slug: empty-responses
title: "When is an empty response an error, a wrong answer, unscored, or a success?"
source:
  - https://github.com/UKGovernmentBEIS/inspect_evals/issues/2415
  - https://github.com/UKGovernmentBEIS/inspect_evals/pull/2669
stage: smoke  # gate 2 approved 2026-10-23 (notes/gate-2.md); next: the main run
gates:
  design:           # {approved_by, date, commit, spec_sha256}
    approved_by: Matt Fisher (in the Claude Code session that drafted the spec)
    date: 2026-10-22
    commit: 882fd21
    spec_sha256: 3dc1a98a037691a4bee2e7b699d36eb5a2d76c40e8d3b186b0de1c47cb7bdb81
    budget_ceiling_usd: 200
  checkpoint:       # {approved_by, date, commit, analysis_commit, budget_usd}
    approved_by: Matt Fisher (in the Claude Code session of the smoke run; amendments A1, A2, A7, A8, A9 option a)
    date: 2026-10-23
    commit: 4a61367
    analysis_commit: 4a61367  # 4038b92's analysis with main's Wilson clamp; smoke tables identical
    budget_usd: 170  # caps: main 120, reruns 25, part_c 25, within the 200 ceiling
  signoff: null     # {approved_by, date, commit}
budget:
  estimate_usd: [150, 200]
  ceiling_usd: 200
  spent_usd: 4.41  # smoke, Part C smoke and re-run smoke (results/ledger.jsonl)
pins:
  inspect_ai: c2fc3d9  # 0.3.283
  inspect_evals: 6a96ec5
data_prefix: empty-responses/