diff --git a/src/main/java/com/williamcallahan/javachat/support/RetrievalErrorClassifier.java b/src/main/java/com/williamcallahan/javachat/support/RetrievalErrorClassifier.java
index 18958dd6..3ef1be00 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/williamcallahan/javachat/support/RetrievalErrorClassifier.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/williamcallahan/javachat/support/RetrievalErrorClassifier.java
@@ -12,37 +12,25 @@
  */
 public final class RetrievalErrorClassifier {
 
-    /** Owns the stable diagnostic label and vector-store retry policy for each failure category. */
+    /** Owns the vector-store retry policy for each failure category. */
     private enum RetrievalErrorCategory {
-        NOT_FOUND("404 Not Found", false),
-        UNAUTHORIZED("401 Unauthorized", false),
-        FORBIDDEN("403 Forbidden", false),
-        RATE_LIMITED("429 Rate Limited", true),
-        CONNECTION_ERROR("Connection Error", true),
-        EMBEDDING_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE("Embedding Service Unavailable", false),
-        UNKNOWN("Unknown Error", false);
+        NOT_FOUND(false),
+        UNAUTHORIZED(false),
+        FORBIDDEN(false),
+        RATE_LIMITED(true),
+        CONNECTION_ERROR(true),
+        EMBEDDING_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE(false),
+        UNKNOWN(false);
 
-        private final String errorLabel;
         private final boolean retryableVectorStoreFailure;
 
-        RetrievalErrorCategory(String errorLabel, boolean retryableVectorStoreFailure) {
-            this.errorLabel = errorLabel;
+        RetrievalErrorCategory(boolean retryableVectorStoreFailure) {
             this.retryableVectorStoreFailure = retryableVectorStoreFailure;
         }
     }
 
     private RetrievalErrorClassifier() {}
 
-    /**
-     * Determines a stable error category from exception types, messages, and causes.
-     *
-     * @param failure failure encountered during retrieval
-     * @return normalized error category label
-     */
-    public static String determineErrorType(Throwable failure) {
-        return classify(failure).errorLabel;
-    }
-
     private static RetrievalErrorCategory classify(Throwable failure) {
         return classifyGrpcStatus(failure).orElseGet(() -> classifyNonGrpcFailure(failure));
     }
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/williamcallahan/javachat/support/RetrievalErrorClassifierTest.java b/src/test/java/com/williamcallahan/javachat/support/RetrievalErrorClassifierTest.java
index c424dfba..735ead5c 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/williamcallahan/javachat/support/RetrievalErrorClassifierTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/williamcallahan/javachat/support/RetrievalErrorClassifierTest.java
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ class RetrievalErrorClassifierTest {
     void classifiesDirectTimeoutExceptionAsTransient() {
         TimeoutException directTimeoutException = new TimeoutException("Future took too long");
 
-        assertEquals("Connection Error", RetrievalErrorClassifier.determineErrorType(directTimeoutException));
         assertTrue(RetrievalErrorClassifier.isTransientVectorStoreError(directTimeoutException));
     }
 
@@ -35,7 +34,6 @@ void classifiesWrappedTimeoutExceptionAsTransient() {
         IllegalStateException qdrantTimeoutFailure = new IllegalStateException(
                 "Qdrant operation timed out after 5s", new TimeoutException("Future did not complete"));
 
-        assertEquals("Connection Error", RetrievalErrorClassifier.determineErrorType(qdrantTimeoutFailure));
         assertTrue(RetrievalErrorClassifier.isTransientVectorStoreError(qdrantTimeoutFailure));
     }
 
@@ -44,7 +42,6 @@ void classifiesNullMessageTimeoutExceptionAsTransient() {
         TimeoutException nullMessageTimeoutException = new TimeoutException();
 
         assertNull(nullMessageTimeoutException.getMessage());
-        assertEquals("Connection Error", RetrievalErrorClassifier.determineErrorType(nullMessageTimeoutException));
         assertTrue(RetrievalErrorClassifier.isTransientVectorStoreError(nullMessageTimeoutException));
     }
 
