diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index 366d0f4..edfcf71 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -147,6 +147,10 @@ every change; they are enforced by this list.
 7. `serving/config.pbtxt` and `serving/model.py` in this tree *are* the deployed files — the trainer
    overwrites them in S3 on every run. A bad import in `serving/model.py` breaks every model in the
    bucket, including ones that were not retrained.
+   `config.pbtxt` declares an optional `context` input that `model.py` does not read: the feed API
+   sends it on every SERP with a country/region/type filter, and Triton rejects a request naming an
+   undeclared input, so removing the declaration fails every filtered feed request (it did, between
+   2026-08-14 and this note). Drop it only after the API stops sending it.
 8. `Strategy` declares what a model MAY emit; `api/docs/DEBUG_INFO_CODEC.md` owns the published
    vocabulary and its numeric ids, which are append-only and never renumbered. The two are NOT the
    same set: the codec has rows with no member here (`popular`/8, `random`/9, and since 2026-08-25
diff --git a/smartrec-client/smartrec_client/triton_client.py b/smartrec-client/smartrec_client/triton_client.py
index 08eb78e..eeb0c1f 100644
--- a/smartrec-client/smartrec_client/triton_client.py
+++ b/smartrec-client/smartrec_client/triton_client.py
@@ -120,8 +120,10 @@ def recommendations_triton_with_client(
     :param filter_viewed: Whether to filter viewed items.
     :param items_to_recommend: Optional list of items to restrict recommendations to.
     :param history: Optional list of item IDs from user's interaction history (for warm/new users).
-    :param context: Optional request context (e.g. {"country": ...}); only consumed by
-        models whose Triton config declares a "context" input (the orchestrator).
+    :param context: Optional request context (e.g. {"country": ...}). Sent as a
+        "context" input when non-empty. No served model reads it today; the input
+        stays declared in serving/config.pbtxt because Triton rejects a request
+        naming an input the model config does not declare.
 
     :return: Dictionary with model version, data, and strategy.
     """
diff --git a/smartrec-lib/smartrec_lib/serving/config.pbtxt b/smartrec-lib/smartrec_lib/serving/config.pbtxt
index f5485a5..82c5b05 100644
--- a/smartrec-lib/smartrec_lib/serving/config.pbtxt
+++ b/smartrec-lib/smartrec_lib/serving/config.pbtxt
@@ -31,6 +31,16 @@ input [
     dims: [ -1 ]
     optional: true
   },
+  {
+    # Declared but not read by model.py. The feed API sends it whenever a SERP
+    # carries a country/region/type filter, and Triton rejects a request that
+    # names an input the config does not declare - so dropping this line fails
+    # every filtered feed request. Keep it until the API stops sending it.
+    name: "context"
+    data_type: TYPE_STRING
+    dims: [ 1 ]
+    optional: true
+  },
   {
     name: "top_n"
     data_type: TYPE_INT32