# Experiment 60B.33 — Honor Explicit Bare `Whether...` Propositions

**Branch:** `feature/bare-whether-proposition-v0.33`  
**Starting HEAD:** `29d565372b68fd286d797b18b19864778d517d03`  
**Date:** 2026-08-14  
**Status:** COMPLETE

## Objective

Close the narrow gap diagnosed in 60B.32 by making an explicit bare `Whether...` description sufficient evidence of an unresolved proposition even when the label is nominal and lacks status/likelihood/risk keywords.

## 60B.32 Diagnosis

The previous bounded proposition path still required label keywords such as:

```text
status
likelihood
probability
chance
risk
uncertainty
```

before honoring a bare `Whether...` description.

That meant a live-shaped node like:

```text
label:
Enterprise customer signing decision

description:
Whether the prospective enterprise customer will commit this year, because resolving this uncertainty is needed to decide if launching this year provides superior net value over waiting twelve months.
```

failed to preserve its explicit proposition even though the description itself already stated one.

## Exact Deterministic Change

Production change was limited to `lib/graph/question-formulator.js`.

Inside `extractMeaning()`, the bounded proposition-extraction gate now treats a description beginning with:

```text
Whether ...
```

as sufficient for proposition extraction regardless of label wording.

This preserves the existing label-keyword path, but adds the narrower rule:

```text
if description explicitly starts with bare Whether...
→ extract whether-proposition directly
```

using the same existing rationale stripping boundary.

## Exact 60B.31 Regression

For the live-shaped node:

```text
label:
Enterprise customer signing decision

description:
Whether the prospective enterprise customer will commit this year, because resolving this uncertainty is needed to decide if launching this year provides superior net value over waiting twelve months.
```

the deterministic final question is now:

```text
What evidence would clarify whether the prospective enterprise customer will commit this year?
```

The final question excludes:

- `launching`
- `superior net value`
- `waiting twelve months`
- `because`

and the source node description remains unchanged.

## Focused Verification

Run exactly as bounded:

```bash
npx vitest run tests/graph/question-formulator.test.js
```

Result:

```text
PASS — 42/42 tests
```

Focused coverage confirms:

- exact 60B.31 live-shaped regression passes
- bare `Whether...` works with an unrelated nominal label (`Supplier contract decision`)
- bare `Whether...` with a status-like label remains unchanged
- all prefix regressions from 60B.28/60B.30 remain green
- direct interrogatives remain unchanged
- a generic non-proposition decision unknown remains on its existing non-proposition path
- source descriptions remain intact

## Preserved Existing Paths

This change did **not**:

- change decision-threshold precedence globally
- change question-target selection
- change graph structure, materiality, schema, provider, or harness behaviour
- add domain-specific wording
- regress `Unknown whether...`, `Uncertain whether...`, `Uncertainty about whether...`, `Uncertainty regarding whether...`, or `Uncertainty over whether...`

## What Remains Unproven

The exact live 60B.31 rerun on this branch remains unproven. This experiment guarantees the deterministic formulation boundary only.