99 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
99 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
# Value-First Modification (VFM) Scoring
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Scoring rubric for evaluating proposed self-modifications. Any change to
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agent config, prompts, behavior, or pipeline structure must score > 50
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to be implemented.
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## Dimensions
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### Frequency (0-25 points)
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How often does the issue this change addresses occur?
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| Score | Criteria |
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|-------|----------|
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| 0-5 | Happened once, may not recur |
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| 6-10 | Happens occasionally (1-2x per week) |
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| 11-15 | Happens regularly (daily) |
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| 16-20 | Happens frequently (multiple times per day) |
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| 21-25 | Happens on nearly every run |
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### Failure Reduction (0-25 points)
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Does this change fix real failures?
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| Score | Criteria |
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|-------|----------|
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| 0-5 | Cosmetic improvement, no failures prevented |
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| 6-10 | Prevents occasional warnings or non-critical errors |
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| 11-15 | Prevents errors that require manual intervention |
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| 16-20 | Prevents errors that cause pipeline failure |
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| 21-25 | Prevents errors that cause data loss or system damage |
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### Burden Reduction (0-25 points)
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Does this reduce human effort?
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| Score | Criteria |
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|-------|----------|
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| 0-5 | Saves less than 1 minute per occurrence |
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| 6-10 | Saves 1-5 minutes per occurrence |
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| 11-15 | Saves 5-30 minutes per occurrence |
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| 16-20 | Eliminates a manual step entirely |
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| 21-25 | Eliminates multiple manual steps or a recurring task |
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### Cost Savings (0-25 points)
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Does this reduce API/compute costs?
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| Score | Criteria |
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|-------|----------|
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| 0-5 | Negligible cost difference |
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| 6-10 | Saves <10% on affected operations |
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| 11-15 | Saves 10-25% on affected operations |
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| 16-20 | Saves 25-50% on affected operations |
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| 21-25 | Saves >50% or eliminates unnecessary API calls entirely |
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## Decision threshold
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| Total score | Decision |
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|-------------|----------|
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| > 50 | **Implement** — change is worth the risk |
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| 26-50 | **Defer** — log for future consideration |
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| <= 25 | **Reject** — not worth pursuing |
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## Logging format
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Every VFM evaluation must be logged, whether implemented or not:
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```
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VFM EVALUATION
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Date: [timestamp]
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Proposed change: [description]
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Scores:
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Frequency: [score] — [justification]
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Failure reduction: [score] — [justification]
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Burden reduction: [score] — [justification]
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Cost savings: [score] — [justification]
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Total: [sum]/100
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Decision: implement / defer / reject
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```
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## Worked examples
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### Example 1: Add retry logic to web search (Implement)
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- Frequency: 18 (search fails ~3x daily due to timeouts)
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- Failure reduction: 15 (prevents pipeline stall requiring manual restart)
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- Burden reduction: 16 (eliminates manual re-run)
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- Cost savings: 8 (slight cost from retry, but saves failed run cost)
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- **Total: 57 → Implement**
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### Example 2: Refactor prompt to use XML tags (Defer)
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- Frequency: 25 (every run)
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- Failure reduction: 3 (current format works fine)
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- Burden reduction: 2 (no human effort saved)
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- Cost savings: 5 (maybe slightly fewer tokens)
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- **Total: 35 → Defer** (improvement is real but marginal)
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### Example 3: Switch to experimental model (Reject)
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- Frequency: 25 (every run)
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- Failure reduction: 0 (current model has no failures)
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- Burden reduction: 0 (no human effort saved)
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- Cost savings: 10 (newer model might be cheaper)
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- **Total: 35 → Defer** (stability > novelty per ADL)
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