# Theory Identification

> SOP: Identify theoretical frameworks relevant to a research gap

- Skill: `yogsoth-ai/theory-identification` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add yogsoth-ai/theory-identification`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/yogsoth-ai/theory-identification/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Research & Search
- Author: yogsoth-ai (https://skillmd.com/u/yogsoth-ai)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/yogsoth-ai/theory-identification

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# Theory Identification
Identify theoretical frameworks relevant to a research gap, providing a theoretical basis for mechanism extraction.

## HARD-GATE
<HARD-GATE>
Preconditions (all must hold before starting):
1. A clear research gap description exists (including domain, phenomenon, unanswered question)
2. Domain tags are provided (used to direct the literature scan)

Not satisfied → stop, return error: missing gap description or domain tags.
</HARD-GATE>

## Pipeline
1. Precheck: verify completeness of the gap description and domain tags
2. Literature scan: search for theoretical literature relevant to the gap (literature-engine + web-browsing)
3. Theory screening: keep theories directly or indirectly relevant to the gap (≥3, remove purely methodological literature)
4. Core claim extraction: distill a 1-2 sentence core_claim for each theory
5. Applicability assessment: assess each theory's explanatory power for the current gap (high/medium/low)
6. Output a structured theory list

## Output Format
```json
[
  {
    "name": "Theory Name",
    "source": "Author (Year) or canonical reference",
    "core_claim": "One-sentence summary of what the theory claims",
    "relevance": "Why this theory relates to the gap",
    "applicability": "high | medium | low"
  }
]
```
Minimum 3 entries, maximum 8 (sorted by applicability descending).

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## Available SOPs

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

| SOP | When to use |
| --- | --- |
| hypothesis-formation-paper-overview | Import SOP: Quick paper scan, returns abstract and metadata (from literature-engine) |
| hypothesis-formation-paper-search | Import SOP: Medium-depth literature search, AI summary report (from literature-engine) |
| hypothesis-formation-web-search | Import SOP: quick web scan, discover URLs and snippets (from web-browsing) |

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