Validator-voted repository weight consensus

[LandynDev]

Summary

Repository emission shares become validator-voted instead of hardcoded. Each validator publishes a basket of up to 10 repos to the commitments pallet; every validator applies the stake-weighted mean of all eligible baskets, aggregated at a fixed snapshot block (B = block - block % 3600, ~2x/day), so all validators derive byte-identical weights and vtrust is unaffected.

Motivation

master_repositories.json emission shares are law-in-code: every share change requires a PR and validators have no say. This moves repo weight control to validators while keeping weight vectors identical across the subnet (consensus moves one layer up, mirroring Yuma's own stake-weighted mechanism).

Changes

• gittensor/validator/weight_consensus/ new package: codec (zlib payload, u16 weights), consensus (big-int stake-weighted mean, activation gate, apply_consensus overlay), chain (raw query_map/BigRaw paths; SDK helpers are lossy for binary), publisher (vote from local prefs file or baked shares, republish only on change), manager (warm compute at snapshot boundaries, numerator disk cache, last-good -> baked fallback chain; never raises)
• forward.py: maybe_refresh tick outside the round gate + run_weight_consensus overlay on the loaded registry
• neurons/validator.py: ConsensusManager init + snapshot store hook (baskets + aggregate to postgres when STORE_DB_RESULTS is on; powers dashboards, tables land in gittensor-db)
• Constants in validator/utils/config.py, flags --neuron.consensus_prefs_path / --neuron.disable_weight_consensus
• 57 tests: codec fuzz cases, golden aggregation vector, shuffled-input determinism (byte-identity), cache/fallback behavior matrix, never-raises orchestrator
• README: consensus summary + archive endpoint recommendation (lite nodes prune snapshot state; fallback is graceful either way)

Deferred decisions (team to revisit post-merge; all one-line changes)

• CONSENSUS_MAX_REPOS = 10 basket cap

• CONSENSUS_MIN_VALIDATOR_STAKE_RAO = 30k alpha voter threshold

• CONSENSUS_SNAPSHOT_INTERVAL_BLOCKS = 3600 (~2x/day recalc)

• Non-voting validators: warn-only bystander mode now; termination alongside the warning deliberately deferred

• Activation gate >= 50% of eligible stake voted (below -> baked JSON; safe rollout)

• Stake-weighted mean (vs median) aggregation

• Per-repo scoring hyperparams for newly voted repos still require a master_repositories.json PR (novel repos run code defaults); consider a seamless API endpoint for tuning later

• Alpha cost: should registering a repository outright require a Gittensor alpha payment?

• Aggregate min-support threshold (guardrail Gt 79 #2): require a repo to exceed x% (e.g. 5%) of the aggregated weight vector before it enters the effective repo list. A 30k-alpha validator voting some repo at 100% of their basket lands at well under 1% of the stake-weighted aggregate and would be excluded until broader support exists. Currently OFF (pure mean, no threshold).

Follow-ups (separate PRs)

• gitt validator weights CLI (interactive basket set/show, mirror-trackability guardrail) + docs
• gittensor-db tables validator_weight_baskets / repo_weight_consensus, DAS endpoint, subtle UI section
• Mirror admin endpoints (GET /admin/repos, POST /admin/repos/deregister) + env-gated mirror sync with dereg hysteresis