Reproducibility Contract

Purpose

Defines what must be captured so a run can be reproduced later.

Required Inputs

• base config JSON
• search config JSON
• explicit seed schedule (seed_start, seed_stride, count)
• implementation-affecting switches (for example compatibility modes)

Required Captures per Run

• copied config.json and search.json in run directory
• summary.json with run id and execution counts
• results.jsonl containing metrics and parameter payloads
• log stream and metrics stream for the same run id

Required Captures per Indexed Record

• run_id
• provenance fields in runs table
• config_hash when available
• method/version tags for derived fields (for example morphometrics)

Determinism Checks

Current deterministic smoke harness validates repeated fixed-seed runs by comparing:

• results.jsonl byte identity
• exported frame checksums

Non-Goals

This contract does not guarantee bitwise identity across different hardware, compiler versions, or MLX backend revisions unless explicitly pinned by the experiment protocol.