diff --git a/chat.el b/chat.el
index da5bf05..4b31510 100644
--- a/chat.el
+++ b/chat.el
@@ -21,8 +21,28 @@ fn engram_compile(intent: String) -> String {
 
     let act_part: String = if act_ok { activate_json } else { "" }
     let srch_part: String = if srch_ok { search_json } else { "" }
-    let sep: String = if !str_eq(act_part, "") && !str_eq(srch_part, "") { "\n" } else { "" }
-    let ctx: String = act_part + sep + srch_part
+
+    // Fallback: when vector search returns nothing (no embeddings), fetch pinned
+    // high-salience nodes by their known IDs. These are the canonical identity
+    // and biography nodes that should always be in context.
+    // engram_get_node_json(id) returns a single node as JSON or "" if missing.
+    let scan_part: String = if !act_ok && !srch_ok {
+        let family_node: String = engram_get_node_json("knw-35940684-abc4-42f0-b942-818f66b1f69a")
+        let origin_node: String = engram_get_node_json("knw-729fc901-8335-44c4-9f3a-b150b4aa0915")
+        let fam_ok: Bool = !str_eq(family_node, "") && !str_eq(family_node, "null")
+        let orig_ok: Bool = !str_eq(origin_node, "") && !str_eq(origin_node, "null")
+        let fam_str: String = if fam_ok { family_node } else { "" }
+        let orig_str: String = if orig_ok { origin_node } else { "" }
+        let sep: String = if fam_ok && orig_ok { "\n" } else { "" }
+        let combined: String = fam_str + sep + orig_str
+        if str_eq(combined, "") { "" } else { combined }
+    } else {
+        ""
+    }
+
+    let sep1: String = if !str_eq(act_part, "") && !str_eq(srch_part, "") { "\n" } else { "" }
+    let sep2: String = if (!str_eq(act_part, "") || !str_eq(srch_part, "")) && !str_eq(scan_part, "") { "\n" } else { "" }
+    let ctx: String = act_part + sep1 + srch_part + sep2 + scan_part
 
     if str_eq(ctx, "") { return "" }
 
@@ -80,6 +100,21 @@ fn hist_trim(hist: String) -> String {
     return hist
 }
 
+// clean_llm_response — strips GPT-2 BPE byte-to-unicode artifacts that vLLM
+// emits when the tokenizer hasn't decoded back to raw bytes.
+//
+//   Ġ (U+0120) = leading space on a BPE token → plain space
+//   Ċ (U+010A) = newline byte encoded as BPE token → \n
+//   ĉ (U+0109) = tab byte                        → tab (rare)
+//
+// Applied to every LLM response before it reaches callers.
+fn clean_llm_response(s: String) -> String {
+    let s1: String = str_replace(s, "Ġ", " ")
+    let s2: String = str_replace(s1, "Ċ", "\n")
+    let s3: String = str_replace(s2, "ĉ", "\t")
+    return s3
+}
+
 fn handle_chat(body: String) -> String {
     let message: String = json_get(body, "message")
     if str_eq(message, "") {
@@ -109,7 +144,8 @@ fn handle_chat(body: String) -> String {
         return "{\"error\":\"llm unavailable\",\"response\":\"\"}"
     }
 
-    let safe_response: String = json_safe(raw_response)
+    let clean_response: String = clean_llm_response(raw_response)
+    let safe_response: String = json_safe(clean_response)
 
     let updated_hist: String = hist_append(stored_hist, "user", message)
     let updated_hist2: String = hist_append(updated_hist, "assistant", raw_response)
@@ -246,7 +282,8 @@ fn handle_chat_as_soul(body: String) -> String {
         return "{\"error\":\"llm unavailable\",\"response\":\"\",\"speaker_slug\":\"" + speaker + "\",\"model\":\"" + model + "\"}"
     }
 
-    let safe_response: String = json_safe(raw_response)
+    let clean_response: String = clean_llm_response(raw_response)
+    let safe_response: String = json_safe(clean_response)
     return "{\"response\":\"" + safe_response + "\",\"model\":\"" + model + "\",\"speaker_slug\":\"" + speaker + "\"}"
 }
 
diff --git a/chat.elh b/chat.elh
index 74c15fc..cf0dd77 100644
--- a/chat.elh
+++ b/chat.elh
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ extern fn json_safe(s: String) -> String
 extern fn build_system_prompt(ctx: String) -> String
 extern fn hist_append(hist: String, role: String, content: String) -> String
 extern fn hist_trim(hist: String) -> String
+extern fn clean_llm_response(s: String) -> String
 extern fn handle_chat(body: String) -> String
 extern fn handle_see(body: String) -> String
 extern fn studio_tools_json() -> String
diff --git a/dist/neuron b/dist/neuron
index 92276b1..489ddb1 100755
Binary files a/dist/neuron and b/dist/neuron differ
diff --git a/dist/soul.c b/dist/soul.c
index 79df5ca..475786c 100644
--- a/dist/soul.c
+++ b/dist/soul.c
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ el_val_t json_safe(el_val_t s);
 el_val_t build_system_prompt(el_val_t ctx);
 el_val_t hist_append(el_val_t hist, el_val_t role, el_val_t content);
 el_val_t hist_trim(el_val_t hist);
+el_val_t clean_llm_response(el_val_t s);
 el_val_t handle_chat(el_val_t body);
 el_val_t handle_see(el_val_t body);
 el_val_t studio_tools_json(void);
@@ -52,6 +53,10 @@ el_val_t handle_dharma(el_val_t path, el_val_t method, el_val_t body);
 el_val_t handle_tool(el_val_t path, el_val_t method, el_val_t body);
 el_val_t handle_nlg(el_val_t path, el_val_t method, el_val_t body);
 el_val_t render_studio(void);
+el_val_t elp_extract_topic(el_val_t msg);
+el_val_t elp_detect_predicate(el_val_t msg);
+el_val_t elp_parse(el_val_t msg);
+el_val_t handle_elp_chat(el_val_t body);
 el_val_t strip_query(el_val_t path);
 el_val_t err_404(el_val_t path);
 el_val_t err_405(el_val_t method, el_val_t path);
diff --git a/routes.el b/routes.el
index 869262e..a2dfd36 100644
--- a/routes.el
+++ b/routes.el
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import "memory.el"
 import "awareness.el"
 import "chat.el"
 import "studio.el"
+import "elp-input.el"
 
 fn strip_query(path: String) -> String {
     let q: Int = str_index_of(path, "?")
@@ -246,6 +247,9 @@ fn handle_request(method: String, path: String, body: String) -> String {
         if str_eq(clean, "/synthesize") {
             return route_synthesize(body)
         }
+        if str_eq(clean, "/api/elp/chat") {
+            return handle_elp_chat(body)
+        }
         if str_eq(clean, "/api/chat") {
             let agentic_flag: Bool = json_get_bool(body, "agentic")
             let reply: String = if agentic_flag {
diff --git a/soul.el b/soul.el
index ab88c52..59daac1 100644
--- a/soul.el
+++ b/soul.el
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import "memory.el"
 import "awareness.el"
 import "chat.el"
 import "studio.el"
+import "elp-input.el"
 import "routes.el"
 
 cgi "neuron-soul" {