diff --git a/src/bin/poc-agent.rs b/src/bin/poc-agent.rs
index 745f21b..deb96f3 100644
--- a/src/bin/poc-agent.rs
+++ b/src/bin/poc-agent.rs
@@ -424,39 +424,39 @@ impl Session {
                 Command::Handled
             }
             "/score" => {
-                {
-                    let agent = self.agent.lock().await;
+                // Snapshot context+client while we have the lock,
+                // so the scoring task doesn't need to wait for turns.
+                let (context, client) = {
+                    let mut agent = self.agent.lock().await;
                     if agent.scoring_in_flight {
                         let _ = self.ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Info(
                             "(scoring already in progress)".into()
                         ));
                         return Command::Handled;
                     }
-                }
-                self.agent.lock().await.scoring_in_flight = true;
+                    agent.scoring_in_flight = true;
+                    (agent.context.clone(), agent.client_clone())
+                };
                 let agent = self.agent.clone();
                 let ui_tx = self.ui_tx.clone();
+                let _ = self.ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug("[score] task spawning".into()));
                 tokio::spawn(async move {
-                    let (context, client) = {
-                        let agent = agent.lock().await;
-                        (agent.context.clone(), agent.client_clone())
-                    };
+                    let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug("[score] task started, calling score_memories".into()));
                     let result = poc_memory::thought::training::score_memories(
                         &context, &client, &ui_tx,
                     ).await;
+                    let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug("[score] score_memories returned, acquiring lock".into()));
+                    // Store results — brief lock, just setting fields
                     let mut agent = agent.lock().await;
+                    let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug("[score] lock acquired, storing results".into()));
                     agent.scoring_in_flight = false;
                     match result {
                         Ok(scores) => {
-                            let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Info(format!(
-                                "[memory scoring complete: {} memories scored]",
-                                scores.memory_keys.len(),
-                            )));
                             agent.memory_scores = Some(scores);
                         }
                         Err(e) => {
                             let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Info(format!(
-                                "[memory scoring failed: {:#}]", e,
+                                "[scoring failed: {:#}]", e,
                             )));
                         }
                     }
diff --git a/src/thought/training.rs b/src/thought/training.rs
index 3399317..a7d9a63 100644
--- a/src/thought/training.rs
+++ b/src/thought/training.rs
@@ -7,10 +7,14 @@
 // Row sums = memory importance (for graph weight updates)
 // Column sums = response memory-dependence (training candidates)
 
+use std::time::Instant;
 use crate::agent::api::ApiClient;
 use crate::agent::types::*;
 use crate::agent::ui_channel::{UiMessage, UiSender};
 
+/// Timeout for individual /v1/score API calls.
+const SCORE_TIMEOUT: std::time::Duration = std::time::Duration::from_secs(120);
+
 /// Result of scoring one conversation's memory usage.
 pub struct MemoryScore {
     /// memory_key → importance score (sum of divergence across all responses)
@@ -62,6 +66,9 @@ pub async fn score_memories(
         .collect();
 
     if memories.is_empty() || response_indices.is_empty() {
+        let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug(
+            "[training] nothing to score (no memories or no responses)".into()
+        ));
         return Ok(MemoryScore {
             memory_weights: Vec::new(),
             response_scores: Vec::new(),
@@ -71,65 +78,83 @@ pub async fn score_memories(
         });
     }
 
-    let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug(format!(
-        "[training] scoring {} memories × {} responses via /v1/score",
+    let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Info(format!(
+        "[scoring {} memories × {} responses]",
         memories.len(), response_indices.len(),
     )));
 
     let http = reqwest::Client::builder()
+        .timeout(SCORE_TIMEOUT)
         .pool_max_idle_per_host(2)
         .build()
         .unwrap_or_default();
 
-    // Build the messages array from context
     let all_messages = build_messages(context);
 
-    let roles: Vec<&str> = all_messages.iter()
-        .map(|m| m.get("role").and_then(|r| r.as_str()).unwrap_or("?"))
-        .collect();
     let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug(format!(
-        "[training] sending {} messages, roles: {:?}",
-        all_messages.len(), roles,
+        "[training] {} messages in context",
+        all_messages.len(),
     )));
 
     // Baseline: score with all memories present
-    let baseline = call_score(&http, client, &all_messages, ui_tx).await?;
-
+    let payload_size = serde_json::to_string(&all_messages)
+        .map(|s| s.len()).unwrap_or(0);
     let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug(format!(
-        "[training] baseline: {} messages scored",
-        baseline.len(),
+        "[training] payload size: {}KB",
+        payload_size / 1024,
+    )));
+    let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Activity("scoring baseline...".into()));
+    let start = Instant::now();
+    let baseline = call_score(&http, client, &all_messages).await?;
+    let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug(format!(
+        "[training] baseline: {} responses scored in {:.1}s",
+        baseline.len(), start.elapsed().as_secs_f64(),
     )));
 
