diff --git a/single_shot_inference.py b/single_shot_inference.py
index 11082a42..29f0dfe0 100644
--- a/single_shot_inference.py
+++ b/single_shot_inference.py
@@ -485,23 +485,23 @@ def forward_layer(X_l, w, li, cfg, rope_cos, rope_sin,
     if seq_len < 120:
         k_expanded = k_full.expand(n_h, -1, -1).contiguous()
         v_expanded = v_full.expand(n_h, -1, -1).contiguous()
-        # Attention sink (paper D5c)
+        # Attention: compute raw scores, add sinks as logit bias, softmax, multiply by V
+        # (paper D5c, matching HuggingFace reference implementation)
+        # Sinks are added as a logit column, softmaxed together, then DROPPED
+        # before V multiplication — NOT as a dummy KV entry.
         sink_key = f"{pre}.sinks"
+        scores_raw = torch.matmul(q_input, k_expanded.transpose(-1, -2)) * scale  # (n_h, T, seq_len)
         if sink_key in w and seq_len > 0:
             sinks = w[sink_key].to(device=device)  # (n_h,) BF16
-            sink_k = torch.zeros(n_h, 1, hd, dtype=torch.bfloat16, device=device)
-            sink_v = torch.zeros(n_h, 1, hd, dtype=torch.bfloat16, device=device)
-            k_with_sink = torch.cat([k_expanded, sink_k], dim=1)
-            v_with_sink = torch.cat([v_expanded, sink_v], dim=1)
-            sink_bias_mask = torch.zeros(n_h, T, seq_len + 1, dtype=torch.bfloat16, device=device)
-            for h in range(n_h):
-                sink_bias_mask[h, :, -1] = sinks[h]
-            attn_out = torch.nn.functional.scaled_dot_product_attention(
-                q_input, k_with_sink, v_with_sink,
-                attn_mask=sink_bias_mask, scale=scale)
+            sink_logits = sinks.reshape(1, -1, 1, 1).expand(q_input.shape[0], -1, q_input.shape[-2], -1)
+            combined_logits = torch.cat([scores_raw.unsqueeze(0), sink_logits.to(scores_raw.dtype)], dim=-1)
+            # Stable softmax
+            combined_logits = combined_logits - combined_logits.max(dim=-1, keepdim=True).values
+            probs = torch.softmax(combined_logits.float(), dim=-1).to(torch.bfloat16)
+            attn_weights = probs[..., :-1]  # Drop sink column
         else:
-            attn_out = torch.nn.functional.scaled_dot_product_attention(
-                q_input, k_expanded, v_expanded, scale=scale, is_causal=False)
+            attn_weights = torch.softmax(scores_raw.float(), dim=-1).to(torch.bfloat16)
+        attn_out = torch.matmul(attn_weights, v_expanded)  # (n_h, T, hd)
         attn_out = attn_out.permute(1, 0, 2)  # (T, n_h, hd)
         # Diagnostic: check attention entropy (how spread out the attention is)
         if MHC_DIAG and li < 3: