feat: add UnknownKeys::Prior, and explain why there is no Skip

#44's third ask was an opt-in mode so a caller with partially-known
teams need not pre-filter. The requested shape was `Skip` — drop unknown
members. Measured, that is the wrong mode to build.

A team's performance is the *sum* of its members, so dropping one drops
its variance too. On a two-member team with one unknown:

    SKIP  (drop the member)  : performance sigma 2.37
    PRIOR (member at prior)  : performance sigma 6.53   (2.76x wider)

Skipping makes the model *more* certain because it knows *less*, which
is backwards. `Prior` is also the answer the model already gives for a
competitor it knows about but has no evidence for — measured, such a
competitor sits at sigma 4.99 against the prior's 6.0 — so it
corresponds to a state the model can actually be in. Skipping does not.

So the enum is `Reject` (default, unchanged) and `Prior`, and it is
`#[non_exhaustive]` in case a real use for skipping turns up later.

Placed on `HistoryBuilder` rather than per-call. Neither consumer wants
it to vary between queries: one scores thousands of candidate matchups
in a loop, the other's headline feature is predicting a competitor
nobody has faced. That makes it a property of how the model is being
used, and keeps five prediction signatures unchanged.

This also gives #48 the semantics it asked for — "I have never seen this
competitor, here is the prior-informed answer" — which it needs for
predicting a course nobody has played.

`an_unknown_member_widens_its_team_rather_than_narrowing_it` pins the
property that ruled `Skip` out, so a future convenience cannot quietly
reintroduce it.

Closes #44. Refs #48

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_011hcFjNDmHXZF8URGLku5zZ
This commit is contained in:
2026-09-08 01:28:49 +02:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent 2cf21a753d
commit 71554fd944
5 changed files with 177 additions and 14 deletions
+39
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@@ -1,5 +1,44 @@
use std::fmt;
/// How a prediction should treat a key the history has never seen.
///
/// Configured once per history via
/// [`HistoryBuilder::unknown_keys`](crate::HistoryBuilder::unknown_keys).
/// Neither known consumer wants this to vary between queries — one predicts
/// thousands of candidate matchups in a loop, the other's headline feature is
/// predicting a competitor nobody has faced — so it is a property of how you
/// intend to use the model rather than an argument on five call sites.
///
/// # There is deliberately no `Skip`
///
/// Dropping an unknown member is the obvious third option and it is wrong. A
/// team's performance is the *sum* of its members, so removing one removes its
/// variance too: measured on a two-member team with one unknown, skipping gives
/// a performance sigma of 2.37 where treating the member as unknown gives 6.53.
/// An unknown competitor would make the model *more* certain, which is
/// backwards. `Prior` is also the answer the model already gives for a
/// competitor it knows about but has no evidence for, so it corresponds to a
/// state the model can actually be in; skipping does not.
#[derive(Clone, Copy, Debug, Default, PartialEq, Eq)]
#[non_exhaustive]
pub enum UnknownKeys {
/// Reject the prediction with [`InferenceError::UnknownKey`].
///
/// The default, and the right one when every key is expected to be known:
/// a team of strangers should not silently produce a confident-looking
/// answer.
#[default]
Reject,
/// Treat an unknown competitor as one sitting at the history's configured
/// prior.
///
/// This is the honest Bayesian reading — a competitor you have never
/// observed is exactly the prior — and it makes "predict a matchup
/// involving someone new" a first-class question rather than something a
/// caller fakes with a neutral constant.
Prior,
}
#[derive(Debug, Clone, PartialEq)]
#[non_exhaustive]
pub enum InferenceError {