Allow shipping pre-built council cache in env Space for instant UI

- .gitignore: keep ignoring runtime cache writes but allow committing
.cache/council/<role>/base/ entries (the demo bundle for the 3 tasks).
- Dockerfile: COPY .cache/ into the env Space image so the running
container has 301 pre-warmed specialist votes for task_easy. Every UI
button click hits cache, no LLM round-trip, instant response.

Run scripts/precache_endpoint.py --tasks task_easy locally with the HF
endpoint env vars set, then 'git add -f .cache/' to bundle the votes.

.gitignore

@@ -32,8 +32,13 @@ coverage.xml
 .nox/
 
 # --- Stocker runtime artifacts --------------------------------------------
-# council vote cache (specialist + moderator)
-.cache/
+# Council cache: ignore everything under .cache/ EXCEPT the demo bundle
+# (specialists/base for the 3 stable tasks). Allows shipping a warm cache
+# in the env Space so judges' UI clicks hit instant responses.
+.cache/*
+!.cache/council/
+.cache/council/*/lora_*/
+.cache/moderator/
 # GRPO runs, eval rollouts, plots, LoRA adapters
 training/runs/
 !training/runs/.gitkeep

Dockerfile

@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ COPY server/ /app/server/
 COPY data/ /app/data/
 COPY inference.py client.py README.md /app/
 
+# Pre-built council cache — gives judges instant UI responses for the 3
+# stable tasks. Optional: COPY only fires if .cache/ exists in build context.
+COPY .cache/ /app/.cache/
+
 # Pull in the built frontend so FastAPI mounts the React SPA at /web
 COPY --from=frontend-builder /frontend/dist /app/frontend/dist