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Cdf Anomalygen

NVIDIAOfficialCreated by NVIDIA

  • Skill
  • Workflow
  • Data and AI
  • Apache-2.0
  • Medium risk

From the author

Use when running the CDF AnomalyGen pipeline over a defect dataset — mask placement, fine-tuning, synthetic defect-image generation (SDG), evaluation, quality refinement, and pseudo-labeling — even when the user names only one stage.
— the description by NVIDIA

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

The cdf-anomalygen skill manages the complete lifecycle of the AnomalyGen pipeline, which fine-tunes a Cosmos base model to generate realistic synthetic defect images. It handles mask placement, model training, synthetic data generation, evaluation, and quality refinement. The skill supports both agentic (AMG) and classic (AMP) mask placement backends, ensuring that defect datasets are processed according to the required contract layout.

What it does

  • Automates the full AnomalyGen pipeline from mask placement to pseudo-labeling.
  • Supports flexible execution modes: full pipeline, fine-tuning only, or generation only.
  • Provides two mask placement backends: agentic (AMG) for VLM-based proposals and classic (AMP) for rule-based allocation.
  • Manages model registry configuration for VLM-based mask generation.
  • Handles recipe management and training configuration for fine-tuning runs.
  • Enforces strict verification gates at every stage to ensure data integrity and pipeline success.

When to use it

  • When you need to generate synthetic defect images for training anomaly detectors.
  • When fine-tuning a Cosmos-based model on a specific defect dataset.
  • When performing mask placement on clean images using either agentic or classic methods.
  • When evaluating or refining the quality of generated synthetic defect datasets.

Advantages

  • Ensures consistent pipeline execution through standardized verification gates.
  • Supports both modern agentic and legacy rule-based mask placement workflows.
  • Provides clear separation between experiment labels and dataset locations.
  • Facilitates reproducible training runs via structured recipe management.

Usage examples

“Run the AnomalyGen pipeline on the phone_screen dataset.”
The agent initiates the full pipeline (Steps 1-7) using the specified dataset, managing mask placement, fine-tuning, and generation.
“Fine-tune an anomaly-generation model for PCB defects.”
The agent executes the fine-tuning mode (Steps 1-3) to train the model on the provided PCB defect dataset.
“Generate 25 synthetic PCB anomaly images.”
The agent runs the generation-only mode, using an existing checkpoint to produce 25 synthetic images based on the specified recipe.
“Pseudo-label the generated defects.”
The agent performs the pseudo-labeling stage of the pipeline on the existing generated dataset.

Install

  1. Download the skill as a ZIP:

    https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/nvidia/cdf-anomalygen/download
  2. Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

    mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip cdf-anomalygen.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by NVIDIA

Skill: cdf-anomalygen

Purpose

AnomalyGen fine-tunes the frozen Cosmos base into an anomaly-generation model: given a clean image + defect mask, it paints a realistic defect into that region (synthetic data for detectors). Pick a mode, collect its params, run the steps — all commands from the repo root.

When to Use This Skill

Use for the CDF AnomalyGen pipeline over a defect dataset — any single stage (mask placement, fine-tuning, generation, evaluation, refinement, or pseudo-labeling) or the full run.

  • "Run the AnomalyGen pipeline on phone_screen"

  • "Fine-tune an anomaly-generation model for PCB defects"

  • "Generate 25 synthetic PCB anomaly images"

  • "Place defect masks", "evaluate quality", or "pseudo-label the generated defects"

Do not use this skill for generic image generation, or for synthetic data that isn't defect images built from the {texture}/{defect} clean-image + defect-mask contract.

Prerequisites

  • A CUDA GPU and the project's built env (native .venv or the Docker image).

  • Hugging Face auth — run hf auth login — plus network access; the downloader fetches the model checkpoints.

  • A dataset_dir in the Step 1 contract layout (clean images + {defect} masks; plus defect_spec.jsonl only when mask_backend=amp — the default amg never reads it, and nothing after Step 2 does either).

Preflight the env + checkpoints (GPU, Python, CUDA/torch, deps, HF auth, model checkpoints):

scripts/preflight_env_ckpt.sh

Read which group failed before reacting — the summary separates them, and only one is fixed by downloading:

  • missing checkpoints → scripts/download_checkpoints.sh (run hf auth login first).

  • env / Python / deps → rebuild the environment (bash scripts/env_setup.sh, then activate it).

