# Examining Ado Project > Understand the work done in an ado project/context: recent activity, research underway, study documents, spaces and operations over time, experiments and configs used. Use when the user asks for the latest or recent activity in a project; what research strands, studies, or work are underway; a project or context overview or status; trends across spaces/operations/studies; or to onboard onto an ado project. - Skill: `ibm/examining-ado-project` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add ibm/examining-ado-project` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/ibm/examining-ado-project/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Research & Search - Author: IBM (https://skillmd.com/u/ibm) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/ibm/examining-ado-project --- # Examining an ado Project End-to-end workflow to summarize **all** discoveryspaces, operations, and related metadata in the ado project associated to the active context. - Run all commands from the **repository root** with `uv run` (see [using-ado-cli](../using-ado-cli/SKILL.md)). - The report produced by this skill is stored as a `document` resource in the active ado metastore context (see [Producing a report](#step-7-write-the-report)). - A **project** is a namespace for a set of ado resources (spaces, operations, stores). A **context** is the local config pointing to a project's metastore. Context name equals project name by construction. This definition is sufficient for applying this skill. Only consult the source if you need full schema details: read `docs/resources/metastore.md` if the source repo is available, otherwise see . - Users may refer to an ado project using either the term "project" or "context" ## Tips - Prefer metastore listing and YAML dumps before heavy `uv run ado show` data pulls; see [query-ado-data](../query-ado-data/SKILL.md). - For creating document resources that store reports, see [resource-yaml-creation — Document](../resource-yaml-creation/SKILL.md#document). - For study documents (`study-$ID`), see [create-research-study-document](../create-research-study-document/SKILL.md). - For one space in depth: [examining-discovery-spaces](../examining-discovery-spaces/SKILL.md). - For one operation in depth: [examining-ado-operations](../examining-ado-operations/SKILL.md). ## Pre-requisites ### Check active context is associated with expected project Context names and project names are identical by construction. If asked to examine a specific named project: 1. Check the active context name: `uv run ado context` - If it has the correct name, continue to [step one](#step-1-check-for-existing-report) - If not, run `uv run ado get contexts` to list all available contexts - If one matches, switch to it: `uv run ado context $NAME` - If none match, inform the user that a context for the specified project cannot be found ## Workflow ### Step 1. Check for existing report The project report is stored as a `document` resource whose `metadata.name` is `project_report`. Query the metastore: ```bash uv run ado get document -q 'config.metadata.name=project_report' --details ``` There **may** be zero, one, or many documents with that name — each has a unique identifier. If several match, the **current** report is the most recently created one. If matches exist - identify the **current** document (newest by creation timestamp from `--details` or from document YAML `created` / status timestamps). - Fetch its `content` (`uv run ado get document DOCUMENT_ID -o yaml`). - Proceed to step 2 If no matches exist: - Proceed to Step 3 ### Step 2: Determine if there has been recent activity Here we check whether there has been meaningful activity since the current report was written: 1. Contextualizing Activity 1. Run `uv run ado get docs --details` 2. Find any study docs that were created after the last project report was written 3. If there are, there has been recent activity in describing the motivations and scope of project 2. Operation Activity 1. Run `uv run ado get operations --details -o stats` 2. Find all the operations that were created after the last report was written 3. Filter these for ones that are finished AND, if explore operations, that measured entities 4. If there are, there has been recent experiment and analysis activity If there has been no recent activity, summarize the existing report for the user and point them to it. Do not continue. If there has been recent activity, continue to next steps but focus on examining the new activity in order to create an updated report based on the existing one. ### Step 3: Get overview of research First check if there are study documents outlining the research underway in the project ```bash uv run ado get document --details | grep "study-" ``` For each study found, run ```bash uv run ado get document DOCUMENT_ID -o yaml ``` to understand the study purpose and to find the labels used to identify resources associated with the study If there are study documents perform the next steps per study. ## Step 4: Examine research activities Goal: volume of work, recency, and which spaces attract the most operations. 1. **Spaces (tabular, with metadata)** ```bash uv run ado get spaces --details ``` Use **age** (list is age-sorted, most recent last), **name**, **description**, and **labels** to infer themes and activity. 2. **Operations (tabular, with metadata)** ```bash uv run ado get operations --details ``` Relates operations to target spaces; age and labels summarize recent work. **Heuristic — operation IDs:** many ids encode the operator and a version segment, e.g. `OPERATOR_NAME-VERSION-...