---
name: yogsoth-ai-ablation-design
description: "Design ablation studies to isolate component contributions in ML systems"
license: "Apache-2.0"
metadata:
  decimalai-skill-id: "2a8cd251-3f9d-4611-96ce-2171fe5a9129"
  decimalai-version-id: "c38169c9-4c90-451d-bcd4-ad26a9528977"
  decimalai-version: "1"
  decimalai-body-sha256: "40e18c7136f0daa98d63b55a48723dcd7689e7ce8637797330e6804d0ba429fb"
  decimalai-name: "yogsoth-ai/ablation-design"
  decimalai-format: "1"
  decimalai-invocation: "model"
  decimalai-category: "ai-ml"
  decimalai-source: "https://app.decimal.ai/s/yogsoth-ai-ablation-design@1/SKILL.md"
---
# Strategy: Ablation Design

**Question**: What does each component contribute?

## Methodology

- **Systematic Ablation** (Newell 1974): Remove one component at a time, measure degradation.
- **Replacement Ablation**: Replace component with simpler alternative to isolate contribution.
- **Combinatorial Ablation** (ABLATOR): Test component subsets to detect interaction effects.
- **Conditional Ablation**: Ablate components under specific data conditions to find context-dependent contributions.

## Execution Flow

1. **ablation-component-mapping** → Map system architecture to ablatable units
2. **baseline-selection** → Select full-system and minimal-system anchors
3. **metric-specification** → Define metrics that capture component contribution
4. **sample-size-estimation** → Determine runs needed for reliable delta estimation
5. **statistical-method-selection** (tactic) → Choose appropriate significance tests for deltas

## Budget Gate

| Ablation Type | Components (N) | Min Runs | When to Use |
|---------------|---------------|----------|-------------|
| Systematic (leave-one-out) | 3-8 | N + 2 | Standard component analysis |
| Replacement | 3-8 | 2N + 2 | Need to distinguish "removal" vs "simplification" |
| Combinatorial (selected) | 4-6 | ~2N | Suspected interactions between components |
| Combinatorial (full) | 3-4 | 2^N | Small systems, need complete picture |
| Conditional | 3-6 | N * conditions | Context-dependent contributions |

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## Available Tactics

Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.

| Tactic | When to use |
| --- | --- |
| statistical-method-selection | Select appropriate statistical methods for experiment analysis |

## Available SOPs

Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.

| SOP | When to use |
| --- | --- |
| ablation-component-mapping | Map system architecture to ablatable units for ablation studies |
| baseline-selection | Select appropriate baselines for experimental comparison |
| metric-specification | Define experiment metrics and significance standards |
| sample-size-estimation | SOP: power analysis and required experiment count estimation |

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