме"}, "напомни позвонить маме"))
-	if !asked || question != "На когда напомнить?" {
+	if !asked || question != "Когда?" {
 		t.Fatalf("expected the time question, got %q asked=%v", question, asked)
 	}
 
@@ -86,7 +89,7 @@ func TestClarifyReminderCompletesOnAnswer(t *testing.T) {
 	if !handled {
 		t.Fatal("the answer to an open question must be consumed as an answer")
 	}
-	if reply == clarifyDropped {
+	if reply == clarifyGaveUp {
 		t.Fatalf("a good answer must not drop the request: %q", reply)
 	}
 
@@ -111,7 +114,7 @@ func TestClarifyFactCompletesOnAnswer(t *testing.T) {
 	if _, asked := h.askClarify(clarifyDec(router.IntentFact, router.Slots{Text: "запиши"}, "запиши")); !asked {
 		t.Fatal("a fact with no key should be asked about")
 	}
-	if reply, handled := h.resolveClarifyAnswer(ctx, "пил воду"); !handled || reply == clarifyDropped {
+	if reply, handled := h.resolveClarifyAnswer(ctx, "пил воду"); !handled || reply == clarifyGaveUp {
 		t.Fatalf("answer should complete the fact, handled=%v reply=%q", handled, reply)
 	}
 	if fact, err := st.LatestFact(ctx, "water"); err != nil || fact.Key != "water" {
@@ -137,26 +140,87 @@ func TestClarifyAnswerAfterTTLIsANewRequest(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-// TestClarifyUnclearAnswerDropsWithoutAskingAgain — MaxAttempts is 1.
+// TestClarifyAsksThreeTimesThenSaysSo — three questions are allowed, the fourth
-func TestClarifyUnclearAnswerDropsWithoutAskingAgain(t *testing.T) {
+// is not, and running out is SPOKEN. Silence would read as "handled".
+func TestClarifyAsksThreeTimesThenSaysSo(t *testing.T) {
 	ctx := context.Background()
 	h, st, _ := newClarifyHandler(t)
 
 	if _, asked := h.askClarify(clarifyDec(router.IntentReminder, router.Slots{Text: "напомни"}, "напомни")); !asked {
-		t.Fatal("expected a question")
+		t.Fatal("expected a first question")
 	}
+	// Two more unclear answers ⇒ two more questions (3 asks in total).
+	for i := 2; i <= 3; i++ {
+		reply, handled := h.resolveClarifyAnswer(ctx, "ну не знаю")
+		if !handled {
+			t.Fatalf("answer %d must be consumed as an answer", i)
+		}
+		if reply != "Когда?" {
+			t.Fatalf("attempt %d should ask again, got %q", i, reply)
+		}
+		if h.clarifyStore.Get(voiceDialogueID, h.now()) == nil {
+			t.Fatalf("attempt %d must leave the question armed", i)
+		}
+	}
+
 	reply, handled := h.resolveClarifyAnswer(ctx, "ну не знаю")
-	if !handled || reply != clarifyDropped {
+	if !handled || reply != clarifyGaveUp {
-		t.Fatalf("an unclear answer should drop the request, handled=%v reply=%q", handled, reply)
+		t.Fatalf("the fourth try must give up out loud, handled=%v reply=%q", handled, reply)
 	}
-	if strings.Contains(reply, "?") {
+	if reply == "" || strings.Contains(reply, "?") {
-		t.Fatalf("she must not ask a second question: %q", reply)
+		t.Fatalf("giving up must be spoken and must not be another question: %q", reply)
 	}
 	if h.clarifyStore.Get(voiceDialogueID, h.now()) != nil {
-		t.Fatal("a dropped request must leave no armed question")
+		t.Fatal("a given-up request must leave no armed question")
 	}
 	if reminders, err := st.DueReminders(ctx, h.now().Add(48*time.Hour)); err != nil || len(reminders) != 0 {
-		t.Fatalf("a dropped request must not create anything: reminders=%v err=%v", reminders, err)
+		t.Fatalf("a given-up request must not create anything: reminders=%v err=%v", reminders, err)
+	}
+}
+
+// TestClarifyMaxAttemptsIsConfigurable — one question when the config says one.
+func TestClarifyMaxAttemptsIsConfigurable(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	h, _, _ := newClarifyHandler(t)
+	h.clarifyMaxAttempts = 1
+
+	if _, asked := h.askClarify(clarifyDec(router.IntentReminder, router.Slots{Text: "напомни"}, "напомни")); !asked {
+		t.Fatal("expected a question")
+	}
+	if reply, handled := h.resolveClarifyAnswer(ctx, "ну не знаю"); !handled || reply != clarifyGaveUp {
+		t.Fatalf("with max 1 she must give up at once, handled=%v reply=%q", handled, reply)
+	}
+}
+
+// TestClarifyRestatedAnswerWins — «в 11:00», then «нет, в 15:00». The second
+// value is the one that lands.
+func TestClarifyRestatedAnswerWins(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	h, st, _ := newClarifyHandler(t)
+
+	if _, asked := h.askClarify(clarifyDec(router.IntentReminder, router.Slots{Text: "напомни позвонить маме"}, "напомни позвонить маме")); !asked {
+		t.Fatal("expected a question")
+	}
+	// First answer parses, but re-park it by hand as if she had asked again:
+	// what matters here is that Answer prefers the newer value over the parked
+	// one, which is the case the daemon hits on a re-ask.
+	q := h.clarifyStore.Get(voiceDialogueID, h.now())
+	if q == nil {
+		t.Fatal("expected an armed question")
+	}
+	first := h.extractor.Extract(ctx, router.IntentReminder, "в 11:00", h.now())
+	q.Slots = q.Answer("в 11:00", toDialogueSlots(first))
+
+	if reply, handled := h.resolveClarifyAnswer(ctx, "нет, в 15:00"); !handled || reply == clarifyGaveUp {
+		t.Fatalf("the restated answer should complete the request, handled=%v reply=%q", handled, reply)
+	}
+	reminders, err := st.DueReminders(ctx, h.now().Add(48*time.Hour))
+	if err != nil || len(reminders) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("expected one reminder: %v err=%v", reminders, err)
+	}
+	want := h.extractor.Extract(ctx, router.IntentReminder, "в 15:00", h.now())
+	if !reminders[0].FireTs.Equal(want.Time) {
+		t.Fatalf("reminder at %v, want the restated %v", reminders[0].FireTs, want.Time)
 	}
 }
 
@@ -228,6 +292,36 @@ func TestNoQuestionWhenNothingIsMissing(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// TestClarifyExpiryIsAnnouncedAndWordsStillRoute — his answer lands after the
+// TTL: she must say the old request is gone AND still answer the new words.
+func TestClarifyExpiryIsAnnouncedAndWordsStillRoute(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	h, _, now := newClarifyHandler(t)
+	emb := router.NewHashEmbedder(1024)
+	h.embedder = emb
+	h.router = buildRouter(emb, h.matcher, 0.55, nil)
+
+	if _, asked := h.askClarify(clarifyDec(router.IntentReminder, router.Slots{Text: "напомни"}, "напомни")); !asked {
+		t.Fatal("expected a question")
+	}
+	*now = now.Add(clarifyTTL + time.Second)
+
+	reply := h.handleText(ctx, "как дела")
+	if !isClarifyExpired(reply) {
+		t.Fatalf("expired question must be announced first, got %q", reply)
+	}
+	if trimClarifyExpired(reply) == "" {
+		t.Fatalf("the new words must still be answered, got only the notice: %q", reply)
+	}
+	if h.clarifyStore.Get(voiceDialogueID, h.now()) != nil {
+		t.Fatal("the expired question must be gone")
+	}
+	// The notice is said once, not on every later utterance.
+	if reply := h.handleText(ctx, "как дела"); isClarifyExpired(reply) {
+		t.Fatalf("notice repeated on a later turn: %q", reply)
+	}
+}
+
 // TestNoPendingQuestionFallsThrough — with nothing parked, an utterance routes
 // normally.
 func TestNoPendingQuestionFallsThrough(t *testing.T) {

cmd/mavend/main.go

@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/delivery/telegramsink"
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/ipc"
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/loop"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/persona"
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/phraser"
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/store"
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/webauthn"
@@ -189,7 +190,9 @@ func (l *lockedAPI) MorningStatus(ctx context.Context) ([]ipc.MorningRoutineStat
 func run(args []string) error {
 	cfgPath := flag.String("config", defaultConfigPath(), "path to mavend JSON config")
 	wrappedKeyPath := flag.String("wrapped-key-file", "", "path to wrapped encryption key blob (enables cold-start unlock)")
+	reembed := flag.Bool("reembed", false, "re-embed every stored note and fact with the configured embedder, then serve normally (run once after an embedder swap)")
 	flag.CommandLine.Parse(args)
+	reembedOnStart = *reembed
 	cfg, err := config.Load(*cfgPath)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
@@ -269,13 +272,14 @@ func run(args []string) error {
 		phr = phraser.NewStub()
 		if cfg.Phraser != nil {
 			pc := phraser.Config{
-				ModelPath:  cfg.Phraser.ModelPath,
+				ModelPath:    cfg.Phraser.ModelPath,
-				BinPath:    cfg.Phraser.BinPath,
+				BinPath:      cfg.Phraser.BinPath,
-				Listen:     cfg.Phraser.Listen,
+				Listen:       cfg.Phraser.Listen,
-				NGpuLayers: cfg.Phraser.NGpuLayers,
+				NGpuLayers:   cfg.Phraser.NGpuLayers,
-				NCtx:       cfg.Phraser.NCtx,
+				NCtx:         cfg.Phraser.NCtx,
-				Timeout:    time.Duration(cfg.Phraser.Timeout),
+				Timeout:      time.Duration(cfg.Phraser.Timeout),
-				Persona:    personaFromCfg(cfg),
+				LLMNudges:    cfg.Phraser.LLMNudges,
+				ContextBlock: contextBlockFn(cfg, time.Now),
 			}
 			if pc.BinPath == "" {
 				pc.BinPath = "llama-server"
@@ -439,13 +443,14 @@ func run(args []string) error {
 			phr = phraser.NewStub()
 			if cfg.Phraser != nil {
 				pc := phraser.Config{
-					ModelPath:  cfg.Phraser.ModelPath,
+					ModelPath:    cfg.Phraser.ModelPath,
-					BinPath:    cfg.Phraser.BinPath,
+					BinPath:      cfg.Phraser.BinPath,
-					Listen:     cfg.Phraser.Listen,
+					Listen:       cfg.Phraser.Listen,
-					NGpuLayers: cfg.Phraser.NGpuLayers,
+					NGpuLayers:   cfg.Phraser.NGpuLayers,
-					NCtx:       cfg.Phraser.NCtx,
+					NCtx:         cfg.Phraser.NCtx,
-					Timeout:    time.Duration(cfg.Phraser.Timeout),
+					Timeout:      time.Duration(cfg.Phraser.Timeout),
-					Persona:    personaFromCfg(cfg),
+					LLMNudges:    cfg.Phraser.LLMNudges,
+					ContextBlock: contextBlockFn(cfg, time.Now),
 				}
 				if pc.BinPath == "" {
 					pc.BinPath = "llama-server"
@@ -599,12 +604,29 @@ func run(args []string) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-// personaFromCfg extracts the voice persona from the config, or returns ""
+// personaFacts reads the optional, deployment-specific facts (his name, his
-// when voice isn't configured. Used to pass a character prompt into the
+// city, the free-text persona string) out of the config. Everything here may
-// LLM phraser without requiring voice to be enabled.
+// be empty — the context block is correct without any of it.
-func personaFromCfg(cfg *config.Config) string {
+func personaFacts(cfg *config.Config) persona.Facts {
-	if cfg.Voice != nil {
+	f := persona.Facts{
-		return cfg.Voice.Persona
+		// Telegram lives outside the voice block, so it counts either way.
+		Telegram: cfg.Telegram != nil && cfg.Telegram.BotToken != "" && cfg.Telegram.ChatID != "",
 	}
-	return ""
+	if cfg.Voice == nil {
+		return f
+	}
+	f.OwnerName = cfg.Voice.OwnerName
+	f.City = cfg.Voice.City
+	f.Static = cfg.Voice.Persona
+	// Same test wireVoice uses to pick the real provider over the stub.
+	f.Weather = cfg.Voice.Weather != nil && cfg.Voice.Weather.Provider == "open-meteo"
+	f.Tools = len(cfg.Voice.Tools) > 0
+	return f
+}
+
+// contextBlockFn returns the per-turn renderer of the shared context block.
+// Per turn, not once at startup, because the block states the current time.
+func contextBlockFn(cfg *config.Config, now func() time.Time) func() string {
+	f := personaFacts(cfg)
+	return func() string { return f.Block(now()) }
 }

cmd/mavend/query_recall_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,158 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"math"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/ipc"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/memory"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/phraser"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/router"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/voice"
+)
+
+// fixedEmbedder hands back a vector chosen per text, so a test can say exactly
+// how close each stored memory is to the question. The real embedders make
+// scores that are realistic but not controllable, and this test is about the
+// gate, not about the embedder.
+type fixedEmbedder struct{ vecs map[string][]float32 }
+
+func (f *fixedEmbedder) Dim() int     { return 4 }
+func (f *fixedEmbedder) Close() error { return nil }
+
+func (f *fixedEmbedder) Embed(_ context.Context, text string) ([]float32, error) {
+	v, ok := f.vecs[text]
+	if !ok {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("fixedEmbedder: no vector for %q", text)
+	}
+	return v, nil
+}
+
+// scoreVec builds a unit vector whose cosine against the query vector
+// (1,0,0,0) is exactly score.
+func scoreVec(score float64) []float32 {
+	rest := math.Sqrt(1 - score*score)
+	return []float32{float32(score), float32(rest), 0, 0}
+}
+
+// recordingPhraser remembers what the query path handed it to phrase, which is
+// how the test can tell which pass produced the answer.
+type recordingPhraser struct {
+	*phraser.Stub
+	notes []string
+}
+
+func (r *recordingPhraser) PhraseQuery(ctx context.Context, utterance string, notes []string) (string, error) {
+	r.notes = notes
+	return r.Stub.PhraseQuery(ctx, utterance, notes)
+}
+
+// recallCase — one stored memory: its text, how close it is to the question,
+// whether it is a note or a fact, and whether the notes table holds it too.
+type recallCase struct {
+	text  string
+	score float64
+	kind  string
+}
+
+// buildRecallHandler stores the given memories and returns a handler whose
+// query path can be run directly. Notes go into BOTH the notes table and the
+// vector index, which is what the daemon does (voice.go's IntentNote).
+func buildRecallHandler(t *testing.T, question string, mems []recallCase) (*reactiveHandler, *recordingPhraser) {
+	t.Helper()
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	st := newTestStore(t)
+	emb := &fixedEmbedder{vecs: map[string][]float32{question: {1, 0, 0, 0}}}
+	mem := memory.NewInMemoryStore()
+	now := time.Now()
+
+	for i, m := range mems {
+		vec := scoreVec(m.score)
+		emb.vecs[m.text] = vec
+		id := fmt.Sprintf("%s:%d", m.kind, i)
+		if m.kind == "note" {
+			if _, err := st.WriteNote(ctx, now, m.text, vec, "tap:voice"); err != nil {
+				t.Fatalf("WriteNote: %v", err)
+			}
+		}
+		if err := mem.Insert(ctx, id, vec, map[string]string{"text": m.text, "type": m.kind}); err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("memory insert: %v", err)
+		}
+	}
+
+	phr := &recordingPhraser{Stub: phraser.NewStub()}
+	h := &reactiveHandler{
+		api:             ipc.NewStoreAPI(st),
+		embedder:        emb,
+		replier:         voice.NewStubReplier(),
+		phraser:         phr,
+		now:             func() time.Time { return now },
+		memStore:        mem,
+		dataStore:       st,
+		queryMinScore:   0.55,
+		queryMinMargin:  0.008,
+		weatherProvider: nil,
+	}
+	return h, phr
+}
+
+func askQuery(t *testing.T, h *reactiveHandler, question string) string {
+	t.Helper()
+	return h.applyAction(context.Background(), router.Decision{
+		Intent:    router.IntentQuery,
+		Utterance: question,
+	})
+}
+
+// TestQueryRecallNoteCanWin — the note-recall regression (Vikunja #373). Notes
+// and facts share one vector index, and a note that clearly beats everything
+// else must be the answer. Before the fix the memory pass only ran after the
+// notes-only gate had already rejected the same note at the same score, so only
+// a fact could ever come back from it.
+func TestQueryRecallNoteCanWin(t *testing.T) {
+	const q = "где молоко"
+
+	t.Run("a clearly best note answers", func(t *testing.T) {
+		h, phr := buildRecallHandler(t, q, []recallCase{
+			{text: "молоко стоит в холодильнике", score: 0.90, kind: "note"},
+			{text: "выучил пару аккордов", score: 0.50, kind: "note"},
+		})
+		reply := askQuery(t, h, q)
+		if want := "вот что я нашла: молоко стоит в холодильнике"; reply != want {
+			t.Errorf("reply %q, want %q", reply, want)
+		}
+		// One text, the winning memory's — the answer came from the memory
+		// pass, not from handing the phraser every note in the table.
+		if len(phr.notes) != 1 || phr.notes[0] != "молоко стоит в холодильнике" {
+			t.Errorf("phraser got %q, want just the recalled note", phr.notes)
+		}
+	})
+
+	// The other half of "one gate over everything": a fact that matches better
+	// than the best note now answers, instead of losing to a note that only had
+	// to beat other notes.
+	t.Run("the better-matching fact answers", func(t *testing.T) {
+		h, _ := buildRecallHandler(t, q, []recallCase{
+			{text: "молоко стоит в холодильнике", score: 0.80, kind: "note"},
+			{text: "купил молоко в среду", score: 0.95, kind: "fact"},
+		})
+		if reply := askQuery(t, h, q); reply != "купил молоко в среду" {
+			t.Errorf("reply %q, want the fact read back", reply)
+		}
+	})
+
+	// The gate is untouched: two memories this close mean the embedder cannot
+	// tell them apart, and silence still beats a coin flip.
+	t.Run("no clear best stays silent", func(t *testing.T) {
+		h, _ := buildRecallHandler(t, q, []recallCase{
+			{text: "молоко стоит в холодильнике", score: 0.860, kind: "note"},
+			{text: "молоко закончилось", score: 0.858, kind: "note"},
+		})
+		if reply := askQuery(t, h, q); reply != "не знаю." {
+			t.Errorf("reply %q, want silence", reply)
+		}
+	})
+}

cmd/mavend/recall.go

@@ -2,21 +2,24 @@ package main
 
 import "github.com/kami/maven/internal/memory"
 
-// bestRecall is the read side of the long-term memory store: the top hit's
+// bestRecall is the read side of the long-term memory store: the top hit when
-// stored text when it clears the confidence gate. This recalls across BOTH
+// it clears the confidence gate. The index holds BOTH notes and facts, and
-// notes and facts (facts aren't in the notes table, so this is the only path
+// either can win — the caller looks at the returned hit's meta["type"] to see
-// that can answer "when did I last …?" from a captured fact). A note hit here
+// which. Facts aren't in the notes table, so this is the only path that can
-// is redundant with the notes-RAG path — by design; the two indexes can diverge
+// answer "when did I last …?" from a captured fact.
-// once the backend is swapped for a persistent/external store. ok=false when
+//
-// the hit fails the confidence gate (see memory.Confident: an absolute floor
+// The whole hit is returned, not just its text, because "which memory answered"
-// plus a margin over the runner-up) or carries no text.
+// decides how the answer is said: a note gets phrased in Maven's voice, a fact
-func bestRecall(results []memory.Result, minScore, minMargin float64) (string, bool) {
+// is read back as stored.
+//
+// ok=false when the hit fails the confidence gate (see memory.Confident: an
+// absolute floor plus a margin over the runner-up) or carries no text.
+func bestRecall(results []memory.Result, minScore, minMargin float64) (memory.Result, bool) {
 	if !memory.Confident(results, minScore, minMargin) {
-		return "", false
+		return memory.Result{}, false
 	}
-	text := results[0].Meta["text"]
+	if results[0].Meta["text"] == "" {
-	if text == "" {
+		return memory.Result{}, false
-		return "", false
 	}
-	return text, true
+	return results[0], true
 }

cmd/mavend/recall_test.go

@@ -39,8 +39,27 @@ func TestBestRecall(t *testing.T) {
 		if !ok {
 			t.Fatal("clearing hit not returned")
 		}
-		if got != "выпил воды в три часа" {
+		if got.Meta["text"] != "выпил воды в три часа" {
-			t.Errorf("wrong text: %q", got)
+			t.Errorf("wrong text: %q", got.Meta["text"])
+		}
+		if got.Meta["type"] != "fact" {
+			t.Errorf("kind lost: %q", got.Meta["type"])
+		}
+	})
+
+	// The index holds notes and facts together, so a note has to be able to win
+	// it — for a long time it could not (Vikunja #373).
+	t.Run("a note can win", func(t *testing.T) {
+		res := []memory.Result{
+			{Score: 0.86, Meta: map[string]string{"text": "молоко в холодильнике", "type": "note"}},
+			{Score: 0.61, Meta: map[string]string{"text": "выпил воды", "type": "fact"}},
+		}
+		got, ok := bestRecall(res, min, margin)
+		if !ok {
+			t.Fatal("clearly-best note not returned")
+		}
+		if got.Meta["type"] != "note" || got.Meta["text"] != "молоко в холодильнике" {
+			t.Errorf("got %v, want the note", got.Meta)
 		}
 	})
 

cmd/mavend/replier_llm.go

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/llm"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/persona"
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/router"
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/voice"
 )
@@ -23,13 +24,19 @@ type completer interface {
 type llmReplier struct {
 	c    completer
 	stub *voice.StubReplier
+
+	// block renders the shared context block per turn (who he is, the time).
+	// nil ⇒ the prompt stands alone.
+	block func() string
 }
 
-func newLLMReplier(c completer) *llmReplier {
+func newLLMReplier(c completer, block func() string) *llmReplier {
-	return &llmReplier{c: c, stub: voice.NewStubReplier()}
+	return &llmReplier{c: c, stub: voice.NewStubReplier(), block: block}
 }
 
-const replySystem = `Ты — Maven, домашняя ассистентка (о себе — в женском роде). Подтверди действие РОВНО ОДНИМ коротким предложением (≤120 символов), тепло и по-русски. Не задавай вопросов, не повторяй слова, не добавляй ничего после точки. Respond ONLY with valid JSON: {"response": "...", "mood": "neutral"}.`
+const replySystem = `Ты — Maven, домашняя ассистентка (о себе — в женском роде). Владелец — мужчина, говоришь с ним на "ты", в единственном числе; никогда не "вы"/"ваш" и не "он"/"его". Подтверди действие РОВНО ОДНИМ коротким предложением (≤120 символов), по-русски, спокойно и без официальных формулировок. Не задавай вопросов, не повторяй слова, не добавляй ничего после точки. Отвечай ТОЛЬКО одним объектом JSON с полями "response" (текст) и "mood" (ровно одно из: neutral, happy, thinking, tired, confused).
+Пример: {"response": "Записала, что ты выпил стакан воды.", "mood": "neutral"}
+Никогда не пиши "..." в поле response.`
 
 func (r *llmReplier) Reply(d router.Decision) string {
 	if d.Clarify {
@@ -38,7 +45,7 @@ func (r *llmReplier) Reply(d router.Decision) string {
 	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 60*time.Second)
 	defer cancel()
 	out, err := r.c.Complete(ctx, llm.Req{
-		System:        replySystem,
+		System:        persona.Prepend(r.block, replySystem),
 		User:          replyContext(d),
 		MaxTokens:     512,
 		RepeatPenalty: 1.3,

cmd/mavend/replier_llm_test.go

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ type mockCompleter struct {
 func (m mockCompleter) Complete(_ context.Context, _ llm.Req) (string, error) { return m.out, m.err }
 
 func TestLLMReplierReturnsLLMReply(t *testing.T) {
-	r := newLLMReplier(mockCompleter{out: `{"response":"записала, кофе закончился","mood":"neutral"}`})
+	r := newLLMReplier(mockCompleter{out: `{"response":"записала, кофе закончился","mood":"neutral"}`}, nil)
 	got := r.Reply(router.Decision{Intent: router.IntentNote, Slots: router.Slots{Text: "кофе закончился"}})
 	if got != "записала, кофе закончился" {
 		t.Errorf("got %q, want %q", got, "записала, кофе закончился")
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ func TestLLMReplierReturnsLLMReply(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestLLMReplierFallsBackToPlainText(t *testing.T) {
-	r := newLLMReplier(mockCompleter{out: "записала, кофе закончился"})
+	r := newLLMReplier(mockCompleter{out: "записала, кофе закончился"}, nil)
 	got := r.Reply(router.Decision{Intent: router.IntentNote, Slots: router.Slots{Text: "кофе закончился"}})
 	if got != "записала, кофе закончился" {
 		t.Errorf("got %q, want %q", got, "записала, кофе закончился")
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ func TestLLMReplierFallsBackToPlainText(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestLLMReplierFallsBackToStubOnError(t *testing.T) {
-	r := newLLMReplier(mockCompleter{err: errTestLLMDown})
+	r := newLLMReplier(mockCompleter{err: errTestLLMDown}, nil)
 	noteDec := router.Decision{Intent: router.IntentNote}
 	got := r.Reply(noteDec)
 	want := voice.NewStubReplier().Reply(noteDec)
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ func TestLLMReplierFallsBackToStubOnError(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestLLMReplierFallsBackToStubOnEmpty(t *testing.T) {
-	r := newLLMReplier(mockCompleter{out: ""})
+	r := newLLMReplier(mockCompleter{out: ""}, nil)
 	noteDec := router.Decision{Intent: router.IntentNote}
 	got := r.Reply(noteDec)
 	want := voice.NewStubReplier().Reply(noteDec)
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ func TestLLMReplierFallsBackToStubOnEmpty(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestLLMReplierClarifyUsesStub(t *testing.T) {
-	r := newLLMReplier(mockCompleter{out: "я всё поняла"})
+	r := newLLMReplier(mockCompleter{out: "я всё поняла"}, nil)
 	clarifyDec := router.Decision{Clarify: true}
 	got := r.Reply(clarifyDec)
 	want := voice.NewStubReplier().Reply(clarifyDec)

cmd/mavend/system_reply_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/router"
+)
+
+// systemHandler — a handler with nothing but a fixed clock, which is all
+// replySystem needs.
+func systemHandler(now time.Time) *reactiveHandler {
+	return &reactiveHandler{now: func() time.Time { return now }}
+}
+
+// TestReplySystemDateOffset — "какое число завтра" must answer tomorrow's
+// date, not today's (Vikunja #388).
+func TestReplySystemDateOffset(t *testing.T) {
+	// Thursday, 30 July 2026.
+	now := time.Date(2026, 7, 30, 14, 5, 0, 0, time.UTC)
+	h := systemHandler(now)
+	cases := []struct{ utterance, want string }{
+		{"какое сегодня число", "сегодня четверг, 30 июля 2026 года"},
+		{"какое число", "сегодня четверг, 30 июля 2026 года"},
+		{"какое число завтра", "завтра пятница, 31 июля 2026 года"},
+		{"какое число послезавтра", "послезавтра суббота, 1 августа 2026 года"},
+		{"какое было число вчера", "вчера среда, 29 июля 2026 года"},
+	}
+	for _, c := range cases {
+		got := h.replySystem(context.Background(), router.Decision{Utterance: c.utterance})
+		if got != c.want {
+			t.Errorf("replySystem(%q) = %q, want %q", c.utterance, got, c.want)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// A day she cannot work out must not come back as today's date — that is the
+// same silent wrong answer #388 was about, one step further out.
+func TestReplySystemUnknownDayIsHonest(t *testing.T) {
+	now := time.Date(2026, 7, 30, 14, 5, 0, 0, time.UTC)
+	h := systemHandler(now)
+	for _, u := range []string{
+		"какое число в пятницу",
+		"какое число через неделю",
+		"какое число в понедельник",
+	} {
+		got := h.replySystem(context.Background(), router.Decision{Utterance: u})
+		if got != onlyNearDaysReply {
+			t.Errorf("replySystem(%q) = %q, want the honest reply", u, got)
+		}
+	}
+	// The days she does know must not be caught by the same guard.
+	if got := h.replySystem(context.Background(), router.Decision{Utterance: "какое число завтра"}); got == onlyNearDaysReply {
+		t.Error("завтра was treated as an unknown day")
+	}
+}
+
+// TestReplySystemClockCity — the clock arm must not answer local time for a
+// question about another city (Vikunja #388). She keeps one clock, so every
+// named place gets the honest "local time only" answer.
+func TestReplySystemClockCity(t *testing.T) {
+	now := time.Date(2026, 7, 30, 12, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)
+	h := systemHandler(now)
+	cases := []struct{ utterance, want string }{
+		{"который час", "сейчас 12 часов ровно"},
+		{"который час в киеве", onlyLocalTimeReply},
+		{"сколько времени в москве", onlyLocalTimeReply},
+		{"который час в лондоне", onlyLocalTimeReply},
+		{"который час в бишкеке", onlyLocalTimeReply},
+	}
+	for _, c := range cases {
+		got := h.replySystem(context.Background(), router.Decision{Utterance: c.utterance})
+		if got != c.want {
+			t.Errorf("replySystem(%q) = %q, want %q", c.utterance, got, c.want)
+		}
+	}
+}

cmd/mavend/voice.go

@@ -171,6 +171,7 @@ func wireVoice(cfg *config.Config, coreAPI ipc.CoreAPI, phr phraser.Phraser, mem
 		emb = router.NewHashEmbedder(1024)
 	}
 	w.embedder = emb
+	checkStoredEmbedder(dataStore, emb)
 
 	// ----- tool executor (the enabled act allowlist, store-backed) -----
 	// Config tools are the declarative bootstrap: seed them into the store as
@@ -227,14 +228,25 @@ func wireVoice(cfg *config.Config, coreAPI ipc.CoreAPI, phr phraser.Phraser, mem
 	}
 
 	// ----- dialogue (multi-turn slot carry-over; 2-min follow-up window) -----
-	dialogueSessions := dialogue.NewSessionStore(2 * time.Minute)
+	// Store-backed when the daemon passes a store, so a restart mid-conversation
+	// keeps the thread (Vikunja #363). Sessions past their TTL are dropped on
+	// load, never revived. Clarify's parked question stays in memory only.
+	var dialogueSessions *dialogue.SessionStore
+	if dataStore != nil {
+		dialogueSessions = dialogue.NewPersistentSessionStore(2*time.Minute, dataStore)
+		if err := dialogueSessions.Load(context.Background(), time.Now()); err != nil {
+			log.Printf("dialogue: load saved sessions: %v", err)
+		}
+	} else {
+		dialogueSessions = dialogue.NewSessionStore(2 * time.Minute)
+	}
 	clarifyStore := dialogue.NewClarifyStore(clarifyTTL)
 	timeParser := router.NewPythonDateParser()
 
 	// ----- replier (LLM-backed when the engine is on, Stub floor otherwise) -----
 	replier := voice.Replier(voice.NewStubReplier())
 	if llmClient != nil {
-		replier = newLLMReplier(llmClient)
+		replier = newLLMReplier(llmClient, contextBlockFn(cfg, time.Now))
 	}
 
 	// ----- the handler (the reactive path; closes over stt / tts / router / coreAPI / memory) -----
@@ -255,11 +267,13 @@ func wireVoice(cfg *config.Config, coreAPI ipc.CoreAPI, phr phraser.Phraser, mem
 		dataStore:        dataStore,
 		dialogueSessions: dialogueSessions,
 		clarifyStore:     clarifyStore,
-		extractor:        router.Extractor{Time: timeParser, Acts: matcher, Facts: router.DefaultFactParser{}},
+		// 0 here (unset config) ⇒ the dialogue default.
-		queryMinScore:    cfg.Voice.QueryMinScore,
+		clarifyMaxAttempts: cfg.Voice.ClarifyMaxAttempts,
-		queryMinMargin:   cfg.Voice.QueryMinMargin,
+		extractor:          router.Extractor{Time: timeParser, Acts: matcher, Facts: router.DefaultFactParser{}},
-		timeParser:       timeParser,
+		queryMinScore:      cfg.Voice.QueryMinScore,
-		ecosystem:        eco,
+		queryMinMargin:     cfg.Voice.QueryMinMargin,
+		timeParser:         timeParser,
+		ecosystem:          eco,
 	}
 
 	// ----- the server (TCP listener) -----
@@ -318,6 +332,10 @@ type reactiveHandler struct {
 	// clarify.go). nil ⇒ she falls back to the canned "не поняла" reply.
 	clarifyStore *dialogue.ClarifyStore
 
+	// clarifyMaxAttempts — questions per request before she gives up out loud.
+	// 0 ⇒ dialogue.DefaultMaxAttempts (3). Set from VoiceConfig.
+	clarifyMaxAttempts int
+
 	// extractor parses the answer to an open question, with the same parsers
 	// the router's own stage-2 uses.
 	extractor router.Extractor
@@ -396,9 +414,17 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) HandlePushToTalk(ctx context.Context, req voice.PushTo
 		return h.reply(ctx, reply, nil)
 	}
 
-	// 1b2. clarify answer — if she asked a question last turn, this utterance is
+	// 1b2. expired clarify — a question was parked but its TTL ran out, so the
-	// its answer, not a fresh command. After the confirm check: a y/n gate is
+	// request behind it is gone. Say that out loud (see clarify.go) and carry
-	// armed by her own prompt and is the narrower claim on the utterance.
+	// on: these words are still routed as a fresh utterance below, with the
+	// notice glued in front of whatever the fresh routing answers. Checked
+	// BEFORE the answer path: reading a parked question drops an expired one.
+	expiredNotice := h.clarifyExpiredNotice()
+
+	// 1b3. clarify answer — if she asked a live question last turn, this
+	// utterance is its answer, not a fresh command. After the confirm check: a
+	// y/n gate is armed by her own prompt and is the narrower claim on the
+	// utterance.
 	if reply, handled := h.resolveClarifyAnswer(ctx, text); handled {
 		return h.reply(ctx, reply, nil)
 	}
@@ -408,7 +434,7 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) HandlePushToTalk(ctx context.Context, req voice.PushTo
 	// unreliably (it's a command, not a free-form query), so we match it
 	// before routing. Same pattern as the confirm turn above.
 	if reply, handled := h.resolveQuietToggle(ctx, text); handled {
-		return h.reply(ctx, reply, nil)
+		return h.reply(ctx, withNotice(expiredNotice, reply), nil)
 	}
 
 	// 2. router — classify the utterance.
@@ -417,10 +443,10 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) HandlePushToTalk(ctx context.Context, req voice.PushTo
 		// ErrNoIntents ⇒ classifier unseeded (cold boot). reply with a
 		// "still warming up" rather than a wire error.
 		if errors.Is(err, router.ErrNoIntents) {
-			return h.reply(ctx, "я ещё не понимаю свободную речь — скоро научусь.", nil)
+			return h.reply(ctx, withNotice(expiredNotice, "я ещё не понимаю свободную речь — скоро научусь."), nil)
 		}
 		log.Printf("voice: router error: %v", err)
-		return h.reply(ctx, "не получилось разобрать команду.", nil)
+		return h.reply(ctx, withNotice(expiredNotice, "не получилось разобрать команду."), nil)
 	}
 
 	// 2b. dialogue — fill this turn's missing slots from a prior same-intent
@@ -441,7 +467,7 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) HandlePushToTalk(ctx context.Context, req voice.PushTo
 	// stands.
 	if dec.Clarify {
 		if question, asked := h.askClarify(dec); asked {
-			return h.reply(ctx, question, nil)
+			return h.reply(ctx, withNotice(expiredNotice, question), nil)
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -457,7 +483,7 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) HandlePushToTalk(ctx context.Context, req voice.PushTo
 
 	// 5. tts — synthesise the reply text; return to the voice server which
 	// ships it back on the conn.
-	return h.reply(ctx, replyText, nil)
+	return h.reply(ctx, withNotice(expiredNotice, replyText), nil)
 }
 
 // handleText — the core reactive path without stt/tts: confirm check →
@@ -472,7 +498,9 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) handleText(ctx context.Context, text string) string {
 		return reply
 	}
 
