docs: clarify notebook artifact requirement

README.md

@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ The repo is organized around one clear submission thesis:
 
 Training is supporting evidence. The environment is the product.
 
+A trained model is optional for this repo's submission story. A public Colab notebook artifact is still required by the hackathon, and that notebook can stay evaluation-first if training evidence is weak.
+
 ## Current Status
 
 This repository is the clean hackathon workspace. The detailed planning docs live in `docs/FUSION_DESIGN_LAB_PLAN_V2.md`, `docs/FUSION_DELIVERABLES_MAP.md`, and `docs/FUSION_NEXT_12_HOURS_CHECKLIST.md`.
@@ -106,6 +108,7 @@ uv sync --extra notebooks
 - Recommended compute workspace: Northflank Jupyter Notebook with PyTorch on the team H100
 - OpenEnv deployment target: Hugging Face Spaces
 - Minimal submission notebook target: Colab
+- Required notebook artifact: one public Colab notebook, even if it only demonstrates evaluation traces rather than a trained policy
 - Verifier of record: `constellaration.problems.GeometricalProblem`
 - Environment style: fresh wiring in this repo, not a port of the old `ai-sci-feasible-designs` harness
 - Northflank containers are ephemeral, so persistent storage should be attached before relying on saved models, caches, or fixture data

docs/FUSION_DESIGN_LAB_PLAN_V2.md

@@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ We are submitting a clear, reproducible training environment for a constrained s
 
 Training is supporting evidence. The environment is the product.
 
+A trained model is optional. The Colab notebook is still a required public artifact, and it can remain evaluation-first if training evidence is weak.
+
 ## 2. Locked Decisions
 
 These decisions are now fixed unless a hard blocker appears:
@@ -86,7 +88,7 @@ The judging signal now implies four priorities:
 The four visible artifacts remain:
 
 1. HF Space environment
-2. Colab notebook for evaluation or training
+2. Required Colab notebook for evaluation or training
 3. 1-minute demo video
 4. Public repo and README
 
@@ -94,7 +96,7 @@ The primary compute workspace should be Northflank:
 
 - Northflank Jupyter Notebook with PyTorch on the team H100 for development, verifier integration, baselines, and training/debugging
 - HF Space as the hosted environment surface
-- Colab as the minimal required public notebook artifact
+- Colab as the minimal required public notebook artifact, even if it ships as an evaluation-first notebook instead of a training-first notebook
 
 But the evidence order is:
 
@@ -195,6 +197,7 @@ Use each surface for one clear purpose:
   - remote `reset` and `step` endpoint for the final demo path
 - Colab:
   - minimal reproducible evaluation or training notebook required by the hackathon
+  - the notebook itself is mandatory; a trained model inside it is not
 
 Northflank-specific constraint:
 

training/notebooks/README.md

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ Recommended split:
 
 - Northflank notebook: main compute workspace on the team H100
 - Colab notebook: thin public artifact required by the hackathon
+- trained model: optional; if training evidence is weak, the required Colab notebook can stay eval-first
 
 ## Status
 
@@ -40,4 +41,4 @@ Runnable repo path:
 - note: `training/notebooks/NORTHFLANK_SMOKE_NOTE.md`
 - latest passing artifact example: `/home/jovyan/fusion-design-lab/smoke/northflank_smoke_20260308T023646Z.json`
 
-The notebooks are supporting evidence for the environment, not the primary product.
+The notebooks are supporting evidence for the environment, not the primary product. The required artifact is the notebook itself, not a trained model checkpoint.