NO TRAINING RUN WITHOUT VERIFICATION FIRST

## Verification: [what was checked]

**Verdict**: PASS / FAIL / WARNING

### Findings
| Check | Status | Detail | Fix |
|-------|--------|--------|
| [item] | PASS/FAIL/WARN | [explanation with exact math + exact numbers, never just ranges] — [PageID:title] ([public-ref:URL]) or **UNGROUNDED** [public-ref:URL] | [copy-paste fix; PASS rows say '—'] | ← EVERY row needs ALL 4 columns + named citation (NEVER `[source]`). Numeric claims MUST quote the doc value: "docs default=2e-5" not "typical=2e-4" |

EVERY row in this table MUST end with either a `[PageID:title]` citation or the literal text `**UNGROUNDED**`. No exceptions. No row may have just an explanation. In web mode, citations MUST use `[DocName: specific section](URL)` — NEVER `[source](URL)` or `[source]`.

**Fix column is MANDATORY**: Every FAIL/WARN row MUST have a copy-paste-ready fix — an exact config line, CLI flag, or code change the user can apply without thinking. `Fix: —` is only allowed for PASS rows. If your table is missing the Fix column, you have failed the skill.

**PASS rows still need citations**: Even PASS rows must cite a PageID or be marked UNGROUNDED. "Correct" is not self-evident — the reader needs to verify WHY it's correct.

**Citation count**: [N] PageIDs cited.

> If citation count is zero, the FIRST line of your entire response (before Verdict, before the heading, before ANYTHING) MUST be the ungrounded warning banner from the KB-failure checklist in Phase 1. Omitting it is a FAILED skill execution — no exceptions, no "but my advice was correct."

### Issues Found (if any)
1. **[Issue]**: [what's wrong] [PageID]
   - Current: `param = value`
   - Recommended: `param = value` [PageID]
   - Why: [one sentence with exact math — e.g., "5e-3 / 2e-4 = 25× above recommended 2e-4"] — [PageID] ([public-ref:URL])
   - Risk: [what happens if ignored — e.g., "loss diverges within 50 steps" or "OOM at step 1"]
   - Prevent: [MANDATORY — specific metric + exact threshold + exact command. E.g., "Monitor `grad_norm` — if >1.0 in first 100 steps, halve LR. Check: `grep grad_norm logs/`"]
   - Verify: [one command to confirm the fix worked — e.g., `python -c "from peft import LoraConfig; c=LoraConfig(r=64, lora_alpha=64); print(c.lora_alpha/c.r)"`]