-	// 1b2. clarify answer — same check as HandlePushToTalk.
+	// 1b2/1b3. expired clarify then clarify answer — same order and reasons as
+	// HandlePushToTalk.
+	expiredNotice := h.clarifyExpiredNotice()
 	if reply, handled := h.resolveClarifyAnswer(ctx, text); handled {
 		return reply
 	}
@@ -481,10 +509,10 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) handleText(ctx context.Context, text string) string {
 	dec, err := h.router.Route(ctx, text, h.now())
 	if err != nil {
 		if errors.Is(err, router.ErrNoIntents) {
-			return "я ещё не понимаю свободную речь — скоро научусь."
+			return withNotice(expiredNotice, "я ещё не понимаю свободную речь — скоро научусь.")
 		}
 		log.Printf("voice: handleText router error: %v", err)
-		return "не получилось разобрать команду."
+		return withNotice(expiredNotice, "не получилось разобрать команду.")
 	}
 	log.Printf("voice: route result: intent=%s slots=%+v", dec.Intent, dec.Slots)
 
@@ -501,7 +529,7 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) handleText(ctx context.Context, text string) string {
 	// 2c. clarify — same as HandlePushToTalk: ask about the one missing thing.
 	if dec.Clarify {
 		if question, asked := h.askClarify(dec); asked {
-			return question
+			return withNotice(expiredNotice, question)
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -513,7 +541,7 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) handleText(ctx context.Context, text string) string {
 	if replyText == "" {
 		replyText = h.replier.Reply(dec)
 	}
-	return replyText
+	return withNotice(expiredNotice, replyText)
 }
 
 // applyAction — executes the router's Decision. Intent-by-intent:
@@ -724,7 +752,9 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) applyAction(ctx context.Context, dec router.Decision)
 		}
 
 		// Calendar questions: "что у меня сегодня?", "планы на завтра?"
-		if date, ok := router.ParseCalendarDate(dec.Utterance, time.Now()); ok {
+		// h.now(), not time.Now(): the handler's clock is the injected one, so
+		// this arm can be tested at a fixed time like the rest.
+		if date, ok := router.ParseCalendarDate(dec.Utterance, h.now()); ok {
 			events, err := h.api.CalendarEvents(ctx, date, date.Add(24*time.Hour))
 			if err != nil {
 				log.Printf("voice: calendar events: %v", err)
@@ -759,11 +789,43 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) applyAction(ctx context.Context, dec router.Decision)
 			log.Printf("voice: embed query: %v", err)
 			return "не получилось найти ответ."
 		}
+		// Long-term memory first: ONE search over everything Maven remembers
+		// (notes and facts share this index) and ONE confidence gate, so the
+		// memory that is clearly the best match answers — a note just as much
+		// as a fact.
+		//
+		// This used to run only after the notes-only gate below had already
+		// rejected the same note at the same score, which no note could ever
+		// survive a second time: the branch could only return a fact (#373).
+		// Order, not the gate, was the bug — the set of questions Maven answers
+		// is unchanged, only which memory gets to answer them.
+		if h.memStore != nil {
+			if hits, herr := h.memStore.Search(ctx, vec, 3); herr == nil {
+				if hit, ok := bestRecall(hits, h.queryMinScore, h.queryMinMargin); ok {
+					text := hit.Meta["text"]
+					// A note is phrased in Maven's voice; a fact is read back
+					// as it was stored.
+					if hit.Meta["type"] == "note" {
+						if reply, perr := h.phraser.PhraseQuery(ctx, dec.Utterance, []string{text}); perr == nil && reply != "" {
+							return reply
+						}
+					}
+					return text
+				}
+			} else {
+				log.Printf("voice: memory search: %v", herr)
+			}
+		}
+
 		notes, err := h.api.QueryNotes(ctx, vec, 5)
 		if err != nil {
 			log.Printf("voice: query notes: %v", err)
 			return "не получилось найти ответ."
 		}
+		// Notes-only pass, for notes the vector index above does not hold (an
+		// older note written before it existed). Same gate, notes-only
+		// candidates.
+		//
 		// Confidence gate: below it, say "I don't know" rather than read back
 		// the least-unrelated note — a confident wrong recall is worse than a
 		// gap (spec's "not a guesser-of-truth"). Same instinct as the loop's
@@ -775,16 +837,6 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) applyAction(ctx context.Context, dec router.Decision)
 			noteScores[i] = n.Score
 		}
 		if !memory.ConfidentScores(noteScores, h.queryMinScore, h.queryMinMargin) {
-			// Long-term memory recall (notes + facts) before general knowledge:
-			// the notes table can't answer fact questions, but the memory store
-			// indexes both. Only runs when notes-RAG already gave up → additive.
-			if h.memStore != nil {
-				if hits, herr := h.memStore.Search(ctx, vec, 3); herr == nil {
-					if text, ok := bestRecall(hits, h.queryMinScore, h.queryMinMargin); ok {
-						return text
-					}
-				}
-			}
 			// Try general knowledge from the phraser before giving up
 			reply, err := h.phraser.PhraseQuery(ctx, dec.Utterance, nil)
 			if err != nil || reply == "" {
@@ -886,6 +938,101 @@ var ruMonths = []string{
 	"июля", "августа", "сентября", "октября", "ноября", "декабря",
 }
 
+// onlyLocalTimeReply — the honest answer when the user asks the time somewhere
+// other than here. She only keeps one clock, and saying so is better than
+// naming the wrong city's time.
+//
+// There used to be a city→time-zone table here. It was removed on purpose: the
+// user only ever asks for local time, so the table was a second list of cities
+// to keep in step with the weather one for no gain.
+const onlyLocalTimeReply = "я знаю только местное время, про другие города пока не скажу."
+
+// notPlaceAfterV — words that follow "в" without naming a place, so
+// mentionsUnknownPlace does not mistake them for a city.
+var notPlaceAfterV = map[string]bool{
+	"данный": true, "данную": true, "этот": true, "эту": true,
+	"котором": true, "какое": true, "какой": true, "который": true,
+	"общем": true, "точности": true, "курсе": true, "сутках": true,
+	"часах": true, "минутах": true, "секундах": true, "неделе": true,
+}
+
+// mentionsUnknownPlace reports whether the question has a "в <слово>" phrase
+// that looks like a place we do not know ("который час в киеве"). Used only to
+// pick the honest "local time only" reply instead of answering local time as
+// if it were the city's.
+func mentionsUnknownPlace(u string) bool {
+	toks := strings.Fields(u)
+	for i := 0; i+1 < len(toks); i++ {
+		if toks[i] != "в" && toks[i] != "во" {
+			continue
+		}
+		next := strings.Trim(toks[i+1], ".,?!")
+		if next == "" || notPlaceAfterV[next] {
+			continue
+		}
+		// A number after "в" is a clock ("в 5 часов"), not a place.
+		if _, err := strconv.Atoi(strings.SplitN(next, ":", 2)[0]); err == nil {
+			continue
+		}
+		return true
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
+// onlyNearDaysReply — she can work out today, tomorrow, the day after and
+// yesterday, and nothing further. Said out loud instead of answering today's
+// date for a day she did not understand.
+const onlyNearDaysReply = "я считаю только сегодня, завтра, послезавтра и вчера — про другие дни пока не скажу."
+
+// dayWords — day references the calendar parser cannot resolve. A weekday name
+// or a "через …" phrase means he asked about a specific other day.
+var dayWords = []string{
+	"понедельник", "вторник", "сред", "четверг", "пятниц", "суббот", "воскресен",
+	"через", "monday", "tuesday", "wednesday", "thursday", "friday", "saturday", "sunday",
+}
+
+// mentionsUnknownDay reports whether the question names a day the calendar
+// parser could not resolve. Mirror of mentionsUnknownPlace: it exists only to
+// pick an honest reply over a confidently wrong one.
+//
+// Only called after ParseCalendarDate has already failed, so "завтра" and the
+// other words it does know never reach here.
+func mentionsUnknownDay(u string) bool {
+	for _, w := range dayWords {
+		if strings.Contains(u, w) {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
+// ruClock renders the clock part of the time reply: "15 часов 4 минуты".
+func ruClock(t time.Time) string {
+	h, m := t.Hour(), t.Minute()
+	hourWord := ruPlural(h, "час", "часа", "часов")
+	if m == 0 {
+		return fmt.Sprintf("%d %s ровно", h, hourWord)
+	}
+	return fmt.Sprintf("%d %s %d %s", h, hourWord, m, ruPlural(m, "минута", "минуты", "минут"))
+}
+
+// dayPrefix names the day relative to now ("завтра", "вчера", …) so the date
+// reply opens the way a person would say it.
+func dayPrefix(now, day time.Time) string {
+	base := time.Date(now.Year(), now.Month(), now.Day(), 0, 0, 0, 0, now.Location())
+	switch int(day.Sub(base).Hours() / 24) {
+	case -1:
+		return "вчера"
+	case 0:
+		return "сегодня"
+	case 1:
+		return "завтра"
+	case 2:
+		return "послезавтра"
+	}
+	return "это"
+}
+
 func ruPlural(n int, one, two, many string) string {
 	n = n % 100
 	if n > 10 && n < 20 {
@@ -964,18 +1111,29 @@ func (h *reactiveHandler) replySystem(ctx context.Context, dec router.Decision)
 
 	switch {
 	case strings.Contains(u, "час") || strings.Contains(u, "врем"):
-		h := now.Hour()
+		// "который час в киеве" — she keeps one clock, so any named place gets
-		m := now.Minute()
+		// the honest answer. Never local time dressed up as the city's.
-		hourWord := ruPlural(h, "час", "часа", "часов")
+		if mentionsUnknownPlace(u) {
-		if m == 0 {
+			return onlyLocalTimeReply
-			return fmt.Sprintf("сейчас %d %s ровно", h, hourWord)
 		}
-		minWord := ruPlural(m, "минута", "минуты", "минут")
+		return "сейчас " + ruClock(now)
-		return fmt.Sprintf("сейчас %d %s %d %s", h, hourWord, m, minWord)
 	case strings.Contains(u, "день") || strings.Contains(u, "числ"):
-		dow := ruWeekdays[now.Weekday()]
+		// "какое число завтра" — answer for the day the user asked about,
-		month := ruMonths[now.Month()-1]
+		// not today. Reuses the router's calendar day-word parser.
-		return fmt.Sprintf("сегодня %s, %d %s %d года", dow, now.Day(), month, now.Year())
+		day := now
+		prefix := "сегодня"
+		if d, ok := router.ParseCalendarDate(u, now); ok {
+			day = d
+			prefix = dayPrefix(now, d)
+		} else if mentionsUnknownDay(u) {
+			// He named a day she cannot work out ("в пятницу", "через неделю").
+			// Answering today's date here would be the same silent wrong answer
+			// this arm was fixed for, so say what she can do instead.
+			return onlyNearDaysReply
+		}
+		dow := ruWeekdays[day.Weekday()]
+		month := ruMonths[day.Month()-1]
+		return fmt.Sprintf("%s %s, %d %s %d года", prefix, dow, day.Day(), month, day.Year())
 	case strings.Contains(u, "кто дома") || strings.Contains(u, "человек дома"):
 		return "присутствие пока не подключено к голосовому запросу."
 	case strings.Contains(u, "памят") || strings.Contains(u, "процессор") || strings.Contains(u, "загрузк") || strings.Contains(u, "статус") || strings.Contains(u, "работа") || strings.Contains(u, "сервис") || strings.Contains(u, "диск") || strings.Contains(u, "ip") || strings.Contains(u, "аптайм") || strings.Contains(u, "трафик") || strings.Contains(u, "интернет"):
@@ -1718,3 +1876,71 @@ func jsonStringImpl(s string) string {
 	b = append(b, '"')
 	return string(b)
 }
+
+// reembedOnStart is the -reembed flag (set in run()). Opt-in on purpose: see
+// runReembed.
+var reembedOnStart bool
+
+// checkStoredEmbedder compares the embedder we just loaded with the one that
+// wrote the vectors already in the DB (Vikunja #378).
+//
+// The two models we have both make 384-dim vectors, so a size check catches
+// nothing: after a swap, recall silently compares vectors from different
+// spaces and the scores are noise. So we say it out loud. Recall itself is not
+// changed here — the fix is `mavend -reembed`.
+func checkStoredEmbedder(dataStore *store.Store, emb router.Embedder) {
+	if dataStore == nil {
+		return
+	}
+	current := router.EmbedderID(emb)
+	if reembedOnStart {
+		runReembed(dataStore, emb, current)
+		return
+	}
+	stored, mismatch, err := dataStore.CheckEmbedder(context.Background(), current)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Printf("voice: embedder marker check failed: %v", err)
+		return
+	}
+	if mismatch {
+		log.Printf("voice: WARNING embedder MISMATCH — stored vectors were written by %q but the configured embedder is %q; recall scores are noise until the notes and facts are re-embedded — run `mavend -reembed` once (Vikunja #378)", stored, current)
+		return
+	}
+	log.Printf("voice: embedder marker ok (%s)", current)
+}
+
+// runReembed is the one-shot backfill behind -reembed.
+//
+// Why a flag and not automatic on mismatch: the embedder is ONNX on the
+// laptop's CPU, so a few thousand notes is minutes of work. Doing that silently
+// inside a normal start would look like the daemon hanging on boot. So the user
+// runs it once, deliberately, after an embedder swap; the mismatch warning
+// above tells them to. It re-embeds, logs what it did, and then the daemon
+// carries on serving as usual — no separate binary, no second start needed.
+func runReembed(dataStore *store.Store, emb router.Embedder, current string) {
+	log.Printf("voice: re-embedding stored notes and facts with %s — this can take a few minutes, do not interrupt", current)
+	res, err := dataStore.ReembedAll(context.Background(), current,
+		// EmbedPassage, not EmbedQuery: these are stored texts being searched
+		// FOR, which is the side they were written with.
+		func(ctx context.Context, text string) ([]float32, error) {
+			return router.EmbedPassage(ctx, emb, text)
+		})
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Printf("voice: re-embed FAILED, nothing was changed and no marker was written — safe to run again: %v", err)
+		return
+	}
+	if res.Skipped {
+		log.Printf("voice: re-embed skipped — the stored vectors were already written by %s", current)
+		return
+	}
+	log.Printf("voice: re-embed done — %d notes in the notes table, %d notes and %d facts in the memory index, took %s; stored vectors now belong to %s",
+		res.Notes, res.MemNotes, res.Facts, res.Took.Round(time.Second), current)
+
+	// A row with no text cannot be re-embedded, so its vector is still the old
+	// model's noise while the marker now says everything is current. Both write
+	// paths always store the text, so this should be zero — say it loudly
+	// rather than bury it in the line above if it ever isn't.
+	if res.NoText > 0 {
+		log.Printf("voice: WARNING %d stored rows had no text, so their vectors could not be re-embedded and are still noise; they will never match anything useful (Vikunja #378)", res.NoText)
+	}
+}

deploy/mavend.json

@@ -6,11 +6,12 @@
   "state_dir": "/var/lib/maven",
 
   "phraser": {
-    "model_path": "/opt/maven/models/llm/qwen3.5/Qwen3.5-0.8B.Q4_K_M.gguf",
+    "model_path": "/opt/maven/models/llm/qwen3/Qwen3-1.7B-UD-Q4_K_XL.gguf",
     "bin_path": "llama-server",
     "n_gpu_layers": 99,
-    "n_ctx": 2048,
+    "n_ctx": 4096,
-    "timeout": "60s"
+    "timeout": "60s",
+    "llm_nudges": false
   },
 
   "telegram": {
@@ -43,6 +44,7 @@
     "llm_router": true,
     "query_min_score": 0.55,
     "query_min_margin": 0.008,
+    "clarify_max_attempts": 3,
     "tool_timeout": "30s",
     "tools": [
       { "name": "status",     "cmd": ["systemctl", "status"],         "scope": "homelab", "destructive": false },

internal/config/config.go

@@ -292,12 +292,23 @@ type VoiceConfig struct {
 	// Negative ⇒ off. 0 ⇒ the default below.
 	QueryMinMargin float64 `json:"query_min_margin,omitempty"`
 
+	// ClarifyMaxAttempts — how many clarifying questions she may ask about one
+	// request before she gives up and says she did not understand. Default 3.
+	ClarifyMaxAttempts int `json:"clarify_max_attempts,omitempty"`
+
 	// Persona — optional prompt prefix that tunes maven's character. Prepended
 	// to every LLM system prompt (nudge phrasing, note queries, general
 	// knowledge). Empty string ⇒ current hardcoded persona (feminine-gendered
 	// Russian self-reference). Example: "Be formal and answer in English only."
 	Persona string `json:"persona,omitempty"`
 
+	// OwnerName / City — optional facts about the owner, added to the shared
+	// context block (internal/persona). Empty is fine: the block still states
+	// who he is grammatically (a man, addressed as "ты") and the current time.
+	// Nothing about correct behaviour may depend on these being filled in.
+	OwnerName string `json:"owner_name,omitempty"`
+	City      string `json:"city,omitempty"`
+
 	// Weather — the weather provider config. nil ⇒ the daemon wires
 	// the stub provider (returns ErrNotConfigured — "погода не настроена").
 	// Set provider to "open-meteo" to use the keyless Open-Meteo API.
@@ -358,6 +369,12 @@ type PhraserConfig struct {
 	NGpuLayers int      `json:"n_gpu_layers,omitempty"`
 	NCtx       int      `json:"n_ctx,omitempty"`
 	Timeout    Duration `json:"timeout,omitempty"`
+
+	// LLMNudges — let the model word nudges again. Off by default: nudges are
+	// worded from hand-written Russian templates now (the model broke the
+	// persona and invented units). Chat, query and reminder phrasing always go
+	// through the model regardless. See phraser.Config.LLMNudges.
+	LLMNudges bool `json:"llm_nudges,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // EmbedderConfig — paths for the ONNX multilingual embedder. The daemon
@@ -424,7 +441,9 @@ const (
 	// false recall from 5/5 to 1/5. Every larger delta costs real recall
 	// without removing that last one until 0.020, which drops recall to 44%.
 	DefaultQueryMinMargin = 0.008
-	DefaultToolTimeout    = 30 * time.Second
+	// DefaultClarifyMaxAttempts — see dialogue.DefaultMaxAttempts.
+	DefaultClarifyMaxAttempts = 3
+	DefaultToolTimeout        = 30 * time.Second
 	// DefaultLLMRouter — route with the resident model unless told otherwise.
 	DefaultLLMRouter = true
 
@@ -516,6 +535,9 @@ func (c *Config) applyDefaults() {
 		case c.Voice.QueryMinMargin < 0:
 			c.Voice.QueryMinMargin = 0
 		}
+		if c.Voice.ClarifyMaxAttempts <= 0 {
+			c.Voice.ClarifyMaxAttempts = DefaultClarifyMaxAttempts
+		}
 		if c.Voice.ToolTimeout <= 0 {
 			c.Voice.ToolTimeout = Duration(DefaultToolTimeout)
 		}

internal/config/config_test.go

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

internal/delivery/dispatcher.go

@@ -137,9 +137,10 @@ func NewDispatcher(cfg Config) *Dispatcher {
 // picks for (severity, presence), sends via the matching sink, and records
 // one nudge row per successful send. returns the dispatches (one per channel).
 //
-// a Drop channel = no send, no record (the nudge was suppressed by routing,
+// a Drop channel = no send (the nudge was suppressed by routing, not by a
-// not by a failure — "a missed water nudge is noise"). a nil sink = channel
+// failure — "a missed water nudge is noise"), but it does leave a 'dropped'
-// not wired, skip silently. a send error stops the dispatch and returns what
+// outbox row so the suppression is visible. a nil sink = channel not wired,
+// skip silently. a send error stops the dispatch and returns what
 // got through — the daemon decides whether to retry.
 func (d *Dispatcher) DispatchNudge(ctx context.Context, pn PhrasedNudge, now time.Time) ([]Dispatch, error) {
 	c := pn.Candidate
@@ -148,6 +149,16 @@ func (d *Dispatcher) DispatchNudge(ctx context.Context, pn PhrasedNudge, now tim
 	for i := 0; i < len(channels); i++ {
 		ch := channels[i]
 		if ch == ChannelDrop {
+			// the routing table suppressed this nudge on purpose (a care nudge
+			// while you're away is noise). that stays — but it must not be
+			// invisible, or "she dropped it" and "the rule never fired" look
+			// the same afterwards. no nudges row: that table feeds the
+			// ignored_rate signal, and a nudge nobody could see must not
+			// count as ignored.
+			id := d.beginOutbox(ctx, "nudge", c.Rule.Name, 0, ch, pn.Summary, now)
+			d.completeOutbox(ctx, id, store.DeliveryDropped, now)
+			log.Printf("dispatcher: dropped %s (sev%d, presence=%s) — routing table suppressed it",
+				c.Rule.Name, c.Severity, c.State.Presence)
 			continue
 		}
 		s := Sendable{
@@ -396,6 +407,13 @@ func messageForChannel(s Sendable) string {
 	if !isAway(s.Channel) {
 		return s.Body
 	}
+	return AwayMessage(s)
+}
+
+// AwayMessage — the only text an off-box channel may ever carry. Exported so
+// the away sinks share this one rule instead of each inventing a fallback: the
+// summary if we have one, otherwise a fixed generic line. Never the body.
+func AwayMessage(s Sendable) string {
 	if s.Summary != "" {
 		return s.Summary
 	}

internal/delivery/durability_test.go

@@ -37,10 +37,12 @@ func TestVoiceNoSessionFallthroughLeavesOutboxTrail(t *testing.T) {
 			[]string{"voice", "ntfy"}, []string{store.DeliveryFailed, store.DeliverySent}},
 		{"sev4 falls through to telegram", loop.Sev4,
 			[]string{"voice", "telegram"}, []string{store.DeliveryFailed, store.DeliverySent}},
-		{"sev1 does not fall through", loop.Sev1,
+		// care severities still don't reach an away channel; since #370 the
-			[]string{"voice"}, []string{store.DeliveryFailed}},
+		// drop itself is a visible row instead of nothing.
-		{"sev2 does not fall through", loop.Sev2,
+		{"sev1 drops instead of falling through", loop.Sev1,
-			[]string{"voice"}, []string{store.DeliveryFailed}},
+			[]string{"voice", "drop"}, []string{store.DeliveryFailed, store.DeliveryDropped}},
+		{"sev2 drops instead of falling through", loop.Sev2,
+			[]string{"voice", "drop"}, []string{store.DeliveryFailed, store.DeliveryDropped}},
 	}
 	for _, c := range cases {
 		t.Run(c.name, func(t *testing.T) {

internal/delivery/ntfysink/ntfysink.go

@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
 //
 // ntfy is the away-channel for sev3 (ops soft) nudges, sev4 (ops hard)
 // nudges when present (alongside voice), and reminders when away. the
-// message body is the Sendable's Summary — the minimal-body rule from the
+// message body is delivery.AwayMessage — the minimal-body rule from the
 // spec ("disk low on homesrv," not detail; no shoulder-surf exfil through
-// the relay). voice gets Body; away channels get Summary, enforced at the
+// the relay). the dispatcher already strips detail off away sendables; the
-// sink so a phraser bug can't exfil.
+// sink uses the same helper so it can't leak the body on its own either.
 //
 // ntfy runs locally (docker, 127.0.0.1:8085, deny-all auth). maven publishes
 // with a dedicated user (write-only to maven-* topics) — the credential is a
@@ -69,18 +69,14 @@ func New(cfg Config) (*Sink, error) {
 	}, nil
 }
 
-// Send publishes one notification to ntfy. the body is the Sendable's Summary
+// Send publishes one notification to ntfy. the body is the minimal away
-// (minimal body); Title is "maven" (consistent sender identity on the lock
+// message (never the full body); Title is "maven" (consistent sender identity
-// screen — the content is in the body). Priority maps from severity/kind so
+// on the lock screen — the content is in the body). Priority maps from severity/kind so
 // the phone client can ring differently for an alarm vs a soft ops nudge.
 func (s *Sink) Send(ctx context.Context, d delivery.Sendable) error {
-	body := d.Summary
+	// never fall back to d.Body: ntfy leaves the box, so an empty summary gets
-	if body == "" {
+	// a generic line instead of the full detail.
-		body = d.Body // terse full message beats no message
+	body := delivery.AwayMessage(d)
-	}
-	if body == "" {
-		return fmt.Errorf("ntfysink: empty message for %s", d.Channel)
-	}
 
 	req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, http.MethodPost, s.topicURL(), strings.NewReader(body))
 	if err != nil {

internal/delivery/ntfysink/ntfysink_test.go

@@ -147,9 +147,9 @@ func TestSendBodyIsSummaryNotFullBody(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-func TestSendFallsBackToBodyWhenSummaryEmpty(t *testing.T) {
+func TestSendNeverSendsTheBodyWhenSummaryEmpty(t *testing.T) {
-	// a terse full message is better than no message; the phraser should
+	// #368: this used to fall back to the full body. ntfy leaves the box, so
-	// produce a summary for away-bound severities, but don't silently drop.
+	// an empty summary gets a fixed generic line plus the rule name instead.
 	rs := newRecordingServer(t, 200, "")
 	srv := httptest.NewServer(rs.handler())
 	defer srv.Close()
@@ -160,12 +160,15 @@ func TestSendFallsBackToBodyWhenSummaryEmpty(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("Send: %v", err)
 	}
 	_, _, body, _, _, _ := rs.snapshot()
-	if body != s.Body {
+	want := delivery.GenericAwayMessage + ": service_down"
-		t.Fatalf("fallback body: want %q, got %q", s.Body, body)
+	if body != want {
+		t.Fatalf("body: want %q, got %q", want, body)
 	}
 }
 
-func TestSendRejectsEmptyMessage(t *testing.T) {
+func TestSendNeverSendsAnEmptyMessage(t *testing.T) {
+	// with nothing at all to say we still send the generic line — an away
+	// channel can never carry detail, but it also never goes out blank.
 	rs := newRecordingServer(t, 200, "")
 	srv := httptest.NewServer(rs.handler())
 	defer srv.Close()
@@ -173,9 +176,13 @@ func TestSendRejectsEmptyMessage(t *testing.T) {
 	sink, _ := New(Config{BaseURL: srv.URL, Topic: "maven"})
 	s := nudgeSendable(loop.Sev3, "")
 	s.Body = ""
-	err := sink.Send(context.Background(), s)
+	s.RuleName = ""
-	if err == nil {
+	if err := sink.Send(context.Background(), s); err != nil {
-		t.Fatal("want error for empty message")
+		t.Fatalf("Send: %v", err)
+	}
+	_, _, body, _, _, _ := rs.snapshot()
+	if body != delivery.GenericAwayMessage {
+		t.Fatalf("body: want %q, got %q", delivery.GenericAwayMessage, body)
 	}
 }
 

internal/delivery/routing_table_test.go

@@ -208,10 +208,9 @@ func TestAwayChannelsGetMinimalBody(t *testing.T) {
 // TestCareAwayDropIsRecorded — DESIGN.md's drop is a decision ("a missed water
 // nudge is noise, a missed backup failure isn't"), so it should be visible
 // rather than vanish. Today drop is a bare `continue`: no nudge row, no outbox
-// attempt, no log — nothing an operator can see afterwards.
+// attempt, no log — nothing an operator can see afterwards. now it leaves a
+// 'dropped' outbox row.
 func TestCareAwayDropIsRecorded(t *testing.T) {
-	t.Skip("not implemented: dispatcher.go:149-151 skips a Drop channel with no record; there is no 'dropped' outcome in store/delivery.go:16-21")
-
 	ob := &fakeOutbox{}
 	d := NewDispatcher(Config{Voice: &fakeSink{}, Nudges: &fakeNudgeRecorder{}, Outbox: ob})
 

internal/delivery/telegramsink/telegramsink.go

@@ -2,11 +2,12 @@
 //
 // telegram is the away-channel for sev4 (ops hard) nudges — "disk-fire alarm
 // at 2am routes to telegram, repeat til ack." the message body is the
-// Sendable's Summary — the minimal-body rule from the spec ("disk low on
+// delivery.AwayMessage — the minimal-body rule from the spec ("disk low on
-// homesrv," not detail; no shoulder-surf exfil through the relay). voice gets
+// homesrv," not detail; no shoulder-surf exfil through the relay). the
-// Body; away channels get Summary, enforced at the sink so a phraser bug can't
+// dispatcher already strips detail off away sendables; the sink uses the same
-// exfil. additionally, protect_content=true is passed on every send so the
+// helper so it can't leak the body on its own either. additionally,
-// message can't be forwarded out of the chat — locks the minimal body further.
+// protect_content=true is passed on every send so the message can't be
+// forwarded out of the chat — locks the minimal body further.
 //
 // telegram's bot API is region-restricted for this homesrv — direct egress to
 // api.telegram.org is unreliable. the spec's "away channels leave the box —
@@ -140,18 +141,13 @@ type telegramResp struct {
 }
 
 // Send publishes one message to the configured telegram chat. the body is the
-// Sendable's Summary (minimal body); empty Summary falls back to Body (terse
+// minimal away message (never the full body). protect_content=true so even
-// full message beats no message). protect_content=true so a phraser bug (Body
+// that can't be forwarded onward by the user or a chat observer — locks the
-// leaking detail through Summary) can't be forwarded onward by the user or a
+// minimal-body rule at the channel's own last mile.
-// chat observer — locks the minimal-body rule at the channel's own last mile.
 func (s *Sink) Send(ctx context.Context, d delivery.Sendable) error {
-	body := d.Summary
+	// never fall back to d.Body: telegram leaves the box, so an empty summary
-	if body == "" {
+	// gets a generic line instead of the full detail.
-		body = d.Body
+	body := delivery.AwayMessage(d)
-	}
-	if body == "" {
-		return fmt.Errorf("telegramsink: empty message for %s", d.Channel)
-	}
 
 	payload := sendMessageReq{
 		ChatID:              s.cfg.ChatID,

internal/delivery/telegramsink/telegramsink_test.go

@@ -173,9 +173,9 @@ func TestSendBodyIsSummaryNotFullBody(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-func TestSendFallsBackToBodyWhenSummaryEmpty(t *testing.T) {
+func TestSendNeverSendsTheBodyWhenSummaryEmpty(t *testing.T) {
-	// terse full message beats none; the phraser should produce a summary for
+	// #368: this used to fall back to the full body. telegram leaves the box,
-	// away-bound severities, but don't silently drop.
+	// so an empty summary gets a fixed generic line plus the rule name.
 	rs := newRecordingServer(t, 200, "")
 	srv := httptest.NewServer(rs.handler())
 	defer srv.Close()
@@ -188,12 +188,14 @@ func TestSendFallsBackToBodyWhenSummaryEmpty(t *testing.T) {
 	_, _, body, _, _ := rs.snapshot()
 	var req sendMessageReq
 	_ = json.Unmarshal([]byte(body), &req)
-	if req.Text != s.Body {
+	want := delivery.GenericAwayMessage + ": service_down"
-		t.Fatalf("fallback text: want %q, got %q", s.Body, req.Text)
+	if req.Text != want {
+		t.Fatalf("text: want %q, got %q", want, req.Text)
 	}
 }
 
-func TestSendRejectsEmptyMessage(t *testing.T) {
+func TestSendNeverSendsAnEmptyMessage(t *testing.T) {
+	// with nothing at all to say we still send the generic line.
 	rs := newRecordingServer(t, 200, "")
 	srv := httptest.NewServer(rs.handler())
 	defer srv.Close()
@@ -201,9 +203,15 @@ func TestSendRejectsEmptyMessage(t *testing.T) {
 	sink, _ := New(sinkCfg(srv.URL))
 	s := nudgeSendable(loop.Sev4, "")
 	s.Body = ""
-	err := sink.Send(context.Background(), s)
+	s.RuleName = ""
-	if err == nil {
+	if err := sink.Send(context.Background(), s); err != nil {
-		t.Fatal("want error for empty message")
+		t.Fatalf("Send: %v", err)
+	}
+	_, _, body, _, _ := rs.snapshot()
+	var req sendMessageReq
+	_ = json.Unmarshal([]byte(body), &req)
+	if req.Text != delivery.GenericAwayMessage {
+		t.Fatalf("text: want %q, got %q", delivery.GenericAwayMessage, req.Text)
 	}
 }
 

internal/dialogue/clarify.go

@@ -17,10 +17,11 @@ const (
 	SlotText  Slot = "text"  // Slots.Text
 )
 
-// MaxAttempts is 1 because Maven is not a nag (DESIGN.md § Non-goals). She asks
+// DefaultMaxAttempts — how many questions she may ask about one request.
-// one clarifying question. If the answer still leaves the slot empty she drops
+// Three, because after three tries the likely problem is that she misheard the
-// the request instead of asking again.
+// whole request, not one slot — so another question about that slot won't help.
-const MaxAttempts = 1
+// Configurable: voice.clarify_max_attempts.
+const DefaultMaxAttempts = 3
 
 // PendingQuestion is what Maven holds while she waits for an answer to an open
 // question. Unlike the yes/no confirms in cmd/mavend/voice.go, the answer here
@@ -32,7 +33,17 @@ type PendingQuestion struct {
 	Utterance string // the user's original raw words
 	Asked     time.Time
 	TTL       time.Duration
-	Attempts  int // questions already asked; capped by MaxAttempts
+	Attempts  int // questions already asked
+	// MaxAttempts caps Attempts. 0 ⇒ DefaultMaxAttempts.
+	MaxAttempts int
+}
+
+// maxAttempts is MaxAttempts with the default filled in.
+func (q *PendingQuestion) maxAttempts() int {
+	if q.MaxAttempts <= 0 {
+		return DefaultMaxAttempts
+	}
+	return q.MaxAttempts
 }
 
 func (q *PendingQuestion) IsExpired(now time.Time) bool {
@@ -41,12 +52,9 @@ func (q *PendingQuestion) IsExpired(now time.Time) bool {
 
 // CanAsk reports whether Maven may ask another question about this request.
 func (q *PendingQuestion) CanAsk() bool {
-	return q.Attempts < MaxAttempts
+	return q.Attempts < q.maxAttempts()
 }
 
-// TODO: the daemon will phrase the question text from Missing (one short ru
-// question per Slot, feminine self-reference) and speak it here.
-
 // ClarifyStore holds the parked questions. Same shape and locking as
 // SessionStore: keyed by dialogue id, expired entries dropped on read.
 type ClarifyStore struct {
@@ -67,8 +75,7 @@ func NewClarifyStore(defaultTTL time.Duration) *ClarifyStore {
 	}
 }
 
-// TODO: the daemon will Put a question here when Decision.Clarify fires, in
+// Put parks a question. Called on a clarify decision (cmd/mavend/clarify.go).
-// place of the flat "не разобрала" reply (cmd/mavend/voice.go).
 func (s *ClarifyStore) Put(id string, q *PendingQuestion) {
 	if q.TTL <= 0 {
 		q.TTL = s.defaultTTL
@@ -78,8 +85,7 @@ func (s *ClarifyStore) Put(id string, q *PendingQuestion) {
 	s.mu.Unlock()
 }
 
-// TODO: the daemon will Get on the next turn, parse that turn into Slots, call
+// Get returns the live parked question, or nil when there is none.
-// Answer, and Delete — the open-question twin of resolveConfirm.
 func (s *ClarifyStore) Get(id string, now time.Time) *PendingQuestion {
 	s.mu.RLock()
 	q, ok := s.questions[id]
@@ -94,6 +100,21 @@ func (s *ClarifyStore) Get(id string, now time.Time) *PendingQuestion {
 	return q
 }
 
+// TakeExpired reports whether a question was parked here but its TTL ran out,
+// and drops it. Get drops such a question silently, which leaves the user
+// thinking his request is still alive — the caller uses this to tell him it is
+// gone before treating his words as a fresh utterance.
+func (s *ClarifyStore) TakeExpired(id string, now time.Time) bool {
+	s.mu.Lock()
+	defer s.mu.Unlock()
+	q, ok := s.questions[id]
+	if !ok || !q.IsExpired(now) {
+		return false
+	}
+	delete(s.questions, id)
+	return true
+}
+
 func (s *ClarifyStore) Delete(id string) {
 	s.mu.Lock()
 	delete(s.questions, id)
@@ -101,44 +122,45 @@ func (s *ClarifyStore) Delete(id string) {
 }
 
