Brummel
691562494b
Two doc-tightenings from the green milestone fieldtest (F3, F6 in
fieldtests/milestone-project-environment/FINDINGS.md): the glossary
manifest entry now names the topology hash and the project provenance
block {namespace, dylib_sha256, commit} a project-hosted run carries;
project-layout.md's Aura.toml annotation now matches what the scaffold
actually emits today ([paths] runs only — the data archive root joins
once real data enters).
refs #180
145 lines
8.3 KiB
Markdown
145 lines
8.3 KiB
Markdown
# How aura is used — engine, projects, and a day in the life
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This document describes the *outside* of aura: how you sit in front of it and
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what a research session looks like. The *inside* (the engine's contracts) is the
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design ledger (`docs/design/INDEX.md`).
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## Engine vs. project (the game-engine split)
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aura is a **game engine for traders**, and like any game engine it is separate
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from the things built with it:
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- **This repo (`aura`)** is the **engine**: `aura-core` (the shared contract),
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`aura-std` (universal standard nodes), `aura-engine` (the deterministic sim
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runtime), `aura-cli` (the `aura` binary), and later the egui playground. It
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ships at most `examples/` fixture nodes for its own tests — never your real
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signals.
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- **A research project** is its **own external repo** (e.g. `~/dev/ger40-lab/`),
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with its own git history, its own Gitea repo (its own forward-queue), and a
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cargo dependency on aura. **It is itself a Rust crate** (a `cdylib` library of
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node / strategy / experiment blueprints); the `aura` host loads and runs it
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during research (hot-reload), and freezes a chosen strategy + broker into a
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standalone binary for deploy. This is where you and Claude author signals *and
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experiments* — all in Rust — and where the runs live. (Contracts **C16**, **C20**.)
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The `aura` CLI is a tool you run *inside* a project directory — it finds the
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project root by walking up to an `Aura.toml`, the way `cargo` finds `Cargo.toml`.
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A project is always a Rust program built on the engine.
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## A project repo
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```
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ger40-lab/ # your research project — a separate Rust crate (cdylib)
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├── Aura.toml # STATIC context only, paths only: the runs dir (all
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│ # the scaffold emits today), plus a data archive root
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│ # once real data enters; no logic — instrument
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│ # geometry is the recorded sidecar (C15), never
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│ # authored here
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├── Cargo.toml # cdylib; depends on aura-core/aura-std (+ shared node crates);
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│ # carries an empty [workspace] table (see note below)
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├── CLAUDE.md # the project's own skills wiring (authoring discipline)
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├── .claude/dev-cycle-profile.yml
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├── nodes/ # project-local node & strategy blueprints (Rust)
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│ └── third-candle-long/
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├── experiments/ # experiment/harness definitions (Rust): matrices, sweeps
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├── runs/ # the run registry: manifest + metrics per run
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└── (frozen bots, …)
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```
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> **The empty `[workspace]` table.** A project crate is its own cargo workspace,
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> never a member of the engine's. This matters the moment a project lives *under*
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> the engine repo (common while authoring, before it moves to its own repo):
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> cargo otherwise walks up, finds the engine's root manifest, and refuses to
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> build —
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>
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> ```
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> error: current package believes it's in a workspace when it's not:
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> ... to keep it out of the workspace, add an empty [workspace] table ...
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> ```
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>
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> The fix is cargo's own hint: an empty `[workspace]` table in the project's
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> `Cargo.toml`. It pins the crate as a standalone workspace root and costs
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> nothing when the project later sits in its own repo. The `aura new`
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> scaffolder emits this line (cycle 0103); a hand-rolled project adds it
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> itself.
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## Where reusable nodes live (three tiers)
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Everything that plugs into the engine is fractally a `Node`. Reuse is plain
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cargo, layered by maturity (contract C16):
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1. **`aura-std`** — universal blocks shipped with the engine (SMA/ATR/RSI,
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resamplers, the `SessionNode`, standard combinators, broker profiles).
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2. **Shared node crates** — cross-project-reusable blocks in their own repos
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(e.g. `Brummel/aura-nodes-fx`), pulled in as cargo git dependencies.
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3. **Project-local `nodes/`** — experimental, project-specific blocks.
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Promotion is the ordinary Rust gradient: a node proves itself project-local →
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gets extracted into a shared crate → if it turns universal, into `aura-std`.
