274c81ea37
Grounded scope for GB-3b, the next Gap B move. Measured opportunity: 46/150
additive practice cases are sum-of-all==gold, all currently refusing, all the
single-referent accumulation shape ('X has N. He buys M more.' -> N+M). They
refuse correctly (GB-3a's multi-clause guard / the Alice+Bob hazard); the safe
ones differ by referent identity + a change-verb cue, which GB-3b reads.
Scope covers: the reading (anchor + change steps), the wrong=0-critical referent
model (minimal no-new-actor guard; cross-references ADR-0164.2/.3 + ADR-0174's
multi-actor hazard; deliberately does NOT resurrect the retired gender-blind
resolver), the proof-carrying wrong=0 obligations, the cue-precision coupling
(change cues should finally be reliable, closing CP-2a), the increments, and
honest flip expectations (big chunk in practice-additive; modest train_sample;
serving stays 3/47/0 until ratification).
187 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
187 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
# ADR-0178 — Compositional Structure: Comprehension-Guided Multi-Step Derivation (Gap B)
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**Status:** Proposed
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**Date:** 2026-05-28
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**Author:** Shay
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**Anchor:** [[thesis-decoding-not-generating]]
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**Builds on / synthesises:**
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- [ADR-0174 — Held-Hypothesis Comprehension](./ADR-0174-held-hypothesis-comprehension.md) — its held-hypothesis / `eliminate_violating` / `reevaluate` / `contemplate` substrate is **repointed** here from reading-to-parse to reading-to-*structure* (where it finally becomes load-bearing).
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- [ADR-0176 — Multi-Step Composition](./ADR-0176-multistep-composition-question-targeting.md) — the chain model + the self-verification gate that scores each structure.
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- [ADR-0177 — Cue-Precision Learning](./ADR-0177-cue-precision-learning.md) — the learned `(cue→op)` reliabilities that *guide* the structural search and that this search *feeds*.
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- The comparatives pack (and a future relational-cue / superordinate-units pack) — the irreducible relational world-facts.
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---
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## Context — the actual flip lever, and what it really is
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MS-3 proved the multi-step search is built and wrong=0-safe but low-coverage: blunt
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whole-problem shapes (product-of-all / sum-of-all) flip only the one case where the
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shape happens to match (0021), and a rich *unguided* search drowns in
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disagreement-refusals. The dominant failure (0019, 0041) is **compositional
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structure** — *which* quantities group, via which ops, in what order. That is
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**Gap B**, and ADR-0177 established it is the real coverage lever (cue-precision is
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its safety gate and prune, not the unlock).
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**The central tension:** a richer search produces more self-verifying candidate
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structures that *disagree*, so uniqueness refuses more. Coverage cannot come from
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enumerating more structures — it must come from **steering to the right one**.
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**The reframe that resolves it — structure-from-reading, not enumeration.** The
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text already encodes its own compositional structure: clauses group local
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quantities, and relational cues across clauses say how the pieces combine. Every
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gold structure fits a **sequential, clause-by-clause** read:
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| Case | Read sequentially |
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|---|---|
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| 0021 | one clause: `15 × 10 × 3` |
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| 0003 | `48` → `×24` (24 *in each* box) → `×0.75` (sell *for* $0.75 each) = 864 |
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| 0024 | `20+36+40+50` (the *and*-list) → `×3` (*three times as many*) = 438 |
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| 0033 | `12` → `×7` (7 *times*) → `÷2` (*half*) → `+5` (5 *older*) → … |
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So Gap B is, at bottom, **comprehension**: read the problem, build the derivation
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structure as you read, holding alternatives when a clause is ambiguous and revising
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on lookback when a later clause disambiguates. This is precisely the original
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project articulation — *"articulate word to word, with lookback re-evaluation, with
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problem-solving throughout, without insane complexity."* It is also the synthesis
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of every prior strand: the **reader** (ADR-0174) supplies structure, the **solver/
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gate** (ADR-0176) scores it, the **learning** (ADR-0177) guides it, the **packs**
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supply the relational facts.
