nedcut · nedcut · Jul 18, 2026 · Jul 18, 2026
diff --git a/config/openrouter_pricing_snapshot.json b/config/openrouter_pricing_snapshot.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "schema_version": 1,
-  "checked_at_utc": "2026-07-17T19:37:57Z",
+  "checked_at_utc": "2026-07-18T19:50:59Z",
   "source": "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/models and per-model /endpoints responses",
   "currency": "USD",
   "rates_are_per_token": true,
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@
     "runtime_contingency_multiplier": 1.5
   },
   "runtime_observations": {
-    "source": "accepted 4,096-token native-minimum-reasoning smokes, 2026-07-17 (data/publication-runs/smoke-frontier-4096-2026-07-17/); see docs/run_logs/sota-v2-smokes-2026-07-17.md",
-    "observed_at_utc": "2026-07-17T19:42:44Z",
+    "source": "accepted 4,096-token native-minimum-reasoning smokes from 2026-07-17 plus the 2026-07-18 GLM 5.2 Novita route amendment; see docs/run_logs/sota-v2-smokes-2026-07-17.md and docs/run_logs/sota-v2-glm-novita-amendment-2026-07-18.md",
+    "observed_at_utc": "2026-07-18T19:52:17Z",
     "api_seconds_per_decision": {
       "anthropic/claude-sonnet-5": 8.657,
       "google/gemini-3.5-flash": 1.497,
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
       "qwen/qwen3.7-plus": 3.586,
       "tencent/hy3:free": 4.087,
       "x-ai/grok-4.5": 7.683,
-      "z-ai/glm-5.2": 6.656
+      "z-ai/glm-5.2": 8.045
     }
   },
   "models": {
@@ -39,6 +39,6 @@
     "qwen/qwen3.7-plus": {"prompt": 0.00000032, "completion": 0.00000128},
     "tencent/hy3:free": {"prompt": 0, "completion": 0},
     "x-ai/grok-4.5": {"prompt": 0.000002, "completion": 0.000006},
-    "z-ai/glm-5.2": {"prompt": 0.0000014, "completion": 0.0000044}
+    "z-ai/glm-5.2": {"prompt": 0.0000002758, "completion": 0.0000008668}
   }
 }
diff --git a/config/sota_v2_models.json b/config/sota_v2_models.json
@@ -8,9 +8,9 @@
   "preset": "leaderboard",
   "repeats": 3,
   "selection_status": "frozen",
-  "selection_frozen_at_utc": "2026-07-17T19:43:55Z",
-  "selection_revision": "2026-07-17-phase-one-after-smoke-exclusions",
-  "catalog_checked_at_utc": "2026-07-17T19:37:57Z",
+  "selection_frozen_at_utc": "2026-07-18T19:50:59Z",
+  "selection_revision": "2026-07-18-glm-novita-route-amendment",
+  "catalog_checked_at_utc": "2026-07-18T19:50:59Z",
   "selection_policy": "User-curated current frontier panel: five large American-lab proprietary models and five leading open-weight models. Every OpenRouter route pins an exact provider slug, endpoint tag, and dated endpoint name with fallbacks disabled. Models run at native-minimum reasoning: disabled when optional and the lowest catalog-supported effort when mandatory. Kimi K3 is parked after its clean smoke failed and demonstrated cap pressure; the exact Nemotron 3 Ultra and DeepSeek V4 Pro routes are parked after bounded HTTP 404 infrastructure failures.",
   "models": [
     {
@@ -94,20 +94,20 @@
       "role": "Meta proprietary frontier anchor"
     },
     {
-      "id": "openrouter-glm-5.2-zai",
+      "id": "openrouter-glm-5.2-novita",
       "provider": "openrouter",
       "model": "z-ai/glm-5.2",
       "transport": "gateway-api",
       "cohort": "open-weight",
-      "upstream_provider": "Z.AI",
-      "upstream_provider_slug": "z-ai/fp8",
-      "endpoint_tag": "z-ai/fp8",
-      "endpoint_name": "Z.AI | z-ai/glm-5.2-20260616",
+      "upstream_provider": "Novita",
+      "upstream_provider_slug": "novita/fp8",
+      "endpoint_tag": "novita/fp8",
+      "endpoint_name": "Novita | z-ai/glm-5.2-20260616",
       "reasoning_policy": "disabled",
       "reasoning_effort": null,
       "fixed_options": {"OPENROUTER_REASONING_ENABLED": "false"},
       "absent_options": ["OPENROUTER_REASONING_EFFORT"],
-      "role": "Z.ai open-weight anchor on first-party FP8 route"
+      "role": "Z.ai open-weight anchor on healthy Novita FP8 route; replaces the unhealthy first-party endpoint"
     },
     {
       "id": "openrouter-minimax-m3-minimax",
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@
     "openrouter-gemini-3.5-flash-google-ai-studio",
     "openrouter-grok-4.5-xai",
     "openrouter-muse-spark-1.1-meta",
-    "openrouter-glm-5.2-zai",
+    "openrouter-glm-5.2-novita",
     "openrouter-minimax-m3-minimax",
     "openrouter-qwen3.7-plus-alibaba",
     "openrouter-mistral-medium-3.5-mistral",

