# DGR-064: Add negotiated activation compression - **Status / triage:** specification only; `ready-for-agent`; `passes: false` - **Execution mode:** `AFK` - **Milestone:** `M4` - **Dependencies:** `DGR-060`, `DGR-063` - **Blocks (derived):** `DGR-066`, `DGR-070` - **Labels:** `area:protocol`, `area:compression`, `type:optimization`, `priority:p1`, `ready-for-agent` - **Evidence class:** `real-hardware` - **Hardware:** `required` - **Model:** `deepseek-v4-flash` - **Upstream:** `no` ## Objective / description Fresh Ralph session: read `.scratch/distributed-gguf-runtime/RALPH-CONTEXT.md`, source issue `.scratch/distributed-gguf-runtime/issues/064-add-negotiated-activation-compression.md`, and evidence READMEs for dependencies (DGR-060, DGR-063) before changing code. Inspect live source/tests rather than trusting legacy pass states. Objective: Reduce V4 seam cost only when a certified compression recipe improves end-to-end performance acceptably. ## Acceptance criteria - [ ] Negotiate compression through recipe identity; unnegotiated or mismatched compression fails closed. - [ ] Preserve names, shapes, semantic axes, token-ID sideband, and checksums. - [ ] Measure quality drift, encode/decode cost, bytes, TTFT, and throughput against uncompressed boundaries. - [ ] Compression remains dark unless it meets pre-locked quality and speed thresholds. - [ ] Applicable shared quality gates in `prd.json` pass, and the evidence handoff records exact commands/results, changed files, limitations, and dependency handoff. ## Shared quality gates - Targeted deterministic tests pass; Python changes also pass `python -m compileall packages tests`. - `git diff --check` passes. - Default tests are model-download-free, API-credit-free, and GPU-free. - Evidence README records exact changed files, commands/results, limitations, and dependency handoff; no fabricated evidence or inherited completion credit. - Native changes pass focused out-of-tree CMake build and CTest; patch changes verify clean apply/check/reverse against the exact llama.cpp pin. - Runs are opt-in and record exact artifact/split hashes, runtime/upstream pin, backend/driver, hardware, network, commands, and raw metrics. Model artifacts use configured mounted-drive storage and never `/home`. - Preserve existing Transformers behavior and backend-agnostic Tracker routing/load balancing/billing/relay semantics unless an explicit versioned contract says otherwise. One scoped story commit is expected during execution, but this specification-materialization change is not committed. ## Evidence handoff Write and verify `.scratch/distributed-gguf-runtime/evidence/DGR-064/README.md`. Until every criterion and applicable gate has real evidence, this story remains `passes: false`. Legacy evidence is provenance only, not completion credit.