Piotr Kulesza
A lab protocol is a document.
Core trick
A single Claude call converts protocol prose into timed steps, hazards, and clarification gaps, then maps spoken commands onto run actions like starting timers.
Description
A lab protocol is a document. It describes every step, in order, and it is completely correct —
but you have to follow it. You keep your own place, you remember what you already did, you watch the clock. It should be the other way round: the protocol should follow you.
benchpilot turns any wet-lab protocol into a run. A single Claude call reads the prose and returns a procedure — steps, live timers, hazards, either/or choices, and the gaps the document never filled, which it asks you about before you start. Then it shows you each step: one sample travelling through real 3D glassware, a centrifuge that spins for exactly as long as the timer runs. And because your hands are busy, you talk to it. Claude turns free speech into actions, so you can start a timer, move through the run, or dictate a note without touching anything. Everything you actually did is recorded.
Science starts where people learn to do it. When you're starting out, benchpilot leads you — it shows you what the words actually mean. When you know what you're doing, it follows you — it keeps your place, keeps your hands free, and writes down what really happened.
README excerpt
# benchpilot
**Paste a messy lab protocol → get a runnable, timed, gap-flagged 3D walkthrough
you can actually follow at the bench.**
**▶ Try it live: https://benchpilot.vercel.app**
Protocols are prose — a Word doc, a PDF, a paragraph in a paper's methods, often
written by someone else and always missing something. Timings are buried in
sentences, values are underspecified ("350 µl for ≤5×10⁶ cells, 600 µl for more"
— which one is *you*?), hazards are easy to skim past (especially negatives like
*do NOT centrifuge*), and the state of the sample lives only in your head.
benchpilot turns that document into something you can run.
## What it does
1. **Ingest.** Paste text or drop a `.docx`, in any language. The original is
kept verbatim; English is shown by default with a toggle back to the source.
2. **Understand.** A single Claude call turns the prose into structure — steps,
what each physically *does*, reagents and volumes, durations, spins, hazards
(including negatives), conditionals, either/or alternatives, repeats, and the
**gaps** the protocol leaves undefined.
3. **Before you start.** An intake screen surfaces the open questions the
document never asked ("Mini or Micro kit?", "How many cells?"), plus the
prep-ahead checklist, materials, and hazards. Answer once and the run resolves
correctly instead of guessing.
4. **Run it.** A calm, one-step-at-a-time **3D walkthrough**: the right equipment
appears for each action (a centrifuge that spins,