README.md

---
license: cc-by-4.0
language:
- en
pretty_name: FrontierChallenge Reference
---

# FrontierChallenge reference data

FrontierChallenge reference data provides **97 authenticated, encrypted
verifier archives**.

| Path | Contents |
|---|---|
| `tasks/<task-id>/verifier.fcref` | encrypted `tests/`: grader, rubric, fixtures, validation code, and reference outputs |
| `manifest.jsonl` | archive paths, sizes, and SHA-256 commitments |
| `source_registry.json` | release binding shared with GitHub and the solve dataset |
| `tools/` | integrity checker and standalone unsealer |

The archive password is public:

```text
frontier-challenge-reference
```

Encryption prevents casual search-engine and Dataset Viewer indexing; it is
not access control. Anyone evaluating the benchmark can unseal an archive:

```bash
python tools/unseal_verifier.py tasks/<task-id>
```

Normal evaluation does not require manual unsealing. The evaluator runtime
requires Python 3.12+ for its pinned Harbor 0.20.0 (see the
[Quickstart](https://github.com/ApodexAI/FrontierAgent/blob/main/benchmarks/frontierchallenge/docs/quickstart.md)). The
[FrontierChallenge runtime](https://github.com/ApodexAI/FrontierAgent/tree/main/benchmarks/frontierchallenge)
verifies the solve/reference registry, copies the selected archive into
evaluator-owned staging, authenticates and decrypts `tests/`, and gives Harbor
that staged task. Harbor exposes the instruction and environment to the agent
but reserves `tests/` for its verifier phase.

This repository deliberately contains no instructions, task inputs, or runtime
environments. Verify a downloaded reference package with:

```bash
python tools/verify_reference_dataset.py
```

## Metrics

Official Pass Rate uses a **strict score threshold**: a task passes only when
`evaluation_complete == 1` and valid `task_score > 0.999`. Native per-task
thresholds do not determine this metric.
Use unrounded scores: exactly `0.999` does not pass; `0.9991` and `1.0` pass.

- **Pass Rate (%)** = 100 × number of completed tasks with valid `task_score > 0.999` / 97.
- **Score (0–100)** = 100 × sum of valid, completed `task_score` values / 97.
- Partial credit remains the native rubric score normalized to [0, 1].
  Missing tasks, invalid scores, and incomplete evaluations contribute zero
  to the fixed denominator and must be reported separately; incomplete runs
  are not final benchmark results.
- Use one predeclared attempt per task. A subset may use its predeclared task
  count as denominator, but must be labeled as a subset, not the 97-task result.

There is only one pass field, `passed`, using the same strict threshold in
`reward.json`, `summary.csv`, and `summary.json`. No alternate pass field is
emitted. The runtime applies this rule to the staged reward adapter after
unsealing; encrypted archives and partial-credit rubrics remain unchanged.
The updated runtime also removes native pass decisions from published verifier
diagnostics. Jobs created by older runtimes cannot be resumed under the new
policy: use a fresh job name. Old files are left untouched; summarizing an old
job recomputes the official metric but does not rewrite its logs or rewards.
The summary records `metric_definition: score-gt-0.999`. Historical results
using per-task thresholds, `== 1.0`, or `>= 0.999` must be recomputed from raw
scores before comparison. See the
[scoring guide](https://github.com/ApodexAI/FrontierAgent/blob/main/benchmarks/frontierchallenge/docs/scoring.md)
and [runtime update](https://github.com/ApodexAI/FrontierAgent/pull/30).

**Runtime rollout:** the runtime update is pending. Before reporting results,
check that your summary records `metric_definition: score-gt-0.999`;
older runtimes use the legacy rule. Use the runtime summary for the fixed
97-task denominator; Harbor may aggregate only attempted trials.

## Integrity

The root `README.md` is a mutable dataset card and is intentionally outside
`checksums.sha256`. Task files (including task-level READMEs), manifests,
registries, and verification tools remain checksummed. Payload changes require
regenerating their checksum entries; editing this card does not.

## Citation

```bibtex
@misc{apodex11,
  title         = {Apodex 1.1: Scaling Agentic Intelligence for Complex Work},
  author        = {{Apodex Team}},
  year          = {2026},
  eprint        = {2608.23283},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  primaryClass  = {cs.AI},
  url           = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.23283}
}

@misc{frontierchallenge,
  title         = {FrontierChallenge: Evaluating Scientific Workflow Completion},
  author        = {Liangcai Su and Zhaopeng Feng and Zhuo Chen and Zhen Zhang
                   and Xiang Lin and Ruilin Li and Handuo Zhang and Ning Wang
                   and Kailong Wen and Yueqi Guo and Feng Xing and Yiling Guo
                   and Chenxiong Qian and Simon Shaolei Du and Lidong Bing
                   and Xinyu Wang},
  year          = {2026},
  eprint        = {2608.24979},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  primaryClass  = {cs.AI},
  url           = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.24979}
}
```