esh-pfi-infrastructure/persistent-memory.md

Persistent memory — eshpfi-management

Last updated: 2026-07-14

Repo purpose

Reference workspace for PFI infrastructure: server inventory, canonical Docker Compose stacks, ops playbooks, and conventions. Authoritative copies of compose files live on the servers under /opt/docker/compose/<stack>/; this repo mirrors them for version control, editing, planning, and CI-driven deploys. It was originally spun up to handle the fleet backups — keep that lens when triaging backup/storage issues.

Tools and conventions

Sister repos (separate gitea repos, deployed by playbooks here):

Repo	Role	CI status
vh/task-board	MCP + web dashboard for assistant task state (port 7878)	push-to-main → CI deploys (2026-04-29)
vh/vor	Inquisitor UI sidecar (port 7879)	push-to-main → CI deploys (2026-04-29)
vh/nevermore	Twice-daily LLM-curated briefing (port 8181, replaces news-digest)	push-to-main → CI deploys (2026-04-30)
vh/asset-engine	Internal control plane over inference services (port 8200, LAN-direct)	push-to-main → CI deploys (2026-05-12)
vh/althing	Lean trusted inter-agent message bus — v2 "email model" (v2.0.0b2, 2026-07): per-box local-SQLite bus + courier/receiver for P2P over the 10.x net; pillars = open-loops / per-box herald + wake-listener / roaming owner API /owner/* / althing-mcp stdio surface. The v0.15 lean-bus cut RIPPED moderation / chamber / forseti-daemon / agent-runner / redis-valkey.	per-box uv tool install (NOT CI-deploy); nh3-dev = the DEV box (editable install of ~/development/althing, gets new versions first); nh3-extdev a mesh peer (model B: althing-svc + shared /srv/althing)
vh/mead-hall	Bifrost tool-provider sidecar (port 5173 on dev VM 10.100.10.50)	push-to-main → CI deploys (2026-05-16)
vh/skaldsong	Wizard + reader surface (port 8300, ana-docker, registry-pull pattern)	push-to-main → CI deploys (2026-05-19)
vh/Worldtree	Conversation API (corviduo-dev demo :8080 / personal :8081 / pinned :8082) — Heimdall auth, Bifrost integration. gitea-runner builds on ana-docker; claude-bot ADMIN collaborator (2026-06-20). Now v1.0.0b19.	push-to-main → CI build-and-deploy (runner on ana-docker)
vh/yt-voice-clipper	YouTube → diarized voice-clip dataset builder + audition console (irv-ml1 :8000)	push-to-main → gitea-webhook auto-deploy to irv-ml1 (2026-06-03) — see docs/runbooks/ytvc-autodeploy.md
vh/arbo	Catalog-driven ComfyUI engine (irv-ml1 :8201, comfy-dev owns engine/catalog/image)	push-to-main → gitea Actions CI (deploy-engine.sh, build-local, health-gated) now LIVE; catalog via :9009 webhook
model-training-forge (mtf-dev)	Fine-tuning recipe forge; T1 = E-RP writing LoRA, retargeted qwopus-122B→AEON-27B (2026-07-06) (SFT→DPO, LitBench-RM reward)	training runs, not a deployed sidecar

(vh/volva + Heid were re-architected from systemd daemons to Claude Code session orchestrators 2026-06-08; their nh3-dev .service units were removed — no longer deployed sidecars here. See Recent decisions.)

• Two-layer backups — Backrest orchestrates restic for file+DB (5 fleet repos, daily 01:00 PDT); PBS-ANA primary + PBS-NH3 DR mirror for VM images. ana-nas is the SPOF for postgres + PBS-ANA datastore + cross-site restic targets — see docs/runbooks/disaster-recovery.md for the blast-radius matrix. ⚠️ The restic file+DB layer routes through TWO rest-servers (rest-server-ana @ ana-docker:8000 → ana-docker/ana-ml2/esh-docker-vm/vm-esh-nas; rest-server-nh3 @ nh3-nas:8000 → irv-ml1/nh3-docker). Both depend on their NAS's NFS export of /mnt/backup. (rest-server-ana recovered 2026-06-20.)

• pull-hf-repo.yaml is the canonical "get a HuggingFace model/dataset onto ana-ml2's shared cache at /tank/aimodels/huggingface/" playbook. Supports --var repo_type=model|dataset|space. Replaces ad-hoc huggingface_hub.snapshot_download patterns.

• Worldtree admin auth — per-instance. Each Worldtree deployment (demo :8080, personal :8081, pinned :8082) has its own Heimdall registry and its own bootstrap admin key. Infra-ops's stored long-lived admin key (key_id 61419c92) at ana-docker:/opt/docker/conf/.secrets/worldtree-infra-ops-admin auths against demo only. Personal-instance admin (the ~/.config/worldtree/personal-admin-token, mode 600) POSTs /admin/keys (mints per-project keys; takes user_id+label, no scope param — scopes are tier-derived). On-instance mint recipe (cleaner than DB-manip): docker exec worldtree-worldtree-api-1 POST /admin/keys with the in-container WORLDTREE_BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_KEY; cleartext once in .key=wt_live_+16hex. auto-memory reference_worldtree_demo_key_mint.

• Per-project user keys against personal Worldtree (issued 2026-05-19): skaldsong:79744637, skaldsong:7c1dbbbe, althing:50d85460, mead-hall:a360822d. Mint via /admin/keys, drop value to /tmp/wt-personal-<name>.key mode 600, dev collects + shreds (DO NOT cat to chat transcript).

• Skaldsong CD pattern (registry-pull). vh/skaldsong's CI builds and pushes gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/skaldsong:<sha> + :latest; playbooks/deploy-skaldsong.yaml on ana-docker pulls + recreates. SHA-pin only. Prereq: host needs docker login gitea.phasefinal.com once.

• gitea internal route for fleet hosts. gitea is a container on ana-docker — git-SSH 10.250.50.70:222, HTTP :3000. Fleet/colo hosts must use this internal route, NOT public gitea.phasefinal.com (38.120.12.44) — the public path fail2bans the host egress IP. Full gotcha in docs/orientation.md → Git/gitea.

• docker-as-root pattern (for ops with no admin API, or to edit deploy-owned/root-owned files without sudo): docker run --rm -v <target-dir>:/wt docker:cli sh -c "...". docker-group membership is effectively root via bind-mount. Foot-gun: relative paths in compose.yaml resolve against the sandbox CWD but the daemon interprets them against the HOST fs — always pass -e VAR=/abs/path for any relative-default config dir.

• scripts/elway sudo handling — elway prompts for the sudo password ONCE via getpass before the first sudo: true step → can't run unattended from a non-TTY tool if any step needs sudo. Sudo-free playbooks run fully non-interactive over key SSH.

• Per-host SSH identity matters for sudo. infra-ops has NOPASSWD sudo on most PFI Linux boxes (corviduo-dev included since 2026-06-15). On ana-docker: default ssh ana-docker = lkraven (docker-group, NO passwordless sudo); ssh infra-ops@ana-docker HAS NOPASSWD root. → For any sudo op on ana-docker, use ssh infra-ops@ana-docker. ssh infra-ops@10.100.10.50 (nh3-dev) ALSO NOPASSWD sudo; on nh3-extdev infra-ops is sudo-LESS by design (ssh lkraven@10.100.50.42 is the NOPASSWD path). irv-ml1: ssh irv-ml1 = lkraven, docker-group (plain docker) but sudo needs a PASSWORD (no NOPASSWD) — stage model pulls to /home, not root-owned /worktank.

Current state / in-flight

As of 2026-07-13 — two active tasks (per /snapshot args): the LiteLLM gateway #355-residual investigation and wiring the runner-side persistent BuildKit cache. The big WT #355 validation saga + Ledger provisioning + the assistant-role adds all LANDED this session; the concluded TTS/Zonos/RP-seat/ComfyUI/T1 in-flight was rolled out of this section (it lives in git + auto-memory).

