The method

How it works

How Critias answers a pricing question — scripts that run on your data, a check on every figure, and nothing estimated.

Critias is one analyst session per conversation, running on the open-source Pi agent harness. It reads your files, writes Python, runs it, and answers from what the scripts printed. Here is what happens to one question.

You ask in plain words

Attach a CSV, Excel or Markdown file and ask the question you would ask a colleague: "Which products drove the change in gross margin between these years?" You do not need to name columns or files. On the first question, Critias profiles the columns and checks the data for problems such as duplicates, mixed currencies and rows that do not fit the rest. It asks before it assumes: which price field is net, which cost applies, what the comparison period is.

The analyst writes and runs scripts

The analyst follows seven pricing skills, written by pricing practitioners, for the method. It writes Python, runs it against your files through DuckDB, and reads the output. Every script and every file it read is recorded with a hash.

Every figure is checked

Before a reply reaches you, every number in it with three or more significant digits is matched against the output of a script that ran in this conversation. A figure with no match goes back to the analyst once. If it still has no source, the reply arrives with a notice that names it.

Checked figures are sealed

When the analysis ends with a set of figures, each one is checked against the script output that produced it and frozen with its evidence. Charts and tables bind only to sealed figures, so a chart cannot show a number the analysis did not compute.

What runs where

On your machine: your files, DuckDB, the Python scripts, sealed figures, conversation history and the business context you confirmed.

Sent to the model provider you choose: your question, the context you confirmed, column profiles, rows the data checks flagged, and the printed output of the scripts. Choose a provider whose data terms you accept.

What it does not do yet

  • There is no separate verifier. "Double-check this" is an ordinary follow-up question.
  • Accuracy depends on the model you choose. The evaluations show how each model does, failures included.
  • Critias works on exported files. It does not connect to your ERP, CRM or CPQ system.

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