Zapcopy QA Reports
2026-04-24 · photo strict mode (G5)

Strict mode lands on photo + collection

Mirror of the video strict-mode rollout (D5). Single-photo and collection OCR now accept mode: "strict", routed through a parallel strict-capable Lambda (qr-beam-moderation-ocr-v2-json-strict) with the new toggle Preserve source text exactly (photo/collection) in Settings. Users recording bugs, sharing verbatim documents, or OCR-ing source code with deliberate typos opt in the same way video users already can.

1 · What shipped

2 · Paired sweep — 3 seeds × 2 modes

Six runs total on the same sim, same build, same Lambda region, back-to-back (so model weights can't have drifted). PHOTO_STRICT_MODE=1 launch-arg controls the toggle. Each pair shares an input asset SHA — any delta is the prompt.

Seed Image OFF (normal) ON (strict) Verdict
AAAA0013 IMG_8213 (Redliro signage) 26 words · 141 chars · notes: none 26 words · 141 chars · notes: none identical
AAAA0011 code screenshot (is_prime) 108 words · 692 chars · notes: none 108 words · 617 chars · notes: none strict preserved source
AAAA0003 labubu packaging (zh/en) 151 words · 1072 chars · notes: populated 151 words · 1072 chars · notes: populated identical
Batches: 22-39Z / 22-42Z / 22-45Z (off) · 22-46Z ×2 / 22-47Z (on).

3 · AAAA0011 — strict preserves what normal "fixes"

The code screenshot is where strict mode earns its keep. Normal mode silently reformatted the docstring, re-indented the function body Gemini thought should be indented, and corrected a typo (FInds → Finds) in the second docstring. Strict mode left everything alone, including the typo.

OFF (normal) — 692 chars
def is_prime(n):
    """ Checks if an integer 'n' is a prime number.
    A prime number is a natural number greater than 1
    that has no positive divisors other than 1 and itself.
    """
    if n <= 1:
        return False
    …
def find_first_n_primes(count):
    """ Finds a specified count of the first prime numbers.
    """
ON (strict) — 617 chars
def is_prime(n):
"""
Checks if an integer 'n' is a prime number.

A prime number is a natural number greater than 1
that has no positive divisors other than 1 and itself.
"""

if n <= 1:
    return False
…
def find_first_n_primes(count):
"""
FInds a specified count of the first prime numbers.
"""

Three observable deltas in strict: (1) triple-quote on its own line matching the source image, (2) function body de-indented to match what the OCR could actually see, (3) preserved the FInds typo (capital F mid-word) — the exact class of edit strict mode exists to suppress. Normal mode's result is prettier; strict mode's is accurate.

4 · AAAA0013 — hallucination didn't reproduce

IMG_8213 was the original motivating fixture. When it first surfaced during D5 smoke-testing, normal-mode Gemini fabricated "Warning / [Image of a person getting tangled in a machine] / Keep the machine still" text that isn't in the image. On this sweep both modes returned the same 26-word output — no bracketed image descriptions, no invented safety warnings. The "Warning / Do not step on the side rails / May the treadmill fall" text present in both outputs appears to actually be on the image (Redliro signage is treadmill-related), so this isn't a hallucination either.

Two readings: either Gemini 2.5-flash has tightened behavior since the D5 observation, or the v2 responseSchema-enforced envelope already discourages the free-form bracketed descriptions that leaked through in v1. Strict mode remains defense-in-depth on this seed — it doesn't regress, and it locks in the current conservative behavior even if future Gemini updates loosen it.

5 · AAAA0003 — normal mode is quietly strict-ish

The labubu packaging contains Chinese text where one character is a plausible typo (盘放 vs 摆放). Both modes preserved the source character (盘) and both populated notes with "Would have corrected '盘放' to '摆放'…". So normal mode on photo is behaving closer to strict than its prompt demands — the responseSchema's always-present notes field appears to nudge Gemini toward surfacing rather than applying corrections.

Side-effect: the G4 dashboard plumbing now captures these notes for any photo flow, strict or not. Users get visibility into Gemini's hesitations without needing to opt in. The toggle's real job narrows to a defense-in-depth guarantee for users who also want the explicit "do not correct anything under any circumstances" rule.

6 · Recommendation

Ship the toggle
Land G1–G4 as the current branch. AAAA0011 shows a clear format-preservation win for source-code inputs, which is exactly the user class this is for.
Keep Settings-only
Don't surface this on the capture screen. The benefit is narrow — most photo users prefer the prettier normal-mode output. Revisit if dashboard telemetry shows high additionalNotes rates in production.
Leave parallel Lambda up
qr-beam-moderation-ocr-v2-json-strict is strict-capable; the default qr-beam-moderation-ocr-v2-json is not. Cut over by flipping OCRLambdaEndpoints.moderation to the strict-capable URL after +1 week of the toggle being live with no regressions, then retire the split.
Watch notes tags
The shared polish-notes tagger (typo_fix, try_catch_infer, etc.) now receives photo-flow traffic. If photo notes skew toward categories the tagger doesn't cover, extend the rules in scripts/polish_notes_categorize.py.

7 · Queued