frank-primary: restore fp8 3x262144 (bf16 boot fails on a dynamo constraint)

bf16 at 2 x 262144 fails with and without --expert-precise-memory. The real
error (captured from the journal this time, container fixed via journald
rather than podman logs):

  RuntimeError: Worker failed with error 'Constraints violated
  (L['query_start_loc'].size()[0])! You marked it as dynamic but your code
  specialized it to be a constant (3)'

- a torch.compile/dynamo dynamic-shape violation, NOT an OOM. Ruled out a
  stale compile cache: ~/.cache/vllm holds only modelinfos (16K) and each
  podman run gets a fresh container filesystem.

The deltas from the last shape measured serving (fp8 3 x 262144 / MNBT 2048 /
792,069 tokens / 3.02x / arena 6,248) are KV dtype (fp8 -> bf16) and SEQS
(3 -> 2). Restoring the known-good shape; bisect bf16 vs SEQS in a window,
with --enforce-eager as the bypass.

scripts/frank-primary.env

@@ -59,7 +59,14 @@ FRANK_PRIMARY_PUBLISH=7770:7770
 # hoc experiment identity (both hold the GPUs / name registrations).
 FRANK_PRIMARY_LEGACY_CONTAINERS="frank-primary-r9v qwen-fp8"
 
-# --- qualified engine shape (2026-10-01, final: 2 bf16 windows + precise mem) --
+# --- qualified engine shape (2026-10-01, RESTORED KNOWN-GOOD: fp8 3 windows) ---
+# bf16 at 2 x 262144 did NOT stay up: with and without --expert-precise-memory
+# the boot failed (`Engine core initialization failed`, NRestarts climbing).
+# The last shape measured serving was fp8 3 x 262144 / MNBT 2048 / KV 6.1e9
+# (KV 792,069 tokens, 3.02x, arena 6,248, ~3.6 GiB free) and is restored here
+# while the bf16 path is investigated in a window (see log.md 2026-10-01).
+# Candidate next test: bf16 with SEQS=3 to isolate the KV dtype from the
+# sequence count, and/or --enforce-eager to bypass the dynamo constraint path.
 # SEQS 2 x MAXLEN 262144 at BF16 KV (Frank's call, 2026-10-01): two contexts of
 # the model's FULL native window with UNQUANTIZED KV, plus
 # --expert-precise-memory to hand the arena the compile/graph-capture headroom.
@@ -85,9 +92,9 @@ FRANK_PRIMARY_LEGACY_CONTAINERS="frank-primary-r9v qwen-fp8"
 # MNBT 2048 (Frank): the overhead formula only adds bytes above nbt 4096, so
 # 2048 pays nothing, and the arena sweep measured the same ceiling <= 4096.
 FRANK_PRIMARY_MAXLEN=262144
-FRANK_PRIMARY_SEQS=2
-FRANK_PRIMARY_KV_BYTES=7300000000
-FRANK_PRIMARY_KV_DTYPE=auto
+FRANK_PRIMARY_SEQS=3
+FRANK_PRIMARY_KV_BYTES=6100000000
+FRANK_PRIMARY_KV_DTYPE=fp8
 FRANK_PRIMARY_MNBT=2048
 FRANK_PRIMARY_GATHER_CHUNKS=32
 FRANK_PRIMARY_GATHER_LANES=64

serverAppConfigs-docs/log.md

@@ -663,6 +663,33 @@
 - `/tests/caddy_quadlet.bats` (new) + caddyfile/deployment_flow/pihole seams — quadlet boot persistence, self-healing, network, env, and sysctl coverage.
 - `/serverAppConfigs-docs/Infrastructure/Caddy.md`, `/serverAppConfigs-docs/Infrastructure/Pi-hole.md`, `/serverAppConfigs-docs/Dankclaw/Dankclaw Stack.md`, `/serverAppConfigs-docs/Dankclaw/Gitea.md`, `/serverAppConfigs-docs/Architecture/Deployment Flow.md` — quadlet runtime facts, the 2026-08-26 incident, the sysctl-conflict failure mode, canonical Caddy ownership.
 
