diff --git a/features/steps/semantic_context_search_steps.py b/features/steps/semantic_context_search_steps.py
index c6fe8480b..8106022f3 100644
--- a/features/steps/semantic_context_search_steps.py
+++ b/features/steps/semantic_context_search_steps.py
@@ -9,10 +9,10 @@ from cleveragents.application.services.embedding_provider import (
     SimpleWordEmbeddingProvider,
     cosine_similarity,
 )
-from cleveragents.domain.models.acms.crp import FragmentProvenance
 from cleveragents.domain.models.core.context_fragment import (
     ContextBudget,
     ContextFragment,
+    FragmentProvenance,
 )
 
 
@@ -128,11 +128,19 @@ def step_have_threshold(context, threshold):
 
 @when("I filter fragments by similarity threshold")
 def step_filter_by_threshold(context):
-    """Filter fragments by threshold."""
+    """Filter fragments by threshold.
+
+    Computes similarity inline so the step works whether or not a prior
+    "rank fragments" step ran. Scenarios that filter directly (without an
+    intermediate ranking step) would otherwise hit an AttributeError on
+    ``context.ranked_fragments``.
+    """
+    scored = [
+        (frag, cosine_similarity(context.query_embedding, frag["embedding"]))
+        for frag in context.fragments
+    ]
     context.filtered_fragments = [
-        (frag, sim)
-        for frag, sim in context.ranked_fragments
-        if sim >= context.threshold
+        (frag, sim) for frag, sim in scored if sim >= context.threshold
     ]
 
 
@@ -214,8 +222,14 @@ def step_check_ranking(context):
 
 @given("I have an embedding provider configuration")
 def step_have_config(context):
-    """Initialize embedding provider configuration."""
-    context.config = {
+    """Initialize embedding provider configuration.
+
+    Stored under ``embedding_config`` rather than ``config`` because Behave's
+    ``Context`` reserves ``config`` for its own Configuration object — setting
+    ``context.config`` raises ``KeyError`` from Behave's scope-tracking
+    ``__setattr__``.
+    """
+    context.embedding_config = {
         "provider_type": "simple_word",
         "vocab_size": 100,
     }
@@ -224,9 +238,9 @@ def step_have_config(context):
 @when("I create a semantic strategy with the configuration")
 def step_create_strategy_with_config(context):
     """Create strategy with configuration."""
-    if context.config["provider_type"] == "simple_word":
+    if context.embedding_config["provider_type"] == "simple_word":
         context.strategy_provider = SimpleWordEmbeddingProvider(
-            vocab_size=context.config["vocab_size"]
+            vocab_size=context.embedding_config["vocab_size"]
         )