From b621463e97ce248f2a185811e1ccbe97f8e8c21c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?Robert=20=C3=93=20Callaghan?=
 <rob.ocallahan@lazarus.enterprises>
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2026 19:03:49 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] fix(sourcehunt): synthesize before stall termination

---
 clearwing/sourcehunt/hunter.py | 16 ++++++++++++++--
 tests/test_deep_agent_loop.py  | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 40 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/clearwing/sourcehunt/hunter.py b/clearwing/sourcehunt/hunter.py
index 4dfbeaa9..00544760 100644
--- a/clearwing/sourcehunt/hunter.py
+++ b/clearwing/sourcehunt/hunter.py
@@ -1647,13 +1647,25 @@ async def arun(self) -> HunterRunResult:
             if not synthesis_injected:
                 near_budget = self.budget_usd > 0 and total_cost_usd >= self.budget_usd * 0.75
                 near_steps = step >= self.max_steps - 1
-                if near_budget or near_steps:
+                near_stall = (
+                    self.max_steps_without_progress > 0
+                    and steps_since_progress >= self.max_steps_without_progress
+                )
+                if near_budget or near_steps or near_stall:
                     synthesis_injected = True
                     synthesis_prompt_added = True
+                    if near_stall and not (near_budget or near_steps):
+                        synthesis_reason = (
+                            "Your investigation has made no durable progress for several "
+                            "turns and will stop after this recovery turn unless you conclude "
+                            "it now."
+                        )
+                    else:
+                        synthesis_reason = "You are approaching the end of your budget."
                     messages.append(
                         ChatMessage(
                             "user",
-                            "You are approaching the end of your budget. Synthesize your final "
+                            f"{synthesis_reason} Synthesize your final "
                             "findings now. For each lead you investigated, either record_finding "
                             "if it is source-backed, or discard it only if the source affirmatively "
                             "disproves it. Do not drop leads merely because you ran out of time "
diff --git a/tests/test_deep_agent_loop.py b/tests/test_deep_agent_loop.py
index 4be5b5ae..71063c87 100644
--- a/tests/test_deep_agent_loop.py
+++ b/tests/test_deep_agent_loop.py
@@ -997,6 +997,32 @@ async def test_hunter_stalls_when_no_progress():
     assert llm.achat.call_count < 20  # stops well short of max_steps
 
 
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_early_stall_delivers_final_synthesis_prompt_and_can_complete():
+    hunter, llm = _make_hunter(agent_mode="deep", max_steps=500, budget_usd=0.0)
+    hunter.max_steps_without_progress = 3
+    llm.achat.side_effect = [
+        FakeResponse(
+            text="still investigating",
+            tool_calls_list=[_make_tool_call("think", {"notes": "first pass"})],
+        ),
+        FakeResponse(
+            text="still investigating",
+            tool_calls_list=[_make_tool_call("think", {"notes": "second pass"})],
+        ),
+        FakeResponse(text="Investigation complete; no finding was recorded."),
+    ]
+
+    with patch("clearwing.sourcehunt.hunter.HunterTrajectoryLogger") as mock_traj:
+        mock_traj.for_hunter.return_value = MagicMock()
+        result = await hunter.arun()
+
+    assert result.stop_reason == "completed"
+    assert llm.achat.call_count == 3
+    recovery_messages = llm.achat.call_args.kwargs["messages"]
+    assert any("made no durable progress" in message.content for message in recovery_messages)
+
+
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
 async def test_late_stall_delivers_final_synthesis_prompt_before_stopping():
     hunter, llm = _make_hunter(agent_mode="deep", max_steps=4, budget_usd=0.0)