diff --git a/docs/diarization.md b/docs/diarization.md
index b2bf7c9..8b99713 100644
--- a/docs/diarization.md
+++ b/docs/diarization.md
@@ -48,9 +48,9 @@ derived representation sent to prompt construction.
 
 Before contacting Ollama, Meeting Lab conservatively estimates prompt tokens
 from UTF-8 byte count without adding a model tokenizer dependency. The default safe
-budget is 16,200 estimated tokens, below the observed 16,386-token effective
-boundary even when a larger `num_ctx` was requested. The estimate is calibrated
-against the currently validated German BPD input and is configurable through
+budget is 29,000 estimated tokens within the explicitly configured 32,768-token
+Ollama context. The estimate is calibrated against the currently validated
+German BPD input and is configurable through
 `MvpMeetingConfig.protocol_safe_input_token_budget` or
 `--protocol-safe-input-token-budget`.
 
diff --git a/src/meeting_lab/orchestration/mvp.py b/src/meeting_lab/orchestration/mvp.py
index 5088c5b..7b8c768 100644
--- a/src/meeting_lab/orchestration/mvp.py
+++ b/src/meeting_lab/orchestration/mvp.py
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ from src.meeting_lab.models.meeting_context import (
 from src.meeting_lab.progress import ProgressEvent, ProgressSink, ProgressStatus
 from src.meeting_lab.protocol.generate_direct_protocol import (
     DEFAULT_MODEL,
+    DEFAULT_NUM_CTX,
     DEFAULT_SAFE_INPUT_TOKEN_BUDGET,
     DirectProtocolResult,
     generate_direct_protocol,
@@ -55,6 +56,7 @@ class MvpMeetingConfig:
     threads: str | int = "auto"
     model: str = DEFAULT_MODEL
     ollama_endpoint: str = DEFAULT_ENDPOINT
+    protocol_num_ctx: int = DEFAULT_NUM_CTX
     protocol_safe_input_token_budget: int = DEFAULT_SAFE_INPUT_TOKEN_BUDGET
     diarization: str = "off"
     diarization_runtime: str = "native"
@@ -131,6 +133,8 @@ def _validate_inputs(
         raise ValueError("A diarization container image is required.")
     if config.protocol_safe_input_token_budget <= 0:
         raise ValueError("Protocol safe input token budget must be positive.")
+    if config.protocol_num_ctx <= 0:
+        raise ValueError("Protocol Ollama context size must be positive.")
 
 
 def _emit(
@@ -363,6 +367,7 @@ def run_mvp_meeting(
             preserved_context,
             model=config.model,
             endpoint=config.ollama_endpoint,
+            num_ctx=config.protocol_num_ctx,
             safe_input_token_budget=config.protocol_safe_input_token_budget,
         )
         stage_runtimes["protocol"] = round(time.perf_counter() - stage_started, 3)
diff --git a/src/meeting_lab/protocol/generate_direct_protocol.py b/src/meeting_lab/protocol/generate_direct_protocol.py
index 4a0b046..1566ccd 100644
--- a/src/meeting_lab/protocol/generate_direct_protocol.py
+++ b/src/meeting_lab/protocol/generate_direct_protocol.py
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ DEFAULT_MODEL = "qwen3.6:35B-A3B"
 DEFAULT_NUM_CTX = 32768
 DEFAULT_NUM_PREDICT = 8192
 DEFAULT_TIMEOUT = 1800
-DEFAULT_SAFE_INPUT_TOKEN_BUDGET = 16_200
+DEFAULT_SAFE_INPUT_TOKEN_BUDGET = 29_000
 ESTIMATED_UTF8_BYTES_PER_TOKEN = 4.4
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_direct_protocol.py b/tests/test_direct_protocol.py
index cd01f96..fa91d93 100644
--- a/tests/test_direct_protocol.py
+++ b/tests/test_direct_protocol.py
@@ -116,6 +116,7 @@ class GeneratorTests(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(check.call_count, 1)
         self.assertEqual(call.call_count, 1)
         self.assertEqual(call.call_args.args[1], "qwen3.6:35B-A3B")
+        self.assertEqual(call.call_args.kwargs["num_ctx"], 32768)
         self.assertEqual(result.runtime_metadata["request_count"], 1)
         self.assertEqual(result.runtime_metadata["prompt_token_count"], 123)
         self.assertFalse(result.runtime_metadata["think"])
@@ -181,7 +182,7 @@ class OllamaTests(unittest.TestCase):
         with patch.object(ollama.requests, "post", return_value=response) as post:
             result = ollama.generate_once(
                 "http://localhost:11434",
-                "chosen:model",
+                "qwen3.8:27b",
                 "prompt",
                 timeout=30,
                 num_ctx=32768,
@@ -190,8 +191,9 @@ class OllamaTests(unittest.TestCase):
 
         self.assertEqual(post.call_count, 1)
         payload = post.call_args.kwargs["json"]
-        self.assertEqual(payload["model"], "chosen:model")
+        self.assertEqual(payload["model"], "qwen3.8:27b")
         self.assertEqual(payload["options"]["temperature"], 0.0)
+        self.assertEqual(payload["options"]["num_ctx"], 32768)
         self.assertFalse(payload["think"])
         self.assertFalse(payload["stream"])
         self.assertEqual(result.raw_response, raw)
diff --git a/tests/test_mvp_api.py b/tests/test_mvp_api.py
index fefd7a1..f7c5858 100644
--- a/tests/test_mvp_api.py
+++ b/tests/test_mvp_api.py
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ class MvpApiTests(unittest.TestCase):
                 patch.object(mvp_api, "prepare_audio", side_effect=fake_prepare),
                 patch.object(
                     mvp_api, "generate_direct_protocol", side_effect=fake_protocol
-                ),
+                ) as protocol_generator,
                 patch.object(subprocess, "run") as subprocess_run,
             ):
                 result = mvp_api.run_mvp_meeting(
@@ -180,7 +180,8 @@ class MvpApiTests(unittest.TestCase):
             self.assertEqual(delegated.whisper_executable, "whisper-cli")
             self.assertEqual(delegated.ffmpeg_executable, "ffmpeg")
             self.assertTrue(delegated.audio_normalization)
-            self.assertEqual(delegated.protocol_safe_input_token_budget, 16_200)
+            self.assertEqual(delegated.protocol_num_ctx, 32_768)
+            self.assertEqual(delegated.protocol_safe_input_token_budget, 29_000)
             self.assertEqual(api.call_args.kwargs["meeting_context"], context_data())
 
     def test_cli_explicit_audio_normalization_values_are_propagated(self):