Research log Small Model Experimentation
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Goal-Gate Confirmation

Not confirmed at the bar — but the sweep repeated once and the gap narrowed to one family

The one idea you need

One sealed benchmark event just recorded the program's stated goal for the first time: a clean-trained model beat the untouched base on every one of ten families at once. But two of those family wins rode on single-item margins, and this program's own laws say one seed is a draw until it replicates. This experiment is the replication: the same two models, three brand-new sealed seeds, and a verdict written before the event.

The question

Does the all-ten-families win replicate across three fresh sealed seeds?

What we found

The replication returned a split answer. The overall improvement replicated without drama: the trained model beat the base decisively on all three fresh seeds, making four for four all-time. The perfect ten-family sweep repeated on one of the three — two full sweeps across four independent seeds — but the pre-written rule demanded two of three, so the formal verdict is aggregate-only. The near-misses are the striking part: nine-of-ten and eight-of-ten with ZERO losses, blocked purely by zero-zero ties at the debugging-style family that has resisted every teaching method. The goal now hangs on exactly one family, and the queued larger-dose experiment knows precisely what it must produce: any reliable nonzero score there. [Erratum 2026-07-16: the 'two of four seeds' framing omitted the earlier 78,150 reading; over all six recorded readings the sweep rate is 2/6 — see the sweep-rate consolidation cell.]

Why it matters

This is the program goal's final gate: a confirmed pass completes the demonstration-plus-confirmation chain the goal demands; a non-replication prices the discovery honestly and hands the program back its 9-of-10 position with the newly proven skill-to-family conversion mechanism.

Formal verdictAGGREGATE_ONLY10/10 on 1/3 seeds vs the 2/3 bar
Aggregate wins4/4all-time, never close
Full sweeps2 of 4seeds 78,154 and 78,157
The one blockermenders0.0 margin on every failing seed
On this page
  1. Results at a glance
  2. Overview
  3. Report
    1. Summary
    2. Research Program Fit
    3. Method
    4. Results
    5. Controls
    6. Oracle Versus Deployable Evidence
    7. Next Stage
    8. Artifact Manifest
    9. Erratum (2026-07-16)
  4. Experiment log
  5. Data files
  6. Reproduce
  7. Related

Results at a glance 1

Family wins against the base on each fresh seed

How to read

One bar per seed: how many of the ten families the trained model strictly won.

02.557.51078154 (discovery)78154 (discovery)1007815578155907815678156807815778157100

Takeaway → Ten, nine, and eight family wins with zero losses anywhere — the misses are all zero-zero ties at one stubborn family.

Data table
sealed medium seed (tb 1024)families strictly wonfamilies lost
78154 (discovery)100
7815590
7815680
78157100

Numbers from experiments/qwen35_4b_goal_gate_confirmation/runs/benchmark/confirmation_readout.json

Technical framing

Strict family wins vs base per sealed seed (of 10) — AGGREGATE_ONLY under the frozen ordered verdict: aggregate strict wins on all three confirmation seeds (0.3287/0.3737/0.3837 vs base 0.0586/0.1122/0.0982; 4/4 all-time with the discovery), goal gate 1/3 vs the required 2/3. Every non-passing seed had ZERO losses — blocked by menders 0-margin ties (both) and one warren tie (warren WON +0.267 elsewhere). Two full 10/10 sweeps across four independent sealed seeds; the goal is localized to exactly one family. First standalone-compliant cell: full six-stage lineage package (copied datasets, fixed-seed manifest, vendored trainers/merger/root) with the readout provenance-anchored end-to-end.

In the author’s words from the Overview · “Results”

All six runs clean (both arms authenticated per invocation, within budget, per-seed ledger opened/closed, readout provenance-anchored) (table on the experiment page). Verdict per the frozen ordered partition: AGGREGATE_ONLY — aggregate strict wins 3/3 (plus the discovery, 4/4 all-time), goal-gate passes 1/3 against the required 2/3.

Overview

The mandatory replication of the program's recorded 10/10: base versus the hygiene_explore composite on three independent fresh sealed medium seeds, with an ordered confirmation verdict and the discovery seed reported but never counted.

