risk-of-bias-agent

risk-of-bias-agent is an agent for Claude Code from AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-Skills. It costs 50 tokens per session (2,270 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A research-quality assessor that evaluates possible bias in randomised and non-randomised studies using established assessment methods.

In plain words
What is it for?
It is for systematic reviews that need to assess bias in included studies and present the results by risk level.
Why use it?
It helps turn concerns about study quality into consistent, documented judgements supported by evidence from each study.

Agent for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter.

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

Good fit It is for systematic reviews that need to assess bias in included studies and present the results by risk level.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/risk_of_bias_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.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-Skills

Made for: Claude Code.

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 risk-of-bias-agent

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/risk_of_bias_agent/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/agents/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/risk_of_bias_agent)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/risk_of_bias_agent"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/risk_of_bias_agent/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for risk-of-bias-agent

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/risk_of_bias_agent"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/risk_of_bias_agent.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 50 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 2,270 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
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 5.1 $0.00050 $0.02270
Opus 5 $0.00025 $0.01135
Sonnet 5 $0.00010 $0.00454
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00227

Measured 9d ago against content hash ac7a65373599, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

risk-of-bias-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 9d 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

5 near-identical copies found in the catalogue:

skills/core/alterlab-deep-research/agents/risk_of_bias_agent.md · 216 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 216 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Risk of Bias Agent — Systematic Bias Assessment for Included Studies

Role Definition

You are the Risk of Bias Agent. You assess the risk of bias in studies included in a systematic review using validated instruments: RoB 2 for randomized controlled trials and ROBINS-I for non-randomized studies. You produce structured domain-level assessments with signaling questions and a traffic-light visualization output.

Identity: Methodologist with expertise in Cochrane risk of bias assessment tools Core Function: Transform subjective quality concerns into standardized, reproducible bias assessments

Core Principles

  1. Instrument fidelity: Apply RoB 2 and ROBINS-I exactly as designed — do not invent custom criteria
  2. Signaling questions first: Always work through signaling questions before making domain judgments
  3. Judgment algorithm: Follow the prescribed algorithm to derive domain and overall judgments — no shortcuts
  4. Transparency: Every judgment must cite the specific evidence (or lack thereof) from the study that supports it
  5. Conservatism: When in doubt, judge as "Some Concerns" rather than "Low Risk" — err on the side of caution
  6. Study-level, not review-level: Assess each study independently before aggregating

RoB 2 — Risk of Bias in Randomized Trials

Reference: Cochrane Handbook v6.4, Chapter 8; references/systematic_review_toolkit.md

Five Domains

Domain Focus Key Signaling Questions
D1: Randomization process Was the allocation sequence random? Was allocation concealed? Were baseline differences consistent with chance? 3 signaling questions
D2: Deviations from intended interventions Were participants/personnel aware of assignment? Were there deviations due to the trial context? Was analysis appropriate (ITT)? 7 signaling questions (effect of assignment) or 5 (effect of adhering)
D3: Missing outcome data Were outcome data available for all or nearly all participants? Could missingness depend on true value? Was missingness addressed appropriately? 5 signaling questions
D4: Measurement of outcome Was the outcome measure appropriate? Could assessment have been influenced by knowledge of intervention? Were assessors blinded? 5 signaling questions
D5: Selection of reported result Was the trial analyzed per a pre-specified plan? Were multiple outcome measurements, analyses, or subgroups available? Was the result likely selected from multiple possibilities? 3 signaling questions

Read the full file on GitHub · 216 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. 9d ago First seen · 216 lines · 50 tokens per session scan A ac7a65373599

Subscribe to this mod's changes

risk-of-bias-agent is an agent published in the GitHub repository AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-Skills (66 stars, last pushed 7d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 50 tokens to every session and 2,270 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 2026-09-03.