experiment-design SKILL.md skillA
experiment-design from uchicago-dsi/ai-sci-skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add uchicago-dsi/ai-sci-skills/experiment-design@git:20261013.2f47de7Pins git:20261013.2f47de7 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- uchicago-dsi/ai-sci-skills
- Path
skills/experiment-design/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 5
- Latest version
- git:20261013.2f47de7, committed Oct 13, 2026
- First version recorded
- Mar 20, 2026
- Size
- 6,708 bytes
- Repository stars
- 20
- License
- MIT
Design the smallest useful experiment matrix that separates important hypotheses and changes a decision. Use when the agent is proposing runs, ablations, sweeps, benchmarks, or debugging experiments across research or engineering projects.
Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.
What the file says
# Experiment Design ## Design For Decisions - The purpose of an experiment is to change a decision, not to accumulate runs. - Start from the decision that needs to be made. - Work backward to the fewest experimental arms that separate the live hypotheses; use the full eligible dataset for each arm. ## Use This Output Contract When proposing an experiment, report: 1. Decision to make. 2. Live hypotheses. 3. Nearest control or baseline. 4. Minimal experiment matrix. 5. Predicted outcomes by hypothesis. 6. Readouts that will decide the result. 7. Stop rule and follow-up rule. 8. Baseline inheritance: what remains active if the candidate fails, and what evidence would be required to supersede it. ## Apply These Rules - Every arm should exist for a reason. - If two arms would not change the decision differently, remove one. - Prefer one-variable changes over broad combinatorial sweeps. - Freeze everything not under test. - Use the nearest baseline, not a weak or outdated one. - If the baseline is unfair, stale, or confounded, fix that before treating the experiment as decision-worthy. - Reuse existing mechanics evidence; perform a minimal real-input check only when …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add uchicago-dsi/ai-sci-skills/experiment-design@sha256:093e90f907f5ebe3The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261013.2f47de7, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_q3lstdwuuukg6xsv)
6 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 5 versions of this file, between Mar 20, 2026 and Oct 13, 2026, about one every 52 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20261013.2f47de7 latest | 2026-10-13 | 2f47de7 | 6,708 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261005.738aa68 | 2026-10-05 | 738aa68 | 6,384 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260921.9b3de7c | 2026-09-21 | 9b3de7c | 5,645 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260716.0e01ec7 | 2026-07-16 | 0e01ec7 | 3,071 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260320.999ac68 | 2026-03-20 | 999ac68 | 2,426 B | A | view |
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (6708 bytes)
- pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
- pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
- pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
- pass: No credential-shaped string
- pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
- pass: No text hidden with inline styles
- pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
- pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
- pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
- pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
- pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
- pass: No link to a raw IP address
- pass: No script tag
Source
uchicago-dsi/ai-sci-skills · 20 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-11-07 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_q3lstdwuuukg6xsv GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=uchicago-dsi/ai-sci-skills/experiment-design GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/093e90f907f5ebe3ca6bde578003b664ab8d79830b03be5e65e91c6c0cdd7e56
Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.
Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.
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