# experiment-design

Turn a research idea into staged experiments with baselines, datasets, metrics, and ablations. Useful when shaping an experimental plan for a paper.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 1800 installs · ★ 433
- Author: lingzhi227
- License: not stated · policy=link-only · description only; the file stays with the author
- Source: https://github.com/lingzhi227/agent-research-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/experiment-design/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-02-27
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/experiment-design

## What it does

Give the skill a research idea, an existing plan, or a method description. It lays out four stages: get an implementation working, tune baselines, explore research improvements, then run ablation studies. Each stage builds on the strongest result from the one before it.

The `design_experiments.py` script prepares baseline comparisons, an ablation matrix, a hyperparameter grid, and metric choices. It can produce JSON or Markdown output. Python is required to run the script, which relies on the standard library only.

The plan includes datasets and completion criteria for each stage. During baseline tuning, the model architecture stays fixed and tests cover at least two datasets; the creative-research stage uses at least three. The skill also calls for multiple seeds and recording each run in `notes.txt`, so those steps belong in the experimental workflow.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add lingzhi227/agent-research-skills --skill experiment-design -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/experiment-design/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/experiment-design/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add lingzhi227/agent-research-skills --skill experiment-design -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/experiment-design/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add lingzhi227/agent-research-skills --skill experiment-design -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/experiment-design/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install lingzhi227/agent-research-skills experiment-design
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/experiment-design/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add lingzhi227/agent-research-skills --skill experiment-design -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/lingzhi227/agent-research-skills --path skills/experiment-design
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/experiment-design/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add lingzhi227/agent-research-skills --skill experiment-design -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/lingzhi227/agent-research-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/experiment-design/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- break a research idea into staged experiments
- list baseline methods for comparison
- choose datasets and evaluation metrics
- map out a hyperparameter grid
- plan component-by-component ablations

## Example prompts
- Turn this research idea into a staged experiment plan.
- Plan baseline tests and metrics for this classification method.
- Draft ablation studies for the model described here.

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From the same set: [lingzhi227/agent-research-skills](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/by/lingzhi227/agent-research-skills.md) — 31 cards

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