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Course Constraint Scheduler

A powerful constraint satisfaction solver for generating academic course schedules using the Z3 theorem prover.

Start Here by Audience

Naming Cheat Sheet

  • Repository: mucsci/scheduler
  • Package on PyPI: course-constraint-scheduler
  • Python import: scheduler

Overview

The Course Constraint Scheduler is designed to solve complex academic scheduling problems by modeling them as constraint satisfaction problems. It can handle:

  • Faculty constraints: Availability, credit ranges, teaching-day rules, distinct-course limits, and preferences
  • Resource constraints: Capacity, required features, resource availability, eligibility, and collision prevention
  • Time constraints: Credit/lab/modality-compatible meeting patterns, fixed starts, delivery modes, overlap, and adjacency
  • Course constraints: Stable section ids, expected enrollment, either no lab or one required lab assignment, declared conflicts, faculty eligibility, and no-lab schedules
  • Diagnostics and optimization: Unsat cores, verified repairs, independent audits, and Pareto objectives

Features

  • Z3 Integration: Uses Microsoft's Z3 theorem prover for efficient constraint solving
  • Flexible Configuration: JSON-based configuration with comprehensive validation
  • Multiple Output Formats: JSON and CSV output support with type-safe serialization
  • REST API: Full HTTP API for integration with web applications
  • Asynchronous Processing: Background schedule generation for large problems
  • Session Management: In-memory, expiring sessions for iterative schedule generation
  • Optimization Flags: Configurable optimization strategies
  • Type Safety: Strict Pydantic configuration and response models plus typed runtime objects
  • Enhanced Validation: Cross-reference validation and business logic constraints
  • Improved Error Handling: Detailed error messages for configuration debugging
  • Strict Type Validation: Pydantic models with strict validation and custom type definitions
  • Computed Fields: Automatic serialization with computed fields for clean JSON output

Quick Start

Requires a minimum version of Python 3.12

Installation

pip install course-constraint-scheduler

Command Line Usage

# Generate schedules from configuration file
scheduler example.json --limit 10 --format json --output schedules

# Interactive mode
scheduler example.json --limit 5

Python API

from scheduler import (
    Scheduler,
    load_config_from_file,
)
from scheduler.config import CombinedConfig

# Load configuration
config = load_config_from_file(CombinedConfig, "example.json")

# Create scheduler
scheduler = Scheduler(config)

# Generate schedules
for schedule in scheduler.get_models():
    print("Schedule:")
    for course in schedule:
        print(f"{course.as_csv()}")

# Diagnose hard-constraint feasibility without consuming a model
diagnosis = scheduler.diagnose()

# Independently validate and score a decoded schedule
first_schedule = next(scheduler.get_models())
audit = scheduler.audit_schedule(first_schedule)

Note on naming: scheduler.config defines Course as a course-id string type alias (used in JSON config). scheduler.models defines a Course class containing normalized section policy and legacy solver-variable mirrors. Schedules from get_models() yield CourseInstance objects whose .course attribute is the models Course; use .course.course_id to get the config-style course id.

Scheduler(config, solver_timeout_ms=...) applies an optional timeout to each Z3 check. Structured raw validation is available through validate_combined_config_data. The published Diagnostics and auditing guide documents status, core, repair, provenance, completeness, and audit-score semantics.

REST API

# Start the server with custom options
scheduler-server --port 8000 --host 0.0.0.0 --log-level info --workers 16

# 1) Submit a schedule request
curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/submit" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @example.json

# 2) The submit response includes the schedule_id you need
# {"schedule_id":"f9f2...","endpoint":"/schedules/f9f2..."}

# 3) Use that schedule_id for schedule generation and progress
curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/schedules/f9f2.../next"
curl -X GET "http://localhost:8000/schedules/f9f2.../count"

# Optional endpoints
curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/validate" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @example.json
curl -X GET "http://localhost:8000/schedules/f9f2.../details"
curl -X GET "http://localhost:8000/schedules/f9f2.../diagnosis"
curl -X GET "http://localhost:8000/schedules/f9f2.../audit/0"
curl -X GET "http://localhost:8000/schedules/f9f2.../status"
curl -X GET "http://localhost:8000/schedules/f9f2.../index/0"
curl -X DELETE "http://localhost:8000/schedules/f9f2.../delete"

Server deployment and security

The REST API is convenient for local use and trusted integrations. For production or internet-facing deployments:

  • No built-in authentication — use a reverse proxy, API gateway, or private network; do not expose the process directly without controls you trust.
  • In-memory sessions — active schedule sessions are lost on restart and are not shared across multiple server processes.
  • Resource limits — the server caps active sessions, courses, requested schedules, candidate slots, solve time, and idle-session age. Tune the SCHEDULER_API_* environment variables documented in the REST quickstart for your deployment.
  • CORS — set the CORS_ORIGINS environment variable to a comma-separated list of allowed origins when browsers must send credentials. If unset, the server allows all origins without credentials (typical for local development).

See SECURITY.md for how to report vulnerabilities.

Documentation

Published docs (configuration, Python API, REST API, development): https://mucsci-scheduler.docs.buildwithfern.com

If you are changing code or docs in this repo:

CI publishes this site on pushes to main that touch fern/, scripts/, or src/scheduler/ (see .github/workflows/docs.yml). The repository needs a FERN_TOKEN Actions secret from the Fern CLI (fern token) or dashboard.

Local REST API (OpenAPI UI)

scheduler-server
# open http://localhost:8000/docs/ in a web browser

The /submit request body matches CombinedConfig (same JSON as the CLI and Python API).

