Maven/REARCH.md

Maven — Re-architecture (Qwen3 resident model, revised 2026-07-18)

Supersedes the classifier-first routing model. Agreed in a design session after diagnosing that homesrv deploys with a stub phraser (no LLM running) and an embedder-classifier that routes by nearest-neighbor between frozen seed phrases — the structural cause of "she messes up queries."

Hardware reality: homesrv = Ryzen 5 5600U laptop, Vega iGPU, 14 GB shared RAM. Workstation (RX 7900 XT) is NOT the deploy target and is often busy. So: small models, on-demand where heavy, always-on where cheap.

Principle

The LLM is not the center of everything. Deterministic tools handle the bulk. One locally trained Qwen3-1.7B resident model is used for routing and talking back. Its system prompt selects one of two independently evaluated contracts: route actions or persona responses.

If the router is good, Maven feels good. Routing is the linchpin.

The spine

utterance
   → [world-state context]   cheap: time, presence, calendar_busy, weather (no LLM)
   → ROUTER  = Qwen3-1.7B (always-on, grammar-constrained)
        reads utterance + context + tool schema, emits a STRUCTURED action:
          • call a tool (deterministic)      • answer directly
   → tools (deterministic, fast)
   → PHRASER = Qwen3-1.7B (same resident process) → TTS / text

• Router = Phraser = one resident Qwen3-1.7B llama-server, with separate route and persona prompts/contracts. Always warm; classifier/stub remain the failure floors.
• The resident checkpoint is trained end-to-end as: Qwen3-1.7B-Base → RU CPT → joint persona/router SFT → merge → GGUF. Larger on-demand reasoning models are deferred until the main feature set is complete.
• Embedder demoted from router to tool — it now backs memory.search (RAG) and gives the router a cheap "similar past notes/intents" hint. The router no longer depends on it clearing a threshold. Upgrade MiniLM → bge-m3 for better RU retrieval later (model swap, not architecture).

Router output

• Constrained structured JSON action {tool, args, escalate} — NOT free-form multi-step function-calling. Sub-1B is far more reliable emitting a fixed schema. Enforce with a GBNF grammar in llama.cpp (near-bulletproof).
• Keep the existing stage-0 exact-match fast-path for dead-obvious commands (skips the router entirely) — cheap insurance, already built.

The proactive / memory half — one background engine

"Take notes," "remember," "reflect," "suggest do you want to add X?", "remind" are NOT request-path features. They are one digestion worker:

DIGESTION WORKER  (periodic + event-driven, off the request path)
  • reads new facts/notes since last pass
  • RAG-consolidates: dedupe, link, summarize into durable memory
  • reflects: detect patterns ("mentioned X three times")
  • proposes: "want me to add X / remind you about Y?" → nudge dispatcher
  • surfaces due reminders
  uses the resident Qwen3 model for bounded synthesis — never blocks a turn

Notes capture is a deterministic Tier-0 tool; making notes mean something later is the worker + RAG.

Layer table

Layer	What	Runs
Context	world-state (time/presence/calendar/weather)	always, no LLM
Router	Qwen3 structured-action orchestrator — linchpin	always-on
Tools	note/reminder/memory/calendar/weather/act (deterministic)	always
Reasoner	larger specialist model	deferred
Phraser	Qwen3 persona response	always-on (same proc as router)
Digestion worker	reflection → suggestions/nudges/memory	background
Reach	telegram (+ existing ntfy/voice)	quick win
Voice quality	custom/better TTS	deferred (workstation GPU busy)

Build order

1. Foundation + router — completed shared llama-server client, router, fallback, replier, TTS normalization and telegram reach.
2. Qwen3 resident checkpoint — finish RU CPT, pass the raw-vs-CPT gate, jointly SFT persona/router contracts, merge, quantize and deploy.
3. Main features — reflection, proactive suggestions, memory consolidation, RAG read-back.
4. Deferred work — larger reasoner, custom Piper voice and other expansions.

Non-goals (unchanged)

Not a nag. Not autonomous. Feminine-gendered RU self-ref. No telemetry, no cloud model, no third-party account — but she MAY read external sources to answer world questions (Kiwix first, search optional). "Never phones home" as an absolute is deprecated, owner's call 2026-07-31; see CLAUDE.md § Non-goals.