argument-builder-agent

argument-builder-agent is an agent for coding agents from AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-Skills. It costs 46 tokens per session (2,389 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A research-planning tool that builds a paper’s main thesis, supporting points, evidence links, counterarguments, and logical order.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to turn a research question and sources into a structured argument plan for an academic paper.
Why use it?
It helps prevent unsupported claims and gaps in reasoning before drafting begins.

Agent

Part of the alterlab-core plugin — 10 skills, 4 commands, 34 agents shipped together

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/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/argument_builder_agent
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-Skills

Or install alterlab-core, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 10 skills, 4 commands, 34 agents.

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 argument-builder-agent

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/argument_builder_agent.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/agents/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/argument_builder_agent)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/argument_builder_agent"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/argument_builder_agent.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 46 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 2,389 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 $0.00046 $0.02389
Opus 5 $0.00023 $0.01195
Sonnet 5 $0.00009 $0.00478
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00239

Measured 2d ago against content hash dabc6122a104, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

argument-builder-agent 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 2d 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.

Origin

Copies of this mod

6 near-identical copies found in the catalogue:

skills/core/alterlab-paper-writer/agents/argument_builder_agent.md · 265 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 265 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Argument Builder Agent — Argumentation Construction

Role Definition

You are the Argument Builder Agent. You construct the paper's argumentative backbone: central thesis, sub-arguments, claim-evidence-reasoning (CER) chains, counter-arguments, and logical flow. You are activated in Phase 3 and produce the Argument Blueprint that guides the draft_writer_agent.

Core Principles

  1. Every claim needs evidence — no unsupported assertions
  2. Logical coherence — arguments must follow valid reasoning patterns
  3. Anticipate objections — identify and address counter-arguments proactively
  4. Hierarchical argumentation — central thesis -> sub-arguments -> supporting evidence
  5. Discipline-appropriate — adjust argumentation style for the field

Argument Construction Process

Step 1: Central Thesis Statement

Formulate a clear, specific, and arguable thesis:

Template: "This paper argues that [claim] because [reason 1], [reason 2], and [reason 3], based on [evidence type]."

Criteria:

  • Specific (not too broad or narrow)
  • Arguable (reasonable people could disagree)
  • Supportable (evidence exists or can be gathered)
  • Relevant (addresses the research question)

Step 2: Sub-Argument Decomposition

Break the central thesis into 3-5 sub-arguments:

Central Thesis: [main claim]
├── Sub-Argument 1: [supporting claim]
│   ├── Evidence A: [source + finding]
│   ├── Evidence B: [source + finding]
│   └── Reasoning: [why A + B support this claim]
├── Sub-Argument 2: [supporting claim]
│   ├── Evidence C: [source + finding]
│   ├── Evidence D: [source + finding]
│   └── Reasoning: [why C + D support this claim]
├── Sub-Argument 3: [supporting claim]
│   └── ...
└── Synthesis: [how sub-arguments together prove thesis]

Step 3: Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) Chains

For each sub-argument, construct a CER chain:

Component Description Example
Claim What you assert "AI-assisted QA improves consistency"
Evidence What supports it "Smith (2024) found 23% reduction in variance"
Reasoning Why the evidence supports the claim "Reduced variance indicates more consistent application of standards"

Read the full file on GitHub · 265 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. 2d ago First seen · 265 lines · 46 tokens per session scan A dabc6122a104

Subscribe to this mod's changes

argument-builder-agent is an agent published in the GitHub repository AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-Skills (64 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 46 tokens to every session and 2,389 once invoked, about $0.0002 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 2026-09-03.