Captures the brainstormed "alternative attention pool variants"
follow-on from the original real-LOB integration brainstorm (Axis 1,
deferred from the LOB workstream as a separate model-side spec).
Design:
Replace shared learned query Q[HIDDEN_DIM] with per-horizon queries
Q_h[N_HORIZONS, HIDDEN_DIM]. Per-horizon softmax + context vectors
feed multi-horizon heads directly (PATH A) — each horizon attends
to a different part of the K=6000 LN_b output sequence. CfC k=0
state is initialised by the MEAN of per-horizon contexts so the
K-loop recurrence + state amplification (per
pearl_state_amplifies_short_horizon_into_long_horizon) survives.
Heads consume per-horizon context concat CfC h_K (residual) with a
default 75/25 weight split.
Falsifiable claim (§0): A/B-tested win means h6000 mean_auc lifts by
≥ +0.01 absolute OR per-horizon distribution shifts toward short
horizons (h1000, h300) with no net h6000 loss. The 3-fold variance
band on the current architecture (mean_auc 0.7749 ± 0.024) means a
+0.01 lift is within noise — a meaningful effect needs ≥ +0.024 or
qualitative distributional shift.
Two new kernels (per_horizon_attention_pool_fwd + _bwd) + signature
extension on multi_horizon_heads_{fwd,bwd}. Variant-toggle config flag
(SharedQuery vs PerHorizonQuery) keeps the existing path fully
functional; new variant is opt-in. CheckpointV1 → V2 with explicit
discriminant + optional q_h field; V1 files load as SharedQuery, new
V2 training writes the discriminant.
Three validation rings:
1. Per-(b,h) numgrad parity at K=16
2. One-epoch smoke (no NaN, loss decreases)
3. 30-epoch × 3-fold A/B (#204) — decision gate per §0 falsifiable claim
Implementation explicitly deferred. The decision to invest depends on
(a) GPU time budget (~3-6 hrs on L40S × 5 GPUs for the A/B), (b)
whether per-horizon cost-frontier sweeps (#202 follow-ups) surface
viable horizons beyond h6000 that would benefit from per-horizon
specialisation, and (c) the 3-fold variance noise floor making the
expected effect size visible.
Next step when ready: invoke superpowers:writing-plans against this
spec for the ~6-8 commit implementation plan.
Closes the "good to have" question from the recent brainstorm with a
concrete decision framework rather than ad-hoc implementation.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Revises all 12 issues from the self-review pass:
1. (HIGH) Soften bit-equivalence claim — single-sample helper and
batched kernel at B=1 are different CUDA kernels; FP order may
differ. Acceptance is relative_eq ≤ 1e-6, not bit-exact.
2. (HIGH) Explicit asymmetry: only cfc_step has a single-sample GPU
oracle. GRN/VSN/attn bwd rely on smoke + chain-rule preservation.
feedback_no_cpu_test_fallbacks.md forbids a CPU reference oracle.
3. (HIGH) Realistic targets — 3× floor, 5× stretch. Drops 15× claim
which was Amdahl-bounded under any reasonable assumption.
4. (MED) AdamW-after-reducer invariant stated explicitly: final grad
buffer is OVERWRITE by reducer, meaningful only after reducer ran.
5. (MED) New B=32 smoke test (stacked_trainer_loss_shrinks_at_batch_32)
actually exercises the cross-batch reduction path; existing
perception_overfit suite is all B=1.
6. (MED) Rollout commit 1 bundles reduce_axis0 + first consumer
(cfc_step refactor) to avoid feedback_wire_everything_up.md
orphan-kernel anti-pattern.
7. (LOW) Drop "merge to ml-alpha-phase-a" — user already chose direct
commits to that branch; clarify in Rollout.
8. (LOW) Add explicit scratch-sizing formula:
scratch_bytes ≈ B × Σ(param tensor sizes per kernel).
9. (LOW) Remove resolved open question (memset_zeros ordering).
10. (STRUCT) Post-refactor bottleneck analysis section — names the
next L40S floor (Mamba2 scan, launch latency, cuBLAS).
11. (STRUCT) cudaFuncSetAttribute note — refactored cfc_bwd's per-
block shared mem drops to 1 KiB; no attribute change needed.
12. (STRUCT) Explicit Rollback section — atomic-commit-per-kernel +
revert strategy; rollback baseline is the spec commit
(54aa69c10) on ml-alpha-phase-a.
Plus locks the target pool to L40S — speedup must be attributable to
the refactor, not to a hardware bump. H100 / BF16 / larger batch
become candidates for a follow-up spec once the L40S floor is known.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Documents the design for fixing the single-SM bottleneck in five
backward/K-loop kernels: cfc_step (fwd+bwd), GRN bwd, VSN bwd, and
attention_pool bwd. All currently use grid=(1,1,1) with an internal
n_batch loop — on L40S (142 SMs) with B=32 this puts <1% of the GPU
to work in the K-loop critical path.
Architecture: block-per-batch (grid=(B,1,1)) for the kernel body, plus
per-batch grad scratch buffers reduced via a single parameterised
reduce_axis0 kernel (block tree-reduce, no atomicAdd per
feedback_no_atomicadd.md). Same pattern as the existing LayerNorm bwd
reducer — CUDA-Graph-safe, debuggable, and consistent with foxhunt's
no-cooperative-groups discipline.
Target: ≥3× epoch wall speedup (stretch 8-15×). Makes 3-fold CV
tractable (10.5h → 2-3h) and unblocks decision-stride / state-dim
sweeps that compound the gain.
Acceptance gates: (a) all 8 perception_overfit smokes still converge,
(b) new B=1 bit-equivalence test asserts the refactored batched bwd
kernel at B=1 matches the existing single-sample helper byte-for-byte,
(c) cluster A/B vs t6z89 baseline shows AUC trajectory within ±0.005
and epoch wall ≥3× faster.
Atomic refactor per kernel — one commit per kernel covering the
kernel rewrite, scratch buffer alloc, reducer launch wiring, and
smoke. No "_legacy" parallel kernels per feedback_no_legacy_aliases.md
+ feedback_no_partial_refactor.md.
Open implementation-plan decisions: exact memset_zeros ordering inside
the captured graph, batch-vs-per-tensor reducer launches, optimal
block_dim for reduce_axis0 itself.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
User directive 2026-05-17: borrow TFT GRN over the planned 2-layer MLP heads.
GRN structure: 2-layer GELU MLP body (eta_2 → eta_1) + GLU gate + main +
skip-projection from trunk → final sigmoid. Gives per-horizon "linear vs
deeper-transform" gating, matches the regime-conditional alpha pattern
(pearl_snapshot_alpha_is_regime_conditional). 5x parameter count vs the
2-layer MLP but the gated residual is exactly what TFT empirically wins on.
Phase 2C (TGN Δt Fourier features): 8 sin/cos features of Δt at log-spaced
periods [60s, 6s, 600ms, 60ms] appended to snap_features. Critical with
decision-stride>1 where Δt varies across positions. Bumps FEATURE_DIM 32→40.
Phase 2D (TFT VSN): per-feature softmax-normalised gates at the trunk entry,
replacing raw concat of snap_features. Learns to down-weight noisy
features per regime (canonical: trade-flow in low-volume, OFI in
spread-Q4). 2 new param tensors, 1 new cuda kernel (fwd+bwd).
Existing 2-layer MLP kernels from Tasks 1.3/1.4 stay in the cubin as
ablation baseline; wired path becomes GRN.
