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Why is my blank not firing?

A blank that won't fire is almost always one of five things, and they're checkable in order: sentence position, trigger mode, a missing key, a feature gate, or a disabled entry.

The checklist

The keyword must lead the sentence. Routing is sentence-scoped: the keyword has to lead the sentence your _ ends, with the _ at the trailing edge. volume _ fires; I wonder what the volume _ doesn't, by design, so prose that merely mentions a keyword never triggers it. Starting a fresh sentence (or line) with the command fixes it.
Spaced trigger mode. If blank-trigger-mode: spaced is set (the markdown-friendly mode that keeps _italic_ intact), a bare _ is inert until a confirming space follows it. Type _ then space, or set the mode back to immediate.
A missing API key. Key-dependent blanks don't register without their key: stocks needs FINNHUB_API_KEY (free), and the LLM-backed _ sources need a provider key. opencues set-key <provider> <key> stores it; opencues check-keys verifies it works.
A feature gate is off. Instruction rewrites need transform-blank-mode: on in ~/.cues/OPENCUES.md (free-form lookups are always on). If lookups work but make this formal _ doesn't, this is the likely one.
The blank is disabled at some layer. A disable: list in a user- or project-level BLANKS.md subtracts entries silently from that layer.

Diagnosing in order

opencues list --blanks confirms the blank is registered at all and shows which hosts it can run on. opencues doctor catches the structural causes (missing keys, stale installs). opencues logs --tail shows the live runtime log while you reproduce. And remember the design guarantee: an unresolvable _ just stays visible in your text; there is no silent gave-up state, so a _ sitting there is itself the signal to start this checklist.