neuron-tai/.scratch/node-capability-admission/issues/02-doctor-real-forward.md

Status: ready-for-agent

02 — Doctor selected model/shard with a bounded real forward

What to build

Add meshnet-node doctor. By default it validates only the selected Model Artifact and Shard from flags/config. Reuse the production model-loading/backend execution path and execute a bounded real forward through the selected Shard; a generic Torch allocation or synthetic benchmark is insufficient.

It emits concise human output plus capability-report JSON. Add explicit --all-recipes plumbing for support/CI without making ordinary startup validate unrelated/downloaded models. The default tests must inject a fake/lightweight backend; a real-model test is integration-marked and environment-gated with model identity supplied externally.

Code refs:

• packages/node/meshnet_node/cli.py — subcommand parser and config/flag resolution
• packages/node/meshnet_node/model_backend.py — TorchModelShard, encode_prompt, forward_bytes
• packages/node/meshnet_node/torch_server.py — production backend construction
• tests/test_node_startup.py, tests/test_real_model_backend.py — startup/backend test patterns

Test-first

1. Red: doctor reports generic hardware availability as ready without invoking model validation.
2. Red: an injected backend forward failure still produces a success capability.
3. Green: selected model/shard invokes one bounded generic forward and yields success only on completion.
4. Add an integration-marked, env-gated test whose model ID/source is configurable; it has no model-specific default.

Acceptance criteria

• meshnet-node doctor resolves the same selected model/shard/config path as startup
• Default doctor performs a bounded real forward through the selected shard before reporting success
• --all-recipes is explicit and does not change default onboarding cost
• Failure returns non-zero, writes a failed capability report, and prints a user-actionable category without raw traceback by default
• Unit tests require no GPU or model download; a separately marked integration smoke test is model-configurable

Blocked by

01-generic-capability-report.md.