docs(frank-archon): the slab is a slope, and the ceiling was mine not the engine's

Measured A/B on the shipped pair 25600/5120: A-cold 43.5k prefill 3,290 ->
3,584 t/s (+8.9 %) and the 3-way 197k aggregate 3,051 -> 3,589 t/s (+17.6 %,
wall 193.7 -> 164.5 s). The prediction I shipped with the arm -- slab is a
threshold below ~26 GiB, so 1,600 MiB buys ~0 -- is falsified by the measurement
it asked for. Two slab points inside noise of EACH OTHER (22,208 / 24,000) are
not a plateau. The cliff is above 25,600: 26,071 measured 4,379 t/s.

Ceiling re-derived from the engine's own budget table (card 32,624 MiB, pair at
29,120 settling 2,058 MiB free against its 209.19 MiB floor => 30,969 claimable).
The 29,120 bound was my 1 GiB \`keep free\` reserve; the seam now derives the
number, so the next resize starts from the engine's arithmetic.

Ledger for the record: slab 16,235 -> 17,548 slots while the pinned host pool
hands the same experts back (8,893 -> 7,580) -- the transfer is the mechanism,
the pinned pool is the slow path. Capacity contract live-verified at 3 slots:
3 x 199,984-token prompts accepted (599,952 tokens), fourth refused as too
large to ever fit.

Probe law learned: the oversized-prompt refusal names the prompt's token count
BEFORE prefill (free calibration) and fires on prompt tokens ALONE, not on
prompt + max_tokens; the window is ~514,286 chars at 2.5714 chars/token.

AGENTS.md

@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ merge absorbed the former `vllmScripts` repo, history preserved).
 
