LithosAnanake/FABRIC-3.10.8.md

FABRIC-3.10.8.md — Multi-core: execution plan and log

Status: IN PROGRESS. Design and rulings are in FABRIC-3.10.0.md (ruled 2026-09-25, §7). Multi-core runs ahead of O-D (MC-R6 as ruled); O-D relaunches afterwards with row path A.

Each stage:

• needs Captain Bob's explicit go;
• gets its own commit;
• gets its own three-architecture acceptance (clean qemu; amd64, then aarch64, then riscv64; foreground; visible framebuffer; one at a time; coupled images reset before each).

Evidence is named before each stage runs.

The standing acceptance sequence, unchanged from FABRIC-3.9.8.md:

• a boot to [zuse@Hera] ok> with zero UNKNOWN WORD, faults and frame corruption;
• the dict_hash set identical across ISAs;
• the Stage G interleave (A/B), byte-identical across ISAs while there is one worker core; by counts (A = 40, B = 40) once there are more (MC-R4);
• the O-A checks (observer precedence, console responsive under load);
• mint → WIREBIND → USE → 1 2 + . → 3;
• 0 bytes of idle log growth over 20 s.

No DoE execution until everything is closed (Captain Bob, 2026-09-25: "until we close everything, do not do ant DoE eecution."). MC-4's campaigns wait for that too. Stage evidence is the standard sequence plus probes, never a campaign.

Never make clean an ISA while its QEMU runs: it deletes that QEMU's QMP and serial sockets (found 2026-09-25).

1. What MC-0 must cover (traced 2026-09-25)

Everything that would break if two cores ran kernel or VM code at the same moment.

Kernel subsystems (src/starkernel/), one lock each (MC-R2), except where noted:

Subsystem	Shared state	Treatment
kmalloc, pmm, vmm	free lists, bitmaps, page tables	heap lock; PMM lock; VMM lock
kernel-Hermes	arena directory and segments, queue table, channel table, ledger, event counters	one lock
Stadium	reservoirs, cells, quotas, word rows	per-dispatch path partitioned by quota slot (a VM's own row and cells need no lock while it runs on its one core); reservoir arithmetic atomic; cross-slot operations (admission evicting another VM's cell, grants, audits) take the Stadium lock
VM registry, birth, kill, reap	registry list, names	registry lock; KILL refuses a VM running on another core
switch-signal table	slots, stamps, decision-due flag	compare-and-swap for claim/release (MC-3); lock for register/unregister
current VM, frame stack	g_switch_current_vm and friends	move to the per-core block
console	UART, framebuffer VT100 state, line prefix state	one line lock
log region, DoE region, block subsystem	rings, block chain, caches	a lock each
heartbeat	tick counters	per-core counters (MC-3); one core until then

Shared VM code (src/, vendored; runs inside every VM):

File	Global	Treatment
dictionary_management.c	sf_fc_list/sf_fc_count/sf_fc_cap/sf_cached_latest: one dictionary lookup index for all VMs, rebuilt whenever a different VM's dictionary is searched	move into VM (per-VM index). Also stops the rebuild thrash on every switch today.
word_source/starforth_words.c	g_prng_state: one PRNG stream for all VMs (accepted at Stage H)	an atomic step, so the stream stays one stream (order is nondeterministic across cores anyway, MC-R4)
physics_runtime.c	g_runtime	inventory in MC-0; per-VM or atomic
word_source/dictionary_manipulation_words.c	state_variable (STATE)	inventory in MC-0; per-VM
physics_hotwords_cache.c	g_hotwords_cache	retired under __STARKERNEL__ (item 4.1); confirm unused
word_source/ttf_words.c	font and raster cache	core 0 only (Hestia's framebuffer)

2. Staged plan

Stage	Change	Evidence (named in advance)
MC-0a	The per-core block, on one core. A per-core structure reached through each ISA's per-CPU register (GS base / TPIDR_EL1 / tp), set up for core 0 at boot. g_switch_current_vm moves into it.	Standard sequence unchanged. A probe reads the per-core pointer from a normal kernel path and from an interrupt handler, and gets core 0's block both times on all three ISAs.
MC-0b	Real spinlocks. A kernel spinlock primitive (atomic exchange, interrupts masked while held on the owning core). sf_mutex_* stop being no-ops. The §1 kernel locks are added.	Standard sequence unchanged. A probe counts every lock's acquisitions and releases through a boot and the standard sequence: counts balance, and no lock is held across a context switch or on return to the idle point.
MC-0b2	The block subsystem's lock (split from MC-0b, Captain Bob 2026-09-25). The vendored block_subsystem.c calls its own public functions in cycles (blk_set_meta → migration check → relocate → blk_set_meta), so it is refactored into locking public functions over unlocked internals, under __STARKERNEL__.	Standard sequence unchanged. The MC-0b probe, extended to the block lock: counts balance, 0 recursions.
MC-0c	Shared VM code made per-VM or atomic (§1, second table). The dictionary lookup index moves into VM.	The dict_hash set unchanged (the index is not hashed). A probe: two VMs searched alternately never rebuild each other's index. Standard sequence.
MC-0d	Stadium's dispatch path partitioned (§1).	Standard sequence; conservation holds (stadium_conserved() on every VM, the ledger audit). A probe proves the dispatch path takes no shared lock.
MC-1	Bring up the extra cores and park them halted, per ISA: amd64 (MADT, INIT-SIPI-SIPI, a position-independent trampoline below 1 MiB), aarch64 (DTB /cpus, PSCI CPU_ON), riscv64 (DTB harts, SBI HSM hart_start). QEMU gets -smp 2.	The boot reports each core online with its own per-core block; the extra cores sit halted (0 idle growth, no spin); the standard sequence unchanged.
MC-2	Observers get core-0 affinity.	With one worker core, behaviour identical to today. A probe shows no observer ever claimed off core 0.
MC-3	Worker cores claim through the shared decision: running_on with compare-and-swap, per-core idle contexts, per-core beats, wake by inter-processor interrupt.	Two workers genuinely overlapping in time on two cores. A probe counts double claims: 0. Conservation holds. G by counts. Idle worker cores halted (0 idle growth).
MC-4	DoE with cores as a factor (after O-D): per-ISA campaigns at 1, 2 and 4 cores (MC-R5).	Per ISA and core count: 18 MU-TRIAL markers, fail=0, MU-CAMPAIGN: complete.

