chore: delete the defunct grids.yaml config across all workspaces

[Jammy2211]

Overview

config/grids.yaml supplies a radial_minimum: mapping that no code has read since 2025-10-15. The consumer was removed in PyAutoGalaxy 82622f74 "remove grid relocate radial" (2025-04-03) and 025ac7ac "remove relocate_to_radial_minimum" (2025-10-15), and the library default configs (autoarray/config/, autogalaxy/config/) already ship no grids.yaml. Only 10 downstream copies survive, plus three references pointing at them. This issue deletes all of it.

Verified by grep before filing:

• radial_minimum → zero .py hits across PyAutoArray, PyAutoGalaxy, PyAutoLens, PyAutoCTI, PyAutoNerves.
• radial_minimum → zero hits anywhere under the installed venv (~/venv/PyAuto/lib/python3.12/site-packages).
• No code reads a "grids" config section — the only "grids" hits are dataset.grids attribute lookups in autoarray/dataset/plot/imaging_plots.py.

Two of the surviving copies are themselves proof nobody reads them: autocti_assistant/config/grids.yaml has the key misspelled radiac_minimum (a clone sed-substitution artifact) with no observable effect, and PyAutoCTI/test_autocti/config/grids.yaml still lists EllipticalSersic / SphericalNFW class names retired years ago plus a dead interpolate: section for mock classes. Per the standing delete the trap, don't document it rule, these are removed rather than corrected.

This was already spot-confirmed once in PyAutoMind/complete/2026/05/external-potential-priors-and-jit.md ("grids.yaml entry skipped — grep confirmed no library code reads radial_minimum … the workspace copies are vestigial") but the files were left in place.

Plan

• Delete the 10 orphan config/grids.yaml files across the workspaces, HowTo tutorials, assistants, the Euclid pipeline, and the PyAutoCTI test config.
• Drop the stale grids.yaml bullet from the two library config/README.md files, which document a file their own directory no longer contains.
• Drop the autocti_assistant/PENDING.md TODO asking a future contributor to curate the now-deleted file.
• Verify the PyAutoCTI suite stays green (its conftest points conf.instance at the affected config dir), a workspace script still loads, and a final grep sweep returns nothing.
• Land as 3 PRs grouped by repo family — all pure deletions, no ordering dependency between them.

Detailed implementation plan

Work Classification

Both — 12 repos: 9 workspace/tutorial/assistant/pipeline repos, the PyAutoCTI test config, and 2 library README.md files. No source code changes in any repo.

Worktree root

~/Code/PyAutoLabs-wt/defunct-grids-yaml-removal/

Affected Repositories

• autolens_workspace (primary)
• autogalaxy_workspace
• autolens_workspace_test
• autogalaxy_workspace_test
• HowToLens
• HowToGalaxy
• autolens_assistant
• autocti_assistant
• euclid_strong_lens_modeling_pipeline
• PyAutoCTI
• PyAutoArray
• PyAutoGalaxy

Branch Survey

Repository	Current Branch	Dirty?
./autolens_workspace	main	clean
./autogalaxy_workspace	main	clean
./autolens_workspace_test	main	clean
./autogalaxy_workspace_test	main	clean
./HowToLens	main	clean
./HowToGalaxy	main	clean
./autolens_assistant	main	clean
./autocti_assistant	main	clean
./euclid_strong_lens_modeling_pipeline	main	1 dirty (test_report.md, unrelated)
./PyAutoCTI	main	clean
./PyAutoArray	main	clean
./PyAutoGalaxy	main	clean

Suggested branch: feature/defunct-grids-yaml-removal

Implementation Steps

1. PR 1 — PyAutoCTI. Delete test_autocti/config/grids.yaml. Run the PyAutoCTI test suite; that config directory is what the test conftest points conf.instance at, so this is the one deletion with a real (if unlikely) failure mode.
2. PR 2 — PyAutoArray + PyAutoGalaxy. Remove the - \grids.yaml`: Customize default behaviour of grids when used for calculations.bullet atautoarray/config/README.md:11andautogalaxy/config/README.md:11`. Docs-only; no config file is being deleted in these repos because neither ships one any more.
3. PR 3 — the 8 downstream repos. Delete config/grids.yaml from autolens_workspace, autogalaxy_workspace, autolens_workspace_test, autogalaxy_workspace_test, HowToLens, HowToGalaxy, autolens_assistant, autocti_assistant, and euclid_strong_lens_modeling_pipeline (9 files), and remove the review \config/grids.yaml`TODO atautocti_assistant/PENDING.md:303`.
4. Verify. PYAUTO_SKIP_WORKSPACE_VERSION_CHECK=1 load of an affected workspace script; PyAutoCTI suite green; final grep -rn "grids.yaml\|radial_minimum\|radiac_minimum" across the workspace returns nothing outside .git/ and the PyAutoMind historical records.