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## Decision
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A **comprehension-guided sequential composer**: read the problem clause-by-clause;
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within a clause, derive a local sub-result by a *small, bounded* search over that
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clause's few quantities; across clauses, combine the running result with the next
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clause via the **relational cue** the text presents (per/each/of → multiply; same-
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unit *and*-list → sum; comparative → scale; more/older/then → add; fewer/less/lost →
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subtract; fraction-of → scalar). When a clause's relation is ambiguous, **hold
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multiple candidate structures** and eliminate them downstream (repointed ADR-0174
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machinery); when a later clause disambiguates an earlier choice, **reevaluate**
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(repointed). Every structure is scored by the ADR-0176 self-verification gate
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(grounding ∧ cue ∧ unit ∧ completeness) + uniqueness; the relational cue→op choices
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are guided/ranked by ADR-0177 cue-precision.
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**Why this gets coverage *without* breaking wrong=0:** locality bounds the search
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(each clause has few quantities → no flat explosion), and the text's relational
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cues *constrain* the cross-clause op (so the surviving structure set is small enough
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that uniqueness can **resolve**, not just refuse). Where the text is genuinely
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ambiguous and no constraint or learned cue-precision resolves it, the held-
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hypothesis set stays >1 and the composer **refuses** — refuse-preferring, unchanged.
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Coverage rises exactly as far as the reading constrains the structure; no further.
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### Repointing ADR-0174 (where the inert reader becomes load-bearing)
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ADR-0174's held-hypothesis substrate was built for reading-to-parse and is inert
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(0/50). Gap B is its true home: `ProblemReadingState.open_hypotheses` becomes the
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set of candidate *derivation structures*; `eliminate_violating` prunes structures a
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later clause contradicts; `reevaluate` revises an earlier structural commitment;
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`contemplate` consults vault/packs when a relation is unknown. These are reading-
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coupled today (per ADR-0175's audit) and must be **generalised** off their parse-
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specific types — not a drop-in, but the conceptual machinery is exactly right.
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## wrong=0 obligations (must be *proven*, not asserted)
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1. **Per-step self-verification.** Each clause-local and each cross-clause
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combination is grounded + unit-consistent before it joins the structure (the
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ADR-0176 gate, applied per step). A test fails if an ungrounded/unit-incoherent
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step is admitted.
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2. **Irreducible ambiguity refuses.** When the held structure set stays >1 with no
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eliminating constraint or decisive cue-precision, the composer refuses (does not
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pick). A test fails if it resolves an unresolved hold.
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3. **Completeness + uniqueness** (ADR-0176) over the *whole* structure: all body+
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question quantities used; a single distinct verified answer or refuse.
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4. **No spurious structure.** A structure whose grouping is not licensed by the
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reading (relational cue absent/ungrounded) cannot self-verify even if its value
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matches gold (extends invariant #2 to trees/chains).
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5. **Determinism/replay**; **sealed** (no serving import; serving stays `3/47/0`
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until Phase 5 ratifies).
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## The honest hard parts
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- **Relational-cue precision** — the cross-clause op hinges on relational lexemes
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(per/each/of, times/half, more/older, fewer/less, then). Their op-mapping is
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partly packs (comparatives) and partly learned (ADR-0177 cue-precision, which is
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itself bottlenecked + data-starved). This is the same Gap-A/Gap-B co-dependency:
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Gap B *produces* gold-matching chains that give cue-precision its signal, and
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cue-precision *ranks* Gap B's structural choices. They co-evolve.
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- **Clause/clause segmentation** — deciding clause boundaries is itself a parse
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decision; start with sentence + simple conjunction splits, refine cautiously
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(ADR-0165: orthographic/lexeme splits, not grammar templates).
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- **Referent binding** — *whose* value a clause refers to ("Brooke does 3× as many
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as Sidney" → scale *Sidney's* result). Cross-sentence entity tracking (ME-2 / the
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discourse-subject machinery already exists) must say which running value a
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relation applies to.
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- **Branch/DAG structures (the hard end)** — 0033 reuses `12` in two branches
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(`12×7…` and `25−12`); a pure sequential chain cannot express quantity reuse. DAGs
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are GB-5, after chains work.
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- **Data/scale** — coverage and the cue-precision it feeds compound only with volume
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(ADR-0163 §Phase F). On 50 cases this is mechanism + incremental flips, not a
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finished solver.
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This is the **comprehension core** — the largest remaining capability and the place
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serving lift actually materialises. It is multi-phase by nature; each phase is
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gated wrong=0-first and measured honestly.
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## Sub-phases
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- **GB-1 — clause segmentation + clause-local sub-derivation.** Split the problem
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into clauses (lexeme/sentence-level); within a clause, a small bounded search over
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its quantities → a local sub-result (self-verified). Tests: locality bounds the
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search; a clause-local product/sum self-verifies; ambiguous clause holds/refuses.
