# frank-archon.env — radiance (StillDeadcode, Apache-2.0) serving # ukisai/Swift1.5-Qwen3.8-Flash-Next converted to GPTQ w4 (MODEL_FILE below, # built by scripts/convert-swift15-w4dn8.sh) on BOTH R9700s (TP=2), # dankserver :7770. # # SHAPE (2026-10-11): 2 decode slots x 200,000 tokens with an UNQUANTIZED # (bf16) KV cache — the pool is sized for the pair, and the weights slab pays # for it (see the KV block). The fp8-native payload this file was written for # is the rollback target and keeps its own trio under the fp8-native runbook. # # 2026-10-05 cutover from FreeToken (PR #587 ROCm, one card, experts in # pinned host RAM; git tag frank-archon-freetoken-pr587-20261005 is the # pre-cutover state — its unit/env/serve trio and Dockerfile are all in the # tag and rebuildable). Before that: tcclaviger vLLM fork (tag # frank-archon-vllm-shapeG-20261003). # # WHY RADIANCE: the engine is C++/HIP with libr4d kernels built for # gfx1201, drives `podman run` directly from the digest-pinned # stilldeadcode/radiance image (287 MiB; host needs only the amdgpu driver), # and its qwen4exp plugin reads the modelopt FP8 encoding NATIVELY # (`X.weight_scale_inv` is the scale plane — checkpoint.h). The PLE n-gram # table (51B params, 47.7 GiB) is served from pinned host RAM via io_uring # reads — Frank's call: "Native FP8. Experts from ram. Pin the PLE to ram." # The 4-bit-codebook publisher shape (qwen3.8-next-flash-fp8-iq4r-moe.rad, # --host-pool-mib 12288) remains the documented fallback if the native # container proves unbootable. # # PAYLOAD: /home/dank/models/rad/qwen4exp-fp8-native.rad — a rad-convert # NO-RECIPE pure copy of the official 131-shard checkpoint (every weight # keeps its block-FP8 encoding; ~161 GiB). The convert runs against a # staging dir whose config.json drops `quantization_config`: the descriptor # string is only the plugin SELECTION key (spec §2.4 — exact match, no # fallback), and no shipped plugin claims (qwen4exp, "fp8"); the shipped # qwen4exp plugin claims (qwen4exp, "") which is what recipe-built # containers carry. Per-weight encodings are data, not the descriptor — # removing the key changes nothing about what the weights hold. Built by # scripts/build-frank-archon-rad.sh (staging + convert + rad-info). # # SERVING FACTS (docs/GUIDE.md, docs/DOCKER.md, compose/flashnext.yaml): # - The HTTP listener binds AFTER the full load (main.cpp: engine.start() # then engine.serve()) — during load the port refuses connections, so a # bare curl /health gate is honest. /health == /ping: 200 JSON while # serving, 503 only while stopping (core/server/admin.cpp:385). # - Reasoning: --reasoning-format defaults to auto, emitting thinking in # `reasoning_content` (config.cpp). Tool calls: the qwen3.8 dialect, from # the chat format. Both need no parser flags. # - Sampling: the OpenAI endpoint accepts temperature, top_p, top_k, min_p, # typical_p, presence_penalty, frequency_penalty, repetition_penalty, # repeat_last_n, chat_template_kwargs, reasoning_effort, # enable_thinking, preserve_thinking (core/server/oai.cpp:194-205) — # models.yml's extraBody set is fully inside it. Unknown params are # refused (400), which is why nothing unverified rides the wire. # - MTP: the official checkpoint carries the mtp.