Phase 1.7 plan now spells out the full GRN forward + backward chain rule
(skip + sigmoid(gate) * main → outer sigmoid), kernel signatures,
parameter Xavier init, AdamW × 10 setup, and an extended numerical-grad
check covering all 10 new param tensors.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Per user direction "no gating, this is the new default": the stacked
Mamba2 -> CfC -> heads design is THE production architecture. There's
no competing-baseline comparison to run. Validation reduces to normal
training metrics (per-horizon val AUC, train loss curve, sanity floor
of >0.5 AUC).
Deletions:
- crates/ml-alpha/src/gate/cfc_vs_mamba2.rs (gate verdict logic)
- crates/ml-alpha/src/gate/mod.rs
- crates/ml-alpha/examples/alpha_gate.rs (gate runner binary)
Renames:
- crates/ml-alpha/src/gate/auc.rs -> crates/ml-alpha/src/eval/auc.rs
- lib.rs: pub mod gate -> pub mod eval (gate implied comparison;
eval doesn't)
Spec amendments:
- Drop the "Gate baseline strategy" amendment (committed earlier
this session)
- Reframe the stacked-architecture amendment as a "decision" not a
"gate"; production path is unambiguous
- Reframe Section 4 "Validation gate: CfC must meet Mamba2" -> just
"Validation: per-horizon val AUC" with the >0.5 sanity floor
Doc cleanups: stale "Mamba2 gate baseline" mentions in build.rs and
pinned_mem.rs replaced with neutral wording. The Argo template
comment about "downstream gate consumption" becomes "for monitoring".
Test status: all 26+ ml-alpha tests pass. AUC tests (6/6) still pass
under the eval:: namespace.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Defines the Mamba2-only baseline for the stacked-vs-baseline gate
verdict as an ablation of the SAME PerceptionTrainer (a --bypass-cfc
flag), not a separate model. Apples-to-apples; same data window,
same hyperparameters, same code path. The only difference is whether
the CfC step is in the loop.
Three ablation options evaluated:
1. --bypass-cfc flag (recommended): Mamba2 -> heads directly
2. --mamba2-state-dim 2 (crippled Mamba2, CfC stays)
3. Frozen CfC initialized to identity (no code branch needed)
Option 1 wins on clarity: it answers "is CfC additive on top of
Mamba2" unambiguously, with the same Mamba2 capacity and same
training regime in both arms.
Concrete next-session work documented (1-2 hours):
- PerceptionTrainerConfig.bypass_cfc: bool + step() branch
- alpha_train --bypass-cfc CLI flag
- alpha-perception-template.yaml workflow parameter + bash branch
- submit both runs, fetch summaries, alpha_gate, commit verdict
gate_verdict logic unchanged — the cfc/mamba2 naming in the report
becomes stacked/bypass at the binding layer; the verdict math is
generic.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Per-horizon P(up) at h ∈ {30, 100, 300, 1000, 6000} snapshots forward.
Single-block 5-thread kernel; each thread is its own 128-dim dot
product + sigmoid. No atomicAdd.
Tests (5/5 pass on sm_86) assert invariants only:
- sigmoid output ∈ [0, 1] for all heads
- zero weights + zero bias → 0.5 exactly
- bias = +20 → saturates near 1
- bias = -20 → saturates near 0
- per-head independence (mixed-bias configuration)
Addendum updated to explicitly state no-CPU-mirror discipline per
feedback_no_cpu_test_fallbacks.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Mid-execution architecture revision: Mamba2 stays as a sequence
encoder; CfC becomes the layer on top (replacing the Phase 1d.3 MLP
stacker). Gate becomes 'stacked AUC >= Mamba2-only stacker AUC at
every horizon' — proves the CfC layer is additive, rather than CfC
alone beating Mamba2 alone.
Plan 1 kernels (cfc_step, heads, projection, BCE, AdamW, Graph A)
are unchanged. Only CfcTrunk's forward path gains a Mamba2 prefix
that consumes the snapshot stream and emits a 128-dim h_mamba which
CfC reads. The Mamba2 kernel (mamba2_alpha_kernel.cubin) is already
in the build.
Option B (parallel + fused dual-stream) is documented as the Plan 2
fallback if the stacked gate fails.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Cargo.toml: drops gbdt; adds memmap2 + approx; keeps ml-core only
(cannot depend on ml: would cycle since ml depends on ml-alpha for
the Mamba2 gate baseline).
build.rs: compiles 7 cubins (mamba2_alpha + 6 new placeholders)
with -O3 --use_fast_math --ftz --fmad. Skips kernels whose source
isn't present yet so partial check-ins work. Every env::var paired
with rerun-if-env-changed per the canonical build pearl.
src/pinned_mem.rs: local copy of MappedF32Buffer (mirrors
ml::cuda_pipeline::mapped_pinned::MappedF32Buffer). Drives the only
permitted CPU<->GPU path per feedback_no_htod_htoh_only_mapped_pinned.
Eventually the move-to-ml-core refactor will deduplicate; out of
scope for the Phase A branch.
Addendum: updates the import path to ml_alpha::pinned_mem.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Plan 1 was written against an older cudarc device-centric API. cudarc 0.19
moved alloc/launch ownership to the stream (partly for CUDA Graph capture
hygiene). This addendum pins:
- MlDevice -> CudaContext -> CudaStream construction
- Cubin load + module + function caching
- MappedF32Buffer staging -> DtoD-async -> CudaSlice (canonical CPU->GPU)
- Slow-path readback via DtoD into a staging MappedF32Buffer
- launch_builder(&func).arg(...).launch(cfg) idiom
- IsvBus and MappedPinnedSnapshotSlot/FillSlot using the real
MappedF32Buffer API (host_slice_mut, read_all, dev_ptr field)
- CUDA Graph A capture via stream.begin_capture / end_capture / instantiate
Plan 1 kernel .cu source, CPU oracles, finite-diff thresholds, smoke
criteria, and gate logic are unchanged. Only Rust binding code uses
these patterns.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Two documentation deliverables produced while T14 backtest runs:
1. Plan update (specs/2026-05-15-phase-e-4-a-temporal-foundation.md):
adds 'Execution Status' section reflecting actual T1-T14
progression. T5 deferred (real MBP-10 peek), T9 skipped (GRN
moved to E.4.B per integration notes), T10 partial (new C51
grad-input kernel landed but Mamba2 backward wiring deferred),
T14 in flight. Documents the 4 execution learnings:
research-first saved a week of duplicate kernel work; cheap
falsification experiments (Path 2, Path 3) avoided expensive
investments; C51 borrow was the largest single Sharpe-lift in
the session; GpuTensor/CudaSlice interop friction is the real
integration cost.
2. T10 patch sketch (specs/2026-05-15-t10-mamba2-backward-from-h-enriched.md):
ready-to-apply patch for ml-alpha::Mamba2Block adding a new
public method backward_from_h_enriched(cache, d_h_enriched).
