diff --git a/.agents/issues/MODEL-TEXT-kolibri-1-kolibri1-for-causal-lm/ISSUE-LOCAL-01M5E7ZJW0YXR2QZXQESJEP0MX.md b/.agents/issues/MODEL-TEXT-kolibri-1-kolibri1-for-causal-lm/ISSUE-LOCAL-01M5E7ZJW0YXR2QZXQESJEP0MX.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..be05ec40ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.agents/issues/MODEL-TEXT-kolibri-1-kolibri1-for-causal-lm/ISSUE-LOCAL-01M5E7ZJW0YXR2QZXQESJEP0MX.md
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+ID: ISSUE-LOCAL-01M5E7ZJW0YXR2QZXQESJEP0MX
+Title: Record the measured Kolibri-1 CPU performance and re-baseline the public benchmark index
+Row: MODEL-TEXT-kolibri-1-kolibri1-for-causal-lm
+State: CLOSED
+Kind: gap
+GitHub: -
+Mirror: PENDING
+Availability: FULL
+Created: 2026-10-21
+Updated: 2026-10-21
+Closed: 2026-10-21
+
+## Problem
+
+The row's public performance record does not exist: docs/BENCHMARKS.md has no Kolibri-1 CPU entry, docs/benchmarks/ has no Kolibri-1 detail page, and the dequant-cache default flip (PR #3488) leaves its decode and prefill benchmark rows owed to a node-3 window. The 12 tok/s campaign target has no published disposition, and the row spec has no Outcome section, so the tree carries no quotable number for the shipped Kolibri-1 CPU configuration.
+
+## Resolution
+
+2026-10-21: the row's public performance record now exists. docs/benchmarks/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default.md (new public page, with the weights record: Aleph-Alpha/Kolibri-1 @ 5bb7075ba22db733e3834b1c71d2245537cc14ed, 32 shards, 74 GiB; the bf16 sibling named as refused) plus its index row in docs/BENCHMARKS.md and a Kolibri-1, CPU section carrying the decode, prefill, thread-scaling and spec-decode rows; the dated evidence in docs/bench-evidence/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default-20261021/report.md; the spec's ## Outcome section. The campaign's 12 tok/s target is recorded as MET by the shipped default (spec decode 12.74-13.14 tok/s against 6.27-6.30 with the dequant cache off), with the host-specificity, the 4% noise floor and the 16 GiB-leg trade-off recorded beside it.
diff --git a/.agents/specs/kolibri-1-cpu.md b/.agents/specs/kolibri-1-cpu.md
index d6f305705a..c7a7dc6c91 100644
--- a/.agents/specs/kolibri-1-cpu.md
+++ b/.agents/specs/kolibri-1-cpu.md
@@ -648,6 +648,96 @@ live-gated on the real model dir) into the R7 encode test:
   STOP: that would mean the scanner semantics differ, not just the
   recognition — report as NEEDS_DECISION rather than widening anything.
 
+## Outcome
+
+MEASURED (2026-10-20/21; node 3, aarch64, 128 cores, 255 GB RAM, governor
+`performance` at 3.4 GHz, 32 threads, one NUMA node, the file mutex held,
+the box quiet; the bench and the spec probe rebuilt from the committed
+head). The noise floor came from the repeated legs: two runs of the same
+cell (same binary, weights, configuration) differed by 3.5% in the t32
+cache-off leg (4.02 against 4.16) and by 4.7% in the decode table's
+cache-off leg (3.62 against 3.79), so no cell below is quoted more finely
+than that, and two legs that differ by less than 4% are a tie.
+
+| leg | decode tok/s (the in-repo bench: 128 tokens in, 64 greedy out) |
+|---|---|
+| cache OFF — the configuration `main` shipped before the default landed | 3.55 / 3.62 / 3.79 (median **3.62**) |
+| default, first implementation (8.25 GiB budget, 33% hit rate, 16068 evictions) | 3.84 (one run) |
+| **default, repaired** (26.5 GiB budget from a 212 GiB process-start reading; hits 72200, misses 17746, evictions 7967, 80% hit rate) | **7.39 / 7.45 / 7.47** |
+| explicit `VT_KOLIBRI1_DEQUANT_CACHE_MB=16384` | 6.99 / 7.05 / 7.06 |
+
+Prefill p512 with the cache off: t8 12.27-12.30, t16 23.78-23.89, t32
+43.02-43.33 tok/s. Decode thread scaling with the cache off, empty prompt:
+t8 1.38, t16 2.59, t32 4.02 tok/s, and the ratios that row derives are
+1.88x, then 1.55x, and 2.91x over the whole range. The n-gram spec-decode
+probe — the campaign's serving number — reads, cache OFF, plain 3.90-3.92
+and spec 6.27-6.30; with the **default** (repaired), plain 8.63-9.36 and
+spec **12.74-13.14**; with an explicit 16 GiB budget, plain 8.33-8.73 and
+spec 10.42-10.55.
+
+Every leg above is ONE measurement set. The evidence report names the file
+and the date of each one, and it lists the other sets the session took for
+the same cells instead of mixing them into the tables.
+
+WHAT THE DEFAULT NOW DELIVERS. The configuration that ships with the FP8
+dequant cache ON decodes at **7.45 tok/s** on the in-repo production shape
+(128 tokens in, 64 greedy out), **2.06x** the cache-off 3.62 and
+1.97x-2.10x the cache-off leg's own band (7.45 against 3.55-3.79), and its
+n-gram spec-decode leg reads **12.74-13.14 tok/s**, so the campaign's
+**12 tok/s target is MET**. The target is not met with the cache off
+(6.27-6.30), and the default's spec leg is **2.03x** the cache-off leg's
+(12.74 against 6.27): the number belongs to the default and to the default's
+host, not to the model in the abstract. The engine-level reading clears it
+as well: 4.53 -> 13.78 tok/s (3.04x, 2026-10-12, t32 with a 32 GiB cache,
+in `## Now` above). PR #3488 has **LANDED**: `d9e669582` (the flip),
+`e451be705` (the sampling-moment repair and the knee floor) and `3ce14f35c`
+(the knee refusal) are on `main`, so `main` now ships the **cache-ON**
+default and the row's numbers are the shipped configuration's numbers.
+
+REJECTED, each with the measurement that rejected it. The **sub-knee
+budget** (the default's first implementation: 8.25 GiB, 33% hit rate, 16068
+evictions) read 3.84 tok/s, which is +6.1% over the cache-off median
+(3.84/3.62) and +1.3% over the cache-off leg's best run (3.84/3.79), so
+under the 4% rule it is **not a tie** to the cache-off median. It is not a
+win either: the leg pays 8.25 GiB of memory for a 33% hit rate and leaves
+the 2x of the repaired default on the table, which is why the policy
+refuses a sub-knee budget outright and why the sampling moment is part of
+the policy rather than an implementation detail of it. The **explicit 16
+GiB budget** as the recommended setting read 6.99-7.06 tok/s in the
+published set against 7.39-7.47 for the derived default, a margin of 5.7%
+(7.45/7.05) that is above the noise floor and small for 10.5 GiB more cache,
+and 1.95x the cache-off median (7.05 against 3.62), so it is **not** claimed
+as a reason to prefer one over the other, and pinning 16 GiB by hand takes
+the host's own memory report out of a decision the report makes better.
