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GPT-2 Small Controlled Steering Activation Path

Status: Issue #34 implementation-prep. This document records the first controlled activation entrypoint for gpt2-small.res-jb and the remaining blockers before #34 can close.

Scope

This path is GPT-2 Small only.

Gemma sourcesets remain out of scope for #34 closure because Gemma model access depends on operator terms/access verification.

Commands

Preflight readiness:

agent-machine steer preflight --sourceset gpt2-small.res-jb --pretty

Serve sourceset-aware local endpoint in fail-closed mode:

agent-machine steer serve --sourceset gpt2-small.res-jb --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8080

The existing contract stub remains available:

agent-machine steer serve-stub --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8080 --status not_configured

Current behavior

steer preflight resolves the registered SteeringSourceset, checks optional runtime dependency presence, and reports missing activation prerequisites.

steer serve --sourceset ... starts a local /steer endpoint using the registered sourceset posture. Until all prerequisites are present, it returns a valid Noetica-compatible SteeringResult with:

{
  "status": "not_configured"
}

It must not return status: "applied" until a real forward pass and feature injection succeed.

Artifact receipt gate

Before any local smoke can be accepted, Agent Machine must emit a complete SteeringArtifactReceipt for gpt2-small.res-jb.

The receipt must include, for every model, tokenizer, and SAE file used by the runtime:

  • source repository
  • exact file path
  • resolved revision, commit SHA, or immutable tag
  • local path
  • file size in bytes
  • SHA-256 digest
  • digest verification status

The receipt contract is defined in:

contracts/steering-artifact-receipt.schema.json

and documented in:

docs/steering-artifact-receipts.md

Remaining blockers before #34 can close

  • optional ML dependencies installed from requirements-steering.txt
  • verified GPT-2 Small model artifacts
  • verified SAE artifacts for SAELens release gpt2-small-res-jb, SAE id blocks.6.hook_resid_pre
  • artifact receipt with exact repo, file path, resolved revision, and SHA-256 digest for each model/SAE file
  • storage receipt for the resolved artifact locations
  • policy admission and agent-registry grant records
  • real activation injection implementation
  • local smoke record showing status: applied, baseline, steered output, and evidence hash

Noetica integration target

Once the real path is ready, Noetica should work without code changes by setting:

NEURONPEDIA_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080

Then Noetica /api/steer should call Agent Machine /steer and receive status: applied only after real activation succeeds.

Boundary

This document and the current serve --sourceset entrypoint do not close #34. They add the fail-closed entrypoint and preflight surface needed before the real activation injection implementation lands.