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popper-probe

A research companion based on Karl Popper's philosophy of falsification that interrogates your hypotheses to find what would prove them wron

Open source Open in the app JSON README (API)

About

A research companion based on Karl Popper's philosophy of falsification that interrogates your hypotheses to find what would prove them wrong. It acts like an adversarial supervisor by sharpening the scope, designing concrete experimentation setup, and referring to literature for state-of-the-art approaches.

Details

Kind
Plugins
Topic
No topic detected
Publisher
mashathepotato
Origin
marketplace
Category
ferramentas
Last push
2026-05-17T13:35:27Z
Repository state
ativo
Language
Python
Added
2026-08-30 01:48:58
Updated
2026-08-30 01:48:58
Origin id
mashathepotato/popper-probe/popper-probe

README

# popper-probe

**A research companion that tries to prove your hypotheses wrong.**

Most thinking tools help you build a case. This one helps you break it.

Inspired by Karl Popper, `popper-probe` is a Claude Code skill for
researchers. Bring a fuzzy idea or a half-formed claim, point it at the
papers you've been reading, and it will:

- sharpen the claim into something *risky* enough to be wrong,
- name the observations that would refute it,
- flag the hedges and ad-hoc rescues you didn't notice you were making.

Over time it keeps a markdown ledger of your hypotheses, the evidence
for and against, and the moments you should have changed your mind.

## Install

In any Claude Code session:

```
/plugin marketplace add mashathepotato/popper-probe
/plugin install popper-probe@popper
```

That installs `popper-probe` at the user level — available in every project,
not just one. Restart Claude Code (or `/reload-plugins`) and you're done.

To pull updates later:

```
/plugin marketplace update popper
```

## Use it

Start any Claude Code session and describe something hypothesis-shaped:

> *"I think X causes Y. Here are the papers I've been reading: refs/a.pdf, refs/b.pdf"*

`popper-probe` will run an adversarial-but-constructive Popperian dialogue
(optional state-of-the-art orientation, then operational restatement,
falsifier, test design, distinctiveness) and write a structured
`hypothesis.md` to `popper-corpus/<slug>/` in your working directory.

You can validate any hypothesis file against the schema with:

```
python3 scripts/validate_hypothesis.py popper-corpus/<slug>/hypothesis.md
```

## How it works

```mermaid
flowchart TD
    Start([User describes a hypothesis]) --> Q0{Uncertainty<br/>signals?}
    Q0 -->|yes| P0[Probe 0 — SoTA orientation<br/>foundations + user papers + opt-in web]
    Q0 -->|no| P1
    P0 --> P1[Probe 1 — Restate operationally]
    P1 -->|operational| P2[Probe 2 — Name the falsifier]
    P1 -.->|cannot operationalize| FAIL[FAILED gate<br/>status: unfalsifiable<br/>Diagnostic written]
    P2 -->|got falsifier| P3[Probe 3 — Test design<br/>+ literature pass on user papers]
    P2 -.->|none nameable| FAIL
    P3 --> P4[Probe 4 — Distinctiveness<br/>light, optional]
    P4 --> PASS[PASSED gate<br/>status: active]
    PASS --> Write[Draft inline → user approves →<br/>write popper-corpus/&lt;slug&gt;/hypothesis.md]
    FAIL --> Write
    Write --> Validate([Optional: validate_hypothesis.py])
```

See [`docs/ARCHITECTURE.md`](docs/ARCHITECTURE.md) for static structure
and data-flow diagrams.

## Status

V1 — the intake skill. Corpus tooling, observation logging, and audits
follow in subsequent phases.

## Reference

- Canonical example output:
  [`docs/examples/popper-corpus/pea-plants-music-biomass/`](docs/examples/popper-corpus/pea-plants-music-biomass/)
- Design spec:
  [`docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-11-popper-probe-intake-design.md`](docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-11-popper-probe-intake-design.md)
- Implementation plan:
  [`docs/superpowers/plans/2026-05-11-popper-probe-intake-plan.md`](docs/superpowers/plans/2026-05-11-popper-probe-intake-plan.md)
- Vision for the full companion:
  [`context/overview.md`](context/overview.md)

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