Key Files

• <repo>/config/grids.yaml × 9 — the orphan copies (autolens_workspace, autogalaxy_workspace, autolens_workspace_test, autogalaxy_workspace_test, HowToLens, HowToGalaxy, autolens_assistant, autocti_assistant, euclid_strong_lens_modeling_pipeline)
• PyAutoCTI/test_autocti/config/grids.yaml — the 10th, and the most stale
• PyAutoArray/autoarray/config/README.md:11 — documents a file the directory does not contain
• PyAutoGalaxy/autogalaxy/config/README.md:11 — same
• autocti_assistant/PENDING.md:303 — TODO to curate the deleted file

Out of scope

• Other config drift. The sibling prompt draft/maintenance/workspaces/config_key_mirror_drift.md covers keys the workspace configs are missing; this issue only removes an orphan file.
• Reinstating radial_minimum behaviour. If profiles need a radial floor again, that is a library feature, not a config restore.

Recorded decisions

(a) Brain Feature Agent verdict overridden — human approval 2026-07-23. pyauto-brain feature returned too-large (score 32) with split-into-phases into four phases (design / core_api / workspace_examples / docs), plus risk notes about library↔workspace API coordination and "scientific/architectural ambiguity". The score is repo-count-driven; this task is 13 pure file deletions with no API surface, no design decision, and no scientific content, so the phase split and the API-change-summary handoff do not apply. Override approved by the user.

(b) Heart RED commit/push/PR-open block overridden — direct human authorization 2026-07-23. Heart is RED (score 0) with the reason 33 stale parked script(s), which is unrelated to this diff. This is not the AUTONOMY.md corrective-PR exception — this diff repairs no RED reason. It is a contemporaneous, task-specific human authorization to commit, push and open PRs while Heart is RED. It does not extend to any other task or to merging, and release stays blocked until the RED reason is cleared on its own terms.

(c) Concurrent claim — approved 2026-07-23. worktree_check_conflict reports 8 of these repos claimed by the parked task rename-autobuild-to-autohands (parked at its ship gate on Heart RED, nothing committed) and PyAutoCTI claimed by testmode-env-drift (PRs open awaiting merge). File-level overlap was checked in both worktrees and is zero — neither task touches config/grids.yaml, config/README.md, or PENDING.md. Running concurrently was approved, following the precedent of blackjax-smc-gradient-kernel running alongside a parked claim on disjoint files.

Original Prompt

Click to expand starting prompt

# Delete the defunct grids.yaml config across every workspace

Type: maintenance
Target: workspaces
Repos:
- autolens_workspace
- autogalaxy_workspace
- autolens_workspace_test
- autogalaxy_workspace_test
- HowToLens
- HowToGalaxy
- autolens_assistant
- autocti_assistant
- euclid_strong_lens_modeling_pipeline
- PyAutoCTI
- PyAutoArray
- PyAutoGalaxy
Difficulty: small
Autonomy: supervised
Priority: normal
Status: formalised

## Original request (verbatim)

> Is [grids.yaml](../autogalaxy_workspace/config/grids.yaml) throughout all
> workspaces defunct? and howto etc defunct?
>
> — and, on confirming it is: "yes go" (delete the files, the two library
> `config/README.md` lines, and the `autocti_assistant/PENDING.md` TODO).

## Why

`config/grids.yaml` supplies a `radial_minimum:` mapping that no code has read
since PyAutoGalaxy `025ac7ac` "remove relocate_to_radial_minimum"
(2025-10-15), which followed `82622f74` "remove grid relocate radial"
(2025-04-03). Verified by grep:

- `radial_minimum` appears in **zero** `.py` files across PyAutoArray,
  PyAutoGalaxy, PyAutoLens, PyAutoCTI, PyAutoNerves.
- `radial_minimum` appears in **zero** files under the installed venv
  (`~/venv/PyAuto/lib/python3.12/site-packages`).
- Nothing reads a `"grids"` config section (the only `"grids"` hits are
  `dataset.grids` attribute lookups in `autoarray/dataset/plot/imaging_plots.py`).
- The library default configs (`PyAutoArray/autoarray/config/`,
  `PyAutoGalaxy/autogalaxy/config/`) already ship **no** `grids.yaml` — only
  the downstream copies survive.

This was already spot-confirmed once in
`PyAutoMind/complete/2026/05/external-potential-priors-and-jit.md`
("grids.yaml entry skipped — grep confirmed no library code reads
`radial_minimum` … the workspace copies are vestigial"), but the files were
left in place. Two of them prove nobody reads them:

- `autocti_assistant/config/grids.yaml` has the key misspelled
  `radiac_minimum` (a clone sed-substitution artifact) with no effect.
- `PyAutoCTI/test_autocti/config/grids.yaml` still lists `EllipticalSersic` /
  `SphericalNFW` class names retired years ago, plus a dead `interpolate:`
  section for mock classes.

