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Autoresearch Agent

  • 572 installs
  • 23.5k repo stars
  • Updated July 17, 2026
  • alirezarezvani/claude-skills

autoresearch-agent is a Claude Code skill that runs metric-driven experiment loops to benchmark and iteratively improve code speed, bundle size, test reliability, or Docker build time for developers optimizing production

About

autoresearch-agent is a Claude Code skill from alirezarezvani/claude-skills that automates engineering experiment loops with setup_experiment.py scripts and benchmark evaluators. Domains include code speed optimization with pytest benches targeting p50_ms, bundle size reduction via webpack builds, test reliability, and Docker build time, running roughly 5 minutes per experiment or about 12 per hour. Developers reach for autoresearch-agent when a metric is defined and an evaluator command exists but manual tuning is too slow. The agent iterates on algorithms, caching, query patterns, and I/O until the configured metric moves in the chosen direction.

  • CLI `setup_experiment.py` scaffolds domains with target file, eval command, metric, and optimize direction (lower/higher
  • Engineering presets: API speed, bundle size, flaky-test pass rate, and Docker build speed with pluggable evaluators.
  • Documented throughput: ~5 min per experiment, ~12/hour, ~100 overnight for unattended sweeps.
  • Agents optimize algorithms, caching, I/O, webpack config, Dockerfile layers, and parser logic against your chosen metric
  • Free local cost model—runs your existing pytest, npm build, and custom evaluate.py scripts.

Autoresearch Agent by the numbers

  • 572 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • Ranked #392 of 2,725 Automation & Workflows skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Security screen: MEDIUM risk (skills.sh audit)
  • Data as of Jul 31, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
npx skills add https://github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills --skill autoresearch-agent

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Installs572
repo stars23.5k
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Last updatedJuly 17, 2026
Repositoryalirezarezvani/claude-skills

How do you automate performance experiments on code?

Spin up metric-driven experiment loops that benchmark and iteratively improve code speed, bundle size, test reliability, or Docker build time.

Who is it for?

Backend and platform engineers with existing benchmark commands who want automated metric-driven optimization loops overnight.

Skip if: Developers without measurable eval scripts or those solving one-off bugs without quantified performance targets should skip autoresearch-agent.

When should I use this skill?

A developer asks to optimize API speed, reduce bundle size, improve test reliability, or shorten Docker build time with automated experiments.

What you get

Benchmarked code changes with metric deltas for p50 latency, bundle size, test reliability, or Docker build duration.

  • Experiment metric reports
  • Iteratively optimized code or config changes

By the numbers

  • Runs roughly 5 minutes per experiment, about 12 per hour, ~100 overnight
  • Supports code speed, bundle size, test reliability, and Docker build time domains

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

Autoresearch Agent

You sleep. The agent experiments. You wake up to results.

Autonomous experiment loop inspired by Karpathy's autoresearch. The agent edits one file, runs a fixed evaluation, keeps improvements, discards failures, and loops indefinitely.

Not one guess — fifty measured attempts, compounding.

---

Slash Commands

CommandWhat it does
/ar:setupSet up a new experiment interactively
/ar:runRun a single experiment iteration
/ar:loopStart autonomous loop with configurable interval (10m, 1h, daily, weekly, monthly)
/ar:statusShow dashboard and results
/ar:resumeResume a paused experiment

---

When This Skill Activates

Recognize these patterns from the user:

  • "Make this faster / smaller / better"
  • "Optimize [file] for [metric]"
  • "Improve my [headlines / copy / prompts]"
  • "Run experiments overnight"
  • "I want to get [metric] from X to Y"
  • Any request involving: optimize, benchmark, improve, experiment loop, autoresearch

If the user describes a target file + a way to measure success → this skill applies.

---

Setup

First Time — Create the Experiment

Run the setup script. The user decides where experiments live:

Project-level (inside repo, git-tracked, shareable with team):

python scripts/setup_experiment.py \
  --domain engineering \
  --name api-speed \
  --target src/api/search.py \
  --eval "pytest bench.py --tb=no -q" \
  --metric p50_ms \
  --direction lower \
  --scope project

User-level (personal, in ~/.autoresearch/):

python scripts/setup_experiment.py \
  --domain marketing \
  --name medium-ctr \
  --target content/titles.md \
  --eval "python evaluate.py" \
  --metric ctr_score \
  --direction higher \
  --evaluator llm_judge_content \
  --scope user

The --scope flag determines where .autoresearch/ lives:

  • project (default) → .autoresearch/ in the repo root. Experiment definitions are git-tracked. Results are gitignored.
  • user~/.autoresearch/ in the home directory. Everything is personal.

