fix: classifier timeout + Featherless concurrency cap

Two related issues blocking real-world use of the kickoff parse:

1. Classifier calls take ~12s end-to-end on Featherless for the
   complex KickoffParse schema (Hermes-3-8B generating ~1.3KB of
   structured JSON). The 10s timeout was firing on most attempts,
   causing all 3 retries to time out and the empty-fallback to render
   with blank form values. Bumping the default
   classifier_timeout_s 10 → 30s gives generous headroom; measured
   p99 is ~13s, so 30s is comfortable.

2. Featherless caps concurrent connections per account (2 on free /
   lower paid tiers). Each turn flow can fire 4–5 calls (parse,
   scene-close detect, narrative stream, two state-update passes)
   plus the background significance worker. Without a gate, we'd
   exceed the cap and fail.

   Added a class-level ``asyncio.Semaphore`` to FeatherlessClient,
   shared across all instances, configured once in lifespan from
   ``Settings.featherless_max_concurrent`` (default 2). Both
   ``generate`` and ``stream`` acquire the semaphore for the duration
   of the call; the stream holds it until the async generator
   completes, so token streaming is correctly accounted for.

Verified live: 4/4 sequential kickoff parses for the same bot all
succeed with real parsed values (previously ~50% blank-fallback).
Full suite: 168 passed.

chat/app.py

@@ -65,12 +65,17 @@ async def lifespan(app: FastAPI):
 
     app.state.settings = settings
 
+    # Cap concurrent Featherless connections to the account's limit
+    # (free / lower paid tiers cap at 2). Shared across all
+    # FeatherlessClient instances in the process.
+    from chat.llm.featherless import FeatherlessClient
+
+    FeatherlessClient.configure_concurrency(settings.featherless_max_concurrent)
+
     # Background worker for the async significance pass (T22). Each job
     # constructs a fresh FeatherlessClient via the factory; tests can
     # disable enqueue by toggling ``app.state.background_worker.enabled``.
     def _factory():
-        from chat.llm.featherless import FeatherlessClient
-
         return FeatherlessClient(
             api_key=settings.featherless_api_key,
             base_url=settings.featherless_base_url,

chat/config.py

@@ -24,7 +24,10 @@ class Settings(BaseModel):
     narrative_budget_hard: int = 8000
     narrative_budget_soft: int = 6000
     classifier_budget_hard: int = 4000
-    classifier_timeout_s: float = 10.0
+    classifier_timeout_s: float = 30.0
+    # Featherless free tier and lower paid tiers cap concurrent connections.
+    # Set this to your account's max-concurrent-connections limit.
+    featherless_max_concurrent: int = 2
     db_path: Path = DEFAULT_DB
     data_dir: Path = REPO_ROOT / "data"
     bind_host: str = "127.0.0.1"

chat/llm/featherless.py

@@ -1,29 +1,55 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
+import asyncio
 from typing import AsyncIterator, Sequence
 from openai import AsyncOpenAI
 from .client import Message
 
 
 class FeatherlessClient:
+    """Client for Featherless's OpenAI-compatible API.
+
+    Featherless caps concurrent connections per account (2 on free / lower
+    paid tiers). A class-level semaphore gates every ``generate`` and
+    ``stream`` call so the orchestrator never exceeds the configured cap,
+    regardless of how many ``FeatherlessClient`` instances are alive.
+
+    Configure once at app startup via :meth:`configure_concurrency`. The
+    default is 2.
+    """
+
+    _semaphore: asyncio.Semaphore | None = None
+
+    @classmethod
+    def configure_concurrency(cls, max_concurrent: int) -> None:
+        cls._semaphore = asyncio.Semaphore(max(1, int(max_concurrent)))
+
+    @classmethod
+    def _sem(cls) -> asyncio.Semaphore:
+        if cls._semaphore is None:
+            cls._semaphore = asyncio.Semaphore(2)
+        return cls._semaphore
+
     def __init__(self, api_key: str, base_url: str = "https://api.featherless.ai/v1"):
         self._client = AsyncOpenAI(api_key=api_key, base_url=base_url)
 
     async def generate(self, messages: Sequence[Message], *, model: str, **params) -> str:
-        resp = await self._client.chat.completions.create(
+        async with self._sem():
-            model=model,
+            resp = await self._client.chat.completions.create(
-            messages=[{"role": m.role, "content": m.content} for m in messages],
+                model=model,
-            **params,
+                messages=[{"role": m.role, "content": m.content} for m in messages],
-        )
+                **params,
-        return resp.choices[0].message.content or ""
+            )
+            return resp.choices[0].message.content or ""
 
     async def stream(self, messages: Sequence[Message], *, model: str, **params) -> AsyncIterator[str]:
-        stream = await self._client.chat.completions.create(
+        async with self._sem():
-            model=model,
+            stream = await self._client.chat.completions.create(
-            messages=[{"role": m.role, "content": m.content} for m in messages],
+                model=model,
-            stream=True,
+                messages=[{"role": m.role, "content": m.content} for m in messages],
-            **params,
+                stream=True,
-        )
+                **params,
-        async for chunk in stream:
+            )
-            delta = chunk.choices[0].delta.content or ""
+            async for chunk in stream:
-            if delta:
+                delta = chunk.choices[0].delta.content or ""
-                yield delta
+                if delta:
+                    yield delta