Tool Followup Engagement Plan

Date: March 9, 2026 Scope: Minimal deterministic floor control for voice tool followups that belong to one engaged user

Problem

The immediate failure mode is not that the model lacks enough prompting. It is that unrelated turns can still reach the model during a tool-owned followup window.

The cheap model-facing mitigations are still worth doing and keeping:

• classifier context that names the active command owner
• correct is_error signaling on failed tool results
• tighter tool descriptions so the model understands when a tool is asking for user repair

But those are soft controls. The hard fix is to stop unrelated turns before they reach the model.

Current Working Assumptions

We are already most of the way there:

• music disambiguation already creates temporary ownership with voiceCommandState
• the classifier already sees active command ownership context
• the main missing piece is a small deterministic gate that says "this followup currently belongs to user X"

We do not need a large generalized framework yet.

Minimal Plan

1. Keep The Cheap Model-Facing Layer

Treat these as first-class, not optional hints:

• active command owner in classifier context
• is_error on failed tool outputs
• clearer music/tool descriptions

These are low-cost and already improve the common cases.

2. Use A Minimal Followup Lease

Do not introduce a large typed framework yet. Start with the smallest useful ownership record:

type VoiceFollowupLease = {
  ownerUserId: string | null;
  domain: string | null;
  expiresAt: number;
};

Implementation-wise, this can ride on the existing voiceCommandState path first rather than creating a second ownership system.

3. Add One Deterministic Admission Gate

Before classifier or generation dispatch:

• if the lease owner is speaking, allow the turn
• if someone else is speaking, block the turn
• if the user says stop/cancel, let the existing cancel path clear the work and lease

That is the main value. It prevents cross-talk from ever entering the model during the owned followup window.

4. Defer The Rest

Do not build these yet unless logs show they are still needed:

• tool-returned followup metadata
• explicit interruption-policy overrides
• deferred-turn pruning logic
• broad prompt-context expansions
• per-domain followup abstractions beyond what music already needs

Tests

Add focused coverage for:

• owner admitted during active followup lease
• other speaker blocked during active followup lease
• failed realtime tool output includes is_error
• music ambiguity still behaves correctly with the minimal lease

Follow-On Criteria

Only move to the larger system if logs still show:

• stale deferred turns replaying after the owned followup resolves
• interruption behavior still letting other speakers cut in at the wrong time
• a second tool domain truly needing structured followup metadata