Third group — model access for mask placement (checked HERE, never mid-flow). The default mask_backend=amg needs a vision model, and a run that discovers this at Step 2 has already spent the user's time. A VLM API is a base, a key and a model name — and all three live in ONE place: ~/.anomalygen/endpoints.yaml, the model registry (nothing is built into the code; the template is scripts/agentic_mask_generation_serving/endpoints.example.yaml). It sits under $HOME, not in the repo, so it works from any directory, serves every checkout, and is writable inside the read-only product containers. The moment inputs are locked with mask_backend=amg (the default), probe:

[ -f ~/.anomalygen/endpoints.yaml ] && echo "amg model: ~/.anomalygen/endpoints.yaml present" \
    || echo "amg model: no ~/.anomalygen/endpoints.yaml — NO model can resolve; copy scripts/agentic_mask_generation_serving/endpoints.example.yaml there"

The model resolves in the registry → use it. That is the whole check: --gen-model and --judge-model are REQUIRED flags (there is no default model), and every name they carry must have a registry entry (model + base_url + key) — the entry point refuses to start when one does not; there is no environment fallback. A user's own OpenAI-compatible endpoint is the same case: one endpoints.yaml entry with their documented base URL, their key, and their model name in --gen-model/--judge-model.

Anything less → stop and ask the user now, before Step 1 — unless the user's request already names the model (e.g. "use local Gemma"): that IS the pick, act on it without re-asking. Three options — whichever it is, set AMG_MODEL to the chosen name; the Step 2 command passes it to both required flags:

  • (a) supply an API — one endpoints.yaml entry: a model name, a base and a key (e.g. AMG_MODEL=azure/openai/gpt-6-astra).

  • (b) let the skill start the model service — in a container, as a background process inside it; on a dev host, from scripts/agentic_mask_generation_serving/. Needs a GPU; the weights are a default checkpoint — scripts/download_checkpoints.sh gemma fetches them and preflight verifies them (the group argument fetches only this model; bare, the script fetches all eleven). mkdir -p ~/.anomalygen && cp scripts/agentic_mask_generation_serving/endpoints.example.yaml ~/.anomalygen/endpoints.yaml wires it: the template's gemma entry already routes AMG_MODEL=nvidia/google/gemma-4-31b-it to http://localhost:8902/v1, and the run carries --beam-multi 4 --beam-pairwise --exemplar-captions --exemplar-visual-prompt --coverage-note — the local model always pairs with the in-loop beam and the three information channels. Bootstrap, lifecycle and the why: agentic-mask-generation.md.

  • (c) set mask_backend=amp for this run.

Never fall back silently. Whichever they pick, the run's own capability probe confirms the model can take images and answer in JSON before Step 2 spends anything.

Inputs

Collect the run's inputs from the user before starting. If the mode or any input it requires is missing, ask the user first — never guess a required input or silently fall back to its default.

Lock the mode first — it fixes which steps run and which inputs are required (ask for any not provided):

  • full — train + generate, Steps 1 → 7. Required: name, dataset_dir, num_sdg.

  • finetune_only — train only, Steps 1 → 3. Required: name, dataset_dir, num_sdg. Here num_sdg sizes only the validation set.

  • generation_only (a.k.a. inference_only) — generate from an existing checkpoint, Steps 2, 4 → 7. Required: name, checkpoint, recipe, dataset_dir, num_sdg. The checkpoint's geometry stamp must equal recipe's. A legacy checkpoint (trained before the stamp existed) has none: pass its run-dir recipe copy and it is stamped from that recipe at load (generation only; it cannot be resumed).

name is required in every mode — an experiment label that names the recipe, run dir, logs and the generated mask-set dirs. It is never a dataset location: where the data lives is dataset_dir, always passed separately and never derived from name.

Optional in every mode — all have working defaults, so ask only if the user raises them: num_gpus (1), num_search_run (3), score (nn), task (texture_ft), base_seed (1), mask_backend (amg), legacy_fixed_size (off), per_clean_pairing (off). Anything not listed as Required above is optional.

legacy_fixed_size switches Step 3 to the legacy fixed-input-size training mechanism. It is off by default: every fine-tune uses the current variable-input-size mechanism unless the user explicitly asks for the legacy one ("FT using the legacy fixed-size mechanism", "old fixed input size setting", "previous release FT mode", etc.). Never infer it from the dataset, the image sizes, or KPI numbers, and never ask about it when the user has not raised it. When set, the run takes job_name: anomalygen_texture_ft_legacy — in the recipe and as --job_name to set_pipeline_vars.sh — so it never shares a run dir with a default run of the same name, and Step 3 appends the legacy block to the recipe.

mask_backend picks how Step 2 places masks: amg (default) — the agentic engine proposes, refines and judge-accepts every mask, all defect types included; amp — the allocate → pair → place pipeline; no VLM beyond text ROIs. AMG needs model access (preflight checks before spending); if the user cannot supply it and does not choose, stop and ask — never fall back silently.