diff --git a/config/sota_v2_smoke_manifest.json b/config/sota_v2_smoke_manifest.json
@@ -54,19 +54,19 @@
       "upstream_provider": "Google AI Studio",
       "upstream_provider_slug": "google-ai-studio"
     },
-    "openrouter-glm-5.2-zai": {
+    "openrouter-glm-5.2-novita": {
       "accepted": true,
       "api_calls": 4,
-      "artifact_path": "data/publication-runs/smoke-frontier-4096-2026-07-17/raw/openrouter-glm-5.2-zai--4096.json",
-      "artifact_sha256": "37da29291723f868a10668cbbe9c667108693800227d56f058db38a1ec61cb18",
+      "artifact_path": "data/publication-runs/smoke-glm-novita-4096-2026-07-18/raw/openrouter-glm-5.2-novita--4096.json",
+      "artifact_sha256": "244ae595503e2288ac4051c5f8c10b9ebff46eb159924b14a668c43541e88c52",
       "calls_with_finish_reason": 4,
       "contract_fingerprint": "558e8f35ea1d66b9",
       "cost_decisions": 4,
       "decision_failure_rate": 0.0,
       "decisions_with_usage": 4,
-      "endpoint_name": "Z.AI | z-ai/glm-5.2-20260616",
-      "endpoint_tag": "z-ai/fp8",
-      "max_output_tokens_per_call": 311,
+      "endpoint_name": "Novita | z-ai/glm-5.2-20260616",
+      "endpoint_tag": "novita/fp8",
+      "max_output_tokens_per_call": 325,
       "model": "z-ai/glm-5.2",
       "output_token_cap": 4096,
       "protocol_repair_attempts": 0,
@@ -75,11 +75,11 @@
       "reasoning_effort": null,
       "reasoning_policy": "disabled",
       "reasoning_tokens": 0,
-      "recorded_at_utc": "2026-07-17T19:43:25+00:00",
+      "recorded_at_utc": "2026-07-18T19:52:17+00:00",
       "scaffold_fingerprint": "d7321ad9d0a739b4",
       "truncated_calls": 0,
-      "upstream_provider": "Z.AI",
-      "upstream_provider_slug": "z-ai/fp8"
+      "upstream_provider": "Novita",
+      "upstream_provider_slug": "novita/fp8"
     },
     "openrouter-gpt-5.6-luna-openai": {
       "accepted": true,

