robotrace-dev 0.1.0a3

RoboTrace — observability and evals for AI robots.

robotrace-dev (Python SDK)

The official Python SDK for RoboTrace — observability and evals for AI-powered robots.

pip install robotrace-dev==0.1.0a3

Why the pin? Pinning is the most reliable install during alpha. The pin goes away once we cut 1.0 — pip install robotrace-dev will be enough then.

Distribution name vs. import name. PyPI distributes us as robotrace-dev (matching our robotrace.dev domain). The un-hyphenated robotrace PyPI namespace is held by an unrelated robotics project, and PyPI's typo-squat protector blocks any single-edit-distance variant (so robo-trace was rejected too). The import name stays import robotrace — same pattern as pip install python-dateutil → import dateutil.

Status: alpha (0.1.0a3). The public API in this README is the shape we're iterating against; once we cut 1.0.0, the log_episode signature is locked and breakages require a major bump (per AGENTS.md in the RoboTrace monorepo).

Quickstart

Mint an API key in your RoboTrace admin console (Admin → Clients → <client> → API access), then:

import robotrace as rt

rt.init(
    api_key="rt_…",
    base_url="https://app.robotrace.dev",   # or http://localhost:3000 in dev
)

rt.log_episode(
    name="pick_and_place v3 morning warmup",
    source="real",
    robot="halcyon-bimanual-01",
    policy_version="pap-v3.2.1",
    env_version="halcyon-cell-rev4",
    git_sha="abc1234",
    seed=8124,
    video="/tmp/run.mp4",
    sensors="/tmp/sensors.bin",
    actions="/tmp/actions.parquet",
    duration_s=47.2,
    fps=30,
    metadata={"task": "pick_and_place", "scene": "tabletop"},
)

The episode appears in /admin/episodes immediately, with the four reproducibility fields (policy / env / git / seed) front-and-center on the detail page.

From environment variables

Same call without hardcoding the key:

export ROBOTRACE_API_KEY=rt_…
export ROBOTRACE_BASE_URL=https://app.robotrace.dev

import robotrace as rt

# init() is optional when both env vars are set — the default
# client is constructed lazily on first use.
rt.log_episode(
    name="…",
    policy_version="…",
    video="/tmp/run.mp4",
)

API

log_episode — the sacred call

The one-shot entrypoint. Equivalent to start_episode → upload all artifacts → finalize. Use this for the 95% case of "I have files on disk, log them and move on."

rt.log_episode(
    *,
    # Identification
    name: str | None = None,
    source: Literal["real", "sim", "replay"] = "real",
    robot: str | None = None,

    # Reproducibility — load-bearing per AGENTS.md
    policy_version: str | None = None,
    env_version: str | None = None,
    git_sha: str | None = None,
    seed: int | None = None,

    # Artifact paths (uploaded to object storage via signed PUT URLs)
    video: str | Path | None = None,
    sensors: str | Path | None = None,
    actions: str | Path | None = None,

    # Run details
    duration_s: float | None = None,
    fps: float | None = None,
    metadata: Mapping[str, Any] | None = None,

    # Final state
    status: Literal["ready", "failed"] = "ready",
) -> Episode

Returns the finalized Episode. On failure during upload the SDK flips the run to status="failed" and re-raises so your program sees what went wrong.

start_episode — explicit lifecycle

When you want fine-grained control (stream uploads, defer finalize, react to upload errors per-artifact), use start_episode and the returned Episode handle:

with rt.start_episode(
    name="pick_and_place v3 morning warmup",
    policy_version="pap-v3.2.1",
    artifacts=["video", "sensors"],     # only request the slots you'll fill
) as ep:
    ep.upload_video("/tmp/run.mp4")
    ep.upload_sensors("/tmp/sensors.bin")
    # No explicit finalize — context manager handles it:
    #   • clean exit → status="ready"
    #   • exception  → status="failed", with metadata.failure_reason set

Or explicit:

ep = rt.start_episode(name="…", policy_version="…", artifacts=["video"])
ep.upload_video("/tmp/run.mp4")
ep.finalize(status="ready", duration_s=47.2, fps=30)

Client — explicit instance

Skip the module-level default when you need multiple deployments at once (e.g. shipping the same run to staging + production), or for clean dependency injection in tests:

with rt.Client(api_key="rt_…", base_url="https://…") as client:
    client.log_episode(name="…", policy_version="…", video="…")

Client holds a connection pool — construct it once at process startup, reuse across many episodes, and close() (or use as a context manager) on shutdown.

Errors

Every SDK error inherits from robotrace.RobotraceError. Catch by type rather than parsing message strings:

Exception	When
ConfigurationError	Missing api_key / base_url, file path doesn't exist
TransportError	Network / DNS / TLS / timeout
AuthError	401 — bad / missing / revoked key
NotFoundError	404 — episode id doesn't exist (or cross-tenant)
ConflictError	409 — episode is archived, etc.
ValidationError	400 — payload didn't pass server-side validation
ServerError	5xx — flag for retries

from robotrace import RobotraceError, AuthError

try:
    rt.log_episode(...)
except AuthError:
    # mint a fresh key and reload
    raise
except RobotraceError:
    # generic recovery / alert
    raise

Storage

Artifact uploads go to Cloudflare R2 via short-lived signed PUT URLs the server mints for each call. The SDK streams from disk so memory stays flat regardless of file size.

When the deployment hasn't wired R2 yet (R2_ACCOUNT_ID etc. are blank), the create response has storage="unconfigured" and any upload_* call raises ConfigurationError with a pointer to the production setup checklist. Metadata-only runs still work — useful for testing the SDK contract end-to-end before R2 is provisioned.

Layout (current)

src/robotrace/
├── __init__.py          # public API + module-level default client
├── _version.py
├── client.py            # Client class
├── episode.py           # Episode handle + UploadUrl + ArtifactKind
├── errors.py            # RobotraceError + typed subclasses
└── _http.py             # internal httpx wrapper

ROS 2 / LeRobot adapters land later under src/robotrace/adapters/.

Contributing

The public source lives at github.com/Artl13/robotrace-dev — a read-only mirror auto-synced from our internal monorepo. File issues and PRs against the mirror; we'll cherry-pick approved changes back into the private repo and they'll flow out on the next sync.

The web app at apps/web (private) exposes the ingest API the SDK talks to — coordinate breaking changes by emailing the /api/ingest/episode contract owner before opening a SDK PR that depends on a server change.

License

MIT.