buffs: add FormatSpread prompt-format-sensitivity buff (#396) - #2009
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manunicholasjacob wants to merge 1 commit into
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buffs: add FormatSpread prompt-format-sensitivity buff (#396)#2009manunicholasjacob wants to merge 1 commit into
manunicholasjacob wants to merge 1 commit into
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Signed-off-by: manunicholasjacob <manunicholasjacob@gmail.com>
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Summary
Adds a
formatspreadbuff (garak/buffs/formatspread.py) motivated byFormatSpread (Sclar et al., ICLR 2024): models are sensitive to spurious prompt
formatting. Addresses #396.
What it does
FormatSpreadrewrites each prompt into a fixed, deterministic set of surface-format variants composed from the paper's format grammar: descriptor
(Instruction / Task / Request), separator (
": ","::"," - ","\n"),casing (identity / upper / lower / title), and field spacing (
"\n\n"," || ")with an optional answer descriptor. Buffing a probe with it surfaces how much
formatting alone moves model behavior.
Detection
None added. Buffs transform prompts; detection is handled by the probe or
detector the buff is applied to.
Testing
blackclean, pylint 10/10tests/buffs/test_buffs.pyandtest_buff_config.pypass (structural andload/transform tests auto-cover the new buff)
latentinjection.LatentWhois) expandsprompts 12x and completes
Closes #396.