Stop conditions (re-plan rather than push on):

• dict_hash diverges across ISAs;
• conservation goes false;
• a lock held across a switch, or an unbalanced lock count;
• a double claim;
• an idle core spinning.

3. Execution log

3.1 MC-0a — the per-core block, on one core (2026-09-25)

Change.

• include/starkernel/percpu.h (new): sk_percpu_t { self, core_id, current_vm }, with self first.
  • sk_percpu() reads this core's block: movq %gs:0 on amd64, mrs tpidr_el1 on aarch64, mv tp on riscv64.
  • sk_percpu_install() writes the register: IA32_GS_BASE via wrmsr, TPIDR_EL1, or tp.
• src/starkernel/hal/percpu.c (new): the boot core's block is one static object, not a table sized to a core count. Secondary cores get theirs as they come online (MC-1).
• kernel_main.c: sk_percpu_boot_init() runs straight after arch_early_init(), because on amd64 that call reloads GS, which would reset the base.
• switch.c: the global g_switch_current_vm is gone.
  • sk_vm_switch_current_vm(), the setter, the idle point and sk_vm_context_switch() use sk_percpu()->current_vm.
  • After resume, the context switch re-reads the block rather than trusting a pointer cached before the switch.

Probe (temporary; removed before commit).

• kernel_main.c checked, from the normal path after the Tripod came up, that:
  • sk_percpu()->self == sk_percpu();
  • core_id == 0;
  • current_vm is Hera;
  • sk_vm_switch_current_vm() agrees.
• heartbeat_tick() ran the same self-check from interrupt context on every beat.

ISA	log	normal path	core_id	current_vm is Hera	switch.c agrees	interrupt path ok / bad
amd64	logs/20260925-130335	ok	0	1	1	889 / 0
aarch64	logs/20260925-130905	ok	0	1	1	1877 / 0
riscv64	logs/20260925-131337	ok	0	1	1	1625 / 0

Standard sequence (clean build, with the probe reverted; the tree was checked byte-for-byte against the saved stage diff).

ISA	log	O-A (G, PREC, LOAD)	M7.1a hash	MINT / WIREBIND / USE / 1 2 + .	idle growth	UNKNOWN / faults
amd64	logs/20260925-131805	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0
aarch64	logs/20260925-133049	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0
riscv64	logs/20260925-134357	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0

• The dict_hash values (Hera 0x00340a8b2c842eb7, Hestia 0x78bf28439e4a643f, Artemis 0x66886d174d5f3b5a) are identical across ISAs and unchanged from O-C.
• The ledger line matches across ISAs: held=2048, pulled=258048, returned=255263, consumed=737, conserved=true.
• No stop condition was hit. MC-0a done.

3.2 MC-0b — real spinlocks (2026-09-25)

The primitive (include/starkernel/spinlock.h, src/starkernel/hal/spinlock.c, new).

• One lock word per lock: 0 = free, core_id + 1 = held.

  • Taken by compare-and-swap. The atomics are inline on every ISA (nm -u is empty on all three ELFs).
  • Interrupts stay masked on the owning core while it holds any lock.

• The mask state lives in the per-core block, not in the lock (lock_depth, saved_irq in sk_percpu_t):

  • the first lock taken saves the interrupt state and masks;
  • the last lock released restores it;
  • so release order doesn't matter.

• The rule: no lock crosses a switch or reaches the idle point. Each of these sites checks it and counts any violation:

  • sk_vm_context_switch(), when leaving and on resume;
  • sk_vm_idle_point().

• Failures are counted and logged at the idle point (LOCK: lines, LOG_ERROR):

  • recursion (a core takes a lock it already holds): let through, so the core doesn't hang, and counted. It is never legitimate, because on one core "the owner is me" can't tell a nested call from a second VM on the same core;
  • release of a lock not held;
  • a lock held at a switch or idle point;
  • a VM mutex destroyed while held.

• The locks are no-ops until the boot core's block is installed (sk_percpu_ready). This was found during the probe runs:

  • riscv64 is built monolithic, and its arch_early_init() prints through the console before sk_percpu_boot_init();
  • the first lock therefore read tp while it still held the firmware's value, and the load hit OpenSBI memory (stval = tp+8, a firmware load access fault);
  • early boot is one core with interrupts off, so skipping the locks there is correct.

  That crashed run's log was deleted as flawed.

• sf_mutex_* (the vendored VM's dict_lock and tuning_lock, shim.c) now use the same lock word. They are no longer no-ops.

The kernel locks, in acquisition order (spinlock.h; MC-3's deadlock freedom rests on this order; checked by reading the code, not yet by a counted check; MC-0b2 inserts block between log and console, §3.3):

1. hermes
2. switch
3. registry
4. doe
5. log
6. console
7. heap
8. vmm
9. pmm

Stadium's lock comes with MC-0d, below Hermes. Stadium today runs inside dict_lock (vm_core.c's heat bump calls stadium_word_dispatch()); MC-0d's order must account for that.

