Same-code rooms collapse into fewer, larger SHARED leaves so the ~1.8/leaf
shape tax (§13.1) is paid once per group. Multiplicity k is recovered from
area (k=clamp(round(area/target),1,max_share)) — no genome change — and used
in two default-OFF sites: graph.check_space_counts counts coverage (Σk vs
req.count) so one leaf covers several rooms without a missing fail, and
fitness.quality_size centres on k×target (σ scaled by k). Construction:
operators._share_rooms groups instances; _size_divisions_from_targets sizes
shared leaves to k×target via leaf_mult.
Floor probe (experiments/diag_leaf_sharing.py, harbor+maple, seeds 0/1/2,
+innerloop): total fails −27% harbor / −16% maple at share3, shape factors
fall ~linearly with leaf count (confirms §13.1). Cap: 17–44 missing fails
leak because depth maldistribution (§13.2) keeps shared leaves below k×target
so round() undercounts; inner loop can't close it. Net still positive.
Default-OFF reproduces baseline exactly (214 tests pass). Driver plumbing +
staged 20k A/B remain; §13.3 records the next design fork.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Search the genome in causal dependency order. Stage 1 evolves a single-storey
base over the level-0 room set (programme auto-derived to a tempdir), ranked
with a substrate-readiness bonus (reserved core × divisible capacity) so the
base is selected as a good substrate, not just a good ground floor (anti-§4.2).
Stage 2 lifts the best base into a full multi-storey design — preserving the
inherited core, instantiating each upper storey's required set by construction —
and searches the deltas with the base mutable at low probability (base_p=0.15).
New: programme.{n_storeys_required,partition_rooms_by_storey,write_stage1_programme},
graph.substrate_readiness, operators.{lift_base_to_storeys,_pick_weighted_by_storey},
base_p threading, driver.search rank_bonus_fn/seed_factory/base_p hooks +
search_staged orchestrator, experiments/run_staged_search.py, tests/test_staging.py.
Result (harbor, 20000 evals, seed 0): staged 95 fails vs single-stage 105
(-10, -9.5%), gain in crinkliness 27->18 + edge 12->8. Anti-bungalow confirmed
(Stage-2 core moves all noop — core inherited, not carved). Programme-house
regression PASS (warmstart-2f4 still reaches whole-pop 1-fail).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>