Harness Conditions Skill

cotcodec / harness/conditions

Purpose

Conditions implement the controlled orchestration intervention for a message while leaving benchmark semantics and fixed protocol surfaces unchanged.

Mental model & key files

• base.py defines the transformation interface.
• Language conditions (english.py, chinese.py, polish.py) are Paper 1 arms.
• controlled.py, compressed.py, and structured.py alter constrained format.
• router.py selects a condition from message features; degraded.py is a deliberate regression control.

Patterns to follow / invariants

• Transform only message types declared variable by the experiment.
• Keep tool names, JSON schemas, raw tool outputs, and final responses fixed in English unless the experiment explicitly varies that surface.
• A condition must be deterministic under its declared seed/config and expose enough metadata to reproduce the transformation.
• Register conditions in config and test representative terminology-heavy inputs.

Common tasks → first action

• New condition: subclass the base interface, add config registration and tests, then run a small message-only smoke before a benchmark pilot.
• Router change: read harness/routing/SKILL.md and verify features are past-only.

Gotchas

• Do not claim hidden chain-of-thought manipulation; this project varies only framework-visible intermediate communication.
• Compression and reasoning format are distinct variables even when one implementation affects both; label the intervention honestly.