Lock	Covers	Shape
heap	kmalloc/kfree, stats, censuses	kmalloc() delegates to kmalloc_aligned(), and only the latter locks
vmm	page-table walks	*_locked bodies. The map-conflict print moved outside the lock (the console lock sits above it). Takes pmm for table pages
pmm	bitmap	pmm_alloc_page()/pmm_free_page() delegate to the contiguous forms
console	output path and line state (name, line start, pending line close, the framebuffer terminal)	A string goes out under one hold. Unlocked on purpose: console_get_vm_name() (the prefix provider calls it under the lock), the boot-time console_fb_init()/console_fb_enable_ttf() (they log), and input
log, doe	control-block read-modify-write plus the slot write	*_locked bodies
registry	node list, entry copies, single-field writes	Never held while calling out. KILL and reap take it only for their reads and final writes. A birth fills its embryo unlocked (private until LIVE). kill_all_nonmama (cold-reset path) walks unlocked
switch	slot table, stamps, decision-due flag, counters	Never held while calling out. The decision, the Stage H floor and the reap sweep copy one slot under the lock (slot_copy()) and judge it outside
hermes	arena, ledger, channels, queues, event counters	Public functions lock over *_locked statics. Never held across vm_interpret_kind() (the drain) or a policy word. The switch notifications after a send go out once the lock is dropped (the floor reads Hermes queues back). Publish and event walk members one copied member at a time. sk_hermes_event()'s static payload moved onto the stack

The block subsystem is split out as MC-0b2 (Captain Bob, 2026-09-25), because its internal call cycles need a locked/unlocked refactor of vendored code. See §2.

Probe (temporary, removed before commit). A MC0B-PROBE word in Hera's and every child's vocabulary printed every counter, snapshotted before printing:

• each lock's acquisitions and releases, and its owner;
• the VM mutexes (the core total minus the kernel locks);
• the core-0 total and its depth;
• the number of switch/idle checks and violations;
• recursions, bad releases and destroyed-while-held.

It ran at Hera's prompt (after O-A's G, PREC and LOAD), and again on rajames after MINT, WIREBIND, USE and 1 2 + .. The table shows the final (rajames) reading:

ISA	log	total acquired = released	depth	switch/idle checks	held at switch	recursions / bad releases / destroyed held
amd64	logs/20260925-150735	1,503,458,645	0	51,137,748	0	0 / 0 / 0
aarch64	logs/20260925-152109	235,854,532	0	7,565,646	0	0 / 0 / 0
riscv64	logs/20260925-155048	566,894,806	0	19,029,507	0	0 / 0 / 0

• Every lock balances individually on every ISA, at both readings.
• The amd64 and aarch64 probe runs predate the sk_percpu_ready guard. That guard only changes behaviour before sk_percpu_boot_init(), and the acceptance runs below are on the final code.
• The riscv64 vblk_io timed out count, watched because known defect 3 sits in code that now runs with interrupts masked, is 2 in the probe run, the same as MC-0a's acceptance run. It is 0 in this stage's acceptance run.

Finding, for MC-3. Hera's input-poll idle loop runs the switch decision without pause, and every pass takes the registry, switch and Hermes locks once per slot. That is the hundreds of millions of acquisitions above (amd64: registry 379 M, switch 858 M, Hermes 266 M). It is harmless on one core. With several cores, core 0 spinning through these same locks would contend with every worker's claim. MC-3 should settle how that loop waits before cores share these locks.

Standard sequence (clean build, with the probe reverted; checked against the saved stage diff, which differs only by the guard added after it).

ISA	log	O-A (G, PREC, LOAD)	M7.1a hash	MINT / WIREBIND / USE / 1 2 + .	idle growth	UNKNOWN / faults
amd64	logs/20260925-160434	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0
aarch64	logs/20260925-161720	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0
riscv64	logs/20260925-163024	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0

• The G string is byte-identical to MC-0a on all three ISAs, so masking interrupts under the locks didn't move the interleave.
• The dict_hash set and the ledger line are unchanged from MC-0a.
• No stop condition was hit. MC-0b done (the block subsystem follows as MC-0b2).

3.3 MC-0b2 — the block subsystem's lock (2026-09-25)

Change. src/block_subsystem.c (vendored) is split into bodies and wrappers:

• Every public function's body is now a static *_locked function.

• Bodies call each other only through the _locked forms. That breaks the internal cycles:

  • relocate → get buffer / update / mark free;
  • meta relocate → relocate;
  • migration scan → meta relocate;
  • firsttouch → get meta / set meta / mark allocated;
  • the six meta accessors.

• A block of thin public wrappers at the end of the file takes the lock around each body.

  • Under __STARKERNEL__ that lock is g_lock_block.
  • The hosted build has no lock, and the vendored hosted make still builds clean.

• The lock covers the device chain, every slot's cache and BAM, the relocation table, and the device I/O issued on their behalf.

• Its place in the order is below log and doe (both regions write through the block subsystem) and above console (block logs), heap (calloc/free), vmm and pmm:

  1. hermes
  2. switch
  3. registry
  4. doe
  5. log
  6. block
  7. console
  8. heap
  9. vmm
  10. pmm

  Stadium (MC-0d) sits above block, because STADIUM_BEHAVIOUR_MIGRATE calls blk_flush().

Not covered, and not coverable by this lock: blk_get_buffer() returns a pointer into RAM, a ramdrive, or a device cache slot. The caller (BLOCK/BUFFER, Artemis) reads and writes through that pointer after the lock is released. On one core nothing can evict the slot in between; with worker cores (MC-3) another core's block access can. Block-buffer ownership across cores is an open item for MC-3.

The masking risk, measured. virtio_blk.c records (2026-09-09) that masking interrupts around vblk_io() once made missed completions worse. All block I/O now runs with interrupts masked (the MC-0b primitive), so the probe runs counted vblk_io timed out on every ISA:

Where	amd64	aarch64	riscv64
This stage's probe runs	0	0	4
This stage's acceptance runs	0	0	2

The riscv64 counts sit inside the pre-lock baseline: the 24 most recent riscv64 logs, from 2026-09-24 (no locks at all) through this stage, range from 0 to 6, with 4, 5 and 6 all seen before MC-0b. No regression is visible at this sample size. The masking stays as MC-0b ruled.

