Experiments

An experiment is the central unit of work in MINT. It has a unique type-scoped code, a type, a status, optional dates, optional collaborators, one design-data payload, and analysis results keyed by plugin.

[Screenshot: experiment detail page with header, design panel, analyze tab, and results tab]

Anatomy

Field	Description
Code	Auto-assigned, globally unique, and derived from the experiment type (LCM-EXP-001, DR-EXP-001, …).
Title	Human-readable label. Editable any time.
Type	Selected at creation; determines the design schema and plugin allowlists.
Status	planned, ongoing, completed, or cancelled. See Lifecycle.
Owner	The user who created it.
Collaborators	Per-experiment role overrides on top of project membership.
Design data	One JSON payload owned by the experiment-design or full plugin.
Analysis results	JSON outputs keyed by plugin ID. A plugin can keep its own run history inside its result payload.
Artifacts	Uploaded files (RAW data, plates, sequence sheets, etc.).

Create an experiment

From a project page, click New experiment on the Experiments tab.

[Screenshot: new-experiment modal with type selector and design fields]

Field	Notes
Title	Required.
Type	Required. Populated from installed EXPERIMENT_DESIGN and FULL plugins (e.g., LC-MS sequence, drug-response panel). If empty, ask your admin to install a relevant plugin.
Design data	The form here is rendered by the type's plugin; it's whatever the plugin author defined.
Collaborators (optional)	Add now or later. New collaborators are added with the collaborator role; the creator is stored as owner.

Click Create. You land on the new experiment in planned status.

Lifecycle

   planned ──▶ ongoing ──▶ completed
      │          │
      └──────────┴──▶ cancelled ──▶ planned

Status	Meaning	Who can write
planned	Design is being filled in. No data uploaded yet.	Users with experiments.edit and visibility
ongoing	Data is being collected; analysis can run. Moving here auto-fills start_date if empty.	Same as planned
completed	Final state. Moving here auto-fills end_date if empty.	Same as planned unless a plugin blocks writes
cancelled	Terminal off-ramp for planned/ongoing work. Can be reactivated only to planned.	Same as planned

Core MINT validates only the cancelled rules above. Plugins can be stricter: many gate writes on ongoing or completed, and some require completed before publishing downstream results.

[Screenshot: status pill control showing the three states]

Plugin interaction

Plugin types interact with experiments differently:

Type	Experiment role
STATIC	Can read experiment context for viewers or reference tools, but cannot write design data or analysis results.
ANALYSIS	Reads existing experiments and writes its own entry under analysis_results plus produced artifacts.
EXPERIMENT_DESIGN	Owns an experiment type and writes that experiment's design_data.
FULL	Owns design data and can also write analysis results/artifacts.

A given experiment has exactly one design-owning plugin, selected by its type, but it can be analyzed by many ANALYSIS or FULL plugins over time.

See Plugins for the full plugin model.

Collaborators

Experiment visibility depends on access.experimentVisibilityMode:

Mode	Behavior
open (default)	Users with experiments.view can list/read experiments broadly.
restricted	Non-admin users see experiments they created, collaborate on, or can access through project membership.

Write actions are still gated by system permissions such as experiments.edit and experiments.delete. To grant visibility on a single experiment, add collaborators:

Collaborator role	Effect
collaborator	Can see the experiment even if they are not a project member
owner	Can manage collaborators and delete the experiment; MINT keeps at least one owner

Collaborators are stored on the experiment itself (in collaborators), not on the project. They survive even if the user is later removed from the project. See Members & roles for the underlying RBAC.

Search and filters

The experiments list inside a project supports:

Filter	Notes
Status	planned / ongoing / completed / cancelled
Type	Faceted by installed experiment types
Owner	Anyone in the project
Created in	Date range
Free text	Searches name and notes

[Screenshot: experiments list with multiple filters applied]

Deleting experiments

Deleting an experiment currently removes the experiment row. Treat it as irreversible from the UI and make sure your platform database backups cover the recovery window your lab needs. Plugin-owned tables and external artifacts should define their own cleanup or retention policy.

Next

→ Plugins — the full plugin model → Marketplace — install and request plugins → Members & roles — collaborators and overrides