Renderacre

Renderacre is a Rust render-farm foundation inspired by Deadline: a remote controller API, standalone workers, Python submitter bindings, and Open Job Description (OpenJD) job templates for portable DCC and batch workloads.

The Python package is named renderacre and is built as a cp37-abi3 wheel, so one wheel supports CPython 3.7 and newer on each platform.

Features

• Rust HTTP controller with job submission, worker registration, leasing, retries, task dependencies, and job state inspection.
• Standalone worker binary that executes direct commands or OpenJD runtime payloads.
• Official openjd-model validation and job creation for OpenJD jobtemplate-2023-09.
• Official openjd-sessions execution for OpenJD step scripts, task parameters, environments, embedded files, and OpenJD stdout directives.
• PyO3/maturin Python module for pipeline submitters and DCC tools.
• CI for fmt, clippy, unit tests, controller/worker e2e smoke, and ABI3 wheel builds.
• Release workflow for cross-platform wheels, sdist, and PyPI Trusted Publishing.

Local Development

cargo test --workspace
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\e2e_smoke.ps1
python -m maturin build --release -o target\wheels

The wheel filename should contain cp37-abi3, for example:

renderacre-0.1.4-cp37-abi3-win_amd64.whl

Run a Local Farm

Start the controller:

cargo run -p renderacre-controller -- --bind 127.0.0.1:7878

Start a worker:

cargo run -p renderacre-worker -- --controller http://127.0.0.1:7878 --name local-worker --label os=windows

Submit a direct command job:

Invoke-RestMethod `
  -Method Post `
  -Uri http://127.0.0.1:7878/v1/jobs `
  -ContentType application/json `
  -InFile .\examples\hello_job.json

Python Submitter API

Install a local build:

python -m pip install maturin
python -m maturin develop

Submit a command job:

import renderacre

job_json = renderacre.command_job(
    "hello-from-python",
    "python",
    ["-c", "print('hello from renderacre')"],
)
print(renderacre.submit_job("http://127.0.0.1:7878", job_json))

Submit an OpenJD template:

import json
import renderacre

template = open("examples/openjd_python_frames.yaml", encoding="utf-8").read()
job_json = renderacre.openjd_job(
    "openjd-demo",
    template,
    json.dumps({"Message": "hello through OpenJD"}),
)
print(renderacre.submit_job("http://127.0.0.1:7878", job_json))

OpenJD Support

Renderacre accepts an OpenJD job template under openjd.template_yaml.

The controller:

1. Parses YAML/JSON with the official OpenJD parser.
2. Validates the template and enabled extensions.
3. Preprocesses typed job parameters, including PATH values.
4. Creates the resolved OpenJD job model.
5. Expands step parameter spaces into farm tasks.

The worker:

1. Creates an OpenJD session.
2. Enters job and step environments.
3. Runs each OpenJD task through openjd-sessions.
4. Captures stdout/status and reports the result to the controller.
5. Exits environments and cleans the session directory.

Supported current extensions default to all extensions known by openjd-model: EXPR, FEATURE_BUNDLE_1, TASK_CHUNKING, and REDACTED_ENV_VARS.

Dashboard

Renderacre includes a Vite + React dashboard under dashboard/. It uses shadcn-style components, compact queue tables, worker status panels, an OpenJD task inspector, and a stdout tail view.

Run it during development:

cargo run -p renderacre-controller -- --bind 127.0.0.1:7878
cd dashboard
npm ci
npm run dev

The Vite dev server proxies /v1 and /healthz to the controller. For a deployed dashboard:

cd dashboard
npm run build

Serve dashboard/dist through your internal web server or reverse proxy next to the controller API.

DCC Examples

Blender:

$template = Get-Content .\examples\dcc\blender_render_openjd.yaml -Raw
$params = @{
  BlenderExecutable = "blender"
  ScriptPath = (Resolve-Path .\examples\dcc\blender_render_task.py).Path
  OutputDir = (Join-Path (Get-Location) "renders\blender")
} | ConvertTo-Json

Maya:

$template = Get-Content .\examples\dcc\maya_render_openjd.yaml -Raw
$params = @{
  MayaPython = "mayapy"
  ScriptPath = (Resolve-Path .\examples\dcc\maya_render_task.py).Path
  OutputDir = (Join-Path (Get-Location) "renders\maya")
} | ConvertTo-Json

Pass the template and parameter JSON through renderacre.openjd_job(...) or submit the equivalent REST payload to /v1/jobs.

Deployment

Recommended first deployment shape:

• Run one controller per farm or queue: renderacre-controller --bind 0.0.0.0:7878.
• Run one worker process per render node: renderacre-worker --controller http://controller-host:7878 --name <node-name> --label app=blender.
• Put the controller behind a private network or authenticated reverse proxy.
• Keep render executables and scripts on shared storage, then pass PATH parameters through OpenJD.
• Use GitHub Releases or PyPI to distribute the renderacre wheel to submitter machines.

Current storage is in-memory by design for the first protocol slice. The scheduler boundary is isolated so SQLite/Postgres/NATS can replace it without changing the Python or REST APIs.

Install Binaries

Linux/macOS:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/loonghao/renderacre/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Windows PowerShell:

iwr https://raw.githubusercontent.com/loonghao/renderacre/main/scripts/install.ps1 -UseB | iex

Set RENDERACRE_VERSION / -Version and RENDERACRE_INSTALL_DIR / -InstallDir to pin a release or install path.

Release

The release workflow builds Linux, Windows, and macOS wheels plus an sdist. PyPI publishing uses Trusted Publishing through the pypi GitHub environment. It also uploads standalone controller/worker archives to GitHub Releases for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Manual release dry run:

python -m maturin build --release -o dist
python -m pip install twine
python -m twine check dist/*

Publish from GitHub:

1. Configure PyPI Trusted Publisher for loonghao/renderacre, workflow release.yml, environment pypi.
2. Push a vX.Y.Z tag or publish a GitHub Release.
3. The workflow uploads artifacts to PyPI when the publish gate is active.

See docs/architecture.md for the internal layout.