| # Agent-method interaction contract |
|
|
| Current method declaration: `starvla-rsi.method/v1`. Historical frozen packages |
| retain their original `starvla-rsi.policy/v1-draft` definitions; this guide does |
| not upgrade their evidence or change any benchmark's native interface version. |
|
|
| StarVLA-RSI evaluates complete agent methods through declared robot capabilities. |
| Participants own model composition, prompts, memory, tools and planning. The |
| service owns environment access, native execution and scoring. Direct control |
| restricts that external boundary, not how many internal reasoning or model |
| steps the method uses. Report results per benchmark/protocol/method/configuration. |
|
|
| The repository evaluates direct control by general-purpose models. VLA-assisted |
| hybrid control, learned action proposals, fallback task policies and automatic |
| task-solving skill services are out of scope. Retained legacy material or an |
| external comparison does not enable these methods in the current framework. |
|
|
| ## Protocol-first integration; optional Python loop |
|
|
| A trusted driver can implement the [service wire protocol](SERVER_PROTOCOL.md) |
| in any language or framework. It holds management credentials privately and |
| exposes only declared sensors/actions to the actor. The reusable Python loop is |
| one convenient implementation: at each replan boundary it calls `Policy.act`: |
|
|
| ```text |
| Observation(t) -> Policy.act -> PolicyDecision(action chunk or stop) |
| | |
| v |
| simulator executes |
| | |
| v |
| Observation(t + k) |
| ``` |
|
|
| One decision may use several declared model components, local tools, planning |
| and memory over permitted information. It does not grant extra sensors, reset |
| search, simulator rollouts or private scores. Tool/network availability remains |
| part of the declared method and deployment isolation, not new server authority. |
| Single-model, fixed-prompt, one-request policies remain valid controlled |
| baselines. Their extra constraints are method settings, not global requirements. |
|
|
| The model response may contain private reasoning if the provider supports it, |
| but only the final structured decision crosses the policy boundary. Hidden |
| chain-of-thought is neither required nor stored. |
|
|
| The currently implemented file mailbox is an **experimental development |
| transport**, not a trusted provider-request meter. |
| It enforces scheduled observation/action exchange, but cannot count hidden |
| provider activity or sandbox an actor's filesystem. Orchestrated code-agent |
| trials report unavailable provider usage as `null`, retain observable decision |
| counts, without claiming provider identity, complete usage measurement or |
| enforced filesystem isolation. Missing usage is not a participation ban. |
|
|
| In the current development campaigns the frozen public prompt explicitly |
| permits remembering earlier observations/actions from the same episode. The |
| mailbox's `history: current_observation_only` describes payload delivery, not a |
| claim that the external actor is stateless. Its conversation memory and provider |
| context length are not metered; no cross-episode memory is allowed in that |
| mailbox track. Disclose method-specific history/context settings; enforce any |
| limits required by the selected track, not a new universal inference budget. |
|
|
| ## Direct policies and diagnostics |
|
|
| The shared `Policy` interface can host: |
|
|
| 1. a multimodal foundation model producing structured action vectors; |
| 2. a fixed program or generated policy that was frozen before scored episodes; |
| 3. scripted policies used only for environment and adapter validation. |
|
|
| Diagnostics are not model capability scores. Conventional-policy legacy files |
| are retained references, not an enabled hybrid-control path. |
| The method family and exact construction must be declared. Code generation, |
| planning and tool use inside the method are method differences to disclose, |
| not an automatic change to the benchmark's execution protocol. |
|
|
| ## Observation contract |
|
|
| Each call contains only channels declared by `ObservationSpec`: |
|
|
| - the current task instruction; |
| - named camera frames at protocol-fixed resolution and encoding; |
| - named proprioceptive values when the track permits them; |
| - a fixed-length frame/action history only when explicitly declared; |
| - non-privileged timing or episode metadata required by the protocol. |
|
|
| Private simulator state, object poses, segmentation, reward, success predicates, |
| oracle plans and scorer internals are forbidden. A proposed privileged track is |
| not an enabled exception in this framework. Permitted robot proprioception must |
| already be declared by the selected benchmark protocol; a method cannot add it |
| because an external example has access to it. The evaluator, model and provider |
| may not retain cross-episode state unless the released protocol says so. |
|
|
| ## Action contract |
|
|
| A non-stop response contains an `ActionChunk`: one or more vectors matching the |
| benchmark's declared `ActionSpec`. The specification freezes component order, |
| bounds, units, coordinate frame, rotation representation, gripper convention, |
| and control frequency. |
|
|
| The runner validates every vector and rejects invalid actions; it does not |
| silently clip them. A fixed `replan_interval` determines how much of a chunk is |
| executed before the next observation. Protocol-fixed image conversion, units, |
| joint order, interpolation and native low-level control belong to the benchmark |
| adapter. They must remain identical within a comparable track. Model-specific |
| planning, grasp heuristics, motion generation or auxiliary IK belong to the |
