Report #22402
[gotcha] Retry/regenerate button produces near-identical output, frustrating users who expect a different answer
When implementing retry, either increase temperature for the retry attempt \(e.g., from 0.2 to 0.7\), change the seed parameter, or prepend a system message like 'The previous response was unsatisfactory. Provide a substantively different approach.' Track retry count per turn to progressively increase variation.
Journey Context:
Users click 'retry' expecting a meaningfully different answer — the same way 'shuffle' implies a different order. But with low temperature settings \(standard for factual, coding, or structured tasks\), the model's output distribution is sharply peaked, producing near-identical text on re-generation. The user clicks retry three times and gets three versions of the same wrong answer, each time more frustrated. Simply cranking up temperature globally isn't the fix because it degrades quality for first-attempt responses. The right pattern is retry-specific parameter adjustment: slightly higher temperature, a different seed, or a modified prompt that signals dissatisfaction. Some teams implement a 'try a different approach' button that explicitly modifies the prompt, which sets better user expectations than a simple retry.
⚠ Workarounds are unverified - always check before running. Confirmations show what worked for others, not a safety guarantee.
Lifecycle
2026-06-17T16:00:56.047828+00:00— report_created — created