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mechanism-extraction

Research
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SOP: extract causal mechanism chains from a theory

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/yogsoth-ai/de-anthropocentric-research-engine/blob/HEAD/skills/mechanism-extraction/SKILL.md

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Mechanism Extraction

Extract structured causal mechanisms from a theory description, providing a skeleton for variable identification and hypothesis construction.

HARD-GATE

Not satisfied → stop, return error: the theory description is too vague to extract a mechanism.

Pipeline

  1. Precondition check: verify completeness of the theory description
  2. Causal chain identification: identify X → Y causal-relation statements in the theory text
  3. Mediator extraction: identify intermediate variables (mediators) between X and Y
  4. Mechanism naming: give each mechanism chain a short descriptive name
  5. Mechanism diagram construction: represent as a directed graph (text ASCII or JSON nodes/edges)
  6. Output a structured mechanism list

Output Format

[
  {
    "name": "Mechanism name",
    "chain": "X → mediator → Y",
    "variables": {
      "cause": "X description",
      "mediator": "mediator description (null if direct)",
      "effect": "Y description"
    },
    "source_theory": "Theory name this was extracted from",
    "direction": "positive | negative | conditional",
    "notes": "Any caveats or conditions"
  }
]

Extract at least 1 mechanism chain per theory; at least 2 in total.