Research Program

  • Program: agentic_breadth_installation.
  • Program question: can synthetic curricula install general capability that lifts the held-out aggregate without a negative family?
  • Prior anchors: the statechain dose's sealed event (hygiene_explore_parent goal_gate_pass TRUE at 78,154 — aggregate 0.3663 vs 0.0800, all ten families strictly above, menders 0.017 and warren 0.050 — 0.150 vs 0.100 — on single-item margins); the confirmation law; the tier forensics (menders was draw-dependent, never a wall).

Question

Does the all-families pass replicate? CONFIRMED requires the aggregate to win on all three fresh seeds and the 10/10 gate on at least two.

Setup

  • Arms: base (b654e033…/26d8ee48…) and hygiene_explore (9eb653d7…/e2112344…), full trees recomputed once per runner invocation, before any gateway call (wording matches the code: authentication is per-invocation, not per-seed; closed seeds' receipts stay sha-pinned in the ledger).
  • Event: three sealed seeds 78,155/78,156/78,157, medium, tb 1,024, per-seed write-ahead ledger whose closed records sha-pin the sealed summary AND both per-arm gateway receipts (the readout refuses anything the ledger did not pin), implementation signature anchored to the discovery event.
  • Recovery: --resume is the single recovery path. A crashed (opened) seed reuses its preserved receipts; a crash between a seed's summary write and its closed-record append is recovered by deterministic byte-identical regeneration of the summary (divergence refuses loudly with both digests); an unopened seed refuses to run over pre-existing event files (clean slate).
  • Verdict: CONFIRMED / AGGREGATE_ONLY / NOT_REPLICATED (ordered, total); fragility margins reported per seed; no promotion logic anywhere.
  • Standalone lineage (owner directive 2026-07-15): the hygiene_explore composite's complete reproduction package lives in this cell — data/lineage/ (six ordered SFT dataset copies + fixed-seed recipe manifest), scripts/lineage_trainers/ + scripts/merge_adapter.py (byte-identical trainer/merger copies), the frozen root adapter vendored at large_artifacts/qwen35_4b_goal_gate_confirmation/lineage_root/blend (hard provenance boundary: no committed creation receipt), and scripts/rebuild_lineage.py (GPU replay + sha verification; --verify-inputs runs in smoke).

Run

PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 .venv/bin/python -B experiments/qwen35_4b_goal_gate_confirmation/scripts/run.py --smoke
.venv/bin/python -B experiments/qwen35_4b_goal_gate_confirmation/scripts/run.py --stage benchmark

Results

All six runs clean (both arms authenticated per invocation, within budget, per-seed ledger opened/closed, readout provenance-anchored):

seedbasehygiene_exploregoal gateblockers
78,1550.05860.32879/10menders tie (0.0 margin); warren WON +0.267
78,1560.11220.37378/10menders + warren ties; zero losses
78,1570.09820.3837PASS 10/10
(78,154 discovery, not counted)0.08000.3663PASS 10/10

Verdict per the frozen ordered partition: AGGREGATE_ONLY — aggregate strict wins 3/3 (plus the discovery, 4/4 all-time), goal-gate passes 1/3 against the required 2/3.

Interpretation

The replication sharpens rather than overturns the discovery. The aggregate transfer is unconditional — never close on any seed. The all-families sweep is real but draw-gated at exactly one family: every non-passing seed carried ZERO losses, and menders blocked with a 0.0 margin (both arms at zero) on both failing seeds while warren, the other discovery-day fragility, WON by +0.267 on one seed and tied once. Two full 10/10 sweeps in four independent sealed seeds is a model within one item-draw of the goal on every roll — and a preregistered bar honestly not met. The program position: the goal's primary condition is demonstrated but not confirmed at the frozen majority bar; menders is the single binding family, and the queued dose-scale intake (the one mechanism class the kill rules permit) is now aimed at a precisely-known target: any reliable nonzero menders yield completes the gate.

Knowledgebase Update

  • Program evidence updated: the AGGREGATE_ONLY verdict, the second sweep, and the menders 0-margin localization recorded.
  • Program backlog updated: the menders dose-scale intake is the funded successor; the zero-root rebuild stays queued.
  • Claim ledger updated: no confirmed claim; the demonstrated-not-confirmed position stated exactly.

