DGR-042 evidence — native frames through direct and relay seams

Date: 2026-08-01
Authority: .scratch/distributed-gguf-runtime/prd.json.

Implemented

Added NativeActivationSeam, a Route-Session-scoped adapter with exactly two selectable transports. Direct traffic calls the generated ShardRuntimeStub.Session() once and keeps its bidirectional gRPC stream open for the session. Its request and response hand-off queues are bounded.
Relay traffic calls the existing persistent relay request shape with POST /native/session, application/x-protobuf, and the exact SessionRequest.SerializeToString() body. It parses only the returned SessionResponse; neither the adapter nor the relay contract rewrites a protobuf frame. Relay failure is explicitly uncertain and is never retried.
NativeFrameContext validates Route Session, epoch, work, and deadline fields against the versioned protobuf request before either path sends it. The unchanged existing relay header contract receives request/billing ID, node attribution, route, work, and deadline copies for control-plane telemetry/billing correlation. NativeSeamTelemetry reports per-node, per-request seam byte/latency observations without interpreting frames.
Deterministic fake-worker tests cover a single direct stream, byte-identical relay request frames, relay disconnect/no replay, cancellation, correlation headers, telemetry, and bounded direct buffering.

Changed files

packages/node/meshnet_node/native_activation_seam.py
tests/test_native_activation_seam.py
.scratch/distributed-gguf-runtime/prd.json
.scratch/distributed-gguf-runtime/issues/042-carry-native-frames-through-direct-and-existing-relay-seams.md
.scratch/distributed-gguf-runtime/evidence/DGR-042/README.md
.ralph-tui/progress.md

Commands and results

PYTHONPATH=packages/node:packages/tracker /home/popov/.hermes/hermes-agent/venv/bin/python -m pytest -q \
  tests/test_native_activation_seam.py tests/test_native_shard_protocol.py \
  tests/test_native_worker_supervisor.py tests/test_native_registration.py \
  tests/test_ralph_prd_schema.py
# 172 passed, 2 skipped in 2.01s

/home/popov/.hermes/hermes-agent/venv/bin/python -m ruff check \
  packages/node/meshnet_node/native_activation_seam.py tests/test_native_activation_seam.py
# All checks passed!

python3 -m compileall -q packages tests
# exit 0

git diff --check
# exit 0

No model download, GPU, API credit, native worker build, or upstream patch was required. Native CMake/CTest and patch-stack gates do not apply to this Python-only transport adapter.

Limitations and dependency handoff

Relay is deliberately a sequence of opaque existing relay RPC bodies, not a gRPC tunnel. The direct path alone is a long-lived gRPC stream; this avoids changing relay behavior while preserving native frame bytes.
This fixture lane uses an injected generated-stub-shaped fake worker and an injected existing-relay-client-shaped callable. DGR-054/DGR-058 must use the adapter with certified workers and add real route-loss/restart policy; they must retain the no-replay rule after an uncertain relay send.
DGR-024 supplied the versioned generated Session protocol and the prior raw-frame identity proof. DGR-040 supplied the verified worker lifecycle; its published native listen address is the direct endpoint for this seam.
Existing Transformer HTTP routes and relay routing, load balancing, billing, and peer behavior were not changed.