fix(agent): gadfly round 2 — a pointer is not a compression
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Four findings, all real.

**A deictic closer now needs a compression marker too** (opus,
correctness). The pointsAbove branch of isSummaryCloser required only a
back-reference, so a terminal like "Given the analysis above, I
recommend option B because X" — a pointer followed by a CONCLUSION the
earlier turn never contained — would be discarded in favour of that
turn, throwing away the answer. The ack shape does not have this problem
because "Citations are logged." carries nothing; a bare pointer does not
carry that guarantee.

Both halves are now required: the pointer says the full answer is
elsewhere, and compressionMarkerRe ("Short version:", "TL;DR", "In
short") is the model saying what sits beside it is a condensation rather
than new reasoning. #1611's closer has both. A marker without a pointer
stays out of scope for the reason already documented — a user who asked
for brevity gets exactly that shape. Unmatched closers keep today's
behaviour, so the narrowing fails closed.

**CRLF** (opus, error-handling): "above\r\n" was not clause-final, so a
CRLF transcript quietly lost every line-final deictic. CR joins LF in the
terminator set.

**A comment wrapped mid-phrase** so that "// -style" read as a list
marker (sonnet) — reflowed as part of rewriting that doc block.

**Process provenance in a test comment** (sonnet): "(gadfly, 3 models)"
is an execution log, not an invariant. The lesson survives, the
attribution does not.

