quark-workspace-validate

name	quark-workspace-validate
description	Validate workspace shape, model paths, output directories, and repo structure before downstream Quark skills proceed. Use this skill whenever a skill needs confirmed file paths, when the user provides a model path or output directory, when you need to distinguish a local model from a HuggingFace ID, or when any path assumption is unverified. Also trigger for "where should I put outputs", "is my model path right", or before model-intake/export steps.
layer	l0-foundation
primary_artifact	workspace_context.json
source_knowledge	["examples/torch/language_modeling/llm_ptq/README.md","examples/torch/language_modeling/llm_ptq/quantize_quark.py"]

quark-workspace-validate

Purpose

Validate that file paths, model references, and output locations actually exist and are accessible before a downstream skill depends on them. This prevents silent failures where a PTQ run starts, spends time loading a model, and then crashes because the output directory does not exist or the model path has a typo.

Inputs

• Model path and output directory from the user (typically forwarded by quark-torch-router)

Outputs: workspace_context.json

Records validated model paths, output directory, and repo locations.

Schema: workspace_context.schema.json

{
  "model_path": "/models/Qwen3-8B",
  "model_source": "local",
  "trust_remote_code_required": false,
  "output_dir": "./output/qwen3-8b-fp8",
  "output_dir_exists": false,
  "output_dir_parent_writable": true,
  "disk_space_gb_free": 250,
  "quark_script_path": null
}

workspace_context.json is for path facts only. Unresolved questions (e.g., ambiguous local-vs-HuggingFace reference) belong in session_context.json (owned by quark-torch-router).

What to Validate

Model Path

A model reference can be one of three things:

1. Local directory — contains config.json, *.safetensors or *.bin files (e.g., /models/Llama-2-7b-hf/)
2. HuggingFace ID — format org/model-name (e.g., Qwen/Qwen3-8B)
3. Ambiguous — could be either (e.g., ./qwen3-8b might be a local dir or a typo)

For local paths, check:

• Directory exists
• config.json is present (minimum requirement for HuggingFace-compatible model)
• At least one weight file exists (.safetensors, .bin, or .pth)
• Read permissions are adequate

For HuggingFace IDs, note:

• Cannot fully validate without network access
• Check format: should contain / separator
• Record whether trust_remote_code will be needed (some models like DeepSeek VL v2 require it)

Output Directory

• Check that the parent directory exists and is writable
• If the output directory itself does not exist, note that it will be created (not an error)
• Warn if the directory already contains files (risk of overwriting previous results)

Quark Repository (if applicable)

• If the user is running from source, check for quantize_quark.py at the expected location: examples/torch/language_modeling/llm_ptq/quantize_quark.py
• Check that requirements.txt dependencies are likely installed

Validation Commands

# Check model directory
ls -la /path/to/model/config.json 2>/dev/null
ls /path/to/model/*.safetensors 2>/dev/null

# Check output directory parent
test -d /path/to/output/.. && echo "parent exists"
test -w /path/to/output/.. && echo "parent writable"

# Check disk space (rough)
df -h /path/to/output/..

Rules

• Only validate existence, accessibility, and shape. Do not analyze model internals (that is quark-torch-model-intake) or choose install paths (that is quark-install).
• Never invent replacement paths. If /data/models/llama does not exist, say so — do not suggest /data/models/llama-2 as an alternative unless the user asks.
• Preserve ambiguity explicitly. When a reference like meta-llama/Llama-2-7b could be local or remote, say: "This looks like a HuggingFace model ID. If you meant a local directory, the path does not exist at ./meta-llama/Llama-2-7b."
• Check disk space when the downstream task is PTQ or export — quantized models can be large.

Interaction Flow

1. Collect: Gather the paths the downstream skill needs — model path, output directory, any referenced config files.
2. Validate: Run existence and permission checks. Present results as a checklist with pass/fail for each item.
3. Clarify: For ambiguous references, ask the user. For missing paths, report the exact issue.
4. Emit: Write confirmed facts to workspace_context.json. Hand any unresolved items back to quark-torch-router so they land in session_context.json's open_questions.

Recovery

• If a required path is missing, report the exact path tested and what was expected. Suggest the smallest fix: "Directory /data/models/llama does not exist. Did you mean /data/models/Llama-2-7b-hf?"
• If a model reference is ambiguous between local and HuggingFace, keep it unresolved and ask — do not guess.
• If disk space is low for the intended output, warn with the estimated size needed.