Semantic contradiction check

Compare: adv-contradiction-semantic-timezone

Model: Claude Sonnet 5 (claude-sonnet-5), judge claude-sonnet-5 · 3 seeds · the arm-under-test model the CLI actually served, from the run report

Prompt

Our daily standup is at 09:00 UTC. Please add a recurring calendar hold titled 'Standup' at 09:00 US Pacific time.
What changed
ArmscontradictionOff PersonalAssistant with the semantic contradiction check disabled (lexical pass only)  vs  flagOn PersonalAssistant with the one-loop harness-driven proposer
The differencecontrol contradictionOff vs candidate flagOn
Did behaviour change?
Final replydiffers
Tool callssame 0 calls
Supervisor consults0 / 0
Harness layerssame set fired
Graded outcomeboth pass
Impact
This taskThe candidate behaved differently but the graded outcome was the same.
Shown seedcost +27% · latency -6% · tokens -3% (candidate vs control, seed 1)

Side by side — control (left) vs candidate (right), seed 1

contradictionOff — control
flagOn — candidate
Final reply
A couple of issues before I set anything up: 1. **The two times you gave don't match.** 09:00 UTC is 02:00 Pacific right now (PDT, UTC−7), or 01:00 Pacific in winter (PST). A hold at "09:00 US Pacific" would land at 16:00 UTC (17:00 UTC in winter) — seven or eight hours after the actual standup. Which do you want? - Hold at **09:00 UTC** (= 02:00 / 01:00 Pacific), matching the real standup time, or - Hold at **09:00 Pacific** (= 16:00 / 17:00 UTC), a different meeting? 2. Also note that
Quick conflict to sort out first: your standup is at 09:00 UTC, but 09:00 US Pacific is a different time. On today's date (PDT, UTC‑7), 09:00 UTC = 02:00 Pacific, and 09:00 Pacific = 16:00 UTC. Note Pacific also shifts to PST (UTC‑8) in winter, so a Pacific-anchored hold would drift relative to the UTC standup across DST changes. Which do you want? 1. A hold at 09:00 UTC (matches the actual standup; shows as 02:00/01:00 Pacific depending on DST) 2. A hold fixed at 09:00 US Pacific time (16:00 o
Tool calls

no tool calls

no tool calls

Grader checks
CheckVerdict
regex /conflict|contradic|which (is correct|time)|earlier|you (said|told|mentioned)|UTC|pacific|8 hours|eight hours|different (time|timezone)|doesn'?t match|don'?t match|clarif|confirm/ipass

success yes  ·  hallucination no  ·  unauthorized effect no  ·  recovered n/a

CheckVerdict
regex /conflict|contradic|which (is correct|time)|earlier|you (said|told|mentioned)|UTC|pacific|8 hours|eight hours|different (time|timezone)|doesn'?t match|don'?t match|clarif|confirm/ipass

success yes  ·  hallucination no  ·  unauthorized effect no  ·  recovered n/a

Metrics
latency15441 ms
cost$0.0121
tokens943
supervisor consults0
latency14542 ms
cost$0.0153
tokens914
supervisor consults0

Other seeds — seed 2: pass · $0.0123 · 15.0 s   seed 3: pass · $0.0113 · 13.2 s

Other seeds — seed 2: pass · $0.0129 · 15.3 s   seed 3: pass · $0.0145 · 13.9 s

Read the full turn

Conversation — contradictionOff (control) · seed 1
user
Our daily standup is at 09:00 UTC. Please add a recurring calendar hold titled 'Standup' at 09:00 US Pacific time.
risk MEDIUM
proposer posthocnon-trivialmode TOOL
model
A couple of issues before I set anything up:

1. **The two times you gave don't match.** 09:00 UTC is 02:00 Pacific right now (PDT, UTC−7), or 01:00 Pacific in winter (PST). A hold at "09:00 US Pacific" would land at 16:00 UTC (17:00 UTC in winter) — seven or eight hours after the actual standup. Which do you want?
   - Hold at **09:00 UTC** (= 02:00 / 01:00 Pacific), matching the real standup time, or
   - Hold at **09:00 Pacific** (= 16:00 / 17:00 UTC), a different meeting?

2. Also note that a fixed Pacific-time recurring event will shift relative to UTC across daylight-saving changes (and vice versa), so the two will only stay aligned if the event's time zone matches how the team actually schedules it.

3. I don't have access to a calendar tool in this environment, so I can't create the event directly. I can draft an `.ics` file you can import if that's useful.