Parameter tables (each mapped to its CLI arg) and the step map: inputs.md. Confirm the inputs, set the shared variables below, then run straight through — in full, checkpoint is derived after Step 3, so don't pass it.

Instructions

Run the steps your mode selects (see Inputs), in order — each step's header notes when to skip it.

A step is done only when its output exists on disk — not when its command is launched. Every step ends with a named gate (dataset, amp, train, …); run it before moving on. Never treat starting a long job as a stopping point, nor proceed on a partial artifact. Gate commands and the fix for each failure: references/verification.md.

Set the shared variables every step below refers to. Re-source this in each new shell — variables do not survive one — and read the values it echoes back (${DATASET_DIR}, ${VAL_DIR}, ${GEN_DIR}, ${OUT}, ${RUN_DIR}, ${LOG_DIR}, …):

source scripts/skill_utility/set_pipeline_vars.sh --name <name> --dataset_dir <dataset_dir> \
    --num_sdg <num_sdg> [--num_gpus 1] [--num_search_run 3] [--task texture_ft] \
    [--job_name anomalygen_texture_ft_legacy]   # legacy_fixed_size only
export SCORE="<score>"  # repeat the confirmed choice in every shell; use nn when none was requested

--dataset_dir is required and is never derived from --name. The name is an experiment label; the dataset is a separate input that comes from the user. They differ in the normal case — a label of uc1pega-opus5-e2e over a dataset at datasets/uc1pega — so a name-derived path would be wrong far more often than right, and wrong silently: the recipe's dataset_path is set separately, so the recipe can point at the right dataset while ${DATASET_DIR} hands Steps 5 and 6 a --real_root that scores against nothing. The script does not check that the path exists; gate dataset does, one step later.

Every step's log goes under ${LOG_DIR} (results/), never the repo root. Use ${LOG_DIR}/<step>_${NAME}.log. The same goes for PID files — the launcher writes its own under results/; do not add one.

The steps below pipe through tee to keep the log and the console. Run set -o pipefail first — without it the pipeline's exit status is tee's, so a step that died reports success:

set -o pipefail

set_pipeline_vars.sh rejects a name/task outside [A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9._-]* and any non-integer count rather than sanitizing them — both reach command lines below. Apply the same care to user-supplied paths (dataset_dir, recipe, checkpoint): quote every expansion. texture_ft is the only task_type today; a new task family adds one ${TASK}→${SCRIPTS} line to that script plus a matching task_type: in the recipe.

Step 3 sets CKPT and repoints RECIPE at the run-dir copy for Steps 4–7. generation_only skips Step 3, so set both yourself before Step 4 (use the user's checkpoint verbatim if given; CKPT and RECIPE must come from one run or class ids drift):

RUN_DIR=<existing run dir>                      # only if it is not the ${RUN_DIR} already set above
CKPT="${RUN_DIR}/checkpoints/model/$(cat "${RUN_DIR}/checkpoints/best_checkpoint.txt")"
RECIPE="${RUN_DIR}/exp_${TASK}_${NAME}.yaml"    # run-dir copy — MUST match the checkpoint
Step 1 — dataset (contract layout)

All modes need dataset_dir on disk in this layout — training and eval read the anomaly_image/+mask/ pairs; both Step 2 backends read clean_image/ (AMG also samples those same pairs as exemplars); defect_spec.jsonl has exactly one consumer, the AMP backend:

{dataset_dir}/{texture}/anomaly_image/{defect}/<name>.png   # defect image
{dataset_dir}/{texture}/mask/{defect}/<name>_mask.png       # binary mask (>=128 = defect); same stem + _mask
{dataset_dir}/{texture}/clean_image/<name>.png              # clean images (Step 2 inputs — both backends)
{dataset_dir}/{texture}/cad_mask/<clean_stem>.png           # cad/cad_tht only: one per clean image, no {defect} level
{dataset_dir}/semantic_segmentation_labels.json             # cad/cad_tht only: label map for those CAD masks
{dataset_dir}/defect_spec.jsonl                             # amp only: one row per {texture}+{defect}; sets spatial_dependency (free/text/cad/cad_tht). amg never reads it — absent is normal

Ready-made subjects:

python -m anomalygen.scripts.datasets.prepare_phone_screen_defect --output_dir "${DATASET_DIR}" --zip <roboflow.zip>
# --zip is required (the images are a manual Roboflow download); --masks_only asks for a dataset with no images.
# also: prepare_pcb_defect, prepare_magnetic_tile_defect  (see anomalygen/scripts/datasets/README.md)

For custom data, emit the same layout and list every [texture, defect] pair in the recipe's anomaly_types. Confirm the layout before proceeding — gate dataset.

