fact_reasoner 0.5.0
Factuality Assessment for Foundation Models
License: Apache-2.0
Requires Python: >=3.10

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# FactReasoner

A probabilistic factuality assessment framework for Large Language Models (LLMs). FactReasoner provides fine-grained factuality evaluation by decomposing LLM responses into atomic claims and verifying them against external knowledge sources using probabilistic reasoning.

## Overview

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in generating human-like text, yet they frequently produce factually incorrect information—a phenomenon known as "hallucination." Assessing the factuality of long-form text generations is particularly challenging because these responses may contain numerous informative statements, and validating each piece of information against reliable sources is time-consuming, costly, and error-prone.

**FactReasoner** is a novel factuality assessment framework that leverages probabilistic reasoning to evaluate the factual correctness of LLM-generated responses. Unlike traditional binary classification approaches, FactReasoner provides calibrated probability estimates for each claim, enabling nuanced uncertainty quantification.

### The Problem

Given a long-form text `y` generated by an LLM in response to a query `x`, we assume that `y` consists of `n` **atomic units** (or **atoms**) that can be either true or false, denoted as `A_y = {a_1, a_2, ..., a_n}`. An atomic unit is defined as a short sentence conveying one piece of information.

Given an external knowledge source `C` (e.g., Wikipedia, the Web, or a document collection), an atomic unit `a_i` is considered **supported** if there exists at least one piece of information (a **context**) in `C` that undeniably supports `a_i`. Otherwise, the atomic unit is **not supported**.

### Factuality Metrics

FactReasoner computes several factuality metrics:

**Factual Precision** - The proportion of supported atoms in the response:

```
Precision(y) = S(y) / |A_y|
```

where `S(y)` is the number of supported atomic units.

**Factual Recall at K** - Measures recall up to K supported atoms:

```
R_K(y) = min(S(y) / K, 1)
```

**F1@K Score** - Combines precision and recall:

```
F1@K(y) = 2 * Precision(y) * R_K(y) / (Precision(y) + R_K(y))
```

**Entropy-based Measure** - A novel metric leveraging posterior probabilities:

```
E(y) = (1/n) * Σ -P(a_i) * log(P(a_i))
```

When all atoms have posterior probability `P(a_i) = 0.5` (undecided), `E(y) ≈ 0.15`. When all atoms are true with certainty (`P(a_i) = 1`), `E(y) = 0`. Lower entropy indicates higher factual confidence.

### How FactReasoner Works

FactReasoner addresses hallucination detection through a principled five-stage pipeline:

1. **Atomic Decomposition (Atomizer)**: The LLM response is decomposed into minimal, verifiable claims (atoms) using few-shot prompting. Each atom represents a single piece of information that can be independently verified.

2. **Decontextualization (Reviser)**: Atoms are revised to be standalone by resolving pronouns (e.g., "he", "she", "it"), demonstrative references (e.g., "this", "that"), unknown entities, and incomplete names. This ensures each atom can be verified without additional context.

3. **Context Retrieval (Retriever)**: For each atom, relevant evidence is gathered from external knowledge sources. FactReasoner supports multiple retrieval backends:
   - **Wikipedia**: Using LangChain's WikipediaRetriever
   - **Google Search**: Via Serper API with optional full-page content extraction
   - **ChromaDB**: Custom vector stores with semantic search

4. **NLI-based Verification (NLI Extractor)**: Natural Language Inference (NLI) is used to determine the relationship between each atom and its retrieved contexts:
   - **Entailment**: The context supports/implies the atom
   - **Contradiction**: The context contradicts the atom
   - **Neutral**: The context neither supports nor contradicts the atom

5. **Probabilistic Reasoning (Evaluator)**: A **Markov Network** (undirected graphical model) is constructed where:
   - **Nodes** represent atoms and contexts as binary random variables
   - **Edges** encode NLI relationships with associated probabilities
   - **Factors** define the joint probability distribution based on entailment/contradiction strengths

   The [Merlin](https://github.com/radum2275/merlin) inference engine performs belief propagation to compute posterior marginal probabilities `P(a_i)` for each atom, determining whether it is supported by the retrieved evidence.

