Previously _build_backgrounds ran two parallel Sonnet calls of 6
callers each, with zero cross-batch awareness. Each batch independently
gravitated to the same quirky archetypes (Coast to Coast weirdos,
specific hobbies) and produced clustered rosters — one recent show
had two BBQ competitors, two taxidermists, and two conspiracy-pattern
callers across 10 slots.
Collapses to a single Sonnet call generating all 10 at once so the
model can self-diversify across the full roster. The BATCH_SYSTEM_PROMPT
also gets an explicit ANTI-COLLISION RULE with concrete forbidden
examples (no two BBQ competitors, no two taxidermists, no two mystery-
signal callers, etc.) and an instruction to scan output for collisions
before finalizing.
max_tokens bumped 8000 -> 16000 to accommodate the larger response.
Wall-clock cost: ~30s -> ~60s, acceptable for the diversity gain.
Verified on a fresh reset: 10 fully differentiated callers, zero
archetype collisions.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
lukeandClaude Opus 4.6
1c7ac334b4