Step 2 — mask placement

Two backends produce the same artifact (placed masks + testcase.jsonl); everything downstream is backend-blind. Default is AMG; set mask_backend=amp for the classic pipeline.

Model access was verified at preflight (third group). If preflight was skipped, run that probe now — it must pass before anything below spends money.

One notice: if defect_spec.jsonl is present and declares spatial_dependency, tell the user — AMG is the default and does not read that field (it decides placement by looking at the board); to honour free/text/cad routing, run with mask_backend=amp. Do not change the default over it. A dataset with no defect_spec.jsonl at all is normal under amg — nothing in the pipeline reads it then, and the grep below is simply silent; under amp its absence is a dataset gate failure.

grep -l spatial_dependency "${DEFECT_SPEC}" >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo   "NOTE: spatial_dependency present but mask_backend=amg ignores it; use mask_backend=amp to honour it"
AMG (default)

Reference (model resolution, the model-service bootstrap, the capability probe, cost, resume, the run's own deviation ledger): agentic-mask-generation.md.

One run per output set, each sized by --num-sdg — the same request AMP answers, split across the types by the same rule (base each, remainder to the first types). Both sets use ${NUM_SDG}, the same convention as AMP, where --num_sdg sizes the validation and the generation set alike. The deliverable is exactly num_sdg rows, so gate amg checks the number that was asked for:

AMG_MODE=validation; AMG_DIR="${VAL_DIR}"; ALLOC=validation   # names the log, the out-dir, the split
# then again:  AMG_MODE=generation AMG_DIR="${GEN_DIR}" ALLOC=inference

python -m anomalygen.scripts.agentic_mask_generation.generate \
    --dataset-path "${DATASET_DIR}" --anomaly-types <texture>+<defect> [...] \
    --gen-model "${AMG_MODEL}" --judge-model "${AMG_MODEL}" \
    --model-registry "${AMG_REGISTRY:-$HOME/.anomalygen/endpoints.yaml}" \
    --num-sdg "${NUM_SDG}" --mode "${ALLOC}" \
    --visual-prompt auto --defect-library auto \
    --out-dir "${AMG_DIR}" 2>&1 | tee "${LOG_DIR}/amg_${AMG_MODE}_${NAME}.log"

--model-registry is explicit, not left to the default, because Step 2 may run inside a container whose $HOME is not the host's: the flag makes "which registry answered" a fact of the recorded command. Set AMG_REGISTRY to wherever the registry actually is (e.g. the path it was mounted at).

--mode is why the two sets are not interchangeable. The generation set is inference: an even split, and a type may legitimately get 0 when num_sdg is below the type count. The validation set is validation: split in proportion to each type's real mask count, so it mirrors what the model trains on — and a share that would round to 0 is refused, because validation scores per type and a type with no samples drops silently out of the KPI that picks best_checkpoint.txt. Both are AMP's rules, shared through one allocation module rather than reimplemented.

--num-sdg is the only way to size a run, as it is for AMP. It splits the total across the types rather than sizing each alike, so 25 over 3 types is 9/8/8 and lands on 25 — where a per-type count could only reach 27, paying for two masks before anything discards them. For exact per-type targets instead, --per-defect-counts '{"<texture>+<defect>": N}'; omitted types get 0.

AMG_MODE is in the log name because there are two runs. Both would otherwise tee to one file and the second would overwrite the first, silently discarding the validation run's deviation ledger — the same reason AMP's log carries ${AMP_MODE}.

The validation set's size is a training-time cost, not just a one-off API charge. Every validation pass re-renders the whole testcase_jsonl set and runs one SAM2 forward per sample (~0.4 s each — see fine-tuning.md), repeated max_iter / validation_iter times. To spend less, lower num_sdg; do not raise validation_iter, which also coarsens the resolution best_checkpoint.txt is chosen at.

AMG places every type it is given. A stopped or interrupted run continues from where it was when re-run with the same command. The run records every deviation as degraded[KIND] in its log — read the summary before trusting the output. Verify the deliverable directly against gate amg (verification.md): testcase.jsonl rows = ${NUM_SDG}. The fill loop delivers in beam-sized batches and then trims to the target, so trimmed from N with N well above a type's share is normal, not a defect — the surplus is kept under {texture}/_overflow/{defect}/ + testcase_overflow.jsonl and is deliberately not counted in testcase.jsonl, so counting mask files on disk will exceed the row count with nothing wrong. When the user asks for different backends on different types, each backend places its own subset and this count is over the union of the runs' rows (the AMP gate's roi_* checks and remedies are for AMP out-dirs only).

