focs-experiments
Use when deciding whether and how computation appears in a FOCS (IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science) paper — a venue that accepts on theorems with no evaluation section expected — covering machine-verified case analyses, computer-discovered constructions, and honest illustrative plots.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill focs-experiments --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# FOCS Experiments FOCS solicits research on the theory of computation; nothing in the 2026 CFP asks for an evaluation, a benchmark, or an artifact (checked 2026-07-08). Most accepted papers contain no computation at all, and a submission that *needs* an empirical section to be persuasive is signaling that it belongs at an algorithms-engineering venue. Yet computation does appear in strong FOCS papers — inside proofs, behind constructions, and occasionally as a figure. This skill scopes each mode so it helps rather than hurts. ## Referee questions, by computational mode The useful frame is not "may I include code?" but "what will a theory referee ask about this computation?" — because each mode triggers a different interrogation: | Mode | Referee's question | Your obligation | |---|---|---| | Case analysis inside a proof (finitely many configurations checked by program) | "If this program is wrong, is the theorem false?" | Yes → full rigor: deterministic run, published certificate, an independent checker a reader can audit | | Search that found an object (a gadget, a code, a hard instance) later verified by hand | "Is the object's correctness independent of how it was found?" | Ver
- Referee questions, by computational mode
- Rigor pattern for a proof-bearing computation
- Discovered objects, honestly credited
- Where the computation is described
- Plots without performance theater
- Disclosure when the finder is an AI system
- Decision rule
What does the focs-experiments skill do?
Use when deciding whether and how computation appears in a FOCS (IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science) paper — a venue that accepts on theorems with no evaluation section expected — covering machine-verified case analyses, computer-discovered constructions, and honest illustrative plots.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill focs-experiments --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 984 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.