What Setup Creates

.autoresearch/
├── config.yaml                        ← Global settings
├── .gitignore                         ← Ignores results.tsv, *.log
└── {domain}/{experiment-name}/
    ├── program.md                     ← Objectives, constraints, strategy
    ├── config.cfg                     ← Target, eval cmd, metric, direction
    ├── results.tsv                    ← Experiment log (gitignored)
    └── evaluate.py                    ← Evaluation script (if --evaluator used)

results.tsv columns: commit | metric | status | description

  • commit — short git hash
  • metric — float value or "N/A" for crashes
  • status — keep | discard | crash
  • description — what changed or why it crashed

Domains

DomainUse Cases
engineeringCode speed, memory, bundle size, test pass rate, build time
marketingHeadlines, social copy, email subjects, ad copy, engagement
contentArticle structure, SEO descriptions, readability, CTR
promptsSystem prompts, chatbot tone, agent instructions
customAnything else with a measurable metric

If program.md Already Exists

The user may have written their own program.md. If found in the experiment directory, read it. It overrides the template. Only ask for what's missing.

---

Agent Protocol

You are the loop. The scripts handle setup and evaluation — you handle the creative work.

Before Starting

1. Read .autoresearch/{domain}/{name}/config.cfg to get:

  • target — the file you edit
  • evaluate_cmd — the command that measures your changes
  • metric — the metric name to look for in eval output
  • metric_direction — "lower" or "higher" is better
  • time_budget_minutes — max time per evaluation

2. Read program.md for strategy, constraints, and what you can/cannot change 3. Read results.tsv for experiment history (columns: commit, metric, status, description) 4. Checkout the experiment branch: git checkout autoresearch/{domain}/{name}

Each Iteration

1. Review results.tsv — what worked? What failed? What hasn't been tried? 2. Decide ONE change to the target file. One variable per experiment. 3. Edit the target file 4. Commit: git add {target} && git commit -m "experiment: {description}" 5. Evaluate: python scripts/run_experiment.py --experiment {domain}/{name} --single 6. Read the output — it prints KEEP, DISCARD, or CRASH with the metric value 7. Go to step 1

What the Script Handles (you don't)

  • Running the eval command with timeout
  • Parsing the metric from eval output
  • Comparing to previous best
  • Reverting the commit on failure (git reset --hard HEAD~1)
  • Logging the result to results.tsv

Starting an Experiment

# Single iteration (the agent calls this repeatedly)
python scripts/run_experiment.py --experiment engineering/api-speed --single

# Dry run (test setup before starting)
python scripts/run_experiment.py --experiment engineering/api-speed --dry-run

Strategy Escalation

  • Runs 1-5: Low-hanging fruit (obvious improvements, simple optimizations)
  • Runs 6-15: Systematic exploration (vary one parameter at a time)
  • Runs 16-30: Structural changes (algorithm swaps, architecture shifts)
  • Runs 30+: Radical experiments (completely different approaches)
  • If no improvement in 20+ runs: update program.md Strategy section

Self-Improvement

After every 10 experiments, review results.tsv for patterns. Update the Strategy section of program.md with what you learned (e.g., "caching changes consistently improve by 5-10%", "refactoring attempts never improve the metric"). Future iterations benefit from this accumulated knowledge.

Stopping

  • Run until interrupted by the user, context limit reached, or goal in program.md is met
  • Before stopping: ensure results.tsv is up to date
  • On context limit: the next session can resume — results.tsv and git log persist

Rules

  • One change per experiment. Don't change 5 things at once. You won't know what worked.
  • Simplicity criterion. A small improvement that adds ugly complexity is not worth it. Equal performance with simpler code is a win. Removing code that gets same results is the best outcome.
  • Never modify the evaluator. evaluate.py is the ground truth. Modifying it invalidates all comparisons. Hard stop if you catch yourself doing this.
  • Timeout. If a run exceeds 2.5× the time budget, kill it and treat as crash.
  • Crash handling. If it's a typo or missing import, fix and re-run. If the idea is fundamentally broken, revert, log "crash", move on. 5 consecutive crashes → pause and alert.
  • No new dependencies. Only use what's already available in the project.

---

Evaluators

Ready-to-use evaluation scripts. Copied into the experiment directory during setup with --evaluator.

