astroai-ray

name	astroai-ray
description	AstroAI only: drive a CANFAR Ray cluster with astroai — cluster start/status/stop, dashboard, run/jobs submit/list/logs. Use when the user wants Ray batch compute on AstroAI images, not generic CANFAR batch (see canfar-batch).

CANFAR Ray with astroai (AstroAI images only)

Scope: Requires AstroAI session images with astroai CLI. For platform headless/batch without Ray, use canfar-batch.

One CLI. Installed on AstroAI session images.

astroai --help

Usual path: one autoscaling manager, then a job with --cpus.

astroai cluster start
astroai run train.py --cpus 2   # discovers the Running manager automatically

cluster start writes ~/.config/canfar/lab/ray-manager.env, creates the manager if needed, and lets Ray add ray-as-* workers when the job needs CPUs. Same as AstroAI hub Start batch compute.

Do not call ray job submit. The job command is astroai run.

Start the cluster

astroai cluster start
astroai cluster start --max-workers 8 --cores 2 --ram 8
astroai cluster start --min-workers 1 --gpus 1 --timeout 1800

Prints export ASTROAI_RAY_JOBS_ADDRESS=… (optional override). Discovery is automatic when a manager is Running. --json returns manager_url, jobs_address, dashboard_url, cluster_phase, joined_workers, and autoscaling.

If a manager was already running, restart_manager is true: stop it and re-run cluster start so the new manager sources the env file.

start is safe to call again. It does not create a second manager.

Run a job

astroai run train.py --cpus 2
astroai jobs submit --cmd 'python -m mosaic.stack --in /arc/projects/g/in' --wait
astroai jobs list
astroai jobs logs <run-id>

--input / --output URIs are stored on the Ray job. They are not copied. Put data on /arc. /scratch dies with the session.

Check, stop, dashboard

astroai cluster status
astroai cluster stop       # destroys workers AND the manager
astroai cluster dashboard           # Ray Dashboard URL (jobs, nodes, logs)
astroai cluster dashboard iframe    # notebook / marimo

joined: N / M is the health number. auth: ok means CANFAR credentials are present.

astroai status is session CPU/disk/quota, not the cluster. Use cluster status for the cluster.

Rules for agents

1. The cluster autoscales: size it with --max-workers, never by launching workers yourself.
2. Prefer --json when you will parse. Plain text when showing the user.
3. start is safe to call again. It does not create a second manager.
4. After start, jobs are astroai run (or astroai jobs submit --cmd).
5. Workers cost money. Idle autoscaled workers stop on their own. Offer cluster stop when the user is done.
6. start already waits. If join is slow, give the user cluster dashboard instead of polling forever.
7. MCP job_* tools need Ray. Cluster tools do not. Same CLI functions either way.
8. Do not tell the user to write ray-manager.env by hand. cluster start and the hub button do that.