Research Workspace

Research Workspace is the Pro, model-scoped interface for five discrete research workflows. It is a place to preserve and govern work already present in a Grid model. It is not a program recommender, an academic-fit analysis, or a “Where Should I Go” destination surface.

In Grid, “academic research” means reproducible computational evidence, purpose-bound governance, disciplinary interchange, specialist-validation preparation, and citable release over exact model artifacts. It does not mean that Grid makes institutional, admissions, publication, or scientific-validity decisions on a researcher's behalf.

Open an existing model, then choose Research in the top bar, Research Workspace in the View menu, or Open Research Workspace in the command palette. Existing product surfaces can also open the same workspace with bounded context:

• Experiments: Seal research evidence opens Evidence & Reproducibility with the published experiment lineage and matching output labels.
• Molecule: Validate with GROMACS opens Specialist Validation. A selected digest-bound linked portable or periodic parameterized system that retained exact GROMACS .gro and preprocessed .top sources is offered for verified promotion; every other molecular selection opens contextual guidance only.
• Document: Cite & release opens Scholarly Release with the document title.

All three actions lead into the same model-scoped workspace. They do not create parallel research state or a second product.

The five workflows

1. Evidence & Reproducibility

The workspace reads a current capture fence: model revision, exact execution- plan SHA-256, and the selectable model outputs. Choose one or more outputs, confirm classifications and optional parent evidence, then prepare an immutable capture subject.

To publish the final evidence snapshot, first create a policy in Research Use Policies whose exact scope includes that capture-subject artifact. Return to Evidence, provide the policy ID, purpose, and recipient class, and publish. The verification action reopens the immutable graph and reports which components can be verified. V1 is current-revision capture; it does not claim effectful reexecution or historical AS_OF publication.

2. Research Use Policies

Publish an immutable policy with an exact logical ID, purpose, recipients, allowed operations, artifact scope, data classes, validity and retention, and at least one signed authority release. Signed consent releases are optional. Loading a policy reads its current immutable policy/status pair. A successor or withdrawal uses that pair as a compare-and-swap fence, so concurrent changes fail rather than silently overwriting one another. Loading also replaces the editable form with the exact current purpose, recipients, operations, scope, classes, authority/consent references, validity, and retention values; it does not construct a successor from stale defaults.

A policy records authorization facts for an admitted operation. It does not authenticate the current caller, grant a machine executor, or turn arbitrary metadata into legal consent.

3. Bibliography & Standards

Import bounded CSL-JSON, BibTeX, or RIS. Grid commits the exact classified source, normalized bibliography, and immutable reconciliation receipt as one visible graph. The receipt declares adapter identity, warnings, and known normalization losses; exact retries reuse it, while conflicting retries fail closed. Export requires the exact bibliography artifact, policy, purpose, and recipient class.

The adapter intentionally declares its limits: CSL-JSON and BibTeX have the qualified semantic round-trip vectors documented in the API reference; RIS round-trip and BibTeX/RIS unknown-field preservation are not claimed. Every successful download is accompanied by a visible export-fidelity report bound to the immutable input, adapter, exact media type, output digest and byte count. It lists format-specific validations, preserved fields, transformations, omissions, and boundaries rather than describing any bibliography format as generically lossless.

4. Specialist Validation

Upload exact .gro, .top, and .mdp files to publish one canonical, self-contained GROMACS input candidate. Grid stores the three unchanged byte sequences with per-file identities and a domain-framed aggregate digest. An execution-request candidate separately pins tool, environment, inputs, outputs, seeds, and timeout. A successful input publication supplies its host-authenticated content digest and is inserted into that request form.

The Validate with GROMACS contextual action has a second, fail-closed path for an eligible life-science artifact. Grid accepts only a digest-matched linked portable_parameterized_system or periodic_parameterized_system whose source metadata is exactly gromacs_gro_preprocessed_top, meaning it retained an exact .gro and preprocessed .top. Supply the exact .mdp in the workspace; Grid reopens the source, verifies its digest and retained files, and then publishes the same canonical grid.molecular.gromacs-input.v1 candidate. An ordinary molecule, structure, trajectory, managed artifact, or mismatched digest is guidance only and cannot be promoted.

Publishing or promoting an input does not itself run GROMACS. Execution still requires a verified Domain Pack and the governed workflow/job path. In the separately selected native-Linux composition, Grid's fixed rootless-Podman worker admits only the digest-pinned single-argon reference contract and publishes its typed summary, raw stdout/stderr evidence, resource observations, receipt, and V&V graph atomically. Ordinary Pro has no worker. Grid has no built-in HPC scheduler, shell endpoint, arbitrary-code runner, client-selected image, or silent host-process fallback.

