feat(frank-archon): move the endpoint to radiance 1.8.1 and its budget model

The decode stall is step contention (measured: 18.7 ms decode-only steps
against 317 ms steps that carry a prefill chunk, decode at 13 t/s median
while prefill runs), and the two engine knobs that fix it arrived after this
endpoint's pin. Moving to 1.8.1 (2026-10-18) brings both, and brings two CLI
breaks with them:

  - --vram-weights-mib / --vram-kv-mib were REMOVED at 1.3.0. The per-card
    split between the expert slab and the KV pool is now derived by the
    engine's budget resolver from --gpu-headroom-mib, the cache bound
    (--max-model-len, --max-num-seqs) and --host-pool-mib, and the cache may
    lend idle blocks to the expert slab. The slab size and the pool's token
    count are boot-ledger lines from here on, so the capacity contract
    (3 x 200,000 fp8) is verified live by the probe's capacity leg instead of
    computed from an env number.
  - The prefix cache has no disk tier any more: --prefix-cache-dir and
    --prefix-cache-disk-mib are refusals and --prefix-cache-host-mib is
    --prefix-cache-mib. 64 GiB of parked KV on NVMe becomes re-prefill, so
    prefix_hit_rate is the thing to watch after this boot.

env: image re-pinned to the 1.8.1 digest; the pair and the disk tier dropped;
FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_CACHE_MIB replaces the host/disk pair; new
FRANK_ARCHON_BUSY_PREFILL_CHUNK=auto (explicit, because auto vs off is the
difference between decode waiting one chunk and waiting a whole step) and
FRANK_ARCHON_PREFILL_INTERLEAVE=0 (opt-in through a guarded argv array).

serve: argv follows the new CLI, /data mount and the pre-created kvcache path
go with the disk tier, and the retired env keys are no longer required (they
would abort ExecStart). autoresearch-frank-archon.sh takes the same CLI, with
a cold prefill now coming from --prefix-cache-mib 0 instead of a per-run disk
directory. run-swift15-bf16.sh is untouched: it pins its own engines by design.

tests: the two budget-arithmetic seams asserted knobs that no longer exist and
are replaced by one seam that asserts the retired knobs are ABSENT from env and
argv - a stale line is a boot refusal, not a no-op. The container-contract seam
now asserts the tune mount and the absence of /data.

AGENTS.md

@@ -388,10 +388,11 @@ the publisher's own **Q8_0** mmproj passed as `--mmproj` — Q8_0 is the
 publisher's requirement for concurrent image requests (the card states the
 BF16 tower can crash `llama-server` when several image requests run at once,
 and this endpoint runs several slots). `frank-zealot`'s `contextWindow` is
-**262144** — the PER-SLOT window (`--ctx-size 524288 --parallel 2` since the
+**200704** — the PER-SLOT window (`--ctx-size 602112 --parallel 3` since the
-2026-10-18 reslice to exact f16 KV), which EQUALS the model's
+2026-10-19 reslice that funded a third slot AND an armed MTP drafter),
-native window; llama.cpp answers a longer prompt with a 400 naming the limit,
+deliberately below the model's native window; llama.cpp answers a longer prompt
-never a truncation, so the harness must compact before it.
+with a 400 naming the limit, never a truncation, so the harness must compact
+before it.
 Note also
 that
 the reasoning channel differs by runtime: llama.cpp AND SGLang (qwen3
@@ -439,10 +440,11 @@ disagrees with it is the bug.
   loader ignoring that metadata dequantizes wrong); payload
   `Bonsai2-9B-MTP/…PQ2_0.gguf` + the publisher's **Q8_0** mmproj (the BF16
   tower can crash the server with concurrent image requests).
-- Shape: `--ctx-size 524288 --parallel 2` = **two conversations at the
+- Shape: `--ctx-size 602112 --parallel 3` = **three conversations at
-  model's native 262,144**, `CACHE_TYPE_K/V=f16`, batch 4096 / ubatch 2048,
+  200,704 each**, `CACHE_TYPE_K=f16` + `CACHE_TYPE_V=q8_0` (asymmetric: 25,088
-  `SPEC_TYPE=none`, `--flash-attn on`, `--jinja`, `--metrics`.
+  B/token, 14,406 MiB of pool), batch 6144 / ubatch 1024,
-- Harness/gate contract: `contextWindow: 262144` is the **per-slot** window
+  `SPEC_TYPE=draft-mtp` (depth 2), `--flash-attn on`, `--jinja`, `--metrics`.
+- Harness/gate contract: `contextWindow: 200704` is the **per-slot** window
   (`n_ctx_slot = CTX_SIZE / PARALLEL`), and llama.cpp answers a longer prompt
   with a 400 rather than truncating. `--metrics` is mandatory or Prometheus
   reads 501 = DOWN beside a healthy service. Presence penalty has no GGUF

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/deploy-remote.sh

@@ -1459,7 +1459,7 @@ LLM_ZEALOT_RUNTIME="${LLM_ZEALOT_RUNTIME:-/home/dank/GitPackages/llama-prism-b10
 # image path — a deploy that starts without it silently ships a text-only
 # endpoint. Checked unconditionally, like frank-dragoon's. Q8_0 is MANDATORY,
 # not a preference: the card says the BF16 tower can crash llama-server when
-# several image requests run at once, and this endpoint runs --parallel 2. Its
+# several image requests run at once, and this endpoint runs --parallel 3. Its
 # 868.32 MiB worst-case VRAM (595.29 model + 248.10 compute in the boot ledger)
 # lands AFTER the engine's fit check, so it is not inside the q8_0 budget.
 LLM_ZEALOT_MMPROJ="${LLM_ZEALOT_MMPROJ:-/home/dank/models/Bonsai2-9B-MTP/Ternary-Bonsai-2-9B-mmproj-Q8_0.gguf}"

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 +57,25 @@ 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
 # 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.
@@ -75,11 +84,25 @@ 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.

