Docs
Introduction
How to interpret Basis marks and indices: Quote, Panel, risk marks, observatory architecture, and public API contracts.
What Mark Compute / Basis is
Mark Compute operates a shared observatory tape over public GPU spot and neocloud listing metadata and control-plane signals.
Basis is the product line that exposes that tape:
| Surface | Question it answers | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Quote | Which listing survives an integrity gate, and what does the job really cost? | Live (workbench); API contract below |
| Panel | How stressed / correlated is the observed market right now? | Live (workbench indices); API contract below |
| Forward | Timing vs futures / commit-vs-wait narratives | Roadmap (not claimed live) |
The market problem
Marketplaces show listed $/hour. That sticker omits:
- Unreliable inventory signals (see §3.2): listings whose observable signals are inconsistent with reliable execution availability
- Hidden or missing egress: transfer economics not in the sticker
- Control-plane decay: slow APIs, host churn, interruption risk that force resubmission
Basis publishes pre-trade risk marks and workload-aware true job cost so routers and brokers can reject trap inventory before capital is committed.
What Basis measures (and does not)
| Measures | Does not measure |
|---|---|
| Deployment reliability signals before provision | GPU FLOPS / MFU / training throughput |
| Listing economics (spot + modeled fees + risk premium) | Host training-fabric topology or NCCL health |
| Panel stress and co-movement from the same tape | Clearing, margin, or settlement obligations |
Quickstart (3 steps)
- Define a workload: hours, data transfer (GB), optional lane and GPU filter. Demo preset: 48h · 500 GB · P2P host lane.
- Request a Quote mark: compare naive listed rankings vs PIS-gated survivors ranked by TRAC.
- Read honesty: Listed · TRAC · Δ, fee lineage (
observed/estimate/zero_assumption), and signal coverage.