TESTER_GUIDE.md

🧪 Community Testing Guide

Help us stress-test the world's first fully autonomous research pipeline — across every domain.

⭐ Star the Repo · 🚀 Quick Start · 📋 Feedback Template · 🇨🇳 中文测试指南 · 🇯🇵 日本語テストガイド

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👋 Welcome, Tester!

AutoResearchClaw is a fully autonomous academic paper generation pipeline. You give it a research idea — it handles everything else: literature search, experiment design, code generation, experiment execution, paper writing, peer review, and final delivery. 23 stages, zero human intervention.

We're looking for testers from all disciplines and backgrounds — machine learning, NLP, computer vision, reinforcement learning, bioinformatics, physics, social sciences, and beyond. The more diverse the testing, the better the pipeline becomes.

Your mission: Run the pipeline with your own research idea, inspect the output, and submit a detailed feedback report. That's it. Every piece of feedback directly shapes the next version.

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📋 Table of Contents

1. Prerequisites
2. Installation & Setup
3. Running the Pipeline
4. Inspecting the Output
5. Feedback Report Requirements
6. Feedback Template
7. FAQ

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📦 Prerequisites

Item	Minimum	Recommended
OS	macOS / Linux / WSL2	Linux (Ubuntu 22.04+)
Python	3.11+	3.11 or 3.12
Disk	500 MB	2 GB+
RAM	8 GB	16 GB+
GPU	Not required (sandbox mode)	NVIDIA GPU + CUDA 12.x (docker mode)
Network	Required (LLM API + literature search)	Stable connection
LLM API Key	Required	OpenAI or Anthropic

🔑 About API Keys

The pipeline calls a large language model (LLM) at every stage — writing, coding, reviewing, and more. You'll need an API key from OpenAI or Anthropic.

We strongly recommend using the most capable models available for the best results:

Provider	Recommended Model	Fallback
OpenAI	GPT-5.4 (best)	GPT-5.1 or GPT-4.1
Anthropic	Claude Opus 4.6 (best)	Claude Sonnet 4.6

Using a top-tier model significantly improves paper quality, code correctness, and experiment design. Older models (e.g., GPT-4o) may produce noticeably weaker output.

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🛠 Installation & Setup

⚠️ Always Use the Latest Version

This project is under active development. The codebase is updated frequently, and different versions can produce significantly different results.

Before every test run, always pull the latest code:

cd AutoResearchClaw
git pull origin main
pip install -e .    # Re-install to pick up changes

Record your version for the feedback report:

git log --oneline -1

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Option A: Claude Code (Fastest — Recommended ⚡)

If you have Claude Code (Anthropic's CLI tool), just paste this:

Please clone and install AutoResearchClaw:
https://github.com/aiming-lab/AutoResearchClaw.git

If already cloned, run git pull origin main to update to the latest version first.

Then create a config file with:
- LLM: OpenAI with gpt-5.4 (or Anthropic Claude Opus 4.6)
- Experiment mode: sandbox (local execution)
- Research topic: "<YOUR RESEARCH IDEA HERE>"
- Auto-approve all gate stages

My API key is: sk-xxxx (set it as an environment variable, don't hardcode it)

Claude Code will handle cloning, dependencies, configuration, and execution automatically.

Option B: Manual Installation

# 1. Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/aiming-lab/AutoResearchClaw.git
cd AutoResearchClaw

# 2. Create a virtual environment
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate       # macOS / Linux
# .venv\Scripts\activate        # Windows (prefer WSL2)

# 3. Install
pip install -e .

# 4. Verify
researchclaw --help

⚙️ Configuration

cp config.researchclaw.example.yaml config.arc.yaml

Edit config.arc.yaml — here are the key fields:

# === Project ===
project:
  name: "my-test"
  mode: "full-auto"

# === Research Topic — describe your idea in English ===
research:
  topic: "Your research idea in 1-2 sentences"
  domains:
    - "machine-learning"     # Options: nlp, cv, rl, graph-learning, etc.

