Update DESIGN.md with findings from source review of Urb

- §4.5: slide() re-randomises cuts (no fine-tuning operator exists) —
  strengthens the geometry-headroom explanation
- §4.6: throughput arithmetic shows native fitness effectively gates
  topology search at scale; oracle suffices for Phase 1 + small Phase 2
- §5: new decision 6 — Lamarckian warm-start of the inner loop; penalty
  reshaping must preserve inner-loop cliff protection
- §6: native-fitness port scope expanded (occlusion/daylight subsystem,
  cost denominator, structural failures, missing-space failure stacking,
  two-phase graph build, has_vertical_connection stub)
- §7: Phase 2 re-scoped as small-scale proof with budgets in oracle
  evaluations; Phase 1 gains warm-vs-cold + optimiser bake-off experiments
- §8: risks updated (reshaping tension, height DOF, confirmed t3 bug)
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Bruno Postle 2026-06-12 00:34:02 +01:00
parent 40b97ac74c
commit 8efe25601f

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DESIGN.md
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# homemaker — Design & Plan
**Status:** validated direction, pre-implementation.
**Audience:** a fresh session that will break this into `bd` (beads) tasks. Self-contained — assumes no memory of the originating conversation.
**Status:** validated direction, pre-implementation. Reviewed against the Urb
source 2026-06-12; review findings folded in (see §4.5 evidence note, §4.6
throughput arithmetic, §5 decision 6, §6 port-scope expansion, §7 re-scoped
phases, §8).
**Audience:** a fresh session that will break this into `bd` (beads) tasks
(note: no beads database exists yet — run `bd init` first). Self-contained —
assumes no memory of the originating conversation.
---
@ -143,12 +148,17 @@ the proxy solver protects the full-objective optimiser.**
**Implications:**
- There is large, unclaimed **geometry headroom above every EA design** — even
the best. Urb's EA under-optimises geometry (its slide mutations are weak/
under-applied).
the best. Urb's EA under-optimises geometry: source inspection confirms
`slide()` (Mutate.pm:256-269) *re-randomises* the cut position uniformly
across the span — Urb has **no fine-tuning geometry operator at all**, which
fully explains the headroom.
- A **full-objective geometry inner loop is genuinely valuable** (the proxy
solver is not).
- The EA/search should therefore own **topology**; geometry is delegated to the
inner loop. This is the memetic architecture (§5).
- Corroboration for §4.3: Urb's own mutations use equal offsets
(`Divide($division, $division)`) — equal-offset cuts match how every corpus
design was generated.
### 4.6 Oracle throughput (measured)
`urb-fitness.pl` scores **many `.dom` files per invocation**, so the Perl startup
@ -162,10 +172,20 @@ Consequences:
**population/parallel-evaluating optimisers** (CMA-ES, differential evolution,
island EA, pattern search) over inherently sequential ones (Nelder-Mead), both
inner loop and outer search, so a whole generation scores in one oracle call.
- The memetic search can be **prototyped on the batched oracle** before any
fitness port. A **native Python fitness is strongly desirable** (faster
assessment, independence, enables penalty reshaping and large programmes) but
is **a later speed/scale optimisation, not a hard gate**.
- **Do the arithmetic before scoping topology search on the oracle.** §4.5 used
~200 inner evaluations per topology ⇒ ~3 min/topology at 1 s/dom. A run
comparable to `urb-evolve` (pop 128 × 768 generations) is *years* of oracle
time; even 32 topologies × 100 generations with a trimmed 50-eval inner loop
is ~2 days. Therefore:
- The oracle supports **Phase 1 fully** and **Phase 2 only as a small-scale
proof** (tens of topologies, budgets counted in oracle calls).
- A **native Python fitness is effectively a gate for topology search at any
real scale** — not merely a later optimisation. (It also brings
independence, penalty reshaping, and large programmes.)
- **Warm-starting the inner loop from the parent's optimised ratios**
(Lamarckian inheritance, §5 decision 6) is the main lever for cutting the
per-topology cost — with high-locality moves most cuts survive a mutation,
so an order-of-magnitude reduction is plausible. Measure this in Phase 1.
### 4.7 The `0.5^n` failure penalty is a first-order pathology
Multiplicative `0.5^n` over failure *count* (a) makes the landscape a cliff (no
@ -207,14 +227,26 @@ Key decisions, all evidence-backed:
regulariser, via `Below`-inheritance).
3. **Prefer population/batch-evaluating optimisers** so the batched oracle is
efficient (§4.6). A **native Python fitness** (faithful to Urb, validated
against the oracle on the 35-file corpus) is a later speed/scale optimisation
— desirable, not a gate.
against the oracle on the 35-file corpus) **gates topology search at scale**
(§4.6 arithmetic); the oracle suffices for the inner loop and a small-scale
topology-search proof only.
4. **Reshape the failure penalty** (§4.7) — additive/soft or multi-objective —
so the search has a gradient and isn't dominated by flag-count.
so the search has a gradient and isn't dominated by flag-count. **Caution:**
the `0.5^n` cliff is what *protects* the inner loop from trading into new
failures (§4.5); reshaping must not lose that property. Candidate
resolutions: keep the cliff inside the inner loop only, lexicographic
ordering (failure count first, score second), or genuine multi-objective
Pareto. Decide in Phase 4 with measurements.
