# Campaign Notebook — campaign-v1 (SAC_LSTM_Bot)

Overnight training campaign on branch `research/goto-controller`.
Companion tickets: config+launch = **#56**, morning verdict = **#57**, map = **#53**.
Monitoring contract: observability inventory in **#55 comment 461** (9 signals, thresholds, four-way discrimination).

## Locked config (campaign-v1)

Launch command (tmux session `sac_campaign`, stdout teed to `campaign_stdout.log`):

```bash
SAC_OPPONENTS='Corners:3,Crazy:2,RamFire:1,Target:1,SacTwin:1' \
SAC_EVAL_OPPONENT=Corners \
SAC_TOTAL_ROUNDS=25000 \
SAC_CHUNK_SIZE=10 \
SAC_EVAL_INTERVAL=2 \
SAC_EVAL_ROUNDS=10 \
SAC_MAX_CRASHES=5 \
SACLSTM_HIDDEN_SIZE=256 \
SACLSTM_BATCH_SIZE=16 \
SACLSTM_UTD_RATIO=1 \
SACLSTM_SAVE_INTERVAL=5 \
./sac_train.sh 2>&1 | tee -a campaign_stdout.log
```

| Knob | Value | Source / rationale |
|------|-------|--------------------|
| `SAC_OPPONENTS` | `Corners:3,Crazy:2,RamFire:1,Target:1,SacTwin:1` | Working recommendation kept. Twin pinned at **1 not 2**: #54 showed mirror battles end early ⇒ fewer transitions per chunk; weight 2 would starve the replay buffer. |
| `SAC_EVAL_OPPONENT` | `Corners` | Pinned explicitly (= first pool entry default, #54 note) — removes reorder footgun. |
| `SAC_TOTAL_ROUNDS` | `25000` | Sized so the **wall-clock ceiling binds first**: measured throughput ~3400 rounds/h early (drops as battles lengthen) ⇒ 2000 would have exhausted in ~1 h. |
| `SAC_CHUNK_SIZE` | `10` | Harness default. |
| `SAC_EVAL_INTERVAL` | `2` | Harness default — eval every ~20 rounds. |
| `SAC_EVAL_ROUNDS` | `10` | Harness default. |
| `SAC_MAX_CRASHES` | `5` | Harness self-abort; monitor intervenes earlier at ≥3 consecutive crashes (#55). |
| `SACLSTM_HIDDEN_SIZE` | `256` | Module default (`network.nim`); real capacity vs #49 smoke's 32; under `MaxHidden`=512 cap. |
| `SACLSTM_BATCH_SIZE` | `16` | Module default (`integration.nim`). |
| `SACLSTM_UTD_RATIO` | `1` | Module default. |
| `SACLSTM_SAVE_INTERVAL` | `5` | **Deviation** from default 500 and from #54's "10–20": at hidden 256 a gradient step takes ~1 s and a chunk process fits only ~10–18 steps (see incident below) — interval must sit **inside the per-process step budget**. 5 ⇒ checkpoint every ~5–10 s of active training; IO trivial (10.5 MB zip, atomic replace). |
| *(not pinned)* | module defaults | `LR_ACTOR/LR_CRITIC/LR_ALPHA=3e-4`, `GAMMA=0.99`, `TAU=0.005`, `TARGET_ENTROPY=-4.0`, `BUFFER_CAPACITY=500000`, `BURN_IN=8`, `TRAIN_WINDOW=16`. |

**Budget**: generous wall-clock **ceiling, not a deadline** — originally **T+12 h** from launch 00:21:55 CEST 2026-08-22 ⇒ 12:22 CEST (epoch 1787394115); **extended 2026-08-22 ~07:35 by orchestrator decision on human mandate** ("no deadlines — let the 25000-round budget complete", ~14:35 projected) ⇒ ceiling now **16:30 CEST 2026-08-22 (epoch 1787409000)**, enforced by a hard user-systemd net unit `sac-ceiling-net` (sleeps to the epoch, then kills the tmux session and any straggler harness processes). While HEALTHY per #55 discrimination rules the run continues; a monitor kills the tmux session at the ceiling or on an intervene threshold.

**Fresh start**: pre-campaign `weights/` held #49-smoke 32-hidden checkpoints, incompatible with hidden=256. Archived to `weights_smoke49_backup/`; campaign baseline re-established by probe battles vs Corners (random-init hidden-256 checkpoint, `best_score.txt` reset then re-raised to 20 by a genuine eval). Twin regenerated via `./make_twin.sh` from that baseline (md5 `61521cff…` verified seed).

