diff --git a/atlasbot/engine/answerer.py b/atlasbot/engine/answerer.py
index 265c296..78974c5 100644
--- a/atlasbot/engine/answerer.py
+++ b/atlasbot/engine/answerer.py
@@ -354,6 +354,20 @@ class AnswerEngine:
                             key_facts = _merge_fact_lines(metric_facts, key_facts)
                             if self._settings.debug_pipeline:
                                 _debug_log("metric_facts_selected", {"facts": metric_facts})
+                    if not metric_facts:
+                        if observer:
+                            observer("retrieve", "fallback metric selection")
+                        fallback_candidates = _filter_lines_by_keywords(summary_lines, keyword_tokens, max_lines=200)
+                        if fallback_candidates:
+                            metric_facts = await _select_fact_lines(
+                                call_llm,
+                                normalized,
+                                fallback_candidates,
+                                plan,
+                                max_lines=max(2, plan.max_subquestions),
+                            )
+                            if metric_facts:
+                                key_facts = _merge_fact_lines(metric_facts, key_facts)
                 if self._settings.debug_pipeline:
                     scored_preview = sorted(
                         [{"id": c["id"], "score": scored.get(c["id"], 0.0), "summary": c["summary"]} for c in chunks],
@@ -1381,6 +1395,16 @@ def _strip_unknown_entities(reply: str, unknown_nodes: list[str], unknown_namesp
     return cleaned or reply
 
 
+def _filter_lines_by_keywords(lines: list[str], keywords: list[str], max_lines: int) -> list[str]:
+    if not lines:
+        return []
+    tokens = [kw.lower() for kw in keywords if isinstance(kw, str) and kw.strip()]
+    if not tokens:
+        return lines[:max_lines]
+    filtered = [line for line in lines if any(tok in line.lower() for tok in tokens)]
+    return (filtered or lines)[:max_lines]
+
+
 def _lexicon_context(summary: dict[str, Any]) -> str:  # noqa: C901
     if not isinstance(summary, dict):
         return ""