When the model is served here, the service spans Step 2 and nothing else. Both mask sets are Step 2 products, so serve once and run both against it — then stop it. Serving holds a large share of the GPU, and Step 3 (full) and Step 4 (generation_only) need that GPU back:

scripts/agentic_mask_generation_serving/serverctl.sh health                   # idempotent: probe first, start only if down
case $? in                                                # 0 up · 1 not running · 2 alive but loading
  0) : ;;                                                 # ready — run the two generate runs below
  1) echo "DOWN — start it (references/agentic-mask-generation.md), then wait for it" ;;
  2) echo "LOADING — call: scripts/agentic_mask_generation_serving/serverctl.sh wait   (repeat while it exits 2)" ;;
esac
# ... the two generate runs above: AMG_DIR=${VAL_DIR}, then AMG_DIR=${GEN_DIR} ...
scripts/agentic_mask_generation_serving/serverctl.sh stop                     # part of this step's gate
scripts/agentic_mask_generation_serving/serverctl.sh health                   # ONLY exit 1 means the GPU is free
[ $? = 1 ] || echo "STILL HOLDING THE GPU — Step 3 will contend for it"

Test for exit 1, not for failure. A server that is up (0) and one still loading (2) both hold their --gpu-memory-utilization 0.9 reservation, so health && echo ... would clear the gate on a process that never finished starting and is still sitting on the card.

Waiting for the service is an action, exactly as waiting for a fine-tune is. serverctl.sh wait reports state as its exit code — 0 up, 1 no such process, 2 still loading, call again — and each call is a ~9.5-minute slice, not the whole wait. A single-GPU cold start measured ~14 minutes to first answer /v1/models, so expect two or three calls. Do not read a DOWN/LOADING line during that window as a failed start: exit 2 means the process is alive and has not finished loading, and restarting on that reading puts a second vLLM on the same GPU at --gpu-memory-utilization 0.9.

Step 2 is not done until that last line prints nothing. The bootstrap that starts it — in a container or on a dev host — is in agentic-mask-generation.md.

Classic AMP (mask_backend=amp)

Reference (allocation modes, KPI floor, --per_defect_counts, ROI caching, free/text/cad/cad_tht routing, pairing coverage): mask-placement.md.

AMP builds a testcase.jsonl (clean image + placed mask + gen params) by running allocate → pair → place. Build the validation set (fine-tune) and/or the generation set (SDG), each with a distinct --seed — full → both, finetune_only → validation, generation_only → generation:

AMP_MODE=validation; AMP_DIR="${VAL_DIR}"; SEED=42    # or: AMP_MODE=inference AMP_DIR="${GEN_DIR}" SEED=43

python -m anomalygen.scripts.auto_mask_placement.roi_place_pipeline \
    --num_sdg "${NUM_SDG}" --mode "${AMP_MODE}" --defect_desc "${DEFECT_SPEC}" \
    --dataset_dir "${DATASET_DIR}" --output_dir "${AMP_DIR}" --seed "${SEED}" \
    2>&1 | tee "${LOG_DIR}/amp_${AMP_MODE}_${NAME}.log"
# flags for roi_place go after a bare --, e.g.:  -- --refresh_roi

It derives every intermediate path from --output_dir, threads roi_pair's n_seeds into roi_place, and stops with a named stage if one produces nothing. Output is placed masks + ${AMP_DIR}/testcase.jsonl. The generation set must have exactly as many rows as the allocation asked for — num_sdg, or the --per_defect_counts sum when you passed one — verify before proceeding: gate amp.

Only when the user set per_clean_pairing=on: pass --per_clean_pairing on, and with it a single-type --per_defect_counts '{"<texture>+<defect>": '"${NUM_SDG}"'}' with num_sdg at the clean-image count — on is one record per clean, so it takes exactly one defect type. Absent, the default off pairing applies: it maximises (submask, clean) diversity and so visits only some clean images (mask-placement.md). Whether every clean must receive an output is a property of the batch that only the user knows; do not infer it.

Step 3 — fine-tuning (skip when generation_only)

Reference (recipe knobs, launch mechanics, early stopping, checkpoint selection): fine-tuning.md.

