exptK

Exptk, short for Experiment Toolkit, is a cross-platform open-source software framework for designing, running, and analyzing controlled experiments, with particular emphasis on psychology, neuroscience, and human-computer interaction. It aims to promote reproducible research by separating experiment logic from presentation and data handling. The toolkit provides a modular architecture in which experiments are described as graphs of tasks, trials, and stimuli, and executed by a lightweight runtime.

Experiment definitions are stored in human-readable configuration files (such as JSON or YAML). The core engine schedules stimuli, records responses, and timestamps events with precision suitable for behavioral experiments. Features include randomization and counterbalancing, conditional branching, and loops; support for multiple stimulus modalities (text, images, audio, video); and accommodation for diverse response devices. Data are logged with rich metadata and can be exported in CSV, JSON, or other formats for analysis. The system is designed to be extended via plugins or backends, enabling different presentation layers (graphical interfaces, web-based tasks, or laboratory hardware).

The project emphasizes portability and reproducibility. Experiments can be version-controlled, shared, and re-run under the same configuration. The ecosystem typically provides documentation, example projects, and tutorials to help researchers adopt best practices in experimental design and data management. Contributions are coordinated via a public repository with issue tracking and continuous integration, and development follows open-source licensing terms.

Exptk is maintained by an international open-source community and is released under an open-source license. It interoperates with common data-analysis pipelines and is often compared with other tooling such as PsychoPy, OpenSesame, and jsPsych.