Skill: Archive Legacy Experiments

Overview

Retire old experiment scripts without losing their history: put the code behind a dated archive tag and leave a canonical comment on the originating GitHub issues so future readers can find the last snapshot.

Prerequisites

• Local checkout of marin with push access to origin.
• gh CLI installed and authenticated for marin-community/marin.
• List of experiment issues and their corresponding filenames under experiments/.
• The PR number for the cleanup you are referencing; if the directing human has not given one, ask them before posting anything.

Guidelines for Humans

1. Snapshot the experiments behind an archive tag

1. Identify the commit that should house the archived experiments (usually main after the cleanup). Record it with git rev-parse HEAD.
2. Pick a date-based tag name in the form archive/YYYYMMDD.
3. Create and push the tag:

   TAG=archive/20251114
   git tag "${TAG}" <commit-sha>
   git push origin "${TAG}"
   

4. If an older tag (e.g., exp_cleaning/YYYYMMDD) described the same snapshot, delete it locally and remotely so only the archive/ tag remains.

2. Post the canonical archive comment on each issue

1. Confirm the cleanup PR number (PR_NUM); if nobody has provided one yet, ping the human operator for it before continuing.
2. For every experiment issue, build the file URL: https://github.com/marin-community/marin/tree/${TAG}/experiments/<filename>.
3. Use the standardized note below, swapping in the filename-specific URL and PR reference:

   This experiment has been archived to reduce clutter and preserve velocity (see PR #<PR_NUM>). It is last available in the `archive/YYYYMMDD` tag at <URL>. Please open an issue if you need help unarchiving it.
   

4. Post the comment with gh issue comment:

   ISSUE=102
   FILE=exp102_classifier_ablations.py
   PR_NUM=1999
   URL="https://github.com/marin-community/marin/tree/${TAG}/experiments/${FILE}"
   gh issue comment "${ISSUE}" \
     --body "This experiment has been archived to reduce clutter and preserve velocity (see PR #${PR_NUM}). It is last available in the \`${TAG}\` tag at ${URL}. Please open an issue if you need help unarchiving it."
   

5. Confirm the comment renders correctly (PR reference should auto-link and the URL should jump straight to the file in the archive tag).

3. Track progress

• Keep a checklist of issue numbers while you work to avoid double-posting or skipping an experiment.
• When the batch is complete, list the affected issues in your agent handoff or PR description.

Rules for Agents

• Do not delete experiment files; archival work only tags commits and leaves issue breadcrumbs.
• Always reference the current archive/ tag name in both inline code and URLs.
• If the archive tag changes after comments were posted, update the affected issues rather than stacking multiple archive notices.

Validation

• git ls-remote --tags origin | rg "${TAG}$" to ensure the tag is published.
• gh issue view <issue> --comments | rg "archived to reduce clutter" to confirm each issue carries the canonical message.
• Spot-check a few URLs to verify they open the expected files inside the archive tag.

See Also

• .agents/skills/organize-experiments/SKILL.md for related curation workflows.