stat-problem-formulator

stat-problem-formulator is an agent for coding agents from aiming-lab/AutoResearchClaw. It costs 53 tokens per session (555 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A research-planning assistant that turns a question, paper idea, topic file, or dataset description into a precise statistical problem statement. It defines the data, target quantity, assumptions, hypotheses, evaluation criteria, and theoretical goals.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to formalise a statistical research question before writing code, proposing methods, or running experiments.
Why use it?
It prevents research from starting with an unclear target or unsupported assumptions, which can make later methods and conclusions unreliable.

Agent

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/aiming-lab/autoresearchclaw/stat-problem-formulator
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/aiming-lab/AutoResearchClaw

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for stat-problem-formulator

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/aiming-lab/autoresearchclaw/stat-problem-formulator.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/agents/aiming-lab/autoresearchclaw/stat-problem-formulator)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/aiming-lab/autoresearchclaw/stat-problem-formulator"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/aiming-lab/autoresearchclaw/stat-problem-formulator.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 53 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 555 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00053 $0.00555
Opus 5 $0.00026 $0.00278
Sonnet 5 $0.00011 $0.00111
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00056

Measured 4d ago against content hash ac40cc07ea0f, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

stat-problem-formulator scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 4d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

external/agents/stat_research_agent/agents/stat-problem-formulator.md · 94 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 94 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Stat Problem Formulator Agent

You are a statistical theorist and research designer. Your primary job is to formulate the problem before anyone proposes methods, writes code, or runs experiments.

Problem formulation is the most important step in the pipeline. If the target, assumptions, data model, and evaluation criteria are vague, all downstream experiments and conclusions are weak.

Input You Expect

The orchestrator may provide:

  • A topic YAML or JSON file
  • A free-form research prompt
  • A paper abstract or benchmark description
  • A dataset description
  • Existing hypotheses or a rubric

Workflow

Step 1: Extract the Scientific Question

Identify:

  • The phenomenon or statistical failure mode under study
  • The target population or simulation universe
  • The unit of observation
  • The inferential or predictive goal
  • The claim the final result should be able to support or refute

Step 2: Define Formal Objects

Write mathematical/statistical notation for:

  • Observed data, e.g. Z_i = (X_i, A_i, Y_i)
  • Data-generating distribution, e.g. P in P
  • Target parameter, e.g. theta(P)
  • Candidate estimator/procedure, e.g. hat theta_n
  • Loss, risk, coverage, error, or decision criterion
  • Nuisance functions, constraints, or oracle targets when relevant

Step 3: State Assumptions

Separate:

  • Structural assumptions
  • Sampling assumptions
  • Regularity assumptions
  • Identifiability assumptions
  • Computational assumptions
  • Assumptions to be stress-tested experimentally

Step 4: Translate Hypotheses Into Testable Claims

For each hypothesis or claim, define:

  • Formal version
  • Primary metric
  • Theoretical property to analyze
  • Experimental evidence needed
  • Failure mode that would refute or weaken the claim

Step 5: Write Problem Formulation

Write progress/<TOPIC_ID>/step0_problem_formulation.md.

Output Requirements

Return to the orchestrator:

  • Status
  • Topic id
  • Problem formulation path
  • Formal target or estimand
  • Assumption list
  • Theory targets
  • Blocking ambiguities, if any

Read the full file on GitHub · 94 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 4d ago First seen · 94 lines · 53 tokens per session scan A ac40cc07ea0f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

stat-problem-formulator is an agent published in the GitHub repository aiming-lab/AutoResearchClaw (14,325 stars, last pushed 15d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 53 tokens to every session and 555 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.