fix(frank-archon): size the host pool so the KV cache clears 3 x 200,000

The 1.8.1 boot resolved the budget resolver to 4.20 GiB of cache a card —
556,348 tokens, 2.8 sessions at full height — so three concurrent
full-height requests are refused with a 400 at admission: the endpoint's
3-slot contract is broken by the cutover, silently, because /health and
every shorter conversation still answer.

The resolver gives the expert plane whatever the pinned host pool cannot
hold and the cache the rest, so the pool is the lever: +640 MiB a rank
moves that much expert demand into host RAM and the cache wins it back.
Tokens scale with the GiB won (8.11 KiB/token at fp8), so ~0.63 GiB buys
~44,000 tokens — 600,000 with margin — at ~2.5% off the expert slab.
TTM floor moves with the pool (2 x pool + 48,824 + prefix + MNBT =
150,200 MiB computed by the ledger test).

Verified by the boot ledger's `kv:` line and the probe's capacity leg,
not by this arithmetic.

scripts/autoresearch-frank-archon.sh

@@ -29,10 +29,10 @@
 # The scratch mirrors the production container contract exactly (serve-frank-
 # primary.sh): --network host, --init, seccomp=unconfined (io_uring for the
 # n-gram table), memlock unbounded (the ~132 GiB pinned ledger), /dev/kfd +
-# /dev/dri, the .rad ro, the state dir rw, the tune cache mount. The ONLY
+# /dev/dri, the .rad ro, the tune cache mount. The ONLY differences: the
-# differences: the container name (arbench, so prod's identity is untouched)
+# container name (arbench, so prod's identity is untouched) and the prefix cache
-# and a FRESH prefix-cache disk tier (arbench/, wiped per run) so the cold
+# switched OFF (--prefix-cache-mib 0), so every prefill is cold — the tier is
-# prefill is cold — the prod tier at kvcache/frank-archon is left intact.
+# host RAM now, there is no per-run disk directory to wipe.
 set -uo pipefail
 
 ENV_FILE="${1:-/home/dank/serverAppConfigs/scripts/frank-archon.env}"
@@ -60,9 +60,8 @@ set -a; . "$ENV_FILE"; set +a
 sudo systemctl stop frank-archon >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
 podman rm -f "$SCRATCH" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
 
-# --- fresh prefix-cache tier for a cold prefill (prod's tier untouched) ------
+# --- the prefix cache is switched off below, so there is no scratch KV tree ---
-FRESH_KV="$FRANK_ARCHON_STATE_DIR/kvcache/$SCRATCH"
+# to wipe; the cold prefill comes from --prefix-cache-mib 0.
-rm -rf "$FRESH_KV"; mkdir -p "$FRESH_KV"
 mkdir -p "$FRANK_ARCHON_STATE_DIR/tune"
 
 # --- boot the scratch: the production run line, scratch name + fresh KV ------
@@ -73,7 +72,6 @@ podman run -d --name "$SCRATCH" \
   --ulimit memlock=-1:-1 \
   --device /dev/kfd --device /dev/dri \
   -v "$FRANK_ARCHON_MODEL_DIR":/models:ro \
-  -v "$FRANK_ARCHON_STATE_DIR":/data \
   -v "$FRANK_ARCHON_STATE_DIR/tune":/opt/radiance/share/radiance/tune \
   -v "$FRANK_ARCHON_TEMPLATE":/templates/template.jinja:ro \
   "$FRANK_ARCHON_IMAGE" \
@@ -87,12 +85,9 @@ podman run -d --name "$SCRATCH" \
   --placement "$FRANK_ARCHON_PLACEMENT" \
   --host-pool-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_HOST_POOL_MIB" \
   --gpu-headroom-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_GPU_HEADROOM_MIB" \
-  --vram-weights-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_WEIGHTS_MIB" \
-  --vram-kv-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_KV_MIB" \
   --kv-cache-dtype "$FRANK_ARCHON_KV_DTYPE" \
-  --prefix-cache-host-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_HOST_MIB" \
+  --prefix-cache-mib 0 \
-  --prefix-cache-dir "/data/kvcache/$SCRATCH" \
+  --busy-prefill-chunk "${FRANK_ARCHON_BUSY_PREFILL_CHUNK:-auto}" \
-  --prefix-cache-disk-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_DISK_MIB" \
   --ngram-placement "$FRANK_ARCHON_NGRAM_PLACEMENT" \
   --num-speculative-tokens "$FRANK_ARCHON_SPEC_TOKENS" \
   --max-num-batched-tokens "$FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_BATCHED_TOKENS" \

