# Model Breeding Pipeline

Model breeding in Runtime.MiRust.com is an offline evidence pipeline. It is not a live browser swarm and it is not unbounded self-modification.

## The pipeline shape

1. **Source artifact**: a `.slm` file, trained-source manifest, or adapter-source manifest.
2. **Compatibility report**: confirms direct-parameter compatibility before merge-style operators are allowed.
3. **Lineage template**: binds parents, operator identity, budget, and expected output.
4. **Operator receipt**: records what the operator did and how to recompute it.
5. **Candidate manifest**: binds the produced candidate artifact.
6. **Runtime smoke**: proves the candidate can run.
7. **Evaluation sidecar**: required before assistant-quality claims.
8. **Promotion template**: records readiness and pending gates.
9. **Admission record**: admits evidence-passed candidates.
10. **Promotion ledger**: hash-chains accepted history.
11. **Population review**: ranks candidates by objective vectors.
12. **Parent-pool recipe**: selects parents for later cycles.
13. **Selector registry**: routes admitted candidates to browser-visible local artifacts.

## Implemented operator families

The source bundle references implemented or routed operator lanes including:

- blend;
- task delta;
- sparse task delta;
- deterministic crossover;
- bounded mutation;
- deterministic magnitude pruning;
- DARE dropout/rescaled task delta;
- federated/local update;
- sign-aware parent-pool merge;
- seed-weighted parent-pool soup.

Each operator should remain offline until its output passes normal artifact gates.

## The biology vocabulary translated

| Concept | Project meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Heritable artifact | `.slm`, manifest, receipt, eval sidecar, or adapter package. |
| Mate selection | Compatibility, population review, and parent-pool recipe. |
| Phenotype evidence | Runtime smoke, eval evidence, provenance, and browser smoke. |
| Fitness | Objective-vector review and eval-bound checksums. |
| Species fit | Quantization, tokenizer, layout, adapter, and resource envelope compatibility. |
| Novelty | Behavior-relevant descriptor and evidence checksum. |

## Public boundary

Do not describe this as autonomous replication. Describe it as controlled candidate assembly with evidence, manifests, receipts, and explicit promotion gates.