- proj.py: add gate_mode={one_sided, no_gate}; no_gate does full V·V^T removal
- train.py: ariahw-matching hint replacement (CODE_SYSTEM_PROMPT preserved,
user msg gets the run_tests loophole); T=0.7 to match reference; timing cols
in step table; first-hack checkpoint snapshot
- probe_lora_runtime.py: sanity probe that ariahw LoRA hacks on our pipeline
- RESEARCH_JOURNAL.md: null result entry (#39 projected ≈ #40 vanilla at
HACK=0.215, PASS=0.315), plus next-phase plan to switch from baked-base to
mixed-pool GRPO from clean Qwen3-4B + ariahw teacher
projected_grpo
SVD-basis gradient projection vs RL reward hacking. Tests whether projecting the training gradient orthogonal to an extracted hack-direction (in the SVD-of-W basis) reduces reward-hack rate in GRPO without tanking pass rate.
Built on Ariahw, Engels & Nanda's rl-rewardhacking LeetCode benchmark. Method differs from concurrent work (Wu & Tang 2026, "Advantage Modification") by intervening at the gradient level rather than the advantage level.
See docs/spec.md, docs/brainstorm/extracted_prefs.md, and docs/papers/.
Quick start
uv sync
just fast-dev-run # tiny-random model, ~1-2 min, real pipeline end-to-end
just smoke-vanilla # vanilla pathway smoke
just smoke-projected # projected pathway smoke
just download-model # warm Qwen3-4B cache (full preset peaks ~73GB on 96GB)
just queue-full # queue extract + 3-seed vanilla + 3-seed projected sweep
See RESEARCH_JOURNAL.md for session-by-session findings,
including the 2026-05-23 grader-bug discovery that invalidated all prior gt=0
measurements and the move from Qwen3.5-2B to Qwen3-4B (reference substrate).
Hypotheses (preregistered)
See spec.md. Headline: H1 — gradient projection in SVD basis against a v_hack extracted from ~60-80 contrastive pairs reduces reward hack rate by
=30pp absolute vs vanilla GRPO at matched LeetCode pass rate (±10pp).