diff --git a/docs/PUBLISH_READINESS.md b/docs/PUBLISH_READINESS.md
@@ -10,10 +10,12 @@
 **Last reviewed:** 2026-07-18
 **Current target:** Publish a validated `sota-v2` leaderboard, accompanying blog
 post, GitHub release, and public site.  
-**Current state:** The phase-one ten-model registry is frozen as of 2026-07-17,
+**Current state:** The phase-one ten-model registry is frozen as amended on 2026-07-18,
 uses exact OpenRouter endpoint tags, and completed its fresh 4,096-token
 native-minimum-reasoning smoke gate; all ten registered routes are accepted with
-zero failures, zero truncations, and no cap-pressure trigger. Earlier 1,024-token
+zero failures, zero truncations, and no cap-pressure trigger. GLM 5.2 moved from
+the unhealthy first-party Z.AI endpoint to an exact Novita FP8 route and passed
+a fresh replacement smoke. Earlier 1,024-token
 smokes are retained only as superseded operational evidence. The full panel run
 is the remaining blocker before any eligible model row exists.
 **Current weekly focus:** [#63 — Publication sprint: freeze and ship GM-Bench
@@ -264,7 +266,7 @@ The provisional restarted headline panel is:
 | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Google AI Studio | Google fast frontier anchor; mandatory `minimal` reasoning |
 | Grok 4.5 | xAI | xAI frontier anchor; mandatory `low` reasoning |
 | Muse Spark 1.1 | Meta | Meta frontier anchor; mandatory `minimal` reasoning |
-| GLM 5.2 | Z.AI FP8 | First-party open-weight anchor |
+| GLM 5.2 | Novita FP8 | Open-weight anchor; replacement for the unhealthy first-party Z.AI route |
 | MiniMax M3 | MiniMax FP8 | First-party open-weight anchor |
 | Qwen 3.7 Plus | Alibaba | Qwen frontier open-weight anchor |
 | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral | European open-weight anchor |
@@ -559,8 +561,9 @@ decision and why.
 | 2026-07-17 | Switch Nemotron 3 Ultra from paid Together to the exact free Nvidia route before its first smoke. | OpenRouter's live catalog exposed `nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b:free` at zero input/output cost on one healthy first-party Nvidia endpoint with no listed expiration. It supports optional reasoning but does not advertise `response_format`. | Pin the dated Nvidia free endpoint with fallbacks and reasoning disabled, use prompt-only JSON plus the clean-smoke gate, and regenerate the cost plan before continuing. |
 | 2026-07-17 | Park the listed-free Nemotron 3 Ultra route after bounded infrastructure failure. | The exact Nvidia endpoint passed live catalog and authentication preflight, then both permitted real chat-completion attempts returned `HTTP 404 Not Found`. Fail-fast stopped before a complete episode and OpenRouter reported no incremental spend. | Preserve the checkpoint as infrastructure evidence, do not retry or silently substitute the paid Together route, reduce the phase-one registry and Holm family to eleven, and continue the untouched models. |
 | 2026-07-17 | Park DeepSeek V4 Pro after the same bounded infrastructure failure. | The exact first-party DeepSeek route passed live catalog and authentication preflight, then both permitted real chat-completion attempts returned `HTTP 404 Not Found`. Fail-fast stopped before a complete episode and OpenRouter reported no incremental spend. | Preserve the checkpoint, do not retry or substitute a different route, reduce the phase-one registry and Holm family to ten, and continue Mistral and HY3. |
-| 2026-07-17 | Freeze the ten-model phase-one registry and 4,096-token lane after the accepted smoke gate. | All ten registered models completed four decisions with zero failed decisions and zero truncations. Peak per-call output was 1,432 tokens, below the 3,072 cap-pressure trigger. Artifact-reported spend was $0.728909 against a $2 ceiling. | Record all ten manifest entries, freeze the registry and native-reasoning cap, retain excluded-model diagnostics, regenerate the cost plan, and unlock panel dry-runs without starting paid panel cells. |
+| 2026-07-17 | Freeze the ten-model phase-one registry and 4,096-token lane after the accepted smoke gate. | All ten registered models completed four decisions with zero failed decisions and zero truncations. Peak per-call output was 1,432 tokens, below the 3,072 cap-pressure trigger. Accepted-route artifact spend was $0.427613; total campaign spend was $0.728909 including the excluded Kimi diagnostic. | Record all ten manifest entries, freeze the registry and native-reasoning cap, retain excluded-model diagnostics, regenerate the cost plan, and unlock panel dry-runs without starting paid panel cells. |
 | 2026-07-18 | Settle successful serial-cell reservations against measured spend. | The runner retained every historical worst-case reservation, so a healthy panel could stop against cumulative hypothetical spend even after completed artifacts and the OpenRouter account established a much lower real cost. | Mark successful-cell reservations settled after post-cell spend measurement, keep failed/interrupted reservations active, and evaluate each next cell against measured spend plus only unresolved liabilities. |
+| 2026-07-18 | Amend GLM 5.2 from the unhealthy first-party Z.AI FP8 endpoint to Novita FP8. | The frozen `z-ai/fp8` endpoint remained at OpenRouter status `-2` across repeated launch preflights, while the exact dated Novita FP8 endpoint was healthy and advertised the common lane parameters. No full-panel GLM result existed. | Pin `novita/fp8`, replace rather than reuse the Z.AI smoke entry, refresh route pricing/runtime evidence, and require a clean exact-route smoke before restoring panel unlock. The replacement smoke completed 4/4 decisions with zero failures or truncations for $0.009225. |
 
