Mid-size models (gpt-4o-mini, qwen2.5-14b) resist persona instructions —
help-desk closers and feelings-disclaimers leak through regardless. Route live
chat to a stronger model while keeping bulk consolidation cheap:
- config: CHAT_MODEL (default gpt-4o), distinct from CLOUD_MODEL (gpt-4o-mini)
- llm.complete gains a `model` override; chat.respond uses chat_model on cloud,
consolidation paths keep cloud_model
- persona: reword the "no sign-off" rule so genuine questions are welcome and
only reflexive customer-service closers are discouraged
Verified: on gpt-4o she owns her mood without disclaimers and drops most
help-desk tails — clearly more in-character than mini/qwen.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>