Bypasses the W_out projection backward, accepts the
[B, hidden_dim] gradient from C51's grad-input kernel directly,
zero-initialises dw_out/db_out (AdamW step on zero grad is a
no-op with correct moment decay — effectively freezes W_out
params which is correct semantics since Phase E never uses
them). Includes the smoke binary wiring snippet that consumes
the new method via launch_alpha_c51_grad_input → Mamba2
backward → AdamW step. Application gated on T14 backtest
validation — if frozen Mamba2 already lifts Sharpe, T10
becomes optimisation rather than prerequisite.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Design doc (specs/): TFT-style architecture for Phase E execution
policy — sliding window → Mamba2 SSM → GRN trunk → MoE regime gate
→ C51 head → Thompson selector. Two core pillars added per user:
A) Full L1-L10 LOB depth input via hybrid MBP-10 peek
B) ISV-continual-learning: controllers fire at training AND
inference; Q-net weights frozen at inference but effective
policy adapts via ISV modulation
Plan doc (plans/): 14-task implementation plan for E.4.A foundation
(window buffer + L1-L10 depth + Mamba2 forward+backward + ISV-eval
controllers). Falsification gates: smoke R_mean improvement ≥ 50%,
backtest cost=0 Sharpe ≥ +8 (no regression vs C51-flat +10.41),
half-tick Sharpe ≥ -8 (closes 5pt+ of 10pt gap to Phase 1d.4
baseline -4.0).
TGGN (foxhunt Temporal Graph Gated Network) explicitly deferred to
Phase E.5+: existing CPU graph implementation + GPU adapter at
ml-supervised/src/tgnn/ — marginal benefit for single-instrument ES
futures vs the TFT-Mamba2 stack; revisit for multi-instrument
extension or production HFT inference layer.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Findings:
- Production Mamba2 (gpu_dqn_trainer) is coupled to SH2=256 trunk +
ofi_embed + ISV[8] temporal routing — not portable to Phase E.
- ml-alpha::mamba2_block::Mamba2Block is from-scratch, fully
configurable (in_dim/hidden_dim/state_dim/seq_len), GPU-pure with
forward_train/backward/AdamW. Used in Phase 1d.2 to lift AUC 0.50
to 0.66. ml-alpha is already a workspace dep of ml.
- GRN skipped for E.4.A — Mamba2 output goes straight to C51 head.
Reintroduce GRN in E.4.B if Sharpe gates don't pass.
- Controller-at-inference: kernel has no training-mode branches;
Wiener state preserved across episodes/cost cells for natural
live-deployment simulation.
Revises Tasks 8-10 of the plan: use Mamba2Block API instead of
writing custom kernels. Only new CUDA needed: alpha_c51_grad_input
(C51 gradient w.r.t. input features, for Mamba2 backward chain).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
32 tasks across 5 milestones (E.0 foundation → E.4 shadow-mode), with
locked design decisions from three rounds of focused research memos:
- Q1 (fill sim): medium-tier Poisson regression from 5.2M trade tape
- Q2 (reward): terminal-only, n-step credit (consumes ISV slot 517)
- Q3 (alpha trust): implicit calibrated trust via state features
- Q4 (state window): current snapshot + 2 short-horizon scalars
- Q5 (sizing): hybrid decoupled fractional Kelly × Phase E attenuation
Trainer choice: DQN primary (Rainbow + Munchausen target), PPO control
on H=600 truncated only if kill criteria fire. Exploration: ε-greedy
with kill-criteria gate at end of week 2; NoisyNet escalation (4-6 days
due to dead scaffolding in our codebase) if criteria fail; RND beyond
that.
ISV consumption: 5 existing slots (n_step=517, γ=43-46, ε=41, Kelly=280,
reward_caps=452-453); new block 539..550 reserved for Phase E (10 in
active use, 2 spare). One new controller (stacker-threshold
engagement-rate-self-correction at slot 543).
Hardcoded by design: Kelly contract cap (Category-1 safety),
kill-criteria thresholds (circuit breakers). All other knobs are
ISV-driven per pearl_controller_anchors_isv_driven.
Decisive gates at week 1 (H=600 kill criteria), week 4 (composition
backtest Sharpe at half-tick > 0), and week 5 (shadow-vs-backtest
PnL within 30%).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Phase 1 of the foxhunt specialized agents/skills rollout is complete: 14
commits, 5 auditor agents, 7 workflow/maintenance skills, 2 helper scripts,
warn-only PostToolUse hook router. All 8 acceptance criteria from the spec
verified. Hook latency 11-13 ms per call (target <200 ms). Memory-write
invariant held: only pearl-distiller and memory-curator are authorized
writers, no agent-driven memory edits during rollout.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
14-task plan covering: foundation hook router (Task 1), 5 auditor agents
(Tasks 2-5, 13), 5 workflow skills (Tasks 6-10), 2 maintenance skills
(Tasks 11-12), end-to-end acceptance check (Task 14). Tasks 2-5, 6-8, 9-10,
11-12 fan out in parallel. Task 13 (sp-critical-reviewer) composes the four
domain auditors and is built last.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Append a "Plan Accuracy Errata" section to the SP19+20 plan
documenting the 6 deviations from the original Phase 2 plan that
emerged during implementation. Each entry captures the gap, the
decision made, and the rationale, so future implementers see what
was actually built vs what was specified.
Gaps documented:
1. Task 2.0 (label-at-open infrastructure) was NEW — split out from
Task 2.2 to land buffer + alloc + reset + write site atomically
before Task 2.2's consumer ships. Sign convention mapping detail
captured (kernel emits {0, 1, -1}, SP20 spec uses {-1, 0, +1}).
2. Per-env alpha plumbing was not in Task 2.2 plan scope — built in
Task 2.2 (NOT deferred to Phase 4) to preserve the
`feedback_no_partial_refactor` contract atomicity. Touches 5
files in one commit.
3. Per-bar SP18 D-leg sites — KEEP for Phase 2 per `feedback_no_stubs`.
Plan's wording "DELETE [these helpers]" was overbroad; only the
trade-close-site call is deleted. The phantom
`compute_sp12_reward_with_cost` doesn't exist as a function (the
SP12 v3 reward is the inlined block).
4. `sp20_compute_event_reward` placement — new dedicated
`sp20_reward.cuh` header (NOT inside `experience_kernels.cu`,
NOT inside `trade_physics.cuh`). Mirrors the
compute_asymmetric_capped_pnl / compute_min_hold_penalty
header-only pattern; needed for GPU oracle test wrapper to share
the function bit-for-bit per `feedback_no_cpu_test_fallbacks`.
5. Task 2.3 was subsumed by Task 2.2 — the existing Path C chain
consumes the new `alpha` field automatically once `alpha_per_env`
is wired; no separate `sp20_emas_compute` producer call needed.
6. `min_hold_*` kernel-arg trio cleanup deferred to Task 2.4 — the 3
kernel args were deleted in Task 2.2 (per `feedback_no_hiding`)
but the upstream producer chain (`min_hold_temperature_update_kernel`,
ISV[460], `read_min_hold_temperature_from_isv`, `config.min_hold_*`)
deferred to Task 2.4 because it touches SP14 ISV slot registry +
StateResetRegistry + ISV layout fingerprint bump.
Implementation-level details remain in `docs/dqn-wire-up-audit.md`
Task 2.0 / 2.1 / 2.2 entries; this errata is the plan-level
"what was actually built vs what was specified".
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Atomic Phase 1.4 commit per `feedback_no_partial_refactor`. Wires the
SP20 fused-producer chain (Stats → Aggregate → EMAs → Controllers) into
GpuExperienceCollector's per-rollout-step path with one new aggregation
kernel + Phase 1.2 EMA kernel-signature refactor + production wire-up
+ tests + audit/spec/plan amendments, all in one commit.
