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CausalStructures changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

0.7.1 - 2026-09-24

New features

  • Implemented markov_blanket for a PAG.
  • enumerate_mags has a selection_bias keyword; selection_bias = false returns only the MAGs without undirected edges, pruning those candidates from the search.
  • adjustment_set(::DAG) and adjustment_set(::AbstractPDAG) with type = :optimal now warn when some node of y is not a (possible) descendant of x, since the O-set is not defined there.
  • Estimands returned by id/idc/idp/cidp are simplified further.

Bug fixes

  • markov_blanket on an AbstractAG or ADMG missed nodes reachable through collider paths (e.g. C in A <-> B <-> C), so it could return a set too small to separate node from the rest of the graph.
  • meek_closure's R4 was missing the precondition that a must be adjacent to d, so it could orient a --> b in cases not actually implied by the pattern.
  • The adjustment functions (is_valid_adjustment, all_adjustment_sets, adjustment_set) could reject valid adjustment sets and return a non-optimal set in several cases:
    • On an AbstractPDAG or PAG, nodes were treated as lying on a causal path from x to y when they do not (e.g. B in B --- X --> Y).
    • On an MPDAG, the separation step moralized the proper backdoor graph, which is only correct for CPDAGs. is_valid_adjustment and all_adjustment_sets now check amenability explicitly and block definite-status paths directly.
    • With several treatments on a DAG, ADMG, AG or MAG, a node was treated as causal when it reaches y only through another treatment (e.g. W in X1 --> W --> X2 --> Y with x = [:X1, :X2]). This affected is_valid_adjustment, all_adjustment_sets, and adjustment_set(::DAG; type = :optimal).
  • backdoor_set on a CPDAG could return an invalid set (e.g. [] for X, Y in X --- A --> Y, X --> Y).
  • is_valid_iv/all_iv_sets accepted a confounded descendant of x as an instrument (e.g. Z in X --> Z, X --> Y, U --> X + Y).
  • possible_joint_parent_sets could return joint parent sets that no DAG in the class realizes.
  • apply_background_knowledge accepted background knowledge inconsistent with the graph (e.g. A --> B, C --> B on A --- B --- C) and returned a graph with a new v-structure. It now errors in those cases.

Performance improvements

  • Improved performance of dag_from_pdag by using the potential-sink worklist algorithm from Wienöbst, Bannach & Liśkiewicz (UAI 2021), instead of rescanning every remaining node after each removal.

0.7.0 - 2026-09-19

Breaking changes

  • plot's visual defaults (colors, linewidths, etc) are no longer configurable via Preferences.jl. Instead, set a project-wide default with a Makie theme, e.g. Makie.set_theme!(CausalGraphPlot = (node_color = :lightblue,)).

  • A per-edge style Dict (e.g. edge_color) no longer treats a bare node name as "every edge touching this node"; it now only matches a CausalEdge, a (src, dst) tuple, an edge-type symbol, or :default.

  • plot's node-label keywords labels, label_color, label_fontsize, and label_font are renamed to node_labels, node_label_color, node_label_fontsize, and node_label_font, for consistency with the node_*/edge_* naming used elsewhere.

  • condition_marginalize's keywords cond_vars/marg_vars are renamed to given/index, matching the given keyword used by idc/cidp/prob and the index argument used by marginal.

New features

  • Support of Makie themes: plot's edge_color and edge_label_color now inherit the active Makie theme's linecolor/textcolor when not given explicitly, so e.g. Makie.set_theme!(Makie.theme_dark()) keeps edges and edge labels visible against a dark figure.

  • Automatic edge routing via dummy nodes (from Sugiyama) now work with stretch_to_fig=true.

  • Implement idp and cidp for identifying causal effects from PAGs (Jaber et al. 2022), generalizing id/idc from ADMGs.

  • plot gains edge_linestyle, styling an edge's own line (e.g. dashing <-> edges to mark latent confounding, as is common in the literature).

  • plot gains edge_labels, edge_label_color, edge_label_fontsize, edge_label_font, edge_label_shift, and edge_label_distance for drawing text along each edge, following its own angle.

  • uniform_dag gains a counts keyword (paired with the new uniform_dag_counts) to reuse a precomputed DP table across repeated draws at the same n (or smaller).

