fix(paged): scrub harness vars for vllm serve

Assisted-by: Codex:gpt-5

backend/cpp/llama-cpp-localai-paged/docs/GB10_PARITY_PHASE0_RESULTS.md

@@ -2747,3 +2747,25 @@ Verification:
   dense dry-run with `VLLM_READY_ATTEMPTS=700`.
 - DGX dry-run artifact:
   `/home/mudler/bench/phase48_readiness_harness_dryrun/20260701_100533`.
+
+## Phase 49 vLLM Env Hygiene
+
+Phase 49 cleans up benchmark log noise observed during the Phase47 retry. vLLM
+warned about harness-owned environment variables such as `VLLM_READY_ATTEMPTS`
+and `VLLM_MODEL` because they were inherited by the `vllm serve` process.
+
+Change:
+
+- Wrap `vllm serve` with `env -u` for harness-owned variables:
+  `VLLM_MODEL`, `VLLM_BIN`, `VLLM_READY_ATTEMPTS`,
+  `VLLM_GPU_MEMORY_UTILIZATION`, `VLLM_MAX_MODEL_LEN`, `VLLM_MAX_NUM_SEQS`,
+  `VLLM_TENSOR_PARALLEL_SIZE`, and `VLLM_EXTRA_ARGS`.
+- Keep intentional vLLM runtime variables such as `VLLM_LOGGING_LEVEL`.
+
+Verification:
+
+- Red grep first proved the scrub was absent.
+- Green checks after the patch included `bash -n`, grep for `-u VLLM_MODEL`,
+  and a DGX dense dry-run with `VLLM_READY_ATTEMPTS=700`.
+- DGX dry-run artifact:
+  `/home/mudler/bench/phase49_vllm_env_hygiene_dryrun/20260701_102138`.

backend/cpp/llama-cpp-localai-paged/docs/PARITY_HANDOFF.md

@@ -606,6 +606,13 @@ gates were green: MoE `8cb0ce23777bf55f92f63d0292c756b0`, dense
 `1.1560x` at `n=8`) but falls behind at `n=32/128` (`0.9036x`, `0.7912x`), and
 TTFT remains `1.87x` to `4.05x` vLLM. This does not change the GB10 conclusion.
 
+Phase 49 removes vLLM log noise from harness-owned environment variables. The
+`vllm serve` child now unsets `VLLM_MODEL`, `VLLM_BIN`,
+`VLLM_READY_ATTEMPTS`, `VLLM_GPU_MEMORY_UTILIZATION`, `VLLM_MAX_MODEL_LEN`,
+`VLLM_MAX_NUM_SEQS`, `VLLM_TENSOR_PARALLEL_SIZE`, and `VLLM_EXTRA_ARGS` while
+preserving intentional vLLM runtime variables such as `VLLM_LOGGING_LEVEL`. Dry
+run: `/home/mudler/bench/phase49_vllm_env_hygiene_dryrun/20260701_102138`.
+
 ---
 
 ## 5. METHODOLOGY LESSONS (so you do not repeat the mistakes)
@@ -697,6 +704,7 @@ Only pursue if (a)+(b) are not options and someone explicitly wants the residual
 - `~/bench/phase47_dense_serving/20260701_095151` - incomplete dense serving attempt; pre-gates and paged arm completed, vLLM did not produce result JSONs under the old readiness budget.
 - `~/bench/phase48_readiness_harness_dryrun/20260701_100533` - harness dry-run proving configurable readiness budgets and clean preflight before retrying dense serving.
 - `~/bench/phase47_dense_serving_retry/20260701_100811` - completed dense serving snapshot after Phase48; pre/post md5 and op gates green; paged low-N decode ahead, high-N aggregate and TTFT behind.
+- `~/bench/phase49_vllm_env_hygiene_dryrun/20260701_102138` - harness dry-run after scrubbing harness-owned `VLLM_*` variables from the `vllm serve` child environment.
 - Per-engine logs `~/bench/COMBINED_{paged,vllm}_{MOE,DENSE}_server.log`; `~/bench/BENCHMARK_PROGRESS.md`.
 - Graph-node-traced high-N profiles: `~/highN_prof2/*.nsys-rep` (paged npl=256), `~/highN_vllm/*.nsys-rep` (vLLM), 2026-06-30.
 - A/B dirs: `~/bench/marlin_gate/`, `~/bench/gdn_p1_ab/`.

backend/cpp/llama-cpp-localai-paged/paged-current-serving-snapshot.sh

@@ -274,7 +274,11 @@ run_vllm() {
     read -r -a extra_args <<< "$VLLM_EXTRA_ARGS"
   fi
   log "starting vLLM server"
-  nohup "$VLLM_BIN" serve "$VLLM_MODEL" \
+  nohup env \
+    -u VLLM_MODEL -u VLLM_BIN -u VLLM_READY_ATTEMPTS \
+    -u VLLM_GPU_MEMORY_UTILIZATION -u VLLM_MAX_MODEL_LEN -u VLLM_MAX_NUM_SEQS \
+    -u VLLM_TENSOR_PARALLEL_SIZE -u VLLM_EXTRA_ARGS \
+    "$VLLM_BIN" serve "$VLLM_MODEL" \
     --served-model-name "$SERVED_MODEL_NAME" --gpu-memory-utilization "$VLLM_GPU_MEMORY_UTILIZATION" --max-model-len "$VLLM_MAX_MODEL_LEN" \
     --max-num-seqs "$VLLM_MAX_NUM_SEQS" --host 127.0.0.1 --port "$VLLM_PORT" --tensor-parallel-size "$VLLM_TENSOR_PARALLEL_SIZE" \
     "${extra_args[@]}" \