Configuration
interlock has no config file. A measurement run reads a few environment variables. route, table, check, and runs do not need them.
SWITCHYARD_* still works for this release. When a SWITCHYARD_ name answers and the INTERLOCK_ name does not, interlock warns once on stderr and tells you the new name.
INTERLOCK_OLLAMA_SERVE
Section titled “INTERLOCK_OLLAMA_SERVE”Path of a JSON file that records how Ollama was started for this run. A restart replays that record. A missing record refuses the restart before anything is stopped.
The fields are argv, env, log_path, library_path, ggml_cuda_sha256, and backend_line. interlock does not sign in. There is no OLLAMA_CUDA_BACKEND variable. If a backend has to be forced, the variable is OLLAMA_LLM_LIBRARY, and it belongs in the recorded start line.
At the start of a run the record’s OLLAMA_* and LLAMA_ARG_* set is compared with the live process environment. A mismatch disables restarts for that run. The reason is written on the run marker as ollama_restart_disabled. Nothing is stopped.
SWITCHYARD_OLLAMA_SERVE is the old name.
INTERLOCK_OLLAMA_LOG
Section titled “INTERLOCK_OLLAMA_LOG”Path of the Ollama log that the fill-card reader opens, when the run was given one. An unreadable log is unrecorded, with a reason. The fill-card search does not invent flash attention, the KV cache type, or the backend library.
SWITCHYARD_OLLAMA_LOG is the old name.
INTERLOCK_OLLAMA_EXE
Section titled “INTERLOCK_OLLAMA_EXE”Path of the ollama executable. The CUDA library path is derived beside it, under lib/ollama/cuda_v13/. The run records the library it was given. A server that comes back on a different library stops the run.
SWITCHYARD_OLLAMA_EXE is the old name.
WATCHDOG_HEARTBEAT
Section titled “WATCHDOG_HEARTBEAT”Path of the VRAM watchdog heartbeat file. The 5090 path checks that the file’s modified time is at most 60 seconds old, and that no model is loaded, before a step starts. The file is not opened. Only its modified time is read. The default is a path on the measurement rig. Set the variable to point somewhere else. This name is not an INTERLOCK_ name.
What is not configuration
Section titled “What is not configuration”interlock route --budget-left-usd and --busy are inputs on the command. interlock does not read offrig’s balance, a ledger, or a process list to fill them in.
A model download, when a run is actually started, is limited to a model the committed spec already named. That is the spec, not an environment variable.