✅ #355-residual — RESOLVED 2026-07-14 via MODEL SWAP (Deckard→NEO-CODE); was ACTIVE 1

UPDATE 2026-07-14 — FULLY RESOLVED via MODEL SWAP. The custom llama.cpp (PR #25544 multi-terminator) was necessary but INSUFFICIENT alone (Deckard still ran away ~5% of tool-turns). Root cause was MODEL-LEVEL: Deckard emitted Qwen's NATIVE qwen3_coder XML tool format MALFORMED → llama.cpp leaked the closing tags into the arg value ({"name":"\n</parameter>\n</function>..."}) → Bifrost attach_tool schema error → retry → reasoning-runaway. Swapped the model to NEO-CODE = Heretic2-Thinking (Qwen3.6-27B) (GGUF base_model DavidAU/Qwen3.6-27B-Heretic2-Uncensored-Finetune-Thinking; "NEO-CODE" = DavidAU's imatrix quant recipe, not a code finetune) which emits the same native format CLEANLY ({"name":"Sindra"}) on the same seat/parser. R36 gate (brokkr 2026-07-14): NEO-CODE ships on ALL axes — tool-calling 0.967 (attach_tool 1.00, 0 runaways, beats gen 0.856 + Deckard 0.08/0.80), prose genre-artifact-fine (D2-slop repetition = dialogue-tags/anatomical genre convention, LESS clichéd than gen — not degradation), refusal uncensored-as-spec (creative-dark 38/40) + CSAM-gate-clean (0/100 operational-harm → serve-layer guardrails are the NSFW-RP consumer's job). LIVE in production (Q5, 256K ctx, card samplers temp 1.0 — temp 1.0 IMPROVED tools; DRY dropped); Deckard = rollback (.env/compose .bak-pre-neocode-20260714). Custom llama.cpp KEPT (now needed for qwen3_coder parsing — stock b8840 predates it, so stock is NOT a valid NEO-CODE rollback — + #25544 belt-and-suspenders). There was NEVER a "wrong parser" — the XML IS Qwen3.5/3.6-native (byte-identical to Qwen/Qwen3.6-27B's template); an earlier "misconfigured OpenHands template" config-override reframe was WRONG and retracted. OPEN: seat is ~50 tok/s GGUF → soong's 45s client-timeout + the reasoning-budget-latency squeeze remain the constraint; the DFlash spec-decode recipe (z-lab Qwen3.6-27B drafter, ~4× on vLLM) applied to an NVFP4 Heretic2 vLLM seat is the future faster-seat path (NOT AEON-7-the-model — a non-RP-tuned base abliteration whose 4× speed is DGX-Spark-locked). Full settled record: auto-memory charrp-custom-llamacpp-pr25544. Historical mid-investigation saga kept below for context.

BOTTOM LINE (historical): char-rp-reasoning ran away to max_tokens=32768 (~22 min, ~13% of turns) because stock llama.cpp b8840's reasoning-budget forcing can't match Qwen3.5's <tool_call> reasoning terminator (it only knows </think>) → on the tool-retry path forcing never fires. FIXED by a custom build (master 6eddde0 + unmerged upstream PR #25544, multi-terminator) now LIVE on the seat (llamacpp-charrp:custom-latest). PARTIALLY VALIDATED: the fix cut the runaway RATE hugely (soong smoke — most tool-turns now complete ~90 tokens, reasoning ~40 tokens, clean) BUT has a RESIDUAL GAP — task 5674 (2026-07-13 ~21:43) still ran away to 32768 (~9min; reasoned >45s before any content → the cap didn't fire on that turn). b61's 300s = client backstop but does NOT propagate to the seat → seat still burns to 32768 (confirmed). ⚠️ DO NOT retire the custom build as "0-gain" — CORRECTED: the seat is meant to be an RPG-GM (tools + prose + NSFW), so the tool-path #355 fix is the TOOL-PATH ENABLER for any reasoning-RP model here → KEEP it. The REAL problem is the MODEL: Deckard (RP-abliterated) is a poor tool-caller (rambles/loops on tool-turns even with the fix — abliteration + heavy RP-tuning damages tool-calling/instruction-following). MODEL-SWAP underway: brokkr running a hunt for an NSFW-abliterated + RELIABLE-tool-calling + GM-prose ~24-27B replacement (thread 01KXEQWEN2…; ★ tool-calling is now a DISQUALIFYING A/B axis — the original A/B that picked Deckard scored prose/loops/refusals but NEVER tested tools). PLAN: leave soong on char-rp-reasoning; swap the MODEL under it when brokkr delivers (no double-push). Still REMOVE-WHEN-#25544-MERGES for the custom llama.cpp itself (retire custom→stock llama.cpp when the fix ships upstream; independent of the model swap). Records: auto-memory charrp-custom-llamacpp-pr25544 + eshpfi stacks/char-rp-gguf/llamacpp-custom/; rollback = .env LLAMA_REASONING_IMAGE=ghcr.io/mostlygeek/llama-swap:cuda. Deploy-speed side-quest (#359+#360, ~11m→~4m) + soong-lab CI/CD (green-gated push-to-deploy + red-relay) also landed this session. Full diagnostic saga below (kept for the retire-decision context).