Probe (temporary, removed before commit). This is MC-0b's MC0B-PROBE word, extended with the block lock. Same sequence: O-A, then Hera's prompt, then MINT, WIREBIND, USE and 1 2 + ., then rajames. The table shows the final (rajames) reading:

ISA	log	block acquired = released	total acquired = released	depth	switch/idle checks	held at switch	recursions / bad releases / destroyed held
amd64	logs/20260925-173901	2,379	1,387,861,111	0	46,795,001	0	0 / 0 / 0
aarch64	logs/20260925-175215	2,057	247,761,816	0	8,014,413	0	0 / 0 / 0
riscv64	logs/20260925-180546	2,300	555,650,314	0	18,447,619	0	0 / 0 / 0

Every lock balances individually on every ISA, at both readings. 0 recursions means no public-to-public call inside block_subsystem.c was missed.

Standard sequence (clean build, with the probe reverted; the tree is byte-identical to the saved stage diff).

ISA	log	O-A (G, PREC, LOAD)	M7.1a hash	MINT / WIREBIND / USE / 1 2 + .	idle growth	UNKNOWN / faults
amd64	logs/20260925-181908	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0
aarch64	logs/20260925-183151	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0
riscv64	logs/20260925-184454	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0

• The G string is byte-identical to MC-0b and MC-0a on all three ISAs.
• The dict_hash set and the ledger line are unchanged.
• No stop condition was hit. MC-0b2 done.

3.4 MC-0c — shared VM code made per-VM or atomic (2026-09-25)

Scope: §1's second table, plus five further items found by a sweep of every file-scope and function-local mutable variable in the vendored VM sources the kernel compiles. Captain Bob ruled all of it into this stage (2026-09-25).

§1's table:

Item	Finding	Change
dictionary lookup index (sf_fc_list/count/cap, sf_cached_latest)	One index for the whole system, holding whichever VM's dictionary was searched last: every switch between VMs that look words up rebuilt it. dict_reorganize_buckets_by_heat() reordered that shared index, which could be another VM's.	Per VM: struct SfFcIndex (dictionary_heat_optimization.h), vm->fc_index, allocated on first lookup and freed by both vm_cleanup()s. An allocation failure is counted and logged, and the lookup walks the dictionary newest-first instead (still correct). The heat-aware lookup and the heat reorganization use the VM's own index. The index's unused global reset is gone, as are the benchmark word's stale externs. The 256 buckets are one per possible first byte (the whole domain, not a capacity).
g_prng_state (starforth_words.c)	One stream for all VMs, as accepted at Stage H; plain read-modify-write.	Still one stream. The step is a compare-and-swap loop, and SEED is a single atomic store.
g_runtime (physics_runtime.c)	The kernel build (STARFORTH_MINIMAL) compiles stubs; g_runtime exists only hosted.	None.
state_variable (dictionary_manipulation_words.c)	Written by INTERPRET, never read. STATE is vm->mode, already per VM.	Removed (dead).
g_hotwords_cache (physics_hotwords_cache.c)	Defined, never referenced; the live cache is per VM (vm->hotwords_cache).	None.
ttf_words.c font and raster cache	Hestia's framebuffer.	None; core 0 only, per plan.

Found by the sweep:

Item	Finding	Change
heartbeat_export.c, three function-local statics	heartbeat_capture_tick_snapshot() (every beat, vm_runtime.c) took each VM's deltas (beats, words executed, ANOVA early exits) against whichever VM was sampled last. Wrong across VMs on one core today. The snapshot feeds doe_log_tick_row() only, not any decision.	The previous values move into the VM's HeartbeatState (export_last_*).
TOP-WORDS (starforth_words.c)	A static DictEntry *[1000]: shared by every VM, and silently cut at 1000 words.	Sized to the heated words and allocated per call. A refusal sets vm->error and is logged.
inference_outputs_to_string()	Returned a static 256-byte buffer. No callers.	Takes a caller's buffer.
Failure counters: word-id refusals, transition-grow failures, WORD too long	Plain ++.	Atomic increments and loads.
block_subsystem.c crc64 table	Lazy init with no publish ordering; compute_crc64() also runs outside the block lock.	Published with release/acquire.

Left as system-wide by design: system_running and forth_79_standard (system_words.c, system flags). profiler_state and vm_debug's g_vm are hosted/diagnostic; vm_debug is stubbed in the kernel.

The vendored hosted make builds clean.

Probe (temporary, removed before commit). An MC0C-PROBE word in Hera's and every child's vocabulary:

• listed every VM's index, and how many times it has ever been rebuilt;
• then looked up DUP, SWAP, EMIT, BLOCK and USE in two VMs alternately, 1,000 rounds each (5,000 lookups per VM);
• checked that every result belongs to the dictionary of the VM that was searched.

It ran at Hera's prompt after O-A, and again on rajames after the standard sequence. The results are identical on all three ISAs:

ISA	log	every VM has its own index	Hera rebuilds (her own defines/forgets)	every other VM's rebuilds	alternating 2×5000: rebuilds / found / wrong-VM	alloc failures
amd64	logs/20260925-194705	yes (7 VMs)	85	2	0+0 / 10000 / 0	0
aarch64	logs/20260925-200019	yes (7 VMs)	85	2	0+0 / 10000 / 0	0
riscv64	logs/20260925-201350	yes (7 VMs)	85	2	0+0 / 10000 / 0	0

These runs' dict_hash values differ from the table below only because the probe adds a word.

Standard sequence (clean build, with the probe reverted; the tree is byte-identical to the saved stage diff).

ISA	log	O-A (G, PREC, LOAD)	M7.1a hash	MINT / WIREBIND / USE / 1 2 + .	idle growth	UNKNOWN / faults
amd64	logs/20260925-202657	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0
aarch64	logs/20260925-203935	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0
riscv64	logs/20260925-205238	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0

• The dict_hash set is unchanged, as the plan's evidence requires (the index is not hashed): Hera 0x00340a8b2c842eb7, Hestia 0x78bf28439e4a643f, Artemis 0x66886d174d5f3b5a.
• The G string is byte-identical to MC-0b2, MC-0b and MC-0a on all three ISAs.
• The ledger line is unchanged.
• No stop condition was hit. MC-0c done.

