# Upstream watch — 2026-10-26

Pass across the sources named in the todo list and the 2026-10-23/24 night
reports. Only 2026-10-26 changes are treated as "today"; older changes are
flagged as context.

## 1. FLARE — HEAD moved, 12 commits today (the headline)

`NVIDIA/flare-local-inference` main, commits on 2026-10-26:

| sha | message |
|---|---|
| `de6f53e` | Count single-token reasoning delimiters only when generated as that token (#94) |
| `aa84dd3` | Carry the checkpoint license across package promotion (#83) |
| `3a6b46f` | Return undeclared MiniMax tool calls under automatic tool choice (#49) |
| `9e35eeb` | Prepare an opt-in MXFP8 DeepSeek V4.1 draft vocabulary head (#98) |
| `d592f1f` | Overlap DeepSeek V4.1 query expansion with cache preparation (#97) |
| `63a4008` | Fuse DSpark draft scoring and sparse support restoration (#95) |
| `230c5b4` | Move the host prefix-cache tiers into a CUDA-free selene crate (#80) |
| `2f2875a` | Align preparation guidance and examples with CLI defaults |
| `82cb15a` | Add optional GPU clock locking during Ignition autotuning |
| `c370a85` | Default disk embedding scales to host RAM on discrete GPUs |
| `9e19b3b` | Pin FlashInfer to the supported tuning-tier API (#85) |
| `328ddce` | test: check sectioned unverified payload inspection output (#89) |

Why it matters to our prod lane (`dsv41-flash-1017-4x-flare-gb10`):

- `63a4008` + `9e35eeb` + `d592f1f` are exactly the DSpark/draft/prefill path
  our recipe uses (`--mtp-draft-tokens 5 --mtp-adaptive-verification`).
- `c370a85` overlaps our manual `--embedding-table-resident-scales` choice: the
  new head makes disk embedding scales resident by default on discrete GPUs.
- `82cb15a` overlaps our `before_serve` clock lock: Ignition autotune can lock
  the GPU clock instead of relying on the hook.
- `9e19b3b` pins FlashInfer to the tuning-tier API — a compatibility pin, so a
  binary/package mismatch is a real risk.

Our pins today: `specs/tech-architecture/flare-upstream.pin` = `3b9e86a0`
(2026-10-22 15:48); the prod binary was built at `26646d85` (2026-10-23 19:18).
HEAD is `de6f53e` — a bump needs a binary rebuild **and** a package prepared at
the matching revision; the "proxy ABI" rule in `flare-bringup.md` is why a
binary-only bump must not be applied to prod.

## 2. tool-eval-bench — v3.0.0 released today

`SeraphimSerapis/tool-eval-bench` released **v3.0.0** on 2026-10-26 09:22
(commit `d85126e`). Highlights:

- optional local web UI (`tool-eval-bench serve`, `[web]` extra);
- `tool-eval-bench card` — one SVG per session, optional PNG;
- `--perf-preset long` up to 128K tokens, `--context-fill-tokens`;
- TC-21 and TC-89 grading changed; TC-45 structured-output retries before
  exclusion; suite remains 69 standard / 97 Hard Mode.

The release explicitly says TC-21/TC-89 and probe corrections are **not
comparable** with earlier versions. The harness pin was moved to **v3.0.0** on
pluto.lan on 2026-10-26 (verified: `tool-eval-bench --version` = 3.0.0; install
receipt commit `d85126e`). Reports such as `91/100`, `88/100`, `95/100` are
v2.8.0 and stay historical. The anchor lane must be re-baselined before any
v3.0.0 comparison.

Forum topic 366903 ("Introducing Tool Eval Bench CLI") has today's
announcement (serapis, 09:12) and a user run with a `card --png` overwrite bug
(Digital_David, 13:30/14:23), plus a request to delete old runs from the UI.

## 3. vLLM — no new release today

Latest stable tag is still **v0.32.0** (2026-10-17); **v0.32.1rc0** is
2026-10-18. No new stable tag on 2026-10-26. Our `vLLM 0.32` lanes stay on the
existing pin; the v0.32.0 stable re-pin remains a supervised task.

## 4. GR8 — 7 commits today

`kindlingai/gr8` main, 2026-10-26:

- `33b1aa7` — require the model by name (`glm53`, `glm53f`) and refuse anything
  else (#234/#245);
- `29abc14` — k8s extraVolumes/extraVolumeMounts for a local release as MODEL (#246);
- `dc8284d` — LeaderWorkerSet Helm chart that runs `./gr8 up` on every box (#235/#243);
- `64816bb` — `./gr8 kv health` readiness check for KV node containers (#241/#242);
- `eb14798` — ring shape with mentat: discover cable order instead of `--peers` (#185/#190);
- `db8576d` — `./gr8 <model> health` one readiness check for compose/K8s probes (#233/#240);
- `3264cb1` — container entrypoint: one `bin/` for every TP and its own ulimits (#238).

