From 0592090b40b1e0d6308cdf4e4df77607e36f05bc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Philipp Emanuel Weidmann <pew@worldwidemann.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:16:12 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] fix: save only essential settings

---
 src/heretic/config.py | 51 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 src/heretic/main.py   | 12 +++++++---
 src/heretic/utils.py  |  6 ++---
 3 files changed, 63 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/heretic/config.py b/src/heretic/config.py
index ba23d95..6189a31 100644
--- a/src/heretic/config.py
+++ b/src/heretic/config.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-or-later
 # Copyright (C) 2025-2026  Philipp Emanuel Weidmann <pew@worldwidemann.com> + contributors
 
+import copy
 from enum import Enum
 from typing import Dict
 
@@ -13,6 +14,12 @@ from pydantic_settings import (
     TomlConfigSettingsSource,
 )
 
+# !!!IMPORTANT!!!
+#
+# Any settings added to the classes defined in this module
+# must be evaluated for privacy implications and added to
+# the logic in get_essential_settings if required.
+
 
 class QuantizationMethod(str, Enum):
     NONE = "none"
@@ -460,3 +467,47 @@ class Settings(BaseSettings):
             file_secret_settings,
             TomlConfigSettingsSource(settings_cls, toml_file="config.toml"),
         )
+
+
+def get_essential_settings(settings: Settings) -> Settings:
+    """
+    Returns a stripped-down version of the settings object that only contains
+    settings that directly influence the results of the abliteration run.
+    In particular, this object contains no file system paths other than (possibly)
+    paths to local models and datasets.
+    """
+
+    essential_settings = copy.deepcopy(settings)
+
+    del essential_settings.evaluate_model
+
+    # We always use the default for security reasons.
+    del essential_settings.trust_remote_code
+
+    # When storing a settings object, the batch size is already fixed,
+    # either determined by the automatic mechanism or by explicit user choice.
+    del essential_settings.max_batch_size
+
+    # When storing a settings object, the response prefix is already fixed,
+    # either determined by the automatic mechanism or by explicit user choice.
+    del essential_settings.chain_of_thought_skips
+
+    del essential_settings.print_responses
+    del essential_settings.print_residual_geometry
+    del essential_settings.plot_residuals
+    del essential_settings.residual_plot_path
+    del essential_settings.residual_plot_title
+    del essential_settings.residual_plot_style
+    del essential_settings.study_checkpoint_dir
+    del essential_settings.benchmarks
+
+    for dataset in [
+        essential_settings.good_prompts,
+        essential_settings.bad_prompts,
+        essential_settings.good_evaluation_prompts,
+        essential_settings.bad_evaluation_prompts,
+    ]:
+        del dataset.residual_plot_label
+        del dataset.residual_plot_color
+
+    return essential_settings
diff --git a/src/heretic/main.py b/src/heretic/main.py
index d356e94..427ce83 100644
--- a/src/heretic/main.py
+++ b/src/heretic/main.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ from rich.table import Table
 from rich.traceback import install
 
 from .analyzer import Analyzer
-from .config import QuantizationMethod, Settings
+from .config import QuantizationMethod, Settings, get_essential_settings
 from .evaluator import Evaluator
 from .model import AbliterationParameters, Model, get_model_class
 from .system import empty_cache, get_accelerator_info
@@ -570,7 +570,10 @@ def run():
         load_if_exists=True,
     )
 
-    study.set_user_attr("settings", settings.model_dump_json())
+    study.set_user_attr(
+        "settings",
+        get_essential_settings(settings).model_dump_json(exclude_none=True),
+    )
     study.set_user_attr("finished", False)
 
     def count_completed_trials() -> int:
@@ -684,7 +687,10 @@ def run():
                     continue
 
                 settings.n_trials += n_additional_trials
-                study.set_user_attr("settings", settings.model_dump_json())
+                study.set_user_attr(
+                    "settings",
+                    get_essential_settings(settings).model_dump_json(exclude_none=True),
+                )
                 study.set_user_attr("finished", False)
 
                 try:
diff --git a/src/heretic/utils.py b/src/heretic/utils.py
index e616c8c..b2f2619 100644
--- a/src/heretic/utils.py
+++ b/src/heretic/utils.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ from psutil import Process
 from questionary import Choice, Style
 from rich.console import Console
 
-from .config import DatasetSpecification, Settings
+from .config import DatasetSpecification, Settings, get_essential_settings
 from .system import (
     get_accelerator_info_dict,
     get_cpu_info_dict,
@@ -312,7 +312,7 @@ def get_readme_intro(settings: Settings, trial: Trial) -> str:
 def generate_config_toml(settings: Settings) -> str:
     """Serializes the full Settings object to TOML."""
 
-    return tomli_w.dumps(settings.model_dump(exclude_none=True))
+    return tomli_w.dumps(get_essential_settings(settings).model_dump(exclude_none=True))
 
 
 def generate_requirements_txt() -> str:
@@ -551,7 +551,7 @@ def generate_reproduce_json(
             "pytorch_version": torch.__version__,
             "requirements": get_requirements_dict(),
         },
-        "settings": settings.model_dump(exclude_none=True),
+        "settings": get_essential_settings(settings).model_dump(exclude_none=True),
         "parameters": {
             "direction_index": trial.user_attrs["direction_index"],
             "abliteration_parameters": trial.user_attrs["parameters"],