AutoResearch Framework

A reference guide for understanding how autonomous AI research works. This skill documents the methodology from karpathy/autoresearch for educational purposes.

What This Is

This skill does NOT run any code. It serves as a reference for understanding:

• Fixed time budget experiments (5 minutes)
• Metric-driven iteration (val_bpb)
• Single-file training scope
• Self-contained ML training setup

Key Concepts

Concept	Description
val_bpb	Validation bits per byte — lower is better
Fixed Budget	Experiments run for exactly 5 minutes
Single Scope	One file to modify per experiment

Architecture Overview

The framework consists of three files:

File	Purpose
prepare.py	Data preparation (do not modify)
train.py	Model training loop reference
program.md	Research strategy template

Design Patterns

• Fixed time budget: Makes experiments directly comparable
• Single file scope: Keeps changes manageable
• Metric-driven: Uses val_bpb to compare results

For Educational Use

This skill is a reference implementation based on karpathy/autoresearch by Andrej Karpathy. It demonstrates autonomous research methodologies used in modern AI development.

Inspiration

Based on karpathy/autoresearch by Andrej Karpathy.