 | Target | Service | Runtime | Model | Port |
 |--------|---------|---------|-------|------|
-| Dankserver | `frank-archon` | **radiance** (StillDeadcode, **pin 1.0.13** digest-pinned `stilldeadcode/radiance@sha256:4c3f484564…`, plain `podman run`, root systemd unit) | ukisai/Swift1.5-Qwen3.8-Flash-Next BF16 (335.3 GiB, 397/397 sha256-verified) converted by `scripts/convert-swift15-w4dn8.sh` to `qwen4exp-swift15-w4dn8-i8-hc8m.rad` (**116,416 MiB**): **all 49,152 experts GPTQ w4** (10M-token calibration on engine 1.2.0) + **24 whole bf16-protected experts/layer** (energy-share law), int8 trunk/lm_head, fp8 HC, PLE n-gram fp8 fixed-scale, on **BOTH R9700s TP=2** (`--tp-wire wht6`), experts in a **44 GiB/rank pinned host pool** + VRAM cache (`--placement expert_tiered`, explicit `--vram-weights-mib 22208 --vram-kv-mib 6912` = the 29,120 MiB/card ceiling), **47.7 GiB n-gram copy pinned to host RAM** (`--ngram-placement ram`; root unit + `LimitMEMLOCK=infinity`), **fp8 KV** (pool 6,912 MiB ≈ 843k tokens — the only dtype that funds four slots, since bf16 at 4 × 200,000 costs 11,679 MiB of pool and would cut the slab to 17,441), **MTP spec decode depth 2**, `--max-num-seqs 4` (the capacity contract is 4 × 200,000; 4 × (1+2) = 12 all-reduce rows, inside the 25-row wht6 exactness bound), `--max-model-len 200000`, MNBT 2048, Froggeric v22.5 template. KLD-gated (mean KL 0.0131, top-1 97.92 % vs BF16); decode ~190 t/s live (gate bar 30.8). Cutover 2026-10-08 from fp8-native (payload on disk = rollback); 4-slot fp8-KV shape 2026-10-13, the 2-slot bf16 shape (22208/6912, `--max-num-seqs 2`) is the documented rollback. | 7770 |
+| Dankserver | `frank-archon` | **radiance** (StillDeadcode, **pin 1.0.13** digest-pinned `stilldeadcode/radiance@sha256:4c3f484564…`, plain `podman run`, root systemd unit) | ukisai/Swift1.5-Qwen3.8-Flash-Next BF16 (335.3 GiB, 397/397 sha256-verified) converted by `scripts/convert-swift15-w4dn8.sh` to `qwen4exp-swift15-w4dn8-i8-hc8m.rad` (**116,416 MiB**): **all 49,152 experts GPTQ w4** (10M-token calibration on engine 1.2.0) + **24 whole bf16-protected experts/layer** (energy-share law), int8 trunk/lm_head, fp8 HC, PLE n-gram fp8 fixed-scale, on **BOTH R9700s TP=2** (`--tp-wire wht6`), experts in a **44 GiB/rank pinned host pool** + VRAM cache (`--placement expert_tiered`, explicit `--vram-weights-mib 25600 --vram-kv-mib 5120` = 30,720 of the **30,969 MiB** the engine's own budget table makes claimable: card 32,624 MiB, settle floor 209 MiB), **47.7 GiB n-gram copy pinned to host RAM** (`--ngram-placement ram`; root unit + `LimitMEMLOCK=infinity`), **fp8 KV** (pool 5,120 MiB = the 3-slot contract + 1.3 % — the only dtype that funds 3 × 200,000 without gutting the slab, since bf16 bills 13.8 KiB/token), **MTP spec decode depth 2**, `--max-num-seqs 3` (the capacity contract is 3 × 200,000; 3 × (1+2) = 9 all-reduce rows, inside the 25-row wht6 exactness bound), `--max-model-len 200000`, MNBT 2048, Froggeric v22.5 template. KLD-gated (mean KL 0.0131, top-1 97.92 % vs BF16); decode ~190 t/s live (gate bar 30.8); prefill is **slab-limited and pays for it** — 22,208 → 3,397, 24,000 → 3,290, 25,600 → **3,584** t/s at 43.5k single-stream, 3-way 197k aggregate 3,051 → **3,589** t/s, with a cliff at ~26 GiB (26,071 → 4,379). Cutover 2026-10-08 from fp8-native (payload on disk = rollback); 3-slot fp8-KV shape 2026-10-13, re-cut twice in the slab's favour (22208/6912 at 4 slots → 24000/5120 → 25600/5120); the 4-slot shape (22208/6912, `--max-num-seqs 4`) is the documented rollback. | 7770 |
 | Dankclaw | `frank-dragoon` | **halogen-flash-server 0.16.2** (`ghcr.io/peonist-ai/halogen-flash-server@sha256:0c61bf84…`, digest-pinned, plain `podman run` via `scripts/serve-frank-dragoon.sh`, root systemd unit) | Quat3rnion/halogen-swift1.5-qwen3.8-flash-next-v2-abliterated **`qwen38-flash-next-v2-swift15-abliterated.hgn`** (66,687,678,464 B = compacted r2 of the card's 89,775,868,032 B original, ~62 GiB resident; the v2 `.hgn` format loads in NO other engine), **+ REQUIRED `qwen38-flash-next-ngram.hgn`** (51,200,246,144 B, peonist @5cc17cea — read beside the checkpoint) **+ vision tower** (897,916,416 B, @e053f488 — **vision ON**, `image_url` parts only, ≥256 px probes), **MTP spec decode ALWAYS-ON (`HALOGEN_SPEC_ADAPT=0` — the adaptive default disables the drafter per request and HALVES decode)**, MTP head INSIDE the checkpoint (`HALOGEN_MTP_HEAD` unset; no sidecar fetched), **2 slots × 262,144 ctx** (KV pool 524,288 positions ≈ 14.0 GiB at ~28 KiB/position; the 27B slots>1-disables-drafting law does NOT carry over — batching and speculation coexist, the card's quickstart ships 2 with the head), harness window 217,088 = ceiling − 45k estimate headroom, **server-side sampler 1.0/0.95/20** (card recipe; models.yml extraBody matches), coupled cap/timeout 65536/7200, prompt cache ON by default (warm 100k turn ≈ 2 s vs ≈ 88 s cold)|7770|
 | Dankclaw | `frank-zealot` | llama.cpp master (0.5.0-dev, commit `5fc4f3c`), CUDA sm_86 build (root systemd unit, relinked) | HauhauCS/Qwen3.5-9B-Uncensored-HauhauCS-Aggressive **Q6_K** (7,359,259,008 B; dense `qwen35` hybrid: 32 layers, 8 full-attention + 24 Gated DeltaNet, 4 KV heads × 256 dim, vocab 248,320, native 262,144, **no MTP tensors in the file**) + the publisher's own **BF16 mmproj** (921,704,448 B) for **vision**, on the RTX 3090, **TWO 200,704-token slots** (`--ctx-size 401408 --parallel 2`), **exact f16 K + f16 V** under flash attention (32 KiB/token over the 8 full layers = 12.25 GiB pool), batch 4096 / **ubatch 2048** (measured CUDA optimum), `--log-verbosity 4`, **MTP OFF** (forced: no `nextn` tensors exist). Priced from the MiMo Q6_K boots (same geometry, same card, same shape): 21,276/2,849 at ubatch 1024, 21,846/2,279 at 2048. Cutover 2026-10-07 (late) from Gemma4-26B-A4B Q4_K_M 1×200,704. All three endpoints route harness **compaction** here. | 7771 |
 
@@ -525,26 +525,35 @@ the throughput gate (decode ≥ 30.8 t/s) was passed at 4.5× the bar
 Rollback: revert the swap commit — the fp8-native `.rad`
 (`qwen4exp-fp8-native.rad`) and every prior payload remain on disk.
 
