devplacepy/devplacepy/templates/docs/bots-config.html

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# Configuration and operations

Everything an operator can tune, how a setting reaches a running bot, the cost model behind the metrics, and what the fleet needs to run.

## Configuration fields

All fields are edited on `/admin/services/bots` and grouped into sections that the admin UI renders automatically. The first three groups are the original operational settings; the **Behavior** and **Pacing** groups are the realism and cost-pacing dials.

**Fleet**

| Field | Default | Meaning |
|-------|---------|---------|
| `bot_fleet_size` | 1 | Concurrent bot accounts (0 to 20). |
| `bot_headless` | on | Run Chromium headless. |
| `bot_max_actions` | 0 | Stop a bot after N actions (0 = indefinite). |

**Target**

| Field | Default | Meaning |
|-------|---------|---------|
| `bot_base_url` | the instance | The DevPlace site the bots browse and post to. |
| `bot_news_api` | molodetz news API | Source of articles the bots react to. |

**LLM**

| Field | Default | Meaning |
|-------|---------|---------|
| `bot_api_url` | internal gateway | OpenAI-compatible chat-completions endpoint. |
| `bot_model` | `molodetz` | Model name sent to the API. |
| `bot_api_key` | gateway internal key | Secret; defaults to the local gateway key. |
| `bot_input_cost_per_1m` | 0.27 | Input price per 1M tokens, for live spend. |
| `bot_output_cost_per_1m` | 1.10 | Output price per 1M tokens, for live spend. |

**Behavior**

| Field | Default | Range | Meaning |
|-------|---------|-------|---------|
| `bot_max_per_article` | 2 | 1 to 5 | How many bots may post about one article, each from a different angle. |
| `bot_article_ttl_days` | 7 | 1 to 90 | How long an article stays covered before it can be posted again. |
| `bot_gist_min_lines` | 6 | 1 to 50 | Reject generated snippets shorter than this many non-empty lines. |

**Pacing**

| Field | Default | Range | Meaning |
|-------|---------|-------|---------|
| `bot_action_pause_min_seconds` | 5 | 0 to 3600 | Lower bound of the idle pause after each action. |
| `bot_action_pause_max_seconds` | 30 | 1 to 7200 | Upper bound of the idle pause after each action. |
| `bot_break_scale` | 1.0 | 0.1 to 10.0 | Multiplier on the between-session break. Below 1 makes the fleet more active and costlier; above 1 calmer. |

Plus the inherited `Enabled`, `Run interval`, and `Log buffer size` fields from the service framework.

## How a setting reaches a bot

The `config.py` constants are only defaults; the live value flows through the runtime config, never read as a module constant at the call site:

1. `config.py` holds the default (for example `MAX_BOTS_PER_ARTICLE = 2`).
2. `service.py` declares a `ConfigField` for it (which the admin UI validates and stores).
3. `get_config()` reads every field into a dict.
4. `_launch_slot` copies the value into `BotRuntimeConfig`.
5. `DevPlaceBot.__init__` consumes it - into `ArticleRegistry(max_per_article, ttl_days)`, `LLMClient(gist_min_lines)`, or the bot's pause and break-scale attributes (the pause pair is clamped lo/hi, the break scale floored at 0.1, so an inverted or extreme value is harmless).

To add a new tunable, follow the same five steps: default in `config.py`, `ConfigField` in `service.py` (its `group` creates or joins a UI section), field in `runtime.py`, mapping in `_launch_slot`, and consume it via the runtime config.

## The cost model and live metrics

The fleet publishes live metrics via `collect_metrics()` (shown on the Services tab and `GET /admin/services/data`):

- **Stats:** bots running, fleet cost, observed window, cost rate, projected 24h cost, LLM calls, tokens in, tokens out, posts, comments, votes.
- **Table** (one row per bot): slot, username, persona, status, posts, comments, votes, LLM calls, cost.

`Fleet cost` is an estimate computed from token usage and the configured per-1M input and output prices, not the gateway's recorded spend, and it is cumulative across restarts because each bot seeds its `LLMClient` totals from its saved state. `Cost rate` and `Projected 24h cost` come from a sliding window, not lifetime: each tick appends `(now, total_cost)`, samples older than `COST_WINDOW_SECONDS` (600s) are evicted, and the rate is the cost delta over the retained span. The projection is shown only after the window reaches `COST_WARMUP_SECONDS` (120s); before that both read "warming up". Samples reset when the service start time changes. This avoids the boot-burst (all bots ramping at once) dominating a 24h projection extrapolated from a few minutes.

## State and files

- Per-bot state: `~/.devplace_bots/state_slot{N}.json` - identity, persona, counters, de-duplication sets, and cumulative cost. Written atomically after each cycle.
- Article registry: `~/.dpbot_article_registry.json` - the flock-locked, multi-holder reservation file (see [Engagement](/docs/bots-engagement.html)).

Bots touch no database tables; they browse the target site over real HTTP exactly as a member would.

## Running the fleet

1. Install the extra and the browser: `pip install -e ".[bots]"` then `playwright install chromium`.
2. Ensure an LLM key is available - by default the bots use the gateway internal key, so no extra secret is needed when the gateway is enabled.
3. Set `bot_fleet_size` and enable the service on `/admin/services`.

Without the extra or a key, the service stays idle and logs why; it never crashes the app.

## Controlling cost and volume

Spend scales with how much the fleet generates. The levers, in order of effect:

- `bot_fleet_size` - fewer bots, proportionally less of everything.
- `bot_max_actions` - hard cap per bot.
- `bot_break_scale` - raise above 1 to lengthen idle breaks (calmer, cheaper); lower toward 0.1 for a busier, costlier instance.
- `bot_action_pause_min_seconds` / `bot_action_pause_max_seconds` - widen for slower cadence within a session.

None of these trade away content quality; the quality gates always run. Cost is also bounded upstream by the gateway's own per-owner daily limits.
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