 // Answer merges the slots parsed from the user's answer into the parked ones.
-// Only the slots listed in Missing are filled, and an already filled slot is
+// Only the slots listed in Missing are touched. Within those, a value the answer
-// never overwritten — the answer completes the original request, it does not
+// carries WINS over what was parked: she asked about this slot, so «нет, в пять»
-// restate it. Parsing the answer text into `answer` is the caller's job; this
+// after «в три» must replace the time, not be thrown away.
-// package must stay free of internal/router.
+//
+// This is the clarify answer only. A correction in a fresh turn ("вообще-то
+// перенеси на пять") is a different code path (followUpMerge) — not here.
+//
+// Parsing the answer text into `answer` is the caller's job; this package must
+// stay free of internal/router.
 func (q *PendingQuestion) Answer(text string, answer Slots) Slots {
 	out := q.Slots
 	for _, slot := range q.Missing {
 		switch slot {
 		case SlotTime:
-			if !out.HasTime && answer.HasTime {
+			if answer.HasTime {
 				out.Time = answer.Time
 				out.HasTime = true
 			}
 		case SlotKey:
-			if !out.HasKey && answer.HasKey {
+			if answer.HasKey {
 				out.Key = answer.Key
 				out.HasKey = true
 			}
 		case SlotValue:
-			if out.Value == "" && answer.Value != "" {
+			if answer.Value != "" {
 				out.Value = answer.Value
 			}
 		case SlotFn:
-			if !out.HasFn && answer.HasFn {
+			if answer.HasFn {
 				out.Fn = answer.Fn
 				out.HasFn = true
-				if len(out.Args) == 0 {
+				out.Args = append([]string(nil), answer.Args...)
-					out.Args = append([]string(nil), answer.Args...)
-				}
 			}
 		case SlotText:
-			if out.Text == "" {
+			if answer.Text != "" {
-				if answer.Text != "" {
+				out.Text = answer.Text
-					out.Text = answer.Text
+			} else if out.Text == "" {
-				} else {
+				// No parse for a text slot — the raw answer IS the text.
-					// No parse for a text slot — the raw answer IS the text.
+				out.Text = text
-					out.Text = text
-				}
 			}
 		}
 	}

internal/dialogue/clarify_test.go

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package dialogue
 
 import (
+	"reflect"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 )
@@ -59,6 +60,28 @@ func TestClarifyStoreGetPutDelete(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// TestClarifyStoreTakeExpired — TakeExpired reports (and drops) only a question
+// whose TTL ran out.
+func TestClarifyStoreTakeExpired(t *testing.T) {
+	s := NewClarifyStore(time.Minute)
+	if s.TakeExpired("voice", base) {
+		t.Fatal("nothing parked ⇒ nothing expired")
+	}
+	s.Put("voice", &PendingQuestion{Missing: []Slot{SlotTime}, Asked: base, TTL: time.Minute})
+	if s.TakeExpired("voice", base.Add(30*time.Second)) {
+		t.Fatal("a live question must not report as expired")
+	}
+	if s.Get("voice", base.Add(30*time.Second)) == nil {
+		t.Fatal("a live question must survive TakeExpired")
+	}
+	if !s.TakeExpired("voice", base.Add(2*time.Minute)) {
+		t.Fatal("a stale question must report as expired")
+	}
+	if s.TakeExpired("voice", base.Add(2*time.Minute)) {
+		t.Fatal("TakeExpired must drop the question, so the second call is false")
+	}
+}
+
 func TestNewClarifyStoreDefaultTTL(t *testing.T) {
 	s := NewClarifyStore(0)
 	q := &PendingQuestion{Asked: base}
@@ -89,12 +112,13 @@ func TestAnswerFillsOnlyMissingSlots(t *testing.T) {
 			want:    Slots{Text: "напомни позвонить", Time: answerTime, HasTime: true},
 		},
 		{
-			name:    "does not overwrite a filled time",
+			// He restated it: «нет, в пять». The new value wins.
+			name:    "a restated time overwrites the parked one",
 			parked:  Slots{Time: other, HasTime: true},
 			missing: []Slot{SlotTime},
-			text:    "в три",
+			text:    "нет, в три",
 			answer:  Slots{Time: answerTime, HasTime: true},
-			want:    Slots{Time: other, HasTime: true},
+			want:    Slots{Time: answerTime, HasTime: true},
 		},
 		{
 			name:    "ignores slots that were not missing",
@@ -121,12 +145,12 @@ func TestAnswerFillsOnlyMissingSlots(t *testing.T) {
 			want:    Slots{Fn: "restart", Args: []string{"nginx"}, HasFn: true},
 		},
 		{
-			name:    "keeps existing args when fn was already known",
+			name:    "a restated fn replaces the fn and its args",
 			parked:  Slots{Fn: "restart", Args: []string{"nginx"}, HasFn: true},
 			missing: []Slot{SlotFn},
 			text:    "останови postgres",
 			answer:  Slots{Fn: "stop", Args: []string{"postgres"}, HasFn: true},
-			want:    Slots{Fn: "restart", Args: []string{"nginx"}, HasFn: true},
+			want:    Slots{Fn: "stop", Args: []string{"postgres"}, HasFn: true},
 		},
 		{
 			name:    "raw answer becomes the text when nothing was parsed",
@@ -157,36 +181,34 @@ func TestAnswerFillsOnlyMissingSlots(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, tc := range cases {
 		t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) {
 			q := &PendingQuestion{Slots: tc.parked, Missing: tc.missing, Asked: base}
-			got := q.Answer(tc.text, tc.answer)
+			// Whole-struct compare: a new field in Slots is covered for free.
-			if got.Time != tc.want.Time || got.HasTime != tc.want.HasTime ||
+			if got := q.Answer(tc.text, tc.answer); !reflect.DeepEqual(got, tc.want) {
-				got.Key != tc.want.Key || got.HasKey != tc.want.HasKey ||
-				got.Value != tc.want.Value || got.Text != tc.want.Text ||
-				got.Fn != tc.want.Fn || got.HasFn != tc.want.HasFn {
 				t.Fatalf("Answer = %+v, want %+v", got, tc.want)
 			}
-			if len(got.Args) != len(tc.want.Args) {
-				t.Fatalf("Args = %v, want %v", got.Args, tc.want.Args)
-			}
-			for i := range got.Args {
-				if got.Args[i] != tc.want.Args[i] {
-					t.Fatalf("Args = %v, want %v", got.Args, tc.want.Args)
-				}
-			}
 		})
 	}
 }
 
-func TestCanAskCapsAtOneQuestion(t *testing.T) {
+func TestCanAskAllowsThreeQuestionsByDefault(t *testing.T) {
-	if MaxAttempts != 1 {
+	if DefaultMaxAttempts != 3 {
-		t.Fatalf("MaxAttempts = %d, want 1 (Maven asks once, she is not a nag)", MaxAttempts)
+		t.Fatalf("DefaultMaxAttempts = %d, want 3", DefaultMaxAttempts)
 	}
-	q := &PendingQuestion{Asked: base}
+	q := &PendingQuestion{Asked: base} // MaxAttempts unset ⇒ the default
-	if !q.CanAsk() {
+	for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
-		t.Fatal("a fresh question should be askable")
+		if !q.CanAsk() {
+			t.Fatalf("question %d should be allowed", i+1)
+		}
+		q.Attempts++
 	}
-	q.Attempts = MaxAttempts
 	if q.CanAsk() {
-		t.Fatal("the question should not be asked twice")
+		t.Fatal("a fourth question must not be allowed")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestCanAskHonoursConfiguredMax(t *testing.T) {
+	q := &PendingQuestion{Asked: base, MaxAttempts: 1, Attempts: 1}
+	if q.CanAsk() {
+		t.Fatal("MaxAttempts 1 means one question only")
 	}
 }
 

internal/dialogue/session.go

@@ -1,8 +1,12 @@
 package dialogue
 
 import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/store"
 )
 
 type Intent string
@@ -50,10 +54,22 @@ func (s *Session) IsExpired(now time.Time) bool {
 	return now.After(s.Timestamp.Add(s.TTL))
 }
 
+// SessionPersister — the bit of the store the session needs, as an interface
+// so tests can swap it out. Data is an opaque blob: the store never looks
+// inside, we encode the session as JSON here.
+type SessionPersister interface {
+	SaveDialogueSession(ctx context.Context, id string, data []byte, ts time.Time, ttl time.Duration) error
+	DeleteDialogueSession(ctx context.Context, id string) error
+	LoadDialogueSessions(ctx context.Context, now time.Time) ([]store.DialogueSessionRow, error)
+}
+
+// SessionStore keeps the live sessions in a map (the fast path) and mirrors
+// every write to the persister, so a daemon restart can load them back.
 type SessionStore struct {
 	mu         sync.RWMutex
 	sessions   map[string]*Session
 	defaultTTL time.Duration
+	persist    SessionPersister // may be nil: memory only (tests, no-store paths)
 }
 
 func NewSessionStore(defaultTTL time.Duration) *SessionStore {
@@ -66,6 +82,43 @@ func NewSessionStore(defaultTTL time.Duration) *SessionStore {
 	}
 }
 
+// NewPersistentSessionStore — same store, but writes also go to the DB.
+// Call Load once after this to bring back sessions from a previous run.
+func NewPersistentSessionStore(defaultTTL time.Duration, p SessionPersister) *SessionStore {
+	s := NewSessionStore(defaultTTL)
+	s.persist = p
+	return s
+}
+
+// Load — read the saved sessions back into memory. Anything past its TTL is
+// dropped (and deleted from the DB by the store), never revived.
+func (s *SessionStore) Load(ctx context.Context, now time.Time) error {
+	if s.persist == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
+	rows, err := s.persist.LoadDialogueSessions(ctx, now)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	s.mu.Lock()
+	defer s.mu.Unlock()
+	for _, r := range rows {
+		var sess Session
+		if err := json.Unmarshal(r.Data, &sess); err != nil {
+			// A blob we can't read is not worth failing a startup over.
+			continue
+		}
+		if sess.TTL <= 0 {
+			sess.TTL = r.TTL
+		}
+		if sess.IsExpired(now) {
+			continue
+		}
+		s.sessions[r.ID] = &sess
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 func (s *SessionStore) Get(id string, now time.Time) *Session {
 	s.mu.RLock()
 	sess, ok := s.sessions[id]
@@ -87,12 +140,33 @@ func (s *SessionStore) Put(id string, sess *Session) {
 	s.mu.Lock()
 	s.sessions[id] = sess
 	s.mu.Unlock()
+	s.save(id, sess)
 }
 
 func (s *SessionStore) Delete(id string) {
 	s.mu.Lock()
 	delete(s.sessions, id)
 	s.mu.Unlock()
+	if s.persist != nil {
+		_ = s.persist.DeleteDialogueSession(context.Background(), id)
+	}
+}
+
+// save — mirror one session to the DB. Best effort: memory already has it, so
+// a write error costs us the restart safety net, not the current turn.
+func (s *SessionStore) save(id string, sess *Session) {
+	if s.persist == nil {
+		return
+	}
+	data, err := json.Marshal(sess)
+	if err != nil {
+		return
+	}
+	ts := sess.Timestamp
+	if ts.IsZero() {
+		ts = time.Now()
+	}
+	_ = s.persist.SaveDialogueSession(context.Background(), id, data, ts, sess.TTL)
 }
 
 func InheritSlots(prev, cur Slots) Slots {

internal/dialogue/session_persist_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+package dialogue
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/store"
+)
+
+// openStore — a store on disk, so a second handle can reopen the same file.
+func openStore(t *testing.T, path string) *store.Store {
+	t.Helper()
+	s, err := store.Open(context.Background(), path)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("open store: %v", err)
+	}
+	t.Cleanup(func() { _ = s.Close() })
+	return s
+}
+
+// A session written before a restart comes back and still merges a follow-up.
+func TestSessionSurvivesRestart(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "maven_test.db")
+	now := time.Now().UTC().Truncate(time.Millisecond)
+
+	first := openStore(t, path)
+	before := NewPersistentSessionStore(2*time.Minute, first)
+	before.Put("voice", &Session{
+		Intent:    IntentReminder,
+		Slots:     Slots{Text: "полить цветы", Time: now.Add(time.Hour), HasTime: true},
+		Timestamp: now,
+		TTL:       2 * time.Minute,
+	})
+	if err := first.Close(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("close: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	// fresh handle, fresh in-memory map — as after a daemon restart
+	after := openStore(t, path)
+	reloaded := NewPersistentSessionStore(2*time.Minute, after)
+	if err := reloaded.Load(ctx, now.Add(10*time.Second)); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Load: %v", err)
+	}
+	sess := reloaded.Get("voice", now.Add(10*time.Second))
+	if sess == nil {
+		t.Fatal("session did not survive the restart")
+	}
+	if sess.Intent != IntentReminder {
+		t.Fatalf("intent = %q, want reminder", sess.Intent)
+	}
+	// the follow-up carries no text of its own; it must inherit the old one
+	merged := InheritSlots(sess.Slots, Slots{Time: now.Add(2 * time.Hour), HasTime: true})
+	if merged.Text != "полить цветы" {
+		t.Fatalf("merged text = %q, want the earlier turn's text", merged.Text)
+	}
+	if !merged.Time.Equal(now.Add(2 * time.Hour)) {
+		t.Fatalf("merged time = %v, want the follow-up's time", merged.Time)
+	}
+}
+
+// A session past its TTL is dead: a restart must not bring it back.
+func TestExpiredSessionNotResurrected(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "maven_test.db")
+	now := time.Now().UTC().Truncate(time.Millisecond)
+
+	first := openStore(t, path)
+	before := NewPersistentSessionStore(2*time.Minute, first)
+	before.Put("voice", &Session{
+		Intent:    IntentReminder,
+		Slots:     Slots{Text: "полить цветы"},
+		Timestamp: now,
+		TTL:       time.Minute,
+	})
+	if err := first.Close(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("close: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	after := openStore(t, path)
+	reloaded := NewPersistentSessionStore(2*time.Minute, after)
+	later := now.Add(5 * time.Minute) // well past the 1-min TTL
+	if err := reloaded.Load(ctx, later); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Load: %v", err)
+	}
+	if sess := reloaded.Get("voice", later); sess != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("expired session came back: %+v", sess)
+	}
+	// and it is gone from the DB too, not just from memory
+	rows, err := after.LoadDialogueSessions(ctx, later)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("LoadDialogueSessions: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(rows) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("expired row still in the DB: %+v", rows)
+	}
+}
+
+// Delete removes the row as well, so an ended conversation stays ended.
+func TestDeleteRemovesPersistedSession(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "maven_test.db")
+	now := time.Now().UTC().Truncate(time.Millisecond)
+
+	s := openStore(t, path)
+	ss := NewPersistentSessionStore(2*time.Minute, s)
+	ss.Put("voice", &Session{Intent: IntentChat, Timestamp: now, TTL: time.Minute})
+	ss.Delete("voice")
+	rows, err := s.LoadDialogueSessions(ctx, now)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("LoadDialogueSessions: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(rows) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("row survived Delete: %+v", rows)
+	}
+}

internal/kiwix/client.go

@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+// Package kiwix reads a local Kiwix server (offline Wikipedia and friends).
+//
+// Why: the resident model is a 0.8B and invents facts. Letting her read a local
+// article snippet beats letting her recall. Nothing here talks to the internet;
+// the Kiwix server is on the same box.
+//
+// This is search only. Full articles are ~100KB of HTML, far too big for a 4096
+// token context, so the unit of context is the search snippet (~500 chars).
+package kiwix
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/xml"
+	"fmt"
+	"html"
+	"io"
+	"net/http"
+	"net/url"
+	"regexp"
+	"strconv"
+	"strings"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// Result is one search hit.
+type Result struct {
+	Title     string // article title, e.g. "Rayleigh scattering"
+	Path      string // e.g. /content/wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2026-02/Rayleigh_scattering
+	Snippet   string // plain text, tags stripped, entities decoded
+	WordCount int    // 0 if the server did not say
+}
+
+// Client is a Kiwix HTTP client. Boring on purpose: no retries, no cache.
+type Client struct {
+	base string
+	http *http.Client
+}
+
+// New makes a client for a Kiwix base URL like http://127.0.0.1:8034.
+func New(baseURL string) *Client {
+	return &Client{
+		base: strings.TrimRight(baseURL, "/"),
+		http: &http.Client{Timeout: 10 * time.Second},
+	}
+}
+
+// Search runs a keyword search in one ZIM (book) and returns up to limit hits.
+//
+// Ranking is keyword based, not semantic: "Rayleigh scattering" finds the right
+// article, "why is the sky blue" finds a TV episode. Pass keywords, not questions.
+func (c *Client) Search(ctx context.Context, pattern, book string, limit int) ([]Result, error) {
+	if limit <= 0 {
+		limit = 5
+	}
+	q := url.Values{}
+	q.Set("pattern", pattern)
+	q.Set("books.name", book)
+	q.Set("format", "xml")
+	q.Set("pageLength", strconv.Itoa(limit))
+
+	req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, http.MethodGet, c.base+"/search?"+q.Encode(), nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	resp, err := c.http.Do(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	defer resp.Body.Close()
+	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("kiwix search: http %d", resp.StatusCode)
+	}
+	return ParseSearchRSS(resp.Body)
+}
+
+// rss mirrors just the bits of the RSS 2.0 reply we use.
+type rss struct {
+	Items []struct {
+		Title string `xml:"title"`
+		Link  string `xml:"link"`
+		// innerxml keeps the <b> match markers so we can strip them ourselves.
+		Description struct {
+			Inner string `xml:",innerxml"`
+		} `xml:"description"`
+		WordCount string `xml:"wordCount"`
+	} `xml:"channel>item"`
+}
+
+var tagRE = regexp.MustCompile(`<[^>]*>`)
+
+// ParseSearchRSS turns a Kiwix search reply into results. Exported so the parser
+// is testable from a captured response, with no server running.
+func ParseSearchRSS(r io.Reader) ([]Result, error) {
+	var doc rss
+	if err := xml.NewDecoder(r).Decode(&doc); err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("kiwix search: bad xml: %w", err)
+	}
+	out := make([]Result, 0, len(doc.Items))
+	for _, it := range doc.Items {
+		n, _ := strconv.Atoi(strings.ReplaceAll(it.WordCount, ",", ""))
+		out = append(out, Result{
+			Title:     strings.TrimSpace(it.Title),
+			Path:      strings.TrimSpace(it.Link),
+			Snippet:   plainText(it.Description.Inner),
+			WordCount: n,
+		})
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}
+
+// plainText drops markup and decodes entities, leaving text a model can read.
+func plainText(s string) string {
+	s = tagRE.ReplaceAllString(s, "")
+	s = html.UnescapeString(s)
+	return strings.TrimSpace(strings.Join(strings.Fields(s), " "))
+}

internal/kiwix/kiwix_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+package kiwix
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"os"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// A real reply from the live server, trimmed to two items.
+const sampleRSS = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<rss version="2.0" xmlns:opensearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
+  <channel>
+    <title>Search: Rayleigh scattering</title>
+    <opensearch:totalResults>800</opensearch:totalResults>
+    <item>
+      <title>Rayleigh scattering</title>
+      <link>/content/wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2026-02/Rayleigh_scattering</link>
+      <description><b>Rayleigh</b> scattering causes the blue color of the sky &amp; yellow colors near the Sun.[1]</description>
+      <book><title>Wikipedia</title></book>
+      <wordCount>2,818</wordCount>
+    </item>
+    <item>
+      <title>Hyper–Rayleigh scattering</title>
+      <link>/content/wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2026-02/Hyper%E2%80%93Rayleigh_scattering</link>
+      <description>...<b>Rayleigh</b> scattering" is a nonlinear optical counterpart.</description>
+      <book><title>Wikipedia</title></book>
+      <wordCount>914</wordCount>
+    </item>
+  </channel>
+</rss>`
+
+func TestParseSearchRSS(t *testing.T) {
+	got, err := ParseSearchRSS(strings.NewReader(sampleRSS))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("parse: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(got) != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("want 2 results, got %d", len(got))
+	}
+	if got[0].Title != "Rayleigh scattering" {
+		t.Errorf("title = %q", got[0].Title)
+	}
+	if got[0].Path != "/content/wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2026-02/Rayleigh_scattering" {
+		t.Errorf("path = %q", got[0].Path)
+	}
+	if got[0].WordCount != 2818 {
+		t.Errorf("wordCount = %d", got[0].WordCount)
+	}
+	want := "Rayleigh scattering causes the blue color of the sky & yellow colors near the Sun.[1]"
+	if got[0].Snippet != want {
+		t.Errorf("snippet = %q, want %q", got[0].Snippet, want)
+	}
+	if strings.Contains(got[1].Snippet, "<b>") {
+		t.Errorf("second snippet still has tags: %q", got[1].Snippet)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestParseSearchRSSBadXML(t *testing.T) {
+	if _, err := ParseSearchRSS(strings.NewReader("not xml at all")); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("want an error on junk input")
+	}
+}
+
+// Opt-in: needs a live Kiwix server. CI has none.
+// MAVEN_KIWIX_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8034 no_proxy=127.0.0.1,localhost go test -run Retrieval -v ./internal/kiwix/
+func TestRetrievalEval(t *testing.T) {
+	base := os.Getenv("MAVEN_KIWIX_URL")
+	if base == "" {
+		t.Skip("set MAVEN_KIWIX_URL to run the retrieval eval")
+	}
+	noProxyLoopback(t)
+
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 2*time.Minute)
+	defer cancel()
+
+	rep, err := RunRetrievalEval(ctx, New(base), 5)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("eval: %v", err)
+	}
+	// No pass bar on purpose: the number is the finding.
+	t.Log("\n" + rep.String() + rep.Detail())
+}
+
+// noProxyLoopback stops the box's SOCKS bridge from eating loopback requests.
+func noProxyLoopback(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Setenv("no_proxy", "127.0.0.1,localhost")
+	t.Setenv("NO_PROXY", "127.0.0.1,localhost")
+}

internal/kiwix/knowledge_v1.json

@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+{
+  "name": "kiwix-knowledge-v1",
+  "book": "wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2026-02",
+  "note": "The 9 knowledge cases from internal/phraser/eval/talk_v1.json. Queries are hand-written English keywords on purpose: Kiwix ranks by keyword, not meaning, so a natural question fails. Writing them by hand separates 'retrieval is broken' from 'the model writes bad queries'.",
+  "cases": [
+    {
+      "id": "know-sky-blue",
+      "question": "почему небо синее?",
+      "query": "Rayleigh scattering sky blue",
+      "want_titles": ["Rayleigh scattering", "Diffuse sky radiation"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-boil-egg",
+      "question": "сколько варить яйцо вкрутую?",
+      "query": "boiled egg cooking",
+      "want_titles": ["Boiled egg", "Egg as food"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-ssd-vs-hdd",
+      "question": "чем ssd отличается от hdd?",
+      "query": "solid-state drive",
+      "want_titles": ["Solid-state drive", "Hard disk drive"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-cat-purr",
+      "question": "почему кошки мурчат?",
+      "query": "cat purr",
+      "want_titles": ["Purr", "Cat communication"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-hiccups",
+      "question": "как быстро избавиться от икоты?",
+      "query": "hiccup",
+      "want_titles": ["Hiccup"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-polite-form",
+      "question": "не могли бы вы объяснить, что такое vpn?",
+      "query": "virtual private network",
+      "want_titles": ["Virtual private network"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-dont-know",
+      "question": "как зовут моего соседа снизу?",
+      "query": "name of my downstairs neighbour",
+      "want_titles": [],
+      "expect_miss": true,
+      "note": "Unanswerable by design. Retrieval SHOULD find nothing useful. Counted as a hit only when nothing relevant comes back."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-water-per-day",
+      "question": "сколько воды в день надо пить?",
+      "query": "human daily water requirement drinking",
+      "want_titles": ["Drinking water", "Water", "Dehydration", "Hydration"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-thunder-delay",
+      "question": "почему гром слышно позже молнии?",
+      "query": "thunder speed of sound lightning",
+      "want_titles": ["Thunder", "Lightning"]
+    }
+  ]
+}

internal/kiwix/retrieval_eval.go

@@ -0,0 +1,135 @@
+package kiwix
+
+// This scores retrieval alone: no LLM. For each general-knowledge question we
+// hand-write English keywords and ask whether the article that would answer it
+// comes back in the top N hits. If this score is low, reading Wikipedia cannot
+// help the model no matter how good the prompt is.
+//
+// The unanswerable case (know-dont-know) is not scored. Whether the junk it
+// returns is "nothing useful" is a human judgement, so the report just prints
+// the titles and leaves the score to the 8 answerable cases.
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	_ "embed"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+//go:embed knowledge_v1.json
+var knowledgeFixtureJSON []byte
+
+// EvalCase — one question with hand-written keywords.
+type EvalCase struct {
+	ID         string   `json:"id"`
+	Question   string   `json:"question"`
+	Query      string   `json:"query"`
+	WantTitles []string `json:"want_titles"`
+	ExpectMiss bool     `json:"expect_miss"`
+}
+
+type fixture struct {
+	Name  string     `json:"name"`
+	Book  string     `json:"book"`
+	Cases []EvalCase `json:"cases"`
+}
+
+// Outcome — what one case retrieved.
+type Outcome struct {
+	Case   EvalCase
+	Titles []string // titles of the top N hits, in rank order
+	Rank   int      // 1-based rank of the first wanted title, 0 if none
+	Err    error
+}
+
+// Hit is true when a wanted title came back.
+func (o Outcome) Hit() bool { return o.Rank > 0 }
+
+// Report — the score plus per-case detail.
+type Report struct {
+	Name     string
+	Book     string
+	TopN     int
+	Scored   int // answerable cases
+	Hits     int
+	Errors   int
+	Outcomes []Outcome
+}
+
+// Accuracy over the answerable cases.
+func (r Report) Accuracy() float64 {
+	if r.Scored == 0 {
+		return 0
+	}
+	return float64(r.Hits) / float64(r.Scored)
+}
+
+// RunRetrievalEval searches for every fixture case.
+func RunRetrievalEval(ctx context.Context, c *Client, topN int) (Report, error) {
+	var f fixture
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(knowledgeFixtureJSON, &f); err != nil {
+		return Report{}, err
+	}
+	rep := Report{Name: f.Name, Book: f.Book, TopN: topN}
+	for _, cs := range f.Cases {
+		res, err := c.Search(ctx, cs.Query, f.Book, topN)
+		o := Outcome{Case: cs, Err: err}
+		if err != nil {
+			rep.Errors++
+		}
+		for i, hit := range res {
+			o.Titles = append(o.Titles, hit.Title)
+			if o.Rank == 0 && matches(cs.WantTitles, hit.Title) {
+				o.Rank = i + 1
+			}
+		}
+		if !cs.ExpectMiss {
+			rep.Scored++
+			if o.Hit() {
+				rep.Hits++
+			}
+		}
+		rep.Outcomes = append(rep.Outcomes, o)
+	}
+	return rep, nil
+}
+
+func matches(want []string, title string) bool {
+	for _, w := range want {
+		if strings.EqualFold(strings.TrimSpace(title), w) {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
+// String — the headline number.
+func (r Report) String() string {
+	var b strings.Builder
+	fmt.Fprintf(&b, "%s: %d/%d answerable questions retrieve a wanted article in top %d (%.1f%%), %d errors\n",
+		r.Name, r.Hits, r.Scored, r.TopN, 100*r.Accuracy(), r.Errors)
+	fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  book: %s\n", r.Book)
+	return b.String()
+}
+
+// Detail — per case: what was asked, what was searched, what came back.
+func (r Report) Detail() string {
+	var b strings.Builder
+	for _, o := range r.Outcomes {
+		mark := "MISS"
+		switch {
+		case o.Case.ExpectMiss:
+			mark = "n/a "
+		case o.Hit():
+			mark = fmt.Sprintf("hit@%d", o.Rank)
+		}
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  %-6s %-20s q=%q\n", mark, o.Case.ID, o.Case.Query)
+		if o.Err != nil {
+			fmt.Fprintf(&b, "         error: %v\n", o.Err)
+			continue
+		}
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "         got: %s\n", strings.Join(o.Titles, " | "))
+	}
+	return b.String()
+}

internal/kiwix/rewrite.go

@@ -0,0 +1,183 @@
+package kiwix
+
+// Turning a Russian question into an English Kiwix search.
+//
+// Kiwix ranks by keyword, not by meaning. "why is the sky blue" returns a TV
+// episode; "Rayleigh scattering sky blue" returns the right article. So the
+// model's job here is NOT translation — it is naming the English article the
+// answer lives in.
+//
+// The output space is a handful of words, so it is worth locking down hard: a
+// GBNF grammar for the shape, a tiny token cap, and a cleanup pass that throws
+// away anything odd rather than handing junk to Kiwix.
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+	"unicode"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/llm"
+)
+
+// Completer — the LLM seam, so tests can fake it. *llm.Client satisfies it.
+type Completer interface {
+	Complete(ctx context.Context, r llm.Req) (string, error)
+}
+
+// queryGrammar — one JSON object holding 1..6 keyword words. Latin letters,
+// digits and hyphens only, so the model physically cannot answer the question
+// or reply in Russian.
+//
+// Why the JSON wrapper: this model always thinks out loud and this llama-server
+// build ignores the thinking switch (see ROUTING-EVAL-31-07-2026.md). A bare
+// word-list grammar just captured the reasoning — every case came back as
+// "Let me analyze this request carefully". Demanding JSON, like routeGrammar and
+// responseGrammar already do, gives the reasoning nowhere to go.
+const queryGrammar = `
+root ::= "{" ws "\"query\"" ws ":" ws "\"" word (" " word){0,5} "\"" ws "}"
+word ::= [A-Za-z0-9] [A-Za-z0-9-]{0,23}
+ws   ::= [ \t\n]*
+`
+
+// rewriteSystem — asks for search keywords, not an answer and not a translation.
+const rewriteSystem = `You turn a question into a search query for English Wikipedia.
+
+Rules:
+- Output ONLY English search keywords. Never an answer, never an explanation.
+- Do NOT translate the sentence. Name the thing the answer is about.
+- The output must be a noun phrase, like a Wikipedia article title.
+- Never use question words: no why, how, what, when, which, "how much",
+  "how long", "how to", "vs", "reason", "difference".
+- 2 to 4 words.
+
+Reply with JSON: {"query":"<keywords>"}
+
+Good:
+"почему листья желтеют осенью?" -> {"query":"leaf senescence autumn"}
+"как работает микроволновка?" -> {"query":"microwave oven"}
+"не могли бы вы объяснить, что такое блокчейн?" -> {"query":"blockchain"}
+"сколько живут собаки?" -> {"query":"dog lifespan"}
+"как избавиться от комаров в квартире?" -> {"query":"mosquito control"}
+"чем чай отличается от кофе?" -> {"query":"tea"}
+
+Only JSON, no explanation.`
+
+// maxQueryTokens — the output is a few words plus the JSON wrapper. A tight cap
+// is the cheapest guard against the model rambling into an answer.
+const maxQueryTokens = 32
+
+// Rewriter asks the resident model for English search keywords.
+type Rewriter struct{ c Completer }
+
+func NewRewriter(c Completer) *Rewriter { return &Rewriter{c: c} }
+
+// Rewrite returns English keywords for a question in any language.
+// It errors rather than returning something Kiwix should not see.
+func (r *Rewriter) Rewrite(ctx context.Context, question string) (string, error) {
+	raw, err := r.c.Complete(ctx, llm.Req{
+		System:        rewriteSystem,
+		User:          strings.TrimSpace(question),
+		Grammar:       queryGrammar,
+		MaxTokens:     maxQueryTokens,
+		RepeatPenalty: 1.15,
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	return CleanQuery(unwrapJSON(raw))
+}
+
+// unwrapJSON pulls the query out of {"query":"..."}. If the reply is not that
+// shape it is returned as-is, and CleanQuery decides whether it is usable.
+func unwrapJSON(raw string) string {
+	s := strings.TrimSpace(raw)
+	if !strings.HasPrefix(s, "{") {
+		return s
+	}
+	var got struct{ Query string }
+	if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(s), &got); err != nil {
+		return s
+	}
+	return got.Query
+}
+
+// maxQueryWords matches the grammar's bound. Anything longer is prose.
+const maxQueryWords = 6
+
+// CleanQuery checks and tidies whatever the model produced. The grammar makes
+// bad output unlikely, not impossible (a server without grammar support, a
+// different model), so this is the real gate in front of Kiwix.
+//
+// Exported so it can be tested without a model.
+func CleanQuery(raw string) (string, error) {
+	s := strings.TrimSpace(raw)
+	// Models like to wrap answers in quotes. Drop surrounding ones.
+	s = strings.Trim(s, "\"'`")
+	// Keep the first line only: everything after it is prose.
+	if i := strings.IndexAny(s, "\r\n"); i >= 0 {
+		s = s[:i]
+	}
+	// Keep letters, digits, spaces and hyphens; anything else becomes a space.
+	var b strings.Builder
+	for _, ru := range s {
+		switch {
+		case unicode.IsLetter(ru) || unicode.IsDigit(ru) || ru == '-':
+			b.WriteRune(ru)
+		default:
+			b.WriteRune(' ')
+		}
+	}
+	words := strings.Fields(b.String())
+	if len(words) == 0 {
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("kiwix rewrite: empty query")
+	}
+	if len(words) > maxQueryWords {
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("kiwix rewrite: %d words, want at most %d (looks like prose)", len(words), maxQueryWords)
+	}
+	words = dropStopWords(words)
+	out := strings.Join(words, " ")
+	// The ZIMs are English. Non-Latin letters mean the model ignored the ask.
+	for _, ru := range out {
+		if unicode.IsLetter(ru) && !isLatin(ru) {
+			return "", fmt.Errorf("kiwix rewrite: query is not English: %q", out)
+		}
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}
+
+// stopWords — question words and filler. The model keeps writing question-shaped
+// queries ("why is the sky blue", "how much water to drink daily") no matter how
+// the prompt is worded, and Kiwix ranks on every word, so those words drag in
+// song and episode titles. Dropping them in code is not a style preference: a
+// keyword ranker gets nothing from them.
+var stopWords = map[string]bool{
+	"a": true, "an": true, "the": true, "is": true, "are": true, "was": true,
+	"do": true, "does": true, "did": true, "to": true, "of": true, "in": true,
+	"on": true, "for": true, "and": true, "or": true, "my": true, "me": true,
+	"i": true, "it": true, "its": true, "be": true, "been": true, "get": true,
+	"how": true, "why": true, "what": true, "when": true, "which": true,
+	"who": true, "where": true, "much": true, "many": true, "long": true,
+	"vs": true, "than": true, "rid": true, "from": true, "about": true,
+}
+
+// dropStopWords removes filler, but never everything: if the query was nothing
+// but stop words there is nothing better to search, so the original is kept and
+// the caller sees whatever Kiwix makes of it.
+func dropStopWords(words []string) []string {
+	kept := make([]string, 0, len(words))
+	for _, w := range words {
+		if !stopWords[strings.ToLower(w)] {
+			kept = append(kept, w)
+		}
+	}
+	if len(kept) == 0 {
+		return words
+	}
+	return kept
+}
+
+func isLatin(ru rune) bool {
+	return (ru >= 'a' && ru <= 'z') || (ru >= 'A' && ru <= 'Z')
+}