3.5 MC-0d — Stadium partitioned by quota slot (2026-09-25)

Ruling (Captain Bob, 2026-09-25): one lock per quota slot. FABRIC-3.10.0 §3.6 said a VM's own Stadium row and cells need no lock, with a Stadium lock only for cross-slot operations. That can't be made sound: a lock taken only on the cross-slot side can't exclude an owner that takes none. Concrete race:

• a receiver's drain runs sk_hermes_release() → stadium_evict() on the sender's message cell, which rewrites the sender's free list, resident list and reservoir;
• meanwhile the sender, running on another core, is popping that same free list in stadium_admit().

stadium_grant_quota() splits a donor's free list the same way. The amendment is recorded at FABRIC-3.10.0 §3.6.

Second ruling: the block table takes the shared Stadium lock. stadium_blocks.c keeps one open-addressed table for every VM, keyed by (slot, LBN). stadium_block_dispatch() therefore takes g_lock_stadium. It is the one shared-lock Stadium path, recorded for MC-3 to measure; block access is rare next to word dispatch.

Change.

• The slot lock.

  • StadiumVMQuota gains lock, a spinlock.h lock word.
  • It covers the slot's free list, resident list, reservoir, consumed, word row and statistics, and the slot's cells: their headers, owner entries and resident-list links.
  • Every public Stadium function locks the slot it touches. A cell operation locks the cell's owning slot (lock_cell_owner() re-reads the owner once locked).

• Word dispatch (stadium_word_dispatch()) holds its own VM's slot lock for the whole dispatch: row, cell, cooling, pull, and admission including its eviction fallback. It uses the new *_in_slot forms, so it takes no other lock (a row growth's kmalloc excepted).

  • The reservoir peek-then-pull is now one step under that lock.

• Global part: g_lock_stadium.

  • Quota-slot allocation in grants. Each new slot is filled first, then published with a release store of in_use; quota_slot_for_vm() reads in_use with acquire.
  • The shared block table.
  • It is taken before a slot lock, never after.

• The residency bitmap: a byte covers 8 cells, which can belong to different slots, so set and clear are atomic OR/AND.

• Cross-slot writers moved into Stadium, under the owner's lock:

  • kernel-Hermes's decay: stadium_cell_decay(), the same q48_mul arithmetic, consumed recorded in the same step;
  • Hermes's release ledger: stadium_evict_credit() returns the heat actually credited, read in the same step as the eviction, where it used to be read from the cell beforehand;
  • session_set_pinned()'s pin bit: stadium_cell_set_pin().

• stadium_conserved() reads its three terms under one hold, so the sum is of one instant.

• Owner check added to both dispatch paths' cell lookups: the cell must still be this slot's.

  • Without it, a word or block cell evicted to this slot's free list could move to another VM in a grant and be admitted there with a matching identity. Word ids and LBNs are shared across VMs, so the old row would then heat the other VM's cell.
  • This is latent on one core.

• Unpartitioned reads that remain: sk_hermes_scan_held() (reads message cells under the Hermes lock), session.c's bounds check, and kernel_main.c's decay self-test. None writes.

• Lock order (spinlock.h):

  1. hermes
  2. switch
  3. registry
  4. stadium
  5. a slot lock
  6. doe
  7. log
  8. block
  9. console
  10. heap
  11. vmm
  12. pmm

  A VM's dict_lock sits above Stadium: vm_core.c's heat bump dispatches the word under it. Nothing in the block path calls into Stadium, so MIGRATE's blk_flush() edge doesn't close a cycle.

Probe (temporary, removed before commit). It counted:

• the per-core lock acquisitions made during each stadium_word_dispatch();
• slot-lock acquisitions made for a slot other than the running VM's own;
• admission-fallback evictions of message (DELIVER) cells;
• quota slots in use.

An MC0D-PROBE word in every VM printed these, with stadium_conserved() on every live VM and the Hermes audit-failure count. The results are identical on all three ISAs, count for count:

ISA	log	word dispatches	exactly one lock (own slot)	more than one	…all at a row growth	conserved	Hermes audit failures	DELIVER-cell fallback evictions
amd64	logs/20260925-212159	10,746,616	10,746,599	17	17	7/7	0	0
aarch64	logs/20260925-213527	10,746,616	10,746,599	17	17	7/7	0	0
riscv64	logs/20260925-214855	10,746,616	10,746,599	17	17	7/7	0	0

The table shows the final (rajames) reading. At Hera's prompt, before MINT, the readings were 9,687,103 dispatches with 14 exceptions (all row growths), 5/5 conserved, and 268 cross-slot slot locks.

Findings, reported and not fixed:

1. The running VM isn't always the core's current VM. Cross-slot slot locks went from 268 to 1,059,738 across MINT, WIREBIND, USE and 1 2 + ., the same growth as word dispatches in that window.
   • A birth runs the child's capsule on the parent's stack (capsule_birth.c), and USE runs another VM's lines, so these dispatches are for a VM other than sk_percpu()->current_vm.
   • The Stadium locking is correct either way: it locks the dispatching VM's own slot.
   • But MC-3's claim (running_on) must cover a VM executed this way, not only one switched to.
2. Quota slots are never released. stadium.c has no release path: in_use is set by grants and cleared only at boot.
   • The probe counted 13 slots in use against 7 registry entries. Boot self-tests grant quotas to test ids (kernel_main.c), and a dead VM keeps its slot and cells.
   • A long-running system eventually exhausts the RAM-sized slot table.
3. An owner's word admission can evict a live message cell. The admission fallback evicts the owner's least-dense resident, skipping only pinned and containing cells. Hermes admits messages unpinned into the sender's quota.
   • After such an eviction, msg->stadium_cell is stale: the release would evict whatever occupies that cell next.
   • This run counted 0 such evictions (the quotas never ran dry of free cells), so it is latent.