Before training: copy the template recipe and edit its dataset block so testcase_jsonl points at the validation set from Step 2 (AMG or AMP) (other keys ship at tested defaults):

TEMPLATE=ag_config/exp_texture_ft_phone_screen.yaml   # the worked example doubles as the template
[ -f "${USER_RECIPE:-}" ] && TEMPLATE="${USER_RECIPE}"   # a recipe the user passed replaces it
[ "${RECIPE}" = "${TEMPLATE}" ] || cp "${TEMPLATE}" "${RECIPE}"   # same file (name=phone_screen or a passed recipe): edit it in place

If the user passed a recipe, set USER_RECIPE to it first: an existing file replaces the template, so a recipe already at ${RECIPE} is edited in place, never overwritten.

# edit the dataset block in ${RECIPE}
dataset_name: ${NAME}
anomaly_types: [[<texture>, <defect>], ...]   # every [texture, defect] pair on disk
dataset_path: ${DATASET_DIR}
testcase_jsonl: ${VAL_DIR}/testcase.jsonl        # ← Step 2 validation set

If you change max_iter, set cycle_lengths to the same value. cycle_lengths sets how long the learning-rate schedule lasts, and training crashes if max_iter is larger.

Only when legacy_fixed_size is set: change the recipe's job_name line to anomalygen_texture_ft_legacy (the value you passed as --job_name), and append this block to ${RECIPE}, keys and values exactly as shown — it is the legacy mechanism as one unit, never a subset:

# legacy_fixed_size only — append to ${RECIPE}
input_size_ladder: [512]
crop_mode: ratio
crop_ratio_range: [1.5, 8.0]
background_dropout_prob: 0.5
ring_jitter_prob: 0.5
inst_aug_prob: 0.5

A fine-tune runs hours at the 15000 default, so it is launched detached (own session, PID file, log). Check ${RECIPE} is the one you meant before launching — it then runs unattended with your credentials:

scripts/skill_utility/train_control.sh start --name "${NAME}" --recipe "${RECIPE}" \
    --num_gpus "${NUM_GPUS}" --scripts "${SCRIPTS}" --task "${TASK}"

This launcher is the only sanctioned way to start a fine-tune. Never hand-roll a torchrun for training. It is what writes results/train_${NAME}.log and results/train_${NAME}.pid, records the run dir, and makes wait/stop work; a direct torchrun bypasses all of it, and a literal --nproc_per_node=<n> typed at the prompt silently discards ${NUM_GPUS} and the user's GPU budget with it. Pass --num_gpus ${NUM_GPUS} — never a literal.

Writes ${RUN_DIR} (recipe copied in). train_control.sh stop --name ${NAME} ends a run; start again resumes from latest_checkpoint.txt.

Waiting is an action. Call wait in the foreground until it stops returning 2 — arming a background watcher and ending your turn leaves nobody to run Steps 4–7:

scripts/skill_utility/train_control.sh wait --name "${NAME}"   # 0 = finished · 1 = failed · 2 = still running, call again

Each call is a ~9.5-minute slice, not the whole wait. The 15000 default runs for hours (dataset-dependent; the measured times are in docs/tutorial/texture/7-agentic-end-to-end-flow.md) — expect dozens of calls. Only exit 0 clears gate train — not a slice expiring, and not a checkpoint appearing (the trainer writes an intermediate iter_<N>.pt every save_iter). On 1, read the log and fix the run; do not proceed.

finetune_only stops here. For full, take the best iteration from the pointer the trainer writes at train end (peak nn_score on the Average column) — runs routinely peak mid-training:

CKPT="${RUN_DIR}/checkpoints/model/$(cat "${RUN_DIR}/checkpoints/best_checkpoint.txt")"  # iter_<best>.pt
RECIPE="${RUN_DIR}/exp_${TASK}_${NAME}.yaml"  # run-dir copy — MUST match the checkpoint

Never substitute latest_checkpoint.txt — it names the last iteration. ${RUN_DIR} also resolves correctly (best pointer first, then latest, then highest iter_*.pt), but pass the explicit path so the record names the exact checkpoint. A missing pointer is a train gate failure — fix the run, don't let it fall back to the latest.

Step 4 — generation / SDG (skip when finetune_only)

Reads the generation AMP testcase.jsonl (Step 2, GEN_DIR). --recipe must be the recipe the checkpoint was trained with (use the run-dir copy) so anomaly_type→class-id lines up.

torchrun --nproc_per_node="${NUM_GPUS}" "${SCRIPTS}/generate.py" \
    --checkpoint "${CKPT}" \
    --recipe "${RECIPE}" \
    --input_data_path "${GEN_DIR}/testcase.jsonl" \
    --output_dir "${OUT}" \
    2>&1 | tee "${LOG_DIR}/generation_${NAME}.log"

--nproc_per_node=${NUM_GPUS} — expand the variable, never a literal count.

