🐛 Observed (demo Booth log, 2026-07-28, The Archivist on shift)
Two distinct quality failures in live patter, both downstream of the system prompt line "You may embellish with genuine knowledge of the track, artist, or era":
1. Confabulated facts, including the artist's name.
- Lead-in for "Son de maíz" by LaBarcaDeSua → on air: "…by Barcarola…", "a soundscape from rural Cuba" (invented origin).
- Back-announce for "Breathe" by Bellevue → "from a field day in Brooklyn's indie scene" (invented).
Renaming a real artist on air is the worst case — a listener can't tell curated flavor from error. A small local model does not have "genuine knowledge" of netlabel artists; the license produces confident fabrication instead.
2. Quirk example values reused verbatim.
The Archivist's quirk says invented catalog number with example 'item four-seven-one-two' — but many breaks speak exactly "item four-seven-one-two" (it also sometimes invents, e.g. "five-one-zero-eight-six", so this is gravitational pull toward the example, not total parroting). Dozens of repeats flatten the bit.
🔧 Fix shape (one prompt region, two lines)
In the patter system prompt (LlmPromptBuilder):
- Replace the open embellishment license with a guarded one: era/genre color is fine, but never state specific facts about the artist or track you were not given, and never alter the artist's name or the title — when unsure, stay with what's in the prompt.
- Where quirks are injected: examples inside quirks illustrate style — invent fresh specifics each break; do not reuse an example's literal values.
Persona quirks themselves are working as designed (the catalog-number bit IS The Archivist) — no persona-side change needed. Related: gh-#152 (exposing the system prompt in the Admin UI would have made all of this diagnosable from the Booth log alone), gh-#151 (they/their).
🐛 Observed (demo Booth log, 2026-07-28, The Archivist on shift)
Two distinct quality failures in live patter, both downstream of the system prompt line "You may embellish with genuine knowledge of the track, artist, or era":
1. Confabulated facts, including the artist's name.
Renaming a real artist on air is the worst case — a listener can't tell curated flavor from error. A small local model does not have "genuine knowledge" of netlabel artists; the license produces confident fabrication instead.
2. Quirk example values reused verbatim.
The Archivist's quirk says invented catalog number with example 'item four-seven-one-two' — but many breaks speak exactly "item four-seven-one-two" (it also sometimes invents, e.g. "five-one-zero-eight-six", so this is gravitational pull toward the example, not total parroting). Dozens of repeats flatten the bit.
🔧 Fix shape (one prompt region, two lines)
In the patter system prompt (
LlmPromptBuilder):Persona quirks themselves are working as designed (the catalog-number bit IS The Archivist) — no persona-side change needed. Related: gh-#152 (exposing the system prompt in the Admin UI would have made all of this diagnosable from the Booth log alone), gh-#151 (they/their).