scripts/frank-archon.env

@@ -7,10 +7,15 @@
 # only the reason a reader editing THIS line cannot recover from the page.
 # Where the two disagree, this file wins on values; the boot ledger arbitrates
 # the engine shape.
-FRANK_ARCHON_IMAGE=stilldeadcode/radiance@sha256:4c3f484564bb2872784e46b0a59cbd71becc9c1e746e301a3596ffae253c322e
+FRANK_ARCHON_IMAGE=stilldeadcode/radiance@sha256:d590e300234bf6d2f942a0b8d456d183153fd808f28820e6c2fa69c9389178ed
-# 1.0.13 is pinned by digest on purpose: 1.2.0 is a DEAD END on this payload
+# 1.8.1 (2026-10-18), pinned by digest. Two CLI breaks sit between it and the
-# (acceptance 0.7123 vs 0.7549 — the page's Dead ends section names the suspect).
+# 1.0.13 line this endpoint ran for two eras, and both are boot refusals, not
-# The .rad file mounted under /models; /data holds the prefix-cache disk tier.
+# warnings: --vram-weights-mib/--vram-kv-mib were REMOVED at 1.3.0 (the card is
+# now split by the engine's budget resolver — see below), and the prefix cache
+# lost its disk tier. Draft acceptance has to be re-scored on any pin past 1.2.0:
+# 1.2.0's MoE weight rotation measured 0.7123 against the 0.7549 control, and the
+# suspect is untangled (the page's Dead ends section names it).
+# The .rad file mounts under /models; the tune cache mounts separately below.
 # The model dir holds ONLY .rad files — the HF download and staging stay beside it.
 FRANK_ARCHON_MODEL_DIR=/home/dank/models/rad
 FRANK_ARCHON_MODEL_FILE=qwen3.8-next-flash-fp8-iq4r-moe.rad
@@ -52,21 +57,30 @@ FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_SEQS=3
 # sequence.
 FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_MODEL_LEN=200000
 FRANK_ARCHON_PLACEMENT=expert_tiered
-# Pinned host pool for expert rows that do not fit VRAM. It moves WITH
+# Pinned host pool for expert rows that do not fit VRAM. Under the budget
-# VRAM_WEIGHTS: the pair and this pool serve the per-rank resident set together,
+# resolver this is ALSO the lever that decides which experts stay on the card:
-# so cutting the slab spills here — under-sizing it is a boot failure (36,864
+# the card's leftover goes to the expert plane first and the KV cache takes the
+# rest, so growing the pool moves experts off the card and shrinking it spills
+# them onto VRAM the cache wanted. Under-sizing it is a boot failure (36,864
 # refused a boot). The ledger's coverage line is the referee, not this file.
-FRANK_ARCHON_HOST_POOL_MIB=44928
+# Sized so the cache clears the 3 x MAX_MODEL_LEN contract: the 1.8.1 boot at
+# 44,928 resolved the cache to 556,348 tokens — 2.8 sessions — and three
+# concurrent full-height requests came back 400 in 0.0 s. Tokens scale with the
+# GiB the cache wins, so +640 MiB a rank buys ~44,000 tokens of ceiling with
+# ~2.5% off the expert slab.
+FRANK_ARCHON_HOST_POOL_MIB=45568
 # VRAM left unclaimed per card (publisher default 96 MiB); the engine's settle
 # floor is built from it.
 FRANK_ARCHON_GPU_HEADROOM_MIB=96
-# ONE budget per card: VRAM_WEIGHTS + VRAM_KV <= 30,969 MiB, the ceiling the
+# There is no VRAM pair any more. --vram-weights-mib/--vram-kv-mib were removed
-# engine's own budget table prints (derivation and the slab/pool price: the
+# at 1.3.0: the engine takes capacity - already-held - GPU_HEADROOM - arena,
-# page's VRAM laws). Idle KV VRAM is ALSO the expert cache's spillover, so a
+# puts the static (non-expert) weights off the top, then divides the rest between
-# bigger pool pays twice — which is why the pool sits at the contract and the
+# the expert plane and the KV cache — experts first when the cache has no idle
-# slab takes the rest.
+# blocks to lend, and never less than ONE MAX_MODEL_LEN sequence for the cache.
-FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_WEIGHTS_MIB=25600
+# What moves the split from here is HOST_POOL_MIB (which experts stay resident),
-FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_KV_MIB=5120
+# MAX_MODEL_LEN/MAX_SEQS (the cache bound) and GPU_HEADROOM_MIB. The slab size
+# the prefill-slope law cares about is a boot-ledger line now, not a knob: read
+# it after every resize instead of asserting it here.
 # fp8 is the ONLY rung below bf16 on this engine: one kv_dtype for the whole
 # cache, so llama.cpp's exact-K/quantized-V split (frank-zealot) is unservable
 # here. bf16 costs 1.89x fp8, not 2x — the QSA block-key plane is dtype-fixed.
@@ -75,20 +89,37 @@ FRANK_ARCHON_KV_DTYPE=fp8
 # 2, and 3 x (1+2) = 9 rows stays inside the wht6 25-row exactness bound.
 FRANK_ARCHON_SPEC_TOKENS=2
 FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_BATCHED_TOKENS=2048
-# Prefix cache tiers. The host tier is sized in ENTRIES and one entry tracks the
+# Step sharing. A prefill chunk that shares a step with decoding sequences holds
-# cache dtype (58.50 KiB at fp8), so a dtype change re-sizes the parked set
+# the device for the chunk's whole time, and every decode row in that step waits
-# without touching these numbers.
+# that long for its next token (the census: [[LLM Performance Diagnosis]] §9).
-FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_HOST_MIB=8192
+# `auto` leaves each decode row behind the chunk a row plus its draft window and
-FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_DISK_MIB=65536
+# keeps a share for whatever is waiting to be admitted; a number pins the chunk's
+# cap; `off` is the pre-1.4 behaviour this endpoint ran for two eras, where the
+# chunk took the step and admission never ran. Interleave inserts N decode-only
+# steps after a chunk step taken beside decoders: it protects their cadence and
+# holds a waiting request out of those steps, so it stays 0 until the post-migration
+# decode-vs-prefill buckets say it is wanted.
+FRANK_ARCHON_BUSY_PREFILL_CHUNK=auto
+FRANK_ARCHON_PREFILL_INTERLEAVE=0
+# Prefix cache: pinned host memory only. The disk tier was removed outright
+# (--prefix-cache-dir and --prefix-cache-disk-mib are refusals), so what used to
+# be restored from NVMe is now re-prefilled. The tier is sized in ENTRIES and one
+# entry tracks the cache dtype (58.50 KiB at fp8). Watch prefix_hit_rate after
+# this change: a drop is extra prefill, and prefill is exactly the traffic that
+# costs decode its cadence.
+FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_CACHE_MIB=8192
 # Frank's pin law: the PLE n-gram table serves from pinned host RAM the cards
 # read. `ram` REFUSES the start if memlock is too small — the unit's
 # LimitMEMLOCK=infinity is the other half of this law.
 FRANK_ARCHON_NGRAM_PLACEMENT=ram
-# TTM preflight. The pinned ledger (~147 GiB) rides TTM's shared pages, and the
+# TTM preflight. The pinned ledger rides TTM's shared pages, and the kernel
-# kernel RESETS pages_limit to half of RAM on every boot; below the plan the
+# RESETS pages_limit to half of RAM on every boot; below the plan the load dies
-# load dies mid-pin with an anonymous allocator error. ttm-preflight.sh raises
+# mid-pin with an anonymous allocator error. ttm-preflight.sh raises the knob
-# the knob itself before refusing by name, so recovery is a boot, not a visit.
+# itself before refusing by name, so recovery is a boot, not a visit.
-FRANK_ARCHON_TTM_MIN_MIB=150000
+# Floor = 2 x HOST_POOL + 48,824 (static weights + arena) + PREFIX_CACHE + MNBT
+# per the bats ledger test; at the 45,568 pool that computes to 150,200 MiB, so
+# the floor sits just above it.
+FRANK_ARCHON_TTM_MIN_MIB=152000
 FRANK_ARCHON_TTM_TARGET_MIB=204800
 # Escape hatch for experiments. Unset -> no extra argv; the serve script expands
 # this unquoted on purpose, so keep multi-flag values as one string.

