Pho Algorithmic Audit

PHO algorithmic audit

You are handed three things per task:

• prompt.txt — the business framing and the portal reference <TASK_ENV_BASE_URL>.
• payloads/analysis_request.json — the registered spec: bindings (entities, measures, years, sources, filters), the ordered audit modules (each with a method name and required_evidence), reporting rules, and the decision rule.
• payloads/answer_template.json — the response contract: exact top-level keys, per-field types, array lengths/orderings, enum values, precision.

Deliverable: exactly one JSON object conforming to the template, with no narrative outside it. This is a reproducibility audit — a favorable headline coefficient is never sufficient; the grader checks the full ordered evidence and every checkpoint, so numbers must match a specific deterministic recipe.

Golden rules

1. The request is law; recompute everything. Bind every entity, measure, field, year, source, seed, grid, tolerance, threshold, PRNG, model form, order, and decision mapping from this request. Do not hardcode or carry over any value from another task or from these instructions.
2. The portal is the only evidence. Pull live via /download?...&format=csv. See references/portal.md.
3. Resolve one effective request first, then use it consistently across all modules (data access, folds, draws, fits, decisions).
4. Full precision until reporting. Carry unrounded values through every computation. Round only when emitting a field, to the declared decimals. Evaluate every decision predicate/gate on unrounded values.
5. Preserve every declared order (entity code → time; feature; group; cluster; checkpoint). Never independently re-sort an aligned array; positional alignment between arrays (e.g. scores ↔ state_order) is graded.
6. Missing means unavailable, never zero. Suppressed / invalid / withdrawn / blank / null values are excluded, never zero-filled. Emit JSON null only when a statistic is mathematically undefined — never NaN/Infinity.
7. Match the contract exactly: required keys, array lengths, enum spellings, integer-vs-number-vs-boolean types, and identifier casing (uppercase state codes / ISO3; portal division & region names verbatim).
8. Output only the template keys. A protocol_registry_record provenance block is optional, method-only, and ignored by the grader — do not let it substitute for, or perturb, the required analytical keys.

Workflow

1. Connect & orient. Read environment_access.md for the base URL. GET /, /catalog (confirm datasets/columns/measure dictionary), and the relevant /methodology docs — methodology rules bind validity, suppression, revision, and release semantics and change the numbers.
2. Parse both payloads. Enumerate the ordered modules and their method/required_evidence; map every template field to the module and statistic that produces it, noting length/order/precision/enum constraints. Resolve overrides if a protocol_id is present (see references/methods.md).
3. Resolve releases. For each publication cell apply the effective filters and the declared selection priority (greatest revision → latest released_at → the declared id tie-break). Count selected publications before completeness exclusions when asked. (references/methods.md §1.)
4. Build cohorts. Join resolved series on entity+time; construct each named cohort (complete-case / balanced panel / broad reference / strict dual-source) from its required-field predicates; preserve order; record sizes/exclusions. (§2.)
5. Run each module in order, following the matching recipe in references/methods.md and honoring any formula/order/tie-break the request or a methodology doc states explicitly (it overrides the default). Keep the fitted objects; downstream modules (bootstrap, conformal, sensitivity, perturbation) reuse them.
6. Decide. Evaluate each gate on unrounded values in reporting order, then apply the request's exact decision mapping / precedence and enum values. (§13.)
7. Assemble & self-check (below), then emit the single JSON object.

Module → recipe map

Match the request's method strings to references/methods.md:

Not every task uses every module, and future tasks may name a method not listed. When that happens, implement it from its required_evidence and any cited methodology doc, applying the same disciplines (deterministic tie-breaks, training-only scaling, single continuous PRNG stream, unrounded decisions, declared orders).

Self-check before submitting

• Top-level keys == template's required_top_level_keys (plus optional ignored provenance); no extras, none missing.
• Every array has the declared length and order; positionally-aligned arrays line up (e.g. delete_*_coefficients ↔ state_order; PC scores/labels ↔ order).
• Non-integers rounded to the declared decimals and encoded as JSON numbers; counts/ranks/seeds/PRNG-states/replicates are integers; flags are booleans.
• Enum fields use an allowed spelling exactly; identifiers are correctly cased.
• null only for mathematically-unavailable stats; no NaN/Infinity.
• Gate booleans, passed-count, and classification are internally consistent and derived from unrounded statistics.
• Output is a single valid JSON object with no surrounding text.

Reference files

• references/portal.md — reaching the portal, /download usage, dataset schemas, methodology library.
• references/methods.md — the canonical, parameter-bound recipes (§1–§13) and the override/binding-resolution rules.