### Pipeline Versions

FactReasoner supports three configurations based on how atom-context relationships are modeled:

| Version | Relationships | Description |
|---------|---------------|-------------|
| **FR1** | Atom ↔ Own Contexts | Each atom is connected only to its `k` retrieved contexts. Simplest model with localized reasoning. |
| **FR2** | Atom ↔ All Contexts | Duplicate contexts are removed, and each atom is connected to all `m` unique contexts. Enables cross-atom evidence sharing. |
| **FR3** | FR2 + Context ↔ Context | Adds context-to-context relationships, allowing the model to reason about consistency between different evidence sources. |

### Why Probabilistic Reasoning?

Traditional factuality methods (like FactScore) make independent binary decisions for each atom. FactReasoner's probabilistic approach offers several advantages:

- **Uncertainty Quantification**: Instead of binary verdicts, you get calibrated probabilities reflecting confidence levels
- **Evidence Aggregation**: Multiple pieces of evidence (entailing and contradicting) are combined coherently
- **Global Consistency**: The Markov Network jointly reasons over all atoms and contexts, ensuring globally consistent assessments
- **Handling Conflicting Evidence**: When contexts disagree, the model produces intermediate probabilities rather than arbitrary decisions

## Key Features

- **Probabilistic Factuality Scoring**: Returns calibrated probability estimates rather than binary verdicts
- **Multiple Knowledge Sources**: Support for Wikipedia, Google Search API, and ChromaDB vector stores
- **Baseline Implementations**: Includes FactScore and VeriScore methods for comparison
- **Modular Architecture**: Each component (atomizer, retriever, NLI, summarizer) can be configured independently
- **Async Support**: Batch processing with asynchronous LLM calls for efficiency
- **Caching**: SQLite-based caching for search API results

## Installation

### From PyPi
```bash
pip install fact-reasoner
```

### From Source

```bash
git clone git@github.com:IBM/FactReasoner.git
cd FactReasoner
conda create -n fr python=3.10
conda activate fr
pip install -e .
```

### Internal IBM Usage
For internal access to IBM RITS backends, install `mellea-ibm` as follows:
```bash
pip install "git+ssh://git@github.ibm.com/generative-computing/mellea-ibm.git"
```

### Dependencies

FactReasoner requires:
- Python >= 3.10
- [`Merlin`](https://github.com/radum2275/merlin) - C++ probabilistic inference engine (must be compiled locally)
- [`Mellea`](https://pypi.org/project/mellea/) == 0.3.0 - LLM interaction library

### Environment Variables

Set up the following env variables:

```bash
# Google Search retrieval via Serper API:
export SERPER_API_KEY=your_serper_api_key

# Internal IBM inference service
export RITS_API_KEY=your_RITS_api_key
```

## Quick Start

### Basic Usage

```python
from mellea.backends import ModelOption
from mellea_ibm.rits import RITSBackend, RITS

from fact_reasoner import FactReasoner
from fact_reasoner.core.atomizer import Atomizer
from fact_reasoner.core.reviser import Reviser
from fact_reasoner.core.retriever import ContextRetriever
from fact_reasoner.core.summarizer import ContextSummarizer
from fact_reasoner.core.nli import NLIExtractor
from fact_reasoner.core.query_builder import QueryBuilder

# Initialize the LLM backend
backend = RITSBackend(
    RITS.LLAMA_3_3_70B_INSTRUCT,
    model_options={ModelOption.MAX_NEW_TOKENS: 4096}
)

# Create pipeline components
query_builder = QueryBuilder(backend)
atom_extractor = Atomizer(backend)
atom_reviser = Reviser(backend)
context_retriever = ContextRetriever(
    service_type="google",  # or "wikipedia", "chromadb"
    top_k=5,
    fetch_text=True,
    query_builder=query_builder
)
context_summarizer = ContextSummarizer(backend)
nli_extractor = NLIExtractor(backend)

# Create the FactReasoner pipeline
pipeline = FactReasoner(
    atom_extractor=atom_extractor,
    atom_reviser=atom_reviser,
    context_retriever=context_retriever,
    context_summarizer=context_summarizer,
    nli_extractor=nli_extractor,
    merlin_path="/path/to/merlin"
)

# Build and score
pipeline.build(
    query="Tell me about Albert Einstein",
    response="Albert Einstein was born in 1879 in Ulm, Germany...",
    topic="Albert Einstein",
    revise_atoms=True,
    summarize_contexts=False
)

results, marginals = pipeline.score()
print(f"Factuality Score: {results['factuality_score']:.2%}")
```

