# v0.5 Question Priority Generalisation

## Hypothesis

The current deterministic unknown selector and graph-context question formulator should generalise across several decision types by selecting a foundational unknown before downstream implementation or pricing leaves.

## Scenarios

1. Should we hire another engineer?
2. Should we replace the delivery vans?
3. Should we launch in another country?
4. Should we continue a project that is over budget?
5. Should we introduce a paid support tier?

## Results

| Scenario                     | Selected unknown            | Strategy             | Pass/Fail |
| ---------------------------- | --------------------------- | -------------------- | --------- |
| Hire another engineer        | `hire-success-criteria`     | `decision criterion` | Pass      |
| Replace the delivery vans    | `van-reliability-threshold` | `decision criterion` | Pass      |
| Launch in another country    | `country-value-threshold`   | `actor/customer`     | Pass      |
| Continue over-budget project | `project-benefit-threshold` | `decision criterion` | Pass      |
| Introduce paid support tier  | `support-value-threshold`   | `actor/customer`     | Pass      |

## Repeated failure patterns

Two repeated structural formulation failures appeared before the final pass:

1. **Constraint language in surrounding graph context outranked node-local decision-threshold language** in more than one case.
2. **Baseline language in surrounding graph context outranked node-local threshold language** in more than one case.

Both failures affected formulation strategy, not deterministic unknown selection.

## Code change made

A small deterministic change was made in `lib/graph/question-formulator.js`:

- prefer node-local `definition` language before broader criterion inference
- prefer node-local `decision criterion` language before context-only `constraint` inference
- only treat `baseline` or `constraint` as primary when the selected node itself carries that language, otherwise allow them as fallback strategies later

No architecture, UI, persistence, prompt, scoring, additional model turns, or provider calls were added.

## Remaining limitations

- In two passing cases, the selector chose a threshold-style foundational node while the formulator still used an `actor/customer` strategy because related context strongly referenced customers or recipients.
- This experiment is fixture-driven and deterministic; it is useful for regression protection, not scientific validation.
- The suite exercises the production path without model calls, but it does not prove behaviour over arbitrary real-world graph structures.