@@ -7,6 +7,13 @@ training table — was waiting on a run that had never completed.
This is that run, written down so the next one is a copy-paste.
⚠️ **Updated 2026-08-21 evening. ** The pin moved from `verifiers==0.3.0` to
`verifiers==0.3.1.dev59` , which removes the 600-second model-call ceiling §5 blames for
every truncation here, and moves the output layout. §1 and §2 are the post-bump
instructions; §4 and §5 are kept as written because they are the record of what the
thinking-**off** run measured, and §6 is the thinking-**on** re-measurement the bump made
possible. **Every reward number in this file now carries its sampling configuration. **
---
## 1. The command that works
@@ -19,13 +26,19 @@ uv run --project environments/canary_trap eval @ configs/canary_trap.toml \
--model brain-qwen38-dspark \
--client.base-url http://100.127.247.67:8001/v1 \
--client.api-key-var SPARK_API_KEY \
--env.agent.runtime.type subprocess \
--no-push --no-rich \
-c 8 -o outputs/run-<stamp>/ canary-trap
-c 8 -o outputs/run-<stamp> --run.dir canary-trap
```
Swap `environments/<pkg>` and `configs/<pkg>.toml` for any of the seven . The
sweep script that ran all of them is `outputs/run_all.sh` (gitignored); the
counter is `outputs/count_rewards.py` .
Swap `environments/<pkg>` and `configs/<pkg>.toml` for any of the nine in `configs/`
thinking-**on** sweep is `outputs/thinking-n32/ run_all.sh` (gitignored, and it takes a
`flock` — see below); the counters are `outputs/count_rewards.py` and
`outputs/summarise_run.py` .
**Thinking is off unless you ask for it ** , and asking goes in a config file, not a flag —
see §5. The seven data environments have thinking-on copies in `outputs/thinking-n32/*.toml` ;
§6 is what they measured.
### Why each flag is there
@@ -37,7 +50,8 @@ counter is `outputs/count_rewards.py`.
| `--no-push` | Hub push is parked (PLAN.md). Push is **on by default ** and needs `$PRIME_API_KEY` . |
| `--no-rich` | The live dashboard is in-process only and unreadable in a log. Without it you get one `rollout done: … reward=…` line per rollout. |
| `-c 8` | spark-1 is shared with Chatterbox, vox and ASR. The config's own `max_concurrent = 128` will hammer it. |
| `-o <dir>` | Otherwise the run lands in `outputs/<env>--<model>--<harness>/<uuid>/` and you have to g o h unting for the uuid . |
| `--env.agent.runtime.type subprocess` | ⚠️ **New, and not optional. ** 0.3.0 defaulted the agent runtime to `subprocess` ; `0.3.1.dev59` defaults it to `prime` — a * remote * sandbox. A remote role makes `Env._runs_local()` false, which makes the interception pool mint a Prime tunnel, which calls `ensure_prime_auth()` and raises `SystemExit: not authenticated with prime` . The run dies before a single rollout, having already created its output directory and an empty `traces.jsonl` . The null harness needs n o r untime at all; naming a local one is the whole fix . |
| `-o <dir>` + `--run.dir <name>` | `-o` is `output_dir` and the run writes to `output_dir / run.dir` . On 0.3.0 a bare `-o` gave you a flat directory; on dev59 it gives you `outputs/<your-dir>/<env>--<model>--<harness>--<hex8>/` . Pass `--run.dir` to name the leaf yourself. |
### Flags our own docs get wrong
@@ -55,21 +69,92 @@ counter is `outputs/count_rewards.py`.
---
## 2. The output layout verifiers 0.3.0 actually produces
## 2. The pin, and the output layout it produces
`verifiers/v1/cli/output.py:38` — `output_path()` :
### There is no `verifiers` 0.4.0
`~/vendor/prime-intellect/verifiers` is **not ** a 0.4.0 release, and nothing on any index
is. `git describe --tags` there says `v0.3.0-59-g4bcb48e5` : fifty-nine commits past the
0.3.0 tag, version derived from git tags by `hatch-vcs` . The `version = "0.4.0"` that
earlier notes read off its `pyproject.toml:136` belongs to a `[[tool.uv.dependency-metadata]]`
block for **nemo-gym ** , not to verifiers. Anyone who goes looking for `verifiers==0.4.0`
will not find it.