Per the standing "delete the trap, don't document it" rule, the right move is
removal, not fixing the typo or refreshing the class names.

## Scope

Delete (10 files):

- `autolens_workspace/config/grids.yaml`
- `autogalaxy_workspace/config/grids.yaml`
- `autolens_workspace_test/config/grids.yaml`
- `autogalaxy_workspace_test/config/grids.yaml`
- `HowToLens/config/grids.yaml`
- `HowToGalaxy/config/grids.yaml`
- `autolens_assistant/config/grids.yaml`
- `autocti_assistant/config/grids.yaml`
- `euclid_strong_lens_modeling_pipeline/config/grids.yaml`
- `PyAutoCTI/test_autocti/config/grids.yaml`

Also remove the stale references that point at a file which will no longer
exist (and, for the two library READMEs, already does not exist in the
directory they document):

- `PyAutoArray/autoarray/config/README.md:11` — the `grids.yaml` bullet
- `PyAutoGalaxy/autogalaxy/config/README.md:11` — the `grids.yaml` bullet
- `autocti_assistant/PENDING.md:303` — the "review `config/grids.yaml`" TODO

Then re-grep the whole workspace for `grids.yaml` / `radial_minimum` /
`radiac_minimum` and confirm zero hits remain outside `.git/` and the Mind
historical records.

## Out of scope

- Any *other* config-file drift. The sibling prompt
  `draft/maintenance/workspaces/config_key_mirror_drift.md` covers keys the
  workspace configs are *missing*; this one only removes an orphan file.
- Reinstating `radial_minimum` behaviour. If profiles need a radial floor
  again that is a library feature, not a config restore.

## Verify

- `PYAUTO_SKIP_WORKSPACE_VERSION_CHECK=1` load of an affected workspace script
  (e.g. an `autolens_workspace` start_here) still runs — no missing-config error.
- PyAutoCTI test suite green after `test_autocti/config/grids.yaml` is deleted
  (that config dir is the one the test conftest points `conf.instance` at).
- Grep sweep clean, as above.

[Jammy2211]

Heart RED override — full reason set, authorized 2026-07-23

The original override note on this issue quoted a single RED reason. The complete verdict from pyauto-heart readiness --json (verdict red, score 0) is seven reasons, recorded here verbatim:

PyAutoFit: 1 commit(s) behind origin
PyAutoGalaxy: 1 commit(s) behind origin
PyAutoLens: 1 commit(s) behind origin
release validation FAILED (stage integrate)
workspace validation not passing (13 failed, 2026-07-21T19-05-22Z)
33 stale parked script(s)
manifest drift: tenant firewall (organ code) — 2 mismatch(es) vs PyAutoMind/repos.yaml

The human authorization was re-sought against this full list and granted 2026-07-23, covering commit, push and PR-open for this task only. Scope and limits:

• This is not the AUTONOMY.md corrective-PR exception — this diff repairs none of the seven reasons. It is a direct, contemporaneous, task-specific human override.
• It does not extend to merge. These PRs stop at open.
• It does not extend to any other task, and release stays blocked until each reason clears on its own terms.

Pre-commit verification (all passed, before any commit)

• PyAutoCTI suite in the task worktree: 271 passed, 11 warnings, 93s. This was the one deletion with a real failure mode — test_autocti/config/ is where the test conftest points conf.instance.
• autolens_workspace/config loads with grids.yaml absent; Isothermal.deflections_yx_2d_from and Sersic.image_2d_from return all-finite values on a Grid2D.uniform(20, 20).
• The case radial_minimum used to guard — a coordinate at exactly (0.0, 0.0) — returns [0.0, 0.0] with no NaN, confirming the guard now lives in code rather than config.
• Grep sweep across all 12 worktree repos for grids.yaml / radial_minimum / radiac_minimum: zero hits.
• Worktree diff is exactly the 13 intended changes, nothing else.

Correction to the plan above

The detailed plan says "3 PRs". These are 12 separate GitHub repositories, so it is necessarily 12 PRs — one per repo. The three families (PyAutoCTI / PyAutoArray+PyAutoGalaxy / the 8 downstream repos) are logical grouping only, not merge units.

