many-model-forecasting

name	many-model-forecasting
description	Kickstart Many Models Forecasting (MMF) projects on Databricks — explore data, profile series, configure clusters, run forecasting pipelines, and evaluate results.

Many Models Forecasting (MMF)

⛔ MANDATORY — Read before taking any action. Before doing anything in an MMF project — querying data, creating resources, generating notebooks, or running jobs — read this file completely. Then identify which skill the user needs and read that skill file in full before proceeding. Do NOT act on user instructions until you have read the relevant skill file.

Overview

Automates the full Many Models Forecasting workflow on Databricks. Five skills walk you through data preparation, series profiling, cluster setup, pipeline execution, and post-evaluation interactively using Databricks MCP tools and AskUserQuestion.

All generated assets are prefixed with a user-provided use case name (e.g., m4, rossmann), allowing multiple forecasting projects to coexist in the same catalog/schema.

When to Use

Use this skill when a user wants to:

• Run time series forecasting at scale on Databricks
• Set up an MMF project with mmf_sa (the Many Model Forecasting solution accelerator)
• Train statistical, global neural, or foundation models across many series
• Explore, clean, and prepare time series data for forecasting
• Profile and classify time series for model selection
• Evaluate and compare forecasting model results

Workflow Entry Point — Where to Start (READ FIRST)

⛔ The most important rule in this skill. By default, an MMF / forecasting trigger phrase routes the agent to Skill 1. The agent must not pick a skill based on the keyword in the user's request (e.g., the word "forecast" does not mean "go to Skill 4") — unless the user explicitly asks to start at a specific skill.

Trigger phrases → routing

Default — generic requests that do NOT name a starting skill. If the user says any of the following (or a clear paraphrase), treat it as "start the MMF workflow from the beginning":

• "use MMF", "use many model forecasting"
• "let's forecast", "forecast my data", "I want to forecast …"
• "set up forecasting", "build a forecasting pipeline"
• "run MMF", "start MMF", "kick off MMF"

→ Action: Begin at Skill 1 (/prep-and-clean-data).

Explicit jump — allowed when the user names a starting skill. If the user explicitly names a later skill or signals that earlier work is already done (e.g. "I already have a clean train table at main.fc.m4_train_data — let's pick models", "go straight to Skill 4", "only do post-processing", or invokes a slash command like /execute-mmf-forecast directly), the agent MAY start at the named skill. Before doing so, the agent MUST:

1. Run the precondition checks at the top of that skill file (e.g. verify {use_case}_train_data exists for Skills 2/3/4, or that {use_case}_evaluation_output is populated for Skill 5).
2. If any precondition is missing, tell the user exactly what's missing and offer to route back to the earliest unmet skill rather than improvising defaults.
3. Carry forward or reconfirm {forecast_problem_brief} if it isn't in conversation context.

Preconditions matrix — what must exist before a skill can run

The agent MUST verify these before starting any skill. If preconditions are missing, route back to the earliest unmet skill rather than improvising.

Skill	Required inputs (must exist)	Required prior decisions
1. prep-and-clean-data	A source time-series table the user can name	none
2. profile-and-classify (optional)	{catalog}.{schema}.{use_case}_train_data from Skill 1	{forecast_problem_brief}
3. provision-resources	{use_case}_train_data from Skill 1 (and optionally {use_case}_series_profile, {use_case}_pipeline_config from Skill 2)	none beyond Skill 1
4. execute-forecast	{use_case}_train_data (or _train_data_forecastable), and an active_models selection from Skill 3	prediction_length, freq, backtest setup
5. post-process	{use_case}_evaluation_output and {use_case}_scoring_output from Skill 4	none

If {use_case}_train_data does not exist, the agent cannot start Skill 2, 3, 4, or 5 — it must go back to Skill 1.

Mandatory step-transition gate (between every skill)

At the end of every skill, the agent MUST:

1. Summarize what was produced (tables, decisions, parameters captured).
2. Name the next skill in the sequence.
3. Ask the user to confirm before starting it. Never auto-advance.