Break-check is ten mutations now — dropping CR and dropping the
compression requirement are each killed by their own named cases — with
the control surviving.
This commit is contained in:
2026-08-22 00:03:15 -04:00
parent 7dccb233ad
commit 3f1c016e74
2 changed files with 68 additions and 9 deletions
+37 -7
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@@ -136,8 +136,9 @@ var backRefRe = regexp.MustCompile(`(?i)(already answered|see above|as (i )?(sai
// hyphenated compound — "above-average", "above-board", "above-ground" —
// read as a clause-final deictic and put a legitimate short answer at risk of
// being discarded. The em dash stays: a model writes "…above — see the
// links", never "above-" as a separator.
var aboveRefRe = regexp.MustCompile(`(?i)\babove\b[ \t]*([.,;:!?)\]"'’”—]|\n|$)`)
// links", never "above-" as a separator. CR is listed alongside LF so a
// CRLF transcript does not quietly lose every line-final "above".
var aboveRefRe = regexp.MustCompile(`(?i)\babove\b[ \t]*([.,;:!?)\]"'’”—]|\r|\n|$)`)
// pointsAbove reports whether a deictic "above" appears in the terminal's
// OPENING. The offset bound is what makes a bare "above" safe to key on: with
@@ -157,6 +158,23 @@ func pointsAbove(t string) bool {
return loc != nil && loc[0] <= backRefHeadChars
}
// compressionMarkerRe matches a model announcing that what follows is the
// short form of something longer ("Short version: …", "TL;DR: …", "In short,
// …"). It is the second half of the deictic summary-closer test: the pointer
// says the full answer is elsewhere, and this says the text beside it is a
// condensation rather than new reasoning.
//
// Both halves are required, because a deictic pointer alone does not mean the
// terminal is disposable. "Given the analysis above, I recommend option B
// because X" opens with a pointer and then states a CONCLUSION the earlier
// turn never contained — discarding it in favour of that turn would throw away
// the answer. A compression marker is the model telling us the opposite.
//
// A marker WITHOUT a pointer stays out of scope, as summaryCloserRe's own
// comment explains: a user who asked for brevity is answered with exactly that
// shape.
var compressionMarkerRe = regexp.MustCompile(`(?i)\b(short version|shorter version|short answer|tl;?dr|in short|in brief|in summary|in sum|bottom line|net[- ]net|the gist)\b`)
// summaryCloserRe matches a terminal turn that OPENS with a bookkeeping
// acknowledgment of the citation round — "Citations are logged.", "Sources
// cited.", "Logged the citations." — the shape a model produces when it
@@ -296,10 +314,21 @@ func isCitationsOnly(s string) bool {
// isSummaryCloser reports whether a terminal turn defers to an earlier answer
// and is short enough that whatever follows the deferral can only be a
// compression of it. Two openers qualify: a complete "citations are logged"
// -style ack sentence (summaryCloserRe), and a deictic back-reference in the
// terminal's opening (pointsAbove — mort issue #1611's "Done — that's the full
// chain above. Short version: …", which the ack shape alone did not cover).
// compression of it. Two openers qualify:
//
// - a complete bookkeeping ack sentence — "Citations are logged." — which is
// summaryCloserRe, and carries no answer content of its own;
// - a deictic back-reference in the opening PLUS a compression marker —
// mort issue #1611's "Done — that's the full chain above. Short version:
// …" — which the ack shape alone did not cover.
//
// The second opener needs both halves. A pointer on its own does not make a
// terminal disposable: "Given the analysis above, I recommend option B because
// X" points backwards and then states a conclusion the earlier turn never
// contained, and replacing it with that turn would discard the answer. The
// compression marker is the model saying the opposite — that what follows is
// the short form of something it already wrote.
//
// Whether the fuller answer actually exists is modeSummary's job — the dwarf
// ratio in isSubstantiveAnswer keeps a matching closer in place when nothing
// earlier clearly outweighs it.
@@ -313,7 +342,8 @@ func isSummaryCloser(s string) bool {
if t == "" || len(t) > summaryCloserMaxChars {
return false
}
return summaryCloserRe.MatchString(t) || pointsAbove(t)
return summaryCloserRe.MatchString(t) ||
(pointsAbove(t) && compressionMarkerRe.MatchString(t))
}
// lastSubstantiveAssistantText scans msgs newest→oldest (skipping the terminal
+31 -2
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@@ -70,6 +70,8 @@ func TestPointsAbove(t *testing.T) {
{"comma", "As shown above, the answer is 60 minutes.", true},
{"end-of-string", "The full breakdown is above", true},
{"line-final", "Everything is above\n\nShort version: yes.", true},
{"line-final-crlf", "Everything is above\r\nShort version: yes.", true},
{"crlf-at-end", "The full breakdown is above\r\n", true},
{"closing-paren", "(the detail is above).", true},
{"semicolon", "It's above; the short answer is no.", true},
@@ -80,8 +82,9 @@ func TestPointsAbove(t *testing.T) {
{"above-average", "Turnout was above average in three counties.", false},
// Hyphenated compounds. \b holds between "above" and "-", so a literal
// '-' in the terminator class made all of these read as deictic — the
// space-separated cases above did NOT cover it (gadfly, 3 models).
// '-' in the terminator class makes all of these read as deictic. The
// space-separated cases above do NOT cover this: they are a different
// character, and one passed while the other was broken.
{"hyphen-above-average", "Turnout was above-average in three counties.", false},
{"hyphen-above-board", "The deal was above-board from the start.", false},
{"hyphen-above-ground", "Run the above-ground cable along the fence.", false},
@@ -196,6 +199,13 @@ func TestIsSummaryCloser(t *testing.T) {
{"1611-verbatim", closer1611, true},
{"above-pointer-plus-tldr", "That's the whole picture above. In short: the merger fell through.", true},
{"prepositional-above-is-not-a-closer", "Anything above 100 degrees boils off, which is why the sample evaporated.", false},
// A deictic pointer WITHOUT a compression marker is not a summary
// closer: these state a conclusion the earlier turn never contained,
// so replacing them with that turn would discard the answer.
{"pointer-then-a-recommendation", "Given the analysis above, I recommend option B: it is the only one that survives a regional outage.", false},
{"pointer-then-a-decision", "Based on everything above, we should ship Tuesday and hold the migration until the following sprint.", false},
{"pointer-then-a-new-caveat", "That is the chain above. One thing it misses: the Senate vote is scheduled before any of this takes effect.", false},
{"1611-over-cap", closer1611 + " " + strings.Repeat("Plenty more detail worth keeping here. ", 4), false}, // >300
}
for _, c := range cases {
@@ -250,6 +260,10 @@ func TestFinalOutput(t *testing.T) {
// modeBackRef bar (>=200 bytes, no ratio) accepts it. A shorter closer
// would pass under either bar and prove nothing.
shortAbovePointer := "Done. The whole chain is above, so there is no point repeating all of that detail down here again."
// A deictic pointer followed by a NEW conclusion (no compression marker):
// >120 bytes so isWeakFinal cannot claim it, and it must not be treated as
// a summary closer either.
pointerThenConclusion := "Given the analysis above, I recommend option B: it is the only one that survives a regional outage without a manual failover step."
// A terminal using "above" as a PREPOSITION — not a back-reference, so it
// must survive verbatim next to a dwarfing prior turn.
prepositionalTerminal := "Anything above 100 degrees boils off, which is exactly why the sample evaporated overnight in the unsealed tray."
@@ -556,6 +570,21 @@ func TestFinalOutput(t *testing.T) {
terminal: shortAbovePointer,
want: longAnswer,
},
{
// A pointer plus a NEW conclusion is not a compression, so it must
// survive verbatim even though a much longer prior turn exists —
// otherwise the recommendation is thrown away in favour of the
// analysis it was drawn from.
name: "above-pointer closer with a new conclusion is not discarded",
msgs: []llm.Message{
llm.UserText("which option?"),
asst(hugeAnswer, cite...),
llm.ToolResultsMessage(llm.ToolResult{ID: "c1", Name: "cite", Content: "ok"}),
asst(pointerThenConclusion),
},
terminal: pointerThenConclusion,
want: pointerThenConclusion,
},
{
// A closer matching BOTH the ack shape and a back-reference
// carries no answer content, so the back-ref test must win and the