UJ Metaculus Automation

Automation tools for The Unjournal's Metaculus integration, focusing on the Pivotal Questions project.

Project Overview

This repository contains tools and scripts for managing The Unjournal's presence on Metaculus, particularly for posting and analyzing questions related to the Pivotal Questions project.

About The Pivotal Questions Project

The Pivotal Questions project identifies crucial research questions that impact high-stakes funding and policy decisions at effective altruism organizations. Key goals include:

• Eliciting important questions from impact-focused organizations
• Refining and operationalizing questions for measurability
• Operationalizing questions as forecasting claims on Metaculus
• Commissioning expert evaluations of relevant research
• Synthesizing findings into public reports

Resources

• Metaculus Community: The Unjournal on Metaculus
• Pivotal Questions List: Finalized Operationalizations (Coda)
• Question Categories: Pivotal Questions Database (Coda)
• Project Documentation: GitBook

Features

This automation toolkit aims to:

• 📤 Post Questions: Automatically create questions on Metaculus from the Coda database
• 📥 Fetch Data: Download forecasts and question data from Metaculus
• 📊 Analyze: Analyze prediction data and track question performance
• 🔄 Sync: Keep Coda database in sync with Metaculus question links
• 📈 Report: Generate reports on forecasting activity

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• Metaculus API access (authentication required)

Installation

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Set up configuration (create .env file with API credentials)
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your Metaculus API credentials

Configuration

Create a .env file with your Metaculus credentials:

METACULUS_API_TOKEN=your_token_here
METACULUS_USERNAME=your_username

Project Structure

.
├── src/                    # Source code
│   ├── api/               # Metaculus API client
│   ├── data/              # Data processing and analysis
│   └── sync/              # Coda <-> Metaculus synchronization
├── scripts/               # Utility scripts
├── data/                  # Local data storage
├── tests/                 # Test suite
└── docs/                  # Documentation

Usage

(Documentation to be added as features are implemented)

Contributing

This is an internal project for The Unjournal. For questions or contributions, please contact the project maintainers.

License

(To be determined)