Follow-up to #7580: the escalation it added could never fire. ## What's broken The auto-run skips a policy that has already run on a file, keyed on `(categoryId, fileId)`. `recordRunStart` claims that key — and #7580 has the **browser-side first pass** record its own run under `categoryId: "classification"` for the uploaded file. So the local heuristic ticks the very key the server escalation checks, and the AI is never asked, at any confidence. Trigger is the default seeded setup: **Classification as the only on-upload policy**, and a local verdict below `high`. Any other on-upload policy masks it, because classification then targets that policy's output — a new file id whose key was never claimed. That's why this went unnoticed. Two smaller faults in the same path: - A chained output carried no `classificationConfidence`, so `shouldDispatchToAi` waited for a verdict that could never arrive (a tool-derived file gets no local pass). - Browser-local runs were polled against the server: 3 × 404 per file, after which `MAX_NOT_FOUND` marked a local run that had actually **succeeded** as `FAILED`. ## The fix - `PolicyRunRecord.browserLocal`; `recordRunStart` skips the dispatch claim for such a run. It is the first pass, not the policy's run. - The local pass meters under `classification:local-meter` instead of the category id, so metering dedupe survives without suppressing dispatch. - The poll effect skips browser-local runs. - `CONSUME_FILES` inherits `classificationConfidence` alongside the labels, so the verdict survives a version bump. ## How to test Download [`low-confidence-classification.pdf`](https://github.com/Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF/raw/fix/chained-classification-confidence/frontend/editor/src/proprietary/services/heuristic/fixtures/low-confidence-classification.pdf) (checked in as a fixture, verdict pinned by a test). With **Classification as the only on-upload policy**, upload it and watch the Network tab: - **Before:** no `POST /api/v1/policies/{id}/run` for classification, ever. Console shows `local-classification-*` 404s. - **After:** exactly one, and the engine receives `POST /api/v1/documents/classify`. Judge it on that request, not on the resulting label — the model's answer varies, so a label comparison can pass or fail for the wrong reason. Headless equivalent: ``` npx vitest run --project proprietary src/proprietary/components/policies/usePolicyAutoRun.escalation.test.tsx ``` Passes here, fails on `main` on "asks the AI about an unsure verdict even though the local pass already ran". Its other two cases pass on both, so the guards still hold: a confident verdict still costs nothing, and a file with no verdict yet still waits rather than racing the free pass. New tests drive the **real** run store — mocking it is what let this through. `task frontend:check`: 255 files / 2202 tests.
Stirling PDF - The Open-Source PDF Platform
Stirling PDF is a powerful, open-source PDF editing platform. Run it as a personal desktop app, in the browser, or deploy it on your own servers with a private API. Edit, sign, redact, convert, and automate PDFs without sending documents to external services.
Key Capabilities
- Everywhere you work - Desktop client, browser UI, and self-hosted server with a private API.
- 50+ PDF tools - Edit, merge, split, sign, redact, convert, OCR, compress, and more.
- Automation & workflows - No-code pipelines direct in UI with APIs to process millions of PDFs.
- Enterprise‑grade - SSO, auditing, and flexible on‑prem deployments.
- Developer platform - REST APIs available for nearly all tools to integrate into your existing systems.
- Global UI - Interface available in 40+ languages.
For a full feature list, see the docs: https://docs.stirlingpdf.com
Quick Start
docker run -p 8080:8080 docker.stirlingpdf.com/stirlingtools/stirling-pdf
Then open: http://localhost:8080
For full installation options (including desktop and Kubernetes), see our Documentation Guide.
Resources
Support
- Community: Discord
- Bug Reports: GitHub Issues
Contributing
We welcome contributions! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
This project uses Task as a unified command runner for all build, dev, and test commands. Run task dev to get started running the editor, run task to see the most common commands, or see the Developer Guide for full details.
For adding translations, see the Translation Guide.
License
Stirling PDF is open-core. See LICENSE for details.