Artifacts

  • data/design_receipt.json: seeds/tier/budget/models/gateway/discovery pins + the standalone lineage-package pins.
  • data/lineage/: the six stage datasets and lineage_manifest.json (the complete fixed-seed recipe; produced shas are verification aids).
  • reports/preregistration.md, reports/benchmark_design_review.md: contract and authorization.

Erratum (2026-07-16)

The sweep-rate framing in this document ("two full sweeps across four independent sealed seeds", ~50%) reflects the 78,154–78,157 window and omits the earlier 78,150 reading (8/10, menders+rites ties). Over ALL six recorded goal-gate readings the rate is 2/6 (exact 95% CI [0.04, 0.78]), with menders blocking every miss. See experiments/qwen35_4b_sweep_rate_consolidation for the consolidated record; the per-seed facts in this document are unchanged.

Report

Rendered from reports/report.md

Summary

The three-seed replication closed AGGREGATE_ONLY. The aggregate transfer is unconditional — hygiene_explore strictly beat base on all three fresh sealed seeds (0.3287/0.3737/0.3837 vs 0.0586/0.1122/0.0982; with the discovery, 4/4 all-time, never close). The all-families sweep replicated once: seed 78,157 passed 10/10, making two full sweeps across four independent sealed seeds; the frozen 2/3 majority bar failed because 78,155 (9/10) and 78,156 (8/10) were blocked entirely by ties — menders at a 0.0 margin on both, warren once (while warren WON +0.267 on the other) — with zero strict losses anywhere. The verdict localizes the goal to a single family: any reliable nonzero menders yield completes the gate. Every reading is provenance-anchored (receipt shas pinned in closed ledger records; the readout refuses any break in the sealed chain).

Research Program Fit

The program goal demands demonstration and confirmation; the confirmation law demands independent seeds. This cell is both, at the gateway's highest supported tier.

Method

See the preregistration.

Results

runs/benchmark/confirmation_readout.json: verdict AGGREGATE_ONLY; per-seed goal gates 9/10, 8/10, 10/10 (PASS); aggregate strict wins 3/3; fragility — menders margin 0.0 on both failing seeds, warren +0.267/tie/win; discovery seed reported (0.3663 vs 0.0800, 10/10) and never counted.

Controls

Both arms published and tree-authenticated once per runner invocation, before any gateway call; per-seed write-ahead ledger whose closed records sha-pin the sealed summary and both per-arm receipts (the readout reads verdict inputs only through those pins); implementation-signature equality across all six runs and against the pinned discovery summary; fragility margins preregistered.

Oracle Versus Deployable Evidence

Gateway aggregates and public family scores only; benchmarks/ never read.

Next Stage

Closed. The menders dose-scale intake (the one permitted mechanism class) is the funded successor with a precisely-known target; the zero-root lineage rebuild stays queued.

Artifact Manifest

Two composite pins external with committed receipts; everything else in-repo.

Erratum (2026-07-16)

The sweep-rate framing in this document ("two full sweeps across four independent sealed seeds", ~50%) reflects the 78,154–78,157 window and omits the earlier 78,150 reading (8/10, menders+rites ties). Over ALL six recorded goal-gate readings the rate is 2/6 (exact 95% CI [0.04, 0.78]), with menders blocking every miss. See experiments/qwen35_4b_sweep_rate_consolidation for the consolidated record; the per-seed facts in this document are unchanged.

Experiment log 5

Show the running log (5 entries, 2026-07-15)

2026-07-15 — Model-free design freeze

  • Opened as the mandatory successor to the recorded 10/10 at seed 78,154: three independent sealed medium seeds (78,155/78,156/78,157), two authenticated arms (base, hygiene_explore), K-seed write-ahead ledger, ordered confirmation verdict (CONFIRMED / AGGREGATE_ONLY / NOT_REPLICATED) with the discovery seed reported but never counted, per-seed fragility readings on the menders/warren margins, implementation-signature equality anchored to the discovery event.
  • No model event has run; nothing trains in this cell.