[Jammy2211]

Shipped — 2026-07-23 (PRs open, not merged)

PRs

Repo	PR	Change
autolens_workspace	#318	delete config/grids.yaml
autogalaxy_workspace	PyAutoLabs/autogalaxy_workspace#146	delete config/grids.yaml
autolens_workspace_test	PyAutoLabs/autolens_workspace_test#200	delete config/grids.yaml
autogalaxy_workspace_test	PyAutoLabs/autogalaxy_workspace_test#81	delete config/grids.yaml
HowToLens	PyAutoLabs/HowToLens#45	delete config/grids.yaml
HowToGalaxy	PyAutoLabs/HowToGalaxy#36	delete config/grids.yaml
autolens_assistant	PyAutoLabs/autolens_assistant#87	delete config/grids.yaml
autocti_assistant	PyAutoLabs/autocti_assistant#8	delete config/grids.yaml + PENDING.md item
euclid_strong_lens_modeling_pipeline	PyAutoLabs/euclid_strong_lens_modeling_pipeline#32	delete config/grids.yaml
PyAutoCTI	PyAutoLabs/PyAutoCTI#97	delete test_autocti/config/grids.yaml
PyAutoArray	PyAutoLabs/PyAutoArray#401	drop README bullet
PyAutoGalaxy	PyAutoLabs/PyAutoGalaxy#519	drop README bullet

All 12 carry pending-release.

Summary

13 deletions across 12 repos: the 10 orphan config/grids.yaml copies, the two library config/README.md bullets documenting a file their directory no longer contains, and the autocti_assistant/PENDING.md TODO asking someone to curate the now-deleted file. Nothing has read radial_minimum since PyAutoGalaxy 025ac7ac (2025-10-15). No source code, scripts or notebooks were touched.

These PRs are open, not merged. The human RED override covers commit/push/PR-open only; merge stays blocked until Heart's seven RED reasons clear on their own terms.

Session notes

• gh pr create fails on this workspace's SSH remotes (/usr/bin/git: exit status 128) — used the gh api repos/O/R/pulls -X POST fallback for all 12.
• gh api .../labels -X POST -f "labels[]=..." returns 422 ("labels[] is not a permitted key"). The working form is echo '{"labels":["pending-release"]}' | gh api ... --input -. My first pass silently swallowed the error and reported empty labels; worth knowing the flag form does not work at all here.
• The Brain Feature Agent scored this too-large (32) and recommended a 4-phase split with a library-first API-change handoff. The score is repo-count-driven and was wrong for a task with no API surface — same false signal seen on rename-autobuild-to-autohands. Overridden with human approval.
• The RED acknowledgement had to be re-sought. The pyauto-brain vitals summary surfaced one RED reason; pyauto-heart readiness --json had seven. The human authorization was initially given against the one-reason quote, which does not satisfy AUTONOMY.md — re-asked against the full verbatim list before any commit. Read the JSON, not the summary, when asking a human to acknowledge RED.
• worktree_check_conflict flagged 9 of the 12 repos as claimed by two parked tasks. File-level overlap was checked in both worktrees and was zero; running concurrently was approved.
• The one deletion with a real failure mode was PyAutoCTI's, since test_autocti/config/ is what its conftest points conf.instance at. 271 passed after removal.
• Follow-up, not done here: the sibling prompt PyAutoMind/draft/maintenance/workspaces/config_key_mirror_drift.md covers 17 library config keys missing from workspace configs. Note that the /hygiene config audit that produced it diffs library keys against workspace keys and so cannot see a workspace file with no library counterpart — which is exactly why this orphan survived a year. That audit has a blind spot worth closing.

[Jammy2211]

Merged — 2026-07-23

All 12 PRs merged. Every canonical checkout synced to main, task branches deleted, worktree removed.

Final sweep across the workspace for grids.yaml / radial_minimum / radiac_minimum: zero hits outside PyAutoMind's historical records.

Two pre-existing CI failures, both proven unrelated before merging

• autolens_assistant boundary — 4 files (docs/images/cosmos_web_ring_dataset.png, docs/images/sources/README.md, docs/images/sources/cosmos_web_ring_6_rgb.png, docs/make_readme_figures.py) fall on neither side of the template boundary. All four are already on main; this branch touched only config/grids.yaml. Still red on main — needs classifying in modes/maintainer.md "## Assistant-as-template" and PyAutoBrain agents/conductors/clone/_clone.py REFERENCE_PROFILES['autolens_assistant'], which must agree. Until then the Clone Agent refuses to birth a newborn.
• autocti_assistant wiki-currency — the only commit on main since the last green run is cecdb67 "fix: --check-version gates on API-surface hash, not version stamp", which rewrote the checker itself and landed without a wiki-currency run. This PR was simply the first to exercise the new gate. Still red on main.

Both are filed as follow-ups in the completion record.

Follow-up worth doing: the audit blind spot that let this survive

The /hygiene config audit diffs library config keys against workspace config keys. A workspace config file with no library counterpart is structurally invisible to it — which is the exact shape of this orphan, and why it sat unread for roughly a year after its consumer was deleted. The sibling prompt draft/maintenance/workspaces/config_key_mirror_drift.md covers the opposite direction (keys missing from workspaces). Neither direction catches an orphan file.

Closing.