## Path C decision rationale
The Phase 1.2 EMA kernel originally took 9 scalar value-args. The Phase
1.4 wire-up site (per-rollout-step in GpuExperienceCollector) needs to
feed per-env GPU-resident trade signals (trade_close_per_sample,
step_ret_per_sample, hold_at_exit_per_sample, packed factored
actions_out) into the kernel — forbidden via host sync
(`feedback_cpu_is_read_only`) and via memcpy_dtoh/htod
(`feedback_no_htod_htoh_only_mapped_pinned`). Path C refactors the EMA
kernel to take a device struct pointer (`SP20EmaInputs* ema_inputs`) +
adds an aggregation kernel that writes the struct on the GPU. Phase 1.2
had zero production consumers yet, so the sig change + Phase 1.4 wire-up
land atomically.
## What this commit contains
1. **EMA kernel signature refactor** (Phase 1.2 → Path C):
`sp20_emas_compute_kernel.cu` swaps 9 scalar args for a single
`const SP20EmaInputs* __restrict__ ema_inputs` device pointer.
Math semantics bit-identical. Rust `EmaInputs` mirrored as
`#[repr(C)]` byte-for-byte; new `pack_inputs_into_f32_view` helper
for tests + collectors that fill the struct via a mapped-pinned
f32-aliased buffer.
2. **New aggregation kernel** (`sp20_aggregate_inputs_kernel.cu`):
Per-env arrays (sliced to current rollout step) + sp20_stats outputs
(p50/std) + aux_dir_acc_reduce_kernel output [0] → SP20EmaInputs
struct. Block tree-reduce (4 stripes × bdim × 4 bytes shmem); no
atomicAdd. Aggregation rules per spec §4.5:
- is_close = OR over envs
- is_win = (≥ 0.5 of closed envs were wins)
- trade_duration = round(mean(hold_at_exit) over closed envs)
- action_is_hold = strict majority (count*2 > n_envs) HOLD
- alpha = 0.0 (Phase 2 forward ref — reward kernel)
- per_bar_hold_reward = 0.0 (Phase 3.2 forward ref — Hold-cost dual)
- aux_logits_p50/std/dir_acc forwarded from upstream
3. **Production wire-up in GpuExperienceCollector**:
4 kernel handles + 4 mapped-pinned buffers (struct fields, alloc,
init); per-rollout-step launch sequence after env_step (step 5c):
`Stats → Aggregate → EMAs → Controllers`. All on the same stream;
stream-implicit producer→consumer ordering. Gated on
`isv_signals_dev_ptr != 0 && trainer_params_ptr != 0` (matches the
existing SP14-β EGF chain pattern).
4. **Fold-boundary reset**:
3 new RegistryEntry records (sp20_ema_inputs_buf,
sp20_emas_internal_buf, sp20_emas_obs_count_buf) + 13 new dispatch
arms in training_loop.rs (10 SP20 ISV slot resets + 3 buffer resets).
Closes the pre-existing `every_fold_and_soft_reset_entry_has_dispatch_arm`
regression (was failing on fresh check after the SP20 ISV slot
registrations landed in commit 4249ebc96).
5. **HEALTH_DIAG emit**:
Per-epoch `HEALTH_DIAG[N]: sp20_isv [loss_cap=… alpha_ema=…
wr_ema=… hold_cost_scale=… target_hold_pct=… hold_pct_ema=…
hold_reward_ema=… n_step=… aux_conf_threshold=… aux_gate_temp=…]`
right after the existing q_disagreement_diag emit.
6. **Tests** (5 test files, all green on RTX 3050 Ti sm_86):
- sp20_emas_compute_test.rs (4 GPU oracle): updated to use the
post-Path-C buffer-arg API (mapped-pinned f32-aliased struct).
- sp20_aggregate_inputs_test.rs (NEW, 6 GPU oracle): aggregation
rule coverage including the Phase 2 / Phase 3.2 placeholder
contract.
- sp20_phase1_4_wireup_test.rs (NEW, 2 GPU oracle): end-to-end
4-kernel chain integration test.
- sp20_stats_compute_test.rs (4 GPU oracle): unchanged, regression.
- sp20_controllers_compute_test.rs (7 GPU oracle): unchanged,
regression.
- 18 lib unit tests across the SP20 launchers.
7. **Phase 2 / Phase 3.2 forward references**:
The `alpha` (Phase 2) and `per_bar_hold_reward` (Phase 3.2) fields
are emitted as 0.0 placeholders and documented at:
- `sp20_aggregate_inputs_kernel.cu:46-52` (in-kernel docstring)
- `sp20_aggregate_inputs.rs:46-49` (launcher docstring)
- `dqn-wire-up-audit.md` "Phase 2 / Phase 3.2 forward references"
These are NOT stubs — Phase 2 / 3.2 will replace the kernel's 0.0
writes with real signals atomically with their respective producers.
The original Task 2.3 (host-side aggregation) is **subsumed** by
the GPU-side aggregation kernel.
## Hard rules
- `feedback_no_partial_refactor` — kernel sig change + aggregation
kernel + production wire-up + tests + audit/spec/plan amendments
in one atomic commit
- `feedback_no_atomicadd` — aggregation kernel uses block tree-reduce
- `feedback_no_cpu_compute_strict` — every aggregation lives on GPU
- `feedback_no_htod_htoh_only_mapped_pinned` — every Phase 1.4 buffer
is mapped-pinned with `cuMemHostAlloc(DEVICEMAP)` reachable via
`dev_ptr`; no memcpy_dtoh/htod
- `pearl_first_observation_bootstrap` — counter-based bootstrap
preserved; placeholder writes (0.0) keep the ALPHA / HOLD_REWARD
EMAs at 0.0 sentinel until Phase 2 / 3.2 wire real producers
- `pearl_no_host_branches_in_captured_graph` — every kernel is single-
block; no host branches; safe to capture in the per-step CUDA Graph
- `pearl_tests_must_prove_not_lock_observations` — integration test
asserts invariants (slots populate, bounds respected) rather than
locked observed values
## Verification
- `cargo check -p ml --features cuda` clean
- 18 lib unit tests for SP20 launchers pass
- 23 GPU oracle tests across 5 test files pass on RTX 3050 Ti (sm_86)
- `every_fold_and_soft_reset_entry_has_dispatch_arm` regression test
now passes (was failing pre-change)
- 14 baseline lib test failures unchanged (none introduced by this
commit)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The Phase 1.1 sp20_stats_compute kernel (de922c6a4) assumed the SP14-C aux
head emits 3-class logits {short, hold, long} with baseline 1/3. This was
an error in the SP19+20 spec — production aux head emits K=2 logits
{down, up} per gpu_aux_heads.rs:61 (AUX_NEXT_BAR_K = 2, established by
SP13 B1.1a). Wiring K=2 production aux into the K=3 kernel = OOB reads +
corrupt stats.
Retargets the kernel + launcher + tests to K=2 atomically per
feedback_no_partial_refactor:
- Kernel: SP20_K_CLASSES 3→2; SP20_UNIFORM_K3 0.333…→SP20_UNIFORM_K2 0.5f;
Pass A reads 2 logits (was 3); aux_conf range [0, 1/2] (was [0, 2/3]).
- Launcher: AUX_K_CLASSES 3→2; renamed unit test
aux_k_classes_is_three → aux_k_classes_matches_production_aux_head.
- Tests: rewrote CPU oracle for K=2 input shape and 0.5 baseline; updated
expected p50/std ranges; redesigned heterogeneous-distribution test to
use ramped (not lockstep) clusters — K=2's saturated softmax in the hot
half collapses every row to bin 255, triggering the
pearl_sp4_histogram_warp_tile_undercount trap; ramped clusters distribute
bin indices across each warp's 32 lanes so the histogram path matches
the CPU oracle within bin_width tolerance.