Performance improvements

  • Improved performance of all_frontdoor_sets/frontdoor_set by reusing scratch buffers across recursive calls and scanning only each node's actual neighbors.
  • Improved performance of all_frontdoor_sets/frontdoor_set's step that filters out candidate nodes unable to satisfy the front-door criterion's third condition, by replacing its per-candidate reachability search with a single combined pass, for both DAG and ADMG.
  • Improved performance of all_iv_sets by testing membership per candidate node instead of per combinatorial subset.
  • Improved performance of possible_joint_parent_sets/possible_parent_sets by avoiding an expensive graph rebuild-and-validate per candidate orientation.
  • Improved performance of condition_marginalize and ag_to_mag by using a single-pass separator-existence check instead of minimal_separator's full two-pass search.

0.6.0 - 2026-09-14

Breaking changes

  • plot's layout-algorithm keywords (e.g. seed, iterations) must now be passed as layout_kwargs = (; seed = 1) instead of directly, since plot is now backed by a proper Makie recipe with a fixed set of attributes.
  • plot now returns a FigureAxisPlot instead of a Figure.

New features

  • Added backdoor_set (Generalized Backdoor Criterion) for ADMG.

  • CausalGraph now supports == and hash, comparing graphs structurally (same class, nodes, and edges).

  • plot!(ax, cg) draws a CausalGraph into an Axis you already own, so multiple graphs (or a graph and other plots) can share one Figure.

  • plot/plot!'s returned plot is fully reactive: plt.node_color[] = :red restyles it in place, and node/label sizing keeps fitting the containing Axis live, including as it's resized.

Bug fixes

  • is_valid_adjustment/all_adjustment_sets on ADMG and PAG could wrongly validate an adjustment set when a node had two or more bidirected/circle edges to distinct confounders.

  • plot's edge_paths override for one edge no longer discards automatic per-edge routing (e.g. from layout = :sugiyama) for the rest of the graph's edges.

Other changes

  • Improved performance of adjustment_set.

0.5.1 - 2026-09-11

New features

  • Node-set arguments across the package (x/y/z, include/restrict, latents, nodes, etc.) now also accept a single Symbol, not just Vector{Symbol}.

Bug fixes

  • is_valid_iv/all_iv_sets on an ADMG could wrongly reject a valid instrument when its own edge into the treatment was bidirected (e.g. Z <-> X).

  • possible_parent_sets/possible_optimal_adjustment_sets on an MPDAG only checked for a new collider at the target node, so it could wrongly accept a parent orientation that closes a directed cycle elsewhere in the graph.

  • maximal_local_mag/possible_local_structures: Step 2 of the local-structure algorithm looked for a witness edge pointing out of Vl instead of into it.

  • meek_closure/is_mpdag: R1 wrongly skipped orientations that would create a new collider, and R4 used the wrong pattern, so both could leave a background-knowledge PDAG under-oriented.

  • pagcauses/maximal_local_mag: could return wrong or spurious adjustment sets. Fixed and validated testing against brute-force approach.

  • is_valid_backdoor/all_backdoor_sets on a DAG wrongly accepted any set when y was itself a parent of x.

  • The generalized adjustment criterion's forbidden set (is_valid_adjustment/all_adjustment_sets on DAG/ADMG/AG/MAG/AbstractPDAG/PAG) excluded y instead of x from the causal-path nodes before taking descendants.

Other changes

  • Package now compiles under --trim=safe (JuliaC).

  • Improve documentation.

  • pagcauses now parallelizes over Threads.nthreads() once there are enough candidates to be worth splitting across tasks.

  • Improved performance of some adjustment set functions.

0.5.0 - 2026-09-05

Breaking changes

  • cgraph(...; class = T) is removed. Construct graphs by calling the graph type directly instead, e.g. DAG("A --> B"), ADMG("A --> B, A <-> B).

New features

  • plot now supports edge_paths, a Dict overriding an edge's drawn route with an explicit polyline instead of curvature/automatic routing.
  • Added a :sugiyama layout method for DAGs. Requries using Sugiyama, and if loaded is the default for DAGs.

0.4.0 - 2026-08-24

Breaking changes

  • plot's node_shape :round/:box are renamed to :circle/:square.

New features

  • plot's node_shape now supports :ellipse/:rect for label-fit stretching.
  • plot now supports a stretch_to_fig_size to stretch the layout to fill fig_size instead of following the aspect of the layout.

