Experiment Design Planner

Turn a research claim into an experiment plan that can actually answer it. This skill is for planning before running, not for reporting completed results.

Use this skill when:

• a user is about to run a new experiment or ablation
• a paper claim needs evidence
• baselines, metrics, controls, or datasets are unclear
• the user is changing too many variables at once
• cluster/compute time should not be wasted on ambiguous runs
• reviewer-proof evidence is needed before submission

Pair this skill with:

• research-project-memory when the experiment plan should become project-level evidence, risk, and action memory
• run-experiment after the design is ready to execute
• experiment-report-writer after results exist
• paper-reviewer-simulator to stress-test whether the evidence will satisfy reviewers
• baseline-selection-audit before finalizing the experiment matrix when baseline choice, fairness, or reviewer-proof comparisons need deeper review
• figure-results-review after plotted or tabulated results exist and need claim-support review

Skill Directory Layout

<installed-skill-dir>/
├── SKILL.md
└── references/
    ├── ablation-matrix.md
    ├── evidence-standards.md
    ├── metrics-and-controls.md
    └── report-template.md

Progressive Loading

• Always read references/evidence-standards.md and references/metrics-and-controls.md.
• Read references/ablation-matrix.md when the plan compares variants, components, baselines, hyperparameters, datasets, or model sizes.
• Use references/report-template.md when saving or returning a substantial experiment plan.
• If the target repo has memory/, update planned evidence, experiment families, risks, and actions using research-project-memory conventions.
• If the experiment depends on current baselines, benchmarks, or leaderboard conventions, verify current sources with web search.

Core Principles

• Start from the claim, not the command line.
• State the hypothesis before running experiments.
• Use a baseline before introducing a new method.
• Change one variable at a time unless the experiment is explicitly factorial.
• Define controls and nuisance variables before interpreting results.
• Make negative results useful by defining falsification and fallback decisions.
• Design the table or figure before running the experiment.
• Stop conditions matter: decide what result is enough to move on.

Step 1 - Define the Claim and Question

Extract:

• paper or project claim
• research question
• target audience: internal debugging, advisor update, paper evidence, rebuttal, benchmark claim
• expected output: Markdown plan, LaTeX experiment section outline, run matrix, or saved file
• experiment mode:
  • single: one controlled comparison
  • ablation: component or variable isolation
  • benchmark: compare methods across datasets/tasks
  • theory: empirical support for a theoretical prediction
  • diagnostic: understand a failure mode or surprising result

Rewrite vague goals into testable questions:

Vague: Does our method work?
Testable: Does component X improve metric M over baseline B on datasets D1/D2 under the same training budget?

Step 2 - State Hypotheses

Write:

• primary hypothesis
• alternative explanations
• expected metric direction and rough effect size
• falsification condition
• decision rule

If the user cannot state a falsification condition, the experiment is not ready.

Step 3 - Define Evidence Standard

Read references/evidence-standards.md.

Decide what evidence is needed:

• one table, one curve, one ablation, one qualitative example, one theorem-aligned diagnostic, or a benchmark suite
• number of datasets/tasks
• number of seeds or repeats
• required baselines
• acceptable variance
• whether statistical testing or confidence intervals are needed
• whether results must support a paper claim or only guide next steps

Step 4 - Choose Baselines and Controls

Identify:

• primary baseline
• strongest prior method or current SOTA, if relevant
• simple baseline
• ablation baseline
• oracle or upper bound, if useful
• controlled variables
• nuisance variables

If no baseline exists, make the first experiment a baseline-establishment experiment.

Step 5 - Choose Metrics and Logging

Read references/metrics-and-controls.md.

For each metric, specify:

• definition
• direction
• aggregation
• split
• variance reporting
• failure interpretation
• why it answers the question

Define required logging:

• command
• config path
• git commit
• dataset version
• seed
• hyperparameters
• hardware/runtime
• metrics
• artifacts: tables, figures, checkpoints, logs

Step 6 - Build Run Matrix

Read references/ablation-matrix.md when there is more than one run.

Create a run table with:

• run ID
• changed variable
• fixed controls
• dataset/split
• metric
• seed/repeats
• expected result
• status
• output path

Split experiments if a run changes more than one conceptual variable.

Step 7 - Define Stop Conditions and Next Decisions

Write:

• what result is sufficient to support the claim
• what result falsifies or weakens the claim
• what result triggers another ablation
• what result means stop and write/report
• compute budget ceiling
• deadline constraints

Step 8 - Reviewer Risk Check

Before finalizing, ask:

• Would a reviewer complain that the baseline is weak?
• Is the comparison fair?
• Are seeds/repeats enough?
• Does the experiment isolate the claimed mechanism?
• Are metrics aligned with the claim?
• Is there a confounder that could explain the result?
• Would a negative result still teach something?

If the answer exposes a major weakness, update the design before execution.

Step 9 - Write the Experiment Plan

Use references/report-template.md.

If saving to a project and no path is given, use:

docs/experiments/experiment_plan_YYYY-MM-DD_<short-name>.md

If working inside a code repo or code worktree created by init-python-project / new-workspace, prefer:

docs/reports/experiment_plan_YYYY-MM-DD_<short-name>.md

The final plan should be runnable by run-experiment and later reportable by experiment-report-writer.

Step 10 - Write Back to Project Memory

If the project uses research-project-memory, update:

• memory/evidence-board.md: planned EVD-### items and EXP-### experiment families
• memory/provenance-board.md: planned source classes, expected CSV/report outputs, and aggregation requirements when known
• memory/claim-board.md: linked claims, marking planned, evidence-needed, or provisional claims honestly
• memory/risk-board.md: baseline, mechanism, metric, seed, compute, and reviewer risks exposed by the design
• memory/action-board.md: runnable next actions, including which experiment to launch first
• memory/handoff-board.md: create a ready handoff to run-experiment when the plan is runnable
• memory/phase-dashboard.md: update the active experiment-design or evidence-production gate
• relevant worktree .agent/worktree-status.md: experiment purpose and exit condition if a branch/worktree is involved

Use planned status for experiments that have not run. Do not record expected outcomes as observed evidence.

Final Sanity Check

Before finalizing:

• claim and hypothesis are explicit
• baseline is defined
• independent variable is isolated
• controls and nuisance variables are listed
• metrics are tied to the question
• run matrix is concrete
• logging requirements are sufficient for reproduction
• stop condition and decision rule are explicit
• reviewer risks are stated
• project memory is updated when the repo has memory/