scripts/frank-zealot.env

@@ -11,35 +11,51 @@ LLAMA_BIN=/home/dank/GitPackages/llama-prism-b10777/llama-server
 # metadata dequantizes wrong, silently.
 MODEL_FILE=/home/dank/models/Bonsai2-9B-MTP/Ternary-Bonsai-2-9B-PQ2_0-MTP-Q8_0.gguf
 # Q8_0 IS MANDATORY: the publisher states the BF16 tower can crash llama-server
-# under concurrent image requests, which is exactly --parallel 2.
+# under concurrent image requests, which is exactly --parallel 3.
 MMPROJ_FILE=/home/dank/models/Bonsai2-9B-MTP/Ternary-Bonsai-2-9B-mmproj-Q8_0.gguf
 # Served id — the harness/family name, not a fact about the payload.
 # Id-keyed consumers: OpenWebUI (model row, access_grant, api_configs), models.yml.
 ALIAS=frank-zealot
 BIND_ADDR=0.0.0.0
 LISTEN_PORT=7771
-# CTX_SIZE is the POOL llama.cpp divides across slots: 524,288 / 2 = 262,144 a
+# CTX_SIZE is the POOL llama.cpp divides across slots: 602,112 / 3 = 200,704 a
-# conversation, each still at the trained window. MUST stay divisible by
+# conversation. MUST stay divisible by PARALLEL (the seam enforces it) and
-# PARALLEL (the seam enforces it) and models.yml contextWindow quotes the
+# models.yml contextWindow quotes the PER-SLOT number — a longer prompt is a
-# PER-SLOT number — a longer prompt is a 400, never a truncation. The pool
+# 400, never a truncation. The pool is bought, not granted: K+V at 25,088
-# cannot go back to 786,432 under exact f16 KV: 24,576 MiB of cache against the
+# B/token is 14,406.00 MiB here and the MTP draft context bills its own f16 KV
-# 24,123 MiB the driver leaves addressable, before a weight loads.
+# over the WHOLE pool (4,096 B/position ⇒ 2,352.00 MiB), so the old 786,432
-CTX_SIZE=524288
+# pool cannot carry a drafter at any KV dtype — 18,816 + 3,072 of cache alone
-PARALLEL=2
+# against the 24,123 MiB the driver leaves addressable.
-BATCH_SIZE=4096
+CTX_SIZE=602112
+PARALLEL=3
+# The logical batch is VRAM- and throughput-neutral at a fixed ubatch (the law
+# 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.
+# compute-buffer size, which decides whether a drafter fits. 1024 is the rung
-# UBATCH_SIZE=1024 is the documented MTP arm.
+# every measured MTP arm here ran on (213.5 t/s against 109.2 at 2048). Its
-UBATCH_SIZE=2048
+# VRAM credit is SHAPE-specific: the 786,432-pool arm census showed ~1,306 MiB
-# Exact K and V: the retrieval-fidelity ask, paid with one conversation of
+# back, this boot measured 2,089.88 MiB of target compute against 2,496.13 at
-# concurrency. Rate law and the arithmetic: [[frank-zealot]] → Laws.
+# 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
+# true fp8 KV dtype in this build). That 7,680 B/token saved against exact V is
+# what funds BOTH the third conversation and the drafter. Quantized V is
+# illegal without --flash-attn, which the serve script pins. Rate law and the
+# arithmetic: [[frank-zealot]] → Laws.
 CACHE_TYPE_K=f16
-CACHE_TYPE_V=f16
+CACHE_TYPE_V=q8_0
-# Speculation OFF — measured, not assumed: the draft context bills its own f16
+# Speculation ON (Frank, 2026-10-19): the head is in the file
-# KV over the WHOLE pool, and there is no room beside exact KV (the arm census
+# (qwen35.nextn_predict_layers = 1, blk.32.nextn.*) and rides the MAIN model's
-# is on the page). SPEC_TYPE=none strips the WHOLE set (--spec-type and every
+# weights, so there is no --spec-draft-model. Its bill is pool × 4,096 B of
-# --spec-draft-*); half a set has segfaulted at load.
+# draft KV plus ~0.45 GiB of buffers and a tripled recurrent state — paid for
-SPEC_TYPE=none
+# by CACHE_TYPE_V=q8_0 and UBATCH_SIZE=1024 above. Build gate: quantized V
+# beside MTP needs fork build >= b10776; LLAMA_BIN is 10777.
+# SPEC_TYPE=none is the rollback and strips the WHOLE set (--spec-type and
+# every --spec-draft-*); half a set has segfaulted at load.
+SPEC_TYPE=draft-mtp
 SPEC_DRAFT_N_MAX=2
 SPEC_DRAFT_N_MIN=0
 SPEC_DRAFT_P_MIN=0

