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Displaying Only the Report on Console

Problem Definition

Goal: Suppress log output during workflow execution while displaying only the final report on the console.

When executing a workflow, a large amount of logs are displayed, including output from each node and cowsay displays. When you just want to check the results or when calling from a script, it is convenient to have only the report displayed cleanly.

actor-IaC provides three console output modes:

Option	Behavior
(none)	Output all logs to console
--quiet	Suppress all logs (report also hidden)
--report-only	Suppress execution logs, display only final report

How to do it

Using the --report-only Option

Simply adding the --report-only option displays only the report.

./actor_iac.java run -w main-collect-and-report.yaml -i inventory.ini -g compute --report-only

Output example:

[workflow-reporter] === Workflow Execution Report ===
[workflow-reporter] Session #4 | Workflow: main-collect-and-report.yaml | Status: RUNNING
[workflow-reporter] Started: 2026-01-25T15:50:28.572603
[workflow-reporter]
[workflow-reporter] --- Check Results ---
[workflow-reporter] --------------------
[workflow-reporter] [INFO] Hostname: stonefly514
[workflow-reporter] [INFO] OS: Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS
[workflow-reporter] [INFO] CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700 8-Core Processor (16 cores)
[workflow-reporter] [INFO] Memory: 62Gi
[workflow-reporter] [INFO] Disk: sda 1.9T TS2TSSD230S
[workflow-reporter] [INFO] Disk: nvme0n1 931.5G CSSD-M2B1TPG3NF2
[workflow-reporter] [INFO] GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 (NVIDIA)
[workflow-reporter] [INFO] Network: 192.168.5.14
[workflow-reporter]

All the large amount of logs from normal execution (cowsay, INFO messages, output from each node, etc.) are suppressed, and only WorkflowReporter output is displayed.

Logs Are Saved to Database

Even when --report-only is specified, all logs are saved to the database. You can check details later with the logs command.

# Display session list
./actor_iac.java logs

# Display logs for a specific session
./actor_iac.java logs -s 4

Comparison of Output Modes

# Normal execution: all logs are displayed
./actor_iac.java run -w workflow.yaml -i inventory.ini -g all

# report-only: only report is displayed
./actor_iac.java run -w workflow.yaml -i inventory.ini -g all --report-only

# quiet: nothing is displayed
./actor_iac.java run -w workflow.yaml -i inventory.ini -g all --quiet

Using in Scripts

--report-only is optimal for calling from scripts.

#!/bin/bash
# Collect system information and get report

REPORT=$(./actor_iac.java run -w sysinfo/main-collect-and-report.yaml \
    -i inventory.ini -g compute --report-only 2>&1)

# Save report to file
echo "$REPORT" > system-report.txt

# Or extract specific information
echo "$REPORT" | grep "GPU:"

How It Works

--report-only operates as follows:

1. Suppress java.util.logging console output - INFO and WARNING messages are hidden
2. Suppress log server connection messages - Status messages at startup are hidden
3. Set ConsoleAccumulator filter mode to REPORT_ONLY - Only messages with type: report are output

WorkflowReporter specifies type: report when outputting, so it is displayed even in --report-only mode.

Under the hood

Output Flow

In actor-IaC, all console output goes through the outputMultiplexer actor.

Workflow execution
    ↓
outputMultiplexer (output distribution)
    ├── ConsoleAccumulator → Console display
    ├── DatabaseAccumulator → H2 database
    └── FileAccumulator → Log file (optional)

Each output is assigned source (output source), type (category), and data (content). In --report-only mode, ConsoleAccumulator displays only messages with type: "report".

ConsoleAccumulator Filter Modes

ConsoleAccumulator has three filter modes:

public enum FilterMode {
    ALL,          // Output all (default)
    NONE,         // Output nothing (--quiet)
    REPORT_ONLY   // Output only type="report" (--report-only)
}

When --report-only is specified, RunCLI does the following:

1. Remove java.util.logging ConsoleHandler (suppress INFO messages)
2. Set ConsoleAccumulator filter mode to REPORT_ONLY

Report Output from Plugins

For plugins to output reports that are displayed in --report-only mode, specify type: "report" to outputMultiplexer.

// Get system via ActorSystemAware interface
private IIActorSystem system;

@Override
public void setActorSystem(IIActorSystem system) {
    this.system = system;
}

// Report output
private void reportToMultiplexer(String data) {
    IIActorRef<?> multiplexer = system.getIIActor("outputMultiplexer");

    JSONObject arg = new JSONObject();
    arg.put("source", "my-plugin");
    arg.put("type", "report");  // Displayed with --report-only
    arg.put("data", data);
    multiplexer.callByActionName("add", arg.toString());
}

Choosing Output Types

type	--report-only	Purpose
report	Displayed	Final reports, aggregation results
stdout	Hidden	Standard output from commands
stderr	Hidden	Error output from commands
cowsay	Hidden	Cowsay for step display
Other	Hidden	Debug information, etc.

Plugins choose the type according to purpose. Aggregation plugins (like SystemInfoAggregator) use type: "report", while intermediate results and debug information use different types.