diff --git a/src/agent/Terminal.zig b/src/agent/Terminal.zig
index 09ae7e493..0a552e5e2 100644
--- a/src/agent/Terminal.zig
+++ b/src/agent/Terminal.zig
@@ -1419,6 +1419,7 @@ pub fn printSlashParseError(self: *Terminal, err: Schema.ParseError, name: []con
         error.UnknownField => "unknown field (typo?)",
         error.DuplicateField => "the same field was supplied twice (check for case-variants like Selector vs selector)",
         error.PositionalNotAllowed => "positional only works for commands with one required field. Use key=value",
+        error.PositionalMustComeFirst => "the positional value must come before key=value pairs",
         error.UnterminatedQuote => "unterminated quote",
         error.UnsupportedEscape => "backslash escapes aren't supported in quoted values; use the other quote style or `'''…'''`",
         error.InvalidValue => "invalid value (check argument type)",
diff --git a/src/agent/settings.zig b/src/agent/settings.zig
index 5041f9001..93f1add12 100644
--- a/src/agent/settings.zig
+++ b/src/agent/settings.zig
@@ -162,8 +162,9 @@ pub fn resolveModelName(opts: Config.Agent, resolved: ?ResolvedProvider, remembe
 
 /// Precedence: explicit `--effort` flag > remembered `.lp-agent.zon` value >
 /// mode default. The interactive REPL defaults to `.low` so turns stay snappy;
-/// one-shot `--task` and script runs default to `.medium`, where answer
-/// quality matters more than per-turn latency.
+/// one-shot `--task` defaults to `.medium`, where answer quality matters more
+/// than per-turn latency. (Script runs never call the LLM, so the resolved
+/// effort is unused there.)
 pub fn resolveEffort(opts: Config.Agent, remembered: ?Remembered, will_repl: bool) Config.Effort {
     if (opts.effort) |e| return e;
     if (remembered) |r| if (r.effort) |e| return e;
diff --git a/src/script/Schema.zig b/src/script/Schema.zig
index 3aeebc097..b447696e3 100644
--- a/src/script/Schema.zig
+++ b/src/script/Schema.zig
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ pub const ParseError = error{
     DuplicateField,
     MalformedKv,
     PositionalNotAllowed,
+    PositionalMustComeFirst,
     UnterminatedQuote,
     UnsupportedEscape,
     InvalidValue,
@@ -224,7 +225,13 @@ pub fn parseValueDiag(self: Schema, arena: std.mem.Allocator, rest_raw: []const
         list.appendAssumeCapacity(.{ .key = self.required[0], .value = stripQuotes(tokens[0]) });
     }
     for (tokens[kv_start..]) |tok| {
-        const eq = std.mem.indexOfScalar(u8, tok, '=') orelse return error.MalformedKv;
+        const eq = std.mem.indexOfScalar(u8, tok, '=') orelse {
+            // `/extract save=x '{…}'` — the value would have bound fine as a
+            // leading positional, so point at the ordering instead of the
+            // generic kv complaint.
+            if (self.required.len == 1 and !leading_positional) return error.PositionalMustComeFirst;
+            return error.MalformedKv;
+        };
         if (eq == 0 or eq == tok.len - 1) return error.MalformedKv;
         const key = tok[0..eq];
         // Reject typos like `checke=false` that would otherwise be silently
diff --git a/src/script/command.zig b/src/script/command.zig
index 4f52e5a96..e76d67409 100644
--- a/src/script/command.zig
+++ b/src/script/command.zig
@@ -384,6 +384,14 @@ test "parse: /click rejects positional (zero required fields)" {
     try testing.expectString("Login", cmd.tool_call.args.?.object.get("selector").?.string);
 }
 
+test "parse: /extract rejects positional after key=value" {
+    var arena: std.heap.ArenaAllocator = .init(testing.allocator);
+    defer arena.deinit();
+    try testing.expectError(error.PositionalMustComeFirst, Command.parse(arena.allocator(), "/extract save=front '{\"karma\":\"#karma\"}'"));
+    const cmd = try Command.parse(arena.allocator(), "/extract '{\"karma\":\"#karma\"}' save=front");
+    try testing.expectString("front", cmd.tool_call.args.?.object.get("save").?.string);
+}
+
 test "parse: /scroll y=200" {
     var arena: std.heap.ArenaAllocator = .init(testing.allocator);
     defer arena.deinit();