### Loading from Pre-processed Data

```python
import json

# Load pre-processed atoms and contexts
with open("data/example.json", "r") as f:
    data = json.load(f)

pipeline.from_dict_with_contexts(data)
pipeline.build(
    has_atoms=True,
    has_contexts=True,
    revise_atoms=False,
    rel_atom_context=True,
    rel_context_context=False
)

results, marginals = pipeline.score()
```

## Architecture

### Core Components

| Component | Class | Description |
|-----------|-------|-------------|
| **Atomizer** | `Atomizer` | Decomposes text into atomic claims using few-shot prompting |
| **Reviser** | `Reviser` | Decontextualizes atoms by resolving pronouns and vague references |
| **Retriever** | `ContextRetriever` | Retrieves relevant evidence from Wikipedia, Google, or vector stores |
| **Summarizer** | `ContextSummarizer` | Summarizes retrieved contexts with respect to specific atoms |
| **NLI Extractor** | `NLIExtractor` | Predicts entailment/contradiction/neutral relationships |
| **Fact Graph** | `FactGraph` | Graph representation of atoms, contexts, and their relationships |
| **Search API** | `SearchAPI` | Google Search via Serper API with SQLite caching |

### Pipeline Flow

```
LLM Response
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────┐
│  Atomizer   │ ──► Atomic Claims (atoms)
└─────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────┐
│   Reviser   │ ──► Decontextualized atoms
└─────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────┐
│  Retriever  │ ──► External contexts per atom
└─────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ Summarizer  │ ──► Relevant summaries (optional)
└─────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────┐
│     NLI     │ ──► Entailment/Contradiction relationships
└─────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ FactGraph + │
│   Markov    │ ──► Probabilistic inference (Merlin)
│   Network   │
└─────────────┘
    │
    ▼
Factuality Score + Per-atom Marginals
```

### Pipeline Versions

FactReasoner supports three configurations:

| Version | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| **FR1** | Each atom connected only to its own retrieved contexts |
| **FR2** | All atoms connected to all unique contexts (removes duplicates) |
| **FR3** | FR2 + context-to-context relationships |

## Context Retrieval Options

### Google Search (via Serper API)

```python
retriever = ContextRetriever(
    service_type="google",
    top_k=5,
    cache_dir="/path/to/cache.db",  # SQLite cache for API results
    fetch_text=True,                 # Fetch full page content from links
    query_builder=query_builder      # Optional query reformulation
)
```

### Wikipedia

```python
retriever = ContextRetriever(
    service_type="wikipedia",
    top_k=3
)
```

### ChromaDB Vector Store

```python
retriever = ContextRetriever(
    service_type="chromadb",
    collection_name="my_documents",
    persist_dir="/path/to/chroma_db",
    top_k=5
)
```

## Baseline Methods

FactReasoner includes implementations of existing factuality assessment methods for comparison:

### FactScore

```python
from fact_reasoner.baselines.factscore import FactScore

scorer = FactScore(
    backend=backend,
    atom_extractor=atom_extractor,
    atom_reviser=atom_reviser,
    context_retriever=context_retriever
)
scorer.build(query=query, response=response, topic=topic)
results = scorer.score()
```

### VeriScore

```python
from fact_reasoner.baselines.veriscore import VeriScore

scorer = VeriScore(
    backend=backend,
    atom_extractor=atom_extractor,
    atom_reviser=atom_reviser,
    context_retriever=context_retriever
)
scorer.build(query=query, response=response, topic=topic)
results = scorer.score()
```

