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Abductive Monte Carlo

Retroductive hypothesis sampling via MCMC: given observations, importance-sample explanations weighted by P(observation|hypothesis) using Gay.jl colored particles as hypothesis candidates.

Installable skillMITBy plurigridUpdated Oct 30, 2026
INTENDED FOROpenClawInstall in a listed agent.

instructions.md

---
name: abductive-monte-carlo-ba8fecab8f9f
description: "Retroductive hypothesis sampling via MCMC: given observations, importance-sample explanations weighted by P(observation|hypothesis) using Gay.jl colored particles as hypothesis candidates."
version: 0.1.0
metadata:
  trit: -1
  color: "#C77DEB"
---

# Abductive Monte Carlo

> *"Abduction is not exhaustive search; it is well-directed wandering in hypothesis space."*

**Trit**: -1 (MINUS — retroductive: from effects back to causes)

## GF(3) Triad

```
abductive-monte-carlo (-1) ⊗ abductive-repl (0) ⊗ gay-monte-carlo (+1) = 0 ✓
```

| Trit | Skill | Role |
|------|-------|------|
| +1 | gay-monte-carlo | Generative: colored particle distributions as priors |
| 0 | abductive-repl | Coordinator: REPL test/refine loop |
| -1 | **abductive-monte-carlo** | Retroductive: MCMC sampling back to causes |

## Core Idea

Classical abduction: given rule `A → E` and evidence `E`, hypothesize `A`.

Abductive Monte Carlo extends this to noisy, high-dimensional settings:

```
P(H | E) ∝ P(E | H) · P(H)
             ─────────────────
               likelihood × prior
```

Instead of enumerating hypotheses, we **sample** them. Gay.jl provides:
- Deterministic colored particles as hypothesis identities
- SplitMix64 seed evolution for reproducible chains
- Gamut-aware weighting (hypotheses far from sRGB boundary penalized)

## Algorithm

### Metropolis-Hastings on Hypothesis Space

```python
def abductive_mcmc(observation, n_samples=10_000, seed=0xcd0a0fde6e0a8820):
    """
    Sample hypotheses H from P(H|E) ∝ P(E|H) · P(H)
    using Gay.jl particle coloring for deterministic identity.
    """
    current = initial_hypothesis(seed)
    samples = []

    for i in range(n_samples):
        # Propose: step in Gay.jl color space
        proposal = gay_next_color(current.seed)

        # Likelihood: P(observation | hypothesis)
        log_like_curr = log_likelihood(observation, current)
        log_like_prop = log_likelihood(observation, proposal)

        # Prior: gamut penalty
        log_prior_curr = log_prior(current)
        log_prior_prop = log_prior(proposal)

        # Accept/reject (log-space)
        log_ratio = (log_like_prop + log_prior_prop) - (log_like_curr + log_prior_curr)
        if log(uniform()) < log_ratio:
            current = proposal

        samples.append(current)

    return samples
```

### Importance Sampling Variant (for color abduction)

```julia
using Gay, MonteCarloMeasurements

function abduce_mcmc(obs_rgb::RGB, seed::UInt64; n=2000)
    # Prior: uniform over Gay.jl color space
    candidates = [gay_color_at(seed, i) for i in 1:n]

    # Likelihood: Gaussian in CIELAB distance
    weights = [exp(-ciede2000(obs_rgb, c)^2 / 2σ²) for c in candidates]
    weights ./= sum(weights)

    # Weighted sample → ranked hypotheses
    ranked = sortperm(weights, rev=true)
    [(candidates[i], weights[i]) for i in ranked[1:10]]
end
```

## State Representation

Each hypothesis is a **Gay particle** — a colored point in hypothesis space:

```
H = (seed: UInt64, color: RGB, index: Int, log_weight: Float64)

Seed evolution:
  seed_{n+1} = splitmix64(seed_n XOR observation_hash)
```

## Proof-State Abduction (causal integration)

In the `causal/proofgeneral` context, abductive-monte-carlo can retroductively
infer which lemmas/tactics led to a given proof state:

```elisp
(defun abductive-mcmc-infer-proof-history (goal-state n-samples)
  "Given a GOAL-STATE (Γ ⊢ G), sample likely proof histories via MCMC."
  (let* ((obs-hash (sxhash goal-state))
         (tactic-vocab (self-walker--discover-tactics))
         (chains (abductive-mcmc-sample obs-hash tactic-vocab n-samples)))
    ;; Return ranked proof history hypotheses
    (abductive-mcmc-rank chains)))
```

## Output Format

```
Observation: ⊢ n + 0 = n

Top-5 Abduced Proof Paths (MCMC, n=10000, seed=0xcd0a0fde6e0a8820):

  [1] intro n; simp       weight=0.412  color=RGB(200, 120, 180)
  [2] intro n; ring       weight=0.301  color=RGB(198, 118, 177)
  [3] intro n; omega      weight=0.187  color=RGB(203, 123, 182)
  [4] intro n; exact rfl  weight=0.074  color=RGB(196, 116, 175)
  [5] norm_num            weight=0.026  color=RGB(205, 125, 184)

GF(3) walk hash: 0x9F3A (Möbius product of tactic trits)
Chain acceptance rate: 0.31  (healthy MH range)
```

## Protocol

### 1. Encode observation

```python
obs_hash = sxhash(observation_string) ^ 0x9E3779B97F4A7C15
```

### 2. Initialize chain

```python
h0 = gay_color_at(seed, obs_hash % 1_000_000)  # start in color space
```

### 3. Run MCMC

Metropolis-Hastings with Gay.jl next-color proposals, 10k steps default.

### 4. Extract MAP hypothesis

```python
map_hypothesis = max(samples, key=lambda h: h.log_weight)
```

### 5. Roundtrip verify

```python
prediction = forward_simulate(map_hypothesis)
assert ciede2000(prediction, observation) < threshold
```

## Integration Points

- **self-walker** (causal): feed terminal proof state as observation → abduce proof history
- **gay-monte-carlo**: particle distributions → hypothesis priors
- **abductive-repl**: REPL-test the top MCMC hypothesis
- **causal-catcolab**: export MAP hypothesis as CatColab olog

## Configuration

```yaml
abductive-monte-carlo:
  n_samples: 10_000
  burn_in: 1_000
  seed: 0xcd0a0fde6e0a8820
  likelihood:
    metric: ciede2000        # color distance
    sigma: 5.0
  prior:
    gamut_penalty: true
    boundary_sigma: 10.0
  output:
    top_k: 10
    show_chain: false
```

## Justfile

```makefile
abduce-mcmc obs="0 120 180":
    julia -e 'using AbductiveMC; abduce_mcmc(RGB($(obs)))'

abduce-proof goal:
    emacs --batch -l causal-catcolab \
          --eval "(abductive-mcmc-infer-proof-history \"$(goal)\" 5000)"

abduce-test n="1000":
    julia -e 'using AbductiveMC; roundtrip_accuracy(n=$(n))'
```

## Related Skills

- `abductive-repl` (0): interactive hypothesis-test loop
- `gay-monte-carlo` (+1): colored particle distributions, gamut-aware sampling
- `self-walker` (0): proof-state walker that generates observations to abduce
- `lean-proof-walk` (+1): proof state chains — can be observed for retroduction
- `fokker-planck-analyzer` (-1): equilibrium distribution of Markov chain

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Imported from the listed AgentSkill.sh category. Complete supplied package files and notices are retained. Required external tools and credentials are not installed. No bundled code was executed during import. Individual agent task behavior has not been tested.