+**Spin tuning** (`VT_CPU_SPIN_ROUNDS`) moved the same cell from 4.019 to
+4.193 tok/s at 32 threads (+4.3%) and from 2.587 to 2.581 at 16 (-0.2%), so
+the two paired readings do not agree in sign, the pair does not separate the
+arms, and no spin setting is recommended. One paired reading on one host is
+not a settled lever question.
+
+THE CAVEATS TRAVEL WITH EVERY NUMBER ABOVE. They are **host-specific**: 32
+threads on one NUMA node at 3.4 GHz, governor `performance`, aarch64, node 3
+of a shared box. They are **not** a vLLM comparison and not a parity claim:
+no vLLM or plugin denominator exists for this model, and the author's
+plugin is still unverified as a runnable oracle. They sit on a **~4% noise
+floor**, so the 12.74 against a target of 12 is a **+6.2% margin, about 1.5
+noise floors**: it clears the target as measured, and the margin is not
+wide. And the **16 GiB leg carries its own trade-off**: it is the shape the
+PR #3488 body quotes, and a reader who pins 16 GiB explicitly gets a number
+5.7% below the derived default for 10.5 GiB less cache. The derived default
+(26.5 GiB from a 212 GiB process-start reading) is the configuration this
+row's numbers were taken at, and the policy refuses a host that cannot
+afford the knee.
+
+THE RECORDS. The public page is
+`docs/benchmarks/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default.md`, with the index row
+in `docs/BENCHMARKS.md` and the dated evidence in
+`docs/bench-evidence/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default-20261021/report.md`.
+The public recipe still pins the short revision `e52eb462` for the
+checkpoint; the full revision of the artifact these numbers were measured
+on is recorded on the public page, and the bf16 sibling artifact is named
+there as **refused**, not shipped.
+
 ## Git integration
 
 ONE pull request (developer's standing choice for this row).
diff --git a/docs/BENCHMARKS.md b/docs/BENCHMARKS.md
index 755404f998..ad0f0ee986 100644
--- a/docs/BENCHMARKS.md
+++ b/docs/BENCHMARKS.md
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ to the file stem.
 | `vllm-online-serving` | The binding comparison. vLLM's production graphed config, never `--enforce-eager` | Results | [Detail](benchmarks/vllm-online-serving.md) |
 | `memory` | Peak memory across the serving window. Each row names its own model, host and window | Results | [Detail](benchmarks/memory.md) |
 | `llama-cpp-cpu` | llama.cpp on CPU, including the RPi5/A76 gating arm that does not transfer | Results | [Detail](benchmarks/llama-cpp-cpu.md) |
+| `kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default` | Kolibri-1 on CPU with the dequant cache on by default: decode, prefill and the n-gram spec-decode serving number | Results | [Detail](benchmarks/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default.md) |
 | `mlx-lm-apple-m4` | MLX-LM on Apple M4, warm, batch 1, 6 interleaved runs | Results | [Detail](benchmarks/mlx-lm-apple-m4.md) |
 | `dwarfstar-gguf` | DwarfStar vs ds4 on DeepSeek-V4-Flash GGUF, GB10, byte-exact | Results | [Detail](benchmarks/dwarfstar-gguf.md) |
 | `speculative-decoding` | MTP / DFlash / n-gram / DSpark rows against vLLM | Results | [Detail](benchmarks/speculative-decoding.md) |
@@ -293,6 +294,63 @@ it goes our way. Output tokens are **byte-identical** to llama.cpp's greedy
 decode and to our own CPU reference path. Single-stream only: we have not
 measured concurrent serving against llama.cpp's server.
 
+## Kolibri-1, CPU
+
+Aleph Alpha's mixture-of-experts text model on the CPU path, FP8
+block-quantized checkpoint. Node 3 of the shared aarch64 box (128 cores,
+255 GB RAM, governor `performance` at 3.4 GHz), 32 threads, one NUMA node,
+the file mutex held, the box quiet. Detail:
+[Kolibri-1 on CPU](benchmarks/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default.md).
+
+| Leg | Decode tok/s (the in-repo bench: 128 tokens in, 64 greedy out) | Prefill tok/s (p512, cache off) |
+|---|---|---|
+| cache OFF — the configuration `main` shipped before the default landed | 3.55 / 3.62 / 3.79 (median **3.62**) | 12.27-12.30 / 23.78-23.89 / **43.02-43.33** tok/s at 8 / 16 / 32 threads |
+| default, first implementation (8.25 GiB budget, 33% hit rate) | 3.84 (one run) | — |
+| **default, repaired (26.5 GiB budget, 80% hit rate)** | **7.39 / 7.45 / 7.47 (median 7.45)** | — |
+| explicit 16 GiB budget | 6.99 / 7.05 / 7.06 (median 7.05) | — |
+
+The default is the FP8 dequant cache ON (PR #3488 — landed on `main` as
+`d9e669582`, `e451be705` and `3ce14f35c`; at the time of writing it was
+open, and `main` was at `891c4f27d`). **The ~2x of the default over the
+cache-off configuration (7.45 against 3.62, 2.06x) is what the published set
+shows;** the explicit 16 GiB leg is 1.95x the same baseline (7.05 against
+3.62), and the default is 1.97x-2.10x the cache-off leg's own band (7.45
+against 3.55-3.79). **Its margin over an explicit 16 GiB budget is 5.7% in
+the published set, a small margin for 10.5 GiB more cache, and is NOT claimed
+as a reason to prefer one over the other.** A sub-knee budget buys nothing:
+the default's first implementation (8.25 GiB, 33% hit rate) read 3.84 tok/s,
+which is +6.1% over the cache-off median and +1.3% over that leg's best run,
+so under the ~4% noise floor rule it is not a tie (the floor: 3.5% in the t32
+cache-off leg, 4.02 against 4.16, and 4.7% in the decode table's cache-off
+leg, 3.62 against 3.79), and it pays 8.25 GiB of memory for a 33% hit rate.
+The pool's spin budget is not a lever here
+(`VT_CPU_SPIN_ROUNDS=0` moved the same cell from 4.019 to 4.193 tok/s at 32
+threads, +4.3%, and from 2.587 to 2.581 at 16, -0.2% — the two paired
+readings do not agree in sign, so the pair does not separate the arms).
+Decode scales 1.38 / 2.59 / 4.02 tok/s at 8 / 16 / 32 threads, 1.88x, then
+1.55x, and 2.91x over the whole range, so the knee is inside the 32-thread
+node.
