Experiment Templates

The CLI uses Markdown templates with YAML frontmatter for experiment round-trips. All names (metrics, owners, teams, tags, applications) are resolved by name — no IDs needed.

# Generate a blank template
abs experiments generate-template -o experiment.md

# Export an existing experiment as a template
abs experiments get 123 -o template > experiment.md
abs experiments get 123 -o template --embed-screenshots > experiment.md  # with base64 screenshots
abs experiments get 123 -o template --screenshots-dir ./screenshots      # save screenshots as files

# Create from template
abs experiments create --from-file experiment.md
abs experiments create --from-file experiment.md --dry-run   # preview payload
cat experiment.md | abs experiments create --from-file -     # from stdin

# Update from template
abs experiments update 123 --from-file experiment.md

# Clone (shortcut)
abs experiments clone 123 --name my-clone

# Restart with changes
abs experiments restart 123 --from-file changes.md --reason hypothesis_iteration

Template format

---
name: my_experiment
display_name: "My Experiment"
unit_type: user_id
application: www
primary_metric: Net conversion rate
secondary_metrics:
  - Gross conversion rate
  - Product page views
guardrail_metrics:
  - Page load time (ms)
  - Error rate
percentages: 50/50
percentage_of_traffic: 100
owners:
  - Márcio Martins <[email protected]>
  - Cal Courtney <[email protected]>
teams:
  - Product
  - Engineering
tags:
  - q1
  - homepage
analysis_type: group_sequential
required_alpha: 0.1
required_power: 0.8
baseline_participants: 143
---

## Audience

```json
{
  "filter": [
    { "and": [{ "eq": [{ "var": { "path": "language" } }, { "value": "en-GB" }] }] }
  ]
}
```

## Variants

### variant_0

name: Control
config: {}
![Control variant](./screenshots/control.png)

### variant_1

name: Treatment
config: {"feature_enabled": true}
![Treatment variant](./screenshots/treatment.png)

## Description

### Hypothesis

We believe changing X will improve Y by Z%.

### Implementation Details

Details here...

## JIRA

### JIRA URL

https://jira.example.com/IT-1234

Template features

• Metrics: resolved by name, including archived metrics
• Owners: Name <email>, email, or user ID
• Teams/tags: resolved by name
• Audience: JSON code block, parsed and compacted for the API
• Custom fields: grouped by section name (matches UI sections)
• User-type fields: exported as email, converted back to {"selected":[{"userId":N}]}
• Screenshots: local file paths, URLs, or base64 data URIs
• Type: inferred from command (abs experiments → test, abs features → feature)