sync: from ael backend/space/

rerank.py

@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ RECENT = deque(maxlen=int(os.environ.get("AEL_RERANK_LOG", "200")))
 _router = None
 _router_lock = threading.Lock()
 _load_error = None
+_load_message = None
 
 
 def _get_router():
@@ -94,7 +95,7 @@ def _get_router():
     serves search, and the route needs to be able to ask "any opinion?"
     without handling an exception.
     """
-    global _router, _load_error
+    global _router, _load_error, _load_message
     if _router is not None or _load_error is not None:
         return _router
     with _router_lock:
@@ -108,10 +109,32 @@ def _get_router():
             _router.preload([MODEL])
         except Exception as e:  # noqa: BLE001 - reported, never raised
             _load_error = f"{type(e).__name__}"
+            # The message matters and nothing else about this exception does:
+            # "the reranker is off" is a decision, "the reranker broke because
+            # <this>" is a bug report. The caller redacts before logging it.
+            _load_message = f"{type(e).__name__}: {e}"[:300]
             print(f"[rerank] disabled: cannot load laya ({_load_error}): {e}", flush=True)
     return _router
 
 
+def _no_opinion():
+    """Why this module has nothing to say, for the caller.
+
+    A reranker that is silently disabled is the worst outcome available: the
+    route's fail-open path cannot tell "the model declined" from "the model is
+    not installed", and both look like a working search that quietly does not
+    rerank. The first version of this stage returned `ok: false` and nothing
+    else, and that ambiguity cost a full session of debugging the Space's
+    build when the Space had been fine the whole time — the app simply had the
+    URL wrong and never asked.
+    """
+    if not ENABLED:
+        return "disabled by config"
+    if _load_error:
+        return _load_message or _load_error
+    return None
+
+
 def status():
     """For the /status route: is this thing actually working right now."""
     router = _get_router()
@@ -178,6 +201,7 @@ def rerank(query, results, budget_ms=800):
         "dropped": 0,
         "starved": False,
         "scores": [],
+        "no_opinion": _no_opinion(),
     }
     if not ENABLED or not results:
         return out

searx_bridge.py

@@ -76,7 +76,17 @@ def register_routes(fa_app):
         try:
             out = await asyncio.to_thread(rerank.rerank, q, results, budget_ms)
         except Exception as e:  # noqa: BLE001
-            return JSONResponse({"ok": False, "error": f"rerank failed: {e}", "results": results})
+            # `no_opinion` as well as `error`: the client reports the former, so
+            # a crash that never reached rerank() must not read as "the model
+            # had nothing to say about your query".
+            return JSONResponse(
+                {
+                    "ok": False,
+                    "error": f"rerank failed: {e}",
+                    "no_opinion": f"{type(e).__name__}: {e}"[:300],
+                    "results": results,
+                }
+            )
         return JSONResponse(out)
 
     @fa_app.get("/respite/v2/searx/rerank/recent")