Evidence-Conformant Pre-Generation Control and Completion Decisions in EQ-λ RAG v0.1

This report evaluates an evidence-first control architecture for a locally executed retrieval-augmented generation system. Retrieval evidence intended to remain usable without a generative model is formed first; v0.1 does not assess its relevance, correctness, or usefulness to maintainers. A pre-generation controller then selects RETRIEVAL_ONLY, GENERATE, or PARTIAL from the evidence state, model state, execution budget, and remaining deadline. A post-generation evidence contract prevents an answer from being marked COMPLETE when its citation set is not a subset of the supporting-source set. On macOS, twelve fixed holdout queries were divided equally among unique_known, ambiguous, and insufficient classes. In baseline B0, generation was attempted for all twelve queries; eleven timed out and all twelve ended as PARTIAL. In controlled condition B1, four queries took RETRIEVAL_ONLY, four took GENERATE, and four became pre-generation PARTIAL. Five results ended COMPLETE and seven PARTIAL, but only one COMPLETE result came from generation. The preserved results recorded zero false-complete cases, zero hidden-label runtime reads, and 24/24 replay agreement. On Windows, the retrieval foundation comprised 1,378 maintenance-history records, six standard operating procedures, and two drawing records, for 1,386 vectors. Every self-query reached the top eight. Four non-top-one cases were explained by exact-score ties, leaving zero unexplained non-top-one cases. Rebuilt float32 vectors were not bitwise identical to stored vectors, but satisfied the predefined numerical-equivalence criteria, with a maximum difference of one ULP. Independent re-verification passed. A transfer envelope reconstructed from preserved Mac actuals matched 30/30 decisions, although twelve cases were case-ID substitutions and only eighteen were independent observations. The Windows pre-generation controller, model-residency observation, cold/warm timing, deadline contract, ten-key input, and port-8798 end-to-end path remain unimplemented or unmeasured.