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Full parameter + region capture for queue / API BLAST jobs (2026-06-24)

Motivation

A Service Bus (queue) or external-API BLAST job showed an empty parameter set on the Run-details view — config_snapshot was null, so outfmt / e-value / word size / taxonomy filter were all absent, and "Region" rendered as "—". Root cause (confirmed on a live job): the sibling /v1/jobs record never echoes the BLAST options or the region back, and the dashboard's drain row stored only program + db. So the submitted options were dropped on the floor.

User-facing change

The Run-details grid now shows, for queue/API jobs too:

  • Output format — the effective specifier (7 std staxids sscinames stitle qcovs) when present, else the bare code.
  • E-value, Max targets, Word size, Dust and any other recorded option.
  • Taxonomy filter — include taxid N / exclude taxid N.
  • Region — resolved from the cluster (no longer "—").
  • BLAST version, DB version, Run time — from the sibling's own record.
  • When a job genuinely has no recorded options, an explicit "not recorded for this job" hint instead of a blank (distinguishes missing-capture from N/A).

How the data is captured

The sibling cannot report the options, so the only source is the request the dashboard itself received:

  • SB drain (_persist_drain_row_and_trace) builds a flat config_snapshot from the submit payload (options / blast_options) and stamps it — plus the resolved region — durably on payload.external.
  • Direct API submit remembers the options in OPS Redis (remember_config_snapshot); the jobs sync re-attaches them to the durable row on first persist.
  • _sync_external_jobs_to_table recovers the stored config_snapshot + region (mirrors the submission_source / queue_origin relabel pattern).
  • The list projection (_external_to_blast_job) and the detail projection (_local_to_blast_job) both surface config_snapshot, infrastructure.region, and the sibling stats (db_version, blast_version, run_seconds).

Self-critique + hardening rounds (5)

Design rubric findings were hardened in 5 rounds (all tested):

  1. Region cache unbounded → size-bounded (_REGION_CACHE_MAX, evict oldest-expiring).
  2. Failed region cached for 1 h → negative results cached only 60 s so a transient AKS/RBAC blip recovers fast.
  3. Taxonomy exclude/include flags dropped → taxids / negative_taxids added to the snapshot + the label honours them.
  4. Free-form option strings unbounded → additional_options / extra capped at 1 KiB so a hostile/huge value cannot bloat the row.
  5. ARM region call on the list hot path → the drain resolves + stamps the region durably in the worker; the projection reads it from the row and only resolves live (cached) when absent.

API / IaC diff summary

  • New: api/services/blast/external_config.py (snapshot builder, cached region resolver, remember/recall), web/src/pages/blastResults/configFormat.ts.
  • Changed (additive summary fields): api/tasks/servicebus/tasks.py, api/routes/elastic_blast.py, api/services/blast/external_jobs.py, api/services/blast/external_job_projection.py, api/services/blast/job_state.py, web/src/api/blast.types.ts, web/src/pages/blastResults/BlastJobDetailsGrid.tsx.
  • No IaC / Container App template change.

Validation evidence

  • uv run pytest -q api/tests/test_external_config.py — 12 passed.
  • uv run pytest -q api/tests/test_external_job_projection.py api/tests/test_local_to_blast_job.py api/tests/test_blast_jobs_routes.py api/tests/test_servicebus_tasks.py — 160 passed (no regressions from the additive summary fields).
  • uv run ruff check — clean.
  • cd web && npx vitest run src/pages/blastResults/configFormat.test.ts — 9 passed; npm run build green; eslint clean.