diff --git a/controllers/aici_abi/src/lib.rs b/controllers/aici_abi/src/lib.rs
index 9995152b..87864381 100644
--- a/controllers/aici_abi/src/lib.rs
+++ b/controllers/aici_abi/src/lib.rs
@@ -132,6 +132,21 @@ impl<S> Branch<S> {
             splices: self.splices.clone(),
         }
     }
+
+    pub fn splice(backtrack: u32, ff_tokens: Vec<TokenId>) -> Self {
+        Branch {
+            sample_mask: None,
+            splices: vec![Splice {
+                when_sampled: vec![],
+                backtrack,
+                ff_tokens,
+            }],
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub fn noop() -> Self {
+        Self::splice(0, vec![])
+    }
 }
 
 #[derive(Debug)]
@@ -159,14 +174,7 @@ impl MidProcessResult {
 
     pub fn splice(backtrack: u32, ff_tokens: Vec<TokenId>) -> Self {
         MidProcessResult {
-            branches: vec![Branch {
-                sample_mask: None,
-                splices: vec![Splice {
-                    when_sampled: vec![],
-                    backtrack,
-                    ff_tokens,
-                }],
-            }],
+            branches: vec![Branch::splice(backtrack, ff_tokens)],
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/controllers/declctrl/src/declctrl.rs b/controllers/declctrl/src/declctrl.rs
index ff5e00f5..a7afb218 100644
--- a/controllers/declctrl/src/declctrl.rs
+++ b/controllers/declctrl/src/declctrl.rs
@@ -13,12 +13,11 @@ use aici_abi::{
     aici_expose_all,
     bytes::limit_str,
     cfg::CfgParser,
-    rx::RecRx,
-    rx::RxStackRecognizer,
+    rx::{RecRx, RxStackRecognizer},
     svob::SimpleVob,
-    tokenize, tokenize_bytes,
+    tokenize_bytes,
     toktree::{Recognizer, SpecialToken, TokTrie},
-    AiciCtrl, InitPromptArg, InitPromptResult, MidProcessArg, MidProcessResult, TokenId,
+    AiciCtrl, Branch, InitPromptArg, InitPromptResult, MidProcessArg, MidProcessResult, TokenId,
     VariableStorage,
 };
 use core::panic;
@@ -747,6 +746,7 @@ impl StepState {
         self.check_eos(false)
     }
 
+    #[allow(dead_code)]
     fn attention_mask(&self, ctx: &RunnerCtx) -> Vec<f32> {
         if self.mask_tags.len() == 0 {
             vec![]
@@ -1220,17 +1220,6 @@ impl AiciCtrl for Runner {
             }
         }
 
-        if let StepSpecific::Fork { branches } = &self.curr_state().specific {
-            let attention_masks = branches
-                .iter()
-                .map(|b| b[0].attention_mask(&self.ctx))
-                .collect::<Vec<_>>();
-            PreProcessResult::new(attention_masks.len())
-        } else {
-            let mask = self.curr_state().attention_mask(&self.ctx);
-            PreProcessResult::new(vec![mask].len())
-        }
-
         //
         // MID
         //
@@ -1255,18 +1244,16 @@ impl AiciCtrl for Runner {
             }
         }
 
+        if let StepSpecific::Fork { branches } = &self.curr_state().specific {
+            assert!(branches.len() > 1);
+            return MidProcessResult {
+                branches: branches.iter().map(|_| Branch::noop()).collect(),
+            };
+        }
+
         if self.maybe_wait() {
             // this is a bit late in the game, but it's the best we can do
-            MidProcessResult::Splice {
-                backtrack: 0,
-                ff_tokens: tokenize(" "),
-            }
-
-            // // we pop the useless generated token
-            // MidProcessResult::Splice {
-            //     backtrack: 1,
-            //     ff_tokens: vec![],
-            // }
+            MidProcessResult::noop()
         } else {
             self.try_backtrack()
         }
diff --git a/controllers/pyctrl/driver.py b/controllers/pyctrl/driver.py
index be34c83f..32faec05 100644
--- a/controllers/pyctrl/driver.py
+++ b/controllers/pyctrl/driver.py
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ def __init__(self):
         self.mod = pyaici.cli.build_rust(".")
         self.oks = []
         self.failures = []
-        pyaici.rest.log_level = 0
 
     def fail(self, id: str, logs: str):
         print(f"FAIL")
@@ -67,6 +66,14 @@ def main():
         help="skip tests matching string",
     )
 
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--log-level",
+        "-l",
+        type=int,
+        default=0,
+        help="AICI log level",
+    )
+
     parser.add_argument(
         "--only",
         "-k",
@@ -82,8 +89,11 @@ def main():
         help="files to test",
     )
 
+
     args = parser.parse_args()
 
+    pyaici.rest.log_level = args.log_level
+
     files = args.test_file
 
     if files[0].endswith(".js"):
diff --git a/docs/aicirt-proto.md b/docs/aicirt-proto.md
index e864e486..effb7eb4 100644
--- a/docs/aicirt-proto.md
+++ b/docs/aicirt-proto.md
@@ -67,8 +67,6 @@ The `ping` command is used to check if the AICIrt is alive.
 The requests always have an `op` field, and the responses always have a `type` field,
 which is either `"ok"` or `"error"`, as well as a `data` field.
 
-TODO: add inference_caps
-
 The `tokens` command gives the size of the vocabulary of the loaded tokenizer.
 
 ```json
diff --git a/scripts/test-all.sh b/scripts/test-all.sh
index a578e4d3..0201088a 100755
--- a/scripts/test-all.sh
+++ b/scripts/test-all.sh
@@ -4,4 +4,4 @@ set -x
 set -e
 ./scripts/test-pyctrl.sh
 ./scripts/test-jsctrl.sh
-#pytest
+pytest