Configure rag rat dream

configure-rag-rat-dream — enable and run the AI memory-maintenance passes

rag-rat's dream command has an optional model turn: the --verify / --compact passes that AI-verify repo memories (flag those whose claims no longer hold → memory_reality) and compact them (shorter drive-by summaries). It is rag-rat's only generative-model dependency, off by default, and gated by a deterministic layer — rag-rat dream stays 100% deterministic unless [llm.dream] enabled = true and you pass --verify/--compact.

It earns its keep only once a repo has accumulated memories, so this is a later, deliberate setup, not something to do at first index. The dream-review skill triages the findings these passes produce — run this skill to turn the model on, that one to work through what it surfaces.

When to set it up

• rag-rat has been in use a while and memories have accumulated.
• The user wants AI verify (reality-check memories) and/or compact (shorter summaries).

Otherwise skip it — the deterministic dream is enough.

Config — mirrors [llm.embedding.remote], but a CHAT backend

Same Connect / Ephemeral split as embeddings, but the model is a small chat LLM served over /v1/chat/completions. backend must be ollama or vllm — infinity is embed-only and is rejected here. (If the repo already runs a local infinity for embeddings, that is NOT reusable for dream — dream needs a generation server.)

Connect (a chat server you already run):

[llm.dream]
enabled = true

[llm.dream.remote]
backend  = "ollama"
endpoint = "http://localhost:11434"
model    = "qwen3:4b-instruct"          # server-side (ollama) name
request_timeout_s = 300

Ephemeral (a Modal/RunPod box — same cookbook as embeddings). CPU inference on a dense evidence pack is pathologically slow (it can blow past the timeout and never verify), so a GPU is the practical option:

[llm.dream]
enabled = true

[llm.dream.remote]
backend  = "vllm"                        # vllm | ollama (NOT infinity)
cookbook = "@rag-rat/cookbook modal"     # or @rag-rat/cookbook runpod
gpu      = "L4"                           # 24 GB fits a 4B in fp16 — same class as the embedding box
model    = "Qwen/Qwen3-4B-Instruct-2507" # HF id for vllm; the memory-compaction eval winner
auth_env = "MODAL_TOKEN"                 # optional: env var holding the box's bearer token
request_timeout_s = 900                  # a dense evidence pack is slow to first token

The box is provisioned only when there is pending work (a zero-work guard never cold-starts a paid GPU for a fully churn-skipped repo) and is torn down when the run ends. Temperature 0, no streaming.

Write the config the same way as the init flow: never blind — validate by loading it (rag-rat doctor / the next dream run fails loudly on a bad block), and confirm with the user before enabling a paid cloud path (cookbook spends money and runs downloaded provisioning code with the user's credentials).

Running it — on demand or on a schedule

The zero-work guard makes an unnecessary run cheap: if nothing is pending (memories all churn-skipped), dream never provisions a box. So either cadence is safe to run often.

--verify always runs the deterministic checks; with enabled = true it adds the model verdict pass. --compact writes the shorter memory summaries.

On demand — run it whenever maintenance is due: after a burst of new memories, before a big review, or when a plain rag-rat dream shows a backlog. An agent can decide this for itself and run:

rag-rat dream --verify --compact --max-memories 20

Scheduled — a user-systemd oneshot + timer runs it hands-off (this is the maintainer's setup — nightly at 04:30):

# ~/.config/systemd/user/rag-rat-dream.service
[Unit]
Description=rag-rat dream memory maintenance (verify + compact)
[Service]
Type=oneshot
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/the/repo          # the repo whose rag-rat.toml has [llm.dream] enabled
Environment=HOME=/home/<you>                # so ~/.modal.toml (provider creds) resolves
Environment=PATH=/home/<you>/.cargo/bin:/path/to/node/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
ExecStart=%h/.cargo/bin/rag-rat dream --verify --compact --max-memories 200
TimeoutStartSec=60min                       # room for a cold GPU boot + a large first backfill
Nice=10

# ~/.config/systemd/user/rag-rat-dream.timer
[Unit]
Description=Nightly rag-rat dream memory maintenance at 04:30
[Timer]
OnCalendar=*-*-* 04:30:00
Persistent=true                             # run on next boot if the machine was off at 04:30
[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

Enable with systemctl --user enable --now rag-rat-dream.timer.

Bare-service env gotchas (the two things that bite a systemd/cron dream run): set HOME so ~/.modal.toml / the provider creds resolve, and a PATH that includes both rag-rat and node/npx — the cookbook recipe shells out to npx. The ephemeral box has its own idle + max-lifetime backstops, so even a wedged local run can't bill the GPU indefinitely.

Then triage

Once it runs, work through what it surfaced (unverifiable / diverged memories, compaction results) with the dream-review skill.