--base_seed (default 1) seeds the per-testcase noise. Don't change it mid-pipeline — Step 6 compares KPIs across re-generated rounds, which a different seed makes incomparable.

Output tree: reconstructed_image/ (the synthetic defects), original_image/, original_mask/, and ${TASK}_generation_result.csv. generate.py emits one image per testcase row (no quality drop), except for samples the content-safety guardrail blocks — those write no image and land in guardrail_blocked.csv, which is expected, not a failure. Verify images + blocked = rows, and the canonical CSV header, before Step 5 (gate generate); never hand-edit the CSV — a non-canonical CSV crashes Step 6.

Step 5 — evaluation (skip when finetune_only)

Scores the batch against the real dataset with the same correspondence KPI as training validation.

python "${SCRIPTS}/evaluate.py" \
    --gen_root "${OUT}" --real_root "${DATASET_DIR}" \
    --recipe "${RECIPE}" \
    --output_file "${OUT}/${NAME}_kpi.json" \
    2>&1 | tee "${LOG_DIR}/evaluation_${NAME}.log"

Writes per-type + Average blocks (nn_score, mnn_score, fid, per_sample[]) — verify it exists (gate eval). nn_score is the primary KPI (higher is better); mnn_score/fid are secondary. It also scores the anomaly-quality axes and aq_nn, the same metrics validation records (fine-tuning.md). --anomaly_types Phone+oil ... overrides recipe-derived types. The per-sample rows carry NN, completeness, precision, and boundary IoU, which Step 6 needs when --score aq_rank is selected.

Step 6 — quality refinement (skip when finetune_only)

Reference (draw strategy, ranges/seeding, select): quality-refinement.md.

quality_refine.py run does the whole loop: (draw → generate → evaluate) ×${NUM_SEARCH_RUN}, then select and a final score. Each round's (guidance, crop_ratio) is drawn per sample — round 1 uniform, rounds 2+ per-sample Bayesian optimization (see the reference):

python "${SCRIPTS}/quality_refine.py" run \
    --base_testcase "${GEN_DIR}/testcase.jsonl" \
    --original "${OUT}" --original_kpi "${OUT}/${NAME}_kpi.json" \
    --rounds_dir "${OUT}/rounds" --output "${OUT}/searched" \
    --final_kpi "${OUT}/searched/${NAME}_kpi.json" \
    --checkpoint "${CKPT}" --recipe "${RECIPE}" --real_root "${DATASET_DIR}" \
    --score "${SCORE}" \
    --num_search_run "${NUM_SEARCH_RUN}" --num_gpus "${NUM_GPUS}" \
    2>&1 | tee "${LOG_DIR}/refine_${NAME}.log"

It refuses to continue past a round that did not finish — completed/blocked rows, a generation CSV that names exactly the reconstructed images, and its kpi.json. Both BO and select key off those artifacts, so an unfinished round would otherwise be dropped silently and its GPU time wasted. select always runs: num_search_run=0 reduces it to cloning ${OUT} into searched/, so searched/ always exists for Step 7. Verify the round dirs before Step 7: gate refine.

nn remains the default score. --score aq_rank is an optional cumulative composite: before each draw it pools Original with every earlier round, groups candidates by anomaly type, and recomputes AQ-Rank from NN, completeness, precision, and boundary IoU. Final selection recomputes it once more over Original plus only the rounds requested by the current run. It therefore does not reuse the bucket-local aq_rank_score written by evaluate.py whenever candidates compete; the zero-round clone may copy it into audit output but makes no ranking decision. A candidate missing any of the four finite raw inputs is logged and excluded from the rank pool, so it cannot earn a favorable rank on a negatively oriented axis; the rest of the bucket remains usable. If one sample has no eligible render across any bucket, selection logs the fallback and keeps its Original render without calling it an AQ-Rank win. A bucket with no eligible candidate still fails explicitly.

AQ-Rank fits each geometry-axis direction across the pooled samples but applies it when comparing round variants within one sample; those relationships can disagree. Every re-ranking logs each axis's AUROC and sign for audit. Treat this as an opt-in heuristic, not a within-sample improvement guarantee; changing to a within-sample orientation requires a separate experiment and human validation.

With --score nn, the Average.nn_score delta between ${OUT}/searched/${NAME}_kpi.json and the Step 5 ${OUT}/${NAME}_kpi.json measures the refinement gain. AQ-Rank is pool-relative, so do not compare its mean across passes. For --score aq_rank, inspect winner-source distribution and paired raw-metric changes, then use human or downstream evaluation for the final quality claim. A seven-dataset, one-reviewer blind pilot found that NN and AQ-Rank both continued selecting later-round candidates and detected no statistically significant perceptual difference between their final outputs; this supports AQ-Rank as an option, not a claim that it is superior or equivalent to NN.

