Dispatching Rule Methods¶

Dispatching rules are the simplest natural method family for job-shop scheduling. The examples include both a dependency-free OptPilot baseline and a wrapper around JobShopLib's built-in dispatching-rule solver.

Example	Method config	Environment config	Dependency
Fixed weighted rule	`examples/methods/fixed_rule_parameters/method.yaml`	`environment_rule_parameters.yaml`	none
Baseline Python rule file	`examples/methods/baseline_file_copy/method.yaml`	`environment_dispatch_rule.yaml`	none
JobShopLib dispatching rule	`examples/methods/job_shop_lib_dispatching_rule/method.yaml`	`environment_schedule_solution.yaml`	`job-shop-lib`

Dependency-Free Baselines¶

Run the parameter baseline:

uv run optpilot validate examples/studies/job_shop_rule_parameters_baseline.yaml
uv run optpilot run examples/studies/job_shop_rule_parameters_baseline.yaml

Run the file-candidate baseline:

uv run optpilot validate examples/studies/job_shop_dispatch_rule_baseline.yaml
uv run optpilot run examples/studies/job_shop_dispatch_rule_baseline.yaml

These two studies are useful sanity checks before adding external method dependencies.

JobShopLib Dispatching Rule¶

Install the examples extra:

uv sync --extra examples

Then run:

uv run optpilot validate examples/studies/job_shop_lib_dispatching_rule.yaml
uv run optpilot run examples/studies/job_shop_lib_dispatching_rule.yaml

The JobShopLib method reads the job-shop case references exposed through methodContext.references, calls JobShopLib for each case, and emits a schedule-solution candidate:

Candidate spec payload fragment:

solutions:
  ft06_small:
    operations:
      - job: 0
        operation: 0
        machine: 0
        start: 0
        end: 3

The method owns the JobShopLib call:

from job_shop_lib.dispatching.rules import DispatchingRuleSolver

JobShopLib also exposes individual rule functions and scorers such as shortest processing time, first-come first-served, most work remaining, most operations remaining, and random operation. To use a different built-in rule, change the method setting:

Method settings fragment:

settings:
  dispatchingRule: shortest_processing_time

The environment does not import JobShopLib. It validates the schedule and computes the same metrics used by every other job-shop method.

Why This Method Is Included¶

This page shows two levels of integration:

a tiny dependency-free method useful for first runs
a real external-library wrapper that reuses JobShopLib while producing the same schedule-solution contract as any other external solver

That contrast is useful for users deciding whether to write a small native OptPilot method or wrap an existing method library.