spike

Runs time-boxed feasibility probes with pre-registration for promoted Discovery Harness candidates.

1|Updated Dec 13, 2025
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/ZK-Theory/TDL --skill spike-zk-theory
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: spike
Source: https://github.com/ZK-Theory/TDL/tree/main/.agents/skills/spike
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/ZK-Theory/TDL --skill spike-zk-theory

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill requires pyyaml.

What problem does it solve? It prevents speculative research ideas from becoming full APM execution tasks without a locked, validated pre-registration and a toy-scale feasibility probe confirming the metric space, signal, and null model actually exist. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Pre-registration enforcement: Writes and validates a spike_preregistration YAML block against the discovery/spike-pre-registration/v1 schema before any compute runs. - Toy-scale probing: Bounds probes to 1-4 hours with limited data, explicit baselines, and a two-sided decision rule by default. - Structured outcomes: Routes success to /pre-reg-to-dispatch, partial results to a parked backlog state, and failures to [NEGATIVE] notes with KILL/PARK reasons. - Use Case: A candidate scorecard returns PROMOTE from /assay; after explicit approval, you lock a pre-registration, run a toy probe on existing persistence diagrams against W2 and landscape L2 permutation baselines, and record the result. ## Quick Start Ask the agent to run a Spike for the promoted candidate by writing its pre-registration note, validating it, and executing the smallest toy probe within the time box.

Frequently Asked Questions about spike

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I run a feasibility probe before committing to a full research task?

Write a spike pre-registration note first, validate it against the discovery/spike-pre-registration/v1 schema, then run only the smallest toy-scale probe within a 1-4 hour time box. Record the outcome as success, partial, or failure in the backlog.

What is a spike pre-registration and when is it required?

A spike pre-registration is a locked YAML block defining the research question, metric space, null model, baselines, and decision rule before any compute runs. It is required for every candidate promoted by an assay scorecard before it can become an APM execution task.

Can a spike run without explicit approval of the PROMOTE decision?

No. A PROMOTE scorecard is only a recommendation; the spike must not run until the approver explicitly approves the candidate. Approval must be recorded in the pre-registration block with approver name and date.

Why should the spike decision rule be two-sided instead of one-sided?

At spike stage nobody has seen the statistic's direction on real data, so a pre-committed one-sided rule can turn a strong opposite-direction finding into an indistinguishable-from-noise failure. Two-sided rules are the default; one-sided rules are reserved for full dispatch pre-registrations with prior directional evidence.

What happens when a spike probe fails or only partially succeeds?

A failure produces a [NEGATIVE] note and a KILL or PARK update in the discovery backlog. A partial result documents exactly what was feasible and what blocked full success, with the backlog parked or given a narrower revisit trigger.

How do I estimate parallel compute cost for a probe grid?

Sweep worker counts (at least n_jobs of 1, N/2, and N) on a warm pool and time more units than workers, rather than extrapolating from a single configuration. A flat per-unit curve means the workload does not parallelise and should be costed at the serial rate.