neuron-tai/.scratch/distributed-gguf-runtime/issues/035-implement-dense-architecture-boundary-input-output.md

DGR-035: Implement dense architecture boundary input/output

• Status / triage: specification only; ready-for-agent; passes: false
• Execution mode: AFK
• Milestone: M2
• Dependencies: DGR-021, DGR-031, DGR-034
• Blocks (derived): DGR-036, DGR-037, DGR-069
• Labels: area:llama, area:boundary, type:runtime, priority:p0, ready-for-agent
• Evidence class: real-model
• Hardware: optional
• Model: dense-llama
• Upstream: yes

Objective / description

Fresh Ralph session: read .scratch/distributed-gguf-runtime/RALPH-CONTEXT.md, source issue .scratch/distributed-gguf-runtime/issues/035-implement-dense-architecture-boundary-input-output.md, and evidence READMEs for dependencies (DGR-021, DGR-031, DGR-034) before changing code. Inspect live source/tests rather than trusting legacy pass states. Objective: Execute dense head/middle/tail ranges through an architecture-defined residual boundary.

Acceptance criteria

• Head accepts token IDs and owns embedding; middle/tail bypass embedding and accept a named boundary bundle.
• Non-tail returns the unnormalized residual before final norm/head and before tail-only row pruning.
• Tail returns logits or sampled-token output under an explicit contract.
• Uncertified architectures and incompatible boundary schemas fail closed.
• 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-035/README.md. Until every criterion and applicable gate has real evidence, this story remains passes: false. Legacy evidence is provenance only, not completion credit.