internal/kiwix/rewrite_eval.go

@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+package kiwix
+
+// End-to-end score: Russian question -> model rewrite -> Kiwix search -> did a
+// wanted article come back. Same 9 cases as the retrieval eval, so the two
+// numbers are directly comparable: retrieval with hand-written keywords is the
+// ceiling, this is what the model actually reaches.
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+// RewriteOutcome — one case, end to end.
+type RewriteOutcome struct {
+	Outcome
+	ModelQuery string // what the model asked for ("" if it failed)
+	RewriteErr error
+}
+
+// RunRewriteEval rewrites every question with the model, then searches.
+func RunRewriteEval(ctx context.Context, c *Client, rw *Rewriter, topN int) (RewriteReport, error) {
+	var f fixture
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(knowledgeFixtureJSON, &f); err != nil {
+		return RewriteReport{}, err
+	}
+	rep := RewriteReport{Report: Report{Name: f.Name + "-rewrite", Book: f.Book, TopN: topN}}
+	for _, cs := range f.Cases {
+		out := RewriteOutcome{Outcome: Outcome{Case: cs}}
+		q, err := rw.Rewrite(ctx, cs.Question)
+		out.ModelQuery, out.RewriteErr = q, err
+		if err == nil {
+			res, serr := c.Search(ctx, q, f.Book, topN)
+			out.Err = serr
+			for i, hit := range res {
+				out.Titles = append(out.Titles, hit.Title)
+				if out.Rank == 0 && matches(cs.WantTitles, hit.Title) {
+					out.Rank = i + 1
+				}
+			}
+		}
+		if out.RewriteErr != nil || out.Err != nil {
+			rep.Errors++
+		}
+		if !cs.ExpectMiss {
+			rep.Scored++
+			if out.Hit() {
+				rep.Hits++
+			}
+		}
+		rep.Cases = append(rep.Cases, out)
+	}
+	return rep, nil
+}
+
+// RewriteReport — the score plus per-case detail.
+type RewriteReport struct {
+	Report
+	Cases []RewriteOutcome
+}
+
+// String — the headline number.
+func (r RewriteReport) String() string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf("%s: %d/%d answerable questions retrieve a wanted article in top %d (%.1f%%), %d errors\n  book: %s\n",
+		r.Name, r.Hits, r.Scored, r.TopN, 100*r.Accuracy(), r.Errors, r.Book)
+}
+
+// Detail — per case: hand-written query next to the model's, and what came back.
+// The point is seeing WHERE the model's phrasing differs, not just the score.
+func (r RewriteReport) Detail() string {
+	var b strings.Builder
+	for _, o := range r.Cases {
+		mark := "MISS"
+		switch {
+		case o.Case.ExpectMiss:
+			mark = "n/a "
+		case o.Hit():
+			mark = fmt.Sprintf("hit@%d", o.Rank)
+		}
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  %-6s %-20s\n", mark, o.Case.ID)
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "         asked:  %s\n", o.Case.Question)
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "         hand:   %q\n", o.Case.Query)
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "         model:  %q\n", o.ModelQuery)
+		if o.RewriteErr != nil {
+			fmt.Fprintf(&b, "         rewrite rejected: %v\n", o.RewriteErr)
+			continue
+		}
+		if o.Err != nil {
+			fmt.Fprintf(&b, "         search error: %v\n", o.Err)
+			continue
+		}
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "         got:    %s\n", strings.Join(o.Titles, " | "))
+	}
+	return b.String()
+}

internal/kiwix/rewrite_eval_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+package kiwix
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"os"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/llm"
+)
+
+// Opt-in: needs a live Kiwix server AND a live llama-server.
+// MAVEN_KIWIX_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8034 MAVEN_LLM_URL=http://127.0.0.1:18099 \
+//
+//	no_proxy=127.0.0.1,localhost go test -run RewriteEval -v ./internal/kiwix/
+func TestRewriteEval(t *testing.T) {
+	kbase, lbase := os.Getenv("MAVEN_KIWIX_URL"), os.Getenv("MAVEN_LLM_URL")
+	if kbase == "" || lbase == "" {
+		t.Skip("set MAVEN_KIWIX_URL and MAVEN_LLM_URL to run the rewrite eval")
+	}
+	noProxyLoopback(t)
+
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 15*time.Minute)
+	defer cancel()
+
+	rw := NewRewriter(llm.New(lbase, 3*time.Minute))
+	rep, err := RunRewriteEval(ctx, New(kbase), rw, 5)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("eval: %v", err)
+	}
+	// No pass bar on purpose: the number is the finding.
+	t.Log("\n" + rep.String() + rep.Detail())
+}

internal/kiwix/rewrite_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+package kiwix
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/llm"
+)
+
+// Bad model output must never reach Kiwix. No model needed for this.
+func TestCleanQueryRejectsJunk(t *testing.T) {
+	bad := []struct{ name, raw string }{
+		{"empty", ""},
+		{"blank", "   \n  "},
+		{"russian came back", "почему небо синее"},
+		{"mixed russian", "sky синее scattering"},
+		{"full sentence", "The sky looks blue because of the scattering of sunlight by air molecules"},
+		{"prose with quotes", `Sure! Here is a good search query: "Rayleigh scattering", which explains it.`},
+	}
+	for _, c := range bad {
+		if got, err := CleanQuery(c.raw); err == nil {
+			t.Errorf("%s: want rejection, got %q", c.name, got)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestCleanQueryCleans(t *testing.T) {
+	ok := []struct{ raw, want string }{
+		{"Rayleigh scattering sky", "Rayleigh scattering sky"},
+		{"  boiled   egg  cooking \n", "boiled egg cooking"},
+		{`"virtual private network"`, "virtual private network"},
+		{"solid-state drive", "solid-state drive"},
+		{"cat purr.", "cat purr"},
+		{"hiccup\nAlso: hiccough", "hiccup"},
+		// Question words are filler to a keyword ranker, so they go.
+		{"why is the sky blue", "sky blue"},
+		{"how much water to drink daily", "water drink daily"},
+		{"SSD vs HDD comparison", "SSD HDD comparison"},
+		// Nothing but filler: keep it rather than return nothing.
+		{"what is it", "what is it"},
+	}
+	for _, c := range ok {
+		got, err := CleanQuery(c.raw)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Errorf("%q: %v", c.raw, err)
+			continue
+		}
+		if got != c.want {
+			t.Errorf("%q -> %q, want %q", c.raw, got, c.want)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+type fakeCompleter struct {
+	out string
+	req llm.Req
+}
+
+func (f *fakeCompleter) Complete(_ context.Context, r llm.Req) (string, error) {
+	f.req = r
+	return f.out, nil
+}
+
+func TestRewriteConstrainsTheCall(t *testing.T) {
+	f := &fakeCompleter{out: `{"query":"Rayleigh scattering sky"}`}
+	got, err := NewRewriter(f).Rewrite(context.Background(), "почему небо синее?")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("rewrite: %v", err)
+	}
+	if got != "Rayleigh scattering sky" {
+		t.Errorf("query = %q", got)
+	}
+	if f.req.Grammar == "" {
+		t.Error("no grammar sent")
+	}
+	if f.req.MaxTokens == 0 || f.req.MaxTokens > 32 {
+		t.Errorf("max_tokens = %d, want a small cap", f.req.MaxTokens)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestRewriteRejectsBadModelOutput(t *testing.T) {
+	bad := []string{
+		`{"query":"почему небо синее"}`, // never translated
+		`{"query":""}`, // empty
+		`{"query":"the sky is blue because sunlight is scattered by air"}`, // an answer
+		// Note: a SHORT English prose fragment ("Let me analyze this request")
+		// is under the word cap and cannot be caught here. The grammar is what
+		// stops that one.
+	}
+	for _, out := range bad {
+		f := &fakeCompleter{out: out}
+		if got, err := NewRewriter(f).Rewrite(context.Background(), "почему небо синее?"); err == nil {
+			t.Errorf("%s: want rejection, got %q", out, got)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// A reply that is not the JSON shape but is still usable keywords should pass.
+func TestRewriteFallsBackToPlainText(t *testing.T) {
+	f := &fakeCompleter{out: "Rayleigh scattering sky"}
+	got, err := NewRewriter(f).Rewrite(context.Background(), "почему небо синее?")
+	if err != nil || got != "Rayleigh scattering sky" {
+		t.Errorf("got %q, %v", got, err)
+	}
+}

internal/llm/modelid.go

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-package eval
+package llm
 
 import (
 	"context"
@@ -6,8 +6,20 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"net/http"
 	"strings"
+	"time"
 )
 
+// UnknownModel is the label to print when the server would not say what it has
+// loaded. Deliberately ugly: an honest "unknown" is fine, a plausible-looking
+// but wrong model name is the bug this whole file exists to prevent.
+const UnknownModel = "unknown-model"
+
+// llama-server is local, so never send this through a proxy: this box's
+// http_proxy answers 503 for loopback, which would look like "server won't say
+// which model it has" when the server is right there and fine.
+// A Transport with no Proxy set bypasses http_proxy entirely.
+var modelHTTP = &http.Client{Timeout: 10 * time.Second, Transport: &http.Transport{}}
+
 // ModelID asks llama-server which model it has loaded, so a scoring run can
 // label itself. Without this a bake-off between two models produces two tables
 // that look identical, and the operator has to remember which server was up.
@@ -19,7 +31,7 @@ func ModelID(ctx context.Context, base string) (string, error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", err
 	}
-	resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
+	resp, err := modelHTTP.Do(req)
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", err
 	}
@@ -38,14 +50,21 @@ func ModelID(ctx context.Context, base string) (string, error) {
 	if len(out.Data) == 0 {
 		return "", fmt.Errorf("models: empty list")
 	}
-	return shortModelID(out.Data[0].ID), nil
+	short := shortModelID(out.Data[0].ID)
+	if short == "" {
+		// Server answered but the id field was missing or blank. Say so
+		// instead of handing back an empty label that reads as a real name.
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("models: no id in response")
+	}
+	return short, nil
 }
 
 // shortModelID trims the path and the .gguf suffix — llama-server reports the
 // file name it was started with, which is too long for a table header.
 func shortModelID(id string) string {
+	id = strings.TrimSpace(id)
 	if i := strings.LastIndexAny(id, "/\\"); i >= 0 {
 		id = id[i+1:]
 	}
-	return strings.TrimSuffix(id, ".gguf")
+	return strings.TrimSpace(strings.TrimSuffix(id, ".gguf"))
 }

internal/llm/modelid_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+package llm
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"net/http"
+	"net/http/httptest"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// The point of these tests: a wrong-but-plausible model label is the bug, so
+// every path that cannot learn the real name must return an error instead of a
+// guess. No llama-server needed — a stub server stands in.
+func TestModelID(t *testing.T) {
+	cases := []struct {
+		name string
+		body string
+		code int
+		want string // "" ⇒ expect an error
+	}{
+		{"full path", `{"data":[{"id":"/mnt/hdd1/llms/qwen3.5/Qwen3.5-0.8B.Q4_K_M.gguf"}]}`, 200, "Qwen3.5-0.8B.Q4_K_M"},
+		{"bare name", `{"data":[{"id":"LFM2.5-1.2B"}]}`, 200, "LFM2.5-1.2B"},
+		{"empty list", `{"data":[]}`, 200, ""},
+		{"id missing", `{"data":[{}]}`, 200, ""},
+		{"id blank", `{"data":[{"id":"  "}]}`, 200, ""},
+		{"server error", `nope`, 500, ""},
+		{"not json", `<html>`, 200, ""},
+	}
+	for _, c := range cases {
+		t.Run(c.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			srv := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+				if r.URL.Path != "/v1/models" {
+					t.Errorf("asked for %s, want /v1/models", r.URL.Path)
+				}
+				w.WriteHeader(c.code)
+				_, _ = w.Write([]byte(c.body))
+			}))
+			defer srv.Close()
+
+			got, err := ModelID(context.Background(), srv.URL+"/")
+			if c.want == "" {
+				if err == nil {
+					t.Fatalf("want an error, got label %q", got)
+				}
+				return
+			}
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatalf("ModelID: %v", err)
+			}
+			if got != c.want {
+				t.Errorf("got %q, want %q", got, c.want)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+func TestModelIDUnreachable(t *testing.T) {
+	srv := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(http.ResponseWriter, *http.Request) {}))
+	url := srv.URL
+	srv.Close() // nothing listening now
+
+	if got, err := ModelID(context.Background(), url); err == nil {
+		t.Fatalf("want an error from a dead server, got label %q", got)
+	}
+}

internal/memory/recalleval/recalleval.go

@@ -422,6 +422,8 @@ func rankNote(inTop3 bool) string {
 // bestRecall mirrors cmd/mavend/recall.go — the gate the daemon actually
 // applies to a memory hit. Duplicated rather than imported because package main
 // is not importable; recalleval_test.go asserts the two agree in behaviour.
+// The daemon returns the whole hit (a note and a fact are said differently);
+// the harness only scores what came back, so it keeps returning the text.
 func bestRecall(results []memory.Result, minScore, minMargin float64) string {
 	if !memory.Confident(results, minScore, minMargin) {
 		return ""

internal/memory/recalleval/recalleval_test.go

@@ -197,7 +197,8 @@ func TestHashRecallBaseline(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Log("\n" + rep.String() + rep.Failures())
 	t.Log("\ngate sweep:\n" + sweep(t, router.NewHashEmbedder(hashDim), f))
 
-	// 0.32 sits under the observed 0.360 recall@1.
+	// 0.32 sits under the observed 0.370 recall@1 (was 0.360 over 25 answerable
+	// cases; the two mixed note+fact cases added with #373 make it 27).
 	const floorRecall1 = 0.32
 	if rep.Recall1() < floorRecall1 {
 		t.Errorf("recall@1 %.3f below ratchet %.2f — note recall regressed", rep.Recall1(), floorRecall1)

internal/memory/recalleval/ru_recall_v1.json

@@ -387,6 +387,32 @@
         {"id": "n2", "text": "wifi channel is 6", "kind": "note"},
         {"id": "n3", "text": "the guest network is off", "kind": "note"}
       ]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "ru-mixed-031",
+      "lang": "ru",
+      "tags": ["mixed", "paraphrase", "hard"],
+      "note": "notes and facts in one store and the note is the answer — the daemon indexes both (Vikunja #373)",
+      "query": "куда я спрятал второй ключ от квартиры",
+      "want": "n1",
+      "notes": [
+        {"id": "n1", "text": "запасной ключ от квартиры лежит в синей коробке на полке", "kind": "note"},
+        {"id": "x1", "text": "поменял замок в двери двадцатого июня", "kind": "fact"},
+        {"id": "x2", "text": "отдал ключ соседке в мае", "kind": "fact"}
+      ]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "ru-mixed-032",
+      "lang": "ru",
+      "tags": ["mixed", "distractor"],
+      "note": "the mirror of ru-mixed-031: the fact answers and the notes are the distractors",
+      "query": "когда я в последний раз заливал бензин",
+      "want": "x1",
+      "notes": [
+        {"id": "x1", "text": "залил полный бак в четверг вечером", "kind": "fact"},
+        {"id": "n1", "text": "на заправке у моста дешевле бензин", "kind": "note"},
+        {"id": "n2", "text": "надо поменять зимние шины", "kind": "note"}
+      ]
     }
   ]
 }

internal/persona/persona.go

@@ -0,0 +1,138 @@
+// Package persona builds the one shared context block that goes in front of
+// every LLM system prompt: who the owner is, how to address him, and what
+// time it is right now.
+//
+// Why one block and not a line pasted into each prompt: there are five
+// prompts (nudges, action replies, chat, note queries, general knowledge) and
+// the "address him as ты" rule had only reached two of them. Five copies drift.
+// One block cannot.
+//
+// The rules here are defaults in code, not config. Maven is feminine and the
+// owner is a man addressed informally — that is a hard constraint of the
+// product, so it must hold with an empty config file. Config only ADDS
+// optional facts (his name, his city).
+package persona
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// Facts — the optional, deployment-specific half of the block. All fields may
+// be empty; the block is still correct and useful without them.
+type Facts struct {
+	OwnerName string // his name, e.g. "Ками"
+	City      string // where he is, e.g. "Москва"
+	Static    string // the free-text `persona` config string, appended verbatim
+
+	// The two config-gated capabilities. They are listed only when this
+	// deployment actually has them, because a capability she names and cannot
+	// do is worse than one she never mentions.
+	Weather  bool // an open-meteo provider is configured
+	Telegram bool // a telegram bot token + chat id are configured
+	Tools    bool // at least one shell act is on the allowlist
+}
+
+var ruWeekdays = [...]string{"воскресенье", "понедельник", "вторник", "среда", "четверг", "пятница", "суббота"}
+
+var ruMonths = [...]string{
+	"января", "февраля", "марта", "апреля", "мая", "июня",
+	"июля", "августа", "сентября", "октября", "ноября", "декабря",
+}
+
+// Block renders the context block for one turn. Russian even in front of the
+// English prompts: the rules it states are Russian grammar (ты/тебя, feminine
+// verbs), and a Russian rule reads best stated in Russian.
+//
+// Keep it short. It ships on every turn to a 0.8B on laptop CPU, so every
+// line here is latency.
+func (f Facts) Block(now time.Time) string {
+	var b strings.Builder
+
+	b.WriteString("Ты — Maven, домашняя ассистентка. О себе говоришь в женском роде: \"я записала\", \"я проверила\".\n")
+
+	// The address form gets its own line. It is the thing that kept getting
+	// lost when it was buried in prose.
+	b.WriteString("ОБРАЩЕНИЕ: владелец — мужчина, всегда на \"ты\" (ты, тебя, тебе, твой) и в единственном числе (\"выпей\", \"посмотри\"). Никогда \"вы\"/\"вас\"/\"ваш\". Никогда \"он\"/\"его\" о нём — ты говоришь ему, а не о нём. Глаголы о нём — в мужском роде (\"ты забыл\").\n")
+
+	if who := f.who(); who != "" {
+		b.WriteString(who + "\n")
+	}
+
+	b.WriteString(fmt.Sprintf("Сейчас: %s, %d %s %d, %02d:%02d (местное время).\n",
+		ruWeekdays[int(now.Weekday())], now.Day(), ruMonths[int(now.Month())-1], now.Year(),
+		now.Hour(), now.Minute()))
+
+	b.WriteString("Умеешь: " + strings.Join(f.can(), "; ") +
+		". Других ДЕЙСТВИЙ не умеешь — если просят такое, скажи прямо.\n")
+
+	if s := strings.TrimSpace(f.Static); s != "" {
+		b.WriteString(s + "\n")
+	}
+	return b.String()
+}
+
+// can lists what she can really do. Every entry here is a code path that
+// exists in the daemon today:
+//   - reminders: IntentReminder → CoreAPI.CreateReminder, fired by the tick.
+//   - notes and facts: IntentNote/IntentFact write, IntentQuery reads them back.
+//   - calendar: IntentQuery answers "что у меня сегодня" from CalendarEvents.
+//   - weather / telegram / shell acts: only when configured (see Facts).
+//
+// Nothing speculative goes in this list. A capability she offers and cannot
+// perform is worse than one she never mentions.
+func (f Facts) can() []string {
+	c := []string{
+		// Talking comes first, and the closing line says "действий" rather than
+		// "ничего", because this same block sits in front of the chat and
+		// general-knowledge prompts. A flat "you can do nothing else" would
+		// tell her to refuse the exact thing those two prompts are for.
+		"разговаривать и отвечать на вопросы",
+		"ставить напоминания",
+		"записывать заметки и факты и отвечать по ним",
+		"смотреть календарь",
+	}
+	if f.Weather {
+		c = append(c, "говорить погоду")
+	}
+	if f.Telegram {
+		c = append(c, "писать в телеграм")
+	}
+	if f.Tools {
+		c = append(c, "запускать разрешённые команды на сервере")
+	}
+	return c
+}
+
+// who renders the optional name/city line, or "" when neither is configured.
+//
+// Written as labels ("Имя владельца: ..."), not as a sentence with pronouns:
+// the block's own "ты" is Maven, so "тебя зовут" would read as her name and
+// "его" would model the third-person form she must never use about him.
+func (f Facts) who() string {
+	name := strings.TrimSpace(f.OwnerName)
+	city := strings.TrimSpace(f.City)
+	switch {
+	case name != "" && city != "":
+		return "Имя владельца: " + name + ". Город: " + city + "."
+	case name != "":
+		return "Имя владельца: " + name + "."
+	case city != "":
+		return "Город: " + city + "."
+	}
+	return ""
+}
+
+// Prepend puts the block in front of a system prompt. Nil-safe: a nil renderer
+// (tests, the stub paths) returns the prompt untouched.
+func Prepend(block func() string, prompt string) string {
+	if block == nil {
+		return prompt
+	}
+	s := strings.TrimSpace(block())
+	if s == "" {
+		return prompt
+	}
+	return s + "\n\n" + prompt
+}

internal/persona/persona_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+package persona
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+var ref = time.Date(2026, 7, 31, 14, 5, 0, 0, time.UTC)
+
+// The block must be correct with an empty config: the address form and the
+// gender rules are hard constraints, not preferences.
+func TestBlockWorksWithZeroConfig(t *testing.T) {
+	b := Facts{}.Block(ref)
+	for _, want := range []string{"женском роде", "ОБРАЩЕНИЕ", "\"ты\"", "31 июля 2026", "пятница", "14:05"} {
+		if !strings.Contains(b, want) {
+			t.Errorf("block missing %q:\n%s", want, b)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestBlockAddsOptionalFacts(t *testing.T) {
+	b := Facts{OwnerName: "Ками", City: "Москва", Static: "Будь краткой."}.Block(ref)
+	for _, want := range []string{"Ками", "Москва", "Будь краткой."} {
+		if !strings.Contains(b, want) {
+			t.Errorf("block missing %q:\n%s", want, b)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// The time changes between turns, so two renders must differ.
+func TestBlockRendersTimePerTurn(t *testing.T) {
+	a := Facts{}.Block(ref)
+	c := Facts{}.Block(ref.Add(time.Hour))
+	if a == c {
+		t.Errorf("block did not change with the clock:\n%s", a)
+	}
+}
+
+// She may only offer what this deployment actually has.
+func TestCapabilitiesAreConfigGated(t *testing.T) {
+	bare := Facts{}.Block(ref)
+	for _, want := range []string{"напоминания", "заметки", "календарь"} {
+		if !strings.Contains(bare, want) {
+			t.Errorf("block missing always-on capability %q:\n%s", want, bare)
+		}
+	}
+	for _, unwanted := range []string{"погоду", "телеграм", "команды"} {
+		if strings.Contains(bare, unwanted) {
+			t.Errorf("block offers unconfigured %q:\n%s", unwanted, bare)
+		}
+	}
+
+	full := Facts{Weather: true, Telegram: true, Tools: true}.Block(ref)
+	for _, want := range []string{"погоду", "телеграм", "команды"} {
+		if !strings.Contains(full, want) {
+			t.Errorf("block missing configured capability %q:\n%s", want, full)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestPrependNilIsSafe(t *testing.T) {
+	if got := Prepend(nil, "PROMPT"); got != "PROMPT" {
+		t.Errorf("Prepend(nil) = %q", got)
+	}
+	if got := Prepend(func() string { return "  " }, "PROMPT"); got != "PROMPT" {
+		t.Errorf("Prepend(blank) = %q", got)
+	}
+	if got := Prepend(func() string { return "CTX" }, "PROMPT"); got != "CTX\n\nPROMPT" {
+		t.Errorf("Prepend = %q", got)
+	}
+}

internal/phraser/broken_json_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+package phraser
+
+import (
+	"errors"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// A reply that starts a JSON object and never finishes it is a failed
+// generation, not a reply. Before this, the parser returned ("", "") for these
+// and every caller then shipped the raw fragment as the thing Maven said. A
+// real run produced replies of literally "{" and "{\n  \"".
+func TestParseResponseMoodRejectsUnfinishedJSON(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, raw := range []string{
+		`{`,
+		"{\n  \"",
+		`{"response": "неполн`,
+		`{"response": "текст", "mood":`,
+	} {
+		text, mood, err := parseResponseMood(raw)
+		if !errors.Is(err, errBrokenJSON) {
+			t.Errorf("parseResponseMood(%q) err = %v, want errBrokenJSON", raw, err)
+		}
+		if text != "" || mood != "" {
+			t.Errorf("parseResponseMood(%q) leaked %q/%q — a fragment must never come back as a reply", raw, text, mood)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// Bare prose is still fine. Small models sometimes answer without any JSON at
+// all, and that reply is usable — so the new error must not swallow it.
+func TestParseResponseMoodAllowsBareProse(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, raw := range []string{
+		"норм, а ты как?",
+		"вот что я нашла: ключ у соседа",
+	} {
+		text, mood, err := parseResponseMood(raw)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Errorf("parseResponseMood(%q) err = %v, want nil", raw, err)
+		}
+		// No JSON means no fields; the caller ships raw as-is.
+		if text != "" || mood != "" {
+			t.Errorf("parseResponseMood(%q) = %q/%q, want empty", raw, text, mood)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// The measured failure: the model wants more than 400 characters and the old
+// grammar cut it off mid-word. Guards the bound against being tightened back.
+func TestGrammarStringBoundHasRoomForARealAnswer(t *testing.T) {
+	if !strings.Contains(responseGrammar, "{0,1000}") {
+		t.Error("grammar string bound is not 1000; 400 truncated real replies mid-word (see the comment on responseGrammar)")
+	}
+}

internal/phraser/context_block_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+package phraser
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// Every phrasing prompt must carry the shared context block. This is the
+// regression guard for the bug that started this: the "ты" rule reached only
+// two of the five prompts because each prompt had its own copy of the rules.
+func TestEveryPromptCarriesTheContextBlock(t *testing.T) {
+	block := func() string { return "CTXBLOCK" }
+	p := &LLMPhraser{cfg: Config{ContextBlock: block}}
+
+	prompts := map[string]string{
+		"nudge": p.systemPrompt(),
+		"query": p.querySystemPrompt(),
+		"chat":  chatSystemPrompt(block),
+	}
+	for name, got := range prompts {
+		if !strings.HasPrefix(got, "CTXBLOCK\n\n") {
+			t.Errorf("%s prompt does not start with the context block:\n%s", name, got)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// Without a block the prompts are unchanged — the stub and test paths pass nil.
+func TestPromptsWithoutBlockAreUnchanged(t *testing.T) {
+	p := &LLMPhraser{}
+	if p.systemPrompt() != nudgeSystem {
+		t.Errorf("nudge prompt changed with no block set")
+	}
+}

internal/phraser/eval/address_multi_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+package eval
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// TestAddressReportsEveryBreak — the real reply from a nudge eval run broke in
+// two ways at once and the check named only the plural. Both must print: a
+// half-reported failure reads as a milder problem than it is.
+func TestAddressReportsEveryBreak(t *testing.T) {
+	body := "Смотрите на его потребление воды."
+	res := checkAddress(body)
+	if res.Pass {
+		t.Fatalf("checkAddress passed %q", body)
+	}
+	for _, want := range []string{"смотрите", "его"} {
+		if !strings.Contains(res.Detail, want) {
+			t.Errorf("detail %q does not name %q", res.Detail, want)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// One word repeated is one problem, so the detail must not say it twice.
+func TestAddressDeduplicates(t *testing.T) {
+	res := checkAddress("Вам стоит поесть, вам это нужно.")
+	if res.Pass {
+		t.Fatal("expected failure")
+	}
+	if n := strings.Count(res.Detail, "formal"); n != 1 {
+		t.Errorf("detail repeats the same break %d times: %q", n, res.Detail)
+	}
+}
+
+// The fragments a real run produced. All of them scored as non-empty replies
+// before checkNonEmpty looked for letters.
+func TestNonEmptyNeedsLetters(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, body := range []string{
+		"{",
+		"{\n  \"",
+		"15-16",
+		`{"`,
+		"   ",
+		"...",
+	} {
+		if got := checkNonEmpty(body); got.Pass {
+			t.Errorf("checkNonEmpty(%q) passed — that is not a reply", body)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// And it must not start failing real replies. Latin counts as well as Cyrillic:
+// answers about ssd or vpn are legitimately part English.
+func TestNonEmptyAcceptsRealReplies(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, body := range []string{
+		"норм, а ты как?",
+		"вот что я нашла: ключ у соседа",
+		"ssd быстрее hdd.",
+		"9 минут.",
+	} {
+		if got := checkNonEmpty(body); !got.Pass {
+			t.Errorf("checkNonEmpty(%q) failed: %s", body, got.Detail)
+		}
+	}
+}

internal/phraser/eval/address_time_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+package eval
+
+import "testing"
+
+func TestAddressTimeWordDoesNotBlind(t *testing.T) {
+	// A nudge that opens with a time word must still be caught. Without the
+	// time words in the stoplist, "сегодня" was read as the third party.
+	for _, s := range []string{
+		"сегодня он не ел 11 дней",
+		"вчера он не пил воду",
+		"опять он забыл про таблетки",
+	} {
+		if r := checkAddress(s); r.Pass {
+			t.Errorf("checkAddress(%q) passed, want a third-person failure", s)
+		}
+	}
+	// Still must not fire when a third party really is named.
+	for _, s := range []string{
+		"сегодня сервис упал, он не отвечает",
+		"ты не пил воду четыре часа",
+	} {
+		if r := checkAddress(s); !r.Pass {
+			t.Errorf("checkAddress(%q) failed: %s", s, r.Detail)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// TestAddressVerbIsNotAnAntecedent — a nudge is mostly verbs, and a verb is
+// never who "он" refers to. This exact string passed the check before.
+func TestAddressVerbIsNotAnAntecedent(t *testing.T) {
+	s := "попробуй встать и отдохнуть — у него есть перерыв"
+	if r := checkAddress(s); r.Pass {
+		t.Errorf("checkAddress(%q) passed, want a third-person failure", s)
+	}
+	// Still missed, and this is the documented hole: "выпей воды, он не пил" has
+	// a real noun ("воды") before the pronoun, so the scan believes somebody
+	// else was named. Telling that apart needs a parser, not a suffix rule.
+	// A named third party still wins over the verbs around it.
+	if r := checkAddress("сервис упал, он не отвечает"); !r.Pass {
+		t.Errorf("checkAddress on a real third party failed: %s", r.Detail)
+	}
+}

internal/phraser/eval/checks.go

@@ -17,10 +17,18 @@ const (
 	CheckFeminine = "feminine" // her self-reference is feminine (hard constraint)
 	CheckCringe   = "cringe"   // DESIGN.md § Non-goals, "not a relationship"
 	CheckOnTopic  = "ontopic"  // says the thing the rule is about
+
+	// CheckHisGender — the other half of the persona rule: SHE is feminine, HE
+	// is male. "ты давно не отдыхала" addresses the operator as a woman.
+	CheckHisGender = "hisgender"
+
+	// CheckAddress — she talks TO him, informally, one to one. Not "вы", not
+	// "он". See the comment block above checkAddress.
+	CheckAddress = "address"
 )
 
 // CheckNames — report order.
-var CheckNames = []string{CheckMood, CheckLang, CheckLength, CheckFeminine, CheckCringe, CheckOnTopic}
+var CheckNames = []string{CheckMood, CheckLang, CheckLength, CheckFeminine, CheckHisGender, CheckAddress, CheckCringe, CheckOnTopic}
 
 // Result — one check on one message.
 type Result struct {
@@ -52,6 +60,8 @@ func RunChecks(c Case, body, mood string) []Result {
 		checkLang(body),
 		checkLength(body),
 		checkFeminine(body),
+		checkHisGender(body),
+		checkAddress(body),
 		checkCringe(body),
 		checkOnTopic(c, body),
 	}
@@ -176,6 +186,315 @@ func checkFeminine(body string) Result {
 	return Result{CheckFeminine, true, ""}
 }
 
