# KORA v0.2.0-alpha Raw Artifact Freeze Decision

Status: release-prep decision / not released

Historical status at time of writing; `v0.2.0-alpha` has since been published: https://github.com/Krako-Labs/KORA/releases/tag/v0.2.0-alpha

Decision date: 2026-05-05

## Decision

Raw benchmark JSON artifacts are not frozen or committed for `v0.2.0-alpha`.

For this alpha release, release evidence remains reproducible through tracked workload definitions, benchmark scripts, correctness checks, summary generation, artifact policy documentation, changelog wording, and regeneration commands.

This decision clears the raw artifact freeze blocker for `v0.2.0-alpha`.

## Reasoning

The current evidence is reproducible simulated benchmark evidence from a deterministic-heavy workload. It is useful for validating the benchmark evidence path, but it is intentionally scoped and should not be presented as heavier release evidence than it is.

Tracked workload definitions and scripts are sufficient for alpha evidence regeneration:

- the workload is deterministic and generated from a fixed seed
- the benchmark runner is tracked
- deterministic expected-output correctness checks are tracked
- the Markdown summary generator is tracked
- regeneration commands are documented in the benchmark artifact policy

Freezing raw JSON artifacts can be reconsidered for a later runtime-integrated or production-adjacent benchmark, where preserving exact raw outputs may carry more review value.

## What Remains Tracked

The release evidence path remains based on tracked source and documentation artifacts:

- `experiments/workloads/deterministic_heavy_v1_100.json`
- `experiments/generate_workload.py`
- `experiments/run_benchmark.py`
- `experiments/summarize_benchmark_results.py`
- `docs/reports/benchmark_artifact_policy.md`
- `CHANGELOG.md`
- `docs/reports/v0.2.0-alpha-release-notes-draft.md`
- `docs/reports/v0.2.0-alpha-readiness-check.md`
- reviewed merge and validation reports under `docs/reports/`

## What Remains Untracked

Routine generated benchmark outputs remain ephemeral and should not be committed:

- `/tmp` raw benchmark JSON outputs
- generated raw JSON/JSONL under ignored result paths
- incidental local benchmark run artifacts

If raw JSON artifacts are ever selected as frozen release evidence later, they should follow the frozen raw artifact requirements in `docs/reports/benchmark_artifact_policy.md`.

## Regeneration

Use the regeneration commands in:

```text
docs/reports/benchmark_artifact_policy.md
```

That policy documents how to regenerate:

- the `deterministic_heavy_v1_100` workload from seed `42`
- dry-run result JSON
- direct-baseline result JSON
- KORA-controlled result JSON
- Markdown summary output from raw result artifacts

Use `/tmp` paths for routine raw outputs.

## Safe Claim Boundary

Safe claim:

> In a reproducible 100-task deterministic-heavy benchmark workload, KORA-controlled execution avoided 80 of 100 simulated model invocations versus a naive direct baseline.

## Explicit Non-Claims

This decision does not claim:

- production cost reduction proof
- real API-cost reduction proof
- production benchmark proof
- full runtime-integrated benchmark evidence
- broad workload superiority proof
- energy reduction evidence

## Release Impact

The raw artifact freeze decision is resolved for `v0.2.0-alpha`: raw benchmark JSON artifacts will not be frozen or committed for this alpha release.

Remaining release work should proceed without adding raw benchmark JSON artifacts unless a later explicit approval changes this decision.