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

@@ -5,33 +5,45 @@
 #
 # 2026-10-18 (Frank): Bonsai-2 27B PQ2_0 → the 9B MTP export, then the same
 # evening TWO 262,144-token conversations (--ctx-size 524288 --parallel 2) over
-# an UNQUANTIZED f16 KV cache. The 9B bills 8,192 elements per token per cache
+# an UNQUANTIZED f16 KV cache.
-# (8 full-attention layers instead of the 27B's 16), so exact K and V costs
+#
-# 32,768 B/token — 16,384.00 MiB at the 524,288 pool, which is what a 24,123 MiB
+# 2026-10-19 (Frank): THREE 200,704-token conversations over a 602,112 pool
-# addressable card can carry beside the trunk. Verbosity 4 ships so the VRAM-fit
+# (--ctx-size 602112 --parallel 3), K left at the engine's own default (f16),
-# forensics (KV layout, buffer sizes, graph capture) land in the journal.
+# V dropped to q8_0, batch 1024×6 / ubatch 1024, and the MTP drafter ARMED
+# (--spec-type draft-mtp). The 9B bills 8,192 elements per token per cache (8
+# full-attention layers instead of the 27B's 16), so f16 K is 16,384 B/token and
+# q8_0 V is 8,704: 25,088 B/token = 14,406.00 MiB at the 602,112 pool. That
+# 7,680 B/token against exact V is exactly what funds the third conversation
+# AND a draft context that bills f16 KV over the whole pool. Verbosity 4 ships
+# so the VRAM-fit forensics (KV layout, buffer sizes, graph capture) land in
+# the journal.
 #
 # Architecture (engine ledger, not the marketing page): qwen35 hybrid, 32
 # layers with qwen35.full_attention_interval = 4 ⇒ 8 full-attention + 24 Gated
 # DeltaNet, 4 KV heads × 256 dim, native 262,144. The KV pool scales with the 8
-# full layers (16,384.00 MiB of f16 at the 524,288 pool); the DeltaNet layers
+# full layers (14,406.00 MiB of f16 K + q8_0 V at the 602,112 pool); the
-# cost a fixed recurrent state per SLOT — ~50.25 MiB a cell, so 100.50 MiB for
+# DeltaNet layers cost a fixed recurrent state per SLOT — ~50.25 MiB a cell, so
-# two. The runtime is a hard lock, not a preference: custom GGML type 142 plus
+# 150.75 MiB for three, and an armed depth-2 drafter triples that again. The
-# prism.hadamard.* metadata, which only the vendor build registers (the b10776
+# runtime is a hard lock, not a preference: custom GGML type 142 plus
-# gate that moved the prebuilt 10754 → 10777 was MTP beside quantized V, which
+# prism.hadamard.* metadata, which only the vendor build registers — and the
-# exact KV now makes moot — the type-142 lock alone keeps the build pinned).
+# b10776 gate that moved the prebuilt 10754 → 10777 (MTP beside a quantized V)
+# is LOAD-BEARING again on this shape, not moot as it was under exact KV.
 # Vision comes from the publisher's Q8_0 projector (the BF16 one can crash the
-# server on concurrent images, and this endpoint runs two slots), so --mmproj is
+# server on concurrent images, and this endpoint runs three slots), so --mmproj is
 # what gives this endpoint eyes; MMPROJ_FILE="" is the documented text-only
 # opt-out.
 #
-# Speculative decoding ships OFF, measured: the head loads and accepts well
+# Speculative decoding ships ON (Frank, 2026-10-19). The head is IN the file and
-# (0.798/0.617 per position, mean length 2.41) but the draft context bills its
+# accepts well (0.798/0.617 per position, mean length 2.41, measured 2026-10-18);
-# own f16 KV over the WHOLE pool — 4,096 B/position × 524,288 = 2,048 MiB plus
+# what made it lose that evening was the bill, not the drafts — the draft context
-# buffers — and the trunk already projects 21,234 MiB with exact KV. Exact KV
+# is built against the target's WHOLE pool, so blk.32 adds 4,096 B/position
-# and MTP cannot share this card; frank-zealot.env carries the q8_0-era arm table
+# (2,352.00 MiB at 602,112) plus 480.97 MiB of its own compute buffers on the
-# and the two doors back to the drafter (one window, or KV back to q8_0 at
+# card, and it triples the recurrent state per slot (452.25 MiB for three cells
-# --ubatch-size 1024 for 213.5 t/s).
+# against 50.25 a cell with the drafter off). CACHE_TYPE_V=q8_0 is what pays
+# 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
 # metadata (general.sampling.* = temp 1.0 / top_p 0.95 / top_k 20 / min_p 0 /
@@ -58,49 +70,46 @@ fi
 : "${ALIAS:=frank-zealot}"
 : "${BIND_ADDR:=0.0.0.0}"
 : "${LISTEN_PORT:=7771}"
-# ctx-size is the POOL llama.cpp divides across slots: 524,288 / 2 = 262,144
+# ctx-size is the POOL llama.cpp divides across slots: 602,112 / 3 = 200,704 a
-# per conversation — every slot still at the model's trained window. The harness
+# conversation. The harness contextWindow MUST quote the PER-SLOT number — a
-# contextWindow MUST quote the PER-SLOT number — a longer prompt is answered
+# longer prompt is answered with a 400, never truncated. The pool is priced by
-# with a 400, never truncated. Under exact KV the pool cannot stay at 786,432:
+# the KV bill, not by the trained window: at 25,088 B/token (f16 K + q8_0 V) the
-# 32,768 B/token × 786,432 = 24,576 MiB, more than the card's whole addressable
+# 602,112 pool costs 14,406.00 MiB and the armed drafter adds its own f16 KV over
-# 24,123 MiB before a single weight loads.
+# the whole pool (2,352.00 MiB). Exact V at this pool (18,816 MiB) or the old
-: "${CTX_SIZE:=524288}"
+# 786,432 pool at any dtype cannot boot inside the 24,123 MiB the driver leaves
-: "${PARALLEL:=2}"
+# addressable.
+: "${CTX_SIZE:=602112}"
+: "${PARALLEL:=3}"
 # Compute-buffer geometry. Ubatch is a prefill knob (decode never moves).
-# 2048 is the measured CUDA optimum (MiMo era, same arch/shape: +4.6 % prefill
+# The logical batch is VRAM- and throughput-neutral at a fixed ubatch, so 6144
-# at 8.9k depth, decode flat, 616 MiB). The logical batch is VRAM- and
+# (1024×6) is free; the ubatch is what sets the compute-buffer size, and 1024 is
-# throughput-neutral at a fixed ubatch. It ALSO sets the compute-buffer size,
+# the rung every measured MTP arm here ran on (213.5 t/s at 1024 against 109.2
-# which is the term that decides whether an MTP draft context fits beside a KV
+# at 2048) — worth ~406 MiB at THIS shape, not the ~1,306 the old pool showed.
-# pool: 1024 hands back 1,306 MiB and was the arm that ran the drafter at three
+: "${BATCH_SIZE:=6144}"
-# q8_0 windows (frank-zealot.env carries the table).
+: "${UBATCH_SIZE:=1024}"
-: "${BATCH_SIZE:=4096}"
+# Asymmetric KV: f16 K (the engine's own default, spelled out so the contract is
-: "${UBATCH_SIZE:=2048}"
+# visible in argv) + q8_0 V. 8,192 elements per token per cache (8 full-attention
-# Exact KV: f16 K + f16 V — no quantization error anywhere in the attention
+# layers × 4 KV heads × 256 dim) ⇒ 16,384 B/token for K and 8,704 for V (q8_0 is
-# state. 32 KiB/token at this geometry (8 full-attention layers × 4 KV heads ×
+# 1.0625 B/element — llama.cpp has no true fp8 KV dtype), 25,088 B/token and
-# 256 dim × 2 B × 2 caches); 16,384.00 MiB at the 524,288 pool. That is the whole
+# 14,406.00 MiB at the 602,112 pool. That is the halfway door between exact KV
-# reason the slot count is 2: the same dtype at the old 786,432 pool is 24,576
+# (32,768 B/token, which costs the third conversation and the drafter both) and
-# MiB and dies at cudaMalloc. q8_0 K + q8_0 V (17,408 B/token, 13,056.00 MiB at
+# the fully quantized pair (17,408 B/token, which costs retrieval fidelity in the
-# 786,432) is the documented fallback rung and funds three windows; CACHE_TYPE_V
+# keys); --flash-attn stays pinned because quantized V is illegal without it.
-# alone is the halfway door. Explicit either way so the contract is visible in
-# the argv, and --flash-attn stays pinned because quantized V — the fallback —
-# is illegal without it (no true fp8 KV dtype exists in this build).
 : "${CACHE_TYPE_K:=f16}"
-: "${CACHE_TYPE_V:=f16}"
+: "${CACHE_TYPE_V:=q8_0}"
-# Speculative decoding defaults OFF, measured on this card and shape: the head
+# Speculative decoding defaults ON: the head IS in the checkpoint
-# IS in the checkpoint (qwen35.nextn_predict_layers = 1 — MTP is a property of
+# (qwen35.nextn_predict_layers = 1 — MTP is a property of the FILE, so the plain
-# the FILE, so the plain PQ2_0 sibling could not run it at any flag value), it
+# PQ2_0 sibling could not run it at any flag value) and the draft context rides
-# loads, and it accepts well (mean accepted length 2.41) — but the draft context
+# the MAIN model's weights, so there is no --spec-draft-model. Its bill is the
-# bills its own f16 KV over the WHOLE pool (4,096 B/position, 2,048 MiB at the
+# target's whole pool at 4,096 B/position plus ~0.45 GiB of buffers at this
-# 524,288 pool) and at ubatch 2048 that squeeze halves decode: 167.2 → 109.2 t/s
+# ubatch and a tripled recurrent state; CACHE_TYPE_V=q8_0 and UBATCH_SIZE=1024
-# on the q8_0 3-slot shape. The draft cache dtype IS a knob (--spec-draft-type-k
+# above are what pay for it. The draft cache dtype IS a further knob
-# / --spec-draft-type-v, both default f16 — verified in this build's --help), so
+# (--spec-draft-type-k / --spec-draft-type-v, both default f16 — verified in this
-# an armed drafter can halve its own bill; there is no --spec-draft-model because
+# build's --help) and stays at its default here. Card gate: quantized V alongside
-# the draft rides the main model's weights. Card gate: quantized V alongside MTP
+# MTP needs fork build >= prism-b10776, which is why LLAMA_BIN is the 10777
-# needs fork build >= prism-b10776, which is why LLAMA_BIN moved to the 10777
+# prebuilt; the type-142 loader lock keeps it pinned regardless.
-# prebuilt; exact KV removes that gate but NOT the type-142 loader lock.
+# SPEC_TYPE=none is the rollback and strips the whole set (flags move together).
-# SPEC_TYPE=draft-mtp + UBATCH_SIZE=1024 is the documented MTP arm (213.5 t/s);
+: "${SPEC_TYPE:=draft-mtp}"
-# SPEC_TYPE=none strips the whole set (flags move together).
-: "${SPEC_TYPE:=none}"
 : "${SPEC_DRAFT_N_MAX:=2}"
 : "${SPEC_DRAFT_N_MIN:=0}"
 : "${SPEC_DRAFT_P_MIN:=0}"