+
+The n-gram spec-decode probe, plain against spec decode, tok/s, three runs
+per leg:
+
+| Leg | Plain | Spec decode |
+|---|---|---|
+| cache OFF | 3.90-3.92 | 6.27-6.30 |
+| **default, repaired** | 8.63-9.36 | **12.74-13.14** |
+| explicit 16 GiB budget | 8.33-8.73 | 10.42-10.55 |
+
+**The campaign's 12 tok/s target is MET by the shipped default.** The
+n-gram spec-decode probe reads **12.74-13.14 tok/s** with the default
+(plain 8.63-9.36) against **6.27-6.30** with the cache off, and the
+default's spec leg is **2.03x** the cache-off leg's (12.74 against 6.27), so
+the number needs the dequant cache ON, a 32-thread node-3 host at 3.4 GHz,
+and it clears the target by 6.2%, about 1.5 times the ~4% noise floor. The
+engine-level reading clears it too: 4.53 -> 13.78 tok/s (3.04x, 2026-10-12,
+t32 with a 32 GiB cache). No vLLM or plugin denominator exists for this model, and no bf16 arm
+can be measured: the loader refuses a bf16 Kolibri-1 artifact by name
+(`src/vllm/model_executor/models/kolibri1_weights.cpp:72`).
+
 ## MLX-LM, Apple M4
 
 Qwen3-0.6B, warm, batch 1, 6 interleaved runs.
@@ -366,6 +424,7 @@ in the tree, default-OFF, for reproducibility; detail in the benchmark record.
 | MTP | Qwen3.6-27B NVFP4 | token-identical to vLLM MTP, **~4% faster at c1**; on-par at c2-c8 | `DONE` |
 | DFlash | Qwen3.6-27B NVFP4 | **2.9x over spec-off** (10.16 → 29.32 tok/s), at/above vLLM DFlash-on (**1.003x**, non-overlapping bands) | `DONE` |
 | n-gram | Qwen3.6-27B NVFP4 | draft-free (`SPEC-NGRAM`); 27B 5/5 STRICT our-ngram-ON == vLLM-ngram-ON, 180/180 drafts accepted (correctness only, no speed row yet) | `DONE` |
+| n-gram | Kolibri-1 (CPU) | draft-free (`SPEC-NGRAM`); the campaign's **12 tok/s target is MET** by the shipped default: spec decode **12.74-13.14 tok/s** (plain 8.63-9.36) against **6.27-6.30** with the dequant cache off, a **2.03x** ratio (12.74 against 6.27). Host-specific (node 3, 32 threads, 3.4 GHz), and the margin over the target is 6.2%, about 1.5 times the ~4% noise floor ([detail](benchmarks/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default.md)) | `DONE` |
 | DSpark | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B NVFP4 + RedHatAI dspark draft, k=8 | Token-identical to spec-off. Warm c1 **1.15x** at **20.8% acceptance vs upstream 7.7%**. nsys: verify runs EAGER (0 graph launches vs 1/step) and the MoE costs 1.7x more GPU per token at T=9 | `ACTIVE` |
 | Breadth (EAGLE1/3, suffix, ngram-gpu, dynamic-k, ...) | n/a | enumerated from vLLM source + `INVENTORIED` 2026-08-06 (`.agents/specs/spec-decode-inventory.md`), unmeasured | `INVENTORIED` |
 
diff --git a/docs/bench-evidence/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default-20261021/report.md b/docs/bench-evidence/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default-20261021/report.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6b4e724fa2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/bench-evidence/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default-20261021/report.md
@@ -0,0 +1,333 @@
+# Kolibri-1 CPU: the dequant-cache default measured on node 3 — decode,
+# prefill and the n-gram spec-decode serving number (2026-10-20/21)
+
+Row: `MODEL-TEXT-kolibri-1-kolibri1-for-causal-lm`
+Issue: `ISSUE-LOCAL-01M5E7ZJW0YXR2QZXQESJEP0MX` (kind gap — the public
+performance record the row did not have).
+Branch: `row/KOLIBRI1-CPU-BENCH-RECORDS` (measured on the base `origin/main`
+`891c4f27d`; the record was rebased onto `3ce14f35c`, which carries the
+landed default).
+Date: 2026-10-20/21.
+No product code changed for this record.
+
+## What this is
+
+The public performance record for the Kolibri-1 CPU path, for the
+configuration the tree now ships: the CPU **dequant cache ON by default**.
+That default is PR #3488
+(`row/KOLIBRI1-DEQUANT-CACHE-DEFAULT`, head `e7d7704d3`, commits `84d98a9e6`
+→ `d47173c51` → `e7d7704d3`), which was **OPEN at the time of writing** and
+has since **LANDED** on `main` as `d9e669582` (the flip), `e451be705` (the
+sampling-moment repair and the knee floor) and `3ce14f35c` (the knee
+refusal). Every "default" number below is that PR's configuration measured
+on the box that runs this row's gates, and it is the configuration `main`
+ships today. The cache-off leg is the baseline `main` shipped before the
+default landed, and the first table says what that costs.
+
+The record answers three questions the tree could not answer before:
+
+1. What does the shipped default actually deliver on CPU decode, prefill and
+   the n-gram spec-decode serving path?
+2. Is the campaign's **12 tok/s** target met, and on which configuration?
+3. Which budget and tuning choices were measured and **rejected**?
+
+## Host and window
+
+- aarch64, 128 cores, 255 GB RAM, **node 3**, governor `performance` at
+  **3.4 GHz**.
+- 32 worker threads (`VLLM_CPP_CPU_THREADS=32`), the process pinned with
+  `numactl --cpunodebind=3 --interleave=all`.
+- The file mutex `$HOME/gpu.lock` was held for the window and the box was
+  quiet: no other model was resident, and the legs of one table were run
+  back to back inside one hold.
+- One binary per window, rebuilt from the committed head of the branch under
+  test. A leg is one command; the runs of a leg are invocations of it.
+
+## The shapes, and which harness measured each
+
+Three harnesses measured three shapes. The shapes are not interchangeable,
+so no cell moves between them.
+
+| harness | shape | used for |
+|---|---|---|
+| `tests/vllm/models/test_kolibri1_decode_bench.cpp` (in repo) | 128-token prompt, 64 greedy tokens out | the decode table (§1) |
+| `/tmp/kolibri-scale/bench-run` (session-local copy of the same bench, with `VT_KB_PROMPT` and `VT_KB_GEN`) | empty prompt, 32 generated tokens; and a 512-token prompt, 8 generated tokens | the thread-scaling and prefill legs (§2, §3) |
+| `tests/vllm/models/test_kolibri1_spec_probe.cpp` (in repo) | the plain leg against the n-gram spec-decode leg | the serving number (§4) |
+
+The session driver is a **session artifact, not an in-repo harness**: it is
+rebuilt from the branch head, and it is not reproducible from a clean
+checkout. The in-repo production-shape bench and the in-repo spec probe are
+the reproducible pair, and the spec probe carries the campaign's serving
+number.
+
+## The measurement sets
+
+Every leg in this record comes from ONE set, named here with its file and
+its date. The session took other sets for the same cells; they are listed in
+§7 and are not mixed into the tables.
