fix: Add debug parameter to reduce verbose output

[sahgerlad]

What does this PR do ?

Add debug parameter to get_formatted_message_log with default=False to reduce verbose output

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • Added optional debug parameter to message formatting function, enabling users to control debug output display.

• Tests

  • Added unit tests validating debug output behavior and parameter control.

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[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

A debug parameter is added to get_formatted_message_log function to gate debug output. Previously, debug printing relied on a persistent attribute check; now it is controlled by an explicit debug: bool = False parameter. Two unit tests validate that debug output is suppressed by default and enabled when requested.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Debug parameter addition nemo_rl/data/llm_message_utils.py	Added optional debug: bool = False parameter to get_formatted_message_log(). Updated docstring. Refactored debug print logic to be gated by the new parameter instead of persistent attribute check.
Debug behavior tests tests/unit/data/test_llm_message_utils.py	Added two new unit tests: test_get_formatted_message_log_debug_off_by_default validates no DEBUG messages appear by default; test_get_formatted_message_log_debug_enabled validates DEBUG messages appear when debug=True.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~10 minutes

• Parameter addition is straightforward with no complex logic dependencies
• Debug gating logic is a simple conditional check
• Unit tests follow existing patterns and directly validate the new behavior

Pre-merge checks and finishing touches

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 75.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	You can run @coderabbitai generate docstrings to improve docstring coverage.

✅ Passed checks (3 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title 'Add debug parameter to reduce verbose output' directly matches the PR's main objective of adding a debug parameter with default False to suppress verbose output.
Test Results For Major Changes	✅ Passed	PR adds optional debug parameter with default value and includes comprehensive unit tests documenting expected behavior; changes are minor and backward compatible.

✨ Finishing touches

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• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment

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Actionable comments posted: 0

Caution

Some comments are outside the diff and can’t be posted inline due to platform limitations.

⚠️ Outside diff range comments (1)

nemo_rl/data/llm_message_utils.py (1)

557-574: Global state mutation may cause issues in concurrent execution.

The function uses get_formatted_message_log._debug_printed as a persistent flag to print debug output only once across all invocations. This global mutable state is not thread-safe and could cause issues in:

• Concurrent/parallel execution (race conditions)
• Ray remote contexts (per coding guidelines: functions with @ray.remote run in separate processes)
• Testing scenarios where isolation is needed

Consider one of these alternatives:

• Pass a mutable container (e.g., debug_state: dict[str, bool] = None) to track state across a batch
• Accept that debug output may appear multiple times and remove the flag
• Use thread-local storage if single output is critical

🔎 Option 1: Remove persistent flag (simplest)

-        if debug and not getattr(get_formatted_message_log, "_debug_printed", False):
+        if debug:
             if i == 0:
                 # Print header only at the start of first message
                 print("\n" + "=" * 80)
                 print("DEBUG: Individual message turns from apply_chat_template")
                 print("=" * 80)
 
             print(f"\n[Turn {i + 1}/{len(message_log_strs)}] Role: {message['role']}")
             print("-" * 40)
             print("Extracted message chunk:")
             print(repr(message_chunk))  # Using repr to show special characters
             print(f"Raw text (len={len(message_chunk)}):")
             print(message_chunk)
             print("-" * 40)
 
             if i == len(message_log_strs) - 1:
-                # Mark as printed after processing all turns of the first sample
-                get_formatted_message_log._debug_printed = True
                 print("\n" + "=" * 80)
                 print("DEBUG: Complete formatted conversation:")
                 print("-" * 80)
                 print(formatted_message)
                 print("=" * 80 + "\n")

This allows debug output for every call when debug=True, which may be more intuitive.

🧹 Nitpick comments (2)

nemo_rl/data/llm_message_utils.py (1)

463-463: Clarify "first sample" in docstring.

The docstring states "print debug information for the first sample," but doesn't clarify this is the first sample globally across all calls (due to the persistent _debug_printed flag on line 557), not the first sample in each call. Consider updating to: "Whether to print debug information for the first sample processed (persists across function calls)."

tests/unit/data/test_llm_message_utils.py (1)

806-807: Manual flag reset indicates design coupling.

Both tests manually reset the _debug_printed function attribute to ensure test isolation. This is a code smell indicating that the tests are tightly coupled to the implementation's global state mechanism. If the global state issue in nemo_rl/data/llm_message_utils.py (line 557) is addressed, these manual resets can be removed, improving test maintainability.

Also applies to: 828-829

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 4794ca7 and 0217870.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• nemo_rl/data/llm_message_utils.py (3 hunks)
• tests/unit/data/test_llm_message_utils.py (1 hunks)

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📓 Path-based instructions (4)

**/*.py

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**/*.py: Conform code to Python 3.12+
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Files:

• tests/unit/data/test_llm_message_utils.py
• nemo_rl/data/llm_message_utils.py

!(**/tests/**|**/test_*.py|**/test_*.sh)

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Add the NVIDIA copyright header to all Python files and shell scripts (excluding tests). The header should include the current year

Files:

• tests/unit/data/test_llm_message_utils.py
• nemo_rl/data/llm_message_utils.py

**/*.{py,sh}

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The NVIDIA copyright header should appear at the top of all Python files and shell scripts (excluding tests)

Files:

• tests/unit/data/test_llm_message_utils.py
• nemo_rl/data/llm_message_utils.py

nemo_rl/**/*.py

📄 CodeRabbit inference engine (CODING_GUIDELINES.md)

For any source file under nemo_rl/*.py that defines a class or function decorated with @ray.remote, add a coverage pragma (# pragma: no cover) because these run in separate Ray processes

Files:

• nemo_rl/data/llm_message_utils.py

🧬 Code graph analysis (1)

tests/unit/data/test_llm_message_utils.py (2)

nemo_rl/data/interfaces.py (1)

• TaskDataSpec (53-86)

nemo_rl/data/llm_message_utils.py (1)

• get_formatted_message_log (443-661)

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🔇 Additional comments (3)

nemo_rl/data/llm_message_utils.py (1)

451-451: LGTM! Parameter follows conventions.

The debug: bool = False parameter addition aligns with the PR objectives and follows Python naming conventions.

tests/unit/data/test_llm_message_utils.py (2)

797-817: Test correctly validates default behavior.

The test verifies that debug output is suppressed by default, which aligns with the PR objectives to reduce verbose output.

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819-840: Test correctly validates debug=True behavior.

The test verifies that debug output appears when explicitly enabled with debug=True, checking for expected debug markers in the output.