     // For each memory, drop it and measure divergence
     let mut matrix: Vec<Vec<f64>> = Vec::new();
     let memory_keys: Vec<String> = memories.iter().map(|(_, k)| k.clone()).collect();
+    let total = memories.len();
 
     for (mem_idx, (entry_idx, key)) in memories.iter().enumerate() {
         let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Activity(format!(
-            "scoring {}/{}...", mem_idx + 1, memories.len(),
-        )));
-        let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug(format!(
-            "[training] scoring memory {}/{}: {}",
-            mem_idx + 1, memories.len(), key,
+            "scoring {}/{}: {}...", mem_idx + 1, total, key,
         )));
 
-        // Build messages without this memory
+        let start = Instant::now();
         let filtered_messages = build_messages_without(context, *entry_idx);
-        let without = call_score(&http, client, &filtered_messages, ui_tx).await?;
+        let without = call_score(&http, client, &filtered_messages).await;
 
-        // Match scores by message index and compute divergence
-        let mut row = Vec::new();
-        for base_score in &baseline {
-            let base_lp = base_score.total_logprob;
-            let without_lp = without.iter()
-                .find(|s| s.message_index == base_score.message_index)
-                .map(|s| s.total_logprob)
-                .unwrap_or(base_lp);
-            // Positive = memory helped (logprob was higher with it)
-            let divergence = (base_lp - without_lp).max(0.0);
-            row.push(divergence);
+        match without {
+            Ok(without) => {
+                let elapsed = start.elapsed().as_secs_f64();
+                // Match scores by message index and compute divergence
+                let mut row = Vec::new();
+                for base_score in &baseline {
+                    let base_lp = base_score.total_logprob;
+                    let without_lp = without.iter()
+                        .find(|s| s.message_index == base_score.message_index)
+                        .map(|s| s.total_logprob)
+                        .unwrap_or(base_lp);
+                    let divergence = (base_lp - without_lp).max(0.0);
+                    row.push(divergence);
+                }
+                let importance: f64 = row.iter().sum();
+                let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug(format!(
+                    "[training] {}/{} {} → {:.1} ({:.1}s)",
+                    mem_idx + 1, total, key, importance, elapsed,
+                )));
+                matrix.push(row);
+            }
+            Err(e) => {
+                let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug(format!(
+                    "[training] {}/{} {} FAILED: {:#}",
+                    mem_idx + 1, total, key, e,
+                )));
+                // Push zero row so matrix stays aligned
+                matrix.push(vec![0.0; baseline.len()]);
+            }
         }
-        matrix.push(row);
     }
 
     let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Activity(String::new()));
@@ -150,12 +175,10 @@ pub async fn score_memories(
         }
     }
 
-    // Log summary
-    for (key, score) in &memory_weights {
-        let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug(format!(
-            "[training] {} → importance {:.1}", key, score,
-        )));
-    }
+    let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Info(format!(
+        "[scoring complete: {} memories scored]",
+        memory_keys.len(),
+    )));
 
     Ok(MemoryScore {
         memory_weights,
@@ -220,7 +243,6 @@ async fn call_score(
     http: &reqwest::Client,
     client: &ApiClient,
     messages: &[serde_json::Value],
-    ui_tx: &UiSender,
 ) -> anyhow::Result<Vec<ScoreMessageResult>> {
     let request = serde_json::json!({
         "model": client.model,
@@ -234,7 +256,14 @@ async fn call_score(
         .header("Authorization", format!("Bearer {}", client.api_key()))
         .json(&request)
         .send()
-        .await?;
+        .await
+        .map_err(|e| {
+            if e.is_timeout() {
+                anyhow::anyhow!("score request timed out after {}s", SCORE_TIMEOUT.as_secs())
+            } else {
+                anyhow::anyhow!("score request failed: {}", e)
+            }
+        })?;
 
     let status = response.status();
     let body: serde_json::Value = response.json().await?;
@@ -243,12 +272,15 @@ async fn call_score(
         let msg = body.get("error")
             .and_then(|e| e.as_str())
             .unwrap_or("unknown error");
-        let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug(format!(
-            "[training] score API error: {}", msg,
-        )));
-        anyhow::bail!("score API error: {}", msg);
+        anyhow::bail!("score API HTTP {}: {}", status, msg);
     }
 
-    let result: ScoreApiResponse = serde_json::from_value(body)?;
+    // Check for error in body (score endpoint returns dict on error)
+    if let Some(err) = body.get("error").and_then(|e| e.as_str()) {
+        anyhow::bail!("score API error: {}", err);
+    }
+
+    let result: ScoreApiResponse = serde_json::from_value(body)
+        .map_err(|e| anyhow::anyhow!("failed to parse score response: {}", e))?;
     Ok(result.scores)
 }