scripts/frank-zealot.env

@@ -32,9 +32,12 @@ PARALLEL=3
 # on [[frank-zealot]]); 1024×6 keeps it a clean multiple of the ubatch.
 BATCH_SIZE=6144
 # Ubatch is a prefill knob (decode never moves with it) and it sets the
-# compute-buffer size — which is what decides whether a drafter fits: 1024
+# compute-buffer size, which decides whether a drafter fits. 1024 is the rung
-# hands back ~1,306 MiB beside the draft context, and it is the rung the
+# every measured MTP arm here ran on (213.5 t/s against 109.2 at 2048). Its
-# measured MTP arm ran (213.5 t/s at 1024 against 109.2 at 2048).
+# VRAM credit is SHAPE-specific: the 786,432-pool arm census showed ~1,306 MiB
+# back, this boot measured 2,089.88 MiB of target compute against 2,496.13 at
+# ubatch 2048 — 406 MiB back, with the split moving (CUDA0 +257, CUDA_Host
+# −663). The drafter is funded by CACHE_TYPE_V below, not by this knob.
 UBATCH_SIZE=1024
 # K exact, V in the 8-bit class: 16,384 + 8,704 = 25,088 B/token (8,192
 # elements per token per cache × 2 B for f16, × 1.0625 for q8_0 — there is no

scripts/serve-frank-archon.sh

@@ -15,12 +15,13 @@
 # log states every budget before anything is allocated (weights vs KV
 # split, the expert host pool's coverage of the worst case, the PLE pin,
 # the P2P answer per pair) — read it after every resize.
-# Deployed shape (2026-10-13): THREE decode slots x 200,000 tokens, fp8
+# Deployed shape (2026-10-19, radiance 1.8.1): THREE decode slots x 200,000
-# (quantized) KV in a 5,120 MiB pool (contract 3 x 200,000 + 1.3 %) and a
+# tokens, fp8 KV, 44 GiB/rank pinned expert pool, MTP depth 2, prefix cache in
-# 25,600 MiB resident expert slab — 30,720 MiB of the 30,969 MiB the engine's
+# pinned host RAM, PLE pinned in RAM. The per-card split between the expert slab
-# own budget table makes claimable, spent on the slab because prefill is
+# and the KV pool is NO LONGER an operator number — 1.3.0 removed the VRAM pair
-# slab-limited. 44 GiB/rank pinned expert pool, MTP depth 2, prefix cache host
+# and the budget resolver derives it from headroom, the cache bound and the host
-# 8 GiB + disk 64 GiB, PLE pinned in RAM.
+# pool, so the slab size and the pool's token count are LEDGER lines: after every
+# boot read them out of the log and check the pool still backs 3 x 200,000.
 #
 # The root unit (scripts/frank-archon.service, User=dank,
 # LimitMEMLOCK=infinity) grants the pin budget: 2 x 44 GiB expert pools +
@@ -56,13 +57,11 @@ set +a
 : "${FRANK_ARCHON_PLACEMENT:?FRANK_ARCHON_PLACEMENT must be set}"
 : "${FRANK_ARCHON_HOST_POOL_MIB:?FRANK_ARCHON_HOST_POOL_MIB must be set}"
 : "${FRANK_ARCHON_GPU_HEADROOM_MIB:?FRANK_ARCHON_GPU_HEADROOM_MIB must be set}"
-: "${FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_WEIGHTS_MIB:?FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_WEIGHTS_MIB must be set}"
+: "${FRANK_ARCHON_BUSY_PREFILL_CHUNK:?FRANK_ARCHON_BUSY_PREFILL_CHUNK must be set (auto|off|N)}"
-: "${FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_KV_MIB:?FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_KV_MIB must be set}"
 : "${FRANK_ARCHON_KV_DTYPE:?FRANK_ARCHON_KV_DTYPE must be set}"
 : "${FRANK_ARCHON_SPEC_TOKENS:?FRANK_ARCHON_SPEC_TOKENS must be set}"
 : "${FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_BATCHED_TOKENS:?FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_BATCHED_TOKENS must be set}"
-: "${FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_HOST_MIB:?FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_HOST_MIB must be set}"
+: "${FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_CACHE_MIB:?FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_CACHE_MIB must be set}"
-: "${FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_DISK_MIB:?FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_DISK_MIB must be set}"
 : "${FRANK_ARCHON_NGRAM_PLACEMENT:?FRANK_ARCHON_NGRAM_PLACEMENT must be set}"
 : "${FRANK_ARCHON_TTM_MIN_MIB:?FRANK_ARCHON_TTM_MIN_MIB must be set}"
 : "${FRANK_ARCHON_TTM_TARGET_MIB:?FRANK_ARCHON_TTM_TARGET_MIB must be set}"
@@ -103,19 +102,12 @@ if [ ! -f "$FRANK_ARCHON_TEMPLATE" ]; then
     exit 1
 fi
 
