Genomics laboratories in resource-constrained settings often lack continuous
internet, container registries, PostgreSQL infrastructure, or cloud object
storage — yet still require standards-aligned data capture, encryption, and
eventual federation with national or global archives. This technical report
documents Ferrum Field & Edge: an embedded GA4GH runtime built on SQLite and
local filesystem storage, with offline metadata validation via ferrum-meta,
bandwidth-adaptive sync to connected hubs, long-offline authentication, data
residency audit chains, and opt-in pathogen surveillance workflows including
Nanopore ingest and Outbreak Mode. It complements SF-TR-2026-001 (server-centre
Ferrum architecture) by describing a split topology where edge nodes collect
data locally and connected hubs run full WES/TES and reproducible benchmarks.
Validation uses HelixTest ferrum-africa profiles and Ferrum field CI scripts;
results are a technical conformance signal, not official GA4GH certification. Synaptic Four Technical Report Series. GitHub release: SF-TR-2026-002-v1.0.0