原文核对:2026-10-13 · 中文正文 · 英文提示词与演示
场景定位
使用 Codex Goal Mode 研究并实现 AlphaFold2 架构修改,探索蛋白质折叠性能改进。
- 难度
- 高级
- 时间跨度
- 长时间运行
适合用于
- 针对可自动评分基准探索架构、损失或课程变化的计算生物学家。
- 已有科学假设,希望更快形成可运行实验分支的研究人员。
- 需要持续实验记录与迭代调试的机器学习工程师。
起步提示词
英文原文 · 可复制后按实际材料修改
Use Goal Mode to improve the validation lDDT-Cα score of this AlphaFold2-style protein-structure model on the NanoFold public benchmark.
The scientific hypothesis is that persistent higher-order geometric states may help the model learn protein geometry more efficiently from limited data:
- retain the standard MSA and pairwise representations;
- add sparse learned 2-simplex face states for selected residue triplets;
- add sparse learned 3-simplex tetrahedral states for selected residue quadruplets;
- construct topology only from official benchmark inputs and model-generated recycled geometry;
- keep the implementation computationally practical under NanoFold constraints.
Maintain durable tracking files for:
1. The current strategy, status, and proposed next steps in PLAN.md
2. A structured log of experiments and results in EXPERIMENTS.md
3. A running scratchpad of notes and thoughts in EXPERIMENT_NOTES.md
For each iteration:
1. state the hypothesis being tested;
2. make the smallest coherent code or configuration change;
3. run the relevant tests and benchmark slice;
4. record metrics, latency, memory, and failure modes;
5. decide whether to keep, revert, or refine the change;
6. periodically reassess the architecture-level search direction rather than only tuning local hyperparameters.
Do not claim generalization gains from smoke tests or single-chain overfit diagnostics. Prefer matched comparisons and preserve the evidence boundary.探索架构假设
假设需要多轮实现时,提供范围明确的科学方向、可运行基线和自动评分基准。Goal Mode 可实现架构分支、记录实验、诊断失败并持续迭代,供你审阅证据。
本例的问题是:AlphaFold2 风格模型的主干除残基和残基对外,若显式表示更高阶拓扑对象,能否更高效学习蛋白质几何?
限定实验
AlphaFold2 的 Evoformer 已有强大的成对和三角推理,但三角操作仍写回 pair tensor。研究者提出:在数据有限时,为三角面和四面体单元保留可学习表示,是否能提供有效归纳偏置?
公开仓库 SimplexFold 在常规成对表示 Z_ij 之外,增加稀疏面状态 F_ijk 和四面体状态 U_ijkl。
MSA representation M
<-> pair / edge tensor Z_ij
<-> sparse face tensor F_ijk
<-> sparse tetra tensor U_ijkl
-> structure module
-> recycled geometry
loops back into the next pass使用本页提示词、最小 AlphaFold2 风格基线及公开 NanoFold 基准。其精选固定数据可自动评分;首版应小到能先做针对性单元测试和微基准,再投入昂贵训练。
用 Goal Mode 搜索
- 提供可证伪的高层科学假设,而不是要求模型从零发明整个研究议程。
- 用 ChatGPT 中的 GPT-5.5 Pro 将方向转成含明确约束和消融实验的计划。
- 让 Codex 实现最小可运行 SimplexFold 基线,以单元测试和微基准验证。
- 交给 Goal Mode,在保留日志、计划和产物引用的前提下,对 NanoFold 验证集 lDDT-Cα 指标进行爬山优化。
- 持续根据基准反馈调整架构、训练方法和实验框架;本例循环运行了超过 150 小时。
PLAN.md 记录当前策略与下一步,EXPERIMENTS.md 记录结构化结果,EXPERIMENT_NOTES.md 保存工作笔记,使长时间搜索可审计且便于指导。
此流程反复涉及实现、测试、实验追踪、失败诊断和基准驱动迭代。无指导的自动研究容易退化为损失、优化器和超参数等熟悉的局部修改;科学家给出的紧凑架构假设提供了更有意义的搜索空间。
也适合评估科学家参与指导如何改变代理科学搜索质量的团队。
结果示例
结果是带显式高阶单纯形状态的实验架构 SimplexFold。结合拓扑和基准日志检查每轮是否仍检验原始科学思想。

这不代表 Codex 自主解决了蛋白质折叠;它展示了持续科学工程循环:科学家提出概念,Codex 加速实现、实验、调试和后续搜索。
有希望的诊断说明实现路径可行,不等于泛化已获证明。定期审阅轨迹,若陷入局部调参则拉回有科学意义的架构问题;完成匹配的公开验证比较和适当重复实验后再提升结论强度。
资源
- SimplexFold 仓库。
- SimplexFold 基准计划。
- NanoFold 竞赛。
- NanoFold 竞赛规则。
- Goal Mode 超过 150 小时的运行。
- Goal Mode 文章。
展开英文原文对照
Use Codex with Goal Mode to research and implement novel architectural modifications to AlphaFold2 for improved protein folding performance.
