diff --git a/controllers/guidance_ctrl/src/earley/parser.rs b/controllers/guidance_ctrl/src/earley/parser.rs
index d7bd1520..92dfe392 100644
--- a/controllers/guidance_ctrl/src/earley/parser.rs
+++ b/controllers/guidance_ctrl/src/earley/parser.rs
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ use aici_abi::{
 
 use super::grammar::{CGrammar, CSymIdx, CSymbol, ModelVariable, RuleIdx};
 
-const DEBUG: bool = true;
+const DEBUG: bool = false;
 const INFO: bool = true;
 
 macro_rules! debug {
diff --git a/controllers/guidance_ctrl/src/tokenparser.rs b/controllers/guidance_ctrl/src/tokenparser.rs
index 1666ebca..e3a5361a 100644
--- a/controllers/guidance_ctrl/src/tokenparser.rs
+++ b/controllers/guidance_ctrl/src/tokenparser.rs
@@ -48,10 +48,10 @@ impl TokenParser {
 
     pub fn bytes_since(&self, mut idx: usize) -> &[u8] {
         idx += self.grm_prefix.len();
-        if idx >= self.llm_bytes.len() {
+        let endp = std::cmp::min(self.llm_bytes.len(), self.parser.hidden_start());
+        if idx >= self.llm_bytes.len() || idx >= endp {
             return &[];
         }
-        let endp = std::cmp::min(self.llm_bytes.len(), self.parser.hidden_start());
         &self.llm_bytes[idx..endp]
     }