nautilus-competition-observability

name	nautilus-competition-observability
description	Live observability stack for nautilus-competition runs. Use when: (1) bringing up the docker-compose Prometheus + pushgateway + Grafana stack with `docker compose -f docker-compose.observability.yml up -d`; (2) wiring `compete run` to push metrics via `--metrics-endpoint` / `COMPETE_METRICS_ENDPOINT`; (3) the dashboard at http://localhost:3000/d/competition shows "No data"; (4) inspecting raw metric values via `curl http://localhost:9091/metrics`; (5) understanding the eight panels (Active Round, Eval gain_factor, Paper equity, Current price, Eval backtests, Latest metrics, Team failures, Avg eval duration); (6) wiping pushgateway state between runs.
author	Claude Code
version	1.0.0
date	"2026-05-07T00:00:00.000Z"

Live observability for compete run

The competition harness can stream per-team backtest counts, gain factors, paper equity, and current ticker into a local Grafana dashboard via Prometheus + a pushgateway. The pushgateway model fits the short-lived compete run CLI: each phase pushes a snapshot, the pushgateway persists the latest values, and Prometheus scrapes the pushgateway every 5 seconds.

The harness is correct without any of this — observability is opt-in.

Quickstart

# 1. Bring up the stack (pushgateway:9091, prometheus:9090, grafana:3000).
docker compose -f docker-compose.observability.yml up -d

# 2. Install the optional extra so `compete run` knows how to push.
uv pip install --extra observability --editable .

# 3. Run the demo competition with metrics enabled — either via flag…
compete run examples/demo_competition \
    --paper-duration-minutes 1 \
    --metrics-endpoint http://localhost:9091 \
    --run-id obs-demo

# …or via env var (useful for direnv / dev shells):
export COMPETE_METRICS_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:9091
compete run examples/demo_competition --paper-duration-minutes 1 --run-id obs-demo

# 4. Watch the dashboard (anonymous read-only, or admin/admin to edit).
open http://localhost:3000/d/competition

Configuration precedence (first match wins):

1. --metrics-endpoint URL CLI flag.
2. COMPETE_METRICS_ENDPOINT environment variable.
3. Both unset → metrics emission is disabled (the harness no-ops gracefully).

Metric naming convention

All harness-emitted metrics share the compete_ prefix. They're labeled by team, round, and phase (one of eval, paper):

Metric	Type	Labels	Meaning
compete_round	Gauge	(none)	Current round index. Used to derive the active-round stat.
compete_team_gain_factor	Gauge	team, round, phase	Final equity / starting equity after the phase.
compete_team_equity_usdt	Gauge	team, round, phase	Final paper equity in USDT.
compete_current_price	Gauge	team, round, phase	Last close price seen at end of phase.
compete_backtests_total	Counter	team, round, phase	Cumulative train iterations per team-round.
compete_team_failures_total	Counter	(none)	Teams that hit FAILED (max iterations without a positive-gain eval).
compete_eval_duration_seconds	Histogram	team, round	Wall-clock per train() iteration.

Each compete run invocation is grouped under grouping_key={run_id} on the pushgateway, so concurrent or sequential runs don't clobber each other.

The eight dashboard panels

Panel	Source metric
Active Round (stat)	max(compete_round)
Eval gain_factor (timeseries)	compete_team_gain_factor{phase="eval"}
Paper equity (timeseries)	compete_team_equity_usdt{phase="paper"}
Current price (timeseries)	compete_current_price
Eval backtests (bar chart)	compete_backtests_total{phase="eval"}
Latest metrics (table)	compete_team_gain_factor, compete_team_equity_usdt
Team failures (stat)	compete_team_failures_total
Avg eval duration (stat)	compete_eval_duration_seconds_*

Inspect metrics directly

To verify the pushgateway saw any pushes from a recent run:

curl -s http://localhost:9091/metrics | grep compete_

Empty output means compete run never reached the pushgateway. Common causes:

• --metrics-endpoint and COMPETE_METRICS_ENDPOINT both unset.
• Container down (docker ps | grep pushgateway).
• The observability extra isn't installed (compete will silently drop the push). uv pip install --extra observability --editable ..

You can also hit Prometheus directly:

curl -s 'http://localhost:9090/api/v1/query?query=compete_round'

Operations

Wipe pushgateway state

Useful between runs that share a run_id:

curl -X DELETE http://localhost:9091/metrics/job/compete

Tear down (preserves Grafana state)

docker compose -f docker-compose.observability.yml down

The Grafana SQLite + dashboards persist across down/up cycles via the grafana_data named volume. To wipe everything (including saved dashboard edits):

docker compose -f docker-compose.observability.yml down -v

Configuration files

• docker-compose.observability.yml — service definitions.
• observability/prometheus.yml — scrape config (5s interval).
• observability/grafana/provisioning/ — datasource + dashboard provider declarations.
• observability/grafana/dashboards/competition.json — the dashboard itself. Edit-then-export from the Grafana UI to revise; check the JSON back in.

Known limits

• Per-bar emission is not wired. The "Current price" panel updates once per team-round (a snapshot at end of phase), not per-bar. To stream per-bar prices we'd need a NautilusTrader Actor that subscribes to bar-data events on the MessageBus and calls _metrics_emit.record_bar(...). Out of scope for now; the panel remains in the dashboard so wiring it up is a single commit later.
• Loki log aggregation is not included. docker compose logs compete-grafana is sufficient for local debugging.

Troubleshooting

• Dashboard says "No data": confirm the pushgateway saw any pushes via curl http://localhost:9091/metrics | grep compete_. If empty, compete run isn't reaching the pushgateway — check --metrics-endpoint, network, and that you installed the observability extra.
• Containers crash-loop: docker compose -f docker-compose.observability.yml logs <service> for the offender.
• Port collisions: change the host-side port in docker-compose.observability.yml (e.g. "9099:9091").

References

• docs/observability.md — the canonical observability runbook.
• nautilus-competition-operator skill — how --metrics-endpoint / COMPETE_METRICS_ENDPOINT slot into the operator workflow.