Phase 1.2 (sp20_emas_compute) and Phase 1.3 (sp20_controllers_compute)
consume the scalar [p50, std] outputs and do NOT carry the K dimension.
Both regression suites verified passing unmodified:
- sp20_emas_compute_test: 4 GPU + 1 unit, all pass.
- sp20_controllers_compute_test: 7 GPU, all pass.
Verification (RTX 3050 Ti, sm_86):
- sp20_stats_compute_test: 4 GPU oracle + 4 launcher unit, all pass.
- cargo check -p ml --features cuda: clean (pre-existing warnings only).
Spec + plan amended at top with "AMENDED 2026-05-09" notes; audit doc
Phase 1.1 entry has a "K=2 fixup" subsection documenting the change.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Q1 design decision (b): add explicit hold_reward_ema to center the per-bar
Hold reward, so Q(Hold) and Q(trade) targets are scale-comparable. The
marginal Q(trade) > Q(Hold) preference now comes from data variance in
each state (high-aux states pull Q(Hold) more negative), not from
structural scale asymmetry that depends on cost_scale magnitude.
Q2 decision: keep 4-quadrant fixed (no ramping partials). Already in spec.
Changes:
- §4.2 Hold opp-cost: dual emission documented — R_per_bar_centered
(= R_per_bar - hold_reward_ema) for Q-target/replay tuple,
R_per_bar uncentered for hold_baseline_buffer (Component 1 baseline)
- §4.5 Kernel 1: hold_reward_ema added (per-step on Hold-state bars only)
- §5 data flow: per-bar reward path shows the centered/uncentered split
- ISV slots: 9 → 10 (HOLD_REWARD_EMA_INDEX added)
- §8 footprint: Component 2 LoC 70 → 90 (+20 for dual emission)
- Total LoC estimate: 1620
Drafts `pearl_diagnostic_decomposition_before_reward_intervention` per
the plan's Task 0.5 deliverable. Captures the discipline pattern
applied in Tasks 0.1–0.2:
Before changing reward weights or Bellman target arithmetic to fight
a Q-attractor, instrument a per-action decomposition of the existing
reward components AND a trajectory observable on the Q-target
distribution. The instrumentation is observability-only and lands
atomically. One epoch of dispatch surfaces whether the suspected
pathology is real BEFORE any production-path code changes.
Pearl is DRAFT — pending the Task 0.3 (reviewer L40S 1-epoch
dispatch) + Task 0.4 (KILL CRITERION evaluation) outcomes. Promotion
to user memory + cross-reference to MEMORY.md is gated on both legs
returning PROCEED.
Cross-references: pearl_canary_input_freshness_launch_order,
pearl_first_observation_bootstrap, pearl_wiener_alpha_floor_for_
nonstationary, feedback_no_partial_refactor, feedback_wire_everything_up.
No production code changes — single doc-only commit.
Plan: docs/superpowers/plans/2026-05-08-sp18-reward-shape-hold-attractor.md
§ Phase 0 Task 0.5.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Mirrors the SP17 PP.1 plan-copy pattern. Plan and spec source-of-truth
live on the sister `feat/sp17-dueling-q-network` worktree; this commit
copies them onto the SP18 branch so subsequent commits reference local
paths.
Spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-08-sp18-reward-shape-hold-attractor-design.md
Plan: docs/superpowers/plans/2026-05-08-sp18-reward-shape-hold-attractor.md
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Plan was authored on sister worktree (sp15-phase1-honest-numbers) by
the SP17 planner agent; copying it to feat/sp17-dueling so future task
references in commit messages and audit-doc entries resolve from this
branch.
No content change vs sister-worktree copy.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Per train-multi-seed-hjzss validation: SP16 T1+T2 chain was structurally
landed but BEHAVIORALLY INERT in 5-epoch smoke (bit-identical to pfh9n
baseline through epoch 3). Root cause: hardcoded `alpha = 0.05f` in both
producer kernels violates feedback_isv_for_adaptive_bounds AND prevents
convergence in short runs (~60 epochs needed from cold start).
Fix per pearl_wiener_optimal_adaptive_alpha:
α = diff_var / (diff_var + sample_var + ε)
Where sample_var = running variance of target signal (Welford accumulator)
and diff_var = running variance of consecutive one-step differences.
Cold-start: target jumps 1.0 → 6.4 → 7.0 → high diff_var → α ≈ 0.6+
→ near-bootstrap responsiveness in epochs 1-3
Steady-state: signal stabilizes → diff_var drops → α decays naturally
→ smoothing emerges without hardcoded constant
Adds 12 new ISV slots (6 per producer):
- HCS_TARGET_MEAN/M2, HCS_DIFF_MEAN/M2, HCS_PREV_TARGET, HCS_SAMPLE_COUNT
- MHT_TARGET_MEAN/M2, MHT_DIFF_MEAN/M2, MHT_PREV_TARGET, MHT_SAMPLE_COUNT
ISV_TOTAL_DIM 462 → 474.
Both kernels migrated atomically. Pearl-A bootstrap preserved (sentinel
on prev_blended triggers REPLACE; cold-start α=1.0 when N<3 samples).
Defensive bounds [WELFORD_ALPHA_MIN=0.01, WELFORD_ALPHA_MAX=0.95] on the
Wiener-derived α to guard against denormal/underflow corner cases.
HEALTH_DIAG[N] emit extended with `alpha=...` and `sample_count=...` for
direct trajectory observation in validation smoke.
Behavioral tests verify:
- α high during signal jumps (>0.3 at epoch 3 post-cold-start)
- α low in steady state (mean tail α<0.4 under converging signal)
- Pearl-A bootstrap fires on first observation (Welford state advances
regardless of REPLACE branch)
- α stays within [WELFORD_ALPHA_MIN, WELFORD_ALPHA_MAX] over 50 epochs
(post-cold-start; cold-start α=1.0 by design)
- No 0.05f hardcoded literal remains in blend math (regression-locked
via host-only string scan)
5 GPU + host tests pass: sp16_phase3_alpha_high_during_signal_jump,
alpha_low_in_steady_state, pearl_a_bootstrap_first_obs,
alpha_naturally_bounded, no_hardcoded_alpha. sp14 + sp15 oracle suites
unchanged (34 GPU tests + 4 host tests).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Per train-multi-seed-pfh9n post-mortem follow-up: slot 460 stuck at 50
in Fold 1 was NOT a launch-lifecycle bug. Producer fires per-epoch but
kernel had early-return guard on AUX_DIR_ACC_SHORT_EMA (slot 373) at
sentinel 0.5. Slot 373 reset on fold boundary; aux dir-acc EMA either
didn't fire or settled within ε of 0.5 → kernel kept early-returning.
Fix: drop slot 373 dependency entirely. Drive temperature from observed
hold-rate vs target overrun:
overrun = max(0, observed_hold_rate - target_hold_rate)
overrun_norm = clamp(overrun / max(target, 0.01), 0, 1)
new_temp = TEMP_MIN + (TEMP_MAX - TEMP_MIN) × overrun_norm
blended_temp = Welford EMA α=0.05 with Pearl-A bootstrap
When over-holding: temp HIGH → exit ramp permissive (matches design intent).
When at/under target: temp LOW → exit penalty strict.
Survives fold reset: hold-rate measurement starts fresh with real data
immediately, no chained-input-sentinel masking.
