`plesty-bench`

The client for a bench you are not sitting at. It sends a plesty-server command to the bench’s agent and prints what the bench answers — so every plesty-server command works from your own machine, with nothing new to learn. It is small (pyzmq and click) and brings no Qt and nothing of the bench application.

The bench has to be serving its agent: Server ▸ Start agent in the console, or plesty-server fleet run --agent on a bench without a window. Setting that up is Work from another machine.

Install

uv tool install plesty-bench              # the client
uv tool install "plesty-bench[control]"   # … and the control panels, which need Qt

Usage

plesty-bench [-b HOST[:PORT]] [--token TOKEN] [--timeout 60] COMMAND …

Option	Means
`-b`, `--bench HOST[:PORT]`	The bench. Port 5550 unless given. `PLESTY_BENCH` sets a default.
`--token TOKEN`	The agent’s shared secret — the one Server ▸ Configure… shows. `PLESTY_BENCH_TOKEN` sets a default.
`--timeout S`	How long to wait for each reply, in seconds.

export PLESTY_BENCH=lab-bench-03 PLESTY_BENCH_TOKEN=…
plesty-bench status
plesty-bench install k10cr1-dev
plesty-bench update k10cr1-dev --ref feat/homing
plesty-bench field-test k10cr1-dev --gates connect_lifecycle,buffer_drain
plesty-bench reports k10cr1-dev --json
plesty-bench -- start pm100d            # `--` first when the command starts with a dash

install, update and field-test are started on the bench and their log is followed here until they end, so a dropped connection costs you the output, not the work.

The client’s own commands

Three commands run here rather than on the bench:

`ping`

plesty-bench ping

Whether the agent answers.

`fetch`

plesty-bench fetch PATH [-o OUT]

Copies a file from the bench home to this machine — how a field-test report comes back. reports NAME --json gives each report’s path in the form fetch takes. Only files under the bench home, up to 16 MB, can be fetched.

`control`

plesty-bench control DEVICE …

Opens the Control window on this machine with a panel per named device, each driving it through the agent. It needs the control extra and a display.

From Python

The same connection as a library, for scripts and notebooks:

from plesty.bench import BenchClient

with BenchClient("lab-bench-03", token="…") as bench:
    print(bench.exec(["status", "--json"]).json())

    job = bench.exec(["field-test", "k10cr1-dev", "--no-wait"]).stdout.strip()
    bench.follow(job, print)  # print the job's log until it ends
    path = bench.exec(["reports", "k10cr1-dev", "--json"]).json()[0]["home_relative"]
    report = bench.fetch(path)  # the file's bytes

    meter = bench.device("pm100d")  # an instrument, through the agent
    meter.query("wavelength")
    meter.write("wavelength", 780.0)

Call	Returns
`exec(argv)`	An `ExecResult`: `code`, `stdout`, `stderr`, `.ok`, `.json()`.
`follow(job_id, on_line)`	The job’s exit code, once it ends.
`fetch(path)`	The file’s bytes.
`device(name)`	A `RemoteDevice` with `describe()`, `query(key)`, `write(key, value)`, `call(op, **kwargs)`.
`describe()`, `ping()`	The bench’s version and capabilities; whether it answers.

The full reference is in the API reference.

plesty-bench