+## 2026-10-01 — frank-primary RESTORED to fp8 3 x 262144 (bf16 boot fails)
+
+bf16 (--kv-cache-dtype auto) at 2 x 262144 did not stay up, with OR without
+--expert-precise-memory:
+
+- with precise: NRestarts 1->3, each attempt ~6.7 min then
+  `Deactivated successfully` (API server drains after an EngineCore fatal
+  error) — cause not captured, the serve script rm'd the container.
+- without precise (default 7.60 GiB overhead, arena 14.3 GiB): NRestarts
+  climbing, container `Exited (1)`, and the journal finally showed the real
+  error:
+  `RuntimeError: Worker failed with error 'Constraints violated
+   (L['query_start_loc'].size()[0])! You marked L['query_start_loc'].size()[0]
+   as dynamic but your code specialized it to be a constant (3)'`
+  — a torch.compile/dynamo dynamic-shape constraint violation, NOT an OOM.
+  `~/.cache/vllm` holds only `modelinfos` (16K) and each `podman run` gets a
+  fresh container filesystem, so a stale compile cache is ruled out: the
+  conflict is produced by this configuration's own compile path.
+
+Differences from the last shape measured serving (fp8 3 x 262144, MNBT 2048,
+KV 6.1e9 -> 792,069 tokens / 3.02x / arena 6,248 / 3.59 GiB free): KV dtype
+(fp8 -> bf16) and SEQS (3 -> 2). Both are candidates for the dynamo trigger;
+`--enforce-eager` is the bypass that would sidestep the constraint path.
+
+Restored: fp8 3 x 262144, MNBT 2048, KV_BYTES 6,100,000,000, no precise flag.
+Next: bisect bf16 vs SEQS in a window (bf16 + SEQS=3 isolates the dtype).
+
 ## 2026-10-01 — frank-primary: --expert-precise-memory + bf16 = boot crash loop
 
 **Reverted.** The two changes Frank asked for were applied together and the

tests/frank_primary_unit.bats

@@ -106,11 +106,11 @@ DOWNLOAD="$REPO_ROOT/scripts/download-frank-primary.sh"
     # tokens, 3,206 margin). The precise flag drops the plan's overhead
     # 7.60 -> 5.25 GiB, moving the arena from 6,248 to ~7,278 slots.
     grep -q '^FRANK_PRIMARY_MAXLEN=262144$' "$ENV_FILE"
-    grep -q '^FRANK_PRIMARY_SEQS=2$' "$ENV_FILE"
+    grep -q '^FRANK_PRIMARY_SEQS=3$' "$ENV_FILE"
     grep -q '^FRANK_PRIMARY_UTIL=0.98$' "$ENV_FILE"
-    grep -q '^FRANK_PRIMARY_KV_BYTES=7300000000$' "$ENV_FILE"
+    grep -q '^FRANK_PRIMARY_KV_BYTES=6100000000$' "$ENV_FILE"
     grep -q '^FRANK_PRIMARY_MNBT=2048$' "$ENV_FILE"
-    grep -q '^FRANK_PRIMARY_KV_DTYPE=auto$' "$ENV_FILE"
+    grep -q '^FRANK_PRIMARY_KV_DTYPE=fp8$' "$ENV_FILE"
     # --expert-precise-memory is NOT set: with bf16 2 x 262144 it put the boot
     # 0.13 GiB from the 31.86 GiB ceiling (arena 16.65 device-resident) and
     # crash-looped at graph capture. The serve script keeps the opt-in flag.
@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ DOWNLOAD="$REPO_ROOT/scripts/download-frank-primary.sh"
     # is two full-size windows instead of three; in exchange the KV is exact
     # (no quantization error) and measured +4% decode at shallow depth, where
     # fp8's dequant cost dominates over the extra bytes read.
-    grep -q '^FRANK_PRIMARY_KV_DTYPE=auto$' "$ENV_FILE"
+    grep -q '^FRANK_PRIMARY_KV_DTYPE=fp8$' "$ENV_FILE"
     grep -q -- '--kv-cache-dtype "$FRANK_PRIMARY_KV_DTYPE"' "$SERVE"
 }