# Branch Audit 2026-03-11

## What This Reconciles

This audit cross-checks three sources of truth:

1. `git` refs, commit graph, and branch reflogs
2. `results.tsv`
3. `current_best_run.json` / `adamw_best_run.json`

The point is to separate:

- actual experiment runs
- branch tips that only preserve bookkeeping
- placeholder aliases that were created after a run window
- branch sessions that were probably real runs but no metrics were saved

## High-Confidence Results

- `results/run_inventory_2026-03-11.tsv` compiles 29 metric-known runs.
- 28 came directly from `results.tsv`.
- 1 extra run, `ae4cd00` on `codex/matrix-lr-0p05`, was recoverable from `b72a6b3:current_best_run.json` even though it never made it into `results.tsv`.
- 7 ledger rows use synthetic IDs instead of SHAs:
  - `adam2m01`
  - `valmuon1`
  - `valeadam1`
  - `scaladam1`
  - `wteadam1`
  - `decaysw1`
  - `lmheps1`
- 6 of those 7 synthetic rows can be tied back to a concrete committed run state or an equivalent integrated commit.
- `lmheps1` still has metrics, but its exact committed run state is gone.

## Provenance Patterns

- Branch names were often used as experiment session labels, not as reliable pointers to the final run commit.
- Several winning branches end on a bookkeeping commit that only updates `current_best_run.json`. The actual run commit is the previous commit or a sibling cherry-pick onto `codex/no-checkpoint-5060`.
- The clearest example is the WTE winner:
  - exact run commit: `ba60543`
  - bookkeeping tip: `4066d9d`
  - later `current_best_run.json` in `b95a22a` points at `5e84d0d`, but that SHA should not be treated as the canonical reconstruction target
- A few placeholder branches were created after the run window and never advanced:
  - `codex/lmhead-eps-1e8`
  - `codex/lmhead-eps-1e8-v2`
  - `codex/value-embeds-betas`
  - `codex/value-embeds-eps-1e8`
- `codex/value-embeds-muon` is especially misleading: the branch tip stayed at `baa4bb2`, but the actual `valmuon1` run state survives as `3a5d4a6` on `codex/no-checkpoint-5060`.

## Known Gaps

- `results/unresolved_sessions_2026-03-11.tsv` lists branch sessions that look like real experiments, but their metrics were not preserved.
- The strongest missing-metrics case is `codex/salience-objective-v1`, which almost certainly contains at least two unlogged runs (`990acda`, `aceafa3`) before the branch ended on the doc-only commit `91ecff5`.
- `b8d903b` is a provenance mismatch:
  - `results.tsv` says it was the first Muon salience gate run
  - the commit diff is instrumentation-only
  - the most likely explanation is that the branch/session label and the saved commit drifted out of sync

## Hidden Git State

- `results/hidden_git_state_2026-03-11.tsv` records unreachable blobs and intermediate commits that do not show up cleanly in the branch list.
- The important recoveries are:
  - `91c67c6`: an uncommitted `value_embeds` custom-betas variant matching `codex/value-embeds-betas`
  - `4f38a6d`: an uncommitted `value_embeds` epsilon-1e-8 variant matching `codex/value-embeds-eps-1e8`
  - `24eea8b`: a merge-conflicted `current_best_run.json` snapshot from the WTE winner integration
- There are no dangling commits, no stashes, and no git notes. The remaining hidden objects are blobs or trees, not lost branches.

## Practical Cleanup Buckets

Use `results/branch_inventory_2026-03-11.tsv` before deleting or renaming anything.

Branches that clearly preserve or anchor real run history:

- `codex/no-checkpoint-5060`
- `codex/per-group-adamw-variants`
- `codex/wte-plain-adamw`
- `codex/matrix-lr-0p05`
- `codex/salience-adamw-v2`
- `codex/salience-muon-gate-v2`
- `codex/adamw-beta2-salience-v1`
- `codex/value-embeds-plain-adamw`
- `codex/salience-decay-v1`

Branches that are mostly aliases, bookkeeping pointers, or placeholders:

- `codex/adamw-gate-nonlinear`
- `codex/embedding-init-0p02`
- `codex/final-lr-frac-0p1`
- `codex/lmhead-eps-1e8`
- `codex/lmhead-eps-1e8-v2`
- `codex/muon-instrument`
- `codex/replay-mid-v1`
- `codex/salience-best`
- `codex/salience-muon-v1`
- `codex/salienceopt-v1`
- `codex/value-embeds-betas`
- `codex/value-embeds-eps-1e8`

I did not rewrite branch history or delete refs in this pass.