# Overnight Proof Runs with Cheap Models: How Verification Gates Beat Raw Model Price

Published: 2026-10-18 | Domain: https://agentafk.si | Related Papers: https://papers.tayloramarel.com (#4, #14, #15)

## Outcome first: open-weight models + verification gates beat unassisted single-shot runs by +51.3 pp to +80.0 pp

You do not need an expensive per-token frontier API to complete verified engineering work overnight. Using an existing Ollama Cloud subscription or a local LAN endpoint running `gemma4:31b` and `qwen3-coder:30b`, `agentafk.si` schedules bounded multi-step proof runs where every candidate must clear an independent executable verifier (`verifier.py`) before acceptance.

## Observed overnight benchmark results (Fixed Model Weights)

Across our published evaluation suites ([papers.tayloramarel.com](https://papers.tayloramarel.com) and [compare.baltor.ai](https://compare.baltor.ai)), holding the model weights strictly fixed while enabling the six-part harness and AgentAFK verification loop yields the following verified gains:

| Benchmark Suite | Fixed Model | Unassisted Baseline | With Baltor + AgentAFK Gate | Mean Calls to Verified Pass |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 3D Foxglade Survival & 49-Bone Rig | `gemma4:31b` | `20.0%` (2/10 specs) | `100.0%` (10/10 specs) | `2.4 calls` |
| 3D Fluted Lathe Relief & Swept-AABB | `qwen3-coder:30b` | `28.1%` stability | `100.0%` watertight & 0 tunneling | `2.1 calls` |
| 14-Constraint Long-Form Spec | `gemma4:31b` | `42.9%` (6/14 rules) | `100.0%` (14/14 rules) | `1.8 calls` |
| Harmony Secure Coding (Joint Safe+Func) | `gemma4:31b` | `31.2%` joint pass | `82.5%` joint pass (0 PoC exploits) | `2.7 calls` |

## Why a process exit is never counted as completion

In `agentafk.si`, a worker process exiting with code `0` means only that the script finished running. Work is marked `accepted` only when the morning status report confirms that every declared invariant in `verifier.py` passed, no known-wrong control was admitted, and the output artifact reopens cleanly in a fresh environment.