This touches our GLM-5.3 / GR8 lanes: model-name enforcement, readiness, ring
discovery and container packaging. A bump should be bench-gated.

## 5. DGPP — 4 commits today (+ DFlash2 batch yesterday)

`HawkBearPig/dgpp` master, 2026-10-26:

- `1babfa6` — merge PR #144 template structural limits;
- `bb5fdfe` — complete template limit boundary, concurrency and HTTP coverage;
- `882c2ee` — align reasoning-control test with the always-on model contract;
- `d9aae09` — merge origin/master into the template-limits branch.

2026-10-25 batch (relevant to Qwen3.8 DFlash2):

- `7f8f6de` — merge DFlash2 Flash-Next PR #145;
- `314401a` — document DFlash2 performance choices and test acceptance lengths;
- `afce06f` — honor draft-head screening and recurrent replay for Flash-Next DFlash2;
- `9513ab3` — shared DFlash2 graph, cache and sampling integration;
- `3dbeddc` — honor explicit DFlash disable regardless of flag order;
- `90d602a` — paired speculative probe accounting and request attribution;
- `b671677` — drop the 27B YaRN x4 template from the DFlash2 branch;
- `d0fafab` — make the paired spec probe runnable;
- `e8ed6da` — serve: make the block-draft graph gate earnable;
- `fc7b2d3` — ship the DFlash2 drafter as a knob.

The 2026-10-24 DGPP commit `606a514` (DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 EXL3, 16 slots,
96-row decode batch, five-draft block) is the DSV41-EXL3 path.

## 6. Blackwell LLM Docker — no commits today

Latest commit 2026-10-20: `8bb0967` / `5f803f7` — "ds41-flash: serve top_p 1.0,
the DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 recommendation". Not today, but a substantive
upstream change we should carry into the DSV41 recipe/bench context.

No new commits today in `local-inference-lab/blackwell-llm-docker`; its latest
is Oct 20.

## 7. SparkRing — no commits today

Latest commits 2026-10-19: dashboard endpoints, `--checkpoint 1017` of
`deepseek-v41-flash-sparkcache-tp4`, Install Builder profiles. The todo #14 tag
(`dev-20261016-sparkcache`) still needs checking against these.

## 8. TensorFold — no commits today

`x00byte/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017-Dual-Spark` latest commits 2026-10-18
(double production KV pool, dashboard throughput); no 2026-10-26 change.
`local-inference-lab/b12x` was archived on 2026-10-06; its development moved to
FlashInfer.

## 9. NVIDIA forum — today's posts

- **384438 "New Deepseek 4.1 flash recipe"** — `huxiaofengtiger` (14:17 UTC)
  upgraded a 3-node TP3 setup to `1025` and ran the single-stream suite against
  R6x TP3: **60.94 vs 59.73 tok/s (+2.0%)**, TPOT p50 16.20 ms, TTFT higher;
  long-prefill workloads next. `rob01` (02:19) reports the crash fix and TP3
  low-RAM context.
- **366903 "Introducing Tool Eval Bench CLI"** — v3.0.0 announcement and the
  card-overwrite bug noted above.
- **386811 "Welcome Athena Logos & Engine"** — created 2026-10-25; today's
  comments are user feedback, not a new lane.

## 10. HF model cards — no new 2026-10-26 revision

- `RedHatAI/GLM-5.3-MXFP4xFP8` last modified 2026-10-22 14:05 (`a5cf1930…`).
- `local-inference-lab/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017-FLARE` last modified
  2026-10-23 00:31 (`6861e802…`).

No new checkpoint today; the package/revision pins stay as they are.

## What this means for the todo list

1. **FLARE tuning is now upstream-ready**: bump `de6f53e` is tempting because
   DSpark scoring/query expansion/MXFP8 draft head/embedding scales/clock lock
   all touch our lane, but prod requires a matching package rebuild. Treat as a
   supervised experiment on dgx5–8 first, not a prod patch.
2. **tool-eval-bench v3.0.0** is the one launcher-side upstream change today;
   the pin is now v3.0.0 on pluto.lan. The anchor re-baseline is the open task;
   do not mix v2.8.0 report scores with v3.0.0 runs.
3. **GR8 and DGPP** moved today; both are bench-gated bumps, not overnight
   re-pins.
4. **vLLM** has no new release; the 0.32.0/0.32.1rc0 picture is unchanged.
5. **No new checkpoint/package today** — no download or staging action is
   justified by upstream alone.