-mkdir -p "$FRANK_ARCHON_STATE_DIR/kvcache/frank-archon"
-# The engine's create is NOT recursive: with only the state dir mounted, its
-# "cannot create /data/kvcache/frank-archon: No such file or directory"
-# left the SSD prefix tier off (measured 2026-10-06 boot ledger). Pre-create
-# the full path on the host so the tier opens on first boot.
-
 mkdir -p "$FRANK_ARCHON_STATE_DIR/tune"
 # rad-tune's kernel-selection cache (see the runbook's "Tuning levers"):
 # the engine's selector reads $RADIANCE_HOME/tune/<machine>.tune at boot;
 # $RADIANCE_HOME defaults to /opt/radiance, which lives in the image, so
 # the cache must ride a host mount or it dies with the --rm container
-# that wrote it. The dir is pre-created for the same reason as kvcache
+# that wrote it. The engine's create is not recursive, so the dir is pre-created.
-# (the engine's create is not recursive).
 
 if [ ! -e /dev/kfd ] || [ ! -d /dev/dri ]; then
     echo "ERROR: GPU device nodes absent (/dev/kfd, /dev/dri)" >&2
@@ -148,6 +140,15 @@ done
 LOG=/home/dank/logs/frank_archon.log
 mkdir -p "$(dirname "$LOG")"
 
+# Interleave is opt-in: 0 is the engine's default and passing it anyway would put
+# a flag in argv that changes nothing but the record. The sharing cap is always
+# explicit because `auto` vs `off` is the difference between decode waiting one
+# chunk and waiting the whole step.
+PREFILL_ARGS=()
+if [ "${FRANK_ARCHON_PREFILL_INTERLEAVE:-0}" -gt 0 ]; then
+    PREFILL_ARGS=(--prefill-interleave "$FRANK_ARCHON_PREFILL_INTERLEAVE")
+fi
+
 # Publisher-vetted container contract (docs/DOCKER.md, compose/common.yaml):
 # --network host (the server binds the host's addresses directly, no NAT),
 # --init (the engine releases the cards on SIGTERM), seccomp=unconfined
@@ -156,8 +157,9 @@ mkdir -p "$(dirname "$LOG")"
 # makes for host memory), memlock unbounded (the pinned ledger — legal
 # because the root unit grants LimitMEMLOCK=infinity to this dank process),
 # /dev/kfd + /dev/dri (render/video groups are moot for a root container).
-# The template rides a single-file mount; the .rad dir is ro; /data holds
+# The template rides a single-file mount and the .rad dir is ro. The prefix cache
-# the prefix-cache disk tier.
+# has no disk tier any more, so the only host state this container writes is the
+# rad-tune cache under /opt/radiance/share/radiance/tune.
 podman run -d --name "$FRANK_ARCHON_CONTAINER" \
   --network host \
   --init \
@@ -165,7 +167,6 @@ podman run -d --name "$FRANK_ARCHON_CONTAINER" \
   --ulimit memlock=-1:-1 \
   --device /dev/kfd --device /dev/dri \
   -v "$FRANK_ARCHON_MODEL_DIR":/models:ro \
-  -v "$FRANK_ARCHON_STATE_DIR":/data \
   -v "$FRANK_ARCHON_STATE_DIR/tune":/opt/radiance/share/radiance/tune \
   -v "$FRANK_ARCHON_TEMPLATE":/templates/template.jinja:ro \
   "$FRANK_ARCHON_IMAGE" \
@@ -179,15 +180,13 @@ podman run -d --name "$FRANK_ARCHON_CONTAINER" \
   --placement "$FRANK_ARCHON_PLACEMENT" \
   --host-pool-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_HOST_POOL_MIB" \
   --gpu-headroom-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_GPU_HEADROOM_MIB" \
-  --vram-weights-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_WEIGHTS_MIB" \
-  --vram-kv-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_KV_MIB" \
   --kv-cache-dtype "$FRANK_ARCHON_KV_DTYPE" \
-  --prefix-cache-host-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_HOST_MIB" \
+  --prefix-cache-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_CACHE_MIB" \
-  --prefix-cache-dir /data/kvcache/frank-archon \
-  --prefix-cache-disk-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_DISK_MIB" \
   --ngram-placement "$FRANK_ARCHON_NGRAM_PLACEMENT" \
   --num-speculative-tokens "$FRANK_ARCHON_SPEC_TOKENS" \
   --max-num-batched-tokens "$FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_BATCHED_TOKENS" \
+  --busy-prefill-chunk "$FRANK_ARCHON_BUSY_PREFILL_CHUNK" \
+  "${PREFILL_ARGS[@]}" \
   ${FRANK_ARCHON_EXTRA_ARGS:+$FRANK_ARCHON_EXTRA_ARGS} \
   > "$LOG" 2>&1
 

