diff --git a/config/quality/eslint-suppressions.json b/config/quality/eslint-suppressions.json
index 174969573b..21d269d137 100644
--- a/config/quality/eslint-suppressions.json
+++ b/config/quality/eslint-suppressions.json
@@ -1182,7 +1182,7 @@
   },
   "tests/unit/combo-routing-engine.test.ts": {
     "@typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any": {
-      "count": 269
+      "count": 271
     }
   },
   "tests/unit/combo-same-provider-cascade.test.ts": {
@@ -1750,6 +1750,11 @@
       "count": 2
     }
   },
+  "tests/unit/oauth-refresh-connection-dedup-8059.test.ts": {
+    "@typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any": {
+      "count": 1
+    }
+  },
   "tests/unit/observability-fase04.test.ts": {
     "@typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any": {
       "count": 1
@@ -2445,4 +2450,4 @@
       "count": 5
     }
   }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/open-sse/services/accountFallback.ts b/open-sse/services/accountFallback.ts
index c24c836e45..e0f3f5a797 100644
--- a/open-sse/services/accountFallback.ts
+++ b/open-sse/services/accountFallback.ts
@@ -573,7 +573,11 @@ export function recordModelLockoutFailure(
   status: number,
   fallbackCooldownMs: number,
   profile: ProviderProfile | null = null,
-  options: { exactCooldownMs?: number | null; maxCooldownMs?: number } = {}
+  options: {
+    exactCooldownMs?: number | null;
+    maxCooldownMs?: number;
+    exactCooldownIsUpstreamReset?: boolean;
+  } = {}
 ) {
   ensureCleanupTimer();
   const key = getModelLockKey(provider, connectionId, model, reason, status);
@@ -596,15 +600,18 @@ export function recordModelLockoutFailure(
   const failureCount = withinWindow ? previous.failureCount + 1 : 1;
 
   const baseCooldownMs = getModelLockBaseCooldown(status, fallbackCooldownMs, profile);
-  // Cap both exponential backoff and exact cooldowns (e.g. daily-quota
-  // until-midnight) against maxCooldownMs so user-configured caps are honored.
+  // Cap both exponential backoff and computed exact cooldowns (e.g. daily-quota
+  // until-midnight, #7940/#7980) against maxCooldownMs so user-configured caps are
+  // honored — EXCEPT an authoritative parsed upstream reset (#6863, e.g. Antigravity
+  // "Resets in 92h27m28s"), which the upstream told us to wait and must be honored
+  // exactly, never clamped down to maxCooldownMs.
   const maxCooldownMs =
     typeof options.maxCooldownMs === "number" && options.maxCooldownMs > 0
       ? options.maxCooldownMs
       : null;
   const cooldownMs =
     typeof options.exactCooldownMs === "number" && options.exactCooldownMs > 0
-      ? maxCooldownMs !== null
+      ? maxCooldownMs !== null && !options.exactCooldownIsUpstreamReset
         ? Math.min(options.exactCooldownMs, maxCooldownMs)
         : options.exactCooldownMs
       : Math.min(
diff --git a/open-sse/services/combo.ts b/open-sse/services/combo.ts
index 1a4b88de30..f5e207b719 100644
--- a/open-sse/services/combo.ts
+++ b/open-sse/services/combo.ts
@@ -2370,6 +2370,10 @@ export async function handleComboChat({
                     // the short base cooldown / exponential backoff when present.
                     exactCooldownMs: selectLockoutCooldownMs(lockoutHintMs, mlSettings),
                     maxCooldownMs: mlSettings.maxCooldownMs,
+                    // #6863: a parsed upstream quota reset is authoritative — the upstream
+                    // told us exactly when it resets, so honor it in full instead of
+                    // clamping to maxCooldownMs (which only bounds computed backoff).
+                    exactCooldownIsUpstreamReset: lockoutHintMs > mlSettings.baseCooldownMs,
                   }
                 );
                 lockoutRecorded = true;
@@ -2417,6 +2421,9 @@ export async function handleComboChat({
                   // #1308/#6863: honor a long upstream reset over base/exponential cooldown.
                   exactCooldownMs: selectLockoutCooldownMs(lockoutHintMs, mlSettings),
                   maxCooldownMs: mlSettings.maxCooldownMs,
+                  // #6863: an authoritative parsed upstream reset must be honored in full,
+                  // never clamped to maxCooldownMs (which only bounds computed backoff).
+                  exactCooldownIsUpstreamReset: lockoutHintMs > mlSettings.baseCooldownMs,
                 }
               );
             }
diff --git a/open-sse/utils/reasoningPlaceholder.ts b/open-sse/utils/reasoningPlaceholder.ts
index 1531c9cb00..915af48c92 100644
--- a/open-sse/utils/reasoningPlaceholder.ts
+++ b/open-sse/utils/reasoningPlaceholder.ts
@@ -12,9 +12,15 @@ export function isInternalReasoningPlaceholder(value: unknown): boolean {
 /**
  * Strip the internal placeholder from user-visible content. Models sometimes
  * echo the sentinel through ordinary `message.content` / `delta.content`
- * (#8081). Removes all occurrences and trims; returns "" when nothing
- * meaningful remains so callers can skip emission entirely.
+ * (#8081). Removes all occurrences; returns "" when only whitespace remains so
+ * callers can skip emission entirely.
+ *
+ * IMPORTANT (#5786): this runs per-delta on the streaming path, where a delta's
+ * leading/trailing spaces are meaningful (e.g. "Hello, " + "world." + " Bye.").
+ * Only collapse to "" when the placeholder WAS the whole content — never trim
+ * real content, or streamed deltas glue together with their spaces eaten.
  */
 export function stripInternalReasoningPlaceholder(value: string): string {
-  return value.replaceAll(NON_ANTHROPIC_THINKING_PLACEHOLDER, "").trim();
+  const stripped = value.replaceAll(NON_ANTHROPIC_THINKING_PLACEHOLDER, "");
+  return stripped.trim() === "" ? "" : stripped;
 }
diff --git a/tests/unit/authz/spawn-capable-prefixes-client-safe.test.ts b/tests/unit/authz/spawn-capable-prefixes-client-safe.test.ts
index 2522c659a1..8b1ee022eb 100644
--- a/tests/unit/authz/spawn-capable-prefixes-client-safe.test.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/authz/spawn-capable-prefixes-client-safe.test.ts
@@ -80,11 +80,12 @@ test("SPAWN_CAPABLE_PREFIXES is defined in the server-free constants leaf with t
     "/api/skills/collect/",
     "/api/headroom/start",
     "/api/headroom/stop",
+    "/api/vnc-session",
   ]) {
     assert.ok(
       SPAWN_CAPABLE_PREFIXES.includes(prefix),
       `SPAWN_CAPABLE_PREFIXES lost the spawn-capable prefix "${prefix}" during extraction`
     );
   }
-  assert.equal(SPAWN_CAPABLE_PREFIXES.length, 10);
+  assert.equal(SPAWN_CAPABLE_PREFIXES.length, 11);
 });