zisk/sp1: make guest crates standalone workspace roots by samuelburnham · Pull Request #520 · argumentcomputer/ix

samuelburnham · 2026-07-27T12:47:58Z

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no [workspace] of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' exclude lists to be treated as standalone.

That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under base/ INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at base/zisk/guest. The root manifest's exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"] is relative, so it covers ./zisk but not ./base/zisk; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past base/zisk (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and ziskbuild's cargo metadata call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side zisk-host build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run).

Give each guest its own empty [workspace] table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no workspace = true inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

Fixes the n/a errors for the base branch in the !benchmark output, e.g. #442 (comment) (workflow logs)

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no `[workspace]` of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' `exclude` lists to be treated as standalone. That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under `base/` INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at `base/zisk/guest`. The root manifest's `exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"]` is relative, so it covers `./zisk` but not `./base/zisk`; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past `base/zisk` (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and `ziskbuild`'s `cargo metadata` call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side `zisk-host` build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run). Give each guest its own empty `[workspace]` table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no `workspace = true` inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

samuelburnham · 2026-07-27T12:47:58Z

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no [workspace] of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' exclude lists to be treated as standalone.

That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under base/ INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at base/zisk/guest. The root manifest's exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"] is relative, so it covers ./zisk but not ./base/zisk; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past base/zisk (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and ziskbuild's cargo metadata call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side zisk-host build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run).

Give each guest its own empty [workspace] table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no workspace = true inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

Fixes the n/a errors for the base branch in the !benchmark output, e.g. #442 (comment) (workflow logs)

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no `[workspace]` of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' `exclude` lists to be treated as standalone. That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under `base/` INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at `base/zisk/guest`. The root manifest's `exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"]` is relative, so it covers `./zisk` but not `./base/zisk`; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past `base/zisk` (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and `ziskbuild`'s `cargo metadata` call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side `zisk-host` build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run). Give each guest its own empty `[workspace]` table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no `workspace = true` inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

samuelburnham · 2026-07-27T12:47:58Z

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no [workspace] of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' exclude lists to be treated as standalone.

That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under base/ INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at base/zisk/guest. The root manifest's exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"] is relative, so it covers ./zisk but not ./base/zisk; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past base/zisk (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and ziskbuild's cargo metadata call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side zisk-host build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run).

Give each guest its own empty [workspace] table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no workspace = true inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

Fixes the n/a errors for the base branch in the !benchmark output, e.g. #442 (comment) (workflow logs)

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no `[workspace]` of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' `exclude` lists to be treated as standalone. That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under `base/` INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at `base/zisk/guest`. The root manifest's `exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"]` is relative, so it covers `./zisk` but not `./base/zisk`; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past `base/zisk` (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and `ziskbuild`'s `cargo metadata` call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side `zisk-host` build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run). Give each guest its own empty `[workspace]` table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no `workspace = true` inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

samuelburnham · 2026-07-27T12:47:58Z

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no [workspace] of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' exclude lists to be treated as standalone.

That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under base/ INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at base/zisk/guest. The root manifest's exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"] is relative, so it covers ./zisk but not ./base/zisk; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past base/zisk (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and ziskbuild's cargo metadata call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side zisk-host build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run).

Give each guest its own empty [workspace] table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no workspace = true inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

Fixes the n/a errors for the base branch in the !benchmark output, e.g. #442 (comment) (workflow logs)

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no `[workspace]` of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' `exclude` lists to be treated as standalone. That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under `base/` INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at `base/zisk/guest`. The root manifest's `exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"]` is relative, so it covers `./zisk` but not `./base/zisk`; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past `base/zisk` (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and `ziskbuild`'s `cargo metadata` call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side `zisk-host` build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run). Give each guest its own empty `[workspace]` table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no `workspace = true` inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

samuelburnham · 2026-07-27T12:47:58Z

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no [workspace] of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' exclude lists to be treated as standalone.

That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under base/ INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at base/zisk/guest. The root manifest's exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"] is relative, so it covers ./zisk but not ./base/zisk; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past base/zisk (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and ziskbuild's cargo metadata call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side zisk-host build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run).

Give each guest its own empty [workspace] table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no workspace = true inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

Fixes the n/a errors for the base branch in the !benchmark output, e.g. #442 (comment) (workflow logs)

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no `[workspace]` of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' `exclude` lists to be treated as standalone. That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under `base/` INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at `base/zisk/guest`. The root manifest's `exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"]` is relative, so it covers `./zisk` but not `./base/zisk`; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past `base/zisk` (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and `ziskbuild`'s `cargo metadata` call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side `zisk-host` build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run). Give each guest its own empty `[workspace]` table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no `workspace = true` inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

samuelburnham · 2026-07-27T12:47:58Z

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no [workspace] of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' exclude lists to be treated as standalone.