What * is * published is the dev stream: PyPI carries 45 `0.3.1.devN` releases, one per
merged commit. `0.3.1.dev59` was uploaded 2026-08-20 and is exactly the vendored checkout —
`verifiers/v1/cli/output.py` extracted from the wheel is byte-identical to the file on
disk, and `verifiers/v1/clients/base.py:12` reads:
``` python
DEFAULT_TIMEOUT = httpx . Timeout ( connect = 5.0 , read = None , write = None , pool = None )
```
**So the pin is an ordinary index dependency, not a path or git source. ** Every
`environments/*/pyproject.toml` now reads `verifiers==0.3.1.dev59` . An exact `==` on a
pre-release is enough for uv — no `--prerelease=allow` , no `[tool.uv.sources]` , no
`tool.uv` block, and nothing that resolves differently in CI than it does here. A path
dependency on `~/vendor` would have been reproducible only on this box; a git URL would
have pinned a commit no wheel matches. Neither was necessary.
```
outputs/<env>--<model>--<harness>/<uuid>/
├── config.toml # the RESOLVED config, re-runnable as `eval @ config.toml`
Resolved 114 packages in 620ms
- verifiers==0.3.0
+ verifiers==0.3.1.dev59
```
`uv sync` each environment after pulling. Verify the thing you bumped * for * , not the
version string:
``` bash
for d in environments/*/; do printf "%-34s " " $d "
grep -h "DEFAULT_TIMEOUT = " $d /.venv/lib/python*/site-packages/verifiers/v1/clients/base.py
done
# environments/bot_detection/ DEFAULT_TIMEOUT = httpx.Timeout(connect=5.0, read=None, write=None, pool=None)
# ... nine of nine
```
`uv sync` rewrites each `environments/*/uv.lock` ; none of them are tracked any more
(`.gitignore:5` is `environments/*/uv.lock` , and `git ls-files environments | grep uv.lock`
is empty), so the bump does not put a lock file into a commit. CI's lock-policy step is
`test -z "$(find environments -name uv.lock -print -quit)"` — it looks on **disk ** , not in
git, so it passes on a fresh checkout and would fail on a working tree that has been
synced. Do not run it locally and conclude the repo is broken.
### The layout dev59 writes
`verifiers/v1/cli/output.py` — `output_path()` is `config.output_dir / config.run.dir` ,
and `run.dir` defaults to `run.name` , which is
`<env>--<model>--<harness>--<uuid4-hex8>` , lowercased, with slashes in the model id
becoming `--` . Measured, not read off the source:
```
outputs/<output-dir>/<env>--<model>--<harness>--<hex8>/
├── configs/eval.json # the RESOLVED config, re-runnable as `eval @ configs/eval.json`
├── traces.jsonl # one JSON *Episode* per line, appended as rollouts land
└── eval.log # only when you redirect it there yourself
└── logs/ eval.log # written for you now — no redirect needed
```
`--output-dir` replaces the whole `<name>/<uuid>` pair, so an explicit `-o` gives
you a flat dir with no uuid leaf. Slashes in the model id become `--` .
Three differences from 0.3.0 that an ingester or a script has to handle:
**One Episode per line, not one Trace. ** Shape:
1. **The uuid leaf is gone. ** 0.3.0 wrote `<env>--<model>--<harness>/<uuid>/` ; dev59
writes one flat directory with an 8-hex suffix on the name. `-o` no longer flattens
anything — it sets `output_dir` , and the run still makes its own leaf underneath.
`--run.dir <name>` is what pins the leaf, and it is what `outputs/thinking-n32/run_all.sh`
uses.
2. * * `config.toml` → `configs/eval.json` .** JSON because JSON keeps nulls, so an explicit
`None` round-trips on re-parse. `RunConfig._id` is a `PrivateAttr` and is **not ** in it —
derive the run id from the directory basename.
3. * * `logs/eval.log` is written unconditionally.** On 0.3.0 you only got it if you
redirected stdout yourself, which is why `outputs/run-20260821-1401/*.log` sit beside
their run dirs rather than inside them. Anything that globs for a log should look in
both places.
4. * * `--resume` exists now**, and it is the answer to §5's "a timed-out run leaves no
evidence": `uv run eval @ <run-dir>/configs/eval.json --resume` re-runs only the
missing and errored rollouts, in place. (Its own `--help` still says
`@ <run-dir>/config.toml` — the 0.3.0 filename. The file is `configs/eval.json` .)
The episode schema did **not ** move, despite `4bcb48e5 feat(v1): make episodes
training-native` landing in this range. One Episode per line, not one Trace:
``` jsonc
{ "id" : "..." , "env" : { . . . } , "ok" : true , "errors" : [ ] ,
@@ -78,25 +163,28 @@ you a flat dir with no uuid leaf. Slashes in the model id become `--`.
