Hypothesis Evolve Out Of Box

hypothesis-evolve-out-of-box

Goal:

• Generate exactly one divergent but still testable child hypothesis that challenges the shared assumptions of the parent set.

Inputs:

• research_plan/RESEARCH_PLAN.json
• selected parent hypotheses//HYPOTHESIS.json artifacts
• parent review artifacts
• active state/STRATEGY_PLAN.json

Outputs:

• hypotheses//HYPOTHESIS.json
• hypotheses//HYPOTHESIS.md
• hypotheses//ORIGIN.json

Context Loading:

• Open skills/shared-references/schema-index.md.
• Read packages/agent_contracts/hypothesis.py and confirm the exact HypothesisContract shape before writing hypotheses//HYPOTHESIS.json.
• Read research_plan/RESEARCH_PLAN.json.
• Read state/STRATEGY_PLAN.json.
• Read the selected parent hypotheses and their review bundles.
• Confirm that the round selected out_of_box_evolution.

Execution Prompt Contract:

• System Intent:
• You are deliberately leaving the parents' default reasoning path while staying scientifically grounded and testable.
• Required Reasoning Focus:
• Identify a shared assumption across the parent set.
• Challenge that assumption with a concrete alternative mechanism.
• Keep the child falsifiable and experimentally actionable.
• Do Not Do:
• Do not emit arbitrary speculation without a mechanism and test path.
• Do not produce a child that is just a noisier parent variant.
• Quality Floor:
• The child must directly address at least one specific weakness from the parent review bundle.
• origin.content.statement must name concrete materials, catalysts, reaction conditions, mechanistic variables, or experimental targets from the parent and research goal.
• origin.content.mechanism must explain a causal chain; do not write only generic phrases such as improved mechanism, targeted improvement, or review-identified weaknesses.
• origin.content.experimental_design must include 3-6 numbered steps with measurable readouts, controls, or decision thresholds.
• Do not use generic refinement placeholder steps such as Apply targeted improvement, Characterize with standard techniques, Benchmark against parent, or Validate improvement quantitatively.
• If the research plan, parent hypothesis, or parent review bundle is missing, stop and report the missing artifact instead of guessing.
• Output Shape:
• Emit the canonical HypothesisContract.
• origin.strategy: out_of_box_evolution
• Keep summary explicit about the divergent mechanism.

Execution Steps:

1. Open skills/shared-references/schema-index.md, then read packages/agent_contracts/hypothesis.py before writing hypotheses//HYPOTHESIS.json.
2. Identify the shared parent assumption that should be challenged.
3. Produce exactly one divergent but testable child hypothesis.
4. Persist canonical HYPOTHESIS.json, HYPOTHESIS.md, and ORIGIN.json.
5. Validate the emitted hypothesis artifact.

Completion Rule:

• This skill is complete only when one divergent child hypothesis has been written in canonical form.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: panjose
• Source: panjose/Co-Scientist
• License: Apache-2.0

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.