diff --git a/openspace/skill_engine/evolver.py b/openspace/skill_engine/evolver.py
index aab70a1..ad9afdc 100644
--- a/openspace/skill_engine/evolver.py
+++ b/openspace/skill_engine/evolver.py
@@ -652,10 +652,21 @@ class SkillEvolver:
                 return bool(data.get("proceed", False))
         except (json.JSONDecodeError, ValueError):
             pass
-        # Fallback: look for keywords
-        if any(w in response for w in ("\"proceed\": true", "proceed: true", "yes", "confirm")):
+        # Fallback: look for keywords.
+        # - yes/no use strict word boundaries to avoid false positives
+        #   (e.g. "know" matching "no").
+        # - confirm/reject/skip use stem-style matching so that common
+        #   LLM variants like "confirmed", "rejected", "skipping" still
+        #   parse correctly.
+        _wb = re.search  # shorthand
+        if any(w in response for w in ("\"proceed\": true", "proceed: true")) \
+                or _wb(r"\byes\b", response) \
+                or _wb(r"\bconfirm\w*\b", response):
             return True
-        if any(w in response for w in ("\"proceed\": false", "proceed: false", "no", "reject", "skip")):
+        if any(w in response for w in ("\"proceed\": false", "proceed: false")) \
+                or _wb(r"\bno\b", response) \
+                or _wb(r"\breject\w*\b", response) \
+                or _wb(r"\bskip\w*\b", response):
             return False
         # Default: skip — ambiguous response should not trigger costly evolution
         logger.debug("LLM confirmation response was ambiguous, defaulting to skip")