-UID` (exact shape varies). Use this together with `uv run ado get operator --details` to understand more about the operators used. 3. **Operations (with measurement statistics)** ```bash uv run ado get operations -o stats --output-file operations-stats.txt ``` Adds `TOTAL_RESULTS`, `SUCCESSFUL_RESULTS`, `FAILED_RESULTS`, and `MEASURED_ENTITIES` columns. For explore operations, compare `MEASURED_ENTITIES` against the operator's `numberEntities` to check sampling completeness. For richer stats that also include request-level counts (`TOTAL_REQUESTS`, `FAILED_REQUESTS`, `SUCCESSFUL_REQUESTS`): ```bash uv run ado show stats operation --output-file operations-fullstats.csv -o csv ``` 4. **Discovery Spaces (with statistics)** ```bash uv run ado get spaces -o stats --output-file spaces-stats.txt ``` Adds `EXPERIMENTS`, `OPERATIONS`, `EXPLORE_OPERATIONS`, and `MEASURED_ENTITIES` columns. For richer stats that also include full entity-space coverage columns (`SIZE_OF_ENTITY_SPACE`, `UNMEASURED_ENTITIES`, `MATCHING_ENTITIES`, etc.): ```bash uv run ado show stats discoveryspace --output-file spaces-fullstats.csv -o csv ``` > **Performance note**: `ado show stats discoveryspace` is slower than > `ado get spaces -o stats` as it instantiates each `DiscoverySpace`. > Prefer `ado get -o stats` for a quick overview across many spaces. 5. **Sample Stores (with statistics)** ```bash uv run ado get samplestores -o stats --output-file samplestores-stats.txt ``` Adds `ENTITIES`, `RESULTS`, and `EXPERIMENTS` columns. 6. **Data Containers (with statistics)** ```bash uv run ado get datacontainers -o stats --output-file datacontainers-stats.txt ``` Adds `TABLES`, `LOCATIONS`, `KEY_VALUES`, and `DATA_BYTES` columns. **Synthesis:** cluster mentally (or in notes) by **creation time** to see bursts of activity; count operations **per space** from the operations listing to see which spaces are busiest; group activity under active **studies** when study documents exist. ### Step 5: Deeper pass: full YAML and experiments Goal: experiments/actuators in use, operation parameters, and how much was **submitted** for measurement (entities selected by explore-style operators—may differ from completed measurements if runs failed). Dump full resource documents for easier scripted or batched reading. Use `--output-file` to ensure proper file handling: ```bash uv run ado get spaces -o yaml --output-file spaces.yaml uv run ado get operations -o yaml --output-file operations.yaml ``` On **large metastores**, these files can be very large—prefer `uv run ado get … -q …` filters, scripts, or the SQL store API (see [query-ado-data](../query-ado-data/SKILL.md)) before dumping everything. When interpreting YAML fields, confirm paths against resource schemas: ```bash uv run ado template discoveryspace --include-schema uv run ado template operation --include-schema ``` From **space** YAML: note **experiment** and **actuator** identifiers referenced by each space. Gain further information on the experiments using ```bash # Outputs description of actuators used uv run ado get actuators --details # Outputs description of experiments used uv run ado get experiments --details # Outputs detailed information on an experiment # Use to drill down into most used experiments uv run ado describe experiment $EXPERIMENT_ID ``` From **operation** YAML: note actuatorconfigurations used (if any), read **parameters** (operator-specific), target **discoveryspace** references, and any fields that indicate **entity count / batch / sample** configuration for explore operations. **Synthesize:** - What is being **measured** and with which experiments (domain of the project). - Which **explore** (or similar) operations drove the largest submitted entity sets and on **which spaces**. - Whether **experiment definitions or parameters** shift over time (versions, configs). ### Step 6: Space relationships and entity-space shape From step 2, pick a handful of **commonly operated on or recent** spaces. For each, inspect its fragment in `spaces.yaml`, focusing on **entity space** structure (dimensions, bounds, representation). Find **Spaces that match these spaces** (refinement, expansion, or parallel configurations) ```bash uv run ado get spaces --matching-space-id SPACE_ID ``` Use the output to - Group spaces that match - Within each group identify subgroups whose spaces are identical - If multiple subgroups identify the hierarchy between them (broadest to narrowest) - Within subgroups identify what if measurement space is different between them - Combine this information with the sequence of space creation to understand how researchers have been evolving the spaces Optionally complement with one-hop links: ```bash uv run ado show related space SPACE_ID ``` ### Step 7: Write the report Write a concise markdown report. Store it as the `content` field of a `document` resource (see [resource-yaml-creation — Document](../resource-yaml-creation/SKILL.md#document)). - Set `metadata.name` to `project_report`. - Set `metadata.description` to include today's date, e.g. `Project overview as of YYYY-MM-DD`. - Omit `relatedResources` (or leave empty). ### Project summary - If study documents available: - Summary of the particular study or studies underway - If no study documents available or many resource without associated study - Domains or problems implied by experiments, actuators, and space descriptions. - Dominant **operation** and **experiment** patterns. ### Latest activity Per-study when possible - Most recent spaces and operations (from `--details` listings). - What the latest work seems focused on (labels, names, target spaces). ### Spaces overview Per-study when possible - Which spaces are most used and most analyzed. - How **entity spaces** and **matching-space** relationships evolve: expanding, narrowing, or shifting configuration. ### Operations overview Per-study when possible - Operator mix and whether **parameters** or **operator choice** evolve over time. - Which operations **submitted** the most entities (from operation YAML/config) and which produced the most results (from the stats). - What **analysis**-style operations ran (infer from operator names and parameters). - Make a note of operations with failed measurements and highlight ones with abnormal failure rates (from the stats).