confidence-engine/docs/investigation-state-assessment-contract.md

# Investigation State Assessment Contract

> **Status: Passive / Experimental Implementation**
> Implemented in code during Experiments 18–25B but does not control active user-facing investigation routing.
> This document defines the data contract that was tested; the capability remains passive.
>
> Architecture Experiment 18 — First Executable Slice
>
> This document defines the data contract for the investigation state assessment layer. It is the interface between investigation narrative (Stage 3) and behaviour selection (Stage 5).

## Implementation status

- **Implemented in code**: Yes — first executable slice deployed (Experiment 18).
- **Active routing authority**: No — passive experimental capability isolated from user-facing investigation.

---

## Versioning

```jsonc
{
  "version": "v0.1",          // Schema version — increment only on field additions/removals
  "assessedAt": "ISO-8601",   // When this assessment was computed
  "confidence": "high|medium|low" // Overall assessment confidence
}
```

All fields below are part of the v0.1 contract. Adding new fields requires a version bump to v0.2+. Removing or renaming existing fields also requires a version bump.

---

## Assessment Object Shape

### Phase

Evaluates where the investigation is in its lifecycle.

```json
{
  "phase": {
    "value": "orienting|exploring|focusing|deepening|synthesising|concluding|cannot_determine",
    "confidence": "high|medium|low",
    "signals": [string],   // Descriptive reasons for the classification
    "evidence": {           // What data supported this classification
      "resolvedNodeCount": number,
      "activeUnknownCount": number,
      "unknownResolutionRatio": number | null,
      "observationDensity": number | null,
      "evidenceDepth": string | null  // "shallow|moderate|deep"
    }
  }
}
```

### Progress

Tracks whether understanding is advancing, stalled, or regressing.

```json
{
  "progress": {
    "value": "accelerating|steady|stalled|looping|spiralling|cannot_determine",
    "confidence": "high|medium|low",
    "signals": [string],
    "evidence": {
      "turnCount": number,
      "recentResolutionsLastTurn": number,
      "newUnknownsPerTurn": number | null,
      "repeatedNodeIds": string[]   // Nodes appearing across 3+ turns without resolution
    }
  }
}
```

### Conversation Health

Evaluates whether the conversation pattern is productive.

```json
{
  "conversationHealth": {
    "value": "healthy|repetitive|too_broad|too_narrow|user_overloaded|user_under_informed|cannot_determine",
    "confidence": "high|medium|low",
    "signals": [string],
    "evidence": {
      "questionTypeDistribution": Record<string, number> | null,  // reasoningPattern -> count
      "activeUnknownCount": number,
      "resolvedNodeRatio": number | null,
      "hasActiveQuestion": boolean | null,
      "summaryLength": number | null
    }
  }
}
```

### Overall Assessment

All dimensions combined:

```json
{
  "version": "v0.1",
  "assessedAt": "ISO-8601",
  "confidence": "high|medium|low",
  "phase": { ... },
  "progress": { ... },
  "conversationHealth": { ... }
}
```

---

## Deterministic Rules (Phase)

The phase classifier uses conservative thresholds and defaults to `cannot_determine` when data is insufficient.

### Values

| Phase | Classification Rule |
|-------|---------------------|
| `concluding` | `activeUnknownCount === 0` AND `resolvedNodeCount >= 2` AND `hasActiveQuestion === false` — investigation has reached terminal state |
| `synthesising` | `activeUnknownCount <= 1` AND `resolvedNodeRatio > 0.5` — near completion, synthesis possible |
| `focusing` | `activeUnknownCount === 1` AND `knownObservations >= 3` — single remaining unknown with sufficient context |
| `exploring` | `observationCount >= 2` AND `unknownResolutionRatio < 0.4` — gathering initial evidence |
| `orienting` | `observationCount < 2` OR `totalNodeCount < 3` — insufficient structure to classify |
| `deepening` | Residual: `activeUnknownCount > 1` AND `resolvedNodeCount >= 3` — structured investigation with remaining unknowns |
| `cannot_determine` | Insufficient data for any of the above classifications |

### Thresholds (Conservative)

- A node is "known" only if `kind === "observation"` OR (`kind !== "unknown"` AND `status !== "provisional"`).
- An unknown is "active" only if `kind === "unknown"` AND status is not `"resolved"`.
- Resolution ratio = resolvedNodeCount / totalNonEmptyNodeCount (null if total is 0).
- Known observation density threshold: ≥3 observations before classifying as `focusing` or above.

---

## Deterministic Rules (Progress)

Progress uses a single-snapshot approximation for this first slice. Multi-turn history tracking is reserved for a future version.