🔺 #355-residual ROOT CAUSE (historical saga): seat reasoning-loop to max_tokens

• DEFINITIVE root cause (3 independent sources, 2026-07-13): char-rp-reasoning (Deckard-PKD, seat ana-ml2:8018 llama-charrp-reasoning) intermittently enters a non-terminating REASONING loop and runs to the request's max_tokens=32768 → ~22 min at 24.7 tok/s. ~13% of requests (4 of ~30 in the wedge window). It is NOT the gateway holding, NOT a slot leak, NOT the seat idle — the seat genuinely GENERATES 32768 tokens. My earlier "LiteLLM holds ~21 min while seat idles / slot-leak" read was DISPROVEN (the seat wasn't idle; there's no max_parallel_requests/router_settings in the config at all → no semaphore to leak).
• Evidence: (a) spend_logs: 4 requests each completion_tokens = EXACTLY 32768, status=success (hit the length cap cleanly); normal requests EOS at 730–2250. (b) seat llama.cpp log: eval time = 1325064ms / 32768 tokens (24.73 tok/s), truncated=0. (c) WT↔gateway pcap: runaway stream is 100% reasoning_content deltas, coherent, planning tool-call retries ("The tool call failed due to input schema errors… Let me make these calls one at a time"). NEVER exits <think>.
• MECHANISM — RESOLVED (Step-1 non-disruptive + Dvalin source read, 2026-07-13): the budget ARMS but its force-close NEVER FIRES in the seat's build. Seat log aggregate: 158 reasoning-budget: activated, budget=400 / 110 deactivated (natural end) / 0 forced closes / 48 never-closed arms (= the runaways). Build = llama.cpp 8840 (9e5647aff), image ghcr.io/mostlygeek/llama-swap:cuda. Dvalin read commit 9e5647aff: force-inject is NOT gated on --reasoning-budget-message (server-task.cpp:493-495 if (!end_tag.empty()), no message guard; reasoning-budget.cpp:99-108 fires unconditionally at remaining≤0) → so it's genuinely broken in b8840, NOT the missing flag. NOT a re-arm loop (9e5647aff's DONE is a plain break; re-arm landed later on master). Every request carries 8 tools; runaways = the tool-retry-FAILURE subset (model won't self-terminate </think>, forcing doesn't save it). reasoning_control API is ABSENT in 8840 (--help has no flag; binary has no /control strings) → brokkr's watchdog needs the bump too.
• FIX (agreed with brokkr, NO max_tokens ceiling per operator): (1) IMMEDIATE relief = push worldtree's b61 270s wall-clock — bounds the user-facing hang regardless of the seat loop (so the seat bump is NOT urgent). (2) DIAGNOSE-THEN-FIX (Eitri refinement, may SAVE the bump) — first capture the detailed tuple tokens/start/end/forced (needs a verbose / low-budget-matrix seat restart; 8840's default log has only the simpler activated/deactivated line — no forced=/start=…end=, confirmed by grep): end=0 → the FORCED-injection end_tag isn't reaching the budget path (Deckard template / reasoning-format mismatch) → CHEAP CONFIG fix = explicit budget start/end tags, a restart NOT a bump; end>0,forced=0 → end-tag tokenization bug; end>0 + no forcing across arms → real state bug → build bump. (NB: 110 deactivated (natural end) prove the DETECTION end-tag works, so an end=0 would be specifically the FORCED-inject tag, a narrow config miss.) Only if the tuple says end>0 → DURABLE = stage + validate a post-#22740 llama.cpp build OFF the hot path (⚠️ #22717 garbled-forcing regression ~b9018 fixed by #22740 → don't land in the b8840→b9018 window; validate vs tests/test-reasoning-budget.cpp + that it loads Deckard Q5_K_M), then surface the seat-image swap to Vuong; --reasoning-budget-message additive WITH the bump. Getting the tuple = the disruptive step (bounce the prod RP seat to --verbose/low-budget; a separate test instance won't fit — GPU0 has only ~4G margin). brokkr FINAL rec (thread wrapped 2026-07-13): go STRAIGHT to the staged bump — the tuple-diagnostic / tag-probe is a LONG-SHOT (the 110 natural closes prove the parser knows the delimiter → more likely a build/state bug than a tag-carry miss). RESOLVED WITHOUT the bounce (brokkr msg16 deduction): the deactivated (natural end) log is the budget SAMPLER's namespace → the sampler matched its reasoning_budget_end token → end_tag NON-empty (110×); and per source forced = tokenize(message+end_tag) is built in the SAME block → forced also NON-empty. So the tuple is logically end>0/forced>0 → forced tokens EXIST, forcing just never FIRES = STATE-MACHINE bug → the post-#22740 BUILD BUMP. The end=0 cheap-config branch is RULED OUT. NO diagnostic bounce needed (would only confirm) → no prod-seat-restart go required from Vuong for diagnosis. XTC HELD. b61 = the immediate relief → NO rush. Deliverable owed to brokkr = the validated bump-target (loads Deckard Q5_K_M + passes tests/test-reasoning-budget.cpp AND — the real acceptance test — a live low-budget check on the Qwen3.5/Deckard arch showing an ACTUAL forced-close, not just natural ends, since a forced-close-that-never-fires is exactly what 8840 gets wrong); Dvalin standing by for a 2nd read, Eitri if arch specifics get hairy. VERIFICATION (2026-07-13, WebFetch ggml-org/llama.cpp — the build-bump has NO released target; the dwarf "bump to post-#22740" was WRONG, #22740 fixed a DIFFERENT regression #22717): the real fixes are UNMERGED — #22684 (Qwen3.5/3.6 tool-call-in-reasoning_content = our TRIGGER) is CLOSED-AS-NOT-PLANNED; #24202 (Qwen tool-parsing) is OPEN; #25544 (reasoning-budget sampler → MULTIPLE terminating sequences) is OPEN, awaiting review = OUR forcing fix. MECHANISM NAILED: 8840's budget sampler knows only a SINGLE end tag (</think>), but Qwen3.5's tool-path terminates reasoning with <tool_call> which the sampler can't match → forcing never fires on the tool path (explains 110 natural-</think> closes working + 0 forced + tool-retry specificity). RE-FRAMED PLAN: no bump target exists yet → b61's 270s wall-clock is the ACTUAL mitigation (not just interim); TRACK PR #25544 and bump only when it merges into a release + validate the forced-close empirically. Seat XTC = optional loop-frequency fallback, not a fix. BUILT 2026-07-13 (operator directed the custom build after we verified NO released fix exists): image llamacpp-charrp:6eddde0-pr25544/:custom-latest on ana-ml2 (reports b10001, merged HEAD 6ce128d0b = master 6eddde0 + PR #25544, CUDA 12.8.1 sm_120, server target /app/llama-server), binary smoke-tested OK. Reproducible recipe + records: eshpfi stacks/char-rp-gguf/llamacpp-custom/ (build.sh + README) + auto-memory charrp-custom-llamacpp-pr25544. SWAPPED + LIVE 2026-07-13 (operator: swap now) — reasoning seat recreated on llamacpp-charrp:custom-latest (via new LLAMA_REASONING_IMAGE compose var; Magidonia char-rp stays stock); Deckard loads clean on Blackwell, serves coherent output, reasoning bounds at 400 (non-tool forcing intact). Per-request reasoning_budget override IGNORED (CLI-400 pins it, expected). New build's log DROPPED the reasoning-budget: activated line (b10001 format change) → can't watch forcing via seat log; DEFINITIVE tool-path proof = spend_logs completion_tokens=32768 runaways STOP (baseline 4 today pre-swap). Rollback = set LLAMA_REASONING_IMAGE=ghcr.io/mostlygeek/llama-swap:cuda in /opt/docker/compose/char-rp-gguf/.env + docker compose up -d --no-deps llama-charrp-reasoning (8840 image d6c39f55 preserved). On-seat acceptance = Deckard loads + serves + a FORCED close fires at low budget (not just natural ends). #355 DEPLOY-SPEED task separately CONFIRMED landed: #359 merged→build-and-deploy 11m→~5m (~2×, wt-dev corroborated 5m/4m vs 11m); b61 pushed (v1.0.0b61 747d7a0) = 300s client backstop live on deploy. (3) Optional interim = mild XTC on the seat (behavior-shaping, not enforcement) — holding unless the loop-frequency reduction is wanted pre-bump. Seat config: canonical stacks/char-rp-gguf/compose.yaml (service llama-charrp-reasoning), live /opt/docker/compose/char-rp-gguf/ on ana-ml2. Cheap --reasoning-budget-message-alone test is DEAD (source-confirmed won't fix it) — did NOT waste a restart on it.
• Operator direction: find the SERVER-side fix (params/config), do NOT ceiling max_tokens (legit long outputs must survive). Routed to brokkr-smithy-dev (thread 01KXEEQ0TD6D…) → he accepted, pulled dvalin for the known-bug search, running the dwarf consult. I offered to run the live-seat with/without-tools split-test on his signal (own the seat; mildly disruptive → off-peak).
• Wasted-GPU side issue + b61 re-measure: LiteLLM logged these success at full 1255–1390s → on b60 it did NOT abort at WT's cancel (whatever WT did, no upstream abort → ~18min wasted GPU/runaway). worldtree-dev's unpushed b61 adds a 270s provider wall-clock that runs _bounded_stream_close→httpx FIN (force-closes WT's upstream side). So post-b61 the FIN-check flips to "WT closes at ~270s"; the only open question is whether LiteLLM propagates that client-disconnect to the seat (my gateway domain). RE-MEASURE after b61 deploys — don't assume b60 behavior.
• Data on hand: pcaps at corviduo-dev:~infra-ops/py-spy-355/wedge_*/ are only ~99s windows triggered on the attach_tool failure (too short for the 300s cancel — a limitation, not usable for the FIN-check). LiteLLM config /opt/docker/conf/litellm/config.yaml → /app/config.yaml; spend_logs = litellm-db (docker exec litellm-db psql -U litellm -d litellm; camelCase cols double-quoted; request body in proxy_server_request::jsonb->>'max_tokens' top-level).

🔺 ACTIVE 2 — Worldtree deploy-speed: DELIVERED as PR #359 (green-lit, awaiting merge)

• Real bottleneck was NOT uv sync (memory's assumption was WRONG). Pulled the buildx STEP log (gitea actions_log on ana-docker, docker exec gitea → /data/gitea/actions_log/vh/Worldtree/*/{task}.log.zst, zstd). Sub-steps of the ~7min build: #24 RUN useradd … chown -R /app /data … = **251.2s** ← the monster; #25 export image+push = 123.7s; #13 uv sync --no-cache = **only 35.6s**; #26 cache-export mode=max = 18.4s. The runner-side registry LAYER cache (--cache-from/--cache-to type=registry:buildcache,mode=max) is already wired in deploy.yml — my prior "runner cache missing" note was STALE.
• Root cause: chown -R worldtree:worldtree /app forces BuildKit to copy-up the entire root-owned .venv (torch + 125 pkgs) into a fresh layer → ~4min + a duplicate venv baked into the image (also slows export/push).
• Fix (PR #359, branch infra/build-cache off origin/main@b60): (1) drop /app from the chown (keep /data); (2) add --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/uv + drop --no-cache. VALIDATED against BOTH live containers (demo+personal): zero files written under /app post-boot (PID1-start ref) — all runtime writes → /data/state, /data/kb, /home/worldtree; /app is read-only for uid 1000, /app/config chowned at first boot by the root entrypoint shim. So the chown was pure waste. Expected ~5min off (~11→~6min).
• Status: worldtree-dev GREEN-LIT (confirmed --no-cache not deliberate; b61 is theirs, core/llm-only, zero Dockerfile overlap). PR open + mergeable; they review, merge→main triggers the real build that measures the actual speedup. Deploy trigger unaffected (Dockerfile change → builds). Done from my side.

