New Pioreactor software release: 25.9.18

Software
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:wave: this release fixes some bugs and provides some nice quality-of-life improvements!

:arrow_down: Download the 25.9.18 release here

25.9.18

  • Experiment profile editor: added a searchable capabilities browser. You can now search across available jobs, automations, actions, and options directly in the editor. This should make building and editing profiles faster and reduce syntax errors.
  • Experiment Overview charts: no longer hide older data on long experiments. Instead, each series is downsampled on the client to a maximum of 720 points while preserving trends, regardless of experiment length. For very large clusters this may increase initial load time — narrowing the time range or hiding unused series can help if you notice slowness.
  • Eye-spy optics: initial support is included. If detected, the OD reading job can use it via the existing interfaces. Nothing changes if you don’t have this hardware connected; more documentation will follow.
  • Inventory export: from the Inventory page, you can export a worker’s ~/.pioreactor directory as a zip. The Leader page also includes an export for the leader’s ~/.pioreactor. This is useful for backups, support, or migration. Review the archive before sharing — it may contain configuration and credentials.
  • Pump scripting: pio run pumps ... now accepts a sleep step to pause between actions. Example: pio run pumps --media 2 --sleep 1 --waste 1.5 runs media for 2 mL, waits 1 s, then runs waste for 1.5 mL. In experiment profiles, you can repeat actions by suffixing keys with _, for example:
    jobs:
  pumps:
    actions:
      - type: start
        options:
          media: 2
          sleep: 1
          waste: 1.5
          sleep_: 2   # repeat keys by adding underscores
          waste_: 0.5
  • Advanced config for automations: the UI’s “Advanced” menu (temporary config overrides at start) is now available when launching automations, not just individual jobs. The options shown come from the [<job_name>.config] section.
  • CLI: added leader-only experiment management commands — pio experiments create <NAME>, pio experiments list, and pio experiments delete <NAME>.

Bug fixes

  • Restored live updates in real‑time charts in the UI (regression fixed).
  • Corrected timestamps on exported dataset folders in the archive.
  • Removed cases of duplicate log lines shown in the UI.
  • MCP now correctly respects configured notification methods.
  • Fixed model selection in the “Add a new Pioreactor worker” dialog in Inventory.
  • For leader-only Pioreactors, fixed leaders not showing up in “Cluster clocks” (and likely other places)

Breaking changes

  • Turbidostat now enforces duration = 0.25s for its frequent checks. The UI already used this value; CLI runs will now match it for more consistent behavior.

How to update

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Just out of curiosity - what are “eye-spy optics”?

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I can’t say just yet!