What CORA needs the PSI team (and PSI's documentation) to confirm before the model can be trusted.
Alvra is modelled from PSI's open eco controls library, treated as a dry, correct DATA source: the Alvra manifest is the aliases dict in eco/alvra/config.py, and the per-device driver classes derive the motor axes from each PV prefix. That gives the device shape and the EPICS PV prefixes at high confidence; it does not give the motor units or limits, the Aramis source parameters, the PSS safety structure, or the Capability / Method binding, none of which is in the manifest. This page collects what eco cannot supply. It is a delete-on-answer queue: when an item is answered, the answer lands in the descriptor and the row is removed. Priorities are Blocks-build, Blocks-go-live, and Nice-to-have.
As at the LCLS-MFX and Diamond exercises, the EPICS PV prefix for every device is already recorded in the descriptor, so wiring handles is not a question here. The questions concentrate on the XFEL acquisition paradigm and on the few eco-specific ambiguities the source itself leaves open.
Is Alvra (or any SwissFEL station) actually intended to enter CORA scope, or is this a generalization exercise against an open controls source?
A generalization exercise: Alvra is CORA's second XFEL, testing whether the XFEL findings generalize across facilities; it is not on the pilot roadmap.
Whether PSI is a real Site or a modelling fixture.
TOPO-1
Blocks-build
One linac and Aramis undulator line feed the Alvra, Bernina, and Cristallina stations, beam routed to one at a time. Should each station be its own root Unit sharing an upstream source, and where does the shared switched source live?
One Alvra root Unit owning its source for now; the shared, switched FEL source has no model and is carried as this question. The Supply("PhotonBeam") seam is the candidate home.
One-vs-many root Units and where the shared source and its routing state are modelled.
PSS-1
Blocks-build
What are the SwissFEL PSS search-and-secure permit signals, and the interlock for the pump-probe laser?
Both enclosures exist with permit signals to be named; eco does not carry them.
The Enclosure permit signals and the laser-safety interlock.
ENC-1
Blocks-build
Which enclosure does each device sit in? eco prefixes encode beamline-line zones (SARFE10, SAROP11, SARES11 / SLAAR11), not the access-gated hutch or its safety meaning.
The shared Aramis optics hutch plus the Alvra experiment hutch.
What are the Aramis undulator line parameters and the per-shot photon-energy mechanism? The eco manifest carries the downstream device handles, not the source.
A SASE FEL undulator; per-shot photon energy is a DAQ datum, not a standing setpoint; energy-to-gap control is deferred.
The Undulator parameters and the per-shot energy mechanism.
MACHINE-1
Nice-to-have
SwissFEL is a linac, not a storage ring, so the loose StorageRing family used by the synchrotron exercises does not fit. How should machine beam be modelled?
A PhotonBeam Supply, not a StorageRing device; the per-shot pulse energy is read via the FluxMonitor gas / intensity monitors.
The linac machine-state modelling boundary.
ATT-1
Blocks-go-live
The AttenuatorAramis driver selects a foil combination for a requested transmission (energy-dependent). CORA's Filter covers the discrete selection but not the solve. Should the deferred Attenuable + SolverReference leg graduate?
Filter for the discrete selection; the target-transmission solver is the deferred Attenuable leg. With LCLS-MFX carrying the same solve, the rule-of-three is well past its trigger.
Whether the transmission solver is built and where.
MONO-1
Nice-to-have
The double-crystal mono (ODCM105) is used for monochromatic / spectroscopy modes; Alvra also runs pink / SASE beam mono-out. What are the crystal and axis details, and the pink-vs-mono mode boundary?
A Monochromator Asset, used in some modes; mode and crystal details are settings to supply.
The DCM internals and the pink-vs-mono mode model.
XREF-1
Blocks-go-live
Several Alvra eco drivers reference SAROP21-* PVs (a sibling Aramis line): the reference laser hardcodes an aperture on SAROP21-OLIR134, and the joint mono+FEL energy device reads SAROP21-ODCM098:ENERGY. Is this correct for Alvra, or a copy-paste artifact in the library?