+// --- he is male ----------------------------------------------------------
+//
+// The mirror of checkFeminine, and the failure it was written for: the model
+// wrote "ты давно не отдыхала", which addresses the operator as a woman. That
+// scored clean, because checkFeminine only ever looks at how SHE speaks about
+// herself.
+//
+// How it works: Russian past tense is gendered by suffix, -л (m) / -ла (f). So
+// this looks for feminine past-tense words in a sentence that also talks TO him
+// ("ты", "тебя", "тебе", "твой", …). A feminine verb that belongs to her ("я
+// заметила", "напомнила тебе") is skipped — that one is correct.
+//
+// Honest about the limits: this is a suffix rule, not a parser.
+//   - False positives: a feminine noun can be the subject in the same sentence
+//     ("зарядка была утром, ты её пропустил"). The guard below skips a verb whose
+//     previous word looks like a feminine noun, which helps but will not always
+//     be right.
+//   - False negatives: gender also shows up outside the past tense (short
+//     adjectives, "сама"), and none of that is checked here.
+//
+// That is acceptable for an eval check. It is a signal to read the message, not
+// a grammar verdict, and every hit prints the word it tripped on so a human can
+// disagree.
+
+// hisMarkers — words that mean the sentence is addressed to him.
+var hisMarkers = map[string]bool{
+	"ты": true, "тебя": true, "тебе": true, "тобой": true, "тобою": true,
+	"твой": true, "твоя": true, "твоё": true, "твое": true, "твои": true, "твою": true,
+}
+
+// notFeminineVerb — ordinary words ending in "-ла" that are not verbs. Small on
+// purpose: it only has to cover words a nudge might actually use.
+//
+// Words that are both a noun and a verb are deliberately NOT here. "села",
+// "мыла" and "стекла" are nouns on paper, but in a nudge they are almost always
+// verbs ("ты села", "ты мыла"), and listing them would make the check miss the
+// exact thing it is for. Missing a real hit is worse than one false alarm.
+var notFeminineVerb = map[string]bool{
+	"школа": true, "скала": true, "игла": true, "метла": true, "смола": true,
+	"дела": true, "тела": true, "масла": true, "весла": true,
+	"зола": true, "пчела": true, "числа": true,
+}
+
+// femininePast reports whether a word looks like a feminine past-tense verb:
+// "отдыхала", "поела", "выспалась".
+func femininePast(w string) bool {
+	if len([]rune(w)) < 3 || notFeminineVerb[w] {
+		return false
+	}
+	return strings.HasSuffix(w, "ла") || strings.HasSuffix(w, "лась")
+}
+
+// looksFeminineNoun — a crude guard against "зарядка была": a word right before
+// the verb that ends in "а"/"я" and is not itself a verb is probably the subject.
+func looksFeminineNoun(w string) bool {
+	if femininePast(w) || len([]rune(w)) < 3 {
+		return false
+	}
+	return strings.HasSuffix(w, "а") || strings.HasSuffix(w, "я")
+}
+
+// sentenceRE splits on sentence-ending punctuation, so a feminine verb in one
+// sentence is not blamed on a "ты" in the next.
+var sentenceRE = regexp.MustCompile(`[.!?;…]+`)
+
+func checkHisGender(body string) Result {
+	for _, sentence := range sentenceRE.Split(strings.ToLower(body), -1) {
+		words := wordRE.FindAllString(sentence, -1)
+		addressed := false
+		for _, w := range words {
+			if hisMarkers[w] {
+				addressed = true
+			}
+		}
+		if !addressed {
+			continue
+		}
+		for i, w := range words {
+			if !femininePast(w) || hersNotHis(words, i) {
+				continue
+			}
+			if i > 0 && looksFeminineNoun(prevWord(words, i)) {
+				continue
+			}
+			return Result{CheckHisGender, false,
+				fmt.Sprintf("feminine %q addressed to him — he is male", w)}
+		}
+	}
+	return Result{CheckHisGender, true, ""}
+}
+
+// hersNotHis — the verb is Maven's own if "я" comes shortly before it, or if the
+// thing she did was done to him ("напомнила тебе", "проверила за тебя").
+func hersNotHis(words []string, i int) bool {
+	for j := i - 1; j >= 0 && j >= i-3; j-- {
+		if words[j] == "я" {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	if i+1 < len(words) {
+		switch words[i+1] {
+		case "тебе", "тебя", "за", "тобой":
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
+// prevWord — the word before i, skipping "не" and punctuation, so "не отдыхала"
+// still sees the subject.
+func prevWord(words []string, i int) string {
+	for j := i - 1; j >= 0; j-- {
+		w := words[j]
+		if w == "не" || w == "ни" || !unicode.Is(unicode.Cyrillic, []rune(w)[0]) {
+			continue
+		}
+		return w
+	}
+	return ""
+}
+
+// --- how she addresses him ------------------------------------------------
+//
+// Persona hard constraint: Maven speaks TO him, informally, one to one. The
+// phrasing eval produced two breaks of it, and both scored clean:
+//
+//   - "Приходите… Жду вас" — the formal plural. Correct is ты/тебя/тебе and a
+//     singular imperative ("приходи", "жду тебя").
+//   - "Он не ел 11 дней" — she talks ABOUT him, in the third person, as if
+//     reporting to somebody else. Correct is "ты не ел 11 дней".
+//
+// Like checkHisGender this is a keyword + suffix heuristic, NOT a parser. Every
+// hit prints the word it tripped on, so a false alarm is obvious at a glance and
+// can be dismissed.
+//
+// Part 1, formal address. Two signals:
+//   - the "вы" pronoun family, matched as whole words, so there is nothing to
+//     exclude — "вы" and "вас" are never anything else.
+//   - a plural verb ending: -ите/-ете/-йте/-ьте ("приходите", "выпейте",
+//     "не забудьте", "хотите"). Nouns in the prepositional case share those
+//     endings ("в интернете", "в свете"), so a word right after a preposition is
+//     skipped. That is the whole exclusion list, on purpose: a bigger one would
+//     start swallowing real imperatives.
+//
+// Part 2, third person. "он" is perfectly fine when the message really is about
+// somebody or something else ("сервис упал, он не отвечает"). The way to tell
+// them apart: a legitimate third person has an ANTECEDENT — the thing it refers
+// to was named earlier in the message. So "он" is only flagged when nothing
+// before it in the message could be that thing.
+//
+// Where this gives up, plainly:
+//   - it only looks BACKWARD. "Он не отвечает, сервис упал" names the subject
+//     after the pronoun and is flagged wrongly.
+//   - any noun earlier in the message counts as an antecedent, even when it is
+//     not one ("после обеда он не ел", "выпей воды, он не пил" — both missed).
+//     Verbs and time words no longer count, which covers the usual nudge, but a
+//     plain noun before the pronoun still blinds it. The
+//     common time words are stoplisted so the usual nudge opening does not
+//     blind it, but a message with any other noun in front still slips through.
+//     This is the check's real hole; widening it further would start flagging
+//     legitimate third-party messages, so it stops here.
+//   - a message that opens with "ты" and only later slips into "он" is missed,
+//     because "ты" itself is skipped but the words around it are not.
+//   - formal address outside these endings (short adjectives, "вашими" style
+//     forms not listed) is missed.
+
+// addressWordRE also takes Latin words, because "him"/"he" is the same break in
+// English.
+var addressWordRE = regexp.MustCompile(`[\p{Cyrillic}]+|[a-zA-Z]+|[,.;:!?…—-]`)
+
+// formalPronouns — the "вы" family. Whole-word match, so no false hits.
+var formalPronouns = map[string]bool{
+	"вы": true, "вас": true, "вам": true, "вами": true,
+	"ваш": true, "ваша": true, "ваше": true, "ваши": true,
+	"вашего": true, "вашей": true, "вашему": true, "вашим": true,
+	"вашими": true, "вашу": true,
+}
+
+// prepositions — used twice: to skip prepositional-case nouns that look like
+// plural verbs, and as words that cannot be what "он" refers to.
+var prepositions = map[string]bool{
+	"в": true, "во": true, "на": true, "о": true, "об": true, "обо": true,
+	"при": true, "по": true, "за": true, "из": true, "с": true, "со": true,
+	"к": true, "ко": true, "до": true, "от": true, "у": true, "над": true,
+	"под": true, "про": true, "без": true, "для": true, "через": true,
+}
+
+// pluralVerb reports whether a word looks like a plural/formal verb form:
+// "приходите", "выпейте", "забудьте", "хотите".
+func pluralVerb(w string) bool {
+	if len([]rune(w)) < 5 {
+		return false
+	}
+	return strings.HasSuffix(w, "ите") || strings.HasSuffix(w, "ете") ||
+		strings.HasSuffix(w, "йте") || strings.HasSuffix(w, "ьте")
+}
+
+// thirdPersonHim — pronouns that would be talking about him instead of to him.
+var thirdPersonHim = map[string]bool{
+	"он": true, "его": true, "ему": true, "него": true, "нему": true, "ним": true,
+	"he": true, "him": true, "his": true,
+}
+
+// notAnAntecedent — words that cannot be the thing "он" refers to: pronouns,
+// particles, conjunctions, adverbs of time. If only these come before "он", the
+// message never named a third party and "он" is him.
+var notAnAntecedent = map[string]bool{
+	"не": true, "ни": true, "и": true, "а": true, "но": true, "да": true,
+	"же": true, "бы": true, "ли": true, "вот": true, "уже": true,
+	"ещё": true, "еще": true, "тоже": true, "там": true, "тут": true,
+	"здесь": true, "это": true, "что": true, "как": true, "когда": true,
+	"чтобы": true, "потому": true, "сейчас": true, "потом": true,
+	// Time words. A nudge almost always opens with one ("сегодня он не ел"),
+	// and without them the very next word is read as the person being talked
+	// about, so the check misses the exact break it was written for.
+	"сегодня": true, "вчера": true, "завтра": true, "послезавтра": true,
+	"утром": true, "днём": true, "днем": true, "вечером": true, "ночью": true,
+	"опять": true, "снова": true, "весь": true, "всю": true, "целый": true,
+	"я": true, "мне": true, "меня": true, "мной": true, "мы": true, "нас": true,
+	"ты": true, "тебя": true, "тебе": true, "тобой": true,
+	"твой": true, "твоя": true, "твоё": true, "твое": true, "твои": true, "твою": true,
+}
+
+// looksVerb — a verb is never the thing "он" refers to, so it must not count as
+// an antecedent. Past tense keeps "сервис упал, он не отвечает" working off
+// "сервис"; the infinitive and imperative endings are here because a nudge is
+// mostly made of them ("попробуй встать и отдохнуть — у него есть перерыв"
+// slipped through with "попробуй" taken for the person being talked about).
+func looksVerb(w string) bool {
+	r := []rune(w)
+	if len(r) < 3 {
+		return false
+	}
+	for _, suf := range []string{
+		"л", "ла", "ло", "ли", // past tense
+		"ть", "ться", "ти", "чь", // infinitive
+		"й", "йся", "йте", // imperative
+	} {
+		if strings.HasSuffix(w, suf) {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
+func checkAddress(body string) Result {
+	words := addressWordRE.FindAllString(strings.ToLower(body), -1)
+
+	// Every break, not just the first. A bad reply usually breaks in more than
+	// one way at once — "Смотрите на его потребление воды" is a plural imperative
+	// AND third person about him — and reporting only the first hid the second,
+	// which made the failure look milder than it was.
+	var breaks []string
+	seen := map[string]bool{}
+	add := func(msg string) {
+		if seen[msg] {
+			return // the same word twice in one message is one problem, not two
+		}
+		seen[msg] = true
+		breaks = append(breaks, msg)
+	}
+
+	for i, w := range words {
+		if formalPronouns[w] {
+			add(fmt.Sprintf("formal %q — she says ты/тебя/тебе", w))
+		}
+		if pluralVerb(w) && !(i > 0 && prepositions[words[i-1]]) {
+			add(fmt.Sprintf("plural imperative %q — she uses the singular", w))
+		}
+	}
+
+	for i, w := range words {
+		if !thirdPersonHim[w] {
+			continue
+		}
+		named := false
+		for j := 0; j < i; j++ {
+			p := words[j]
+			if !unicode.Is(unicode.Cyrillic, []rune(p)[0]) && !isLatinWord(p) {
+				continue // punctuation
+			}
+			// pluralVerb as well as looksVerb: looksVerb knows the imperative in
+			// -й/-йте but not the -те plural ("смотрите"), so "Смотрите на его
+			// потребление воды" counted "смотрите" as the person being talked
+			// about and the "его" never printed. Third time a verb form has
+			// blinded this check — if a fourth turns up, the antecedent test
+			// wants a real morphology table, not another suffix.
+			if notAnAntecedent[p] || prepositions[p] || thirdPersonHim[p] || looksVerb(p) || pluralVerb(p) {
+				continue
+			}
+			named = true
+			break
+		}
+		if !named {
+			add(fmt.Sprintf("third person %q with nobody else named — she talks to him, not about him", w))
+		}
+	}
+
+	if len(breaks) > 0 {
+		return Result{CheckAddress, false, strings.Join(breaks, " + ")}
+	}
+	return Result{CheckAddress, true, ""}
+}
+
+func isLatinWord(w string) bool {
+	r := []rune(w)[0]
+	return (r >= 'a' && r <= 'z') || (r >= 'A' && r <= 'Z')
+}
+
 // --- the cringe checks ---------------------------------------------------
 //
 // "Think Jarvis without the cringe part". DESIGN.md § Non-goals: "Not a
@@ -276,12 +595,60 @@ func checkCringe(body string) Result {
 // checkOnTopic — the message must name the thing the rule is about. A nudge
 // that never mentions water leaves the operator with a chime and no action.
 func checkOnTopic(c Case, body string) Result {
+	return checkOnTopicAny(c.WantAny, body)
+}
+
+// checkOnTopicAny is the same test over a bare want-list, so the talk scorer can
+// reuse it without owning a nudge Case.
+func checkOnTopicAny(wantAny []string, body string) Result {
 	low := strings.ToLower(body)
-	for _, want := range c.WantAny {
+	for _, want := range wantAny {
 		if strings.Contains(low, strings.ToLower(want)) {
 			return Result{CheckOnTopic, true, ""}
 		}
 	}
 	return Result{CheckOnTopic, false,
-		fmt.Sprintf("mentions none of %v", c.WantAny)}
+		fmt.Sprintf("mentions none of %v", wantAny)}
+}
+
+// --- shape checks for the free-form paths --------------------------------
+//
+// The nudge checks assume one short sentence. Chat and query replies are longer
+// by design, so the only shape worth testing there is that the model produced a
+// reply at all and did not trail off. Both are failure modes the fallbacks in
+// llmphraser.go hide: a truncated or empty generation still returns nil error.
+
+const (
+	CheckNonEmpty = "nonempty" // she said something
+	CheckEllipsis = "ellipsis" // she finished the sentence
+)
+
+// A reply needs words in it, not just characters. This check used to test for a
+// non-empty string, which scored 27/27 on a run where two replies were "{" and
+// "{\n  \"" — punctuation passed as content. Braces, quotes, digits and spaces
+// are all empty in the only sense that matters.
+//
+// Digits alone fail too, and that is deliberate: the same run answered "сколько
+// варить яйцо вкрутую?" with "15-16". No unit, no words, and it is also the
+// wrong number. Whatever that is, it is not something she said.
+func checkNonEmpty(body string) Result {
+	if strings.TrimSpace(body) == "" {
+		return Result{CheckNonEmpty, false, "empty reply"}
+	}
+	for _, r := range body {
+		if unicode.IsLetter(r) {
+			return Result{CheckNonEmpty, true, ""}
+		}
+	}
+	return Result{CheckNonEmpty, false, fmt.Sprintf("no letters in the reply %q — punctuation or digits only", strings.TrimSpace(body))}
+}
+
+// checkEllipsis — a reply ending in "…" or "..." is a generation that ran out of
+// tokens, not a stylistic pause. Mid-sentence ellipses are left alone.
+func checkEllipsis(body string) Result {
+	trimmed := strings.TrimRight(strings.TrimSpace(body), `"'»)`)
+	if strings.HasSuffix(trimmed, "…") || strings.HasSuffix(trimmed, "...") {
+		return Result{CheckEllipsis, false, "reply trails off in an ellipsis — likely truncated"}
+	}
+	return Result{CheckEllipsis, true, ""}
 }

internal/phraser/eval/eval.go

@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ func (r Report) String() string {
 	fmt.Fprintf(&b, "%s: %d/%d cases pass every check (%.1f%%), %d errors\n",
 		r.Name, r.Passed, r.Total, 100*r.Accuracy(), r.Errors)
 	for _, name := range CheckNames {
-		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  %-9s %d/%d\n", name, r.ByCheck[name], r.Total)
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  %-10s %d/%d\n", name, r.ByCheck[name], r.Total)
 	}
 	fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  latency: p50 %s  p95 %s  max %s\n", r.P50, r.P95, r.Max)
 	fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  by rule: %s\n", renderStats(r.ByRule))

internal/phraser/eval/eval_test.go

@@ -72,10 +72,12 @@ func TestStubBaseline(t *testing.T) {
 		// ceiling ("you've been at your desk for 4 hours without a break — step
 		// away for a bit." is 76 chars but 16 words). Left failing rather than
 		// raising the ceiling to hide it.
-		CheckLength:   12,
+		CheckLength:    12,
-		CheckFeminine: 15,
+		CheckFeminine:  15,
-		CheckCringe:   15,
+		CheckHisGender: 15,
-		CheckOnTopic:  12,
+		CheckAddress:   15,
+		CheckCringe:    15,
+		CheckOnTopic:   12,
 	}
 	for name, floor := range floors {
 		if rep.ByCheck[name] < floor {
@@ -104,6 +106,14 @@ func TestChecksCatchWhatTheyClaim(t *testing.T) {
 		{"masculine predicative", "я должен сказать: попей воды.", CheckFeminine},
 		// The other direction: HE is male, so second-person masculine is right.
 		{"second person masculine ok", "ты не пил воду четыре часа.", ""},
+		// The real observed failure: she addressed him as a woman.
+		{"feminine second person", "ты давно не отдыхала — попей воды.", CheckHisGender},
+		{"feminine second person no dash", "ты пила воду четыре часа назад.", CheckHisGender},
+		// Her own feminine verb next to "ты" is correct and must not be flagged.
+		{"her feminine verb near ты", "я заметила, что ты не пил воду.", ""},
+		{"her feminine verb about him", "напомнила тебе про воду.", ""},
+		// A feminine noun subject in the same sentence is not him.
+		{"feminine noun subject ok", "зарядка была утром, ты её пропустил, попей воды.", ""},
 		{"feminine self ok", "я заметила: воды не было четыре часа.", ""},
 		{"pet name", "милый, попей воды.", CheckCringe},
 		{"emoji", "попей воды 💧", CheckCringe},
@@ -114,6 +124,10 @@ func TestChecksCatchWhatTheyClaim(t *testing.T) {
 		{"asks how he feels", "как ты себя чувствуешь? попей воды.", CheckCringe},
 		{"praise", "молодец! теперь попей воды.", CheckCringe},
 		{"off topic", "пора бы уже что-то сделать.", CheckOnTopic},
+		// The two recorded persona breaks from the phrasing eval run. Pinned as
+		// unit tests because an eval run is sampled and may not reproduce them.
+		{"formal plural", "Приходите… Жду вас", CheckAddress},
+		{"third person about him", "Он не ел 11 дней", CheckAddress},
 	}
 
 	for _, tc := range cases {
@@ -135,6 +149,36 @@ func TestChecksCatchWhatTheyClaim(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// TestAddressCheck — the address check on its own, so the messages that must NOT
+// trip it can be written without also having to satisfy the on-topic check.
+func TestAddressCheck(t *testing.T) {
+	bad := []string{
+		"Приходите… Жду вас",        // the recorded formal-plural break
+		"Он не ел 11 дней",          // the recorded third-person break
+		"Выпейте воды, пожалуйста.", // plural imperative on its own
+		"Ваш обед был давно.",       // formal possessive
+	}
+	for _, body := range bad {
+		if r := checkAddress(body); r.Pass {
+			t.Errorf("persona break not caught: %q", body)
+		} else {
+			t.Logf("%q -> %s", body, r.Detail)
+		}
+	}
+
+	good := []string{
+		"ты не пил воду четыре часа — попей.",   // correct informal address
+		"сервис netdata упал, он не отвечает.",  // legitimately about a third party
+		"я заметила, что зарядка была утром.",   // no address at all
+		"в интернете опять тихо, всё работает.", // "интернете" is a noun, not an imperative
+	}
+	for _, body := range good {
+		if r := checkAddress(body); !r.Pass {
+			t.Errorf("clean message flagged: %q -> %s", body, r.Detail)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 func TestMoodCheckUsesTheEnum(t *testing.T) {
 	if r := checkMood("cheerful"); r.Pass {
 		t.Error("mood outside the enum passed")

internal/phraser/eval/llmphraser_test.go

@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ import (
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/llm"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/persona"
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/phraser"
 )
 
@@ -32,6 +34,7 @@ func TestLLMPhrasingBaseline(t *testing.T) {
 	// case as a phrasing error and read as "the model cannot phrase".
 	noProxyLoopback(t)
 
+	ctx := context.Background()
 	f, err := Load()
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("Load: %v", err)
@@ -41,10 +44,25 @@ func TestLLMPhrasingBaseline(t *testing.T) {
 	// Generous: an unconstrained 0.8B can spend a minute thinking before it
 	// writes a word, and a timeout would be scored as a model failure.
 	cfg.Timeout = 5 * time.Minute
+	// The same shared context block the daemon prepends (internal/persona),
+	// with an empty config — that is the deployment we actually ship.
+	cfg.ContextBlock = func() string { return persona.Facts{}.Block(time.Now()) }
 	p := phraser.NewLLMPhraserAt(base, cfg)
 	defer p.Close()
 
-	rep, err := Score(context.Background(), "llm (0.8B, built-in persona)", p, f)
+	// Label the run with whatever gguf the server actually has loaded. It used
+	// to say "0.8B" no matter what, so two runs of two different models came
+	// out named the same and were easy to mix up when comparing.
+	model, err := llm.ModelID(ctx, base)
+	if err != nil {
+		// An unlabelled score is still a score, but say so loudly — a made-up
+		// name in a bake-off table is worse than no name.
+		t.Logf("could not read model id from %s: %v — report will say %q", base, err, llm.UnknownModel)
+		model = llm.UnknownModel
+	}
+	t.Logf("scoring model %s at %s", model, base)
+
+	rep, err := Score(ctx, "llm ("+model+", built-in persona)", p, f)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("Score: %v", err)
 	}

internal/phraser/eval/talk.go

@@ -0,0 +1,265 @@
+package eval
+
+// This file scores the CONVERSATIONAL paths, the ones the nudge fixture never
+// touches: chat, query-with-notes, and general knowledge. All three now carry
+// the shared persona block (internal/persona), and all three produce long
+// free-form Russian — which is exactly where a persona break (formality, third
+// person, masculine self-reference) is most likely and where, until this file,
+// nothing could see one.
+//
+// Why a second fixture instead of more nudge cases: the checks differ. A nudge
+// must be one short sentence with no question in it; a chat reply is allowed
+// 1-3 sentences and a follow-up question is a FEATURE there. Mixing them would
+// need per-case check masks, and the nudge scorer stays untouched this way.
+//
+// Why per-path reporting: a chat regression and a knowledge regression have
+// different causes (chat prompt vs router.KnowledgePrompt), and one blended
+// percentage cannot tell them apart.
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	_ "embed"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"sort"
+	"strings"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/dialogue"
+)
+
+//go:embed talk_v1.json
+var talkFixtureJSON []byte
+
+// The three phrasing paths under test. Values match the fixture's "path" field.
+const (
+	PathChat      = "chat"      // PhraseChat
+	PathQuery     = "query"     // PhraseQuery with notes
+	PathKnowledge = "knowledge" // PhraseQuery with no notes
+)
+
+// TalkPaths — report order.
+var TalkPaths = []string{PathChat, PathQuery, PathKnowledge}
+
+// TalkCheckNames — the checks that apply to a free-form reply, in report order.
+// Deliberately a subset of CheckNames: length, mood and "no questions" are nudge
+// properties and would fail a correct chat reply. These paths return no mood at
+// all, so there is nothing to check there.
+var TalkCheckNames = []string{
+	CheckNonEmpty, CheckEllipsis, CheckLang, CheckFeminine, CheckAddress, CheckOnTopic,
+}
+
+// TalkCase — one turn as the daemon would present it.
+//
+// History is flat text because that is all PhraseChat uses (it concatenates
+// turn texts into one user message); intents and slots would be dead fields.
+// Notes are what the store would have matched for a query.
+//
+// WantAny is the on-topic contract: at least one lowercased fragment must appear
+// in the reply. Fragments are stems ("пароль" → "парол") so declension does not
+// defeat them.
+type TalkCase struct {
+	ID        string   `json:"id"`
+	Path      string   `json:"path"`
+	Utterance string   `json:"utterance"`
+	History   []string `json:"history,omitempty"`
+	Notes     []string `json:"notes,omitempty"`
+	WantAny   []string `json:"want_any"`
+	Tags      []string `json:"tags,omitempty"`
+	Note      string   `json:"note,omitempty"`
+}
+
+// TalkFixture — the versioned envelope, same gating as Fixture.
+type TalkFixture struct {
+	SchemaVersion int        `json:"schema_version"`
+	Name          string     `json:"name"`
+	Notes         []string   `json:"notes"`
+	Cases         []TalkCase `json:"cases"`
+}
+
+// LoadTalk returns the embedded conversational fixture.
+func LoadTalk() (TalkFixture, error) {
+	var f TalkFixture
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(talkFixtureJSON, &f); err != nil {
+		return TalkFixture{}, fmt.Errorf("parse talk fixture: %w", err)
+	}
+	if f.SchemaVersion != SchemaVersion {
+		return TalkFixture{}, fmt.Errorf("talk fixture schema_version %d, want %d", f.SchemaVersion, SchemaVersion)
+	}
+	if len(f.Cases) == 0 {
+		return TalkFixture{}, fmt.Errorf("talk fixture has no cases")
+	}
+	return f, nil
+}
+
+// Talker — the two methods a conversational path must have to be scorable.
+// *phraser.LLMPhraser satisfies it; same trick as Nudger.
+type Talker interface {
+	PhraseChat(ctx context.Context, utterance string, history []dialogue.Turn) (string, error)
+	PhraseQuery(ctx context.Context, utterance string, notes []string) (string, error)
+}
+
+// TalkOutcome — one scored case.
+type TalkOutcome struct {
+	Case    TalkCase
+	Reply   string
+	Err     error
+	Latency time.Duration
+	Pass    bool
+	Failed  []string
+	Reasons []string
+}
+
+// TalkReport — the aggregate. ByPath is the point of this scorer.
+type TalkReport struct {
+	Name     string
+	Total    int
+	Passed   int
+	Errors   int
+	ByCheck  map[string]int
+	ByPath   map[string]TagStat
+	Outcomes []TalkOutcome
+	P50      time.Duration
+	P95      time.Duration
+	Max      time.Duration
+}
+
+// Accuracy — fraction of cases that passed every check.
+func (r TalkReport) Accuracy() float64 {
+	if r.Total == 0 {
+		return 0
+	}
+	return float64(r.Passed) / float64(r.Total)
+}
+
+// ScoreTalk runs every case through t and aggregates. A phrasing error scores as
+// a miss and is counted separately: "the model was down" and "the model wrote
+// something bad" must not be the same number.
+func ScoreTalk(ctx context.Context, name string, t Talker, f TalkFixture) (TalkReport, error) {
+	rep := TalkReport{
+		Name:    name,
+		Total:   len(f.Cases),
+		ByCheck: map[string]int{},
+		ByPath:  map[string]TagStat{},
+	}
+	for _, n := range TalkCheckNames {
+		rep.ByCheck[n] = 0
+	}
+	lat := make([]time.Duration, 0, len(f.Cases))
+
+	for _, c := range f.Cases {
+		start := time.Now()
+		reply, err := c.run(ctx, t)
+		o := TalkOutcome{Case: c, Reply: reply, Err: err, Latency: time.Since(start)}
+		lat = append(lat, o.Latency)
+
+		if err != nil {
+			rep.Errors++
+			o.Failed = append(o.Failed, "call")
+			o.Reasons = append(o.Reasons, fmt.Sprintf("phrase error: %v", err))
+		} else {
+			for _, res := range RunTalkChecks(c, reply) {
+				if res.Pass {
+					rep.ByCheck[res.Name]++
+					continue
+				}
+				o.Failed = append(o.Failed, res.Name)
+				o.Reasons = append(o.Reasons, res.Name+": "+res.Detail)
+			}
+		}
+
+		o.Pass = len(o.Failed) == 0
+		if o.Pass {
+			rep.Passed++
+		}
+		bump(rep.ByPath, c.Path, o.Pass)
+		rep.Outcomes = append(rep.Outcomes, o)
+	}
+
+	sort.Slice(lat, func(i, j int) bool { return lat[i] < lat[j] })
+	rep.P50, rep.P95 = percentile(lat, 0.50), percentile(lat, 0.95)
+	if len(lat) > 0 {
+		rep.Max = lat[len(lat)-1]
+	}
+	return rep, nil
+}
+
+// run dispatches the case to its path. knowledge and query are the same method;
+// the empty notes slice is what selects the no-notes branch inside PhraseQuery.
+func (c TalkCase) run(ctx context.Context, t Talker) (string, error) {
+	switch c.Path {
+	case PathChat:
+		return t.PhraseChat(ctx, c.Utterance, c.turns())
+	case PathQuery:
+		return t.PhraseQuery(ctx, c.Utterance, c.Notes)
+	case PathKnowledge:
+		return t.PhraseQuery(ctx, c.Utterance, nil)
+	}
+	return "", fmt.Errorf("unknown path %q", c.Path)
+}
+
+func (c TalkCase) turns() []dialogue.Turn {
+	turns := make([]dialogue.Turn, 0, len(c.History))
+	for _, h := range c.History {
+		turns = append(turns, dialogue.Turn{Text: h})
+	}
+	return turns
+}
+
+// RunTalkChecks scores one reply. Order matches TalkCheckNames.
+func RunTalkChecks(c TalkCase, reply string) []Result {
+	return []Result{
+		checkNonEmpty(reply),
+		checkEllipsis(reply),
+		checkLang(reply),
+		checkFeminine(reply),
+		checkAddress(reply),
+		checkOnTopicAny(c.WantAny, reply),
+	}
+}
+
+// String renders the comparison table — composite, then per-check so a
+// regression names the property, then per-path so it names the prompt.
+func (r TalkReport) String() string {
+	var b strings.Builder
+	fmt.Fprintf(&b, "%s: %d/%d cases pass every check (%.1f%%), %d errors\n",
+		r.Name, r.Passed, r.Total, 100*r.Accuracy(), r.Errors)
+	for _, name := range TalkCheckNames {
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  %-10s %d/%d\n", name, r.ByCheck[name], r.Total)
+	}
+	fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  latency: p50 %s  p95 %s  max %s\n", r.P50, r.P95, r.Max)
+	fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  by path: %s\n", renderStats(r.ByPath))
+	return b.String()
+}
+
+// Failures — per-case detail, sorted by ID so two runs diff cleanly.
+func (r TalkReport) Failures() string {
+	var b strings.Builder
+	for _, o := range r.sorted() {
+		if o.Pass {
+			continue
+		}
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  %s %q\n    %s\n", o.Case.ID, o.Reply, strings.Join(o.Reasons, "; "))
+	}
+	return b.String()
+}
+
+// Replies — every generated reply verbatim. This is what a human reads to judge
+// tone; the score only says which checks fired.
+func (r TalkReport) Replies() string {
+	var b strings.Builder
+	for _, o := range r.sorted() {
+		mark := "ok  "
+		if !o.Pass {
+			mark = "FAIL"
+		}
+		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "  %s %-9s %-22s %q\n", mark, o.Case.Path, o.Case.ID, o.Reply)
+	}
+	return b.String()
+}
+
+func (r TalkReport) sorted() []TalkOutcome {
+	out := append([]TalkOutcome(nil), r.Outcomes...)
+	sort.Slice(out, func(i, j int) bool { return out[i].Case.ID < out[j].Case.ID })
+	return out
+}

internal/phraser/eval/talk_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,163 @@
+package eval
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"os"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/dialogue"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/llm"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/persona"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/phraser"
+)
+
+// perPathMinimum — the resolution floor. A per-path score built on a handful of
+// cases moves by 12% when a single reply changes, which cannot distinguish a
+// prompt regression from noise.
+const perPathMinimum = 8
+
+// TestTalkFixture — the fixture itself has to be sound before any score off it
+// means anything.
+func TestTalkFixture(t *testing.T) {
+	f, err := LoadTalk()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("LoadTalk: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	seen := map[string]bool{}
+	byPath := map[string]int{}
+	for _, c := range f.Cases {
+		if seen[c.ID] {
+			t.Errorf("duplicate case id %q", c.ID)
+		}
+		seen[c.ID] = true
+
+		switch c.Path {
+		case PathChat, PathQuery, PathKnowledge:
+		default:
+			t.Errorf("%s: unknown path %q", c.ID, c.Path)
+		}
+		byPath[c.Path]++
+
+		if strings.TrimSpace(c.Utterance) == "" {
+			t.Errorf("%s: empty utterance", c.ID)
+		}
+		if len(c.WantAny) == 0 {
+			t.Errorf("%s: no want_any — the reply cannot be checked for topic", c.ID)
+		}
+		// A query case with no notes would silently score the knowledge path.
+		if c.Path == PathQuery && len(c.Notes) == 0 {
+			t.Errorf("%s: query case has no notes", c.ID)
+		}
+		if c.Path == PathKnowledge && len(c.Notes) > 0 {
+			t.Errorf("%s: knowledge case must have no notes", c.ID)
+		}
+	}
+
+	for _, p := range TalkPaths {
+		if byPath[p] < perPathMinimum {
+			t.Errorf("path %s has %d cases, want at least %d", p, byPath[p], perPathMinimum)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// fakeTalker — a scripted Talker, so the scorer is testable without a model.
+type fakeTalker struct{ reply string }
+
+func (f fakeTalker) PhraseChat(context.Context, string, []dialogue.Turn) (string, error) {
+	return f.reply, nil
+}
+func (f fakeTalker) PhraseQuery(context.Context, string, []string) (string, error) {
+	return f.reply, nil
+}
+
+// TestScoreTalkCounts — a reply that fails on purpose must be counted on every
+// path, so a real run cannot report a hidden zero.
+func TestScoreTalkCounts(t *testing.T) {
+	f, err := LoadTalk()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("LoadTalk: %v", err)
+	}
+	// Formal address, off-topic, trailing ellipsis: three checks fail at once.
+	rep, err := ScoreTalk(context.Background(), "fake", fakeTalker{"Приходите, я вас жду…"}, f)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("ScoreTalk: %v", err)
+	}
+	if rep.Total != len(f.Cases) || rep.Passed != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("got %d/%d passing, want 0/%d", rep.Passed, rep.Total, len(f.Cases))
+	}
+	if rep.ByCheck[CheckAddress] != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("formal reply passed the address check %d times", rep.ByCheck[CheckAddress])
+	}
+	if rep.ByCheck[CheckEllipsis] != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("truncated reply passed the ellipsis check %d times", rep.ByCheck[CheckEllipsis])
+	}
+	for _, p := range TalkPaths {
+		if rep.ByPath[p].Total == 0 {
+			t.Errorf("path %s missing from the report", p)
+		}
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(rep.String(), "by path") {
+		t.Error("report does not break down by path")
+	}
+}
+
+// TestLLMTalkBaseline — the resident model on the three conversational paths.
+// Opt-in exactly like TestLLMPhrasingBaseline: CI has no model and a run costs
+// minutes on the CPU target.
+//
+//	MAVEN_LLM_URL=http://127.0.0.1:18099 \
+//	  go test -run TestLLMTalkBaseline ./internal/phraser/eval/
+//
+// Reports, does not assert a quality bar — the numbers are the input to tuning
+// the persona prompt. The one thing worth failing on is a harness fault.
+func TestLLMTalkBaseline(t *testing.T) {
+	base := os.Getenv("MAVEN_LLM_URL")
+	if base == "" {
+		t.Skip("MAVEN_LLM_URL unset — point it at a running llama-server (see doc comment)")
+	}
+	noProxyLoopback(t)
+
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	f, err := LoadTalk()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("LoadTalk: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	cfg := phraser.DefaultConfig("")
+	cfg.Timeout = 5 * time.Minute
+	cfg.ContextBlock = func() string { return persona.Facts{}.Block(time.Now()) }
+	p := phraser.NewLLMPhraserAt(base, cfg)
+	defer p.Close()
+
+	// Unreachable server is fatal here, not a logged warning, and that differs
+	// from the nudge test on purpose. PhraseNudge returns its errors, so a dead
+	// server there shows up honestly in the Errors column. PhraseChat and
+	// PhraseQuery do NOT: they swallow every failure and return a canned string
+	// ("поговорили.", "не знаю.", "вот что я нашла: …"). So on these three paths
+	// a dead server produces a full report with 0 errors and a terrible score —
+	// a number that looks like bad phrasing and is really no phrasing at all.
+	// Refusing to score without a confirmed model is the only guard available
+	// until the phraser reports its failures (Vikunja #397).
+	model, err := llm.ModelID(ctx, base)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("no model at %s: %v — refusing to score, these paths hide their errors "+
+			"and would report a plausible-looking result off a dead server", base, err)
+	}
+	t.Logf("scoring model %s at %s", model, base)
+
+	rep, err := ScoreTalk(ctx, "llm ("+model+", built-in persona)", p, f)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("ScoreTalk: %v", err)
+	}
+	t.Log("\n" + rep.String() + "\nreplies:\n" + rep.Replies() + "\nfailures:\n" + rep.Failures())
+
+	// And again afterwards: the run takes minutes, and a server that died or got
+	// OOM-killed halfway through would leave the first cases scored and the rest
+	// silently canned. Checking only at the start would not catch that.
+	if _, err := llm.ModelID(ctx, base); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("model at %s went away during the run: %v — the score above is not trustworthy", base, err)
+	}
+}

