diff --git a/hw/dixie/default.nix b/hw/dixie/default.nix
index 7a21a63..7057ef9 100644
--- a/hw/dixie/default.nix
+++ b/hw/dixie/default.nix
@@ -31,6 +31,9 @@ let
     ; three resident models share 12 GB: keep contexts modest
     ctx-size = 16384
     parallel = 2
+    ; one KV pool per model shared by its slots, so a single long request can use all 16k
+    ; (split slots capped each at 8k: Honcho dialectic prompts of 11-17k all failed)
+    kv-unified = true
     cache-ram = 512
 
     ; Ornith 1.5 9B, refusal-ablated. Hermes auxiliary model (approval guardian, title,
@@ -40,6 +43,12 @@ let
     ; Runaway guard carried over from straylight: helper tasks need short answers.
     reasoning-budget = 2048
     n-predict = 4096
+    ; Qwen thinking-mode sampling (llama-server's 0.8 default made the Honcho deriver drop
+    ; ~1 in 3 batches, measured 2026-09-22). Clients that send their own temperature win.
+    temp = 0.6
+    top-p = 0.95
+    top-k = 20
+    min-p = 0
 
     ; Honcho dialectic: non-thinking instruct model so answers are short and fast.
     [honcho-dialectic]