The Alvra-line PVs (SAROP11-*) are authoritative; the SAROP21-* references are carried confirm, not silently modelled.
Whether the cross-line references are real Alvra dependencies.
The SwissFEL sf-daq records a free-running bsread stream of per-shot frames tagged by pulse-ID at beam rate, correlated downstream. CORA's acquisition is a single-detector poll-to-Done loop plus a sub-Hz scalar observation logbook with no pulse-ID key. How does CORA represent a DAQ run?
The Run-as-provenance-envelope is kept; the per-shot data plane lives in the SwissFEL data API, and CORA references a Dataset, exactly as it does for reconstructions via ComputePort. A per-shot event-stream actuation axis is the gap, sketched in the design note, not built. This is the same gap LCLS-MFX exposed; Alvra is the second sighting.
Whether CORA gains an event-stream acquisition axis or remains a record-keeping shell for Alvra.
TIMING-1
Blocks-go-live
The SwissFEL event system (EVR receivers, e.g. SLAAR11-LTIM01-EVR0) gates acquisition at beam rate. CORA's TimingController carries the device but has no typed home for an event trigger pattern. Where does the pattern parameter live?
TimingController for the device; the trigger pattern is carried as opaque setpoints until a typed parameter shape is earned.
The event-system trigger-pattern parameter model.
LASER-1
Blocks-go-live
The fs pump-probe needs laser-to-X-ray synchronization (the ecolxt timing chain) and PALM / PSEN jitter correction. CORA's PartitionRule is single-domain spatial math, with no cross-timing-domain sync; and is the laser a driven Asset or a hazard?
The laser is carried as a catalog Laser Family device (the LCLS-MFX / 4-ID precedent, model-vs-hazard open); the delay stage is a LinearStage; the fs synchronization has no CORA model.
The pump-probe synchronization model and the laser's model-vs-hazard status.
How are the intensity-position monitors (PBPS), the gas monitor (PBIG), and the PALM / PSEN arrival-time monitors modelled? They present the Sensor Role.
The loose FluxMonitor and Diagnostic Sensor families reused from I22 / 2-BM / LCLS-MFX; per-shot intensity normalization is a DAQ-plane concern (DAQ-1).
The diagnostics modelling boundary.
SAMPLE-1
Blocks-go-live
What is the sample-delivery shape on the Prime endstation (fixed target, liquid jet), and the Subject custody lifecycle for serial crystallography?
Sample delivery is endstation-specific and deferred; no Family is coined yet; the Subject thread is carried as this question.
The sample-delivery model and the Subject custody thread.
SPEC-1
Nice-to-have
The von Hamos spectrometer is a crystal-analyzer X-ray emission spectrometer composing analyzer crystals and a 2D detector. The Family question is resolved: EmissionSpectrometer is in the catalog (Alvra is a fourth sighting). The residual question is whether each analyzer crystal is a child Asset or a setting on the one spectrometer Asset.
The analyzer crystals carried as settings on the one EmissionSpectrometer Asset for now; child-Asset-per-crystal deferred.
The analyzer-crystal composition (child-Asset vs setting).
DET-1
Blocks-go-live
What is the Alvra science detector? eco binds a Jungfrau named JF_4.5M (the von Hamos 4.5M, serial JF02T09V03 inferred via sf_daq_broker), and the broker lists further Alvra options (16M, 4M, 2M TXS, 0.5M variants). Which is in use, and its threshold / geometry?
The detector reuses Camera; per-shot frames flow through the sf-daq data plane (DAQ-1); the model, the active variant, and the calibration are to supply.
The detector model and how its per-shot frames are referenced.
PULSE-1
Nice-to-have
The X-ray pulse picker is a fast single-pulse selector folded into Shutter. Is a rotary pulse-picking chopper a distinct Family (the loose Chopper shape)?
Shutter Role; the Shutter-vs-Chopper distinction is carried as this question, the same one LCLS-MFX raised.