## Output Format

The `score()` method returns a results dictionary:

```python
{
    "factuality_score": 0.75,           # Overall precision score (0-1)
    "factuality_score_per_atom": [...], # Per-atom scores and support labels
    "num_atoms": 12,                    # Total atomic units
    "num_contexts": 48,                 # Total retrieved contexts
    "num_true_atoms": 9,                # Atoms with P(a) > 0.5
    "num_false_atoms": 3,               # Atoms with P(a) < 0.5
    "num_uniform_atoms": 0,             # Atoms with P(a) = 0.5
    "predictions": {                    # Per-atom predictions
        "a0": "S",                      # S = Supported
        "a1": "NS",                     # NS = Not Supported
        ...
    },
    "marginals": [                      # Posterior probabilities
        {"variable": "a0", "probabilities": [0.1, 0.9]},
        ...
    ],
    "entropy": 2.34,                    # Total entropy
    "avg_entropy": 0.195,               # Average entropy per atom
    "elapsed_time": 45.2                # Processing time in seconds
}
```

## Input/Output File Formats

### Input Format (JSON)

```json
{
    "input": "Tell me a bio of Albert Einstein",
    "output": "Albert Einstein was a German-born physicist...",
    "topic": "Albert Einstein",
    "atoms": [
        {
            "id": "a0",
            "text": "Albert Einstein was German-born.",
            "original": "Albert Einstein was German-born.",
            "label": "S",
            "contexts": ["c_a0_0", "c_a0_1"]
        }
    ],
    "contexts": [
        {
            "id": "c_a0_0",
            "title": "Albert Einstein - Wikipedia",
            "text": "Albert Einstein was born in Ulm...",
            "snippet": "German-born theoretical physicist",
            "link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein"
        }
    ]
}
```

## Project Structure

```
FactReasoner/
├── src/fact_reasoner/
│   ├── __init__.py           # Package exports
│   ├── assessor.py           # Main FactReasoner class
│   ├── corrector.py          # FactCorrector (WIP)
│   ├── fact_graph.py         # Graph representation
│   ├── search_api.py         # Google Search API wrapper
│   ├── utils.py              # Utility functions
│   ├── core/
│   │   ├── atomizer.py       # Atomic decomposition
│   │   ├── reviser.py        # Atom decontextualization
│   │   ├── retriever.py      # Context retrieval
│   │   ├── summarizer.py     # Context summarization
│   │   ├── nli.py            # NLI extraction
│   │   ├── query_builder.py  # Search query generation
│   │   └── utils.py          # Core utilities
│   ├── baselines/
│   │   ├── factscore.py      # FactScore implementation
│   │   ├── factverify.py     # FactVerify implementation
│   │   └── veriscore.py      # VeriScore implementation
│   └── eval/
│       └── eval_dataset.py   # Dataset evaluation utilities
├── docs/
│   ├── assessors/            # Assessor examples
│   ├── correctors/           # Corrector examples
│   └── core/                 # Core component examples
├── tests/                    # Unit tests
├── pyproject.toml            # Package configuration
└── README.md
```

## Examples

See the `docs/` directory for complete examples:

| Example | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| `docs/assessors/ex_factreasoner.py` | Full FactReasoner pipeline |
| `docs/assessors/ex_factscore.py` | FactScore baseline |
| `docs/assessors/ex_veriscore.py` | VeriScore baseline |
| `docs/core/ex_atomizer.py` | Standalone atomization |
| `docs/core/ex_nli.py` | NLI extraction |
| `docs/core/ex_retriever.py` | Context retrieval |
| `docs/core/ex_summarizer.py` | Context summarization |

## Citation

If you use FactReasoner in your research, please cite:

```bibtex
@misc{marinescu2025factreasonerprobabilisticapproachlongform,
    title={FactReasoner: A Probabilistic Approach to Long-Form Factuality Assessment for Large Language Models},
    author={Radu Marinescu and Debarun Bhattacharjya and Junkyu Lee and Tigran Tchrakian and Javier Carnerero Cano and Yufang Hou and Elizabeth Daly and Alessandra Pascale},
    year={2025},
    eprint={2502.18573},
    archivePrefix={arXiv},
    primaryClass={cs.CL},
    url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.18573},
}
```

## License

Apache License 2.0 - see [LICENSE](LICENSE) for details.

## Authors

- Radu Marinescu (radu.marinescu@ie.ibm.com)
- Javier Carnerero Cano (javier.cano@ibm.com)
- Massimiliano Pronesti (massimiliano.pronesti@ibm.com)

## Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request on [GitHub](https://github.com/IBM/FactReasoner).