Copy page

Daily use

Web UI Guide

Start the UI:

Code
csauto serve RUNS --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000

This starts the primary FastAPI server.

Open http://127.0.0.1:8000.

On a remote server, use an SSH tunnel first:

Code
ssh -L 8000:127.0.0.1:8000 your-server

---

Header bar

The header always shows:

• Cases: total number of cases in the registry
• Running: cases currently in RUNNING status
• Converged: cases marked as converged

When a filter is active, each metric shows the filtered count out of the total (e.g., "2 / 5").

The header shows the solver's logo and the browser tab its icon, both provided by the solver adapter; a solver without a logo shows its name as text. Until the dashboard has loaded the solver's description from the server, it shows only the Status, Log Tail and Recent Errors panels and no solver action.

The panels and buttons depend on the solver: each one appears only when the solver provides what it needs (see Adding a new solver). The examples below use code_saturne, which uses all of them.

Settings (gear icon, top right): opens a dialog where you can set the API token (if the server requires authentication) and the auto-refresh rate. The token is saved in the browser (localStorage), so it is asked once per browser and server address.

---

Status panel

The main table is your campaign dashboard. It refreshes automatically and shows one row per case.

The toolbar provides:

• A search bar to filter cases by name
• An All columns dropdown to toggle which columns are visible
• Filter and sort controls per column

When the solver has a GUI (code_saturne does), each row also has an Open GUI button that opens it on the case's setup file.

Selecting cases

• Click a row to select it
• Ctrl/Cmd + click to add to selection
• Shift + click to select a range
• Ctrl/Cmd + A to select all
• Arrow Up/Down to navigate rows (Shift + Arrow for range selection)
• Space to toggle selection (Shift + Space for range)
• Esc to deselect

Bulk actions

With one or more cases selected, the action buttons activate:

Run: launch the selected cases (PREPARED, DONE, or FAILED). A popup asks for MPI Ranks (n), OMP Threads (nt) and Max Parallel (left empty, local runs are capped to cpu_count // (n * nt) at once, a scheduler receives every selected case).

Restart (when the solver supports it): continue finished cases. A popup offers the solver's restart modes and asks for a value when the mode takes one. With code_saturne:

• Additional iterations: add N more iterations beyond the checkpoint
• Additional physical time: run for that much more physical time

Restart from picks the run to restart from (one case selected); by default csauto uses the latest run that has a checkpoint and computes the absolute target value for you.

Control (when the solver supports live control): a menu of the actions the solver offers for running cases. Actions that take a value ask for it; the others ask for confirmation. With code_saturne:

• Stop gracefully: finish the current time step, write a checkpoint and exit. Unlike Kill, no process is signaled and no restart is needed.
• Extend: raise the time step limit so the case keeps going. Asks for the number of additional time steps (repeated extends stack correctly).
• Write a checkpoint: at the next time step, without stopping the run. Plots mark restarts (new runs launched from a checkpoint), not in-place checkpoints.
• Flush logs and plots: write logs and probe files to disk now. It does not affect the simulation.

Kill: stop the selected running cases at once. Works for local processes, containers and Slurm jobs. Prefer a graceful stop when the solver offers one: Kill discards in-flight work.

Clean: delete old run folders and/or shorten heavy logs for the selected finished cases. A popup lets you keep the latest N runs, delete them all, or, with a single case selected, pick the run folders to keep or delete (run folders are named per case). Clean only deletes the folders the solver reports as runs (code_saturne: each RESU/<run>; code_aster: RESU itself, its single run) and never touches running or queued cases; a notice lists the ones it skipped. A case whose runs were all deleted returns to PREPARED. Clean also shortens logs larger than 50 MB to their last 50 MB and removes the docker container id file (.csauto.cid).

Context menu on finished cases

Right-click a DONE or FAILED row to:

• Mark Converged: set convergence label to converged
• Mark Not Converged: set to not converged
• Clear Mark: remove the convergence label

---

Residuals Plot

Use this panel to inspect solver convergence for one or more cases.

