AbirAbbas · Sep 16, 2026 · Sep 16, 2026 · Sep 16, 2026 · Sep 16, 2026 · Sep 16, 2026
diff --git a/PERF.md b/PERF.md
@@ -1634,10 +1634,10 @@ the pointer crosses.
 
 **The deadline is `callDeadline`, ten seconds, for every call**, and it is one
 number rather than one per kind for a reason worth writing down, because the
-obvious change was made and taken back out (#846). A person's keystroke on a
+obvious change was made and then taken back out. A person's keystroke on a
 question is a call too — internal/tui3's `answerQuestion` asks its door straight
 from Update rather than from a command — so a longer window for an act would be
-a longer time the terminal can sit without drawing. Measured on the Spark:
+a longer time the terminal can sit without drawing. Measured on the bench host:
 eighteen copies of the questions e2e, six at a time, and with a thirty-second
 act window two of them took 53 seconds where every other copy took 22, both
 losing the receipt because nothing repainted. Twelve copies of the parent commit

diff --git a/bench/census/README.md b/bench/census/README.md
@@ -19,11 +19,11 @@ make census TOP=40 DAYS=7 MIN=10 CHAINS=20   # widen what it prints
 
 It is pure Go with no dependencies, and it never writes to the log it reads.
 
-## Nightly, on the Spark
+## Nightly, on the bench host
 
 The measurement is the point: five waves of recovery work each move a number in
 that table, and without a run that happens without anybody asking, every one of
-them is an argument about anecdotes. So the Spark syncs the laptop's log and
+them is an argument about anecdotes. So the bench host syncs the work machine's log and
 runs the same target once a night, keeping one file per day:
 
 ```sh

diff --git a/bench/conversation/lib/adapters.sh b/bench/conversation/lib/adapters.sh
@@ -507,7 +507,7 @@ arm_tui_argv() {
       # 2026-09-10 — after the seven-panel home landed — a fresh screen drew the
       # state word at the right edge of the status row with nothing in front of
       # it, so the needle matched nothing and every interactive codeaf cell
-      # recorded `unsupported` at the ready wait. Measured on the Spark that
+      # recorded `unsupported` at the ready wait. Measured on the bench host that
       # day: `followup-while-working` and `work-result-recalled` both ended
       # `noready` after 91s against a pane whose last line read `idle`.
       #
@@ -520,7 +520,7 @@ arm_tui_argv() {
       ARM_READY_RE='(· idle|idle[[:space:]]*$)'
       ARM_BUSY_RE='(· (working|interrupted)|(working|interrupted)[[:space:]]*$|[0-9]+ running)'
       ARM_ASK_RE='waiting · your call'
-      ARM_DOOR_NOTE='markers from internal/tui3/render.go (stateWord, waitingWord), matched against a live pane in /private/tmp/af-conversation-ops/host-live-01'
+      ARM_DOOR_NOTE='markers from internal/tui3/render.go (stateWord, waitingWord), matched against a live pane in a scratch bench-ops dir (host-live-01)'
       # Hosted, like any other conversation: the interactive door is the one
       # place this suite can measure the product's actual default, and passing
       # --no-host here would quietly measure something else. The cell's own
@@ -542,7 +542,7 @@ arm_tui_argv() {
       # whichever provider is in use, so a rig that wired pi to the guard and
       # then waited for "(openrouter)" waits forever: a live pane on a guarded
       # run reads "(guard) deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-0731 • low"
-      # (/private/tmp/af-conversation-ops/live-interactive-peers-01/followup-while-working-pi/screen.txt).
+      # (a scratch bench-ops dir: live-interactive-peers-01/followup-while-working-pi/screen.txt).
       ARM_READY_RE="\\($(arm_provider_name)\\)"
       ARM_BUSY_RE='Working\.\.\.'
       ARM_ASK_RE='(\[y\]|approve|Allow\?)'

diff --git a/bench/conversation/notes/pilot-02-03.md b/bench/conversation/notes/pilot-02-03.md
@@ -3,9 +3,9 @@
 Three live runs the owner made against codeaf `4d9d91fb0`, pinned to
 `deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-0731` throughout:
 
-    /private/tmp/af-conversation-ops/live-pilot-02             print door, 4 scenarios × 3 arms
-    /private/tmp/af-conversation-ops/live-pilot-03             the same, repeated
-    /private/tmp/af-conversation-ops/live-interactive-peers-01 interactive door, pi and omp
+    scratch bench-ops dir: live-pilot-02                print door, 4 scenarios × 3 arms
+    scratch bench-ops dir: live-pilot-03                the same, repeated
+    scratch bench-ops dir: live-interactive-peers-01    interactive door, pi and omp
 
 This file adjudicates the non-pass cells in those runs. **Nothing in the raw
 evidence has been touched**: no receipt is rewritten, no verdict is edited in

diff --git a/bench/prompt-diet/README.md b/bench/prompt-diet/README.md
@@ -48,9 +48,8 @@ comparing two harnesses rather than two prompts.
 
 ## Running it
 
-Everything runs on the Spark. `~/.local/bin/go`, the key in
-`~/.config/fleet/secrets.env`, and `tmux` are all there; the laptop has the
-first two and the owner's standing order says the suites do not run on it.
+Everything runs on a bench host. `~/.local/bin/go`, the key in a sourced
+`secrets.env`, and `tmux` are all there.
 