 ## Experiment and release log
 

diff --git a/docs/run_logs/sota-v2-glm-novita-amendment-2026-07-18.md b/docs/run_logs/sota-v2-glm-novita-amendment-2026-07-18.md
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# sota-v2 GLM 5.2 route amendment — 2026-07-18
+
+Repeated launch preflights found the frozen first-party Z.AI FP8 endpoint for
+`z-ai/glm-5.2` unhealthy in OpenRouter's live catalog (`status: -2`). No
+full-panel GLM result existed, so the registry was amended before panel data to
+the exact dated Novita FP8 endpoint:
+
+- provider slug and endpoint tag: `novita/fp8`
+- endpoint name: `Novita | z-ai/glm-5.2-20260616`
+- reasoning: disabled, unchanged from the prior route
+- output cap: 4,096 tokens, unchanged
+- fallbacks: disabled
+
+The replacement endpoint passed live catalog and authentication preflight. Its
+serial benchmark smoke then completed all four decisions with zero failed
+decisions, zero truncations, complete usage and finish-reason telemetry, and
+exact Novita provenance. Peak output was 325 tokens, safely below the 3,072-token
+cap-pressure threshold. Artifact-reported spend was **$0.009225** and API time
+was 32.1795 seconds, or 8.045 seconds per decision.
+
+The accepted artifact is retained outside Git at
+`data/publication-runs/smoke-glm-novita-4096-2026-07-18/raw/openrouter-glm-5.2-novita--4096.json`
+with SHA-256
+`244ae595503e2288ac4051c5f8c10b9ebff46eb159924b14a668c43541e88c52`.
+The superseded Z.AI artifact remains retained as historical evidence but no
+longer unlocks the current registry.
+
+Replacing the $0.047053 Z.AI smoke with this $0.009225 Novita smoke brings the
+current ten-route accepted-smoke total to **$0.389785**. Scaling observed smoke
+spend by the panel's 120x decision-count ratio gives an empirical panel estimate
+of **$46.7742**; the operator ceiling remains authoritative and may stop the run
+before completion if measured spend diverges upward.
diff --git a/docs/run_logs/sota-v2-smokes-2026-07-17.md b/docs/run_logs/sota-v2-smokes-2026-07-17.md
@@ -8,7 +8,9 @@ Git under `data/publication-runs/smoke-frontier-4096-2026-07-17/`.
 
 All ten registered models completed four decisions with zero failed decisions,
 zero truncations, complete cost/finish-reason telemetry, and the exact pinned
-upstream route. Artifact-reported spend was **$0.728909**.
+upstream route. Accepted-route artifact spend was **$0.427613**. Total smoke
+campaign spend was **$0.728909** including the excluded $0.301296 Kimi K3
+diagnostic described below.
 