# === LLM — use the strongest model you have access to! ===
#
# Option 1: OpenAI (GPT-5.4 recommended)
llm:
  provider: "openai-compatible"
  base_url: "https://api.openai.com/v1"
  api_key_env: "OPENAI_API_KEY"
  primary_model: "gpt-5.4"              # Best available
  fallback_models:
    - "gpt-5.1"
    - "gpt-4.1"

# Option 2: Anthropic Claude (Claude Opus 4.6 recommended)
# llm:
#   provider: "openai-compatible"
#   base_url: "https://api.anthropic.com/v1"
#   api_key_env: "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"
#   primary_model: "claude-opus-4-6"
#   fallback_models:
#     - "claude-sonnet-4-6"

# === Experiment ===
experiment:
  mode: "sandbox"                # sandbox = local execution (recommended)
  time_budget_sec: 600           # Max seconds per experiment run
  max_iterations: 10
  metric_key: "primary_metric"
  metric_direction: "minimize"   # or "maximize"

🔐 Set Your API Key

# OpenAI users:
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

# Anthropic users:
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

# Optional: Semantic Scholar API key (speeds up literature search)
export S2_API_KEY="your-s2-key"

🔒 Security: Never hardcode API keys in files. Use api_key_env in the config to reference an environment variable.

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🚀 Running the Pipeline

Quick Start

source .venv/bin/activate
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-xxxx"       # or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

researchclaw run --config config.arc.yaml --auto-approve

With a Specific Topic

researchclaw run \
  --config config.arc.yaml \
  --topic "Investigating the effect of curriculum learning on image classification with adaptive difficulty scheduling" \
  --auto-approve

⏱ Expected Runtime

Mode	Estimated Time	Notes
sandbox	30 min – 2 hours	Depends on experiment complexity & API speed
docker (GPU)	1 – 4 hours	For heavier deep learning experiments

The terminal shows real-time progress. No manual intervention needed — sit back and let it run.

✅ How to Know It's Done

You'll see output like:

[Stage 23/23] ✓ Deliverables packaged
Pipeline complete — deliverables at: artifacts/rc-20260315-XXXXXX-YYYY/deliverables/

🔄 If It Gets Interrupted

The pipeline supports checkpointing — just resume:

researchclaw run --config config.arc.yaml --resume

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🔍 Inspecting the Output

After completion, find your results in artifacts/rc-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-<hash>/deliverables/.

📂 Deliverables

File / Directory	Description
paper_final.md	Final paper in Markdown (5,000–6,500 words)
paper.tex	Conference-ready LaTeX source (directly compilable)
references.bib	BibTeX bibliography (verified citations)
code/main.py	Auto-generated experiment code
code/requirements.txt	Python dependencies for experiments
charts/	Result visualization charts (PNG)
verification_report.json	Citation integrity verification report
manifest.json	Deliverable manifest with metadata

🔎 What to Check

1. Paper Content (paper_final.md or paper.tex)

   • Is the title relevant to the topic?
   • Does the abstract clearly state problem, method, and results?
   • Does Related Work cite key papers in the field?
   • Is the method description technically correct?
   • Is the experiment design sound (datasets, baselines, metrics)?
   • Are results meaningful (not all zeros, not NaN)?
   • Are conclusions consistent with experimental findings?

2. Experiment Code (code/main.py)

   • Can it run independently?
   • Does it use real datasets (not randomly generated fake data)?
   • Does it implement what the paper describes?
   • Are hyperparameters reasonable?

3. Charts (charts/)

   • Are they readable and clean?
   • Are axis labels correct?
   • Does the data match the paper's claims?

4. References (references.bib)

   • Do the cited papers actually exist?
   • Are citations relevant to the discussion?

📊 Auto-Generated Quality Report

The pipeline produces a quality assessment at stage-20/quality_report.json containing:

• score_1_to_10 — automated quality score
• verdict — accept / reject recommendation
• strengths — what went well
• weaknesses — identified issues
• required_actions — suggested improvements

Please reference this in your feedback, and add your own expert judgment.

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📝 Feedback Report Requirements

Your feedback is the single most important input for improving this project. Please be thorough and honest — critical feedback is just as valuable as praise.

