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NEO Desk — Session Summary: S46 (session_id=49)

Filed by: Vesper (COO) Date: 2026-04-21 Session: S46 / session_id=49


Session Result

Field Value
Halt reason inventory_truth_halt
Elapsed 579.11s (of 7200s requested)
Ticks executed 117
Real fills 0 (2 reported fills are phantom — see below)
VW realized spread 12.63 bps (phantom fills only — not evaluable)
Capital result Flat — 196.95 → 196.99 RLUSD (+0.04)
Counts toward Phase 7.4 NO — halt ≠ duration_elapsed

What Happened

  1. Session started cleanly. Pre-session realignment confirmed zero delta. Startup truth check passed (mode=ok).
  2. 04:38:50 UTC — phantom fills re-applied. Two simultaneous fills recorded (buy 10.5 XRP / sell 19.5 XRP, same timestamp). These are the same phantom fills from S45, re-applied by the reconciler when DEGRADED fired and cancelled S46's first-tick orders.
  3. Wallet truth check detected divergence. delta_xrp=−6.28, delta_rlusd=+9.0 — same delta as S45.
  4. All subsequent ticks blocked. inventory_truth_gate: mode=degraded (last_status=halt) — engine alive, ticking every 4 seconds, observing market, but submission blocked.
  5. Session ended at 579.11s. halt=inventory_truth_halt.

Anchor Regime — Notable Signal

Metric S45 S46
Mean +9.47 bps −5.22 bps
Median +10.00 bps −4.78 bps
Range [+8.1, +10.0] [−10.0, +0.3]
Bias Positive (hostile) Negative
|err|>5bps 100% 44%

The CLOB-AMM anchor regime SHIFTED between S45 and S46. S43–S45 showed persistently positive divergence (+9 bps). S46 shows negative with much lower prevalence. With 44% >5bps at mean −5.22 bps, the anchor is at the edge of the saturation guard threshold (±6–8 bps required). This is the first favorable anchor signal since S42. If the anchor holds near this level, sessions without the phantom fill problem could quote freely.


Root Cause Identification — FLAG-037 Session-Blocking

The phantom fill cycle is now confirmed as a within-session structural problem:

  1. DEGRADED fires → cancel_all on-chain
  2. Reconciler sees cancelled orders as "disappeared" (no cancel_tx_hash)
  3. _handle_disappeared_active_order() applies phantom fill
  4. Wallet truth delta created mid-session
  5. Truth gate blocks all trading for remainder of session

Pre-session realignment cannot prevent this. It corrects the startup delta, but the cycle re-triggers every time DEGRADED fires and cancels orders. This will block every S47+ session that enters DEGRADED until FLAG-037 is fixed.

Required fix: Engine must write a "known_cancellations" record when cancel_all fires. Reconciler must check this before applying phantom fills. See FLAG-037 in [C] Open Flags.md for updated scope and required fix spec.


Actions Required

  1. Escalate FLAG-037 to Atlas for spec clarification — original FLAG-037 spec (age-threshold model) needs to be expanded to include explicit cancellation tracking. Atlas ruling required before Orion implements.
  2. Do not run S47 until FLAG-037 is resolved.
  3. Realignment required before S47 once fix is merged.

Files Referenced

  • [C] Open Flags.md — FLAG-037 updated to SESSION-BLOCKING
  • NEO Desk/escalations/TO_ATLAS_flag037_session_blocking_escalation.md — Atlas escalation (see below)

Vesper — COO, BlueFly AI Enterprises