Standard sequence (clean build, with the probe reverted; the tree is byte-identical to the saved stage diff).

ISA	log	O-A (G, PREC, LOAD)	M7.1a hash	MINT / WIREBIND / USE / 1 2 + .	idle growth	UNKNOWN / faults
amd64	logs/20260925-220202	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0
aarch64	logs/20260925-221440	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0
riscv64	logs/20260925-222740	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0

• The G string is byte-identical to MC-0c and earlier on all three ISAs, so the O(ncells) audit scan now running under a slot lock didn't move it.
• The dict_hash set is unchanged, and the ledger line reads stadium_conserved(self)=true.
• No stop condition was hit. MC-0d done, and with it MC-0: one core, fully locked, ready for MC-1.

4. Closing the known issues (plan, 2026-09-26)

Captain Bob, 2026-09-26: "CONTINUE BY CLOSING KNOWN ISSUES" -- ahead of MC-1. The list is FABRIC-3.10.0 §8's ten known defects plus what MC-0 found. Stages are grouped by subsystem; each gets its own commit and three-architecture acceptance (§ header rules), with evidence named here before it runs. No DoE.

Rulings taken for this plan (2026-09-26):

• Released quota cells go to the best donor (stadium_best_donor(): the live slot with the most free cells).
• The hosted make stops copying its binary into lfs/ (it rewrote the tracked lfs/amd64/starforth on every compile-sanity build).

Stage	Closes	Change	Evidence (named in advance)
K-1	§8 defects 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; plus the kernel sf_realloc()	The kernel sf_realloc() becomes a real realloc: copy min(old, new) bytes (old size from a new kmalloc_usable_size()), free the old block, and free-and-return-NULL on size 0. It used to allocate fresh, copy nothing and free nothing. That makes the dictionary index's bucket growth stop leaking (defect 9), and fixes vm_state_push(), whose call-state stack lost every saved state past depth 8. The shim's realloc() copies min(old, new); it used to over-read the old block when growing. The heat-percentile snapshot is heap-sized to the dictionary (defect 5). A word whose transition metrics can't be allocated is refused whole (defect 6). Both vm_cleanup()s free the metrics' inner arrays (defect 7). The most-likely-next cache updates incrementally (defect 8; compiled out of the kernel today).	Standard sequence unchanged. A probe shows: sf_realloc() growth preserves contents and returns the old block (heap used bytes back to baseline); a call-state stack pushed to depth 20 pops back intact; kernel heap used bytes after a 20-VM birth/KILL churn return to within one allocation of the pre-churn figure.
K-2	§8 defects 1, 2	COLD returns the dictionary to its post-boot fence through FORGET's own path (latest, HERE, word ids and Stadium cells together); it used to rewind HERE only, leaving live words to be compiled over. PAD moves below the block I/O window (BLK_VM_WINDOW_BASE - 512), outside both the dictionary and the window.	Standard sequence unchanged. A probe on a worker: define three words, COLD, and each is gone (not findable), HERE equals the fence, a new definition works; PAD plus 511 lies below BLK_VM_WINDOW_BASE and above the dictionary limit.
K-3	§8 defect 4	The two self-tests that wait for the removed Hermes VM (drain; channel-open policy) are retargeted to live Tripod VMs with the same properties.	Both self-tests print PASS on all three ISAs; no SKIPPED line for either.
K-4	MC-0d findings 2, 3	Quota slots are released: on KILL and reap, and at the end of each boot self-test that granted one. Resident patrons are evicted, the cells join the best donor's free list, and the slot is cleared for reuse. The admission fallback no longer evicts message (DELIVER) cells; a message leaves Stadium only through its release.	Standard sequence unchanged; conservation holds on every live VM. A probe: quota slots in use equal live VMs after boot and after a 20-VM churn; a forced admission fallback with a pending message leaves the message cell resident.
K-5	§8 defect 10	The xHCI Input Context is allocated full size (33 contexts) once per slot at Address Device and never swapped, mirroring the Output Device Context fix. Configure Endpoint used to allocate a fresh one on every attach and never free the old.	Standard sequence unchanged (WIREBIND attaches twice). A probe: kernel heap used bytes identical after the second attach as after the first.
K-6	§8 defect 3	riscv64 vblk_io timeouts: investigate first. A probe measures completion latency (poll iterations) and whether a timed-out request's completion later arrives. If it does, a timeout leaves a late completion that the next request would take as its own, while the device may still be reading reused descriptors. The fix is chosen from what the probe shows.	Named after the investigation, before the fix: completion-latency distribution per ISA, late completions observed, and after the fix 0 misattributed completions.
K-7	the lfs/ rewrite	The hosted Makefile no longer copies the binary into lfs/.	After make, git status shows no change under lfs/.

MC-1 follows once these are closed.

4.1 K-1 — the allocator and word metrics (2026-09-26)

Change.

• The kernel sf_realloc() is a real realloc. It allocates the new block, copies min(old, new) bytes, frees the old block, and on size 0 frees and returns NULL. The old size comes from a new kmalloc_usable_size(); on failure the old block is untouched.
  • It used to allocate fresh and do nothing else, while its callers assumed standard realloc.
  • Found while closing defect 9: vm_state_push()'s call-state stack (BIRTH, VM-EXEC and START nesting) grows through sf_realloc(), so past depth 8 every saved state was lost, and every growth leaked.
• Shim realloc() copies min(old, new); it used to copy size bytes, over-reading the old block whenever it grew.
• Defect 9: the dictionary-index bucket growth drops its kernel-only copy patch, which would now read freed memory, and stops leaking the old block. It also calls sf_realloc() directly instead of sf_xrealloc(), which freed the old block on failure while the index still pointed at it. sf_xrealloc() is gone.
• Defect 5: the heat-percentile snapshot is heap-sized to the dictionary, allocated per call (was heats[DICTIONARY_SIZE], cut at 1024 words). An allocation failure is logged and the previous thresholds stand.
• Defect 6: a word whose transition metrics can't be allocated is refused whole: vm->error set, logged at ERROR, counted with the word-id refusals. It used to be defined anyway, with a WARN.
• Defect 7: both vm_cleanup()s call transition_metrics_cleanup() before freeing each word's metrics, so the inner arrays are freed.
• Defect 8: transition_metrics_record() keeps the most-likely-next word current (highest count, lowest id on a tie), and transition_metrics_update_cache() only refreshes its probability instead of scanning every id.
  • Compiled out of the kernel today (ENABLE_PIPELINING off).
  • One by-construction difference is documented at the function: the scan compared floored Q48.16 probabilities.
  • Also fixed: a NULL dereference in that function's guard.

