# Benchmark Run 2026-03-02

Agent: claude-sonnet-4-6 (manual simulation — Agent SDK blocked in nested Claude Code session)
Method: Manual navigation trace. All file reads verified against actual fixture content.
Fixture versions: flat=184 lines, palace=INDEX(21)+main(55)+gotchas(67)+services(58)+session(24)

---

## Summary

| Metric | Flat | Palace | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg retrieval depth (files) | 1.0 | 3.2 | +2.2 |
| Avg lines loaded | 184 | 140 | −24% |
| Pass rate (✅ only) | 73% (11/15) | 87% (13/15) | +14pp |
| Fail rate (❌) | 13% (2/15) | 0% (0/15) | −13pp |

**Key finding:** Palace eliminates all failures. Type C (recency) queries completely fail in flat — session logs don't exist there. For Type A specific fact queries, palace loads 24–59% less context. Only broad Type B queries approach or exceed flat line counts.

---

## Per-Query Results

### A1 — K3s API server endpoint URL

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `projects/homelab-iac/homelab-iac.md` (55), `projects/homelab-iac/platform-services.md` (58)
- Lines loaded: 134
- Answer quality: ⚠️ Partial
- Answer: Control plane nodes are pve-um560-xt-1/pve-um773-lite-1/pve-um773-lite-2. Tailscale operator v1.94.2 provides API server proxy. Explicit K3s API URL not in fixtures.

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ❌ Fail
- Answer: Likely confuses "API endpoint: https://pve-um560-xt-1.oryx-tegu.ts.net:8006" (Proxmox PVE, port 8006) with K3s API endpoint — wrong protocol and port.

**Observation:** Palace agent correctly identifies the labeled "API endpoint" as Proxmox (not K3s) because homelab-iac.md provides full context. Flat agent risks reporting the Proxmox endpoint as K3s. Fixture gap: explicit K3s API URL should be added to platform-services.md.

---

### A2 — Keycloak version and namespace

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55), `platform-services.md` (58)
- Lines loaded: 134
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Keycloak 26.5.3, namespace `keycloak`, URL keycloak.oryx-tegu.ts.net

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Same

**Observation:** Palace -27% context. Both accurate.

---

### A3 — MetalLB IP address pool range

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55), `platform-services.md` (58)
- Lines loaded: 134
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: MetalLB v0.15.3, L2 mode, IPAddressPool 192.168.2.201-250

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Same

**Observation:** Palace -27% context. Both accurate.

---

### A4 — Storage class for NFS-backed persistent volumes

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55), `platform-services.md` (58)
- Lines loaded: 134
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: StorageClass `nfs-kubernetes` (NFS provisioner v4.0.2, Retain policy)

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Same

**Observation:** Palace -27% context. Both accurate.

---

### A5 — 1Password Connect VIP address and port

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55)
- Lines loaded: 76
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: VIP `http://192.168.2.72:8080` (keepalived)

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Same. Also returns node IPs (192.168.2.70 + .71) — more than asked.

**Observation:** Palace -59% context. 1Password VIP lives in homelab-iac.md main file, so no specialty file needed. This is the best-case palace scenario.

---

### B1 — Tailscale and K3s integration gotchas

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55), `technical-gotchas.md` (67)
- Lines loaded: 143
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: K8s pods can't resolve Tailscale MagicDNS (.ts.net) — use LAN IPs for in-cluster access. VLAN double-tagging gotcha when PVE hosts are on VLAN 2.

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Same facts, mixed into broader context.

**Observation:** Palace -22% context. Gotchas file is well-targeted.

---

### B2 — 1Password Connect setup and gotchas

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55), `technical-gotchas.md` (67)
- Lines loaded: 143
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: HA LXC (CT200/CT201), VIP 192.168.2.72:8080, Connect mode (not service account), SSH agent via ~/.1password/agent.sock, use --forks=1 with Ansible. Gotchas: Connect vs SA mutually exclusive, default Login fields not addressable by property, custom text fields only, op item create --category login needs explicit username=.

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Same.

**Observation:** Palace -22% context.

---

### B3 — Backup services and PostgreSQL backup

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55), `platform-services.md` (58), `technical-gotchas.md` (67)
- Lines loaded: 201
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Velero v1.17.2 (CSI snapshots + Kopia, MinIO BSL), MinIO (50Gi NFS), pg_dumpall CronJob → 192.168.2.161:/volume1/postgresql-backups. PostgreSQL gotchas: pg_hba not replicated, keepalived deadlock risk.

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Same.

**Observation:** Palace +9% context — requires both specialty files. Expected for broad cross-domain queries. In a real palace with 8+ specialty files, palace would still skip 5-6 irrelevant files; the absolute overhead is bounded by the number of relevant files, not total palace size.

---

### B4 — Flux GitOps dependency chain and failure modes

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55), `technical-gotchas.md` (67)
- Lines loaded: 143
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Dependency chain: platform-controllers → platform-configs → apps. Entry point: clusters/asgard/. GitHub PAT: gh-homelab-fluxcd. Bootstrap secret not auto-synced. Failure modes: Kustomization is ATOMIC (one failing resource blocks all), PV NFS path immutable, StatefulSet volumeClaimTemplates immutable.