## Phase log

- **2026-08-21 23:22** — Claim posted on #56 (comment 471). Config locked, notebook committed (`2f49cb2`).
- **2026-08-21 23:27** — Smoke weights archived; release build; bootstrap + probe battles vs Corners established a hidden-256 baseline checkpoint (`sac_latest.zip`, 10.5 MB) and twin seed.
- **2026-08-21 23:32** — Twin regenerated (md5-verified). **Launch attempt 1** (SAVE_INTERVAL=20, TOTAL_ROUNDS=2000): ran 16+ chunks, evals every 2 chunks — but **zero checkpoints persisted** (see incident). Killed 23:48.
- **2026-08-21 23:52–00:10** — Diagnosis (see incident): interval=1 fired, interval=2/20 never; instrumentation + /proc thread forensics ⇒ per-process step budget ~10–18 at ~1 s/step; save check ran only between drain-burst passes.
- **2026-08-22 00:12** — Fix: save check moved inside the gradient-step loop, committed `2653671`. Validated: interval=5 save fired ~12 s into a battle.
- **2026-08-22 00:21:55** — **Launch (final)**: tmux `sac_campaign`, config above. First campaign save on disk at t+54 s; eval #1 on cadence.
- **2026-08-22 00:30** — HEALTHY checklist passed (see below).
- **2026-08-22 03:45** — Watch shift 1 (00:34–03:35): liveness flawless (10/10 HEALTHY, zero banners, zip ≤30 s). Learning signal: steady-state eval vs Corners 0–5% with two isolated 10/10 spikes (~01:15) → capability emerged, then lost. Eval-regression intervene threshold fired per #55; intervention DEFERRED to Campaign verdict (#57) — rationale: n=2 evidence, no loss metrics, buffer-loss on restart, run completes ~08:05 anyway. Milestone issue: #58 "Campaign-v1 watch: eval-regression threshold fired — intervention deferred to verdict".
- **2026-08-22 ~07:15** — Morning audit: policy demonstrably learning off-benchmark (SacTwin 73→100%, Crazy 26→56%) while Corners eval stays ~0–9% with 3 transient 10/10s; wall-clock ceiling extended to let the 25k complete (~14:35 projected); instability-vs-plateau question left to the curve.
- **2026-08-22 ~07:50 — score:60 anatomy**: Tank Royale survival(50)+last-survivor(10) awarded when opponent dies while we survive; exactly-60 ⇒ zero damage dealt by us that round (opponent self-destructed via wasted shots + 0.1/turn inactivity drain). 3,878 rounds (19%); modal vs SacTwin; vs Corners 986 damageless outlives vs 242 true wins; combined with 43% of rounds being score:0, texture = survivor-not-fighter against walls. RL rewards are event-driven (rewards module), so behavioral evidence, not reward poisoning. Feeds #57 levers: aggression shaping / specialist-vs-generalist.
- **2026-08-22 ~08:05 — `.part` debris forensics + sweep**: 99 `*.zip.tmp.*.part` (483 MB) are NOT weights.nim debris (that proc uses fixed `.tmp` + finally-cleanup, working); naming matches an external write-temp→rename copier killed mid-write, bursts correlating with kill events; possible culprit: a folder-sync client fighting a file that changes every ~20 s (**human asked to confirm**). Swept with `-mmin +10` age guard (protects in-flight writes); 483 MB freed, real zips untouched — note 2 fresh `.part` reappeared minutes later, copier still active.
- **2026-08-22 ~08:00 — ceiling defused**: the 12:22 'self-kill' was notebook prose instructing watchmen — never an OS mechanism; rewritten to 16:30 CEST AND armed a real systemd --user net `sac-ceiling-net` firing 16:30:00 (epoch 1787409000); training uninterrupted (counter +99/147 s verified); annotated #56 comment 487.
- **2026-08-22 ~14:28 — CAMPAIGN ENDED NATURALLY**: banner `>>> training complete: 2500 chunks` after **14 h 07 m** (00:21:55 → ~14:28 CEST); round_counter **38912**; **zero crash banners across the whole run**; the `sac-ceiling-net` backstop never fired — cancelled unneeded. Budget note: the harness loop is **chunk-based** — `SAC_TOTAL_ROUNDS=25000` ÷ `CHUNK_SIZE=10` ⇒ **2500 chunk battles** of ≤10 rounds each; the "25k-rounds" label was a misnomer (the counter also accrues 1287×10 eval rounds and rerun chunks). Final eval vs Corners: 10%.
- **2026-08-22 ~14:50 — VERDICT posted (→ #57)**: **RETUNE BEFORE SCALING.** Ops layer PROVEN (14 h autonomous, zero crashes, self-healing restarts, natural completion — the harness scales); learning REAL BUT NARROW (within-opponent gains genuine — SacTwin 90.7%, Crazy 26→48% — but specialist-not-generalist, walls untouched; 12 eval spikes ≥8/10 incl. 5×10/10, none retained); benchmark pathology: Corners-only deterministic eval + single-max best gating froze `sac_best.zip` at 01:01:57 on a fluke 10/10. Five code-level levers staged **awaiting human sign-off**; v2 NOT launched. Full rationale: Results below + #57 resolution comment.
- **2026-08-22 ~14:50 — HYGIENE (campaign over, no live writers — safe)**: `sac-ceiling-net` stopped + `reset-failed` (backstop obsolete); `.part` corpse sweep **48 → 0** (no age guard needed — nothing writes anymore); future-run guard added to `sac_train.sh`: startup `rm -f "$WEIGHTS_DIR"/sac_latest.zip.tmp.*.part "$WEIGHTS_DIR"/sac_latest.zip.tmp` so a SIGKILLed run's libzip modify-path corpses can't accumulate again.

