name: experiment-workflow description: Planning or executing thesis experiments. Covers the lifecycle from ideation through polishing, tracking table, SPEC.md format, stage structure.

Experiment Workflow

Example: example-pipeline

Study src/viterbo/experiments/example_pipeline/ for a complete teaching example:

SPEC.md with research question, method, success criteria
Multiple stages: stage_build.py → stage_analyze.py → stage_plot.py
Config file at config/example-pipeline/default.json
Tests at tests/test_example_pipeline.py

Terminology

label: Short identifier (e.g., polytope-database). Used consistently in folder names, tracking table, config, data, assets.

Workflow Stages

Ideation — Turn vague idea into clear research question
Specification — Write SPEC.md with success criteria
Execution — Implement and run
Polishing — Clean up for thesis publication

Where Things Live

Artifact	Location
Tracking table	`packages/latex_viterbo/experiments.md`
Experiment code	`packages/python_viterbo/src/viterbo/experiments/<label>/`
SPEC.md	`packages/python_viterbo/src/viterbo/experiments/<label>/SPEC.md`
Configs	`packages/python_viterbo/config/<label>/`
Data	`packages/python_viterbo/data/<label>/`
Thesis assets	`packages/latex_viterbo/assets/<label>/`
Polished writeups	`packages/latex_viterbo/chapters/appendix-detailed-experiments.tex`

SPEC.md Template

# <label> Experiment

**Status:** Ideation / Specified / In Progress / Complete

## Research Question

What are we trying to learn?

## Method

How will we answer the question?

## Success Criteria

What outcome means "it worked"?

## Expected Outputs

- data/<label>/...
- assets/<label>/...

Stage Details

Ideation

Add row to tracking table (experiments.md). Mark [proposed]. No folder yet.

Specification

Create experiment folder with SPEC.md. Update tracking table to "Specified".

Execution

Implement stages, run, produce data. See python-conventions skill for code structure.

Polishing

Clean up code, generate publication-quality figures, write thesis section.

Approval Markers

Use [proposed] for agent-proposed content. Only Jörn removes these markers. Ambiguous responses ("sounds fine") do not count as approval.

Handoff

When finishing work:

Update tracking table
Ensure SPEC.md reflects current state
Commit with message referencing label

TopRank Skills