+
+| leg | set | file | when | binary |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| cache OFF, decode | S1 | `bench_repair.log` (`/tmp/build-dq`) | 2026-10-21 02:07-02:09 | rebuilt from `d47173c51` |
+| default (repaired), decode | S1 | `bench_repair.log` | 2026-10-21 02:03-02:05 | rebuilt from `d47173c51` |
+| explicit 16 GiB, decode | S1 | `bench_repair.log` | 2026-10-21 02:05-02:07 | rebuilt from `d47173c51` |
+| default, first implementation (sub-knee), decode | S2 | `prof-default2.log` (`/tmp/build-dq`) | 2026-10-21 01:45 | the pre-repair binary |
+| prefill p512, thread scaling, spin pair | S3 | `final_sweep.log` (`/tmp/kolibri-scale`) | 2026-10-20 23:09-23:28 | the session driver |
+| spec-decode probe | S4 | `spec_repair.log` (`/tmp/build-dq`) | 2026-10-21 04:41-05:21 | rebuilt from `d47173c51` |
+
+S1 is the set the tree's own commit `d47173c51` quotes, and S1 is the set
+the public page publishes. S2 is the single run that commit quotes for the
+sub-knee leg, with the cache counters that name the leg's budget and hit
+rate. S3 and S4 are the session's own logs.
+
+**The commit bodies are a transcription check, not an independent
+measurement.** `d47173c51` quotes S1's numbers, so its body confirms that
+the transcription into this record is right; it does not confirm the
+measurement a second time. The public page therefore states the comparison
+between the sub-knee leg and the cache-off leg from the cells, and not from
+the commit body.
+
+## The noise floor
+
+Two runs of the same cell — same binary, same weights, same configuration,
+same host state — differed by 3.5% in the t32 cache-off leg (4.02 against
+4.16) and by 4.7% in the decode table's cache-off leg (3.62 against 3.79).
+That is the floor this record is read at:
+
+- **No cell below is quoted more finely than 4%.** Two legs that differ by
+  less than 4% are a **tie**, not a win.
+- A single run is an anecdote. Every leg in the tables below is three runs
+  unless the table says otherwise, and a range is reported as a range, never
+  as a precise figure.
+- The floor is a property of this box and this window, not of the engine.
+
+## The weights
+
+| Field | Value |
+|---|---|
+| Local path | `/mnt/models/Aleph-Alpha/Kolibri-1` |
+| Upstream repo | [`Aleph-Alpha/Kolibri-1`](https://huggingface.co/Aleph-Alpha/Kolibri-1) |
+| Revision measured | `5bb7075ba22db733e3834b1c71d2245537cc14ed` |
+| Quantization | FP8 block-quantized, `weight_block_size [128, 128]`, dynamic activation scheme; the `mlp.gate` routers are bf16 |
+| Size | 32 safetensors shards, 78,827,029,120 bytes of tensors (74 GiB on disk) |
+| Checksums | **No shard SHA-256 is recorded in this tree.** The manifest (`tests/vllm/models/kolibri1_manifest.inc`) carries names, dtypes and shapes only, and the public recipe says so: "A complete artifact checksum record remains unavailable" ([`docs/models/kolibri-1.md`](../../models/kolibri-1.md)) |
+| Refused arm | [`Aleph-Alpha/Kolibri-1-BF16`](https://huggingface.co/Aleph-Alpha/Kolibri-1-BF16) @ `cc6d729e6a024c1e59ad48887fdef95ff37b534d` (149 GiB) is **not an implemented arm**: the loader refuses a checkpoint without the FP8 `quantization_config` with "a bf16 Kolibri-1 artifact is not an implemented arm" (`src/vllm/model_executor/models/kolibri1_weights.cpp:72`). It is named here as refused, and it is **not** a shipped measurement |
+
+## 1. Decode, the in-repo production-shape bench (128 in, 64 out)
+
+Set S1, three runs per leg, tok/s. The sub-knee leg is S2's single run.
+
+| leg | runs | median | note |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| **cache OFF** (`VT_KOLIBRI1_DEQUANT_CACHE_MB=0`) — the configuration `main` shipped before the default landed | 3.55 / 3.62 / 3.79 | **3.62** | the baseline every other leg is read against |
+| default, **first implementation** (8.25 GiB budget, 33% hit rate, 16068 evictions) | 3.84 | 3.84 | **worthless**: +6.1% over the cache-off median and +1.3% over the cache-off leg's best run, for 8.25 GiB of memory and a 33% hit rate |
+| default, **repaired** (26.5 GiB budget from a 212 GiB process-start reading; hits 72190-72200, misses 17746-17765, evictions 7967-8027, **80% hit rate**) | 7.39 / 7.45 / 7.47 | **7.45** | the shipped default; **2.06x** the cache-off median |
+| **explicit 16 GiB** (`VT_KOLIBRI1_DEQUANT_CACHE_MB=16384`) | 6.99 / 7.05 / 7.06 | 7.05 | 1.95x the cache-off median |
+
+The full-precision cells of S1, in the order the log recorded them:
+
+| leg | run 1 | run 2 | run 3 | counters of run 1 |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| cache OFF | 3.62428 | 3.78799 | 3.54865 | `enabled=0`, no cache traffic |
+| default (repaired) | 7.44833 | 7.39141 | 7.46827 | `budget_mib=27157`, `budget_start_mib=217262`, hits 72190, misses 17756, evictions 7993 |
+| explicit 16 GiB | 7.05777 | 7.05438 | 6.98659 | `budget_mib=16384`, hits 71097, misses 18849, evictions 13396 |
+
+S2's single run reads `budget_mib=8454` from `budget_source_mib=67638`,
+hits 9097, misses 18349, evictions 16068, and 3.83784 tok/s. The hit rate is
+9097/(9097+18349) = 33%, against 80% for the repaired default
+(72190/(72190+17756) = 80%).
+
+**Read the explicit-16-GiB leg with the margin in view.** In this set it
+reads 6.99-7.06 tok/s against 7.39-7.47 for the derived default: 7.45/7.05 =
+1.057, so +5.7%. That is above the 4% noise floor and a small margin for
+10.5 GiB more cache, so the record does not claim the default's margin over an
+explicit budget as a reason to prefer one over the other. What it does claim
+is the ~2x of the default over the cache-off configuration (7.45 against
+3.62, 2.06x). Across the session's cache-off readings that ratio runs
+1.97x-3.04x (§7), so ~2x is its conservative end.
+
+## 2. Prefill, `p512` (512-token prompt), cache OFF
+
+Set S3, two runs per leg, tok/s.
+
+| threads | 8 | 16 | 32 |
+|---|---:|---:|---:|
+| prefill tok/s | 12.27-12.30 | 23.78-23.89 | **43.02-43.33** |
+
+Prefill is the arm the cache does not help (it is one wide forward, not a
+reused decode), and it is quoted with the cache **OFF** on purpose: that is
+the configuration `main` shipped before the default landed, and it is the
+baseline every cache-on number is read against.
+
+## 3. Thread scaling, decode, cache OFF, empty prompt
+
+Set S3, three runs per leg, tok/s.
+
+| threads | 8 | 16 | 32 | 8→16 | 16→32 | 8→32 |
+|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
+| decode tok/s | 1.38 | 2.59 | 4.02 | **1.88x** | **1.55x** | **2.91x** |
+
+The ratios are this row's own: 2.59/1.38 = 1.88, 4.02/2.59 = 1.55,
+4.02/1.38 = 2.91. The knee is between 16 and 32 threads: the first doubling
+scales almost linearly, the second returns 1.55x, not 2x. 32 threads on one
+NUMA node is the configuration every other number in this record is taken
+at, and it is the configuration the 12 tok/s target is claimed at.
