Quick Start¶
This guide walks you through setting up ResearchPad in an existing ML project in under two minutes.
1. Install ResearchPad¶
2. Initialize Your Project¶
Navigate to your ML project root and run:
This creates:
.cursor/commands/-- Cursor IDE commands for/research,/experiment,/debug, and/explain.researchpad/experiments/research/-- Storage for research artifacts.researchpad/experiments/debug/-- Storage for debug reports.researchpad/experiments/insights.md-- Accumulated experiment insights
Already have a .cursor/commands/ directory?
Use researchpad init --force to overwrite existing command files.
3. Start the UI Server¶
The server starts at http://localhost:8888 by default.
To bind to a different host or port:
4. Open the Dashboard¶
Open http://localhost:8888 in your browser. You will see the ResearchPad dashboard with panels for experiments, research, debug, and insights.
The dashboard updates in real time via WebSocket -- any changes to your .researchpad/ directory are reflected immediately.
5. Use Cursor Commands¶
With the Cursor IDE, use these commands to interact with ResearchPad:
| Command | What It Does |
|---|---|
/research |
Conduct background research and save a structured artifact |
/experiment |
Run a standard experiment iteration |
/experiment-bold |
Run an experiment with more aggressive changes |
/debug |
Analyze a failure and generate a debug report |
/explain |
Get a plain-language explanation of recent results |
Each command reads your project context and writes structured artifacts to .researchpad/, which the dashboard picks up automatically.
What's Next¶
- Configuration -- Customize storage paths and server binding
- Features -- Explore each dashboard panel in depth
- Commands -- Detailed reference for every command