## Decision-issue index

| Issue | What it decided |
|-------|-----------------|
| #37–#48 | Bot built: skeleton, state, actions, rewards, LSTM network, weights, SAC+LSTM training, integration. |
| #49 | Training harness + smoke run (toy hyperparams: hidden 32). |
| #54 | Mirror-twin sparring partner; SAVE_INTERVAL persistence rule; eval opponent = first pool entry. |
| #55 | 9-signal observability inventory; CRASHED/STALLED/SLOW-LEARNER/HEALTHY discriminators; monitor thresholds. |
| #56 | This campaign: locked config + launch + the save-check fix (`2653671`). |
| #57 | Morning verdict — consumes this notebook + logs. |

## Incidents & checks

### Incident 1 — zero checkpoint persistence at production sizes (launch blockers, fixed)

**Symptom**: campaign ran 26+ chunk processes across two attempts without a single `sac_latest.zip` update, while rounds/evals flowed normally. #54's rule ("keep `SACLSTM_SAVE_INTERVAL` well below per-chunk gradient-step counts, 10–20 fired in smokes") silently broke at hidden 256.

**Diagnosis chain** (all reproducible):
1. Interval=1 saved within seconds; interval=2 and 20 never saved — through the *same* harness ⇒ not env propagation.
2. Temporary step instrumentation (bot stderr via a one-line `SAC_LSTM_Bot.sh` redirect — the vendored runner swallows bot stderr, #55 gap S9-adjacent): steps cost **~1.06 s each**; a drain burst queued 53 steps; logging stopped mid-pass while rounds kept completing.
3. `/proc/<pid>/task` sampling: training thread alive and RUNNING (~13 s CPU per ~40 s process) — not deadlocked, just slow ⇒ **per-process step budget ≈ 10–18 steps**.
4. The save check lived *between* drain-burst passes; with bursts queueing minutes of steps, `stepCount` never reached `nextSave` before process teardown. Smoke runs masked this: hidden 32 steps were sub-millisecond, so hundreds of steps fit per chunk.

**Fix** (commit `2653671`): save check relocated **inside** the step loop (checked every gradient step; `packFull`+`trySend` unchanged). Validated: interval=5 save fires ~12 s into a battle; campaign save fired 54 s after launch.

**Config consequences**: `SACLSTM_SAVE_INTERVAL=5` (inside the per-process budget; #54's 10–20 was derived at smoke speeds). `SAC_TOTAL_ROUNDS=25000` (throughput measured ~3400 rounds/h, so 2000 was a 1-hour budget, not an overnight one). OMP_NUM_THREADS=1 tested and **not** needed (hang was step-budget exhaustion, not OpenMP).

