diff --git a/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/extract/llm.rs b/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/extract/llm.rs
index dda7140f1..33be3887b 100644
--- a/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/extract/llm.rs
+++ b/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/extract/llm.rs
@@ -124,6 +124,23 @@ impl EntityExtractor for LlmEntityExtractor {
     }
 
     async fn extract(&self, text: &str) -> anyhow::Result<ExtractedEntities> {
+        // Soft-fallback contract: every failure path (transport, HTTP status,
+        // JSON parse) is logged as a warn and returns an empty
+        // `ExtractedEntities` rather than `Err`. This makes the extractor
+        // safe to call from any context, not just `score_chunk` (which
+        // separately catches errors from its own extractor chain). A caller
+        // distinguishes "LLM had nothing to say" from "LLM ran and returned
+        // zero entities" by inspecting `llm_importance` — `None` means the
+        // call didn't complete successfully.
+        Ok(self.extract_or_empty(text).await)
+    }
+}
+
+impl LlmEntityExtractor {
+    /// Internal: wraps the actual HTTP call and returns `ExtractedEntities`
+    /// for every failure mode via soft-fallback. Split out of `extract` so
+    /// the error branches can share logging without `?`-propagation.
+    async fn extract_or_empty(&self, text: &str) -> ExtractedEntities {
         let url = format!("{}/api/chat", self.cfg.endpoint.trim_end_matches('/'));
         let body = self.build_request(text);
         log::debug!(
@@ -132,36 +149,56 @@ impl EntityExtractor for LlmEntityExtractor {
             text.chars().count()
         );
 
-        let resp = self
-            .http
-            .post(&url)
-            .json(&body)
-            .send()
-            .await
-            .map_err(anyhow::Error::from)?;
+        let resp = match self.http.post(&url).json(&body).send().await {
+            Ok(r) => r,
+            Err(e) => {
+                log::warn!(
+                    "[memory_tree::extract::llm] transport failure to {url}: {e} — \
+                     returning empty extraction"
+                );
+                return ExtractedEntities::default();
+            }
+        };
 
         if !resp.status().is_success() {
             let status = resp.status();
             let body = resp.text().await.unwrap_or_default();
-            anyhow::bail!("ollama status {status}: {body}");
+            log::warn!(
+                "[memory_tree::extract::llm] ollama non-success status {status}: {} — \
+                 returning empty extraction",
+                truncate_for_log(&body, 200)
+            );
+            return ExtractedEntities::default();
         }
 
-        let envelope: OllamaChatResponse = resp.json().await.map_err(anyhow::Error::from)?;
+        let envelope: OllamaChatResponse = match resp.json().await {
+            Ok(v) => v,
+            Err(e) => {
+                log::warn!(
+                    "[memory_tree::extract::llm] response body not Ollama-shaped JSON: {e} — \
+                     returning empty extraction"
+                );
+                return ExtractedEntities::default();
+            }
+        };
         log::debug!(
             "[memory_tree::extract::llm] response chars={}",
             envelope.message.content.len()
         );
 
-        let parsed: LlmExtractionOutput =
-            serde_json::from_str(&envelope.message.content).map_err(|e| {
-                anyhow::anyhow!(
-                    "LLM returned non-JSON or wrong-shape response: {e}; \
-                     content was: {}",
+        let parsed: LlmExtractionOutput = match serde_json::from_str(&envelope.message.content) {
+            Ok(v) => v,
+            Err(e) => {
+                log::warn!(
+                    "[memory_tree::extract::llm] LLM returned non-JSON or wrong-shape \
+                     response: {e}; content was: {} — returning empty extraction",
                     truncate_for_log(&envelope.message.content, 400)
-                )
-            })?;
+                );
+                return ExtractedEntities::default();
+            }
+        };
 
-        Ok(parsed.into_extracted_entities(text, &self.cfg))
+        parsed.into_extracted_entities(text, &self.cfg)
     }
 }
 