1. Select one or more cases from the Cases dropdown
2. Choose the Variables to plot (e.g., velocity, pressure)
3. Choose the Start from point:
   • Zero: plot from the very beginning, including the case's previous runs
   • Restart start: start from the last restart checkpoint iteration
   • Custom: manually set the minimum iteration to display
4. The chart updates automatically when auto-refresh is enabled

The SVG chart shows residuals vs. iteration number. Multiple cases are overlaid on the same chart for comparison. A vertical dashed line marks restart points.

Click Download as PNG to export the chart.

---

Probes and Profiles

This panel has two tabs, Probes and Profiles, each shown when the case has such files (with code_saturne, in its latest RESU/<run>).

Probes tab

With code_saturne: RESU/<run>/monitoring/*.csv.

1. Select one or more cases from the Cases dropdown
2. Choose the Quantity (probe file to read, e.g., CourantNb)
3. Select one or more Probes (data columns within that file)
4. Choose the Start from point (Zero, Restart start, or Custom)
5. The chart plots the selected probes over time

The spatial coordinates of each selected probe are displayed below the controls.

Profiles tab

With code_saturne: RESU/<run>/profiles/*.csv.

1. Select one or more cases from the Cases dropdown
2. Choose the Profile file
3. Choose the X axis column (e.g., abscissa, distance)
4. Select one or more Values to plot against the X axis
5. Choose the Start from point (Zero, Restart start, or Custom)

Click Download as PNG to export either chart.

---

Timing Snapshot

Displays performance metrics for one or more cases in a comparison table.

Select cases from the Cases dropdown. The column set is declared by the solver adapter; with code_saturne the table shows:

Click Download as CSV to export the table.

---

Side-by-Side Comparison

Compare two cases side by side: parameters and file contents.

Steps:

1. Select the First case and Second case from the dropdowns (use the swap button to switch them)
2. The panel shows a parameter diff summary (e.g., "1 difference out of 3 parameters"). Click Show all parameters to see matching parameters too
3. Choose a File to compare: the list comes from the solver, and its first entry is the default (code_saturne: setup.xml, doe_row.csv, run_solver.log, performance.log; code_aster: the export file and doe_row.csv)
4. Use the Search bar to filter lines

The output shows a side-by-side diff with line numbers. Differing lines are highlighted for quick identification.

---

Log Tail

Stream the end of a case log file, similar to tail -f.

The File list puts the solver's main logs first, then csauto.stdout and csauto.stderr (the console output of the launch, available for every solver) and the other *.log files of the latest run. The first file is selected by default.

Controls:

• Case: select the case
• File: choose the log file
• Lines: number of lines to display (default 80)
• Filter: regex filter to match specific lines
• Severity: filter by Error, Warn or All. Lines are coloured with the same patterns Recent Errors uses for this solver

The bottom bar shows:

• A line count indicator (filtered lines / total, e.g., "80 / 80")
• A status indicator: pulsing red dot when the case is running, grey dot when stopped
• A Pause / Resume button (available when the case is running)
• An Auto-scroll toggle to keep the view at the bottom as new lines arrive

---

Recent Errors

Scan log files for errors, warnings, and informational messages.

When to use: a case finished with FAILED, or you see unexpected behavior and want a quick summary of what went wrong without reading the full log.

Controls:

• Cases: select which cases to scan
• Files: select which log files to include (multi-select; the list comes from the solver; with code_saturne: csauto.stderr, run_solver.log, listing, csauto.stdout)
• Severity: All, Error, Warn
• Search: plain-text search within matched lines
• Context: how many lines before and after each hit to display (default 6)

Results are deduplicated by fingerprint and grouped by case and file, with expandable sections. Each section shows matched lines highlighted in context. Errors not seen in the previous scan are tagged with a NEW badge. The summary bar shows the count of unique and total matches (e.g., "12 unique / 64 total").

Use Sort by to reorder results by Severity, Count, Case, or File.

Click Download as CSV to export the results.

---

Serving on a public host

If you need to expose the UI beyond localhost (e.g., to colleagues), configure an API token first:

Code
# csauto.toml
[api]
token = "your-secret-token"

Then serve with:

Code
csauto serve RUNS --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Without a token, csauto refuses to bind to a public address.

Users accessing the UI must click the Settings gear icon and enter the token once per browser.