Landed this session (2026-07-13) — context for the fresh session

• WT #355 turn-lifecycle fix VALIDATED (worldtree b60): wedged turns self-terminate cancelled/stalled at the 300s watchdog (turns 2064/2065 = 302s/360s) vs pre-b60 turn 2061's 16-min no-terminal silence. The residual (ACTIVE 1) is a separate LiteLLM matter.
• Ledger tier-3 provisioned (ledger:miranda) on personal :8081: key minted (user ledger, key_id b38932f5), GPG-delivered + verified + cleartext shredded; scope confirmed (user tier has bifrost:invoke+agents.define); allowlist 10.100.10.50:8770 activated by the b60 recreate.
• assistant+thoughtful-assistant roles added (bind gen/gen-reasoning, kind capability, grants [foundational]) on personal+demo; canonicalized by worldtree-dev (d8bd497).
• 3 zombie soong sessions retired (2ad34ec6+7d23052f+0775c9b1 via POST /admin/sessions/<id>/retire); pre-b60 stale-active backlog HELD (worldtree's #356 rehydrate fix reclaims that class).

Still-open standing items (carried)

• T1 SFT LoRA (AEON-27B E-RP) — adapter banked but BLOCKED on hot-swap serving; DORMANT (operator pivoted to off-the-shelf). Merge fallback primed (~2-3h) if hot-swap abandoned.
• Backups — rotate the 5 disclosed rest-server creds (operator, offline); confirm cross-site restic mirror.
• althing monitor dies on /clear — re-arm /althing:monitor in the fresh session (open await-reply loops: brokkr on the #355-residual, worldtree-dev on the deploy-resilience follow-ons #356/#357/#358).

Recent decisions

• [2026-07-13] #355-residual ROOT CAUSE (supersedes the "LiteLLM gateway holds while seat idles" entry below — that was DISPROVEN). char-rp-reasoning enters a non-terminating REASONING loop (tool-call-retry planning) and runs to max_tokens=32768 (~22 min @ 24.7 tok/s, ~13% of requests); the seat GENERATES all 32768 tokens (not idle), and --reasoning-budget 400 is NOT enforced. 3-source-confirmed (spend_logs completion_tokens=32768 ×4; seat eval-time log; pcap 100%-reasoning_content deltas). Server-side fix wanted (operator: no max_tokens ceiling) → routed to brokkr (accepted, pulled dvalin). Lesson (again): confirm before concluding — the seat-idle claim came from reading only the ≤73s requests + missing the concurrent 32768-token slots. See ACTIVE 1.

• [2026-07-13] Deploy-speed real bottleneck ≠ uv sync (memory's assumption was wrong). Buildx step log: chown -R /app = 251s (copy-up of the root-owned venv into a fresh layer), uv sync only 35.6s, registry layer cache already wired. Fix = drop /app from the chown (validated safe: zero /app runtime writes on both live instances) + uv cache-mount. Shipped as PR #359 (branch off origin/main@b60), worldtree-dev green-lit. Expected ~5min off (~11→~6min). Runner-side BuildKit cache task (b) was already done → moot.

• [2026-07-13] WT #355 residual 300s hang localized to OUR LiteLLM gateway (holds 2 char-rp-reasoning requests ~21 min while the seat idles), NOT the seat — Deckard seat EXONERATED (completes ≤72s; --reasoning-budget 400 forecloses a mid-thinking hang). Corrects worldtree-dev's "seat wedging" diagnosis. Decisive next = the FIN-check (pcap on corviuo). See in-flight ACTIVE 1. [SUPERSEDED 2026-07-13 — see the ROOT CAUSE entry above; the gateway-hold/slot-leak theory was disproven, the seat was generating 32768 tokens.]

• [2026-07-13] WT #355 turn-lifecycle fix VALIDATED on worldtree b60 — wedged turns self-terminate cancelled/stalled at the 300s stall-watchdog (turns 2064/2065 vs pre-b60 2061's 16-min no-terminal). worldtree-dev filed follow-ons #356 (rehydrate Tier-3 ctx on resume — the recreate-durability gap), #357 (reclaim orphaned active-turn locks), #358 (LLM-provider read-timeout audit); surfacing to Vuong to prioritize.

• [2026-07-13] Worldtree deploy bottleneck = the image build (~11 min of a ~12 min deploy), root cause the Dockerfile uv sync ... --no-cache + no BuildKit cache-mount (re-downloads all deps cold every build). Fix split: worldtree-dev Dockerfile cache-mount diff + infra-ops runner-side persistent BuildKit cache. Config-only changes skip the build entirely (pinned recreate).

• [2026-07-13] Ledger tier-3 consumer ledger:miranda provisioned on personal :8081 (key b38932f5, GPG-delivered+shredded, allowlist 10.100.10.50:8770 live); assistant+thoughtful-assistant capability roles added (gen/gen-reasoning) on personal+demo, canonical d8bd497. Chosen instance = personal (the tier-3-consumer instance, ratatoskr+soong-lab colocated).

• [2026-07-10] Heimdall grant: ratatoskr affect.full on PERSONAL Worldtree (operator-approved, worldtree-dev R34-v1 request). Added allow-rule ratatoskr-affect-full-allow to /opt/worldtree-personal/config/policies.yaml (principal.user_ids:["ratatoskr"], action affect.full, resource *, effect allow), mirroring the #347 session-history-write-ratatoskr rule exactly + placed right after it. WHY user_ids-based (not tier): ratatoskr's personal key is the minimal readonly-admin observability tier, which is NOT in the tier-based affect-render-baseline-allow (anonymous/user/free/pro/admin) → needs an explicit user_id grant, same as #347. R34-v1 (b46, committed UNPUSHED) gates affect.emit dominant_emotion egress by exposure ceiling (affect.full|safe → present; neither → null); this grant keeps ratatoskr's view alive across the b46 deploy. Surgical exact-string insert (preserves comments), backup policies.yaml.bak-pre-affectfull-20260710, validated via the CONTAINER's own yaml parser (35 rules, +1, payload confirmed). NOT restarted — deliberate: rule is on the bind-mount (shadows baked), INERT until b46 gating ships, so the b46 CI/CD deploy restart activates it (no live-session blip now). Demo untouched (personal-only per key scope). Replied to wt-dev (thread 01KX6DB3…) offering an immediate restart if they want it live for pre-b46 testing. See reference_corviduo_dev_emergency_ops.

• [2026-07-10] ComfyUI v0.27.1 SUCCESS on irv-ml1 (operator-confirmed execute-now) — landed on torch 2.12.1, SageAttention preserved, crash-loop AVOIDED. The prior attempt (entry below) crash-looped because a torch 2.12.1→2.13 bump broke SageAttention's ABI. This time I checked git diff v0.24.1 v0.27.1 -- requirements.txt FIRST and found core v0.27.1 leaves torch UNPINNED → the version bump does NOT require torch 2.13 (that came only from the mmartial boot-upgrade). So: git checkout v0.27.1 (clean tree) → pip install -r requirements.txt as uid 1000 with a torch-pin constraint file (torch/vision/audio pinned to current +cu129) to block any transitive bump → torch stayed 2.12.1, SageAttention 2.2.0 untouched. Added decord 0.6.0 (fixed SAM3Segment). docker restart comfyui → healthy, /system_stats comfyui_version=0.27.1, "Using sage attention", HTTP 200, DB migrated 0003→0004. Reported the divergence to comfy-dev (thread 01KX6D3C…, reply pending) + asked whether LTXV 2.3 needs a separate torch-2.13 follow-up (their domain; Krea-2's ≥0.25 need is met by 0.27.1). LESSON: before a mmartial ComfyUI version bump, git diff <old> <new> -- requirements.txt — if torch is unpinned, bump the CODE without touching torch (constraint-pin it) and compiled exts (SageAttention) survive. docker exec lands as uid 1025(comfytoo), not 1000 — use -u 1000 + the venv python /comfy/mnt/venv/bin/python. See reference_irv_ml1_comfyui_mmartial.