What to Submit

#	Item	Details
F1	Feedback Report (use template below)	Markdown format, named feedback_<your-name>.md
F2	Full Output Directory	Zip the entire artifacts/rc-XXXXXX/ directory
F3	Config File	Your config.arc.yaml (remove API keys first!)
F4	Terminal Log (optional but helpful)	Copy of the terminal output during the run

The Four Dimensions of Feedback

🎯 (a) Quality Assessment

From your domain expertise:

• If this were a paper in your field, what level would it reach? (top venue / mid-tier / workshop / unpublishable)
• How does the writing compare to papers you normally read?
• Is the method technically correct? Any obvious errors?
• Is the experiment design reasonable?

💡 (b) Improvement Suggestions

• Which stage produced the weakest output? (literature search / experiment design / code generation / paper writing)
• Any obvious code errors or poor design choices?
• Specific suggestions for improving the paper structure or writing?

⚖️ (c) Pipeline Design Assessment

• Are the 23 stages well-designed? Any redundant or missing steps?
• Is the iterative experiment refinement effective?
• Is the LLM guidance at each stage appropriate?

🐛 (d) Bug Reports

Please report any issues you find, as specifically as possible:

• Writing bugs: grammar errors, repeated paragraphs, contradictions, references to non-existent figures
• Code bugs: runtime errors, logic errors, data handling issues
• Result bugs: all-zero results, NaN values, unreasonable metrics
• Pipeline bugs: stages getting stuck, unexpected crashes, resource exhaustion

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📋 Feedback Template

Copy the template below, fill it out, and save as feedback_<your-name>.md:

# AutoResearchClaw — Test Feedback Report

## Basic Information

- **Tester Name:**
- **Domain / Field:** (e.g., Computer Vision / NLP / Reinforcement Learning / Bioinformatics / ...)
- **Test Date:**
- **Code Version:** (output of `git log --oneline -1`, e.g., `44151b1 fix: Phase 3 regression test findings`)
- **Research Topic (English):**
- **LLM Model Used:** (e.g., gpt-5.4 / gpt-5.1 / claude-opus-4-6 / claude-sonnet-4-6)
- **Experiment Mode:** (sandbox / docker)
- **Total Runtime:** (~X minutes)
- **Completed All 23 Stages?:** Yes / No (if No, which stage failed?)

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## 1. Quality Assessment (Score: 1–10)

**My Score:** X / 10

### 1.1 Overall Paper Quality
- What level paper does this correspond to? (top venue / mid-tier / workshop / unpublishable)
- Reason for score:

### 1.2 Section-by-Section Assessment

| Section | Score (1-10) | Comments |
|---------|-------------|----------|
| Title | | |
| Abstract | | |
| Introduction | | |
| Related Work | | |
| Method | | |
| Experiment Design | | |
| Results & Analysis | | |
| Conclusion | | |
| References | | |
| Charts / Figures | | |
| Code Quality | | |

### 1.3 Comparison with Human-Written Papers
- Compared to papers you normally read/write, where are the gaps?
- Anything surprisingly good?

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## 2. Improvement Suggestions

### 2.1 Top Issues (list 3-5, in priority order)

1.
2.
3.

### 2.2 Code Issues
- Can the code run independently?
- Does it use real datasets and baselines?
- Specific code issues (if any):

### 2.3 Writing Issues
- Is the paper structure reasonable?
- Is the technical description accurate?
- Specific writing issues (if any):

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## 3. Pipeline Design Assessment

### 3.1 Pipeline Flow
- Is the 23-stage design reasonable?
- Any redundant or missing steps?

### 3.2 Experiment Execution
- Is the experiment design sound? (dataset choices, comparison methods, metrics)
- Is the iterative refinement effective?