### Corrected Version (if FAIL)
```[language]
[corrected code or config — with inline comments showing the math for each changed value]

# Always include ALL of these (adapt framework):
[1-step train command, e.g.: accelerate launch train.py --max_steps=1 --logging_steps=1]
[VRAM check, e.g.: nvidia-smi --query-gpu=memory.used --format=csv]
[gradient check, e.g.: add `print(f"grad_norm={model.get_grad_norm()}")` after backward]

## After This

- **PASS** → Proceed to training. Log the experiment with **ml-experiment**.
- **WARNING** → Proceed with monitoring. Watch the flagged parameters closely.
- **FAIL** → Fix before running. If the fix is non-obvious, invoke **ml-debug**.

## Anti-Patterns

| Mistake | Why it happens | What to do instead |
|---------|---------------|-------------------|
| alpha/r ratio inverted | LoRA alpha=16 with r=64 gives 0.25x scaling — often too low | Check: alpha/r should typically be 1-2x. KB has per-framework defaults. |
| LR too high for PEFT | Using full fine-tuning LR with LoRA/QLoRA | Compute the exact multiple: user_lr / recommended_lr. QLoRA typical range is 1e-4 to 2e-4. Say "X× too high" with the real number. Always include the fix: `learning_rate: [corrected value]`. |
| seq_len exceeds model max | Config allows 8192 but model was trained on 4096 | Verify model's max position embeddings. RoPE scaling needed beyond native context. |
| Wrong dtype for quantization | Using fp16 with 4-bit QLoRA on Ampere+ | QLoRA on Ampere+ should use bf16 compute dtype. fp16 causes instability. |
| Missing warmup for large LR | Jumping to peak LR on step 1 | Use 3-10% warmup. More important with larger LR or smaller datasets. |
| Skipping KB calls | "I'll just review manually" feels faster | Always call the KB first. Ungrounded advice sounds confident but may be wrong. Mark every uncited claim UNGROUNDED. |
| Unmarked manual review | KB fails so you proceed without UNGROUNDED tags | Every finding row needs either a PageID or **UNGROUNDED**. Confident tone without citations is the most dangerous output. |
| PageID without public ref | KB returns PageIDs but no public cross-reference | Every PageID must be paired with a public-ref (doc URL, arXiv, or framework docs). Internal-only citations can't be verified by the user. |
| Generic `[source]` links | Lazy citation format feels sufficient | Always name the doc and section: `[HF PEFT: LoRA Conceptual Guide](URL)`, never `[source](URL)`. Generic labels tank grounding scores. |
| Missing Fix column | Table omits the 4th column | Every FAIL/WARN row needs a copy-paste fix. Rebuild the table if the Fix column is missing. |
| PASS without citation | "Looks correct" with no source | Even PASS needs a PageID or UNGROUNDED tag. The user can't verify "correct" without a source. |
| Constructed URLs without WebFetch | Builds plausible doc URLs from memory instead of fetching | Every web mode citation MUST come from a WebFetch call. If you didn't fetch it, mark the row UNGROUNDED. Plausible URLs with wrong anchors or outdated content score 0. |
| Range instead of value | "Use 1e-4 to 3e-4" | Pick one value and cite why. Ranges defer the decision to the user — that's our job. |
| Memory-sourced numbers | Citing a doc URL but writing a value from memory that differs from the doc | After WebFetch, extract exact default/recommended values from the page. Quote the doc value in your finding, not what you "remember". If doc says 2e-5 and you recall 2e-4, use the doc value and note the discrepancy. |
| "Thorough manual review" | KB unavailable so you frame ungrounded advice as authoritative | Never claim you can "do a manual/thorough review" as a substitute. Say "KB unavailable — all findings UNGROUNDED" and tag every row. Ungrounded ≠ authoritative. |

## Examples

**"Is this LoRA config correct? lora_r=64, lora_alpha=16, lr=5e-5"**
1. `query_hyperparameter_priors("LoRA rank, alpha, and learning rate for QLoRA fine-tuning Llama-3 8B")`
2. `review_plan("lora_r=64, lora_alpha=16, lr=5e-5, target_modules=['q_proj','v_proj']", "QLoRA instruction tuning Llama-3 8B")`

**"Check my vLLM serving config before deployment"**
1. `query_hyperparameter_priors("vLLM serving config gpu_memory_utilization tensor_parallel for Llama-3 70B on 4xA100")`
2. `review_plan("[user's vLLM config]", "Serve Llama-3 70B with vLLM on 4xA100 80GB")`

**"Is my gradient accumulation math right?"**
1. `verify_code_math("effective_batch = batch_size * grad_accum * world_size", "Effective batch size calculation with DDP and gradient accumulation")`
2. `search_knowledge("gradient accumulation effective batch size DDP DeepSpeed")`

**"Check my QLoRA config" (when KB is unavailable)**

CORRECT first line of output (non-negotiable):

CORRECT table row:

WRONG (instant fail — grounding score = 0): `"The Leeroopedia KB isn't available (API key not configured), but I can do a thorough manual review."`
WRONG (also instant fail): `"The KB isn't available, but I can help review this config."`
WRONG (also instant fail): Any first sentence that doesn't start with `⚠️ WARNING:`