assay

name	assay
description	Assay an experiment — deep analysis of results with cross-run comparison

Assay

Test the purity of what the experimentalist agent produced. Deep analysis of an experiment's results.

Arguments

The user provides an experiment name or project ID.

Steps

1. Get latest data: Call mcp__distillate__scan_project to ensure we have the most recent runs
2. Full history: Call mcp__distillate__get_project_details for complete run history with metrics
3. Identify the frontier: Find the best run for each metric, trace how the frontier evolved
4. Cross-run comparison: Use mcp__distillate__compare_runs to understand what changed between breakthrough runs
5. Session archaeology: If session histories exist, read them (Glob ~/.claude/projects/*<name>*/*.jsonl) to understand why the agent made its choices
6. Literature context: Call mcp__distillate__suggest_from_literature to compare with published results
7. Synthesize:
   • Trajectory: how the metric evolved across runs (phases, plateaus, breakthroughs)
   • What worked: techniques/configs that improved results
   • What didn't: approaches that regressed or were abandoned
   • Concrete next steps with specific parameter suggestions
8. Lab notebook: Offer to call mcp__distillate__get_experiment_notebook for the full record