Scientific Hypothesis Generation
Turns observations into evidence-bounded candidate hypotheses, rival explanations, discriminating predictions, and preregistration-ready analysis plans.
EducationAdvanced★ 33,030⑂ 3,248AI score 9/10Last updated: Aug 9, 2026
What it does
- Keeps observation, research question, hypothesis, mechanism, estimand, prediction, and evidence strictly separate so nothing gets promoted to "fact" prematurely.
- Forces generation of rival explanations first: measurement artifact, confounding, selection/attrition, collider conditioning, reverse causation, chance, competing mechanisms.
- Requires declaring the claim type (descriptive / associational / predictive / causal / mechanistic) and, for causal targets, a fully specified estimand with identification assumptions.
- Builds a dated evidence boundary (search date, databases, queries, exclusions) so you say "not located within the documented search boundary" instead of "no prior work exists".
- Ships deterministic, offline CLIs (Python 3.11+ stdlib only) for causal-claim linting, operationalization checks, prediction/rival matrices, evidence-ledger audits, and preregistration scaffolding.
Who it's for
- Graduate students and researchers drafting papers, theses, or grant proposals.
- Teams preparing OSF preregistrations, Registered Reports, or clinical/epidemiological protocols.
- Data analysts who need guardrails against sliding from association to causation.
Examples
- "Patients on drug A show lower relapse rates in our cohort" → get a labeled candidate set plus confounding/selection/reverse-causation rivals and tests that discriminate between them.
- Lint a manuscript draft with
python3 scripts/lint_causal_claims.py draft.mdto catch unsupported causal language. - Fill a hypothesis record JSON, then run
generate_preregistration_scaffold.py record.json -o preregistration.mdto produce a preregistration skeleton.
· · · Install guide · · ·
Try it now, no install
Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.
Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills/HEAD/skills/hypothesis-generation/SKILL.md What I want: (describe your task here)
If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.
↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.
Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
- Download the ZIP with the button below.
- In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
- Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
Install in Claude Code
Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code
Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart. Copy the skills/hypothesis-generation folder from the GitHub repo K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills into my ~/.claude/skills/hypothesis-generation/. When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.
Install with a command instead
git clone https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills.git && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r scientific-agent-skills/skills/hypothesis-generation ~/.claude/skills/⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.
- Open a terminal.
- Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills.git - Create the skills directory:
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills - Copy just this skill:
cp -r scientific-agent-skills/skills/hypothesis-generation ~/.claude/skills/ - Verify Python:
python3 --version(3.11+ required for the bundled CLIs; no extra packages needed). - Restart Claude Code, then prompt something like "Turn this observation into candidate hypotheses and rival explanations" to trigger the skill.
View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT