Add should_simulate utility for workspace auto-simulation

When PYAUTO_WORKSPACE_SMALL_DATASETS=1 is active, existing datasets are
deleted so simulators re-create them at the reduced 15x15 resolution.
This avoids shape mismatches between full-resolution FITS files on disk
and the mask/grid cap applied by the env var.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: 2 people

autoarray/util/__init__.py

@@ -29,3 +29,4 @@
 
 from autoarray.operators import transformer_util as transformer
 from autoarray.util import misc_util as misc
+from autoarray.util import dataset_util as dataset

autoarray/util/dataset_util.py

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+import os
+import shutil
+
+
+def should_simulate(dataset_path):
+    """
+    Returns True if the dataset at ``dataset_path`` needs to be simulated.
+
+    When ``PYAUTO_WORKSPACE_SMALL_DATASETS=1`` is active, any existing dataset
+    is deleted so the simulator re-creates it at the reduced resolution.  This
+    avoids shape mismatches between full-resolution FITS files on disk and the
+    15x15 mask/grid cap applied by the env var.
+
+    Use this as a drop-in replacement for ``not path.exists(dataset_path)`` in
+    the workspace auto-simulation pattern::
+
+        if aa.util.dataset.should_simulate(dataset_path):
+            subprocess.run([sys.executable, "scripts/.../simulator.py"], check=True)
+    """
+    if os.environ.get("PYAUTO_WORKSPACE_SMALL_DATASETS") == "1":
+        if os.path.exists(dataset_path):
+            shutil.rmtree(dataset_path)
+
+    return not os.path.exists(dataset_path)