• [2026-07-10] ComfyUI 0.25.x bump on irv-ml1 ATTEMPTED → FAILED → ROLLED BACK (snapshot saved it). comfy-dev requested (Vuong-authorized) bumping the irv-ml1 comfyui stack (mmartial image, /opt/docker/compose/comfyui/, 0.24.1) to 0.25.x for Krea-2 + LTXV 2.3. TWO FINDINGS: (1) DISABLE_UPGRADES=false/USE_PIPUPGRADE bumps the VENV (torch 2.12.1→2.13.0 + deps) but does NOT advance the ComfyUI CODE checkout (/comfy/mnt/ComfyUI = /worktank/comfyui/run/ComfyUI stayed 0.24.1 — pinned/detached git, comfy-dev's domain). (2) the torch bump broke SageAttention (2.2.0 _fused.so undefined-symbol c10::impl::cow::materialize_cow_storage vs torch 2.13.0) → --use-sage-attention (REQUIRED launch flag in COMFY_CMDLINE_EXTRA) crash-looped ComfyUI. Net: broke the working state, zero 0.25.x payoff. ROLLBACK WORKED: pre-bump 16G venv snapshot /worktank/comfyui/venv-snapshot-comfyui-0.24.1-20260710.tar restored (torch 2.12.1 + working SageAttention), re-pinned DISABLE_UPGRADES=true, recreated → healthy on 0.24.1, serving :8188. Broken venv parked at /worktank/comfyui/run/venv.broken-torch213-20260710. CORRECTED PATH (sent comfy-dev, thread 01KX655V): comfy-dev git-advances the ComfyUI checkout to 0.25.x + reqs → I handle the torch bump + SageAttention rebuild-against-2.13.0 + re-pin (snapshot stays as the net). LESSON: mmartial DISABLE_UPGRADES gates ONLY the venv pip-upgrades, NOT the ComfyUI git checkout; a torch bump breaks compiled exts (SageAttention) → rebuild-after is mandatory. Bump BLOCKED pending comfy-dev's git-advance. Stack: A6000 (NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=1), lkraven-owned compose+venv (uid 1000, no sudo needed), COMFY_CMDLINE_EXTRA OOM flags preserved.

• [2026-07-10] Biweekly open-weight-releases scan cron set up for brokkr-smithy (Vuong-authorized). Durable systemd --user timer on nh3-dev (brokkr-landscape-scan.timer, OnCalendar *-*-01,15 09:00:00 America/Los_Angeles, Persistent=true; linger on) → .service → wrapper ~/.local/bin/brokkr-landscape-scan.sh runs headless claude -p "$(cat ~/.config/brokkr-landscape-scan/prompt.txt)" --dangerously-skip-permissions in ~/development/brokkr-smithy (ALTHING_HANDLE=brokkr-smithy-dev; explicit PATH — the --user minimal-PATH footgun; per-run logs ~/.local/state/brokkr-landscape-scan/). Prompt = brokkr's payload verbatim (LLM/image/TTS new-release sweep → ranked synthesis → commit+push+notify). VALIDATED: git-push non-interactive (BatchMode ls-remote to gitea, passphraseless key — no agent), headless claude auth (READY smoke). VALIDATED END-TO-END 2026-07-10 (manual run, exit 0): web-sweep→synthesis→commit 2ed2f29→PUSH of scan #2 (open-weight-releases-2026-07-24.md); triaged dwarf input + caught baseline errors, quality strong. HANDLE-COLLISION caught+FIXED — the headless scan shared handle brokkr-smithy-dev with the LIVE session + raced its inbox (eitri's dwarf-reply got stolen by the live monitor); registered a dedicated brokkr-scan-dev handle (add-handle, driver=none) + repointed the wrapper + rewired step-5 notify → althing-cli post --to brokkr-smithy-dev (NO vuong althing handle exists — confirmed). model=default

  • --max-turns 80. First run under the new handle = 7/15. Off-cycle 07-24 doc is a validation artifact (scheduled 1st/15th runs date to their own run-date, no collision) — operator naming-convention call pending. NEXT AUTO-RUN 2026-07-15 09:00 PDT. Manual validation/first run = systemctl --user start brokkr-landscape-scan.service. Open w/ brokkr (thread 01KX63G6): confirm notify-Vuong handle/mechanism + session handle + model/turn-cap. NEXT brokkr task (operator-sequenced after this): TTS audition env — Higgs-TTS-3 + ZONOS2 + Chatterbox baseline, TTFA/RTF + blind-A/B web-listen (thread 01KX6371; needs GPU-placement + HF-token feasibility pass first; brokkr delivers the prompt set after the env's up; protocol doc in brokkr-smithy repo).

• [2026-07-09] Two parked items closed: phantom qwen3.6-35b-a3b alias VERIFIED already-gone; ana-docker docker log-cap SOLVED no-bounce. (1) Phantom: absent from /v1/models + /model/info (config+DB registry), zero litellm log refs — the parked "400s in /v1/models" note was STALE (already cleaned in the 2026-07-08 gen repoint to -heretic); bare token survives only in 2 config COMMENTS (lines 76/80). Nothing to remove. (2) Log-cap: running containers were UNCAPPED (182M json-logs, top offender 59M) because daemon.json's max-size 10m/max-file 3 only applies to containers CREATED AFTER a daemon restart — it never reaches already-running ones. No-bounce fix = /etc/logrotate.d/docker-containers (copytruncate — dockerd opens json-logs O_APPEND so truncate-in-place resets cleanly, no sparse-file corruption; size 10M, rotate 3, compress, su root root), auto-picked-up by the daily logrotate.timer. Force-ran + gzipped the frozen .1 archives → 182M → ~55M (44M active + 11M gz), every container kept its multi-week uptime (zero bounce, verified). LATENT FOOTGUN FLAGGED (not yet fixed, operator's call): daemon.json declares live-restore:true but the RUNNING daemon has it FALSE (daemon.json was edited after the last daemon start, never reloaded) → the NEXT systemctl restart docker / crash / pkg-upgrade bounces ALL ana-docker containers once. Fix WITHOUT a bounce = systemctl reload docker (SIGHUP loads live-restore into the running daemon; log-opts are NOT SIGHUP-reloadable, which is why logrotate — not the daemon cap — is the enforcer for running containers).