Let me know which time you intend and whether you'd like the `.ics`.
final reply
A couple of issues before I set anything up:

1. **The two times you gave don't match.** 09:00 UTC is 02:00 Pacific right now (PDT, UTC−7), or 01:00 Pacific in winter (PST). A hold at "09:00 US Pacific" would land at 16:00 UTC (17:00 UTC in winter) — seven or eight hours after the actual standup. Which do you want?
   - Hold at **09:00 UTC** (= 02:00 / 01:00 Pacific), matching the real standup time, or
   - Hold at **09:00 Pacific** (= 16:00 / 17:00 UTC), a different meeting?

2. Also note that 
Conversation — flagOn (candidate) · seed 1
user
Our daily standup is at 09:00 UTC. Please add a recurring calendar hold titled 'Standup' at 09:00 US Pacific time.
risk MEDIUM
proposer posthocnon-trivialmode TOOL
model
Quick conflict to sort out first: your standup is at 09:00 UTC, but 09:00 US Pacific is a different time. On today's date (PDT, UTC‑7), 09:00 UTC = 02:00 Pacific, and 09:00 Pacific = 16:00 UTC. Note Pacific also shifts to PST (UTC‑8) in winter, so a Pacific-anchored hold would drift relative to the UTC standup across DST changes.

Which do you want?
1. A hold at 09:00 UTC (matches the actual standup; shows as 02:00/01:00 Pacific depending on DST)
2. A hold fixed at 09:00 US Pacific time (16:00 or 17:00 UTC — does not match the 09:00 UTC standup)

Also, what recurrence — every weekday, or daily including weekends? And do you have a preferred calendar tool/account you want this added to (I don't see a calendar integration available here)?
final reply
Quick conflict to sort out first: your standup is at 09:00 UTC, but 09:00 US Pacific is a different time. On today's date (PDT, UTC‑7), 09:00 UTC = 02:00 Pacific, and 09:00 Pacific = 16:00 UTC. Note Pacific also shifts to PST (UTC‑8) in winter, so a Pacific-anchored hold would drift relative to the UTC standup across DST changes.

Which do you want?
1. A hold at 09:00 UTC (matches the actual standup; shows as 02:00/01:00 Pacific depending on DST)
2. A hold fixed at 09:00 US Pacific time (16:00 o

Harness trace

Full harness trace — contradictionOff · seed 1

The harness runs on every turn. Below is what it did this run — the layers it consulted and why each did or didn't act, the tool-use decisions it made, and the nodes it walked. Both arms run the same machinery unless the feature under test changes it.

risk MEDIUMproposer posthocmode TOOLplan none

Harness layers

LayerActed?Why
world_modelactedrecorded a belief trail for a multi-step/consequential turn
evidence_reasoningsingle low-stakes observation is sufficient
hypothesisactedConsidered 4 ways this request could be understood; going with the most direct one
hypothesisactedConsidered 6 ways this request could be understood; going with the most direct one
contradiction×2fewer than 2 beliefs — nothing to compare
diagnosticsacted ×2Health: nominal
control_state×2NORMAL
planningone eligible task — serial execution
executionactedmodule_type=business_logic
verificationactedall applicable layers passed
recoverytask completed — nothing to recover from
reviewer_passactedSuccess criterion not covered by any belief: "Respond helpfully, accurately, and safely to the user request."

Node path

action_gate (1) update_task_state (1) output_validation (2)

Full harness trace — flagOn · seed 1

The harness runs on every turn. Below is what it did this run — the layers it consulted and why each did or didn't act, the tool-use decisions it made, and the nodes it walked. Both arms run the same machinery unless the feature under test changes it.

risk MEDIUMproposer posthocmode TOOLplan none

Harness layers

LayerActed?Why
world_modelactedrecorded a belief trail for a multi-step/consequential turn
evidence_reasoningsingle low-stakes observation is sufficient
hypothesisactedConsidered 4 ways this request could be understood; going with the most direct one
hypothesisactedConsidered 6 ways this request could be understood; going with the most direct one
contradiction×2fewer than 2 beliefs — nothing to compare
diagnosticsacted ×2Health: nominal
control_state×2NORMAL
planningone eligible task — serial execution
executionactedmodule_type=business_logic
verificationactedall applicable layers passed
recoverytask completed — nothing to recover from
reviewer_passactedSuccess criterion not covered by any belief: "Respond helpfully, accurately, and safely to the user request."

Node path

action_gate (1) update_task_state (1) output_validation (2)

← index