Exp Batch: confirm necessity → clarify config → preflight → run → land metrics

Small but complete: one branch, done right, plottable. Do not expand scope sideways into other branches; do not shrink rigor to save time.

1. Confirm the branch is still necessary

• Check project memory, the campaign plan, and existing results: has a probe already pruned this branch? Is the metric already measured under an equivalent configuration? If yes, say so and stop (or record why the earlier pruning does not apply).
• Restate in 2-3 sentences: what this batch adds to the final table/figure, which cells it fills, and its acceptance metric. No plan document.

2. Grill only unresolved config decisions

• Facts (paths, device availability, cache locations, prior configs) are yours to inspect. Ask the user only for choices that change the scientific meaning: hyperparameters not pinned by protocol, seed count, which split, callback-vs-reload coverage, formal vs exploratory status.
• Keep the batch's metric contract identical to sibling runs: same splits, same metric definitions, same surfaces. A batch measured differently cannot share a figure with the others — flag any deviation explicitly in the record.
• Ask one round of structured questions; a second round is allowed only when an answer opened a genuinely new scientific choice. If config decisions explode, the work is actually a campaign — propose exp-campaign.

3. Preflight: environment and resources

A run that starts without this pass is the run that fights someone else for the default device. It takes seconds, needs no approval, and happens before every launch — probe or formal, long or short. Skipping ceremony is the point (no scaffolding, no defensive code, no extra approval rounds); this one look is not ceremony.