When a child's final answer still missed its output_schema after the one
bounded retry, the result entry flipped to status=failed with the error
"Final answer does not satisfy the declared output_schema" — the completion
line printed ✗ and orchestrators read a finished audit as a failure. Five
audits of 413-4103 s were lost this way in the Sep 10-14 retrospective and
the parent had to mine the live transcripts; in four of them the "violation"
was a ```json fence around a valid array, which the candidate extractor
sliced to its first..last object.
Now: status stays completed, `summary` is the child's raw final text,
`schema_valid: false` + `schema_errors` carry the verdict and a `schema_note`
says the text is unvalidated; the sync completion line shows ⚠ with the
reason. The extractor tries the earliest-opening bracket span and keeps the
first that parses (fenced arrays validate). The OUTPUT CONTRACT the child
sees now says "ONLY the JSON value — no prose, no code fence" and what a miss
costs. One bounded retry is unchanged.
teknium1
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