transformer-lens-interpretability SKILL.md skillA
transformer-lens-interpretability from orchestra-research/ai-research-skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add orchestra-research/ai-research-skills/transformer-lens-interpretability@v1.0.0Pins v1.0.0 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- orchestra-research/ai-research-skills
- Path
04-mechanistic-interpretability/transformer-lens/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- v1.0.0, committed Dec 17, 2025
- Size
- 12,036 bytes
- Repository stars
- 13,718
- License
- MIT
Provides guidance for mechanistic interpretability research using TransformerLens to inspect and manipulate transformer internals via HookPoints and activation caching. Use when reverse-engineering model algorithms, studying attention patterns, or performing activation patching experiments.
Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.
What the file says
# TransformerLens: Mechanistic Interpretability for Transformers TransformerLens is the de facto standard library for mechanistic interpretability research on GPT-style language models. Created by Neel Nanda and maintained by Bryce Meyer, it provides clean interfaces to inspect and manipulate model internals via HookPoints on every activation. **GitHub**: [TransformerLensOrg/TransformerLens](https://github.com/TransformerLensOrg/TransformerLens) (2,900+ stars) ## When to Use TransformerLens **Use TransformerLens when you need to:** - Reverse-engineer algorithms learned during training - Perform activation patching / causal tracing experiments - Study attention patterns and information flow - Analyze circuits (e.g., induction heads, IOI circuit) - Cache and inspect intermediate activations - Apply direct logit attribution **Consider alternatives when:** - You need to work with non-transformer architectures → Use **nnsight** or **pyvene** - You want to train/analyze Sparse Autoencoders → Use **SAELens** - You need remote execution on massive models → Use **nnsight** with NDIF - You want higher-level causal intervention abstractions → Use **pyvene** ## Installation ```bash …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add orchestra-research/ai-research-skills/transformer-lens-interpretability@sha256:9ac5a790a59f46e4The line at the top of this page pins the label v1.0.0, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_tzu3asakka5jmkgf)
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Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Dec 17, 2025.
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (12036 bytes)
- pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
- pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
- pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
- pass: No credential-shaped string
- pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
- pass: No text hidden with inline styles
- pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
- pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
- pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
- pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
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- pass: No link to a raw IP address
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Source
orchestra-research/ai-research-skills · 13,718 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-10-11 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_tzu3asakka5jmkgf GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=orchestra-research/ai-research-skills/transformer-lens-interpretability GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/9ac5a790a59f46e430a9015a1e8c52338666f3426e36085c4ef38665b10b4e24
Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.
Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.