internal/phraser/eval/talk_v1.json

@@ -0,0 +1,227 @@
+{
+  "schema_version": 1,
+  "name": "ru-talk-v1",
+  "notes": [
+    "Scores the three conversational phrasing paths: chat (PhraseChat), query (PhraseQuery with notes) and knowledge (PhraseQuery with no notes). The nudge fixture does not cover any of them.",
+    "Nine cases per path, not five. The nudge fixture is 15 sampled cases and cannot resolve a change smaller than ~3 cases; a per-path score off five cases would be worse still. More cases per path is the point of this fixture.",
+    "The owner is a man, addressed informally as ty, living alone with a home server. Every utterance is written the way he actually talks to her.",
+    "chat-formality-bait and chat-about-me exist to provoke the two persona breaks the nudge eval caught: the formal vy/vas plural, and talking about him in the third person.",
+    "want_any fragments are stems so Russian declension does not defeat the on-topic check. They are lowercased before comparison.",
+    "want_any is a plain substring test, so a fragment that is too short passes by accident: \"ты\" matches inside \"работы\", \"нет\" inside \"интернет\". Keep every fragment to three or more letters of a real stem.",
+    "Notes are written as the store would have them: short, first person, no punctuation discipline."
+  ],
+  "cases": [
+    {
+      "id": "chat-how-are-you",
+      "path": "chat",
+      "utterance": "привет, как дела?",
+      "want_any": ["норм", "хорош", "порядк", "тут", "работ"],
+      "tags": ["greeting"],
+      "note": "The plainest chat turn there is. If the persona breaks anywhere it breaks here first."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "chat-formality-bait",
+      "path": "chat",
+      "utterance": "не могли бы вы подсказать, чем вы сейчас занимаетесь?",
+      "want_any": ["сейчас", "ничем", "ничего", "жду", "тут"],
+      "tags": ["persona-bait", "address"],
+      "note": "Deliberately polite and plural. A small model mirrors the register and answers with vy/vas — the exact break the address check was written for."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "chat-about-me",
+      "path": "chat",
+      "utterance": "расскажи обо мне",
+      "want_any": ["теб"],
+      "tags": ["persona-bait", "third-person"],
+      "note": "Baits the third person: she should say 'ты живёшь один', not 'он живёт один', as if reporting to somebody else."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "chat-bored-evening",
+      "path": "chat",
+      "utterance": "скучно что-то вечером, посоветуй чем заняться",
+      "want_any": ["можеш", "попробу", "почита", "прогул", "фильм", "серв"],
+      "tags": ["open-ended"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "chat-followup-server",
+      "path": "chat",
+      "utterance": "а стоит его вообще перезагружать?",
+      "history": ["сервер опять шумит как самолёт", "похоже вентилятор"],
+      "want_any": ["серв", "перезагру", "вентил", "шум"],
+      "tags": ["history", "anaphora"],
+      "note": "The pronoun 'его' only resolves through history. Also the one case where 'он' about the server is legitimate."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "chat-tired",
+      "path": "chat",
+      "utterance": "устал я сегодня, весь день за компом",
+      "want_any": ["отдохн", "устал", "перерыв", "спат", "день"],
+      "tags": ["tone"],
+      "note": "Invites the fake-concern and emotional-support drift; the reply should stay plain."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "chat-thanks",
+      "path": "chat",
+      "utterance": "спасибо, выручила",
+      "want_any": ["пожалуйст", "не за что", "рада", "обращ"],
+      "tags": ["persona", "feminine"],
+      "note": "Feminine self-reference is unavoidable in an answer to thanks: 'рада', not 'рад'."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "chat-what-can-you-do",
+      "path": "chat",
+      "utterance": "что ты вообще умеешь?",
+      "want_any": ["напомн", "замет", "запис", "могу", "умею"],
+      "tags": ["self-description", "feminine"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "chat-joke",
+      "path": "chat",
+      "utterance": "расскажи что-нибудь смешное",
+      "want_any": ["анекдот", "шутк", "смешн", "истори"],
+      "tags": ["open-ended"],
+      "note": "Longest free-form generation in the chat set — the most likely place for a truncated reply."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "query-router-password",
+      "path": "query",
+      "utterance": "что я записывал про пароль от роутера?",
+      "notes": ["пароль от роутера admin/xxK9tp — на наклейке снизу", "роутер висит в коридоре"],
+      "want_any": ["парол", "роутер", "наклейк"],
+      "tags": ["notes", "recall"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "query-bedtime-yesterday",
+      "path": "query",
+      "utterance": "напомни, во сколько я вчера лёг?",
+      "notes": ["лёг спать в 02:40", "сегодня встал в 9"],
+      "want_any": ["02:40", "2:40", "полтрет", "ноч"],
+      "tags": ["notes", "time"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "query-doctor-name",
+      "path": "query",
+      "utterance": "как звали того стоматолога, которого мне советовали?",
+      "notes": ["стоматолог Игорь Валерьевич, клиника на Ленина, советовал Дима"],
+      "want_any": ["игор", "валерьев", "стоматолог"],
+      "tags": ["notes", "recall"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "query-disk-plan",
+      "path": "query",
+      "utterance": "я что-то планировал с диском на сервере, что именно?",
+      "notes": ["купить второй hdd на 4тб под бэкапы", "перенести медиатеку с системного диска"],
+      "want_any": ["hdd", "бэкап", "диск", "4тб", "медиатек"],
+      "tags": ["notes", "homeserver"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "query-notes-do-not-answer",
+      "path": "query",
+      "utterance": "сколько я заплатил за домен?",
+      "notes": ["домен продлевается в марте", "хостинг оплачен на год вперёд"],
+      "want_any": ["домен", "не зна", "не указ"],
+      "tags": ["notes", "negative"],
+      "note": "The notes do not contain the price. The prompt tells her to say so; a made-up number is the failure being watched for."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "query-single-note",
+      "path": "query",
+      "utterance": "где лежит запасной ключ?",
+      "notes": ["запасной ключ у соседа с четвёртого этажа"],
+      "want_any": ["ключ", "сосед", "четверт"],
+      "tags": ["notes", "single"],
+      "note": "One note only — PhraseQuery has a separate branch for len(notes) == 1."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "query-polite-form",
+      "path": "query",
+      "utterance": "подскажите, пожалуйста, что у меня записано по машине?",
+      "notes": ["замена масла на 92 тысячах", "страховка до 14 сентября"],
+      "want_any": ["масл", "страховк", "92", "сентябр"],
+      "tags": ["notes", "persona-bait", "address"],
+      "note": "Polite plural in the question. The answer must still be ty."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "query-shopping",
+      "path": "query",
+      "utterance": "что мне надо было купить?",
+      "notes": ["купить кофе и фильтры", "закончилась паста"],
+      "want_any": ["кофе", "фильтр", "паст"],
+      "tags": ["notes", "list"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "query-wifi-guest",
+      "path": "query",
+      "utterance": "я записывал гостевой вайфай?",
+      "notes": ["гостевая сеть maven-guest, пароль 12345678 меняю раз в месяц"],
+      "want_any": ["guest", "гостев", "12345678", "парол"],
+      "tags": ["notes", "recall"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-sky-blue",
+      "path": "knowledge",
+      "utterance": "почему небо синее?",
+      "want_any": ["све", "рассеи", "атмосфер", "син", "волн"],
+      "tags": ["general"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-boil-egg",
+      "path": "knowledge",
+      "utterance": "сколько варить яйцо вкрутую?",
+      "want_any": ["минут", "8", "9", "10", "варит"],
+      "tags": ["general", "practical"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-ssd-vs-hdd",
+      "path": "knowledge",
+      "utterance": "чем ssd отличается от hdd?",
+      "want_any": ["ssd", "hdd", "быстр", "диск", "механич"],
+      "tags": ["general", "tech"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-cat-purr",
+      "path": "knowledge",
+      "utterance": "почему кошки мурчат?",
+      "want_any": ["кош", "мурч", "вибра", "успока"],
+      "tags": ["general"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-hiccups",
+      "path": "knowledge",
+      "utterance": "как быстро избавиться от икоты?",
+      "want_any": ["икот", "дыха", "вод", "задерж"],
+      "tags": ["general", "practical"]
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-polite-form",
+      "path": "knowledge",
+      "utterance": "не могли бы вы объяснить, что такое vpn?",
+      "want_any": ["vpn", "туннел", "трафик", "сет", "шифр"],
+      "tags": ["general", "persona-bait", "address"],
+      "note": "Polite plural bait on the knowledge prompt, which is a different system prompt from chat and must hold the same line."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-dont-know",
+      "path": "knowledge",
+      "utterance": "как зовут моего соседа снизу?",
+      "want_any": ["не зна", "не мог"],
+      "tags": ["general", "negative"],
+      "note": "Unanswerable without notes. Admitting it beats inventing a name; watching for the invention."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-water-per-day",
+      "path": "knowledge",
+      "utterance": "сколько воды в день надо пить?",
+      "want_any": ["вод", "литр", "стакан", "пит"],
+      "tags": ["general", "health"],
+      "note": "Overlaps a nudge rule on purpose: the knowledge answer must not turn into a nudge."
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "know-thunder-delay",
+      "path": "knowledge",
+      "utterance": "почему гром слышно позже молнии?",
+      "want_any": ["звук", "све", "быстр", "гром", "молни"],
+      "tags": ["general"]
+    }
+  ]
+}

internal/phraser/eval/templates_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+package eval
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"math/rand"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/phraser"
+)
+
+// TestTemplateNudges scores the hand-written Russian templates on the same
+// fixture the model is scored on. No model, no network — it runs in milliseconds.
+//
+// The bar is every case, not most of them: the templates are hand-written, so a
+// failure is a bug in one line of Russian, not model variance.
+func TestTemplateNudges(t *testing.T) {
+	f, err := Load()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Load: %v", err)
+	}
+	// Fixed seed: the score must not depend on which variant came up.
+	nt, err := phraser.NewNudgeTemplates(rand.NewSource(20260731))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("NewNudgeTemplates: %v", err)
+	}
+	rep, err := Score(context.Background(), "ru templates", nt, f)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Score: %v", err)
+	}
+	t.Log("\n" + rep.String())
+	t.Log("\n" + rep.Messages())
+	if rep.Passed != rep.Total {
+		t.Errorf("templates scored %d/%d, want every case:\n%s",
+			rep.Passed, rep.Total, rep.Failures())
+	}
+}
+
+// TestTemplateNudgesEverySeed — one seed passing could be luck. Every variant of
+// every rule has to pass every check, so sweep seeds until each has been used.
+func TestTemplateNudgesEverySeed(t *testing.T) {
+	f, err := Load()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Load: %v", err)
+	}
+	for seed := int64(0); seed < 60; seed++ {
+		nt, err := phraser.NewNudgeTemplates(rand.NewSource(seed))
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("NewNudgeTemplates: %v", err)
+		}
+		rep, err := Score(context.Background(), "ru templates", nt, f)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("Score: %v", err)
+		}
+		if rep.Passed != rep.Total {
+			t.Errorf("seed %d: %d/%d\n%s", seed, rep.Passed, rep.Total, rep.Failures())
+		}
+	}
+}

internal/phraser/grammar_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+package phraser
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"net/http"
+	"net/http/httptest"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/loop"
+)
+
+// grammarSpy stands in for llama-server: it records the grammar field of every
+// request and always answers with a contract-shaped reply.
+type grammarSpy struct {
+	srv      *httptest.Server
+	grammars []string
+}
+
+func newGrammarSpy(t *testing.T) *grammarSpy {
+	t.Helper()
+	s := &grammarSpy{}
+	s.srv = httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		var req chatReq
+		if err := json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&req); err != nil {
+			t.Errorf("spy: decode request: %v", err)
+		}
+		s.grammars = append(s.grammars, req.Grammar)
+		w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
+		w.Write([]byte(`{"choices":[{"message":{"content":"{\"response\": \"ага\", \"mood\": \"neutral\"}"}}]}`))
+	}))
+	t.Cleanup(s.srv.Close)
+	return s
+}
+
+// callAllPhrasingPaths hits every path that expects the JSON contract.
+// LLMNudges must be set on the phraser under test: nudges come from templates
+// by default and never reach the model at all.
+func callAllPhrasingPaths(t *testing.T, p *LLMPhraser) {
+	t.Helper()
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	if _, err := p.PhraseNudge(ctx, loop.Candidate{Rule: loop.WaterRule(), Severity: loop.Sev1}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("PhraseNudge: %v", err)
+	}
+	if _, err := p.PhraseChat(ctx, "привет", nil); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("PhraseChat: %v", err)
+	}
+	// Both branches: no notes (general knowledge) and with notes (grounded).
+	if _, err := p.PhraseQuery(ctx, "сколько воды я выпил", nil); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("PhraseQuery (no notes): %v", err)
+	}
+	if _, err := p.PhraseQuery(ctx, "сколько воды я выпил", []string{"два литра"}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("PhraseQuery (notes): %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestGrammarIsAttachedToEveryPhrasingRequest(t *testing.T) {
+	if strings.TrimSpace(responseGrammar) == "" {
+		t.Fatal("responseGrammar is empty")
+	}
+	spy := newGrammarSpy(t)
+	p := NewLLMPhraserAt(spy.srv.URL, Config{LLMNudges: true})
+
+	callAllPhrasingPaths(t, p)
+
+	if len(spy.grammars) != 4 {
+		t.Fatalf("expected 4 requests, got %d", len(spy.grammars))
+	}
+	for i, g := range spy.grammars {
+		if g != responseGrammar {
+			t.Errorf("request %d carries grammar %q, want responseGrammar", i, g)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestNoGrammarConfigDisablesIt(t *testing.T) {
+	spy := newGrammarSpy(t)
+	p := NewLLMPhraserAt(spy.srv.URL, Config{NoGrammar: true, LLMNudges: true})
+
+	callAllPhrasingPaths(t, p)
+
+	for i, g := range spy.grammars {
+		if g != "" {
+			t.Errorf("request %d still carries a grammar with NoGrammar set: %q", i, g)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// The grammar's string rule must accept any codepoint, not just ASCII. Replies
+// are Russian: an ASCII-only class would constrain the model into empty replies.
+func TestGrammarStringRuleIsNotASCIIOnly(t *testing.T) {
+	if !strings.Contains(responseGrammar, `([^"\\] | "\\" ["\\/bfnrt])`) {
+		t.Error("string rule is not the any-codepoint-except-quote-and-backslash class; Cyrillic replies would be impossible")
+	}
+}
+
+// What the grammar describes must survive the parser that reads it back — a
+// Russian body with an escaped quote inside, hand-built to test the contract.
+func TestGrammarShapedJSONParses(t *testing.T) {
+	raw := `{"response": "он сказал \"привет\" и ушёл.\nвот так.", "mood": "confused"}`
+	text, mood, err := parseResponseMood(raw)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("grammar-shaped JSON did not parse: %v", err)
+	}
+	if want := "он сказал \"привет\" и ушёл.\nвот так."; text != want {
+		t.Errorf("response = %q, want %q", text, want)
+	}
+	if mood != "confused" {
+		t.Errorf("mood = %q, want confused", mood)
+	}
+}
+
+// Every mood the grammar permits is one the contract knows, and all five are there.
+func TestGrammarMoodEnumMatchesTheContract(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, m := range []string{"neutral", "happy", "thinking", "tired", "confused"} {
+		if !strings.Contains(responseGrammar, `"\"`+m+`\""`) {
+			t.Errorf("mood %q missing from the grammar", m)
+		}
+	}
+	// No sixth mood: the enum line lists exactly five alternatives.
+	for _, line := range strings.Split(responseGrammar, "\n") {
+		if strings.HasPrefix(line, "mood") {
+			if n := strings.Count(line, "|") + 1; n != 5 {
+				t.Errorf("mood rule lists %d alternatives, want 5: %s", n, line)
+			}
+		}
+	}
+}

internal/phraser/llmphraser.go

@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/delivery"
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/dialogue"
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/loop"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/persona"
 	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/router"
 )
 
@@ -30,6 +31,10 @@ type LLMPhraser struct {
 	cmd    *exec.Cmd
 	cancel context.CancelFunc
 	wg     sync.WaitGroup
+
+	// tmpl — the hand-written Russian nudges. Default path for nudges; see
+	// Config.LLMNudges. nil only if the template file failed to load.
+	tmpl *NudgeTemplates
 }
 
 type Config struct {
@@ -39,7 +44,31 @@ type Config struct {
 	NGpuLayers int
 	NCtx       int
 	Timeout    time.Duration
-	Persona    string // optional prompt prefix tuning maven's character
+
+	// ContextBlock renders the shared context block (who he is, how to
+	// address him, the time) fresh for each turn. See internal/persona.
+	// nil ⇒ no block, the prompts stand alone.
+	ContextBlock func() string
+
+	// LLMNudges puts the model back in charge of nudge wording.
+	//
+	// Off by default, and that is a deliberate deprecation of LLM-phrased
+	// nudges: hand-written templates (nudges_ru_v1.json) word every nudge now.
+	// A nudge has nothing to be creative about, and measured over many runs the
+	// 0.8B broke the persona (formal "вы", plural imperatives, masculine
+	// self-reference) and invented facts and units. Templates score 15/15 on the
+	// nudge fixture, the model 11-13/15.
+	//
+	// The LLM path is kept, not deleted: flip this on to get it back. Chat,
+	// query and reminder phrasing are untouched and still go through the model.
+	LLMNudges bool
+
+	// NoGrammar turns the GBNF constraint off (zero value ⇒ grammar ON).
+	// The escape hatch exists because the target resident model — the
+	// locally CPT'd Qwen3-1.7B — does not exist yet: if its chat template
+	// ever fights the grammar, the fix should be a config flip on the
+	// deploy box, not a code change and a rebuild.
+	NoGrammar bool
 }
 
 func DefaultConfig(modelPath string) Config {
@@ -59,6 +88,7 @@ func NewLLMPhraser(ctx context.Context, cfg Config) (*LLMPhraser, error) {
 		cfg:    cfg,
 		client: &http.Client{Timeout: cfg.Timeout},
 		cancel: cancel,
+		tmpl:   loadNudgeTemplates(),
 	}
 	if err := p.start(ctx); err != nil {
 		cancel()
@@ -80,9 +110,22 @@ func NewLLMPhraserAt(baseURL string, cfg Config) *LLMPhraser {
 		client: &http.Client{Timeout: cfg.Timeout},
 		port:   strings.TrimSuffix(baseURL, "/"),
 		cancel: func() {},
+		tmpl:   loadNudgeTemplates(),
 	}
 }
 
+// loadNudgeTemplates loads the Russian nudge templates. A broken template file
+// must not stop the daemon booting, so a failure logs and leaves the LLM path
+// in charge of nudges.
+func loadNudgeTemplates() *NudgeTemplates {
+	nt, err := NewNudgeTemplates(nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Printf("phraser: nudge templates unavailable, using the model: %v", err)
+		return nil
+	}
+	return nt
+}
+
 func (p *LLMPhraser) start(ctx context.Context) error {
 	args := []string{
 		"-m", p.cfg.ModelPath,
@@ -173,18 +216,30 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) Close() error {
 }
 
 func (p *LLMPhraser) PhraseNudge(ctx context.Context, c loop.Candidate) (delivery.PhrasedNudge, error) {
+	// Templates first — see Config.LLMNudges for why this is the default.
+	if !p.cfg.LLMNudges && p.tmpl != nil {
+		return p.tmpl.PhraseNudge(ctx, c)
+	}
 	prompt := buildNudgePrompt(c)
 	resp, err := p.chat(ctx, prompt)
 	if err != nil {
 		return delivery.PhrasedNudge{}, err
 	}
-	body, mood := parseResponseMood(resp)
+	body, mood, perr := parseResponseMood(resp)
+	if perr != nil {
+		// Truncated JSON. Not a nudge — use the plain Russian fallback.
+		log.Printf("phraser: PhraseNudge: %v", perr)
+		body, mood = "", ""
+	}
 	if body == "" {
 		// fallback: try old body/summary format
 		body, _ = parsePhrase(resp)
 	}
 	if body == "" {
-		body = fmt.Sprintf("%s — %s", c.Rule.Name, sevLabel(c.Severity))
+		// The model said nothing usable. Say it in Russian anyway — this text
+		// goes straight to a Russian piper voice, so the old "water — care"
+		// fallback was unspeakable.
+		body = fallbackNudge(c)
 	}
 	if mood == "" {
 		mood = "neutral"
@@ -199,13 +254,18 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) PhraseQuery(ctx context.Context, utterance string, notes []
 	if len(notes) == 0 {
 		// General knowledge — no notes to ground the answer. The system
 		// prompt is the single tested source in router.KnowledgePrompt.
-		sys := router.KnowledgePrompt()
+		sys := persona.Prepend(p.cfg.ContextBlock, router.KnowledgePrompt())
 		prompt := fmt.Sprintf("Пользователь спрашивает: \"%s\".", utterance)
-		resp, err := p.chatWithSystem(ctx, sys, prompt, 256)
+		resp, err := p.chatWithSystem(ctx, sys, prompt, 768)
 		if err != nil || resp == "" {
 			return "не знаю.", nil
 		}
-		if text, _ := parseResponseMood(resp); text != "" {
+		text, _, perr := parseResponseMood(resp)
+		if perr != nil {
+			log.Printf("phraser: PhraseQuery: %v", perr)
+			return "не знаю.", nil
+		}
+		if text != "" {
 			return text, nil
 		}
 		return resp, nil
@@ -215,17 +275,22 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) PhraseQuery(ctx context.Context, utterance string, notes []
 	}
 	sys := p.querySystemPrompt()
 	prompt := fmt.Sprintf(
-		`The user asks: "%s". Your notes matching the query contain: "%s". Answer them naturally and briefly. If the notes don't answer the question, say so.`,
+		`Он спрашивает: "%s". В твоих заметках по этому вопросу написано: "%s". Ответь ему коротко и своими словами. Если в заметках ответа нет — так и скажи.`,
 		utterance, strings.Join(notes, `"; "`),
 	)
-	resp, err := p.chatWithSystem(ctx, sys, prompt, 256)
+	resp, err := p.chatWithSystem(ctx, sys, prompt, 768)
-	if err != nil {
+	text, _, perr := parseResponseMood(resp)
+	if err != nil || perr != nil {
+		// Read the notes out rather than ship a broken fragment.
+		if perr != nil {
+			log.Printf("phraser: PhraseQuery: %v", perr)
+		}
 		if len(notes) == 1 {
 			return "вот что я нашла: " + notes[0], nil
 		}
 		return "вот что я нашла: " + strings.Join(notes, "; "), nil
 	}
-	if text, _ := parseResponseMood(resp); text != "" {
+	if text != "" {
 		return text, nil
 	}
 	return resp, nil
@@ -235,7 +300,7 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) PhraseQuery(ctx context.Context, utterance string, notes []
 // message array from dialogue history + the current user utterance. Falls back
 // to a simple greeting on any LLM error — better to say something than nothing.
 func (p *LLMPhraser) PhraseChat(ctx context.Context, utterance string, history []dialogue.Turn) (string, error) {
-	sys := chatSystemPrompt(p.cfg.Persona)
+	sys := chatSystemPrompt(p.cfg.ContextBlock)
 	msgs := []chatMsg{
 		{Role: "system", Content: sys},
 	}
@@ -248,12 +313,17 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) PhraseChat(ctx context.Context, utterance string, history [
 	combined += utterance
 	msgs = append(msgs, chatMsg{Role: "user", Content: strings.TrimSpace(combined)})
 
-	resp, err := p.chatWithMessages(ctx, msgs, 512)
+	resp, err := p.chatWithMessages(ctx, msgs, 768)
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Printf("phraser: PhraseChat: %v", err)
 		return "поговорили.", nil
 	}
-	if text, _ := parseResponseMood(resp); text != "" {
+	text, _, perr := parseResponseMood(resp)
+	if perr != nil {
+		log.Printf("phraser: PhraseChat: %v", perr)
+		return "поговорили.", nil
+	}
+	if text != "" {
 		return text, nil
 	}
 	// fallback: plain text without JSON
@@ -264,17 +334,16 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) PhraseChat(ctx context.Context, utterance string, history [
 }
 
 // chatSystemPrompt returns the system prompt for conversational chat.
-// Prepends the configured persona when set.
+// Prepends the shared context block when the phraser has one.
-func chatSystemPrompt(persona string) string {
+func chatSystemPrompt(block func() string) string {
-	base := `You are maven, a self-hosted personal assistant. You're talking with your owner. 
+	// No self-introduction here: the persona block prepended one line above
-Keep replies brief (1-3 sentences) and natural. You're helpful, curious, and a little warm.
+	// already says who she is, same as router.KnowledgePrompt.
-Respond in the user's language (Russian or English, matching their last message). 
+	base := `Ты разговариваешь с хозяином. О себе говоришь в женском роде ("я подумала", "я рада"). Он мужчина: обращайся к нему на "ты", в мужском роде ("ты сказал", "ты забыл"). Никогда не "вы"/"ваш" и никогда "он"/"его" — ты говоришь ему, а не о нём.
-Never roleplay emotions you don't have, but stay friendly. 
+
-Respond ONLY with valid JSON: {"response": "...", "mood": "neutral"}. "response" is your reply text; "mood" reflects your tone (neutral/happy/thinking/tired/confused).`
+Отвечай по-русски, коротко: одна-три фразы, живым языком. Ты доброжелательная, тебе интересно, но чувства не изображай.
-	if persona != "" {
+
-		base = persona + "\n\n" + base
+Отвечай ТОЛЬКО одним объектом JSON: {"response": "...", "mood": "neutral"}. В "response" — твой ответ. В "mood" — ровно одно из: neutral, happy, thinking, tired, confused.`
-	}
+	return persona.Prepend(block, base)
-	return base
 }
 
 // chatWithMessages sends a full message array (system + history + current) to
@@ -285,6 +354,7 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) chatWithMessages(ctx context.Context, msgs []chatMsg, maxTo
 		Messages:    msgs,
 		Temperature: 0.7,
 		MaxTokens:   maxTokens,
+		Grammar:     p.grammar(),
 	}
 	body, err := json.Marshal(req)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -336,7 +406,12 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) PhraseReminder(ctx context.Context, d loop.ReminderDecision
 	if err != nil {
 		return delivery.PhrasedReminder{}, err
 	}
-	body, mood := parseResponseMood(resp)
+	body, mood, perr := parseResponseMood(resp)
+	if perr != nil {
+		// Truncated JSON. Fall through to the reminder's own text.
+		log.Printf("phraser: PhraseReminder: %v", perr)
+		body, mood = "", ""
+	}
 	if body == "" {
 		// fallback: try old body/summary format
 		body, _ = parsePhrase(resp)
@@ -364,6 +439,43 @@ type chatReq struct {
 	Messages    []chatMsg `json:"messages"`
 	Temperature float64   `json:"temperature"`
 	MaxTokens   int       `json:"max_tokens"`
+	// Grammar is llama-server's `grammar` field (GBNF). Same wiring as
+	// internal/llm.Req.Grammar. Empty ⇒ unconstrained sampling.
+	Grammar string `json:"grammar,omitempty"`
+}
+
+// responseGrammar — GBNF constraining the model to the documented phrasing
+// contract and nothing else: {"response": "<text>", "mood": "<enum>"}.
+//
+// Without it a 0.8B answers roughly one chat turn in three with open reasoning
+// as plain text ("Thinking Process:" …), which no tag-stripper can remove and
+// which eats the token budget before the JSON closes. Modelled on
+// routeGrammar in internal/router/llmrouter.go so the two read alike.
+//
+// text accepts ANY codepoint except the two JSON must escape — the replies are
+// Russian, so an ASCII-only rule would make every reply empty. The escape rule
+// is what lets the model close a string it opened with a quote inside. Length
+// is bounded so a repetition loop truncates the field, not the JSON object.
+//
+// That bound was 400 and 400 was too tight. Measured against Qwen3.5-0.8B: on
+// "почему гром слышно позже молнии?" the reply came back exactly 400 characters
+// long, cut mid-word ("Нужно записать и,"), at every token cap from 256 to 2048.
+// So the token cap was never what stopped it — this rule was. 1000 characters is
+// roughly six Russian sentences, still short enough to stop a repetition loop.
+const responseGrammar = `
+root   ::= "{" ws "\"response\"" ws ":" ws string ws "," ws "\"mood\"" ws ":" ws mood ws "}"
+mood   ::= "\"neutral\"" | "\"happy\"" | "\"thinking\"" | "\"tired\"" | "\"confused\""
+string ::= "\"" ([^"\\] | "\\" ["\\/bfnrt]){0,1000} "\""
+ws     ::= [ \t\n]*
+`
+
+// grammar returns the GBNF to attach to a phrasing request, or "" when the
+// operator turned it off.
+func (p *LLMPhraser) grammar() string {
+	if p.cfg.NoGrammar {
+		return ""
+	}
+	return responseGrammar
 }
 
 type chatResp struct {
@@ -388,6 +500,7 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) chatWithSystem(ctx context.Context, system, user string, ma
 		},
 		Temperature: 0.7,
 		MaxTokens:   maxTokens,
+		Grammar:     p.grammar(),
 	}
 	body, err := json.Marshal(req)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -428,40 +541,166 @@ func (p *LLMPhraser) chatWithSystem(ctx context.Context, system, user string, ma
 	return stripThink(content), nil
 }
 
+// nudgeSystem — the phrasing contract for nudges.
+//
+// Written as filled-in examples, not as a schema with "..." in it. A 0.8B
+// copies whatever sits in the response slot, so a literal placeholder there
+// teaches it to answer with the placeholder. Measured: 7/15 nudges came back
+// as "..." before this. See PHRASING-EVAL-31-07-2026.md.
+//
+// Russian only, feminine self-reference, second person masculine (the owner is
+// a man). She talks TO him, informally, singular — never "вы", never "он".
+// One short sentence — the nudge is spoken aloud.
+//
+// What the ban on обращения forbids is pet names ("дорогой", "милый"), not his
+// name: "Ками, ноутбук на трёх процентах" is exactly how she talks, and the
+// unqualified word read as forbidding that too. Hence "ласковые обращения".
+//
+// The examples also never claim a physical act. She has no hands and no smart
+// plug — she can tell him the battery is at three percent, she cannot put the
+// laptop on charge. An example that says she did teaches the model to invent
+// actions Maven never took, which is worse than a missing nudge.
+const nudgeSystem = `Ты — Maven, домашняя ассистентка. О себе говоришь в женском роде ("я проверила", "я записала"). Владелец — мужчина, обращайся к нему в мужском роде ("ты пил", "ты забыл").
+Говоришь с ним на "ты", в единственном числе ("выпей", "встань"). Никогда не "вы"/"вас"/"ваш" и никогда "он"/"его" — ты говоришь ему, а не о нём.
+
+Пиши ОДНО короткое напоминание по-русски: не больше 120 символов и не больше 16 слов. Только по делу.
+
+Запрещено: ласковые обращения ("дорогой", "милый"), эмодзи, извинения ("прости", "извини"), вопросы о самочувствии, похвала, больше одного восклицательного знака, английские слова кроме имён сервисов.
+
+Отвечай ТОЛЬКО одним объектом JSON с полями "response" и "mood".
+"response" — сам текст напоминания.
+"mood" — ровно одно из: neutral, happy, thinking, tired, confused.
+
+Так выглядит правильный ответ по форме. Темы здесь посторонние — их в запросе не будет:
+{"response": "Стиральная машина закончила. Развесь бельё.", "mood": "neutral"}
+{"response": "Ками, ноутбук на трёх процентах. Поставь его на зарядку.", "mood": "confused"}
+
+Это примеры ФОРМЫ, а не темы. Пиши только про ту ситуацию, которую тебе дали в запросе. Не копируй примеры и никогда не пиши "..." в поле response.`
+
 func (p *LLMPhraser) systemPrompt() string {
-	base := `You are maven, a self-hosted personal assistant. Generate brief, natural nudge messages in the user's language (Russian or English). Respond ONLY with valid JSON: {"response": "full voice message", "mood": "neutral"}. "response" is what the user hears; "mood" reflects maven's tone (neutral/happy/thinking/tired/confused).`
+	return persona.Prepend(p.cfg.ContextBlock, nudgeSystem)
-	if p.cfg.Persona != "" {
-		base = p.cfg.Persona + "\n\n" + base
-	}
-	return base
 }
 
 // querySystemPrompt returns the system prompt for PhraseQuery (notes + general
 // knowledge). Prepends the configured persona when set.
 func (p *LLMPhraser) querySystemPrompt() string {
-	base := "You are maven, a self-hosted personal assistant answering from your notes. Answer briefly and naturally in Russian starting with \"вот что я нашла: \". Respond ONLY with valid JSON: {\"response\": \"...\", \"mood\": \"neutral\"}."
+	// No self-introduction here: the persona block prepended one line above
-	if p.cfg.Persona != "" {
+	// already says who she is, same as router.KnowledgePrompt.
-		base = p.cfg.Persona + "\n\n" + base
+	base := "Ты отвечаешь ему по своим заметкам. Отвечай по-русски, коротко и своими словами, начинай с \"вот что я нашла: \". О себе — в женском роде (\"нашла\", \"записала\"). Он мужчина, обращайся к нему на \"ты\". Respond ONLY with valid JSON: {\"response\": \"...\", \"mood\": \"neutral\"}."
+	return persona.Prepend(p.cfg.ContextBlock, base)
+}
+
+// ruleTopics — Russian gloss for each built-in rule name. The rule names are
+// English identifiers; a 0.8B asked to nudge about "netdata_critical" writes
+// about nothing. The daemon knows what its own rules mean, so it says so.
+var ruleTopics = map[string]string{
+	"water":            "он давно не пил воду",
+	"meal":             "он давно не ел",
+	"break":            "он давно без перерыва, пора встать и размяться",
+	"service_down":     "сервис не отвечает, лежит",
+	"netdata_critical": "критический алярм в netdata, проблема с диском или местом",
+}
+
+// ruleKeywords — the word the message must contain. The 0.8B drifts to
+// whatever topic it saw last unless the required word is named outright.
+var ruleKeywords = map[string]string{
+	"water":            "воду",
+	"meal":             "поешь",
+	"break":            "перерыв",
+	"service_down":     "сервис",
+	"netdata_critical": "диск",
+}
+
+// ruleTopic turns a rule name into a Russian description of the situation.
+// "routine:зарядка" and "morning:утро" carry their own Russian suffix.
+func ruleTopic(rule string) string {
+	if t, ok := ruleTopics[rule]; ok {
+		return t
 	}
-	return base
+	if i := strings.IndexByte(rule, ':'); i > 0 && i+1 < len(rule) {
+		switch rule[:i] {
+		case "morning":
+			return "утро, пора начать день: " + rule[i+1:]
+		default:
+			return "пора сделать по распорядку: " + rule[i+1:]
+		}
+	}
+	return rule
+}
+
+// ruleKeyword — the word the nudge must contain, or "" when the rule name's
+// own Russian suffix already is that word.
+func ruleKeyword(rule string) string {
+	if k, ok := ruleKeywords[rule]; ok {
+		return k
+	}
+	if i := strings.IndexByte(rule, ':'); i > 0 && i+1 < len(rule) {
+		return rule[i+1:]
+	}
+	return ""
+}
+
+// ruDur — duration in Russian. humanDur is English and its output was landing
+// verbatim in the message.
+func ruDur(d time.Duration) string {
+	if d < 0 {
+		d = 0
+	}
+	h, m := int(d.Hours()), int(d.Minutes())%60
+	switch {
+	case h >= 2:
+		return fmt.Sprintf("%d ч", h)
+	case h == 1 && m >= 30:
+		return "полтора часа"
+	case h == 1:
+		return "час"
+	default:
+		return fmt.Sprintf("%d мин", m)
+	}
+}
+
+// fallbackNudge — plain Russian for when the model returns nothing parseable.
+var fallbackNudges = map[string]string{
+	"water":            "Ты давно не пил воду.",
+	"meal":             "Ты давно не ел, поешь.",
+	"break":            "Пора сделать перерыв.",
+	"service_down":     "Сервис не отвечает.",
+	"netdata_critical": "Критический алярм: проверь диск.",
+}
+
+func fallbackNudge(c loop.Candidate) string {
+	if s, ok := fallbackNudges[c.Rule.Name]; ok {
+		return s
+	}
+	if kw := ruleKeyword(c.Rule.Name); kw != "" {
+		return "Напоминаю: " + kw + "."
+	}
+	return "Напоминаю о деле."
 }
 
 func buildNudgePrompt(c loop.Candidate) string {
 	var ctxParts []string
-	ctxParts = append(ctxParts, fmt.Sprintf("Rule: %s", c.Rule.Name))
+	ctxParts = append(ctxParts, "Ситуация: "+ruleTopic(c.Rule.Name))
-	ctxParts = append(ctxParts, fmt.Sprintf("Severity: %s", sevLabel(c.Severity)))
+	if f, ok := c.State.Facts[c.Rule.Name]; ok && f.Key != "" && f.Key != c.Rule.Name {
-
+		ctxParts = append(ctxParts, "Что именно: "+f.Key)
+	}
 	if d, ok := c.State.Since(c.Rule.Name); ok {
-		ctxParts = append(ctxParts, fmt.Sprintf("Duration since last event: %s", humanDur(d)))
+		ctxParts = append(ctxParts, "Прошло: "+ruDur(d))
+	}
+	switch sevLabel(c.Severity) {
+	case "alarm":
+		ctxParts = append(ctxParts, "Срочно, скажи прямо.")
+	case "ops":
+		ctxParts = append(ctxParts, "Это про сервер, не про здоровье.")
+	}
+	tail := "Напиши напоминание про эту ситуацию. Одно предложение, по-русски, в JSON."
+	if kw := ruleKeyword(c.Rule.Name); kw != "" {
+		// Last line on purpose: a 0.8B weights the end of the prompt hardest,
+		// and without the required word it drifts back to the examples.
+		tail += " Ответ ДОЛЖЕН содержать слово «" + kw + "»."
 	}
 
-	return fmt.Sprintf(
+	return strings.Join(ctxParts, "\n") + "\n\n" + tail
-		`Generate a nudge message. Context:
-%s
-
-Respond as JSON: {"response": "...", "mood": "..."}`,
-		strings.Join(ctxParts, "\n"),
-	)
 }
 
 type responseMood struct {
@@ -469,21 +708,39 @@ type responseMood struct {
 	Mood     string `json:"mood"`
 }
 