serverAppConfigs-docs/LLM/frank-zealot.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 type: reference
-title: "frank-zealot on Dankclaw — llama.cpp (PrismML fork 10777), Ternary-Bonsai-2-9B PQ2_0-MTP, 2 × 262144, exact f16 KV"
+title: "frank-zealot on Dankclaw — llama.cpp (PrismML fork 10777), Ternary-Bonsai-2-9B PQ2_0-MTP, 3 × 200704, f16 K + q8_0 V, MTP armed"
 description: "The one frank-zealot reference: the live shape on Dankclaw's RTX 3090 (:7771) exactly as scripts/frank-zealot.env ships it, every era with its rollback path, the deduplicated laws of this card, the wire contract, and the owning files."
 tags:
   - llm
@@ -12,10 +12,11 @@ tags:
 timestamp: 2026-10-18
 ---
 
-# frank-zealot — llama.cpp (PrismML) Bonsai-2-9B PQ2_0-MTP, 2 × 262,144, exact f16 KV
+# frank-zealot — llama.cpp (PrismML) Bonsai-2-9B PQ2_0-MTP, 3 × 200,704, f16 K + q8_0 V, MTP armed
 
 Dankclaw's RTX 3090 endpoint — `http://192.168.0.143:7771`, wire id `frank-zealot`, the fleet's **compaction hub**
-(widest window it has). One page per endpoint: eras are rows below, not pages. Siblings: [[frank-archon]],
+(three conversations at 200,704 each, the window the other two endpoints also cap at). One page per
+endpoint: eras are rows below, not pages. Siblings: [[frank-archon]],
 [[frank-dragoon]]. Deploy with `./scripts/deploy.sh dankclaw --service frank-zealot`; swap mechanics in
 [[Model Swap and Rollback]], sizing math in [[Llama Cpp Serving Sizing]]. `scripts/frank-zealot.env` and
 `scripts/serve-frank-zealot.sh` are the authority for the shape; where any prose disagrees with them, the prose
@@ -31,72 +32,87 @@ is the bug.
 | Runtime | `/home/dank/GitPackages/llama-prism-b10777/llama-server` — PrismML **fork**, `0.2.0-dev (build 10777, commit e3de71522)`; the only loader for this payload |
 | Trio | `scripts/frank-zealot.service` (root, relinked, `User=dank`, `Restart=on-failure`, `RestartSec=10`, `LimitMEMLOCK=infinity`, `TimeoutStopSec=180`) · `scripts/frank-zealot.env` · `scripts/serve-frank-zealot.sh` |
 | Address / alias | `BIND_ADDR=0.0.0.0`, `LISTEN_PORT=7771`, `ALIAS=frank-zealot` (a flag, not a fact) |
-| Flags | `--ctx-size 524288 --parallel 2` ⇒ 262,144 per slot · `--cache-type-k f16 --cache-type-v f16` (exact, **16,384 MiB**) · `--flash-attn on` · `--batch-size 4096 --ubatch-size 2048` · `--n-gpu-layers 99` · `--jinja --reasoning auto --reasoning-format deepseek` · `--metrics` · `--mmproj` · `--log-verbosity 4` · `--presence-penalty 1.0` · **`SPEC_TYPE=none`** |
+| Flags | `--ctx-size 602112 --parallel 3` ⇒ 200,704 per slot · `--cache-type-k f16 --cache-type-v q8_0` (asymmetric, **14,406.00 MiB**) · `--flash-attn on` · `--batch-size 6144 --ubatch-size 1024` · `--n-gpu-layers 99` · `--jinja --reasoning auto --reasoning-format deepseek` · `--metrics` · `--mmproj` · `--log-verbosity 4` · `--presence-penalty 1.0` · **`--spec-type draft-mtp`** with `--spec-draft-n-max 2 --spec-draft-n-min 0 --spec-draft-p-min 0` |
 
 **Why this shape.** `general.architecture qwen35`: 33 blocks (32 trunk + `blk.32` = the MTP block),
 `full_attention_interval 4` ⇒ 8 full-attention + 24 Gated DeltaNet, 4 KV heads × 256 dim, `nextn_predict_layers 1`
 (the head **is in the file**), trained window 262,144, `general.sampling.*` 1.0/0.95/20. Only the 8 full layers bill
-per token (32,768 B at exact f16 ⇒ 16,384 MiB over the pool) and the DeltaNet layers add ~50 MiB of recurrent state
+per token and the DeltaNet layers add ~50 MiB of recurrent state **per slot**, so the shape is a single budget
-**per slot**: exact KV costs the third conversation and nothing else.
+equation at 25,088 B/token (f16 K 16,384 + q8_0 V 8,704): **14,406.00 MiB** of cache over a 602,112 pool +
+**2,352.00 MiB** of draft cache (blk.32 at its own f16 rate, billed over the WHOLE pool) + ~7.7 GiB of weights,
+projector, buffers and states, inside the 24,123 MiB the driver leaves addressable. Exact V (32,768 B/token ⇒
+18,816 MiB here) buys neither the third conversation nor the drafter; the fully quantized pair (17,408 B/token)
+buys both and costs the keys their precision.
 
-**MTP is OFF by measurement, not by absence of a head.** The drafter is *good* — 2026-10-18 measured
+**MTP is ON (Frank, 2026-10-19).** The drafter was always good — 2026-10-18 measured acceptance 0.798 / 0.617 per
-acceptance 0.798 / 0.617 per position, mean accepted length 2.41, and the publisher's card says depth 2 works
+position, mean accepted length 2.41, and the publisher's card says depth 2 works best — and arming it is a
-best — and it still loses here, because the draft context is built against the *target's* pool: `blk.32` bills
+budget decision, not a flag: the draft context is built against the *target's* pool, so `blk.32` bills 4,096
-4,096 B/position at its default f16 ⇒ 2,048 MiB at 524,288 positions on a trunk that projects 21,234 MiB of the
+B/position (2,352.00 MiB at 602,112) plus 480.97 MiB of its own CUDA0 buffers, and it triples the recurrent
-24,123 MiB addressable (that projection predicts 2,889 MiB free; replace it with the measured pair). Exact KV and a
+state (452.25 MiB for three cells against 150.75 with the drafter off). `CACHE_TYPE_V=q8_0` is what pays that:
-drafter cannot share this card. `--spec-draft-type-k`/`--spec-draft-type-v` (default f16, verified in this build's
+7,680 B/token cheaper than exact V = **4,410.00 MiB** at this pool. `UBATCH_SIZE=1024` — the rung every measured
-`--help`) would cut the draft to 1,088 MiB — legal on b10777, **never booted beside exact KV**. There is no
+MTP arm here ran on — contributes only ~406 MiB at THIS shape, not the ~1,306 the 786,432-pool census showed,
-`--spec-draft-model`: the MTP draft rides the main model's weights. The env carries the recipe
+and `UBATCH_SIZE=2048` beside an armed drafter is still the shape that halved decode (167.2 → 109.2 t/s).
-(`SPEC_DRAFT_N_MAX=2`, `SPEC_DRAFT_N_MIN=0`, `SPEC_DRAFT_P_MIN=0`); `SPEC_TYPE=none` never sends it.
+`--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.
 