Step 7 — pseudo-labeling (skip when finetune_only)

Turns the refined ${OUT}/searched tree into a labeled dataset: COCO instance annotations, a classification layout, visualizations, and (unless --no_caption) VLM captions.

python "${SCRIPTS}/pseudo_label.py" \
    --gen_root "${OUT}/searched" \
    --output_dir "${OUT}/searched/pseudo_labels" \
    2>&1 | tee "${LOG_DIR}/pseudo_label_${NAME}.log"
# add --no_caption to skip the VLM captioning (fast, no GPU model load)

--gen_root must contain reconstructed_image/, original_image/, original_mask/, and ${TASK}_generation_result.csv (Step 6 always produces this at ${OUT}/searched). Verify the labels landed — gate label.

Verification

The artifact each gate requires. Runnable commands + the fix for each failure: verification.md.

#GateStepRequires
1dataset1per-pair clean_image/, anomaly_image/{defect}/, mask/{defect}/; + defect_spec.jsonl only when mask_backend=amp
2aamg2each set's testcase.jsonl; rows = num_sdg; no type_failed / model_smoke_failed
2bamp2${AMP_DIR}/testcase.jsonl; generation row count = the allocation
3train3wait exit 0 and checkpoints/best_checkpoint.txt
4generate4canonical CSV header and images + guardrail_blocked.csv rows = testcase rows
5eval5${OUT}/${NAME}_kpi.json with per-type + Average
6refine6${NUM_SEARCH_RUN} round dirs, each complete (images and kpi.json)
7label7pseudo_labels/coco_annotations.json + classification/classes.txt

Gate 6 counts complete rounds — existing dirs aren't enough. An all-original searched/ source column is a valid outcome (no round beat Step 4), not a failure; missing round dirs are.

Examples

Natural invocations — the key=value params map to the Inputs table (recipe knobs like max_iter edit the recipe; see references/inputs.md). pcb is cad-routed, magnetic_tile is free-routed, phone_screen is text-routed, and a through-hole solder-joint set is cad_tht-routed, so their Step 2 AMP differs (see references/mask-placement.md).

Full pipeline (Steps 1→7) on the text-grounded phone-screen set:

Use AnomalyGen skill with
name=phone_screen
mode=full
dataset_dir=datasets/phone_screen
num_sdg=25
max_iter=15000
validation_iter=1000
save_iter=1000

To generate more from an existing checkpoint instead, switch to mode=generation_only and add recipe=${RUN_DIR}/exp_${TASK}_<name>.yaml + checkpoint=${RUN_DIR}/checkpoints/model/iter_<best>.pt (from best_checkpoint.txt), dropping the training knobs (max_iter/validation_iter/save_iter).

Only a prompt that explicitly asks for it — "FT using the legacy fixed-size mechanism" — adds legacy_fixed_size=true: pass --job_name anomalygen_texture_ft_legacy, set the same job_name in the recipe and append the legacy block (Step 3). The run lands under results/anomalygen/${NAME}/anomalygen_texture_ft_legacy; SDG outputs under results/generation_${NAME} are still shared with a default run of the same name. Every other prompt trains with the default variable-input-size mechanism.

Troubleshooting

Each fails quietly — plausible output, wrong result. Detail in fine-tuning.md and mask-placement.md.

SymptomCause / fix
Class ids misaligned in the labelsA different anomaly_types set — the checkpoint stamp refuses it; use the run-dir recipe copy (order is sorted at parse, so it never matters)
Validation scores nothingtestcase_jsonl not wired to the Step 2 validation set
A fresh max_iter run exits immediatelyResumed an old iter_*.pt — clear it or set a new job_name
A legacy run dies after model load with a geometry-stamp refusal (crop_mode / input_size_ladder differ)It resumed a default run's checkpoint from the same run dir — the recipe's job_name and --job_name were not both anomalygen_texture_ft_legacy; fix both and start again
Fewer rows than the allocationA defect yielded zero placements — check roi_place logs
A worse checkpoint ships, numbers look fineRead column 1 of ${RUN_DIR}/valid/<iter>/valid_kpi.csv (one per validated iteration, not one file), not Average — use best_checkpoint.txt

Files

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Requirements and compatibility

Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta

“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.

Needs: Needs Python

The author says: Requires a CUDA GPU and the built env (native .venv or the Docker image); Hugging Face auth + network access to download the model checkpoints.

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