+
+The full-precision medians of S3 are 1.382377 (t8), 2.587428 (t16) and
+4.019148 (t32), from the runs 1.406050 / 1.382377 / 1.379258,
+2.587428 / 2.569467 / 2.590473 and 4.019148 / 3.949273 / 4.158811.
+
+## 4. The spin budget is not a lever here
+
+Set S3, the same decode cell, median of three runs per arm.
+
+| threads | default | `VT_CPU_SPIN_ROUNDS=0` | read |
+|---|---:|---:|---|
+| 32 | 4.019 | 4.193 | +4.3%, at the noise floor |
+| 16 | 2.587 | 2.581 | -0.2%, the other way |
+
+**Not adopted: spin tuning.** The two paired readings do not agree in sign
+(+4.3% at 32 threads, -0.2% at 16), so the pair does not separate the arms
+and no spin setting is recommended. One paired reading on one host is not a
+settled lever question.
+
+## 5. The spec-decode probe — the campaign's serving number
+
+Set S4, the in-repo n-gram spec probe, plain against spec-decode, tok/s,
+three runs per leg.
+
+| leg | plain | spec decode |
+|---|---|---|
+| cache OFF | 3.90-3.92 | 6.27-6.30 |
+| **default (repaired)** | 8.63-9.36 | **12.74-13.14** |
+| explicit 16 GiB | 8.33-8.73 | 10.42-10.55 |
+
+The full-precision cells of S4 are 3.92253 / 3.91669 / 3.90194 plain and
+6.30373 / 6.27138 / 6.26552 spec for the cache-off leg; 9.36388 / 8.63662 /
+8.63118 plain and 13.1397 / 12.9146 / 12.7398 spec for the default; and
+8.5415 / 8.73088 / 8.32622 plain and 10.4702 / 10.5469 / 10.4178 spec for
+the explicit 16 GiB leg.
+
+## 6. The verdict on the 12 tok/s target
+
+**The campaign's 12 tok/s target is MET, by the shipped default, with the
+dequant cache ON.** The default leg's spec decode reads **12.74-13.14
+tok/s** against the target's 12. The cache-off leg reads 6.27-6.30, so the
+target is **not** met without the cache. The default's spec leg is 2.03x the
+cache-off leg's (12.74/6.27).
+
+A second, independent reading clears it at the engine level rather than the
+harness level: the row's `## Now` records the engine-level n-gram spec decode
+at **4.53 → 13.78 tok/s** on the bench prompt (3.04x, t32 with a 32 GiB
+cache, 2026-10-12), and the spec probe's own harness reference at
+4.92 → 14.51.
+
+**The caveats travel with the number, and they are load-bearing:**
+
+- The 12 tok/s figure **needs the dequant cache ON**, which is the PR #3488
+  default and is now **on `main`** (`d9e669582`, `e451be705`, `3ce14f35c`).
+  With the cache off — the configuration `main` shipped before the default
+  landed — the same probe reads 6.27-6.30.
+- The figure is **host-specific**: 32 threads, one NUMA node, 3.4 GHz,
+  aarch64, `governor=performance`, on node 3 of the shared box. It is not a
+  portable tok/s figure and it is not a vLLM comparison — vLLM does not
+  serve this model on this path, and the author's plugin oracle is still
+  unverified as a runnable denominator
+  ([`docs/models/kolibri-1.md`](../../models/kolibri-1.md)).
+- The box's **noise floor is ~4%**, so 12.74 against a target of 12 is a
+  **+6.2% margin, about 1.5 noise floors**. It clears the target as
+  measured, and the margin is not wide.
+
+## 7. The other sets the session took, and what they are worth
+
+The session measured the same cells more than once. These sets are recorded
+here so the record is complete; they are not mixed into the tables above.
+
+| set | file | when | binary | what it read |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| S5 | `bench_window.log` (`/tmp/build-dq`) | 2026-10-21 01:29-02:03 | the pre-repair binary | cache OFF 3.52 / 3.62 / 3.62; default 3.53 / 3.57 / 3.62; explicit 16 GiB 6.38 / 6.83 / 6.95; the spec probe's first pass (default spec 7.86 / 11.43 / 11.46) |
+| S6 | `mymeasure.log` (`/tmp/build-dq`) | 2026-10-21 02:09-02:14 | rebuilt from `d47173c51` | cache OFF 2.45 / 3.49 / 3.58; default 7.36 / 7.50 / 7.58; explicit 16 GiB 7.14 / 7.15 / 7.23 — the set `e7d7704d3` quotes |
+| S7 | `final_sweep.log` (`/tmp/kolibri-scale`) | 2026-10-20 23:22-23:23 | the session driver | the explicit 16 GiB leg in the empty-prompt shape: 9.03 / 9.10 tok/s (and 8.86 / 9.03 with the spin budget off) |
+
+S5's default leg is the **pre-repair** default, so it is the sub-knee
+configuration measured three times: 3.53 / 3.57 / 3.62 tok/s, which is the
+cache-off level. S6's cache-off leg carries a **2.45 tok/s outlier**, one run
+below its own other two (3.49, 3.58).
+
+Across S5, S6 and S1 the cache-off baseline of the decode table's shape runs
+2.45-3.79 tok/s, and the default's 7.45 median is 1.97x-3.04x that band
+(7.45/3.79 and 7.45/2.45). In the empty-prompt shape the cache-off readings
+are 3.95-4.16 tok/s (S3), and the default was not measured in that shape, so
+no ratio is quoted there.
+
+S7 shows that the empty-prompt shape is a different shape and not a second
+reading of the decode table's cells: the same explicit 16 GiB leg reads
+9.03-9.10 tok/s there against 6.99-7.06 in the decode table's shape.