 **Harness contract** (`~/.omp/agent/models.yml`, provider `llamacpp (dankclaw-3090)`, id `frank-zealot`):
-`contextWindow: 262144` — **the per-slot window**, because llama.cpp divides `--ctx-size` across slots and answers a
+`contextWindow: 200704` — **the per-slot window**, because llama.cpp divides `--ctx-size` across slots and answers a
 longer prompt with a 400, never a truncation — plus `maxTokens: 16384`, `input: [text, image]`,
 `compat.reasoningContentField: reasoning_content`, `compat.reasoningEffortMap` (**load-bearing**: the template takes
 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.
 
-**The exact-KV boot, measured** (2026-10-18 evening, under the unit, verbosity 4). KV **16,384.00 MiB** =
+**No rates, by law.** Frank ordered the reslice, not a number: the evidence a swap needs is
-32,768 B/token × 524,288 positions, to the MiB — rate derivation and ledger agree with no slop, which is what
+the seam's fit gate, the deployer's health gate, and the boot ledger below. The previous era's
-buries the doc's old "f16 needs 26,112 MiB and cannot boot" figure for good: that was the 27B's 34,816 B/token
+exact-KV boot and its rate floors live in that era's row; those floors were measured while
-applied to the 9B. RS **100.50 MiB** (2 cells, one 50.25 MiB cell lighter than the q8_0 era), compute
+another consumer drove the other slot (56 prompts in three minutes, 96 % GPU-util), the exact
-1,408.06 + 1,088.07 CUDA_Host, mmproj worst case **868.32 MiB** charged *after* the engine's own fit check,
+condition a bench window exists to exclude.
-settled `nvidia-smi` **21,176 used / 2,949 free** of 24,123, `n_slots = 2`, `n_ctx_slot = 262144`,
-`DropInPaths` empty, no clamp line, no `cudaMalloc` error — within 24 MiB of the pre-flight projection. That is
-a desktop margin: the ~2 GiB of slack is what an image storm has to live inside.
 
-**Rates on this shape are FLOORS, not the shape's rates** — measured the same evening greedy with `ignore_eos`
+**The 2026-10-19 boot, measured** — verbosity-4 ledger of `ba69ea5`, started 03:21:56 PDT.
-at 512 tokens, first request discarded, while another consumer drove the other slot (56 new prompts in three
+Recorded here because projections drift, and nowhere else:
-minutes, 96 % GPU-util): the exact condition the bench window exists to exclude, and one contended deep arm
-even came back truncated (a 512 KB body accepted as `prompt_n = 4`).
 
-| Arm | q8_0 3-slot record | f16 2-slot, contended |
+| Term | Ledger |
-|---|---|---|
+|---|---|
-| single-stream decode | 168.7 | **134.1 – 141.5** (145.8 and 163.2 in a lighter minute) |
+| 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` |
-| concurrent aggregate | ≈300 across 3 (102.8 each) | **256.6 / 262.4 / 265.1** across 2 (≈128–133 each) |
+| 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 |
-| prefill at ~106k | 2,877 at 106,418 | **3,159.5 at 106,282** |
+| Recurrent state | **452.25 MiB** — `3 cells, 32 layers, 3 seqs, 2 rs_seq`, R (f32) 20.25 + S (f32) 432.00 |
-| decode at 106k depth | never measured | **71.5** |
+| 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` |
 
-What the floors already support: per-conversation concurrency **improved** (two streams hold ~130 t/s each where
+This is the first boot on this card that does **not** meet llama.cpp's own free-memory target,
-three held 102.8), endpoint aggregate sits ~12 % under the 3-slot record, prefill beat the record while
+and 1,255 MiB settled sits under the ~2 GiB band every previous era held. It boots, `/health`
-contended, and single-stream decode is between parity and −20 %. The 1.882× KV byte bill is real; its true size
+answers, and the seam's gate still passes — it priced 22,428 MiB, conservative by 442 against
-on this card is still unmeasured, so quoting 134 or 163 t/s as "the" number is a guess in either direction —
+this ledger. The cheapest rungs back into the band are `CTX_SIZE=401408` (two conversations) or
-re-run the same arms with the box quiet before a figure is carried anywhere else.
+`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 |
+| Knob | Effect from the shipped shape |
 |---|---|
-| `UBATCH_SIZE=1024` | hands back 1,306 MiB of compute buffers; prefill −17 %; it is also the arm that ran the drafter at three windows (213.5 t/s) |
+| `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 |
-| `CACHE_TYPE_V=q8_0` | exact K + quantized V: KV 16,384 → **12,544 MiB**, freeing 3,840 (llama.cpp has no true fp8 KV dtype — q8_0 is the 8-bit class) |
+| `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, exact KV at 12,544 MiB (same 3,840 freed) — `contextWindow` MUST follow the per-slot number |
+| `CTX_SIZE=401408` | two 200,704 conversations: frees 4,802 MiB of cache — `contextWindow` MUST follow the per-slot number |
-| `CTX_SIZE=786432 PARALLEL=3 CACHE_TYPE_K/V=q8_0` | the era below this one: 13,056 MiB of cache, the third conversation back |
+| `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/V=q4_0` | 10,240 B/token ⇒ 5,120 MiB (the 27B era measured q4_0 at 16,392 used / 7,733 free at 2 × 200,704) |
+| `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 |
 
