ALab Project Controller

Use when managing one existing ALab project with a project admin key to create and coordinate experiments, validate and adjust project configuration, manage project-scoped source or lifecycle state, observe project evidence, and launch experiment worker sessions or subagents without exposing admin credentials.

Overview

Use this skill for the project layer of ALab. It coordinates one existing project with a project admin key: create experiments, launch experiment worker sessions or subagents, observe project-visible evidence, compare best runs, and manage project-scoped configuration, source, validation, annotation, token, and lifecycle state.

Layer Boundaries

• This skill is not the root-administration layer and not the experiment-work layer.
• It must not initialize ALab homes, rotate root credentials, manage SkyDiscover catalogs, prune global caches/backups, or create/revoke project admin keys.
• After creating an experiment, hand worktree changes to a separate session/thread or subagent in that experiment worktree using alab-experiment-worker.
• If follow-up project-level coordination needs its own execution context, use a separate session/thread or subagent with the project admin key and this skill.
• If a separate session is unavailable, use a subagent or worker process with equivalent project/worktree/token isolation. User instructions override this preference.

Credential Rules

• Accept the project admin key only from a private environment variable or secure stdin.
• Prefer --key-stdin for ALab admin commands; avoid inline key arguments in commands that may be logged.
• Never print, commit, write to prompts, or pass the project admin key to experiment worker sessions/subagents.
• When delegating, provide only the credential needed for the delegated task. Project-level coordination may receive the project admin key through a private environment variable, ignored secret file, or secure stdin. Experiment work must use only that experiment's worktree token context.
• The project admin key is for project-level commands such as experiment creation, config/source/lifecycle maintenance, observe, report, and audit. It must not be inherited by experiment worker sessions.
• Experiment worker sessions should not receive root/admin keys or unrelated ambient tokens. Prefer the token file already written in the worktree; if a token must be supplied explicitly, provide only the token for that exact worktree or inspection checkout through a private channel.
• Provide alab-experiment-worker skill/instructions to any delegated experiment worker session/thread or subagent.
• When launching a worker, target the experiment worktree and clear admin/root credentials plus unrelated ambient tokens. Use the command reference for environment and path requirements.

Capabilities

This is a capability guide, not a required sequence. Use the capabilities that fit the project objective:

• Inspect project state with alab project show, alab project config show, alab status, and project-scoped audit or observe commands.
• Use alab feedback for ALab/tooling suggestions, questions, or bug reports that should be stored with the local home rather than inside project annotations.
• Create new experiments from the project default source, explicit sources, or visible predecessor experiments when continuation is useful, then delegate worktree changes from that worktree.
• Coordinate experiment lineage by recording experiment ids, worktree paths, source refs, tags, from-experiment choices, and selected commits such as best, final, or latest.
• Launch experiment worker sessions or subagents in experiment worktrees with alab-experiment-worker skill/instructions and without project admin or root credentials. Provide task instructions and non-secret helper variables only; let workers use their worktree tokens for alab run and alab submit.
• When a project uses free evaluation (runner.type = "none" and reward.type = "none"), tell experiment worker sessions/subagents to submit directly without alab run; final run id will be none and the result will not appear in best reward ranking.
• Observe project-visible evidence across experiments, runs, artifacts, logs, and annotations. Prefer reward, parse status, warning codes, metrics, best/final commits, and submitted refs over free-form worker claims.
• Treat reward parse failures as contract failures first. For file or Harbor rewards, check that reward JSON contains only finite numeric metrics and move detailed diagnostics to artifacts or hidden/visible logs as appropriate.
• Manage project-scoped configuration, environment variables, secrets, validation, sources, tags, and lifecycle state only when they are part of the requested project objective.
• Use dry-run remove commands before destructive lifecycle actions, and record blockers or cleanup consequences before using force/confirm.
• Produce project-level summaries that state what was created or changed, which experiments and runs matter, what credentials were deliberately withheld from experiment workers, and what follow-up remains.

Skill Files

• SKILL.md: Canonical project-layer boundaries, credential rules, and coordination workflow.
• SKILL_cn.md: Synchronized Chinese version of this file.
• references/commands.md: Detailed project command surface, experiment creation, worker launch, observe, and lifecycle reference; read before project-scoped admin commands or worker handoff.
• references/commands_cn.md: Synchronized Chinese version of the command reference.
• agents/openai.yaml: UI metadata and default prompt; update when invocation guidance changes.