• [2026-07-09] granite→gen memory_extractor bind host-synced on demo+personal Worldtree (Vuong-directed, #335 Slice-4). Changed model_roles.yaml memory_extractor binds.catalog_id summarizer→gen (overrides intact: thinking:false/temp0/8192) on BOTH /opt/worldtree{,-personal}/config; memory_distiller left on summarizer (range-scoped sed /memory_extractor:/,/memory_distiller:/ — the naive global replace would've hit both); backups *.bak-preqgen-20260709; validated via each container's OWN yaml parser. DEMO LIVE on gen (b43 d501e516732d auto-deployed mid-edit + its restart RACED my edit by ~2min → I restarted worldtree-worldtree-api-1 to activate; healthy, live process resolves memory_extractor=gen). PERSONAL NOW LIVE on gen too — Vuong authorized the restart (via wt-dev); restarted worldtree-personal-worldtree-api-1 after a PRE-FLIGHT that ran the app's OWN load_model_roles() (core/llm/roles.py:121) against the synced config INSIDE the running c9986cd container: gen in catalog, all 9 roles resolve, no DanglingBindingError → proven safe on the OLDER image BEFORE touching it (model_roles-delta-alone clean; no full-config-set sync needed). StartedAt 20:50:55Z, healthy, resolves gen. BOTH instances live on gen. LESSON: the bind-mount /opt/worldtree*/config SHADOWS the baked /app/config-defaults/ → the deploy alone never updates the ACTIVE config; the host edit is required AND a restart activates it (role registry cached at boot) — pre-stage BEFORE the deploy's restart or you race it. FOLLOW-UPS (non-blocking): (a) memory.extractor.user_pass parity block → self-serve from the b43 baked defaults.yaml (pydantic-default no-op); (b) stale gen provider description (Mistral-Small-4 → qwen3.6-35b-a3b-heretic) → wt-dev owns the REPO-side providers.yaml fix (operator's call — NOT purely cosmetic: the gen/dialogue + classifier entries carry Mistral-Small-4 SAMPLING defaults that drive mask/lofn/forseti/mimir dialogue, so wt-dev re-validates for qwen), host cosmetic sync pairs when it deploys. Gave wt-dev the VERIFIED canonical 4-alias set (backends+samplers read from the LIVE gateway config, not the doc); corrected docs/pfi/model-sampler-defaults.md seat 4 (had lagged QwQ-RpR-v4 → Deckard-PKD; live gateway was always Deckard). Operator SCOPED IN the character-RP re-point (2026-07-09): character→char-rp / thoughtful-character→char-rp-reasoning (character-rp per wt-dev's role semantics), moving character RP off the GENERAL qwen onto the dedicated Magidonia/Deckard seats. Relayed to wt-dev w/ the mapping principle + a SAMPLER-OVERRIDE warning (DROP character-rp's old temp0.75/top_p0.85 overrides — carried onto the dedicated seats they'd clobber the canonical RP tuning DOWNWARD) + ratatoskr-reach note (role call is transparent but Magidonia/Deckard quality/latency differs from gen). DONE 2026-07-09: wt-dev committed 5d4fa4a (v1.0.0b44, UNPUSHED — operator drives push); operator directed host-ahead-of-push, so I sourced BOTH config files directly from that unpushed commit (local ~/development/Worldtree checkout — capital W; git show 5d4fa4a:config/…) + mirrored VERBATIM to /opt/worldtree{,-personal}/config on demo+personal, paired-pre-flighted via the app's load_model_roles() (no DanglingBinding), restarted both → LIVE: character→char-rp, thoughtful-character + character-rp→char-rp-reasoning, memory_extractor→gen preserved. Backups *.bak-prerp-20260709. context_window VERIFIED (llama.cpp /props + char-rp-gguf .env): char-rp 131072, char-rp-reasoning 262144 (gave wt-dev to patch the repo from its interim 32768). HOST AHEAD of repo-remote until the operator pushes 5d4fa4a (baked config converges with the bind-mount on push+deploy). GOTCHA: demo≠personal — PERSONAL was already partly re-pointed (2026-07-06 AEON-era character→char-rp) so its delta was mostly stale-AEON-descriptions→Magidonia/Deckard

  • character-rp + stripping personal's char-rp default_params temp0.7/top_p0.8 that CLOBBERED the gateway RP tuning downward; DEMO had no char-rp catalog entries at all (b44 adds them). Diffed each instance vs b44 before applying (both deltas = expected changeset only, nothing instance-specific clobbered). wt-dev PATCHED the context_window in b45/3384a37 (char-rp 131072, char-rp-reasoning 262144). BUMPED HOST-AHEAD on both instances (operator-directed 2026-07-09): mirrored b45's providers.yaml → /opt/worldtree{,-personal}/config, restarted, verified LIVE (char-rp ctx 131072, char-rp-reasoning 262144, bindings intact); backups .bak-b44interim-20260709. HOST now = b45 canonical (providers.yaml) + b44 (model_roles unchanged b44→b45). STILL PENDING: (1) operator's batched push of b44+b45 (5d4fa4a+3384a37) to converge the repo-remote — host is ahead, no fork; (2) user_pass parity block (defaults.yaml — NOT in either, separate). Threads 01KX3SGH/01KX48QP (worldtree-dev), monitor armed. See reference_corviduo_dev_emergency_ops.

• [2026-07-09] mOrpheus TTS off-the-shelf voice pipeline SHIPPED end-to-end (irv-ml1) + wired into gateway-chat. Full arc (commits): gen served-name honesty rename aeon→qwen3.6-35b-a3b-heretic (99a4a17, vLLM served-name + litellm refs, so /v1/models + spend-logs name the real model); permanent 2-container stack (01eedd8); gateway-chat auto-voice quoted dialogue (c948013); streaming decode TTFA 4.5s→0.8s (da76829); max_tokens 1200→2400→3500 with a context-clamp (f363fe6, 0655a37 — long lines were clipping at 14.6s, and repetition_penalty 1.1 is LOAD-BEARING: at 1.0 the model never stops); AudioContext resume-on-gesture no-sound fix (033f368); pre-chunk by QUOTED SECTION not sentence for prosody (a1f3023→f295cc1); staged clone voices baddy/beatrice/whisper (0655a37 + runtime .wav/.txt in the voices dir); agent voicing prompt (a573514). Load-bearing config, all encoded in stacks/mOrpheus/: bf16 not FP8, image v0.23.0 not latest, GPU=3090 not A6000, rep_penalty 1.1. Serving-viability confirmed: vLLM concurrency near-linear to 8× (707 tok/s).

• [2026-07-09] granite→gen memory_extractor bind GREEN-lit for worldtree-dev (Worldtree #335 Slice 4). Answered their VRAM/concurrency headroom check: gen (qwen 35B-A3B heretic) has ample headroom for ~2 bursty idle-triggered extractor calls (fixed 0.37 util; KV pool runs 0-2%; --max-num-seqs 16, near-linear batching). Corrected their stale "gen = Mistral Small 4 / 119B-6B" belief (gen IS the qwen 35B-A3B heretic since 2026-07-08). This bind is INDEPENDENT of the full granite RETIRE (reclaim ~32GB on ana-ml2 GPU1) — that stays the operator's call, pending brokkr R33 portfolio + production-concurrency due-diligence. Tracked: althing thread 01KX3SGH… (worldtree-dev) + brokkr's gen-absorbs-granite consult (thread 01KX2V32…) + reference_litellm_gateway.

• [2026-07-08] RP-SEAT CAMPAIGN CLOSED — char-rp = Magidonia-24B-v4.3 (128K), char-rp-reasoning = Deckard-PKD Qwen3.5-27B (256K); both GGUF/llama.cpp on ana-ml2 GPU0 alongside gen (35B-A3B, util 0.37), ~4G GPU0 margin. Arc: (1) replaced broken Angel NVFP4 with Magidonia prose + QwQ-RpR-v4 reasoning (b268f93); (2) max-context via q8_0 KV (f570604); (3) canonical samplers for all 4 gateway seats, dvalin-derived + char-rp A/B-tuned (aac4bcf); (4) rebalanced gen 0.40→0.37 to fund char-rp 128K (f49c4e4); (5) RE-A/B'd the reasoning seat (operator wanted a DRY-tolerant model): Deckard WON on brokkr's frozen scorer (composite 2.176, 0/30 loops, 0/30 refusals) over RpR-v4 (3.716, 1/30 loop), Pantheon-Reasoning (1.383 but 7/30 refusals), Snowdrop+Gembrain (llama.cpp template-incompat) — deployed (5f79b40); (6) Deckard→256K (41305bf); (7) dvalin CONFIRMED Deckard samplers = the live A/B set is canonical (4954ca0). GATE LESSON: a llama.cpp reasoning seat needs a STOCK template that natively opens <think>/enable_thinking (Qwen3.x/QwQ pass; ChatML + Gemma-4 fail) — no monkeypatching. INFRA: llama-swap b8840 can't load Qwen3.6/Gemma-4 archs → ghcr.io/ggml-org/llama.cpp:server-cuda (pulled on ana-ml2).

• [2026-07-08] worldtree Mimir deploy-blocker resolved (mid-session): synced persona.envelopes.assistant + envelope_grants:[] verbatim from the baked canonical into BOTH corviduo-dev instances (demo+personal), YAML-validated via each container's own parser; worldtree-dev cleared to push the Mimir-bound image. (Was my parked R32 1C envelope-mirror come due — see reference_corviduo_dev_emergency_ops config-sync recipe.)

