fix: enforce EventBuilder weight/team length in release

Part of #18. `EventBuilder::weights` guarded the length match with a
`debug_assert!`, so release builds accepted a mismatch, silently dropped the
weights, and ingested the event anyway. That is the exact shape #18 is about:
validation that exists only where it is least needed.

The setters return `Self` to keep the chain fluent, so they cannot return a
`Result`. The builder now records the first failure and `commit` returns it as
`MismatchedShape`. The weights are not applied on mismatch either, so a
partially-weighted team cannot reach the history by another route.

Two tests in tests/degenerate_inputs.rs, whose CI job runs in release — which
is the only place the old behaviour differed.

The second test needed strengthening before it was worth anything. As first
written it committed a ONE-team event, which ingestion rejects for an unrelated
reason, so it passed under a mutation that disabled the whole check. It now
uses two teams, so ingestion would otherwise succeed and the assertion is
actually load-bearing. Both tests were then mutation-proved together: disabling
the error path in `commit` fails both in release.

#18 stays open. The remaining debug_asserts live in `ranked_with_arena` and
`scored_with_arena`, and promoting those means threading `Result` up through
`Event::compute`, `TimeSlice::iteration`, `log_evidence` and `filtered_step` —
which lands on the public API as `log_evidence() -> Result<f64>` and
`filtered_learning_curve() -> Result<...>`. That is a trade-off about what the
query API should look like, not a mechanical change, so it is not mine to
decide.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01T5SYDExxL4vZgvunrcNSMc

src/event_builder.rs

@@ -19,6 +19,14 @@ where
     history: &'h mut History<T, D, O, K>,
     event: Event<T, K>,
     current_team_idx: Option<usize>,
+    /// First validation failure seen while building, surfaced by `commit`.
+    ///
+    /// The setters return `Self` so the chain stays fluent; they cannot return
+    /// a `Result` without breaking that. Recording the failure and reporting it
+    /// at `commit` keeps the check enforced in release, where the previous
+    /// `debug_assert!` was compiled out and a mismatched event was ingested
+    /// silently.
+    error: Option<InferenceError>,
 }
 
 impl<'h, T, D, O, K> EventBuilder<'h, T, D, O, K>
@@ -37,6 +45,7 @@ where
                 outcome: Outcome::Ranked(SmallVec::new()),
             },
             current_team_idx: None,
+            error: None,
         }
     }
 
@@ -50,24 +59,36 @@ where
 
     /// Set per-member weights for the most recently added team.
     ///
+    /// A length mismatch is recorded and returned by [`EventBuilder::commit`]
+    /// as `InferenceError::MismatchedShape`, in both debug and release. The
+    /// weights are not applied in that case, so a partially-weighted team
+    /// cannot reach the history.
+    ///
     /// # Panics
     ///
-    /// Panics if called before any `.team(...)`. In debug builds, also panics
-    /// if the number of weights does not match the team's member count.
+    /// Panics if called before any `.team(...)`.
     pub fn weights<I: IntoIterator<Item = f64>>(mut self, weights: I) -> Self {
         let idx = self
             .current_team_idx
             .expect(".weights(...) called before any .team(...)");
+
         let ws: Vec<f64> = weights.into_iter().collect();
         let team = &mut self.event.teams[idx];
-        debug_assert_eq!(
-            ws.len(),
-            team.members.len(),
-            "weights length must match team size"
-        );
+
+        if ws.len() != team.members.len() {
+            self.error.get_or_insert(InferenceError::MismatchedShape {
+                kind: "weights",
+                expected: team.members.len(),
+                got: ws.len(),
+            });
+
+            return self;
+        }
+
         for (m, w) in team.members.iter_mut().zip(ws) {
             m.weight = w;
         }
+
         self
     }
 
@@ -108,8 +129,14 @@ where
     ///
     /// # Errors
     ///
-    /// Forwards to [`History::add_events`] and returns its errors.
+    /// Returns the first validation failure recorded while building — see
+    /// [`EventBuilder::weights`] — otherwise forwards to
+    /// [`History::add_events`] and returns its errors.
     pub fn commit(self) -> Result<(), InferenceError> {
+        if let Some(error) = self.error {
+            return Err(error);
+        }
+
         self.history.add_events(std::iter::once(self.event))
     }
 }

tests/degenerate_inputs.rs

@@ -141,6 +141,54 @@ fn converge_on_an_empty_history_with_owned_keys() {
     assert!(report.converged);
 }
 
+/// A weights/team length mismatch used to be a `debug_assert!`, so release
+/// builds ingested the event with the weights silently unapplied. This file's
+/// CI job runs in release too, which is the point of pinning it here.
+#[test]
+fn event_builder_rejects_a_weights_length_mismatch() {
+    let mut h = History::default();
+
+    let err = h
+        .event(1)
+        .team(["a"])
+        .weights([1.0, 2.0])
+        .team(["b"])
+        .winner(0)
+        .commit()
+        .unwrap_err();
+
+    assert!(
+        matches!(
+            err,
+            InferenceError::MismatchedShape {
+                kind: "weights",
+                expected: 1,
+                got: 2,
+            }
+        ),
+        "expected a weights MismatchedShape, got {err:?}"
+    );
+}
+
+/// The mismatch must not be applied even partially — a half-weighted team
+/// reaching the history would be worse than the error.
+#[test]
+fn event_builder_weights_mismatch_leaves_the_history_untouched() {
+    let mut h = History::default();
+
+    // Two teams, so ingestion would otherwise succeed — a one-team event is
+    // rejected for an unrelated reason and would pass this vacuously.
+    let _ = h
+        .event(1)
+        .team(["a"])
+        .weights([1.0, 2.0])
+        .team(["b"])
+        .winner(0)
+        .commit();
+
+    assert!(h.learning_curve("a").is_empty());
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn empty_event_stream_then_converge() {
     let mut h = History::default();