"errors" : [ ] , "timing" : { . . . } } ] }
```
Two traps in that file, both of which bite an ingester:
`outputs/count_rewards.py` , written against 0.3.0, reproduces every published number from
`run-20260821-1401` unchanged against a dev59 run. The two traps in that file are also
unchanged, and both still bite an ingester:
1. * * `Reward.value` is a `@property` and never appears in the JSON.** Each entry
in `rewards` is `{"score": float, "weight": float}` . The episode total is
`sum(score * weight)` . The `reward=0.525` in the log line is computed, not stored.
2. * * `write_episode` dumps with `exclude_none=True` .** A `None` reward is dropped
from the file entirely, so "not measured" and "key absent" are indistinguishable
on the wire. Carry the run's declared reward-name set from `config.toml`
on the wire. Carry the run's declared reward-name set from the resolved config if you
need to tell them apart.
### ⚠️ 0.4.0 moves this
### What the bump does not fix
Upstream HEAD (`~/vendor/prime-intellect/verifiers` ) produces one **flat **
`<env>--<model>--<harness>--<short-id>` di rect ory with no nested uuid, and the
resolved config moves to `configs/<cli>.json` (JSON, because JSON keeps nulls).
`RunConfig.id` is a `PrivateAttr` and is absent from that file — derive the run id
from the directory basename, not from the config .
---
`sampling` in `configs/eval.json` now carries `chat_template_kwargs` through resolution, so
a run's own config records whether thinking was requested. **The trace still does not. **
Every `calls[].sampling` is `{}` — `ChatDialect.parse_sampling` keeps an allow-list of
known keys — and `usage.reasoning_tokens` is still null, because SGLang reports it at the
top level of `usage` while `Usage.from_openai` reads it out of `completion_tokens_details`
The only in-trace evidence that a model thought is a `reasoning_content` field on the
assistant message. `outputs/summarise_run.py` counts exactly that, and prints the run's
resolved `sampling` beside every mean it reports.
## 3. Counting what actually scored
@@ -123,6 +211,36 @@ jq -r '.traces[] | if (.rewards|length)>0 then "scored" else "errored" end' \
outputs/run-<stamp>/<env>/traces.jsonl | sort | uniq -c
```
### And under what sampling configuration
`count_rewards.py` answers * did anything score * . It does not answer the question that made
`run-20260821-1401` unpublishable: * how was it sampled * . `outputs/summarise_run.py` adds
that, and nothing else you cannot get from the first script:
``` bash
uv run --project environments/<pkg> python outputs/summarise_run.py outputs/<run-dir>
```
It reads the run's own resolved config (`configs/eval.json` on dev59, `config.toml` on
0.3.0) and prints, beside the means:
- `sampling` — the run's own record of `max_tokens` / `chat_template_kwargs` . A run whose
`sampling` is `{}` was sampled at spark-1's server-side default, which is
`enable_thinking: false` .
- `traces_with_reasoning` — assistant messages carrying `reasoning_content` (or a literal
`<think>` block). **This is the only in-trace evidence that the model was allowed to
think.** Verify the flag from here, never from the fact that you passed it.
- `finish_reasons` and the completion-token quartiles — `length` in that histogram means
truncation, and a truncated answer scores whatever an empty answer scores.
- `reward_mean_from_eval_log` — the mean of the `reward=` field on the harness's own
`rollout done` lines. It must equal `reward_mean_scored` exactly. An unweighted mean over
reward * components * does not, which is how six of seven means were misreported once.
Its arithmetic is checked against the published run: it reproduces `fault-localisation`
0.9531, `canary-trap` 0.6289, `grand-exchange` 0.0055 and `drop-table-inference` 0.4174
from `run-20260821-1401` , with `reward_mean_from_eval_log` agreeing in every case, and
`traces_with_reasoning` 0/32 in every case.
---
## 4. What it cost, and what it scored
@@ -132,6 +250,15 @@ jq -r '.traces[] | if (.rewards|length)>0 then "scored" else "errored" end' \
224 episodes, **223 scored ** . Model `brain-qwen38-dspark` (Qwen3.8-27B) on spark-1.
Wall-clock 14:03 → 14:58, 55 minutes, `-c 8` .
> ⚠️ **Sampling configuration for every number in this section — read it before quoting
> one.** `verifiers==0.3.0`; `sampling = {}`, i.e. no `max_tokens` and no
> `chat_template_kwargs`, so spark-1's server-side default applied and
> **`enable_thinking` was `false`**; `temperature`, `top_p` and `reasoning_effort` all
> unset; `-c 8`; harness `null`; agent runtime `subprocess`. `traces_with_reasoning` is
> **0 of 224**. These are thinking-**off** numbers. §6 re-measures the same eight
> environments with thinking on, and the two columns are not interchangeable —
> `grand-exchange` moves by two orders of magnitude between them.