scripts/serve-frank-zealot.sh

@@ -37,10 +37,12 @@
 # accepts well (0.798/0.617 per position, mean length 2.41, measured 2026-10-18);
 # what made it lose that evening was the bill, not the drafts — the draft context
 # is built against the target's WHOLE pool, so blk.32 adds 4,096 B/position
-# (2,352.00 MiB at 602,112) plus ~0.45 GiB of buffers at this ubatch, and the
+# (2,352.00 MiB at 602,112) plus 480.97 MiB of its own compute buffers on the
-# recurrent state triples. Dropping V to q8_0 (−3,840 MiB at this pool) and the
+# card, and it triples the recurrent state per slot (452.25 MiB for three cells
-# ubatch to 1024 (−~1,306 MiB of compute buffers) is how those two bills got
+# against 50.25 a cell with the drafter off). CACHE_TYPE_V=q8_0 is what pays
-# paid; the arm census and the rates are on [[frank-zealot]]. SPEC_TYPE=none is
+# that: 7,680 B/token cheaper than exact V, 4,410 MiB at this pool. The ubatch
+# drop to 1024 contributes ~406 MiB here, NOT the ~1,306 the 786,432-pool census
+# showed — that figure does not transfer between shapes. SPEC_TYPE=none is
 # the rollback and strips the whole flag set.
 #
 # Sampling: the checkpoint carries the publisher's thinking recipe as GGUF
@@ -81,8 +83,8 @@ fi
 # Compute-buffer geometry. Ubatch is a prefill knob (decode never moves).
 # The logical batch is VRAM- and throughput-neutral at a fixed ubatch, so 6144
 # (1024×6) is free; the ubatch is what sets the compute-buffer size, and 1024 is
-# the rung that leaves room for the draft context (−~1,306 MiB against 2048, and
+# the rung every measured MTP arm here ran on (213.5 t/s at 1024 against 109.2
-# the measured MTP arm ran here: 213.5 t/s at 1024 against 109.2 at 2048).
+# at 2048) — worth ~406 MiB at THIS shape, not the ~1,306 the old pool showed.
 : "${BATCH_SIZE:=6144}"
 : "${UBATCH_SIZE:=1024}"
 # Asymmetric KV: f16 K (the engine's own default, spelled out so the contract is

serverAppConfigs-docs/LLM/frank-zealot.md

@@ -47,11 +47,12 @@ buys both and costs the keys their precision.
 **MTP is ON (Frank, 2026-10-19).** The drafter was always good — 2026-10-18 measured acceptance 0.798 / 0.617 per
 position, mean accepted length 2.41, and the publisher's card says depth 2 works best — and arming it is a
 budget decision, not a flag: the draft context is built against the *target's* pool, so `blk.32` bills 4,096
-B/position (2,352.00 MiB at 602,112) plus ~0.45 GiB of buffers at this ubatch and its own recurrent cells.
+B/position (2,352.00 MiB at 602,112) plus 480.97 MiB of its own CUDA0 buffers, and it triples the recurrent
-`CACHE_TYPE_V=q8_0` (−3,840 MiB against exact V at this pool) and `UBATCH_SIZE=1024` (−~1,306 MiB of compute
+state (452.25 MiB for three cells against 150.75 with the drafter off). `CACHE_TYPE_V=q8_0` is what pays that:
-buffers, and the rung every measured MTP arm here ran on) are what pay for it; `UBATCH_SIZE=2048` beside an armed
+7,680 B/token cheaper than exact V = **4,410.00 MiB** at this pool. `UBATCH_SIZE=1024` — the rung every measured
-drafter is the shape that halved decode (167.2 → 109.2 t/s). `--spec-draft-type-k`/`--spec-draft-type-v` (default
+MTP arm here ran on — contributes only ~406 MiB at THIS shape, not the ~1,306 the 786,432-pool census showed,
-f16, verified in this build's `--help`) would cut the draft's bill again and stay at their default; there is no
+and `UBATCH_SIZE=2048` beside an armed drafter is still the shape that halved decode (167.2 → 109.2 t/s).
+`--spec-draft-type-k`/`--spec-draft-type-v` (default f16, verified in this build's `--help`) would cut the draft's bill again and stay at their default; there is no
 `--spec-draft-model` — the draft rides the main model's weights, so a draft file would load the trunk twice.
 `SPEC_TYPE=none` is the rollback and strips the whole set.
 
@@ -62,23 +63,47 @@ longer prompt with a 400, never a truncation — plus `maxTokens: 16384`, `input
 only `xhigh|medium|low` and raises on anything else), `extraBody` 1.0 / 0.95 / 20 / `min_p 0`, and the
 `compactionModel` of [[frank-archon]], [[frank-dragoon]] **and** frank-zealot all pointing here.
 