+// errBrokenJSON — the model started a JSON object and never finished it.
+// That is a failed generation, not a reply. Callers must use their fallback.
+var errBrokenJSON = fmt.Errorf("phraser: model output starts as JSON but does not parse")
+
 // parseResponseMood extracts {"response","mood"} from LLM output, tolerant
-// of thinking tokens and extra text before/after the JSON block. Returns
+// of thinking tokens and extra text before/after the JSON block.
-// ("", "") when no valid JSON is found.
+//
-func parseResponseMood(raw string) (response, mood string) {
+// Three outcomes:
+//   - parsed fine → the fields, nil error.
+//   - output never looked like JSON → ("", "", nil). The caller may ship it
+//     as-is; small models sometimes answer in bare prose and that is fine.
+//   - output starts with "{" but does not parse → errBrokenJSON. The grammar
+//     guarantees a valid *prefix*, so a generation that hits the token cap
+//     mid-object comes back as a fragment like `{` or `{\n  "`. Shipping that
+//     as a reply is the bug this error exists to stop.
+func parseResponseMood(raw string) (response, mood string, err error) {
 	cleaned := strings.TrimSpace(raw)
 	start := strings.Index(cleaned, "{")
 	end := strings.LastIndex(cleaned, "}")
 	if start < 0 || end < 0 || end <= start {
-		return "", ""
+		if strings.HasPrefix(cleaned, "{") {
+			return "", "", errBrokenJSON
+		}
+		return "", "", nil
 	}
 	var parsed responseMood
-	if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(cleaned[start:end+1]), &parsed); err != nil {
+	if e := json.Unmarshal([]byte(cleaned[start:end+1]), &parsed); e != nil {
-		return "", ""
+		if strings.HasPrefix(cleaned, "{") {
+			return "", "", errBrokenJSON
+		}
+		return "", "", nil
 	}
-	return parsed.Response, parsed.Mood
+	return parsed.Response, parsed.Mood, nil
 }
 
 func parsePhrase(raw string) (body, summary string) {

internal/phraser/nudge_templates.go

@@ -0,0 +1,261 @@
+package phraser
+
+// Hand-written Russian nudges instead of generated ones.
+//
+// Why: on a nudge there is nothing to be creative about. Measured over many
+// runs, Qwen3.5-0.8B breaks the persona (formal "вы", plural imperatives,
+// masculine self-reference) and invents facts and units — it once told him to
+// boil an egg for "90-95 секунд". A nudge is five words of known content, so
+// wording it with a model buys nothing and risks the persona every time.
+//
+// The wording lives in nudges_ru_v1.json so it can be edited without touching
+// Go. This file only picks one and fills in the values.
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	_ "embed"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"math/rand"
+	"regexp"
+	"strings"
+	"sync"
+	"time"
+	"unicode"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/delivery"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/loop"
+)
+
+//go:embed nudges_ru_v1.json
+var nudgeTemplateJSON []byte
+
+// NudgeTemplateSchemaVersion — the version this code understands.
+const NudgeTemplateSchemaVersion = 1
+
+type nudgeRuleSet struct {
+	Mood     string   `json:"mood"`
+	Variants []string `json:"variants"`
+}
+
+type nudgeTemplateFile struct {
+	SchemaVersion int                     `json:"schema_version"`
+	Name          string                  `json:"name"`
+	Notes         []string                `json:"notes"`
+	Rules         map[string]nudgeRuleSet `json:"rules"`
+}
+
+// NudgeTemplates picks a hand-written Russian nudge for a candidate.
+//
+// Safe for concurrent use. Random, but never the same variant twice in a row
+// for the same rule — being nagged with identical words is what makes a nudge
+// easy to tune out.
+type NudgeTemplates struct {
+	mu   sync.Mutex
+	rnd  *rand.Rand
+	last map[string]string // rule family -> the text used last time
+	file nudgeTemplateFile
+}
+
+// NewNudgeTemplates loads the embedded template file. Pass a source to make the
+// picking reproducible in tests; nil means seed from the clock.
+func NewNudgeTemplates(src rand.Source) (*NudgeTemplates, error) {
+	var f nudgeTemplateFile
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(nudgeTemplateJSON, &f); err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("nudge templates: parse: %w", err)
+	}
+	if f.SchemaVersion != NudgeTemplateSchemaVersion {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("nudge templates: schema_version %d, want %d",
+			f.SchemaVersion, NudgeTemplateSchemaVersion)
+	}
+	if len(f.Rules) == 0 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("nudge templates: no rules")
+	}
+	if src == nil {
+		src = rand.NewSource(time.Now().UnixNano())
+	}
+	return &NudgeTemplates{
+		rnd:  rand.New(src),
+		last: map[string]string{},
+		file: f,
+	}, nil
+}
+
+// PhraseNudge implements the nudge half of the Phraser interface, so the
+// templates can be scored by the same harness as the model.
+func (t *NudgeTemplates) PhraseNudge(_ context.Context, c loop.Candidate) (delivery.PhrasedNudge, error) {
+	body, mood := t.Nudge(c)
+	return delivery.PhrasedNudge{Candidate: c, Body: body, Summary: body, Mood: mood}, nil
+}
+
+// Nudge returns the text and the mood for one candidate. Never fails: if no
+// template fits it uses the plain per-rule fallback.
+func (t *NudgeTemplates) Nudge(c loop.Candidate) (body, mood string) {
+	rule := c.Rule.Name
+	family := t.family(rule)
+	set, ok := t.file.Rules[family]
+	if !ok {
+		return fallbackNudge(c), "neutral"
+	}
+	vals := nudgeValues(c)
+
+	// Only variants whose placeholders all have a value.
+	usable := make([]string, 0, len(set.Variants))
+	for _, v := range set.Variants {
+		if text, ok := fillTemplate(v, vals); ok {
+			usable = append(usable, text)
+		}
+	}
+	if len(usable) == 0 {
+		return fallbackNudge(c), "neutral"
+	}
+
+	mood = set.Mood
+	if mood == "" {
+		mood = "neutral"
+	}
+	return t.pick(family, usable), mood
+}
+
+// pick chooses at random, skipping whatever this rule said last time.
+func (t *NudgeTemplates) pick(family string, usable []string) string {
+	t.mu.Lock()
+	defer t.mu.Unlock()
+
+	choices := usable
+	if len(usable) > 1 {
+		choices = make([]string, 0, len(usable))
+		for _, v := range usable {
+			if v != t.last[family] {
+				choices = append(choices, v)
+			}
+		}
+		if len(choices) == 0 { // every variant equals the last one
+			choices = usable
+		}
+	}
+	got := choices[t.rnd.Intn(len(choices))]
+	t.last[family] = got
+	return got
+}
+
+// family maps a rule name to a block in the template file: an exact match
+// first, then the prefix of "routine:зарядка" / "morning:утро", then "default".
+func (t *NudgeTemplates) family(rule string) string {
+	if _, ok := t.file.Rules[rule]; ok {
+		return rule
+	}
+	if i := strings.IndexByte(rule, ':'); i > 0 {
+		if _, ok := t.file.Rules[rule[:i]]; ok {
+			return rule[:i]
+		}
+	}
+	return "default"
+}
+
+// placeholderRE — the {name} slots a template may use.
+var placeholderRE = regexp.MustCompile(`\{([a-z]+)\}`)
+
+// nudgeValues collects what this candidate can fill in. A key missing here
+// means every template needing it is skipped, so nothing half-filled is ever
+// spoken.
+func nudgeValues(c loop.Candidate) map[string]string {
+	vals := map[string]string{}
+	rule := c.Rule.Name
+
+	// {since} — only at hour scale. Below an hour the phrase would be minutes,
+	// and none of the templates read well with "сорок минут".
+	if d, ok := c.State.Since(rule); ok && d >= time.Hour {
+		if s := ruSinceWords(d); s != "" {
+			vals["since"] = s
+		}
+	}
+	// {service} — the aggregate fact's key carries the service name.
+	if f, ok := c.State.Fact(rule); ok && f.Key != "" && f.Key != rule {
+		vals["service"] = f.Key
+	}
+	// {what} — the Russian suffix of "routine:таблетки" / "morning:утро".
+	if i := strings.IndexByte(rule, ':'); i > 0 && i+1 < len(rule) {
+		vals["what"] = rule[i+1:]
+	}
+	return vals
+}
+
+// fillTemplate substitutes the placeholders. Returns false when a value is
+// missing, so a raw "{since}" can never reach the text-to-speech voice.
+func fillTemplate(tmpl string, vals map[string]string) (string, bool) {
+	missing := false
+	out := placeholderRE.ReplaceAllStringFunc(tmpl, func(m string) string {
+		name := m[1 : len(m)-1]
+		v, ok := vals[name]
+		if !ok || v == "" {
+			missing = true
+			return m
+		}
+		return v
+	})
+	if missing || strings.ContainsAny(out, "{}%") {
+		return "", false
+	}
+	return capitalizeFirst(out), true
+}
+
+// capitalizeFirst — a placeholder can start the sentence, and "полтора часа без
+// перерыва" should be spoken as a sentence, not a fragment.
+func capitalizeFirst(s string) string {
+	for i, r := range s {
+		return string(unicode.ToUpper(r)) + s[i+len(string(r)):]
+	}
+	return s
+}
+
+// hourWords — hours spelled out. "3 ч" is fine on a screen and wrong in a
+// Russian voice, so the number goes out as words.
+var hourWords = []string{
+	"ноль", "один", "два", "три", "четыре", "пять", "шесть", "семь", "восемь",
+	"девять", "десять", "одиннадцать", "двенадцать", "тринадцать",
+	"четырнадцать", "пятнадцать", "шестнадцать", "семнадцать", "восемнадцать",
+	"девятнадцать", "двадцать", "двадцать один", "двадцать два", "двадцать три",
+}
+
+// hourPlural — час / часа / часов by Russian counting rules.
+func hourPlural(h int) string {
+	if h%100 >= 11 && h%100 <= 14 {
+		return "часов"
+	}
+	switch h % 10 {
+	case 1:
+		return "час"
+	case 2, 3, 4:
+		return "часа"
+	default:
+		return "часов"
+	}
+}
+
+// ruSinceWords — "полтора часа", "два с половиной часа", "семь часов".
+// Empty string means "do not say it" (under an hour, or over a day).
+func ruSinceWords(d time.Duration) string {
+	if d < time.Hour {
+		return ""
+	}
+	h := int(d.Hours())
+	m := int(d.Minutes()) % 60
+	if m >= 45 {
+		h++
+		m = 0
+	}
+	if h >= len(hourWords) {
+		return "больше суток"
+	}
+	if h == 1 {
+		if m >= 15 {
+			return "полтора часа"
+		}
+		return "час"
+	}
+	if m >= 15 {
+		return hourWords[h] + " с половиной часа"
+	}
+	return hourWords[h] + " " + hourPlural(h)
+}

internal/phraser/nudge_templates_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,202 @@
+package phraser
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"math/rand"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/loop"
+	"github.com/kami/maven/internal/store"
+)
+
+// cand builds a candidate the way a tick would.
+func cand(rule string, sinceMin int, factKey string) loop.Candidate {
+	now := time.Date(2026, 7, 31, 21, 40, 0, 0, time.UTC)
+	st := loop.State{Now: now, Facts: map[string]store.Fact{}}
+	if sinceMin > 0 || factKey != "" {
+		key := rule
+		if factKey != "" {
+			key = factKey
+		}
+		st.Facts[rule] = store.Fact{Key: key, Ts: now.Add(-time.Duration(sinceMin) * time.Minute)}
+	}
+	return loop.Candidate{Rule: loop.Rule{Name: rule, Severity: loop.Sev1}, Severity: loop.Sev1, State: st}
+}
+
+func newTestTemplates(t *testing.T, seed int64) *NudgeTemplates {
+	t.Helper()
+	nt, err := NewNudgeTemplates(rand.NewSource(seed))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("NewNudgeTemplates: %v", err)
+	}
+	return nt
+}
+
+func TestNudgeTemplatesLoad(t *testing.T) {
+	nt := newTestTemplates(t, 1)
+	for _, rule := range []string{"water", "meal", "break", "service_down", "netdata_critical", "routine", "morning", "default"} {
+		set, ok := nt.file.Rules[rule]
+		if !ok {
+			t.Errorf("no templates for %q", rule)
+			continue
+		}
+		if len(set.Variants) < 5 {
+			t.Errorf("%s: only %d variants", rule, len(set.Variants))
+		}
+		// Every rule needs one variant that needs no value, or a candidate
+		// without context has nothing to say. routine and morning are exempt:
+		// they always carry a name and must always say it.
+		plain := 0
+		seen := map[string]bool{}
+		for _, v := range set.Variants {
+			if !placeholderRE.MatchString(v) {
+				plain++
+			}
+			if seen[v] {
+				t.Errorf("%s: duplicate variant %q", rule, v)
+			}
+			seen[v] = true
+		}
+		if plain == 0 && rule != "routine" && rule != "morning" {
+			t.Errorf("%s: every variant needs a placeholder value", rule)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// The whole point of the picker: never the same words twice in a row.
+func TestNudgeNoImmediateRepeat(t *testing.T) {
+	nt := newTestTemplates(t, 7)
+	prev := ""
+	for i := 0; i < 200; i++ {
+		body, _ := nt.Nudge(cand("water", 200, ""))
+		if body == prev {
+			t.Fatalf("repeat at %d: %q", i, body)
+		}
+		prev = body
+	}
+}
+
+// Same seed, same sequence — otherwise the fixture score would drift run to run.
+func TestNudgeDeterministicWithSeed(t *testing.T) {
+	var runs [2][]string
+	for r := range runs {
+		nt := newTestTemplates(t, 42)
+		for i := 0; i < 20; i++ {
+			body, _ := nt.Nudge(cand("break", 100, ""))
+			runs[r] = append(runs[r], body)
+		}
+	}
+	for i := range runs[0] {
+		if runs[0][i] != runs[1][i] {
+			t.Fatalf("run %d differs: %q vs %q", i, runs[0][i], runs[1][i])
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// A variant is only used when its value exists, and nothing half-filled ships.
+func TestNudgeNoLeftoverPlaceholders(t *testing.T) {
+	nt := newTestTemplates(t, 3)
+	cases := []loop.Candidate{
+		cand("water", 0, ""),   // no duration
+		cand("water", 30, ""),  // under an hour
+		cand("water", 200, ""), // hours
+		cand("service_down", 3, "vaultwarden"),
+		cand("service_down", 3, ""), // no service name
+		cand("routine:таблетки", 0, ""),
+		cand("morning:утро", 0, ""),
+		cand("unknown_rule", 0, ""),
+	}
+	for _, c := range cases {
+		for i := 0; i < 40; i++ {
+			body, mood := nt.Nudge(c)
+			if body == "" {
+				t.Fatalf("%s: empty body", c.Rule.Name)
+			}
+			if strings.ContainsAny(body, "{}%") {
+				t.Fatalf("%s: unfilled template %q", c.Rule.Name, body)
+			}
+			if mood != "neutral" {
+				t.Fatalf("%s: mood %q", c.Rule.Name, mood)
+			}
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// The routine name must actually land in the text.
+func TestNudgeSubstitutesWhat(t *testing.T) {
+	nt := newTestTemplates(t, 11)
+	for i := 0; i < 40; i++ {
+		body, _ := nt.Nudge(cand("routine:таблетки", 0, ""))
+		if !strings.Contains(strings.ToLower(body), "таблетки") {
+			t.Fatalf("routine text lost the name: %q", body)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestRuSinceWords(t *testing.T) {
+	cases := []struct {
+		min  int
+		want string
+	}{
+		{30, ""},
+		{60, "час"},
+		{95, "полтора часа"},
+		{150, "два с половиной часа"},
+		{190, "три часа"},
+		{240, "четыре часа"},
+		{430, "семь часов"},
+		{660, "одиннадцать часов"},
+		{60 * 30, "больше суток"},
+	}
+	for _, c := range cases {
+		got := ruSinceWords(time.Duration(c.min) * time.Minute)
+		if got != c.want {
+			t.Errorf("%d min: got %q want %q", c.min, got, c.want)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// Templates are the default: a nudge must not reach the model at all.
+func TestLLMPhraserUsesTemplatesByDefault(t *testing.T) {
+	spy := newGrammarSpy(t)
+	p := NewLLMPhraserAt(spy.srv.URL, Config{})
+	pn, err := p.PhraseNudge(context.Background(), cand("water", 200, ""))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("PhraseNudge: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(spy.grammars) != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("nudge hit the model %d times, want 0", len(spy.grammars))
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(strings.ToLower(pn.Body), "вод") {
+		t.Errorf("nudge is not the water template: %q", pn.Body)
+	}
+}
+
+// ...and the flag brings the model back.
+func TestLLMNudgesFlagRestoresTheModel(t *testing.T) {
+	spy := newGrammarSpy(t)
+	p := NewLLMPhraserAt(spy.srv.URL, Config{LLMNudges: true})
+	pn, err := p.PhraseNudge(context.Background(), cand("water", 200, ""))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("PhraseNudge: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(spy.grammars) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("nudge hit the model %d times, want 1", len(spy.grammars))
+	}
+	if pn.Body != "ага" {
+		t.Errorf("body = %q, want the model's reply", pn.Body)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestNudgeTemplatesPhraseNudge(t *testing.T) {
+	nt := newTestTemplates(t, 5)
+	pn, err := nt.PhraseNudge(context.Background(), cand("water", 200, ""))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("PhraseNudge: %v", err)
+	}
+	if pn.Body == "" || pn.Summary != pn.Body || pn.Mood != "neutral" {
+		t.Fatalf("bad nudge: %+v", pn)
+	}
+}

internal/phraser/nudges_ru_v1.json

@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+{
+  "schema_version": 1,
+  "name": "russian nudge templates v1",
+  "notes": [
+    "Hand-written Russian nudges. Edit the wording here, no Go changes needed.",
+    "Rules: she is feminine about herself, he is a man addressed as ты. Never вы/вас/ваш, never plural imperatives (выпейте), never он/его about him.",
+    "One short sentence. No questions, no emoji, no pet names, no emotional support.",
+    "Placeholders: {since} how long it has been (only used when it is at least an hour), {service} the service name, {what} the routine name. A variant whose placeholder has no value is skipped, so every rule needs at least one variant with no placeholder. The exception is routine and morning: those only exist for rules like routine:таблетки that always carry a name, and a routine nudge that drops the name is useless.",
+    "mood must be one of: neutral, happy, thinking, tired, confused."
+  ],
+  "rules": {
+    "water": {
+      "mood": "neutral",
+      "variants": [
+        "Ты не пил воду {since} — выпей стакан.",
+        "Пора выпить воды.",
+        "Стакан воды не помешает.",
+        "Воду ты не пил уже {since}.",
+        "Напоминаю про воду.",
+        "Сходи за водой, дела подождут.",
+        "Сделай глоток воды, пока помнишь.",
+        "Между делом выпей воды.",
+        "Вода — простое дело: выпей стакан.",
+        "Отвлекись на стакан воды."
+      ]
+    },
+    "meal": {
+      "mood": "neutral",
+      "variants": [
+        "Ты не ел {since} — поешь.",
+        "Пора поесть, сделай перекус.",
+        "Еда важнее ещё одного часа за столом.",
+        "Без еды уже {since}, поешь.",
+        "Напоминаю про еду — поешь.",
+        "Возьми перерыв на обед.",
+        "Сделай себе перекус, это пять минут.",
+        "Поешь, потом вернёшься к работе.",
+        "Поешь нормально, а не на ходу.",
+        "Еды не было {since} — разогрей что-нибудь."
+      ]
+    },
+    "break": {
+      "mood": "neutral",
+      "variants": [
+        "Ты за столом {since} — встань и разомнись.",
+        "Пора сделать перерыв.",
+        "Встань на пять минут.",
+        "{since} без перерыва — отойди от экрана.",
+        "Напоминаю про перерыв.",
+        "Разомни спину, потом продолжишь.",
+        "Короткая пауза не сорвёт дела.",
+        "Отойди от компьютера на минуту.",
+        "Сидишь без перерыва {since}.",
+        "Встань, пройдись, вернись."
+      ]
+    },
+    "service_down": {
+      "mood": "neutral",
+      "variants": [
+        "Сервис {service} не отвечает.",
+        "{service} упал — сервис не отвечает.",
+        "{service} не отвечает, сервис нужно поднимать.",
+        "Сервис {service} недоступен.",
+        "Проверь {service}: сервис не отвечает.",
+        "Сервис перестал отвечать.",
+        "Сервис {service} лежит, нужно смотреть.",
+        "{service} не отвечает уже {since}.",
+        "Мониторинг сообщает: {service} лежит.",
+        "Сервис {service} не отвечает, посмотри логи."
+      ]
+    },
+    "netdata_critical": {
+      "mood": "neutral",
+      "variants": [
+        "Netdata: критический алярм, проверь диск.",
+        "Критический алярм в netdata — посмотри диск.",
+        "Netdata поднял тревогу по диску.",
+        "Проверь диск: netdata ругается.",
+        "Алярм от netdata, критический.",
+        "Netdata: критический уровень, дело в диске.",
+        "Диск требует внимания — критический алярм в netdata.",
+        "Критический алярм: проверь место на диске.",
+        "Netdata сообщает о критической проблеме с диском.",
+        "Открой netdata: там критический алярм по диску."
+      ]
+    },
+    "routine": {
+      "mood": "neutral",
+      "variants": [
+        "По распорядку: {what}.",
+        "Пора — {what}.",
+        "Напоминаю: {what}.",
+        "В списке на сейчас: {what}.",
+        "{what} — сейчас самое время.",
+        "Не пропусти: {what}.",
+        "{what}: пора сделать.",
+        "Сейчас по плану {what}.",
+        "Твой распорядок: {what}.",
+        "{what} — по распорядку сейчас."
+      ]
+    },
+    "morning": {
+      "mood": "neutral",
+      "variants": [
+        "{what} — пора начать день.",
+        "{what}: пройди утренний список.",
+        "Начни {what} со списка.",
+        "{what}. Осталось пройти чеклист.",
+        "Утренний список ещё не пройден: {what}.",
+        "{what}: первый пункт списка за тобой.",
+        "{what} идёт, а список стоит.",
+        "{what}: не забудь про утренние дела.",
+        "По утреннему чеклисту ещё есть дела: {what}.",
+        "{what} — утренний список дел ещё ждёт."
+      ]
+    },
+    "default": {
+      "mood": "neutral",
+      "variants": [
+        "Напоминаю: есть дело.",
+        "Пора вернуться к отложенному делу.",
+        "Одно дело ждёт тебя.",
+        "Напоминаю про дело из списка.",
+        "В списке осталось дело.",
+        "Дело всё ещё не сделано."
+      ]
+    }
+  }
+}

internal/router/embedder.go

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package router
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"fmt"
 	"math"
 	"unicode"
 )
@@ -19,6 +20,24 @@ type Embedder interface {
 	Close() error
 }
 
+// IdentifiedEmbedder — an embedder that can name itself. The name goes into
+// the DB next to the vectors it wrote, so a later model swap is caught instead
+// of silently returning nonsense scores (Vikunja #378).
+type IdentifiedEmbedder interface {
+	Embedder
+	ID() string
+}
+
+// EmbedderID is the stable string stored alongside the vectors. It comes from
+// the embedder itself — nobody hand-types a model name twice — and changes
+// whenever the model or its dimension changes.
+func EmbedderID(e Embedder) string {
+	if i, ok := e.(IdentifiedEmbedder); ok {
+		return i.ID()
+	}
+	return fmt.Sprintf("unknown@%d", e.Dim())
+}
+
 // AsymmetricEmbedder — an embedder that wants to know whether a text is a
 // search query or a stored passage. Recall is asymmetric: a short question
 // goes in, a longer note comes out. The e5 family is trained for exactly that
@@ -70,6 +89,10 @@ func NewHashEmbedder(dim int) *HashEmbedder {
 
 func (h *HashEmbedder) Dim() int { return h.dim }
 
+// ID names this embedder for the DB marker. The dimension is part of it
+// because a HashEmbedder of another width is a different vector space.
+func (h *HashEmbedder) ID() string { return fmt.Sprintf("hash@%d", h.dim) }
+
 func (h *HashEmbedder) Close() error { return nil }
 
 func (h *HashEmbedder) Embed(_ context.Context, text string) ([]float32, error) {

internal/router/embedderid_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+package router
+
+import "testing"
+
+func TestEmbedderIDFromModelPath(t *testing.T) {
+	got := modelIDFromPath("/opt/maven/models/embedder/multilingual-e5-small.onnx")
+	if got != "multilingual-e5-small@384" {
+		t.Fatalf("modelIDFromPath = %q", got)
+	}
+	// A different model file must produce a different id, even at 384 dim.
+	old := modelIDFromPath("/opt/maven/models/embedder/paraphrase-multilingual-MiniLM-L12-v2.onnx")
+	if old == got {
+		t.Fatal("two different models share one id")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestEmbedderIDIncludesDim(t *testing.T) {
+	if id := EmbedderID(NewHashEmbedder(1024)); id != "hash@1024" {
+		t.Fatalf("EmbedderID = %q", id)
+	}
+	if EmbedderID(NewHashEmbedder(1024)) == EmbedderID(NewHashEmbedder(384)) {
+		t.Fatal("dimension not part of the id")
+	}
+}

internal/router/eval/llmrouter_test.go

@@ -1,11 +1,8 @@
 package eval
 
 import (
-	"bytes"
 	"context"
-	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
-	"net/http"
 	"os"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
@@ -29,13 +26,20 @@ import (
 // a bake-off across checkpoints (#278, #250) produces tables you can tell
 // apart. Point the variable at one server at a time.
 //
-// Three configurations, because "the LLM router" is ambiguous and the three
+// Two configurations, because "the LLM router" is ambiguous and the two numbers
-// numbers answer different questions:
+// answer different questions:
 //
-//	llm-only        — the model alone. Measures the prompt + grammar contract.
+//	llm-only    — the model alone. Measures the prompt + grammar contract.
-//	cascade+llm     — what #320 would actually ship: stage-0 grammar, then the
+//	cascade+llm — what #320 would actually ship: stage-0 grammar, then the
-//	                  model, then the classifier as the failure floor.
+//	              model, then the classifier as the failure floor.
-//	llm-no-thinking — diagnostic only, not a shippable path (see below).
+//
+// There used to be a third, "thinking off", which looked 6 points better. It is
+// gone: it was measured with a hand-rolled HTTP client that quietly dropped
+// repeat_penalty, so the gap was the missing penalty and not the thinking mode.
+// Re-measured with everything else held equal, thinking off scores exactly the
+// same, case for case — and a direct probe shows this llama-server build ignores
+// enable_thinking / reasoning_budget for this model anyway, so there was nothing
+// to turn off. Full write-up in ROUTING-EVAL-31-07-2026.md (Vikunja #376).
 func TestLLMRouterBaseline(t *testing.T) {
 	base := os.Getenv("MAVEN_LLM_URL")
 	if base == "" {
@@ -57,12 +61,12 @@ func TestLLMRouterBaseline(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	ctx := context.Background()
-	model, err := ModelID(ctx, base)
+	model, err := llm.ModelID(ctx, base)
 	if err != nil {
 		// Not fatal: an unlabelled score is still a score. But say so loudly,
 		// because an unlabelled row in a bake-off table is worthless.
-		t.Logf("could not read model id from %s: %v — reports will say %q", base, err, "unknown-model")
+		t.Logf("could not read model id from %s: %v — reports will say %q", base, err, llm.UnknownModel)
-		model = "unknown-model"
+		model = llm.UnknownModel
 	}
 	t.Logf("scoring model %s at %s", model, base)
 	lr := router.NewLLMRouter(client)
@@ -96,104 +100,18 @@ func TestLLMRouterBaseline(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 	t.Log("\n" + repCascade.String() + repCascade.Failures())
 
-	// llm-no-thinking: same prompt and grammar with the chat template's
-	// thinking mode off. Qwen3.5's template defaults thinking=1, so under a
-	// grammar the constrained JSON lands in reasoning_content with content
-	// empty — llm.Client's ReasoningContent fallback is what makes the router
-	// work at all today, by accident rather than design.
-	//
-	// MEASURED 2026-07-31: this variant scores identically to as-deployed
-	// (18/76, 48.7% intent-only, 2 errors, same p50). Thinking mode is a
-	// non-issue under a grammar — llama.cpp constrains the same token stream
-	// either way. Kept so the question stays answered instead of being
-	// re-asked, and so internal/llm does NOT grow a chat_template_kwargs field
-	// for a problem that does not exist.
-	repNoThink, err := Score(ctx, "llm-only ("+model+", thinking off) [diagnostic]",
-		RouterFunc(func(ctx context.Context, u string, now time.Time) (router.Decision, error) {
-			d, ok, err := router.NewLLMRouter(&noThinkCompleter{base: base, http: &http.Client{Timeout: 60 * time.Second}}).Route(ctx, u, now)
-			if err != nil {
-				return d, err
-			}
-			if !ok {
-				return d, fmt.Errorf("llm router declined without an error")
-			}
-			return d, nil
-		}), f)
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("Score no-thinking: %v", err)
-	}
-	t.Log("\n" + repNoThink.String() + repNoThink.Failures())
-
 	// Reports rather than asserts — the numbers are inputs to the #320
 	// decision, and an assertion here would be this test inventing the bar.
 	// The one thing worth failing on is a harness fault: if every single case
 	// errors, the run measured infrastructure, not routing, and the report
 	// must not be mistaken for a score.
-	for _, rep := range []Report{repLLM, repCascade, repNoThink} {
+	for _, rep := range []Report{repLLM, repCascade} {
 		if rep.Errors == rep.Total {
 			t.Errorf("%s: all %d cases errored — harness fault, not a measurement", rep.Name, rep.Total)
 		}
 	}
 }
 
-// noThinkCompleter — llm.Client with chat_template_kwargs.enable_thinking
-// false. A test-local copy rather than a change to internal/llm: whether the
-// daemon should send it is the open question, and answering it here by adding
-// the field would prejudge #320.
-type noThinkCompleter struct {
-	base string
-	http *http.Client
-}
-
-func (c *noThinkCompleter) Complete(ctx context.Context, r llm.Req) (string, error) {
-	payload := map[string]any{
-		"messages": []map[string]string{
-			{"role": "system", "content": r.System},
-			{"role": "user", "content": r.User},
-		},
-		"max_tokens":           r.MaxTokens,
-		"temperature":          0,
-		"grammar":              r.Grammar,
-		"chat_template_kwargs": map[string]any{"enable_thinking": false},
-	}
-	b, err := json.Marshal(payload)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
-	}
-	req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, "POST", c.base+"/v1/chat/completions", bytes.NewReader(b))
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
-	}
-	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
-	resp, err := c.http.Do(req)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
-	}
-	defer resp.Body.Close()
-	if resp.StatusCode != 200 {
-		return "", fmt.Errorf("status %d", resp.StatusCode)
-	}
-	var out struct {
-		Choices []struct {
-			Message struct {
-				Content          string `json:"content"`
-				ReasoningContent string `json:"reasoning_content"`
-			} `json:"message"`
-		} `json:"choices"`
-	}
-	if err := json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(&out); err != nil {
-		return "", err
-	}
-	if len(out.Choices) == 0 {
-		return "", fmt.Errorf("no choices")
-	}
-	m := out.Choices[0].Message
-	if m.Content != "" {
-		return m.Content, nil
-	}
-	return m.ReasoningContent, nil
-}
-
 func ping(ctx context.Context, c *llm.Client) error {
 	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, 90*time.Second)
 	defer cancel()

internal/router/eval/ru_routing_v1.json

@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
     { "id": "ru-query-011", "utterance": "почему сервер тормозит", "lang": "ru", "intent": "query", "tags": ["homelab", "hard"], "note": "diagnostic question, not a chat opener" },
     { "id": "ru-query-012", "utterance": "какие заметки я оставил про полив", "lang": "ru", "intent": "query", "tags": ["recall"] },
     { "id": "ru-query-013", "utterance": "во сколько у меня встреча", "lang": "ru", "intent": "query", "tags": ["calendar"] },
+    { "id": "ru-query-019", "utterance": "что у меня стоит в календаре на послезавтра", "lang": "ru", "intent": "query", "tags": ["calendar", "hard"], "note": "agenda, not the clock: the daemon answers this from CalendarEvents inside the query branch, so the clock/date system rule must not swallow it" },
     { "id": "ru-query-014", "utterance": "я успеваю до дедлайна", "lang": "ru", "intent": "query", "tags": ["hard", "no-question-word"] },
     { "id": "ru-query-015", "utterance": "сколько я прошёл шагов", "lang": "ru", "intent": "query", "tags": ["aggregate"] },
     { "id": "ru-query-016", "utterance": "покажи давление за неделю", "lang": "ru", "intent": "query", "tags": ["hard", "imperative"], "note": "imperative form but a read — must not route to act" },

internal/router/knowledge.go

@@ -3,5 +3,8 @@ package router
 // KnowledgePrompt returns the system prompt for general knowledge questions
 // that the phraser uses when no notes match the query.
 func KnowledgePrompt() string {
-	return `Ты — Мавена, персональный ассистент. Ответь кратко из своих знаний. Если не знаешь — скажи "не знаю". Не выдумывай. Respond ONLY with valid JSON: {"response": "...", "mood": "neutral"}.`
+	// No self-introduction here: the shared persona block already says who she
+	// is, and this line used to disagree with it — a different name ("Мавена")
+	// and a masculine noun ("ассистент") in front of a feminine persona.
+	return `Ответь кратко из своих знаний. Если не знаешь — скажи "не знаю". Не выдумывай. Respond ONLY with valid JSON: {"response": "...", "mood": "neutral"}.`
 }

internal/router/knowledge_test.go

@@ -11,10 +11,18 @@ func TestKnowledgePrompt(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal("KnowledgePrompt returned empty string")
 	}
 	// Must contain key instructions
-	checks := []string{"Мавена", "не знаю", "не выдумывай"}
+	checks := []string{"не знаю", "не выдумывай"}
 	for _, c := range checks {
 		if !strings.Contains(strings.ToLower(prompt), strings.ToLower(c)) {
 			t.Errorf("KnowledgePrompt should mention %q", c)
 		}
 	}
+	// Who she is comes from the shared persona block now. This prompt used to
+	// say it too, with a different name and a masculine noun, which is the
+	// drift the block exists to stop.
+	for _, w := range []string{"Мавена", "ассистент"} {
+		if strings.Contains(prompt, w) {
+			t.Errorf("KnowledgePrompt should not introduce her (%q) — the persona block does", w)
+		}
+	}
 }

internal/router/llmrouter.go

@@ -44,10 +44,21 @@ ws     ::= [ \t\n]*
 // Changed again 31-07-2026: added the "unknown" escape hatch so the model can
 // admit it cannot route (Vikunja #359).
 //
+// Changed again 31-07-2026: added the clock/calendar rule (Vikunja #374). The
+// prompt never said which side "который час" or "какое число завтра" belong on,
+// so the model guessed — `system→query ×4` in every eval run. The rule sits
+// above the question test on purpose: these utterances all carry a question
+// word, so a later rule would never be reached. The boundary is what the
+// daemon can actually answer: only replySystem in cmd/mavend/voice.go owns the
+// clock and the calendar formatter, while the agenda ("что у меня завтра") is
+// answered inside the query branch, so that side stays query.
+//
 // The training workspace keeps its own copy of this prompt for relabelling, and
 // `llm/check_prompt_parity.py` there compares the two. That copy is in another
 // repo and was not touched, so parity will fail until it gets the same edits —
-// both the rule reorder and the "unknown" wording (Vikunja #362).
+// both the rule reorder and the "unknown" wording (Vikunja #362) — and now the
+// clock/calendar rule too. The training workspace is not checked out on this
+// box at all, so it could not be updated here; #362 still covers the catch-up.
 const routeSystem = `Классифицируй ровно одно сообщение пользователя. Верни ОДИН JSON-массив действий.
 
 Ровно одно намерение: fact, reminder, note, query, act, chat, system.
@@ -56,19 +67,21 @@ const routeSystem = `Классифицируй ровно одно сообще
 Классифицируй по цели пользователя. Порядок решения:
 1. Хочет напоминание в будущем → reminder
 2. Явно просит сохранить информацию → note
-3. Задаёт вопрос: есть вопросительное слово (сколько, что, какой, когда, где, кто, почему, как) или знак «?» → query
+3. Спрашивает только «который час» / «какое число» / «какой день недели» — сами часы или календарная дата, без своих данных → system
-4. Хочет получить информацию, в том числе о своих же данных → query
+4. Задаёт вопрос: есть вопросительное слово (сколько, что, какой, когда, где, кто, почему, как) или знак «?» → query
-5. Утверждает: сообщает или обновляет текущее состояние/событие → fact
+5. Хочет получить информацию, в том числе о своих же данных → query
-6. Просит выполнить работу → act
+6. Утверждает: сообщает или обновляет текущее состояние/событие → fact
-7. Про ассистента, настройки или память → system
+7. Просит выполнить работу → act
-8. Реплика — обрывок или указание на неназванное («это», «то», «потом»), и без него непонятно, что именно нужно сделать → unknown
+8. Про ассистента, настройки или память → system
-9. Иначе → chat
+9. Реплика — обрывок или указание на неназванное («это», «то», «потом»), и без него непонятно, что именно нужно сделать → unknown
+10. Иначе → chat
 
 Различия:
 - note — сохранить информацию, без напоминания. text = суть.
 - reminder — уведомить позже. text = что напомнить.
 - fact — неявное обновление: пользователь сообщает, что что-то в мире изменилось (текущее/изменённое состояние, случившееся событие). key/value.
 - unknown — редкий случай. Ставь его, только если в самой реплике нет ни предмета, ни действия. Короткая, простая или незнакомая тема — это не причина для unknown: приветствие и болтовня — это chat, вопрос на любую тему — это query, просьба сделать что-то названное — это act.
+- system против query — часы и календарная дата сами по себе (сколько времени, какое число, какой день недели — можно и про завтра, и про другой город) — это system. А что записано в календаре или в памяти («что у меня завтра», «какие есть напоминания») — это query. Если в реплике есть просьба (напомни, запиши, сделай), то названное время — просто деталь просьбы, и это не system.
 - query против fact — решает форма реплики, а не тема. Вопрос о состоянии — это query, даже если названо то же самое, что бывает в fact. Только утверждение — это fact.
 
