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NAVA learner: drive the LR schedule off the syncer global_step - #3

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AlexEisie merged 1 commit into
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fix/nava-learner-global-clock
Jul 5, 2026
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NAVA learner: drive the LR schedule off the syncer global_step#3
AlexEisie merged 1 commit into
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fix/nava-learner-global-clock

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The NAVA learner's WarmupCosineAnnealingLR was stepped once per local optimizer step, so its phase was a function of this process's inner-step count since launch. On a Spot preemption the relaunched learner reset that count to zero: it re-ran warmup and the full cosine from the top, and the two learners drifted onto independent schedules.

Re-base the schedule onto the syncer's global_step — the outer-step clock that is broadcast and re-acquired on every (re)connect, is durable on the on-demand head, and is identical across learners. A relaunched learner now resumes its LR at the correct phase; both learners always share one schedule.

  • learner: add --total-steps (outer-step horizon T); parameterize the cosine over global_step in [0, T]; replace per-step sched.step() with set_lr_from_clock() at each sync boundary (and a seed before the loop). --syncer none falls back to the local-step clock. Log the current lr.
  • backend: pass --total-steps through to the learner command.

warmup_steps and the cosine horizon are now in global/outer-step units.

The NAVA learner's WarmupCosineAnnealingLR was stepped once per local
optimizer step, so its phase was a function of this process's inner-step
count since launch. On a Spot preemption the relaunched learner reset that
count to zero: it re-ran warmup and the full cosine from the top, and the
two learners drifted onto independent schedules.

Re-base the schedule onto the syncer's global_step — the outer-step clock
that is broadcast and re-acquired on every (re)connect, is durable on the
on-demand head, and is identical across learners. A relaunched learner now
resumes its LR at the correct phase; both learners always share one
schedule.

- learner: add --total-steps (outer-step horizon T); parameterize the
  cosine over global_step in [0, T]; replace per-step sched.step() with
  set_lr_from_clock() at each sync boundary (and a seed before the loop).
  --syncer none falls back to the local-step clock. Log the current lr.
- backend: pass --total-steps through to the learner command.

warmup_steps and the cosine horizon are now in global/outer-step units.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@AlexEisie
AlexEisie merged commit 126971b into main Jul 5, 2026
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