-**This shape ships unbenchmarked, by law.** Frank ordered the reslice, not a
+**No rates, by law.** Frank ordered the reslice, not a number: the evidence a swap needs is
-number, so the evidence a swap needs is the seam's fit gate (it prices cache +
+the seam's fit gate, the deployer's health gate, and the boot ledger below. The previous era's
-draft cache + recurrent states against the 24,123 MiB the driver leaves
+exact-KV boot and its rate floors live in that era's row; those floors were measured while
-addressable, and refuses the two boots this shape can walk into: exact V with the
+another consumer drove the other slot (56 prompts in three minutes, 96 % GPU-util), the exact
-drafter armed, and the retired dtype pair at the retired pool), the deployer's
+condition a bench window exists to exclude.
-health gate, and the first verbosity-4 ledger of the new dtype pair — which is
+
-recorded on this page because projections drift, and nowhere else. The previous
+**The 2026-10-19 boot, measured** — verbosity-4 ledger of `ba69ea5`, started 03:21:56 PDT.
-era's exact-KV boot and its rate floors live in that era's row below; those floors
+Recorded here because projections drift, and nowhere else:
-were measured while another consumer drove the other slot (56 prompts in three
+
-minutes, 96 % GPU-util), the exact condition a bench window exists to exclude.
+| Term | Ledger |
+|---|---|
+| Target KV over the 602,112 pool | **14,406.00 MiB** — K (f16) 9,408.00 + V (q8_0) 4,998.00, `200704 cells, 8 layers, 3/3 seqs` |
+| Draft KV (`blk.32`, its own f16 context) | **2,352.00 MiB** — 1,176.00 + 1,176.00, `200704 cells, 1 layers, 3/3 seqs`: the whole pool, again |
+| Recurrent state | **452.25 MiB** — `3 cells, 32 layers, 3 seqs, 2 rs_seq`, R (f32) 20.25 + S (f32) 432.00 |
+| Compute buffers | target 1,665.00 CUDA0 + 424.88 CUDA_Host; draft context 480.97 + 424.86 |
+| Weights | 2,283.29 CUDA0 + 257.66 CPU-mapped |
+| Projector | 595.29 model + 248.10 compute + 24.93 CPU (its 868.32 worst case is still charged AFTER the engine's fit check) |
+| Engine's own verdict | projected 21,639 vs 23,404 free, then **"cannot meet free memory target of 1,867 MiB, need to reduce device memory by 102 MiB"** |
+| Settled | **22,870 used / 1,255 free**, `n_slots = 3`, `n_ctx_slot = 200704`, `kv_unified = false` |
+
+This is the first boot on this card that does **not** meet llama.cpp's own free-memory target,
+and 1,255 MiB settled sits under the ~2 GiB band every previous era held. It boots, `/health`
+answers, and the seam's gate still passes — it priced 22,428 MiB, conservative by 442 against
+this ledger. The cheapest rungs back into the band are `CTX_SIZE=401408` (two conversations) or
+`SPEC_TYPE=none`; both are one line and neither changes the payload.
+
+**The drafter is engaged, measured on the same boot** (three ordinary requests, not a bench):
+acceptance 0.706 and 0.763 accepted-per-generated, mean accepted length 2.41 / 2.53,
+per-position rates (0.882, 0.765) and (0.871, 0.699) — depth 2 earning its keep at 0.3–1.5 MiB
+of draft state per saved prompt. The three probes that prove a swap: chat → `"zealot alive"`
+with 448 completion tokens (at `max_tokens: 64` the same request returns EMPTY content with
+`finish_reason: length` — the thinking-budget trap, not a fault); tools →
+`finish_reason: tool_calls` with `{"a":24,"b":7}`; vision → a 512 px solid-red PNG answers
+"Red" at `prompt_tokens` 280.
 
 **Fallback rungs**, cheapest first — one line of `frank-zealot.env` each, and each must keep the seam's fit gate green:
 
 | Knob | Effect from the shipped shape |
 |---|---|
-| `SPEC_TYPE=none` | the drafter off: hands back 2,352 MiB of draft cache plus its buffers and recurrent cells, at the cost of the ~+28 % decode the 2026-10-18 census measured whenever the card has room |
+| `SPEC_TYPE=none` | the drafter off: hands back its 2,352.00 MiB of cache, 480.97 MiB of CUDA0 buffers and the 301.50 MiB of rollback planes it adds to the recurrent state (~3.1 GiB), at the cost of the ~+28 % decode the 2026-10-18 census measured whenever the card has room |
-| `UBATCH_SIZE=2048` | +~1,306 MiB of compute buffers and +4.6 % prefill — and the rung that HALVED decode beside an armed drafter (167.2 → 109.2 t/s) |
+| `UBATCH_SIZE=2048` | +4.6 % prefill and only ~406 MiB of compute buffers at THIS shape (the ~1,306 MiB the 786,432-pool census showed does not transfer) — and the rung that HALVED decode beside an armed drafter (167.2 → 109.2 t/s) |
 | `CTX_SIZE=401408` | two 200,704 conversations: frees 4,802 MiB of cache — `contextWindow` MUST follow the per-slot number |
 | `CACHE_TYPE_V=f16` | exact V: +4,410 MiB at this pool with the drafter armed, which is a `cudaMalloc` death the seam refuses — legal only once the drafter or a slot is gone |
 | `CACHE_TYPE_K=q8_0` | the fully quantized pair (17,408 B/token): frees 4,410 MiB and moves the quantization error into the keys |
@@ -127,6 +152,10 @@ minutes, 96 % GPU-util), the exact condition a bench window exists to exclude.
   `tests/frank_zealot_unit.bats`'s fit gate can see a boot that would die at `cudaMalloc`, so every retune keeps it
   green — and the first verbosity-4 ledger plus settled `nvidia-smi` of a new dtype belongs on this page, because
   projections drift.
+  The same trap one knob down: the ubatch 2048 → 1024 step handed back **~1,306 MiB** at the 786,432 / q8_0-pair
+  arm and **406 MiB** at the 602,112 / f16-K + q8_0-V boot (target compute 2,496.13 → 2,089.88, with CUDA0 going
+  UP 257 while CUDA_Host went down 663). Changing the dtype or the pool moves the compute buffers too, so a
+  credit measured at one shape is not a budget line at the next.
   The two boots that priced non-KV: 2 × 262,144 **without** the projector — 20,190 used, KV 12,800 ⇒ non-KV
   **7,390 MiB**; 3 × 196,608 **with** it — 22,972 used, KV 14,113 ⇒ non-KV **8,859 MiB**. The difference prices the
   vision tower at **~1.4 GiB for a 918 MB file**, because the encoder's activation and compute buffers ride with it.