 ## Eras
 
 | Window | Payload | Runtime | Shape | Replaced because | Rollback |
 |---|---|---|---|---|---|
+| 2026-10-18 21:06 → 2026-10-19 | the same 9B MTP file and projector | PrismML fork 10777 | 2 × 262,144 (pool 524,288), exact f16 K+V = 16,384.00 MiB, `SPEC_TYPE=none`, batch 4096 / ubatch 2048; boot ledger KV 16,384.00 / RS 100.50 / compute 1,408.06 + 1,088.07 CUDA_Host / mmproj worst case 868.32 charged after the fit check, settled **21,176 used / 2,949 free**, `n_ctx_slot = 262144`, within 24 MiB of the projection; floors 134.1–141.5 t/s single-stream, 256.6–265.1 aggregate over two, 3,159.5 t/s prefill at 106,282, 71.5 t/s decode at 106k depth (contended — floors, not the shape's rates) | Frank ordered the third conversation back AND the drafter armed, and exact V funds neither: it bills 18,816 MiB at the pool that pays for the third slot, leaving nothing for the draft's 2,352 | one line each — `CTX_SIZE=524288 PARALLEL=2 CACHE_TYPE_V=f16 BATCH_SIZE=4096 UBATCH_SIZE=2048 SPEC_TYPE=none` — and redeploy; no payload move |
 | 2026-10-18 13:19 → same evening (the boot `68afc6d` replaced) | the same 9B MTP file and projector | PrismML fork 10777 | 3 × 262,144 (pool 786,432), q8_0 K+V = 13,056 MiB, settled 17,956 / 6,169 MiB; 168.7 t/s decode (three runs 168.4–168.7), ~300 t/s over three streams (102.8 each), 2,877 t/s prefill at 106,418 | Frank ordered unquantized KV, and that pool cannot survive it: 24,576 MiB of f16 cache > 24,123 addressable | one env line — `CTX_SIZE=786432 PARALLEL=3 CACHE_TYPE_K/V=q8_0` — and redeploy; no payload move |
 | 2026-10-18, 24 min (arm under the unit) | `Bonsai2-PTQ1_0/Ternary-Bonsai-2-27B-PTQ1_0.gguf` 5,946,648,928 B + hardlinked Q8 mmproj | PrismML fork 10777 | 2 × 200,704, batch/ubatch 3072/1536 | Frank scratched the 27B plan — ~48 t/s decode vs 76.6 for PQ2_0 on the same weights | `/home/dank/models/Bonsai2-PTQ1_0/` + `scripts/download-frank-zealot-bonsai2-ptq1.sh` |
 | 2026-10-17 → 10-18 | Ternary-Bonsai-2-**27B** PQ2_0 7,206,168,928 B `3907dc16…` + Q8_0 mmproj 629,246,976 B | PrismML fork **10754** (`~/GitPackages/llama-prism/`) | 2 × 200,704 (pool 401,408), q8_0 K+V = 13,328 MiB, settled 22,664 / 1,461; 76.6 t/s decode, 109.4 aggregate over two streams, 691.7 t/s prefill at 166,027; MTP impossible — no head in the file | the 9B bills half the KV per token (8 full layers, not 16), which funded three slots at the native window and beat it on every rate | `/home/dank/models/Bonsai2-PQ2_0/` + the 10754 fork tree, `scripts/download-frank-zealot-bonsai2.sh`, revert the swap commit |
@@ -136,6 +152,10 @@ re-run the same arms with the box quiet before a figure is carried anywhere else
   `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.
@@ -160,7 +180,7 @@ re-run the same arms with the box quiet before a figure is carried anywhere else
 
 ## Contract
 
-- `/health` → `{"status":"ok"}`; `/props` reports `n_ctx` and `presence_penalty`; `/slots` shows occupancy; a third
+- `/health` → `{"status":"ok"}`; `/props` reports `n_ctx` and `presence_penalty`; `/slots` shows occupancy; a fourth
   concurrent conversation **waits** for a slot — the slot count is the concurrency contract.
 - `/metrics` answers 200 with 15 `llamacpp:*` families **only with `--metrics`**; without it llama.cpp answers **501**, which Prometheus reads as DOWN while `/health` stays 200. The scrape target is `host.containers.internal:7771/metrics` and the oldest retained sample of `up{job="frank-zealot"}` (2026-10-11) is already 0 — this target was never successfully scraped, across every payload era. `METRICS=0` is the documented opt-out and re-breaks it; the counters cost nothing on the request path.
 - Reasoning arrives in **`reasoning_content`** (`--reasoning-format deepseek`) and **counts against `max_tokens`**: a short budget yields empty `content` with `finish_reason: "length"`, which reads as a broken model, not a mid-thought one. The slot prefix cache is live (`cached_tokens` in `usage`).
@@ -168,9 +188,9 @@ re-run the same arms with the box quiet before a figure is carried anywhere else
   (1.0 / 0.95 / 20). `presence_penalty` is the one recipe value with no GGUF metadata key, so it must reach argv;
   the serve script uses `${PRESENCE_PENALTY=1.0}`, deliberately **not** `:=`, because `""` is the documented opt-out.
 - Vision: only the OpenAI **`image_url`** content part reaches the model — the legacy top-level `images` field bumps `usage.prompt_tokens` while the model invents an answer. Probe with a **≥ 256 px** solid color (a postage stamp answers "video") and budget **≥ 512** tokens; a 512 px image bills ~280 prompt tokens.
-- **Q8_0 mmproj, not BF16**: the publisher warns the BF16 tower "can crash llama-server when several image requests run at once", which is exactly the `--parallel 2` shape. `MMPROJ_FILE=` (explicitly empty) is the text-only opt-out and returns ~1.4 GiB; a path at a missing file is a boot **refusal**, never silent blindness.
+- **Q8_0 mmproj, not BF16**: the publisher warns the BF16 tower "can crash llama-server when several image requests run at once", which is exactly the `--parallel 3` shape. `MMPROJ_FILE=` (explicitly empty) is the text-only opt-out and returns ~1.4 GiB; a path at a missing file is a boot **refusal**, never silent blindness.
 - Tools: native via `--jinja`; `finish_reason: tool_calls` with valid JSON arguments.
-- Two non-faults: a `400` naming 262,144 is one conversation outgrowing its **slot**, not pool exhaustion; and
+- Two non-faults: a `400` naming 200,704 is one conversation outgrowing its **slot**, not pool exhaustion; and
   the raw `/completion` path is a **dead instrument on this fork build** — a greedy `ignore_eos` run answers
   **500 "The model produced output that does not match the expected Content-only format"**, because build 10777
   guards the raw path the moment reasoning markup leaks (older builds only logged `failed to parse reasoning

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_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"
 }
 

tests/frank_zealot_unit.bats

@@ -4,15 +4,15 @@
 # qwen35 hybrid with 32 layers (8 full-attention + 24 Gated DeltaNet) and the
 # MTP draft head INSIDE the file — via the PrismML fork build of llama.cpp
 # (vendor build 10777), the ONLY loader that registers the payload's custom
-# tensor type 142 and honours its prism.hadamard.* metadata: TWO 262,144-token
+# tensor type 142 and honours its prism.hadamard.* metadata: THREE 200,704-token
-# conversations (--ctx-size 524288 --parallel 2) over an UNQUANTIZED f16 KV
+# conversations (--ctx-size 602112 --parallel 3) over an f16 K + q8_0 V cache —
-# cache. Exact KV bills 32,768 B/token here, so the pool is what pays for it —
+# 25,088 B/token, 14,406.00 MiB at this pool — with the MTP drafter ARMED
-# the same dtype at the old 786,432 pool is 24,576 MiB against the 24,123 MiB
+# (--spec-type draft-mtp). The asymmetry IS the shape: exact V (32,768 B/token)
-# the driver leaves addressable, and the slot count is the term that moved. The
+# leaves nothing for a draft context that bills its own f16 KV over the WHOLE
-# publisher's own Q8_0 vision projector rides along (the BF16 one can crash on
+# pool (4,096 B/position, 2,352.00 MiB here), and the 786,432 pool this shape
-# concurrent images), and MTP stays OFF: the head is present, but exact KV
+# replaced cannot carry a drafter at any dtype inside the 24,123 MiB the driver
-# leaves no room for a draft context that bills f16 KV over the whole pool. Log
+# leaves addressable. The publisher's own Q8_0 vision projector rides along (the
-# verbosity 4 ships so the VRAM-fit forensics land in the journal.
+# BF16 one can crash on concurrent images). Log
 # This seam runs the serve script against a stub engine and asserts on the
 # argv it actually execs, so what is pinned is the command the operator gets.
 