Special case at the end of Skill 1: the next step is Skill 2 (profiling), which is optional. The agent must explicitly ask the user "Do you want to run series profiling (Skill 2) now, or skip directly to model selection (Skill 3)?" — never silently skip Skill 2.

Interaction Model — Mandatory STOP Gates

This workflow is interactive by design. At multiple points the agent MUST pause and wait for explicit user input before proceeding. These are called STOP gates.

Global STOP gates (apply across all skills):

1. Catalog & Schema — Always ask the user which catalog and schema to use. Do NOT assume or reuse values from prior runs. Do NOT proceed until the user confirms.
2. Step transitions — After completing each skill (e.g., prep-and-clean-data), present a summary of what was done and ask the user whether to proceed to the next skill. Do NOT auto-advance.
3. Forecast problem brief ({forecast_problem_brief}) — Captured in Skill 1 (STOP GATE 0b) as a short problem statement (metric meaning, use, horizon, series shape, exogenous intent). Carry it in the conversation through all skills. If it is missing (user skipped Skill 1 or new session), reconfirm or capture a minimal brief in Skill 2 (Step 2). Any optional research (web, Databricks docs, extended reasoning, Skill 2 Step 8b feature-engineering research) must stay scoped to {forecast_problem_brief} — do not run generic time-series research without tying it back to the brief.

Per-skill STOP gates are documented in each skill file. Look for the ⛔ STOP GATE markers.

Gate checklist rendering (mandatory)

Before every STOP gate question, the agent MUST render a one-line gate checklist for the current skill. This is required output — see assistant_instructions.md → "Gate Checklist Protocol" for the full rule set. The checklist is the primary mechanism that prevents silent gate-skipping; without it, the agent has no externalized state and tends to batch or skip gates under pressure from terse user replies.

Format:

Gate state — Skill <N>: [✓ <id> <value>] [→ <id> <short name>] [ ] <id> ... [ ] <id> ...

Glyphs:

• ✓ — gate completed (include captured value in compact form, e.g. [✓ 1.0a main.fc]).
• → — gate currently being asked. Exactly ONE per turn.
• [ ] — gate not yet reached but will fire unconditionally once reached.
• ? — conditional gate: may or may not fire depending on prior answers. When the precondition resolves, flip to →/✓/✗.
• ✗ — gate explicitly skipped — either user opted out where the skill permits, or a conditional gate's precondition resolved to "doesn't apply" (include a one-line reason, e.g. [✗ 1.6a-null N/A — no scoring data]).

Conditional-gate handling. Some gates only fire if earlier gates resolved a certain way (e.g. 1.5b is conditional on 1.5a choosing dynamic future regressors; 1.6a-null is further conditional on the resulting scoring table actually having NULLs). Mark these ? from the start. When the controlling gate is answered, either leave them ? (if they still apply) until reached, or flip to ✗ with a one-line reason (if they no longer apply). Never silently drop a ? slot from the checklist.

Worked example (mid-Skill 1, asking the forecast brief — full Skill-1 gate inventory):

Gate state — Skill 1: [✓ 1.0a main.fc] [→ 1.0b brief] [ ] 1.0c [ ] 1.5 [ ] 1.5a [?] 1.5b [?] 1.6a-null [?] 1.6b-ii [ ] 1.7b [ ] 1.8b [ ] 1.T

The ? slots resolve as earlier gates are answered: 1.5b only fires if 1.5a selected dynamic future regressors; 1.6a-null only fires if the resulting scoring table contains NULLs; 1.6b-ii only fires if at least one categorical column needs encoding.

Workflow per gate-asking turn:

1. Flip the previously-asked gate from → to ✓ <captured value>.
2. Move → to the next unmet gate (must be exactly one).
3. Render the updated checklist line.
4. Ask the gate's AskUserQuestion block.
5. Wait for the user's reply. Do NOT advance past →.