+
+## 8. Every derived number, with its arithmetic
+
+| derived number | arithmetic | cells |
+|---|---|---|
+| default vs cache off, 2.06x | 7.45/3.62 = 2.058 | §1 medians |
+| explicit 16 GiB vs cache off, 1.95x | 7.05/3.62 = 1.947 | §1 medians |
+| sub-knee vs the cache-off median, +6.1% | 3.84/3.62 = 1.061 | §1, S2 against S1 |
+| sub-knee vs the cache-off best run, +1.3% | 3.84/3.79 = 1.013 | §1, S2 against S1 |
+| default vs the explicit 16 GiB leg, +5.7% | 7.45/7.05 = 1.057 | §1 medians |
+| default vs the cache-off band, 1.97x-2.10x | 7.45/3.79 = 1.97 and 7.45/3.55 = 2.10 | §1 medians and the leg's own min and max |
+| thread scaling 8→16, 1.88x | 2.59/1.38 = 1.877 | §3 |
+| thread scaling 16→32, 1.55x | 4.02/2.59 = 1.552 | §3 |
+| thread scaling 8→32, 2.91x | 4.02/1.38 = 2.913 | §3 |
+| spin budget at 32 threads, +4.3% | 4.193/4.019 = 1.043 | §4 medians |
+| spin budget at 16 threads, -0.2% | 2.581/2.587 = 0.998 | §4 medians |
+| 12 tok/s margin, +6.2% | 12.74/12 = 1.062 | §5 default spec leg, against the target |
+| the default's spec leg over the cache-off leg, 2.03x | 12.74/6.27 = 2.032 | §5 |
+| the repaired default's hit rate, 80% | 72190/(72190+17756) = 0.803 | §1 counters |
+| the sub-knee default's hit rate, 33% | 9097/(9097+18349) = 0.331 | §1 counters, S2 |
+| the engine-level reading, 3.04x | 13.78/4.53 = 3.042 | the row spec's `## Now` |
+| the cross-session cache-off band, 1.97x-3.04x | 7.45/3.79 = 1.97 and 7.45/2.45 = 3.04 | §7 |
+| the noise floor's t32 example, 3.5% | 4.16/4.02 = 1.035 | §3 |
+| the noise floor's decode-table example, 4.7% | 3.79/3.62 = 1.047 | §1 |
+
+## 9. What was rejected, and why
+
+| rejected | measured | why it is rejected |
+|---|---|---|
+| the **sub-knee budget** (the default's first implementation: 8.25 GiB, 33% hit rate, 16068 evictions) | 3.84 tok/s, +6.1% over the cache-off median and +1.3% over its best run | a budget below the knee costs the memory and buys nothing: the leg holds 8.25 GiB at a 33% hit rate and leaves the 2x of the repaired default on the table. This is why the sampling moment is part of the policy and why the policy now refuses a sub-knee budget outright (`e7d7704d3`) |
+| the **explicit 16 GiB budget** as the recommended setting | 6.99-7.06 tok/s in the published set, +5.7% below the derived default | the margin is a small one for 10.5 GiB more cache, and pinning 16 GiB by hand hard-codes a number the host's own memory report should decide |
+| **spin tuning** (`VT_CPU_SPIN_ROUNDS`) | t32 4.019 vs 4.193, t16 2.587 vs 2.581 | the two paired readings do not agree in sign, so the pool is insensitive to the spin budget on this box; a wash, not a lever |
+| **more threads** past 32 | the 16→32 step returns 1.55x, not 2x | the knee is inside the 32-thread node; the record keeps the node pinned rather than claiming a scaling law |
+
+## Provenance and limits
+
+- The numbers in §1-§5 are the operator's session report for the 2026-10-20/21
+  node-3 window, transcribed into this record. The **commands** are the ones
+  the tree already carries (PR #3488's body, and the two repair commits
+  quoted per table), so a reader can re-run them.
+- The per-leg raw logs are session artifacts and are **not retained in this
+  tree**. Each set is named above with its file, its date, and the binary it
+  ran, and the values of S1 and S6 are quoted verbatim in the tree's own
+  commit bodies (`d47173c51` and `e7d7704d3`), so a reader can check the
+  transcription against the repository's history.
+- The decode-bench driver (`/tmp/kolibri-scale/bench-run`) is a **session
+  artifact, not an in-repo harness**: it is rebuilt from the branch head, and
+  it is not reproducible from a clean checkout. The in-repo production-shape
+  bench and the in-repo spec probe are the reproducible pair, and the spec
+  probe carries the campaign's serving number above.
+- No number in this record is a vLLM comparison, and none is a parity claim.
+  The Kolibri-1 CPU correctness record is the row's token gate, not this
+  file.
+
+## References
+
+- PR #3488 `row/KOLIBRI1-DEQUANT-CACHE-DEFAULT`: `84d98a9e6` (the default
+  flip), `d47173c51` (the sampling-moment repair and the knee floor),
+  `e7d7704d3` (the knee refusal) — the policy this record measures. It
+  landed on `main` as `d9e669582`, `e451be705` and `3ce14f35c`.
+- `.agents/specs/kolibri-1-cpu.md` — the row's spec, its `## Now` and its
+  `## Outcome`.
+- `docs/benchmarks/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default.md` — the public
+  benchmark page for this measurement.
+- `docs/bench-evidence/kolibri1-spec-probe-20261011.md` — the probe that
+  first projected the 12 tok/s target.
+- `docs/bench-evidence/kolibri1-bf16dot-adoption-20261019/report.md` — the
+  bf16-dot tier this record's runs inherit (default on a FEAT_BF16 host).
diff --git a/docs/benchmarks/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default.md b/docs/benchmarks/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6b08543032
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/benchmarks/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default.md
@@ -0,0 +1,227 @@
+# Kolibri-1 on CPU: the dequant-cache default
+
+The Kolibri-1 CPU decode, prefill and n-gram spec-decode numbers for the
+configuration the tree now ships: the **FP8 dequant cache ON by default**.
+PR #3488 has landed (`d9e669582` the flip, `e451be705` the sampling-moment
+repair and the knee floor, `3ce14f35c` the knee refusal), so the numbers
+below are the shipped configuration's numbers. Measured 2026-10-20/21 on
+node 3 (aarch64, 128 cores, 255 GB RAM, governor `performance` at 3.4 GHz),
+32 threads, one NUMA node, the file mutex held, the box quiet.
+
+This is a **host-specific** record, not a parity claim: vLLM does not serve
+this model on this path, and the author's plugin is still unverified as a
+runnable oracle. The correctness record is the row's token gate, not this
+page.
+
+## Results
+
+Three harnesses carry the numbers, and they measure three different shapes.
+Each table below names the harness, the shape, and the session log its cells
+came from. A cell never moves between shapes, and every ratio below is
+derived from the cells printed next to it.
+
+### 1. Decode, the in-repo production-shape bench
+
+`tests/vllm/models/test_kolibri1_decode_bench.cpp`: a 128-token prompt and
+64 greedy tokens out, 32 threads. The cache leg is set by
+`VT_KOLIBRI1_DEQUANT_CACHE_MB`: `0` disables it, `16384` is the explicit
+16 GiB, and an unset value is the derived default. Three runs per leg,
+except the sub-knee leg, which has one.
+
+| leg | runs (tok/s) | median | vs cache off |
+|---|---|---:|---:|
+| **cache OFF** — what `main` shipped before the default landed | 3.55 / 3.62 / 3.79 | **3.62** | 1.00x |
+| default, first implementation (8.25 GiB budget, 33% hit rate) | 3.84 | 3.84 | 1.06x |
+| **default, repaired** (26.5 GiB budget, 80% hit rate) | 7.39 / 7.45 / 7.47 | **7.45** | **2.06x** |
+| explicit 16 GiB budget | 6.99 / 7.05 / 7.06 | 7.05 | 1.95x |
+
+The `vs cache off` column is the ratio to the cache-off median, 3.62:
+7.45/3.62 = 2.06, 7.05/3.62 = 1.95, 3.84/3.62 = 1.06.
