Octocode Benchmark

Octocode benchmark

Plain-markdown, run-by-hand CLI research comparison. Octocode is the anchor; each baseline is a separate pairwise matchup (octocode vs rtk | headroom | gh). Per question, per pass: two isolated runners answer, one blind judge grades them X / Y (randomized per question). Run ≥3 passes; the rollup shows every matchup together. No harness, no JSON.

Paths below are relative to the package root packages/octocode-benchmark/. Shared tooling lives in compare/bin/; questions in compare/github-questions/; reports in results/.

Flow (4 phases)

0. Preflight — verify + pin every arm; a failure invalidates the run.
1. Answer — 2 isolated runners (anchor + baseline) per question/pass, leanest-legal path, each appends a ## Q<n> section to answers/<arm>-p<pass>.md.
2. Judge — after both sections exist, one blind judge reasons to a verdict, then scores.
3. Summarize — validate logs, aggregate paired stats, update the rollup.

How it is MEASURED (characters, never self-reported)

The metric is total_chars = model-in + model-out in Unicode code points, from an instrumented log — the tool transcript only (excludes system prompt, tool schemas, model reasoning; the fixed per-arm primer is excluded by rule; any later help/schema/failed call is counted).

• model-out = the command string + args the model wrote, plus the final answer.
• model-in = the tool output pulled back into context (for Headroom, the compressed output).

Mechanism: every research command runs through its arm's thin wrapper, which shells the real CLI unchanged, prints output verbatim, and appends one JSONL row per call:

The final answer is logged as pure model-out via compare/bin/record_answer.py. Per-question total = compare/bin/sumlog.py --strict <log>; the whole campaign is checked byte-faithfully by compare/bin/validate_campaign.py. Never trust a hand-counted number — recompute from the JSONL. Only elapsed_ms (octocode/rtk/gh) is captured for time; it is not a fair latency metric (npx bootstrap per call, no Headroom timing) — do not headline it.

How it is SCORED (blind judge, correctness-first)

One blind judge per question grades the two answers as X / Y (order randomized per question, tool identity redacted). It reasons to ground truth first, then scores each answer: correctness 0–10, research depth 1–5, workflow 1–5 (rubric in references/JUDGING.md).

Decision per pairing: if one arm is net strictly more correct (paired sign test) it wins — a confidently-wrong answer never wins on footprint. If correctness is statistically tied, characters decide by the geometric-mean of per-question ratios (baseline ÷ octocode) + median + leaner win-rate + bootstrap CI — never a pooled sum alone. Aggregate paired, per question, over ≥3 passes. Method + worked example: references/aggregation-and-stats.md.

Quickstart (copy-paste, one matchup, one pass)

cd packages/octocode-benchmark
export HR_PY="$HOME/.local/share/uv/tools/headroom-ai/bin/python"   # Headroom arm only

# Phase 0 — preflight (non-zero exit = fix before running)
bash skills/octocode-benchmark/scripts/check-prereqs.sh 18.2.2

# set up a campaign dir
CAMP="campaigns/run-$(date -u +%H%M%S)-$(date -u +%Y-%m-%d)"; mkdir -p "$CAMP/answers" "$CAMP/judge"

# Phase 1 — answer (spawn ONE isolated agent per arm; never mix arms in an agent).
# Each research call sets its per-question log, e.g. octocode Q4:
OCTO_LOG="$CAMP/octocode-p1-Q4.jsonl" ./compare/bin/octoc1822 ghGetFileContent \
  --queries '{"owner":"axios","repo":"axios","path":"lib/adapters/http.js","matchString":"follow-redirects"}'
# baseline (gh+RTK) Q4:
RTK_LOG="$CAMP/rtk-p1-Q4.jsonl" ./compare/bin/rtkm search code --repo axios/axios follow-redirects --limit 20
# log the final answer, then append a "## Q4" section (Answer + Research steps) to answers/<arm>-p1.md
python3 compare/bin/record_answer.py --log "$CAMP/octocode-p1-Q4.jsonl" --question Q4 --file answer.txt

# Phase 2 — judge: build the blind packet, then one reasoning-first verdict per question
python3 compare/bin/build_blind_packet.py --help          # X/Y randomized, tool identity redacted

# Phase 3 — validate + aggregate + report
python3 compare/bin/sumlog.py --strict "$CAMP/octocode-p1-Q4.jsonl"
python3 compare/bin/validate_campaign.py "$CAMP" --question-count 30
python3 compare/bin/per_question_summary.py --out results/PER_QUESTION_SUMMARY.md --json results/per_question_summary.json

Runner/judge briefing packets, spawn scaling (batch Q1-15/Q16-30 within one arm), and output layout: references/run-with-agents.md → run-preflight.md + run-phases.md.

Hard gates (skip one and the run is worthless)

• Isolation — a fresh agent per (question, arm, pass) + a separate judge; no shared transcript, no answer key. Batch questions within an arm, never mix arms.
• Fairness — leanest-legal path on every arm; no whole-tree/whole-file dump where a targeted read/search answers (inflates chars, invalidates the ratio). sumlog.py emits advisory FAIRNESS: lines for recursive=1 dumps / oversized reads — review them.
• Blind + reasoned — grade X/Y in randomized order; the judge reasons before scoring, correctness-first; a confidently-wrong answer never wins.
• Measured, not self-reported — total_chars = model-in + model-out from the instrumented log; recompute, never hand-count.
• Honest stats — geometric-mean char ratio (never a pooled sum) + bootstrap CI; ≥3 passes; the public set is orientation, not a shipping gate.

Routes — load only what the step needs

Scripts + tooling

• scripts/check-prereqs.sh — Phase 0 gate (all arms + questions + primers).
• scripts/measure.sh — fallback char wrapper for an arm without a dedicated bin/ wrapper.
• compare/bin/: octoc · octoc1822 · rtkm · ghc · ghm (arm wrappers) · instrument_command.py / hr_compress.py (char capture) · record_answer.py · sumlog.py (per-question total, --strict) · build_blind_packet.py (X/Y packet) · validate_campaign.py (byte-faithful campaign check) · per_question_summary.py (per-question + overall chars & correctness across all 4 arms) · test_instrumentation.py.

Stop when

The matchup's questions are answered, judged, and aggregated across ≥3 passes with CIs — or a preflight/fairness violation blocks the run; fix before continuing.

Add a question

Copy an existing Q<n>.md, bump the number, edit title / id / ## Question only. GitHub → compare/github-questions/; corpus-local → that matchup's questions/; add its README row.