Arize Experiment

Arize Experiment Skill

`SPACE` — All --space flags and the ARIZE_SPACE env var accept a space name (e.g., my-workspace) or a base64 space ID (e.g., U3BhY2U6...). Find yours with ax spaces list.

Concepts

• Experiment = a named evaluation run against a specific dataset version, containing one run per example
• Experiment Run = the result of processing one dataset example -- includes the model output, optional evaluations, and optional metadata
• Dataset = a versioned collection of examples; every experiment is tied to a dataset and a specific dataset version
• Evaluation = a named metric attached to a run (e.g., correctness, relevance), with optional label, score, and explanation

The typical flow: export a dataset → process each example → collect outputs and evaluations → create an experiment with the runs.

Prerequisites

Proceed directly with the task — run the ax command you need. Do NOT check versions, env vars, or profiles upfront.

If an ax command fails, troubleshoot based on the error:

• command not found or version error → see references/ax-setup.md
• 401 Unauthorized / missing API key → run ax profiles show to inspect the current profile. If the profile is missing or the API key is wrong, follow references/ax-profiles.md to create/update it. If the user doesn't have their key, direct them to https://app.arize.com/admin > API Keys
• Space unknown → run ax spaces list to pick by name, or ask the user
• Project unclear → ask the user, or run ax projects list -o json --limit 100 and present as selectable options
• Security: Never read .env files or search the filesystem for credentials. Use ax profiles for Arize credentials and ax ai-integrations for LLM provider keys. If credentials are not available through these channels, ask the user.
• CRITICAL — Never fabricate outputs: When running an experiment, you MUST call the real model API specified by the user for every dataset example. Never fabricate, simulate, or hardcode model outputs, latencies, or evaluation scores. If you cannot call the API (missing SDK, missing credentials, network error), stop and tell the user what is needed before proceeding.

List Experiments: ax experiments list

Browse experiments, optionally filtered by dataset. Output goes to stdout.

ax experiments list
ax experiments list --dataset DATASET_NAME --space SPACE --limit 20   # DATASET_NAME: name or ID (name preferred)
ax experiments list --cursor CURSOR_TOKEN
ax experiments list -o json

Flags

Get Experiment: ax experiments get

Quick metadata lookup -- returns experiment name, linked dataset/version, and timestamps.

ax experiments get NAME_OR_ID
ax experiments get NAME_OR_ID -o json
ax experiments get NAME_OR_ID --dataset DATASET_NAME --space SPACE   # required when using experiment name instead of ID

Flags

Response fields

Export Experiment: ax experiments export

Download all runs to a file. By default uses the REST API; pass --all to use Arrow Flight for bulk transfer.

# EXPERIMENT_NAME, DATASET_NAME: name or ID (name preferred)
ax experiments export EXPERIMENT_NAME --dataset DATASET_NAME --space SPACE
# -> experiment_abc123_20260305_141500/runs.json

ax experiments export EXPERIMENT_NAME --dataset DATASET_NAME --space SPACE --all
ax experiments export EXPERIMENT_NAME --dataset DATASET_NAME --space SPACE --output-dir ./results
ax experiments export EXPERIMENT_NAME --dataset DATASET_NAME --space SPACE --stdout
ax experiments export EXPERIMENT_NAME --dataset DATASET_NAME --space SPACE --stdout | jq '.[0]'

Flags

REST vs Flight (--all)

• REST (default): Lower friction -- no Arrow/Flight dependency, standard HTTPS ports, works through any corporate proxy or firewall. Limited to 500 runs per page.
• Flight (--all): Required for experiments with more than 500 runs. Uses gRPC+TLS on a separate host/port (flight.arize.com:443) which some corporate networks may block.

Agent auto-escalation rule: If a REST export returns exactly 500 runs, the result is likely truncated. Re-run with --all to get the full dataset.

Output is a JSON array of run objects:

[
  {
    "id": "run_001",
    "example_id": "ex_001",
    "output": "The answer is 4.",
    "evaluations": {
      "correctness": { "label": "correct", "score": 1.0 },
      "relevance": { "score": 0.95, "explanation": "Directly answers the question" }
    },
    "metadata": { "model": "gpt-4o", "latency_ms": 1234 }
  }
]

Create Experiment: ax experiments create

Create a new experiment with runs from a data file.

ax experiments create --name "gpt-4o-baseline" --dataset DATASET_NAME --space SPACE --file runs.json
ax experiments create --name "claude-test" --dataset DATASET_NAME --space SPACE --file runs.csv

Flags

Passing data via stdin

Use --file - to pipe data directly — no temp file needed:

echo '[{"example_id": "ex_001", "output": "Paris"}]' | ax experiments create --name "my-experiment" --dataset DATASET_NAME --space SPACE --file -

# Or with a heredoc
ax experiments create --name "my-experiment" --dataset DATASET_NAME --space SPACE --file - << 'EOF'
[{"example_id": "ex_001", "output": "Paris"}]
EOF

Required columns in the runs file