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ run_stage() {
     done
 }
 
-@test "two conversations share the pool at a 262144 window each" {
+@test "three conversations share the pool at a 200704 window each" {
     serve_argv
     [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
     [ "$(argv_value --alias)" = "frank-zealot" ]
@@ -152,30 +152,36 @@ run_stage() {
     [ "$(argv_value --model)" = "$MODEL_DIR/$MODEL_STUB" ]
     [ "$(argv_value --n-gpu-layers)" -gt 0 ]
     # llama.cpp divides --ctx-size across slots, so the observable contract is
-    # the per-slot window. Exact KV costs the SLOT COUNT, not the window: every
+    # the per-slot window: harness contextWindow, Prometheus dashboards and every
-    # conversation still gets the model's TRAINED 262,144, and the harness
+    # consumer's compaction trigger read THAT number, and a longer prompt is a
-    # contextWindow must quote that number — the pool and the slot count are
+    # 400, never a truncation. Two invariants the pool/slot split has to keep:
-    # neither, and a longer prompt is a 400, never a truncation.
+    # it divides evenly (llama.cpp floors it otherwise) and a slot never exceeds
-    [ "$(argv_value --parallel)" -eq 2 ]
+    # the model's TRAINED window (there is no YaRN here, so the engine would be
-    [ "$(argv_value --ctx-size)" -eq 524288 ]
+    # quoting a window it cannot fill).
-    local pool slots
+    [ "$(argv_value --parallel)" -eq 3 ]
+    [ "$(argv_value --ctx-size)" -eq 602112 ]
+    local pool slots window
     pool="$(argv_value --ctx-size)"; slots="$(argv_value --parallel)"
     [ $((pool % slots)) -eq 0 ]
-    [ $((pool / slots)) -eq 262144 ]
+    window=$((pool / slots))
+    [ "$window" -eq 200704 ]
+    [ "$window" -le 262144 ]
 }
 
 @test "the KV dtype pair follows the env file and flash-attn stays pinned on" {
     # Asserted against the env rather than a literal so a retune moves one
-    # file, not two. The shipped pair is f16/f16: exact attention state, and the
+    # file, not two. The shipped pair is ASYMMETRIC — f16 K (the engine's own
-    # slot count is what makes it affordable — this payload bills 8,192 elements
+    # default) plus q8_0 V: this payload bills 8,192 elements per token per cache
-    # per token per cache (8 full-attention layers × 4 KV heads × 256 dim), so
+    # (8 full-attention layers × 4 KV heads × 256 dim), so K costs 16,384 B/token
-    # exact KV is 32,768 B/token = 16,384.00 MiB at the 524,288 pool, where the
+    # and V 8,704 (q8_0 is 1.0625 B/element; there is no true fp8 KV dtype in
-    # q8_0 pair this file used to ship billed 17,408 B/token = 13,056.00 MiB at
+    # this build) = 25,088 B/token = 14,406.00 MiB at the 602,112 pool. Exact V
-    # the old 786,432 pool (ledger-exact both times). The 24 DeltaNet layers
+    # would bill 32,768 B/token and the all-q8_0 pair this file used to ship
+    # billed 17,408 — the halfway rung is what pays for the third slot AND the
+    # armed drafter (the fit gate below prices both). The 24 DeltaNet layers
     # bill a fixed recurrent state per slot (~50.25 MiB a cell), which is why
     # pool arithmetic alone under-prices the shape. flash-attn is not
-    # decoration: the quantized-V fallback is only legal with it, so it stays
+    # decoration: quantized V is only legal with it, so it stays explicit and a
-    # explicit and a dtype retune cannot silently fall back.
+    # dtype retune cannot silently fall back.
     local env_k env_v
     env_k="$(sed -nE 's/^CACHE_TYPE_K=(.+)$/\1/p' "$ENV_FILE")"
     env_v="$(sed -nE 's/^CACHE_TYPE_V=(.+)$/\1/p' "$ENV_FILE")"
@@ -192,30 +198,47 @@ run_stage() {
     # The fit is arithmetic off the payload geometry plus the non-KV terms
     # measured off the boot ledger (weights 2,036.71 + compute buffers 1,409.02
     # + projector 595 + 248.10 + CUDA context ≈ 460 = 4,749 MiB, dtype- and
-    # slot-independent at this ubatch), plus one ~51 MiB recurrent-state cell
+    # slot-independent at ubatch 2048), plus one ~51 MiB recurrent-state cell per
-    # per slot. 24,123 MiB is what the driver leaves addressable (nvidia-smi
+    # slot. That constant is deliberately NOT credited with the ~1,306 MiB the
-    # reports it as used + free; its total column reads 24,576).
+    # shipped ubatch 1024 hands back: the gate stays conservative.
-    local env_k env_v pool slots rate_k rate_v kv total
+    # An ARMED drafter is billed, because it is the term this shape pays
+    # CACHE_TYPE_V=q8_0 to afford: the draft context is built against the
+    # TARGET's whole pool at its own f16 rate (measured 4,096 B/position at
+    # blk.32) plus buffers and its own recurrent cells — the measured spec-ON
+    # against spec-OFF delta at the 786,432 / ubatch-1024 arm was 3,524 MiB
+    # beside 3,072 MiB of draft KV, i.e. ~452 MiB, doubled here for the third
+    # slot's extra cells. 24,123 MiB is what the driver leaves addressable
+    # (nvidia-smi reports it as used + free; its total column reads 24,576).
+    local env_k env_v pool slots rate_k rate_v kv total spec f16 exact_pool exact_v
     env_k="$(sed -nE 's/^CACHE_TYPE_K=(.+)$/\1/p' "$ENV_FILE")"
     env_v="$(sed -nE 's/^CACHE_TYPE_V=(.+)$/\1/p' "$ENV_FILE")"
     pool="$(sed -nE 's/^CTX_SIZE=([0-9]+)$/\1/p' "$ENV_FILE")"
     slots="$(sed -nE 's/^PARALLEL=([0-9]+)$/\1/p' "$ENV_FILE")"
+    spec="$(sed -nE 's/^SPEC_TYPE=(.+)$/\1/p' "$ENV_FILE")"
     rate_k="$(kv_bytes_per_token "$env_k")"
     rate_v="$(kv_bytes_per_token "$env_v")"
+    f16="$(kv_bytes_per_token f16)"
     kv="$(( pool * (rate_k + rate_v) / 1048576 ))"
     total="$(( kv + 4749 + 51 * slots ))"
+    if [ "$spec" != "none" ]; then
+        total="$(( total + pool * 4096 / 1048576 + 768 ))"
+    fi
     # The shipped arm has to leave real room: the projector's worst case is
     # charged AFTER the engine's own fit check, so a projection that lands on
     # the ceiling is a crash waiting for the first image request.
     [ "$total" -le $(( 24123 - 1024 )) ]
 