Free Evaluators (no API cost)

EvaluatorMetricUse Case
benchmark_speedp50_ms (lower)Function/API execution time
benchmark_sizesize_bytes (lower)File, bundle, Docker image size
test_pass_ratepass_rate (higher)Test suite pass percentage
build_speedbuild_seconds (lower)Build/compile/Docker build time
memory_usagepeak_mb (lower)Peak memory during execution

LLM Judge Evaluators (uses your subscription)

EvaluatorMetricUse Case
llm_judge_contentctr_score 0-10 (higher)Headlines, titles, descriptions
llm_judge_promptquality_score 0-100 (higher)System prompts, agent instructions
llm_judge_copyengagement_score 0-10 (higher)Social posts, ad copy, emails

LLM judges call the CLI tool the user is already running (Claude, Codex, Gemini). The evaluation prompt is locked inside evaluate.py — the agent cannot modify it. This prevents the agent from gaming its own evaluator.

The user's existing subscription covers the cost:

  • Claude Code Max → unlimited Claude calls for evaluation
  • Codex CLI (ChatGPT Pro) → unlimited Codex calls
  • Gemini CLI (free tier) → free evaluation calls

Custom Evaluators

If no built-in evaluator fits, the user writes their own evaluate.py. Only requirement: it must print metric_name: value to stdout.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# My custom evaluator — DO NOT MODIFY after experiment starts
import subprocess
result = subprocess.run(["my-benchmark", "--json"], capture_output=True, text=True)
# Parse and output
print(f"my_metric: {parse_score(result.stdout)}")

---

Viewing Results

# Single experiment
python scripts/log_results.py --experiment engineering/api-speed

# All experiments in a domain
python scripts/log_results.py --domain engineering

# Cross-experiment dashboard
python scripts/log_results.py --dashboard

# Export formats
python scripts/log_results.py --experiment engineering/api-speed --format csv --output results.csv
python scripts/log_results.py --experiment engineering/api-speed --format markdown --output results.md
python scripts/log_results.py --dashboard --format markdown --output dashboard.md

Dashboard Output

DOMAIN          EXPERIMENT          RUNS  KEPT  BEST         Δ FROM START  STATUS
engineering     api-speed            47    14   185ms        -76.9%        active
engineering     bundle-size          23     8   412KB        -58.3%        paused
marketing       medium-ctr           31    11   8.4/10       +68.0%        active
prompts         support-tone         15     6   82/100       +46.4%        done

Export Formats

  • TSV — default, tab-separated (compatible with spreadsheets)
  • CSV — comma-separated, with proper quoting
  • Markdown — formatted table, readable in GitHub/docs

---

Proactive Triggers

Flag these without being asked:

  • No evaluation command works → Test it before starting the loop. Run once, verify output.
  • Target file not in gitgit init && git add . && git commit -m 'initial' first.
  • Metric direction unclear → Ask: is lower or higher better? Must know before starting.
  • Time budget too short → If eval takes longer than budget, every run crashes.
  • Agent modifying evaluate.py → Hard stop. This invalidates all comparisons.
  • 5 consecutive crashes → Pause the loop. Alert the user. Don't keep burning cycles.
  • No improvement in 20+ runs → Suggest changing strategy in program.md or trying a different approach.

---

Installation

One-liner (any tool)

git clone https://github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills.git
cp -r claude-skills/engineering/autoresearch-agent ~/.claude/skills/

Multi-tool install

./scripts/convert.sh --skill autoresearch-agent --tool codex|gemini|cursor|windsurf|openclaw

OpenClaw

clawhub install cs-autoresearch-agent

---

Related Skills

  • self-improving-agent — improves an agent's own memory/rules over time. NOT for structured experiment loops.
  • senior-ml-engineer — ML architecture decisions. Complementary — use for initial design, then autoresearch for optimization.
  • tdd-guide — test-driven development. Complementary — tests can be the evaluation function.
  • skill-security-auditor — audit skills before publishing. NOT for optimization loops.

Related skills

FAQ

What metrics can autoresearch-agent optimize?

autoresearch-agent optimizes code speed (p50_ms), webpack bundle size, test reliability, and Docker build time using setup_experiment.py with domain-specific benchmark evaluators and configurable lower-is-better directions.

How fast does autoresearch-agent run experiments?

autoresearch-agent completes roughly 5 minutes per experiment, about 12 experiments per hour, and around 100 overnight for engineering domains like API speed and bundle size reduction.

Is Autoresearch Agent safe to install?

skills.sh reports 1 of 3 security scanners passed. Review the Security Audits panel on this page before installing in production.

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