rippled/docker/telemetry/workload/baselines/README.md

Performance Baselines

This directory holds the committed baseline file used by the OTel-driven regression gate.

How the gate works

After the validation suite runs, capture_timings.py queries Prometheus for the timings declared in ../regression-metrics.json and writes a timings.json. Then compare_to_baseline.py reads baseline-timings.json, ../regression-thresholds.json, and the captured timings.json. The comparator picks one of two modes automatically:

• Placeholder baseline ("placeholder": true or empty metrics): the comparator prints the captured timings JSON in exactly the format expected for this file, then exits 0 without gating. This is how we bootstrap the baseline.
• Populated baseline: the comparator diffs per-metric, enforces the thresholds (regression = current exceeds baseline on BOTH the percentage AND absolute bound), and exits non-zero on any regression.

The regression gate runs against whatever workload profile run-full-validation.sh was invoked with. Capture and comparison are profile-agnostic — they only read Prometheus — so all existing profiles (full-validation, quick-smoke, stress) continue to work unchanged.

Bootstrapping the baseline

1. Merge a CI run with a "placeholder": true baseline. The telemetry-validation workflow runs, fails no gate, and prints the captured timings block to the workflow Step Summary under the heading ### Paste into baselines/baseline-timings.json.
2. Open a new PR. Copy the full JSON block from the Step Summary (or download the timings.json artifact) into this file, replacing the placeholder contents. The JSON is emitted in the exact byte-for-byte format this file expects — sorted keys, 2-space indent, trailing newline.
3. The committed baseline PR needs reviewer approval just like any other code change. This is the primary audit point for "who moved the performance bar."

Refreshing the baseline

Refresh when a legitimate performance change lands on develop (for example, a deliberate rewrite that changes a span's structure). The process is identical to bootstrapping: run CI with the current baseline, inspect the delta, and if the new numbers should become the norm, open a PR pasting the fresh timings into baseline-timings.json. The reviewer decides whether the new baseline is acceptable.

Do not edit baseline-timings.json by hand outside of this process — every entry should trace back to a real CI run so variance characteristics are preserved.

Schema

{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "captured_at": "2026-04-24T17:30:00Z",
  "window": "3m",
  "git_sha": "<SHA of the commit that produced these numbers>",
  "profile": "<workload profile used>",
  "metrics": {
    "span.tx.process.p99": { "value": 12.4, "unit": "ms" },
    "job.transaction.queued.p95": { "value": 1500.0, "unit": "us" }
  }
}

Keys follow {category}.{name}.p{quantile}. Only two categories are actually produced today — span.* and job.* — because build_query_plan() in prom_queries.py reads the spans and job_queue groups of regression-metrics.json, and that file defines only those two.

Placeholder baselines additionally include "placeholder": true. The comparator detects this field (or an empty metrics object) to switch into "populate" mode instead of enforcing thresholds. Remove the placeholder key when pasting real captured timings.

Missing metrics (value null) in a captured run do not count as regressions. In regression-report.json, summary.missing_in_current is a count only; the identities are in the metrics[] array, as the entries whose note is "not captured in current run". Filter for those to see which keys went missing:

jq -r '.metrics[] | select(.note == "not captured in current run") | .key' \
    /tmp/xrpld-validation/reports/regression-report.json

This keeps the gate robust when a profile doesn't exercise every span on every run.

Known gap: no rpc.* metric can gate (FU-4)

Per-RPC-method timings are not gated, and would not gate even if they were captured. Two independent blockers:

1. Nothing emits an rpc.* key. build_query_plan() in prom_queries.py builds rpc.* entries from cfg.get("rpc_methods", {}), and regression-metrics.json has no rpc_methods block — so the group resolves to empty and no rpc.* key ever reaches timings.json or this baseline.
2. Even a captured rpc.* key would silently not gate. resolve_thresholds() in compare_to_baseline.py maps the rpc category to the threshold group rpc_method, but regression-thresholds.json defines only defaults.span and defaults.job_queue. With no rpc_method block the lookup returns (None, None), which the comparator treats as "no threshold configured" — the metric is reported but can never fail the build.

Closing this needs both an rpc_methods group in regression-metrics.json and a defaults.rpc_method block in regression-thresholds.json. Adding only the first produces metrics that look gated in the report but are not.