5. **Representation upgrade (later):** canonical slicing encoding (normalized
Polish expression / skewed slicing tree, WongLiu) for redundancy-free,
high-locality topology moves; bottom-up shape feasibility checks. Defer until
the inner loop + native fitness are in place.
6. **Lamarckian geometry inheritance.** A child topology's inner loop
warm-starts from the parent's optimised ratios (cuts that survive the
topology move keep their values; new cuts get heuristic defaults). This is
the main cost lever for the memetic loop (§4.6) and a standard memetic
design choice (Lamarckian vs Baldwinian — we write the optimised geometry
back into the genome). Validate the warm-vs-cold speedup in Phase 1.
What we are **not** doing: the bottom-up area-proxy solver; independent-offset
cuts; non-slicing representations (sequence-pair/B*-tree — excluded by §2).
@ -230,11 +262,11 @@ cuts; non-slicing representations (sequence-pair/B*-tree — excluded by §2).
| `programme.py` | ✅ done | extend as fitness needs grow |
| `oracle.py` (Perl bridge) | ✅ done | throwaway; the validation reference |
| `solver.py` (area proxy) | ⚠️ keep as artifact | falsified; do not build on it |
| **geometry inner loop** | ❌ to build | full-objective ratio optimiser (DOF = free branches); batch/population so the oracle batches |
| **geometry inner loop** | ❌ to build | full-objective ratio optimiser (DOF = free branches); batch/population so the oracle batches; warm-start support (§5.6) |
| **topology genome + operators** | ❌ to build | base tree + per-floor deltas; high-locality moves |
| **search driver** | ❌ to build | memetic EA / SA over topology |
| **native fitness** | ❌ later | speed/scale optimisation (not gating); port + validate vs oracle |
| **penalty reshaping** | ❌ to design | additive/soft or multi-objective |
| **search driver** | ❌ to build | memetic EA / SA over topology; small-scale on oracle, full-scale needs native fitness |
| **native fitness** | ❌ to build | **gates topology search at scale** (§4.6); port + validate vs oracle; scope is larger than the term list — see below |
| **penalty reshaping** | ❌ to design | additive/soft or multi-objective; must preserve inner-loop cliff protection (§5.4) |
| canonical encoding (Polish expr.) | ❌ later | representation upgrade once core lands |
Urb fitness terms the native port must reproduce (all couple to geometry):
@ -244,26 +276,66 @@ outside ratios, min internal area.** Source of truth:
`/home/bruno/src/urb/lib/Urb/Dom/Fitness/ProgrammeDriven.pm` and the `Storey`/
`Building`/`Leaf`/`Base` submodules.
**Port scope beyond the term list** (found by source review — budget for these):
- **Daylight + occlusion subsystem.** `quality_daylight` (Leaf.pm:281-296)
needs the occlusion field and sun-path model (`Urb::Misc::Sun`,
`Urb::Field::Occlusion`, CIESky); `quality_uncrinkliness` also takes the
occlusion object. This is a whole subsystem, not a term. (Indoor spaces
return 1; the cost is for outdoor spaces and crinkliness.)
- **The cost denominator.** Fitness is value/**cost**: per-leaf area costs,
interior/exterior wall edge costs, boundary costs
(Leaf.pm:194-251, Storey.pm:122-147). Cost couples to geometry too.
- **Structural failures** not in the term list: "edge too long" (>8 m, two
variants), "unsupported covered outside", "covered outside above ground",
"level N not connected".
- **Missing-space failure stacking** (ProgrammeDriven.pm:192-212): a missing
space generates 2 base failures plus one per size/width/proportion/adjacency/
level requirement — up to ~7 failures. Penalty reshaping (Phase 4) must
preserve this hierarchy or the search will happily drop rooms.
- **Two-phase graph build**: adjacency/level/vertical checks run on the
*unmerged* tree; graphs are rebuilt after `Merge_Divided` for storey
processing (ProgrammeDriven.pm:83-103). Easy to get subtly wrong; the
35-file validation gate will catch it, but anticipate it.
- **Known stub to decide on** (fidelity-vs-fix, §8.1):
`has_vertical_connection` (ProgrammeDriven.pm:399-423) matches any leaf of
the target type anywhere on the level below — no spatial-overlap check. A
faithful port reproduces the bug; decide explicitly.
---
## 7. Phased roadmap
- **Phase 0 — diagnostics** *(done this session)*: geometry port validated;
proxy solver falsified; full-fitness geometry headroom validated; oracle
throughput measured (~1 s/dom batched).
- **Phase 0 — diagnostics** *(done)*: geometry port validated; proxy solver
falsified; full-fitness geometry headroom validated; oracle throughput
measured (~1 s/dom batched).
- **Phase 1 — geometry inner loop (on batched oracle)**: full-objective ratio
optimiser; use a population/batch optimiser so a generation scores in one
oracle call. Reproduce/exceed the §4.5 gains. Integrate as
`optimise(topology) -> (geometry, fitness)`.