| policy under `AgentPolicies/<profile>/`, are declared and frozen as part of that method, |
| and may use only policy-permitted observations. Native protocol-fixed control |
| conversion is permitted; an extra autonomous skill service is outside the |
| direct-control scope, not an adapter implementation detail. |
|
|
| A stop response only ends policy execution. It never awards success; the native |
| benchmark scorer remains authoritative. |
|
|
| Persistence and voluntary give-up preferences also belong to the policy. A |
| model may opt into a declared minimum-action-decision rule through its strategy |
| configuration; another model is not required to adopt it. The neutral |
| optional agent-side runner records actual executed decisions/control steps and enforces |
| public resource limits, but does not select a model's persistence preference. |
| No persistence setting overrides native termination, hard limits or safety. |
| Historical floor50 trials retain their frozen records without becoming a new |
| benchmark-wide rule. |
|
|
| ## Budgets |
|
|
| Use benchmark-native execution budgets and reset/termination rules. Disclose |
| all extra method or selected-track limits; do not impose one global inference |
| budget across otherwise different methods. Distinguish: |
|
|
| - maximum simulator steps and wall time; |
| - optional decision-call safety cap (including the reference feedback loop cap); |
| - measured provider requests and per-component usage, or unknown; |
| - declared input/output token limits and provider reasoning settings, if selected; |
| - action chunk length and executed replan prefix; |
| - timeout, retry, and invalid-response handling. |
|
|
| Legacy one-attempt campaigns do not retry infrastructure or policy errors. |
| The explicit `invalid_action_handling=feedback` extension instead rejects a |
| confirmed invalid action without executing it, then returns a bounded public |
| issue at the next normal, counted `Policy.act` call. No new sensor capture, |
| hidden inference, internal retry, replacement control or reset occurs. Every |
| call retains usage and consumes the declared finite call budget. A previously |
| ACKed valid prefix remains executed. Native/transport uncertainty and forbidden |
| tools remain terminal, not recoverable input errors. Old frozen attempts keep |
| their original outcome and handling. See the [service extension](SERVER_PROTOCOL.md#pre-execution-action-rejection-extension). |
|
|
| `fast` and `full` are evaluation plans, not policy behavior: fast selects tasks |
| and one fixed state/attempt each; full follows the native task/variant/seed and |
| per-task episode schedule. Planned native repetition is not failure-triggered |
| retrying. Both retain failures/errors. Unified full presets remain unimplemented |
| until their exact native schedules and execution conditions are verified. |
|
|
| ## Essential results and optional history |
|
|
| Every result identifies: |
|
|
| - benchmark, protocol, simulator, asset, task/scene, and seed identities; |
| - method identity/configuration, declared models and roles (unverified or unknown |
| identity remains explicit), protocol and available source/environment origins; |
| - decision calls, executed decisions, controls, termination and selected denominator; |
| - available inference usage/latency/cost, aggregate and per component where measured; |
| - native task outcomes, without treating partial task score as success rate; |
| - typed policy, protocol, and infrastructure errors. |
|
|
| Detailed interactions, visible model IO, tool traces, images and videos are |
| optional, enabled by default where supported. They are not participation or |
| publication gates. [Minimal recording](../../docs/recording.md) retains essential |
| results; the independent basic reporter needs neither event logs nor source |
| snapshots. Existing deeper audits can require more evidence and keep that scope. |
| Credentials, secrets, evaluator-private inputs and hidden chain-of-thought are |
| excluded. User-visible records still require review before sharing. |
|
|
| ## Roles and isolation |
|
|
| For the anonymous code-agent profile, coordinators should send its exact |
| [actor instructions](../../AgentPolicies/anonymous_code_agent/prompts/actor_instructions.txt) |
| with only host/opaque mailbox substitution, never hand-retype alternative JSON |
| keys. Its minimal examples are regression-tested against the frozen mailbox |
| parser. Operator-written examples must use that exact schema: an incorrect field |
| can invalidate an otherwise useful response. The tests are schema checks, not |
| actor-access or provider-call attestation. |
|
|
| A code agent helping implement an adapter is a developer, not the policy under |
| test. During scored episodes the evaluated model can write only its declared |
| response or policy scratch artifact; it cannot modify the benchmark, protocol, |
| adapter, episode matrix, scorer, or prior results. |
|
|
| Isolation covers operator-provided context as well as mailbox JSON. Use a fresh |
| actor context and an independently random, opaque orchestration task name; do |
| not encode benchmark, suite, task ordinal, seed, date or outcome in an actor |
| name, display label, launch message or scratch-directory label. Give the actor |
| only its transport host, opaque endpoint and shared interaction instructions. |
| Evaluator/reviewer context must not be inherited. An opaque endpoint alone does |
| not blind identifying text elsewhere in the actor's conversation. |
|
|
| If such context has already reached an actor, retain and disclose the affected |
| attempt; do not relabel it as fully blinded or retry it. A prospective operator |
| correction must record its cutover separately from immutable runtime/prompt/ |
| budget manifests. See [task plans and coverage](TASK_COVERAGE.md) for the shared |
| accounting rules. |
|
|