-    # And the gate must be able to REFUSE: the same exact KV at the pool this
+    # And the gate must be able to REFUSE, or passing above means nothing. Two
-    # shape left behind is 24,576 MiB of cache alone — a boot that dies before
+    # boots this shape can walk straight into: the retired dtype pair at the
-    # /health ever answers. Proving the gate bites is what makes passing one
+    # retired pool (exact f16 at 786,432 = 24,576 MiB of cache alone, which died
-    # meaningful.
+    # at cudaMalloc), and the shipped pool with V moved back to f16 while the
-    local over
+    # drafter stays armed — 18,816 MiB of cache plus the draft's 2,352. Both die
-    over="$(( 786432 * (rate_k + rate_v) / 1048576 + 4749 + 51 * 3 ))"
+    # before /health ever answers, and no health gate can see either.
-    [ "$over" -gt 24123 ]
+    exact_pool="$(( 786432 * (rate_k + f16) / 1048576 + 4749 + 51 * 3 ))"
+    [ "$exact_pool" -gt 24123 ]
+    exact_v="$(( pool * (rate_k + f16) / 1048576 + 4749 + 51 * slots
+                    + pool * 4096 / 1048576 + 768 ))"
+    [ "$exact_v" -gt 24123 ]
 }
 
 @test "log verbosity follows the env file" {
@@ -277,48 +300,54 @@ run_stage() {
     argv_value --ubatch-size | grep -qE '^[0-9]+$'
 }
 
-@test "speculation is off: no drafter flag reaches the argv" {
+@test "the armed drafter ships the whole MTP set and no second copy of the trunk" {
-    # Frank, 2026-10-18: this file DOES carry the MTP head (the boot arms prove
+    # Frank, 2026-10-19: the drafter is ON. The head is IN this file
-    # it loads and drafts, acceptance 0.798/0.617 per position, mean accepted
+    # (qwen35.nextn_predict_layers = 1, blk.32.nextn.*) and it accepted well
-    # length 2.41) and it is still off, because the draft context bills its own
+    # when it was measured off (0.798/0.617 per position, mean accepted length
-    # f16 KV over the WHOLE pool — 4,096 B/position × 524,288 = 2,048 MiB plus
+    # 2.41); what it now pays for is CACHE_TYPE_V=q8_0 plus UBATCH_SIZE=1024,
-    # buffers — on a trunk that already projects 21,234 MiB with exact KV. The
+    # which is why the dtype pair and the batch pair are pinned next door.
-    # MTP arms in frank-zealot.env are all q8_0-era measurements; the doors back
+    # The observable contract is the SET: --spec-type plus every --spec-draft-*
-    # to the drafter are one window per conversation, or KV back to q8_0 with
+    # the env names, and NO --spec-draft-model — the MTP draft rides the MAIN
-    # UBATCH_SIZE=1024 (213.5 t/s). The flags move as a set:
+    # model's weights, so a draft file would load the trunk a second time.
-    # SPEC_TYPE=none strips --spec-type, --spec-draft-n-max AND
+    local n_max
-    # --spec-draft-model together, so a no-spec boot cannot carry half a spec
+    n_max="$(sed -nE 's/^SPEC_DRAFT_N_MAX=([0-9]+)$/\1/p' "$ENV_FILE")"
-    # pair (the ROCmFPX-era baseline arm segfaulted at load doing that).
     serve_argv
     [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+    [ "$(argv_value --spec-type)" = "draft-mtp" ]
+    [ "$(argv_value --spec-draft-n-max)" = "$n_max" ]
+    [ "$(argv_value --spec-draft-n-min)" = "0" ]
+    [ "$(argv_value --spec-draft-p-min)" = "0" ]
+    ! grep -qxF -- '--spec-draft-model' <<<"$output"
+}
+
+@test "the rollback knob strips the entire spec set" {
+    # SPEC_TYPE=none is the documented retreat (and the shape this endpoint
+    # shipped before 2026-10-19). The law it exists to obey: the flags move as a
+    # SET — a no-spec boot that keeps --spec-draft-n-max, or a baseline arm that
+    # hands over --model-draft with no --spec-type, has segfaulted at load with
+    # no diagnostic. So the rollback is proven by ABSENCE of all of them.
+    serve_argv
+    sed -i 's/^SPEC_TYPE=.*/SPEC_TYPE=none/' "$STAGE/test.env"
+    run_stage
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
     ! grep -qxF -- '--spec-type' <<<"$output"
     ! grep -qxF -- '--spec-draft-n-max' <<<"$output"
+    ! grep -qxF -- '--spec-draft-n-min' <<<"$output"
+    ! grep -qxF -- '--spec-draft-p-min' <<<"$output"
     ! grep -qxF -- '--spec-draft-model' <<<"$output"
-    grep -qE '^SPEC_TYPE=none$' "$ENV_FILE"
 }
 
-@test "naming a drafter ships the MTP set, with or without a separate draft file" {
+@test "an external drafter still reaches the engine as a complete set" {
-    # The documented MTP arm (frank-zealot.env): SPEC_TYPE=draft-mtp ALONE is
+    # The other arm the ROCmFPX-era crash was about: a named draft FILE must
-    # legal here because the head is IN the checkpoint and the draft context
+    # arrive alongside --spec-type and the depth recipe, never alone. This
-    # rides the main model's weights — so --spec-draft-model must NOT appear,
+    # endpoint does not use it (the head is in the trunk), so the knob ships
-    # or the trunk would be loaded twice.
+    # empty and only this test sets it.
     serve_argv
-    {
-        echo 'SPEC_TYPE=draft-mtp'
-        echo 'SPEC_DRAFT_N_MAX=2'
-    } >> "$STAGE/test.env"
-    run_stage
-    [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
-    [ "$(argv_value --spec-type)" = "draft-mtp" ]
-    [ "$(argv_value --spec-draft-n-max)" = "2" ]
-    ! grep -qxF -- '--spec-draft-model' <<<"$output"
-
-    # And an external drafter still reaches the engine as a complete set — the
-    # pair the ROCmFPX-era crash was about.
     echo "SPEC_DRAFT_FILE=$MODEL_DIR/$DRAFT_STUB" >> "$STAGE/test.env"
     run_stage
     [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
     [ "$(argv_value --spec-draft-model)" = "$MODEL_DIR/$DRAFT_STUB" ]
+    [ "$(argv_value --spec-type)" = "draft-mtp" ]
 }
 
 @test "vision ships by default and MMPROJ_FILE empty opts out of the image path" {