Slot 330 (KELLY_WARMUP_FLOOR) investigated and confirmed NON-BUG: producer
behaves correctly per pearl_kelly_cap_signal_driven_floors cross-fold-
persistence. floor=0 post-warmup is correct steady state.
Behavioral tests:
- sp16_phase1_min_hold_temp_climbs_with_hold_overrun
- sp16_phase1_min_hold_temp_strict_when_at_target
- sp16_phase1_min_hold_temp_strict_when_under_target
- sp16_phase1_min_hold_temp_no_longer_reads_slot_373
Instrumentation: HEALTH_DIAG[N]: min_hold_temp_diag obs/target/overrun/temp.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Atomic flip of the aux heads' input from Q's GRN trunk output `save_h_s2`
to the SEPARATE aux trunk's output `h_s2_aux`. The aux trunk now trains
its own w1/w2/w3/b1/b2/b3 from CE loss (next-bar + regime); Q's encoder
is structurally protected by `aux_trunk_backward`'s missing `dx_in`
output param (encoder boundary stop-grad enforced at the kernel-set
level).
Reverts the C.0 stop-grad band-aid commits (`872bd7392`, `411a30473`):
the zero-fills in `aux_next_bar_backward` + `aux_regime_backward` Step 3
are replaced with the genuine SAXPY-back-to-input gradient
(`dh_s2_aux[b,j] = sum_k sh_dh_pre[k] * w1[k,j]`). The leak that
motivated stop-grad is now blocked structurally rather than by data
zero-fill — aux gradient flows through the aux trunk's own params, never
into Q's encoder.
Wired in this commit (atomic, ~330 LOC):
- 4 kernel signatures renamed `h_s2 → h_s2_aux` / `dh_s2_out → dh_s2_aux_out`
(`aux_next_bar_forward`, `aux_regime_forward`, `aux_next_bar_backward`,
`aux_regime_backward`); Rust wrappers in `gpu_aux_heads.rs` follow
- Trainer fwd: insert `aux_trunk_forward_ops.launch(...)` in
`aux_heads_forward` Step 0, populating `h_s2_aux` from `save_h_s1`
(encoder layer-1 output, dim=shared_h1=256). Both head fwds redirect
input pointer from `save_h_s2` to `h_s2_aux`
- Trainer bwd: SAXPY both `aux_dh_s2_*_buf` into `dh_s2_aux_accum`
(pre-zeroed each step via graph-safe `cuMemsetD32Async`); then
`aux_trunk_backward_ops.launch(...)` propagates through w3/w2/w1 +
b3/b2/b1; then `launch_aux_trunk_adam_update` applies global L2-norm
clip + per-tensor Adam updates over 6 grad tensors
- Collector fwd: insert `exp_aux_trunk_forward_ops.launch(...)` after
`forward_online_f32`, reading `exp_h_s1_f32` and writing `exp_h_s2_aux`;
redirect `exp_aux_heads_fwd.forward_next_bar` input from
`exp_h_s2_f32` to `exp_h_s2_aux`
- Pre-capture host-write of ISV-driven LR + grad-clip + step counter
into mapped-pinned buffers in `launch_cublas_backward_to` (BEFORE
`aux_heads_backward`); same `&mut self` pattern as `step_ofi_embed_adam`
Verification:
- `cargo check -p ml --tests` clean (1m02s, only pre-existing warnings)
- `aux_trunk_oracle_tests` + `sp14_oracle_tests` 12/12 pass:
- aux_trunk gradient check: max_rel_err=1.33e-2 (tol=2e-2) — matches C.4 baseline
- aux_trunk_backward_does_not_write_dx: kernel source clean of dx_in/dx_in_out
- aux_sign_label_lookahead_mask: 60/100 masked, 40/100 valid
- 9 other oracle tests pass bit-identically
Plan: docs/superpowers/plans/2026-05-07-sp14-layer-c-separate-aux-trunk.md §C.5b
Audit: docs/dqn-wire-up-audit.md "SP14 Layer C Phase C.5b" section
Phase C.5a — additive infrastructure for the aux trunk wire-up.
Allocates saved-fwd buffers (h_s2_aux, h_aux1, h_aux2),
gradient buffers (6× aux_trunk_*_grad), accumulator
(dh_s2_aux_accum), and dedicated Adam launcher
(launch_aux_trunk_adam_update) reading β1/β2/ε/LR/grad-clip from
ISV[444..449).
No contract change. No call sites for the new launcher yet.
C.5b atomically wires these in.
Phase C.5 was split (authorized 2026-05-08) after the original
implementer flagged ~600-800 LOC scope across 4 files with
correctness windows. C.5a is purely additive; C.5b is the genuine
~300 LOC atomic migration.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Aux's original label was (p_{t+1} > p_t) — pure HFT-scale microstructure
noise that's unlearnable at our HFT-MFT trading frequency. Migrated to
(p_{t+H} > p_t) where H is read from ISV[AUX_PRED_HORIZON_BARS_INDEX=450].
Adaptive producer drives H from observed avg winning hold time:
- Pearl-A first-observation bootstrap: replace sentinel H=60 directly
on first valid observation
- Steady-state Wiener-α EMA blend, slow (α=0.01) for stable horizon
(no target-variance EMA available, fallback per
pearl_wiener_optimal_adaptive_alpha)
- "No winning trades yet" guard keeps sentinel until first valid observation
Lookahead truncation: labels at t where t+H >= total_bars are masked
(sentinel -1, loss-reduce skips). The existing aux_next_bar_loss_reduce
in aux_heads_kernel.cu already supports the -1 mask convention via the
B_valid count — no new valid_mask parameter needed.
Step 5b finding: Case B — existing per-sample buffers
(hold_at_exit_per_sample, trade_profitable_per_sample) populated by
unified_env_step_core, but no aggregate ISV slot. Added new aggregator
slot AVG_WIN_HOLD_TIME_BARS_INDEX=451 + new producer kernel
avg_win_hold_time_update_kernel.cu (block-tree-reduce, no atomicAdd).
ISV_TOTAL_DIM bumped 450 → 452.
ATOMIC migration per feedback_no_partial_refactor: both label kernels
(aux_sign_label_kernel.cu trajectory + aux_sign_label_per_step_kernel.cu
per-rollout-step) migrated together to the new
(targets, bar_indices, isv, isv_h_idx, out_labels, total, total_bars)
signature. The lookahead host-passed scalar argument is removed; H is
read from ISV inside the kernel (broadcast value, single read per
thread, on-device clamp [1, 240]).
Producer chain (per-epoch boundary): new
GpuDqnTrainer::launch_aux_horizon_chain orchestrates
avg_win_hold_time_update → aux_horizon_update sequentially alongside
launch_kelly_cap_update at the existing epoch-boundary slot in
training_loop.rs.
Trunk math (C.2/C.3/C.4) unchanged — separate aux trunk is label-
agnostic. Validation in C.10 will use H=60 cold-start; the adaptive
producer drives H from real winning-trade observations.
Tests (8 oracle, 5 new + 3 preserved):
- aux_trunk_forward_matches_numpy_reference (C.3) ✓
- aux_trunk_backward_gradient_check (C.4) ✓
- aux_trunk_backward_does_not_write_dx (C.4) ✓
- aux_sign_label_h_bar_horizon (NEW) ✓
- aux_sign_label_lookahead_mask (NEW) ✓
- aux_horizon_pearl_a_bootstrap (NEW) ✓
- aux_horizon_converges_to_steady_target (NEW) ✓
- aux_horizon_holds_sentinel_with_no_winning_trades (NEW) ✓
8/8 pass on RTX 3050 Ti.