Hard invariants:

• One → per turn. Two → markers means you are about to batch gates — STOP and pick one.
• Mark ✓ only on explicit answer. Terse replies (ok, yes, 1, b) advance ONE gate, not multiple.
• Never falsify. Do not render ✓ for a gate that was not actually asked and answered. If unsure, re-ask.
• Checklist ≠ gate. Rendering the line does not satisfy the gate; you still must ask and wait.

Gate IDs. Use <skill_number>.<step_id> derived from the ⛔ STOP GATE — Step X headings in each skill file (e.g., Skill 1 Step 0b → gate 1.0b; the per-skill final transition gate is <N>.T). Until each skill file gets a dedicated Gate Registry block at its top, the agent must read the relevant skill file in full and enumerate every ⛔ STOP GATE marker before starting — that enumeration becomes the checklist's [ ] slots.

Workflow

The five skills are designed to run in sequence, but Skill 2 (profiling) is optional:

/prep-and-clean-data  →  /profile-and-classify-series (OPTIONAL)  →  /provision-forecasting-resources
        ↓                          ↓                                          ↓
  Discover, clean &         Statistical profiling,                  Ask user which models,
  prepare data              classify forecastability,               configure CPU/GPU
  → {use_case}_train_data   recommend models, ask user              cluster(s)
                            how to handle non-forecastable
                            series (include / fallback /
                            separate job)
                            → {use_case}_series_profile
                            → {use_case}_pipeline_config

                    →  /execute-mmf-forecast  →  /post-process-and-evaluate
                              ↓                            ↓
                      Generate notebooks,          Best model selection,
                      submit parallel jobs         merge forecastable +
                      (+ NF job if separate)       non-forecastable results,
                      → {use_case}_evaluation      business-ready summary
                      → {use_case}_scoring         → {use_case}_best_models
                                                     (with forecast_source)
                                                   → {use_case}_evaluation_summary

Non-forecastable series handling

After Skill 2 classifies series into "high-confidence" and "low-signal" groups, the user chooses one of three strategies:

Strategy	Description	Downstream effect
Include (Option A)	Keep all series together	No table splitting; all series use same models
Fallback (Option B)	Exclude + apply simple rule (Naive, Seasonal Naive, Mean, or Zero)	Filtered training table; fallback forecasts produced immediately; no cluster needed for NF series
Separate job (Option C)	Exclude + run a dedicated pipeline with user-selected models	Filtered training tables; separate job with its own cluster sizing; full backtest evaluation for NF series

Results from all strategies are merged in Skill 5 with a forecast_source column tracking provenance.

Skill 1: Prep and Clean Data (/prep-and-clean-data)

Asks for catalog/schema, collects a use case name, captures {forecast_problem_brief} (what is being forecast and why), discovers time series tables, maps columns to MMF schema (unique_id, ds, y), asks the user how to impute missing data, generates an anomaly analysis report, asks the user how to handle anomalies, creates the {use_case}_train_data table, and generates a reproducibility notebook that records all decisions.

STOP gates: catalog/schema, forecast problem brief, imputation strategy, anomaly handling.

See: 1-prep-and-clean-data.md

Skill 2: Profile and Classify Series (/profile-and-classify-series) — OPTIONAL

Calculates statistical properties (stationarity, seasonality, trend, entropy, SNR), partitions series into "high-confidence" and "low-signal" groups, recommends model families, and asks the user how to handle non-forecastable series (include, fallback, or separate job). Runs on serverless compute.

STOP gates: confirm parameters before profiling (including {forecast_problem_brief}); optional deep research on feature engineering after {use_case}_series_profile exists and classification/recommendations are summarized (see Step 8b — grounds research in profiling metadata, {use_case}_train_data columns, and {forecast_problem_brief}).

This step is optional. If skipped, the user manually selects models in Skill 3 and all series are treated as forecastable. Inform the user of estimated runtime:

• < 100 series: ~2–5 minutes
• 100–1,000 series: ~5–15 minutes
• 1,000–10,000 series: ~15–45 minutes
• > 10,000 series: ~1–2 hours (consider sampling)

STOP gates: catalog/schema, non-forecastable strategy selection.

