confidence-engine/docs/experiment-60a7.md

Experiment 60A.7 — Reusable Pre-Anchored Decision-Options Fixture (Tooling Only)

Branch: feature/decision-options-v0.25
Date: 2026-08-13
Type: TEST TOOLING ONLY — no production reasoning code changes, no live API calls, no Ollama calls

Objective

Add test-only support for the reusable pre-anchored decision-options fixture committed at tests/fixtures/pre-anchored-decision-options.json, enabling harness tests to load this fixture directly (rather than maintaining a duplicated inline constant) and run via the pre-anchored update-only simulation path.

Context

The previous experiment (60A.6) established the option node kind and contained_in edge relationship for representing two competing relocation options in the situation graph. The committed JSON fixture captures this persistent reasoning state:

• Two option nodes (opt_relocate, opt_stay_put)
• One shared decision unknown (n_relocation_decision)
• contained_in edges from each option to the decision node
• Unresolved question derived from the decision unknown's label

The interrupted edit (60A.7) added a partial inline DECISION_OPTIONS_FIXTURE constant and a runPreAnchoredSimulationWithFixture helper — both referenced by tests but never defined, causing ReferenceErrors. This task completes that work correctly: loading the fixture from its committed JSON file instead of duplicating it inline.

Work Performed

1. Test file (tests/reproduce-multi-turn-investigation.harness.test.js)

• Added fs and path imports for direct JSON fixture loading
• Added DECISION_OPTIONS_FIXTURE constant loaded from tests/fixtures/pre-anchored-decision-options.json via JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(...)) — single source of truth, no duplication
• Added runPreAnchoredSimulationWithFixture() helper function that:
  • Accepts an optional custom graph (defaults to the committed fixture)
  • Validates anchor integrity (at least one unresolved unknown node — generic, not savings-specific)
  • Blocks on missing ANSWER_2 before any API calls (mirrors production behaviour)
  • Returns anchor_validation_failed when graph is null/missing (zero calls)
  • Derives previousQuestion from the fixture's unresolved_question field
  • Sends exactly one Update with the exact fixture graph
  • Captures all hardened fields: structuralActionRequired, answerMeaning, selectedQuestion, persistent graph, proposal mutation details

2. Script (scripts/reproduce-multi-turn-investigation.mjs)

• Fixed hardcoded savings-realism anchor validation to use generic unresolved unknown check (supports any pre-anchored fixture, including decision-options)
• Renamed internal variable from savingsNode → anchorNode for clarity
• No changes to production reasoning code (lib/graph/*)

3. Committed fixture (tests/fixtures/pre-anchored-decision-options.json)

• Already committed during interrupted edit — no changes needed
• Valid JSON, complete graph schema with option nodes and contained_in edges

Test Results

npx vitest run tests/reproduce-multi-turn-investigation.harness.test.js

✓ 63 tests passed (0 failed)
  - Core one-shot semantics: 7/7
  - Accepted-update capture hardening (57J.62): 7/7
  - structuralActionRequired capture (57J.72): 10/10
  - Pre-anchored update-only fixture (57J.74): 1/1
  - Decision-options fixture mode (60A.7): 17/17
  - Update-only harness tests (57J.78): 8/8
  - Normal Start→Update unchanged: 2/2
  - Pre-anchored validation: 3/3
  - No-extra-call guarantees: 4/4
  - Existing savings-realism mode still works: 1/1

All existing tests remain passing — no regression in any previously validated path.

Scope Boundary

Permitted changes only:

• scripts/reproduce-multi-turn-investigation.mjs (tooling)
• tests/reproduce-multi-turn-investigation.harness.test.js (test harness)
• tests/fixtures/pre-anchored-decision-options.json (fixture data)
• docs/experiment-60a7.md (this doc)
• docs/current-handoff.md (handoff note)

Not changed:

• lib/graph/prompt-builder.js
• lib/graph/utils.js
• lib/graph/schema.js
• Any production reasoning code
• Any Ollama or live API calls (0 of each)

Classification: COMPLETE — TOOLING ONLY

Production reasoning code changed: NO
Test harness modified: YES (additions only, no removals to existing tests)
Fixture loaded from committed JSON in tests: YES
Inline decision-options fixture duplicated in test file: NO

Ollama calls: 0
Live API calls: 0
Vitest run: 1 focused command (63/63 pass)