@@ -248,6 +285,15 @@ impl LlmExtractionOutput {
     ) -> ExtractedEntities {
         let mut entities = Vec::with_capacity(self.entities.len());
 
+        // Per-surface search cursor (char offset). When the LLM returns the
+        // same surface text twice (deliberately — the prompt asks for
+        // duplicates), we resume searching AFTER the previous occurrence so
+        // each emitted entity points at a distinct span. Byte indices are
+        // tracked separately from char indices because `str::find` returns
+        // byte offsets while the rest of the pipeline uses char spans.
+        use std::collections::HashMap;
+        let mut cursors: HashMap<String, (usize /*byte*/, u32 /*char*/)> = HashMap::new();
+
         for raw in self.entities {
             let surface = raw.text.trim();
             if surface.is_empty() {
@@ -280,18 +326,23 @@ impl LlmExtractionOutput {
                 }
             };
 
-            // Recover spans by string search. If the model hallucinated a
-            // surface that doesn't appear in the source text, drop it.
-            let (span_start, span_end) = match find_char_span(source_text, surface) {
-                Some(s) => s,
-                None => {
-                    log::debug!(
-                        "[memory_tree::extract::llm] dropping hallucinated entity (not found \
-                         in source): {surface:?}"
-                    );
-                    continue;
-                }
-            };
+            // Recover spans by string search, advancing the cursor for this
+            // surface so repeated mentions get distinct spans. If the model
+            // hallucinated a surface (or we've exhausted all of its
+            // occurrences), drop the entity.
+            let (byte_from, char_from) = cursors.get(surface).copied().unwrap_or((0, 0));
+            let (span_start, span_end, byte_after) =
+                match find_char_span_from(source_text, surface, byte_from, char_from) {
+                    Some(s) => s,
+                    None => {
+                        log::debug!(
+                            "[memory_tree::extract::llm] dropping hallucinated or exhausted \
+                             entity (not found beyond cursor): {surface:?}"
+                        );
+                        continue;
+                    }
+                };
+            cursors.insert(surface.to_string(), (byte_after, span_end));
 
             entities.push(ExtractedEntity {
                 kind,
@@ -332,10 +383,41 @@ fn parse_kind(s: &str) -> Option<EntityKind> {
 /// Uses byte-level `find` then translates to char offsets so spans align
 /// with the rest of the extractor pipeline (which is char-based).
 fn find_char_span(haystack: &str, needle: &str) -> Option<(u32, u32)> {
-    let byte_idx = haystack.find(needle)?;
-    let char_start = haystack[..byte_idx].chars().count() as u32;
+    find_char_span_from(haystack, needle, 0, 0).map(|(s, e, _)| (s, e))
+}
+
+/// Find `needle` in `haystack` starting from `byte_from` and return
+/// `(char_start, char_end, byte_after_needle)`.
+///
+/// The byte-offset return is so the caller can chain successive searches
+/// without re-walking the prefix every time: pass the returned
+/// `byte_after_needle` as the next call's `byte_from`.
+///
+/// `char_from` must correspond to `byte_from` in the same `haystack` —
+/// i.e. `haystack[..byte_from].chars().count() == char_from as usize`.
+/// The caller maintains this invariant (cheap: it's the return from the
+/// previous call).
+fn find_char_span_from(
+    haystack: &str,
+    needle: &str,
+    byte_from: usize,
+    char_from: u32,
+) -> Option<(u32, u32, usize)> {
+    if needle.is_empty() || byte_from > haystack.len() {
+        return None;
+    }
+    // Guard against `byte_from` landing inside a multi-byte UTF-8 sequence.
+    if !haystack.is_char_boundary(byte_from) {
+        return None;
+    }
+    let rel = haystack[byte_from..].find(needle)?;
+    let byte_start = byte_from + rel;
+    let byte_end = byte_start + needle.len();
+    // Walk forward from the previous char position to build the new char
+    // offset — avoids re-walking the full prefix.
+    let char_start = char_from + haystack[byte_from..byte_start].chars().count() as u32;
     let char_end = char_start + needle.chars().count() as u32;
-    Some((char_start, char_end))
+    Some((char_start, char_end, byte_end))
 }
 