+
+Every cell in this table is one measurement set: the session's
+`bench_repair.log` (2026-10-21 02:03-02:09, `/tmp/build-dq`), the binary
+rebuilt from the committed head `d47173c51` of PR #3488 — the head the
+measurement was taken on — one hold, three invocations per leg. That PR has
+since landed on `main` as `d9e669582` (the flip), `e451be705` (the
+sampling-moment repair and the knee floor) and `3ce14f35c` (the knee
+refusal), so the default this table measures is the configuration `main`
+now ships. The sub-knee leg is the single run its own policy commit quotes
+(`prof-default2.log`, 2026-10-21 01:45: `budget_mib=8454`, `hits=9097`,
+`misses=18349`, `evictions=16068`).
+
+### 2. Prefill and thread scaling, the session driver
+
+`/tmp/kolibri-scale/bench-run`, the session's copy of the same bench with
+two knobs (`VT_KB_PROMPT`, `VT_KB_GEN`): an empty prompt and 32 generated
+tokens for the decode legs, a 512-token prompt and 8 generated tokens for
+the prefill legs. The cache is off.
+
+| threads | 8 | 16 | 32 |
+|---|---:|---:|---:|
+| prefill tok/s (p512, 2 runs per leg) | 12.27-12.30 | 23.78-23.89 | **43.02-43.33** |
+
+| threads | 8 | 16 | 32 | 8→16 | 16→32 | 8→32 |
+|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
+| decode tok/s (empty prompt, 32 generated, 3 runs) | 1.38 | 2.59 | 4.02 | 1.88x | 1.55x | 2.91x |
+
+The ratios are this row's own: 2.59/1.38 = 1.88, 4.02/2.59 = 1.55, and
+4.02/1.38 = 2.91. The knee is between 16 and 32 threads: the first doubling
+scales almost linearly, the second returns 1.55x, not 2x. The cells come
+from one set, the session's `final_sweep.log` (2026-10-20 23:09-23:28,
+`/tmp/kolibri-scale`), one sweep, cache off. The t32 cell's three runs are
+3.95 / 4.02 / 4.16, and the spin-budget arm of the same cell reads 3.96 /
+4.19 / 4.43 with `VT_CPU_SPIN_ROUNDS=0`.
+
+### 3. The n-gram spec-decode probe, the campaign's serving number
+
+`tests/vllm/models/test_kolibri1_spec_probe.cpp`, the in-repo probe: the
+plain leg against the n-gram spec-decode leg, 32 threads, three runs per
+leg.
+
+| leg | plain | spec decode |
+|---|---|---|
+| cache OFF | 3.90-3.92 | 6.27-6.30 |
+| **default (repaired)** | 8.63-9.36 | **12.74-13.14** |
+| explicit 16 GiB | 8.33-8.73 | 10.42-10.55 |
+
+The cells come from one set, the session's `spec_repair.log` (2026-10-21
+04:41-05:21, `/tmp/build-dq`), the same rebuilt binary, one hold, three
+runs per leg.
+
+**The campaign's 12 tok/s target is MET** by the shipped default: the spec
+decode leg reads 12.74-13.14 tok/s. It is **not** met with the cache off
+(6.27-6.30). The default's spec leg is **2.03x** the cache-off leg's
+(12.74/6.27 = 2.03). A second, independent reading clears the target at the
+engine level rather than the harness level: **4.53 -> 13.78 tok/s**, or
+**3.04x** (2026-10-12, t32 with a 32 GiB cache; the row spec's `## Now`).
+The caveats are in [Limitations](#limitations) and they travel with the
+number.
+
+## The weights
+
+| Field | Value |
+|---|---|
+| Local path | `/mnt/models/Aleph-Alpha/Kolibri-1` |
+| Upstream repo | [`Aleph-Alpha/Kolibri-1`](https://huggingface.co/Aleph-Alpha/Kolibri-1) |
+| Revision measured | `5bb7075ba22db733e3834b1c71d2245537cc14ed` |
+| Quantization | FP8 block-quantized, `weight_block_size [128, 128]`, dynamic activation scheme (the `mlp.gate` routers are bf16) |
+| Size | 32 safetensors shards, 78,827,029,120 bytes of tensors (74 GiB on disk) |
+| Checksums | **No shard SHA-256 is recorded in this tree.** The manifest carries names, dtypes and shapes only, and the model recipe says so: "A complete artifact checksum record remains unavailable" ([`docs/models/kolibri-1.md`](../models/kolibri-1.md)) |
+| **Refused arm** | [`Aleph-Alpha/Kolibri-1-BF16`](https://huggingface.co/Aleph-Alpha/Kolibri-1-BF16) @ `cc6d729e6a024c1e59ad48887fdef95ff37b534d` (149 GiB) is **not an implemented arm** — the loader refuses a checkpoint without the FP8 `quantization_config`: "a bf16 Kolibri-1 artifact is not an implemented arm" (`src/vllm/model_executor/models/kolibri1_weights.cpp:72`). It is named here as refused; **no bf16 measurement exists** |
+
+The public recipe still records the short revision `e52eb462` for this
+checkpoint ([`docs/models/kolibri-1.md`](../models/kolibri-1.md),
+[`docs/USAGE.md`](../USAGE.md)); the full revision of the artifact these
+numbers were measured on is the one in the table above.
+
+## Reproduce
+
+The decode legs run the in-repo bench under the node pinning and the mutex.
+`VT_KOLIBRI1_PROFILE=1` prints the cache counters that name each leg's
+budget and hit rate:
+
+```sh
+export TT_METAL_HOME=/home/lu_zero/Sources/tt/tt-metal-pin
+export TT_METAL_RUNTIME_ROOT=/home/lu_zero/Sources/tt/tt-metal-pin
+BIN=tests/test_kolibri1_decode_bench
+BR=/tmp/kolibri-scale/bench-run
+
+# decode, 32 threads: the cache-off leg
+numactl --cpunodebind=3 --interleave=all env VT_KOLIBRI1_PROFILE=1 \
+  VLLM_CPP_CPU_THREADS=32 VT_KOLIBRI1_DEQUANT_CACHE_MB=0 "$BIN"
+
+# decode, 32 threads: the derived default (the variable unset)
+numactl --cpunodebind=3 --interleave=all env VT_KOLIBRI1_PROFILE=1 \
+  VLLM_CPP_CPU_THREADS=32 "$BIN"
+
+# decode, 32 threads: the explicit 16 GiB budget
+numactl --cpunodebind=3 --interleave=all env VT_KOLIBRI1_PROFILE=1 \
+  VLLM_CPP_CPU_THREADS=32 VT_KOLIBRI1_DEQUANT_CACHE_MB=16384 "$BIN"
+
+# prefill p512, 8 generated tokens, 32 threads, cache off
+numactl --cpunodebind=3 --interleave=all env VT_KB_PROMPT=512 \
+  VT_KB_GEN=8 VLLM_CPP_CPU_THREADS=32 \
+  VT_KOLIBRI1_DEQUANT_CACHE_MB=0 "$BR"
+
+# decode, empty prompt, 32 generated tokens, 32 threads, cache off
+numactl --cpunodebind=3 --interleave=all env VT_KB_PROMPT=0 \
+  VT_KB_GEN=32 VLLM_CPP_CPU_THREADS=32 \
+  VT_KOLIBRI1_DEQUANT_CACHE_MB=0 "$BR"
+
+# the serving number: the in-repo n-gram spec probe
+VLLM_CPP_CPU_THREADS=32 tests/test_kolibri1_spec_probe
+```
+
+The mutex is held for the whole series:
+
+```sh
+flock -x "$HOME/gpu.lock" bash -c '...the legs above...'
