docs/evals/2026-08-08-parked-clarify-ride.md

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+# The parked clarify ride, bounded and re-measured
+
+Date: 2026-08-08, V-663. Same 140 turns, same driver, third and fourth runs of
+the day. Before is `d6f3914`, after is that plus two changes.
+
+## What was measured before
+
+One question about a reminder's day rode turns 6 to 13. It ended only because
+turn 14 was a new request. Two of those turns are the worst replies in the
+corpus:
+
+```text
+спасибо   -> Сейчас 21:25. В какой день?
+привет    -> Сейчас 21:25. В какой день?
+```
+
+V-654 had already added `MaxSuspends` and the tail count had not moved.
+
+## Why three bounds let it happen
+
+The TTL, `MaxAttempts` and `MaxSuspends` all exist and all were rearmed.
+
+An aside spends no attempt, so `MaxAttempts` never reaches it. A turn reading as
+a failed answer zeroes `Suspends`, so `MaxSuspends` never reaches the asides.
+`спасибо` read as a failed answer. So the pleasantry both produced the reply
+above and paid for it out of the budget meant to end the ride.
+
+## The two changes
+
+`PendingQuestion.Rides` counts the same event as `Suspends` with the resets
+taken out. Set once, incremented only in `noteSuspended`, carried across the
+re-park in `askRemainingGap`. `MaxRides` is 4, one looser than `MaxSuspends` so
+that the tighter statement about a run stays reachable.
+
+A pleasantry is an aside, not a failed answer. The set is a new closed lexicon
+entry, matched as whole utterances rather than tokens. `вечер` answers `это утра
+или вечера?` and `нет` answers a confirm. Anything that could fill a slot stays
+out.
+
+## Result
+
+| | before | after |
+|---|---|---|
+| turns carrying a clarify tail | 21 | 17 |
+| turns carrying any failure string | 31 | 29 |
+| the longest ride | 8 turns | 4 turns |
+
+The turns carrying a tail, by number:
+
+```text
+before  6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13   53 54 55 56 57   99 102 103   116   136 137 138 139
+after   6 7 8 9                53 54 55 56 57   99 100 101   116   136 137 138 139
+```
+
+Turn 10 is the change. It now reads:
+
+```text
+спасибо -> Прошлую просьбу отпускаю. Пожалуйста, я всегда готова помочь тебе.
+```
+
+She lets the request go, says so, and answers the man. Turns 11 to 13 are clean.
+
+**`MaxRides` is not what fired.** The pleasantry is an aside now, so it no
+longer breaks the run. `MaxSuspends` reached three on turn 10 and ended it.
+`Rides` is the backstop for the shape where an answer really does break the run.
+No turn in this corpus reaches it.
+
+## What did not move
+
+Four rides are untouched. Turns 53 to 57 are five consecutive asides against a
+reminder missing its day. Turn 58 is a new request that drops it. Nothing
+pleasant appears in that run, so neither change applies. Turns 99 to 101 shifted
+by one, and 116 and 136 to 139 are unchanged.
+
+So the fix is worth four turns of twenty-one. What is left is asides against a
+question the owner never answers. `MaxSuspends` was written for that shape and
+does bound it, at four turns each.
+
+## Not attributable
+
+Latency moved p50 1.1s to 1.5s and p95 2.8s to 3.0s, and the 34.3s outlier in
+the earlier run is gone. Both runs had the workstation up. Read none of it as
+caused by this change.
+
+One unrelated defect appeared in the after run and is recorded here because it
+is visible in the transcript. Turn 4 answered `Я записала твою привычкуRegarding
+coffee without sugar.` That is English leaking into a Russian reply with no
+space in front of it. It is a phrasing defect and it has no task yet.