 fn truncate_for_log(s: &str, max_chars: usize) -> String {
@@ -372,6 +454,111 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(find_char_span("hello world", "absent").is_none());
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn find_char_span_from_advances_past_prior_match() {
+        let text = "Alice met Bob then Alice left";
+        let (s1, e1, byte_after) = find_char_span_from(text, "Alice", 0, 0).unwrap();
+        assert_eq!((s1, e1), (0, 5));
+        // Resuming from the cursor must find the second Alice.
+        let (s2, e2, _) = find_char_span_from(text, "Alice", byte_after, e1).unwrap();
+        assert_eq!((s2, e2), (19, 24));
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn find_char_span_from_returns_none_after_exhaustion() {
+        let text = "Alice met Bob";
+        let (_, _, byte_after) = find_char_span_from(text, "Alice", 0, 0).unwrap();
+        // No second Alice → None.
+        assert!(find_char_span_from(text, "Alice", byte_after, 5).is_none());
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn find_char_span_from_preserves_utf8() {
+        // Two "中" characters (3 bytes each in UTF-8); "Alice" between.
+        let text = "中 Alice 中 Alice";
+        let (s1, e1, byte_after) = find_char_span_from(text, "Alice", 0, 0).unwrap();
+        assert_eq!((s1, e1), (2, 7));
+        let (s2, e2, _) = find_char_span_from(text, "Alice", byte_after, e1).unwrap();
+        // First "中 Alice " = 2 + 5 + 1 + 1 + 1 chars; second Alice starts at char 10.
+        assert_eq!((s2, e2), (10, 15));
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn find_char_span_from_rejects_non_char_boundary() {
+        // "中" is 3 bytes; offsets 1 and 2 are mid-codepoint.
+        let text = "中Alice";
+        assert!(find_char_span_from(text, "Alice", 1, 0).is_none());
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn into_extracted_entities_gives_distinct_spans_to_duplicate_mentions() {
+        // Two "Alice" mentions in source → two distinct ExtractedEntity rows
+        // with non-overlapping spans. Previously both got (0, 5).
+        let out = LlmExtractionOutput {
+            entities: vec![
+                LlmEntity {
+                    kind: "person".into(),
+                    text: "Alice".into(),
+                },
+                LlmEntity {
+                    kind: "person".into(),
+                    text: "Alice".into(),
+                },
+            ],
+            importance: None,
+            importance_reason: None,
+        };
+        let cfg = LlmExtractorConfig::default();
+        let e = out.into_extracted_entities("Alice met Bob then Alice left", &cfg);
+        assert_eq!(e.entities.len(), 2);
+        assert_eq!((e.entities[0].span_start, e.entities[0].span_end), (0, 5));
+        assert_eq!((e.entities[1].span_start, e.entities[1].span_end), (19, 24));
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn into_extracted_entities_drops_extra_duplicate_when_source_only_has_one() {
+        // Three "Alice" mentions returned by LLM, only one in source → keep
+        // one, drop the rest as exhausted-duplicate.
+        let out = LlmExtractionOutput {
+            entities: vec![
+                LlmEntity {
+                    kind: "person".into(),
