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workflow-fix: model-switch rung in the spurious-refusal recovery ladder

kind: infra#wf-fix#wf-fix-fp:3aa25d8c255e
track:

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Overview / Motivation

Auto-filed by the workflow-fix-on-bug protocol from a workflow-fix candidate raised on task #1092 (emitting agent: issue-orchestrator).

Goal

Add a model-switch escape rung to the CLAUDE.md "Spurious usage-policy refusals" recovery ladder: after two same-model refusal kills of a subagent spawn, re-spawn with a per-subagent model pin (model: "sonnet") BEFORE falling back to orchestrator-composes-the-artifact or Codex dispatch.

Workflow gap

  • Bug observed: three consecutive experiment-implementer spawns on #1092 (2026-07-07) were refusal-killed at 19/25/30 tool calls ("violative cyber content" false-positive class) despite escalating mitigations — (attempt 2) neutral-vocabulary behavioral instructions, (attempt 3) fully neutralized plan/body copies with 0 residual hot tokens. A per-subagent model pin to Sonnet (attempt 4) broke through immediately: 53 min / 103 tool calls with zero refusals on the SAME inputs.
  • Why it is a workflow gap: CLAUDE.md § "Spurious usage-policy refusals" prescribes (a) check durable writes, (b) retry once rephrased, (c) orchestrator composes for thin wrappers, (d) digest-only ingestion — but has NO model-dimension rung, and (c) is infeasible for a full implementer build. The kills were model-pathway-correlated, not content-fixable: vocabulary thinning did nothing while the model switch fixed it outright. Per-subagent model pins are prompt-cache-safe (each subagent has its own cache; CLAUDE.md § Prompt-cache key discipline), so the rung is free.
  • Confidence (emitter): high (A/B evidence on identical inputs, 3 kills vs 1 clean run).

Proposed change (candidate diff sketch — refine in planning)

CLAUDE.md § "Spurious usage-policy refusals", recovery list:
+ (b2) if a SUBAGENT spawn is refusal-killed twice on the same task despite a
+ rephrased/thinned brief, re-spawn it ONCE with a per-subagent model pin
+ (`model: "sonnet"` on the Agent call) before escalating to (c) — refusal
+ trips are partly model-pathway-specific (incident #1092, 2026-07-07: 3
+ fable-5 implementer kills at 19/25/30 tool calls incl. one on fully
+ neutralized inputs; the sonnet re-spawn ran 53 min clean on the same
+ inputs). Per-subagent model pins are prompt-cache-safe.

Grep the workflow surface for sibling guidance before editing (grep -rln 'usage-policy refusal\|usage policy' .claude/ CLAUDE.md scripts/) and update every hit that carries the recovery ladder.

Scope / surfaces

  • Primary target: CLAUDE.md
  • Possible siblings: .claude/rules/*.md files quoting the refusal-recovery ladder (grep first).

Constraints / invariants

  • Workflow-surface only — never experiment code, configs/, or tasks/.
  • scripts/workflow_lint.py --check-asks passes; ruff on touched files passes.
  • This session runs under EPM_WORKFLOW_FIX_SESSION=1 and carries a workflow_fix_target: Provenance line — it MUST NOT auto-route any of its own subagents' workflow-fix candidates (recursion guard).

Provenance

  • workflow_fix_target: CLAUDE.md
  • fingerprint: 3aa25d8c255e

Origin (surfaced prose, #1092 orchestrator session cmra3qxw0u21iwc0ur33ug1d5, 2026-07-07): three refusal-killed implementer spawns recorded as epm:progress v23/v24/v25 on task #1092; breakthrough recorded as epm:progress v27 (sonnet pin, attempt 4).

Activity