pyobs-robotic-backend

Backend service for the pyobs robotic telescope system. It stores and serves the task queue (observations to be scheduled), projects, and observation history consumed by the pyobs scheduler and related tools.

Features

• REST API — Token- and session-authenticated DRF endpoints for tasks, projects, observations, users, and constraints/merits/targets.
• Web frontend — Bootstrap 5 dark-theme UI for browsing and editing tasks, with dynamic schema-driven forms for constraints, merits, and targets, and a live-validated YAML script editor.
• Schema introspection — /api/schema/ endpoints expose model_json_schema() for all pyobs-core constraint, merit, target, and script classes so the frontend can render typed editors without hard-coding any fields.
• Celery integration — Asynchronous task processing via a message broker.
• Docker-ready — Ships with a Dockerfile and supports PostgreSQL via environment variables.

Requirements

• Python ≥ 3.13
• pyobs-core ≥ 1.46.0
• PostgreSQL (production) or SQLite (development)
• A Celery-compatible message broker (e.g. RabbitMQ)

Installation

# Using uv (recommended)
uv sync

# Or pip
pip install -e .

Configuration

All settings are controlled by environment variables. Copy pyobs_robotic_backend/local_settings.example.py to pyobs_robotic_backend/local_settings.py for local overrides, or set the following in your environment / Docker compose file:

Variable	Default	Description
SECRET_KEY	foo	Django secret key — change in production
DEBUG	1	Set to 0 in production
DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS	localhost,127.0.0.1	Comma-separated list of allowed hosts
CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS	http://localhost	Comma-separated list of trusted origins
SQL_ENGINE	django.db.backends.sqlite3	Database backend
SQL_DATABASE	db.sqlite3	Database name / path
SQL_USER	user	Database user
SQL_PASSWORD	password	Database password
SQL_HOST	localhost	Database host
SQL_PORT	5432	Database port
CELERY_BROKER_URL	amqp://	Celery broker URL
CELERY_RESULT_BACKEND	rpc://	Celery result backend
STATIC_ROOT	static/	Directory for collected static files
ENABLE_FRONTEND	0	Set to 1 to enable the web frontend
SITE_LATITUDE	—	Observatory latitude in decimal degrees
SITE_LONGITUDE	—	Observatory longitude in decimal degrees
SITE_ELEVATION	—	Observatory elevation in metres
DEFAULT_CONSTRAINTS	[]	JSON array of constraint objects pre-filled on new tasks
DEFAULT_MERITS	[]	JSON array of merit objects pre-filled on new tasks

Running

Development

python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser
python manage.py runserver

The API is served at http://localhost:8000/api/. If the frontend is enabled, the UI is available at http://localhost:8000/.

Docker Compose

A production-ready setup with PostgreSQL, RabbitMQ, a Celery worker, and nginx is provided in docker-compose.yml. The application image is pulled from ghcr.io/pyobs/pyobs-robotic-backend:latest. Copy .env.example to .env and nginx.conf.example to nginx.conf, then adjust the values.

The UI is served by nginx on port 8472.

Then start everything with:

docker compose up -d

Migrations and static file collection run automatically on startup. To create a superuser:

docker compose run --rm web uv run python manage.py createsuperuser

API Overview

Authentication is via token (Authorization: Token <token>) or Django session cookie. Obtain a token at /api-token-auth/.

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET/POST	/api/users/	List / create users (admin only)
GET/PATCH	/api/users/<id>/	Retrieve / update user (admin only)
GET/POST	/api/projects/	List / create projects
GET/PATCH	/api/projects/<code>/	Retrieve / update project
GET/POST	/api/projects/<code>/tasks/	List / create tasks for a project
GET	/api/tasks/	List tasks (filtered to current user's projects)
GET/PUT/PATCH	/api/tasks/<code>/	Retrieve / update task (PATCH for partial updates)
GET/POST	/api/observations/	List / create observations
GET/PATCH	/api/observations/<id>/	Retrieve / update observation
GET	/api/me/	Current user info
GET	/api/last_task_update/	Timestamp of last task change
GET	/api/last_observation_update/	Timestamp of last observation change
GET	/api/schema/constraints/	JSON Schema for all Constraint subclasses
GET	/api/schema/merits/	JSON Schema for all Merit subclasses
GET	/api/schema/targets/	JSON Schema for all Target subclasses
GET	/api/schema/scripts/	Script class tree with schemas
POST	/api/validate_script/	Validate a script dict against pyobs-core
POST	/api/estimate_duration/	Estimate script duration in seconds

Web Frontend

The browser UI is mounted at / and requires a login. Features:

• Sidebar — task list grouped by project; click a task to open it. Upload icon imports a task from YAML; + creates a new task.
• Task overview — tabular view of all tasks grouped by project with bulk activate/deactivate via checkboxes.
• Task editor — tabbed view with Task (general fields, target, constraints, merits), Script (YAML editor with live validation and template insertion), Schedule (upcoming observations), and Observations (completed/cancelled history).
  • Sidereal target — RA/Dec fields accept decimal degrees or hms/dms (e.g. 15:52:56.12 / +12:54:44). A Simbad name-search button resolves object names and populates the coordinates. An Aladin Lite DSS sky view is shown below the target form and pans live as coordinates change.
  • Duration estimation — stopwatch button calls /api/estimate_duration/ on the current script.
  • Clone — copies the current task to a new code, opening a pre-filled editor without saving.
  • Export YAML — downloads the current form state as a .yaml file.
  • Import YAML — available in the sidebar and task overview; opens a pre-filled editor from a .yaml file without saving.
• Default constraints/merits — set DEFAULT_CONSTRAINTS / DEFAULT_MERITS to pre-fill new tasks with site-specific defaults.
• Admin panel — superusers can manage users (including password changes) and projects at /admin-panel/.

All data is fetched client-side from the same /api/ endpoints that pyobs-task-editor uses.