neuron-tai/.scratch/distributed-gguf-runtime/issues/054-enforce-the-deepseek-v4-flash-alpha-gate.md

DGR-054: Enforce the DeepSeek V4 Flash alpha gate

• Status / triage: specification only; ready-for-human; passes: false
• Execution mode: HITL
• Milestone: M3
• Dependencies: DGR-017, DGR-019, DGR-020, DGR-039, DGR-042, DGR-043, DGR-052, DGR-053
• Blocks (derived): DGR-055, DGR-065, DGR-066, DGR-068
• Labels: area:deepseek-v4, area:release, milestone:alpha, priority:p0, gate:hitl, ready-for-human
• Evidence class: release
• Hardware: required
• Model: deepseek-v4-flash
• Upstream: yes

Objective / description

Fresh Ralph session: read .scratch/distributed-gguf-runtime/RALPH-CONTEXT.md, source issue .scratch/distributed-gguf-runtime/issues/054-enforce-the-deepseek-v4-flash-alpha-gate.md, and evidence READMEs for dependencies (DGR-017, DGR-019, DGR-020, DGR-039, DGR-042, DGR-043, DGR-052, DGR-053) before changing code. Inspect live source/tests rather than trusting legacy pass states. Objective: Release alpha only when V4 is correct and clears the pre-locked useful-speed requirement.

Acceptance criteria

• Evaluate correctness, model fit, TTFT, prefill/decode speed, seam cost, memory, and failure rate against DGF-004 without changing thresholds.
• Separate quant/model-fit gains from runtime/transport gains.
• Decision is alpha, optimize measured bottleneck, or stop; failures cannot be relabeled as certification.
• Alpha documentation states MTP is reserved but not implemented and identifies every dark hardware lane.
• 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-054/README.md. Until every criterion and applicable gate has real evidence, this story remains passes: false. Legacy evidence is provenance only, not completion credit.