| name | sim2real-engine |
| description | Use when navigating, reviewing, or changing the Sim2Real staged pipeline engine — stage map, preamble/inner/outer/finalize entrypoints, K8s sibling jobs, and S3 artifact contracts. |
Sim2Real Engine
When To Use
Load this skill when you need the canonical 14-stage map for the VLM-to-RL
Sim2Real loop, not the older generic sim-to-real workflow YAMLs. Use it for
engine edits, monitor/status alignment, walkthrough docs, and debugging sibling
K8s jobs (s2r-*).
Source Files
| File | Role |
|---|
npa/src/npa/workflows/sim2real/engine.py | Stage glue, K8s siblings, inner/outer/finalize |
npa/src/npa/workflows/sim2real_stages.py | Mandatory preamble stages 3–7 helpers |
npa/src/npa/workflows/sim2real/monitor.py | _STAGE_SPECS S3 marker rules for live status |
npa/src/npa/workflows/sim2real/runner.py | Sim2RealWorkflow orchestration CLI entry |
npa/src/npa/workflows/sim2real_assets.py | Stage 2 assets consumption |
Stage Map
| Stage | Monitor name | Entrypoint | Primary artifacts |
|---|
| 1 | stage_01_trigger | run_preamble | stage_01_trigger/trigger.json |
| 2 | stage_02_assets | run_preamble → run_assets_stage | stage_02_assets/consumed_*_spec.json |
| 3 | stage_03_augment | run_preamble → run_augment_stage | augment/manifest.json |
| 4 | stage_04_envs_raw | run_envgen_split_stage | envs/raw/ |
| 5 | stage_05_envs_train | run_envgen_split_stage | envs/train/envs.jsonl |
| 6 | stage_06_tokens | run_envgen_split_stage | tokens/manifest.json |
| 7 | stage_07_actions_train | run_inner_loop → run_policy_rollouts | actions/train/ |
| 8 | stage_08_vlm_eval_train | run_inner_loop → evaluate_rollout_with_vlm | vlm_eval/train/ |
| 9 | stage_09_training_signal | run_inner_loop (signal + trainer) | training_signal/train/ |
| 10 | stage_10_eval_heldout | run_single_outer_iteration → run_heldout_eval | eval/heldout/report.json |
| 11 | stage_11_outer_loop | run_single_outer_iteration → threshold_decision | outer_loop/decision.json |
| 12 | stage_12_external_validation_stub | run_finalize | stage_12_external_validation/external_stub.json |
| 13 | stage_13_retrigger | run_finalize | stage_13_retrigger/retrigger.json |
| 14 | stage_14_rerun_viz | run_finalize → _run_sim2real_viz_stage | reports/sim2real.rrd |
Phase Boundaries
- Preamble (1–6):
run_preamble — trigger, assets, augment, envgen split, tokens.
- Outer iteration (7–11):
run_single_outer_iteration — one inner loop (7–9),
held-out eval (10), threshold decision (11). Repeats for outer_iterations.
- Finalize (12–14 + report):
run_finalize — external-validation stub,
loop-of-loops retrigger record, local Rerun .rrd, sim2real-report.json,
optional S3 upload.
Stages 4–6 share one component name in monitor: stage_04_06_env_gen_split_tokens.
Gotchas
- Monitor infers stage 01 from later artifacts (
infer_from_later=True); early
stages may show PENDING while later stages succeed — trust current_stage.
- K8s sibling job names embed only the first 22 characters of
run_id.
- Registry-qualified images gate K8s execution; placeholders fall back to local
reference paths (SEAM tier in component records).
- Do not hardcode bucket names, tenant IDs, or registry paths in engine code.
Verify
npa/.venv/bin/ruff check npa/src/npa/workflows/sim2real/engine.py
npa/.venv/bin/python -m pytest npa/tests/workflows/sim2real/ -q --tb=no
