Benchmark Harness — Continuous Improvement System

A 5-step feedback loop for improving ToolUniverse tools, skills, and plugin quality.

Note: This skill is dataset-agnostic. Per-benchmark score history, known-failing question IDs, and dataset-specific investigations belong in temp_docs_and_tests/benchmark_tracking/ (gitignored workfolder), NOT in this skill directory.

The Feedback Loop

1. RUN benchmark → 2. ANALYZE results → 3. DIAGNOSE failures → 4. FIX via devtu skill → 5. RETEST → repeat

Orchestrated runner (preferred)

One command does steps 0 (memorization audit), 1 (build), 2 (run), 3 (analyze), 4 (diagnose + extract failures):

bash skills/devtu-benchmark-harness/scripts/run_harness_loop.sh --benchmark bixbench --n 20 --seed 42
# After reviewing diagnose.log and applying devtu skill fixes:
bash skills/devtu-benchmark-harness/scripts/run_harness_loop.sh --retest /path/to/failures.json

The script creates temp_docs_and_tests/benchmark_tracking/run_<TS>/ with results.json, analysis.log, diagnose.log, failures.json. Diagnose output lists each failure with the exact devtu skill to invoke — do NOT fix manually.

Anti-memorization guard

Before accepting any skill edit (from devtu-optimize-skills or manual), run:

python3 skills/devtu-benchmark-harness/scripts/check_memorization.py --all

Fails if any skill contains benchmark names, capsule UUIDs, bix-N question IDs, or known-to-be-GT specific numeric answers. This prevents overfitting the plugin to a single benchmark's answer key. Run in --strict mode to also flag specific gene names and dataset filenames (softer signal).

Step 1: RUN — Execute Benchmark

bash scripts/build-plugin.sh   # rebuild plugin with latest skills

python skills/devtu-benchmark-harness/scripts/run_eval.py \
  --benchmark bixbench \        # bixbench | lab-bench | custom
  --mode plugin-only \          # plugin-only | baseline-only | comparison
  --n 205 \                     # number of questions
  --timeout 1800 \              # seconds per question
  --max-turns 30                # agent turns per question

Options: --category DESeq2 (filter), --resume results.json (skip done), --guidance path.md (inject custom).

Reliability mode: APPEND_CONVENTIONS env var

Skill auto-matching in interactive mode is variable — sometimes Claude reads the skill description but starts writing code before loading the skill body. To force the router's critical conventions into every request's system prompt (more reliable, measures the plugin's conventions as-designed rather than skill-routing-as-implemented):

APPEND_CONVENTIONS=1 python skills/evals/run_benchmark.py --benchmark bixbench --plugin-only

Use this mode when measuring the CORRECTNESS of the conventions (are they the right rules?). Use default mode when measuring the RELIABILITY of skill routing (does Claude actually invoke the skill?). The gap between these two numbers is the routing-reliability problem.

Benchmark setup (first time only)

Rscript skills/evals/install_r_packages.R                  # R packages
python3 skills/evals/bixbench/download_capsules.py         # BixBench data (~5 GB)

Available benchmarks

Benchmark	Questions	Tests	Data
lab-bench	20 MCQ	Database lookup accuracy	skills/evals/lab-bench/questions.json
bixbench	205 computational	Data analysis + statistics	skills/evals/bixbench/questions.json + capsule data
custom	User-defined	Any	Custom JSON file

Step 2: ANALYZE — Map Failures to Skills

python skills/devtu-benchmark-harness/scripts/analyze_results.py \
  --results results.json \
  --questions skills/evals/bixbench/questions.json \
  --benchmark bixbench

Output:

• By skill: which skills have lowest accuracy (fix those first)
• By category: DESeq2, ANOVA, phylogenetics, variant_analysis, etc.
• Failure types: timeout, wrong_answer, tool_error, api_key_missing

Category → Skill mapping

Category	Skill
DESeq2, fold_change	tooluniverse-rnaseq-deseq2
ANOVA, regression, chi_square, spline_fitting	tooluniverse-statistical-modeling
pathway_enrichment, DESeq2+enrichGO	tooluniverse-gene-enrichment
phylogenetics	tooluniverse-phylogenetics
variant_analysis, epigenomics	tooluniverse-variant-analysis
crispr_screen, functional_genomics	tooluniverse-crispr-screen-analysis
single_cell	tooluniverse-single-cell

Step 3: DIAGNOSE — Get Improvement Recommendations

python skills/devtu-benchmark-harness/scripts/analyze_results.py \
  --results results.json \
  --questions skills/evals/bixbench/questions.json \
  --diagnose

Each recommendation includes the failing category, responsible skill, failure type, and which devtu skill to invoke for the fix.

Root cause investigation

For each failure, verify whether it's an agent error or a GT (ground truth) issue:

1. Find the capsule data: temp_docs_and_tests/bixbench/bixbench/data/CapsuleFolder-{uuid}/
2. Look for authoritative scripts: *.py, *.R, analysis.R, run_*.py
3. Run the script yourself — does it reproduce the GT value?
4. If your computation matches the agent (not the GT), it's a GT issue, not an agent error

Step 4: FIX — Route to the Right devtu Skill

Do not fix manually — use devtu skills so fixes follow established patterns and include tests.