5. Scholarly Release

Compose an immutable scholarly object and deterministic RO-Crate candidate from the exact policy, bibliography, evidence, typed execution receipts, typed V&V reports, and supporting artifacts. Grid supplies host time and actor attribution. Publish an active, corrected, superseded, or retracted release-status candidate. Corrected and superseded statuses name their successor release, while every transition after the first carries the current status artifact as a compare-and-swap fence. Activate a candidate only through a verified signed governed release for the exact executable-research/release-disposition workflow.

Verification reopens the signed release and package closure. Governed export supports RO-Crate, PROV-O, DataCite JSON, and Citation File Format. DataCite and identifier fields are metadata: Grid does not mint a DOI, deposit into a repository, or contact an external registry. The download view shows the verified export-fidelity report beside the file. RO-Crate, PROV-O, DataCite, and CFF each have distinct claims; metadata exports do not inherit package-integrity claims. V1 does not mutate an already signed release or RO-Crate to add a report derived after export. A report may instead be preserved as an immutable supporting artifact in a later deliberately composed scholarly object; its RO-Crate embeds and semantically verifies that report at the canonical reports/export-fidelity/ path without making a self-referential fidelity claim.

Presentation export fidelity

Visuals prepares an exact SVG or PNG and shows its format-specific fidelity report before download. The SVG report describes serialization of the current live presentation tree. The PNG report describes the exact submitted raster, its declared 2x dimensions, and white-background rendering request; validating the PNG signature, dimensions, digest, and size does not prove pixel-causal equivalence, portable font resolution, or the final composited background.

An authenticated user with model write access may explicitly preserve that prepared export. Grid commits the exact source SVG, exact output bytes, and canonical fidelity report as immutable artifacts. The browser still downloads the same prepared bytes; preservation does not introduce a generic artifact download route. The preserved output and report can later be deliberately selected as supporting artifacts for a scholarly object. A presentation export remains a presentation, not a model snapshot, accessible-data substitute, archival research package, or verified evidence artifact.

Artifact review center and data egress

Search stays visible above the artifact results. Advanced filters reveals kind, schema, producer, data class, source and created-date fields; its applied count keeps hidden restrictions apparent. Closing the disclosure preserves the draft. Apply uses all entered filters, and an invalid date range reopens the fields and focuses the endpoint that needs correction. Reset clears both search and advanced filters.

Current policy review reveals the context needed for artifact evaluation. Closing it preserves entered values; the requested operation remains visible above the results. Browsing metadata needs no policy context.

The workspace renders at most 24 immutable artifact records per page. Search, kind, schema, producer, data class, source, and created-time filters are applied before pagination against one model/partition/query-bound snapshot. A continuation cannot drift onto a new snapshot; an expired or mismatched cursor fails closed. The browser never mirrors unbounded offscreen records into a hidden accessibility tree.

Discovery fetches metadata and bounded lineage only; it never preloads artifact contents. Every card presents immutable identity, source/managed mode, producer, classifications, parent/owned counts, digest, byte count, and metadata-verification state. A reviewer can enter an exact current policy artifact, purpose, recipient, and requested operation and receive the current allowed/denied decision plus status-artifact identity. This is a read-only review of current authority, not legal consent, scientific approval, or commit authority. Changing the model, partition, filters, or artifact invalidates the browser selection.

Selecting a record routes known schemas into the active form's typed policy, bibliography, evidence, execution-receipt, V&V-report, or scholarly-object field and copies the ID when browser permissions allow. Successful publications refresh the bounded review result without remounting the five workflow panels.

Research-governed raw bytes are not available through the generic artifact content route in a Pro deployment. Bytes leave only through a supported, purpose-specific export operation such as bibliography or scholarly export, which reopens exact identities and evaluates the bound policy. Artifacts that have no such export operation are intentionally unavailable as raw downloads.

Failure, retry, and recovery

• Switching tabs, changing model, closing the workspace, or choosing Cancel request aborts the in-flight browser request.
• A 409 means a revision, policy head, or status fence changed. Refresh the capture context or load the current policy/status before making a new decision; do not replay the old mutation blindly.
• A 429 or 503 may include a retry interval. Re-read current state before retrying an operation whose durable outcome was uncertain.
• Published artifacts are immutable. Corrections create successors, dispositions, or new snapshots rather than rewriting prior evidence.
• Interrupted multi-artifact publication remains protected by a durable transaction and is reconciled through the artifact store; the browser is not the source of commit truth.

Availability

Research Workspace is included only in Pro products. Lite packages contain neither the workspace nor its five workflow labels, routes, research services, or specialist execution contracts. A Pro deployment plan paired with Lite bytes fails closed at startup.

For formula-authored exact mathematics that can feed research evidence, see Symbolic mathematics. Symbolic mathematics and Research Workspace share model/artifact identity and provenance, but one does not grant the other native capability, policy, execution, or publication authority.