AF-XRAY

Argumentation Framework eXplanation, Reasoning, and AnalYsis

Overview

AF-XRAY is a tool designed to explain abstract argumentation frameworks using provenance tracking, visualization techniques, and logic programming. For example, it can help users understand how stable extensions are derived based on the following logical rule:

$$ \text{Defeated}(x) \leftarrow \text{Attacks}(y, x), \neg \text{Defeated}(y). $$

Usage

Website

You can access the tool by visiting the following website (go.illinois.edu/xray) directly.

Locally Development

Tip

It is recommended to use a Conda environment.

Install the necessary package

git clone https://github.com/idaks/xray
conda create -n xray python=3.10
conda activate xray
conda install anaconda::graphviz
cd xray
pip install -r requirements.txt
python app.py

Docker Local Deployment

To run the application locally using Docker:

1. Build the Docker image:

docker build -t seanyl/xray:app .

2. Run the container with volume mounting for temp files:

docker run -p 8050:8050 -v $(pwd)/temp:/app/temp seanyl/xray:app

The application will be available at http://localhost:8050

Notes:

• The -p 8050:8050 flag maps port 8050 from the container to port 8050 on your host machine
• The -v $(pwd)/temp:/app/temp flag mounts a local temp directory to store layout files
• To stop the container, press Ctrl+C in the terminal or run docker stop <container_id>

License

The software is available under the MIT license.

Acknowledgment

AF-XRAY builds upon PyArg, originally developed by Daphne Odekerken.

Portions of the code are adapted from PyArg, which is licensed under the MIT License.
The license is included in third_party/pyarg/LICENSE.

Citation

@inproceedings{xia2025afxray,
  title     = {AF-Xray: Visual Explanation and Resolution of Ambiguity in Legal Argumentation Frameworks},
  author    = {Yilin Xia and Heng Zheng and Shawn Bowers and Bertram Ludäscher},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Twentieth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law (ICAIL 2025)},
  year      = {2025},
  pages     = {483--485},
  address   = {Chicago, IL, USA},
  publisher = {ACM},
  isbn      = {979-8-4007-1939-4}
}

Contact

For any queries, please open an issue on GitHub or contact Yilin Xia