Development

Work on the maintained software in FT-Rigby, not a copied sketch or an older Hardware code folder. The checked published revision for this documentation is a54a513 (26 September 2026).

The deployed host still uses Python 3.8. Newer development machines are fine, but keep the runtime compatible and test any fallback dependencies. TOML loading uses tomli on older Python versions.

Finding the Code

Module	Main responsibility
configuration.py	Strict TOML parsing and cross-file checks
controller_identity.py, device_inventory.py	Stable board identity and discovery
device_gate.py	Role verification, enrolment and runtime selection
firmware_sync.py	Managed controller builds and updates
ddt_protocol.py, ddt_mimic.py	CAN encoding, vehicle state and runtime
rigby_cmd_bridge.py	ROS Ackermann input
rigby_interface.py	Serial commands and telemetry
assi.py	ASSI reports and freshness
remote_hid.py, remote_policy.py, remote_runtime.py	Gamepad input, arming policy and remote route
steering_drive_sequence.py in tools/	Separate supervised diagnostic

The repository development guide is the fuller module and maintenance reference.

Running the Software-Only Tests

From the FT-Rigby root on Linux:

export PYTHONPATH="$PWD/src/rigby_bridge"
python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -v

Or in PowerShell, using an installed Python environment with the project dependencies:

$env:PYTHONPATH = "src/rigby_bridge"
python -m unittest discover -s tests -v

Report skips as well as passes. Linux route simulation uses pseudo-terminals and additional host dependencies; it is not equivalent to the Windows unit suite or to a real vehicle test.

The latest recorded local run had 272 tests and two skips. The audit findings show why a passing suite can still miss an important fault. Add the failing regression before claiming one of those findings is closed.

Change and Deployment Boundaries

Keep protocol fields, units and steering conventions explicit. An external angle in radians is not the controller's angle in degrees, and DDT's positive-left sign is not Rigby's actuator sign.

Changing a host module, changing a configuration file, compiling a controller and flashing it are different steps. Record which steps actually happened. Firmware source edits can trigger automatic updates on a later service start, even when the edit looks cosmetic.

Keep credentials, live machine configuration, unique controller identities and raw deployment backups out of the public examples. local-artifacts/ is ignored; it is useful for outputs and recovery material, but is not backed up by a push. Share maintained code and concise test results through the normal repository paths.

Do not bundle a change to watchdogs, speed limits, firmware or calibration into an unrelated cleanup. Those deserve their own review and physical verification plan.