Update Conferences

Cost-aware workflow for refreshing src/data/conferences/*.yml via agents/modal_agent.py on Modal. Prefer a short priority list over --all-conferences.

When to use

• User asks to update conference deadlines / run the Modal agent
• User wants conferences “likely to have new data”
• Full-repo runs look too expensive (~$2–4 per conference)

Selection rules (high ROI only)

Rank by actionable now, not “missing next year.”

Run when:

• Active cycle: a deadline or milestone falls in the next ~8 weeks
• A milestone just passed and remaining dates may have changed (venue: TBA, wrong camera-ready, missing rebuttal/notification)
• YAML is incomplete for a conference already in flight (e.g. empty deadlines: [] while CFP is open)

Skip when:

• Far-future CFPs (e.g. CVPR/ICLR 2027 months before CFP typically opens)
• Conference was just successfully updated in a recent run
• Archival gaps only (missing old years) with no imminent news
• Complete past/current year data with no near-term milestones

Do not treat “no year: N+1 block yet” as sufficient reason to run.

How to build the list

1. Scan src/data/conferences/*.yml for signals: deadlines: [], venue: TBA, to be announced, near-term date: values, missing fields on an active year.
2. Cross-check typical CFP timing only as a soft prior — YAML + calendar proximity win.
3. Present a short ranked table (conference stem, why now). Aim for ~10–15, not all ~67.
4. Confirm with the user before launching runs.

Running the agent

Default runner: Modal (agents/modal_agent.py). Pushes to huggingface/ai-deadlines main.

# Prefer one conference at a time
uv run modal run --detach agents/modal_agent.py --conference-name <stem>

# Small smoke test only
uv run modal run --detach agents/modal_agent.py --limit 1

# Avoid unless explicitly requested (expensive)
uv run modal run --detach agents/modal_agent.py --all-conferences

There is no --conferences a,b,c flag — run sequentially with --conference-name, waiting for each to finish (or getting user OK) before the next.

Preflight

1. Check for already-running apps: uv run modal app list
2. Stop stale/stuck runs before starting a new one if the user wants a clean test
3. Required Modal secrets: anthropic, github-token (GH_TOKEN with repo), exa
4. anthropic is HF Inference Providers config (not a raw Anthropic key). Do not replace it with a bare huggingface secret that only has HF_TOKEN.

Monitor and report

After each run, report briefly:

• Modal app URL / app id
• Status: pushed | no_changes | error | timeout
• commit_sha when status is pushed
• Cost and approx duration if available
• Concrete YAML changes (or that push was skipped)
• Whether any retrieval agent hit error_max_turns / budget limits / wall-clock timeout

Watch logs for: Result:, pushed, no_changes, timeout, commit_sha, Total pipeline, Limit reached, Wall-clock timeout, Authentication failed.

Data conventions

• Deadline timezone: always AoE. Never write UTC-12 or UTC+12.
• Conference stem = YAML filename without .yml (e.g. emnlp, wacv, 3dv)
• Leave past conference years unchanged unless the user asks for archival fixes
• YAML is validated in Python before push (parse, required fields, AoE, past years byte-for-byte). Failures return error and do not push.

Timeouts

• Per-conference Modal function timeout: 3600s, overridable at deploy with MODAL_CONFERENCE_TIMEOUT
• Per retrieval/aggregation agent wall-clock: 300s (AGENT_WALL_CLOCK_SECONDS)
• Retrieval agents fail closed: last-turn hook asks for structured output; empty error_max_turns gets one no-tools follow-up. Do not treat a hang until the function cap as no_changes.

Cost intuition

• Typical single-conference run: ~$2–4 and ~5–15 minutes
• Prefer confirming the next conference with the user after each successful run when iterating a priority list
• no_changes is a success (agents verified; push skipped)

Troubleshooting

Local alternative

Only if the user asks to run locally instead of Modal:

uv run --env-file keys.env -m agents.agent --conference_name <stem>

For HF Jobs debugging, see agents/README.md / agents/hf_jobs_agent.py — not the default path.