Simulation Validator

Goal

Provide a three-stage validation protocol: pre-flight checks, runtime monitoring, and post-flight validation for materials simulations.

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• No external dependencies (uses Python standard library only)
• Works on Linux, macOS, and Windows

Inputs to Gather

Before running validation scripts, collect from the user:

Decision Guidance

When to Run Each Stage

Is simulation about to start?
├── YES → Run Stage 1: preflight_checker.py
│         └── BLOCK status? → Fix issues, do NOT run simulation
│         └── WARN status? → Review warnings, document if accepted
│         └── PASS status? → Proceed to run simulation
│
Is simulation running?
├── YES → Run Stage 2: runtime_monitor.py (periodically)
│         └── Alerts? → Consider stopping, check parameters
│
Has simulation finished?
├── YES → Run Stage 3: result_validator.py
│         └── Failed checks? → Do NOT use results
│                            → Run failure_diagnoser.py
│         └── All passed? → Results are valid

Choosing Validation Thresholds

Script Outputs (JSON Fields)

Three-Stage Validation Protocol

Stage 1: Pre-flight (Before Simulation)

1. Run scripts/preflight_checker.py --config simulation.json
2. BLOCK status: Stop immediately, fix all blocker issues
3. WARN status: Review warnings, document accepted risks
4. PASS status: Proceed to simulation

python3 scripts/preflight_checker.py \
    --config simulation.json \
    --required dt,dx,kappa \
    --ranges "dt:1e-6:1e-2,dx:1e-4:1e-1" \
    --min-free-gb 1.0 \
    --json

Stage 2: Runtime (During Simulation)

1. Run scripts/runtime_monitor.py --log simulation.log periodically
2. Configure alert thresholds based on problem type
3. Stop simulation if critical alerts appear

python3 scripts/runtime_monitor.py \
    --log simulation.log \
    --residual-growth 10.0 \
    --dt-drop 100.0 \
    --json

Stage 3: Post-flight (After Simulation)

1. Run scripts/result_validator.py --metrics results.json
2. All checks PASS: Results are valid for analysis
3. Any check FAIL: Do NOT use results, diagnose failure

python3 scripts/result_validator.py \
    --metrics results.json \
    --bound-min 0.0 \
    --bound-max 1.0 \
    --mass-tol 1e-3 \
    --json

Failure Diagnosis

When validation fails:

python3 scripts/failure_diagnoser.py --log simulation.log --json

Conversational Workflow Example

User: My phase field simulation crashed after 1000 steps. Can you help me figure out why?

Agent workflow:

1. First, check the log for obvious errors:
   bashCopy

   python3 scripts/failure_diagnoser.py --log simulation.log --json
   

2. If diagnosis suggests numerical blow-up, check runtime stats:
   bashCopy

   python3 scripts/runtime_monitor.py --log simulation.log --json
   

3. Recommend fixes based on findings:
   • If residual grew rapidly → reduce time step
   • If dt collapsed → check stability conditions
   • If NaN detected → check initial conditions

Error Handling

Interpretation Guidance

Status Meanings

Confidence Score Interpretation

Common Failure Patterns

Security

Input Validation

• Config file paths are validated for existence before parsing; non-existent paths produce clear errors
• --required parameter names are validated against a safe-character allowlist
• --ranges entries are parsed as name:min:max with finite numeric bounds enforced
• --min-free-gb is validated as a finite positive number
• --residual-growth and --dt-drop thresholds are validated as finite positive numbers
• --bound-min, --bound-max, and --mass-tol are validated as finite numbers with bound-max > bound-min

File Access

• preflight_checker.py reads a single user-specified config file (JSON/YAML) and checks disk space on the output directory
• runtime_monitor.py reads a single log file specified by --log; log files are size-limited (500 MB max) before parsing
• result_validator.py reads a single metrics file (JSON) specified by --metrics
• failure_diagnoser.py reads a single log file specified by --log
• No scripts write to the filesystem; all output goes to stdout

Tool Restrictions

• Read: Used to inspect script source, references, config files, and simulation logs
• Bash: Used to execute the four Python validation scripts (preflight_checker.py, runtime_monitor.py, result_validator.py, failure_diagnoser.py) with explicit argument lists
• Write: Used to save validation reports; writes are scoped to the user's working directory
• Grep/Glob: Used to locate log files, config files, and search references

Safety Measures

• No eval(), exec(), or dynamic code generation
• All subprocess calls use explicit argument lists (no shell=True)
• Log parsing uses pre-compiled regex patterns; user-supplied patterns are not accepted (patterns are hardcoded)
• Phase names and diagnostic strings extracted from logs are sanitized (truncated, control characters stripped) before inclusion in output

Limitations

• Not a real-time monitor: Scripts analyze logs after-the-fact
• Regex-based: Log parsing depends on pattern matching; may miss unusual formats
• No automatic fixes: Scripts diagnose but don't modify simulations

References

• references/validation_protocol.md - Detailed checklist and criteria
• references/log_patterns.md - Common failure signatures and regex patterns

Version History

• v1.1.0 (2024-12-24): Enhanced documentation, decision guidance, Windows compatibility
• v1.0.0: Initial release with 4 validation scripts