Dashboard

Run dashboard

uv sync --extra dashboard && uv run dashboard [output_dir ...] (default outputs/, or $PRL_OUTPUT_DIR if set) serves a web UI at http://localhost:7788. It only reads run dirs — safe against live runs — and installs anywhere (cluster head node, laptop against a mounted outputs dir): GPU dependencies live behind the gpu extra.

The Config and Logs views default to latest (attempt <n>). Select an attempt to inspect the immutable config or log files from an earlier launch. The Config view shows a copyable launch command above the launch TOML or resolved JSON.

The trace viewer has separate Transcript, Timeline, Replay, and Semantic views. Timeline is a wall-clock Gantt of physical prefix branches. Replay renders the selected agent branch as a terminal session with play/pause, seek, restart, and speed controls. It preserves recorded model-call and tool-result delays. Since the trace schema records a complete model-call span but no per-token timestamps, response text is paced evenly across that measured span and labeled as inferred; events without timestamps remain ordered and are labeled untimed. Semantic projects Verifiers MessageNode.semantic_parents as a top-to-bottom causal graph of model calls, including subagent calls, returns, compactions, and custom edge types. Calls occupy compact causal ranks within bounded agent lanes: the root stays centered, concurrent children fan out symmetrically, and child slots are reused after return, so graph width reflects peak agent concurrency rather than total subagents. Compaction starts a visibly separate context segment. For display only, a missing continuation is recovered when the physical parent chain proves a completed tool round-trip; fragments that still cannot be placed are shown explicitly as unlinked instead of being presented as contexts. Hover or click an agent or context label to see its latest and peak prompt lengths first, followed by cumulative token processing and cost. Exact timing remains available on model-call hover and in Timeline. Traces without semantic parents keep the other views and disable Semantic.

Replay defaults to 8× so long coding-agent model waits remain watchable; select 1× for exact wall time or up to 32× for faster review. In-flight calls display their measured progress and recorded output-token usage even when they produce only tool calls. Enable Skip inference to collapse model calls to immediate responses while preserving the recorded command-to-tool-output delays. This is distinct from the speed control, which scales every delay uniformly. Recorded model thinking is shown by default. Toggle Thinking in the replay controls or press T while Replay is open to hide or show it without changing playback timing. Do not advertise Ctrl+T: browsers reserve it for a new tab before the page can handle the keypress. Use Top or the Home key to scroll to the beginning without pausing the replay. Use Live or End to resume following newly rendered output. Prompt-context nodes that were committed at response time are placed at the linked call's start so their serialization timestamp does not create a false blank wait before the replay.

Every dashboard instance serves the dirs it was started with plus every dir in the per-user registry (~/.cache/prime-rl/dashboard/dirs.json, re-read live). Launchers (rl, sft) register their output dir on every start and, in interactive sessions, auto-start a dashboard only when none is live — an already-running one absorbs the new dir automatically, whatever port it is on. --no-dashboard opts a run out; non-interactive launches (CI, nohup) register their dir but never spawn.

Isolated mode

--isolated serves only the given dirs: no registry read or write, no discovery claim, and launchers ignore the instance. Use it for focused views (demos, debugging one run dir) or to keep a scratch dir out of the registry.

Finding the live dashboard

The live port can differ from 7788 (a taken port bumps to the next free one), so read the discovery file:

cat ~/.cache/prime-rl/dashboard/daemon.json   # {"pid": ..., "url": "http://localhost:<actual port>"}
curl -sf $(jq -r .url ~/.cache/prime-rl/dashboard/daemon.json)/api/runs > /dev/null && echo live
ps aux | grep PRL::Dashboard             # process title

Hand the researcher the url from daemon.json. Launcher logs also print it: startup ends with a Dashboard · <url> banner. The auto-started instance logs to ~/.cache/prime-rl/dashboard/daemon.log.

Stopping / restarting

kill $(jq -r .pid ~/.cache/prime-rl/dashboard/daemon.json)   # the discovered instance
pkill -f PRL::Dashboard                                 # every dashboard on the host

A clean exit releases daemon.json; a stale file from a dead process is taken over by the next start. Killing a dashboard never affects runs (it only reads), and killing a run never takes the dashboard down (it runs in its own session). Restart by launching any run, or directly: uv run dashboard.

Point the open dashboard

Use POST /api/view to show relevant run data in every connected dashboard tab:

curl -sS -X POST $(jq -r .url ~/.cache/prime-rl/dashboard/daemon.json)/api/view \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{
    "run": "demo-rl", "tab": "traces",
    "step": 0, "kind": "train", "subset": "effective",
    "episode": "ep-s00-reverse-text-0",
    "highlight": [{"node": 3, "quote": "hint: reverse the words", "reason": "tool result the policy conditioned on"}]
  }'

run is required; other fields are optional and leave unspecified UI state unchanged. For trace evidence, supply step, kind, and subset together and address the episode by stable id. The traces tab opens on the whole stream; subset: "effective" switches it to the cohort that shipped at one step. Use optional trace and branch indices for multi-agent traces and highlight entries shaped as {node, quote, reason, field?}. On 409, tell the user to open the returned url; the stored command applies when the tab connects.

Write a report only when asked

Create a report only when the user explicitly asks for one. Otherwise answer normally; use /api/view when showing trace evidence would help.

Write requested reports to <run>/reports/<slug>.md, then POST {"run": ..., "tab": "report", "report": "<slug>"}. Use Markdown with a frontmatter title and one-line JSON citation definitions:

---
title: Why does reward dip at step 4?
---

The dip is provider errors, not policy regression [^err].

[^err]: {"step": 4, "kind": "train", "subset": "all", "episode": "ep-...", "node": 0, "quote": "engine overloaded", "note": "The failed call that emptied this step's batch."}

The frontmatter title is rendered as the report H1; do not repeat it with a Markdown # heading. The inline renderer supports only HTTP(S) and anchor links. Relative Markdown links render as literal text, so identify local source files with inline code paths or link to a supported HTTP endpoint.

Each citation requires step, kind, subset, episode, quote, and note. Use the top-level rollout record id returned by the dashboard episode-list API—not a nested traces[*].id, and never line. Copy a short, distinctive quote exactly; matching is case-sensitive and whitespace-insensitive. Keep note to 1–2 sentences explaining why the quote supports the claim.

Cite major empirical, comparative, and diagnostic conclusions, but not routine explanation. Use exact trace citations for trajectory-level claims. For aggregate statistics, identify the run and source file; do not imply that one example trajectory proves the aggregate.

Use adjacent markers ([^a] [^b]) only when one claim genuinely depends on distinct passages, such as a comparison or corroboration. Use one citation when one passage is sufficient.

Optional fields are run, trace, branch, node, field, prefix, and suffix. Use field: "content" or "reasoning" only to disambiguate message parts. Use verbatim adjacent prefix/suffix only when a quote repeats. Ambiguous or mismatched citations remain broken and do not navigate.

Use Markdown; raw HTML is escaped.

Before handoff, reload the report and verify through the dashboard API that every referenced citation resolves uniquely to its episode, node, and quote. Confirm zero broken citations, one rendered title, and no unsupported relative links.