Bug fixes

  • Fixed plot node sizes being shrunk by an unrelated close node pair elsewhere in the graph.
  • Fixed plot's automatic edge routing to use all nodes.
  • Fixed plot clipping a curved edge at the canvas edge.
  • Fixed plot's curvature being unable to force a straight edge to override the automatic routing. curvature now defaults to nothing (auto-route) so any explicit value now works correctly.

0.3.1 - 2026-08-18

New features

  • d_separated, m_separated, minimal_separator (DAG), and the backdoor/frontdoor/adjustment-set functions now accept a Vector{Symbol} (in addition to a single Symbol) for x/y, for querying sets of treatments/outcomes.

  • Added id/idc (Shpitser & Pearl's identification algorithm) for DAG/ADMG.

  • Added possible_parent_sets, the graph half of the local IDA algorithm, for AbstractPDAG.

  • Added backdoor_set (Generalized Backdoor Criterion, Maathuis & Colombo 2015) for DAG, CPDAG, MAG, and PAG.

  • Added possible_optimal_adjustment_sets (O-set-based IDA) and possible_joint_parent_sets (joint-IDA) for AbstractPDAG.

  • Added possible_d_sep (D-SEP) for AbstractAG.

  • Added possible_local_structures and maximal_local_mag (Wang, Qin & Zhou 2023) for PAG.

  • Added pagcauses (PAGcauses, Wang, Tao, Qin & Zhou 2025), finding every valid adjustment set for a PAG without enumerating MAGs.

  • New plot features:

    • plot gained node_shape (:round or :box), per node or for the whole graph. Both shapes are fitted to their label but rounded out to equal sides unless the label is oblong, so short labels give circles and squares while long ones give ellipses and rectangles. Edges clip to (and route around) the shape actually drawn.
    • plot gained node_linestyle, for dashed or dotted node borders.
    • plot gained labels, overriding the text drawn in each node, so labels can carry spaces, subscripts, or several lines.
    • plot's layout keyword now also accepts a Dict of positions keyed by node name, not just a Vector in nodes(cg) order.
    • plot gained curvature, bowing an edge into an arc by a signed fraction of its length; per edge, per edge type, or for the whole graph. An explicitly curved edge overrides the automatic obstacle routing and parallel-edge fanning.
    • plot's per-edge style Dicts accept a CausalEdge key (e.g. bidirected(:X, :Y)) naming one exact edge, which is what separates the two edges of an ADMG's shared pair. A (src, dst) tuple key now names an unordered node pair, matching either way round, so styling no longer requires knowing which way an edge is stored.

Bug fixes

  • Parallel edges are now rejected on construction for every graph class except UNKNOWN; previously cgraph("X --> Y, X --> Y"; class = DAG) and friends were accepted.
  • possible_ancestors/possible_descendants on MPDAG could include nodes only reachable via a partially directed cycle introduced by background knowledge; this also affected is_valid_adjustment/all_adjustment_sets on MPDAG.

0.3.0 - 2026-08-10

Breaking changes

  • Removed the built-in :circle layout. layout/plot now require NetworkLayout to be loaded (or bring your own layout to plot), and default to :stress.

New features

  • Added adjustment_set for ADMG and PAG, returning the smallest valid adjustment set.
  • Added anteriors/posteriors methods for ADMG.
  • Extended condition_marginalize to accept ADMG.
  • Added check_cycles and r4 as keyword arguments to meek_closure, which can be set to help speed it up.
  • Added node_padding (and "plot_node_padding" preference) to control the padding between a node's label and its circle edge.
  • Added arrow_fill (and "plot_edge_arrow_fill" preference) to style arrowheads independently of edge_color, including hollow/outline-only arrowheads.
  • Added fig_size to set the plot's figure size.

Bug fixes

  • dag_from_pdag could pick a sink whose undirected neighbors were adjacent to each other but not to the sink's existing parents, which could make it introduce a v-structure absent from the input PDAG.

0.2.0 - 2026-08-04

Breaking changes

  • Dropped the simple keyword argument from cgraph.
  • Changed default layout to :stress once NetworkLayout is loaded.

New features

  • Implement separation for PAGs.

  • Extend adjustments to include DAG.

  • Add class = PAG support to generate_graph.

  • Make enumerate_mags use several threads if available.

Other changes

  • Improved and extended docs, and uses DocumenterCodeBlocks now.

0.1.0 - 2026-07-25

Initial release.