+```
+
+The prefill and thread-scaling legs are driven by a **session-local bench
+driver** (`$BR`, the two knobs `VT_KB_PROMPT` and `VT_KB_GEN`), rebuilt
+from the branch head under test. It is **not** an in-repo harness and it is
+not reproducible from a clean checkout; the in-repo pair — the
+production-shape bench and the spec-decode probe — is, and the spec-decode
+probe carries the serving number this page publishes.
+
+## Limitations
+
+- **The noise floor on this box is ~4%.** Two runs of the same cell (same
+  binary, weights and configuration) differed by 3.5% in the t32 cache-off
+  leg (4.02 against 4.16) and by 4.7% in the decode table's cache-off leg
+  (3.62 against 3.79). **No cell on this page is quoted more finely than
+  that**, and two legs that differ by less than 4% are a tie, not a win.
+- **The default's margin over an explicit 16 GiB budget is 5.7%, and it is
+  not why the default ships.** In the one set this page publishes, the
+  explicit leg reads 6.99-7.06 tok/s (median 7.05) against 7.39-7.47 for
+  the derived default (median 7.45): 7.45/7.05 = 1.057. That is above the
+  4% noise floor, but it is a small margin for 10.5 GiB more cache. The
+  default ships because the policy derives the budget from the host's own
+  memory report; a reader who pins 16 GiB by hand gets a defensible number
+  and takes that report out of a decision the report makes better. What
+  this set agrees on is the **~2x of the default over the cache-off
+  configuration** (7.45 against 3.62, 2.06x).
+- **The 12 tok/s margin is 6.2% over the target, about 1.5 noise floors**
+  (12.74 against 12). It clears the target as measured, and the margin is
+  not wide.
+- **The numbers are host-specific**: 32 threads, one NUMA node, 3.4 GHz,
+  aarch64, `governor=performance`, on node 3 of a shared box. They are not a
+  portable tok/s figure.
+- **The default is on `main` now, and the numbers are its measured
+  behaviour.** PR #3488 landed as `d9e669582`, `e451be705` and `3ce14f35c`,
+  so the configuration `main` ships is the cache-ON one this page measures.
+  The cache-off leg is the baseline `main` shipped before the default
+  landed, and the same probe reads 6.27-6.30 tok/s with it off.
+- **A sub-knee budget buys nothing**, and the measurement says so: the
+  default's first implementation (8.25 GiB, 33% hit rate, 16068 evictions)
+  read 3.84 tok/s. That is +6.1% over the cache-off median (3.84/3.62 =
+  1.061) and +1.3% over the cache-off leg's best run (3.84/3.79 = 1.013),
+  so under the rule above it is **not a tie** to the cache-off median. It is
+  not a win either: the leg pays 8.25 GiB of memory for a 33% hit rate and
+  16068 evictions, and it leaves the 2x of the repaired default (7.45 tok/s
+  at an 80% hit rate) on the table. The policy now refuses a sub-knee budget
+  outright.
+- **The spin budget is not adopted on this evidence**: `VT_CPU_SPIN_ROUNDS=0`
+  moved the same cell from 4.019 to 4.193 tok/s at 32 threads (+4.3%, at the
+  noise floor) and from 2.587 to 2.581 at 16 threads (-0.2%, the other way).
+  The pair does not separate the arms, so no spin setting is recommended.
+  One paired reading on one host is not a settled lever question.
+- **The cache-off baseline is a band, not a point.** The cache-off leg reads
+  3.55-3.79 tok/s across its three runs, and the default's 7.45 median is
+  1.97x-2.10x that band (7.45/3.79 and 7.45/3.55).
+- **No bf16 arm was measured**, and none can be: the loader refuses it.
+- **No vLLM or plugin denominator.** These are absolute tok/s on one host.
+
+## Evidence
+
+The full record — host state, the commands, the box-quiet window, the noise
+floor, the per-cell readings with their source log, the other measurement
+sets the session took for the same cells, and the arithmetic behind every
+derived number — is
+[`docs/bench-evidence/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default-20261021/report.md`](../bench-evidence/kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default-20261021/report.md).
+The policy the default is measured against is PR #3488
+(`84d98a9e6` the flip, `d47173c51` the sampling-moment repair and the knee
+floor, `e7d7704d3` the knee refusal), which landed on `main` as
+`d9e669582`, `e451be705` and `3ce14f35c`; the row's own record is
+[`.agents/specs/kolibri-1-cpu.md`](../../.agents/specs/kolibri-1-cpu.md).
diff --git a/docs/benchmarks/reproduce.md b/docs/benchmarks/reproduce.md
index 070147f0ea..ab9932056f 100644
--- a/docs/benchmarks/reproduce.md
+++ b/docs/benchmarks/reproduce.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 | vLLM online grid | `.agents/specs/competitive-benchmarks.md`, evidence under `dgx:~/work/vllm.cpp-online-gate/evidence/` |
 | Clock-controlled pin series | `$HOME/gpu.lock` FIRST, then `sudo -n nvidia-smi -lgc 2190` under an always-fires `-rgc` trap; oracle by EXPLICIT PATH, identity asserted per leg; a `gpu_clock_state.py` window per leg |
 | CPU vs llama.cpp | Same GGUF both arms, 3 reps under one `flock $HOME/gpu.lock`; `VT_GGUF_KEEP_F16=0` reproduces the pre-L7 baseline |
+| Kolibri-1 CPU, dequant-cache default | `numactl --cpunodebind=3 --interleave=all` with `VLLM_CPP_CPU_THREADS=32`, the whole series under one `flock -x $HOME/gpu.lock`; the **default** leg leaves `VT_KOLIBRI1_DEQUANT_CACHE_MB` UNSET (the derived budget), the **cache-off** leg sets it to `0`, the **explicit** leg sets `16384`. The serving number is the in-repo probe `tests/test_kolibri1_spec_probe`; the decode table is the in-repo bench `tests/test_kolibri1_decode_bench` (128 tokens in, 64 greedy out); the prefill and thread-scaling legs are the session bench driver (`VT_KB_PROMPT`/`VT_KB_GEN`, empty prompt and p512). Commands and limits: [`kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default.md`](kolibri1-cpu-dequant-cache-default.md) |
 | Laguna NVFP4 decode | `flock $HOME/gpu.lock ./build-cuda/examples/laguna-gen --model ~/laguna-xs-nvfp4 --gpu` (that directory holds the S-2.1 checkpoint); `drop_caches` first, create the CUDA context before loading weights |
 | DeepSeek-V4-Flash decode | `deepseek-v4-gen --gpu --kv-cache` on `ds4flash.gguf`, captured under tmux |
 | Metal vs MLX-LM | Paired A/B harness, interleaved runs, cold legs discarded |