- **Phase 2 — topology search (on batched oracle)**: base-tree + per-floor-delta
genome, high-locality operators, memetic driver wrapping the Phase-1 inner
loop. Compare against `urb-evolve` from the same seeds/programmes.
- **Phase 3 — native Python fitness**: port Urb's programme-driven fitness;
validate score + failure set against the oracle across the 35-file corpus
(float tolerance, identical failure sets). Swap behind the same interface for
speed/scale; retire the oracle.
- **Phase 4 — penalty reshaping**: replace `0.5^n` with additive/soft or
multi-objective (easier once fitness is native); measure landscape + search.
`optimise(topology, x0=None) -> (geometry, fitness)`. Two cheap experiments
belong here: (a) **warm-vs-cold start** — quantify the §5.6 speedup;
(b) **optimiser bake-off** — DOF is only ≈ rooms1, so batched multi-start
pattern search may beat CMA-ES on simplicity; measure, don't commit blind.
*Gate:* match §4.5 gains at materially lower oracle-call budget.
- **Phase 2 — topology search, small-scale proof (on batched oracle)**:
base-tree + per-floor-delta genome, high-locality operators, memetic driver
wrapping the Phase-1 inner loop. **Explicitly small** (§4.6 arithmetic):
tens of topologies, budgets counted in **oracle evaluations**, not
generations. Compare against `urb-evolve` from the same seeds/programmes *at
equal oracle-call budget* (urb-evolve has diversity injection/culling baked
in, so generations are not comparable). *Gate:* memetic loop beats
equal-budget urb-evolve. Scaling up waits for Phase 3.
- **Phase 3 — native Python fitness** (**gates scaled topology search**): port
Urb's programme-driven fitness — including the §6 "port scope beyond the
term list" items (occlusion/daylight subsystem, cost denominator, structural
failures, failure stacking, two-phase graph build). Validate score + failure
set against the oracle across the 35-file corpus (float tolerance, identical
failure sets). Swap behind the same interface; retire the oracle. Then
re-run Phase 2 at scale.
- **Phase 4 — penalty reshaping**: replace `0.5^n` with additive/soft,
lexicographic, or multi-objective (easier once fitness is native), while
preserving the inner loop's no-new-failures protection (§5.4) and the
missing-space hierarchy (§6); measure landscape + search.
- **Phase 5 — representation upgrade**: canonical slicing encoding
(Polish expression) + bottom-up shape feasibility; scale to larger programmes.
@ -275,18 +347,30 @@ Each phase has a concrete go/no-go gate; do not advance on faith.
1. **Native-fitness fidelity vs simplification.** Port Urb's fitness exactly
(maximise comparability) or take the opportunity to clean up known issues
(the `0.5^n` cliff, the t3 width-default contradiction below)? Recommend:
*port faithfully first*, validate, then reshape in Phase 3.
2. **Programme contradictions exist.** e.g. t3 (3 m² WC) inherits a 4 m default
width — geometrically impossible; the original "passes" only by failing
`size` instead. Need a sane width default scaled to area, or per-room widths.
3. **Inner-loop optimiser choice.** Nelder-Mead worked for diagnostics; for
production consider CMA-ES, Powell, or gradient-based once native fitness is
differentiable-ish. DOF is small (≈ rooms1).
(the `0.5^n` cliff, the t3 width-default contradiction below, the
`has_vertical_connection` no-overlap stub — §6)? Recommend: *port faithfully
first* (bugs included), validate, then reshape in Phase 4.
2. **Programme contradictions exist.** e.g. t3 (3 m² WC) inherits the 4 m
`width_inside` default (Fitness/Base.pm:60) — geometrically impossible; the
original "passes" only by failing `size` instead. *Confirmed in source.*
Need a sane width default scaled to area, or per-room widths.
3. **Inner-loop optimiser choice.** Nelder-Mead worked for diagnostics; DOF is
small (≈ rooms1, 67 on the corpus), so CMA-ES may be overkill — batched
multi-start pattern search parallelises across the oracle and is simpler.
Resolve via the Phase 1 bake-off, not upfront. Gradient-based becomes an
option once native fitness is differentiable-ish.
4. **Search algorithm for topology.** Memetic GA (keep crossover — now
meaningful, since a subtree = a contiguous region) vs simulated annealing
(the floorplanning workhorse with M1/M2/M3 moves on Polish expressions).
5. **End-state confirmed: 100% Python**; Perl oracle is scaffold only.
5. **Penalty reshaping vs inner-loop protection.** One fitness shape cannot
naively be both soft for the outer search and cliff-protected for the inner
loop (§5.4). Resolve in Phase 4: cliff-inside-inner-loop, lexicographic, or
Pareto.
6. **Other continuous DOF are out of scope for Phase 1 — deliberately.**
Floor-to-floor height is an Urb mutation (Mutate.pm:279-291, bounded
2.73.6 m) and feeds cost and stair fit; stair riser/width similar. Cut
ratios dominate. Revisit (+1 DOF per storey) if Phase 2 plateaus.
7. **End-state confirmed: 100% Python**; Perl oracle is scaffold only.
---