cmd/mavend/clarify.go

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

cmd/mavend/turnrole_test.go

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

docs/design.md

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

internal/dialogue/clarify.go

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