 | Model | Cost | Peak output tokens per call |
 | --- | ---: | ---: |

diff --git a/results/analysis/output-budget-cost-estimate.json b/results/analysis/output-budget-cost-estimate.json
@@ -25,10 +25,10 @@
     "total_calls": 4840
   },
   "costs_usd": {
-    "panel": 140.8533504,
-    "smoke": 1.17377792,
-    "total_unrounded": 142.02712832,
-    "total_with_1_2x_contingency": 170.432553984
+    "panel": 129.589868544,
+    "smoke": 1.0799155712,
+    "total_unrounded": 130.6697841152,
+    "total_with_1_2x_contingency": 156.80374093824
   },
   "models": [
     {
@@ -82,14 +82,14 @@
       "smoke_cost_usd": 0.109632
     },
     {
-      "cost_per_decision_usd": 0.0292224,
-      "experiment_id": "openrouter-glm-5.2-zai",
+      "cost_per_decision_usd": 0.0057568128,
+      "experiment_id": "openrouter-glm-5.2-novita",
       "model": "z-ai/glm-5.2",
-      "observed_api_seconds_per_decision": 6.656,
+      "observed_api_seconds_per_decision": 8.045,
       "panel_calls": 480,
-      "panel_cost_usd": 14.026752,
+      "panel_cost_usd": 2.763270144,
       "smoke_calls": 4,
-      "smoke_cost_usd": 0.1168896
+      "smoke_cost_usd": 0.0230272512
     },
     {
       "cost_per_decision_usd": 0.0073152,
@@ -132,10 +132,10 @@
       "smoke_cost_usd": 0.0
     }
   ],
-  "pricing_checked_at_utc": "2026-07-17T19:37:57Z",
+  "pricing_checked_at_utc": "2026-07-18T19:50:59Z",
   "runtime": {
     "note": "Runtime observations are sourced from every currently registered model's accepted smoke; recheck before paid full-panel runs if pricing, routes, or prompts change.",
-    "observation_source": "accepted 4,096-token native-minimum-reasoning smokes, 2026-07-17 (data/publication-runs/smoke-frontier-4096-2026-07-17/); see docs/run_logs/sota-v2-smokes-2026-07-17.md",
+    "observation_source": "accepted 4,096-token native-minimum-reasoning smokes from 2026-07-17 plus the 2026-07-18 GLM 5.2 Novita route amendment; see docs/run_logs/sota-v2-smokes-2026-07-17.md and docs/run_logs/sota-v2-glm-novita-amendment-2026-07-18.md",
     "observed_api_seconds_per_decision_by_model": {
       "anthropic/claude-sonnet-5": 8.657,
       "google/gemini-3.5-flash": 1.497,
@@ -146,9 +146,9 @@
       "qwen/qwen3.7-plus": 3.586,
       "tencent/hy3:free": 4.087,
       "x-ai/grok-4.5": 7.683,
-      "z-ai/glm-5.2": 6.656
+      "z-ai/glm-5.2": 8.045
     },
-    "observed_at_utc": "2026-07-17T19:42:44Z",
+    "observed_at_utc": "2026-07-18T19:52:17Z",
     "status": "complete-from-accepted-smokes"
   },
   "schema_version": 2,

diff --git a/tests/test_publication.py b/tests/test_publication.py
@@ -236,7 +236,8 @@ def test_publication_model_registry_is_consistent_with_revised_lane() -> None:
     assert len(identities) == len(models)
     assert len({row["endpoint_name"] for row in models}) == len(models)
     assert registry["selection_status"] == "frozen"
-    assert registry["selection_frozen_at_utc"] == "2026-07-17T19:43:55Z"
+    assert registry["selection_frozen_at_utc"] == "2026-07-18T19:50:59Z"
+    assert registry["selection_revision"] == "2026-07-18-glm-novita-route-amendment"
     assert registry["output_token_cap"] == lane["output_token_cap"] == 4096
     assert registry["output_budget_status"] == lane["output_budget_status"] == "frozen-native-reasoning-cap"
     assert (
@@ -257,6 +258,11 @@ def test_publication_model_registry_is_consistent_with_revised_lane() -> None:
     assert lane["model_registry"] == "config/sota_v2_models.json"
     assert lane["minimum_headline_models"] >= 8
 
+    glm = identities[("openrouter", "z-ai/glm-5.2")]
+    assert glm["id"] == "openrouter-glm-5.2-novita"
+    assert glm["upstream_provider"] == "Novita"
+    assert glm["endpoint_tag"] == "novita/fp8"
+
     assert sweep["status"] == "retired-fixed-safety-cap"
     for model in models:
         assert model["upstream_provider_slug"] == model["endpoint_tag"]

diff --git a/web/src/data/leaderboard.json b/web/src/data/leaderboard.json
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@
         "provider": "openrouter"
       },
       {
-        "id": "openrouter-glm-5.2-zai",
+        "id": "openrouter-glm-5.2-novita",
         "model": "z-ai/glm-5.2",
         "provider": "openrouter"
       },