Given a partial combinatory algebra $A$, the realizability topos $\mathrm{RT}(A)$ is the ex/lex completion of the category of partitioned assemblies $\mathrm{PA}(A)$.
This implies that $\mathrm{PA}(A)$ is a dense generator for $\mathrm{RT}(A)$ (i.e. a dense subcategory of $\mathrm{RT}(A)$ whose set of objects generates/separates $\mathrm{RT}(A)$) -- $\mathrm{PA}(A)$ is a dense generator for $\mathrm{PSh}(PA(𝐴))$ under the Yoneda embedding, and, as the ex/lex completion, $\mathrm{RT}(A)$ arises as a full subcategory of $\mathrm{PSh}(PA(𝐴))$ containing $\mathrm{PA}(A)$.
I came across the following passage in the the paper
Awodey, S., Birkedal, L., & Scott, D. (2002). Local realizability toposes and a modal logic for computability. Mathematical Structures in Computer Science, 12(3), 319-334.
I confess it's not obvious to me why it is possible to choose a subcategory of large-enough bounded partitioned assemblies $\mathbb{C}_A$ that generates $\mathrm{RT}(A)$. For cardinality reasons, I don't think it's possible to give a projective presentation of $\mathrm{RT}(A)$ by objects of $\mathbb{C}_A$ (i.e. we can't have, for each $X \in \mathrm{RT}(A)$, an epi $P \to X$ where $P \in \mathbb{C}_A$).
So, how do we know that such a $\mathbb{C}_A$ is possible? And is such a $\mathbb{C}_A$ dense in $\mathrm{RT}(A)$?
