---
version: 0.27.0
date: 2026-06-20
headline: "In-kernel sampler gains top-k / top-p / stop; adjudicator self-modify floor hardened (#172); real WebVoyager + Metal throughput data."
themes: ["agent", "adjudicator", "webbench", "compute", "bench", "fleet"]
highlights:
  - "agent: in-kernel decode now honors per-request top-k, top-p (nucleus), and stop sequences"
  - "adjudicator: self-modify floor closes shell-path / find -delete / witness-machinery holes (#172)"
  - "webbench: REAL WebVoyager measurements — 8.8x-9.7x on 643 tasks + token-measurement framework"
  - "compute: first Metal (Apple Silicon) throughput data — prefill GEMM ~40-107x cpuref on M3 Pro"
  - "bench: GCP Blackwell one-touch benchmark (provision, run, always tear down)"
  - "fleet: account-probe is single source of truth; name-matched dir wins canonical"
---

**TL;DR** — A broad trunk release over the v0.26.0 Metal/Qwen3.6 base. The in-kernel sampler reaches sampling-parameter parity (top-k, top-p, stop), the adjudicator's self-modify floor closes three concrete bypass holes (#172), webbench lands real WebVoyager measurements, and the Apple-Silicon Metal backend gains its first throughput data. CI on `master` is currently billing-blocked (GitHub Actions jobs not started); this release is cut on a verified-green local suite per fleet's local-green release law.

## Agent — in-kernel sampler parity

- **What changed** — the in-kernel decode path honors per-request sampling controls.
  - *How:* top-k truncation (`12afed4`), top-p / nucleus sampling (`1f268b0`), and stop sequences (`a6cb8d7`) on the in-kernel decode path — the local engine now matches the sampling surface callers expect rather than greedy-only.

## Adjudicator — self-modify floor hardening (#172)

- **What changed** — the self-modify reference-monitor floor closes concrete bypass holes.
  - *How:* guard `find -delete` / `-exec` writes into protected trees (`f2f4f43`, Hole 1), guard shell-path self-modify into protected trees (`811beea`, Hole 1), and guard the witness machinery itself inside the self-modify floor (`ff2dda6`, Hole 2).

## WebBench — real WebVoyager measurements

- **What changed** — webbench reports measured WebVoyager numbers, not modeled ones.
  - *How:* REAL WebVoyager measurements — **8.8x-9.7x on 643 tasks** (`0b9f28a`) plus a token-measurement framework + summary doc (`9c4151d`, `fak/cmd/webbench-token-measure`, `docs/webbench-real-measurements-summary.md`).

## Compute — Metal backend throughput (Apple Silicon)

- **What changed** — first throughput data for the Metal backend shipped in v0.26.0.
  - *How:* `internal/compute/metal_bench_test.go` (`ca0750e`) probes MPS GEMM vs the cpuref reference on the M3 Pro: prefill GEMM (P=64) ~40-107x cpuref (robust); decode GEMV (P=1) is dispatch-latency-bound under the synchronous commit→wait per-op model — the batched-command-buffer follow-up is the next lever (#300 stays open).

## Bench / GPU server / AgentDojo — measurement harnesses

- **What changed** — new self-contained benchmark + evaluation runners.
  - *How:* GCP Blackwell one-touch benchmark that provisions, runs, and always tears down (`13db567`; T4 accelerator-string fix `3c4dce6`); a self-contained GPU server ladder runner, ours-first with live tracebacks (`5cc1e70`); an AgentDojo deterministic generative attack expander (`0825b52`); and a fleet-vs-DeepSWE comparison pipeline (`fd90fb9`).

## Fleet — control-plane correctness

- **What changed** — account routing and throttle state get more honest.
  - *How:* a fresh probe is the single source of truth and overrides stale throttle (`6096edc`); a name-matched config dir wins canonical over default (`f08490e`).

## Architest / Proofs / Tools

- **What changed** — architecture gates and grounding tightened.
  - *How:* architest gates that the default `go build` links no cgo on the request path and that the singleton `RegionBackend` / blob page-out default has exactly one registrant; 40 grounded per-module proofs + a per-theorem master ledger (`68dc0a9`); gh issue dispatch worker setup with desktop deconfliction (`f274fdd`).