See: 2-profile-and-classify-series.md

Skill 3: Provision Forecasting Resources (/provision-forecasting-resources)

Asks the user which models to run, determines required cluster types, asks the user which clusters to start and confirms configuration. GPU clusters and the global ML CPU cluster always use single-node; the local CPU cluster is multi-node (sized by series count).

STOP gates: model selection, cluster selection.

See: 3-provision-forecasting-resources.md

Skill 4: Execute MMF Forecast (/execute-mmf-forecast)

Validates parameters, asks the user about backtesting setup, generates notebooks using the orchestrator + run_gpu pattern for GPU classes and a single-shot run_global_ml notebook for the MLForecast CPU class, creates one job per model class (local, global_ml, global, foundation) and triggers them in parallel. The pipeline runs in univariate mode by default — all covariate lists (static_features, dynamic_historical_*, dynamic_future_*) default to [] and scoring_table defaults to "". Avoid dynamic_future_* unless the user has confirmed known future regressors and a pre-built scoring table; prefer static_features and dynamic_historical_* when covariates are needed. global_ml (MLForecast LightGBM) is the most expressive choice when known future regressors and a scoring table are available — its native covariate plumbing is end-to-end validated. See the Feature type decision guide in 4-execute-mmf-forecast.md.

STOP gates: backtesting setup, model confirmation.

See: 4-execute-mmf-forecast.md

Skill 5: Post-Process and Evaluate (/post-process-and-evaluate)

Calculates multi-metric evaluation (MAPE, sMAPE, WAPE), selects best model per series, ranks models by win count, generates a business-ready summary report, and produces a reproducibility notebook for re-running the evaluation.

See: 5-post-process-and-evaluate.md

Available Models

Category	Models	Compute
Local (CPU)	StatsForecastAutoArima, AutoETS, AutoCES, AutoTheta, AutoTbats, AutoMfles, SKTimeProphet, and baseline/intermittent models	CPU cluster (multi-node Pandas UDF)
Global ML (CPU)	MLForecastLGBM (fixed-hyperparameter LightGBM), MLForecastAutoLGBM (Optuna HPO + feature tuning)	ML cluster (single-node CPU)
Global DL (GPU)	NeuralForecastAutoNHITS, AutoPatchTST, AutoRNN, AutoLSTM, AutoNBEATSx, AutoTiDE, and non-auto variants	GPU cluster (single-node)
Foundation (GPU)	ChronosBoltTiny/Mini/Small/Base, Chronos2, Chronos2Small, Chronos2Synth, TimesFM_2_5_200m	GPU cluster (single-node)

Cluster Configurations

Cluster	Runtime	Node type (AWS)	Workers	Use case
{use_case}_cpu_cluster	17.3.x-cpu-ml-scala2.13	i3.xlarge	Dynamic (0-10 based on series count)	Local models (multi-node Pandas UDF parallelism)
{use_case}_ml_cluster	17.3.x-cpu-ml-scala2.13	i3.4xlarge (default)	0 (single-node always)	Global ML models (MLForecast/LightGBM — driver-only Python process)
{use_case}_gpu_cluster	18.0.x-gpu-ml-scala2.13	User-selectable (e.g., g5.12xlarge)	0 (single-node always)	Global DL & foundation models

See 3-provision-forecasting-resources.md for Azure and GCP node types.

