--- name: colt-workflow description: Use when planning a COLT (Conference on Learning Theory) submission calendar backward from the single AoE paper deadline — proof-completion and verification milestones, writing and appendix-assembly passes, CMT logistics, the rebuttal window, decision aftermath, and PMLR camera-ready with conference presentation in early summer. --- # COLT Workflow Use this as the project-management layer for a COLT paper. Anchor everything to the live timetable: for the 39th edition the CFP (checked 2026-07-08) set one submission deadline — February 4, 2026, Anywhere on Earth, via CMT — for a conference running June 29 to July 3, 2026 in San Diego. Notification and camera-ready dates were not on the checked pages (待核实); take them from the CFP and acceptance email of your cycle. ## Stage map - **Fit decision**: confirm the contribution is a theorem a learning theorist wants (see `colt-topic-selection`); if the result is 80% proved, the clock question is whether the remaining 20% is verification or invention — only the first is schedulable. - **Result freeze**: theorem statements stop moving. At COLT this is the single most important date you control, because every downstream artifact (proof appendix, overviews, comparisons) quotes the statements. - **Verification**: independent re-derivation of every load-bearing proof (`colt-reproducibility`). Schedule it as real work with an owner per theorem — it finds bugs at a rate authors never want to believe. - **Writing**: body-first is a mistake here; write the appendix proofs first, then distill overviews into the body, so the body never promises what the appendix cannot deliver. - **Submission week**: CMT record early, anonymity sweep, single-PDF assembly (`colt-submission`). - **Rebuttal**: reviews arrive before decisions; block calendar capacity for the window even before you know its dates (`colt-author-response`). - **Aftermath**: acceptance → PMLR camera-ready and talk prep (`colt-camera-ready`); rejection → triage between fix-and-resubmit (next COLT / ALT) and re-routing. ## Backward plan from the deadline | Weeks before deadline | Milestone | Failure smell | |---|---|---| | 10+ | All main results proved at whiteboard level | "The lower bound should follow" — it does not, yet | | 8 | Theorem statements frozen; ledger of claims opened | Statements still absorbing scope changes | | 6 | Full proofs written in LaTeX, appendix-structured | Proofs alive only in notebooks and heads | | 4 | Independent verification pass complete; bugs triaged | "We'll verify while writing" (you will not) | | 3 | Body drafted: setup, results, proof overviews, known-vs-new table | Overview promises diverging from actual proofs | | 2 | Internal mock review by an uninvolved theorist | No one external has read the model section | | 1 | Anonymity sweep, notation audit, cross-reference check | Renumbering theorems this late | | 0 | Upload, re-download, verify the stored PDF; stop editing | Compiling at the AoE boundary | Weeks are heuristics; the deadline is not. AoE means when it is February 4 anywhere on Earth — compute your local cutoff and subtract a safety day. ## Verification is the critical path For a theory paper the long pole is never the writing; it is discovering at week 2 that Lemma 6 is false. Mitigations: - Verify in dependency order, most-load-bearing first — a bug in the master lemma invalidates weeks of downstream polishing. - When a bug appears, immediately re-derive the *weakest still-true statement* and check whether the paper survives with it; many COLT papers ship the weaker constant that week-3 debugging forced. - Maintain the claim ledger (see `colt-artifact-evaluation`) as the single source of verification status; standups read the ledger, not vibes. ## Team coordination template ```text # colt-plan.txt DEADLINE (AoE): 2026-02-04 -> local cutoff 2026-02-05 11:59 UTC-12 RESULT FREEZE: 2025-12-10 owner: all PROOF APPENDIX DRAFT: 2025-12-22 owner: A (Thm 1), B (Thm 2, lower bound) VERIFICATION PASS: 2026-01-09 owner: swap (B checks Thm 1, A checks Thm 2) BODY + OVERVIEWS: 2026-01-16 owner: A MOCK REVIEW: 2026-01-21 reader: C (not a coauthor) ANONYMITY + PDF QA: 2026-01-28 owner: B UPLOAD TARGET: 2026-02-02 (two days of slack, CMT record made 01-25) REBUTTAL WINDOW: dates TBA with reviews -> block capacity on release ``` ## Workflow failure modes specific to theory papers - **The moving theorem:** a coauthor strengthens a statement during the writing phase without re-opening its ledger entry; the appendix now proves the old claim. Rule: statement edits after freeze require a ledger re-verification, no exceptions. - **The optimistic lower bound:** upper bound done, lower bound "clearly similar to [X]" and scheduled for week 2. Lower bounds are inventions, not chores — either prove it before freeze or descope the paper to the upper bound honestly. - **The single-verifier trap:** the only person who checked Theorem 2 is the person who proved it. Swap verification assignments explicitly (the plan file above does). - **The deadline compile:** first full single-PDF build in the final 48 hours, discovering the restatement macros and cross-references were never wired. Build the full document skeleton — body, appendix, references — by week 3 even while proofs are placeholders. ## After the decision - Accepted: camera-ready per instructions; book San Diego-style summer logistics early (single-track conference, one venue hotel); decide who talks. - Rejected with deep reviews: the reviews are a free verification report — patch and target the next cycle or ALT (deadline typically in autumn; verify). - Rejected for significance: the mathematics may be sound but mis-framed; rework the motivation and known-vs-new ledger before blaming the result. - Either way, reconcile the arXiv version with what review taught you. - Debrief the ledger: which claims did reviewers actually verify, and did your internal verification pass catch what they caught? Calibrating that gap improves the next paper's schedule more than any template. ## Cycle-volatility warnings - Every date above except the verified 2026 deadline and conference dates is cycle-specific; notification, rebuttal window, camera-ready, and registration timing are 待核实 until announced. - Whether an Open Problems track (with its own deadline) runs in your cycle: check the CFP; the 2025 edition ran one with a later, non-anonymous, 4-page format. ## Output format ```text [Stage] proving / freeze / verification / writing / submitted / rebuttal / decision [Critical path] [Calendar] [Owner map] person> [Slack] ```