### 3.3 LLM Usage
- How well did the LLM perform at each stage?
- Any obvious "hallucinations" or unreasonable outputs?

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## 4. Bug Reports

### 4.1 Writing Bugs
| # | Location (section/paragraph) | Description | Severity (High/Med/Low) |
|---|------------------------------|-------------|------------------------|
| W1 | | | |
| W2 | | | |

### 4.2 Code Bugs
| # | File / Line | Description | Severity (High/Med/Low) |
|---|-------------|-------------|------------------------|
| C1 | | | |
| C2 | | | |

### 4.3 Result Bugs
| # | Description | Affected Metrics/Charts | Severity (High/Med/Low) |
|---|-------------|------------------------|------------------------|
| R1 | | | |
| R2 | | | |

### 4.4 Pipeline Bugs
| # | Stage | Description | Severity (High/Med/Low) |
|---|-------|-------------|------------------------|
| P1 | | | |
| P2 | | | |

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## 5. Additional Comments

(Free-form: any observations, ideas, or suggestions you think would be valuable)

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## Attachments Checklist

- [ ] Feedback report (`feedback_<name>.md`)
- [ ] Full output directory (`artifacts/rc-XXXXXX.zip`)
- [ ] Config file (`config.arc.yaml`, API keys removed)
- [ ] Terminal log (optional)

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❓ FAQ

Q1: Can I test without a GPU?

Yes! Use experiment.mode: "sandbox" — the pipeline runs experiments on your CPU. The experiments will be simpler, but still enough for a full end-to-end test.

Q2: How much does an API call cost?

A full pipeline run costs roughly $5–15 in API fees, depending on the model, number of revision iterations, and experiment complexity. Top-tier models (GPT-5.4, Claude Opus 4.6) cost a bit more but produce significantly better results.

Q3: What if the pipeline crashes mid-run?

Resume from the checkpoint:

researchclaw run --config config.arc.yaml --resume

Q4: Can I use a non-English research topic?

We recommend describing your topic in English. The pipeline's prompts, literature search, and paper generation are all English-based. If your idea is originally in another language, please translate it first.

Q5: What kind of research topic should I pick?

Choose a specific research question in a field you know well — that way you can meaningfully assess whether the output is technically correct. Tips:

• ✅ Pick topics with clear experimental validation (classification, regression, RL tasks, etc.)
• ❌ Avoid overly broad or abstract topics (e.g., "AGI", "general intelligence")
• ✅ Be specific: "Investigating the effect of data augmentation strategies on few-shot learning for medical image classification"

Q6: How do I use Docker mode? (Advanced)

If you have an NVIDIA GPU with Docker + NVIDIA Container Toolkit:

# 1. Build the experiment image
docker build -t researchclaw/experiment:latest researchclaw/docker/

# 2. Update config.arc.yaml:
#   experiment:
#     mode: "docker"
#     docker:
#       gpu_enabled: true
#       memory_limit_mb: 8192
#       network_policy: "setup_only"  # recommended default

# 3. Run
researchclaw run --config config.arc.yaml --auto-approve

Docker mode uses a three-phase execution model: pip install (network on) → setup.py (network on) → experiment (network off). The image includes pre-cached datasets (CIFAR-10/100, MNIST, FashionMNIST, STL-10, SVHN) so standard benchmarks work without network access.

Q7: I tested before — what should I do for a re-test?

Always pull the latest code before each test:

cd AutoResearchClaw
git pull origin main
pip install -e .

Then verify your version:

git log --oneline -1

Different versions can produce very different results. Always note the commit hash in your feedback report.

Q8: Where do I submit my feedback?

Submit your feedback report and attachments through one of these channels:

• GitHub Issues: Open an issue with the label feedback
• Pull Request: Submit your feedback_<name>.md to the community-feedback/ directory
• Email: Contact the project maintainers (see repo for details)

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🌍 We Need Testers from Every Field

The pipeline has been tested primarily on ML topics so far. We especially welcome testers from:

• 🧬 Bioinformatics & Computational Biology
• 🧪 Chemistry & Materials Science
• 📊 Statistics & Applied Mathematics
• 🤖 Robotics & Control Systems
• 🗣️ NLP & Computational Linguistics
• 👁️ Computer Vision & Graphics
• 🎮 Reinforcement Learning & Game Theory
• 🏥 Medical AI & Healthcare
• 🌐 Graph Learning & Network Science
• 💹 Financial ML & Econometrics
• 🛰️ Remote Sensing & Geospatial AI

...and any other field where computational experiments are involved!

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🙏 Thank You

Every piece of feedback — big or small — directly improves AutoResearchClaw. Thank you for being part of this journey.

⭐ If you find this project interesting, please give us a star on GitHub!