Lab: Put decoding settings in the package

Module 3 · Lab · About 60 minutes · Needs: lessons 1 to 3 of this module, and the Module 1 lab (or the cells in Step 1)

What you are building

It is Friday 19 June 2026, week 3. This week you timed replies, turned every sampling dial and paid for thinking, all in notebook cells. Maya's question was simple: which settings does each task use, and who decides? This lab answers it in one file, supportdesk/decoding.py, that every later module imports. It holds Lesson 2's sampling loop and per-task presets, Lesson 1's streaming timer, a finish-reason check that refuses unfinished replies, and Lesson 3's effort setting. Tests check all of it with no key and no model download. The running example is T-1001, Ana Duarte's duplicate charge. Only four calls go to the hosted model, all through the course's guard.