diff --git a/server/src/routes/user_web.rs b/server/src/routes/user_web.rs
index 9b6cc3e..82c7585 100644
--- a/server/src/routes/user_web.rs
+++ b/server/src/routes/user_web.rs
@@ -322,7 +322,9 @@ pub async fn handle_case_page(
     let is_admin = user.is_admin();
 
     let most_recent = recordings.last().map(|r| r.filename.as_str());
-    let recorded_at_iso = most_recent.map(recorded_at_iso_of).filter(|s| !s.is_empty());
+    let recorded_at_iso = most_recent
+        .map(recorded_at_iso_of)
+        .filter(|s| !s.is_empty());
     let time_hms_utc = most_recent.map(extract_hhmm_utc).unwrap_or_default();
 
     CasePageTemplate {
diff --git a/server/src/transcribe/ollama.rs b/server/src/transcribe/ollama.rs
index bc26434..cef2725 100644
--- a/server/src/transcribe/ollama.rs
+++ b/server/src/transcribe/ollama.rs
@@ -30,8 +30,15 @@ const MAX_CHARS: usize = 60;
 #[derive(Debug)]
 pub enum OllamaError {
     Http(reqwest::Error),
-    Status { status: u16, body: String },
+    Status {
+        status: u16,
+        body: String,
+    },
     Parse(String),
+    /// Model obeyed the silence rule: transcript had no extractable keyword,
+    /// so the response was empty. Not a failure — callers should treat this
+    /// as "no oneliner this round" and log below error level.
+    EmptyResponse,
 }
 
 impl std::fmt::Display for OllamaError {
@@ -40,6 +47,10 @@ impl std::fmt::Display for OllamaError {
             Self::Http(e) => write!(f, "ollama http error: {e}"),
             Self::Status { status, body } => write!(f, "ollama returned {status}: {body}"),
             Self::Parse(msg) => write!(f, "ollama response parse error: {msg}"),
+            Self::EmptyResponse => write!(
+                f,
+                "ollama response was empty (no medical keyword in transcript)"
+            ),
         }
     }
 }
@@ -132,7 +143,7 @@ pub async fn generate_oneliner(
 
     let normalized = normalize(&content);
     if normalized.is_empty() {
-        return Err(OllamaError::Parse("empty after normalization".into()));
+        return Err(OllamaError::EmptyResponse);
     }
     Ok(normalized)
 }
diff --git a/server/src/transcribe/worker.rs b/server/src/transcribe/worker.rs
index 05b1977..a68f941 100644
--- a/server/src/transcribe/worker.rs
+++ b/server/src/transcribe/worker.rs
@@ -229,6 +229,12 @@ pub(crate) async fn update_oneliner(
                 );
             }
         }
+        Err(ollama::OllamaError::EmptyResponse) => {
+            warn!(
+                case = %case_dir.display(),
+                "oneliner skipped — model returned empty (no medical keyword in transcript)"
+            );
+        }
         Err(e) => {
             error!(case = %case_dir.display(), error = %e, "oneliner generation failed");
         }
diff --git a/server/tests/transcribe_test.rs b/server/tests/transcribe_test.rs
index 1442c99..71e1d7a 100644
--- a/server/tests/transcribe_test.rs
+++ b/server/tests/transcribe_test.rs
@@ -500,6 +500,31 @@ async fn ollama_oneliner_sends_keep_alive_and_model() {
     // Mock::expect(1) + server drop verifies the matcher hit exactly once.
 }
 
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn ollama_oneliner_empty_response_when_model_obeys_silence_rule() {
+    // Model followed the silence rule for a keyword-less transcript and
+    // returned empty content. That's a valid outcome, not a parse error.
+    let server = MockServer::start().await;
+    Mock::given(method("POST"))
+        .and(path("/api/chat"))
+        .respond_with(ResponseTemplate::new(200).set_body_json(ok_chat_body("   \n  ")))
+        .mount(&server)
+        .await;
+
+    let client = reqwest::Client::new();
+    let err = generate_oneliner(
+        &client,
+        &server.uri(),
+        MODEL,
+        0,
+        "äh, Moment",
+        Duration::from_secs(5),
+    )
+    .await
+    .expect_err("expected EmptyResponse");
+    assert!(matches!(err, OllamaError::EmptyResponse), "got {err:?}");
+}
+
 #[tokio::test]
 async fn ollama_oneliner_parse_error_on_missing_content() {
     let server = MockServer::start().await;