Fix review findings in active context policy

- Cache getSystemPrompt() in local var to avoid triple invocation
- Accept dotted qualified names in looksLikeSymbol (e.g. AppService.validate)
- Narrow inferPlanSignals "steps" match to "next steps" / "steps to"
- Cap request focus priority boost at 12 to prevent tier inversions
- Remove dead null checks in renderRequestFocus (JsonNode.path never null)
- Extract sectionToNode() helper in ContextRpcHelper to deduplicate fields
- Replace inline FQN java.util.LinkedHashSet with proper import
- Remove unnecessary distinct() in inferPlanSignals

aceclaw-cli/src/main/java/dev/aceclaw/cli/TerminalRepl.java

@@ -2830,9 +2830,9 @@ private void renderRequestFocus(PrintWriter out, JsonNode focus) {
             out.printf("  %sPlan:%s         %s%n", MUTED, RESET, joinArrayValues(planSignals, 4));
         }
         if (querySummary.isBlank()
-                && (focusFiles == null || focusFiles.isEmpty())
-                && (symbols == null || symbols.isEmpty())
-                && (planSignals == null || planSignals.isEmpty())) {
+                && focusFiles.isEmpty()
+                && symbols.isEmpty()
+                && planSignals.isEmpty()) {
             out.println("  " + MUTED + "No request-local focus signals detected." + RESET);
         }
     }

aceclaw-daemon/src/main/java/dev/aceclaw/daemon/ContextRpcHelper.java

@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 package dev.aceclaw.daemon;
 
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.ObjectNode;
 
 import java.util.Objects;
 import java.util.function.IntSupplier;
+
 /**
  * Shared helper for registering context-observability RPC handlers.
  */
@@ -85,53 +87,44 @@ public static void registerContextInspect(RequestRouter router, ObjectMapper map
             var sections = mapper.createArrayNode();
             SystemPromptLoader.ContextSection selected = null;
             for (var section : inspection.sections()) {
-                var node = mapper.createObjectNode();
-                node.put("key", section.key());
-                node.put("sourceType", section.sourceType());
-                node.put("scopeType", section.scopeType());
-                node.put("inclusionReason", section.inclusionReason());
-                node.put("priority", section.priority());
-                node.put("protected", section.protectedSection());
-                node.put("originalChars", section.originalChars());
-                node.put("finalChars", section.finalChars());
-                node.put("estimatedTokens", section.estimatedTokens());
-                node.put("included", section.included());
-                node.put("truncated", section.truncated());
-                var evidence = mapper.createArrayNode();
-                for (var item : section.evidence()) {
-                    evidence.add(item);
-                }
-                node.set("evidence", evidence);
-                sections.add(node);
+                sections.add(sectionToNode(mapper, section, false));
                 if (!detailKey.isBlank() && detailKey.equals(section.key())) {
                     selected = section;
                 }
             }
             result.set("sections", sections);
 
             if (selected != null) {
-                var detail = mapper.createObjectNode();
-                detail.put("key", selected.key());
-                detail.put("priority", selected.priority());
-                detail.put("protected", selected.protectedSection());
-                detail.put("originalChars", selected.originalChars());
-                detail.put("finalChars", selected.finalChars());
-                detail.put("sourceType", selected.sourceType());
-                detail.put("scopeType", selected.scopeType());
-                detail.put("inclusionReason", selected.inclusionReason());
-                detail.put("estimatedTokens", selected.estimatedTokens());
-                detail.put("included", selected.included());
-                detail.put("truncated", selected.truncated());
-                detail.put("content", selected.content());
-                var evidence = mapper.createArrayNode();
-                for (var item : selected.evidence()) {
-                    evidence.add(item);
-                }
-                detail.set("evidence", evidence);
-                result.set("detail", detail);
+                result.set("detail", sectionToNode(mapper, selected, true));
             }
 
             return result;
         });
     }
+
+    private static ObjectNode sectionToNode(ObjectMapper mapper,
+                                            SystemPromptLoader.ContextSection section,
+                                            boolean includeContent) {
+        var node = mapper.createObjectNode();
+        node.put("key", section.key());
+        node.put("sourceType", section.sourceType());
+        node.put("scopeType", section.scopeType());
+        node.put("inclusionReason", section.inclusionReason());
+        node.put("priority", section.priority());
+        node.put("protected", section.protectedSection());
+        node.put("originalChars", section.originalChars());
+        node.put("finalChars", section.finalChars());
+        node.put("estimatedTokens", section.estimatedTokens());
+        node.put("included", section.included());
+        node.put("truncated", section.truncated());
+        var evidence = mapper.createArrayNode();
+        for (var item : section.evidence()) {
+            evidence.add(item);
+        }
+        node.set("evidence", evidence);
+        if (includeContent) {
+            node.put("content", section.content());
+        }
+        return node;
+    }
 }