Notebook Templates

Pipeline notebooks (generated during execution)

• mmf_local_notebook_template.ipynb — Local CPU models (StatsForecast, Prophet); covariate lists default to [] (univariate). Avoid dynamic_future_* — see Feature type decision guide in Skill 4.
• mmf_global_ml_notebook_template.ipynb — Global ML CPU models (MLForecast LightGBM). Same single-shot run_forecast pattern as the local template, but installs mmf_sa[global] and runs on the single-node ML cluster. Full covariate support including dynamic_future_* when Skill 1 produced a scoring table.
• mmf_gpu_run_notebook_template.ipynb — GPU single-model runner (widgets include covariate columns, defaulting to empty/univariate; used by orchestrators)
• mmf_gpu_orchestrator_notebook_template.ipynb — GPU orchestrator (model list + covariate lists passed into run_gpu; defaults to [] for all covariates)
• mmf_profiling_notebook_template.ipynb — Series profiling (statsmodels, scipy)

Reproducibility notebooks (generated after interactive sessions)

• mmf_prep_notebook_template.ipynb — Data preparation replay (Skill 1): records all interactive decisions (table selection, column mapping, imputation strategy, anomaly capping) and re-creates {use_case}_train_data and {use_case}_cleaning_report
• mmf_post_process_notebook_template.ipynb — Post-processing replay (Skill 5): re-runs best-model selection, evaluation summary, and business report generation

Job Architecture (Skill 4)

Up to eight separate jobs run in parallel — four for the main pipeline, plus up to four for non-forecastable series (if separate_job strategy):

── Main Pipeline (forecastable series) ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
┌─────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│ Job: {use_case}_local   │ │ Job: {use_case}_global_ml   │ │ Job: {use_case}_global       │ │ Job: {use_case}_foundation       │
│ Cluster: CPU multi-node │ │ Cluster: ML single-node CPU │ │ Cluster: GPU (single-node)   │ │ Cluster: GPU (single-node)       │
│ Notebook: run_local     │ │ Notebook: run_global_ml     │ │ Notebook: orchestrator_global│ │ Notebook: orchestrator_foundation│
│ (all local models)      │ │ (all MLForecast LGBM)       │ │  └→ run_gpu (per model)      │ │  └→ run_gpu (per model)          │
└─────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────────┘

── Non-Forecastable Pipeline (separate_job strategy only) ───────────────────────────────────────────
┌──────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────────┐ ┌───────────────────────────────┐
│ Job: {use_case}_nf_local │ │ Job: {use_case}_nf_global_ml    │ │ Job: {use_case}_nf_global/    │
│ Cluster: NF CPU          │ │ Cluster: NF ML single-node CPU  │ │      {use_case}_nf_foundation │
│ Notebook: run_local_nf   │ │ Notebook: run_global_ml_nf      │ │ Cluster: NF GPU (single-node) │
│ (NF local models)        │ │ (NF MLForecast LGBM)            │ │ Notebook: orchestrator_*_nf   │
└──────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────────┘ └───────────────────────────────┘
         ▲                              ▲                                  ▲
         └──────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘
                          All jobs triggered in parallel

Prerequisites

• Databricks MCP server configured
• A Databricks workspace with time series data
• Unity Catalog access to the target catalog/schema
• Skill files uploaded to /Workspace/Users/{your_email}/.assistant/skills/many-model-forecasting/
• Assistant instructions configured at /Workspace/Users/{your_email}/.assistant_instructions.md — this file is loaded automatically by Genie Code at the start of every conversation. It should include instructions to always read the MMF skill files before taking any action, and to respect all STOP gates. Without this file, the agent may ignore skill instructions and proceed autonomously.

MMF Installation

Each generated notebook installs mmf_sa at the start:

• Local: pip install "mmf_sa[local] @ git+https://github.com/databricks-industry-solutions/many-model-forecasting.git@main"
• Global ML: pip install "mmf_sa[global] @ git+https://github.com/databricks-industry-solutions/many-model-forecasting.git@main" (the [global] extras include mlforecast, lightgbm, optuna — used by MLForecastLGBM / MLForecastAutoLGBM)
• Global DL: pip install "mmf_sa[global] @ git+https://github.com/databricks-industry-solutions/many-model-forecasting.git@main" (same extras — NeuralForecast is also in [global])
• Foundation: pip install "mmf_sa[foundation] @ git+https://github.com/databricks-industry-solutions/many-model-forecasting.git@main"