Explore a protein-folding architecture hypothesis
Use Codex Goal Mode when you have a protein-folding hypothesis that needs more than one implementation pass. Give Codex a bounded scientific direction, a working baseline, and an automatically scorable benchmark. Codex can implement the architecture fork, track experiments, diagnose failures, and continue iterating while you review the evidence.
This example started with a specific question: could an AlphaFold2-style model learn useful protein geometry more efficiently if its trunk represented not only residues and residue pairs, but also explicit higher-order topological objects?
Define a bounded experiment
AlphaFold2 already uses powerful pairwise and triangle-style reasoning inside the Evoformer. Its triangle operations improve edge representations, but still write back into a pair tensor. The scientist proposed testing whether persistent learned representations for triangular faces and tetrahedral cells could provide a useful inductive bias in a data-limited setting.
The resulting public repository, SimplexFold, adds sparse face states F_ijk and tetrahedral states U_ijkl alongside the conventional pair representation Z_ij.
MSA representation M
<-> pair / edge tensor Z_ij
<-> sparse face tensor F_ijk
<-> sparse tetra tensor U_ijkl
-> structure module
-> recycled geometry
loops back into the next passStart with the starter prompt on this page, a minimal AlphaFold2-style baseline, and the public NanoFold benchmark. The benchmark provides a small, curated fixed-data and automatically scorable substrate for structural-biology experimentation. Keep the first implementation small enough to test with targeted unit tests and microbenchmarks before launching expensive training runs.
Run the search with Goal Mode
- Supply a falsifiable, high-level scientific hypothesis instead of asking the model to invent an entire research agenda from scratch.
- Use GPT-5.5 Pro in ChatGPT to convert that direction into an implementation plan with explicit constraints and ablations.
- Ask Codex to implement the smallest runnable SimplexFold baseline, then verify it with targeted unit tests and microbenchmarks.
- Give the resulting repository to Codex Goal Mode and instruct it to hill-climb validation lDDT-Cα on the NanoFold benchmark while preserving experiment logs, plans, and artifact references.
- Run Goal Mode continuously while it uses benchmark feedback to iterate on the architecture, training recipe, and experimental harness. In this example, the loop ran for more than 150 hours.
Use PLAN.md for the current strategy and next steps, EXPERIMENTS.md for a structured log of results, and EXPERIMENT_NOTES.md for the running scratchpad. These artifacts make a long-running search auditable and give you a stable place to steer the next iteration.
Goal Mode is useful here because the search requires repeated implementation, testing, experiment tracking, failure diagnosis, and benchmark-driven iteration. Unguided autoresearch often drifted toward familiar local changes such as losses, optimizers, and hyperparameters. A compact scientist-supplied architecture hypothesis gave Codex a more meaningful search space while still leaving room to test, diagnose, and refine the implementation.
This workflow is also useful for teams evaluating how scientist-in-the-loop steering changes the quality of agentic scientific search.
Example result
The result of this workflow was SimplexFold, an experimental architecture with explicit higher-order simplex states. Review the topology alongside the benchmark logs to confirm that each iteration still tests the original scientific idea.

The useful lesson is not that Codex autonomously solved protein folding. The workflow shows how Goal Mode can act as a persistent scientific engineering loop: a scientist contributes the conceptual move, and Codex compresses the implementation, experimentation, debugging, and follow-up search cycle.
Treat promising diagnostics as evidence that the implementation path works, not as proof of generalization. Review the agent’s trajectory periodically, steer it back toward scientifically meaningful architecture questions if it collapses into local hyperparameter tuning, and promote claims only after matched public-validation comparisons and appropriate replicates.
Resources
- SimplexFold repository
- SimplexFold benchmark plan
- NanoFold competition
- NanoFold competition rules
- Goal Mode running for more than 150 hours
- Goal Mode article