A dense clone no longer holds the repository in memory until the exchange ends: each round's artifacts land in the log and their resident bytes are released, the shape of git's index-pack. A delta whose basis has not arrived defers on its hash; a basis first seen as a phantom is revisited when its content lands. Cone-scoped clones keep the batched pass, whose keep set needs the converged store. Streamed and batched logs are byte-identical, pinned by test. ZIT_PERSIST_WAITING reports the drain's peak deferred set. check-in: 533b0a6490 user: dmestas tags: trunk