Probe (temporary, removed before commit). A K1-PROBE word:

1. sf_malloc(64) with a pattern, sf_realloc to 4096 then to 32, checking the pattern each time, then free, reading heap used bytes before and after;
2. a scratch VM's call-state stack pushed to depth 20 and popped, checking every saved field;
3. heap used bytes.

ISA	log	realloc grow / shrink	heap used before = after	call-state depth 20
amd64	logs/20260926-011757	kept / kept	yes (3 readings)	intact, capacity 32
aarch64	logs/20260926-014005	kept / kept	yes	intact, capacity 32
riscv64	logs/20260926-014626	kept / kept	yes	intact, capacity 32

The churn half of the named evidence is not met. On amd64 the probe ran churn.sh (28 worker births, jobs and KILLs) twice, with the probe word before, between and after:

• heap used: 28,871,243 → 29,196,203 (+324,960) → 29,397,899 (+201,696);
• so about 7 KB is still retained per churned VM.
• Most likely cause: the per-VM state K-4 releases. A dead VM keeps its quota slot, including its Stadium word row (up to about 16 KB at a 1024-id row). Registry nodes are kept by design. K-4 re-measures this.

In the same run, after the second churn, rajames's 1 2 + . was refused by kernel-Hermes ("refused CONSOLE-CMD-EVENT send").

• Most likely cause: the quota leak. Every KILL strands its slot's cells, and each birth halves the best donor, so after 56 churned VMs the newborn console VM's quota can't admit a message cell.
• K-1 doesn't touch Stadium or Hermes. K-4's probe re-runs this double churn followed by 1 2 + ., which is the direct test.
• The clean acceptance runs below have no churn, and CONSOLE-CMD works in all of them.

Standard sequence (clean build, with the probe reverted; the tree is byte-identical to the saved stage diff; the hosted make builds).

ISA	log	O-A (G, PREC, LOAD)	M7.1a hash	MINT / WIREBIND / USE / 1 2 + .	idle growth	UNKNOWN / faults
amd64	logs/20260926-015235	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0
aarch64	logs/20260926-020511	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0
riscv64	logs/20260926-021813	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0

• The dict_hash set, the G string and the ledger line are unchanged.
• K-1 closes §8 defects 5–9 and the sf_realloc()/call-state-stack bug. Its churn-leak criterion carries into K-4.

4.2 K-2 — COLD and PAD (2026-09-26)

Change.

• Defect 1 (COLD). reset_vm_state()'s cold branch now calls a new vm_dictionary_forget_to_fence() (dictionary_management.c). It forgets every word defined since the fence exactly as FORGET does, and rewinds HERE to the fence:

  • untrack (the id recycled, the Stadium cell reclaimed);
  • free the transition metrics and their arrays;
  • free the entry.

  It used to rewind HERE alone, to 1024, leaving latest at live words that the next definitions compiled over.

  • The fence is set after vm_init() allots the input buffers, so HERE can't land below them.
  • What COLD forgets is therefore what FORGET could forget. For a worker that includes its workload capsule's words (the fence is set at vm_init()). Hera's SDK capsule raises FENCE, so her base and SDK words survive.
  • FORGET itself is unchanged.

• Defect 2 (PAD). PAD is now BLK_VM_WINDOW_BASE - 512, the 512 bytes just below the block I/O window. It was VM_MEMORY_SIZE - 512, inside the window's top slot. The span between the 2 MB dictionary limit and the window is otherwise unused.

Probe (plain FORTH, k2.sh, run on the clean build after O-A; no temporary code):

• 7770 . PAD . PAD 511 + . on Hera;
• a worker kc defines KA, KB and KC and prints whether KA and KC are findable, then HERE;
• then COLD, FIND for each of the three, HERE, and a new definition : KD 4 ; KD ..

The results are identical on all three ISAs:

ISA	log	PAD … PAD+511	window base / dictionary limit	before COLD: KA, KC found; HERE	after COLD: KA, KB, KC; HERE; KD
amd64	logs/20260926-023300	5,238,272 … 5,238,783	5,238,784 / 2,097,152	yes, yes; 1856	0, 0, 0; 1424 (the fence); 4
aarch64	logs/20260926-024629	same	same	same	same
riscv64	logs/20260926-030013	same	same	same	same

Standard sequence (the same runs, after the probe).

• All three ISAs pass: hash 0x99b01134c3d3049c, G byte-identical (A=40 B=40, run before the probe), MINT / WIREBIND / USE / 1 2 + . → 3, 0 B idle growth, 0 UNKNOWN and 0 faults.
• The ledger totals (pulled 262144 / returned 259359) are higher than the usual line only because the probe worker's messages are counted; held and consumed are unchanged, and stadium_conserved(self)=true.
• The hosted make builds.
• K-2 closes §8 defects 1 and 2.

4.3 K-3 — the two skipped self-tests (2026-09-26)

Change (kernel_main.c). Both self-tests looked up a VM named "Hermes", which hasn't existed since the Phase 4 reshuffle, so both printed SKIPPED on every boot. Both now use Hestia:

• Drain self-test: the target is Hestia. The nested depth-2 check (which must not drain) VM-EXECs a harmless 1 DROP into her from Hera, in place of Hermes's WELCOME word. The outermost drain must take exactly the one message.
• Channel-open policy self-test: Hestia is the no-policy VM. Like the old Hermes VM she never loads ACL.4th (capsules/hestia/init.4th loads fabric, font and lib only), so she has no HERMES-CHANNEL-OPEN? and must be refused closed.
• A missing target now prints FAIL, not SKIPPED.

