---
id: insert_tubes_memory_v12_outcome
scope: global
kind: failure
title: 'Latest v12: memory used; two placements, third orientation rejected'
applies_when: insert_tubes, GPT-only physicalrsi_v12, seed 0 / layout 0; read with
  earlier observations
confidence: single-shot
evidence:
  cells:
  - v12_insert_tubes_s0_l0
  attempts: 1
reviewed: '2026-09-29'
provenance: Reviewed against result.json, states.json, run.log, GPT draft and native
  video; not automatic promotion of model prose.
---

## Outcome and scope
This supersedes any assumption that the center-first order is a validated complete recipe. The v12 pilot read MEMORY.md and two tube leaves before its first motion, chose tube0/hole2, tube1/hole0, tube2/hole4, and successfully updated its episode draft 11 times. It used 52 GPT turns and 397 native steps, then was deliberately operator-interrupted after repeated unreachable orientation plans. Raw termination_reason is infrastructure_error from the explicit operator stop, not an upstream API outage. It is an invalid/interrupted trial, not a complete benchmark failure or a success.

## Verified partial progress
Tube0 completed release, retreat and placement checks at native step 180 in central hole2. Its transport required independent grasp re-verification (22.32 mm lift), then a bounded recovery after the above-hole endpoint check failed. Tube1 completed in left hole0 at step332 without blocked-stage recovery. At final step397 both depth predicates were current and true; containment was last evaluated true at step388, and fresh axis measurements were about 0.38 and 7.29 degrees. Do not relabel the older containment evaluations as current-step evaluations.
Tube2 was grasped by the right hand and independently lifted 22.41 mm at step387, but remained about 87.8 degrees from upright. Its cap-up target was rejected for orientation at hole4, again after a recovery lift, and again after selecting hole9. All three failed orientation plans executed zero native actions. The other two tubes remained released. Neither arm met the required home condition; native eval_success remained false.

## Failed approaches and limits
Changing height with recover did not make this third-tube orientation target reachable. Changing hole4 to hole9 altered the yaw but also failed. Transport and handover could not bypass the required orient stage; restart was correctly blocked while the grasp remained verified. Do not use those rejected stage changes as a recovery recipe. The generic arm-change error mentions handover, but this tube phase does not expose a usable handover path.
The draft's suggestion to try another aperture is an untested hypothesis, not evidence that it would fix reachability. The intended final hole4 transport was never reached, so this trial does not establish whether the center-first order avoids the historical last-tube collision. Memory and transport re-verification code both changed in v12; this is not a memory-only ablation.

## Next controller hypothesis, not an executable recipe
Evaluate a supported held-tube translation toward a reachable orientation staging pose before rotating, or choose a different verified pickup transform. Check the candidate orientation before committing contact motion and retain lift verification and stage guards. No such change was tested in v12; memory cannot make an unavailable controller action callable. Budget native steps for all three placements plus both arms returning home. Only fresh native success can promote a full task recipe.