### Values

| Progress | Classification Rule |
|----------|---------------------|
| `accelerating` | `unknownResolutionRatio > 0.6` — resolving unknowns faster than they accumulate |
| `steady` | `unknownResolutionRatio > 0.2` AND `unknownResolutionRatio <= 0.6` — balanced progress |
| `stalled` | `unknownResolutionRatio < 0.2` AND `resolvedNodeCount >= 1` — some work done but no momentum |
| `looping` | `repeatedNodeIds.length > 0` (nodes appearing across turns) AND `resolvedNodeCount === 0` for those nodes |
| `spiralling` | `newUnknownsPerTurn > resolvedNodeCount` for recent history (requires turn history) |
| `cannot_determine` | `resolvedNodeCount === 0` AND `totalNodeCount <= 2` — no sufficient data yet |

### Thresholds (Conservative)

- Resolution ratio = resolvedNodeCount / totalNonEmptyNodeCount.
- No progress classification is assigned below 1 resolved node.
- If resolution ratio cannot be computed (total === 0 or all nodes unresolved), return `cannot_determine`.

---

## Deterministic Rules (Conversation Health)

Conversation health evaluates the interaction pattern from available graph signals.

### Values

| Health | Classification Rule |
|--------|---------------------|
| `healthy` | Has active unknown AND has active question AND resolution ratio between 0 and 0.9 |
| `repetitive` | Same reasoning pattern appears in >50% of questions (requires historical data) |
| `too_broad` | Multiple active unknowns (>3) without sufficient resolved context (<2 resolved) |
| `too_narrow` | Single observation with single unknown and no edges connecting them |
| `user_overloaded` | Active unknown count > 4 (exceeds working memory limit) |
| `user_under_informed` | Total observations < 2 AND active question exists (asking without enough context) |
| `cannot_determine` | Insufficient graph signals to evaluate conversation pattern |

### Thresholds (Conservative)

- "Has active unknown" = `activeUnknownCount > 0`.
- "Has active question" = `selectedQuestion !== null`.
- Resolution ratio for healthy = between 0 and 0.9 (not terminal, not empty).

---

## Confidence Rules

### Overall Confidence

The overall confidence is the *minimum* of all dimension confidences. If any dimension cannot be determined, overall confidence is `"low"`.

### Per-Dimension Confidence

| Confidence | Condition |
|-----------|-----------|
| `high` | Classification supported by ≥2 independent signals AND data is complete (no null evidence fields) |
| `medium` | Classification supported by 1 signal AND data is mostly complete (≤1 null evidence field) |
| `low` | Classification supported by partial data OR has null evidence fields >1 |

---

## What This Contract Must Never Do

- **Never invent signals.** Only use data actually present in the graph schema, orchestrator diagnostics, or facilitator-view outputs.
- **Never reach false precision.** When data is ambiguous, return `cannot_determine` rather than a confident but unsupported classification.
- **Never mutate input state.** This is a pure function — no side effects, no writes, no network calls.
- **Never bypass the narrative layer.** Assessment reads from narrative output and graph data, never directly from raw user input.
- **Never prescribe behaviour.** Assessment describes state only; interpretation belongs to behaviour selection.

---

## Supported Data Sources (v0.1)

| Source | Fields Available |
|--------|-----------------|
| `situationGraph.nodes[]` | `id`, `label`, `description`, `kind`, `status`, `confidence`, `evidenceIds`, `dependsOn`, `affects` |
| `situationGraph.resolvedNodeIds[]` | Array of resolved node IDs |
| `situationGraph.activeUnknownNodeId` | Nullable string — currently targeted unknown |
| `selectedQuestion` | `{ nodeId, question, reason }` nullable |
| `diagnostics.reasoningPattern` | Current turn's reasoning pattern key |
| `diagnostics.nodeCount` | Total node count |
| `diagnostics.edgeCount` | Total edge count |
| `facilitatorView._meta` | `isTerminal`, `hasUnresolvedUnknowns`, `totalObservations`, `unresolvedUnknownsCount` |

---

## Unsupported Signals (Planned for Future Versions)

These signals are specified in the investigation-state-assessment architecture document but require data not yet available in v0.1:

- **Evidence Quality** — requires per-node evidence confidence scoring across multiple sources
- **Understanding Trajectory** — requires comparing narrative complexity across turns
- **Uncertainty Trend** — requires tracking which unknowns are resolved and by what pattern
- **Behaviour Readiness** — requires mapping assessment output to behaviour inventory

These are tracked in `reasoning-contract-backlog.md`.

---

## Recording Note

This contract was drafted for Experiment 18's first executable slice. It captures the minimal viable assessment object shape derived from actual repository data contracts (schema.js, orchestrator.js, facilitator-view-adapter.js). The capability is implemented in code but remains passive/experimental — it does not control active user-facing investigation routing. Future experiments may add dimensions and signals as the graph schema and diagnostics evolve.