⚠️ **Compute the mean as `sum(score × ** An unweighted mean over the
reward components is a different number and it is wrong — it disagrees with what the
harness itself prints. Cross-check against the `reward=` field on each env's 32
@@ -354,6 +481,17 @@ Three consequences for anyone re-running this suite against a reasoning model:
makes the "grand-exchange is solvable" claim — currently resting on six rollouts — cheap
to settle properly.
✅ **RETIRED 2026-08-21 evening. ** The bump happened — `verifiers==0.3.1.dev59` , §2 — and
every venv on this box now reads `read=None` . One correction to the paragraph above, which
matters because it is the version anyone will type: the fix is **not ** `verifiers==0.4.0` .
There is no such release. `a298bcfe` is `v0.3.0-8-ga298bcfe` ; the vendored HEAD is
`v0.3.0-59-g4bcb48e5` ; the wheel that carries them is `0.3.1.dev59` . Everything below this
line about 600 seconds describes the old pin and is kept as the record of why the bump was
worth doing, not as current behaviour. The `max_tokens` / wall-clock contradiction it
describes — "the two limits point in opposite directions and there is no setting that
satisfies both" — no longer holds: with `read=None` the only limit left is `max_tokens` ,
and §6 spends it.
### Did the other six collapse too?
Only one of them, and only partly. Completion tokens per trace, and the mean weighted
@@ -389,3 +527,138 @@ recorded.
- Ask spark-1 what it defaults to (`/get_server_info` ) rather than assuming a model's own
default applies.
- If `reasoning_tokens` matters to you, read it off the provider — the trace drops it.
---
## 6. The thinking-ON re-measurement, n=32
Run 2026-08-21 evening, after the `verifiers==0.3.1.dev59` bump of §2. This section
exists because two of §4's seven numbers were artefacts of a sampling configuration
nobody chose and nothing recorded, and because §5's remedy — "an n=32 thinking-on run is
achievable today" — was owed a run.
> **Sampling configuration for every number in this section.** `verifiers==0.3.1.dev59`
> (`read=None`); `chat_template_kwargs = {enable_thinking = true}`; `max_tokens = 49152`;
> `temperature`, `top_p`, `reasoning_effort` unset; `-c 8`; harness `null`; agent runtime
> `subprocess`; model `brain-qwen38-dspark` on spark-1. The configs are
> `outputs/thinking-n32/*.toml`, the sweep is `outputs/thinking-n32/run_all.sh`, the runs
> are `outputs/thinking-n32/run/<env>/`.
**Thinking is verified from the traces, not from the flag. ** `traces_with_reasoning` is
**32 of 32 ** for `grand-exchange` , mean 56,560 characters of `reasoning_content` per
trace, against 0 of 224 for `run-20260821-1401` .
### `grand-exchange` — 0.0055 → **0.4338**
| | thinking off (§4) | 6 rollouts, 16k (§5) | **thinking on, n=32 ** |
|---|---|---|---|
| `reward_mean_attempted` | 0.0055 | 0.1667 | **0.4338 ** |
| traces scored | 32/32 | 6/6 | **32/32 ** |
| traces with reasoning | 0/32 | 6/6 | **32/32 ** |
| `finish_reason=length` | 0 | 5/6 | **2/32 ** |
| median completion tokens | 18 | 16,384 | **29,376 ** |
| `gate` mean (max) | 0.0000 (0.000) | — | **0.2188 (1.000) ** |
`probe.py` rates the crude maximiser at 0.082 and the plausible strategy at 0.608. **0.4338
sits between them**, which is the first time this environment has produced a number that
means anything: 0.0055 was below crude, and 0.1667 was one perfect run and five
truncations.
Wall clock 18:28 → 20:33, 2 h 5 min, 965,217 completion tokens for 32 rollouts. Zero
`ProviderError` s. **Under the old pin every one of these rollouts would have died ** : the
median call ran ~20 minutes against a 600-second ceiling, and the median completion is
29,376 tokens against the 16,384 that section 5 could afford.
The distribution is properly graded — not the two-spike shape thinking-off produced:
```
total gate profit disc tokens finish
0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 20305 stop <- 7 genuine zeros: finished, planned nothing usable
...
