another fix for human choices

server/src/engine/human-responses.ts

@@ -190,6 +190,11 @@ const CREATIVE_POOLS: Record<string, { good: string[]; medium: string[]; bad: st
 }
 
 function generateChoices(challenge: Challenge): string[] {
+  // Use pre-built choices from templateToChallenge if available (hand-picked distractors)
+  if (challenge.choices && challenge.choices.length >= 2) {
+    return shuffle([...challenge.choices])
+  }
+
   if (challenge.scoring === 'factual' && challenge.answers && challenge.answers.length > 0) {
     const correct = challenge.answers[0]
     const num = Number(correct)
@@ -237,8 +242,9 @@ export function waitForHumanResponse(
   botId: string,
   challenge: Challenge,
   roundNumber: number,
-): Promise<{ answer: string | null; trashTalk?: string; timedOut: boolean }> {
-  return new Promise((resolve) => {
+): { promise: Promise<{ answer: string | null; trashTalk?: string; timedOut: boolean }>; choices: string[] } {
+  const choices = generateChoices(challenge)
+  const promise = new Promise<{ answer: string | null; trashTalk?: string; timedOut: boolean }>((resolve) => {
     const key = `${fightId}:${botId}`
     const timeoutMs = challenge.timeout_ms || DEFAULT_HUMAN_TIMEOUT_MS
 
@@ -248,8 +254,6 @@ export function waitForHumanResponse(
       resolve({ answer: null, timedOut: true })
     }, timeoutMs)
 
-    const choices = generateChoices(challenge)
-
     pending.set(key, {
       fightId,
       botId,
@@ -267,6 +271,7 @@ export function waitForHumanResponse(
 
     logger.info('human', `waiting: ${key} round=${roundNumber} type=${challenge.type} choices=${choices.length}`)
   })
+  return { promise, choices }
 }
 
 export function submitHumanResponse(

server/src/engine/orchestrator.ts

@@ -269,7 +269,8 @@ async function getBotResponse(
     // before the SSE event tells the frontend to fetch it (fixes race condition
     // where frontend fetched before pending was set → no choices shown)
     const start = Date.now()
-    const resultPromise = waitForHumanResponse(fightId, bot.id, challenge, roundNumber)
+    const { promise: resultPromise, choices } = waitForHumanResponse(fightId, bot.id, challenge, roundNumber)
+    // Include choices directly in SSE so frontend never depends on a secondary fetch
     emit(fightId, 'human_challenge', {
       botId: bot.id,
       round: roundNumber,
@@ -278,6 +279,7 @@ async function getBotResponse(
       prompt: challenge.prompt,
       timeoutMs: challenge.timeout_ms,
       scoring: challenge.scoring,
+      choices,
     })
     const result = await resultPromise
     const elapsed = Date.now() - start