astrea

name	astrea
description	Use for hipfire quant calibration, imatrix-driven experiments, KLD/PPL quality evaluation, k-map/format selection, MQ/HFQ/HFP/MFP tradeoff work, ParoQuant-style weight transform planning, and KV policy planning. Use when deciding whether a calibrated model candidate should be promoted, rejected, packaged, or sent through Atlas for AR/DFlash perf validation.

Astrea

Agent-native calibration harness for hipfire quant candidates. The executable is python3 scripts/astrea.py. It emits JSON plan/policy/metrics artifacts; you supply experiment judgment and promotion discipline.

Mutable format math, operator quantize flags, KV defaults, and validation routes live in canonical owners — link them; do not copy inventories here.

Reach for this when

• Calibrating or comparing weight formats (MQ / HFQ / HFP / MFP / Q8 / F16 / Paro)
• Joining GGUF imatrix coverage to HFQ tensor names
• Building mixed-format promotion policies under a size budget
• Planning KV-cache policy profiles for Atlas join
• Importing/oracling ParoQuant (PARO4G128) checkpoints
• Deciding promote / reject / iterate from measured KLD/PPL + runtime evidence

Canonical owners (read these; do not fork)

Concern	Owner
Quant design / formats / KV math	docs/QUANTIZATION.md
hipfire quantize operator surface	docs/QUANTIZE.md
Validation route selection	docs/VALIDATION.md
Docs ownership / truth states	docs/INDEX.md
Perf measurement protocol	docs/methodology/perf-benchmarking.md
Kernel Atlas methodology	docs/methodology/kernel-atlas.md
Atlas agent workflow	.agents/skills/hipfire-kernel-atlas/
Admissions registry	docs/admissions.yml (empty = fail closed)

Executable truth for CLI flags: python3 scripts/astrea.py <cmd> --help.

Core rules

1. No quality claim without measured KLD/PPL (or an explicit blocked eval path). Dry-run Astrea JSON is a plan, not calibrated weights.
2. No ship-ready claim without runtime compatibility + perf evidence on the formats the candidate actually uses. Prefer Atlas AR and, when the path is DFlash-relevant, DFlash rows — via the Atlas skill/methodology.
3. bundle-plan is a package contract artifact, not a model writer. Do not claim Astrea packaged a loadable model unless a real writer path ran (promote, calibrate --write-candidate, or paro-import).
4. Do not invent gates. Pick routes from docs/VALIDATION.md. There is no universal GPU/coherence replacement gate. Retired scripts/coherence-gate-*.sh batteries are historical reproduction only.
5. Do not compare KLD/PPL across different engine fingerprints or RoPE conventions without marking the comparison historical.
6. Non-finite logits fail the candidate. Reject KLD=0 rows unless the logit path is confirmed finite.
7. Admissions stay machine-recorded only in docs/admissions.yml. A green eval or bench does not create an admission.

CLI surface

Run from the hipfire repo root. Prefer --pretty for humans; --out PATH writes JSON and silences stdout.

python3 scripts/astrea.py inspect --model MODEL [--imatrix IMATRIX] [--format FORMAT]
python3 scripts/astrea.py imatrix-join --model MODEL --imatrix IMATRIX [--max-tensors N]
python3 scripts/astrea.py fingerprint [--engine-root REPO]
python3 scripts/astrea.py plan --model MODEL --format FORMAT --method METHOD \
  [--recipe-stage STAGE:METHOD] [--imatrix IMATRIX] [--source-dir BF16_DIR] \
  [--eval-command CMD] [--atlas-command CMD]
python3 scripts/astrea.py calibrate --plan PLAN.json [--source-dir BF16_DIR] \
  [--write-candidate] [--max-tensors N] [--tensor-filter NAME] [--workers N] [--dry-run]
python3 scripts/astrea.py eval --plan PLAN.json [--run]
python3 scripts/astrea.py metrics --quality-json result-data.json \
  --candidate-variant NAME [--baseline-variant NAME] [--floor-variant NAME] \
  [--arch ARCH] [--scoring-mode MODE] [--engine-root REPO]
python3 scripts/astrea.py policy --model MODEL --base-format FMT --promotion-format FMT \
  (--sensitivity-json SCORES.json | --imatrix IMATRIX) --max-extra-bytes N \
  [--method METHOD] [--objective OBJ] [--domain weights|kv] [--model-family FAMILY]
python3 scripts/astrea.py promote --policy POLICY.json --source-dir BF16_DIR --output CANDIDATE.hfq \
  [--max-tensors N] [--tensor-filter NAME]
python3 scripts/astrea.py kv-profile --model MODEL [--mode MODE] [--triattn PATH] \
  [--model-family FAMILY] [--engine-root REPO]
python3 scripts/astrea.py bundle-plan --model MODEL --output MODEL.hfq \
  [--include weights|paro|kv-policy|triattn|evidence] [--triattn PATH] [--policy-id ID]
python3 scripts/astrea.py paro-probe --model MODEL [--local-only] [--max-modules N]
python3 scripts/astrea.py paro-import --model MODEL --output OUT.hfq \
  [--layout native|engine] [--copy-floats f16|q8] [--local-only]
python3 scripts/astrea.py paro-oracle --source PARO_SAFE_DIR --hfq MODEL.hfq \
  [--module MODULE] [--samples N] [--atol TOL]
python3 scripts/astrea.py report ARTIFACT.json ...