Local Fern preview

With Node.js 22, Docker, and the Python development dependencies installed:

npm install -g fern-api@5.75.4
uv run python scripts/export_openapi.py
uv run python scripts/export_config_schema.py
fern docs md generate --local --library scheduler-python
fern check --warnings
fern docs dev

Tracked generated artifacts used by Fern:

  • fern/openapi.json (from FastAPI routes/models)
  • fern/docs/assets/combined-config.schema.json (from CombinedConfig)

The Python library reference is generated from src/scheduler into the ignored fern/static/python-reference/ directory. Regenerate it with the Fern command above after public API or docstring changes. CI performs the same generation before validating or publishing the site.

Configuration quick link

A short pointer to the new docs location: docs/configuration.md.

example.json is included in this repository for local cloning workflows. If you need a minimal sample, use tests/fixtures/minimal_config.json.

Configuration

The scheduler uses a JSON configuration file that defines:

  • Rooms and Labs: Named facilities with required positive student capacities
  • Courses: Section enrollment, resource requirements, conflicts, and faculty assignments
  • Faculty: Availability, preferences, and teaching constraints
  • Time Slots: Available time blocks and class patterns
  • Optimization: Flags for different optimization strategies

Use the validated tests/fixtures/minimal_config.json as the canonical small example and example.json for a larger scheduling problem. The Fern configuration guide documents every required field, default, validation rule, lab semantic, and time-slot generation rule.

Architecture

The scheduler is built with a modular architecture:

  • SchedulingProblem: Z3-free normalized policies, resource capacities, time domains, source paths, and compatibility cache
  • SolverEngine: Z3 symbols, relation tables, hard constraints, objectives, decoding, and model blocking
  • DiagnosticEngine: Preflight analysis, provenance, unsat cores, suggestions, and verified repairs
  • ScheduleAuditor: Independent hard-rule verification, summaries, and objective scoring
  • Scheduler: Stable façade delegating enumeration, diagnosis, and auditing
  • Configuration and output: Strict Pydantic validation plus JSON/CSV writers
  • REST server: FastAPI sessions, serialized generation, background work, limits, and idle expiry

Performance

Solve time depends on the generated candidate-slot domain, resource and faculty choices, pairwise constraints, enabled objectives, timeout, and Z3 version. Course count alone is not a reliable predictor, so benchmark representative configurations in the target environment. Narrow availability and resource domains where they match the real problem, and disable objectives that are not required for a particular run.

Development

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/mucsci/scheduler.git
cd scheduler

# Install dependencies (includes dev tools via uv default-groups; see pyproject.toml)
uv sync

# Run tests
uv run pytest

# Fast unit tests only
uv run pytest -m "not integration and not slow" --no-cov

# Integration and golden compatibility tests
uv run pytest -m "integration and not slow" --no-cov

# Long-running full-example tests
uv run pytest -m slow --no-cov

# Run linting
uv run ruff check .

Using pip without optional extras: dev dependencies are declared under [dependency-groups] in pyproject.toml. Either use uv as above, or add a matching [project.optional-dependencies] dev group if you need pip install -e ".[dev]".

Logging

The scheduler does not configure logging on import. The CLI (scheduler) and HTTP server (scheduler-server) call configure_logging() at startup. When embedding the scheduler as a library, configure logging in your application (e.g. logging.basicConfig(...)) before using the scheduler.

Project Structure

tests/                     # Pytest suite
src/scheduler/
├── __init__.py              # Main package exports with all types
├── audit.py                 # Independent schedule validation and objective scoring
├── config.py                # Configuration models with strict validation and type definitions
├── configuration.py         # Raw and combined configuration helpers
├── contracts.py             # Z3-free public diagnostic result contracts
├── diagnostics.py           # Feasibility analysis, unsat cores, and repair sets
├── json_types.py            # Supplemental TypedDicts for serialized schedule rows
├── logging.py               # Logging setup
├── main.py                  # Command-line interface
├── problem.py               # Normalized, solver-independent scheduling problem
├── scheduler.py             # Stable public façade
├── server.py                # REST API server with session management
├── solver.py                # Z3 constraints, optimization, decoding, and enumeration
├── time_slot_generator.py   # Utility for generating valid time slots
├── models/                  # Enhanced data models
│   ├── __init__.py          # Model exports
│   ├── course.py            # Course and instance models with computed fields
│   ├── day.py               # Day enumeration (IntEnum)
│   └── time_slot.py         # Time-related models with comprehensive methods
└── writers/                 # Output formatters
    ├── __init__.py          # Writer exports
    ├── csv_writer.py        # CSV output with context manager support
    └── json_writer.py       # JSON output with context manager support

Contributing

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch
  3. Make your changes
  4. Add tests for new functionality
  5. Ensure all tests pass
  6. Submit a pull request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Support

For questions, issues, or feature requests:

  • Check the documentation
  • Review existing issues
  • Create a new issue with detailed information
  • Include configuration examples and error messages

Current diagnostic capabilities

  • Structured validation codes and JSON Pointer locations
  • Per-course candidate domains and rejected-pattern explanations
  • Faculty/resource capacity and mandatory-day feasibility analysis
  • Primary and bounded alternative unsat cores with explicit minimality and completeness flags
  • Ranked relaxation suggestions and solver-verified repair sets
  • Provenance edges, configuration fingerprints, completeness flags, and timeout reasons
  • Independent schedule, workload, resource, preference, and objective audits

Roadmap

  • Web-based configuration interface
  • Schedule visualization tools

About

A course constraint satisfaction solver intended for use by higher education departments

mucsci-scheduler.docs.buildwithfern.com/

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