🧪 RC Testers – How to Share Your Telemetry Metrics

During the Release Candidate (RC) phase, BranchPy records technical telemetry locally on your machine. You decide if and when to export it, read it, and upload it to us.

These metrics help us make BranchPy faster, more stable, and more useful for Ren'Py and other engine users.

Go to Telemetry Upload Portal Back to Your RC Profile

📊 What Telemetry Does

Telemetry is technical usage data that BranchPy records locally while you use the RC build. It helps us understand how BranchPy behaves in real projects and on real machines.

Usage patterns – which commands you run (analyze, stats, providers, ws, etc.).
Project scale – number of files, scenes, and detected engines (Ren'Py, Godot, etc.).
Pain points – which commands fail most, where flows are aborted.
Performance – how long key operations take and when they exceed our "performance budgets".
Feature validation – which features (providers, analyzers, AI helpers) are actually used.

💡 Why This Matters:

This information is critical to improving BranchPy before public release. It lets us focus on real bottlenecks and real workflows instead of guessing.

🚫 What Telemetry Does Not Collect

Telemetry is designed to focus on metadata only, not your creative work. It is not a copy of your visual novel project.

❌ No story text, script dialogue, or narrative content.
❌ No images, sprites, backgrounds, audio, or video assets.
❌ No full file contents from your project.
❌ No passwords, payment details, or other sensitive personal data.
❌ No automatic uploads or background network sends.

🔒 Privacy Guarantee:

Where possible, BranchPy reduces project information to counts (e.g. "42 scenes", "88 files") and technical metrics (e.g. "analyze took 1.3 seconds") instead of anything that identifies the content of your game.

🧪 How to Export & Upload Your RC Metrics

Use BranchPy as normal
Work on your projects, run analyze/stats/providers, and generally use the RC build as you would in real life. Telemetry is collected automatically in the background, stored locally on your machine.
Export your telemetry locally
When you're ready, open a terminal and run:
```
branchpy telemetry export --output rc-metrics.json
```
This creates a file called rc-metrics.json in your current directory. Nothing is uploaded or sent automatically.
Open the file and review it
You can open rc-metrics.json in any text editor (VS Code, Notepad, etc.). You'll see a structured JSON document with:
- Basic environment info (OS, Python, BranchPy version).
- Aggregated command counts and performance metrics.
- Errors grouped by type (no stack traces with personal content).
- Scrubbed technical events.
If something looks off, you're free to not upload the file. Your decision, your control.
Upload the file through the tester portal
When you're comfortable with what's in the file:
- Go to the RC Telemetry Upload portal.
- Drag and drop rc-metrics.json into the upload box.
- Wait for validation and confirm the upload.
Once uploaded, we can analyze your metrics to improve BranchPy.

👀 What Does the Metrics File Look Like?

Here is a simplified example of what your rc-metrics.json might contain:

{ "export_timestamp": "2025-12-06T14:32:10Z", "branchpy_version": "0.9.9-rc1", "format_version": "1.0.0", "platform": { "os": "Windows", "python_version": "3.12.2" }, "session_summary": { "total_commands": 42, "total_errors": 3, "total_duration_ms": 9814 }, "commands": { "analyze": {"count": 12, "errors": 1, "avg_ms": 1430}, "stats": {"count": 5, "errors": 0, "avg_ms": 380} }, "providers": { "dropbox": {"connect_success": 2, "connect_fail": 1} }, "governance": { "total_links": 150, "validation_events": 8 } }

No story content, no assets – just technical telemetry.

❓ RC Tester Telemetry – FAQ

Do you collect telemetry automatically?

BranchPy records telemetry locally only. It does not automatically send anything over the network. You decide if and when to export and upload the metrics file.

Is telemetry mandatory for RC testers?

Telemetry generation is part of how the RC build works internally (it helps catch bugs and performance issues during development). However, uploading the exported JSON file is voluntary. You stay in control of what you share with us.

Can I read the metrics before sending them?

Yes. That's the whole idea. The file is a human-readable JSON document. We encourage you to open it and verify what it contains before uploading.

Does telemetry include my game content?

No. Telemetry is designed around metadata only: counts, durations, error types, and technical environment info. Not your story, images, or assets.

Why should I bother uploading my metrics?

Your metrics tell us which parts of BranchPy are slow, confusing, or fragile in real-world projects. This is the most valuable input we can get to make the tool better for you and other VN devs.

How long do you keep uploaded telemetry?

Uploaded telemetry is retained for 90 days after the RC phase ends, then anonymized or deleted. We may keep aggregated, anonymized statistics for long-term benchmarking and product decisions.

Ready to Share Your Metrics?

When you're ready, export your telemetry and upload it through the secure RC tester portal.

branchpy telemetry export --output rc-metrics.json
Open and review the file.
Upload rc-metrics.json via the RC Telemetry Upload portal.

Thank you for helping shape the future of BranchPy. 💚