Evidence: both self-tests print PASS on all three ISAs, and no SKIPPED line appears for either.

Standard sequence. All three ISAs pass: hash 0x99b01134c3d3049c, G byte-identical, MINT / WIREBIND / USE / 1 2 + . → 3, 0 B idle growth, 0 UNKNOWN and 0 faults.

ISA	log
amd64	logs/20260926-031446
aarch64	logs/20260926-032735
riscv64	logs/20260926-034037

The ledger line's baseline moves from here on: pulled 262144 and returned 259359, from 258048 and 255263. The drain self-test now really publishes and drains one message, which adds one message cell's pull and return. Held (2048) and consumed (737) are unchanged, and conservation holds.

Found, not fixed: three more references to the retired Hermes VM.

1. capsules/artemis/init.4th block 4129, ARTEMIS-ANNOUNCE-READY, VM-EXECs 2 ENQUEUE-READY into "Hermes".
2. doe_log.c:207 reads a per-row "Hermes" heat column (doe_log_heat_by_name("Hermes")).
3. The CONNECT-HERMES word (mama_forth_words.c ~2257) still births and names a Hermes VM.

K-3 closes §8 defect 4.

4.4 K-4 — quota slots released; message cells kept out of the admission fallback (2026-09-26)

Change (stadium.c; ruling: released cells go to the best donor). Release happens in two steps, because a dead VM's slot can still hold cells for messages it sent that sit in other VMs' queues.

1. stadium_release_quota(vm_id), under g_lock_stadium, then the slot's lock:

   • every resident patron except pending messages (DELIVER) is evicted, its heat back to the slot's reservoir; pins are cleared first, since a dead VM's pins no longer matter;
   • the slot is marked retiring, and is never a donor while retiring;
   • a patron eviction refuses (one holding another) stays resident and is logged.

2. stadium_retire_sweep() runs at release, and after any eviction while a slot is retiring, which is how a retiring slot's last message leaving completes its release. It is one atomic load when nothing is retiring. For each retiring slot with nothing resident:

   • detach the free list;
   • clear its word row (stadium_words_slot_released(), under the slot lock) and its block-table entries (stadium_blocks_slot_released(), under the global lock);
   • hand the cells to the best donor (one slot lock at a time, each cell's owner set to the donor);
   • clear the slot and publish in_use = 0.

   The dead VM's Q48_ONE share leaves with the slot. The donor gains free cells only, with no heat, so its own sum is unchanged.

• Callers:
  • KILL and reap release the VM's slot after its Hermes departure;
  • kernel_main.c releases the nine synthetic self-test ids (hi 0, lo 1, 3, 7, 11, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20) after the last self-test, and prints Stadium: self-test quotas released=;
  • Hera's slot is never released.
• MC-0d finding 3: the admission fallback skips message (DELIVER) cells. A message leaves Stadium only through its release.

Probe (temporary K4-PROBE / K4-FALLBACK words, removed before commit). They print:

• quota slots in use (and retiring) against live VMs, conservation on every live VM, slots released so far, and heap used;
• the forced fallback:
  1. grant a synthetic slot T, and send one real message from it to a synthetic receiver;
  2. fill T's free list with zero-heat fillers until admission refuses;
  3. admit a denser candidate (heat 1, pulled from T's reservoir) and check the message cell;
  4. clean up: the receiver departs (its mail released), then T is released.

Then two churn.sh rounds (28 worker births, jobs and KILLs each), K4-PROBE after each, and the standard sequence on the churned system, the direct test of K-1's post-churn refusal.

ISA	log	self-test quotas released	slots in use = live VMs (boot / churn 1 / churn 2)	fallback: denser admitted, message cell resident and intact	post-churn 1 2 + .
amd64	logs/20260926-035738	9	3=3 / 3=3 / 4=4 †	yes, yes, yes	3
aarch64	logs/20260926-042229	9	3=3 / 3=3 / 3=3	yes, yes, yes	3
riscv64	logs/20260926-044430	9	3=3 / 3=3 / 3=3	yes, yes, yes	3

• Every live VM was conserved at every reading, with 0 Hermes audit failures and 0 slots left retiring.
• † amd64: my script's timeout cut the second churn short (36 kills). I ran a third full round, 64 churned VMs in total, past K-1's 56; one worker from the interrupted round was still alive at the final reading.

K-1's carried criterion (heap), re-measured:

Heap growth per 28-VM churn round	round 1	round 2
amd64, K-1 (before K-4)	+324,960	+201,696
aarch64, K-4	+95,584	+95,200
riscv64, K-4	+95,584	+95,200

The per-round growth halved, but about 3.4 KB is still retained per churned VM, so the "within one allocation" criterion is still not met. Registry nodes are kept by design (a node per VM ever born); the rest is unidentified. It stays open as K-8: find the ~3.4 KB/VM residual.

K-1's post-churn Hermes refusal is gone: after 56–64 churned VMs, rajames's 1 2 + . returns 3 on every ISA. That confirms the refusal was the quota leak.

Standard sequence (clean build, with the probe reverted; the tree is byte-identical to the saved stage diff).

ISA	log	O-A (G, PREC, LOAD)	M7.1a hash	MINT / WIREBIND / USE / 1 2 + .	idle growth	UNKNOWN / faults
amd64	logs/20260926-050559	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0
aarch64	logs/20260926-051834	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0
riscv64	logs/20260926-053135	A=40 B=40, HHH, ok	0x99b01134c3d3049c	all ok, 3	0 B / 20 s	0 / 0

• The G string and the ledger line (the K-3 baseline) are unchanged.
• K-4 closes MC-0d findings 2 and 3. K-1's heap criterion carries on as K-8.