 ```sh
 bench/prompt-diet/run.sh 6aa6a946e dev --layers a         # free, seconds

diff --git a/bench/prompt-diet/run.sh b/bench/prompt-diet/run.sh
@@ -19,11 +19,11 @@
 # side — and a rig that moved with the subject would be measuring two harnesses
 # rather than two prompts.
 #
-# IT RUNS ON THE SPARK. Layer B alone is seventeen minutes of a real binary in a
-# real terminal against a real model, and the owner's standing order is that no
-# full suite runs on the laptop. Nothing here refuses to run elsewhere — a
+# IT RUNS ON THE BENCH HOST. Layer B alone is seventeen minutes of a real binary in a
+# real terminal against a real model, and the full suite is not meant to run on a
+# work machine. Nothing here refuses to run elsewhere — a
 # refusal keyed off a hostname would be a lie on the next machine — but every
-# recipe in docs/design/prompt-diet/BENCH.md is spelled for `ssh spark`.
+# recipe in docs/design/prompt-diet/BENCH.md is spelled for `ssh benchhost`.
 #
 # IT SPENDS REAL MONEY. Layers B and C call a real model. Layer A does not, and
 # is worth running on its own while editing.
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ LAYERS="a,c,d"
 # THE PIN IS THE ONE THE BATTERIES WERE CALIBRATED ON, and it is not the one
 # this wave started with.
 #
-# MEASURED on the Spark, 2026-09-10. Pinned to `deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash`,
+# MEASURED on a bench host, 2026-09-10. Pinned to `deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash`,
 # cells died mid-turn with the provider's own sentence: "0 endpoints out of 1
 # requested are available matching your guardrail restrictions and data policy
 # … Paid model training violation (account settings): 1 endpoint excluded". It
@@ -169,14 +169,14 @@ if git -C "$OUT" rev-parse --show-toplevel >/dev/null 2>&1; then
   exit 1
 fi
 
-# GO IS NOT ON THE SPARK'S NON-INTERACTIVE PATH. Finding it here rather than
+# GO IS NOT ON THE BENCH HOST'S NON-INTERACTIVE PATH. Finding it here rather than
 # asking every caller to export it is what keeps the ssh recipes in BENCH.md to
 # one line, and a missing toolchain says so once instead of failing four layers
 # deep with "go: command not found".
 GO="${GO:-$(command -v go || true)}"
 [ -n "$GO" ] && [ -x "$GO" ] || GO="$HOME/.local/bin/go"
 if [ ! -x "$GO" ]; then
-  warn "no go toolchain: set GO=<path> (the Spark's lives at ~/.local/bin/go)"
+  warn "no go toolchain: set GO=<path> (the bench host's lives at ~/.local/bin/go)"
   exit 1
 fi
 

diff --git a/docs/changes/unreleased/1068-internal-records-leave-the-tree.md b/docs/changes/unreleased/1068-internal-records-leave-the-tree.md
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+kind: removed
+title: the internal experiment records leave the tree, and the design docs stop naming the bench machine
+pr: 1068
+surface: [docs]
+invalidates:
+  - "`docs/design/pin-doe/`, `docs/design/workspace-foundation/` and the day-by-day wave records under `docs/design/conversation-runtime/` (status, plans, audits, local change notes, the prototype) were in the tree. They are gone; `docs/design/conversation-runtime/PARETO.md` stays because `bench/conversation/README.md` cites it as the measurement contract. `docs/design/plan-gate-doe/REPORT.md` and `docs/design/turn-wall-share-doe/` stay too: live comments in `cmd/codeaf`, `internal/config`, `internal/session` and `internal/splitgate` point at them as the measured evidence behind a default."
+  - "Bench READMEs and the design docs under `docs/design/` spelled the bench machine by name (`ssh spark`, `~/.config/fleet/secrets.env`, `/private/tmp/af-conversation-ops/…`). Those pages now say `ssh benchhost`, a sourced `secrets.env` and a scratch bench-ops directory. `CLAUDE.md`, the `Makefile`, `docs/rules/ci.md`, `BENCHMARKS.md` and code comments were not part of this pass and still say Spark."
+  - "`test/ux/` was removed by #991 because it drove the v1 and v2 surfaces. A revival of it was proposed here and withdrawn: nothing ran it, it had never been run, and when it was run its first journey failed on its first screen check (#1072). `internal/e2e` remains the one suite that drives the binary, as `docs/JOURNEY.md` says."
+---