0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 49152 length <- 2 truncations, both scored 0
0.102 0.0 0.203 0.038 38913 stop
0.162 0.0 0.302 0.087 30042 stop
0.413 0.0 0.653 0.397 37978 stop
0.56 0.0 0.746 0.746 22000 stop
0.683 0.0 0.91 0.91 20886 stop
0.747 0.0 0.996 0.996 32545 stop
0.993 1.0 1.0 0.977 23531 stop
1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 20579 stop <- 6 perfect rollouts
```
Nine zeros, six 1.000s, seventeen strictly between. Median 0.4165. Dropping the two
truncations gives 0.4627 over the thirty that finished — quote 0.4338 and say why, rather
than quoting the higher number.
⚠️ **The dead `gate` in `grand-exchange` was partly a sampling artefact. ** `docs/GATE_DIAGNOSIS.md`
records it at exactly 0.000, max 0.000, across all 32 thinking-off rollouts. With thinking
on it fires on **7 of 32 ** , mean 0.2188, max 1.000. That does not repair the shape — it is
still exact equality, still all-or-nothing, and it still only opens for a rollout that is
already at `profit` ≈ 1.0, so it adds no gradient anywhere below the top. But the
diagnosis's evidence for * this * environment was measured under a configuration in which
the model answered in 18 tokens, and the three other dead gates were measured under the
same one. **Re-read GATE_DIAGNOSIS against this column before acting on it. **
### `drop-table-inference` — thinking on does not fit in 49,152 tokens
The question §5 left was whether thinking on collapses this environment's two regimes
(twelve short rollouts at 0.0894, nineteen long ones at 0.6465). **It does not collapse
them; it pushes the whole distribution off the end of the token budget.** The first eight
rollouts of the n=32 run, all eight carrying `reasoning_content` :
```
weighted fit gate rare tokens finish
0.4082 0.692 0.0 0.277 31649 stop
0.4082 0.692 0.0 0.277 33803 stop
0.0000 0.0 0.0 0.0 49152 length
0.0000 0.0 0.0 0.0 49152 length
0.0000 0.0 0.0 0.0 49152 length
0.0000 0.0 0.0 0.0 49152 length
0.0000 0.0 0.0 0.0 49152 length
0.0000 0.0 0.0 0.0 49152 length
```
**Six of eight hit `finish_reason=length` at 49,152 completion tokens ** — three times the
budget §5 could afford, on a model whose reasoning here runs 74–
The two that finished scored 0.408 each, above §4's short regime (0.0894) and below its
long one (0.6465).
⚠️ **Whatever mean this run finishes with is a truncation artefact, exactly like
`grand-exchange` 's 0.1667 was.** Do not publish it as a capability score, and do not read
it as evidence about the mixture. The comparison `grand-exchange` earned — a distribution
where 30 of 32 finish — this environment has not: it needs a larger `max_tokens` (spark-1's
context is 262,144, so there is room) and a correspondingly larger wall-clock budget. One
49,152-token rollout costs roughly 25 minutes at `-c 8` on this box.
### What is still running, and how to pick it up
`outputs/thinking-n32/run_all.sh` was launched detached (`setsid` ) and works down the
priority order in §6: grand-exchange (done), drop-table-inference, bot-detection,
redaction-pressure, schema-migration, canary-trap, fault-localisation. It holds a `flock`
on `outputs/thinking-n32/.lock` , so a second launch refuses rather than writing two evals
into one `traces.jsonl` .
``` bash
tail -f outputs/thinking-n32/sweep.log # stage transitions + per-rollout
grep 'exit=' outputs/thinking-n32/sweep.log # which stages finished, with counts
uv run --project environments/<pkg> python outputs/summarise_run.py \
outputs/thinking-n32/run/<env> # the numbers, with the sampling config
pkill -f 'thinking-n32/run_all.sh' # stop it after the current stage,
pkill -f 'bin/eval @ outputs/thinking-n32' # then kill the eval in flight
```
⚠️ **Read every stage's `finish_reasons` before its mean. ** `length` in that histogram
means the model was cut off mid-answer, and a cut-off answer scores what an empty one
scores. A stage whose histogram is mostly `length` has measured `max_tokens` , not the
model — that is the single mistake this section exists to stop repeating.
### Every number here is comparable only to the thinking-on column
`grand-exchange` moves by 79×
nothing in §6 may be tabulated beside the other without the configuration attached, and no
number from either belongs on `/evals` or in `eval-results.json` without it. That is the
whole lesson of the last two phases, stated as a rule:
**A reward mean is not a number. It is a number plus a sampling configuration, and the
pair travels or neither does.**
Claude Opus 5