tests/frank_archon_unit.bats

@@ -9,9 +9,9 @@
 # rollback). It replaces the FreeToken seam of
 # 2026-10-05 (git tag frank-archon-freetoken-pr587-20261005) and pins what
 # flags alone do not say: the served window clears the harness worst case,
-# the KV pool backs seqs x max-model-len at the declared cache dtype (an
+# the retired per-card budget knobs are ABSENT (the pinned engine refuses
-# engine HARD limit, not a ratio), the per-card VRAM pair stays inside the
+# them at ExecStart), the pinned-host ledger has a ttm pages cap floor, the
-# the pinned-host ledger has a ttm pages cap floor, the serve script ENFORCES
+# serve script ENFORCES
 # it and RAISES the knob itself when a reboot reset it (the cap's default is
 # half of RAM), the served window is what models.yml must
 # quote, the host-networking contract (no --publish), the image gate on a
@@ -146,20 +146,23 @@ nosudo_bin() {
     grep -q '^FRANK_ARCHON_TP=2$' "$ENV_FILE"
     grep -q '^FRANK_ARCHON_TP_WIRE=wht6$' "$ENV_FILE"
     grep -q '^FRANK_ARCHON_SPEC_TOKENS=2$' "$ENV_FILE"
-    # expert_tiered placement: vram_weights + the pinned host pool serve the
+    # expert_tiered placement: the pinned host pool plus whatever expert VRAM the
-    # per-rank resident set TOGETHER, so cutting the VRAM slab to pay for the
+    # budget resolver leaves serve the per-rank resident set TOGETHER, so the pool
-    # KV pool moves the pool with it. KV is QUANTIZED fp8 (the engine takes
+    # size is also the lever on which experts stay on the card. KV is QUANTIZED
-    # only bf16|fp8 — no per-tensor K/V split), the PLE n-gram table is pinned
+    # fp8 (the engine takes only bf16|fp8 — no per-tensor K/V split), the PLE
-    # in host RAM per Frank's law.
+    # n-gram table is pinned in host RAM per Frank's law. The per-card VRAM pair
+    # is NOT asserted here: 1.3.0 removed it and the resolver derives the split,
+    # so the pool's token count is a boot-ledger line — verified live by the
+    # capacity leg of scripts/probe-frank-archon-kv.py at every cutover.
     grep -q '^FRANK_ARCHON_PLACEMENT=expert_tiered$' "$ENV_FILE"
-    grep -q '^FRANK_ARCHON_HOST_POOL_MIB=44928$' "$ENV_FILE"
+    grep -q '^FRANK_ARCHON_HOST_POOL_MIB=45568$' "$ENV_FILE"
-    grep -q '^FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_WEIGHTS_MIB=[1-9]' "$ENV_FILE"
-    grep -q '^FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_KV_MIB=[1-9]' "$ENV_FILE"
     grep -q '^FRANK_ARCHON_KV_DTYPE=fp8$' "$ENV_FILE"
     grep -q '^FRANK_ARCHON_NGRAM_PLACEMENT=ram$' "$ENV_FILE"
-    # Prefix cache tiers (publisher pattern; disk tier sized for 2 slots).
+    # Prefix cache: pinned host RAM only (the disk tier was removed), and the
-    grep -q '^FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_HOST_MIB=8192$' "$ENV_FILE"
+    # step-sharing cap is stated explicitly — auto vs off is the difference
-    grep -q '^FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_DISK_MIB=65536$' "$ENV_FILE"
+    # between decode waiting one chunk and waiting a whole step.
+    grep -q '^FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_CACHE_MIB=8192$' "$ENV_FILE"
+    grep -q '^FRANK_ARCHON_BUSY_PREFILL_CHUNK=auto$' "$ENV_FILE"
     # The pinned ledger (2 x pool + 47.7 GiB PLE + prefix host) must be
     # under the ttm pages cap, and the env states the floor the serve
     # script enforces (>= 140,000 MiB — the kernel's own default cap, half of
@@ -170,7 +173,7 @@ nosudo_bin() {
     ttmt=$(awk -F= '/^FRANK_ARCHON_TTM_TARGET_MIB=/{print $2}' "$ENV_FILE")
     [ "$ttmt" -gt "$ttmm" ]
     pool=$(awk -F= '/^FRANK_ARCHON_HOST_POOL_MIB=/{print $2}' "$ENV_FILE")
-    ph=$(awk -F= '/^FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_HOST_MIB=/{print $2}' "$ENV_FILE")
+    ph=$(awk -F= '/^FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_CACHE_MIB=/{print $2}' "$ENV_FILE")
     # 2 pools + PLE 47.7 GiB (48,824 MiB) + prefix host, rounded up.
     ledger=$(( 2 * pool + 48824 + ph + 2048 ))
     [ "$ttmm" -ge "$ledger" ]
@@ -179,47 +182,21 @@ nosudo_bin() {
     [ "$(awk -F= '/^FRANK_ARCHON_RAD_MIN_MIB=/{print $2}' "$ENV_FILE")" -gt 0 ]
 }
 
