Changelog • causalDisco

causalDisco (development version)

CRAN release: 2026-07-20

Added support for the RFCI algorithm via rfci(), interfacing with implementations from pcalg and Tetrad.
The infix edge operators %-->% and %!-->% in knowledge() now accept + on both sides to specify multiple variables, e.g. A + B %-->% C + D is equivalent to c(A, B) %-->% c(C, D).
The infix edge operators %-->% and %!-->% in knowledge() now support tidyselect set operations such as !, &, and | on either side, e.g. child_x1 %!-->% !starts_with("child").
You can now plug a fully custom, user-written search algorithm into the causalDisco engine and run it through disco() (via CausalDiscoSearch$set_alg() and make_method()). See the “Extending causalDisco with new algorithms” article for a worked example.
Added register_engine(), which lets you plug in an entirely new engine backend (i.e. one not built on bnlearn, causalDisco, pcalg, or Tetrad) so. See the “Extending causalDisco with new algorithms” article for a worked example.

The summary() methods for Knowledge and Disco objects are deprecated; use print() instead.
The directed_as_undirected argument of tpc_run(), tfci_run(), and CausalDiscoSearch$set_knowledge() is deprecated and ignored; see the related bug-fix entry below for the new handling of directed forbidden edges.
The internal-only directed_as_undirected_knowledge argument of make_runner() has been removed, and the directed_as_undirected argument of PcalgSearch$set_knowledge() and as_pcalg_constraints() is deprecated and ignored.
as_pcalg_constraints() no longer returns a fixed_edges matrix. pcalg’s fixedEdges argument only protects an undirected adjacency in the skeleton, so a directed required edge (A %-->% B) cannot be honored through it.

Fixed tpc() and tfci() silently treating directed forbidden edges as undirected: forbidding i %!-->% j also forbidden j !--> i. Forbidden edges now follow the same rule as the pcalg engine: both directions must be supplied explicitly, otherwise an error is raised. The exception is if the Knowledge forbidden knowledge is equivalent to tiered knowledge.
Fixed knowledge() dropping variables from tier() formulas when infix edge operators (%-->%, %!-->%) appeared before the tier() call and had already registered some (but not all) of the tier’s variables. This only affected the no-data-frame form of knowledge().

The print() methods for Knowledge and Disco objects now give a more concise and readable summary.
Disco objects now store an attribute graph_class of the actual learned graph class.
Knowledge objects generated from knowledge() now verifies the knowledge for requires edges doesn’t contain a directed cycle.
Improved the documentation.
Reduced the number of package dependencies.

CRAN release: 2026-04-13

Exports list_registered_tetrad_algorithms() to view the custom registered Tetrad algorithms.
Allows the user to specify custom conditional independence tests for use with the engines bnlearn, causalDisco, and pcalg. The custom test should have the signature function(x, y, conditioning_set, suff_stat) (optionally with an additional args argument for additional parameters), and return a p-value. See the documentation and the associated vignette for details.
Added support for micd tests such as micd::gaussCItestMI() for pcalg and causalDisco engine. See all the new available tests in ?PcalgSearch and ?CausalDiscoSearch under the test field.
Simplified the interface for extending causalDisco with new algorithms. Exports make_method() and make_runner() to do this. Please see the documentation and the associated vignette for details.

Improved speed of tfci(), tges(), and tpc() algorithms by at least 3x, and often much more.
Updated knowledge_to_caugi() to include information about required and forbidden edges in the output.
Improve documentation for many functions.

CRAN release: 2026-02-24

This release should be considered essentially a new package with many new features, and some breaking changes (mainly renaming functions, arguments, and object classes) to be consistent.
Please see the vignettes and documentation for details on using the new features.

CRAN release: 2026-01-20

Changed structure of tpdag and tskeleton objects so they include tamat objects rather than amat and order slots. This is a major change, not backwards compatible!
tpc now passes … argument to skeleton() function call
Added functionality in tpc to handle missing information when using built-in tests. Three options are now available: complete case analysis, test wise deletion, or no handling (i.e., and error is thrown if there are NAs, this is the default and it is backwards compatible).

Fixed bug in maketikz() function so it now works with tpdag and tamat objects, and added examples to the documentation.

CRAN release: 2022-05-12