# Design, assayed.

PROTOCOL v0.1 · OPEN

An open protocol for evolving design systems the way labs screen molecules. Generate widely. Measure everything. Keep what survives.

[Read the protocol](https://darwiniancreativity.com/protocol)
[See the fitness functions](https://darwiniancreativity.com/fitness-functions)

Illustration: a 96-well assay plate with 7 highlighted wells. Not real assay data.

## THE PRINCIPLE

### Variation is cheap.

Agents produce thousands of credible variants in the time a team makes three.

### Judgment becomes a function.

What a senior designer checks gets measured, scored and logged.

### Selection is the craft.

The designer defines what fit means and steers what survives.

### Receipts or it did not happen.

Every assay publishes variants, hits, hit rate and gain over baseline.

## RECEIPTS

### Assay 001, in progress.

| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Variants generated | pending |
| Generations | pending |
| Hits | pending |
| Hit rate | pending |
| Baseline composite | pending |
| Best composite | pending |
| Gain over baseline | pending |
| Wall-clock time | pending |
| Compute cost (EUR) | pending |
| Human review time | pending |

First results publish here with a full run record.

### Research basis.

Variation and selective retention as a model of creativity: Campbell (1960), Simonton. Design Assay turns the theory into an engineering practice.

### Built for agents.

- [llms.txt](https://darwiniancreativity.com/llms.txt): A plain-text index for agents.
- [protocol.json](https://darwiniancreativity.com/protocol.json): The protocol as structured data.
- [.md mirrors](https://darwiniancreativity.com/protocol.md): The same docs, in Markdown.

## Bring a target.

Have a screen, flow or design system worth assaying? Assays 002 and 003 are open.

[Work with Hyke](https://www.rokusho.com/)
[Read the manifesto](https://darwiniancreativity.com/manifesto)