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- **GB-2 — sequential combination (chains).** Combine running result with the next
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clause via the relational cue → op (guided by ADR-0177 + comparatives). Flips the
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sequential-chain gold cases (0003/0024-class) under self-verification + uniqueness.
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- **Shipped narrower than scoped (drift G1, audit `AUDIT-ADR-0178-GB1-GB2.md`).**
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What landed is a **same-unit list-sum-then-scale slice** (`compose_sequential`)
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that re-extracted from the *whole problem* — it did **not** consume GB-1's
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`ClauseResult`s and did **not** chain across clauses, so it never flipped real
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0003/0024 (those stay blocked on extraction + cross-clause chaining). Treat the
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landed code as **GB-2a (list structure)**, not the full sequential chainer.
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- **GB-3 — lookback / reevaluate** (repoint ADR-0174 `reevaluate`): a later clause
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revises an earlier structural choice. wrong=0-first.
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- **GB-3a — referent guard (landed).** The lookback review proved GB-2a's
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whole-problem aggregation admitted wrong structures across referents/scopes
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(hazards H1/H2/H3 returned 12/20/13). `compose_sequential` is now **clause-scoped**:
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the list-sum must be licensed within one clause, and a comparative outside that
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clause refuses. This is the wrong=0-first floor (`compose_sequential` is sealed
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substrate, not yet wired to a scorer, so serving stayed `3/47/0`); tests in
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`tests/test_adr_0178_gb3_referent_guard.py` would fail against the pre-guard code.
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- **GB-3b — referent-aware accumulation chaining (scoped).** Consume GB-1
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`ClauseResult`s and combine across clauses *referent-safely*: the first reading
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is **single-referent accumulation** (`X has N. He buys M more.` → `N ± M`),
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licensed by a closed change-verb cue set + a minimal "no new actor" referent
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guard (generalises GB-3a: chain-when-licensed rather than refuse-all-multi-clause).
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Measured target: the **46 `sum-of-all == gold` additive practice cases** (all
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currently refusing) + the subtract analog — the first chunk where comprehension
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visibly flips at scale. Full scope, cross-references (ADR-0164.2/.3, ADR-0174
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multi-actor hazard), wrong=0 obligations, and increments in
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[ADR-0178-GB3b-referent-accumulation-scope.md](./ADR-0178-GB3b-referent-accumulation-scope.md).
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- **GB-4 — held structural hypotheses + eliminate** (repoint `eliminate_violating` /
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`contemplate`): hold >1 structure on ambiguity, eliminate downstream, refuse if
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irreducible.
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- **GB-5 — branch/DAG structures** (quantity reuse, 0033-class). The hard end.
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- **GB-6 — measurement + perturbation + the cue-precision/scale dependency.**
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## Acceptance criteria (Proposed → Accepted)
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1. GB-1/GB-2 land; the per-step gate + completeness + uniqueness hold; sequential-
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chain gold cases flip under self-verification with `wrong=0` in serving.
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2. Invariant: spurious/unlicensed structures and irreducible holds refuse (proven).
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3. Flips hold under ADR-0114a perturbation; determinism/seal invariants hold;
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capability lanes G1–G5/S1 stay 100% `wrong=0`.
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4. The measurement reports honestly against the relational-cue-precision + scale
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dependencies (no coverage claim the substrate can't support).
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## Cross-references
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- **Repointed substrate:** [ADR-0174](./ADR-0174-held-hypothesis-comprehension.md)
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(held hypotheses, `eliminate_violating`, `reevaluate`, `contemplate`,
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`ProblemReadingState`) — generalised from parse to structure.
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- **Scoring/gate:** [ADR-0176](./ADR-0176-multistep-composition-question-targeting.md).
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- **Guidance/learning (co-evolves):** [ADR-0177](./ADR-0177-cue-precision-learning.md).
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- **Relational facts:** the comparatives pack + a future relational-cue /
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superordinate-units pack (ADR-0175 §10 self-proving-vs-pack split).
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- **Scale:** ADR-0163 §Phase F.
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- **Thesis & origin:** [[thesis-decoding-not-generating]] — this is the
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word-to-word, lookback-revised, problem-solving-throughout reader the project set
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out to build; Gap B is where it lands.
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