agent split one limitation clause across two extracted clauses - a page break mid-clause became a clause boundary

TL;DR

A page break fell mid-sentence in the limitation clause, and the agent treated it as a clause boundary, splitting one clause into two. Detect sentence continuation across page breaks (lowercase continuation, no terminal punctuation) and merge the fragments before clause segmentation.

The symptom

agent split one limitation clause across two extracted clauses  -  a page break mid-clause became a clause boundary

Steps

1. Spot the mid-sentence break

The first fragment ends without terminal punctuation and the second starts lowercase (or with a continuation word). That is one sentence, not two clauses. Expected: The split point identified as a page break, not a boundary.

2. Merge the fragments

Join the fragments across the page break, restoring the sentence. Expected: One complete clause text.

3. Re-run clause segmentation

Segment clauses on the merged text so numbering and boundaries reflect the real structure. Expected: Correct clause list with no phantom split.

4. Add the continuation rule

Before accepting a clause boundary at a page break, check for sentence continuation; if the sentence continues, merge first. Expected: Page-break splits blocked systematically.

When to use

• One clause appears as two fragments
• A fragment ends mid-sentence at a page break
• Clause counts are inflated by one

When not to use

• The two fragments are genuinely separate clauses (check punctuation and numbering)
• The break is at a section boundary (legitimate split)
• The document has no page breaks (different cause)

Why it happens

Clause segmenters often split on page or block boundaries as a heuristic. When a page break lands mid-sentence, the heuristic fires on layout instead of language, and one clause becomes two. Everything downstream (citations, diffs, counts) inherits the phantom split.

Edge cases

• Page break mid-word (hyphenation): rejoin the word when merging.
• Footnotes at the break: keep them separate; merge only the body sentence.
• Tables split across pages: stitch rows, not sentences.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_Tocae4Ph16AcXDgP1PnzPw