* head (3,101 tensors, # mtp_num_hidden_layers=1) and the plugin probes draft depth 3 — the # publisher's throughput peak for this model. Stated explicitly with # --num-speculative-tokens 3. # - The fused TP all-reduce is declared over max-num-seqs x # (1 + --num-speculative-tokens) rows; 2 x 3 = 6 rows, under the 25-row # exactness bound of the wht6 wire. # Engine pin: Codeberg tag v1.0.13 (commit 53282fa), Docker Hub tag 1.0.13, # index digest below. REJECTED UPGRADE: 1.2.0 (sha256:665775ed1d90de6dbb # 25558e07fc60d20328f1346f96f3c6e00845eb763f01fa, tag 1.2.0, commit # e95d397) was benched 2026-10-06 on this exact shape (fp8-native rad, # vram pair, spec 2, seqs 3, 43.6k greedy probe): decode 29.21 t/s and # draft acceptance 0.7123 vs the 1.0.13 control's 30.08 and 0.7549. # Acceptance on the greedy harness is deterministic (the control # reproduced the recorded 0.755 exactly), so the drop is a real numerics # change — the 1.2.0 MoE weight-rotation change (92b8aaf) is the named # suspect; decode loss tracks the acceptance ratio (0.943 vs 0.945). # The vram-pair translation itself is exact (1.2.0 boot ledger took # vram_weights 25.46 GiB / vram_kv 3.46 GiB per card byte-identical to # the 1.0.13 ledger at EVC 0.82). Re-test 1.2.0+ when the rotation change # is untangled; 1.2.0 also REMOVED --expert-vs-cache-ratio in favour of # the --vram-weights-mib / --vram-kv-mib pair (core/config.cpp) — this # file already uses the pair, which BOTH pins accept (rollback symmetry). FRANK_ARCHON_IMAGE=stilldeadcode/radiance@sha256:4c3f484564bb2872784e46b0a59cbd71becc9c1e746e301a3596ffae253c322e # The .rad container FILE (mounted under /models) and the state dir for the # prefix-cache disk tier (mounted rw at /data). The model dir holds ONLY # .rad files; the raw HF download and its staging dir live beside it and # are never mounted. FRANK_ARCHON_MODEL_DIR=/home/dank/models/rad FRANK_ARCHON_MODEL_FILE=qwen4exp-swift15-w4dn8-i8-hc8m.rad FRANK_ARCHON_STATE_DIR=/home/dank/radiance-state # The state dir's tune/ subdirectory holds rad-tune's kernel-selection # cache (the engine's selector reads $RADIANCE_HOME/tune/.tune # at boot; $RADIANCE_HOME defaults to /opt/radiance, in the image, so the # cache must ride a host mount — serve script mounts it, see the runbook's # "Tuning levers"). # Container identity is the SERVICE name (Frank's call, 2026-10-05): one # name across systemctl and podman ps. The runtime changes; the name does # not. The legacy list retires every predecessor identity that could hold # the GPUs or the port. FRANK_ARCHON_CONTAINER=frank-archon FRANK_ARCHON_LEGACY_CONTAINERS="frank-archon-qwen frank-archon-r9v qwen-fp8 glm-probe" # Served model id — Protoss name (wire rename 2026-10-09). The container, # unit, scripts and this file keep the frank-archon name above; only the # alias on the wire moved. Radiance validates the requested model name, so # every client (harness, bench scripts, probes) MUST send this value. FRANK_ARCHON_SERVED_NAME=frank-archon FRANK_ARCHON_PORT=7770 # Frank's chat-template call: froggeric's fixed Qwen3.8 template (the # repo's root chat_template.jinja, vendored here; the checkpoint's own # template is baked into the .rad by rad-convert and this overrides it). # Radiance derives the reasoning/tool-call reply format from it. FRANK_ARCHON_TEMPLATE=/home/dank/serverAppConfigs/scripts/qwen38-froggeric-v22.5.jinja # --- engine shape (the boot ledger arbitrates every number below) --------- # Tensor parallel: BOTH R9700s. The board swap (2026-09-20, ProArt B850 # x8/x8 on root ports) made collectives legal on this host; radiance's TP # wire is libr4d's own, not RCCL. FRANK_ARCHON_TP=2 # Lossy WHT 6-bit wire for large all-reduces (publisher's production choice: # +5.6-6.3% prefill, ~-1.3% 8-stream decode at TP2). min-kb stays the # engine default. FRANK_ARCHON_TP_WIRE=wht6 # Decode slots: TWO, so the served window is a CAPACITY CONTRACT — two # concurrent conversations of --max-model-len fit the KV pool (see the KV # block below). The "seqs 2 cannot boot" law is NOT radiance's: it was the # tcclaviger vLLM fork's torch.compile shape specialization on # query_start_loc (ConstraintViolationError, measured 2026-10-02, retired # with that runtime). Radiance booted seqs 2 at the fp8-native first boot, # and the 2026-10-06 decode sweep measured seqs 2 and 3 statistically tied # (30.9-33.1 t/s, inside the +-3% noise floor). Side benefit: the fused TP # all-reduce is declared over seqs x (1 + spec) = 6 rows, under the 25-row # bound at which the wht6 wire stays EXACT (single-sequence decode and any # step of <= 25 rows is bit-exact; only busier steps are lossy). FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_SEQS=2 # Served window. Native is 262,144; 200,000 is the publisher's production # value (compose) and what models.yml's contextWindow must quote — a longer # prompt is refused by the engine, never truncated. The engine treats # `kv group tokens >= max-model-len` as a HARD limit ("ONE request longer # than N tokens is accepted by the API and then refused as too large to ever # fit — this is a hard limit, not a backing ratio"), so the pool is sized # for seqs x maxlen, not for one sequence. FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_MODEL_LEN=200000 FRANK_ARCHON_PLACEMENT=expert_tiered # Pinned host pool for the expert rows that do not fit VRAM. vram_weights and # this pool serve the per-rank resident set TOGETHER: at the fp8-KV pair # (26071/3543) the ledger showed the VRAM slab filled to 259 KiB of slack, # i.e. the pair was exactly sized. Cutting vram-weights by 3.8 GiB to pay for # the bf16 KV pool SPILLS ~3.8 GiB/rank here, so the pool moves with it — # under-sizing it is a boot failure (36864 refused the boot in the fp8 era). # The boot ledger's coverage line remains the referee, not this arithmetic. FRANK_ARCHON_HOST_POOL_MIB=44928 # VRAM left unclaimed per card (publisher default 96 MiB). FRANK_ARCHON_GPU_HEADROOM_MIB=96 # VRAM split of claimed memory per card, MiB (0 = derive from the card). # THE CEILING, measured on this host 2026-10-11: card 31,856 MiB, a boot # consumes 1,710 MiB OUTSIDE both budgets (driver context + activation arena # 990 + hardware queues 100 + headroom 96 + step staging), and the fp8 pair # settled at 1,379 MiB free — so `vram_weights + vram_kv <= 29,120 MiB` keeps # >= 1 GiB free. The pair below is exactly that sum. # THE PRICE, and it is paid twice: on this engine idle KV VRAM is ALSO the # expert cache's spillover (`mover: 2275 slots can be lent out of the KV # cache (2.69 GiB)`, `arena: lends 740 MiB while steps are <= 256 tokens`), # so a bigger KV pool steals weight residency from the slab AND from the # lendable cache. Priors on this card/model: stealing 2.14 GiB of weights for # a bigger pool (MAX_MODEL_LEN 262144) cost 2.5% decode; the EVC ladder's # other direction (0.82 -> 0.84, +2.5 GiB weights) cost 8.9%. Expect -3..-8% # vs the fp8 control (136 t/s median at 44.5k depth, acceptance 0.7246, # ~190 t/s on a live 512-token probe); re-tune from a boot ledger + probe, # never from that estimate. FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_WEIGHTS_MIB=22208 FRANK_ARCHON_VRAM_KV_MIB=6912 # KV cache UNQUANTIZED (bf16). This engine's flag takes ONLY bf16|fp8 — there # is ONE kv_dtype for the whole cache, so "exact K, quantized V" (llama.cpp's # --cache-type-k/--cache-type-v pair, which is what frank-zealot runs) is # UNSERVABLE here: the rung below bf16 is fp8 on both halves. # Measured per-rank