Show and tell: RunPod starter, size checker, and sweep runner for Parameter Golf

[Bortlesboat]

Hey everyone — I put together three small companion repos for the boring but expensive parts of Parameter Golf, mostly to reduce setup waste on RunPod and make it easier to sanity-check runs before opening a PR.

Repos

• parameter-golf-runpod-starter
  • preflight checks, bootstrap, data download, 1x H100 smoke, 8x H100 smoke, and record-folder scaffolding
• parameter-golf-size-checker
  • validates a record folder, parses the official footer metrics, and drafts submission.json
• parameter-golf-sweeps
  • runs small sequential ablations from one JSON config and writes summary.csv / summary.md

Why I built these

The official repo is good, but I kept wanting a faster "prove the pod is healthy / prove the run is submission-shaped" loop without adding a bigger experiment framework.

These helpers stay close to the upstream commands instead of trying to replace them.

What is already live-tested

• validated on the official RunPod Parameter Golf template
• 1x H100 smoke and baseline path working
• 8x H100 smoke path working end to end
• the 8x smoke run finished in 7m15.822s on a pod billed at $21.52/hr
• that smoke run produced an under-cap generated submission scaffold at 15,660,996 bytes

Best fit

• If you are just starting on RunPod: use the starter repo
• If you already have a candidate record folder: use the size checker
• If you want to try 3-10 small ablations without extra tooling: use the sweep runner

Not official, just sharing in case it saves someone time or credits. If people run into rough edges, I am happy to tighten these up.