Research Timeline

Track, visualize, and export research timelines — from first AI interaction to scientific discovery.

RETTIFICA (01/09/2026): una precedente asserzione di unicità di questo strumento è stata formulata senza una verifica di mercato documentata. La verifica del 01/09/2026 ha evidenziato strumenti simili esistenti (timeline-fishbone-generator, timeline-maker, SubThesis Timeline Generator, Research-Timeline-Planner, The Timeline Project, altri). Questo strumento non è unico: si distingue per tracciamento AI→scoperta, evidence QPU e disclosure ai_role, ma la sua esistenza non è isolata.

research-timeline documents the process of research, not just its artifacts: every milestone of a project (the first AI interaction that shaped the protocol, the first QPU commit with its evidence, pivots, controls, submissions, publications) is recorded in a single versioned JSON file with typed events, quantitative metrics, and supporting evidence.

Features

• Typed events — T0, T1…Tn, pivot, control, submission, publication, milestone
• Metrics — attach any quantitative result (z-scores, shots, backend, MI, …) to an event
• Evidence — git commits, IBM Quantum job IDs, data links, code links
• AI-role disclosure — each timeline declares how AI was used (cognitive_prosthesis, co_pilot, autonomous_agent)
• Exports — LaTeX table (papers/reports), Markdown, standalone HTML, schema.org JSON-LD
• Validate — structural checks with CI-friendly exit codes
• Simple JSON storage — human readable, diff-friendly, git-native, zero lock-in

Installation

pip install -e .
# or from the archive:
pip install git+https://github.com/Strugiss/research-timeline.git

Usage

# Initialize a timeline
research-timeline init --output timeline.json

# Log a typed event (with metrics and evidence)
research-timeline log T1 --desc "First commit: 14 QPU experiments, Z>50sigma" \
  --z-combined 50.0 --git-commit c3ddc4a --job-ids abc,def --tags commit,qpu

# List events (optionally with metrics)
research-timeline list --metrics

# Export to LaTeX (papers), Markdown, HTML, or JSON-LD
research-timeline export --format latex -o timeline.tex
research-timeline export --format markdown -o timeline.md
research-timeline export --format html -o timeline.html
research-timeline export --format jsonld -o timeline.jsonld

# Validate
research-timeline validate

See example/timeline.json for a real-world timeline (the PASM DTC Discovery project, N47Lab MatterMemory research program) and the generated exports in example/.

Event IDs

T0, T1, T2, …, Tn (ordered research phases) plus special events: pivot, control, submission, publication, milestone.

File Format

A timeline is a single JSON document:

{
  "project": {"name": "PASM DTC Discovery", "description": "...", "domain": "quantum"},
  "author": {"name": "N47Lab", "affiliation": "independent", "ai_role": "cognitive_prosthesis"},
  "events": [{
    "id": "T1", "type": "T1", "date": "2026-07-31",
    "description": "First commit: 14 QPU experiments, Z>50sigma",
    "metrics": {"z_score_combined": 50.0},
    "evidence": {"git_commit": "c3ddc4a", "job_ids": ["abc"]}
  }]
}

The schema is documented in schema/timeline.schema.json (JSON Schema draft-07).

Development & Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md — tests, coding conventions, and governance.

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest tests/ -v

Software Heritage

This repository is archived in permanent storage: swh:1:snp:62a2f748e52113016cf291c4b8c944e86c6848bf

License

MIT — see LICENSE.