# 18 — Certify whole-model GLM-5.2 runtime semantics

Status: blocked (2026-07-14) — no 256-GiB-class host available

> **Blocked:** This story requires a 256-GiB-class host with at least 224 GiB
> runtime-accessible memory and 250 GB free storage outside `/home`. The
> development host has 124.9 GiB MemTotal and no eligible filesystem (largest:
> 74.2 GB free). Exact preflight output is preserved in
> [evidence/DGR-018/BLOCKED.md](../evidence/DGR-018/BLOCKED.md); preflight
> scripts were preserved at commit a0f28b5 (`scripts/glm_whole_model_preflight.py`,
> `scripts/verify_glm_shards.py`). Resume by re-running the preflight on a
> qualifying host — do not substitute a smaller model.

## Mandatory fresh-session context

- Read [RALPH-CONTEXT.md](../RALPH-CONTEXT.md), [GLM-5.2-MAX-ALPHA-ROADMAP.md](../GLM-5.2-MAX-ALPHA-ROADMAP.md), and this issue completely before changing code.
- This issue is `DGR-018` in [prd.json](../prd.json).
- Read and verify every dependency evidence README.
- Inspect current upstream behavior and `git status`; community claims that a model “works” are not correctness evidence.

## Description

As a runtime maintainer, I need a certified whole-model oracle for the exact lowest-quant GLM-5.2 artifact so that distributed parity is measured against correct MoE, DSA, IndexShare, cache, and Max-template semantics.

## Expected durable outputs

- Verified target artifact on mounted storage
- Stock-pin baseline and warning/tensor inventory
- Focused GLM runtime correctness tests and minimum patch series, if required
- Signed whole-model oracle recipe, deterministic outputs, metrics, and limitations
- `evidence/DGR-018/README.md`

## Acceptance criteria

- [ ] Preflight a 256-GiB-class reference host with at least 224 GiB runtime-accessible memory after OS reservation and approximately 250 GB free mounted storage; abort before download if storage resolves under `/home` or requirements are unmet.
- [ ] Configure the oracle's alpha lane for 16,384 context, concurrency 1, and Q8_0 MLA/indexer KV; record actual MLA, indexer-cache, scratch, and peak resident allocations separately.
- [ ] Download/resume and verify all six DGR-017 `UD-IQ1_S` files against exact sizes and LFS SHA-256 values.
- [ ] Load the target with the unmodified DGR-004 pin first and retain full logs, tensor warnings, peak memory, context/KV allocation, TTFT, and decode timing.
- [ ] Prove from graph/runtime evidence whether 256-expert MoE/top-8/shared expert, DSA lightning indexer/sparse attention, IndexShare Full/Shared reuse, and `reasoning_effort=max` are active.
- [ ] Dense-attention or replicated-indexer compatibility fallback is labeled incomplete and cannot become the oracle solely because it emits plausible text.
- [ ] Audit focused upstream/Mesh-LLM donor tests and patches; adopt or rewrite only independently understood minimum changes and record provenance/rejection rationale.
- [ ] Handle the trailing NextN/MTP tensors explicitly; MTP may remain disabled for alpha, but ignored tensors and layer-count behavior must be understood and tested.
- [ ] Run deterministic prefill/greedy decode and fixed Max-mode coding, structured-output/tool-call, and reasoning sentinels; retain raw prompts, outputs, token IDs, and compared state/logit evidence.
- [ ] Bind the oracle to exact artifact, tokenizer/template, adapter, backend class, compute/activation/KV dtypes, context/RoPE, llama.cpp commit, and patch-series hash.
- [ ] Produce a signed `pass` or `stop` semantic-runtime verdict; no performance threshold is weakened after execution.
- [ ] Targeted native/unit tests and clean pinned rebuild pass.
- [ ] `git diff --check` passes.
- [ ] Default tests remain model-download-free/GPU-free; full-target execution is opt-in and never runs in default CI.
- [ ] Model artifacts and caches remain on configured mounted-drive storage and never under `/home`.
- [ ] Preserve all pre-existing working-tree changes and stage only files belonging to this story.
- [ ] Write `evidence/DGR-018/README.md` with exact hardware, storage, source revisions, files, commands, raw-result paths, real results, limitations, and handoff.
- [ ] Update only this story issue to `Status: done` after every acceptance criterion passes.

## Dependency handoff

- `DGR-003`, `DGR-004`, and `DGR-017` must have `passes: true`; read and verify their evidence READMEs.

## Finish contract

- If a 256-GiB-class host with at least 224 GiB runtime-accessible memory is unavailable, write `evidence/DGR-018/BLOCKED.md` with exact preflight output; do not substitute a smaller model.
- Preserve real failures and blockers; never fabricate output.
- Emit `<promise>COMPLETE</promise>` only after the signed oracle evidence exists.

## References

- [GLM-5.2 Max alpha roadmap](../GLM-5.2-MAX-ALPHA-ROADMAP.md)
- [llama.cpp GLM-5.2 issue](https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/issues/24730)
