Refusals show the best score; compact, separated chat panels

src/Modules/Chat/RagAssistant.Modules.Chat/Answering/AnswerEvents.cs

@@ -45,7 +45,8 @@ public sealed record RetrievalCompleted(
         IReadOnlyList<Guid> LeftOut,
         double MinScore,
         double ConfidentScore,
-        int? RetrievalMs);
+        int? RetrievalMs,
+        double? BestScore = null);
 
     public sealed record AnswerDelta(string Text);
 

src/Modules/Chat/RagAssistant.Modules.Chat/Answering/AnswerPipeline.cs

@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ await events.WriteAsync(
             AnswerEvents.Item(
                 AnswerEvents.RetrievalCompletedType,
                 new AnswerEvents.RetrievalCompleted(
-                    found.Outcome.ToApi(), sources, scope, attempt.UnavailableDocumentIds, found.Thresholds.MinScore, found.Thresholds.ConfidentScore, attempt.RetrievalMs)),
+                    found.Outcome.ToApi(), sources, scope, attempt.UnavailableDocumentIds, found.Thresholds.MinScore, found.Thresholds.ConfidentScore, attempt.RetrievalMs, found.BestScore)),
             aborted);
 
         if (found.Outcome == EvidenceOutcome.NoEvidence)
@@ -410,6 +410,7 @@ private RequestTrace Trace(Attempt attempt, AnswerStatus status, RefusalReason?
             MinScore = found?.Thresholds.MinScore,
             ConfidentScore = found?.Thresholds.ConfidentScore,
             DuplicateOverlap = found?.Thresholds.DuplicateOverlap,
+            BestScore = found?.BestScore,
             EmbeddingModel = found?.EmbeddingModel,
             RetrievedPassages = JsonSerializer.Serialize(passages, TraceJson),
             ChatModel = attempt.ChatModel,

src/Modules/Chat/RagAssistant.Modules.Chat/Domain/RequestTrace.cs

@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ internal sealed class RequestTrace
 
     public double? DuplicateOverlap { get; set; }
 
+    /// <summary>The best score among the candidates before the evidence rules; shows how close a refused question came (null when nothing matched).</summary>
+    public double? BestScore { get; set; }
+
     public string? EmbeddingModel { get; set; }
 
     /// <summary>JSON array of <see cref="RetrievedPassageTrace"/>, stored as <c>jsonb</c>.</summary>

src/Modules/Chat/RagAssistant.Modules.Chat/Features/GetActivity/GetActivity.cs

@@ -28,7 +28,9 @@ public sealed record ScopeStep(string? Language, IReadOnlyList<string> Tags, IRe
 
     public sealed record ScopeDocument(Guid Id, string? Title, bool Available);
 
-    public sealed record RetrievalStep(string? Outcome, double? MinScore, double? ConfidentScore, int? Ms, IReadOnlyList<PassageStep> Passages);
+    /// <param name="BestScore">The best candidate before the evidence rules; explains a refusal (null when nothing matched, or on older traces).</param>
+    public sealed record RetrievalStep(
+        string? Outcome, double? MinScore, double? ConfidentScore, int? Ms, IReadOnlyList<PassageStep> Passages, double? BestScore = null);
 
     public sealed record PassageStep(
         int Rank,
@@ -87,7 +89,7 @@ orderby t.Attempt descending
                 trace.QuestionText,
                 new RewriteStep(trace.RewriteUsed, trace.RetrievalQuery, trace.RewriteFallbackReason?.ToApi(), trace.RewriteMs),
                 new ScopeStep(trace.FilterLanguage, trace.FilterTags, documents),
-                new RetrievalStep(trace.EvidenceOutcome is { } outcome ? JsonNamingPolicy.CamelCase.ConvertName(outcome) : null, trace.MinScore, trace.ConfidentScore, trace.RetrievalMs, passages),
+                new RetrievalStep(trace.EvidenceOutcome is { } outcome ? JsonNamingPolicy.CamelCase.ConvertName(outcome) : null, trace.MinScore, trace.ConfidentScore, trace.RetrievalMs, passages, trace.BestScore),
                 new AnswerStep(
                     trace.ChatModel is not null,
                     trace.FinalStatus.ToApi(),