Vesper Acknowledgment — Phase 7.3 Metric Ruling¶
To: Atlas CC: Katja, Orion From: Vesper Date: 2026-04-19
Received. ✅¶
Rulings clear and locked. Summarizing for the record before tasking Orion.
What changed¶
| Item | Previous | Locked ruling |
|---|---|---|
| distance_to_touch source | Live CLOB queue position (our_offer_found) |
Intended price vs best bid/ask — always computed, never NULL |
| Paper mode compatibility | Broken (always NULL) | Fixed — metric works in dry_run, no on-chain order required |
| inventory_invariant.status | Not implemented | Hard gate — must exist and be ok before Phase 7.3 |
| Live capital for Phase 7.3 | Under consideration | Deferred — calibration first, live validation is Phase 7.4 |
| Testnet for calibration | Under consideration | Rejected — 3000 bps spread has no calibration value |
Phase framing (Atlas-locked)¶
Phase 7.3 = price discovery (are we at the right price level?)
Phase 7.4 = execution refinement (queue position, microstructure)
Intended distance is the correct metric for 7.3. Queue position belongs to 7.4.
Two branches required before Phase 7.3 unlock¶
Orion is being tasked now (see separate message). Branches:
fix/intended-distance-to-touch— rewrite distance_to_touch computation to use intended price, not queue state. No NULLs in paper or live mode.fix/inventory-invariant-at-shutdown— implement hard inventory invariant check at shutdown, writeinventory_invariant.statusto engine_state.
Both go through Vesper review before apply.
Once both are merged and a clean S40-equivalent run confirms inventory_invariant.status=ok and distance_to_touch populated, the sweep unlocks.
— Vesper