Turn Relation Signal

Overview

turn_relation asks the decision model how the current user turn relates to the conversation before it. It asks the turn_relation preset: the turn continues the current topic, reasks for what an earlier turn asked, shifts to an unrelated topic, or returns to an earlier one. It replaces the reasks and topic_continuity signals.

Key Advantages

• One question covers repeats, follow-ups and topic changes.
• input.previous_turns bounds how much history the question reads.
• Labels select which relations a rule matches.

What Problem Does It Solve?

A user who repeats a question is usually unhappy with the answer, and a user who changes topic no longer needs the retained history. turn_relation lets a decision route on either.

When to Use

Use turn_relation when:

• a repeated request should go to a stronger model;
• a topic change should drop or reset conversation context.

Configuration

recipes:
  - name: default
    signals:
      turn_relation:
        - name: likely_dissatisfied
          description: The current user turn repeats the previous one.
          labels: [reask]
          input:
            previous_turns: 2
        - name: topic_boundary
          description: Whether the live turn still depends on retained history.
          labels: [continue, shift]
          input:
            previous_turns: 8
    decisions:
      - name: retry-stronger
        priority: 200
        rules:
          operator: AND
          conditions:
            - {type: turn_relation, name: likely_dissatisfied}
        modelRefs:
          - model: strong-model

Field	Meaning
name	The rule's name, which {type: turn_relation, name: ...} conditions use
description	What the rule detects
labels	The relations the rule matches, among continue, reask, shift and return; a rule without labels matches nothing itself, and its conditions name one with label
input.previous_turns	How many turns before the current one the question reads, user and assistant (default 4, at most 32)
deployment	The deployment that answers the rule; else the turn_relation binding, else the decision model
timeout_ms	The answer's deadline

A rule matches when the relation the model chooses is one of its labels. A first turn has no turns before it, so it asks no question and no rule matches. The question has no trained form on any model yet: every model answers it zero-shot. It sends the current turn and the previous turns it reads to the deployment. See complete examples under config/fragments/signal/turn-relation/.