Phase C.4b of SP14 Layer C separate-aux-trunk refactor.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Targeted fixes per user direction (option 3 of "fix critical only,
accept rest as execution-time gaps"):
1. build.rs cubin manifest is 1:1 source-to-cubin (verified: list of
.cu filenames, NOT (source, name) tuples). Fixed Phase 3.1 Step 5
to use single manifest entry; both kernels load from SAME module
via get_function() with their symbolic names.
2. egf_anchor_p1 helper in sp4_histogram_p99.cuh: replaced the
`return 0.0f` stub with the full ~80-line body. Pass 1 + Pass 2
byte-identical to sp4_histogram_p99 (mirrored verbatim from the
existing sibling). Pass 3 walks cumulative-from-bottom for p1
instead of cumulative-from-top for p99. Returns lower-edge of the
first bin reaching 1% threshold.
3. Added Task 4.2.5: `fxt evaluate` subcommand (PREREQUISITE for 4.3).
Verified that bin/fxt/src/main.rs Commands enum has no Evaluate
variant. Without this task, eval-final-template.yaml fails at
runtime. Full subcommand shown: bin/fxt/src/evaluate.rs with 5
flags (--checkpoint-dir, --quarter, --seeds, --output-dir,
--report-card-md), report card markdown emitter per spec §10.5.
5 IMPORTANT and 2 NIT issues from review remain documented as
execution-time friction; subagent-driven-development's spec-compliance
reviewer between tasks is expected to catch them per-task.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Rewrite of 2026-05-06-sp15-trader-discipline-and-recovery.md from v1
(commit 0178a53ab) which had 16 reviewer-flagged issues including
5 critical compile-breakers and 8 important plan-failure violations.
CRITICAL fixes:
- Real GATE1_OPEN_STATE_INDEX (slot 391) — was wrong GATE1_STATE_INDEX
- Real PS_PEAK_EQUITY/PS_PREV_EQUITY (state_layout.cuh slots 7+9) —
no invented CUMULATIVE_EQUITY_INDEX
- Real sp4_histogram_p99<BLOCK_SIZE> block-tree-reduce pattern, no
atomicAdd_block (was feedback_no_atomicadd violation)
- Real evaluate_dqn_graphed pattern (gpu_backtest_evaluator.rs:1143) —
no nonexistent evaluate_on_val_slice
- Real services/ml_training_service/src/main.rs path — was wrong
IMPORTANT fixes:
- Fork from current main 0178a53ab, not stale 5417e2756
- Phase 0.B has explicit case-(a)/case-(b) branches driven by 0.A
diagnostic conclusion
- Phase 2B uses TEMPLATE + 17-row differential table — every test fully
specified, no compressed bullets
- Phase 3 each teaching gets full TDD: write test → run-fail → kernel
(full code) → launcher → consumer → run-pass → commit (5+ steps)
- Phase 3.5 each mechanism same TDD pattern with full kernel code
- Plasticity 3.5.4 specifies TWO-STEP recovery (Flat first, then
cooldown) + Kaiming-He init (not Xavier — architecturally appropriate)
- Phase 4.3 includes FULL eval-final-template.yaml (not 4 bullets)
- 4 EGF constants replaced (not 3 — verified all four in
alpha_grad_compute_kernel.cu lines 142,143,144,147)
- Behavioral_suite test target ordering fixed (Cargo.toml entry lands
before tests run against it)
Stats: 4947 lines, ~270 [- [ ]] step checkboxes, 0 todo!() in test
bodies, every kernel shown in compilable form.
Self-review section maps every spec section to implementing task,
verifies all cross-references against verified codebase facts.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Second critical review pass found 10 more issues, 3 critical.
All addressed:
CRITICAL:
- §8.2 (3.1): ALPHA_SPLIT cold-start was unspecified — formula
produces 0/0=0, not the claimed 0.5 sentinel. Now: ISV slot
initialized DIRECTLY to 0.5 in trainer constructor; formula
takes over only after both grad-norm EMAs accumulate N_warm
non-zero observations
- §9.2 (3.5.4): plasticity now performs TWO-STEP recovery:
(1) Flat all positions at fire bar (close current losing trade),
(2) engage warmup cooldown forcing Hold for M_warm bars.
Without step 1, forced Hold preserved the losing position
that drove drawdown for the entire 200-bar warmup
- §12.2: stale "5-10%" baseline cost estimate updated to "15-25%"
matching §6.4 (was contradicting earlier amendment)
IMPORTANT:
- §9.2 (3.5.5): DD_TRAJECTORY_DECREASING threshold 0.02 hardcoded
→ ISV-driven via new slot DD_TRAJECTORY_FLOOR (slot 441,
25th percentile of running dd_pct distribution)
- §8.2 (3.5): HOLD_FLOOR_ALPHA tracked from rolling 95th percentile
of |Q_dir| (NOT running max — was outlier-ratchet vulnerable)
- §9.2 (3.5.3): MEDIAN_STREAK_LENGTH formerly undefined in cooldown
K formula → ISV-driven via new slot 442, running median of
observed loss-streak lengths via two-heap algorithm
- §9.2 (3.5.2): asymmetric reward × α split compound interaction
explicitly stated as intentional with POS_CAP as binding ceiling
NIT:
- §7.4: "2C: Group 3 (4 tests)" → "(5 tests)" (was off-by-one
after 2.22 added)
- §9.2 (3.5.4): Xavier → Kaiming-He init for advantage head reset
(architecturally appropriate for ReLU-gated activation chain)
ISV_TOTAL_DIM: 441 → 443 post-SP15 (added DD_TRAJECTORY_FLOOR
and MEDIAN_STREAK_LENGTH at slots [441..443)). 46 SP15 slots
total. File: 799 → 811 lines.
Spec is now consistent end-to-end with no contradictions between
sections, no hardcoded values violating feedback_isv_for_adaptive_
bounds, and no underspecified load-bearing parameters.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Two-sub-project plan:
- Layer A (4 tasks, ~50 LOC): C51 atom-floor, set_aux_weight clamp lift,
stagnation warmup gate, smoke validation
- Layer B (15 tasks, ~1180 LOC): 13 ISV slots, 4 kernels (q_disagreement,
alpha_grad, gradient_hack_detect, dir_concat_qaux), forward wire,
backward gradient gating, orchestrator wire-up, HEALTH_DIAG, tests, smoke
Each task has bite-sized TDD steps (write failing test, run fail,
implement, run pass, commit) per the writing-plans skill conventions.
Phase 0 verification tasks (A.0, B.0) anchor against current code at
HEAD 40e737a18+ before edits.
19 total tasks across 2 layers. Each layer commits independently as
an atomic feature; intermediate per-task commits during Layer B keep
the wire safety-protected (forward concat lands before backward gating
in B.9 → B.10 sequence).
8 explicit kill criteria for Smoke A2-B per spec B.7.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Two further user-flagged corrections from second-critical review:
1. Direction Q-head emits K=4 actions, NOT K=3.
Authoritative source: state_layout.cuh:123-126
#define DIR_SHORT 0 // open/maintain short
#define DIR_HOLD 1 // keep current position (no-op)
#define DIR_LONG 2 // open/maintain long
#define DIR_FLAT 3 // close all to zero
The "default: 3 — Short/Flat/Long" comment at gpu_dqn_trainer.rs:2438
is stale pre-SP13. Production callsites all set branch_0_size: 4.
SP13 added DIR_HOLD as a separate fourth direction action (Hold-pricing).
