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Reallaborforschung hat ein zentrales Anliegen: sozial robustes Transformationswissen inter- und transdisziplinär herzustellen. Dafür braucht es einen Analyserahmen, der Ansätze aus verschiedenen Disziplinen integriert, um Mechanismen des Wandels systematisch zu ermitteln. Mithilfe der embedded-agency perspective können Reallaborprozesse so konzipiert werden, dass relevante Daten integriert erhoben werden, eine Wirkungsabschätzung gewährleistet ist und auch die Vergleichbarkeit von Reallaboren unterstützt wird.The central concern of real-world lab research is the inter- and transdisciplinary generation of socially robust transformation knowledge. Despite the fact that real-world labs explore and study fundamental mechanisms of change, there are few approaches that deal with this question from a systematic, theoretical and methodological perspective. Concrete real-world lab projects should be able to live up to their claim as a central research mode, supporting sustainability transformations. Thus, approaches are required that foster a broader understanding of mechanisms of change in real-world labs. We find promising approaches that describe mechanisms of change along discipline-specific analytical and empirical scales. Key challenges are to develop analytical frameworks that integrate such approaches from different disciplines, and to identify mechanisms of change in a systematic and comprehensive way. In this article we present an embedded-agency perspective for analysing mechanisms of change in real-world labs and discuss the methodological implications. With the help of this analytical framework, real-world lab processes can be designed in such a way that relevant data is collected and transformative impacts can be assessed.