cost, read out of the boot ledger's group table (fp8 boot # 2026-10-08, bf16 boot 2026-10-11): # kv_attn 13 layers, 4-token blocks, page 26.00 KiB (fp8) -> 52.00 KiB # kv_qsa_bkey 13 layers, 4-token blocks, page 3.25 KiB at BOTH dtypes — # the QSA block key is an index, not attention state, and does # NOT follow --kv-cache-dtype # => 7.3125 KiB/token fp8, 13.8125 KiB/token bf16: bf16 costs 1.89x fp8, # not 2x, precisely because the bkey plane is dtype-fixed. # The dtype-INDEPENDENT terms also live in the pool: kv_gdn_state 54 MiB x 2 # copies per sequence (+ conv/tail/ple ~= 110 MiB a sequence) and the prefix # checkpoint region 8 x 55.99 = 448 MiB. So: # pool_mib >= tokens x 13.8125 KiB + 110 x seqs + 448 # 6912 -> (6912 - 220 - 448) x 1024 / 13.8125 = 462,946 tokens; the engine # reported 462,752 (0.04% page rounding) — 2 x 200,000 with 62k of slack, # and the ledger says it outright: "backs 2 sequences all at 200000 tokens # at once, which is the worst case". # (the fp8 pool of 3543 gave 386,904 — it never held 2 x 200k, it held 1.93 # sessions, and a third long conversation preempted to the host/disk tiers). # Secondary cost: the prefix-cache entry grows with the attention plane # (one entry 58.50 KiB at fp8 -> 110.50 KiB at bf16, measured on the two boot # ledgers' `kv tier transfer` lines), so the host tier below doubles to keep # the same number of parked conversations, out of RAM the host has # (104 GiB available with the service loaded). FRANK_ARCHON_KV_DTYPE=bf16 # Spec decode: the checkpoint's own MTP head at the publisher's depth-3 # operating point (probe() returns 3 when mtp_num_hidden_layers > 0; the # flag states it so the ledger records the intent). FRANK_ARCHON_SPEC_TOKENS=2 FRANK_ARCHON_MAX_BATCHED_TOKENS=2048 # Prefix cache tiers (publisher pattern; disk tier sized for 2 slots). # The host tier is sized in ENTRIES, and one entry doubles with the cache # dtype (58.50 KiB at fp8 -> 117 KiB at bf16, per the ledger's `kv tier # transfer` line): 4096 MiB at bf16 parks ~1.4 sessions of 200k where it # parked ~2.9 at fp8. Doubled to keep the capacity, at RAM the host has # (104 GiB available with the service loaded). FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_HOST_MIB=8192 FRANK_ARCHON_PREFIX_DISK_MIB=65536 # Frank's pin law: the PLE n-gram table (47.7 GiB) serves from pinned host # RAM the cards read. `ram` REFUSES the start if the memlock limit 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 (2 x 44 GiB pools + 47.7 GiB PLE + 8 GiB # prefix host = ~147 GiB) rides TTM's shared pages, capped by ttm's # pages_limit (the current kernel exposes NO pages_max; the cap function # takes the min over the knobs that exist). Below the plan the load dies # mid-pin with an allocator error instead of this named refusal — raise the # knob first (runtime sysfs write; kernel cmdline fallback + one reboot only # if the file is read-only), see the runbook. Cap raised 2026-10-05 to # 52,428,800 pages = 200 GiB, which still clears this floor. FRANK_ARCHON_TTM_MIN_MIB=150000 # Escape hatch for boot-ladder experiments. Unset -> no extra argv. Keep # multi-flag values as one string; the serve script expands it unquoted on # purpose. FRANK_ARCHON_EXTRA_ARGS= # The .rad's minimum size in MiB (deployer gate; a truncated convert is a # guaranteed long-timeout boot instead of a fast failure). The converted # container measured 177,109 MiB (1,857,127,997,440 B = 173.0 GiB; the # plan-only estimate 172.76 GiB covers the data planes but not the metadata # tail) - floor sits just under the payload. FRANK_ARCHON_RAD_MIN_MIB=110000