That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under base/ INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at base/zisk/guest. The root manifest's exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"] is relative, so it covers ./zisk but not ./base/zisk; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past base/zisk (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and ziskbuild's cargo metadata call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side zisk-host build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run).

Give each guest its own empty [workspace] table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no workspace = true inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

Fixes the n/a errors for the base branch in the !benchmark output, e.g. #442 (comment) (workflow logs)

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no `[workspace]` of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' `exclude` lists to be treated as standalone. That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under `base/` INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at `base/zisk/guest`. The root manifest's `exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"]` is relative, so it covers `./zisk` but not `./base/zisk`; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past `base/zisk` (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and `ziskbuild`'s `cargo metadata` call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side `zisk-host` build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run). Give each guest its own empty `[workspace]` table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no `workspace = true` inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

samuelburnham · 2026-07-27T12:47:58Z

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no [workspace] of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' exclude lists to be treated as standalone.

That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under base/ INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at base/zisk/guest. The root manifest's exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"] is relative, so it covers ./zisk but not ./base/zisk; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past base/zisk (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and ziskbuild's cargo metadata call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side zisk-host build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run).

Give each guest its own empty [workspace] table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no workspace = true inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

Fixes the n/a errors for the base branch in the !benchmark output, e.g. #442 (comment) (workflow logs)

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no `[workspace]` of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' `exclude` lists to be treated as standalone. That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under `base/` INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at `base/zisk/guest`. The root manifest's `exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"]` is relative, so it covers `./zisk` but not `./base/zisk`; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past `base/zisk` (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and `ziskbuild`'s `cargo metadata` call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side `zisk-host` build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run). Give each guest its own empty `[workspace]` table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no `workspace = true` inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

samuelburnham · 2026-07-27T12:47:58Z

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no [workspace] of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' exclude lists to be treated as standalone.

That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under base/ INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at base/zisk/guest. The root manifest's exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"] is relative, so it covers ./zisk but not ./base/zisk; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past base/zisk (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and ziskbuild's cargo metadata call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side zisk-host build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run).

Give each guest its own empty [workspace] table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no workspace = true inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

Fixes the n/a errors for the base branch in the !benchmark output, e.g. #442 (comment) (workflow logs)

The zkVM guest crates (zisk/guest, zisk/agg-guest, sp1/guest) are compiled out-of-tree for the riscv target by the zkVM build scripts, never as part of the host workspace. They carried no `[workspace]` of their own and relied purely on the ancestor manifests' `exclude` lists to be treated as standalone. That breaks under a NESTED checkout. The benchmark base-run (bench-pr.yml) checks the base repo out under `base/` INSIDE the PR checkout, so the base guest lives at `base/zisk/guest`. The root manifest's `exclude = ["zisk", "sp1"]` is relative, so it covers `./zisk` but not `./base/zisk`; cargo's workspace search for the base guest walks up past `base/zisk` (which excludes it) to the outer PR-checkout root, which neither lists nor excludes it, and `ziskbuild`'s `cargo metadata` call panics with "current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not". The base-side `zisk-host` build then fails and the main column of the bench comparison comes up empty (seen on the zisk-InitStd-execute base run). Give each guest its own empty `[workspace]` table so cargo pins its workspace to the crate itself and never walks up to an ancestor, regardless of nesting — exactly what the cargo error recommends. Verified by reproducing the nested layout: without the table cargo emits the exact error; with it, resolution no longer reaches the outer workspace. The guests use no `workspace = true` inheritance, so a standalone root changes nothing else.

samuelburnham force-pushed the sb/zisk-sp1-guest-workspace-roots branch from d0ece22 to ea477b8Compare July 27, 2026 12:49

samuelburnham marked this pull request as ready for review July 27, 2026 14:45

samuelburnham requested a review from arthurpaulino July 27, 2026 14:45

samuelburnham enabled auto-merge (squash) July 27, 2026 14:48

johnchandlerburnham approved these changes Jul 27, 2026
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samuelburnham merged commit cadf5f2 into mainJul 27, 2026
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samuelburnham deleted the sb/zisk-sp1-guest-workspace-roots branch July 27, 2026 15:47