aceclaw-daemon/src/main/java/dev/aceclaw/daemon/StreamingAgentHandler.java

@@ -1740,15 +1740,16 @@ public SystemPromptLoader.ContextInspection inspectContext(String sessionId, Str
         if (session.projectPath() == null) {
             var activePaths = inferActiveFilePaths(effectiveQuery, session.messages(), null);
             var requestFocus = SystemPromptLoader.analyzeRequestFocus(effectiveQuery, activePaths);
+            String prompt = getSystemPrompt(sessionId);
             return new SystemPromptLoader.ContextInspection(
-                    getSystemPrompt(sessionId),
+                    prompt,
                     requestFocus,
                     List.of(),
                     requestFocus.activeFilePaths(),
                     List.of(),
                     List.of(),
-                    getSystemPrompt(sessionId).length(),
-                    ContextEstimator.estimateTokens(getSystemPrompt(sessionId)),
+                    prompt.length(),
+                    ContextEstimator.estimateTokens(prompt),
                     systemPromptBudget);
         }
         var activePaths = inferActiveFilePaths(effectiveQuery, session.messages(), session.projectPath());

aceclaw-daemon/src/main/java/dev/aceclaw/daemon/SystemPromptLoader.java

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 import java.nio.file.Files;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.LinkedHashSet;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Objects;
 import java.util.Set;
@@ -616,12 +617,15 @@ static RequestFocus analyzeRequestFocus(String queryHint, List<String> activeFil
                 inferPlanSignals(queryHint));
     }
 
+    /** Maximum priority boost from request focus signals, preventing tier inversions. */
+    private static final int MAX_FOCUS_BOOST = 12;
+
     private static int applyRequestFocusPriority(String key, int basePriority, String content, RequestFocus focus) {
         if (focus == null) {
             return basePriority;
         }
-        int adjusted = basePriority + requestFocusBoost(key, content, focus);
-        return Math.max(0, Math.min(100, adjusted));
+        int boost = Math.min(MAX_FOCUS_BOOST, requestFocusBoost(key, content, focus));
+        return Math.max(0, Math.min(100, basePriority + boost));
     }
 
     private static int requestFocusBoost(String key, String content, RequestFocus focus) {
@@ -722,7 +726,7 @@ private static List<String> extractActiveSymbols(String queryHint) {
         if (queryHint == null || queryHint.isBlank()) {
             return List.of();
         }
-        var symbols = new java.util.LinkedHashSet<String>();
+        var symbols = new LinkedHashSet<String>();
         var backtickMatcher = BACKTICK_CODE.matcher(queryHint);
         while (backtickMatcher.find() && symbols.size() < 8) {
             String candidate = backtickMatcher.group(1).trim();
@@ -747,11 +751,24 @@ private static boolean looksLikeSymbol(String candidate) {
         if (candidate.contains("/") || candidate.contains("\\")) {
             return false;
         }
-        if (candidate.contains(".")) {
-            return candidate.contains("::") || candidate.endsWith("()");
+        // Strip trailing () for method references like AppService.handle()
+        String clean = candidate.endsWith("()") ? candidate.substring(0, candidate.length() - 2) : candidate;
+        // Accept dotted qualified names where each segment is a valid identifier
+        // e.g. AppService.validate, dev.aceclaw.App
+        if (clean.contains(".")) {
+            String[] segments = clean.split("\\.");
+            if (segments.length < 2 || segments.length > 6) {
+                return false;
+            }
+            for (String seg : segments) {
+                if (!seg.matches("[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*")) {
+                    return false;
+                }
+            }
+            return true;
         }
-        return candidate.matches("[A-Z][A-Za-z0-9_]{2,}")
-                || candidate.matches("[a-z]+[A-Z][A-Za-z0-9_]*");
+        return clean.matches("[A-Z][A-Za-z0-9_]{2,}")
+                || clean.matches("[a-z]+[A-Z][A-Za-z0-9_]*");
     }
 
     private static List<String> inferPlanSignals(String queryHint) {
@@ -763,7 +780,7 @@ private static List<String> inferPlanSignals(String queryHint) {
         if (lower.contains("continue") || lower.contains("resume") || lower.contains("next step")) {
             signals.add("continue current execution");
         }
-        if (lower.contains("plan") || lower.contains("steps")) {
+        if (lower.contains("plan") || lower.contains("next steps") || lower.contains("steps to")) {
             signals.add("planning context");
         }
         if (lower.contains("fix") || lower.contains("implement") || lower.contains("edit")
@@ -773,7 +790,7 @@ private static List<String> inferPlanSignals(String queryHint) {
         if (lower.contains("test") || lower.contains("verify") || lower.contains("review")) {
             signals.add("verification requested");
         }
-        return List.copyOf(signals.stream().distinct().toList());
+        return List.copyOf(signals);
     }
 
     private record RankedSection(