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Units and uncertainty checker

Checks physical units, propagates measurement uncertainty, and sanity-checks results against physical scales

Source Download skill
Repository
K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills
Stars
55,780
Licence
MIT
Files
14 files

What it does

Once installed, the agent handles physical units and measurement error more carefully. It converts units with explicit context, tracks uncertainty through calculations using standard metrology methods (GUM), and reports results with a clearly stated plus-minus. It can also flag code that silently drops units or mishandles uncertainty, and check whether a number is physically plausible using dimensionless groups such as Reynolds number.

Great for

  • Scientists and engineers who need uncertainty budgets for lab or field measurements
  • Developers reviewing scientific Python code for unit or error-propagation bugs
  • Students learning how units and uncertainty propagate correctly

Skip it if

  • Statistical inference, model selection or study design, which the skill explicitly excludes (the reason: it covers metrology only)
  • Safety-critical or certified metrology decisions without expert review (the reason: the skill's outputs depend on the user's measurement model and input distributions, which it does not validate)

Try asking

  • “Propagate the uncertainty of my density measurement through the volume and mass calculation and report the result with k=2”
  • “Sanity-check whether this result of 4e7 Reynolds number in a capillary makes sense”
  • “Audit this Python file for stripped units or rescaled covariance matrices”
  • “Convert 20 ± 0.5 degC to Fahrenheit with the correct delta units”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Units and uncertainty checkerInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 14 original files, the MIT licence and an attribution note.

    uncertainty-and-units.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip uncertainty-and-units.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip uncertainty-and-units.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • Give the agent your measurement model and each input's standard uncertainty, distribution and degrees of freedom so the budget is meaningful.
  • Ask for the sanity check explicitly when a result looks off by orders of magnitude; the skill is designed for that trigger.
  • Install the pinned versions in a virtual environment before running the scripts, since results depend on library and CODATA versions.

What's inside

  • references/domain-conversions.md
  • references/gum-methodology.md
  • references/pint-recipes.md
  • references/plausibility-scales.md
  • references/reporting-rules.md
  • references/review.md
  • references/uncertainties-recipes.md
  • scripts/_common.py
  • scripts/audit_units.py
  • scripts/check_plausibility.py
  • scripts/convert_units.py
  • scripts/format_result.py
  • scripts/propagate_uncertainty.py
  • SKILL.md

Redistributed unmodified from K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills under the MIT licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.