+                    text: "Alice".into(),
+                },
+                LlmEntity {
+                    kind: "person".into(),
+                    text: "Alice".into(),
+                },
+                LlmEntity {
+                    kind: "person".into(),
+                    text: "Alice".into(),
+                },
+            ],
+            importance: None,
+            importance_reason: None,
+        };
+        let cfg = LlmExtractorConfig::default();
+        let e = out.into_extracted_entities("Alice met Bob", &cfg);
+        assert_eq!(e.entities.len(), 1);
+    }
+
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn extract_soft_fallback_on_unreachable_endpoint() {
+        // Point at an unreachable port so the transport fails. extract()
+        // must NOT return Err — it must return an empty ExtractedEntities
+        // with a warn log.
+        let cfg = LlmExtractorConfig {
+            endpoint: "http://127.0.0.1:1".to_string(),
+            timeout: std::time::Duration::from_millis(100),
+            ..LlmExtractorConfig::default()
+        };
+        let ex = LlmEntityExtractor::new(cfg).unwrap();
+        let out = ex.extract("some text").await.unwrap();
+        assert!(out.entities.is_empty());
+        assert!(out.topics.is_empty());
+        assert!(out.llm_importance.is_none());
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn into_extracted_entities_drops_hallucinations() {
         let out = LlmExtractionOutput {
diff --git a/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/extract/types.rs b/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/extract/types.rs
index 251b45ced..ca737c50d 100644
--- a/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/extract/types.rs
+++ b/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/extract/types.rs
@@ -233,6 +233,8 @@ mod tests {
                 },
             ],
             topics: vec![],
+            llm_importance: None,
+            llm_importance_reason: None,
         };
         assert_eq!(e.unique_entity_count(), 1);
     }
@@ -257,6 +259,8 @@ mod tests {
                 },
             ],
             topics: vec![],
+            llm_importance: None,
+            llm_importance_reason: None,
         };
         assert_eq!(e.unique_entity_count(), 2);
     }
@@ -272,6 +276,8 @@ mod tests {
                 score: 1.0,
             }],
             topics: vec![],
+            llm_importance: None,
+            llm_importance_reason: None,
         };
         let b = ExtractedEntities {
             entities: vec![
@@ -291,6 +297,8 @@ mod tests {
                 }, // different span — keep
             ],
             topics: vec![],
+            llm_importance: None,
+            llm_importance_reason: None,
         };
         a.merge(b);
         assert_eq!(a.entities.len(), 2);
diff --git a/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/mod.rs b/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/mod.rs
index b24037d76..f56d0b1e6 100644
--- a/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/mod.rs
+++ b/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/mod.rs
@@ -190,9 +190,23 @@ pub async fn score_chunk(chunk: &Chunk, cfg: &ScoringConfig) -> Result<ScoreResu
         false
     };
 