The config default comment was never updated when DIR_HOLD landed.
This is exactly the feedback_trust_code_not_docs failure mode — a
single stale comment would have silently corrupted the q_disagreement
signal (Hold/Flat being indices 1/3 instead of just Flat=1).
Updates:
- B.1 action-space context: 4 actions with Hold AND Flat both
non-committal (Hold = keep position, Flat = exit to zero)
- B.2.3 q_disagreement mapping: K=4↔K=2 with both Hold and Flat
masked from disagreement signal (no new directional commitment
to evaluate); only Short and Long picks contribute to disagreement
- Edge case handling for all-Hold/all-Flat batches
2. Adaptive β rate limiter (was structural β=0.9).
Per feedback_isv_for_adaptive_bounds, β should be signal-driven
not hardcoded. v3 derives β from variance of α_grad_raw, mirroring
the k_aux/k_q variance-driven steepness pattern in B.2.5.
Formula:
β = clip(β_base + variance_alpha_raw / variance_ref_alpha,
[β_base, β_max])
β_base = 0.5 (light smoothing baseline; ~2-step half-life)
β_max = 0.95 (heavy smoothing; ~20-step half-life)
Stable α_grad_raw → β = β_base (preserves directional intent)
Volatile α_grad_raw → β → β_max (dampens jitter)
Adds 2 ISV slots:
ALPHA_GRAD_RAW_VARIANCE_EMA_INDEX (Welford variance)
BETA_RATE_LIMITER_ADAPTIVE_INDEX (current β value)
ISV slot count: 11 → 13 (net +2 for variance + adaptive β).
LOC estimate: ~1150 → ~1180 (negligible delta; 3 Welford
variances now in alpha_grad_compute_kernel instead of 2).
HEALTH_DIAG pearl_egf_diag emit updated to expose all three
adaptive scalars (α, β, k_aux/k_q) plus all three driving
variances (var_alpha, var_aux, var_q) for full observability.
Verified against current code at HEAD d243a6f08:
- state_layout.cuh:123-126 (DIR_* enum truth source)
- gpu_dqn_trainer.rs:2438 (stale K=3 comment confirmed)
- branch_0_size: 4 in 5 production callsites
(smoke_tests, gpu_iqn_head, gpu_backtest_evaluator)
- DIR_HOLD usage in experience_kernels.cu:1298 + 14 other sites
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
8 corrections from code-anchored critical review at HEAD eaf4adcb9:
1. Direction Q-head emits K=3 (Short/Flat/Long), not K=4. Aux head
emits K=2 (down/up). Gate 2 q_disagreement now uses K=3↔K=2 mapping
with Flat masking. Verified against gpu_dqn_trainer.rs:2438.
2. Forward launch order constraint added: aux forward must complete
before direction Q-head forward (new serial dep). Cited
pearl_canary_input_freshness_launch_order.
3. Adaptive sigmoid k formula fixed: v1 had unreachable k_max=50
because formula caps k ≤ k_base. v2 uses max(..., k_min) with
k_max = k_base implicit.
4. α_grad rate limiter promoted from nice-to-have to v1. Schmitt
state-flip introduces sigmoid discontinuity. β=0.9 EMA smoothing
added; new ALPHA_GRAD_SMOOTHED_INDEX slot.
5. q_disagreement_baseline drop: v1 had adaptive baseline as long-EMA
(feedback loop risk). v2 uses structural 0.5 (analytic K=3-with-
Flat-masked random alignment). Drop BASELINE_INDEX slot.
6. Backward gradient scaling clarified: α_grad scales dL/dx (input
gradient flowing back to aux), NOT dL/dW (Q-head's weight grad).
Q-head learns to use the wire freely; gate only controls upstream
flow.
7. 4 hard rules added: feedback_no_hiding,
feedback_no_htod_htoh_only_mapped_pinned,
feedback_kill_runs_on_anomaly_quickly,
pearl_canary_input_freshness_launch_order.
8. Smoke A2 explicit kill criteria table added (8 triggers).
Net ISV slot count unchanged (11), composition shifted: dropped
BASELINE, added SMOOTHED. Total impl cost ~1150 LOC (was ~1060).
Verified against current code:
- TARGET_DIR_ACC_INDEX=372, AUX_DIR_ACC_SHORT_EMA_INDEX=373,
AUX_DIR_PREDICTION_INDEX=375 (sp13_isv_slots.rs)
- set_aux_weight clamp(0.05, 0.3) at gpu_dqn_trainer.rs:14722
(confirms Bug 3 from Smoke A diagnostic)
- mag_concat_qdir precedent at experience_kernels.cu:4560
(direction-conditioning pattern; SP14's wire is the analog)
- state_reset_registry pattern at lines 913-922 (canonical
template for new EMA fold-reset entries)
- branch_0_size = 3 in production config (the K=3 finding)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Designs the SP14 chain on top of SP13 Layer B (HEAD 6657e5626):
1. Sub-project A — stability fixes (3 small bugs found in Smoke A)
- C51 atom-probability floor (ISV-driven from SP4 atom_pos_p99)
- aux_w setter clamp lift [0.05, 0.3] → [0.15, 1.5]
- Stagnation warmup gate at fold boundary
2. Sub-project B — the architectural piece (THIS spec)
- Forward wire: aux_softmax_diff per-bar into direction Q-head input
concat (in_dim+1, fingerprint bump, zero-init new column)
- Earned Gradient Flow pearl — adaptive ISV-driven gradient gating:
* Gate 1 (aux competence) — Schmitt-trigger hysteresis
* Gate 2 (Q-head disagreement) — NEW signal, EMA per-step argmax
mismatch
* ISV-adaptive sigmoid steepness (variance-driven k_aux, k_q)
* Per-epoch warmup ramp
* Anti-gradient-hacking circuit breaker (mesa-opt defense)
- 11 new ISV slots, 3 new GPU kernels, ~1060 LOC total
- HEALTH_DIAG pearl_egf_diag observability line
3. Sub-project C — Adaptive LR (deferred until A+B effects measured)
Motivation from Smoke A diagnostic:
- aux_dir_acc reached 0.61 (signal extraction works)
- val_win_rate stuck 45-48% (no path to action selection)
- WR-flat-while-aux-varies = Q-head directional weights frozen
- 1109 GRAD_CLIP_OUTLIER events (chronic; not noise)
Three parallel diagnostic agents triangulated three interlocking root
causes:
- Slot 375 has zero readers (the wire was scoped but never built)
- C51 raw grad reaches 9.5e6, saturates SP7 budget controller
- aux_w controller muzzled by SP11-era [0.05, 0.3] clamp
The Earned Gradient Flow pearl is a new application of the codebase's
pearl pattern: ISV-driven adaptive controller, but applied to backward-
pass gradient flow instead of forward-pass features. The wire is one-
way (stop-gradient) by default; co-training is earned by both:
(a) aux head demonstrating label competence, AND
(b) Q-head showing it's actually fighting aux signal (informative
disagreement above baseline).
Stability additions hardened against:
- Oscillation around target (Schmitt hysteresis)
- Numerical sigmoid saturation (argument clipping ±30)
- Stale variance EMAs across folds (state-reset-registry)
- Discontinuous warmup transitions (linear ramp)
- Mesa-optimization (gradient-hacking circuit breaker)
- Cold-start sentinel-state spurious gate openings (Pearl-A bootstrap)
Awaiting user review before invoking superpowers:writing-plans for
sub-project B (and a separate small plan for sub-project A).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