• [2026-07-08] OFF-THE-SHELF INFERENCE PIVOT executed — serve curated abliterated models, stop home-training. Final topology: gen = llmfan46/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-uncensored-heretic-NVFP4-Experts-Only (LIVE, modelopt, vision, util 0.40), char-rp = an RP unicorn to be found on fresh context (see Current state). Intermediate steps ABANDONED: Pantheon-Reasoning-27B (served briefly as gen — refuses dark fiction via DeepSeek-distilled refusal-reasoning, see Tried); Pantheon-27B-with-MTP for RP (bf16 MTP won't load on the compressed-tensors path); Angel MS3.2-24B (my NVFP4 quant = garbage). Prefer EXISTING community NVFP4/GGUF quants over self-quanting ("don't quant unless you have to" — operator). GGUF serving is now on the table for RP (NEVER Ollama). Gateway sampling-defaults wiring still PENDING.

• [2026-07-08] DPO was silently running 3 epochs (harness gap) → KILLED at epoch 1.2, retargeted to 0.3 epochs (operator call). Root cause: DpoConfig had NO epochs field + _dpo_config_kwargs didn't pass num_train_epochs → DPO fell through to trl DPOConfig's default 3.0 (SFT correctly pins 1 via SftConfig.epochs

  • _sft_config_kwargs). Objective SATURATED by epoch 0.27 (loss0, grad0, acc 1.0, margins27 flat — the off-policy qwopus rejected pairs are trivially separable), so epochs ~0.3→3 were pure over-optimization + a ~6.5h outage. No mid-run checkpoint (save_steps 500 > total steps; save only at end) → killing lost the run. FIX (3 edits to deployed harness, mtf-dev to canonicalize): DpoConfig.epochs: float = 1 (mirrors SftConfig, float for fractions); _dpo_config_kwargs now passes "num_train_epochs": cfg.epochs; recipe dpo.epochs: 0.3. GPU-free verified (dpo.epochs=0.3 → num_train_epochs=0.3). Relaunched at 0.3 epoch (~30min precompute + ~12min train = ~45min). DONE + SANITY-CHECKED (exit 0, ~70min wall: ~30min fixed precompute + 45 steps @ ~51s/step; train_loss 1.4e-5 @ epoch 0.301). Fresh data/spike/dpo_adapter/adapter_model.safetensors (123MB) + checkpoint-45 banked. 3-way greedy sanity (base vs SFT vs DPO, via peft load + disable_adapter/set_adapter on GPU0): ALL THREE DISTINCT (base≠sft≠dpo) → full SFT→DPO pipeline applies end-to-end at inference. DPO 0.3ep is COHERENT, fluent, NOT degenerate (early-stop avoided over-optimization) but the quality delta on a neutral literary prompt is SUBTLE (DPO shares SFT's structure — it continues from it — with minor stylistic drift, arguably slightly MORE genre-clichéd). Verdict: mechanics proven, quality gain modest as predicted for 0.3ep on off-policy pairs; the real unlock remains on-policy rejected regen + on-domain (explicit E-RP) eval + the LitBench/holdout run. gen+rp RESTORED healthy. Next: serve fork (SGLang-finish vs merge) on the DPO adapter — same rekey_lora_for_vllm.py (zero-z) applies unchanged (mtf-dev confirmed).

• [2026-07-08] T1 DPO leg is RUNNING (unblocked) — 2 fixes applied to deployed backend.py. Blocker resolved: (1) mtf-dev's v0.0.42 stub _stub_missing_optional_integrations (last-resort sys.meta_path finder → missing mergekit/llm_blender/weave resolve to MagicMock, never called → zero numerics risk; applied VERBATIM to deployed src/model_training_forge/train/backend.py after _unsloth_available() + call-site before from trl import DPOTrainer); (2) my cosmetic warnings_issued shim (trl-0.24 DPOTrainer.init:405 does model.warnings_issued["estimate_tokens"]=True for warning-suppression; custom Qwen3_5 class under transformers 5.5.0 lacks the attr → if not hasattr(model,"warnings_issued"): model.warnings_issued={} before the DPOTrainer(...).train() at backend.py:305 — cosmetic, zero training impact). Both edits are on the DEPLOYED un-git'd copy only → mtf-dev must canonicalize the warnings_issued shim into their repo (told them). DPO confirmed training: model loaded (851 shards), full 1196 pairs processed, in precompute_ref_log_probs (GPU0 93% util, 54.8GB). Completion watcher armed (bg task) → restore gen+rp + verify dpo_adapter + ping mtf-dev on exit. gen+rp STOPPED for the run (authorized window). Output → data/spike/dpo_adapter.

• [2026-07-08] T1 DPO leg launch — prior BLOCK (now resolved above), kept for the launch recipe. Operator authorized the full DPO stage (via mtf-dev) + went AFK 2h. PROVEN LAUNCH RECIPE (replicates the SFT container aeon-t1-sft exactly, only --stage sft→dpo): sudo docker run -d --name aeon-t1-dpo --entrypoint python3 --gpus all -e CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0 -e MTF_FORCE_TRL=1 -e PYTHONPATH=/mtf/src -e PYTORCH_CUDA_ALLOC_CONF=expandable_segments:True -v /home/lkraven/model-training-forge:/mtf -v /tank:/tank -w /mtf aeon-trainer:latest -u scripts/train.py --recipe recipes/training/qwen-3.5-122b-erp-lora/train.aeon-27b.yaml --stage dpo. CRITICAL: --entrypoint python3 is REQUIRED — aeon-trainer's default entrypoint is ["vllm","serve"] (FROM vllm/vllm-openai) → without the override it runs vllm + hits a torch-ABI crash. Dataset verified (pairs_dataset=train.flat.json=1196 pairs). THE BLOCK: from trl import DPOTrainer (backend.py:256) eagerly pulls TRL 0.24.0's WHOLE optional-integration set — cascade: mergekit(missing)→ immutables→mergekit-0.1.4↔pydantic-2.13 HARD incompat (needs pydantic==2.10.6)→llm_blender→dataclasses_json→ llm_blender-0.0.2↔transformers-5.5.0 HARD incompat (TRANSFORMERS_CACHE removed, needs source patch)→weave→ (more). NONE used by our pair-based DPO. pip install mergekit w/deps is UNSAFE (downgrades accelerate 1.14→1.6). Safe partial recipe derived (core libs held: torch2.10/tf5.5.0/trl0.24.0/peft0.19.1/accel1.14.0) but non-convergent → TRULY BLOCKING per operator's carve-out. Did NOT force-hack the proven training image. Handed full diagnosis + recommended fix (lazy-import TRL patch, opt b) to mtf-dev (thread 01KWZG8GJX, expects-reply, monitor armed). gen+rp RESTORED healthy. Relaunch = 1 min once mtf-dev delivers a working image.

142 older entries archived to archival-memory.md.

Tried and abandoned

• [2026-07-13] Relaying a peer's diagnosis as fact without confirming it against raw data. worldtree-dev diagnosed the WT #355 residual as "our llama.cpp seat wedging," which I echoed in a wrap-up; the operator challenged it and the seat logs DISPROVED it (seat completes ≤72s, idle at the wedge onset — the hang is the LiteLLM gateway). Lesson: CONFIRM peer diagnoses (esp. cross-domain ones) before acting/relaying — same discipline that caught the earlier char-rp-reasoning red-herring via a live registry.resolve reproduction.

• [2026-07-13] althing-cli reply <THREAD_id> (thread id, not a MESSAGE id) → "unknown message_id"; and reply to your OWN message self-addresses to your handle ("replying to your own message"). Reply to a PEER's message id, or use post --to <peer>. Bit me several times this session.

• [2026-07-09] FP8 breaks mOrpheus audio-token generation. --quantization fp8 on the 3B → 0 valid SNAC frames even at GREEDY (degenerate audio+text mix, no start-of-speech); bf16 is clean (28/28 frames). Quant-breaks- TTS, same class as the Angel-NVFP4 lesson below. bf16 is REQUIRED (so the operator's "util 0.1" wish is moot — the bf16 weights alone are 6.6GB). NB the raw-token benchmark RTF 0.50 was fp8+graphs = never real.

• [2026-07-09] vllm/vllm-openai:latest crashes on Ampere IMPORT — Blackwell-only kernels (oink/aiter, has_device_capability(100)) die during import on the 3090/A6000. Pin v0.23.0 on irv-ml1's Ampere GPUs. (vllm/vllm-omni:v0.18.0 has a different entrypoint — don't use it either.)