-**Shape (both R9700s, TP=2)**: `--tp-wire wht6`, `--max-num-seqs 4`,
+**Shape (both R9700s, TP=2)**: `--tp-wire wht6`, `--max-num-seqs 3`,
 `--max-model-len 200000` (the harness contextWindow must quote this),
 `--placement expert_tiered --host-pool-mib 44928` + **explicit VRAM
-partition `--vram-weights-mib 22208 --vram-kv-mib 6912`** (the vram-pair
+partition `--vram-weights-mib 25600 --vram-kv-mib 5120`** (the vram-pair
 replaced `--expert-vs-cache-ratio`; the two are ONE budget —
-`weights + kv ≤ 29,120 MiB`, from the measured card 31,856 minus 1,710
-consumed outside both budgets minus 1,024 to keep free), `--kv-cache-dtype`
-**`fp8` — quantized KV, restored 2026-10-13 because it is the only dtype that
-funds four slots at this window**, `--num-speculative-tokens 2`,
-`--max-num-batched-tokens 2048`, prefix cache 8 GiB pinned host + 64 GiB
-disk at `/home/dank/radiance-state`, **`--ngram-placement ram`**, Froggeric
-v22.5 chat template vendored (`scripts/qwen38-froggeric-v22.5.jinja`,
-`--override-chat-template`). Boot ledger (2026-10-13): `kv cache 6.75 GiB …
-backs 4 sequences all at 200000 tokens at once, which is the worst case` —
-`kv_attn` page 26.00 KiB (fp8) at 843,276 tokens (the sizing law predicted
-843,566), `kv_qsa_bkey` 3.25 KiB at the same token count, `kv_gdn_state` 54 MiB
-× 8 slots (4 sequences × 2 copies) = 432 MiB; the sampler prints **12 rows**
-(4 × (1+2), inside the 25-row `wht6` exactness bound); weights filled to
-147 KiB of slack, cards settled ~2 GiB free, and the KV pool lends 5.87 GiB to
-the expert slab (the fp8-era 3,543 MiB pool lent 2.69 GiB).
+`weights + kv ≤ 30,969 MiB`, derived from the engine's own budget table: card
+32,624 MiB, the pair at 29,120 settling 2,058 MiB free against the engine's
+209.19 MiB floor (`--gpu-headroom-mib 96` + 113.19 static), so 1,849 MiB is
+claimable and the old 29,120 bound was my hand-picked 1 GiB reserve, not a
+hardware wall), `--kv-cache-dtype` **`fp8` — quantized KV, restored 2026-10-13
+because it is the only dtype that funds the slot count at this window**,
+`--num-speculative-tokens 2`, `--max-num-batched-tokens 2048`, prefix cache
+8 GiB pinned host + 64 GiB disk at `/home/dank/radiance-state`,
+**`--ngram-placement ram`**, Froggeric v22.5 chat template vendored
+(`scripts/qwen38-froggeric-v22.5.jinja`, `--override-chat-template`). Boot
+ledger (2026-10-13, pair 25600/5120): `kv cache 5.00 GiB … backs 3 sequences
+all at 200000 tokens at once, which is the worst case` — `kv_attn` page
+26.00 KiB (fp8) at 607,740 tokens (the sizing law predicted 608,027),
+`kv_qsa_bkey` 3.25 KiB at the same token count, `kv_gdn_state` 54 MiB × 6 slots
+(3 sequences × 2 copies) = 324 MiB; the sampler prints **9 rows**
+(3 × (1+2), inside the 25-row `wht6` exactness bound); the slab filled to
+563 KiB of slack with **17,548 slots** (16,235 at 24,000, 14,753 at 22,208 —
+every 1,792 MiB buys ~1,300 resident experts, and the pinned host pool hands
+the same experts back: 8,893 → 7,580 slots); `unclaimed 477.30 MiB`, cards
+settled ~336 MiB free against the engine's 209.19 MiB floor, KV lending
+4.22 GiB to the expert cache. Prefill tracks this slab: the 24,000 → 25,600
+step measured +8.9 % single-stream (3,290 → 3,584 t/s at 43.5k) and +17.6 %
+concurrent (3-way 197k aggregate), so the pinned host pool is the slow path and
+every MiB moved from RAM onto the card is throughput.
 
 Shape notes carried from the fp8-native era and unchanged: wht6 gains,
 MNDT 2048 law (2560 collapses decode to 2.6–7.7 t/s), the 64 GiB disk