Affected Repositories

• PyAutoHeart (primary)
• autocti_workspace_test
• autocti_assistant
• PyAutoCTI
• autocti_workspace

Branch Survey

Suggested branch: feature/arcticpy-install-standardisation

Shape: composite action, not a shell script

PyAutoHeart has no .github/actions/ today, so this is a new convention for the repo. It is the right one:

• PyAutoHeart is public, so uses: PyAutoLabs/PyAutoHeart/.github/actions/install-arcticpy@main resolves from any consumer repo with no checkout of Heart required — the same reach the reusable workflows already have, and the same @main reference style every caller already uses.
• A shell script in Heart would need each consumer to fetch it first (curl or a checkout), which is more machinery and a worse pin.

smoke_install.sh is a bash script and cannot uses: an action. Rather than leave copy #3 in place, the arcticpy install moves out of the workspace epilogue and into Heart's smoke-tests.yml as a gated step. This matches the existing precedent inside Heart: lib-tests.yml already gates its arcticpy step on if: inputs.package == 'autocti'.

Implementation Steps

1. PyAutoHeart/.github/actions/install-arcticpy/action.yml (new) — composite action:

   • input version, default 2.6 (the single pin).
   • input sudo, default true, so a container without sudo can opt out of the apt leg.
   • sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y libgsl-dev
   • python -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel — self-contained, no reliance on a caller's preceding step.
   • python -m pip install numpy cython
   • python -m pip install "arcticpy==${version}" --no-build-isolation --no-deps
   • python -c "import arcticpy; print(arcticpy.__version__)" — the assertion. Today a broken arcticpy surfaces much later as a confusing import autocti failure in an unrelated job.

2. PyAutoHeart/.github/workflows/arcticpy-action.yml (new) — self-test. Runs on PRs touching the action or the workflow, plus workflow_dispatch. Uses the local path ./.github/actions/install-arcticpy so it exercises the branch's version, then asserts add_cti produces a trail on a single bright pixel. Without this, a @main reference means a recipe change cannot be validated before merge.

3. PyAutoHeart/.github/workflows/lib-tests.yml — replace both inline blocks (jobs unittest, unittest-nojax) with the action, keeping the if: inputs.package == 'autocti' gate.

4. PyAutoHeart/.github/workflows/smoke-tests.yml — add an arcticpy boolean input (default false); when true, run the action after Python setup and before the workspace epilogue. Default-false keeps every non-CTI workspace caller byte-identical.

5. autocti_workspace_test — caller .github/workflows/smoke_tests.yml passes arcticpy: true; delete the recipe from .github/scripts/smoke_install.sh, leaving it to do only what is genuinely workspace-specific (the chain install and the autonerves re-pin).

6. autocti_assistant/.github/workflows/wiki-currency.yml — replace the inline recipe in "Install the stack" with the action, and delete the "Recipe mirrors …smoke_install.sh" comment that acknowledged the copy-paste.

7. Docs — fix all four, each to the verified-complete recipe, and point them at the canonical action so the CI/doc link is explicit:

   • PyAutoCTI/AGENTS.md §arcticpy (the cited canonical note; keep the no-root header workaround)
   • autocti_workspace/AGENTS.md §arcticpy
   • autocti_workspace_test/AGENTS.md
   • autocti_assistant/skills/ac_setup_environment.md (note: the assistant's .claude/skills/*.md are symlinks into skills/, git mode 120000 — one edit covers both surfaces)

Verified recipe (measured 2026-08-24, clean Ubuntu container, Python 3.12 venv)

apt-get install -y libgsl-dev          # g++/gcc/make already present on the image
pip install numpy scipy setuptools wheel Cython matplotlib
pip install arcticpy==2.6 --no-build-isolation --no-deps

Each missing build dep failed the build naming the next one: setuptools → Cython → builds. matplotlib is a runtime import (arcticpy/read_noise.py) needed only because --no-deps suppresses it; the CTI stack installs it anyway, so it is not a build dep and does not belong in the canonical step.

Deliberately not done

Caching the built wheel (actions/cache keyed on arcticpy version + Python version + runner image). arcticpy compiles from source on every CI run in every CTI repo, so there is real time to reclaim — but the prompt asks for a measured proposal with before/after timings rather than an assumed win, and cache-invalidation complexity is a genuine cost. Filed as a follow-up, not guessed at here.

Key Files

• PyAutoHeart/.github/actions/install-arcticpy/action.yml — new canonical step
• PyAutoHeart/.github/workflows/arcticpy-action.yml — new self-test
• PyAutoHeart/.github/workflows/lib-tests.yml — copies 1 and 2
• PyAutoHeart/.github/workflows/smoke-tests.yml — new gated step for copy 3
• autocti_workspace_test/.github/scripts/smoke_install.sh — copy 3
• autocti_assistant/.github/workflows/wiki-currency.yml — copy 4

PyAutoMind/draft/maintenance/ci/arcticpy_install_standardisation.md, filed 2026-08-24 — reproduced verbatim:

Standardise the arcticpy CI install across every CTI repo

Type: maintenance / Target: pyautoheart / Difficulty: medium / Autonomy: supervised / Priority: normal

import autocti hard-requires arcticpy, which is not a pip dependency: its sdist is source-only (needs libgsl-dev + a C++ toolchain + Cython) and its own requirements downgrade numpy below 2.0. Every CTI repo that runs CI therefore carries its own copy of the install recipe. There is no single owner, the copies have already diverged in a way that matters, and the recipe as documented is incomplete for a clean environment.

Make one canonical arcticpy install step, owned by the organ that owns the reusable CI workflows, and have every CTI repo consume it.

Work: (1) put the canonical step in PyAutoHeart alongside the reusable workflows the CTI repos already call — check PyAutoHeart's actual layout and conventions before choosing the shape; (2) add the missing setuptools wheel; (3) assert the install worked with python -c "import arcticpy; print(arcticpy.__version__)"; (4) repoint every consumer and delete the local copies; (5) fix the documented recipe in autocti_workspace/AGENTS.md, autocti_assistant/skills/ac_setup_environment.md and PyAutoCTI/AGENTS.md; (6) single pin — bumping arcticpy==2.6 should become a one-line change.

Optional, decide deliberately: caching the built wheel. Raise it as a measured proposal with before/after timings rather than assuming it is worth the cache-invalidation complexity.

Why now: two tasks in the preceding sequence were deferred on the belief that arcticpy could not be built outside a prepared machine — a belief that turned out to be false, and cost real work. A canonical, documented, CI-owned install is what stops that assumption forming again.

Unblocks draft/test/autocti/phase5_smoke_reenable_ordered_trap_scripts.md (CTI epic Phase 5) and helps draft/bug/autocti/wiki_currency_baseline_drift.md, whose baseline regeneration needs the same stack.