• [2026-07-09] Per-frame CPU SNAC decode is too slow for streaming — per-call overhead × ~60 frames serialized → RTF 2.2 (WORSE than whole-clip's 1.0). Fix = windowed chunk decode (every 6 frames decode a [2 ctx | 6 | 2 ctx] window, emit the middle 6 → seamless, O(1)/frame, RTF ~0.97, TTFA ~0.8s).

• [2026-07-09] Sentence-chunking TTS loses prosody — generating each sentence cold flattens the intonation that spans a line. Chunk by QUOTED SECTION (whole quote = one gen call). Also: repetition_penalty >1.1 BREAKS cloning (penalizes the ~1100 in-context reference audio tokens; keep ≤1.1 on the clone path).

• [2026-07-09] HF whisper datasets aren't actually whispered. Claris-Whispered-English measures voiced 0.8 (not a whisper) + IPA transcripts; datasets audio decode needs torchcodec (wants CUDA-13, incompatible w/ the cu124 venv). LPC DSP-whisperize went unstable (NaN). kokoro af_nicole IS a genuine whisper (voiced 0.24) — that (operator's pointer) is the working whisper reference source, not TTS-voice screening or dataset-hunting.

• [2026-07-08] Angel (allura-org/MS3.2-24b-Angel) self-quanted to NVFP4 = GARBAGE. llm-compressor W4A4 NVFP4 (compressed-tensors, MLP-quantized, attn/vision bf16) of the Mistral3 dense 24B produces gibberish EVEN AT GREEDY (temp 0) → the quant itself is broken, not the tokenizer or sampler. Same recipe worked on the qwen models. Mistral3 + W4A4 NVFP4 via llm-compressor is bad. → for the RP seat, going GGUF (llama.cpp) to sidestep the whole NVFP4-quant surface.

• [2026-07-08] Mistral3 + vLLM tokenizer/vision traps (serve MS3.2-24b, vLLM 0.24). (a) HF tokenizer.json for Mistral = GARBAGE output — the card's "use the official Mistral tokenizer" warning is REAL; must use the tekken.json/mistral tokenizer. (b) BUT --tokenizer-mode mistral + vision CRASHES (Failed to apply PixtralProcessor on {'text': '[IMG]'}; and with tekken.json present in auto mode, CachedMistralCommonBackend has no attribute is_fast). So it's mistral-tokenizer OR vision, not both on this vLLM. Text-only + mistral tokenizer serves clean (--limit-mm-per-prompt '{"image": 0}'). GGUF/llama.cpp avoids all of this (native mistral tokenizer + vision).

• [2026-07-08] Pantheon-Reasoning-27B refuses dark fiction DESPITE an abliterated base. The base (llmfan46 heretic) writes freely (thinking-off), but Gryphe distilled the reasoning traces from DeepSeek 3.2 (safety-aligned) onto every turn (preserve_thinking:true) → the model reasons ITSELF into refusals in the <think> phase (collapses to empty output). Fix: thinking-off OR an uncensor system prompt (both verified). Lesson: a reasoning finetune of an abliterated base can re-censor via its reasoning-trace TEACHER; the raw abliterated base is cleaner — this is WHY the pivot went to the llmfan46 heretic base for gen.

• [2026-07-08] Pantheon-27B MTP on vLLM compressed-tensors = 0% acceptance. MTP is a separate bf16 head (mtp.*, in model-auxiliary.safetensors, 15 tensors); AEON preserved it by INJECTING the bf16 head into the quant output (NOT re-quantizing — confirmed AEON's nvfp4 mtp is bf16). Built pantheon-27b-mtp = compressed-tensors main + injected bf16 mtp + text_config.mtp_num_hidden_layers=1 → vLLM detected the MTP but SKIPPED the bf16 self_attn weights → 0/192 draft tokens accepted. The bf16 MTP head only loads on the MODELOPT main-model format (like AEON), not compressed-tensors. (Moot — operator dropped MTP for gen; not needed for the non-reasoning RP.)

• [2026-07-07] vLLM 0.24.0 qwen3_5 LoRA application = silent no-op (#47639). Adapter loads HTTP 200 but zero deltas at inference. NOT quant (NVFP4 AND FP8 both inert). NOT adapter format (separate zc adapter — correct per vLLM's check_unexpected_modules allowlist — loads clean but inert; the fused-key rekey is rejected). The #47640 None-group guard-patch overlay did NOT fix it (failure is UPSTREAM of expand_packed_lora — the separate→fused mapping never happens). Fix PR #47640 is OPEN (unmerged) so no version-bump helps. Merge bakes deltas in (bypasses this) but is static.

• [2026-07-07] SGLang generic image can't LOAD our NVFP4 AEON — ModelOptModelLoader weight-shape/ packing mismatch ([1024,5120] vs [1024,2560], 2-fp4/byte). NVFP4-on-SGLang needs the dedicated qwen36-27b-nvfp4 dev image or a requant to SGLang's format. bf16 loads fine (arch supported; crash was quant-loader-specific).

• [2026-07-07] SGLang --lora-target-modules CLI enum REJECTS the GDN names its own resolver asks for (invalid choice: 'in_proj_qkv'); 'all' resolves to the FUSED set (qkv_proj/in_proj_qkvz). SGLang wants its OWN packed layout (base r16 + get_stacked_multiply=3, NOT a pre-fused rank-48 qkv → the [48]-vs-[144] shape assert). A THIRD adapter format; version-exact source needed (:latest=0.5.13, NOT main).

• [2026-07-07] Engine invocation footguns cost several wasted serve-bounces this session — docker run --rm ate crash logs; duplicated serve (vLLM image entrypoint is already ["vllm","serve"]); --max-lora-rank 48 invalid (choices 1/8/16/32/64… → use 64); parens in echo inside ssh host -c "…" break the remote shell. LESSON: verify engine launch flags (--help, GPU-free) + never --rm a container whose crash logs you need, BEFORE bouncing a production serve.

• [2026-07-04] LiteLLM (this gateway version) mutates the SHARED deployment config in-place on per-request sampler-param merge → my deliberately-invalid top_k=-5 forwarding-probe bled into a param-less character-rp request (vLLM 400, ONE-OFF, self-cleared by a later valid probe). NOT caching (none configured), NOT a config change. Never fire invalid/distinctive sampler values at a SHARED gateway alias with live consumers — use a throwaway alias, or a docker restart litellm flushes residual carryover. feedback_litellm_shared_param_mutation.

• [2026-07-04] A systemd --user daemon that shells out to ~/.cargo/bin/~/.local/bin tools needs an explicit Environment=PATH — the minimal --user default silently drops them. The althing herald lost zellij → silent pane-miss for ALL config-backed TUI/pane agents; CC + FIFO routes were unaffected, so it was invisible from a CC session. reference_nh3_dev_althing_herald.

• [2026-07-04] On-prem T1 train that keeps ANY ana-ml2 serving up = ~6-8 DAYS (1-GPU + NVMe ZeRO-Infinity offload; MoE ~10B-active cuts FLOPs but NOT the 244G base's param I/O). The only fast on-prem path is a FULL ana-ml2 shutdown (both GPUs + the ~421G vLLM RAM freed → base fits in the 566G CPU RAM) → CPU offload → ~1-day full-fleet outage. Cloud (no offload) = hours. reference_t1_cloud_train_plan.

• [2026-07-01] A personal-Worldtree CI deploy that fails ~85s in with "not found / unauthorized" is usually the pull-only-vs-build RACE, not registry-auth. deploy-personal.yml is PULL-ONLY but fires on the staging/vX tag simultaneously with deploy.yml's build → pulls before the push finishes. FIX: re-run once built, or gate on workflow_run: completed.

• [2026-07-01] MTP/spec-decode on a SHARED serving model helps single-stream but HURTS moderate-concurrency aggregate + silently ignores min_p/logit_bias (qwopus gen: N=1 +12%, N=4 −20%). Reserve for dedicated/interactive deployments.

• [2026-07-02] irv-ml1 /worktank ROOT is root-owned — lkraven can't write there (irv-ml1 sudo needs a password) → stage model pulls to /home. PIN THE A6000 BY UUID for training (native-CUDA ordering differs vs docker; the 3090 index 0 is usually near-full → OOM). CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=GPU-<uuid>.

101 older entries archived to archival-memory.md.