-    // 4. Final weighted combine — includes llm_importance whether it was
-    //    populated by the LLM call (set to its rating) or not (still 0.0).
-    let total = self::signals::combine(&signals, &cfg.weights);
+    // 4. Final weighted combine.
+    //
+    // If the LLM ran, its importance signal is populated → use the full
+    // `combine` which includes the `llm_importance` weight.
+    //
+    // If the LLM was skipped (short-circuited or not configured) OR failed
+    // (caught above, sets `llm_consulted=false`), using the full combine
+    // would pin `llm_importance * w.llm_importance = 0 * 2.0` into the
+    // numerator while still dividing by the full denominator — artificially
+    // dragging the total down. Fall back to `combine_cheap_only` which
+    // excludes that term from both numerator and denominator, so the cheap
+    // signals alone produce the total.
+    let total = if llm_consulted {
+        self::signals::combine(&signals, &cfg.weights)
+    } else {
+        self::signals::combine_cheap_only(&signals, &cfg.weights)
+    };
 
     // 5. Admission gate. Source and interaction priors are deliberately
     // non-zero, so guard against very short entity-free chatter being kept by
@@ -521,4 +535,60 @@ mod tests {
         let r = score_chunk(&c, &cfg).await.unwrap();
         assert_eq!(r.signals.llm_importance, 0.0);
     }
+
+    /// When LLM is skipped (short-circuit or failure), the reported `total`
+    /// must equal `combine_cheap_only(signals, weights)` — not the
+    /// LLM-weighted `combine` (which would drag `llm_importance=0` through
+    /// a 2.0 weight and artificially lower the total).
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn short_circuit_reports_cheap_only_total() {
+        let c = test_chunk(
+            "We decided to ship Phoenix on Friday after reviewing alice@example.com and \
+             the migration plan carefully. @bob will coordinate and we discussed \
+             #launch-q2 details extensively in the email thread.",
+        );
+        let llm = FakeLlm::new(0.99);
+        let mut cfg = ScoringConfig::with_llm_extractor(llm.clone());
+        cfg.definite_keep_threshold = 0.10; // force short-circuit keep
+        let r = score_chunk(&c, &cfg).await.unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(llm.calls(), 0);
+        let expected = self::signals::combine_cheap_only(&r.signals, &cfg.weights);
+        assert!(
+            (r.total - expected).abs() < 1e-6,
+            "total={} expected(cheap_only)={}",
+            r.total,
+            expected
+        );
+        // And explicitly NOT the full combine (which would include a 0-value
+        // llm_importance term in a 0..1-clamped weighted average, dragging
+        // the total down).
+        let with_llm = self::signals::combine(&r.signals, &cfg.weights);
+        assert!(
+            r.total > with_llm,
+            "cheap-only total ({}) should exceed LLM-weighted total \
+             ({}) when llm_importance is zero",
+            r.total,
+            with_llm
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// When the LLM *does* run, the reported total uses the full combine —
+    /// the llm_importance contribution is actually in the sum.
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn llm_consulted_reports_full_total() {
+        let c = test_chunk("This is a moderately interesting note about a project.");
+        let llm = FakeLlm::new(0.9);
+        let mut cfg = ScoringConfig::with_llm_extractor(llm.clone());
+        cfg.definite_drop_threshold = 0.0;
+        cfg.definite_keep_threshold = 1.0;
+        let r = score_chunk(&c, &cfg).await.unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(llm.calls(), 1);
+        let expected = self::signals::combine(&r.signals, &cfg.weights);
+        assert!(
+            (r.total - expected).abs() < 1e-6,
+            "total={} expected(full combine)={}",
+            r.total,
+            expected
+        );
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/resolver.rs b/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/resolver.rs
index c3b1d1fd2..14cc56faf 100644
--- a/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/resolver.rs
+++ b/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/resolver.rs
@@ -117,6 +117,8 @@ mod tests {
                 entity(EntityKind::Email, "alice@example.com"),
             ],
             topics: vec![],
+            llm_importance: None,
+            llm_importance_reason: None,
         };
         let out = canonicalise(&ex);
         assert_eq!(out.len(), 2);
diff --git a/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/signals/ops.rs b/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/signals/ops.rs
index 16c426ea6..5421f6dcd 100644
--- a/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/signals/ops.rs
+++ b/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/signals/ops.rs
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ mod tests {
                     score: 1.0,
                 })
                 .collect(),
-            topics: vec![],
+            ..Default::default()
         }
     }
 
@@ -134,6 +134,7 @@ mod tests {
             source_weight: 1.0,
             interaction: 1.0,
             entity_density: 1.0,
+            llm_importance: 0.0, // default weight is 0 → contribution is zero
         };
         assert!((combine(&s, &SignalWeights::default()) - 1.0).abs() < 1e-6);
     }
@@ -147,6 +148,7 @@ mod tests {
             source_weight: 0.0,
             interaction: 1.0,
             entity_density: 0.0,
+            llm_importance: 0.0,
         };
         let total = combine(&s, &SignalWeights::default());
         assert!((total - (3.0 / 9.0)).abs() < 1e-6);
diff --git a/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/store.rs b/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/store.rs
index 36cbc5ed4..bed44b455 100644
--- a/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/store.rs
+++ b/src/openhuman/memory/tree/score/store.rs
@@ -353,6 +353,7 @@ mod tests {
                 source_weight: 0.5,
                 interaction: 0.6,
                 entity_density: 0.3,
+                llm_importance: 0.0,
             },
             dropped,
             reason: if dropped {
@@ -361,6 +362,7 @@ mod tests {
                 None
             },
             computed_at_ms: 1_700_000_000_000,
+            llm_importance_reason: None,
         }
     }