 Примеры:
@@ -82,6 +95,8 @@ const routeSystem = `Классифицируй ровно одно сообще
 "что такое docker?" → {"intent":"query","text":"что такое docker"}
 "напиши письмо" → {"intent":"act","verb":"написать письмо"}
 "очисти память" → {"intent":"system"}
+"который час?" → {"intent":"system"}
+"какое число завтра?" → {"intent":"system"}
 "привет" → {"intent":"chat","text":"привет"}
 "сделай это" → {"intent":"unknown"}
 "ну это" → {"intent":"unknown"}

internal/router/onnxembedder.go

@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ const (
 type onnxEmbedder struct {
 	tokenizer *unigramTokenizer
 	session   *ort.DynamicSession[int64, float32]
+	id        string
 }
 
 func NewONNXEmbedder(modelPath, tokenizerPath, libPath string) (*onnxEmbedder, error) {
@@ -58,11 +59,31 @@ func NewONNXEmbedder(modelPath, tokenizerPath, libPath string) (*onnxEmbedder, e
 	return &onnxEmbedder{
 		tokenizer: tok,
 		session:   session,
+		id:        modelIDFromPath(modelPath),
 	}, nil
 }
 
 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.
+func (e *onnxEmbedder) ID() string { return e.id }
+
+// modelIDFromPath turns /opt/.../multilingual-e5-small.onnx into
+// "multilingual-e5-small@384".
+func modelIDFromPath(modelPath string) string {
+	name := modelPath
+	if i := strings.LastIndexAny(name, "/\\"); i >= 0 {
+		name = name[i+1:]
+	}
+	name = strings.TrimSuffix(name, ".onnx")
+	if name == "" {
+		name = "onnx"
+	}
+	return fmt.Sprintf("%s@%d", name, embedDim)
+}
+
 // Embed treats the text as a query. The classifier compares one short
 // utterance to another short seed phrase, so both sides get the same prefix
 // and the comparison stays fair. The recall path must call EmbedQuery and

internal/router/slots.go

@@ -449,16 +449,30 @@ func (AnaphoraResolver) Resolve(text string) (ref string, ok bool) {
 	return "", false
 }
 
-// ParseCalendarDate detects RU calendar date words in text and returns the
+// ParseCalendarDate detects RU/EN calendar day words in text and returns
-// resolved time (midnight UTC+0 for "сегодня"/"today", next day for "завтра"/"tomorrow").
+// midnight of that day in now's own time zone. Handles "сегодня", "завтра",
-// Returns zero time + false if no match.
+// "послезавтра", "вчера" (and the English words). Returns zero time + false
+// if no match.
+//
+// "послезавтра" is checked before "завтра" because it contains it.
 func ParseCalendarDate(text string, now time.Time) (time.Time, bool) {
 	lower := strings.ToLower(text)
-	if strings.Contains(lower, "сегодня") || strings.Contains(lower, "today") {
+	switch {
-		return now.Truncate(24 * time.Hour), true
+	case strings.Contains(lower, "сегодня") || strings.Contains(lower, "today"):
-	}
+		return midnight(now, 0), true
-	if strings.Contains(lower, "завтра") || strings.Contains(lower, "tomorrow") {
+	case strings.Contains(lower, "послезавтра") || strings.Contains(lower, "day after tomorrow"):
-		return now.Truncate(24 * time.Hour).Add(24 * time.Hour), true
+		return midnight(now, 2), true
+	case strings.Contains(lower, "завтра") || strings.Contains(lower, "tomorrow"):
+		return midnight(now, 1), true
+	case strings.Contains(lower, "вчера") || strings.Contains(lower, "yesterday"):
+		return midnight(now, -1), true
 	}
 	return time.Time{}, false
 }
+
+// midnight returns the start of the day that is `days` away from now, in
+// now's time zone (now.Truncate(24h) would cut on a UTC boundary instead).
+func midnight(now time.Time, days int) time.Time {
+	y, m, d := now.AddDate(0, 0, days).Date()
+	return time.Date(y, m, d, 0, 0, 0, 0, now.Location())
+}

internal/router/slots_ru_test.go

@@ -45,6 +45,9 @@ func TestParseCalendarDate(t *testing.T) {
 		{"расписание на завтра", time.Date(2026, 7, 7, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC), true},
 		{"what's today", time.Date(2026, 7, 6, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC), true},
 		{"tomorrow plans", time.Date(2026, 7, 7, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC), true},
+		{"какое число послезавтра", time.Date(2026, 7, 8, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC), true},
+		{"что было вчера", time.Date(2026, 7, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC), true},
+		{"yesterday plans", time.Date(2026, 7, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC), true},
 		{"какая погода", time.Time{}, false},
 		{"сколько времени", time.Time{}, false},
 		{"", time.Time{}, false},

internal/store/backfill.go

@@ -0,0 +1,161 @@
+package store
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// EmbedFunc embeds one piece of stored text. The caller passes
+// router.EmbedPassage — the STORE side of the query/passage asymmetry, which is
+// the side every vector in the DB was written with. (Passing the query side
+// would put the stored vectors in the wrong half of the space and quietly halve
+// recall.) A func instead of an interface keeps this package free of any
+// dependency on internal/router.
+type EmbedFunc func(ctx context.Context, text string) ([]float32, error)
+
+// BackfillResult is what the re-embed run did, for logging.
+type BackfillResult struct {
+	Skipped  bool // marker already matched — nothing to do
+	Notes    int  // rows rewritten in the notes table
+	Facts    int  // fact rows rewritten in memory_vectors
+	MemNotes int  // note rows rewritten in memory_vectors
+	NoText   int  // memory_vectors rows with no text in their meta, left alone
+	Took     time.Duration
+}
+
+// ReembedAll rewrites every stored vector with the currently configured
+// embedder and then records that embedder as the one that owns the DB.
+//
+// Both places a vector lives are rewritten in the same pass: the `notes` table
+// `embedding` column and the `memory_vectors` rows (notes AND facts). Doing
+// only one would leave the two indexes disagreeing, which is worse than leaving
+// both stale.
+//
+// Safe to re-run: if the marker already names the current embedder there is
+// nothing to fix, so it returns immediately with Skipped set.
+//
+// Crash safety: everything — every vector and the marker — happens inside one
+// transaction. If anything fails or the process dies partway, the transaction
+// rolls back: no vectors changed and no marker written, so the next run does
+// the whole job again. The marker is never set unless the full rewrite
+// committed.
+func (s *Store) ReembedAll(ctx context.Context, currentID string, embed EmbedFunc) (BackfillResult, error) {
+	start := time.Now()
+	var res BackfillResult
+
+	stored, err := s.Meta(ctx, metaKeyEmbedderID)
+	if err != nil {
+		return res, err
+	}
+	if stored == currentID {
+		res.Skipped = true
+		res.Took = time.Since(start)
+		return res, nil
+	}
+
+	tx, err := s.db.BeginTx(ctx, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		return res, fmt.Errorf("reembed: begin: %w", err)
+	}
+	defer tx.Rollback() // no-op once committed
+
+	// ----- notes table -----
+	type noteRow struct {
+		id   int64
+		text string
+	}
+	var notes []noteRow
+	rows, err := tx.QueryContext(ctx, `SELECT id, text FROM notes WHERE text != ''`)
+	if err != nil {
+		return res, fmt.Errorf("reembed: read notes: %w", err)
+	}
+	for rows.Next() {
+		var n noteRow
+		if err := rows.Scan(&n.id, &n.text); err != nil {
+			rows.Close()
+			return res, fmt.Errorf("reembed: note row: %w", err)
+		}
+		notes = append(notes, n)
+	}
+	rows.Close()
+	if err := rows.Err(); err != nil {
+		return res, fmt.Errorf("reembed: notes: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	for _, n := range notes {
+		vec, err := embed(ctx, n.text)
+		if err != nil {
+			return res, fmt.Errorf("reembed: embed note %d: %w", n.id, err)
+		}
+		if _, err := tx.ExecContext(ctx,
+			`UPDATE notes SET embedding = ? WHERE id = ?`, floatsToBlob(vec), n.id); err != nil {
+			return res, fmt.Errorf("reembed: write note %d: %w", n.id, err)
+		}
+		res.Notes++
+	}
+
+	// ----- memory_vectors (the unified index: notes AND facts) -----
+	// The text to re-embed is the one carried in the row's meta blob, which is
+	// exactly the text that was embedded when the row was written.
+	type vecRow struct {
+		id, text, kind string
+	}
+	var vecs []vecRow
+	rows, err = tx.QueryContext(ctx, `SELECT id, meta FROM memory_vectors`)
+	if err != nil {
+		return res, fmt.Errorf("reembed: read memory vectors: %w", err)
+	}
+	for rows.Next() {
+		var id, metaJSON string
+		if err := rows.Scan(&id, &metaJSON); err != nil {
+			rows.Close()
+			return res, fmt.Errorf("reembed: memory row: %w", err)
+		}
+		meta := map[string]string{}
+		if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(metaJSON), &meta); err != nil {
+			rows.Close()
+			return res, fmt.Errorf("reembed: meta for %q: %w", id, err)
+		}
+		if meta["text"] == "" {
+			res.NoText++
+			continue
+		}
+		vecs = append(vecs, vecRow{id: id, text: meta["text"], kind: meta["type"]})
+	}
+	rows.Close()
+	if err := rows.Err(); err != nil {
+		return res, fmt.Errorf("reembed: memory vectors: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	for _, v := range vecs {
+		vec, err := embed(ctx, v.text)
+		if err != nil {
+			return res, fmt.Errorf("reembed: embed %q: %w", v.id, err)
+		}
+		if _, err := tx.ExecContext(ctx,
+			`UPDATE memory_vectors SET vec = ? WHERE id = ?`, encodeVec(vec), v.id); err != nil {
+			return res, fmt.Errorf("reembed: write %q: %w", v.id, err)
+		}
+		if v.kind == "fact" {
+			res.Facts++
+		} else {
+			res.MemNotes++
+		}
+	}
+
+	// Same transaction as the rewrite, on purpose: the marker can only exist if
+	// every vector above was written.
+	if _, err := tx.ExecContext(ctx,
+		`INSERT INTO meta (key, value) VALUES (?,?)
+		 ON CONFLICT(key) DO UPDATE SET value = excluded.value`,
+		metaKeyEmbedderID, currentID); err != nil {
+		return res, fmt.Errorf("reembed: write marker: %w", err)
+	}
+	if err := tx.Commit(); err != nil {
+		return res, fmt.Errorf("reembed: commit: %w", err)
+	}
+	res.Took = time.Since(start)
+	return res, nil
+}

internal/store/backfill_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,171 @@
+package store
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"errors"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// markerVec is a recognisable vector: nothing in these tests writes it except
+// the backfill, so finding it proves the row really was rewritten.
+var markerVec = []float32{9, 9, 9}
+
+func newEmbedder(calls *int) EmbedFunc {
+	return func(_ context.Context, _ string) ([]float32, error) {
+		*calls++
+		return markerVec, nil
+	}
+}
+
+// seedOldVectors puts one note (notes table + unified index) and one fact
+// (unified index only) in the DB, both carrying obviously-old vectors.
+func seedOldVectors(t *testing.T, s *Store) {
+	t.Helper()
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	old := []float32{0.1, 0.2, 0.3}
+	id, err := s.WriteNote(ctx, time.Now(), "молоко в холодильнике", old, "voice")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("WriteNote: %v", err)
+	}
+	mem := s.VectorMemory()
+	if err := mem.Insert(ctx, "note:1", old, map[string]string{
+		"type": "note", "text": "молоко в холодильнике",
+	}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Insert note vector: %v", err)
+	}
+	if err := mem.Insert(ctx, "fact:water:1", old, map[string]string{
+		"type": "fact", "text": "я пил воду",
+	}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Insert fact vector: %v", err)
+	}
+	_ = id
+}
+
+func noteVec(t *testing.T, s *Store) []float32 {
+	t.Helper()
+	var blob []byte
+	if err := s.db.QueryRow(`SELECT embedding FROM notes LIMIT 1`).Scan(&blob); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("read note embedding: %v", err)
+	}
+	return blobToFloats(blob)
+}
+
+func memVec(t *testing.T, s *Store, id string) []float32 {
+	t.Helper()
+	var blob []byte
+	if err := s.db.QueryRow(`SELECT vec FROM memory_vectors WHERE id = ?`, id).Scan(&blob); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("read memory vector %s: %v", id, err)
+	}
+	return decodeVec(blob)
+}
+
+func sameVec(a, b []float32) bool {
+	if len(a) != len(b) {
+		return false
+	}
+	for i := range a {
+		if a[i] != b[i] {
+			return false
+		}
+	}
+	return true
+}
+
+// The deployed case: old vectors everywhere, no marker. Every vector in both
+// places must be rewritten and the marker recorded.
+func TestReembedAllRewritesEveryVector(t *testing.T) {
+	s := newTestStore(t)
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	seedOldVectors(t, s)
+
+	calls := 0
+	res, err := s.ReembedAll(ctx, "multilingual-e5-small@384", newEmbedder(&calls))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("ReembedAll: %v", err)
+	}
+	if res.Skipped {
+		t.Fatal("first run should not skip")
+	}
+	if res.Notes != 1 || res.MemNotes != 1 || res.Facts != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("counts: notes=%d memNotes=%d facts=%d", res.Notes, res.MemNotes, res.Facts)
+	}
+	if calls != 3 {
+		t.Fatalf("embedder called %d times, want 3", calls)
+	}
+	if !sameVec(noteVec(t, s), markerVec) {
+		t.Fatalf("notes table not rewritten: %v", noteVec(t, s))
+	}
+	if !sameVec(memVec(t, s, "note:1"), markerVec) {
+		t.Fatal("unified index note row not rewritten")
+	}
+	if !sameVec(memVec(t, s, "fact:water:1"), markerVec) {
+		t.Fatal("unified index fact row not rewritten")
+	}
+	got, err := s.Meta(ctx, metaKeyEmbedderID)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Meta: %v", err)
+	}
+	if got != "multilingual-e5-small@384" {
+		t.Fatalf("marker = %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+// Re-running must do nothing at all — not a second pass over the same rows.
+func TestReembedAllSecondRunIsNoop(t *testing.T) {
+	s := newTestStore(t)
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	seedOldVectors(t, s)
+
+	calls := 0
+	if _, err := s.ReembedAll(ctx, "e5@384", newEmbedder(&calls)); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("first run: %v", err)
+	}
+	first := calls
+
+	res, err := s.ReembedAll(ctx, "e5@384", newEmbedder(&calls))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("second run: %v", err)
+	}
+	if !res.Skipped {
+		t.Fatal("second run should report Skipped")
+	}
+	if calls != first {
+		t.Fatalf("second run embedded %d more rows, want 0", calls-first)
+	}
+}
+
+// A failure partway must leave the DB exactly as it was: no marker, and the old
+// vectors still in place (one transaction, rolled back).
+func TestReembedAllPartialFailureLeavesMarkerUnset(t *testing.T) {
+	s := newTestStore(t)
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	seedOldVectors(t, s)
+	before := noteVec(t, s)
+
+	calls := 0
+	boom := func(_ context.Context, _ string) ([]float32, error) {
+		calls++
+		if calls == 2 {
+			return nil, errors.New("onnx blew up")
+		}
+		return markerVec, nil
+	}
+	if _, err := s.ReembedAll(ctx, "e5@384", boom); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("expected an error")
+	}
+	got, err := s.Meta(ctx, metaKeyEmbedderID)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Meta: %v", err)
+	}
+	if got != "" {
+		t.Fatalf("marker was set to %q after a failed run", got)
+	}
+	if !sameVec(noteVec(t, s), before) {
+		t.Fatal("a failed run left a partially rewritten notes table")
+	}
+	// And the mismatch warning must still fire, so the user knows to re-run.
+	if _, mismatch, err := s.CheckEmbedder(ctx, "e5@384"); err != nil || !mismatch {
+		t.Fatalf("CheckEmbedder after failed backfill: mismatch=%v err=%v", mismatch, err)
+	}
+}

internal/store/delivery.go

@@ -13,11 +13,15 @@ import (
 // unknown = a pending row found stale at startup: the process that started it
 // is gone, and the send may or may not have reached the external channel.
 // Never auto-resolved into sent or failed — that would be guessing.
+// dropped = the routing table deliberately suppressed this one (a care nudge
+// while you're away). Nothing was sent and nothing went wrong; the row exists
+// so "she dropped it" and "the rule never fired" don't look the same later.
 const (
 	DeliveryPending = "pending"
 	DeliverySent    = "sent"
 	DeliveryFailed  = "failed"
 	DeliveryUnknown = "unknown"
+	DeliveryDropped = "dropped"
 )
 
 // BeginDeliveryAttempt durably records intent to send BEFORE the external
@@ -43,10 +47,11 @@ func (s *Store) BeginDeliveryAttempt(ctx context.Context, kind, rule string, rem
 }
 
 // CompleteDeliveryAttempt records the sink's outcome for a prior
-// BeginDeliveryAttempt. status is "sent" or "failed" — never "pending" or
+// BeginDeliveryAttempt. status is "sent", "failed" or "dropped" — never
-// "unknown" (those are set only by Begin and reconciliation respectively).
+// "pending" or "unknown" (those are set only by Begin and reconciliation
+// respectively).
 func (s *Store) CompleteDeliveryAttempt(ctx context.Context, id int64, status string, now time.Time) error {
-	if status != DeliverySent && status != DeliveryFailed {
+	if status != DeliverySent && status != DeliveryFailed && status != DeliveryDropped {
 		return fmt.Errorf("store: invalid delivery completion status %q", status)
 	}
 	_, err := s.db.ExecContext(ctx,

internal/store/delivery_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+package store
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// TestDroppedDeliveryAttemptRoundTrips — Vikunja #370. A suppressed nudge is
+// recorded as 'dropped'. The status column has a CHECK constraint, so this
+// only works if migration #12 widened it; a fake outbox in a unit test would
+// not catch that.
+func TestDroppedDeliveryAttemptRoundTrips(t *testing.T) {
+	s := newTestStore(t)
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	now := time.Now()
+
+	id, err := s.BeginDeliveryAttempt(ctx, "nudge", "water", 0, "drop", "abc123", now)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("BeginDeliveryAttempt: %v", err)
+	}
+	if err := s.CompleteDeliveryAttempt(ctx, id, DeliveryDropped, now); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("CompleteDeliveryAttempt: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	var status string
+	err = s.db.QueryRowContext(ctx, `SELECT status FROM delivery_attempts WHERE id = ?`, id).Scan(&status)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("read back: %v", err)
+	}
+	if status != DeliveryDropped {
+		t.Fatalf("status: want %q, got %q", DeliveryDropped, status)
+	}
+}

internal/store/dialogue.go

@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+package store
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// DialogueSessionRow — one saved follow-up session. Data is the session
+// encoded by the dialogue package; the store does not look inside it.
+type DialogueSessionRow struct {
+	ID      string
+	Data    []byte
+	Ts      time.Time
+	TTL     time.Duration
+	Expires time.Time
+}
+
+// SaveDialogueSession — write (or replace) the session for one dialogue id.
+// One row per id: a newer turn overwrites the older state.
+func (s *Store) SaveDialogueSession(ctx context.Context, id string, data []byte, ts time.Time, ttl time.Duration) error {
+	expires := ts.Add(ttl)
+	_, err := s.db.ExecContext(ctx, `
+		INSERT INTO dialogue_sessions (id, data, ts, ttl_ms, expires_ts) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?)
+		ON CONFLICT(id) DO UPDATE SET data       = excluded.data,
+		                              ts         = excluded.ts,
+		                              ttl_ms     = excluded.ttl_ms,
+		                              expires_ts = excluded.expires_ts`,
+		id, data, ts.UnixMilli(), ttl.Milliseconds(), expires.UnixMilli())
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("save dialogue session: %w", err)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+// DeleteDialogueSession — drop one session (ended, or expired).
+func (s *Store) DeleteDialogueSession(ctx context.Context, id string) error {
+	if _, err := s.db.ExecContext(ctx, `DELETE FROM dialogue_sessions WHERE id = ?`, id); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("delete dialogue session: %w", err)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+// LoadDialogueSessions — return the sessions still alive at `now` and delete
+// the ones that already ran out. An expired session is dead: it never comes
+// back after a restart.
+func (s *Store) LoadDialogueSessions(ctx context.Context, now time.Time) ([]DialogueSessionRow, error) {
+	if _, err := s.db.ExecContext(ctx,
+		`DELETE FROM dialogue_sessions WHERE expires_ts <= ?`, now.UnixMilli()); err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("prune dialogue sessions: %w", err)
+	}
+	rows, err := s.db.QueryContext(ctx,
+		`SELECT id, data, ts, ttl_ms, expires_ts FROM dialogue_sessions ORDER BY id`)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("load dialogue sessions: %w", err)
+	}
+	defer rows.Close()
+	var out []DialogueSessionRow
+	for rows.Next() {
+		var r DialogueSessionRow
+		var tsMilli, ttlMilli, expMilli int64
+		if err := rows.Scan(&r.ID, &r.Data, &tsMilli, &ttlMilli, &expMilli); err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("scan dialogue session: %w", err)
+		}
+		r.Ts = time.UnixMilli(tsMilli).UTC()
+		r.TTL = time.Duration(ttlMilli) * time.Millisecond
+		r.Expires = time.UnixMilli(expMilli).UTC()
+		out = append(out, r)
+	}
+	if err := rows.Err(); err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("load dialogue sessions: %w", err)
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}

internal/store/meta.go

@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+package store
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"database/sql"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+)
+
+// metaKeyEmbedderID names the embedder that wrote the stored vectors.
+//
+// Why one value for the whole DB and not a column on every vector row: the
+// vectors are only ever rewritten all at once (one backfill re-embeds every
+// note and fact together), so a per-row marker would hold the same string in
+// every row and cost a column on two tables for nothing.
+const metaKeyEmbedderID = "embedder_id"
+
+// Meta reads a single value from the meta table. Missing key ⇒ empty string.
+func (s *Store) Meta(ctx context.Context, key string) (string, error) {
+	var v string
+	err := s.db.QueryRowContext(ctx, `SELECT value FROM meta WHERE key = ?`, key).Scan(&v)
+	if errors.Is(err, sql.ErrNoRows) {
+		return "", nil
+	}
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("read meta %s: %w", key, err)
+	}
+	return v, nil
+}
+
+// SetMeta writes (or overwrites) a single meta value.
+func (s *Store) SetMeta(ctx context.Context, key, value string) error {
+	_, err := s.db.ExecContext(ctx,
+		`INSERT INTO meta (key, value) VALUES (?,?)
+		 ON CONFLICT(key) DO UPDATE SET value = excluded.value`, key, value)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("write meta %s: %w", key, err)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+// EmbedderUnknown is the stored id reported for a DB that already holds
+// vectors but never recorded who wrote them.
+const EmbedderUnknown = "unknown (written before this marker existed)"
+
+// CheckEmbedder compares the embedder now configured against the one that
+// wrote the stored vectors. Returns the stored id and whether it differs.
+//
+// Vectors from two different models live in different spaces, so cosine
+// between them is noise rather than a low score — and both of our models are
+// 384-dimensional, so nothing else catches it.
+//
+// Three cases, and the middle one is the one that actually matters:
+//
+//   - marker present ⇒ compare the two ids.
+//   - marker absent but vectors already stored ⇒ this is a DB from before the
+//     marker, so we cannot know who wrote them. Report a mismatch. This is the
+//     real case on the deployed box: those vectors came from the old embedder,
+//     and claiming them for the current one would hide the exact problem the
+//     marker was added to catch.
+//   - marker absent and no vectors ⇒ fresh DB, claim it, nothing to fix.
+//
+// On a mismatch the fix is ReembedAll (backfill.go), run explicitly with
+// `mavend -reembed`. Nothing is re-embedded here: that work is minutes of CPU
+// on the laptop and must not stall a normal start.
+func (s *Store) CheckEmbedder(ctx context.Context, currentID string) (stored string, mismatch bool, err error) {
+	stored, err = s.Meta(ctx, metaKeyEmbedderID)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", false, err
+	}
+	if stored != "" {
+		return stored, stored != currentID, nil
+	}
+	n, err := s.countVectors(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", false, err
+	}
+	if n > 0 {
+		return EmbedderUnknown, true, nil
+	}
+	return currentID, false, s.SetMeta(ctx, metaKeyEmbedderID, currentID)
+}
+
+// countVectors — how many stored rows carry an embedding. Used only to tell a
+// fresh DB apart from one that predates the marker.
+func (s *Store) countVectors(ctx context.Context) (int, error) {
+	var notes, vecs int
+	if err := s.db.QueryRowContext(ctx,
+		`SELECT count(*) FROM notes WHERE embedding IS NOT NULL`).Scan(&notes); err != nil {
+		return 0, fmt.Errorf("count note vectors: %w", err)
+	}
+	if err := s.db.QueryRowContext(ctx,
+		`SELECT count(*) FROM memory_vectors`).Scan(&vecs); err != nil {
+		return 0, fmt.Errorf("count memory vectors: %w", err)
+	}
+	return notes + vecs, nil
+}

internal/store/meta_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+package store
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// A fresh DB has no marker yet, so the current embedder is recorded and
+// nothing is flagged.
+func TestCheckEmbedderFreshDBRecords(t *testing.T) {
+	s := newTestStore(t)
+	ctx := context.Background()
+
+	stored, mismatch, err := s.CheckEmbedder(ctx, "multilingual-e5-small@384")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("CheckEmbedder: %v", err)
+	}
+	if mismatch {
+		t.Fatal("fresh DB reported a mismatch")
+	}
+	if stored != "multilingual-e5-small@384" {
+		t.Fatalf("stored = %q", stored)
+	}
+	got, err := s.Meta(ctx, metaKeyEmbedderID)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Meta: %v", err)
+	}
+	if got != "multilingual-e5-small@384" {
+		t.Fatalf("marker not persisted, got %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+// The deployed box: notes were written by the old embedder, before the marker
+// existed. Claiming them for the current one would hide exactly the problem
+// the marker is for, so an unmarked DB that already holds vectors is a
+// mismatch.
+func TestCheckEmbedderUnmarkedDBWithVectorsIsMismatch(t *testing.T) {
+	s := newTestStore(t)
+	ctx := context.Background()
+
+	if _, err := s.WriteNote(ctx, time.Now(), "молоко в холодильнике", []float32{0.1, 0.2}, "voice"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("WriteNote: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	stored, mismatch, err := s.CheckEmbedder(ctx, "multilingual-e5-small@384")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("CheckEmbedder: %v", err)
+	}
+	if !mismatch {
+		t.Fatal("an unmarked DB with stored vectors should report a mismatch")
+	}
+	if stored != EmbedderUnknown {
+		t.Fatalf("stored = %q, want %q", stored, EmbedderUnknown)
+	}
+	// It must NOT claim the DB — that would silence the warning on restart.
+	got, err := s.Meta(ctx, metaKeyEmbedderID)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Meta: %v", err)
+	}
+	if got != "" {
+		t.Fatalf("marker written despite unknown provenance: %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+// Both models are 384-dim, so this is the only thing that catches the swap.
+func TestCheckEmbedderDifferentModelMismatch(t *testing.T) {
+	s := newTestStore(t)
+	ctx := context.Background()
+
+	if err := s.SetMeta(ctx, metaKeyEmbedderID, "paraphrase-multilingual-MiniLM-L12-v2@384"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("SetMeta: %v", err)
+	}
+	stored, mismatch, err := s.CheckEmbedder(ctx, "multilingual-e5-small@384")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("CheckEmbedder: %v", err)
+	}
+	if !mismatch {
+		t.Fatal("different embedder not detected")
+	}
+	if stored != "paraphrase-multilingual-MiniLM-L12-v2@384" {
+		t.Fatalf("stored = %q", stored)
+	}
+}
+
+// The same embedder must never raise a false alarm, including on re-check.
+func TestCheckEmbedderSameModelNoAlarm(t *testing.T) {
+	s := newTestStore(t)
+	ctx := context.Background()
+
+	for i := 0; i < 2; i++ {
+		_, mismatch, err := s.CheckEmbedder(ctx, "multilingual-e5-small@384")
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("CheckEmbedder: %v", err)
+		}
+		if mismatch {
+			t.Fatalf("false alarm on pass %d", i)
+		}
+	}
+}

internal/store/migrations.go

@@ -74,6 +74,44 @@ ALTER TABLE reminders ADD COLUMN next_fire_ts INTEGER;`, // #2
 	`CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS idx_nudges_snoozed ON nudges (outcome_ts) WHERE outcome = 'snoozed';`, // #8 — SnoozedUntil runs every tick; keep it off a full scan (Vikunja #364)
 	`ALTER TABLE proposed_routines ADD COLUMN accepted_ts INTEGER;
 	ALTER TABLE proposed_routines ADD COLUMN last_fired_ts INTEGER;`, // #9 — accepted routines keep firing (Vikunja #366): the tick loop needs to know when a routine was accepted and when it last nudged
+
+	`CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS dialogue_sessions (
+		id         TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
+		data       BLOB NOT NULL,
+		ts         INTEGER NOT NULL,
+		ttl_ms     INTEGER NOT NULL,
+		expires_ts INTEGER NOT NULL
+	);
+	CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS idx_dialogue_sessions_expires ON dialogue_sessions (expires_ts);`, // #10 — the follow-up session survives a restart (Vikunja #363); small, TTL-pruned table, not a history log
+
+	`CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS meta (
+		key   TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
+		value TEXT NOT NULL
+	);`, // #11 — small key/value table for facts about the DB itself; first key is embedder_id (Vikunja #378)
+
+	// #12 — a suppressed nudge gets a 'dropped' row (Vikunja #370). sqlite
+	// can't widen a CHECK constraint in place, so the table is rebuilt; the
+	// index goes with the old table and is recreated. The columns are listed
+	// out rather than `SELECT *` — copying by position would silently shuffle
+	// every row if the old table's column order ever differed from this one.
+	`CREATE TABLE delivery_attempts_v12 (
+		id           INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
+		kind         TEXT NOT NULL CHECK (kind IN ('nudge','reminder')),
+		rule         TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
+		reminder_id  INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+		channel      TEXT NOT NULL,
+		body_hash    TEXT NOT NULL,
+		status       TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT 'pending' CHECK (status IN ('pending','sent','failed','unknown','dropped')),
+		created_ts   INTEGER NOT NULL,
+		completed_ts INTEGER
+	);
+	INSERT INTO delivery_attempts_v12
+		(id, kind, rule, reminder_id, channel, body_hash, status, created_ts, completed_ts)
+		SELECT id, kind, rule, reminder_id, channel, body_hash, status, created_ts, completed_ts
+		FROM delivery_attempts;
+	DROP TABLE delivery_attempts;
+	ALTER TABLE delivery_attempts_v12 RENAME TO delivery_attempts;
+	CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS idx_delivery_attempts_status ON delivery_attempts (status);`,
 }
 
 // migrate applies every migration with a number greater than the DB's current

kill-maven.sh

@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 # Unified script to stop all Maven services.
 # Usage: ./kill-maven.sh
-#   - Graceful SIGTERM is attempted first.
+#   - Docker deploy: `docker compose stop` (see why below).
-#   - If any process lingers, force with SIGKILL.
+#   - Bare-metal / dev run: graceful SIGTERM first, SIGKILL if anything lingers.
+# Exits non-zero if it cannot confirm everything is stopped. It must never say
+# "stopped" unless it checked.
 
 set -euo pipefail
 
@@ -24,6 +26,73 @@ else
     LLM='llama-server.*\.gguf'
 fi
 
+COMPOSE_FILE="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)/docker-compose.yml"
+
+# --- containerised deploy ------------------------------------------------
+# docker-compose.yml does not set `pid: host`, so each container has its own
+# PID namespace: pkill on the host sees nothing inside them. This script used
+# to print "all stopped" while every daemon was still happily running. Stop the
+# containers through compose instead — that actually reaches them.
+#
+# running_containers prints the ids of the project's running containers, or
+# nothing. Empty output plus a non-zero return means "could not ask docker",
+# which is different from "nothing is running" and is handled below.
+running_containers() {
+    docker compose -f "$COMPOSE_FILE" ps -q --status running 2>/dev/null
+}
+
+DOCKER_OK=0
+CONTAINERS=""
+if command -v docker >/dev/null 2>&1 && [ -f "$COMPOSE_FILE" ]; then
+    if CONTAINERS="$(running_containers)"; then
+        DOCKER_OK=1
+    fi
+fi
+
+if [ "$DOCKER_OK" = 1 ] && [ -n "$CONTAINERS" ]; then
+    echo "--- Maven is running in containers: stopping via docker compose ---"
+    if ! docker compose -f "$COMPOSE_FILE" stop; then
+        echo "ERROR: 'docker compose stop' failed. Containers may still be running." >&2
+        exit 1
+    fi
+    echo "--- Verifying containers are gone ---"
+    LEFT="$(running_containers || true)"
+    if [ -n "$LEFT" ]; then
+        echo "ERROR: containers still running after stop:" >&2
+        docker compose -f "$COMPOSE_FILE" ps >&2 || true
+        exit 1
+    fi
+    echo "All containers stopped."
+    exit 0
+fi
+
+# --- bare-metal / dev run -----------------------------------------------
+# pgrep -f matches whole command lines, so a shell that merely mentions
+# "mavend" (this script's own parent, for one) shows up. Drop ourselves and our
+# parent, otherwise the SIGKILL sweep can take out the terminal you ran this in.
+host_pids() {
+    pgrep -f "$PAT|$LLM" | grep -v -e "^$$\$" -e "^$PPID\$" | paste -sd, - || true
+}
+HOST_PIDS=$(host_pids)
+
+if [ -z "$HOST_PIDS" ]; then
+    # Nothing on the host. Whether that means "already down" depends on whether
+    # we managed to ask docker, and the two must not read the same.
+    if [ "$DOCKER_OK" = 1 ]; then
+        # Docker answered and named no running containers, and there is nothing
+        # on the host either. That is a real answer: Maven is already stopped.
+        echo "Nothing to stop: no Maven processes and no running containers."
+        exit 0
+    fi
+    # We could not ask docker, so Maven may be alive in a container we cannot
+    # see. Saying "stopped" here is the exact false success this script had.
+    echo "ERROR: no Maven processes on this host, and docker could not be asked." >&2
+    echo "       If this is the container deploy it may still be running:" >&2
+    echo "       docker compose -f $COMPOSE_FILE stop" >&2
+    echo "       Nothing was stopped. Check by hand before assuming Maven is down." >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
 echo "--- Sending graceful SIGTERM to Maven services ---"
 pkill -TERM -f "$PAT" || true
 # mavend's Pdeathsig SIGKILLs its llama-server on exit, but sweep strays too
@@ -32,12 +101,18 @@ pkill -TERM -f "$LLM" || true
 
 echo "--- Verifying processes are gone ---"
 sleep 1
-PIDS=$(pgrep -d ',' -f "$PAT|$LLM") || PIDS=""
+PIDS=$(host_pids)
 if [ -n "$PIDS" ]; then
     echo "Warning: some processes still alive. PIDs: $PIDS"
     echo "--- Force killing with SIGKILL ---"
     echo "$PIDS" | tr ',' '\n' | xargs -r kill -9
+    sleep 1
+    LEFT=$(host_pids)
+    if [ -n "$LEFT" ]; then
+        echo "ERROR: still alive after SIGKILL. PIDs: $LEFT" >&2
+        exit 1
+    fi
     echo "Done (SIGKILL)."
 else
     echo "All services gracefully stopped."
-fi
+fi