-@test "the KV pool backs seqs x max-model-len at the declared cache dtype" {
+@test "the retired budget knobs are absent from the env and the argv" {
-    # The engine's own hard limit: a request longer than the pool's token
+    # Not unused leftovers: the pinned engine REFUSES to start on any of them
-    # count is "accepted by the API and then refused as too large to ever fit
+    # (--vram-weights-mib/--vram-kv-mib went away at 1.3.0, the prefix-cache disk
-    # -- this is a hard limit, not a backing ratio". Rates are measured, not
+    # tier outright), and a unit that refuses at ExecStart sits in
-    # derived: per rank, kv_attn (13 layers) pages 26.00 KiB per 4 tokens at
+    # `activating (auto-restart)` while the port still looks alive from whatever
-    # fp8 and 52.00 KiB at bf16, while kv_qsa_bkey (13 layers) pages 3.25 KiB
+    # held it last. A stale line here is an outage, so it is asserted away.
-    # at BOTH — the QSA block key is an index, not attention state, and does
+    for key in FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_WEIGHTS_MIB FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_KV_MIB \
-    # not follow --kv-cache-dtype — so the rate is 7,488 B/token at fp8 and
+               FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_HOST_MIB FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_DISK_MIB; do
-    # 14,144 at bf16 (1.89x, not 2x). The dtype-independent terms also live in
+        ! grep -q "^${key}=" "$ENV_FILE"
-    # the pool: ~110 MiB a sequence of recurrent state (kv_gdn_state 54 MiB x 2
+        ! grep -q "$key" "$SERVE"
-    # copies + conv/tail/ple) and 448 MiB of prefix checkpoints (8 x 55.99).
+    done
-    # Verified against BOTH live boots: fp8 3543-330-448 = 2765 MiB -> 387,240
+    for flag in --vram-weights-mib --vram-kv-mib --prefix-cache-host-mib \
-    # tokens (ledger 386,904); bf16 6912-220-448 = 6244 MiB -> 462,946
+                --prefix-cache-dir --prefix-cache-disk-mib; do
-    # (ledger 462,752). Both within 0.1%.
+        ! grep -q -- "$flag" "$SERVE"
-    kv=$(awk -F= '/^FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_KV_MIB=/{print $2}' "$ENV_FILE")
+    done
-    seqs=$(awk -F= '/^FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_SEQS=/{print $2}' "$ENV_FILE")
-    maxlen=$(awk -F= '/^FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_MODEL_LEN=/{print $2}' "$ENV_FILE")
-    case "$(awk -F= '/^FRANK_ARCHON_KV_DTYPE=/{print $2}' "$ENV_FILE")" in
-        fp8)  bpt=7488 ;;
-        bf16) bpt=14144 ;;
-        *) fail "unknown FRANK_ARCHON_KV_DTYPE" ;;
-    esac
-    tokens=$(( (kv - 110 * seqs - 448) * 1048576 / bpt ))
-    [ "$tokens" -ge $(( seqs * maxlen )) ]
-}
-
-@test "the per-card VRAM pair stays inside the measured card ceiling" {
-    # The engine's OWN budget table, not a hand-picked reserve. Boot of
-    # 2026-10-13 at the pair 24000/5120: card 32,624 MiB (31.86 GiB), budgets
-    # claimed 29,120, `3.42 GiB is neither budgeted nor accounted — the
-    # driver's context, the activation arena and --gpu-headroom-mib come out of
-    # it; anything past those is throughput on the floor`, and `card 0 settled
-    # at 2.01 GiB free against 209.19 MiB (the 96.00 MiB --gpu-headroom-mib and
-    # 113.19 MiB kept for the static region)`. Claimable reserve above the
-    # engine's floor: 2,058 - 209 = 1,849 MiB, so the ceiling is 30,969 MiB.
-    # The 2026-10-11 bound of 29,120 ("keep >= 1 GiB free", card read as 31,856
-    # MiB) was MY reserve, which the engine never asked for; the shipped pair
-    # spends the difference and lands ~458 MiB above the floor.
-    w=$(awk -F= '/^FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_WEIGHTS_MIB=/{print $2}' "$ENV_FILE")
-    kv=$(awk -F= '/^FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_KV_MIB=/{print $2}' "$ENV_FILE")
-    [ $(( w + kv )) -le 30969 ]
 }
 
 @test "the serve script wires the engine flags from the env" {
@@ -232,11 +209,13 @@ nosudo_bin() {
     grep -q -- '--max-model-len "$FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_MODEL_LEN"' "$SERVE"
     grep -q -- '--placement "$FRANK_ARCHON_PLACEMENT"' "$SERVE"
     grep -q -- '--host-pool-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_HOST_POOL_MIB"' "$SERVE"
-    grep -q -- '--vram-weights-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_WEIGHTS_MIB"' "$SERVE"
-    grep -q -- '--vram-kv-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_KV_MIB"' "$SERVE"
     grep -q -- '--kv-cache-dtype "$FRANK_ARCHON_KV_DTYPE"' "$SERVE"
-    grep -q -- '--prefix-cache-host-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_HOST_MIB"' "$SERVE"
+    grep -q -- '--prefix-cache-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_CACHE_MIB"' "$SERVE"
-    grep -q -- '--prefix-cache-disk-mib "$FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_DISK_MIB"' "$SERVE"
+    grep -q -- '--busy-prefill-chunk "$FRANK_ARCHON_BUSY_PREFILL_CHUNK"' "$SERVE"
+    # Interleave is opt-in: it reaches argv only through the guarded array, so a
+    # 0 in the env leaves the engine's own default in place.
+    grep -q -- 'PREFILL_ARGS=(--prefill-interleave "$FRANK_ARCHON_PREFILL_INTERLEAVE")' "$SERVE"
+    grep -qF -- '"${PREFILL_ARGS[@]}"' "$SERVE"
     grep -q -- '--ngram-placement "$FRANK_ARCHON_NGRAM_PLACEMENT"' "$SERVE"
     grep -q -- '--num-speculative-tokens "$FRANK_ARCHON_SPEC_TOKENS"' "$SERVE"
     # The boot-ladder escape hatch is opt-in: unset renders NO extra argv.
@@ -261,7 +240,10 @@ nosudo_bin() {
     grep -q -- '--device /dev/kfd' "$SERVE"
     grep -q -- '--device /dev/dri' "$SERVE"
     grep -q -- '-v "$FRANK_ARCHON_MODEL_DIR":/models:ro' "$SERVE"
-    grep -q -- '-v "$FRANK_ARCHON_STATE_DIR":/data' "$SERVE"
+    grep -q -- '-v "$FRANK_ARCHON_STATE_DIR/tune":/opt/radiance/share/radiance/tune' "$SERVE"
+    # No /data mount: the prefix cache lives in pinned host RAM now, so the only
+    # host state the container writes is the rad-tune cache above.
+    ! grep -q -- ':/data ' "$SERVE"
     grep -q -- '-v "$FRANK_ARCHON_TEMPLATE":/templates/template.jinja:ro' "$SERVE"
 }