@@ -53,7 +50,6 @@ void doesNotClassifyTimeoutLookalikeTextAsTransient() {
         IllegalStateException timeoutConfigurationFailure =
                 new IllegalStateException("Qdrant timeout configuration is invalid");
 
-        assertEquals("Unknown Error", RetrievalErrorClassifier.determineErrorType(timeoutConfigurationFailure));
         assertFalse(RetrievalErrorClassifier.isTransientVectorStoreError(timeoutConfigurationFailure));
     }
 
@@ -61,7 +57,6 @@ void doesNotClassifyTimeoutLookalikeTextAsTransient() {
     void classifiesGrpcDeadlineExceededAsTransient() {
         RuntimeException grpcDeadlineFailure = Status.DEADLINE_EXCEEDED.asRuntimeException();
 
-        assertEquals("Connection Error", RetrievalErrorClassifier.determineErrorType(grpcDeadlineFailure));
         assertTrue(RetrievalErrorClassifier.isTransientVectorStoreError(grpcDeadlineFailure));
     }
 
@@ -69,7 +64,6 @@ void classifiesGrpcDeadlineExceededAsTransient() {
     void classifiesGrpcUnavailableAsTransient() {
         RuntimeException grpcUnavailableFailure = Status.UNAVAILABLE.asRuntimeException();
 
-        assertEquals("Connection Error", RetrievalErrorClassifier.determineErrorType(grpcUnavailableFailure));
         assertTrue(RetrievalErrorClassifier.isTransientVectorStoreError(grpcUnavailableFailure));
     }
 
@@ -77,7 +71,6 @@ void classifiesGrpcUnavailableAsTransient() {
     void doesNotRetryGrpcResourceExhaustedFailure() {
         RuntimeException grpcResourceExhaustedFailure = Status.RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED.asRuntimeException();
 
-        assertEquals("Unknown Error", RetrievalErrorClassifier.determineErrorType(grpcResourceExhaustedFailure));
         assertFalse(RetrievalErrorClassifier.isTransientVectorStoreError(grpcResourceExhaustedFailure));
     }
 
@@ -87,7 +80,6 @@ void prioritizesGrpcUnavailableOverHttp429Description() {
                 .withDescription("HTTP 429 from upstream proxy")
                 .asRuntimeException();
 
-        assertEquals("Connection Error", RetrievalErrorClassifier.determineErrorType(grpcUnavailableFailure));
         assertTrue(RetrievalErrorClassifier.isTransientVectorStoreError(grpcUnavailableFailure));
     }
 
@@ -97,7 +89,6 @@ void keepsGrpcResourceExhaustedWithHttp429DescriptionNonRetryable() {
                 .withDescription("HTTP 429 quota exhausted")
                 .asRuntimeException();
 
-        assertEquals("Unknown Error", RetrievalErrorClassifier.determineErrorType(grpcResourceExhaustedFailure));
         assertFalse(RetrievalErrorClassifier.isTransientVectorStoreError(grpcResourceExhaustedFailure));
     }
 
@@ -105,7 +96,6 @@ void keepsGrpcResourceExhaustedWithHttp429DescriptionNonRetryable() {
     void doesNotRetryGrpcInvalidArgumentFailure() {
         RuntimeException grpcInvalidArgumentFailure = Status.INVALID_ARGUMENT.asRuntimeException();
 
-        assertEquals("Unknown Error", RetrievalErrorClassifier.determineErrorType(grpcInvalidArgumentFailure));
         assertFalse(RetrievalErrorClassifier.isTransientVectorStoreError(grpcInvalidArgumentFailure));
     }
 
@@ -114,7 +104,6 @@ void classifiesWrappedGrpcStatusExceptionAsTransient() {
         IllegalStateException wrappedGrpcFailure =
                 new IllegalStateException("Qdrant operation failed", Status.UNAVAILABLE.asException());
 
-        assertEquals("Connection Error", RetrievalErrorClassifier.determineErrorType(wrappedGrpcFailure));
         assertTrue(RetrievalErrorClassifier.isTransientVectorStoreError(wrappedGrpcFailure));
     }