Merge pull request 'perf(quant): the calibration boot's step and slots are its own knobs — probe at the measured 71 tok/s' (#86) from fix/qwen38-calib-shape into main

scripts/run-qwen38-bf16.sh

@@ -92,7 +92,8 @@
 #        the container reads through /models), FRANK_QWEN38_LOG_DIR, and the step
 #        and slot counts inherited as FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_BATCHED_TOKENS /
 #        FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_SEQS — no per-mode literals (the audit law: a mode that
-#        carries its own step measures a shape nothing serves) —
+#        carries its own step measures a shape nothing serves; calib is exempt, see
+#        Q38_CALIB_MNBT / Q38_CALIB_SEQS below — its output is never compared) —
 #        and FRANK_QWEN38_MAX_MODEL_LEN — the window every mode boots at (32,768;
 #        see the corpus census above, and raise it together with the corpus).
 # kldref refuses (exit 2) when the longest record of the corpus it is about to
@@ -185,6 +186,24 @@ if ! [[ "$MNBT" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]]; then
     exit 2
 fi
 
+# Calib's shape is NOT a measuring shape. kldref and score produce KL numbers that are only
+# comparable across boots at an identical shape, which is why they inherit production's step and
+# slots to the letter. The tap's output is layer Hessians, never a number any report compares, so
+# its step and slot count are its own — and they are the tap's dominant cost: a 7,168-token
+# document cut into four 2,048-token steps re-streams each layer's routed expert union four
+# times from the container, so one wide step is worth up to ~4x the read volume. Measured
+# 2026-10-29 at the inherited 2,048/4: prefill 71 tok/s and a 47-hour tap; the probe exists to
+# find out what the wide step is worth before the campaign pays for two days of drained serving.
+# Both default to the inherited value, so nothing moves unless a probe asks it to.
+CALIB_MNBT="${Q38_CALIB_MNBT:-$MNBT}"
+CALIB_SEQS="${Q38_CALIB_SEQS:-$MAX_SEQS}"
+for pair in "Q38_CALIB_MNBT=$CALIB_MNBT" "Q38_CALIB_SEQS=$CALIB_SEQS"; do
+    if ! [[ "${pair#*=}" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]]; then
+        echo "REFUSED: ${pair%%=*} must be a number (got: ${pair#*=})" >&2
+        exit 2
+    fi
+done
+
 # The window every mode boots at. Over-length is a REFUSAL, not a truncation (the
 # env file says so for production), so this is the number the corpus must fit in.
 MAX_MODEL_LEN="${FRANK_QWEN38_MAX_MODEL_LEN:-32768}"
@@ -296,7 +315,7 @@ case "$MODE" in
     # VRAM knob. The slots follow frank-archon.env's FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_SEQS
     # through MAX_SEQS, exactly as kldref and score do.
     ARGS+=(--model "$MODEL_IN" --port 7770
-           --max-num-seqs "$MAX_SEQS" --max-num-batched-tokens "$MNBT")
+           --max-num-seqs "$CALIB_SEQS" --max-num-batched-tokens "$CALIB_MNBT")
     # The tap is only real if this directory exists and the engine can write it:
     # without the check a typo'd CALIB_DIR auto-creates a root-owned empty dir in
     # whatever path was given, and the run burns hours serving prompts into a tap

tests/qwen38_campaign.bats

@@ -716,3 +716,18 @@ PY
     [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
     [ "$output" = "flat shrink grew done" ]
 }
+
+@test "the calibration boot's step is its own knob; the KL modes keep production's" {
+    # Calib is the only phase whose cost is read volume per document: four 2,048-token steps
+    # re-stream each layer's routed experts four times. Measured 2026-10-29: 71 tok/s, 47 h tap.
+    run env Q38_CALIB_MNBT=8192 bash "$RUNNER" calib --dry-run
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+    grep -A1 -x -- '--max-num-batched-tokens' <<<"$output" | grep -qx '8192'
+    # and the same knob must NOT reach the measuring shape those numbers are compared in
+    run env Q38_CALIB_MNBT=8192 bash "$RUNNER" kldref --dry-run
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+    ! grep -qx '8192' <<<"$output"
+    run env Q38_CALIB_MNBT=wide bash "$RUNNER" calib --dry-run
+    [ "$status" -eq 2 ]
+    [[ "$output" == *"Q38_CALIB_MNBT must be a number"* ]]
+}