Supported format/method/KV-mode tokens are defined in scripts/astrea.py (SUPPORTED_FORMATS, SUPPORTED_METHODS, SUPPORTED_KV_MODES, …). Query the script or --help rather than trusting a skill-local table.

Workflow

1. Scope — model path, target format(s), BF16/higher-precision reference, eval corpus, size budget, and whether the change is weights, KV, or both.
2. inspect / imatrix-join — fingerprint inputs; confirm imatrix↔HFQ coverage before planning mutation.
3. fingerprint — capture engine git/source hashes and RoPE path (halfsplit / interleaved_legacy / unknown). Pass --engine-root when the evaluated binary is not this checkout.
4. plan — bounded experiment artifact. Methods stack as recipe stages (--method repeated; optional --recipe-stage stage:method). Attach --eval-command and --atlas-command so later steps are reproducible.
5. calibrate — without --write-candidate, reports join readiness only. With --write-candidate, may rewrite same-size tensor ranges for supported recipes (e.g. MFP4 imatrix-scale, MQ4 AWQ-style clipping, MQ4 LS when methods match). Use --max-tensors / --tensor-filter for smokes; --workers N for large rewrites. Treat unimplemented mutation paths as blocked, not as silent success.
6. eval then metrics — run KLD/PPL against a fixed reference; ingest kld_reduce.py result-data.json (or equivalent). Prefer a Q8 / accepted high-precision floor row so above-floor KLD and recovered damage % are meaningful. Attach exact command, reference, dataset/chunk count, and artifact identity to every quality claim.
7. policy / promote — optional mixed-format promotion under --max-extra-bytes. Objectives include dynamic-tensor-policy, moe-probe, model-ingress, kv-policy. Policy is a selector, not quality evidence — re-run metrics after every written candidate. Today promote writes selected q8 promotions as runtime-compatible Q8F16 records and rebuilds the HFQ index/data payload.
8. kv-profile — when KV behavior changes or a model should carry an embedded KV policy. Include a live baseline mode and each candidate mode under investigation. Output is a policy/evidence shape for Atlas join, not proof that kernels/loader implement the mode.

Experiment guidance (non-inventory)

• Start high-signal paths (e.g. mfp4 + imatrix-scale, or MQ4 activation-aware recipes) and compare stacks empirically — do not treat a single past run as a permanent win.
• ParoQuant remains a first-class transform lane: probe/import/oracle are executable; fused runtime inverse + matvec still need producer-consumer proof before ship language.
• MoE policies must separate router, expert, and shared dense tensors; expert promotion needs hit-distribution + quality deltas, not name lists alone.
• KV: product defaults and mode math live in docs/QUANTIZATION.md / docs/CONFIG.md / docs/env-vars.md. Astrea kv-profile modes are policy candidates; research modes stay research until kernels, loader metadata, and measured AR/DFlash quality exist.
• Preserve HFP/MFP (and any other) producer-consumer contracts: block-size and runtime requirements move only with quantizer + loader + kernels + docs together.

Guardrails

• Attach engine fingerprint + eval identity to every quality artifact.
• Atlas / speed-gate / harness green ≠ admission and ≠ universal correctness.
• Path-specific numerical/state parity uses arch-owned oracles when they exist; serve harnesses cover user-facing semantics only (docs/VALIDATION.md).
• Historical benchmark tables and campaign checkpoints stay historical.
• No C/A attestation from this skill.

Related skills

• hipfire-kernel-atlas — AR/DFlash rows, ISA fit, task/eval loop
• hipfire-kernel-tuning — kernel levers after a candidate is quality-clean
• hipfire-tester — hardware bring-up / smoke matrix