### Launch health check (t+9 min, 00:30:16) — **HEALTHY** per #55 checklist

| Signal | Reading | Verdict |
|--------|---------|---------|
| S1 harness stdout | teed to `campaign_stdout.log`; **0** `crash`/`aborted` banners | ✓ |
| S4 round_counter | 1890, +460 in 9 min (~51 rounds/min) | ✓ advancing |
| S6 sac_latest.zip mtime | **6 s old**; first save at t+54 s | ✓ fresh |
| S2 training_log.jsonl | 1492 lines, growing; last ticks=668, plausible | ✓ |
| S3 eval_log.jsonl | age 3 s (atomic replace); eval every 2 chunks | ✓ on cadence |
| S5 best_score | 20 (from a genuine campaign-1 eval; non-decreasing) | ✓ |
| Sampling | 112 chunks: Corners 41 / Crazy 25 / RamFire 15 / SacTwin 16 / Target 15 ≈ weights 3:2:1:1:1 | ✓ plausible |
| Disk | 418 GB free | ✓ |

Early evals 0% vs Corners — expected for a near-random policy minutes in; SLOW-LEARNER watch rule (flat ≥5 evals = watch) applies, never intervene.

## Check-in procedure (for monitor sessions)

```bash
tmux capture-pane -p -t sac_campaign | tail -5        # S1: banners, crashes
cat ~/Projects/SirRoboGarage/SAC_LSTM_Bot/weights/round_counter.txt
stat -c '%Y' ~/Projects/SirRoboGarage/SAC_LSTM_Bot/weights/sac_latest.zip   # age <~600s = training alive
tail -1 ~/Projects/SirRoboGarage/SAC_LSTM_Bot/training_log.jsonl
tail -3 ~/Projects/SirRoboGarage/SAC_LSTM_Bot/campaign_stdout.log           # eval results / new best
cat ~/Projects/SirRoboGarage/SAC_LSTM_Bot/weights/best_score.txt
```

Intervene per #55 thresholds: ≥3 consecutive `crash #N` banners; ΔS4=0 over ≥15 min; zip mtime >10 min stale while S4 advances (STALLED); disk <1 GB. At the **ceiling (16:30 CEST Aug 22, epoch 1787409000 — extended from 12:22 per human mandate)**: `tmux kill-session -t sac_campaign` if still running (the hard net unit `sac-ceiling-net` fires at the same epoch regardless of monitors) — final state is in `weights/`, logs, and this notebook.

## Results (campaign-v1 — filled by #57)

**Run**: 2500/2500 chunks · **14 h 07 m** autonomous (00:21:55 → ~14:28 CEST 2026-08-22) · round_counter 38912 · **zero crashes** · graceful banner `>>> training complete: 2500 chunks` · systemd net never fired. Budget was chunk-based (see phase log) — the "25k-rounds" label was a misnomer.

**Per-opponent training win rates** (run-3 slice of `training_log.jsonl`):

| Opponent | Win rate | Record | Note |
|----------|----------|--------|------|
| SacTwin | **90.7%** | 2693/2970 | vs frozen past-self — genuine self-play gain |
| Crazy | 48.3% | 2965/6140 | doubled from 26% early-run |
| Target | 9.6% | — | static, barely moved |
| Corners | 7.2% | — | walls untouched |
| RamFire | **0%** | 0/2920 | mirrors the PPO-era ladder — ram-class needs dedicated pressure |

**Eval vs Corners (pinned benchmark)**: 1287 evals · overall mean **7.7%** · histogram headline: `0/10 = 867 (67%)`, spikes ≥8/10 = **12** (incl. **5× perfect 10/10**) · final eval 10%. Stdout log carries no timestamps; timing reconstructed from file mtimes.

**Best-zip paradox**: `sac_best.zip` frozen since **01:01:57** — a single lucky 10/10 at ~round 3.5k wrote `best_score=100`, and no later eval could outrank a perfect score (even genuine ~50%-winrate stretches elsewhere). Best checkpoint = lottery ticket, decoupled from the steady-state policy (which sat at 0–10% vs Corners).

**Verdict: RETUNE BEFORE SCALING** — full rationale in #57 resolution comment. Five code-level levers staged for human sign-off: (1) eval rotation across pool + moving-average best gating; (2) reward shaping toward damage/aggression incl. anti-ram signal; (3) training-loss/step metrics logged from the training thread (#55 gap #1); (4) gate `sendTrainingMsg` off in eval mode (#55 gap #3); (5) optional stability knobs (lower LR / entropy coeff) once loss curves exist.