Diagnosis	What to do	Invoke
Tool returns wrong data	Fix tool code + JSON config	Skill('devtu-fix-tool')
No tool exists for this computation	Create new ToolUniverse tool	Skill('devtu-create-tool')
Skill gives wrong guidance	Update SKILL.md conventions	Skill('devtu-optimize-skills')
Agent needs bundled script	Add script to skill's scripts/ dir	Skill('devtu-optimize-skills') Pattern 15
Grader false negative	Fix grade_answers.py	Direct code fix
Multiple coordinated changes	Full cycle	Skill('devtu-self-evolve')

Fix workflow

1. analyze_results.py --diagnose → get recommendations
2. For each recommendation → invoke the appropriate devtu skill
3. bash scripts/build-plugin.sh → rebuild dist
4. run_eval.py --retest failures.json → verify fix

Example

Diagnosis: "ANOVA wrong_answer → tooluniverse-statistical-modeling"
  → Invoke: Skill('devtu-optimize-skills')
  → Tell it: "statistical-modeling skill produces wrong F-statistics for
     per-gene expression ANOVA. Agent aggregates at sample level instead
     of gene level."
  → The skill handles: read SKILL.md, add convention, verify no
     memorization, rebuild, suggest retest.

Step 5: RETEST — Verify Fixes

# Extract failed question IDs
python skills/devtu-benchmark-harness/scripts/analyze_results.py \
  --results results.json --extract-failures /tmp/failures.json

# Retest only failures
python skills/devtu-benchmark-harness/scripts/run_eval.py \
  --benchmark bixbench --mode plugin-only --retest /tmp/failures.json

Compare: how many flipped from wrong to correct? Update baseline if improved.

Grader

grade_answers.py applies 7 strategies in order:

1. Exact match — GT substring in prediction
2. MC match — letter answer detection (A/B/C/D)
3. Range match — numeric value within (low, high) with rounding tolerance
4. Normalized match — strip punctuation, bidirectional substring + bold-segment extraction
5. Numeric proximity — within 5% tolerance
6. Synonym match — scientific term equivalences
7. LLM verifier — Claude judges semantic correctness (for eval_mode=llm_verifier)

Unicode normalization: minus signs (U+2212), superscript exponents (10⁻²⁶ → e-26).

# Re-grade with LLM
python skills/devtu-benchmark-harness/scripts/grade_answers.py \
  --results results.json --output graded.json --llm

Plugin Architecture

The ToolUniverse plugin uses router-only skill matching:

1 auto-matchable skill: "tooluniverse" (router, ~300 chars)
  └── Routing table → 113 sub-skills (all disable-model-invocation: true)

Why: Claude Code has a character budget for skill descriptions (~1% of context). 114 skills × 500 chars = 57K exceeds budget → descriptions get dropped. With 1 router, the agent always sees it and routes correctly.

In -p mode, skills don't auto-match. The benchmark runner simulates interactive behavior via full_skill_injection mode: programmatically detects matching skill, injects its full SKILL.md content.

Integration with devtu-self-evolve

Insert as Phase 3.5 between Testing and Fix:

Phase 3 (Test) → Phase 3.5 (Benchmark) → Phase 4 (Fix via devtu) → Phase 5 (Retest)

Known Failure Patterns

The --diagnose flag references these patterns:

Pattern	Root cause	Fix action
DESeq2 wrong_answer	pydeseq2 vs R disagreement, wrong set operations	devtu-optimize-skills on rnaseq-deseq2
ANOVA wrong_answer	F-stat vs p-value confusion, wrong aggregation	devtu-optimize-skills on statistical-modeling
spline wrong_answer	R ns() ≠ Python patsy; endpoint inclusion varies	devtu-optimize-skills on statistical-modeling
phylogenetics wrong_answer	PhyKIT output column selection, file pairing	devtu-fix-tool on phykit_batch_analysis
variant wrong_answer	Multi-row Excel headers, coding-variant denominator	devtu-optimize-skills on variant-analysis
enrichGO wrong_answer	R clusterProfiler version sensitivity	devtu-fix-tool on run_deseq2_analysis
timeout	Pipeline >30 min (Trimmomatic, GATK)	devtu-create-tool to wrap pipeline
GT issue	Ground truth unreproducible with current tools	Document in results, exclude from score

Skill convention rules

When adding conventions to skills from benchmark findings:

• General knowledge only — no dataset-specific values, no memorized answers
• Principles over examples — "per-gene ANOVA not per-sample" rather than "F=0.77 on this dataset"
• Tool preferences — "use R DESeq2 for dispersion" rather than "R gives 4, pydeseq2 gives 2"
• Verify no contamination — grep for dataset names, specific numeric answers in the convention text