# Backup storage policy — open-weight model reserve

**Status:** foundation draft (concrete path and budget **TBD**)  
**Related:** `INTENT.md`, `SCOPE.md`, `inventory/collection-policy.md`  
**Adjacent:** `disaster-control` BackupPolicy (platform backups — different concern)

---

## Purpose

Define where Freedom Intelligence stores **open-weight model blobs** (and justified
companions), how much capacity we allow, and how this reserve relates to other
lab backup facilities.

Git never stores weight tensors. Git stores:

* inventory catalog metadata (`inventory/catalog/`)
* policies and schemas
* research briefs

---

## Storage class

| Requirement | Policy |
| ----------- | ------ |
| **Class** | Backup / bulk durable storage — **not** hot cluster PVCs or app disks |
| **Durability** | Same or better retention posture as other lab bulk assets; prefer media that survives workstation rebuilds |
| **Performance** | Sequential read for restore/training pull is enough; low latency not required |
| **Access** | Operator and approved lab hosts only; not a public mirror |
| **Separation** | Do not co-mingle with age-encrypted operational backups (Forgejo dumps, k3s state) without a clear subdirectory and different lifecycle rules |

Platform backup paths such as `/opt/backup/railiance/{infra,cluster}/` and
`~/.cache/railiance/backups/` are **operational recovery** lanes. The model
reserve may live on the **same physical facility** only if isolated by path and
quota so large weight pulls cannot crowd out restore media.

---

## Target location (to pin)

| Field | Value |
| ----- | ----- |
| **Host / facility** | `TBD` — operator pin (e.g. backup NAS, off-cluster bulk volume, dedicated disk) |
| **Base path or bucket** | `TBD` — suggested shape: `…/freedom-intelligence/models/` |
| **Layout under base** | See [On-disk layout](#on-disk-layout) |
| **Mount on lab hosts** | `TBD` |
| **Credentials** | `TBD` — if remote: OpenBao or existing backup credential lane; never commit secrets |

Until pinned, **do not** bulk-download multi-GB models into this git workspace or
into hot root filesystems.

### Suggested path shape (non-binding)

```text
{BACKUP_ROOT}/freedom-intelligence/
├── models/
│   └── {org}__{name}/
│       └── {revision}/
│           ├── blobs/          # weight files, shards
│           └── MANIFEST.txt    # optional local copy of hashes
├── companions/                 # adapters, tokenizers only when separate
└── staging/                    # incomplete downloads; not catalog-ready
```

Map each `{org}__{name}/{revision}` to an inventory catalog entry.

---

## On-disk layout

| Path element | Rule |
| ------------ | ---- |
| `org__name` | Hugging Face-style id with `/` → `__` |
| `revision` | Git commit SHA, tag, or release id used at download time |
| `blobs/` | Actual files; prefer original names from source |
| `staging/` | Incomplete transfers; purge or resume; never mark collected until complete + verified |

---

## Capacity budget

| Parameter | Policy |
| --------- | ------ |
| **Soft quota** | `TBD` GiB/TiB — operator pin based on free backup capacity |
| **Hard stop** | No new collection when soft quota exceeded unless operator raises budget |
| **Per-pull threshold** | See `inventory/collection-policy.md` (size gates approval) |
| **Growth review** | Revisit quota when catalog total exceeds 70% of soft quota |
| **Eviction** | Prefer archive/delete lowest-priority, easily re-obtainable revisions first; record eviction in catalog history |

---

## Integrity and provenance

For every completed collection:

1. Record source URL and revision in the catalog entry.
2. Store checksums (`sha256` of each blob or upstream manifest digest).
3. Record download date (UTC) and downloader identity.
4. Prefer official org releases over anonymous re-uploads.
5. Keep license text or SPDX id in catalog; refuse unclear licenses.

Verification command examples belong in tooling later; policy only requires that
**catalog claims match on-disk checksums** before status `collected`.

---

## Retention

| Class | Retention |
| ----- | --------- |
| **Strategic reserve** (high priority, hard to re-obtain) | Keep until explicit deprecation |
| **Working set** (common bases for training experiments) | Keep while in active use + one superseded revision optional |
| **Staging** | Max 14 days incomplete, then purge |
| **Deprecated** | Metadata retained in catalog with status `evicted` or `superseded`; blobs may be deleted |

---

## Encryption and offsite

| Topic | Policy |
| ----- | ------ |
| **At rest** | Follow host/facility default; extra age/GPG of multi-hundred-GB trees is optional and costly |
| **In transit** | HTTPS or trusted lab network only |
| **Offsite copy** | Optional later; not required for foundation. If added, coordinate with `disaster-control` so model reserve does not break operational backup SLAs |

---

## What must not live here

* Closed weights or artifacts whose terms forbid offline retention
* Secrets, API keys, customer data, or training corpora with personal data (domain datasets need their own policy)
* Operational backups (databases, k3s state, Forgejo dumps)
* Git LFS dumps of full model trees as a substitute for backup storage

---

## Operator checklist to pin TBD fields

- [ ] Choose facility and base path
- [ ] Confirm free capacity and set soft quota
- [ ] Document mount/access for lab hosts
- [ ] Confirm credential path (if any)
- [ ] Create empty `models/` and `staging/` directories
- [ ] Update this file: replace `TBD` rows with concrete values
- [ ] Note pin date and operator in revision history below

### Pin log

| Date | Operator | Change |
| ---- | -------- | ------ |
| 2026-07-23 | foundation | Policy created; path and quota unpinned |

---

## Relationship to disaster-control

`disaster-control` owns **platform resilience** (what to restore after loss).
Freedom Intelligence owns **which open weights we choose to retain** and their
inventory. Shared facilities are fine; shared lifecycle rules are not automatic —
model reserve is large, slow-changing, and rarely needed for emergency restore.