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05 — Proactive / Open-Ended Novelty Trigger

Goal

Stop being purely reactive: add a proactive/open-ended novelty trigger so the system explores radically different directions BEFORE grinding into a measurable wall.

Implementation Sketch

  • new trigger class in evaluate_trigger: fires when coverage(archive) < plan-declared sparsity threshold, independent of plateau_streak.
  • novelty score = descriptor-space distance from the archive; the proactive candidate maximizes it.
  • generic hook; threshold is plan-declared (script-first.md §11).

Spec References

  • scripts/ledger_evolution_runtime/gates.py:175-247 (evaluate_trigger), 56-85 (plateau)
  • learning-ledger.md §11.1 lifecycle
  • Prior art: Lehman & Stanley novelty search (objectives are deceptive; open-ended search)

Work Items

  • Add a proactive / open-ended novelty trigger to evaluate_trigger (gates.py:175-247): fire a candidate when archive mechanism-class coverage is sparse, INDEPENDENT of plateau (novelty search — objectives are deceptive; the system must not wait to be stuck).
  • Measure novelty in descriptor space against the archive (‘most different from everything tried’); plan-declared sparsity threshold, plan-agnostic generic hook.
  • Extend scripts/ledger_evolution_runtime/tests/test_triggers.py (proactive trigger fires without plateau) and update learning-ledger.md §11.1 lifecycle/trigger text.

Fresh intel (regenerated)

{ “schema_version”: 1, “target”: { “kind”: “plan-section”, “ref”: “evolution-empirical-redesign/s-351cfcfa” }, “generated_at”: “2026-06-20T00:24:43.728081+00:00”, “graph_state”: { “head_sha”: “e4b7c39a”, “last_code_import_at”: “2026-06-20T00:20:43.153Z”, “embedding_stale”: false, “insights_stale”: false, “cpg_stale”: false }, “surfaces”: {}, “summary”: “intel-package[plan-section:evolution-empirical-redesign/s-351cfcfa] agent-authored dossier”, “degraded”: false, “dossier”: { “objective_symbols”: [], “tiers”: {}, “agent_authored”: true, “difficulty”: { “class”: “routine”, “research_online”: false, “research_mode”: “auto”, “signals”: [], “plan_dir”: “/home/eric/projects/ori_lang/plans/evolution-empirical-redesign” } } }

(full dossier: proactive-trigger—s-351cfcfa.intel.json)