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Same.

**Observation:** Palace -22% context.

---

### B5 — Full monitoring stack

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55), `platform-services.md` (58)
- Lines loaded: 134
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: kube-prometheus-stack chart 82.1.1, Grafana 12.3.3 (Keycloak SSO), Prometheus v3.9.1, Alertmanager v0.31.1, Loki 3.6.5 / chart 6.53.0, Promtail 3.5.1, pve-exporter 3.8.1. ServiceMonitor config: serviceMonitorSelector: {} + NilUsesHelmValues: false.

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Same. Flat lacks chart 6.53.0 for Loki and Alertmanager v0.31.1 — palace services file is more detailed.

**Observation:** Palace -27% context AND higher detail in platform-services.md vs flat.

---

### C1 — Most recent session work

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55), `sessions/2026-02-25.md` (24)
- Lines loaded: 100
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Session 41, 2026-02-25. Added n8n Prometheus metrics and Grafana dashboard. Resolved ServiceMonitor discovery issue (serviceMonitorSelector: {} + NilUsesHelmValues: false required). Updated platform-services.md with pve-exporter 3.8.1 and Grafana 12.3.3.

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ❌ Fail
- Answer: No session log information exists in flat MEMORY.md. Agent cannot answer.

**Observation:** Palace -46% context AND answers a question flat cannot answer at all. This is the strongest differentiator. Session logs are structurally incompatible with flat memory — they accumulate unboundedly.

---

### C2 — Session findings to promote to canonical files

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55), `sessions/2026-02-25.md` (24)
- Lines loaded: 100
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Promote ServiceMonitor discovery fix to technical-gotchas.md: "ServiceMonitor discovery: serviceMonitorSelector: {} + NilUsesHelmValues: false required". (Explicit Consolidation Notes section in session log.)

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ❌ Fail
- Answer: No session log exists in flat. Agent cannot identify unpromoted findings.

**Observation:** Palace -46% context, complete fail for flat. The locus-consolidate skill directly addresses this query type.

---

### C3 — Changes between v0.155.0 and current

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55), `sessions/2026-02-25.md` (24)
- Lines loaded: 100
- Answer quality: ⚠️ Partial
- Answer: Current version is v0.184.0. Session log covers v0.160.0 changes. Gap between v0.155.0 and v0.160.0 not covered — only one session log in fixtures.

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ⚠️ Partial
- Answer: Current is v0.184.0 (inferred from overview). No version history available.

**Observation:** Both partial. Palace gives more information (session content from v0.160.0). In a real palace with multiple session logs this query would improve substantially.

---

### D1 — Terraform plan hanging after VM create

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55), `technical-gotchas.md` (67)
- Lines loaded: 143
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: `agent { enabled = true }` makes Terraform wait for qemu-guest-agent. MUST include qemu-guest-agent in cloud-config packages AND start in runcmd. Also QEMU guest agent not running = terraform plan hangs.

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Same.

**Observation:** Palace -22% context.

---

### D2 — K3s registry mirror returns HTTP 400

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55), `technical-gotchas.md` (67)
- Lines loaded: 143
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: `override_path = true` strips `/v2/` prefix from requests. Fix: append `/v2` to the mirror endpoint URL.

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Same.

**Observation:** Palace -22% context.

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### D3 — ExternalSecret not syncing after 1Password item created

**Palace:**
- Files read: `INDEX.md` (21), `homelab-iac.md` (55), `technical-gotchas.md` (67)
- Lines loaded: 143
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Force-sync by annotating ExternalSecret with `force-sync=$(date +%s)`. Also check: API version must be `external-secrets.io/v1` (not v1beta1 — removed in ESO v2). Verify Connect mode is active (not service account token set).

**Flat:**
- Files read: `MEMORY.md` (184)
- Lines loaded: 184
- Answer quality: ✅ Pass
- Answer: Same.

**Observation:** Palace -22% context.

---

## Analysis

### Where palace wins decisively

**Type C (recency queries):** Flat completely fails C1 and C2 — session logs simply don't exist in flat memory. A palace grows its session log coverage proportionally with usage; flat memory must be manually curated and can never contain unprocessed session state.

**Type A5 (1Password VIP):** 76 vs 184 lines (-59%). When the answer is in the room main file, no specialty file navigation is needed. The palace shines when primary facts are logically grouped in room main files.

### Where palace loads comparable or more context

**B3 (broad query spanning backup + PostgreSQL):** 201 vs 184 lines (+9%). Requires both specialty files. This is expected and acceptable — palace loads *more relevant* context, just slightly more total lines.

### Fixture gap discovered

**A1 (K3s API server endpoint):** Neither fixture explicitly states the K3s API endpoint URL. The flat fixture makes it worse by labeling the Proxmox API endpoint (port 8006) ambiguously. Recommendation: add `K3s API server: https://192.168.2.10:6443 (Tailscale: https://asgard-k3s-cluster.oryx-tegu.ts.net)` to platform-services.md.

### Benchmark limitation

The automated SDK runner (`locus --palace ... --task ...`) cannot run from within an active Claude Code session (`CLAUDECODE` env var blocks nested sessions). This manual run simulates navigation decisions. A real automated run would also capture actual agent reasoning traces and cost metrics.
