The system was observational: verifier classified, sidecar diagnosed,
repair plans were emitted — but no loop ever closed. This adds the
hybrid repair stage from the toy-Hermes design pass: mechanical first
(deterministic string substitution from sidecar suggestions), behind
a `policy["repair_enabled"]` flag (off by default). Re-prompt fallback
is TODO.
aborist/qa/repair.py: `mechanical_repair(answer, unverified_quotes,
context)` walks each unverified quote through the sidecar classifier &
applies its `repair` action by string sub:
synthetic_elision_inside_quote (both halves verbatim)
`"prefix [...] suffix"` → `"prefix" ... "suffix"`
Two verbatim spans the verifier can independently check; the
model's [...] ellipsis-marker becomes prose between them.
trailing_artifact
`"prose. (Source: ...)"` → `"prose."`
Verbatim prefix kept; model-appended tail dropped.
no_overlap
Drop the line containing the bad quote entirely.
Skips include_aside_for_verbatim (needs precise source-span extraction;
defer to re-prompt path), paraphrase / partial_paraphrase (need prose
rewriting). Idempotent.
aborist/qa/query.py + aborist/qa/runner.py: optional pass after first
verify. When `repair_enabled=True` AND `audit_mode != "STRICT"` AND
unverified quotes exist:
1. Run mechanical_repair on the answer text.
2. If repair produced any changes, re-verify the repaired text.
3. If post-repair verdict isn't worse (n_verified didn't decrease),
accept the repair: persist the REPAIRED answer text instead of
the model's original. Cache_key inputs unchanged.
4. Audit chain gets one `providence_repair` event with the change
log + pre/post verdict so the original→repaired transition is
reconstructable.
Result dict gains `repair_changes` (list of change records) and
`pre_repair_audit_mode` (what the original was classified as).
`policy["repair_enabled"]` enters governance_policy_hash so on/off
agents share no cache silos.
Tests:
- mechanical_repair on each diagnosis (synthetic_elision, trailing_artifact,
no_overlap), idempotence on clean text.
- query() integration: repair_enabled=False (default) leaves answer
text unchanged; repair_enabled=True promotes a HYBRID/quote
synthetic_elision case to STRICT/quote, persists the repaired text,
emits the providence_repair audit event.
479 tests pass (+6 repair).
russell@unturf.com
a0a55c8871