Skip to Content

Root Priors Elicitor

Overview

The Root Priors Elicitor estimates starting probabilities for root nodes, the nodes that have no causes of their own, so they hold sensible baseline values before any evidence is entered. It returns prior probability distributions and elicitation comments.

Use it for initial quantification, root-node priors, and expert review before inference.

Overview

The Root Priors Elicitor is the module within Hellixia that assesses the prior (marginal) probability distributions of nodes before considering parent effects. The LLM produces initial estimates that a domain expert can then review and adjust, reducing the “blank‑page” effort.

Root Nodes

For a root node, which has no parents, its entire Conditional Probability Table is simply its marginal distribution. So the Root Priors Elicitor directly gives you the root node’s probability vector. It is usually invoked before you move to Local‑Effects elicitation for child nodes.

Typical Workflow

Select the node(s) you want priors for.
Launch Hellixia’s prior elicitation command.
Hellixia proposes a distribution based on the node’s semantics (name, long name, comments).
You accept, adjust, or reject the proposal and then propagate to subsequent steps.

Examples