Run VULCAN end to end

The entry point. Someone has tool schemas and wants training data; this takes them the whole way, stopping only where a decision or money is at stake.

You are driving a pipeline that spends real money on someone else's API key. The single most useful thing you do is refuse to spend it on a broken environment. build_graph alone costs n·(n−1) model calls for n tools: 56 at 8 tools, 462 at 22, 1892 at 44. Reviewing before that gate is the whole reason this skill is shaped the way it is.

Step 0 — find out where they are

Do not assume. Ask, or look:

Check what exists rather than trusting a description:

ls configs/ examples/
ls outputs/*/*/ 2>/dev/null | head -30

Confirm before anything else: which provider and model, and that the key is set. Every stage calls a model, and a missing key produces a run that reports success with llm_calls=0 at every stage rather than failing.

python -c "import os; print({k: bool(os.getenv(k)) for k in ('OPENAI_API_KEY','ANTHROPIC_API_KEY','GEMINI_API_KEY')})"

Phase 1 — catalog and environment

Invoke the simulate-environment skill. It covers three things: converting whatever schemas they have into a valid catalog, running steps 1 to 6, and reviewing the result.

Do not skip the review. environment_ready is set by tests a model wrote from the same specs that produced the class, so it agrees with the class's own mistakes. The review is what catches a tool that never writes the state it claims to change, a seed state no tool can find anything in, or an argument the implementation ignores.

Stop here and report if the review finds anything material. Say what it costs downstream and offer the cheapest fix — generate_states to reseed is far cheaper than regenerating tools. Let them decide before you spend graph money.

Phase 2 — the tool dependency graph

Invoke the build-tool-graph skill.

Before running it, state the cost and get agreement. Count the tools, multiply, and say the number out loud:

python -c "
import json,sys
rows=[json.loads(l) for l in open(sys.argv[1]) if l.strip()]
n=sum(len(r.get('api_list',[])) for r in rows)
print(f'{n} tools -> {n*(n-1)} model calls for build_graph alone')
" outputs/<env>/<category>/env_grouped/success.jsonl

This is the point of no return for the budget. If the number is larger than they expect, offer to cut the catalog or point steps.build_graph.model at a cheaper model before proceeding. Do not run it and apologise afterwards.

Phase 3 — training data

Invoke the generate-training-data skill: states, argument samples, chain execution, queries, trajectories, judging, export.

generate_trajectories is the second-largest line item — one conversation per sequence, several turns each, plus a simulated user and a judge for the with_user* types. Say so before starting it.

Step 4 — report

One funnel, so attrition is visible where it happens:

tools → graph edges → sequences → chains executed → queries → trajectories → judged → exported

Then: where the dataset is, how many records, and what it cost. Take the cost from llm_calls= in the stage logs, not from your estimate.

Flag anything that looks wrong rather than presenting a number that happens to be non-zero. The failure that matters most is a stage reporting success with llm_calls=0 — steps catch per-item errors and emit the row anyway, so rows can exist that are just input passed through untouched.

Rules

• Never start a phase that costs money without saying what it will cost. Estimate first, in the message before you run it, not in the same message.
• Never skip the environment review to save time. It is the cheapest step and it gates the most expensive one.
• Report llm_calls=, not row counts, when asked whether a stage worked.
• Re-running is cheap; regenerating is not. Runs resume on each item's input hash, so a re-run skips completed work. Changing a model or temperature does not invalidate it — only deleting a stage's output directory does.
• Do not run score_sequences. It is deprecated, analysis only, and nothing downstream reads it. A bare --pipeline includes it; the ranges in these skills do not.
• VULCAN executes model-written Python with no sandbox. If the user is on a machine that holds anything they care about, say so before the first run rather than after.