Individual skill
mechanistic-interpretability-transformer-lens
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.
cli-tool/components/skills/ai-research/mechanistic-interpretability-transformer-lens/SKILL.md
Source commit ad81bf053f80b626801decf425f501ba49983d98
What was checked
- Matches the observed repository HEAD
- Yes
- Scanner rules are current
- No
- Repository scan complete
- No
- Skill scan complete
- No
- Observed behavior
- Not checked yet
- Last checked
- Nov 4, 2026
These are observations at the recorded commit, not a guarantee of safety. Review the source before running it.
Install this skill
Choose an agent in your Stack or copy a command below. Commands fetch the pinned commit and copy only this skill directory. Existing destinations are refused. Copying a command does not install anything.
An install command is unavailable: current rules, complete repository and skill scans, an eligible behavior level and a permitted license are required.
Repository context
- Repository stars (not skill ratings)
- 33,218
- Repository last updated
- Nov 8, 2026
- License
- MIT
Observed agent integration: No specific integration evidence. Standard SKILL.md installation does not imply verified compatibility.
- anthropic Repository topic
- anthropic-claude Repository topic
- claude Repository topic
- claude-code Repository topic
- agent-skills Repository topic
- ai-agents Repository topic
- claude-code-plugins Repository topic
- cli Repository topic
- mcp Repository topic
- registry Repository topic
- mechanistic-interpretability Declared skill tag
- transformerlens Declared skill tag
- activation-patching Declared skill tag
- circuit-analysis Declared skill tag
- engineering Derived category
- research Derived category
Files and excerpt
File metadata and permitted, redacted excerpts come from the recorded scan. Source links are pinned to that commit.
Browse files
SKILL.mdcore · 12,066 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 12,066 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 12,066 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 12,066 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 12,066 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 12,066 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 12,066 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 12,066 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 12,066 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 12,066 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 12,066 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 12,066 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 12,066 bytesreferences/README.mddoc · 1,643 bytesreferences/api.mddoc · 8,349 bytesreferences/tutorials.mddoc · 10,142 bytes
Read excerpt
# 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