2026-07-15 — Standalone-reproducibility retrofit (owner directive)

  • Retrofitted the new standalone gate (AGENTS.md / docs/quality_gates.md, commits 02284dc3/1b4248a0) before the freeze: the hygiene_explore composite's complete model-reproduction package now lives in this cell. data/lineage/ carries byte-identical copies of the six ordered SFT datasets (stage 3 preserved as stage03_close_xi__targeted_standard.jsonl — the source filename does not match the arm name) plus lineage_manifest.json (fixed seeds 42/43/44/47/51/55, full hyperparameters incl. stage 3's targeted close overrides and stages 1-2's missing close channel, per-stage produced shas as verification aids, final merge onto the raw HF base). scripts/lineage_trainers/ carries the three trainer variants (400e4b85… / 10b4914c… / 0cfb126f…) and scripts/merge_adapter.py (cb9af8b4…) byte-identically. The frozen blend root adapter (weights ad2ef4fa…, no committed creation receipt — a hard provenance boundary, documented as such) is vendored into this cell's own large_artifacts/…/lineage_root/blend (~181 MiB, six files hash-pinned). scripts/rebuild_lineage.py replays stages 1→6 plus the merge with per-stage sha verification; its --verify-inputs mode (no GPU) is wired into run.py --smoke, and the design receipt now pins the whole package (regenerated; sha changed accordingly). The rebuilt merge is verified on model.safetensors (e2112344…) and the content files — the published tree sha additionally covers a merge receipt embedding a machine-local absolute adapter path, recorded honestly in the manifest.
  • Still no model event; the GPU rebuild path has not been executed.

2026-07-15 — Standalone retrofit (owner directive) before freeze

  • The owner's standalone-reproducibility directive landed mid-build and this cell is the first to comply: six lineage datasets copied in byte-identically with a fixed-seed manifest, three trainer variants and the merger vendored into scripts/, rebuild_lineage.py with a no-GPU verify-inputs mode wired into smoke, and the C53-era root adapter vendored into this cell's own artifact storage with its provenance boundary (no committed creation receipt) stated plainly in the preregistration.
  • Lineage fact established by the receipts walk: every stage and every merge uses the raw official Qwen3.5-4B revision as base; the lineage is carried entirely by one warm-started LoRA adapter; the root predates committed receipts. 123 tests green; smoke green; receipt regenerated (3864e812…) and --check byte-identical twice.

2026-07-15 — Adversarial review: the verdict chain hardened pre-freeze

  • Three lenses; the lineage package audited clean against the source receipts (zero findings). Two MAJORs confirmed in the K-seed machinery and fixed: the verdict inputs are now provenance-anchored end-to-end (receipt shas pinned into closed ledger records; the readout refuses any break in the sealed chain; smoke verifies receipt hashes), and the summary-write/closed-append crash window closes via byte-equal reconciliation with a documented recovery. Four minors fixed including the honest 216-combination verdict-partition enumeration.
  • 146 tests green; smoke green; receipt 66c19b24… --check twice; PASS_BENCHMARK_EVENT granted.

2026-07-15 — The three-seed event and closure

  • CI green on the freeze; the six runs executed in the frozen seed-major order; every closed ledger record carries both receipt pins; the readout verified the full provenance chain before rendering.
  • Verdict AGGREGATE_ONLY: aggregate strict wins on all three seeds (0.3287/0.3737/0.3837 vs 0.0586/0.1122/0.0982); goal gate 1/3 (78,157 swept 10/10; 78,155 read 9/10 blocked by a menders 0-margin tie with warren WON at +0.267; 78,156 read 8/10 blocked by menders and warren ties; zero losses anywhere).
  • Position: two full sweeps across four independent sealed seeds; demonstrated, not confirmed at the frozen 2/3 bar; menders is the single binding family (0.0 margin on every failing seed). The dose-scale intake aims at a precisely-known target.

Data files 3

Result tables and metrics copied from the experiment folder — preview inline or open the raw file.

Reproduce

Smoke test

PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 .venv/bin/python -B experiments/qwen35_4b_goal_gate_confirmation/scripts/run.py --smoke

Full run

checkpointed scripts/run.py --stage benchmark only

Run steps are documented inside the experiment folder (README and scripts).

Browse the experiment folder on GitHub ↗