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Shared nodes are `rlib` dependencies; the hot-reload unit stays the project-side
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`cdylib` that composes them, so editing a shared node still rebuilds and reloads
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the dependent.
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## Authoring happens in Claude Code (contract C17)
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aura has no built-in coding-LLM. You author by talking to Claude Code, which
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writes the Rust — nodes, strategies, *and experiments* — builds it, runs it, and
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reports back. Declarative config (`Aura.toml`) holds only static context, never
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logic. IONOS LLMs appear only as a *runtime data source* (e.g. a news-agent node
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emitting a bias), recorded before it enters a backtest, and only with your
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per-session consent.
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## A day in the life
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1. **You** (in Claude Code, inside `ger40-lab/`): "I suspect the 3rd 15m candle
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after GER40 open is long-biased when the first two close bullish — build it as
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a signal."
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2. **Claude** (via the skills pipeline) writes `nodes/third-candle-long/`,
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implements `schema` + `eval` against `aura-core`.
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3. **Backtest:** `aura backtest nodes/third-candle-long --symbol GER40
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--from 2020 --to 2024` → the strategy produces a broker-independent, unsized
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**bias stream** (one signed, bounded `f64 ∈ [-1,+1]` per cycle — sign = direction,
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magnitude = optional conviction). A downstream **risk-based executor** (stop-rule →
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position-management, in **R**, the protective stop defining 1R) turns the bias into
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tracked trades, and the **R-evaluator** integrates the per-trade R-outcomes into an
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**R-expectancy / R-curve** — the signal's *quality*, measured account- and
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instrument-agnostically in **R** (E[R], SQN), not currency. Optionally compose a
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**cost model** — a C9 graph of cost nodes, in R (`net R = gross R − cost-in-R`) — to
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draw the **net-R** curve beside the gross one. The run yields an R-metrics table + a
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run record (manifest + metrics) under `runs/`. (Contract C10.) Money, a real broker,
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and a currency curve are a later **live/deploy-edge** concern (the only reliable ground
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truth, measured forward — never an authored historical "realistic broker"); the legacy
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`SimBroker` pip yardstick survives only as an optional dual readout, not the model.
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4. **Sweep / Monte-Carlo / matrix — a Rust experiment.** Anything beyond a
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single backtest is an *experiment* in `experiments/` (Rust, builder API): a
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parameter sweep, Monte-Carlo over seeds, or a structural matrix like "these 10
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strategies × these 3 instruments × {fixed-stop, vol-stop} risk-executors". The
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matrix is plain Rust loops, not a config schema (C20). `aura run experiments/compare`
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bootstraps the matrix, fans the disjoint sims over all cores (C1), and writes
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the comparable runs to `runs/`.
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5. **Compose:** "combine it with `momentum-filter` as a weighted sum" → Claude
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writes a composite node (fractal, C9).
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6. **Walk-forward:** another experiment kind (rolling in-sample optimize +
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out-of-sample test) → an out-of-sample verdict.
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7. **Freeze:** `aura freeze nodes/strategy-y --out bots/strategy-y` → a standalone,
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statically-linked bot (C13); the live broker connection (e.g. cTrader Open API) is
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bound at this **deploy edge** — the only place account money appears, measured forward
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against a real venue, never an authored historical broker.
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8. **Explore — `aura play`.** The playground plays *any* harness and shows what
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your **sinks** recorded (C22): live equity/signal streams while a run
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executes, and recorded traces + meta-views afterwards — stitched walk-forward
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equity, sweep surfaces, multi-strategy comparison. It is a trace explorer, not
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a scene editor (the World is a *program*; only sink-recorded data is visible —
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no sink, nothing to see). Topology you grow in Rust (hot-reload); runtime
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params you tune with sliders (C12).
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The real value is not step 3 (one backtest — every quant system does that) but
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the **World**: steps 4/6 dynamically construct and orchestrate *families* of
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harnesses, and the playground explores those families. The single-harness engine
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is the substrate; the World is the product (C20–C22).
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CLI command names and `Aura.toml` are illustrative; the concrete surface is
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designed with the relevant milestone (see the open threads in the design ledger).
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The forward-queue — what to try next — lives in the project's Gitea tracker, not
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in code (contract C18).
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