GR-004: bind galleries to the embedder that built them

A gallery is only valid for the embedder that produced its vectors. Cosine
similarities across models are meaningless but *look* plausible, so the mistake
is silent and every measurement taken afterwards is suspect. Stamp the embedder
identity into the gallery at build; verify it at every load.

The stamp is the model file's basename plus the SHA-256 of its bytes (plus
embed_dim). The hash decides, the name explains. A name alone is a promise
rather than a fact — models get re-exported and overwritten in place under an
unchanged filename, which is exactly the case where the weights differ and
nothing else does. A hash alone is correct but unactionable in an error message.
SHA-256 is derived from the artefact, needs no registry kept current, and costs
~0.1s for a 250MB ONNX, memoised per process.

Mismatch is a hard error in every mode, with no bypass, naming both sides.

Unstamped legacy galleries warn loudly and proceed: unknown is not known-bad,
and hard-failing every pre-existing gallery would turn the check into something
people disable rather than trust. --require-gallery-stamp (or
SAE_REQUIRE_GALLERY_STAMP=1, which propagates to subprocesses) promotes that to
a hard error — the mode measurement work should run in. scripts/stamp_gallery.py
re-binds an existing gallery with no re-embedding, so "warn" is a cheap state to
leave rather than a permanent one.

Embedding dumps carry the same stamp: a replay has no live embedder, so the dump
is the embedder as far as the gallery is concerned. Derived galleries inherit
their source's stamp; --merge and the JSON gallery merge check before writing,
since one file holding two embedding spaces cannot be untangled afterwards.

Verified in: scene_analyze, scene_preview, the sae_kpn matcher binding,
replay.py, optimize.py (once per film at startup, before the first evaluation),
movienet_eval.py and both merge paths.

Stamp logic lives in src/gallery/embedder_stamp.{hpp,cpp} and its Python twin
scripts/sae_stamp.py, kept dependency-light so replay subprocesses do not pay
sae_gallery's requests/Pillow import to ask whether two models match.

Tests: 12 new cases in test_gallery_store.cpp covering the comparison logic,
both round trips, and the SHA-256 vectors that guarantee the C++ and hashlib
stamps agree. No ONNX or GPU required.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Claude
2026-07-30 18:35:46 +02:00
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@@ -945,8 +945,57 @@ surfaced as a build report.
different models are meaningless but *look* plausible — this fails silently and
expensively otherwise.
**Gap:** named as step 4 of the `service-conversion.md` implementation plan;
unbuilt. This is the highest-value small fix in the document.
### The stamp
Two fields, written together: the model file's **basename** and the **SHA-256 of
its bytes** (plus `embed_dim` as a cheap extra guard). Stored as the `/embedder`
group in the gallery HDF5, and as an optional top-level `"embedder"` object in
the legacy JSON format.
The hash *decides*; the name is what a human *reads*. Neither alone is enough. A
name is a promise rather than a fact — models get re-exported, re-quantised and
overwritten in place under an unchanged filename, which is exactly the case where
the weights differ and nothing else does, so a name-only stamp is blind to the
failure it exists to catch. A hash alone is correct but unactionable: *"expected
3f2a…, got 9c1b…"* tells an operator nothing about what to do next. SHA-256 over
the file is derived from the artefact rather than asserted about it, needs no
registry kept up to date, and costs ~0.1 s for a 250 MB ONNX once per process.
### Verdicts
| Verdict | When | Default | Under strict mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| `match` | hashes agree | proceed | proceed |
| `weak_match` | names agree, one side unhashable | **warn** | **error** |
| `unstamped` | gallery predates GR-004 | **warn** | **error** |
| `unknown_embedder` | gallery stamped, embedder unidentifiable | **warn** | **error** |
| `mismatch` | proven different models | **error** | **error** |
**A mismatch is fatal in every mode, with no bypass**, and the message names both
sides — what the gallery was built with and what is loaded.
The three "cannot prove it" verdicts warn loudly instead, because they describe an
*unknown* state rather than a *known-bad* one, and because every gallery built
before this requirement is unstamped. Hard-failing all of them would make the
check something people route around rather than trust. Strict mode
(`--require-gallery-stamp`, or `SAE_REQUIRE_GALLERY_STAMP=1`, which propagates to
subprocesses) promotes them to errors — that is the mode measurement work runs in.
`scripts/stamp_gallery.py` re-binds an existing gallery without re-embedding, so
migration costs one command; that is what makes "warn" a temporary state rather
than a permanent one.
### Scope of the check
Embedding **dumps** carry the same stamp (`embedder_model` / `embedder_sha256`
root attributes, `scripts/optimizer/SCHEMA.md`): a replay has no live embedder, so
the dump *is* the embedder as far as the gallery is concerned. Derived galleries
(filter, cast-restrict) inherit their source's stamp; `--merge` and the JSON
gallery merge check *before* writing, since a merged file holding two embedding
spaces cannot be untangled afterwards by any later check.
**Gap:** none. Stamped in `gallery_builder.cpp` and the Python builders; verified
in `scene_analyze`, `scene_preview`, the `sae_kpn` matcher binding, `replay.py`,
`optimize.py`, `movienet_eval.py` and the merge paths.
## GR-006 … GR-009 — Provenance tiers and poisoning guard