Identify only high-confidence duplicate entities among the supplied candidates.

Preserve distinct entities even when their names are similar. Treat contextual descriptions and transcript evidence as supporting material, not as permission to merge ambiguous records.

When several records are duplicates, choose as canonical the candidate with the clearest stable identity. Prefer a complete proper name over an abbreviation, and prefer an unadorned proper name over one with incidental descriptors unless the evidence establishes those descriptors as part of the name. A longer name is not inherently more canonical.
