Experiment Capture Protocol

A lightweight YANP variant for the 04_Experiments/ directory. Covers two experiment types: runs (scripts, sampling, pipelines) and debates (adversarial multi-agent exchanges).

Directory Structure

04_Experiments/
  YYYY-MM-DD_<slug>/
    entry.md          # structured entry note (required)
    transcript.md     # raw conversation/output (optional)
    *.ps1 / *.py      # scripts used or produced
    results/          # output artifacts

Each experiment lives in its own dated directory. The entry.md is the canonical record.

Entry Note Schema (YANP Variant)

---
title: <human-readable experiment name>
author: <agent or "human">
date: YYYY-MM-DD
status: active | complete | abandoned
type: experiment
experiment-type: run | debate | evaluation
participants: [claude, gemini, codex, human]  # who was involved
hypothesis: <one sentence — what you expected to happen>
result: <one sentence — what actually happened>
verdict: confirmed | refuted | inconclusive | ongoing
aliases: []
---

The hypothesis and result fields are mandatory even if approximate. They are the minimum unit of compounding value.

Debate Log Format

For adversarial agent debates, entry.md also includes:

## Opening Positions
| Agent | Position |
|---|---|
| Claude | ... |
| Gemini | ... |

## Key Pivot Points
- [timestamp or turn N] Claude conceded X when presented with Y
- [timestamp or turn N] Gemini held on Z despite Claude's counterargument

## Outcome
**Verdict:** [which position held / split / inconclusive]
**Why:** [one paragraph — the deciding argument or evidence]

## Longitudinal Tags
#topic/type-safety #format/debate #verdict/split

Tags enable cross-debate queries: "all debates on type safety where verdict was split."

PoShWiKi Integration

Debates and runs are also logged to SQLite via New-DebateLog (Codex to implement):

New-DebateLog `
  -Topic "PS7 vs bash for agentic tooling" `
  -Participants @("claude", "gemini") `
  -Hypothesis "Claude will favor bash; Gemini will favor PS7" `
  -Verdict "split" `
  -EntryPath "04_Experiments/2026-04-27_ps7-bash-debate/entry.md"

This writes a row to the Debates table in wiki.db, making debate history queryable without reading markdown.

New-Experiment Scaffolding

Codex will implement 02_System/new-experiment.ps1:

New-Experiment -Slug "verbalized-sampling-v2" -Type "run" -Participants @("claude", "human")
# Creates: 04_Experiments/2026-04-27_verbalized-sampling-v2/entry.md

Relationship to Main Vault

04_Experiments/ notes do NOT require the full YANP frontmatter set (no aliases required if not cross-linked)
Completed experiments with durable findings SHOULD produce a permanent note in 01_Wiki/ via the normal ingestion pipeline
The experiments MOC (experiments-moc) is updated by Gemini after each new experiment directory is created